By midday, they found themselves in a vast stretch of cracked earth, the dunes giving way to jagged formations of blackened rock. The landscape looked burned, as if something massive had once scorched the land bare.
Joran kicked at the brittle surface. “What happened here?”
Alina crouched, running her fingers over a deep fissure in the ground. “This isn’t natural.”
Elias felt the answer before he spoke it. “This is where the harp was last played.”
The others turned to him.
Joran frowned. “You mean, before it was sealed?”
Elias nodded. “This was the battlefield.”
Suddenly, the harp thrummed against his back, the vibration traveling through his spine. A whisper brushed against his ear, not words, but a melody, distant and calling.
Alina noticed his change in expression. “Elias?”
He barely heard her. The song was growing louder.
Then the ground shook.