"Are you certain?" he asked.
The walls shook as the dragon forced her way toward them.
She nodded. "Consider it a means to earn my trust."
Only a barbarian would choose something so reckless and dangerous as a means to earn trust.
Lukor raced forward, holding her hand, not caring that she stumbled and almost fell as he jolted to a halt. This part of the Rocks he had never explored, and he had to find familiar ground. Ducking down another passageway, they rushed on. His heartbeat sounded so loud in his ears it almost drowned out their pounding footsteps and the ever-present roar of the dragon still hot on their trail.
But this way led to another fork, this one with four branches, and not the massive cavern Lukor had hoped to see. Each of the four tunnels stretched large and tall and would give the dragon plenty of room to give chase.
Choosing the rightmost one, Lukor barreled down it and handed Ivy back the shield. If the dragon fired another blast — which she hadn't since Ivy's arrow pierced her tongue — they needed what little protection the shield might afford them.
They rounded the corner and halted.
A dead end.
Which would be their tombs if they did not think fast.
Lukor glanced behind them. More smoke rolled through the tunnel toward them. The dragon must not be far off.
Ivy gripped his chin, her fingers carving into him like daggers. "Help me." She knelt on the floor, digging at an already worn patch of rock and dirt on the floor.
Lukor grabbed the discarded shield. Using it as a tool, he shoveled the stone until the loose particles had been moved. He shoved the shield toward her and removed a hammer from his weapon belt. A few good whacks and the floor cracked. Another and the floor burst open beneath their feet.
The sensation of falling, of giving oneself over to the force that mandated all objects drop back to the earth, both liberated and terrified him. They bumped against the rock wall, but alas, the dwarves had carved it too smoothly for there to be any finger or toe holds.
Ivy grabbed onto his waist, pulling at his belt. The shield she held in her other hand blocked his view, rendering it impossible for him to see what she was reaching for. Her long arm appeared above the shield, brandishing his axe, which she slammed into the wall. Their descent abruptly stopped, about two feet from terrifyingly sharp rock shards.
He grabbed onto the axe handle as well, and Ivy climbed down his body and jumped onto the nearest bridge. She'd imbedded the axe too deeply. No amount of yanking or tugging would make it possible for him to free it, not if he wanted to ensure he landed on the bridge and not meet death by impalement.
The dragon swooped down toward them. Lukor abandoned the axe and joined Ivy, who had already made serious progress down the next passageway.
"Did they think they were being funny for creating such an elaborate maze?" she fumed.
"That had been the plan — for non-dwarves to be lost within its depths, never to see the light of day again. No map exists, other than in the minds of the dwarves, although who knows if any living still knows it." He cut to the left and down another passageway, which opened to another large cavern, although not as large as the first one.
Now Lukor knew exactly where he was, and they slowed their pace slightly to allow the dragon the chance to catch up. All of the rooms they had passed so far had not been barred in any fashion. He halted in front of the only one blocked by a large stone.
Ivy barred her teeth and nodded curtly. Between the two of them, they pushed the stone, inching it over. Lukor pressed his body into hers to halt her movements, and they held their breaths, waiting for the winged beast to appear. As soon as her snout showed, they forced the boulder aside enough for some of the destroyer dreads to show their vile insect bodies.
Ivy covered her and Lukor's bodies as best she could with the shield, and they ran, the wails of the dragon echoing in their ears. Finally, fire spewed forth from the belly of the beast. Lukor didn't know if destroyer dreads were impervious to flames as they were most things. He had no intention of finding out.
A little pinch as his arm brushed against a surprisingly jagged portion of the wall, he raced back to the entrance, Ivy a few paces ahead. Luckily, the dragon seemed to have caught the attention of all the killer insects, and they encountered no further obstacles. The huge opening the dragon had forced into the rock was a welcome sight, and Lukor ran through it first. A deep breath filled his lungs. They had survived.
Ivy touched his arm, and he winced.
