by Vered Ehsani
“Yao doesn’t like traveling by moonbeam,” the vampire grumbled as he collapsed near me.
“Who asked you?” Koki snarled.
“No one needs to ask Yao anything,” he replied, brushing flecks of glowing dust off his leather skirt. “Yao is happy to provide opinions anytime.”
“How was this at all helpful?” I demanded, straightening my shirt and skirt.
“She helped us,” Death said as he pushed himself upright against a large boulder. “Somehow, Olapa gave us assistance. We just need to figure out how.”
“For a start, we’re no longer in the Sky,” Koki said, crossing her arms and glaring at Death.
“How is that helpful?” I asked, glancing up at her elegant profile.
“It’s not,” she retorted, twirling away, muttering something about headless gods.
Kam stepped toward the cave entrance. “This is Grootslang’s cave.”
“Ha,” Death shouted at Koki’s back.
“Still not helpful,” I said but joined everyone to stand just inside the entrance of the cave.
As befitted the home of a fifty-foot-long, fire-breathing dragon, the cave was ginormous. The cavern’s roof stretched higher than the already tall entrance and was lost in the darkness. Sunlight could only penetrate so far before shadows took over. The floor was littered with large, smooth boulders. Along the edges of the cavern were stalagmites while a few stalactites hung down from the gloom. An ancient, damp cold filled the space, mocking the hot sun outside.
“Oh, this looks like that cave in the Underworld,” Yao enthused, grasping my elbow and bouncing it to get my attention. “Remember, Miss Knight? The one with that giant vampire-ogre creature who locked Koki in a cage because he wanted to mate with her. And she turned into her giant insect self but still couldn’t get out. Remember?”
“Yao,” I said, my voice low as I eyed Koki. There were some memories even a bloodthirsty she-demon wouldn’t want to revisit. Being kidnapped and caged was one of them. “Now would be a good time to—”
“Some people wanted to leave her there. Instead, you made us rescue her,” Yao prattled on, oblivious to Koki’s predatory glare as she stalked toward him, and to the incredulous stares of Death and Kam. “And that cave creature. It was ugly, but still, who would want to mate with a praying… Argh!”
Koki had wrapped her hands around Yao’s neck and was peering into Yao’s wide, panicked eyes. “One more word, fly, just one more,” she hissed, her nostrils flaring, “and I’ll happily test the limits of the broken life-death cycle. Although I find it hard to imagine a headless corpse coming back to life, but you never know.”
Yao whimpered and wisely said nothing. With a noise of disgust, Koki shoved him away and wiped her hands along the sides of her dress.
“And on that note, let’s go visit a treasure-hoarding, fire-breathing dragon,” I suggested.
“It may be almost as entertaining as these two,” Death huffed, shaking his head. The shells on the ends of his braids tinkled in cheery contrast to the glare Koki bestowed on us all.
“Does anyone have a light?” I asked as the heavy opaque air settled around us.
“She almost broke this beautiful throat,” Yao whined as he followed us a few steps into the cave, one hand rubbing his neck. “How could Yao speak to Wanjiru with a broken throat? Does anyone care?”
“Not really,” Kam said as he manifested a small ball of snapping, sizzling light in his outstretched palm.
“Well, you should,” Yao said before his attention was captured by the light. “Oh, pretty. Can Yao touch it?”
“It’s pure lightning,” Kam said, his voice causing a rumbling echo around us.
“Then by all means, you should touch it,” Koki purred as she glided past Yao, bumping shoulders in a manner that was decidedly unfriendly.
The lightning ball cast a pearly glow around us but even its brightness couldn’t penetrate to the back of the cavern. It was only enough to avoid tripping over the rocky rubble scattered at our feet or falling down one of the occasional funnels that plummeted deeper through rock down to subterranean layers.
With no clear idea where a dragon would set up its nest, we simply walked forward, single file, following Kam. He led us along a rough, narrow path that drifted around larger, smooth boulders and damp stalagmites, taking us deeper into the cave. Every footfall, every breath, every word was swallowed by the cavernous space, only to be echoed back at us in a mocking version.
“Are we there yet?” Yao whispered as he crowded behind me.
“When you smell sulphur,” I whispered back, “then you’ll know we’re there.”
