He angled toward the one thrusting through the dragon’s shoulder first, both because it was closest and because it did not seem as life-threatening as the one through Morishtomaric’s neck. With his feet balanced on the arm of the injured shoulder, Angulus reached for it, half afraid his footrest would move. The arm was covered in golden scales rather than stone. As he grabbed the end of the lance, the dragon remained as still as the statue he had apparently been for centuries, if not millennia. Had he truly fought against the Cofah all those years ago? Had he been imprisoned by the empire, perhaps because he had been too much of a threat? But if that was so, why would the empire have imprisoned him here?
Angulus hesitated, his hand on the lance. It seemed more likely that his people had been the ones to imprison the dragon. They were deep within Iskandian territory here. Had his ancestors done this? Then collapsed the cavern entrance so no one could find it for centuries? Millennia?
A sorcerer and several other Cofah dragons imprisoned us. We were allies to the chiefs of old, powerful warriors who defended this, our homeland, and they wanted to ensure we were out of the way for a sneak attack on your harbor. You cannot force a dragon to fly to another continent. They had to imprison us here.
“What will you do when I release you?” Angulus asked.
I wish to avenge myself upon the one who tried to torture me into helping her. An image of the golden-armored sorceress flashed into his mind.
“We could help you with that,” Angulus said.
I can find her without help. Then I will slay her, and she will bother your people no more.
That was an appealing notion. Still, Angulus hesitated. The dragon could be lying to him. He looked down at Kaika, saw her gazing up at him, saw the pain in her eyes, though she tried to mask it. He made his decision.
Angulus pulled lightly on the end of the lance. It did not budge. The dragon sucked in a sharp breath. Angulus pulled harder, balancing precariously as he leaned his weight into it. The shaft slid out an inch, and fresh blood dripped from the wound. The dragon held still, but Angulus could imagine it clenching its jaw to keep from crying out. If crying out always caused an earthquake, he hoped the creature would keep on clenching.
Another inch came free, then the lance lurched as a couple of feet slid out. Angulus lost his balance and fell off the arm. Cursing, he tightened his grip on the end of the lance. His weight swung down like an anchor. The stake slid the rest of the way out, falling toward the ground, and he fell with it. He let go just before he hit and rolled away, aware of a wail escaping from the dragon and tremors coursing through the earth. He came to his feet as the lance clattered onto the rock next to him. Blood coated the steel, and droplets flew off it, spattering Angulus. They tingled where they landed on his skin, as if they were as charged with electricity as those lances had been.
“Dragon buddy,” Kaika called up, “we’re sorry you’re in pain, but we would appreciate it if you stopped making the ground shake. If any of those bombs fall off your frozen friends’ heads, they could blow up this cavern.”
The quaking halted immediately.
“Dragon buddy?” Angulus mouthed at Kaika.
She’d climbed to her feet, using his rifle for support. “I’m trying to be supportive and friendly.”
“So if you call me ‘king buddy’ in the future, I should consider that a positive sign?” Angulus approached the dragon again. Morishtomaric’s eyes were still open, so he had clearly survived the withdrawal of the first lance.
“Yes.” Kaika held up a hand. “I apologize for making work for you, but maybe the rest of the explosives should be removed before you try to take that other lance out. Just in case. I can guide you through taking them down.” She touched her back and grimaced. Why was she even standing?
No, the dragon said. I can control myself. I will not mewl again.
Mewl? That wasn’t exactly what Angulus would have called it. Not when the noise could shake the floor and pound his eardrums from the inside out.
“Better to be safe.” Kaika closed her eyes. Her face was so pale that Angulus wanted nothing more than to carry her out of here and forget the dragon and everything else. If that rockfall weren’t blocking their way, he would have done just that.
“We’ll risk it.” Angulus did not want to delay her medical attention. He didn’t know how much time had passed but hoped Ort might be back with the others by now. If so, maybe all he had to do was get Kaika outside, and Sardelle could help her.