The bright smile and the glitter in her eyes died away, replaced with pinched brow and a scowl.
Lukor glanced at his arm.
A destroyer dread had wormed its way under his skin.
Before Lukor could blink, Ivy's fingers pressed against the small hole. "The dread's already burrowed through." She traced along its route until she reached his armored spike shoulder blades.
Lukor removed them and his tunic, dropping them in a heap at his feet.
Again, her fingers touched him, caressing his skin, prodding. Without warning, she jammed her dagger into his shoulder.
He sucked in his breath and envisioned killing her, the only way he could refrain from harming her this very moment.
The dagger twisted every which way, digging deeper. Blood trickled from the wound and then gushed.
"I can't quite..." She raised the blade and hacked at his arm.
Lukor kicked up one of his armored shoulder plates and bit down on it so as not to cry out. The pain was almost more than he could bear. He could feel the dread crawling inside of him. It tickled and irritated him, and he wanted the thing out now. Why wasn't Ivy working faster?
Another slash and his arm hung limply at his side, the muscles torn. Blue blood stained the yellow grass, making the blades almost green. His own dual green skin was now an ashen color, both shades equally gray.
"Almost there," she murmured. The barbarian-princess lifted his arm and snapped it, breaking the bone. A flick of her dagger and the crawling sensation stopped, not that he could feel much from his arm.
He swayed on his feet, sinking to the ground, and knew no more.
Ivy had felt true fear for another person for the first time when she saw the unmistakable marking of a destroyer dread burrowing into flesh. Not just any person, but a goliath.
Somehow, she had come to care for this goliath. Even thought of him as a man.
And how could she not with him bare chested before her? His muscles gleamed with sweat, his body so strong and vibrant, despite the insect struggling to worm its way to his heart to eat it.
Hacking at his arm had been the only means to reach the dread that she could think of. If it burrowed to his chest, she would have no chance of stopping it. Not with so many bones in the way.
Now he lay unconscious on the ground, still as a statue, blood leaking from the wound, his arm hanging onto his shoulder by a sliver of skin. But she couldn't worry about him this second. She held the destroyer dread in her hands, and she had to figure out a way to kill it.
First, she placed it upon a rock and sliced off its antennas so they couldn't paralyze her, but when she tried to cut into its shell to rip out its heart, the skin rebuffed the blade. The dagger could not penetrate it. The destroyer dread attempted to nip at her fingers, so she ripped off its wings so it couldn't fly after them. Still, the insect jumped on its short hairy legs toward her, its teeth snapping.
Wrapping it within a fistful of her skirt, Ivy managed to track down a small rodent and shoved the dread onto it. Only once the dread wormed its way inside the rodent did she return to Lukor. His skin had changed from ashen to a deep gray, his lips blue.
She cradled his head in her lap and pried his lips apart. So cracked and dry. With her fingers, she wiped some of the blood away from his lower lip and poured the healing draught into his mouth, only keeping a single drop within the vessel. Before her eyes, his skin changed back to his normal green shades, his lips perfected again, an
d his arm righted itself and new muscle and bone and skin reformed. Her fingers brushed through his soft close-cropped hair and caressed his cheek. The start of a full beard was forming. Did he normally shave? She'd never find out, and the thought squeezed her heart.
Why wasn't he opening his eyes?
Trembling, her fingers brushed against his lips, along his severe nose slope, his scruffy sharp jaw line. A sigh passed through her quivering lips before she kissed his forehead. Would the last droplet of the healing potion bring him back?
She stopped touching him to grab the discarded vial from the grass and popped open the stopper.
"You were injured too?"
Ivy concentrated on returning the stopper to the vial to prevent her from throwing herself into his arms. Lukor sat with one knee bent, an arm draped around it, looking strong and whole and healthy.
"You may have gotten us out of the Rocks, but you nearly killed yourself in the process." She lifted her chin, ever defiant.
