Someone. Walker raised his eyebrows. That sounds like a suicide mission.
He and Ti looked deeper into the cavern, then pressed their backs against the wall again.
Another one is coming, Sindari warned me.
I sense him. It was the blue dragon I hadn’t met before.
We waited in silence as he zipped quickly through. Why did I have a feeling Shaygor had called him to look at the mess we’d made?
I have an idea, I thought to the others once he was out of sight.
We may need to retreat and try another day, Ti said. They will be highly alert and suspect trouble. As soon as the first life cell is opened, if they are paying attention, they will sense it.
We’re not retreating or waiting. I thought of Zav—who knew if they would keep him alive another day? You guys go ahead, sneak past the dragons, and start freeing the other ones. Once you dose them all with the cure, you can leave. I know they’re not going to recover right away, but I’ll do my best to distract the other two.
Distract? Tigers didn’t frown, but Sindari managed to convey great disapproval with the glare he gave me.
They know someone is here. Once they capture me, they won’t continue looking for you. As long as I could keep them from scouring my mind. I grimaced. Could the trinket in my pocket and the tricks Freysha had taught me keep that from happening? What if all four dragons combined forces to dig into my mind?
Why would they capture you? Ti shook his head.
Because I’ll let them. I’ve got some of Zoltan’s vials. I patted the ammo pouch that I’d dedicated to vials instead of cartridges, and while it was on my mind, I prepared a needle for Zav. I’ll try to get them to drop me down next to Zav so I can dose him.
Drop you down? Sindari asked. You’re going to—
He stopped, and we all turned toward the molten lake again, sensing the two dragons flying back. Flying slowly back. One sailed high, checking out ledges and cracks near the ceiling. One sailed low, eyes scanning, nostrils sniffing the air. If chance brought either of them close, they would detect us through the magic of our charms.
They flew past, not quite close enough to our wall to spot us, but the slow methodical way they searched suggested they would continue to hunt, and it would only be a matter of time before they found us.
I’m going to let them find me, I silently told the others. You guys keep going and free the dragons. I’ll say I’m alone.
They will force the truth from your mind, Ti warned. They are dragons!
Then you better free the others quickly. I nodded at them and stepped away from the wall. Dr. Walker, I’m counting on you to nurse those dragons back to health as fast as you can. If they rouse themselves enough to fight on Zav’s behalf…
I had to hope they would, that Zondia wouldn’t tell them some lie that they would believe. And that Zav was still all right and able to speak with his uncle and anyone else back there he knew.
Val. Walker lifted a hand, his fingers nearly translucent since I’d moved away. It could take days for them to revive. If not months. I have no idea how much damage this infection will have done to them over the years, not to mention possible side effects of being locked up in whatever these chambers are.
Do the best you can, and I’ll tell Willard what a badass you are when you get furry.
I expected a sarcastic response, but he lowered his hand and raised his eyebrows. Promise?
So that was it. They hadn’t dated. Willard hadn’t been interested. But it seemed like Walker was. Did Willard even know? Or did she know and not care because she thought he was pretentious?
It was something to ponder another time.
Yeah. I gave him a thumbs-up and stepped farther away from the wall.
Thanks to our link, I could still see Sindari, but Ti and Walker disappeared from my awareness. I pointed for them to continue deeper into the cavern, even though I could sense Shaygor and his buddy again. They’d turned around and were flying back this way.
I crouched near the edge of the molten pool and debated my options. If I let them find me in an obvious spot, that would be suspicious, but if I did my best to stay hidden, the dragons might chance across the others before me.
Plan, Val? Sindari asked.
Have the others left?
Yes. I’m staying with you.
They might find your help useful, I pointed out.
They are not the ones intending to expose themselves to irritated dragons.
We don’t know the dragons are irritated. Maybe this place is catnip to them, and they’re in delightful moods.
Even if that were true, they would grow irritated as soon as they started talking to you.
Funny.
I wish it were.
I’m going to lead them on a wild goose chase. Will you go with the others and find out if Zav is… all right? I couldn’t bring myself to suggest the possibility that he might be dead. If my mind strayed in that direction, tears would start dripping from my eyes. This wasn’t the time for crying—or thinking about how much I’d started to care for my pompous dragon this summer. For Zav.
Very well. Do not get yourself killed. Even if it is my fate to one day serve dragons, I would be most put out to serve these dragons.
Would you serve Zav? Willingly?
