“Vance, I’d like you to go tomorrow to check all the vaults. We’ll rotate through so that everyone is taking a turn.”
Vance made a face, which earned him a warning look from Knox. Vance sighed and nodded, but he couldn’t completely keep the annoyance out of his face. Not only was he going to be bored out of his mind, but checking the vaults would take the entire day, which meant he was going to have to spend the whole day away from Lily. But Vance knew better than to argue with Knox. The man was still annoyed with him over his ostentatious flying, Vance could tell. Besides, he would have to take a turn making the rounds to the vaults eventually. Might as well get it over with. But just as Knox was about to start speaking again, Lily surprised everyone by speaking up.
“Can I go with Vance?” she asked.
All eyes turned to her, and Vance’s heart warmed that she was offering to go with him. He would never have asked her to. The trip required hiking through some of the least interesting parts of the forest, and, if the clan was lucky, there would be nothing exciting to see once they were actually at the vaults. Knox seemed to agree with Vance for once, because he was shaking his head at Lily.
“It’s not a very exciting task, Lily,” he said. “Bree can tell you. She’s been there, and there’s not much to see.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Lily said “I don’t need to be constantly entertained. I was just thinking that if I went I could test the protective spells that Bree cast to make sure they’re still working properly.”
Vance slapped his forehead. Of course! Why hadn’t he thought of that? He’d been so wrapped up in his own miserable thoughts that it had never occurred to him that Lily might actually be useful on the job.
“Well, if you want to go and check the spells, we’d really appreciate it,” Knox said. “But don’t feel obligated.”
“I’d love to help out,” Lily said.
And so it was settled that Vance and Lily would go make a round of the vaults the next day. He was no longer dreading the mundane task so much, now that Lily would be going with him. And little did he know that his task would turn out to be anything but mundane.
* * *
The next morning, Vance blinked his eyes a few times when he awoke, confused as to why his cabin looked so strange. He quickly realized that he was not in his cabin, but in the cabin where Lily was staying. He looked over at her to find her still sleeping peacefully, and a smile crossed his lips. They had to be up and moving early this morning, but that had not stopped them from staying up much too late last night. Vance could not get enough of her, and she seemed to feel the same about him. They had made love until the wee hours of the morning, when Lily had finally fallen asleep in his arms, exhausted but happy. He hated to wake her now, but they had to get moving soon if they wanted to make it to all the vaults before sundown.
“Lily,” Vance whispered, giving her a gentle nudge with his hand. She sighed happily, then rolled over and went back to sleep. Vance nudged her again, a little more firmly this time.
“Lily, time to get moving,” he said.
This time, her eyes actually blinked open, and she looked around with a confused look of her own for a few seconds. Then she turned to him and smiled, her whole face lighting up as she did.
“Hey you,” she said. “How’d you sleep?”
“Like a baby,” Vance said, planting a kiss on her forehead before sitting up. “Not long enough, though. I could have slept several more hours, but we need to get started on our day. Do you want some coffee for the road?”
Lily nodded and sat up herself. “I think I’m going to need some coffee.”
A half an hour later, Vance and Lily were dressed for the day and had packed small backpacks of food. They had eaten a large breakfast, and made sandwiches for lunch and dinner. Along with the sandwiches, they had packed several snacks, including granola bars, oranges, and beef jerky. They were taking plenty of water along, and they each held a large thermos of coffee.
“Ready?” Vance asked. Lily nodded, and they set out, heading toward a trail on the west side of camp that Vance knew all too well. He’d been on vault duty hundreds of times over the years, and he always followed the same loop when checking the vaults. He liked to hike to the ones that were hardest to reach first, so that he could get them done while he was still fresh.
And, once the morning air hit his lungs, he felt surprisingly fresh despite his lack of sleep. The sky was just beginning to lighten, and the other dragons were still in their cabins when Vance and Lily left the camp. For a while, neither one of them spoke much. They were content to take in the beauty of the forest around them, and enjoy the coolness of the morning. Vance knew that they would not be able spend their whole day in the coolness of the forest. Several of the vaults were located at the very top of one of the small mountain hills that dotted the forest. Up there, there were not many trees, and shade was sparse. That would be the most tiring part of their journey. It was all downhill from there, though, quite literally.
After about an hour of hiking, Lily finally broke the silence. “Have the vaults ever been broken into?” she asked. Vance glanced over his shoulder at her. He couldn’t help but smile at how beautiful her face looked in the uneven sunlight that was filtering through the trees. She must have been tired, but she did not look it. Her face was glowing and her eyes were bright, and she seemed to be almost enjoying their steep upward hike.
“Vault security hasn’t been breached in my lifetime,” Vance said. “William, our former clan leader, did a lot to shore up the safeguards on each of the vaults. And, until recently, no one but us seemed to know where our camp or the vaults were. Many of the vaults have been here for hundreds of years, though. In past centuries, there were occasional break-ins. Those break-ins usually signaled the start of a shifter war, because when a powerful artifact was stolen, the shifter who stole it usually tried to use it to gain power for themselves at the expense of others.”
