Everyone scrambled to the side of the mountain. It didn’t seem to matter that it would take them an hour or more to get where they wanted to go. Excited, some men hurried to their vehicles while some took off on foot.
“What is it?” May asked as he hurried her toward a truck. “What’s going on?”
“Plants aren’t the only thing we’ve been looking for.” Opening the back door, he waited until she sat down, helped her with her seatbelt, and then hurried around to open the door on the other side. “Get your butt over here and drive, Waverly,” he yelled as he climbed into the backseat of the crew cab four-wheel drive. “Follow everyone else up the mountain.”
“What have you been looking for other than plants?” May asked when he moved close, his leg brushing hers.
“Legend has it that there are ancients imprisoned in various parts of the world. We’ve been sponsoring archaeological digs in locations we think are likely places.”
“Why Alaska?”
“Even in ancient times, there weren’t many people who would brave the wilds of this place.” He reached out to take her hand, needing the contact. “We’ve been looking here, Greenland, Siberia, both of the poles, the Sahara, and the jungles of both Africa and Peru.”
“Wow. You’ve been busy.”
“Yes, well, what price can you put on a dragon’s life?” He shook his head with a sigh. “If even only one of the legends turn out to be true, and we are able to free one soul from an eternity of incarceration, it will be worth every penny spent and every day lost.”
They came to a stop behind a line of vehicles in front of a sheer cliff face. Bingham, his on-site archaeologist and research assistant opened the door. “You won’t believe this.” His face was red, his eyes bright with excitement. “I think we’ve found something.” He pointed to what appeared to be the entrance to a cave. “We found that stone archway.” He swallowed. “And that’s exactly what it is. It’s a stone archway leading into a large cavern.”
Damek climbed out of the truck, turned, and helped May from the vehicle as Bingham practically danced next to him.
“I didn’t know you were on your way. I called the nearest dragon to the site. Tony Saladino and his wife were nearby on a cruise.” He twisted his fingers together. “I hope you don’t mind. I called Delfavaro and asked who was the closest. I couldn’t read the language on the walls, and I thought perhaps he could.”
“He is here?” Damek closed the door perhaps a little more forcefully than he should have.
Damek wasn’t upset that Tony might already be here. What irked him was that Bingham had called Drake before he called the man who signed his paychecks.
Bingham swallowed, looking worried. “Yes, sir. I’m sorry, sir. I just thought—”
“Forget it,” Damek interrupted. He waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. “Where is he?”
“In the cavern.” Bingham paced next to him as Damek headed toward the cave. “The funny thing is, a six-foot thick clear sheet of ice covered the entrance. We drilled through that easily enough. It was what we found inside that we thought required a dragon.”
Damek stopped at the entrance and turned his attention to his assistant. “And that was what?”
Bingham ran his finger beneath his collar and cleared his throat. “There is a lot of strange writing on the wall and a large, very large, circle of stone encased in ice.”
“Why is it strange?” He frowned at the archaeologist. “One would expect to find ancient carvings near a find, and ice in a cave in Alaska shouldn’t be surprising at all.”
“You don’t understand, sir. We have made every effort to cut through the ice and we can’t. The temperature in the cavern ranges between forty and fifty degrees, yet the ice surrounding the sphere doesn’t melt. We have ruined three diamond-tipped drill bits, trying to drill through the ice to see what’s inside.”
“You’re saying it’s protected by magic.”
“Yes, sir.” He stood up straight as though awaiting censure or perhaps the loss of his job. “The language is ancient enough that I can’t read it. Even Tony can’t read it. Once we learned of your arrival, we thought it prudent to wait for you. Perhaps you can read it.”
Damek felt the walls of the cave, his fingers tingling as he passed through the entrance. There was magic here, all right. Ancient magic. He hadn’t felt power like this in eons. This was the work of a sorcerer.
Unlike mages, sorcerers wanted control. They couldn’t and wouldn’t take less than second best. Each of them felt as though they deserved to rule the world. The only problem with that was, there was usually more than one. They all couldn’t rule, so they felt no one should.
That was why he and the other ancient dragons set out to imprison the sorcerers. In some cases, they imprisoned the dragons instead. Over the years, the sorcerers became adept at hiding in plain sight while the dragons hid as humans.
Now, the attacks on May and her sisters made sense. The sorcerers were obviously tired of playing the waiting game and had decided to resume their old chess match with a few new players. The Flowers sisters.
Chapter Thirteen
May followed the two men into the cave. She circled the giant sphere and studied it with a critical eye. “This can’t be natural.” Reaching out, she touched the clear layer that surrounded it. “Definitely not natural.” It was ice, yet it wasn’t ice. It was cold, frozen, but the people to the left of her couldn’t drill through it and the people to the right of her couldn’t break it with a chisel and sledge hammer.
Looking around, May searched for her sister Tansy and her mate. She saw them after a moment. They had been on the other side of the large sphere. What they had been doing was anyone’s guess.
“May!” Tansy rushed over and gave her a hug. “What are you doing here?” Backing up, Tansy held her at arm’s length and studied her. “You look different. Why do you look different?”
