"Sign me up," said Brassy. "I've been feeling rather useless lately."
My heart broke at seeing her eagerness to help, and at knowing that I was putting her in the worst danger. I hugged her and kissed her on the forehead.
"It's best if you two stay out of the way," I said to Brassy and my daughter. "Find somewhere along the tunnel to take shelter. The wolves of shadow would not attack me on the plains, which suggests that Veles has given them strict orders. I can use those orders against them and block them from the tunnel."
I knew what Ben was thinking as soon as my eyes lay upon him. A crack the width of a cannon ball went up the side of the tunnel and overhead.
"If that were wider," said Ben, gesturing above him, "I could suspend myself over the serpent until its head was positioned beneath me and drop upon it, thrusting the spear into its skull."
"Sometimes the simplest plan is the best plan," I said.
"But the crack's not wide enough," he said.
"I could make it wider," said Ana from the side of the tunnel. "You can see the way the stone is ripping apart. If I apply magical force to the base, the rest should split in two."
We joined her at the crack. After a brief review, Ben nodded in agreement.
"Good work," I said, "but let me do it. I don't want to risk you."
Ana grumbled. "You need to save your strength for the battle with the serpent. Let me help. You're always making decisions for me."
"Anastasia, there's no time for disagreements. Get out of the way and let me do this," I said.
Her face tightened like a noose and then fell into brokenhearted sadness, and in that moment, I saw the young woman I had wronged so many years ago.
With no time for apologies, I placed my hands on the stone and willed it to break in two. At first, the stone resisted me. I doubled my efforts, and the base of the crack popped, splitting further apart.
The tunnel shook, sending down dust and pebbles onto our heads. A section of the wall broke off, landing heavily to my right. Had anyone been standing there, they would have been crushed.
"If the Great One didn't know you were here before, it knows now," said Ben as he tied the spear to his belt.
Ben cracked his knuckles in one smooth motion before thrusting his shoulders into the space between the rocks. He pulled himself up like a man climbing a chimney, shimmying upward at a great speed. As he moved, the energy contained within his body pushed against his skin, making him glow faintly.
A bellowing roar echoed through the tunnel. The Jörmungandr was on the hunt. I could feel it trying to wedge its way into my mind, so I pushed back. I wasn't sure how long I would be able to keep up my resistance.
"Ana, Brassy. Climb onto this ledge," I said, holding out my hands to boost them up.
Brassy took my help, while Ana struggled up the wall, finally making it up on her own, glaring down at me after she'd made it.
Regardless of the incoming dangers, I couldn't help but think about my difficulties in allowing people to help me. Even months ago, when Rowan and I were trekking across the snowy mountains, I'd tried to climb up the cliff alone, despite Rowan's offers of help.
This defect was the heart of my failures with Ana. Rather than speak to her about Anton's comments at court, I became his judge and jury. No wonder she'd sided with him—I'd left her out of the decision making process. Suddenly my heart was not in the fight.
Ben shouted from his perch above, "The Jörmungandr is coming!"
A great wind was blowing through the tunnel, heralding its arrival. I almost forgot my role until the howls of the shadow wolves woke me from my stupor.
I ran to the side tunnel, which led to Ice Lake, and placed myself at the head to block the sajhingatti from interfering. As they grew nearer, their howls turned my guts to water. Something in the tone told me that things would be different this time.
Focused on the sajhingatti, I forgot to keep my defenses up. The Great One bore down on my psyche, crushing my resistance. I was rendered immobile by the fight for consciousness. Shapes moved in the darkness in the tunnel, shifting like rocks bouncing across ice.
The sajhingatti were not slowing. Their alien howls made me cringe. I could hear their eagerness, their expectation of the kill. The first one was not twenty feet away, and I was still locked in combat with the Great One.
"Mother!"
Ana's cry gave me the will to survive, and I knocked the beast's mental attack back. I ran back into the tunnel and scrambled up the side, right as the shadow wolf leapt. After a brief vertical scurry, using magic to enhance my leaps, I hugged the wall at a place about twenty feet up.