Nodding to himself, he climbed up the dragon again.
Control yourself, he ordered silently, though he had no idea if Morishtomaric was monitoring him.
The dragon made a noise deep in his throat, but Angulus didn’t know if it was a sigh, a growl, or something else.
He made it to the top of the wing and braced himself, reaching overhead to touch the lance sticking out of Morishtomaric’s throat. He had no idea where the jugular was on a dragon, but whoever had thrust the steel stake into his neck couldn’t have missed by much. The placement couldn’t have been accidental. The Cofah must have known what they were doing, hurting the dragon and giving him awful wounds but not killing him.
As he grasped the end of the lance, a new image popped into his mind, the sorceress standing below Morishtomaric’s statue, holding one of the weapons. The other one was already embedded in the dragon’s shoulder. Behind her, the crystal on the wall had been partially broken.
“It’s your choice, Morishtomaric,” she said. For the first time, Angulus heard the words spoken in the vision. “Work with us, and we’ll free your comrades. Help us destroy this puny country, and we’ll go back to the empire and share the rule. With our power, none will oppose us. Even the emperor himself will bow to us.”
I will not work for a human, Morishtomaric responded. The lance in his shoulder did not keep him from sneering at her.
“Work for me, or I’ll kill you. You’ll never escape this prison. Nobody else in the world even remembers that you’re here.”
Free me or go away, human. I care not which.
The sorceress hurled the second lance, using her mind to make it strike with the power of a cannonball. The dragon cried out in pain, and the ground quaked beneath the sorceress. She stood with her legs spread, her lip curled, barely affected by the movement—or the dragon’s pain.
If there had been earthquakes earlier, Angulus could see why his scientists and soldiers might have fled. They would have feared being caught in the facility with the dangerous prototypes.
“Sire?” a call came from below, cutting through the haze of the vision.
Angulus blinked a few times. He still gripped the end of the lance, but he might have been standing there without moving for seconds—or minutes.
“Yes, just receiving some information,” he said. “Are you ready, dragon? I’m sure this will hurt.”
You are correct.
Taking that for a yes, Angulus rose up on his toes to make sure his grip was good, then tugged. As with the other one, the lance was slow to pull free of the dense flesh and muscle. He had to lean back, throwing his weight into the effort, and he worried that he would fall again. He hadn’t hurt himself last time, but that had been luck.
As the lance slipped out inch by inch and foot by foot, the dragon moaned. The moan turned into an ear-splitting howl. Angulus tried to finish quickly, pulling with all of his might, hoping to yank it out before the dragon had time to punish the world with another earthquake. But the pain must have been too much. Even as Angulus pulled the last of the lance free, with blood spattering him in the face, Morishtomaric threw back his head and screeched. His body began to shake. No, not his body. The ground. The earth heaved, and a crack sounded deep within the stone wall behind the statues.
Cursing, Angulus dropped the lance and scrambled down to the ground. It was shaking so heavily that he could barely keep his feet. Kaika had already dropped to her knees.
Something clanked at the other end of the cavern, an
d he imagined one of those bombs toppling to the ground. Might that set it off? He didn’t want to stay to find out. He swooped in and picked Kaika up in his arms, cradling her against his chest. She groaned, but he barely heard it over the clamor of crackling rock. A stalactite fell from the ceiling and shattered when it hit the bucking ground.
Angulus ran in the direction of the exit, the direction he had seen in the vision. It was like running on logs floating in a river. The ground heaved under him, and he kept losing his footing. Through sheer force of will, he kept himself upright with Kaika in his arms. He thought she might object to being carried, but she was so pale now. She clutched his shoulder, her eyes wide. How much blood had she lost? If he could find a way out, he could help her soon. He just hoped he could push aside the rubble he’d seen in the dragon’s vision and find that tunnel before the ceiling collapsed.
