As we approached, I began to appreciate just how massive the towers were. This tower was one hundred times the width of the largest tower on Waibibi. Its lowest level was entirely open on one side and probably a hundred feet high and twice that in width.
As we made our slow steady approach, I received a good view of the many dragons that waited for us in the landing area.
It had been a bit of a shock seeing two dragons, but in this small space, there were probably thirty. And, as Pax flew in and lowered his legs to the ground, I realized that every dragon in this area, aside from Pax, was a wyvern.
Pax didn’t release me after landing, his head slowly turned, facing each of the wyverns in turn, as they all looked on at us.
There was a loud, bark like growl sound, and simultaneously all of the dragons thrust off the ground and flew for the open door.
Alone in the hanger with us, the Wyvern High Rex made a sort-of chattering sound, then turned away. He took off, flying into the building, his wingspan just short enough to manage it without hitting the sides. Pax lumbered forward, still clutching me in his arms. At a large atrium in the center of the building, the Wyvern Rex waited for us. He sat, his head resting on his wing as if he couldn’t be more annoyed by our pace. The moment we reached him, his legs thrust him back into the air and Pax followed him.
My stomach dropped as we flew straight up, zooming past several landing areas to the top floor of the tower. When Pax and Wyvern Senior settled on the stone floor, Pax finally set me down. I held onto him for balance as I moved the coats to hang from my hands, as far from my sweaty, overheated body as possible.
“Oh my gods, it is so hot,” I whispered as my skin seemed to peel away from itself as I unfolded my legs and stood straight.
Pax nudged me gently, and I put a hand on his arm as we approached a dark-blue dragon. I had to look up, and then up, and then up some more. The dragon looked as if he barely fit under the probably hundred-foot high ceiling. Ever-so-slowly, its head—the size of a house—lowered and the huge dragon crouched into a deep bow. Pax nodded his head at the immense dragon, but Wyvern Rex Senior did not acknowledge the bow.
Pax’s head came down, stopping me from walking forward. Gently, he pulled the coats from my arms with his teeth, and turned away. They turned toward a large archway and I started to follow them when the High Rex made a loud chattering sound. A moment later, a leg wider than a tree landed in front of me.
I craned my neck to look up at the giant dragon, and it nodded at me slowly.
“Okay, I’ll just wait here… I guess,” I said.
A minute later, I heard Wyvern Rex Senior’s voice call out, “Dakota, come.”
The blue-shimmering tree trunk leg lifted away to reveal Pax and Wyvern Rex Senior, standing central under the giant archway. Heavy fur coats wrapped around each of them, only their drake-serpent leather shoes showed beneath, which must have been wrapped in the coats. I cringed to think that I could have accidently let one of those drop while we flew.
Though I didn’t let myself run, I lifted the heavy skirt of the gown I was still wearing and rushed forward to them. “Aren’t you dying?”
Pax shook his head. “Perhaps a little too warm, but on the surface these will barely suffice.”
I wiped sweat from my face and onto my sleeve. “Couldn’t be soon enough for me.”
“This way.” The High Rex gestured through the archway and into a giant gallery.
As we walked, I turned to Pax. “What kingdom are we in?”
“Hydria is in no kingdom; it is neutral and has consulates for all the kingdoms.”
“Hydria, like Hydra?” I asked. Hydra dracons were particularly nasty as, like their dragon forefathers, most had the ability to grow multiple heads.
“Exactly like the Hydra.”
Through the entrance stood dozens of large pools of lava, all equally spaced throughout the room. Other dragons walked along the long corridors between pools, but the moment they saw us, they bowed low and took off, flying for the archway.
“It’s this one,” Wyvern Rex senior said, pointing to a lava pool.
“She came from Mailua,” Pax said.
“That is precisely why we should enter through Mailua’s volcano.”
“There could be an army waiting for us.”
“I relish facing an army of dracons, don’t you?”
“I thought we were attempting to prevent war, not incite it.”