"I surely must have earned your trust for you to have saved me." His lazy grin left her frowning.
"'Twas your own folly the cause." Even if the dreads had been her idea, she had never intended for one of them to become a meal for the winged fiends.
"The destroyer dreads were our only option."
The goliath continued on but Ivy no longer paid him any heed as movement from the Rocks caught her eye. The dragon had flown out of the other opening through the dreads' nest. Crushed stone covered her snout, most likely from bursting through a wall or another boulder to leave the cave. She crashed to the ground, only a short distance from them.
Ivy and Lukor resumed their flight, hoping the dreads had not yet reached the dragon's heart and weren't looking for new hosts to kill. Releasing the deadly insects into the wild... How reckless could we have been? But no other options had come to mind, and she still could not come up with another one that would have altered this outcome.
Lukor tucked under some bushes, and Ivy joined him. Their time together had come to an end. Time for her to make haste back home. She had to warn her father as soon as possible if they wanted to prevent the elf's premonition from coming to fruition.
From above the dragon rose dark specks. They seemingly merged together to form a small black fog and darted away, but not toward the Rocks. After a moment, they split up into smaller groups, in various directions.
They watched them until each disappeared from view. Lukor stroked his chin. If only that blasted dragon hadn't escaped. Then the dreads would have remained trapped inside. "That's an unforeseen nasty bit of luck. The dreads will scatter about the earth, causing destruction in their wake."
Ivy scowled as if furious at him. As if he had been the one to set them loose and not the dragon. "Why had the dwarves not allowed the dreads to finish off the dragon for them? Unless the dragon was not the reason why they left..."
"Perhaps we will never know." Lukor grabbed the shield and stood. His body felt amazing, rejuvenated, energized, his belly full even though he hadn't eaten enough, and he longed to be on his way. "This is where we part ways."
When she shifted her gaze from the Rocks to him, her face revealed no emotions. "I... Look out!"
She threw her body on top of his, and they toppled to the ground, the shield tumbling from his grasp. His hands went to her hips as an axe imbedded itself into the earth where he had stood. Lukor went to shove her aside so he could stand, but she leapt to her feet. They armed themselves — her with her sword, him with the imbedded axe — and Lukor caught his first glimpse of their opponent.
A brute of a goliath with broader pecs than Lukor's own impressive chest but shorter than him by a good five inches lowered his right arm and lifted his left, another axe in his hand. With a rather barbaric yell, he raced toward them, axe raised above his head.
Lukor's axe clanged against his, and their gazes locked. Spit sprayed out of the goliath's mouth as he grinned savagely, his eyes wild, the only part of his face visible considering the war helm covering half his face, the other half cast in shadows.
"Don't you know who I am?" Lukor growled through gritted teeth. Their joint axes shifted toward the goliath, then toward Lukor, and back to the goliath.
Ivy slipped around them, but Lukor held the goliath's attention. With his eyes, Lukor signaled Ivy to hold her ground. She grimaced in response.
Lukor freed his axe and readied to throw a hacking blow, but the goliath jumped to the side and pivoted around to face Ivy. His axe clashed against her sword, and Lukor seized the chance to strike, only the goliath had yanked out another axe to meet his. A formidable, swift opponent, the goliath held them both at bay until Ivy sliced his right hand off, and Lukor's axe relieved him of his remaining weapon. Lukor's foot knocked him flat on the ground, and Ivy's sword held him there.
"Who sent you?" Lukor demanded.
The goliath looked from Lukor to Ivy and lifted his head so swiftly the sword pierced his neck. Blood leaked from around the blade, and his eyes rolled back. His chest heaved twice more before stilling.
Lukor slammed his axe into the ground, narrowly missing the goliath's fingers.
"Not a friend of yours, I take it," Ivy said idly. She stomped her foot onto the dead goliath's chest and retrieved her sword. The yellow grass turned green as she wiped the blood from her blade.
"Did you know him?"