Right in front of him, another stalactite broke free. It slammed to the ground, then toppled on its side like a fallen tree. It was higher than his waist, blocking the way, but somehow he found the energy to spring over it, even with the added weight in his arms. He raced around a curve in the cavern, and daylight shone in, surprising him. He spotted the tunnel opening that he’d seen at the beginning of the vision, before the Cofah operatives had lit the bomb. There wasn’t a rockfall at all.
Though confused, he didn’t question his luck. The quaking was subsiding, but he’d had enough of this subterranean hell. He sprinted for the tunnel.
A shadow fell across him, and he ducked, expecting another falling rock. A great draft of wind stirred his hair. The dragon shot past, his wings almost as wide as the cavern, almost scraping the sides. Morishtomaric knocked down another stalactite as he flew, then he roared, the sound deafening as it echoed from the walls. As in the vision, boulders flew outward and sailed into blue sky. The dragon shot through the opening before the rocks had settled. Even though Morishtomaric was hit numerous times, and blood dripped from his wounds, he did not seem to notice. He cleared the mountain, flapping his wings and disappearing from view.
The tunnel had disappeared, but a huge gaping hole had taken its place. Angulus picked his way around boulders, sucking in deep breaths as soon as he smelled the fresh, damp air of the forest. He wanted to rush, to sprint the last few feet, but he remembered the part of the vision that had promised this cavern came out high above a valley. Fortunately, dawn had come while they’d been inside the mountain, and he could see the way ahead. As he came out of the cave mouth and onto a boulder-strewn ledge, he spotted the dragon. Morishtomaric had already flown a mile or more and was on his way to becoming a tiny speck on the horizon, never looking back as he soared away.
The dragon had lied about the rockfall. What else had he lied about?
“Are we safe?” Kaika murmured, looking up at him, her face close to his, her arms wrapped around his shoulders.
He smiled down, worried about her, but he liked having her arms around him. “Safer than when we were inside, I believe, but we’re on a ledge high above a valley.”
Angulus crept forward, so he could see just how high they were.
A distant call of, “Sire!” reached his ears.
Angulus and Kaika had come out around the mountain from where they had originally entered the facility. Three fliers were sitting down in the center of the grassy valley. Even though it had to be a two-hundred-foot drop, Angulus had never been so relieved. Several people stood down there, unpacking ropes and climbing equipment. One of them had long, dark hair. Sardelle, he hoped. She could heal Kaika, and then the next time Kaika wrapped her arms around him, he could enjoy it instead of worrying she was dying.
Someone waved up at him—a gray-haired dot. General Ort?
With his hands full, all he could do was nod back. They knew he was up here, so he stepped back and found a solid piece of wall to lean against. He trusted they would find a way up to them.
“They’re coming,” he promised Kaika. “I think Sardelle is with them.”
“You could probably set me down while we wait,” Kaika said.
“Probably.” But he didn’t. He was enjoying the knowledge that he had defeated a Cofah operative and made it out with her in his arms. He would be feeling rather heroic if he hadn’t also been tricked into letting a powerful dragon escape, one that might come back to molest his nation.
Kaika looked toward the edge where the sound of faint clinks drifted up, the men climbing up to get them. They would have to fashion a sling or some other way of bringing Kaika down. Angulus would carry her if necessary.
“Sire,” she said, meeting his eyes. She bit her lip, hesitating before saying more.
He raised his brows. Was she perhaps thinking of kissing him? Or asking him to kiss her? Or maybe she wanted to profess that after giving his ass that special consideration in the tunnel, she’d decided that she wanted to sleep with him. Any or all of those things would be delightful.
“Before you’re swept back up into the busy world of being a king and ruling a nation, there’s something I have to ask. It’s what I originally came to your castle to do, to talk you into doing, and I haven’t accomplished that yet.”
“You want to talk about your current assignment?” Angulus guessed, trying not to let his disappointment show.
“With the puppies, yes.”
