I stuck the cloth in my pocket in case I needed it again, then looked around for something I could use as a weapon. Those awful bath beads. They probably made anyone’s lungs close up, asthma regardless. I snatched up the container, ran to the doorway, and peeked out.
To the left, dark elves lay unconscious or dead on the floor. To the right, Zav stood at the railing of that balcony with the sword raised. Crossbow bolts and fireballs slammed into an invisible barrier that he had created around himself. The items incinerated when they hit it. It made for a startling fireworks show.
My belongings had been dumped in a pile by the door. Relieved, I dove for them and belted on the sword scabbard and gun holster, then dug out my phone, the sample case, and my inhaler, and stuffed them in a pocket. My grenades were there too. Good. I snatched them up, tucking them under my arm with the toxic bath beads. Now, where was the dark elf who’d put on my charm necklace? If I could find that, I could get out of this hell.
A scared cry came from the front of the chamber, and with a guilty lurch, I remembered the girl. I couldn’t leave her here.
I crept toward the balcony, staying low in case Zav let his barrier down and that barrage of attacks got through. At first, I thought he was indifferent to the assault as he gazed down at the chamber floor—there were still a hundred or more dark elves down there, half of them throwing some attack or another at him—but his face was tight with concentration. Dimitri’s hypothesis that he wasn’t as powerful in human form came to mind.
Crouching, I peered through the railing. The girl was still wrapped in that blanket—it looked more like some massive spider’s webbing—and lay on the dais next to an angry female dark elf with a bone knife in her hand. If she hadn’t been glaring at Zav, she might have already plunged it into the girl’s chest. The blood in the vat bubbled, filling the air with a disgusting salty metallic scent.
“If you want to go ahead and mow them all down with your power,” I told Zav, “I’ll scramble down there, get the girl, my necklace, and even your platter if I have time.”
“My what?” He didn’t look at me.
I was surprised he’d responded at all. “Whatever you called it. Your artifact.”
“I must have it, but I must also capture the two criminals to return to the court.”
“I can’t help you there. These guys all look the same to me. Are you going to attack them?”
“When they have worn themselves out, I will turn my power to knocking them out of my path.” He sounded as arrogant as always, but his voice was definitely strained. There was a frantic edge to his eyes as his gaze swept back and forth in a searching way.
On the dais, the female hefted the girl up and pressed her bone dagger to her throat. “Leave our home, dragon,” she called, “or I will slay this child before the ritual time is upon us.”
I was surprised I understood her—maybe my translation charm was somewhere nearby.
“I care nothing for that vermin girl or your infantile ritual,” Zav called down, his voice ringing with power. “Bring Yemeli-lor and Baklinor-ten, or I will drop the ceiling on your heads and bring the human automobile-way through your ritual chamber.”
Fearing for the girl, I was tempted to spring over the railing and run through the dark elves, but they were all armed and powerful. There was no chance I’d make it even halfway to the dais.
But there was a door in the wall beside the looming statue of bones and skulls. There had to be a back way to it. I remembered the stairs that had led downward at the same intersection the ramp had led upward.
“Here.” I set the container of bath beads down beside Zav’s foot. “Throw some of those down when you get a chance.” I backed away slowly, not wanting the dark elves to notice. “And try to keep them distracted. Keep saying arrogant things.”
Zav looked over his shoulder, pinning me with his glare. “I do not take orders from law-breaking mongrels who do not acknowledge the supremacy of dragons.”
“Yeah, say stuff like that.” I gave him a sarcastic thumbs-up. “You’re a natural.”
With that, I sped back the way I’d come, pausing only to check the fallen dark elves in case one of them wore my necklace. No such luck.
My lungs were inflating fully with blood soaring through my veins as I raced down the ramp, skidded around the edge, and ran down the stairs. My rapid heartbeats hammered my ribcage so hard that I could feel them as I ran. That manticore venom had either turned me into Wonder Woman, or I was about to keel over from a heart attack.
