Elven Doom (Death Before Dragons Book 4)

by Lindsay Buroker

  His eyes glowed—that was a warning, he’d once explained. But curiosity seemed to win out over indignation, because he asked, With what will you reward me?

  I could feed you again. The next time I get paid. More ribs. I wriggled my eyebrows at him.

  “Thorvald,” Willard said quietly, “that other dragon is glaring daggers at you two from across the crevasse. Is it going to be a problem?”

  “No,” Zav answered firmly. “She is going to assist us in obtaining the two dark-elf criminals. That is all she will do.”

  Did you and she have a chat? I asked. You didn’t fight over this—us—did you?

  We did fight. We even drew blood, but I was victorious. I pinned her to the ground and demanded she stay out of my life and never bother you or your kin again.

  And that worked?

  He hesitated. Not as well as I’d hoped. She is quite determined to out you as an assassin and protect me from my unmanageable lust.

  I rubbed my face. So nothing has changed?

  It has. She has agreed to leave you alone, to not bother your comrades or kin, and to assist me in collecting these dark elves.

  She promised that to you?

  She promised it to our mother. His lips twisted wryly. She interrupted our battle, said we were embarrassing the family during a time when we most need to show we have the right to rule and maintain order, and shamed my sister into returning here to help me complete this mission. She was sent back first to look for the dark elves, but she did not realize that you had already found them. He beamed a smile at me. As I knew you would.

  The praise tickled me, especially since I’d felt like a failure most of the day, but I didn’t let myself bask in it.

  I patted his arm. Yes, but we have a problem. They’re trying to set off that volcano, which could kill a lot of my people. And I think they may be close to accomplishing it. What are the chances that you can arrest those two tonight? And take the rest of the dark elves with you when you go?

  The latter is unlikely. As to the rest… His eyes grew distant as he used his magic. They are in caves under the ice. Far under the ice. Let us make a plan before we charge recklessly down there.

  Uh, yeah. Good idea. Only an idiot would recklessly charge into a dark-elf lair. Or recklessly sneak in with an alarm that might start beeping in the middle of the incursion.

  He gave me a puzzled look.

  Never mind. “Willard? Can we use your tent?”

  “For snogging? No.”

  “For planning an incursion so Zav can arrest dark elves while I find all their artifacts and destroy them.”

  “You mind if I come to this meeting in my own tent?” Her words dripped sarcasm, which Zav missed or ignored.

  “I will permit this,” he told her.

  “Thank you so much.”

  Willard stalked toward the tent, hopefully to shove stuff around and make room for three. I doubted she wanted to play footsies with Zav.

  “Your leader has a tongue similar to yours,” he said.

  “We’re kind of like sisters.”

  “Sisters can be problematic.”

  “Yes, they can.”

  “I heard that,” Willard said over her shoulder.

  28

  “I can sense the dark elves down there.” Zav sat on my sleeping bag, facing Willard and me, a small lantern throwing our faces into light and shadow. His sister remained on guard near the crevasse, not communicating with me or anyone else in the camp. “They are quite active. They may be implementing this volcano plan you spoke of.”

  Willard swore. “Then we need to go back down there tonight. I’d planned to wait until morning, hoping they would be sleeping during the day, but…” She opened her palm toward the low dome-ceiling.

  “I’m willing to go back down tonight,” I said. “Zav, what can you do down there? I remember you taking the brunt of the attack from dozens of dark elves at once in their lair under the city. You used your shields to keep them from hurting you.”

  “Yes, until your explosion caused the street above to fall onto me. As well as several large metal conveyances.” He rubbed his head.

  “Cars, yes, and I’m sorry, but I had to get that kid. And, as you may recall, I also got your platter.”

  Willard snapped her fingers. “Focus on these dark elves.”

  Zav’s eyelids drooped as he regarded her, and I suspected he was thinking of letting her know that the dragon was always in charge, not the lowly human military officer. Willard wouldn’t likely find a relationship with one of his brothers as appealing as she thought.

  “Are you as powerful in human form as in dragon form?” I asked, in part to distract him from whatever ire he felt for Willard, and in part because I’d wondered for a while, and it would be useful to know.

  He lifted his chin, his head brushing the ceiling, then gave it a baleful look for presuming to impede him. It had started snowing again, so I hoped he didn’t incinerate the tent.

  “I would prefer to battle them in my dragon form.”

  “So, that’s a no?” I asked. “You’re not quite as strong?”

  His chin remained up, and he didn’t speak. I thought he would refuse to answer the question, but he switched to telepathy.

  I am not as powerful in human form. You are correct. It is more difficult to access the shakorath. I am still capable of facing many dark elves, but I cannot defend myself and attack them at the same time. “I would prefer to face them in my dragon form,” he repeated aloud. “How large are the tunnels down there? Have you seen them?”

  “I’ve seen them.” I closed my eyes and imagined that chamber with the lake. It might be large enough for him to stand up with his wings spread, but that was the only spot. “You might be able to fold in your wings and get to the bottom of the crevasse, but not the tunnels or even the entrance. As a dragon, you’d be too big to fit in the hole.”

