Elven Doom (Death Before Dragons Book 4)

by Lindsay Buroker

  “Is it not better for her to be angry than to be dead?”

  Yes. But…

  “I will fly us to the bottom,” Zav said. “By the time they climb down on ropes, we will have succeeded at this mission.”

  Or failed spectacularly. But if Willard and the others didn’t come with us, they would still be alive to try something else. Or at least warn everyone that an eruption was coming.

  “Are you prepared for battle?” Zav shifted toward the tent flap. He had already assumed I agreed with him and we would leave without the others.

  I wasn’t sure I believed that he was reading my body language rather than my mind, but it didn’t matter. I gathered my weapons, extra ammo, and grenades and flashbangs, then touched a finger to Sindari’s cat charm. It was no longer ice cold. Did that mean he’d recovered enough that I could call him back? I hoped so. Both because he was my friend and because I needed someone to watch my back while Zav was busy with the dark elves.

  “I’m ready. One thing before we go.”

  He tilted his head.

  “Are you still planning to remove your mark and, uh, un-claim me when you’ve completed your mission on Earth?”

  Several seconds passed, and he only gazed at me. Was he contemplating an answer or refusing to answer?

  “Remember when we discussed mixed signals? Telling me we’re breaking up and then kissing me a few days later would be an example of that.”

  I half-expected him to ask for a definition of breaking up, and I didn’t know what I would tell him since we hadn’t ever dated, but he looked like he knew exactly what I meant.

  “It would be best if I removed my mark and left forever,” he finally said. “But every time I return to find you in danger, I want to protect you and fight at your side to defeat your enemies, and the thought of letting anyone else have you for a mate disturbs me. Even though I’ve known you only a short time, you have… made an impression on me. That is the correct saying, yes?”

  “Yes. You’ve made an impression on me too.”

  “Good.” Zav waved his hand, and the tent flap unzipped, a few snowflakes swirling inside. “We will discuss marks and claiming after we defeat our enemies in battle together. Come.”

  He hadn’t given me a concrete answer, but I nodded and followed him. We had more important matters to face first.

  I engaged my stealth charm as I crawled out and glanced toward the light and voices coming from the closest tent. Willard would be furious when she came to get us and we weren’t here, but Zav was right. Better for her to be angry and alive than the alternative.

  29

  Zav and I walked to the edge of the crevasse, and Zondia, still standing guard on the opposite side, turned to look at us. Zav turned into his dragon form.

  We are going into the lair, he said telepathically, the words for both of us, though he looked at his sister. We will go through the direct route down below. I want you to search for another way in so they will have to split their forces. I would suggest burning through the glacier, but it is very thick.

  “There may be another way.” I glanced back at the camp, worried Willard would finish her meeting and see us if we lingered. “We found a golem in a cave two miles that way.” I pointed. “Its body is still there. You should be able to find it. The dark elves had collapsed too much ice for us to enter there, but maybe it would be easy for a dragon to melt the blockage out of the way.”

  Zondia gazed at me with her eyes that matched Zav’s in color but were nothing like his in temperament. I wanted to ask her what she’d done to Amber, but this wasn’t the time. I lifted my chin and braced myself, expecting a snide comment, but she merely shifted her gaze to Zav’s and held it for a long moment. Then she launched into the air and took off in the direction I’d pointed.

  She still does not trust you and believes you are sending her nowhere important, but she will not interfere with this mission or go against our mother’s wishes. Zav lowered himself so that his belly rested on the ice. I will carry you down.

  I don’t know if that entrance is important or not, but she’ll see the dead golem and the cave.

  Yes. She senses it. Zav levitated me onto his back.

  I held on the best I could with nothing but smooth scales to grip, and he sprang into the air. He flew up and circled before diving into the crevasse.

  In most places, it was too narrow for him to spread his wings, and my heart tried to claw its way up and out of my throat as we picked up speed. A wing twitched here and there, and he twisted or shifted to avoid shelves and bumps in the walls, but it was hard not to feel like we were plummeting to our deaths. What if there wasn’t room at the bottom for him to spread his wings and stop without crashing?

