Is there something I can do to help? Sindari asked.
Not unless you can grab the second blowtorch and weld the other pipe shut.
My paws will not hold it. He held up his foreleg. Do you know how long it took me to figure out how to open your car doors to let myself out?
I know. Just keep guarding the tunnel. Thanks.
The drips of water turned to rivulets and splashed on my back. Soon, they would be waterfalls. Something up there was heating the ice, but I could neither reach the ceiling nor guess how to destroy the sprawling framework embedded in it. The heater was probably buried ten or twenty feet up there. The dark elves had had weeks to set all this up.
Another rumble went through the ground, seemingly originating from right under us.
Will there be time to close all of those pipes? Sindari asked.
I don’t know.
I doubted it. Water streamed onto my back now. It was taking forever to weld one cap shut, and we had no idea if the other chambers would be empty of dark elves. What if we had to fight our way through hordes of them to reach the pipes?
Zav? I knew he would prefer I was hunting the scientists over doing this, but we would all be screwed if the volcano erupted while we were standing on it. Can you see what I’m doing? Is there any chance that you or your sister could find the other chambers like this one and destroy the pipes or the funnel framework above them to stop water from dumping down to the magma?
I’d finished melting the seam all the way around, the metal now gooey and molten from the blowtorch, and willed it to harden quickly. I tried to lean to the side as I kept my weight on the cap, so the water would hit the cherry metal and cool it.
Zav? A thrum of fear went through me.
I could still sense him—and Zondia was farther away but within range now too—but there was no way to tell if he was injured. Or unconscious.
I tapped part of the seam. It had hardened. I sprang off and ran to the second pipe, grimacing at all the water rushing into it. The dark elves had been precise in lining up their funnels and little was wasted spattering to the ground.
Once again, I had to lean my weight against the cap to get it to budge. Clenching my jaw, I pushed it down and clambered atop it. I set to work with the blowtorch as icy meltwater rained down on my back.
Yes, I see what you are doing, Zav finally said. The dark elves are focused on me, and I cannot get free to search for those chambers, but I will relay this to my sister.
The sister who hated me and had interrogated my daughter. Just who I trusted to save the day.
Thanks, I made myself think. Aloud I said, “I think we’re on our own for this, Sindari.”
How much water must flow down there to cause an eruption? he asked.
“I don’t know. Hopefully a lot.”
At least right now, none was making it down in this chamber. Aside from what had already descended through this pipe.
Another rumble shook the floor, and a snap echoed over my head. I made myself keep welding, but visions of that framework breaking and collapsing on top of me came to mind.
A shriek came from somewhere down the tunnel that Sindari guarded. Was that a dark elf? Some animal familiar? Or one of the dragons? Whoever it was had been in pain.
When the seam under me melted, I leaned back, again trying to let the water cool it. The other cap was still shut. Good. I’d half-expected the magic to thwart my welding attempts and for it to have popped open again.
I wiped my face, sweat mingling with the water. Given how wet I was now, I shouldn’t have been hot, but the air temperature had increased and hazy moisture clouded the chamber. It felt like a steam room in here, a steam room with horrible air quality. My throat and lungs were raw, my chest rising and falling with big breaths that didn’t do nearly enough to make my body happy.
The idea of dying while alone in one of these chambers, not even battling enemies, filled me with angst. I tried not to think about how much worse the air would be in the other chambers where the pipes had been open this whole time.
I jumped off the cap, relieved when it stayed in place. For now, this chamber wasn’t contributing to the problem.
“Which way to the next spot?” I took two puffs from my inhaler, hoping they would keep my airways open—and hoping the stimulating medication wouldn’t make my hands shake in battle.
The route appears to be through that back tunnel. Sindari had spent more time studying the map than I, and he pointed his nose with confidence toward a passage we had thus far ignored.
As I took a step toward the tunnel, another inhuman shriek came from the main part of the lair. I pulled out one of my grenades, armed it, and threw it into the tunnel the two dark elves had come out of. Maybe if I could block that route with ice, it would keep them from getting in here to fix my sabotage.
