Chapter 5

The following day Eragon woke up feeling strange. He couldn't figure out why he'd had such a vivid dream. Yes, they were his memories, but things weren't that clear even when he lived those moments. He was in somewhat of a trance in that fight until he had awoken his power.

He began reflecting on the small amount of time he'd spent in this world. He'd realized his anger hadn't flared up, with him only feeling slightly annoyed by the situation he was in. Yet, it made him wonder where did this change come from. For most of his life, he'd always been tittering on the brink of exploding in a fit of rage.

His father had tried helping him, but the sin of Wrath wasn't something to be trifled with. So he turned to meditation, gardening, and blacksmithing. Things that required all of his focus. But now, he had none of those things.

He'd arrived here abruptly out of nowhere, and he felt calm for once. Maybe it was the fusing of his soul and the dying one that caused the change? Or perhaps it was something else? Who knew? He just felt that the situation wasn't all that bad anymore.

-x-x-x-x-x-

After getting up, Brom and Eragon ate a light breakfast before they packed up. Brom hopped on Snowfire and led Cadoc my his reigns. As he saw Eragon strapping in, he yelled out some words of advice.

"Remember to grip with your knees, guide her with your thoughts, and stay as flat as you can on her back. Nothing will go wrong if you don't panic." Eragon nodded while fastening the last of the bands around his legs.

Feeling the shuffling on her back stop, she impatiently asked. {Are you ready}

'Yes, let's do it.'

Her body tensed as she crouched. She pushed off the ground with a mighty leap. With a few smooth strokes of her wings, she was in the sky, rapidly ascending.

The higher she climbed, the smaller everything below them came till the river shrank to a wispy grey line beneath them, with clouds floating around the. When she finally stopped climbing, the trees below them were no more specks.

The chilly air, along with the silence, was refreshing. "This is quite nice." He murmured.

Hearing this, Saphira hummed in satisfaction. {Let me show me what flying is really like. Relax and do not be afraid.}

He felt her mind tug at his, trying to pull him away from his body. So he separated his conscious, allowing her to pull away part of it while leaving the other part to control his body.

His vision blurred as he found himself looking through Saphira's eyes. Everything became distorted. Colors became weird, with blue becoming more prominent, while reds and greens became more subdued.

Pure radiated from Saphira as she felt her small experiment was successful. She looked back at Eragon, making him see himself as she did. He could feel her body fight against the air, using the updrafts to rise. All her muscles were like his own.

This feeling made him question. If she could do this, couldn't he do the reverse and control her body? 'Saphira, relax and do not panic,' Eragon said, using her own words against her.

Before she could ask what he meant. His conscious overpowered hers and took control over her body.

He took a moment to get used to the feeling of her body before he started to flap their wings in a certain way, making them pick up speed in short bursts.

'Vindr.' He spoke the word of wind in the ancient language and felt as the air began to gather into two balls on either side of their body. He let the balls of air grow larger until he cut off magic to them. Then, before they could disperse, he pressed the balls against their body using their wings, causing them to dissipate. The air blasting them forward like a jet.

After a while, their minds leveled out and diverged. His vision blurred slightly before he found his mind completely back in his body.

{I never knew I could do such things to fly faster; how did you know that?} She asked him. He knew how to fly better than her in her body somehow! Which was strange as he was a two-legged one.

'I just did what felt natural.' Eragon responded. With that being far from the truth. He'd had a dragon form that was gigantic. Big enough where Saphira herself could walk around on his back. When he was fighting another monstrous size being, he'd been taught a few techniques to move faster while that size as his size made him an easier target to hit.

They continued their flight until Eragon felt someone's mind come in contact with his. Which he automatically redirected towards his mind's "lobby."

'Get down here. I found something important.'

'Brom?' He replied

'Yes, now come down.' Brom replied while also showing him his location.

Eragon quickly showed Saphira where to go, and she banked towards the river below. When they reached Brom, they saw him standing in a clearing waving his arms. Eragon hopped of Saphira and jogged towards Brom.

"What did you find?"

"I was farther down the river when I noticed that the Ra'zac's tracks had ceased. So I backtracked until I found where they had disappeared. Look at the ground and tell me what you see.