  There wasn’t, but somehow we slowed down anyway. Zav employed the same type of magic the elves used for levitation. A skill I needed to learn.

  After I slid off his back, Zav looked up the crevasse and seemed to sigh as he shifted into a human. He’d been evasive about how much power he lost when he abandoned his native form, but I tried not to dwell on it. I’d seen him do plenty as a human; he was still more powerful than any elf.

  Any singular elf. Too bad he’d said there were dozens in there. No, a hundred and fifty, he’d said. I tried vainly not to feel daunted.

  It was pitch-black at the bottom of the crevasse. Later, I might use Chopper for light, but for now, I activated my night-vision charm. As we walked toward the cave—somehow Zav didn’t slip on the ice, despite wearing his slippers—I also touched my cat charm and called Sindari’s name softly. Relief came over me as the silver mist appeared, and he formed inside.

  I paused to hug him. I thought they got you.

  Not completely, but I stayed longer than was wise, and they succeeded in injuring me with their magic. I thought you would need as much time as I could give you to escape. Sindari turned his green eyes toward me and leaned into the hug.

  I almost toppled over. Having a seven-hundred-pound tiger lean against you is a little different from a seventy-pound dog doing the same.

  We did need it. Thank you. I patted him, then hurried to catch up to Zav.

  He’d reached the tunnel entrance, mounds of ice from my previous incursion littering the ground, and was looking back, but he didn’t comment on my reunion taking time. There weren’t any enemies waiting for us, not here. My senses picked up dark elves deeper inside. I couldn’t tell how far back they were, but hopefully, they weren’t at that lake. It would be hard to sneak into the side tunnel if they were watching.

  I removed my climbing gear. This time, none of my equipment would betray me with clanks, beeps, or other noises.

  I had hoped not to return to this place, Sindari commented as we walked in, letting Zav take the lead.

  Sindari and I had our camouflage magic activated, but Zav didn’t muffle his aura the way I’d seen him do before. He strode straight in, letting them know he was coming. But I could no longer sense Zondia. That might mean she’d flown out of my range, but she might also be trying to be sneaky.

  We didn’t get to battle anyone last time, I replied to Sindari. I thought that would disappoint you and you’d want another chance.

  Not in this place. He eyed the exotically textured glacier overhead, the shell-like pattern of melted ice comprising the ceiling surprisingly even.

  I can release you back to your realm if you want. I did not wish to, but if he feared the claustrophobic tunnels, it was cruel to make him stay.

  No. Sindari looked forward again. I will remain at your side.

  Thank you.

  If there had been time, I would have hugged him again, but we’d almost reached the chamber with the lake, and I sensed dark elves waiting inside. Four, at least, though others could be hidden with cloaking magic like mine. An entire army might be waiting, and I wouldn’t know it.

  Zav paused, glancing back at me. It will begin soon. I will do what I can to defeat as many as possible. Stay camouflaged as long as you can. You will
find them strong foes.

  I had no doubt. Zav would never admit that he was worried the dark elves could, with their combined might, kick his ass, but I had no trouble reading between the lines.

  I’m ready. I drew Chopper, but right away, something happened to belie my words. Intense hatred flooded into me, along with an urge to drive my sword between Zav’s shoulder blades and into his heart. It was so powerful that Chopper moved several inches before I caught myself and jerked it back. The blade fought me, as if it longed to be free to make the killing blow.

  What the hell?

  Zav, his back turned, hadn’t seen it, but Sindari looked curiously at me.

  I gritted my teeth and stepped back, telling the sword to knock it off, even as the implications of the magical urge hammered home. The dark elves had to know I was here. One of them was using his power to try to compel me to take out Zav. Terror clutched me at the thought that it might have worked. He was expecting an attack from ahead, not from the ally behind him.