But now I was completely vulnerable to the Great One's approach. It could crush me against the stone at its leisure. And my new location meant it wouldn't slide beneath Ben, who was hidden in the crack in the ceiling of the tunnel with Gungnir.
I'd made a terrible mistake, and now we were all going to die.
Chapter Forty
The great serpent, illuminated by the flickering lanterns left on either side of the tunnel, saw me trapped by the sajhingatti and shifted towards Ana and Brassy. Their ledge was further along the tunnel in the shadows, but the Jörmungandr moved towards them unerringly, its tongue flickering out as it tasted the air.
The beast curled away from Ben's hidden location, then came at my daughter and Brassy directly. Its great bulk shook the earth as it moved. The sajhingatti beneath me made no move to interfere, as if they'd worked out their plan ahead of time. Their behavior confirmed that Veles was behind the Great One's actions.
"No!" I cried, trying to push into the beast's mind, but it was like trying to run through granite. It only gave me a headache.
Ana shot a thin line of sorcery into the great eye of the serpent, forcing it to turn aside at the last moment. The reprieve didn't last long. Seconds later, the serpent was back on them, lifting its massive head to snap them from the ledge with its toothy mouth.
As it slid forward, taking its time in execution of the deed, Brassy reached out with her glass fist and punched the serpent in the nose. To my great surprise, it reared back, visibly in agony from what seemed like a simple act.
These small defiances meant nothing. The Jörmungandr would not be denied by beings onethousandth of its size. We were trapped. We'd been fools to attempt to slay this mythical beast.
I threw my sorcery at it, hoping to distract it, but the sajhingatti absorbed it, making horrible, pleasured cries as my magic disappeared into their shadowy bodies. My powers were useless against them.
But they were creatures just the same, even if they affected the world in different ways. Otherwise they would have swum through the stone or flown through the air. I spied a crumbled portion of the ledge I clung to, and after using a spit of magic to draw one of the sajhingatti near, I blew up the rock. The force of the explosion sent the wolf flying into the serpent.
The Jörmungandr may have been a beast of colossal size, but even the touch of the sajhingatti affected it. As the shadow wolf touched the massive scales, it disintegrated into smaller shadows like black silken butterflies exploding. The serpent, who had been advancing on Ana, threw itself across the tunnel as if it were no larger than a piece of rope.
It slammed into the wall. A part of the ledge I was standing on cracked, throwing me down onto the ground amidst the remaining wolves of shadow. The beasts were busy mourning for the loss of their brethren with gravelly howls, but they turned on me right as I gained my feet.
The serpent, enraged by the contact with the sajhingatti, turned its massive head towards me and burst forward like a cobra striking, its lips pulled back to expose stalagmite-sized fangs.
The wolves, who had their backs to the Jörmungandr, had no time to react. I took two steps to the right, away from Ana and Brassy, and threw myself with my sorcery as if I were merely a chip of clay being tossed across a room.
I went flying the moment before the great serpent crashed into the tunnel wall, smashing the sto
ne into dust. Along the way, it annihilated the remaining sajhingatti, and the contact created a larger chain reaction. The serpent, now mad with pain, thrashed back and forth.
I worried for Ana, for Brassy, for Ben, but I could do nothing for them but try to get out of the way of the creature. Rock and dust flew in my face as I scrambled towards the tunnel that went back to the bed of the lake.
The lanterns had been demolished, so I threw a wave of light into the tunnel. Ana and Brassy were nowhere to be seen. Their ledge had been pulverized. Nothing was left.
Something small and screaming dropped from the ceiling, right as the Jörmungandr turned to face me. Ben landed on its head and in one smooth motion, using all the might given to him by Rowan, jammed the fabled spear into the serpent's skull.
The creature screamed again, tormented by the continued abuse, and threw Ben off its back. He flew into the darkness. The serpent's thrashing would surely crush him.
"Ben!" I cried, fearing the worst.