“Run,” I ordered, my throat raspy.
Sindari and I reached the back tunnel as the grenade exploded. The cracks and thunks of ice falling reached our ears, but I didn’t hang around to see if I’d caused the blockage I hoped for. It wasn’t as if we could spend more time to fix it if it hadn’t worked.
Our new tunnel wound through the glacier, meltwater flowing in a shallow stream along the ground. It was a miracle this place hadn’t already collapsed.
It should be about a hundred meters ahead, Sindari told me as he led the way. But I sense dark elves in there.
So did I. Four of them. Damn it. We’d barely survived fighting two.
I tapped my cloaking charm to make sure I was as hidden as possible and hoped we could surprise our enemies. A vain hope, I feared. The first two had seen through my magic without trouble. Advancing with Chopper in my right hand and Fezzik in my left, I tried not to think about that.
A slow and measured incursion into the new chamber would have been ideal, but there wasn’t time. I paused only long enough to peek inside and see where the dark elves were and what they were doing before I opened fire.
A guard faced our tunnel, a second guard was placed at another tunnel on the other side of the chamber, and two dark elves with clipboards—freaking clipboards—stood around one of the two vertical pipes, taking notes and measurements as water gushed into them from above.
The dark elf facing us didn’t see through our camouflage—maybe he wasn’t as powerful as those other two had been—and I got off a couple of shots before everyone in the chamber spun toward me.
As my rounds thudded into our closest enemy’s chest, Sindari raced toward the second guard.
The scientists, a male and a female—had I stumbled across Zav’s criminals and the masterminds behind all this?—lifted their hands. It wasn’t a gesture of surrender but of attack, and magic crackled in the air around them.
Though I didn’t hesitate to shift targets and spray rounds at them, it was too late. My bullets bounced off invisible shields they’d raised. A wrecking ball of power slammed into me, hurling me down the dark tunnel. Stunned by the blast, I landed hard on my back, my air whooshing out.
You will not stop us, mongrel, a female voice spoke into my mind as I struggled to get to my feet. Soon this land will belong to our people. We will no longer have to hide. One day, this entire world will be ours.
This ash-choked world that will get no sunlight once you’re done?
As we prefer it. Our magic allows us to breathe the air. You are the one who will die in it.
I wished I had a witty comeback for that, but her words rang with truth. Snarling, I used the wall to stand up again.
Jaws snapped and growls sounded as Sindari battled the second guard. I willed energy into my legs and ran back to the chamber. I had nothing to defend myself against the dark elves’ magic, but I couldn’t leave Sindari in there alone with all three.
I grabbed a flashbang as I ran, pausing in the entrance to throw it into the middle of the chamber. For an instant, I contemplated using the deadly grenades, but if I blew up those pipes, the water would flow even more easily down to t
he magma.
As my flashbang sailed into the chamber, one of those black balls of energy sped toward me. I dropped to my belly, flattening my cheek to the gritty earth. It sailed past an inch above my head, searing my back with strange painful energy even though it didn’t strike.
The boom of the flashbang echoed from the chamber, brilliant light illuminating the place like a sun. I sprang to my feet and rushed inside, hoping I’d blinded and discombobulated them for a few seconds.
The dark elves’ hands were still up, and I sensed magic in the air about them—they radiated power almost as strongly as Zav did—but their eyes were closed. They were still shielded. Only Chopper would have a chance of cutting through that.
Blade raised, I sprang for the two scientists.
Sindari roared, but it was cut off, ending in a pained grunt. Two more male dark elves had rushed into the chamber with swords and crossbows, all of the weapons glowing with magic. They were ganging up on him, and blood already ran from a deep gash in his side. He snapped at one of his foes, biting down on an arm too slow to retract, but the other dark elves leaped for him, weapons darting in with impossible speed.
“Get back!” I yelled at him as I swept Chopper toward the female scientist.