I came face to face with a dark elf running up the stairs and reacted a split second before he did, my reflexes faster than usual. Chopper’s hilt bashed down on the top of his head, bone crunching. I yanked his crossbow from his hand and readied my sword for another strike. He collapsed. Apparently, I was stronger than usual too.
“Definitely going to have a heart attack,” I muttered, racing off, though I had no idea where I was going, and Sindari wasn’t here to lead me this time.
I passed through several intersections, continuing straight and hoping for the best as I tried to gauge how far I’d come. Was I under the chamber now?
Booms and thuds echoed down from above me. The dark elves fighting Zav?
The ceiling quaked. He must have gotten his opportunity to throw an attack. Bits of rock and brick tumbled free all around me, pelting me on the shoulders. Fear drove my legs even faster as I envisioned the tunnel collapsing on top of me. I almost raced past a narrow set of stairs heading upward to my left.
Human and animal skulls lined the walls, and the handrail was made from femur bones. A velvet cord hung across the entrance, as if to deny access to the reserved seating area at a pretentious theater. I slashed through it with Chopper and ran up the stairs. This had to go to that dais.
As I charged up two levels, another whomp of power emanated from somewhere above. The stone stair treads lurched so hard that I tumbled into the wall. The femur railing jabbed into my waist, and a human skull tumbled from its mount and shattered next to my feet. Chunks of brick and ancient mortar fell all around me, bouncing off my head, and I wished for some old-fashioned plate armor.
The ground continued to quake, but I propelled myself upward. Red light came into view as I burst onto the last landing. The shouts and clangs of a battle floated to me, and, like the insane person I was, I rushed toward it.
With Chopper leading, I burst out of the tunnel right beside the dais.
Smoke and dust filled the red-tinged air of the great chamber. Zav stood on the railing now, conjuring fiery yellow spears and hurling them down like meteorites upon the dark elves below.
They kept shooting back at him, but the spears somehow zigzagged and incinerated crossbow quarrels before striking down to the floor—or hitting an enemy. Some of the dark elves had the power to create invisible shields and repel the magical projectiles. Others burst into flames and ran out of the chamber like ambulatory torches.
A fireball slammed into Zav, almost knocking him from the railing. Rage and pain burned in his eyes as he steadied himself. With sudden certainty, I knew he couldn’t attack and keep a magical shield around himself at the same time. He could probably only concentrate on one or the other.
I almost chucked one of my grenades toward a knot of dark elves responsible for most of the attacks heading Zav’s way, but right now, everyone’s focus was on him. Nobody knew I was there.
I peered around the bone statue and toward the dais, hoping it wasn’t too late to rescue the girl. The old dark-elf female—the priestess responsible for the ritual—had moved, and horror rushed through my veins. Was I too late?
No, there she was. On the other side of the dais and the bone statue, her back to the wall. She still held the dagger to the terrified girl’s throat, was still using her for a shield.
“Dragon! This is your last chance. Leave this place or—” The priestess’s gaze scoured the chamber and the dais, then locked on to the egg-platter artifact. Understanding lit fi
re in her yellow eyes. “Or I destroy what you came for.”
The priestess tossed aside the girl, who was too wrapped up to use her legs and tumbled to the floor, and charged toward the artifact. Zav spotted her and pointed his sword at her. A beam of liquid fire shot across the chamber, over the heads of the dark elves and straight toward her heart.
She halted in front of the artifact and raised her hands. An invisible barrier formed a foot in front of her, and Zav’s beam deflected into the ceiling. It started boring a hole into the stone above the chamber.
I could only sense the invisible barrier, not see it, but I could tell from the way the beam bounced off that it was flat, rather than convex. Off to the side of the priestess, I drew Fezzik, lined up the shot, and fired without remorse. If she’d been about to sacrifice one girl, I was positive she had slain countless others.
Because she looked hard to kill, I held down the trigger for automatic firing. She wasn’t looking at me, and the bullets tore into the side of her head. She toppled sideways, knocking over the vat of boiling blood. It fell on top of her, and my gorge rose as the steaming stuff flowed out all over the dais.