He sniffed the air. “Yao doesn’t smell any sulphur.”
“Then we’re not there yet,” I retorted just as a heavy rumble echoed around us from farther inside the cave. “Kam, was that you?”
Lowering his hand and pausing behind a boulder, Kam glanced back at me. The lightning ball caused his skin color to appear bleached. “No.”
I snorted. “Do try to restrain yourself. We wouldn’t want you to damage your vocal cords.”
“But he hardly said anything,” Yao protested.
“How are you still breathing, firefly?” Koki asked as she pushed past Death to stand next to Kam and the boulder. “Oh, my, pretty indeed.”
Curious, I peered between their shoulders while Death and Yao stood close behind me. Mr. Turner was spinning in circles, gawking at the nothingness above us.
Just at the edge of light created by the lightning ball was the beginning of a small mountain. Although the summit was wreathed in shadows, my night vision was as sharp as any nocturnal creature. I could see enough to realize this mountain was made up entirely of precious gems, predominantly diamonds. The wealth so casually piled before me was astounding.
“Well, this isn’t such a difficult quest,” Yao said as he squeezed between Kam and Koki. “We only need six, and there are so many, with no dragon in sight.”
Mr. Turner gurgled, perhaps in agreement, although it was hard to tell with a dead man.
“It can’t be this easy,” Death murmured, speaking my thoughts aloud.
“So negative,” Yao said as he marched toward the mountain of treasure. Spinning to face us, he held his arms out to his sides as he walked backward. “It really is…” He paused as his bare feet slid against the bottom of the pile, dislodging a few diamonds. They rolled to the cave floor, clinking against the rough stone. “This,” he continued, stooping down. “Easy,” he ended as he scooped up a diamond and held it up over his head.
“That’s not thumb-sized,” Koki drawled, studying her sharp nails, just as Mr. Turner gargled and groaned, and dust drifted around us.
“What is it?” I demanded, glancing around to Mr. Turner who was jabbing a three-fingered hand up at the cavern ceiling.
“Easy, easy, easy,” Yao chanted, dancing a little jig as he plunged both hands into the treasure.
Larger bits of debris pattered down in a cloud of dust and…
“Sulphur,” I breathed as I too stared up at the ceiling. A line of metallic green shifted amongst the stalactites.
“Um, Yao?” I called out, pressing myself against the boulder and thinking how useful a flying horse would be just then.
“Easy, so easy,” Yao sang.
“If we’re lucky,” Koki said as she sunk down beside me, “maybe Grootslang will eat him, suffer from indigestion and be too distracted to notice us.”
“Luck and I have never been on good terms,” I muttered as scales slid against rock, and the green line moved again. As I followed the metallic sheen, I realized the true enormity of a fifty-foot-long dragon. “Yao, get away from the treasure right now.”
“But Yao is still looking for thumb-sized diamonds,” he protested as he sank down on his knees and brushed his hands through the jewels. More of them rolled down around him in a steady trickle. “There are lots of half-thumbs and fingernail-sized rocks.” Pausing, he glanced over his shoulder. “M
iss Knight, you don’t think that big bird was lying to us about thumb-sized diamonds, do you? That would be a naughty thing to do.”
Koki rolled her eyes while Death slapped a hand against his forehead. Meanwhile, the serpent’s length continued to slide against the cave’s wall.
“Yao, if that serpent doesn’t kill you,” I grumbled as I prepared to run out from behind the boulder and grab him, “one of us surely will.”
“Just consider this practice for looking after baby humans,” Koki said as she yanked me back and dashed toward the treasure. Hooking a hand around Yao’s arm, she began to drag him toward us just as a large, metallic green coil descended behind her.
“Koki,” I yelled a warning just as a head the size of a small carriage loomed from behind the diamond mountain, slitted eyes as large as dinner plates shining with sufficient ferocity to light up the scene in a greenish glow. Two curved horns jutted out from its head, sharp and big enough to skewer an elephant.
“Ooo, pretty,” Yao cooed before a semblance of self-preservation sunk in. Howling, he scrambled to his feet and raced past Koki, leaped over our boulder and cowered behind me.
“You can’t just leave her by herself,” I protested as I pressed a button hidden in the fist atop my walking stick; a small compartment slid out from the side.