A squirming sensation started in my stomach and crawled up to my throat. “Um, your Highnesses… I can’t wade into lava.”
They had been continuing to argue, but they silenced. They each looked between me and the pool of lava.
After a prolonged silence, Pax said, “Portals do not require much contact.”
“She will hang her hair in,” the High Rex said.
“It takes less than thirty seconds to burn hair.”
“Her dress then, it is resistant to fire, is it not?”
“It is, but the portal would simply take the dress.”
I looked down to my already cut hand, which had stopped bleeding but still sent twinges of pain up my arm. Taking a deep breath, I steadied myself and said, “I have a high heat tolerance.”
Pax’s eyelids narrowed on me. “Lava is twice as hot as the core of a fire.”
“You are welcome to return with me to my keep, instead. I already plan to send my best soldiers and all of my infected to find a solution to save my son.”
“I’ll save him. And anyway, you have no right to take me anymore… I’m not in a contract with… oh gods.” I squeezed my eyes shut.
“Yes, Dakota. You have to be the one to save him, or I have every right to take you and hold you for the remainder of your life. And, I do expect a bow on your head.”
“Okay, I’m doing this… who goes first? Or do we go all at once?” I asked.
“Never try to go through a portal simultaneously with someone else.” Pax gave me a serious, meaningful look.
“Got it.”
“I will wait with Dakota.” Wyvern Rex Senior took a step toward me.
I stepped back so Pax was partially between us. “No thanks. Um, how about you go first? Or, I will…”
“I will enter first, but we will all enter through Mailua.”
“Agreed.”
He gave me a grin before the High Rex of all wyvern dragons waded into the pool of lava.
Pax turned to me, and even though his face looked no older than twenty-five, thousands of years reflected in his eyes. “I wish you had not dealt with him.”
“Me neither, I obviously didn’t really think through all the details. But, I’m going to save Wyvern. Also, the High Rex doesn’t know that I keep a portal to Wyvern on me always. So even if he tries to stop me, which I don’t think he will… I can always escape to save Wyvern.”
“I see.” Pax nodded, the slightest hint of amusement touching his eyes. “I will be moments behind you and then we will go save George.”
“Thank you, Great-grandfather,” I said.
“What a mouthful, you can call me Pax.”
“I already am in my head.” I held out my uninjured hand. “Can I squeeze your hand if it hurts?”
He took my hand in his heated one.
“Okay,” I whispered, kneeling down by the side of the pool.
“You are already squeezing my hand,” Pax mused.
“Sorry.” I released my grip.
“I do not mind. I believe that if you simply press your palm onto the lava, it will be enough. I will count for you, count along with my if you can. Do it now,” he said gently.
Taking a deep inhale, I leaned down over the pool and placed my hand onto the lava’s surface. A shot of pain reverberated up my arm and immediately I pulled my hand back.
“Go again.”
Tears fell from my eyes, hissing on the lava’s surface. I turned over my hand to see that it wasn’t burnt.
Fire could kill dracons; I’d heard of it happe
ning before. I had been taught all my life that we weren’t fire-resistant the way dragons were, nor were we water-resistant, the way humans were. Instead, we cross-breeds were a little resistant to both. Though as I could survive a fire portal, and not a water portal, my hope was that dracons were more resistant to fire.
Pax spoke with the same easy patience he had before when he repeated, “Go again.”
Taking another deep inhale, I place my hand on the lava’s surface again.
“One.”
The pain was like a thousand needles feeding up my hand and through my blood stream. Tears, and now snot streamed down my face as my breaths came faster and faster.
Why don’t you do something to distract yourself? Sing a song perhaps? Now, six…”
“Drowning in buckets of beer…” I groaned out the last word. “Now… now… I have no… fear…”
“Sixteen.”
“I told the barmaid to pour me another… she said ‘No sir, you’re already a bother’.” I screamed the last word.
Pax released my hand. “Thirty.”
