Chapter 10 - Beneath the Sunken Citadel
They landed with heavy splashes in waist-deep water inside a subterranean cavern vast enough to hold a cathedral. Luminescent algae coated the soaring vaulted ceilings, illuminating grand architecture of white marble and fossilized sea-bone that had been buried beneath the sea for centuries. Sylva squeezed through a collapsed archway, her golden eyes wide with ancestral awe as she took in the carved murals lining the walls.
""The First Roost,"" Maren whispered reverently, brushing water from her face. ""Long before Lord Valerius forged his iron fleet and declared dragons to be beasts of slaughter, our ancestors lived here in harmony. The keepers were the aerial guardians of the sea.""
Rowan waded toward the center of the hall, where a stone plinth rose above the water. Resting upon it was a suit of scale-mail armor crafted from the shed scales of ancient white dragons, scaled down precisely to fit a young boy. At the base of the pedestal was an inscription etched in the old tongue, along with the crest of the three silver keys. As Rowan touched the cold metal of the breastplate, a deep chime echoed through the sunken ruins, awakening slumbering runes along the floor that began to pulse with blinding golden light.
