by Zoe Chant
Bird began to poke her head up. The man turned his head sharply, and she ducked back, catching only a glimpse of a hard cheekbone and unruly hair falling over his brow and ears.
He addressed Mikhail in what Bird guessed was one of the Chinese languages.
Mikhail said nothing.
The man raised a lazy hand toward the mural in an expansive gesture, and talked on, then faced the mural. Bird ducked up. This time she saw the end of a chain, lying not three feet away, on the other side of the crevasse. Joey was right. It wasn’t locked or knotted.
The man flicked a glance at Mikhail, asked a question, and receiving nothing but stone silence as an answer, uttered a sharp laugh. He then walked to the mural, and with a fingernail began to chip at the ancient, chalky letters. The chains clinked faintly, as if Mikhail’s muscles tightened.
The man laughed, then began chipping away in earnest—destroying something ancient, bit by bit.
Bird gritted her teeth and crawled over a rock, inching her fingers toward the end of the chain . . .
Her fingers closed around it. She gave it a tiny tug, expecting it to hurt, or be super heavy, but it was if anything unusually light, as if it were made out of aluminum. She gave it an experimental pull, and the links came easily. She backed away, smoothing dirt over the links as she went.
The chain pulled . . . and then stopped. It was stuck. She surreptitiously tugged, but the chain went taut.
Mikhail must have felt it, as once again his muscles tightened, but then, quite suddenly, the mate bond opened and there he was in her mind, not open and clear the way she’d experienced it before, but tight as a pinhole, as if he wanted to hide his pain. She felt the effort it took. Bird! Run!
Not without you.
Bird, he will kill you without a thought. Or worse—he’ll use you against me, and I cannot bear that.
Guilt churned in her at that, but she fought it fiercely. She would not let her own fears defeat her before this traitor could.
Mikhail, you wouldn’t leave me, she thought desperately. I’m not leaving you.
Cang laughed again, mocking, and Bird saw the twitch of shoulder and pivot of foot that indicated he was turning. She ducked back, hoping the shadows hid the end of the chain.
Cang seemed to be concentrating on Mikhail’s face as he uttered another threat, one hand lazily taking in the mural.
Mikhail’s thought came, That chain is caught under me. I’ll do my best to distract him. If you can get one of my hands free, I can do the rest—then RUN.
Mikhail said something that made Cang laugh as he waved at the mural again. The red dragon seemed delighted that he’d found something that bothered Mikhail. He turned to the mural again, looking for another spot as Mikhail said something that sounded very much like the equivalent of “Stop it!”
Cang pulled a knife from the sleeve of his coat, and began scraping at the wall. That was Bird’s cue.
Once more on her hands and knees, her heart thumping in her throat, she turtled over the rocks, until she crouched behind Mikhail. He made an effort that she felt in her bones as he sat up, effectively hiding her.
He shouted something at Cang, as Bird bent low and began tearing at the chains. Her fingers touched Mikhail’s arm, and she got a sudden, vivid image of what had happened
Mikhail and Cang, in human form, had been walking side by side to the Oracle cave. Then Cang stepped back to let Mikhail lead him over the rubble at the entrance. And once Mikhail had his back turned, the red dragon put on a pair of armored gauntlets hidden nearby for the purpose, grabbed a length of the shifter silver chain, and snapped the end around Mikhail’s right wrist. It wrapped several times as Mikhail stiffened, then staggered as the effect of pure shifter silver hit him like a blast.
Cang had yanked Mikhail’s arm behind him in a vicious tug as Mikhail fell to one knee. He looped Mikhail’s left with another coil of chain, and threw a scattering of links around Mikhail’s chest and body as he toppled. Then he’d quickly draped the rest over Mikhail’s legs before backing away and throwing off the gloves, as though he’d felt the effect of the shifter silver through them.
Bird blinked away the image. She knew where to start now. Mikhail’s left arm was loosely bound with just that one loop, so she began there, fisting handfuls of the chain in order to keep it from clinking. She yanked it down, and Mikhail’s left hand was free. As the scrape scrape scrape continued at the mural, Cang still talking in that mocking voice, Bird eased the chain to the ground as Mikhail flexed his fingers, then flattened his hand and indicated the crevasse.
