House Of Legions (The Angel Descendants book 1) novel Chapter 32

Clare stood on the fountain steps, frozen in amazement, her mind refused to acknowledge what her eyes were clearly seeing. She was high enough to see only a minority of Khiron in its beauty because the houses were actually rows of castles, some taller than the mountain she stood on.

Shinning castles made of gold material stretched beyond normal heights, as peaks of light shimmered from the tall building walls. There wasn’t much sun left, but the light surrounding Khiron seemed to seep through from something beyond the air, high above her, but not so distant as the stars. But not particularly close to the moon either, which still held in its shadowed phase. It was further than reaching distance, but not high enough to dismiss, however, it didn’t captivate her as the realm did. There were hundreds OR thousands of castles, some bigger than the others, rounded roofs made of milky glass fabrics of some kind, maybe marble.

On distant parts, she could spot smaller houses, tinier versions of the castles. Maybe they were double stories, she guessed as her eyes shuffled around the top parts of what she could watch.

The nearest castle had no windows, it was like a fully covered shell of gold. The smell of musk and roses seeped in her lungs as she deeply inhaled the crisp air. Caidrian nudged her, “Come on, we’ve been standing here for twenty minutes let’s get down.”

“Are the castles made of gold?”

“Not entirely. Marble exterior, but you can't see it clearly, it is being shielded by a liquid gold because of the Orderian. It’s a protection Verse to protect our homes from intruders or our visitors if they happened to double-cross us.”

Clare coughed the word out, “Orderian?”

“Your brother can explain it all to you, let us get you inside, I got to check-in at the Garde’s fortress.”

She turned her head but kept her eyes fixated on this visionary place, as they made their way down the steps. The fountain flowed down the stairs, but wherever she walked the water parted for her feet, a silent invitation, so she wouldn’t slip.

Clare felt like Alice walking into Wonderland, only this one wasn’t filled with big cats and rabbits, but rolled in death, inhabited by descendants of Angels and demons, and whatever else awaited her. Only her bravery would be earned in the form of death.

Her legs didn’t throb as they had earlier, so she took her steps with more urgency to make her way down. When she heard a cry of a bird from the sky, she stopped and looked up, knowing she was way below Caidrian, who had been carrying the packets from earlier. Her eyes instinctively encountered the bird, which was larger than an eagle, almost the size of what she would have presumed a dragon would’ve been as it skirted, breezing through the air.

Circling her, as it flaunted its brilliant bright colour wings, of green and purples feathers. The bird gazed at her from a distance, and she could swear that she felt the wind a knot stronger as it flapped its wings. It drifted further down as if her notice was a silent invitation. Catching the wind in her hair as the bird flapped its wings in rapid beats, she squinted her eyes. Seeing the size of this creature so close made her palms sweat.

She never liked anything that could fly. When she was little, her mother took her to a bird park, and Clare touched one of the birds, it attacked her, pecking her hands and her head. She remembered her screams and the way she grabbed the bird by its beak and flung it across a tree, by the end of it she was riddled with small bites. She should’ve known that she was different when the scars healed without a trace but she didn’t, she was naïve and foolish, things she'd never be again.

Her focus intensely on the bird whose wings kept getting closer and closer to her, her hair moving slightly by the breeze.

Caidrian touched her back, startled she jumped with a squeak, way to go, Clare, she sighed.

“Guider’s.” he pointed at the bird, seemingly unaffected by her edginess, “Don’t stare at it, he’ll take your eyes out.”

“Are there other awful beasts around I should know about?”

“They aren’t beasts, but our eyes, the angel's birds are rarest of creatures you will ever set eyes on, Ruzak, is his name, he’s circling the area, making sure no unwanted guest has attended for the moon ceremony.”

Something brushed her cheek at her nod, it made a ruffling sound like paper getting squashed. Noticing Caidrian was almost to the bottom she followed.