“Yes, Yao can,” he breathed out, one fist over his heart. “And Yao did.”
Wishing Simon was there to curse at all of us on my behalf, I retrieved my blowgun and a dart from the little drawer in my walking stick and stood up. Koki had her back to me as she stared up at the dragon, entranced by its gaze. More coils of armored serpent slithered down from the wall until the entire length of the wingless dragon was draped over its treasure. Its feet boasted claws that were each as long as my forearm.
“Its scales are too thick,” Kam murmured. “Even my lightning would bounce off.”
“Then how fortunate I’m not aiming for a scale,” I said as I inserted the dart and lifted the blowgun to my lips. A second later, the dart whistled through the air and thwacked into one of the dragon’s large eyes.
The creature reared back, its deafening roar causing us all to flinch. More grains of cave wall rained down, the grit coating my skin and blinding my eyes. When I dared to look, the dragon was rubbing its injured eye like a tired child, if children could be fifty-feet tall with two-feet long daggers for teeth. The eyelid rolled up, revealing a lazy eye swiveling aimlessly in its socket.
The spell broken, Koki slunk to my side and said, “Congratulations. You put its eye to sleep. Now what?”
“You’re welcome,” I retorted just as Grootslang roared again and launched itself at our boulder.
Death and Koki ran in one direction while I followed Kam and Yao in the other. I didn’t see where Mr. Turner went. Then again, he was already dead so I didn’t exert too much energy in worrying about him. Instead, I hid behind a lumpy stalagmite, pressing my hands against its slimy surface. Yao and Kam were crouching behind a nearby boulder. The dragon paced around its treasure, its head swiveling about as it tried to locate us.
As I pondered how we could slip past the dragon, find six diamonds of sufficient size and escape the cave with all our limbs attached, the stench of decay assaulted me. Mr. Turner was shambling up behind me, weaving on his legs like a drunk, unconcerned that the dragon could easily see him. His jaw hung open, wider than before, and something glowed from inside.
“What’s that in his mouth?” I asked.
“Who cares,” wailed Yao just before he shifted into his firefly form and zipped into a crevice in the cave wall. His rear end blinked rapidly.
Kam dashed over and crouched next to me. Squinting at the dead hunter whose jaw was almost completely unhinged, he said, “It’s a moonstone.”
“Ah ha!” Death cried out from behind another stalagmite. “Olapa did help us.”
“By stuffing a rock into the mouth of a dead man?” I asked, wincing as our loud words echoed across each other.
“Ignorant human,” Death scoffed. “She gave Mr. Turner something the dragon would want: a moonstone. It’s more precious than diamonds.”
It seemed Grootslang had come to the same realization; its glowing eyes narrowed as its great, toothy snout shifted to face Mr. Turner. The hunter stared up at the curious dragon and moaned around the glowing white stone in his mouth. Flapping one arm while the other propped up his head, he lurched toward the cave entrance, ignoring us.
His faith in his moon fully vindicated, Death shouted, “Catch that corpse!”
Chapter Twenty-Six
AS IF REALIZING Death and a dragon were at his heels, Mr. Turner become surprisingly adroit as he stumbled through the cavern. Keeping to the edge, the dead hunter dodged around boulders and stalagmites while gurgling out a litany of groans and moans.
Behind him, the dragon bounded from boulder to boulder, its lithe body moving in waves of green scales. The cave shook each time it landed, the thudding almost as loud as Death’s battle cries. A stalactite, loosened from all the activity, fell to the ground and exploded, raining bits of gunk all over us.
“I’m so glad I didn’t wear my favorite outfit,” I huffed as I followed Kam and his ball of lightning.
“Priorities, Miss Knight,” Koki said from behind me. “Priorities.”
“Well,” I said as I swerved around a particularly low-hanging stalactite, “I have no inclination of destroying the best parts of my wardrobe saving the world… Argh!”
One boot hovered over empty space and my arms spun like windmills around me. The abyss below me breathed out frigid, stone-scented air. Just before I plummeted down the dark shaft, Koki grabbed my shirt collar and yanked me to the side.
“I’ve just reevaluated the wisdom of running after a dragon through a dark cave,” I wheezed.