Zav’s hard gaze turned toward me. I thought I’d been helping him, but I had the distinct impression from the anger still marking his face that he didn’t appreciate me butting in.
Movement to my side drew my attention. The alchemist and the bastard who was wearing my necklace were charging at me.
I whipped Fezzik toward them, but I was too late. One of them hurled a wave of magical power that catapulted me over the dais.
Pain slammed into my back as I landed on the other side next to the crying girl. The male dark elf lifted a hatchet to throw at me. I would have rolled to the side, but I was afraid the weapon would hit the girl. I aimed my gun, knowing I was too late.
But as the hatchet left his hand, an orange fiery beam incinerated it. Zav.
His beam moved across and sliced through the throats of the alchemist and her assistant like a chainsaw downing saplings. For a second, I gaped in horror as their heads thudded to the stone floor, their bodies following soon after.
When a dozen voices cried out with curses and orders to get the human, I jumped to my feet. Before grabbing the girl, I dug out my grenades as quickly as I could. I pulled the tabs and threw them at the dark elves advancing toward me like a tidal wave.
Then I slung the girl over my shoulder in a fireman’s carry and ran across the dais toward the door. I grabbed the dragon’s artifact on the way past, ducking when the twang of crossbow bolts reached my ear. Quarrels skipped off the bone statue in all directions, one piercing my side. I gasped, wobbling with pain, but caught my balance and ran on, using the platter as a partial shield.
The first grenade went off with a resounding boom that shook the chamber every bit as much as the magical attacks had. Maybe more. The others went off in a chain reaction that hurled me against the wall again. I glimpsed the balcony tumbling down with Zav still standing on the railing. A huge cloud of dust hid his landing from my view, but I heard the great crash, and his roar of fury. Or was that pain?
There was nothing I could do to help from so far away. With the floor shaking under me, I grabbed my charm necklace from the floor by the headless dark elf. I rushed through the back exit and into the tunnel as massive cracks emanated from the chamber’s ceiling.
Huge slabs of brick and stone tumbled down, and I caught a whiff of fresh night air as I raced away. Everything was quaking now, like the largest earthquake Seattle had ever seen.
As I raced toward the only way out I knew about, I feared there was no way I could make it before the entire tunnel system collapsed.
23
Bricks pounded down all around me as I ran through the quaking tunnel, with the girl whose name I didn’t know draped over my shoulder, my necklace back around my neck, and the dragon’s artifact under my arm. Had Zav survived falling into the middle of those dark elves with half the ceiling tumbling onto him? I had no idea.
I passed all the intersections I’d run through on the way in without encountering anything but dead dark elves. No, make that unconscious dark elves. One groaned when I stepped on his arm as I ran past.
Zav hadn’t come to kill anyone, it seemed. Except those two dark elves who’d been about to kill me. I owed him one now, and I hated that. If he made it out of that rockfall in the chamber, I hoped he wouldn’t mention it, but I was sure he would. While calling me vermin and a mongrel.
The first of the two hatchways came into view. As I jumped through, the girl squirmed on my shoulder. I felt her weight keenly. The boost of energy I’d gotten from the manticore concoction was wearing off.
“Almost there,” I panted, exhausted but too terrified to slow down.
Rubble littered the tunnel floor, and I’d heard more than one massive crash behind us. Any minute, we might run into—
I skidded to a halt. The way ahead was caved in. Completely caved in.
I swore and lowered the girl, needing a break and to figure out how to get away. I’d already used all my grenades.
The girl couldn’t stand with that weird webbing wrapped all around her, so I propped her against the wall.
“We’re going to have to find another way out.” I needed to cut that webbing off her, but it looked like a chore, so I touched my cat figurine, wanting Sindari to watch my back.
The charm was oddly cool to the touch, as if Sindari were far more distant than usual. That dark elf better not have done something to him.
“Sindari,” I whispered, “come back to Earth.”
