Dragon's Ground (The Desert Cursed Series Book 2)

by Shannon Mayer

  “Egg trade.” He frowned. “The Jinn make it happen.”

  I shivered and pressed closer to him. “They take the eggs?”

  “The dragons fight them, but, yes, they take the eggs. Any of the females would be lucky to have a single youngling from a big nest. Most end up with nothing.”

  Something in my heart cracked at the plight of these mothers. I was not a mother, of course, but I could only imagine a child of my own snatched away while I fought to protect them. A low growl rumbled out of me, and I couldn’t stop it.

  “We can do nothing about it right now,” Maks said. “We have to focus on the jewel.”

  He was right. I knew he was, but I was fucking pissed. The Jinn, I had no words for the amount of hatred I held for them inside my body.

  I lowered myself to my belly. “Time to go, Maks. Stay low, follow me.”

  He nodded and tucked himself low to the ground. He blended in better to the dead winter grass with his mostly brown coat. Better than me with my jet-black fur.

  The first nest we had to pass, I crept close and couldn’t resist peeking up over the edge even while Maks swatted at me. The closer we stayed to the nests, the better cover in my estimation as their height helped to hide us. It would be out in the open that we’d get picked off before we could so much as say “duck.”

  The female dragon’s eyes were closed. She was a big girl, about twice the size of a horse. Her body was covered with deep gray scales with flecks of silver and white flickering through them that caught the light of the stars above us. With each breath she took, her body tightened around her eggs, then relaxed slightly, then tightened again. A mother’s love. I couldn’t deny that she loved her not-so-little eggs. She was nothing short of breathtaking. Her eyes remained closed and I found myself unable to look away as dual tears trickled from them. Her mouth moved silently, and I could all too easily imagine the whispered prayer to her gods to spare her children. I had to look away, the pain in her face, the pain of loss to come rolled from her and into my own body and it was too much for me.

  I bit my lower lip until it bled, hoping the pain would keep me on target. I was doing all I could to dislodge the swell of emotions. Maks patted at my hip with a paw, encouraging me forward. Again, he was right. Another time we would help them. But not today. Today we had others to save, but my heart tugged me toward the mother dragons, toward their plight. I had to fight to keep my own breath even, to keep my emotions in check. But I was losing the battle.

  We slid from nest to nest as quickly and stealthily as possible.

  “Who is there?” A voice boomed above us at the tenth or eleventh nest we tried to pass. I pinned my body against the edge of it, Maks following suit. The female dragon above us rose up, and up, and up. She was slender, whip-like with four sets of wings and a long lean body that was more serpentine than dragon. Golden brown with markings of black and red, she was quite stunning as she searched the area, her eyes scanning for intruders, aka, us. If not for the fact that I knew she was about to see us I could have watched her all day. All she had to do was look down and she’d see me and Maks tucked against her nest. Her tail slid past us, whacking me on top of the head with a flick before it swept upward. She hovered over her nest, looking out around her, curls of smoke trailing out her nose. Her agitation spilled over to the other dragons.

  We were good and royally fucked if we just stayed there.

  I bit my lower lip again and stayed still, knowing I was about to throw the dice hard, and hope that I could make them believe me. There was nothing else I could do.

  Breathing hard, I crept forward. Maks clawed at my hip, trying to stop me. But I had an idea and it would either work or it wouldn’t, but we had no choice. We were about to be discovered even if we stayed still.

  I stepped out from the side of the nest, sat on my butt, and let out a pitiful meow. The dragons encircling me shot up as if I’d slapped them each with a claw-tipped paw.

  I stood, lifted my tail straight into the air and meowed again, then hopped up onto the golden, red, and black dragon’s nest. She let out a roar, and I did the only thing I could.

  I rubbed my chin against the egg closest to me, marking it as my own—claiming it. I walked through the nest, marking each, feeling the little heartbeats inside, seeing the thin shells pulse with the life within them. The mother dragon lowered to the ground and her head snaked my way.