“Maybe this is a silly question,” Lily said, “But if these artifacts are so powerful and so many people are trying to use them for evil, wouldn’t it be better to just destroy the artifacts.”
“They’re indestructible,” Vance said. “Many good shifters over the years have had the same idea and have tried, using every method imaginable, to destroy the objects. No one has succeeded, though, and several have actually died trying. Eventually, most shifters decided that it’s safer to protect them than to try to destroy them. Plus, as long as the artifacts still exist, there’s still the possibility of using them to defend the good shifters.”
“I suppose,” Lily said. “It just sounds like, from everything I’ve heard, that the artifacts often cause more harm than good.”
“Sometimes,” Vance said. “But there have been times that the artifacts have really saved the day. Anyway, it’s not up to me. Knox is the clan leader right now, so it’s up to him what we do with the artifacts. He wants them kept in the vaults and guarded, so that’s what we do.”
Lily seemed satisfied with this answer, and they continued on in silence again for a while. After a few hours of hiking, they emerged at the top of a rocky cliff near the top of one of the mountains, and Vance made his way to what looked like a solid wall of rock. He ran his fingers across it, searching, until he found what he was looking for. In the middle of the wall, blending in so well that it was almost invisible, was a small button. When Vance pushed it, there was a sudden series of beeps, and then a computer chirped, “Fingerprint verified.”
Vance pushed the wall then, and the whole thing swung slowly inward, revealing a dark cave behind it. If you had not known it was there, you would never have found it. Vance motioned to Lily to join him, and she gasped as she stepped toward the entrance. Vance couldn’t help but smile, remembering that he had reacted similarly when he had seen this vault for the first time as a small boy. This was the oldest vault, and it was filled to the brim with what looked like some sort of strange medieval treasure chest. Swords, spears, helmets, armo
r, jewels, crowns, shields and more were piled haphazardly in the dank room. When the light from outside hit the piles, they glittered irresistibly. Although this vault was the hardest to reach, it was Vance’s favorite. When you stepped in here, you felt like you were stepping back in time—back to the days when dragons ruled the earth. This vault always filled Vance with a certain feeling of reverence. It must have done the same for Lily, because she looked around with wide eyes for several long moments. Vance smiled as she took it in, admiring the way her eyes reflected back the light of the gold.
“It’s incredible,” she finally said, her voice little more than a whisper.
“I know,” Vance said, stating the obvious. There wasn’t much else to say.
“Knox is right. It would be a crime to destroy all of this, even if it were possible,” Lily said. “It’s too bad it has to be hidden away like this.”
“I never really thought about it that way,” Vance said. “I guess I’ve always just taken it as a given that a treasure like this had to remain under wraps. You’re right, though. It is a bit of a shame.”
Lily stepped into the cave, pausing several times as though she wanted to examine every last item. When she had finally seen her fill, she turned and walked back to join Vance at the front of the cave.
“How many vaults are there?” she asked.
“Five in total,” he said. “But this one is the oldest and biggest. We add a new vault any time one vault runs out of room, and the fifth vault was just added last year. It’s nearly empty now, but I hope to see it filled to the brim during my lifetime.”
“You want to fill a whole vault in your lifetime?” Lily asked, sounding surprised. “How many ancient dragon artifacts are out there, exactly? It seems like at some point you would run out of artifacts to search for.”
“No one knows for sure, but there are probably thousands and thousands more than what we’ve found already. They were all made during ancient times, when the ancient dragons were trying to preserve their supernatural powers in these special objects. For centuries, the majority of them were hidden in plain sight, spread all over the world in different locations. Some were in museums. The curators thought they were just plain old ancient items of gold or precious metal. Some were wasting away in ruins of ancient cities. Some were held as family heirlooms by people who had no idea that the heirlooms were as powerful as they are. In the old days, we only found items when a shifter realized that an artifact had power and tried to use it for evil. We’d swoop in and try to steal it away from them. But advances in technology and electronic research have made it easier to find the objects. Unfortunately, a lot of evil shifters know this, too. We don’t do much research on our own to find artifacts. We just follow tips on shifters who have found something. We let them do the hard work of finding and recovering an artifact, then we swoop in and take it from them, bringing it back here for safekeeping.”
“Don’t you worry someone will find and use an artifact before you can get to them?” Lily asked.
Vance shrugged. “We worry about a lot of things. But we’re good at what we do, and we haven’t lost an object yet. The closest we’ve come to losing an artifact was with the dragon stones, but even those turned out okay in the end.”
Lily nodded, then stepped completely out of the cave so that Vance could shut the door. He used his finger to secure the door again, and the computer chirped perkily as it said, “Vault locked.”
“How does that work?” Lily asked.
“It’s a state of the art fingerprint reader,” Vance said. “It’s specially designed to read body temperature, too, so you can’t use a fake print that you lifted from somewhere. It has to be an actual, human finger that the print belongs to. The reader is programmed with the prints of all the Redwood Dragons, and now of Bree as well. We can add your print later, too, if you want. But, as you can see, the door itself is hard to see, and the sensor itself is even harder to find. It’s pretty unlikely that anyone who didn’t know what they were looking for would find it. And even if they did find it, they wouldn’t be able to trick the sensor into thinking they had the right fingerprint. On top of all that, the spells Bree put on the vault should offer additional protection. Speaking of which, you said you can test the spells, right? Do you want to go ahead and do that?”