Eragon knelt, examining the dirt, and found various Ra'zac footprints overlapping each other. But what was strange were the long thick gouges in the ground.

"They must have taken off on something large that can fly. Do the Ra'zac have any flying mounts that you know of? Eragon asked.

Brom shrugged. "I've heard reports of the Ra'zac moving from place to place with incredible speed. But this is the first evidence I've seen of it. It will almost be impossible to find them if they have flying steeds. They aren't dragons-I know that much. A dragon would never consent to bear a Ra'zac."

"So do we do now? Even if we could track them through the sky, they're far gone now, if going off how old these tracks are."

"There's no easy solution to this riddle," said Brom. "Let us have lunch while we think on it. Perhaps inspiration will strike us while we eat."

Eragon rummaged through his bag, pulling out some dried meat. He absentmindedly ate while he began searching around the area, trying to see. He systematically searched the clearing ground before eventually making his way near the trees.

From the side of his eye, he saw something sliver laying on the ground near some tree roots. After getting closer, he saw what it was. It was a metal flask with a leather strap just long enough to hang off someones' shoulder. He instantly recognized a silver insignia as the Ra'zac's symbol, wrought on it.

He picked up the flask, unscrewed its top, and a pungent smell spilled out, filling the air around him—the same smell that he'd smelled in the wrecked house he'd found Garrow in.

'This is some type of poison. It has to be, especially taking into account the way Garrow's wounds were.' He thought to himself. Remembering how his uncle's body was covered in pulse oozing wounds that seemed to refuse to heal.

He jogged back to Brom. "Look what I found." Brom took the bottle with interest, unscrewed the top, and poured some liquid into the cap.

"Is this the same thing they used on my uncle? Eragon asked.

Brom nodded. "Indeed it is. It's an oil from the petals of the Seithr plant, which grows on a small island in the frigid northern seas. In its natural state, the oil is used for preserving pearls—it makes them lustrous and strong. But when specific words are spoken over the oil, along with a blood sacrifice, it gains the property to eat flesh."

"This alone wouldn't make it special—there are plenty of acids that can dissolve sinew and bone—except for the fact that it leaves everything else untouched. You can dip anything into the oil and pull it out unharmed unless it was once part of an animal or human. This is a weapon of choice for torture and assassination. It can be stored in wood, slathered on the point of a spear, or dripped onto sheets so that the next person to touch them will be burned. There are myriad uses for it, limited only by your ingenuity. Any caused by it is always slow to heal. It's rare and expensive, especially this converted form."

Eragon rubbed his chin in thought. "How rare is this oil exactly?"

"Like diamonds in a pig trough. The normal oil is used by jewelers, but only those who can afford it."

"So it is something that can be traded. Shouldn't it be a record somewhere of it? Cites along the coast should have some recordings of them then?"

Brom's eyes brightened. "Of course they do. If we could get to those records, they would tell us who brought the oil south and where it went from there."

"And the record of the Empire's purchase will tell us where the Ra'zac live!" concluded Eragon. "I don't know how many people can afford this oil, but it shouldn't be hard to figure out which ones aren't working for the Empire."

"Genius!" exclaimed Brom, smiling." I wish I had thought of this years ago; it would have saved me many headaches. The coast is dotted with numerous cities and towns where ships can land. I suppose that Teirm would be the place to start, as it controls most of the trade." Brom paused. "The last I heard, my old friend Jeod lives there. We haven't seen each other for many years, but he might be willing to help us. And because he's a merchant, it's possible that he has access to those records."

"How do we get to Teirm?"

"We'll have to go southwest until we reach a high pass in the Spine. Once we reach the other side, we head up the coast to Teirm," said Brom

"How long do you think it'll take to reach Teirm?"

"We can easily reach Teirm within a week. All we have to do is angle away from the Ninor and to the right. We might be able to see the mountains by tomorrow."

Finishing the discussion, Eragon remounted his scaly companion yelling out to Brom. "I'll see you at dinner time."

Saphira took off into the air again, continuing their flight from earlier. 'Saphira, we need to figure out a schedule for me to ride with you.'