Bird understood: he could now shift his weight so she could pull at the other end of the chain from the relative safety of the other side of the crevasse opening. She threw herself back behind the rubble a heartbeat before Cang turned again. He put one fist on his hip, the other brandishing the knife as he began to advance on Mikhail. Bird watched in horror.
Mikhail’s left hand ripped the chain in an arc.
Cang’s eyes went wide. He danced back out of range, and Bird yanked with all her strength on the chain end. This time it came free. A mass of chain fell from Mikhail’s body.
He leaped to his feet, shaking the last of it off. At last, Mikhail was free.
In a flash, he became a dragon and lunged.
Cang shifted a heartbeat after. The two massive dragons filled the entire chamber. The ground trembled, and rocks tumbled.
Mikhail shot overhead, followed instantly by Cang. Bird knew that Mikhail was drawing the enemy away from her.
She began to run, stumbling in complete darkness. Then the cave beyond lit up with a blue light that reminded her of lightning. It was followed by a sinister red flash that turned everything to shades of black and gray for a split second. That second was enough for her to see the widening cracks all through the cavern. The entire place was about to come down around her ears. She began to run.
As she did, terror stabbed through her when lava worms began seeping out of all those cracks overhead, in the cavern walls, and in the ground. Weird light filled the outer cave, outlining the shape of two great dragons, one silver and one red, locked in combat. Lava wyrms began oozing their way toward the silver dragon.
“No,” Bird whispered.
What could she do? Nothing. This was way beyond her skills, her experience. For one second the old sense of futility seized her, but she fought it off. There had to be something she could do. She’d come this far—she’d helped Mikhail get free of—
The chain!
What worked against Mikhail would work against that red dragon—wouldn’t it?
She was going to find out.
She turned to the crevasse, which was now utterly dark. Ignoring the horrible streams of grit filtering down from overhead, she felt her way back and back, until she bumped painfully into the rubble. She crawled over it, ignoring bangs and scrapes until her fingers encountered the cool links of chain.
She yanked it up, pulled back, and began to run.
I can do this! Bird exulted.
Then her foot slammed into a rock, and she fell flat on her face.
FOURTEEN
MIKHAIL
Mikhail had to fight harder than he ever had before in a lifetime of fighting, if he wanted to save his mate.
Cang’s strength lay in fire and stone. As Cang fought to keep Mikhail confined inside the cavern, Mikhail fought to keep Cang’s attention solely on him so that the renegade Guardian would not see wonderful, loyal, determined Bird.
Then the lava wyrms struck, and pain ignited all down his length. He had to get to the cave entrance, where the waves were beginning to brush up against the rock. Once he could get outside he could gain his full form, with all the power of the sea and air.
The lava wyrms bit mercilessly into him. The waves ran inside. He could draw on the water, and the air flowing in the cave entrance, but if he shifted all the way to his full length while still inside the cavern, he risked bringing the palisade smashing down. He did not d
are draw on all his power with Bird still in the cave. Cang, who cared nothing for the consequences, was already shaking the cracked earth and stone along its many small faults.
Give it up, came Cang’s thought. Mikhail, why are you so stubborn? I promise, if you back me you will be my right hand. It’s time for a new era! Fire will cleanse this world!
Mikhail whipped his head around, and flexed his whiskers into ice form. They sent up boils of steam as he cleared the wyrms around his head. But great numb patches were starting along his body.
No, said Mikhail.
Then I shall bury us both! Cang’s rage burned on the mythic plane.
The ground jolted. Rock began falling overhead—
And then the great dragon that was Cang suddenly vanished. Cang had become a man again, sprawled on the ground in a thoroughly undignified pose. The incoming tide foamed up, sending a wave of floating Styrofoam cups and plastic bags and other trash all around him. Rubble rained down on them both as Cang stared in wide-eyed shock at the shiftsilver chain looped around his torso lasso-style.