  No. I pushed my blade down, pointing the tip at the ground. No, it wouldn’t have worked. I was too strong to be manipulated that way.

  I hoped.

  I’m going in. Zav walked toward the lake without looking back. You are cloaked, but wait a minute for me to engage them, so they are too distracted to search for my allies.

  But I wasn’t as cloaked as I wished, not if one of them had detected me. I thought about saying something to Zav, but he was focused and already disappearing around the bend ahead.

  Since we were splitting up, this would be a non-issue. I just had to get into that side tunnel—and hope he happened to take out whichever dark elf had tried to control me.

  It’s fine, I told Sindari.

  He was still looking at me. Concerned. Are you sure?

  I hope so.

  30

  Nobody shouted or roared a war cry as Zav strode into the chamber. The battle began with a flare of fiery orange light and an explosion of magic that registered on my senses, not to my ears.

  Sindari and I, crouched in the tunnel a hundred meters from the lake chamber, took this as the sign to start our mission. I jogged forward as quickly as I could without making noise. One dark elf might know I was there, but hopefully, he hadn’t told all of his buddies.

  When we reached the lake, we saw Zav on the far side, a sword he’d magically produced in one hand and a fist-sized orb I hadn’t seen before in the other. They both glowed, as did the spherical barrier of energy around him, a shield that protected him as the dark elves—there were indeed more than four—crouched in the tunnel ahead of him casting attacks. Some were bolts of energy and black spheres like they’d hurled at me. Others were devices that they rolled out to explode against Zav’s shield.

  From behind him, I couldn’t see his face or tell how much of a strain this was putting on him, but I assumed he couldn’t withstand that forever.

  I had an impulse to rush forward and throw flashbangs and grenades at the dark elves to help him. But then that nefarious urge to attack him returned to my mind. I swore silently. I had to leave him to handle this on his own. As we’d planned.

  Skirting the outside of the chamber, I hurried past two small tunnels to the side passage I’d entered before. None of the dark elves glanced at me as I dropped to my hands and knees and crawled into it. Sindari, down on his belly, followed me. I wanted to think something to Zav, to let him know we were in, but I worried the dark elves would be able to sense my meager attempt at telepathy. No, I would wait for Zav to contact me.

  Going much more quickly than before, I scrambled down the tunnel. We came to a spot where I could run, my head ducked to avoid the ceiling, and I went faster. Thinking of Zav standing there, his energy being drawn down by all those attacks, I felt like a time bomb was ticking down to zero.

  Be wary of traps, Sindari warned. They may have booby-trapped this in anticipation that you would return.

  Good point. I made myself slow down.

  Soon, I sensed something magical up ahead. It was hard to pinpoint with all the other magical devices scattered throughout the lair, but there was definitely something in our path.

  I smell dark elves, Sindari added. They have been back here since we were.

  Checking out the hole in their security, I’m sure.

  We reached the spot where I had started melting the blockage earlier. Something dented was stuck to the bottom of the low ice ceiling. The night-vision charm made it hard to pick out the details, so I pulled out Chopper and whispered the illumination word. Then snorted. It was my carbon monoxide detector that Sindari had mangled with his teeth.

  That is the source of the magic, he said. It has been modified.

  He was right. I didn’t sense the filigrees of magic, as with the alarm device in the main tunnel, but it had a noticeable signature. Would it explode if we touched the ice? Or tried to cross that point?

  I inched closer and examined it by Chopper’s light. That looks like a tiny speaker fused to it. Something to amplify the beeps it can make? Maybe it’ll start wailing if we touch it. And then explode.

  I am not an expert on dark-elf artifacts, but it feels more like an alarm than explosive magic to me.

  There’s not enough room to go under it without melting more of the ice. And it’s in the way. I dropped to my belly to double-check. I’d made some progress melting the low-hanging ceiling before but not enough to pass through. So we have to figure out how to disarm it. Or destroy it before it can go off.