“Yup. But you’ll want to come over and stand right next to me first. If she used the spells I think she did, we’re going to want to throw up a shield spell first.”
Vance cocked an eyebrow at Lily. “Are you sure this is safe?” he asked.
Lily smiled. “I cast one of the best shield spells you’ll ever see. As long as you stick with me, you’ll be fine.”
Vance smiled. Lily was unbelievably sexy when she showed her confident side. She was standing tall and proud, gesturing for him to come stand by her. He happily obliged.
“You’ll need to get as close to me as possible, so that the shield covers us both,” Lily said. “The best thing to do is stand behind me with your chest pressed against my back, then wrap your arms around me so that your body is pressed up flat against mine.”
Vance grinned as he stepped behind her and pulled her into a big bear hug. “Don’t mind if I do,” he teased, nuzzling her neck.
Lily laughed, but wriggled her arms free. “Very funny,” she said. “But I’ll need my arms free. Try to behave, and stay inside of the shield. I’d rather not have to drag you back to base camp dead or mortally wounded.”
“That sounds ominous,” Vance said. He pushed his body up against Lily’s back, then held still dutifully and said, “Ready.”
Lily nodded, then raised her ringed hand high above her head. Vance let his eyebrows travel upward, and he saw a beam of sunlight glinting off the deep onyx stone.
“Magicae arma,” Lily yelled. Instantly, what felt like a large force field surrounded the two of them. Everything became strangely blurry, almost as though Vance was viewing it from underwater. Sounds were muffled, too, and Vance knew that Lily’s shield spell was going strong. He’d barely had time to look around through the blurriness, though, before Lily was yelling out another spell.
“Magicae revelabit,” Lily’s voice called out, strangely clear since she was inside the shield with Vance. As soon as Lily had spoken these words, Vance felt as though all hell was breaking loose. The force field shield felt like it was being pelted by some sort of large metal objects. Flashes of light could be seen shooting forth from the vault’s door, and Vance guessed that they were some sort of laser beam. A burning, acrid smell filled his nose, and he could see what looked like small flames licking against the door of the vault.
Lily was looking around, her gaze moving rapidly from right to left as she took in the action around them. Her ringed hand was still held high above her head, the shield charm shooting thickly around them. When Lily finally seemed satisfied that she had seen everything, she yelled out, “Revelabit terminantur.”
Almost instantly, the chaos stopped. The laser beams vanished, the metal pounding ended, and the acrid smell vanished. The ground was still on fire, though, and Lily frowned as she began to lower her hand.
“Arma terminantur,” she yelled. Instantly, the shield around them vanished. Vance had a sensation like he was coming up from underwater, and suddenly everything was clear again. The blurriness disappeared, and the sounds of the forest were sharp once more.
“Magicae aqua,” Lily said, pointing her magic ring toward the flames. A stream of water spewed forth from her ring and doused the flames, sending sizzling little wisps of steam up from the ground. The earth was charred and black, and Lily frowned as she took in the damage.
“Aqua terminantur,” Lily said. The water from her ring stopped flowing, and then she said, “Magicae sarcio.”
A bright beam of light shot forth from the ring and everywhere Lily pointed the beam the earth was instantly renewed. The charred earth disappeared and was replaced by soft, healthy soil.
“Sarcio terminantur,” Lily said. The
white beam stopped, and Lily turned to look at Vance with a furrowed brow.
“That was a repairing spell,” she said. “I don’t want to leave the forest a mess.”
Vance whistled. “You’re quite talented,” he said.
Lily smiled. “Thanks. So is Bree. She did her job quite well. That’s quite a cocktail of protective spells she whipped up. Anyone who does find the vault door and try to break in will be in for a rude surprise.”
Vance shook his head in amazement. He felt slightly overwhelmed as he looked over at Lily. She hid quite a lot of power under that calm, sweet exterior. “You are something else,” he said. “Come on. Let’s go check the other vaults.”
They spent the rest of the day hiking through the redwoods together, making the rounds to all of the other hidden vaults. Vance checked each one, using his fingerprints to enter and check the contents. The vaults all appeared untouched and undisturbed, and by the time they left the fourth vault, Vance was feeling a bit more confident about the future of the Redwood Dragons.
“Maybe the evil shifters and wizards found the base camp thanks to Samuel’s treason,” he said. “But they still don’t know where any of the vaults are. These things are nearly impossible to find if you don’t know what you’re looking for.”
At the fifth and final vault, they again found no signs of intrusion. As she had at each of the previous vaults, Lily tested the protective spells that Bree had cast and found them to be in good working order. By the time they turned to leave the fifth vault, the shadows were growing long.
Summer and the Dragon (Redwood Dragons Book 2) Page 9