I ignored him, needing to know what was going on. The boy had no sense of adventure. I risked a peek, my eyes taking several seconds to adjust to the dim interior.
I needn’t have worried about discovery though. Twelve pairs of eyes focused on what was happening in the center of the cave. They gathered in a circle, eyes glued to the grappling Demon wolves in the middle as they tumbled in a brawl on the cave floor, claws raking and snarls filling the gigantic space as they grappled. The source of their disagreement was a smaller Demon wolf, I assumed a female who sat just outside the reach of their scrambling bodies. She seemed as riveted by the spectacle as everyone else. The fight distracted every Demon wolf in the cave.
Here was our chance. I motioned to the others and after one unanimous glare to let me know what they thought of entering a cave filled with Demon wolves; they followed me. We entered the cave on the far left and skirted around the outside wall where the light from the fire they had in the center didn’t reach. We scooted as fast as we could to the back corridor just visible from the outside. By the time I’d reached the opening, I realized there was more than one. Several wormholes moved in different directions. But our luck held when I took the main one, removing my poison tainted knife and holding it ready at my side.
Voices ahead and a low aching moan pulled me up short, and I held up a hand. We froze. The cadence of the voices in the main cavern behind us altered. The excitement was gone and so was our path back the way we’d come. Panic threatened, and I tamped it down. No time for that now. The only way out could be forward.
I took a deep breath; my heart was pounding out of control and goosebumps rising along my arms. Sparks danced over my fingers where I gripped the knife. We moved forward.
Sudden movement to my right made me straighten in shock as Nick Seul chose that moment to show his stupid. I watched in stunned silence as he stepped out into the opening of the room.
Idiot, you’re going to get us all killed.
I joined him. Our presence was out of the bag, so I had nothing to lose. My gaze moved past Nick’s face and then swung back. His dark features were lighting up. A wreath of swirling light was floating over the surface of his head and neck and spreading outward down his arms until it ended in a growing sphere of light centered in both outstretched palms. His eyes closed, and I watched mesmerized as he slammed his hands together, the twin lights merging. The resulting surge of blinding light engulfed the two charging demons and froze them in mid-stride. I stared at Nick, his eyes wide and frantic, his arms beginning to tremble. We surged forward, knives slashing with their poisoned edges. The spell fell apart, and so did the wolves. They weren’t dead, but the poison and the shock of the spell had rendered them unconscious, for now.
Great, two down and only twelve more to go.
A groan of pain snapped our attention to the corner where Marcus Tannon lay, bruised and beaten. Chains held him in place and we crouched at his side.
He looked at us with such relief and fear I wanted to cry. I wanted to tell him not to get his hopes up.
We stood trapped with no key and no way out. Seconds remained before the Demon wolves in the main cavern came to investigate where their friends had gotten off to.
A light touch on my shoulder and I looked up in confusion as Sirris pushed me aside. Maybe she wanted to offer him the comfort I could not.
But I was wrong. Sirris reached trembling fingers out and caught the heavy seepage that kept the walls wet with moisture. Her palms spread wide, and I watched the trickle of water flow over her hands. Then she brought her palms down and circled them around the metal shackles. The shackles started turning white. Marcus Tannon’s eyes rounded and I realized she was hurting him, but I didn’t stop her. Perhaps fifteen seconds passed and then with a jerk of her hands, the shackles cracked and crumbled beneath her fingers. A bluish-white ring of flesh circled his ankles. Frostbite.
Mouth a grim line, Marcus struggled to stand, face stark. Thomas helped him up. He was weak, but he’d need to help himself if he wanted to survive.
I looked back the way we’d come. Were the voices from earlier closer? Was someone coming?
“We’re trapped, sir. No way out but the way we came. I’m sorry,” I said.
Marcus’ eyes blazed with determination and something else I couldn’t define. It reminded me we were all Magicals.
“There’s another way, help me. Let’s get out of here and stop wasting time.”
He didn’t need to tell any of us twice.
For the first time since he’d cast his light spell, I glanced at Nick. His eyes were hollowed out and sunken, his dark face waxy and pale. Using what he had had come at a cost.
Thomas helped Marcus to the door, and I reached out and snagged Nick’s hand and drug him behind me.
Marcus whispered to Thomas as they crossed the threshold. “Keep your eyes sharp as we go. There’s something else you should see.” He angled left out the door, heading down the passage towards a smaller passage on the end. He nodded at the opening to a compact room on our left and we all glanced inside as we hurried by.
At first I thought I was looking at an empty room and turned to continue. But a brief shimmer of light against the far wall made me pause. The wall faded and seemed to move and shudder for several seconds and then it was solid again. But when it faded and moved, I caught a brief glimpse through a window to a rocky landscape on the other side with short thorny bushes and the quick movement of something small and fast as it skittered past.
I blinked and forced myself to continue and catch up to the others.
We entered what looked to be a short cul-de-sac, not big enough to be called a room. There was nothing to light our way and the darkness near complete. But Marcus must have known something we didn’t as he felt his way around the outside of an enormous boulder in the center, arms shaking with effort. We followed faster. A howl of rage behind us said we’d been discovered, and they realized we had Marcus.