I don’t know. He doesn’t rub my ears, as a good handler should.
I see. You want to serve Dimitri.
As Sindari headed off after the others, I slipped a cartridge out of one of my magazines. I held it, breathed on it, and buffed it under my armpit. If that didn’t convey my scent, I didn’t know what would. Then I stuck the cartridge in my pocket and sprang back into the stalactites to carefully retrace the route Ti had led me on before.
Heading in the opposite direction of Zav bothered me, but it made sense to try to lead the dragons away from my allies. Maybe Zondia and Velilah would also join the hunt for me, and it would make it easier for Walker and Ti to sneak into that far chamber.
As I landed on the far side of the molten lake, Shaygor and the blue dragon came into view again. I scooted to the wall, flattening myself against it. As the dragons sailed under the stalactites, I drew the cartridge and threw it as far down the cavern in the direction of the entrance as I could.
Whatever tink it made when it landed on the rocky ground was too far away for me to hear, but Shaygor shifted from his slow methodical flying into swift wingbeats that blew at my face and stirred my braid as he passed. The blue dragon picked up speed right behind him.
Shaygor halted near one cavern wall, landing right on top of the fallen cartridge. His great silver head lowered to the ground, nostrils sniffing it.
His mate is here, Shaygor boomed.
Up until then, they’d been using pinpoint telepathy instead of broadcasting, but maybe he was pissed now and didn’t care who heard him. Or maybe he wanted me to hear him.
The blue dragon dove down behind him but landed on a booby trap. An explosion roared, and the walls shuddered. Pebbles bounced down from the ceiling, hitting my shoulders before falling to the ground. Greater boulders tumbled down where the dragons were. Shaygor erected a magical barrier to keep the rocks from falling onto him. His buddy wasn’t as swift and took a bruising boulder to the wing before he furled them in and created magical protection around himself.
Shaygor looked back at the blue dragon as the smoke cleared. Fool.
I’ve never been here before. How am I supposed to know where the booby traps are? What did you see anyway?
This.
As the smoke cleared further, and the last of the rocks fell, they crowded around the cartridge to examine it. It was ridiculously small in comparison to their huge bodies.
The dragons turned slowly, sniffing the air.
His mongrel mate is here, Shaygor said. She dropped this. We will find her.
They would. It was inevitable, but I planned to make sure it took a while. Hopefully long enough for my allies to do their work.
It worried me that the female dragons hadn’t come out yet, but maybe they would. At the least, maybe they were paying attention to this hunt and not to anything else. The idea that they might be torturing Zav came to mind, horrifying me as my imagination ran wild. I could only hope that Zondia didn’t truly hate her brother that much, but the fact that she was here made me fear I couldn’t make that assumption.
26
Thanks to my camouflaging charm and a lot of running, ducking, and climbing walls—being careful only to tread places I’d gone before and that Ti had pointed out as safe—it took the dragons another hour to surround me and trap me.
Shaygor landed in the middle of the cavern on one side of me and the blue dragon on the other. They spewed fire at the same time, filling the space between them with flames, and I had to tap-dance to keep from being roasted alive. If not for my fire-resisting charm, no amount of dancing would have helped. Even with its protection, the intense heat seared my lungs and made me feel like a hot dog dropped into the embers.
Were they trying to slay me without asking any questions? I’d been sure Shaygor would want to ask about Ti again, and interrogate me for everything else I knew, but maybe they simply wanted to kill me.
I had Chopper in hand, the blade flaring blue and the grip growing warm against my palm, and was about to sprint in and attack Shaygor when the flames stopped. I put my back to the wall, so I could see both dragons staring at me as gray smoke curled up from their nostrils. I had a feeling the attack had knocked out the camouflaging ability of my charm for the moment.
Murderer of my son, Shaygor boomed into my mind. You are the stupidest mongrel in existence. You were the stupidest mongrel in existence. No longer.
He inhaled to breathe fire again, and I crouched, debating whether to rush him or rush his buddy in the hope of getting them in each other’s crosshairs. But the blue dragon spoke and interrupted the attack before it came.
Wait. This vermin female is marked as Zavryd’nokquetal’s mate and must have come to find him. How did she track him? And how did she get here? There is no way someone so weak could make a portal.
The escaped gnome went to her and told her everything. He wanted to hire her to kill us. Shaygor sounded a lot more pissed than the other dragon. Of course, he hated me with the fiery intensity of a thousand suns.