“Fortunately, neither one of us has ever been accused of being excessively wise,” Koki noted right before we slammed into the wall that was Kam’s back.
Koki hissed and said, “A little bit of warning next time.”
Wondering why he’d stopped so abruptly, I peered around him. Balancing on the edge of another shaft, Death gripped Mr. Turner against his chest. One hand was holding the struggling man’s jaw. The dragon crouched on the other side of the abyss, its drugged eye still rolling around, its other eye fixed firmly on the glimmer of moonstone shining out of Mr. Turner’s mouth.
“Do you like the moonstone, Grootslang?” Death asked as he pushed his hand into Mr. Turner’s jaw. “What a rare treasure it is.”
“Why is he talking to the dragon?” Yao whispered in my ear as he landed in firefly form on my shoulder.
“He’s negotiating, I think,” I whispered back.
“He’s mad,” the vampire muttered.
Snorting, Koki swatted at Yao and said, “You should be back there, hunting for diamonds, fly.”
Grumbling about the lack of respect he received and how he suffered as a result, Yao flew away. I stared beyond Death to the cave’s entrance, wondering if we could sneak behind the dragon without being charcoaled or swallowed in one bite. As if hearing my thoughts, Grootslang shifted his attention to us, his tail end languidly waving behind him like a cat before the beast pounces; a snarl rippled around us and rebounded off the moist walls.
“Well, that plan isn’t going to work,” I murmured, ignoring Kam and Koki as they glanced at me with raised eyebrows.
“Give me the moonstone,” Death said as he rummaged around in Mr. Turner’s mouth.
Mr. Turner groaned, his eyes rolling in his head, as he swatted his hands against Death’s grip. Meanwhile, the dragon began slinking around the shaft, its bright green eyes fixed on Mr. Turner. Its claws scrabbled against the rock. It hissed as Death kept the deep hole between them.
Bone snapped, and Mr. Turner’s lower jaw flapped down toward his chest. At the same time, Death held up an arm in triumph, the moonstone glowing from within his fist. Pushing the unfortunate corpse behind him, Death waved his priz
e at the dragon and said, “I really hope you have the diamonds.”
Glancing behind me, I could see only darkness. No flicker of firefly was visible. “So do I,” I replied as Mr. Turner stumbled into me, gurgling and waving his arms, no doubt protesting his treatment and lack of a functioning mouth. “Well, now you have an idea of what those poor elephants experience,” I chided him.
“You and your elephants,” Koki muttered just as the dragon bellowed and someone threw a rock at my head.
My hands instinctively sprang up to guard my face, dropping my walking stick in the process. “Gracious,” I blustered as I beheld the moonstone in my hands. “So much for negotiations.”
Before I could process the situation, Koki shifted into her giant praying mantis form and tossed me on her back. “Hold on,” she warned as she lunged to one side, barely avoiding a shower of flames.
Clenching the moonstone in my metal hand and wrapping my arms around the mantis’ chitin-armored neck, I summoned the wolf energy. Needing no promoting, the glowing silver wolf noiselessly sprang at the dragon, distracting it while Koki began to scale the wall of the cave.
“You must be kidding,” I breathed out and squeezed my eyes shut as the wall began to slope toward the ceiling. My long braid tugged at my scalp as it swung almost perpendicular to my body. My legs began to slide off the slick shell, causing my skirt to billow around me.
“This is most inappropriate,” I squealed, opening my eyes when a red glow flickered against my lids.
Koki’s triangular mantis head swiveled around and snapped at me even as one of her legs hooked my boot into a crack in her armor. Thus anchored, I glanced around, blood rushing into my head. Death and Kam were separated, each running toward the entrance, while Mr. Turner and Yao were nowhere to be seen. My wolf continued to harass the dragon but its teeth couldn’t penetrate the gleaming, metallic scales. Nor could the beast be distracted as it slithered to the cave wall, its gaze fixed on me.
Something squeaked by my ear.
“Yao?” I asked as I turned to stare into the dark, leathery face of a large bat. Uttering a scream, I waved my left arm at it, the moonstone glowing from within the cage of my metal hand. Shrieking, the bat released its grip on the ceiling and swooped over my head. A wave of other bats followed, engulfing me in a cloud of leathery wings and piercing shrieks.
