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

by Shannon Mayer

  Maks did what I said and we crept forward, the weapons mostly missing us. One cut across the flesh of my lower back and I fought to keep my belly down, to not rear up in pain.

  “Motherfucker!” I screamed. “Piece of shit, whoever built this place needs to die a painful, long death while someone peels the skin of his balls like a fucking kiwi!”

  Maks started laughing. “Stop that! I can’t keep my head down when I’m laughing!”

  “Son of a goat-herding satyr. I’m going to ram a spear up your ass and scramble your guts!” I yelled as something hot zipped across the back of my neck, opening the flesh. I couldn’t go any faster.

  Maks let out a cry that told me he’d just been hit. “Faster!”

  I scrambled forward, army crawling as best I could. My body was pissed off and it took all I had to keep myself not only low to the ground, but moving at a rapid pace.

  Then as suddenly as it had set off, it was over. I rolled to my side, panting.

  “How many hits did you take, Maks?”

  He lay beside me, his eyes closed breathing hard. “Just the one. You?”

  “Two. Across my lower back and my neck. We were damn lucky whoever built this didn’t think a cat would sneak in.”

  He grunted. “The lower ones were set up so they could pass through but not hit the floor. We are indeed lucky we have these shapes and nothing bigger.”

  And we were lucky that I’d taken the hits I had and not Maks. If we’d had our positions reversed, I would have taken no hits and he would have been killed.

  I kept that thought to myself. No need to point out what I thought was the obvious. That was his job.

  I groaned and rolled to my belly, tucking my paws under me. “I just need to breathe a minute.”

  He scooted closer, his bigger frame warm, and I leaned into him. “It’s only going to get worse, more dangerous.”

  I twisted and put my head on his back. “My dad told me about this hero he knew outside the wall. His name was Indiana Jones, and he faced stuff like this all the time. And he was just a human and he survived. If he can survive boulders chasing him and falling into snake pits, then this should be easy for us.”

  “A human did all that?” Maks adjusted himself so that he curled around me a little, his tail twining with mine. “That’s unbelievable.”

  “Well, my dad was no liar so it has to be true. If Indy can do all that, we can do this.”

  Maks sighed. “Maybe we should have hired this Indiana Jones to get the stone for us.”

  I laughed softly and then cringed. The movement pulled on the two slash marks through my back, sending sharp pains rippling across my spine. “I’ll be sure to see if Bryce has a way of contacting him. For next time.”

  We rested there until I started to get drowsy, telling me it was time to move. “Up, we have to go.” I stood and groaned as I stretched carefully. I was far from healed but the rest had allowed the wounds to at least start to stitch back together.

  Maks didn’t sound much better as he pushed to his feet. “Okay, that’s two traps. How many more do you think we’ve got left?”

  I laughed, though the situation was far from funny. “A hundred?”

  “Gods, don’t say that.” He scrunched his eyes shut and then frowned, as he opened them again, his caracal brows dipping low. “Does it seem brighter to you?”

  I stared around, noticing a slight glow ahead of us as though it were far away. “Yeah, it does. We don’t have a choice, we have to go toward it, seeing as it’s coming from further down the tunnel.”

  We started off at a walk, testing the ground with each paw we put down. Now that the adrenaline had worn off, we were slow, sluggish, and that was a bad sign. I needed to fix this.

  “AH FUCK!” I screamed and jumped straight up into the air, letting loose with a cat screech that would make anyone’s hair stand on end.

  Maks let out a snarl and spun in a circle, his body puffing up, as he looked for whatever had set me off. I dropped to the ground laughing so hard tears gathered in my eyes.

  “What, what is it?” His eyes were wide, and his mouth hung open as he panted a little. I could hear his heart as it pounded wildly.

  “Got your heart rate up, didn’t I?” I grinned at him and his jaw dropped open.

  “You. . . are you shitting me?” He gasped the words as though he truly couldn’t believe what I’d done.

  Laughing, I trotted out in front of him. “Come on, now that the blood is pumping let’s see what that glowing globe of death has waiting for us.”