The spear was stuck in the serpent's scaly head, but doing nothing more than wobbling back and forth as the creature battered itself against the tunnel wall in pain. Hisses issued from its great mouth, and then upon seeing me standing at the head of the tunnel, the creature burst forward in an attempt to snap me up before I could escape.
Chapter Forty-One
There are certain dreams that everyone has. The ones in which they are scrambling to get away from some fearsome, toothy beast. Maybe they are out in the forest, or possibly in the safety of their own home. But they know the beast is coming for them, and they can do nothing to avoid it, and every frantic step seems to do nothing more than beat time for their eventual death.
As the great serpent came after me and I scrambled up the slick stone pathway, feet flying out from under me at each step, I was certain that I would not get away. Cries of terror flew from my lips as I pulled myself, hand and knee and foot, up the slope.
If I tore a fingernail, or bruised a knee, or bloodied a palm, it was nothing compared to what was behind me. During those long few seconds, I was certain the Jörmungandr would snap me in half, that my last moments would be dangling from its toothy maw before it swallowed me in bloody pieces.
When the serpent thrust itself into the side tunnel, it did not fit completely, and its mouth snapped shut only inches behind me. Clearly the Jörmungandr had once passed through this way, but it had grown larger, and it did not fit as smoothly.
The tunnel was tall enough, but the serpent's girth scraped against the stone. The dim light showed its massive head surging forward, the spear wobbling on top like a weather vane.
As I ran up the slope, the creature pushed forward, thrusting itself further into the side tunnel. I barely stayed ahead of the serpent in its quest to devour me.
When I reached the empty lake, I knew I was doomed. There was no way I would reach the gate before the serpent caught me, so I went the other way, hugging the wall so it wouldn't see me in the freezing gloom beneath the ice sky.
As the Jörmungandr pushed through the tunnel, the shaking of the earth cracked the ice. Sheets fell from the bottom like flaky layers of bread to float through the air until they shattered on the ground. The vibration made ice crystals break loose in fits and starts.
The serpent, upon its entrance to the lake bed, headed straight towards the village, expecting to catch me there. But I'd gone the other way. Maybe I could climb up the walls and break through the ice and escape that way. Or maybe I could wait until the serpent's endless body had left the tunnel and I could double back, which would give me a chance to know the others' fate.
I tried to climb the nearest wall, but the slick frozen earth made finding purchase almost impossible. I was a decent climber, but this was too difficult. Even the nearly flat ledges were made treacherous by a thin glaze of ice that must have been deposited when the lake was drained.
From across the lake bed, I heard the destruction of the village as the great serpent crushed the buildings like straw. Then I felt its probes in my mind. It knew it had gone the wrong way.
"Mother!"
Ana was running across the uneven ground, half-stumbling, to reach me. Her forehead was slick with blood.
She threw herself in my arms.
"Anastasia," I said, crushing her against me.
"I thought you were dead," she said.
"And I you, but we have no more time. The Jörmungandr is coming this way. You should run before it gets here. It wants me, not you," I said.
"Stop pushing me away," said Ana fiercely.
"I'm not pushing—"
Ana wiped the blood from her forehead. "Stop. Stop trying to do everything for me. I'm not a child anymore. Let me help you."
"But it makes sense for you to run. I'm out of options. The spear didn't kill it, and I fear that Ben and Brassy are dead," I said as I glanced into the darkness, feeling the vibrations in the earth, knowing the great serpent wasn't far away. "Better that one of us survive."
Ana grabbed my hand, determination a beacon in her eyes. "We're both surviving."
I opened my mouth but I didn't know what to say. I'd never been more proud and terrified in my life. We faced the Jörmungandr, the serpent who heralded the end of times, together.
Before it reached us, I felt its presence enter my mind. I tried to push back, but I'd used up the Uthlaylaa magic.
"You're a troublesome thing," it said. "I'm afraid I cannot allow you to live, no matter what Veles desires."
I tried to dislodge the beast from my mind, but it was like trying to keep a storm from rolling in. All I could do was scream and rage.