Behind the rock, the wall angled upwards into a ramp maybe ten feet above our heads. Long ropey vines hung down, and we used them to scramble up the side of the rock and through the opening at the top. At first I assumed we’d emerged into another cavern, it was that dark, but as I scrambled after the others I realized we were in the middle of a vast briar patch. Tons of clinging vines and thorny branches tugged and tore at our clothes and skin. I ignored the painful pull. They were right behind us; I could hear the falling rocks as they stumbled and tripped along the same path we had.
We broke free of the Briars and the moon revealed itself, round and welcome, above us.
Nick pushed away from me and I stepped back as he swung his staff free from where he’d concealed it at his back. He was weak. I knew it, and from the look of desperation in his eyes as they met mine, so did he. But there were no other options. His mouth moved, and he whispered a series of words I couldn’t understand. With a last roar, he brought the staff up and then down dead center of the briar patch and next to the hole the werewolves scrambled through. The ground shuddered on impact and I heard the slide of rocks and dirt as they tumbled back into the hole, burying anything in their path.
“Come on, it won’t stop them. I hope it buys us enough time.” He weaved, and I knew he was almost done. I didn’t pause as I leapt forward and caught his arm and swung it around my shoulder. He was head and shoulders taller; but I was strong. Together we moved up the trail as fast as we were able, dragging our injured between us.
I glanced back as we turned the corner. I had to wonder. Was that the portal to another dimension Mayor Seul had mentioned? Was that how the Demon wolves and the Macu were getting in?
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The impact shivered up my arms and I grunted and pushed back, struggling to stand my ground. With a sudden feint left, I ducked low and brought the sword around. My partner was faster and countered with a leg sweep that had me staring up at his satisfied face back lit in the afternoon sun. The faint glow along the length of the blade
pointed at my chin told the tale.
Game over, I’m dead again.
“You’re such a jerk Nick, do you know that?” His grin widened. He reached down and offered me a hand up. I thought about refusing. Instead, I grabbed on with a growl and let him pull me up.
“Gotta get better Cross, you’re still dead every time.”
I dusted off my loose black workout pants, leaves and dirt flying.
“Maybe if you weren’t using that sorcery crap every time to enhance your speed and accuracy with the sword, I’d have a chance.”
He shrugged. “We’re Magicals. It’s what we do.”
I rolled my eyes and bent to pick up my sword. “I wouldn’t know about that. I don’t know why I’m even here, sometimes. What do I have? Great eyesight and hearing and I’m handy when we wanna cook s’mores.”
He snorted. “Hey, those are handy things, I love marshmallows.”
I turned to head towards the water station. I just wanted him to go away and let me wallow in my misery and self-pity. Instead, he clapped me on the back like I was one of the guys, making me gasp as he joined. Great.
“Sides, there’s your ability with that bow. Isn’t anyone on this field that can come close to matching you with that. Well, and you’re poisonous. That comes in handy.”
I slanted him a look out of the corner of one eye. Was he serious or was he trying to be funny? I was never sure which it was.
“Nope, you’re a Magical. The rest will come in time,” he added.
“What about Jerry? How does he get in with no issues?”
“That’s a good question. I don’t know. For whatever reason possesses the magic that enchants our valley and maintains our shield, there are exceptions to the only others rule. It’s rare, but there are a few humans that come and go with no problem. Maybe it has to do with how Jerry responds to the magic? He isn’t afraid, and for him magic is just as normal as breathing. For him it’s a celebration of our differences and he embraces it.”
It sounded as good an explanation as any to me.
We were the first ones to reach the water station, and I filled my water. Over Nick’s shoulder, I saw Thomas and Sirris as they approached.
“Is Mr. Waverly still taking vials of your blood?” Nick wondered.
It was a dumb question, and it irritated me. “Yup, I’m still the resident blood bank.” I quipped, capping my water with more force than necessary.
Nick didn’t look thrilled himself.
We moved towards the shade of the small storage shed. Marcus Tannon sat in a lawn chair taking a break. He was recovering, but he saved his energy to lead his guards at night, using the daylight to recover. The Demon wolves had worked him over good the week before.
“I talked to Marcus, asked him what he remembered.” I whispered out of the corner of my mouth.
Nick considered. “You’ve been going to the council meetings, right? What did he say when it came up there?”
I frowned. “Nothing. He told them he hadn’t heard a thing and was chained up in that room the entire time. He omitted the portal in that room we all saw.
Nick glanced backwards behind us before he answered. “Did you ask him about that?”
“Yeah, I did. He said he heard something the first night. He told me he was pretty out of it from them roughing him up some; but he swore he heard part of a conversation between one of the Demon wolves and a human. Told me he thought they were both speaking English.”
“What about that portal? Why didn’t he say anything about that?”
I looked up into his bright blue eyes. Pretty, I realized.
“Because he thinks whoever is calling the shots and controlling the Demon wolves is one of us.”
Nick said nothing for a few seconds. Just before they reached the others he bent low and whispered for her ears alone. “I don’t think he was supposed to make it out alive. I think they were going to kill him.”