My blade bounced off a shield. She’d known it would. She didn’t even flinch, merely glared at me with crimson eyes.
You will fail, she spoke silently into my mind. Already, you are too late to stop us.
Refusing to be daunted, I swung again, willing all the power inside of me to aid the blade, to cut through her barrier.
But my attack halted in midair, not getting close enough to stir a single strand of her white hair. My body stopped moving, and the familiar helplessness of being in a dragon’s magical grasp came over me. I couldn’t even swear, though I dearly wanted to. I hadn’t guessed the dark elves could also do this.
“She damaged the pipes in Chamber B,” the male scientist said. Baklinor-ten. It had to be.
Was he getting the information out of my mind? Or did his magic allow him to see what I’d done?
I wished I could ask him if he had a safety pin holding up his pants under his robe. A growl stuck in my throat, my frozen muscles unable to spit it out. I tried vainly to finish my swing and lop her head off, but brute force wasn’t available to me.
Instead, I tried the mental power Lirena had confirmed I had. I looked straight into the female’s eyes, willing her to fall over backward and land in the stream of water, her mouth open so she promptly drowned.
“They will be simple enough to fix,” the female—Yemeli-lor—said, unaffected by my attempts to use my power.
“Kill her, so she can’t be any more trouble.”
“I will. But she is magically marked as the mate of that dragon.”
“So?” Baklinor-ten asked. “The dragon is proving himself an enemy to us.”
“There may be repercussions if we kill his female.”
Sindari snarled, springing in and out of reach of his foes, trying to down the three dark elves as they fired crossbow quarrels into him and cut his sides and chest with sword strikes. He moved more slowly than usual—one of the quarrels sticking out of his hide had to be a tranquilizer or some kind of poison.
Go back to your realm, I silently ordered him. Don’t die here for this.
I won’t leave you to die here.
I feared he couldn’t save me from that fate.
“The dragon is attacking our people right now,” Baklinor-ten said. “What further repercussions could there be? Kill her.”
“Very well.”
Magical energy like a huge vise clamped around my throat, squeezing my already beleaguered airway shut. Again, I tried to break the hold, but Yemeli-lor continued to hold me rigid and helpless with her power. My lungs spasmed, and my legs would have given out if her magic hadn’t been holding me up.
Panic stampeded into me as blackness crept into my vision. All I could do was glare at the dark elves. It wasn’t enough.
33
My vision blacked out, I stopped hearing things, and my ability to sense magic disappeared. My brain was too fogged from lack of oxygen for anything to work. I tried to summon some strength to fight my attackers, but my body needed air, and I couldn’t get it past the magical hold closing my airway.
The ground spasmed, and what was likely my last thought popped into my mind. I’d failed. The volcano would erupt, killing countless people, and it wasn’t even the end of their plans. It was only a test. After this, they’d go on to the next volcano, and the next, sheathing Earth in ash that would block out the sun and keep anything from growing for who knew how long. All of humanity could be utterly screwed by this band of dark elves.
Abruptly, the hold on my throat disappeared. So did the magic pinning me in place. I pitched to the ground, my muscles barely working, barely able to gasp in air.
That air, thick with steam and volcanic gases, wasn’t as quenching and refreshing as I wanted, but it was all there was. It was enough to bring feeling back to my fingers, and slowly, my vision and hearing returned.
I grew aware of my cheek pressed into a puddle and magical attacks flying through the air over my head. A tiger’s roar echoed through the chamber. Sindari was still here.
Someone ran through my view, someone with slippers and a silver-trimmed black robe. Only then did my senses recover enough for me to pick out Zav.
He rushed to me, pressed a hand against my back long enough to send a brief burst of healing energy through me, then turned to face our nemeses. He and Sindari had flattened the armed guards, but Yemeli-lor and Baklinor-ten faced Zav, blasting him with magical attacks. Those black balls of energy bounced off Zav’s shields and slammed into the ice walls, blowing holes in them.