The portal room vanished around me. In the split second while being pulled through the portal, I was stretched into infinity and as thin as a cord.
My eyes flew open as every part of me was seared with pain. An arm wrapped around me and I was yanked upward and out of another lava pool.
“Your hair is on fire.” A hand fisted in my hair and squeezed, before releasing.
My vision came in blurry as I blinked up at Wyvern Rex Senior, who was still holding me by my waist over the lava pit. “Um… thanks,” I said.
He took a step back and out of the pool, setting me down onto a stone floor.
I glanced around at the small stone building we stood in. It was like a giant stone shaft. High above, stars winked down through the large square hole where there was no roof. Otherwise, the room was large and featureless. “So this is what the portals on the volcanoes look like?”
“The Mabiian Island portals are some of the least decorative.”
“I’m sure they’re entirely utilitarian.”
“You’ve never come here?” He straightened his fur coat as he spoke, pulling it down to his wrists. He was always pale as ivory, but somehow, he looked even paler out here on the surface.
“Avoided this place like swim club.”
“Swim club… Adorable,” the High Rex drawled.
There was a ripple in the lava pool, and I turned to see Pax’s head break the surface. He walked out leisurely and gracefully. As he stepped over the lip of the pool, his gaze met mine. “Are you all right?”
I glanced down at my hand. Along the long shallow cut, my hand was red and raw, but the burn had not broken through my first layer of skin. It ached, but that hand was the only place that hurt. “It will heal.” I met his gaze again. “Am I burnt anywhere else?”
“Your hair is a little singed, aside from that, you look healthier than you did in the Kingdoms.” He didn’t. His pallor was even more altered than the Rex’s, almost sickly compared to how radiant he had been in the Dragon Kingdoms.
“Okay, so how do we get out of here?”
“As we are not flying, we must climb the staircase.” Wyvern Senior gestured to what I thought was a solid wall. As we walked along it, I saw that it was an optical illusion. When we reached the end of the wall, a small gap as wide as a large human separated the walls.
The staircase was equally narrow, definitely not wide enough to fight in. I’m sure it was designed to discourage an ambush of newly arrived dragons.
“It’s so dark,” I said, only able to see the first couple of stairs.
“The last time I was here there were lit sconces all along the walls.” Pax looked around, and I wondered if he was as night blind as I was.
“I do not need it to see, but there is one of those human switches on the wall.”
“Light switches?” I asked, feeling the walls. The stone warmed my fingers until I finally felt the hot metal. I yanked my hand away. “Would you mind? I am so over burning myself today.”
Wyvern Rex Senior stepped up and flicked the switch on. A long, low line of halogen lights blinked on overhead lighting the narrow stone stairway with a greenish glow.
“How many flights of stairs are there?” I asked.
“Only seven,” the High Rex said as he began to climb.
After what I’d gone through in the last several hours, climbing seven stories of stairs sounded almost as excruciating as touching the lava. That was a lie; I’d had a lot of injuries in my life, and nothing was as excruciating as touching the lava.
My muscles burned as I followed the Wyvern Rex’s graceful hurried steps up the stone stairs. I gave up trying to keep up with him at the second landing.
Halting, I dropped the skirt of my dress and gathered it again by rolling it up my leg with my good hand.
Wyvern Senior descended, looking at me with a put-upon expression on his face. “You are as slow as your forebears.”
“My dress weighs like thirty pounds, and I can only use one sweaty hand to hold up the skirt.”
“Do you want me to carry you up?”
“If anyone is carrying my great-granddaughter, it will not be you.” Pax stepped up beside me, glaring at the High Rex.
“With your gait, that would end up taking up even more time.”
I held up my free hand. “I’m fine, let’s just…keep going.”
Pax nodded and the High Rex spun on his heel and practically flew up the staircase. I lost sight of him before going seven steps.
“Thank the gods,” I whispered.
“Do not assume he is out of earshot for he is not.”