Bird, filthy from head to toe, her hair dripping with brine, held the other end of the chain.
Another wave surged in. It hissed as the last of the lava wyrms boiled into steam and vanished. Mikhail shifted back to his human form, staring at his heroic mate in disbelief.
Bird kept on wrapping Cang in chain, heedless of the sand and small stones dropping on her.
“Take that! And that,” she sobbed. “You dare to hurt him—here’s another loop!”
Her chin was bleeding, and there were scrapes on her elbows and hand. She was his Bird, the most gallant and beautiful mate since the dawn of the world.
Cang sent a last slashing grin Mikhail’s way, then flicked his glowing red gaze at Bird.
“I will remember you,” he said in English.
A great crack smote the air from overhead. A massive boulder began to fall with deceptive slowness.
“Let’s run, beloved,” Mikhail urged.
Her pale face and frightened eyes turned his way. Their hands met, their fingers lacing as they ran for the cave entrance, Mikhail’s first thought to get Bird to safety before dealing with Cang. An incoming wave splashed into her, nearly knocking her into the rocks, as overhead, more stones and dirt began to fall.
Mikhail swept Bird up into his arms, his head turning from side to side as he splashed into the churning waves. He braced for attack from Horace and Liza—
To see them pinned down as water foamed around them, crouched above them a pair of Pi Xiu. At the sight of him, their dragon heads flashed upward in salute, horse bodies still as their icy unicorn hooves pressed into Cang’s hirelings.
Farther away, Joey in fox form danced along the shoreline, out of reach of the water.
Mikhail set Bird down higher on the shore, and ran back to deal with Cang—in time to see him vanish into the falling rock, smothered by his lava wyrms. Then the entire structure came down with a crashing roar.
Mikhail drew Bird away as dust began to gout out the collapsing entrance. Mikhail closed Bird in his arms, ignoring the burns all down his back. Her body trembled in his arms, her eyes wide and shocked as she took in the mythic creatures. So she could see them, without him having to draw her into the mythic realm.
Joey’s thought came, Your mate has strengths that you have yet to discover. So does she.
His laughter rippled across the mythic plane—and then golden light flashed across the sky and the empress’s qilin dove down from cloud-walking.
The messenger shifted into her human form and addressed Mikhail in Mandarin. “The empress sent me to inquire if you need assistance.”
“You may take charge of these.” Mikhail indicated Liza and Horace, still prisoners of the male and female pair of Pi Xiu. “The Oracle Stone is buried again, but I placed a ward around it. Tell her I will report in person, as soon as I see to my mate.”
The qilin-shifter was young, new to her position as messenger. Her eyes rounded, and then she pinked. “Congratulations, and double-happiness.” She shifted in a shower of stars, and turned to deal with the prisoners.
Mikhail slowly, painfully moved away, longing to shift himself. But his strength was at a dangerously low ebb as he fought the pain of those burns. Shifter healing was fast, but it wasn’t instantaneous. It would be a while before he could shift and carry Bird safely. But he wanted his mate comfortable, and safe, right now.
She stood looking dazed, shivering violently.
The burns were agony as he put his arm around Bird. He said to Joey, “Can you drive us back to Bird’s cottage?”
“I would be honored.” Joey saluted insouciantly.
Mikhail took Bird’s hand and paced beside her as they walked up the path toward the old lot. Her hand was still trembling, but she paced along determinedly. “I’m so glad it’s over,” she whispered presently.
Joey glanced back, meeting Mikhail’s eyes in question. Mikhail shook his head slightly: no, it wasn’t over. But he would explain later.
They neared the top of the palisade to discover that half of the abandoned parking lot was now huge slabs of broken concrete above sinkholes where the caverns below had collapsed. Dust hung in the air above it, nearly obscuring the crowd that had gathered beyond the chain link fence. Half of them were busy shooting the destruction with their cellphone cameras.
The town police had arrived, and were in the midst of driving the crowd back, one with a bullhorn. “Please step away from the fence, and disperse! This area is now fully off limits—another landslide could occur at any moment! Trespassers would be instantly arrested!”
