# CHAPTER 34: The Truth Beneath the Mountains
Hello everyone, it’s me again! How are you all doing? I hope your hearts are ready, because today we’re stepping into one of those quiet, dangerous moments—the kind that changes everything without you even realizing it. So settle in, grab a warm drink, and let me walk you through Chapter 34 of *Fourth Wing*.
There are ten dragons in all with us, and though I might not recognize each one of them, I know that Liam and I are the only first-years in the group. Deigh lands beside Tairn, and Liam jumps from his seat like we haven’t just spent seven hours in the sky. My own thighs are burning, cramping in ways that would have shattered me a month ago. The extra hours in the saddle have made me stronger. I can feel Tairn’s pride in that, even through the exhaustion.
Tairn pops a talon onto a latch, and Andarna plops to the ground, shaking her head, body, then tail like a puppy waking from a nap. I laugh, tired and raw, but it comes out hollow.
“And you need to sleep,” Tairn replies. “You’ve been up all night.”
“I’ll sleep when you do.” I carefully navigate his spikes and slide down his foreleg onto the mossy edge of a shore.
“I can go for days without sleep. I’d rather you not fire off lightning bolts out of sleep.”
I stare at him. He’s joking. I think. But the warning settles in my chest like a heavy stone. After Montserrat, the power inside me isn’t just a trickle anymore. It’s a storm waiting to break loose, and Tairn knows it better than I do.
The lake before us is impossibly still, dark water held in the arms of a high stone valley. Pine trees lean over the shore, their roots clutching moss and shadow. It’s beautiful, hidden, and completely off any map I’ve ever studied. I don’t know this place. But Xaden does.
He’s already on the ground, speaking in low voices with Garrick and Bodhi. The other riders dismount one by one—older, hardened faces I’ve only ever seen in passing in the quadrant. Our dragons settle along the water’s edge, giants resting after hours of flight. There are ten of us in all. Ten riders who have chosen this path, whatever it is.
“Where are we?” I ask, trying to keep my voice steady.
Liam appears beside me, still annoyingly energetic. “A place no one follows you to. Xaden’s been keeping it for years.”
“Keeping it from who?”
“From everyone who doesn’t need to know it exists.”
Xaden turns then, those dark eyes finding me through the dim light. He walks over slowly, each step measured, as if he’s deciding how much truth I can carry. “You saw it at Montserrat,” he says. “You saw what’s actually out there. Not gryphons. Not raids. Something worse.”
I shiver. The venin. The pale figures draining the magic out of everything they touch. I had thought they were myths, bedtime stories meant to scare children. But I saw them. I saw what they did. And I felt the lightning inside me wake up like a living thing.
“You brought me here to tell me something,” I say. “So tell me.”
Xaden’s jaw tightens. “This is a sanctuary for the children of Aretia. The ones who survived the war our parents lost. We don’t gather here to hide from Basgiath. We gather here to fight what Basgiath refuses to name.”
“The venin,” I whisper.
“The venin.” He nods. “Our wards are failing. The ones at Basgiath, at Montserrat, at every outpost along the border—they’re not holding forever. General Sorrengail knows. Your mother knows. And instead of telling the world the truth, the leadership does everything it can to silence it.”
I want to argue. I want to say that she wouldn’t do that, that my mother leads with honor. But the memory of Montserrat is still too fresh, the image of that creature draining a rider’s magic still too vivid.
“You brought me here because you don’t trust me,” I say quietly.
“No,” Xaden says. “I brought you here because I do.”
Garrick makes a low sound of frustration. “Xaden, she’s a Sorrengail. Her mother runs the College that executes rebels like our fathers.”
“She’s also the first person in a century to ride a black dragon,” Xaden replies, voice sharp as a blade. “She killed a venin general’s servant with lightning she didn’t even understand. She saved lives at Montserrat. If she’s not one of us now, she will be soon.”
Liam rests his hand on my shoulder. “I’d trust Violet with my life. I have trusted her with my life.”
The weight of that settles over the group. A few of the riders exchange glances, but no one argues. No one says I have to leave. And for a moment, standing there with my back against Tairn’s side and Andarna curled around my ankle, I feel something I haven’t felt in weeks: belonging.
We build a fire on the shore as night settles over the valley. The dragons sleep behind us in a great half-circle, their breath steaming in the cool air. Someone passes me a canteen of water and a piece of hard bread. I eat without tasting it, my mind spinning with everything Xaden has told me about the venin, the corruption, the plan to restore the wards at Aretia.
“You’re going to rebuild Aretia,” I say.
“We’re going to try,” Xaden answers. “We’ll need more riders. More strength. More of us who understand the truth.”
“And if the College finds out?”
“Then we die like our parents did. But we die fighting for the world worth saving.”
I look at Xaden across the fire. The flames trace golden lines across his face, showing me just how tired he is. He has carried this secret for years. He has carried the weight of his father’s rebellion, his mother’s death, his own exile. And yet here he is, still standing, still fighting.
I reach out and take his hand. It’s warm, callused, steady.
“Then I’m in,” I say. “Whatever this is, whatever comes next, I’m in.”
His fingers tighten around mine. In the sky above the mountains, a lone dragon cries out, and something in the sound feels like a promise.
Or maybe, in the deepest part of my heart, it sounds like a warning.
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Reader’s Impressions & Star Rating: This chapter is quiet, tense, and hauntingly beautiful. It’s not about swords or magical battles—it’s about trust, loyalty, and choosing a side before the whole world falls apart. Seeing Violet step into the grayer, more real side of the war is powerful, and the bond between her, Liam, and Xaden deepens in a breathtaking way. I absolutely loved the slower burn and the emotional weight.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4.9 / 5 Stars
Next Chapter Prediction: Now that Violet has officially thrown her lot in with Xaden and the descendants of the marked rebellion, I predict the next chapter will be a dangerous return to Basgiath. The College will be searching for answers, and her mother will sense that something has changed. Worse, someone—maybe Colonel Aetos—will be waiting to tear her loyalty apart and reveal what she’s hiding.
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