“Fine, I need to save my breath anyway.” We climbed the rest of the staircase in silence, though Pax’s reassuring presence remained directly behind me. As we rounded the last landing, I saw the High Rex leaning casually against the wall at the top of the stairs.
“Thank you for waiting for us,” Pax drawled as we stepped up next to the High Rex.
He looked at us, almost bored. “I thought that we should make our entrance together as there is a large army of vampires waiting at the top of the volcano.”
Chapter Twenty-nine
“How would they know that we’re coming?” I whispered in a hushed voice. I pressed my back into the stone wall.
“Someone told them,” Wyvern Senior said.
“Thanks,” I whispered, dryly which made Pax chuckle.
“They probably expect to only see me. They’re pretty intent on killing me.”
“Are they working with the agents that betrayed you?”
“I don’t… I don’t think so. The last time the vampires attacked me, one of their friends died, and Sophie almost died. And Sophie and Sarah’s emotions would have shown something, I think, if they had expected the attack. I think the vampires and the humans’ attacks were separate… but I could be very wrong.”
Pax nodded slowly. “Then they are likely in league with a dragon.”
“What makes you think that?”
“If they didn’t hear about you going in, then they likely learned about you going out.”
“Unless one of my uncles leaked it…” I sighed.
“Perhaps.”
Wyvern Senior rolled his head back, looking like the teenage jocks at my old school who would act as if life was just so boring for them. “Could we stop talking and go kill the vampires?”
“I’m not going to kill anyone. The moment we step out of here I’m teleporting Dakota to safety.”
The High Rex snorted derisively, shaking his head.
“I’ll teleport you too, if you ask me nicely.”
“I have no interest in asking for favors from Rexes who turn from battle.”
“Then you can find us when you’re finished.”
“Wait—why didn’t we teleport before the seven stories of stairs?” I whispered at Pax.
“This…” he tapped his foot, “…is neutral territory as well.
We need to step outside before we use any of our aspects.”
“Wow, I kind of knew it already, but you guys are such serious rule followers.”
Pax’s gaze fixed on the High Rex. “We need to be.”
Wyvern Senior looked up to the ceiling. “Just go then, so I can transform.”
“I believe killing all these vampires is not advisable,” Pax said.
“First, you are neither my advisor nor my peer, and as such, I do not take your thoughts into consideration. Second, I am not doing it because it is wise, I am doing it for my entertainment.”
“Of course, Your Highness. And, now that I think on it, civil wars usually don’t last more than fifty years.”
The High Rex’s eyelids narrowed on Pax, and then rapidly fixed on different points in the stone hallway. “Fine. I will allow you to teleport me after Dakota, but if any vampires attack in the interim, I will kill them.”
I followed Pax when he gestured toward the small stone room the staircase led into, and the heavy metal door that enclosed it.
“How does he know there are vampires out there?” I whispered to Pax.
“I smell them… and hear them,” Wyvern drawled from right behind me, making me jump.
“We will take our leave of you, High Rex.” Pax bowed shallowly and nudged me.
“Oh.” I bowed much deeper.
“That is acceptable,” the High Rex said, leaning against the stone wall.
“Thank you.” Pax didn’t grin, but I could almost feel his hidden smirk.
Pax put both hands on the large metal door and pushed it outwards.
The moment the metal door was open, a gunshot cracked through the air. Pax grabbed me around the waist and jumped through the doorway. I saw one second of moonlight reflecting off hundreds of pallid faces, and then the volcano vanished.
My feet hit the floor, and I toppled forward. I couldn’t stop the loud grunt I made as the floor came up at me. My hands came up just in time to catch me, but my knees hit hard. I looked over my shoulder to glare at Pax, but he was gone.
“Dakota!” yelled a familiar voice.
I raised my head to see that I was in a very familiar room surrounded across from several very familiar dracons. Standing before the hearth in my grandfather’s large hearth room were seven of my uncles, among them Reeves and Glacier. And I was crouched on all fours.
Rex (Dakota Kekoa Book 2) Page 28