“The what?” Cero almost tripped when he took his eyes off the rutted road.
“The swamp revenants. The people in the lower city talk about the spirits of those lost in the Draeld that are doomed to perpetually wander the swamps. No one that sees them lives to tell the tale.”
“Then how did you hear about them? If no one lived to tell the tale then no one should have told you about them.” Aleest scowled over Cero’s logic a moment before responding.
“I know because Emeck told me that he and Urake saw them. He said that for some reason it couldn’t see them. Did you see them?”
“Peren did say that someone else was in the swamp that was able to veil themselves from their sight.” Cero was distracted enough that he mused aloud.
“You spoke with a swamp revenant?” Aleest was astonished at the revelation.
“They aren’t revenants. Just people trying to stay hidden. I stumbled across their village and stayed a few days.”
“Emeck said it looked like a shadow person. How do they do that?”
“They are Gifted. They called themselves shadow walkers. They thought that I was like them for some reason, but I can’t do what they could.” Cero smiled slightly as he recalled how simple life had been in Skelceri. Summer crops and a fall harvest, then trapping and hobbies for the winter. Those tasked with shadow walking had lived a little bit more complicated lives. Even then, life there was far simpler than that of being the adopted son of a noble lord from a landless house, let alone being what some called a Dragon Lord.
“What can you do? I mean, you hatched Bani so you must be Gifted and Kosovo sensed something from you.”
“I don’t really know for sure. I can speak with Bani in my head. I seem to be immune to cold. Any animal that I feel threatened by is scared of me. Peren claimed that I was shadow walking or something like that. I can make people tell the truth by looking at them and I bleed blue blood. Not to mention that Emeck says that when I want to I can hide my mind better than anyone he has ever seen.”
“That is a lot actually. All I can do is talk with animals.”
“Isn’t that similar to what Emeck can do?”
“Sort of except a little different. People are not quite the same. I can speak with Emeck well enough, but other people are little more than a vague jumble of emotion and color if I try hard enough. Em’risi could actually see people’s emotions and thoughts as visible colors. That reminds me. You were glowing slightly when you collapsed in the tunnel. What happened?”
“I don’t know, but I think I was in the middle of a battle. There were dwarves and fire everywhere. All I remember is glimpses of random things. There were hammers and someone wearing a white robe with a red sash. In a cave I think.”
“You were fighting dwarves?” Aleest looked fascinated by the story.
“I wasn’t fighting dwarves, but then again I suppose I was. I don’t know anymore. They saved me. I remember falling for what felt like forever, then the next thing I remember was waking up inside a cell. They were trying to protect me from other dwarves that they called rebels. I am not sure what happened in the cave. It could have been a dream or something else for all I know.”
“You met real live dwarves? That is awesome. How tall were they?”
“Don’t go there. One got real upset when I asked why he was so short.” Cero smiled when he remembered Taric’s reaction to the question.
“That is incredible. How did you end up in the Garoche with a dragon egg?”
“There was a big battle right after I woke up. During the battle I got hidden in a closet before the good dwarves had to retreat. It turned out that the closet was a staircase that led to the surface. From there I fell off a cliff, then stumbled across the dragon bones.”
“Wait, you fell off a cliff?”
“There was a big sloping snow field on the bottom. We should probably talk about something else now that we are getting closer to other people.” Cero intentionally slowed his pace when he saw that the wagon that had preceded them was stopped at the gate. There was a low wall that surrounded the outer city that wasn’t visible from the distance. It was unfit