  “Holy fucking hell, you did that to get my heart rate up? Are you insane?” He threw the question at me.

  I shrugged as he caught up, still smiling to myself. “If we’re slow, we’re going to die. I could feel the lethargy dragging us down.” I tipped my head, thinking. “Almost like it was a spell.”

  He snapped his jaw shut and his eyes narrowed, but not at me. “Damn it, you’re right. It was subtle, a pull on us that would lull us into complacency.”

  Something else was coming, and coming soon.

  Just my bad luck.

  Chapter 26

  Maks continued to lead the way through the darkness of the dragons’ mound, testing for spells that would want to leap out and tear us a new one.

  “Still nothing?” I asked, pitching my voice low.

  “No. Which makes me nervous. I think you were right about that previous spell, it was meant to subdue our reflexes,” he said, his voice also quiet.

  I bobbed my head in agreement even though he couldn’t see me. It made sense that if we made it past the first two challenges that we would be fast, savvy, and on our toes. Best way to kill us would be to slow down those reflexes. The move was clever, devious, and I had to give props to whoever made this place. If we’d been a stitch less smart, we’d be dead.

  In other words, Steve, would have been dead ten times over by now.

  The tunnel dipped downward at a steady pitch, and the glow ahead of us grew with each step of our paws. Steady, pulsing, the light was a deep red that made me think not of fire exactly but something deadlier. I just couldn’t put my finger—pardon me, paw—on it.

  “Hold,” Maks said, and I froze between steps with a front paw in the air.

  “What?”

  He was quiet long enough that the irritation began to flow upward. “Maks, what is it?”

  “The ground, do you feel it? Like it’s rumbling.” He went very still, his ears the only movement on him as they swiveled around. I focused on the ground beneath my feet.

  He was right; there was a tremor. One that was growing faster than I wanted to believe. “Well, shit. If I know anything about this place that can’t be a good sign.”

  “No. Keep moving forward. Don’t run unless we have to. I think this one is going to try to drive us toward something very bad.” He started off in a jog and I hurried to catch up.

  I swallowed hard, thinking about what it could be. Water? Yes, it could be water flooding toward us. My blood ran cold at the thought. Gods, not water, anything but water. I could too easily imagine the tunnel we were in flooded with a raging river that filled the space so there was nowhere to breathe, sweeping us along until we stopped struggling. This was not like the river escaping the gorcs. Water of that magnitude in this place would mean certain death.

  The rumbling began to shake the walls and I fought not to hurry.

  “Breathe, Zam.”

  “What if it’s water?” I blurted out. “We won’t be able to escape it!”

  I turned my head as a sound like stone on stone whispered to me. “Maks. I think we should run.”

  “Yeah. Let’s go. But don’t use it all up.”

  We took off, fast, but not top speed. I stretched out beside him, tail up and racing as though there was a prize at the end. I suppose there was a prize, but the jewel was more than that. It was hope.

  I drew deep breaths in and tried to keep my heart from hammering out of control. The sudden spikes o
f fear were not like me, and I knew then I must have triggered a spell again.

  “Fuck off with your spells!” I snapped and Maks shot a look at me. There was no time to explain, I could only hope he caught on.

  We dropped down suddenly, the path disappearing from under us in a ten-foot plunge. I grunted as I hit the ground, stumbled and the sound behind us increased.

  Stone on stone, and then a crunch of bone that was as distinct as a boom of thunder. . . What the hell was coming our way? Surely not one of the stone dragons.

  We were running almost straight down, easily at a thirty-degree angle and gravity seemed to tug at our limbs, pulling us faster and faster.

  There was a mighty boom behind us as whatever chased us took the ten-foot drop. I dared a glance back and my eyes tried to bug out of my head. Behind us was a rolling ball of death that bounced off the sides of the wall. It was not only stone but bones that had been rounded and compressed, and it fit through the tunnel with very little room to spare—in other words, there would be no dodging it. I saw a few heads, skin, and limbs of creatures the boulder had squashed already protruding here and there. I did not want to add to that.