The mist was slow to form, as if it was trying to coalesce but something held it back. While I waited, I tried to cut off the webbing with my knife. It looked like fabric, but it was more like armor. I switched to Chopper, hoping the magical blade would have more luck.
The girl’s eyes had been glazed, as if she was in shock, but when I brushed her with the hilt of the weapon, she tried to hop away. It wasn’t until that moment that I remembered she wouldn’t be able to see anything down here. She didn’t have a night-vision charm. She might not even know I was human. Half-human, anyway.
“I’m going to cut these bindings off you. Then you can run, and we’ll get out of here.” I glanced toward the pile of rocks blocking our way. “Some way. What’s your name? I’m Val.”
She shook her head slowly and didn’t answer. Yes, she was definitely in shock. I shuddered to think about how long she’d been a prisoner and what that vile priestess might have already done to her.
“Where do you live, Silent One? As soon as we get out of here, I have a friend who can pick us up and take you home.”
“Shoreline,” she whispered, naming a suburb to the north.
I shuddered again. My daughter only lived a few miles away from there. Had this girl been taken from there or during a trip into Seattle?
Sindari finally formed in the mist. I paused to hug him.
Valmeyjar, he spoke into my mind far more formally than usual. I did not think it would be you. I thought you would be dead.
I started to reply, but I sensed a powerful magical aura approaching from behind us. Sindari faced it. I recognized the owner of the aura before he came into sight, but I still debated on drawing Fezzik. It wasn’t as if Zav had officially said we were working together, and he might be pissed that I’d killed the priestess. And that I had his artifact.
It was hideous, and I definitely didn’t want it. Maybe if I threw it at him, he would be appeased, like some volcano god accepting a virgin hurled into his caldera.
Zav was limping when he came into view, blood streaming from cuts on his bruised face, but as soon as he spotted me, he hid the limp. Or gritted his teeth through it. His black robe and dark hair were coated in dust. I never would have guessed he could appear so disheveled.
He still carried that sword, and he raised it and pointed it at me. I swore and lunged to the side, trying to protect the girl even as I drew Fezzik.
T
his time, an entire roiling wave of fiery orange power sprang from its tip, not a single beam, and it nearly blinded me. I turned my back as the power passed me, somehow not stirring a hair on my head, and pounded into the caved-in rocks. They blew backward with the thunderous boom of dynamite exploding, the power pulverizing them to ashes before they hit the ground again.
Just as the power hadn’t struck me, the shrapnel from the exploding rocks didn’t touch me. I sensed a magical shield protecting me and the girl.
Zav grabbed the artifact from my hand as he passed and kept going.
“You’re welcome,” I called.
“I advise you to leave,” he said without looking back. “The tunnels are unstable.”
“No shit. You made them that way.” The way was clear so I took the girl’s arm and led her after Zav.
“It was not until you threw explosives that the ceiling collapsed and my perch crumbled,” Zav said, still not looking back. “This was followed by three of your wheeled conveyances tumbling through from the thoroughfare above. One of them landed on me.” This time, he looked back, shooting me the dirtiest glare I’d seen from him.
“Maybe next time you invade an enemy lair, you won’t stand up on a railing like a pompous stump orator running for office.”
“I do not know what that means, but if you insult me, I will not save your life again.”
“I saved your life, too, buddy!”
We’d passed through the last hatchway, and Zav reached the airlock chamber ahead of us. The dark elf who’d driven the submarine had been removed from the tunnel. Zav twitched his sword, and the lever to open the door threw itself.
I realized he was about to escape, and I’d been too busy arguing with him to ask him for the blood I still needed. If I didn’t get it, Zoltan might refuse to make the formula, and all of this would have been for naught.
“Wait, Dragon!” I called as he stepped into the airlock and strode for the second door. “Zavryd-thingy,” I corrected myself the best I could. A cat hacking up a hairball would have a better chance at getting close to the pronunciation of the whole name. “I got your artifact for you. Will you give me a vial of your blood?”
Sinister Magic: An Urban Fantasy Dragon Series (Death Before Dragons Book 1) Page 23