Zav stood between me and the dark elves, extending his shield over me. Somewhat recovered from his magic, I struggled to my hands and knees. I had to help, not be a liability.
Where were Chopper and Fezzik? Stacked more than twenty feet away with the blowtorch. Damn it.
Zav dropped his shields long enough to hurl raw power at the two dark elves. It battered their defenses and flung them against one of the icy walls. But the female fired an attack at him, one that struck before he had time to raise his shields again. The edge of it hit me like a punch to the nose, and it hurled Zav over me. He levitated instead of landing on his back and recovered, his shields up again.
Yemeli-lor’s gaze fell on me, no longer within Zav’s protection.
I snatched the only weapons I had left on me. A grenade and a flashbang.
Zav flung an attack, giving me the second I needed to pull the pins. They hadn’t done much before, but maybe with Zav keeping the dark elves busy…
I hurled the projectiles and mentally shouted, Light and an explosion coming! to Zav, hoping he was monitoring my thoughts.
Then I lunged to my feet, almost blacking out again, and rushed away from the elves—and the explosives. Yemeli-lor batted the projectiles aside with a burst of telekinetic power. That didn’t keep them from going off.
Zav grabbed me as the grenade boomed. He pulled me in front of him and put his back to the explosion. Huge chunks of ice smashed to the ground, and tremors wracked the chamber. Shards of ice would have pummeled Zav and me, but his barrier wrapped around us, deflecting debris.
Then the flashbang went off, another brilliant burst of light blinding anyone with their eyes open. Two elves near the tunnel cursed and staggered back. Sindari tore into them. His movements weren’t as fast as usual, but he was still effective, still deadly.
Zav spun back toward the scientists and poured a tsunami of magic at them. Even from behind him, the power staggered me, and I fought to stay on my feet. It didn’t help that the ground kept quaking, the movements growing stronger instead of fading away.
Had I thrown the grenade that would finally bring this place down? Or was that the volcano getting ready to erupt?
Under Zav’s assault, waves and waves of
magic crashing into the two scientists, they staggered back to the wall. Their hands were up, and they combined their power to try to keep a protective barrier up, but it wasn’t enough against him.
As soon as their barrier was down, I ran to my weapons and grabbed Fezzik. Making sure Zav wasn’t anywhere near my sights, I fired at the dark elves. He probably wanted them captured, but I wanted them dead, so they would never do this again. They’d already killed humans with their artifacts, killed thousands of shifters on another world, and killed Rupert the troll, leaving that poor kid homeless.
But I only got two rounds off—one taking the female in the shoulder and one the male in the chest—before an intense urge to turn my gun on Zav came over me.
Damn it, I’d forgotten about that. But hadn’t it been one of the elves in the lake chamber that had been responsible? Who in here could be doing it? Yemeli-lor or Baklinor-ten? The two dark elves Sindari was attacking were on the ground, barely stirring. They weren’t looking in my direction. I sensed others in the tunnels beyond, but they were distracted. Zondia was out there too, not far from us.
Shoot him! a female voice screeched in my mind. He is not guarding his back.
The voice sounded familiar, but it wasn’t Yemeli-lor. My befuddled mind struggled to place it.
I glowered at the scientists, willing my hands to steady Fezzik and aim at them. To finish them off.
They weren’t looking at me either. All of their attention was on Zav, on defending against the barrage of magic he was unleashing on them.
Yemeli-lor gripped her shoulder where I’d shot her but still had one albino hand splayed toward Zav. She continued to battle him. Beside her, Baklinor-ten dropped to his knees, blood spattering the ice-covered ground. If he’d been human, my shot would have taken him in the heart, but I remembered that dark-elf anatomy wasn’t the same as ours. He was still badly wounded, if not mortally wounded.
Confusion swamped me. The scientists didn’t look like they had any extra energy for anything, much less coercing me to hurt Zav. It couldn’t be one of them.
Elven Doom (Death Before Dragons Book 4) Page 26