  “Oh, hell no. I am not fucking Indiana Jones!”

  Maks looked back and groaned. “Shit, just run!”

  “It’s driving us, you were right.” But driving us to what?

  I tried to recall what I knew of Indy’s adventures, but it was pitifully little. How had he escaped the rolling boulder of death?

  The glow ahead and the boulder behind, there was no good way out of this.

  Maks and I kept pace ahead of the boulder, but there was no slowing, not for an instant. And there was no chance to speak or come up with a plan.

  It seemed like that was the goal. The glow was no longer just light, but warmth too and I could see it coming in through—

  “It’s a drop-off!” I screamed.

  There was no time for Maks to respond. The boulder was only inches off our tails, and the drop-off was there. The tunnel narrowed, and I knew without seeing, the boulder would hang partway out to push us into the drop, but it wouldn’t follow us.

  “Go to the side!” I yelled and then there was no more time, only reflexes. We hit the opening and I shot to the right, Maks to the left as the boulder slammed into the space. I scrambled against the wall of the cliff we were suddenly on. My paws trembled as I stood on what was essentially pieces of a ledge that weren’t a ledge, just tiny rocks that I could cling to. The boulder, having done its job, was pulled back by some inexplicable force.

  Grinding, the sound of more bones breaking, of the wall giving away in chunks and pieces. I waited for it to withdraw before I leapt back to the opening. I glanced once at the boulder, but it seemed uninterested in us now.

  “Maks?” I yelled for him and shot to the right side.

  He was on the cliff, but a good fifteen feet down and clinging by only his front paw.

  I let out a breath and shifted into my two-legged form. I couldn’t help him as a house cat, not this time.

  I whipped off my cloak and held the hood, wrapping it around my wrist once. “Hang on.”

  “Nah, I was thinking of letting go, see if I could fly,” he said, his voice as dry as a popcorn fart. I rolled my eyes and lowered myself to my belly, dangling my cloak. It swayed about a foot above his head.

  “Can you push off and grab it?”

  “I have to.” He growled and then he leapt upward. There was a moment where I wasn’t sure that he’d reach it, where I thought he was going to fall, and then his claws sunk into the middle of the cloak and he hugged it tightly.

  He was only about forty pounds in this form and I brought him up hand over hand. He flopped beside me and shifted back to two legs.

  “Thanks.”

  “You’re going to owe me a lot after this,” I said, breathing hard.

  “I can think of a few ways to repay you.” He turned his head to me and gave me a slow smile.

  I struggled to swallow. “What about all this we can’t be together?”

  “Well, at this rate we’re both going to die before anyone is going to give a shit who we are flouncing.” He grinned. “So why not at least die happy?”

  I leaned toward him, fully intending to kiss him when I saw what lay out before us. I froze in mid-movement and just stared.

  “Oh, my gods.”

  “Well, maybe, but we haven’t. . . wait, what do you see?” He twisted around, and I just pointed.

  At the bottom of the cliff was an island, and on the island was a hoard of jewels, gold, silver, precious metals, weapons, anything of value I could have ever thought of was there. And it was surrounded by—wait for it—

  “Is that a moat filled with lava?” Maks breathed out.

  “Yeah.” I nodded. “I think it is.” I stared at it, wondering just how we were going to cross it without being burned to a pair of crispy kitty cats.

  I drew a breath and let it out slowly. “First thing first. We need to get down there.” I looked around the edge of the tunnel’s drop-off. The cliff wall was steep with very few reasonable handholds, as we’d found out, and it was too high to jump. A hundred-foot drop would break bones, if not outright kill even a pair of supes like us.

  I dropped to a crouch and then stretched out on my belly so I could look out over the edge. Directly below me, there were notches in the wall almost like they’d been placed there on purpose and not just natural depressions. “Look at this. Think we can use it?”

  Maks dropped beside me and we stared together at the cliff wall. “No. There’s no way. Even on four legs, damn it. There’s no way down, Zam.”