  Willard lifted a finger, her dark eyes twinkling as her focus was momentarily derailed.

  “Don’t say it,” I told her.

  “What would I say?” Her lips twitched in a barely restrained smirk. “Him being too big for the hole is more a problem for you to deal with than me.”

  “Unless I get you that brother.”

  “True.”

  “I am focused,” Zav said.

  “Right.” Willard dropped her fledgling smirk. “What are you able and willing to do, and how can my team help get Val in to find the artifacts? Can you distract the dark elves?”

  “If he went in through the main tunnel and kept them busy, maybe we could sneak in another route.” I explained the side passage and that it seemed to be a possible back way in.

  “I sense approximately a hundred and fifty dark elves down there. They are among the most powerful of the lesser species, and they’ve had time to hunker in and place defenses.” Zav lowered his chin to his chest as he spoke. “I sense numerous magical artifacts. You will need time to find the one that is applicable to your problem.”

  “I thought I’d just shoot the crap out of any that I came across,” I said.

  “That will still take time. If I go straight in, they will find it difficult to deal with a dragon, but they have likely made plans for this eventuality. Yemeli-lor and Baklinor-ten know I have been after them. As powerful and great as a dragon is, it would be foolish of me to walk into the mouth of their cave and invite them to use me for target practice.”

  “I suppose your sister wouldn’t be willing to do that either.”

  “No. And my mother would be displeased if she were killed when this is my assignment.”

  “What’s her job?”

  “Being young and learning from her elders.”

  “Oh God, is she a teenager?” I looked at Willard. “Doesn’t that sound like a teenager to you?”

  “I will think of a use for her,” Zav said. “Perhaps I will send her up to breathe fire on the glaciers and melt them.”

  “Uh, to what end?” I imagined floodwaters gush
ing down the sides of the mountain.

  “To concern the dark elves that we are removing the water source they need to cause an eruption of this volcano. I assume they plan to funnel glacier meltwater down to the magma to cause a reaction? Is this what you believe?”

  “That was our physicist’s guess, yes.” Willard thumped me on the shoulder. “Your dragon is smarter than I guessed.”

  “He’s not just a pretty face.”

  “Dragons know all about fire and volcanos.” Zav’s brows drew together. “Her dragon? I have claimed Val as my mate.”

  “Yes,” Willard said. “I know.”

  “She does not have ownership over me. That is not how it works.”

  “No? I thought females were in charge on your world.”

  “Female dragons. Val is…” He extended a hand toward me.

  “A mongrel,” I supplied.

  “A half-elf.” He had apparently decided to stop calling me derogatory names. Progress.

  “She’s smoking hot here on Earth, so you had better treat her right,” Willard said, “or she’ll go back to her programmer.”

  Was she trying to help me? I was more horrified than honored.

  “She will not.” Zav’s eyes blazed.

  I lifted my hands. “Hey, we’re focusing here, right?”

  “Yes,” they said, glaring at each other.

  “Zav,” I said. “You don’t have to be a target, but if you and your sister can keep the dark elves looking the other way, I’ll hunt for their artifacts. And if I can find the two scientists, I’ll knock them out, tie them up, and drag them out with me.”

  He nodded. “I will consider how I can best draw their attention. It is likely they will send their greatest mages and priestesses to face me, so you may have room to maneuver. But remember that Yemeli-lor is also a priestess—she will have magic—and Baklinor-ten is also a warrior. They will not be easy to defeat.”

  “Trust me. I’m not expecting anything to be easy.” Nothing had been yet.

  “What do you want us to do?” Willard pointed at her chest and waved toward the rest of the camp.

  “There is little mere humans can do,” Zav said.

  “They have flashbangs, magical grenades, and a couple of magical weapons,” I said.

  Zav looked blankly at me, as if this changed nothing.

  “I’m positive they can help.”

  “They may assist you then,” Zav said imperiously. “They would only be in my way when I’m hurling fire and magic at my enemies.”

  I lifted a hand to stave off a protest from Willard. “He’s right. He’d have to worry about frying you guys—or the dark elves frying you. You can sneak in with me if you’re dying to go back down there.”

  “I’m not, but I refuse to sit up here and knit a sweater for my cat while you’re risking your life.”

  “I’m sure Maggie is relieved.”

  “Maggie likes sweaters.”

  “Wearing them or nesting in yours?”

  Willard wriggled her fingers to dismiss this. “I’m going. We all are. Also, your dragon isn’t calling the shots here, and neither are you.” She frowned at me.

  Zav frowned at her.

  I rubbed my face.

  “I am called Lord Zavryd’nokquetal,” Zav stated, “not dragon or your dragon.”

  Willard opened her mouth, but Zav had gone from amiable—his version of it—to irritated, and his face was stony as he glared at her. Stony and dangerous. He always had that powerful predator aura about him that made people cross to the other side of the street when they saw him, but when he grew annoyed, it was stronger.

  Willard kept whatever she’d intended to say to herself and shared her exasperated glare only with me. “Fine, he can be the distraction—” she pointed to Zav, “—and you’ll go in the back door while he hurls things at them. I’ll talk to Banderas and the others about putting together a couple of teams, one to assist you, and the other to search in another direction. If their lair is as sprawling as we think, it would be better to have multiple teams looking for those artifacts.”