Bird ducked at the top of the pathway. “We’re going to be in trouble.”
“Let me handle this,” Joey said, assuming a self-important air. “In my official capacity as representative of the university. While I babble about archaeology at the good officers of the law, you two slip around that way to my car.” He headed into the dust, yelling, “There you are! It’s a mess down there! I was nearly killed!”
The police converged on him, followed by the crowd.
Unnoticed, Mikhail and Bird picked their way alongside the fence, Bird looking at Mikhail every few seconds in growing concern. “Mikhail? Those burns look horrible. Should we go to the hospital?”
“Give me a few hours, and the worst of it will heal adequately.” He hated to see that stricken look in her eyes.
But she didn’t argue, or plead. She just slid her sandy, clammy fingers into his, filling him with the sweetness of her unconditional love. And it was unconditional. She had tolerated more mayhem during these past days than he had thought any human, and few mythic shifters, would ever choose to bear.
They reached the spot Joey had parked his car.
Bird stopped and let out a hiss of outrage. “Look at that!”
After a battle with a renegade dragon, an attack by swarms of lava wyrms, and nearly being buried in a collapsing cavern, Mikhail braced himself to face . . .
A parking ticket.
Bird glared at the offending bit of paper stuck through the windshield wiper of Joey’s car as if it was a thousand-tentacled kraken.
Mikhail was nearly giddy with suppressed laughter as Bird muttered about the flagrant unfairness of giving out parking tickets during an earthquake.
Joey walked up. “There you are.” Then his gaze followed theirs. “A ticket? What an anticlimax. I wonder if I can argue this in court?”
“I’ll pay for it, whatever it costs,” Mikhail said, as he and Bird climbed into the back seat.
Joey laughed. “I think I can handle a parking ticket. Let’s get you two back.” He started the car. “ Everybody hates a know-it-all, but I did tell you to be careful of Cang.”
“I didn’t understand your reasoning. I thought it was mere dislike,” Mikhail admitted. “You’re so much more sensitive to the emotional spectrum in the mythic realm than I am. I should have listened.”
“Ah, but I didn’t define it wel
l. I still can’t. So much of what I sense is . . . innate. My dislike might be irrational, but the truth is, I can’t trust anyone who is not open to the mystery of the mate bond.”
Bird, quiet until now, spoke up softly. “Do you mean he is damaged because he hasn’t a mate?”
Joey said thoughtfully, “It’s not quite that: it’s that he truly is closed off. I don’t know if it’s purposeful or resentment, but that layer in him: entirely blocked off.”
Mikhail felt Bird’s tremor, and carefully laid his arm around her. “When we were young, he was as brave as anyone I ever trained with. Courageous as well. I liked partnering with him. But in recent years, we drifted apart. He must have put considerable energy into hiding his new pursuits from me.”
Joey said tartly, “He was lying to you. Why do you think he was in effect grounded here, after being a knight for so many years?”
“I don’t know what happened,” Mikhail admitted tiredly. “All I know is that the empress sent him from the imperial court, and made him Guardian in this area as a chance to get him away from the temptation of power politics. To let him rethink things. For his sake, I never pressed further. I called on him, hoping to give him a chance to redeem himself.”
“As he knew you would, loyal and true-hearted Mikhail. I gather he figured out the Oracle Stone was there all along?”
“He wasn’t clear about that. There are some fire beings from the deeps that certainly knew about it. They also knew that no one could touch it except the empress.”
To Bird he said, “This is very old—very old. Whoever corrupted Cang, probably an older, deeper power, knows what information is locked in that stone and doesn’t want it revealed. Cang wanted to possess it as the first step in challenging the imperial throne. One of them somehow managed to superimpose the shadow figures over the text that the Oracle Stone makers had put there for whoever would come after. They couldn’t touch that text—very ancient magic protects it—but they could obscure it. I believe he was unsettled at the discovery that the text was slowly bleeding out from behind the shadow paintings.”