“I have no idea.”
Damek stopped talking to the man he’d called Bingham, walked to her side and wrapped his arm around her. “Is everything all right, little one? I saw you touch the sphere. Did it harm you?” He kissed her temple and pulled her into his embrace.
“Uh, no. I’m okay.” May tried to push him away, but he wouldn’t have it.
“Congratulations, May.” Tansy grinned as she looked at Damek.
“Don’t even say it, Tansy,” May warned. The last thing she wanted or needed to hear right now was her sister’s ribbing about her choice in men.
“What do you think, Tony?” Damek pulled her with him as he circled the sphere.
It was almost as though he wanted the entire company that surrounded them to know she belonged to him.
It made May want to smile. It was funny how possessive these dragons could be.
“It’s definitely ice, but it’s charged with magic.” Tony studied it, dragging his hand over it as they walked. “My heat can melt it a bit, but the sphere refreezes as soon as I stop.”
“What if we tried together?” Tansy suggested. “Maybe we could make a difference, then. The only question I have is, should we?” She tilted her head as she stared at the large, round granite and ice globe. “Can anyone here read that weird writing?” Tansy pointed at the carvings on the wall to her right. “It’s obvious it’s some sort of language, but what does it say?”
Damek released May and wandered over to the wall almost absently. “It’s in the ancient language. There aren’t many dragons alive today who can even read this. It was written by the water dragon.” Reaching out, he moved his fingers along the carvings. “He knew he was under attack. He cast a spell to counteract that of the sorcerers who would imprison him.”
With a frown, he read the message written so long ago. “Magic within, magic without, pure of heart a dragon’s dream. Heat the orb, chant the words, break the heart and part the seam.” He grew silent for a minute, his fingers tracing the carvings as he read. Kneeling down, he studied the writing for a minute before he turned
to May. “Do you have your cell phone?”
“Yes.” She frowned. “Why?”
“You’re going to need it. We need your sisters to chant this while Tony and your sister heat the ice.” He studied the orb for a minute. “And while they heat it, we need to try to crack it. I’ll concentrate on cracking the stone. You concentrate on giving life to the water dragon trapped inside.”
“I can’t bring dead things back to life. That’s Jasmine.” Shaking her head, she backed away, holding her hands out. “Don’t look at me.”
Damek stepped close, grasped her upper arms, and looked into her eyes. “You don’t have to bring him back from the dead, little one. He isn’t dead. He is merely dormant inside that shell. The spell he cast put him in a type of stasis. With you and your sisters chanting, he will gather power from you and the water as the ice melts.” He took a deep breath. “At least that’s how it should work. He’s been this way for several thousand years. He may not wake at all.”
“Great. So no pressure, huh?” May looked up at the large chunk of ice and bit her lip. “We’ll have to get everyone on a conference call. It could take a while.”
Damek looked up at the sphere. “Well, he’s waited at least twenty-thousand years. What could another hour or so hurt?”
Twenty-thousand years? May couldn’t conceive of a creature that old. What if he wasn’t like the modern dragons? What if he wanted to fly around eating people like the dragons of legend? They would all be responsible for releasing him on the world.
“May,” Damek whispered as he moved closer. “The water dragon is much like the Earth dragon. He reveres life. He carved this so someone could save him someday. He gave his life to protect something. What, I don’t know. The writing on the cave wall only speaks of saving the last of something. We must free him to find out what it is.” He told her the words they all must chant and left her and Tansy to call their sisters.
It didn’t take nearly as long to get her sisters on the phone as May expected. Apparently, word got around that there was some major find and they had all stayed by the phones at Drake’s home. They didn’t even need a conference call. Each sister had an extension. May turned her phone to the speaker and, with Damek’s help, taught them what to chant.
With Tony and Tansy on opposite sides of the sphere and she and Damek taking an opposite side as well, she began the chant before leaving her sisters to it while she concentrated on helping the water dragon grow stronger. Heat surrounded them as Tansy and her mate released their fire. May concentrated on finding the life force within the sphere and magnified it while Damek used his power of Earth to crack the granite inside.
As the granite cracked, the outer layer of ice gave way. Water moved up from the floor where it began to puddle and entered the crack. May forced her power into the water as it seeped through the cracks in the stone and ice. The longer Tony and Tansy heated it, the more cracks marred the surface, looking like spider webs. Damek did similar damage to the inner layer of stone.
The water dragon, or whatever was inside the circle of stone continued to suck the water from the melted ice through the cracks until, with a burst of light, the stone and ice fell from around the being imprisoned inside.
The dragon was large, it huddled, its wings wrapped around itself as it clutched something to its chest. Wrinkled and gray, it continued to draw water from the melting ice.
“Keep heating the ice. He needs water,” Damek said as he wiped the sweat from his brow. “You’ll know when to quit. He’ll start recuperating quicker as he utilizes the water in the ice on his own.” Damek bent to look into the dragon’s face. “The reason they encased him in stone was to keep him from using the ice to strengthen himself. The reason for the ice was to keep anyone else from finding him.” He shook his head. “I can’t imagine the torment he would have been in if he hadn’t put himself to sleep.”