"So this is your daughter," it said. "I think I shall cause you some pain for what you've done to me."
"No..." The word trickled out of my mouth.
I let go of Ana's hand and tried to push her away, but she kept grabbing my arm.
Then I was no longer in control of my body. My hands found her neck. Her eyes bulged as I squeezed. She beat at my arms. Spittle formed on her lips. Her blows might have normally dislodged me, but the Jörmungandr was forcing me to continue despite the pain.
"No!" I was able to cry.
Ana was not going quietly. She fought against my stranglehold, getting gasps of air. I couldn't imagine that she could fight much longer.
"You both share the same will, but it cannot stop this," said the serpent.
The creature tapped into my well of magic. I felt sorcery flood to my arms. Only my supreme effort kept me from turning my daughter into a conflagration of melted flesh.
But my energy faded. I couldn't withstand the great serpent much longer. Like a flooding river ready to spill its banks, my magic approached Ana's tender neck.
The sky exploded in that instant. The heavens split, sending massive plates of ice tumbling towards the bottom, exploding like bombs. Through the gap flew the dragon Tugain, wings spread, fire licking from her lips. She fell upon the Jörmungandr, rending its flesh with her brutal talons.
Chapter Forty-Two
Released from the horrible connection to the serpent, I fell onto Ana. We lay on the cold earth as the shrieks and cries of a battle filled the empty lake bed.
Tugain's fiery breaths briefly illuminated the fight. She'd torn a huge strip of flesh away from the serpent. Scales hung off the bloody hunk.
Despite the damage, the Jörmungandr was holding its own. It appeared unaffected by the wounds and was striking at the dragon, who had to leap out of the way, using its wings for speed. The great serpent's whole body was in the lake bed, curled from the tunnel around to the front and back to our location. It had to be over a kilometer long, which gave it a massive reach.
Moonlight flooded into the gap in the lake ice. The ice ceiling was at least a few meters thick. Only a third of the sky had fallen, which was good for us since we would have been crushed had a chunk hit us.
The massive ice pillars that held up the ice lake remained. The dragon had crashed through a section, and a hole between th
e pillars had been knocked out. Huge chunks of ice lay scattered about the lake bed. The great serpent pulverized them into snow as it thrashed about.
Ana tugged me towards the tunnel. "We should escape while we can."
"No," I said. "We need to help Tugain. This might be our only chance to finish this."
"How are we going to kill it?" she asked.
Between the moonlight and the flame, I saw something metallic glitter on the serpent's head.
"The spear's still there. If we could just hit it again, like a stake, we might drive it into the skull," I said.
"Even together we don't have enough magic for that," said Ana.
"We need something heavier," I said.
We both looked up at the same time. Without speaking, we took off at a run towards the same ice pillar. The blue-black ice glittered with the reflection of orangish-red flames, making it appear it was almost on fire. But that was just an illusion.
The dragon had torn another section out of the serpent's side, this time near the head. The Jörmungandr was moving slower now. It had expended a lot of energy pushing its way into the lake bed, and the wolves of shadow had taken their toll.
We were halfway to our destination when the serpent's massive body curled towards us. The undulating body would crush us like insects.
We dove into a crevice, right as the body slipped over us. I pulled Ana back down when she tried to get up right away. The second section rippled past, throwing frozen mud in our faces.
As the battle shifted away from us, we got up and continued our run. We reached the ice pillar, right as the dragon screamed. The serpent had thrown Tugain across the lake into the frozen wall. Tugain was getting up slowly. One wing was damaged, jutting at an awkward angle from its back. She would fly no longer.
The Jörmungandr moved in for the kill. Tugain stood defiantly and belched warning flames.
"Hey! Stone-breath!" I yelled, as I couldn't think of any other insult for the massive creature.
For good measure, I sent out a blast of sorcery that arced across the lake and disintegrated against the serpent's scales.
Dragons of Siberia (The Dashkova Memoirs Book 7) Page 19