  She crawled out of the tent and left without waiting for a response. Since she’d made her decision, little would be gained by pointing out that the rest of the soldiers would be unlikely to recognize the magical artifacts or tools we needed to destroy.

  I leaned over and zipped up the flap, though there wasn’t much heat inside to escape. Only what we’d created with our breath.

  “It would be better if you and I went in without them,” Zav stated quietly. “Humans will only be a liability against dark elves.”

  “They can help. They’re well-trained fighters.”

  I shifted over to sit next to Zav, though only to drop my face in my hand. The others could help, but this was also skirting close to one of my nightmares, of friends being killed because I’d failed to protect them. If Willard died down there, I would lose my boss as well as a friend, and it would be my fault. She hadn’t been planning on coming on this mission before I’d suggested it. Zav’s presence on our team would bring the odds closer to even, but he would also be like a tornado down there, hurling his magic at the dark elves, who would be hurling their own magic back at him. It would be easy for someone without armor against magic to be flattened by accident. It would be easy for me, even with my armor and charms, to be flattened.

  “You know I am right,” he said.

  “I thought you couldn’t read my thoughts,” I muttered into my hand.

  My headache was creeping back. Even dragons couldn’t permanently cure the symptoms of altitude sickness. What a time to go into battle. Though once we got it over with, I could get off the mountain and go back to my sea-level home. If I survived.

  “I am getting better at reading your body language.” Zav wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

  We were already sitting cross-legged, knee to knee, so it was easy to lean into him and accept the embrace.

  “What happens if you fail to bring these rogue scientists home?” I asked.

  “I will not fail. It is already intolerable that it has taken me so long to locate them.” He opened his palm to show me the cufflink-like button Sindari had found in Rupert’s pub back before it had closed, the button we believed belonged to the male scientist, Baklinor-ten. “The owner of this is down there. I can sense him. This time, I will not fail to retrieve him.”

  “They’ve probably been up here for weeks. That’s why you couldn’t find them in the city. It’s not your fault.”

  “My people do not accept excuses. I must capture these two and then continue to collect all the criminals on my list. Only then will the members of the Dragon Justice Court know that my family is still strong and powerful and has the ability and right to enforce our laws, no matter that our numbers have diminished.”

  “How come all of this is on you?”

  “It is not. I have three brothers who are collecting criminals on other worlds. Worlds less savage and infested with fewer vermin than this.” Distaste had crept into his tone. It seemed the delicious barbecue ribs hadn’t convinced him yet that humans had redeeming qualities. “But your world has come to particular attention among our kind because a dragon was slain here, so I am being closely observed.”

  Ugh, because of me.

  Zav didn’t put any blame on me, simply continued on with his story. “It was because of the rogue faction of elves—those who tried to assassinate several of us—and who, in the case of one of my brothers, succeeded—that many of these criminals are out in the Cosmic Realms causing havoc. One of those elves invented an artifact that could reverse the effects of the magic we use to rehabilitate criminals into acceptable members of society. Their new personalities were torn away, reviving the old ones. We hadn’t thought this possible and were caught unprepared.”

  So that was why Zav—or his mother—felt personally responsible for collecting the criminals. This had happened on their watch.

  “I hadn’t realized those elves were still a
problem for your people. From what you said before, it sounded like you defeated them and replaced them with new rulers.” It made me wonder if that was how my father had become a king.

  “We did, but some members of their resistance survived and continue to plot against dragons.”

  I thought of Freysha mysteriously showing up to apply for an internship in Willard’s office—Freysha, who had made buddies with the goblin gossip who knew everything about the magical species of the Pacific Northwest. We’d already considered that she might have warned the dark elves we were coming, but what if she was even more dangerous than we thought? To dragons as well as humanity?

  “I’m sorry those elves are making your life difficult.” I patted Zav’s knee. Had I been a part of the politics of the Cosmic Realms and born on an elven world instead of Earth, maybe I would have joined them in fighting against dragons, but I didn’t know them, and I did know Zav. The rest of the dragons I’d met could go chase their own tails, but I didn’t want him to be a target for assassination plots or anything else.

  “It is not your fault. We will go into battle together and capture Yemeli-lor and Baklinor-ten. All will be made right. This is my duty.”

  “Let’s stop a volcanic eruption along the way, all right? My duty includes that.”

  I expected him to say that volcanos weren’t on his list, so that part wasn’t his problem—that had been his response when I’d hinted that help against the panther-shifter brothers terrorizing Nin would have been appreciated.

  “Yes,” he said, surprising me. “I will assist you with that. Even a dragon cannot stop a volcano once it is erupting, so we must ensure they do not have the ability to start it. As we have discussed, you will seek the device and the scientists while I keep the rest of the dark elves busy. When you locate the scientists, call to me. I will find a way to get to you to help. They will be too powerful for you to fight alone.” Zav lowered his arm. “But we must go now. The humans are completing their talk of plans. We will go before they know we have left.”

  “Uh, Willard is my employer. She’s going to be pissed if I take off against her wishes.”