  “I see you, shifter. What are you doing? You can’t possibly think you could fight us?” She hissed after she spoke, menace in every line of her body.

  “I’m going to find your babies,” I said, and my voice choked on the words because I could feel her sorrow as if it were my own. “I hate the Jinn. They destroyed my family and I didn’t know. . . I didn’t know they were destroying other families too.” I looked up at her, lifted myself onto my back legs and put my paws on her face. I rubbed my cheek against hers. “I feel your pain, dragon. I feel it and it makes me want to destroy the Jinn for all of us.”

  She stared at me, her jewel-bright eyes dark as the ocean filling with tears. “No one has ever seen our pain, little cat. They only think us monsters that could battle anyone, but. . .”

  “I see it, mama. And I will hold it to me. I swear I will find those you’ve lost,” I said softly. “I swear it.” Goddess, what was I saying? But the truth was, my words were my bond as surely as if I’d made a blood pact. I knew I could never leave these mother dragons to continue to mourn the loss of their children.

  The other females drew closer, and I should have been afraid, I should have been fucking terrified at what I was doing. They could eat me with a single bite, tear me apart and all would be lost. But as I’d felt their pain, I felt the trust they were putting in me to follow through.

  Any of them could have destroyed us, but they didn’t. With each of those who came to me I lifted to my back legs and rubbed my furry cheek against their scaled muzzles, marking them.

  The minutes ticked by, and though I knew I hadn’t met every female, there were many who sat around the red, gold, and black dragon’s nest.

  “You need something to find the children, don’t you?” the first dragon asked softly. “You need the gemstone?”

  I nodded. “It will save us all if I take it.”

  She bobbed her head. “Touch nothing else. Take only the gemstone. It is a vile curse and we would be well rid of it.” She rolled back away from me. “I see the truth of your words, little cat. You are growing into your own, though I think the journey will be longer than you realize.”

  I leapt down from the nest and nudged an unmoving Maks. “Come on.”

  The female dragons watched with curiosity as Maks crept out. Eyes narrowed all around and I knew why. He was a Jinn. Surely, they would know that. What the fuck had I been thinking? Horror and panic shot through me.

  I’d just sentenced him to death.

  “Don’t hurt him. He’s helping me!” I leapt to stand in front of him, but the big female swept her head and pushed me out of the way so that she was right in front of Maks. “You are not what you think you are. Any more than she is. Do not let your belief lead you, young one. Follow your heart.”

  He stared up at her. “I am sorry for your pain. I feel it as does Zam, and it guts me. I swear I will help her find your children.”

  Oh, shit, I hadn’t meant for him to get caught up in that. But he seemed to mean the words. She tipped her head to him.

  “As I am sorry for yours,” she whispered. “She has opened our hearts with her fierce spirit. But the men of our flight will not be so happy with your presence. Go, we will cover for you as long as we can.”

  I didn’t wait, but scooted out in front, Maks tight to my ass. We raced by the nests now. What would have taken hours of creeping, we covered in a little under ten minutes. The gamble had paid off in spades.

  The mound rose ahead of us, a gargantuan heap of dirt and wood that had been woven together. Three hundred feet across and over thirty feet high at the very
peak of the mound, it was big enough for many dragons to go inside, but the pathway was set up for only one dragon. Still plenty big enough for two small cats.

  As we drew close, I realized it wasn’t wood holding the structure up, but bones.

  I didn’t let myself slow but raced into the entrance with Maks at my side. We only slowed once we were under the cover of the mound. My eyes worked well in the dark, but I knew at some point there would be no ambient light and we would be screwed. Especially if the hoard was as deep down as Lila had thought. Three miles was far underground. Something I should have thought of.

  “Maks, did you bring a lighter?”

  “Yes.” He grunted but didn’t shift. “There are spells here, Zam. I can feel them on my skin. I need to be in the front.”

  I slowed and let him overtake me. “What do you think they meant by you aren’t what you think you are?”

  “I’m not sure.” His tail lashed side to side. “I never knew my mother. It could mean anything.”