  He was wrong, though. I reached up to the necklace I wore. “Then we need to change our luck. You said Marsum shifted something in the curse?”

  Maks looked at me, his eyes full of worry. “Far as I can tell.”

  “And you can’t change the curse. You can’t remove it?”

  “I’m sorry, I can’t. I mean I could, but it would kill you,” he said.

  I gave a sharp tug, snapping the chain. “Then we have nothing else to do but see if it will work in our favor.”

  Maks surprised me. “Yeah, I think you’re right. Time to throw the dice and see what comes up.”

  I grinned and laid my cheek against the cold stone. “Let’s hope it’s not a pair of snake eyes.”

  He snorted and rolled to his back. “So you want to just lie here and wait?”

  I closed my eyes, letting my senses roam, falling into the same kind of trance I’d used to find Bryce in the forest. “Wait, and the world will provide.”

  “That doesn’t sound like you.”

  “My mother said it once, I think,” I whispered. I slowed my breathing until I felt the stone below me, tracing the veins of quartz, the deposits of gold and silver, the heat of the lava, the smell of dragon musk so faint, I’d not breathed it in before.

  My skin prickled as I let myself sink further, feeling the earth around me, seeing the traces of those who’d passed. All of them dead, but for the lines that streaked through the air. Those were the dragons that had been here, and they vibrated with vitality. Blue, red, green, black, shimmering and dancing. Beautiful, they were stunning in their life forces.

  I tipped my head so my closed eyes faced toward the tunnel. The lines of all those lives lost who’d come to steal the dragons’ hoard was far more than I would have thought. Hundreds, some new, many older. . . a flicker of gold caught my eyes. The threads of a lion shifter—one that still lived. But how was that possible?

  Behind my eyelids came a flicker of the outline of a body, slowly and indistinct at first. The person came into focus and slowly became a woman who could have been my sister with her long dark hair and brilliant green eyes. The angle of her cheeks, the twist of her lips as she smiled down at me, they were so familiar. Memories tickled across my mind, pulling me into the past. She had more curves than me, but otherwise we were very similar in build. I sat up, with my eye
s still closed. “Mom?”

  Maks shifted beside me.

  “Zam?”

  I reached out blindly and put a hand on him to shush him up while I spoke to her. “Mom, we need to get the jewel.”

  She smiled, lifted a hand to me, and then she faded as she pointed at the tunnel beyond us, then she was gone again. I clenched my jaw and pushed to my feet. I shouldn’t have been surprised. How would she know? But that golden thread of a lion shifter, it drew me forward like a beacon. Whoever it was still lived, and he was close. I let my eyes open and the golden thread remained.

  “Zam, what are you doing?”

  “There’s a lion shifter here,” I said softly. “Maybe he can help us.”

  “You think that’s a good idea? If he’s here, he’s here for the hoard. Not to help anyone but himself.” Maks pushed to his feet beside me.

  I shrugged. “Could be, but then he’s going to think the same of us.”

  I took a step along the golden strand, seeing it shimmer and dance. “He’s hurt, I think.”

  “Great. Another broken lion,” Maks muttered.

  Another time I would have whacked the back of his head. That was my brother he was referring to, a brother who was no longer broken.

  As it was, the golden thread shimmered, faded and then pulsed stronger. I hurried after it up the tunnel we’d come down. The steep angle made my thigh muscles burn and the fatigue of all the running, leaping, dodging and surviving made itself known to me. I let out a low hiss, using the side wall to pull myself farther up.

  “Just where is he?” Maks asked.

  “Close, that’s all I know,” I said, distracted by the golden thread. How long since we’d found a new lion shifter? Years.

  The golden strand took a hard left turn, straight into the wall across from me. I stared at it. “That has to be wrong.”

  “What?”

  I pointed to the wall. “The lion shifter, he is in there. But that’s not possible. How can he be in the wall?”

  “He, are you’re sure it’s a he?” Maks asked.

  I reached out and touched the golden strand, feeling the energy of it as clearly as if it were a physical thing. “Yes. I don’t know. . . how. . . it just feels like a man.”