May couldn’t imagine it either. Having the ice surrounding him, knowing that water was so close, yet still inaccessible, could have driven him mad.
“What’s that he’s holding?” May asked as Tansy and Tony fell back, looking exhausted.
Damek leaned closer. “It’s a plant of some kind.”
The gray of the water dragon slowly turned to blue as he drew water from the ice on the walls. The cave drew warmer as the ice disappeared. The dragon grew stronger while her sisters kept chanting over the phone.
Slowly, the dragon unfurled its wings and stretched. It looked around, the slits in its blue eyes narrowing on the men for a few moments before the dragon shimmered and shifted shape into that of a blond man of similar height and size as Damek.
“Damek,” he dipped his head. “Et tu de haru?”
“You know him?” May whispered. “What did he say?”
“He asked if I have been well.”
“Es jeck du sur. Yes, I am well,” Damek replied as he stepped forward, took the man by the shoulders and stared deep into his eyes. “I have transferred my knowledge of this language to you. I will give you more knowledge once you recover more.” He still stared into the man’s eyes. “Do you understand?” At the other man’s nod, Damek continued, “Welcome back to the living, my brother.” Damek held out his hand, indicating the plant cradled in the other man’s arms. “Dare I hope you have saved this for me?”
“Yes, brother.” The man nodded. “It is marsuka. You wished me to save it. Did you not?”
Damek closed his eyes. “Yes, Adrian. I thank you.”
Adrian spun around as the chanting stopped, looked between the two women and smiled. “Which one of you beautiful ladies is my mate?”
Both Tony and Damek growled a warning as they hurried to put themselves between Adrian and their women.
“Do not think I won’t kill you if you attempt to usurp my mate, Adrian. Brother or not, I will kill you.”
“Brother?” May stepped beneath Damek’s arm. Lacing her fingers with his, she let the others know she wouldn’t deny his claim on her. “He’s really your brother?” She frowned. “But you said he’d been imprisoned for at least twenty-thousand years. How the hell old are you, anyway?”
Grinning, Damek bent and kissed the tip of her nose. “You don’t want to know, little one. Believe me. You really don’t want to know.” Damek then turned to his brother. “What makes you think your mate is here, my brother?”
“I felt her presence.” Adrian frowned. “I heard her voice among many.” He spun around. “She must be here.”
Moving to put himself between May and his brother, Damek bent and picked up May’s cell phone. “She is here, in a way.” He held up the phone. “This device can carry a voice over thousands of miles.” He pointed to the phone. “You heard her voice coming from this little box. It’s called a cell phone.”
“Impossible.” Adrian shook his head with a scowl.
“Not any more, brother. This is but one thing you will need to acquaint yourself with before you can function in today’s society.”
“My mate.” Adrian pulled away. “I cannot wait to see my mate. I survived for her. I wrote the spell to only allow me to wake when her voice and essence were near.”
“She is not lost to you, brother,” Damek said, laying a hand on Adrian’s shoulder. “We will introduce you when you are ready.” He took the marsuka from him and handed it to his assistant. “I thank you for keeping it safe. It looks healthy, even after all these years.”
“It also has seeds. I used my powers to keep it alive. I programmed my spell to give it some of my water and magic on a regular basis.” He reached up and rubbed his forehead. “I did not think it would take so long for my mate to find me. At least I hoped it would not.”
“You almost allowed it to drain you dry. It’s a good thing we found you when we did.”
Turning to his assistant, Damek said, “Bingham, please escort my brother to the encampment.” Turning back to Adrian, he said, “Go with Bingham, Adrian. He will see that you are submerged for a time to return your vigor, then we’l
l talk again.”
“Then you will take me to my mate?”
Damek smiled. “Yes, brother. I will take you to your mate. I’m not sure which one she is, but she must be one of my sisters-in-law.”
With a nod, Adrian followed Bingham out of the cavern and into what he must consider the strange, new world beyond.
“Sisters-in-law?” May asked, raising her brows. “Jumping the gun a bit aren’t we?” She wrapped her arms around his neck with a grin.
“I hope not, little one,” Damek said, returning her smile. “I surely hope not.” He lowered himself to one knee and tears filled May’s eyes. “I love you with everything in my being, May. Will you marry me?”
“Yes,” May said grinning through her tears. Kneeling, she threw her arms around his neck. “Oh, yes.”
About the Author
Tianna Xander is the author of over fifty published paranormal, time-travel and science fiction works. She loves reading everything from romance novels, murder mysteries and encyclopedias, to handbooks on solar energy. Tianna is the first to admit she spends far too much time surfing the internet and chatting with her online friends and critique groups.
Having written several novels and working on at least one more at any given time—Tianna still finds time for her family, friends and her many pets. She currently lives in Michigan with her husband, two children, four cats, one big dog and one occasionally terrorized Netherland Dwarf bunny that loves raisins. Her life is anything but boring.
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