"Look there," Ashent said. 

Artemis managed to open her weary eyes and caught a glimpse of a tall, crooked building in the distance.

"A lighthouse?" she murmured. 

It wouldn't be for very much longer. The structure tilted over the water precariously on the edge of a jagged, rocky cliff. Giant waves crashed into the base of the cliff, clawing up at it. Already part of the grey, shingled roof had caved in, and a section of the base didn't even look like it was around anymore. 

But what was really peculiar was the discoloration of the building; the brickwork facing away from the ocean was a plain, pale grey while the side that faced the water was charred black. It couldn't have been made like that.

Before she could consider the building further, another strange sight caught her attention nearby; a giant, elongated stone jutting out from the sand with a pale color like an eggshell. As they flew past it, Artemis leaned down curiously to get a better look. It was like bark; soft white bark gently arcing out of the ground and into a rounded point, thickest near where it was embedded in the sand. She looked ahead and saw they were approaching other similar specimens.

Bones...! she realized, her empty stomach starting to feel sick again. They were huge bones—the likes of which she had never seen before. Even Ashent's couldn't compare.

The dark dragon turned to look over his shoulder at her with one eye, assessing her for some reason. Artemis tried to keep a straight face, but inside her heart was running rampant, and just behind it a very bad feeling was lurking.

He turned away. "We'll stay here until nightfall."

Why was she not surprised to hear that?

But even so, a small feeling of relief flooded through her, too. Her joints were sore, and her back was aching from having nothing to hang onto except the huge and deadly spine in front of her. All she wanted to do was get out of the cold and rest, but when Ashent flared his wings and braked beside the creaking, leaning lighthouse, Artemis had second thoughts.

"Is this safe?" she asked, refraining from sliding down. The tower tilted away from them shyly, but the tilt was so profound that the bricks halfway up looked like they might explode outward in a last attempt to avoid the ocean. The wind howling through the damaged roof wasn't comforting either.

Ashent jerked his shoulders beneath her in annoyance. "I assure you it is. Now get down." 

When he leaned a tiny bit closer to the ground, Artemis assumed that was about as generous as he was going to get. She grabbed the spike she had been holding and swung awkwardly down over his shoulder. The landing was graceless with her weak knees buckling beneath her but she didn't care, content just to be on solid ground again.

Artemis struggled back onto her feet. "What are we doing here?" 

He didn't exactly seem tired or sympathetic to her rapidly worsening condition, so the stop felt suspicious to her.

The black dragon folded his long wings in neatly. "You're going to help me obtain my father's sentia. This would have been your brother’s first task, had you not intervened."

A sentia? Artemis thought, bewildered. His inheritance was left here of all places?

The bones in the sand beyond the cliff suddenly made sense. Apprehensive, she glanced in their direction and asked, "Is that your father...down there?" 

Ashent stared at her intently. Artemis swallowed, convinced again that he was assessing something about her. She held her ground, desperately hoping that she was wrong about the suspicions that were creeping up on her. His size, his scales, his posture – they were all coincidences.

It was just as likely that it was a dragon that had accidentally drowned and floated ashore, wasn't it? But that still didn't explain the size of the bones. There was only one type of dragon that had a skeleton that impressive.

After a moment he lifted his chin, but his previous irritation seemed to have dispersed. "It is."

"Oh no," Artemis gasped, suddenly finding air hard to come by. She placed her hands on her hips and leaned over to catch her breath, but even through her splayed hair she could see the gigantic bones peeking out at her. Her stomach started flipping dangerously. Her anxiety climbed.

Ashent crept closer, his horned head tilting slightly. "What's wrong with you?"

An accidental, hysterical laugh almost escaped from her, though she literally felt like she was about to faint. 

"I can't breathe," she rasped, clutching at the fabric over her stomach. "This isn't happening to me. Please tell me that's n-not...?" 

She couldn't even bring herself to finish the sentence, so appalled at the nightmare that was enfolding her.

It can't be! she pleaded inwardly, but Ashent's cold words left her with little reason to doubt him.

"Those are the remains of Eques of the Underdark, Great One of the West...and my father."

Before he had even finished Artemis lost control of her unsettled stomach, stumbled away as politely as she could, and wretched.