  I frowned. “I never knew mine either.”

  “The mother dragons said the same thing about you,” he pointed out as we started down a wide slope.

  “I know, and that makes me nervous,” I said softly. As strange as it was, now that I was slowly embracing who and what I was, and what I was capable of, I didn’t want anything else.

  I didn’t get much further than that in my musings.

  “Stop,” Maks whispered, his voice urgent. “This is bad, Zam. Real bad.”

  I looked past him, my eyes picking up dim shapes. “What is it?”

  “You see those two statues on either side of the path?” He tipped his nose to the left and then to the right.

  The statues were dark stone dragons cut into the wall, as big as real dragons. Their stone wings spread wide but also curled as if they were cupping the air. They stood on four legs, their necks arched so that their muzzles were pointed down on the path we had to walk.

  “The position of the wings is weird.” I frowned and shook my head.

  “The wings aren’t what we have to worry about. The mouths, they are pointed at the path. Could be acid will pour out of them, or fire, or electricity, anything is possible,” he said. “The spell around them is massive, Zam. I can’t break it.”

  I didn’t look at him. The wings had my eyes locked to them. “That leaves us two options. We race through and hope to all that is holy in the earth and sky that we are faster than the trap, or we go over.”

  He turned his face to me. “Are you serious? You want to outrun a spell?”

  My heart picked up speed. “If I take off my chain, my curse will kick into full onslaught. I can manipulate it. I can get us through.”

  He closed his eyes, pinching them closed tightly. “Marsum knows you’re alive, Zam. He’s changed the curse. I don’t know what he’s done, but he’s changed it.”

  I stared at him. “And you thought to wait until now to tell me this rather minor detail?” What the hell was he thinking?

  “I didn’t think you’d want to take it off!” he snarled. “You don’t want to live with the curse, who would? And while you used it to work for you before, it’s not like you made any mention of using it again!”

  I shoved my face into his so we were nose to nose even though he was bigger than me as a caracal. “Don’t hide shit from me, Maks. I can’t make decisions that will actually be good if I don’t know the fucking truth!”

  “Fine!”

  “Fine!” I snapped right back at him. There would be no taking off the chain for right now. “Then we climb over. They won’t be thinking about that.”

  “Right, because they would have thought nothing of shifters trying to steal their jewels.” He snorted.

  I let the growl slide out of me. “Stop being a shit because you’re scared. I’m scared too. So unless you have a better idea, I say we opt for speed. Climb the stone dragons as fast as we can.”

  He gave a tight nod. “You take the right. I’ll go left. Maybe that will confuse whatever spell they have going on here. But wait for me as soon as it is safe. Okay?”

  “Got it. Stop as soon as bad things stop happening.” I lifted a paw and whacked him on the nose. “In case I die, that’s for not telling me the truth.”

  His eyes narrowed, he leaned over and bit the back of my neck and shook it. “And that’s for risking our lives without any thought.”

  His teeth bit hard enough to send a luscious shiver down my spine to the tip of my tail and my legs turned into jelly. I had to fight to hold back the whimper on my lips, the need to push harder against his mouth. In two-legged form, I could only too easily see him behind me, his hands on my hips, his mouth on the back of my neck. Biting me hard, then trailing my skin with hot, wet kisses.

  I jerked away from him, unable to meet his gaze. “To the right then.” Damn it, my voice was husky and breathy and when he answered, his wasn’t much better.

  “Right, and I’ll see you on the other side.”

  I trotted away from him. Space. I needed space to get my heart under control.

  I stared up at the stone dragon and a shiver of a different kind ran through me. I had a feeling this was not going to go as planned.

  I hate it when I’m right.

  Chapter 25

  I approached the stone dragon embedded in the tunnel’s wall slowly at first, trying to see if it did anything, or if I felt anything. Like a warning that we were about to set off an alarm or some shit like that.

  “Maks?”

  “Yeah?”

  “When do we go fast?”