She blinked. "You think he came after me?" Her scowl would have intimated anyone else.
"Perhaps." He yanked the helm off the goliath's head. Smeared war paint concealed his features, and Lukor removed the goliath's tunic that covered his chainmail to wipe the paint away. Still, he did not recognize the goliath.
Ivy had stalked off, and he ignored her. In the goliath's satchel, Lukor found a note addressing Balog as Golock. Which meant not only was Nazro no longer the goliath ruler, but neither was Grumm, next in line after him. Someone was killing off the goliath rulers, and if Balog was not the mastermind, who knew how long the killings would last. And with all the unrest, it might take some time for the goliaths to be united under a leader and be able to march with the trolls against the barbarians.
Wonderful. His happiness after learning the decoded messages' meaning evaporated. His mission was far from over.
A small patch of blood clung stubbornly to her blade, and Ivy used leaves to scrub at it. When Lukor had not been paying attention, the goliath had mouthed her name. As the goliath had attacked them both, she was not certain who the true target had been. Her thoughts turned to the group of goliaths she'd slain. They had been heavily armed as well. Could they have been looking for her?
She glanced over her shoulder at Lukor, who still checked the goliath's dead body. Perhaps Lukor had been the intended mark. Not for the last time, she wondered who exactly he was.
A bird sang sweetly, softly from a good distance away. Its wings flapped easily, with no signs of distress. A gray body with a small white patch and sharp bill came into focus, and Ivy scrambled out of the bushes and held up her hand. The male falcor landed on her arm, and she examined his feathers.
Father meet goliaths convince join trap.
Oh no. No, no, no.
Her hand trembling so much she almost dropped the bird, Ivy examined his other wing.
Father war trolls goliaths humans dragons elves dwarves.
On the neck read Orchid.
The only friend Ivy had, if she had one.
Ivy readied to destroy the message by ruffling his feathers when she spied yet another code word after dwarves. The feather had been twirled instead of bent. The code for her name.
Her father had declared war on the entire world, to the inclusion of his daughter.
Lukor rolled the body over but found nothing else of significance, other than revealing a small hole within the ground. He bent his head down and blew into the hole before whistling two soft, low notes. Half a minute later, a furry burrower popped out its head.
He scratched out a message to Golic on a large, tough l
eaf, telling him he was leaving the Rocks and would be home as soon as he could. The burrower blinked its beady eyes as Lukor hesitated. If another goliath intercepted the message, they would be able to locate him.
Before he could think too long, he shoved the leaf into the burrower's pouch, and the small creature left. Then he stood, clapping dust from his hands.
"Goodbye, Ivy."
"Pardon?" She looked flustered, a bird in her hand.
He hadn't paid her much attention since they'd killed the goliath, hadn't realized she'd found another bird. From the faint lines on her face, her scowl, and her "v" brows, the message wasn't good.
Ivy's fingers fiddled with the feathers, her gaze still on the Rocks. She released the falcor, its feathers bent in many directions. A long message if he had to guess.
Lukor opened his mouth to reiterate his farewell but instead asked, "What's wrong?" He did not think she would respond, but he made no move to leave in case she did.
"My father..." She shook her head and stiffened as a different bird flew straight toward her. Again, she fiddled with its feathers before looking at him, shoulders slumped, head tilted, lips pursed. "My father sent this bird."
Lukor noticed a small silver purple thread tied around the bird's neck. "What did he tell you?"
"Nothing. There's no message. Or perhaps someone else received the message first." She shook her head.
"What are you going to do? Warn him of the coming ruination of your race?"
She didn't blink at his sardonic words. "I don't trust him."
But another barbarian she did. Whomever she'd sent the first bird to.
With a sigh, she released the bird with perfectly smooth feathers, not bothering to return a message. Interesting. Did family mean that little to her?
"Do you get along with your father?" she asked, her gaze on her ruined skirt.
"My father died a long time ago."
Bloodlust Page 10