I didn’t answer. I knew it as a fact.
We reached the other side of the field and gathered with the rest of the class as Marcus Tannon got to his feet, a cane in his right hand for support. He still appeared weak from his recent ordeal, but he was recovering fast. His low gravelly voice still commanded everyone’s attention.
Whoever had taken him had been smart. They’d realized that taking him out would deliver a crippling blow to the Guard’s morale.
I was just glad he was back.
“SHE’S NOT A DAMNED blood bank. There has to be some other way that doesn’t involve sucking her dry!” Nick ground out, a tic working a muscle in his cheek. He stood watching Jerry Waverly poke something that resembled a dead snake in through the cage of a small animal against one wall. Jerry used long tongs to maneuver the meal through the bars as if getting too close could be an awful idea. The little beast resembled a cross between a lizard and a cat. Its tail looked prehensile and curled about its grey furred body. Yellow round eyes never left the man feeding him his night-time meal. Jerry stepped back and seemed to sigh in relief as he did.
“I’m working on it, believe me. I’m trying to figure out how to dilute it so we need a lot less while it maintains its effectiveness.” Jerry finished.
Nick shuffled his feet, irritated. “How about we try to come up with something that doesn’t involve using her blood at all? Can’t we, like, make a synthetic version of it or something?”
Jerry shook his head. “It’s not just the blood itself, Nick. There’s something else in it too. Another element we can’t isolate. She’s a Magical, even if her powers haven’t developed yet. I suspect when they do, we’d better all watch out. But whatever is in her attacks what’s in them and none of the rest of us contain that blood cocktail.”
As Jerry spoke, Nick looked around the lab with curious eyes. Without thinking, he reached down and picked up a set of prepared slides off the table.
“Don’t—touch that!” Jerry squeaked in a panicky voice.”
Nick put it down at once. What the heck are you cooking down here, anyway?
Jerry sighed and went on. “I’ve been working on something else. Something a little different. But along with that, the Council in Drae Hallow is panicking and looking for answers. They’ve kept me busy. Maybe if I knew what she was...” he finished the last more to himself.
Nick straightened away from the counter in Jerry’s lab. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Jerry started storing things that were laying about on the counter, cleaning up. “Well, she’s strong. She is Magical for sure. Her blood is like a few of the dragon shifters in Draw Hallow. You know I keep samples for our records of almost every Magical there, right?” He closed the cabinet doors and turned to look back at Nick, glancing at the clock on the wall.
Nick knew. He wasn’t sure how he felt about it though.
“Well, I tried using that. Maybe it was just Dragon blood, right? It wasn’t the same. There was a brief resistance, but the result was the same. The Macu cells had a buffet until there was nothing left.”
Nick rubbed the back of his neck where it prickled suddenly.
Just what are you, Cross?
FINGERLING WISPS OF smokey light crawled along the wall in all directions from the frame in the center, pulsing and spreading. The interval between each beat widened the gap in the wall.
The sorcerer performing the feats necessary to spread and maintain the portal sagged against the wall, gasping for air, working to hold the opaque image on the wall longer. It fluctuated once and seemed to clear and hold. Almost at once the picture bulged outward into the room. With a syrupy pop, a Macu, covered in gritty slime, slipped through and landed on the cavern floor. Confused yellow eyes cleared and focused on the ominous figure in front of the portal. It made a snuffling move forward and then pulled up short, its toothy snout quivering and shifting as if picking up a move favorable smell. Without another glance at the figure that had birthed it, the Macu ran for the door.
The sorcerer watched it go. The idiots in the main
cavern would coral it with the others to wait for dark.
Fingers crackling, the sorcerer flexed them and worked the aches out.
Longer, it held longer this time. Soon it would hold long enough to emit more than one at a time.
The wall is coming down, then we’ll see who is in control, who is calling the shots. When humanity gets a load of what we’re bringing...
It’s time for the balance of power to change in favor of the ones that wield it...
... and I’m going to be there to lead the way. The Council is a bunch of old women and cowards, afraid of admitting who and what they are. Hiding their power, afraid of the humans who have none.
That’s all going to change soon.
Then we won’t need the Macu or the Demon wolves. Stupid minions, useful for now. But your usefulness is temporary, like your gateway in. That ends when I say it ends.
The sorcerer’s hands rose once more, pulling in the power. Another Macu popped through quicker than the last. Definitely longer. Extending one arm out, the sorcerer focused on the portal on the wall, the spidery crawl of light arcing out further and holding.
...and soon, we won’t have to wait for the cover of darkness...
“WHAT IF THERE WERE another way?”
I paused, spreading a thin layer of antibiotic ointment over the pin pricks where they’d poked me the night before to draw more blood. I was becoming a human pincushion. I tried to look into the shadows of the bottom bunk, hung with some gauzy material that made it into a dim cave. Fern Mason had strung the crap up within days of us moving in together. She was definitely an odd one. Fern kept to herself, an almost exclusive shadow that existed on the fringes and never came out to play. “
Fire Born Dragon (Rule 9 Academy Book 1) Page 23