  I envisioned slashing it with Chopper, but if the device was like the original detector—or any of those incessant fire alarms that went off when the batteries needed changing—a dozen strikes might not slay it.

  I’m going to try to unlock it with my lock-picking charm. I reached up to my leather thong.

  It’s not a door or a lock, Sindari said dryly.

  I know, but the charm was originally made to remove enchantments on doors and gates. This is blocking a doorway… of a sort.

  That seems like a stretch.

  What are our other options? Zav won’t be able to keep those guys busy forever. I rose to my knees in front of the device and touched my charm, starting to will it to unravel the magic, but an idea popped into my head. Sindari, have you ever carried anything back to your realm with you when you’ve left?

  Like a pack or weapon? No. If I’m wearing anything, it will not come along on the journey with me.

  Ah, darn. I thought you might be able to bite it off and then jump back to your realm before it went off. If it goes off there, well, I assume there aren’t many dark elves on your tundra to talk about it.

  No. My chieftain might talk about it if the noise was audible from the den. Sindari crept forward and sniffed the device. If I took it in my mouth, it might make the journey with me.

  Let me try disarming it first. Normally, I would have rested my hand on a door—or, in this case, the ice next to the device—but I worried that getting too close would trigger it. Instead, I stared intently at it as I willed the magic of the lock-pick charm to work, not opening anything but deactivating the device.

  This charm required no strange foreign words to work, only my own will. And maybe, as I’d started to believe, some of my own power.

  Magic flowed from me to it, but magic also seemed to be building up inside of the device. Was it humming faintly? I backed away mentally and physically. The magic in it kept increasing, an audible hum reaching my ears.

  Damn. I think I triggered it.

  Sindari lunged forward, ripped the device from the ice with his fangs, and faded before my eyes. I scrambled back, lifting Chopper in case it went off before he disappeared. It kept building in intensity, but it didn’t start shrieking or whatever it was supposed to do. It might be sending out a silent alert to whoever had placed it.

  Sindari disappeared before anything substantial happened, leaving me kneeling in the passage with my sword raised toward empty air.

  A distant boom reached my ea
rs, and the ground trembled. Zav? Or the dark elves throwing explosives at Zav?

  Or—I grimaced as a new possibility reached my mind—had Willard brought her two teams down?

  The ground shivered again, even though no boom accompanied it this time. The tremor continued, and snaps emanated from deep in the glacier above me. I tried not to think about how much the hundreds of feet of ice above me would weigh as it crashed down onto me. It didn’t work.

  “At least you’ll die instantly,” I muttered as I pressed Chopper against the ice blocking my way. I said, “Krundark,” to activate its heat power.

  The pervasive smell of brimstone that lingered down here became stronger, mixed with other gases I couldn’t identify. Water dribbled from the ice as Chopper slowly melted it.

  The low-grade headache that had been with me for most of the night grew more intense. Maybe it was from the noxious air, not only the altitude. This was the spot where the carbon monoxide detector had originally gone off, not as a dark-elf alarm but to let me know it wasn’t safe for humans to be down here. And it wasn’t as if my lungs were better than a full-blooded human’s. If anything, they were a weakness.

  Zoltan’s charm. I would have snapped my fingers if I hadn’t been holding my sword with both hands.

  The vampire alchemist had made a trinket for me to help against a gas he’d concocted to offend the noses of feline shifters. I still wore it on my leather thong with my other charms. It might not do anything against volcanic gases, but I tapped it twice to activate it. As with the previous time I’d used it, I didn’t feel anything. It had proven helpful against the shifters when I’d gassed them, but these gases were different. At the least, it couldn’t hurt.

  A large puddle formed as the ceiling melted upward. A few more inches, and I would be able to squeeze through on my belly.

  The infrared light we had seen on the other side before wasn’t visible now. Hopefully, the dark elves had turned it off, and that was all. But what if they had blocked the passage farther on? As I stared at the ice, glumness descended over me. That seemed such a distinct possibility that I couldn’t imagine otherwise.