{How about every other day we fly together. That way, I will have time to hunt}.

'Mhm'

-x-x-x-x-x-

As Brom had predicted the next day, they were able to see the faint outline of the Spine by the time they stopped for the evening. When they arrived at the Spine's foothills, they turned and followed the mountains south. Eragon was glad to be near the mountains.

As it signified that they were gradually getting closer to Teirm, where hopefully they found the information that led them to the Ra'zac. He wanted to wipe them out from the source, eliminating one group that aimed for his neck. Solving many problems down the line.

Three days later, they came to a wide road rutted by wagon wheels. "This is the main road between the capital, Urû'baen, and Teirm," said Brom. "It's widely used and a favorite route for merchants. We have to be more cautious. This isn't the busiest time of year, but a few

people are bound to be using the road." Days passed quickly as they continued to trek along the Spine, searching for the mountain pass.

Eragon did not mind the lull in action while they traveled. When not learning the elven language, he was either learning how to care for Saphira or practicing magic. Eragon also learned how to kill game with magic, which saved them time hunting. He would hold a small rock in his hand and shoot it at his prey. It was impossible to miss. The results of his efforts roasted over the fire each night. And after dinner, Brom and Eragon would spar with swords and, occasionally, fists.

That and trying to test if a few more of his abilities could be used in his new body. He hadn't had any luck producing the special ash he awakened in his original body. But he'd made progress on some other fronts. He was able to use haki, which helped in multiple ways. He could now see around him, which helped in the case of ambushes, and could now use Busoshoku Haki to its full extent. It was pretty hard when he practiced as he didn't want Brom or Saphira to see it just yet until he came up with a good enough excuse.

The effects of draconic soul power were finally starting to show some results. The more time passed, the more solid Eragon's body seemed to become. He grew taller, his muscles became more compact and pronounced. Both the inside and the outside of his body became tougher. Even the elements seemed to have no effect on him.

Eventually, they reached the pass. Eragon saw that a river rushed out of it and cut across the road. "This is the Toark river," Brom explained. "We can follow it all the way to the sea because in the middle of the mountains rests the Woadark Lake. A river flows from each end of it, and both are called the Toark. We see the eastward one now. It runs to the south and winds through the brush until it joins Leona Lake. The other one goes to the sea."

After two days in the Spine, they came upon a rock ledge from which they could see clearly out of the mountains. Eragon noticed how the land flattened in the distance.

'At least you can see any ambushes since theirs almost nowhere to hide.'

Brom pointed." Down there and to the north lies Term. It is an old city. Some say it's where the elves first landed in Alagaèsia. Its citadel has never fallen, nor have its warriors ever been defeated." He spurred Snowfire forward and left the ledge. It took them until noon the next day to descend through the foothills and arrive at the other side of the Spine, where the

forested land quickly leveled out. Without the mountains to hide behind, Saphira flew close to the ground, using every hollow and dip in the land to conceal herself.

Beyond the forest, they noticed a change. The countryside was covered with soft turf and heather that their feet sank into. Moss clung to every stone and branch and lined the streams that laced the ground. Pools of mud pocked the road where horses had trampled the dirt. Before long, both Brom and Eragon were splattered with grime.

"Is the sea the reason for how it is around here?"

"Yes, it is. Mist and fog roll in from the sea and keep everything alive, even in the winter. Some find it to their liking, but to me, it's dreary and depressing." When evening fell, they set up camp in the driest spot they could find. As they ate, Brom commented, "You should continue to ride Cadoc until we reach Term. It's likely that we'll meet other travelers now that we are out of the Spine, and it will be better if you are with me. An old man traveling alone will raise suspicion. With you at my side, no one will ask questions. Besides, I don't want to show up at the city and have someone who saw me on the trail wondering where you suddenly came from."

"Will we use our own names?" asked Eragon.

Brom thought about it. "We won't be able to deceive Jeod. He already knows my name, and I think I trust him with yours. But to everyone else, I will be Neal, and you will be my nephew Evan. If our tongues slip and give us away, it probably won't make a difference, but I don't want our names in anyone's heads. People have an annoying habit of remembering things they shouldn't."