  Our words, as quiet as they were, seemed to be the trigger for everything happening at once. The stone dragons breathed in, and their wings stretched wide as the sound of stone cracking filled the air.

  “NOW!” Maks yelled.

  I bounded forward, not waiting for any other encouragement. I put everything I had into my speed and the stone dragon seemed to sense me coming. Fuck a screaming duck, this was about to get ugly. There was literally no way around it.

  The dragon twisted its stone head toward me as its eyes slowly began to open, a brilliant red flickering ember glowing within them.

  “Fire, it’s going to be fire!” I yelled.

  “Go across its back!” Maks hollered, and I didn’t dare tell him what I thought of that.

  Of course, Captain Obvious, I was thinking of running right under its fire-breathing fucking mouth. I bared my teeth as I ran, irritation driving me.

  The stone dragon pulled away from the wall, its body cracking the stone connection. I reached the leg closest to me and jumped with all I had to get up onto its still-bent knee. The rock it was cut out of was slick, and hard to grasp even with my claws. I flexed my paws and dug in hard, using whatever strength the flail and my kukri blades gave me. I glanced at the head as it swung around, the eyes still opening.

  Faster, I needed to go faster.

  I leapt again, bounding along the thigh and then hip of the stone dragon, stumbling as it wrenched itself free.

  The light in the mound suddenly changed as the left-side dragon let out a blast of flame. I didn’t dare look. There was nothing I could do to save Maks, there was nothing I could do but try to get through.

  We needed that jewel.

  We needed to save the dragon babies.

  I scrambled upward and a stone wing slammed into me, sending me flying off the dragon and into the loose sand below. I rolled and bolted. There was a crackle of flames.

  Run, Zamira, run! I could have sworn my father yelled to me from the other side of the grave.

  I turned on the speed, giving everything I had to my legs, my lungs, my muscles. The flames burst toward me, the air heated and the fur on my body sizzled as the flames wrapped around me. I held my breath and closed my eyes.

  Goddess hold me tight, I thought.

  And then the heat was gone, and I was barreling ahead with my eyes closed. I opened my eyes and there was nothing but darkness and the stone dragons r
emaining behind me. I slid to a stop.

  “Maks?” I called out.

  The stone dragons roared in unison.

  Oh, fuck.

  Though my fur was singed, and I hated the idea of facing the flames again, I couldn’t leave him there.

  He wouldn’t leave me.

  I raced toward the dragon statues and had to dig hard to get purchase in the loose sand. “You dumb fuckers are too slow to catch me!”

  That’s right, when all else fails, use the always solid “piss off the enemy” trick.

  Two stone heads turned toward me, flames already spilling out their pie holes. A streak of brown raced out from behind the second dragon, and though he was limping, it was Maks.

  “Run, you fool!” he yelled, and I spun, kicking up sand as though I’d just used a litter box. I couldn’t help it. They could kiss my furry black ass.

  I leaned into Maks and took some of his weight. The stone dragons behind us went silent and we slowed, the darkness holding us.

  When we stopped, our breath came in ragged gulps. Maks had a bit of singeing on one side of his face, and the same front leg seemed to be what was slowing him up.

  He blinked over at me. “Thanks.”

  “Yeah, well, whatever.” I shook my head, unable to formulate a better response. “You okay?”

  “Bruised, a bit burned. Looks like you got a trim?” He sniffed at me and crinkled up one nostril. “Burnt hair.”

  I bobbed my head and let out breath. “That probably wasn’t the worst of the traps set, was it?”

  He shook his head. “Doubtful. And we have to get all the way back by them too once we have the jewel.”

  “No problem, we got this.” I took a step and my foot settled into the ground, and sunk.

  I grimaced as I looked over at Maks. “Umm. I think I just set off another trap.”

  “Fuck. Run!”

  That seemed to be our motto for everything, but I didn’t disagree.

  There was a ping of metal against the stone walls. Spears, arrows and other sharp projectiles erupted from the walls on either side. I dropped to my belly. “Go low!”