The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

I exhaled roughly, looking over my shoulder. “It’s okay.”
Casteel nodded, and I moved ahead. The opening
wasn’t all that large, only about three feet high and two feet
wide. “You’ll have to crawl through.”
“Just go slowly,” Casteel advised. “We have no idea
what is on the other end.”
“Hopefully, not a draken looking to serve up some
flame-broiled red meat,” Emil muttered from somewhere in
the darkness.
“Well, that put a pleasant image in my mind,” Delano
replied.
Hoping for the exact same thing as Emil, I went down on
my knees and inched through. “Hold on,” I told them. There
was more mist, so thick it was like the clouds had
descended to the ground. I reached out tentatively, and the
magic scattered and thinned as bright sunlight penetrated
what remained of the fog. Squinting at the sudden light
after being in the dark for so long, I slid out, my knees and
hands skimming from stone to sandy, loose dirt.
One hand going to the blade at my chest, and the other
to the wolven dagger on my thigh, I stood and took a step
forward.
The ground trembled faintly under my feet. I froze,
looking down to see tiny rocks and clumps of sand and dirt
shiver. After a heartbeat, the trembling ceased, and I lifted
my gaze. The mist had completely disappeared, and I was
able to take my first look at Iliseeum.
My lips parted as my hands fell away from my daggers.
The sky was a shade of blue that reminded me of the
wolven’s eyes, pale and wintry, but the air was warm and
smelled of lilacs. My gaze swept over the landscape.
“Gods,” I whispered, lifting my chin as my gaze crawled up
and up the massive statues carved out of what I assumed
was shadowstone. They were as tall as the ones I’d seen in
Evaemon, those that had appeared to scrape the sky, and
there had to be hundreds of them standing in line,