Was this truly what was foremost in her mind right now?
“While you’re bleeding in my arms?” he asked. “I’m going to be honest. I was hoping you’d ask me for a kiss instead.”
“I’m not opposed to kisses, but I need you to know that I’d go crazy and probably kill someone—one of Zirkander’s pups, perhaps—if I had to stay in the city doing the same job day after day, hoping for pirates or Cofah to invade the harbor because that would be the only way I’d see some excitement.”
“I know. I understand that about you now.” Even if he couldn’t believe she was craving more excitement after what they had just been through. She had a bullet lodged inside of her somewhere. How could that not deter a person from dreams of action and danger? “It was selfish of me to arrange that assignment for you in the first place. I’ll see to it that your orders are changed, after you’ve recuperated.”
The most blissful, contented smile spread across Kaika’s face, and she settled more comfortably in his arms.
“You know,” he said, “the city isn’t a bad place to visit now and then. To recover from injuries and take in some... recreation.”
“I would agree with that.”
Voices drifted up, along with the sound of pebbles clattering free. The climbers were getting close.
“Sire, this would be the appropriate time to kiss me.”
“Oh. I wasn’t sure.”
She wriggled her eyebrows at him.
Conscious of her injuries and that they were about to have company, Angulus lowered his lips to hers. He pressed gently, since this was hardly the time for passionate kisses that dripped with lust. Just a small taste, a brush of his tongue along her lips, a promise of more to come in the future, when they had both recovered from the night’s adventures.
Kaika, however, had other thoughts in mind. Her hand slid up to the back of his head, her fingers digging into his scalp, and she turned their gentle pressing of lips into a passionate kiss that heated his blood to boiling and left his knees shaking. The wobbling knees worried him a bit, since he was supporting both of them, but he did nothing to pull back, not until they were both breathless and he had completely forgotten they were on a rock ledge waiting to be rescued.
“Do you always kiss like that when you’ve got a bullet in your back?” he asked, excited but stunned too.
“I promise that was just a teaser.” She pulled his head closer and found his earlobe with her lips, then alternated nibbling and whispering promises of what else they would do once she recovered.
This resulted in him feeling guilty for having such lustful thoughts about someone so injured. Even so, he was completely thankful that h
e had shared his feelings with Kaika in the lab. He looked forward to going home very much.
That’s a relief, a voice spoke in his mind.
Angulus drew back with a startled, “What?” on his lips.
Kaika paused and frowned at him.
“Uh, sorry,” he said. “I thought I heard something.”
When Ridge refused to give you my advice on relationships, I assumed it was a certainty that you’d never figure out how to lock lips with her.
That couldn’t be the dragon speaking to him again. The dragon didn’t know Zirkander. And besides, this tone was completely different, more feminine than masculine, and the words weren’t thrust into his mind with so much power that they gave him a headache.
“It’s nothing,” Angulus said, aware of Kaika frowning at him, then at their surroundings.
She must have come to the same conclusion, because she smiled and laid her head on his shoulder.
Are you... the sword? Angulus thought to the voice in his head.
Jaxi. The tone was dry. Mind if I poke through your recent memories to see what happened in that cavern? Sardelle and I sensed the dragon and saw it fly off, and we’re trying to figure out what’s going on.
She asked you to talk to me?
Oh no. She’s quite proper about not intruding in people’s thoughts without permission. Since you don’t even know me, she would be horrified that we’re having a chat. But if you give me permission, then it would be fine, I’m sure. Besides, she’ll be busy helping Kaika there. I want to know about the cavern.
I... guess. Angulus had already experienced a dragon poking around in his head. What could one more person—er, sword—matter?
You could sound more enthused. It’s really quite an honor to converse with a soulblade.
Angulus didn’t know what to make of the sword’s humor, if this was, indeed, humor. It reminded him of the dragon’s arrogance. Is it an honor for a soulblade to converse with a king?
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