Chapter 25: The Witch and the Dragon

MALADIA'S POV

The witch popped back into reality at the base of the Northern Peak, famous as the kingdom's tallest dormant volcano. Had Maladia previously put a curse on Galabel Wyrm, she would have been able to scry his exact location in her magic mirror, as she had done with Durri before he got his current body.

As she had never cursed the dragon—nor had ever met him before—she had to content herself with transporting to the mountain's base and then flying manually up the treacherous slopes to its surface.

She ignored the hundreds of scorched remains of prior adventurers who had also fancied they would kill a dragon.

At the end of a long and boring broom-flight, Maladia dismounted and approached the looming cavern that rose at the mountain's peak. The ground was melted into bubbled volcanic glass, which tinkled when her staff came down upon it.

The cavern loomed like a monster's gaping jaws, its entrance rimmed with stalactite and stalagmite teeth.