by H. D. Gordon
“I guess we crawl,” she said before dropping to all fours and heading into the tunnel of even deeper darkness.
I glanced behind me, knowing that fresh air and open space waited that way, and had an internal battle that lasted long enough for Asha to bark back at me, asking if I was coming or not.
I dropped to my hands and knees, finding that the former were now shaking, and started crawling.
The ground was hard and damp, and my knees and palms scraped against so many jagged edges and rocks that it was not long before the irony scent of my own blood was on the air. Beneath it, that mystery scent that I knew but still could not pinpoint, growing stronger and stronger the deeper we crawled.
Just when I was getting ready to lose my wits entirely, I ran face-first into Asha’s backside. She grunted and shoved backward, my nose between the crack of her butt cheeks as she back peddled a bit.
“What the fuck?” I muttered, and the sound of my own voice in the tunnel chilled me down to the bone.
“Sorry,” Asha said. “I think we’ve reached the end of the tunnel.”
Brighter sparks appeared at her fingertips, and she got on her stomach to shimmy forward. I watched the soles of her boots disappear through the crack in the rock, biting down on the panic trying to rise in me.
It was cold here, and my teeth clenched together, chattering as a chill snaked up my spine. I was still on all fours, and crawling forward any further on my stomach seemed like a terribly difficult task.
Again, I glanced behind me, back at the freedom that waited beyond.
Freedom. That was why I was doing this in the first place. So that others could have the same freedom I’d been fortunate enough to know.
So when Asha’s voice slipped through the cracks in front of me, I got flat on my stomach, and started to shimmy forward after her.
There was something in her voice that I didn’t like when her words floated back to me.
“Oh my Gods,” the Demon muttered, almost as if to herself. “You’re gonna want to see this, Rukiya dearest.”
As I scooted forward, I wasn’t sure I agreed with that at all.
Though the air inside the mountain had been cooler than the outside up until this point, as I slithered through the space between the rocks on my belly, I felt a blast of heat that was particularly oppressive because of the tight quarters.
I continued forward out of sheer will, and to my ultimate relief, the space finally opened up, and I found Asha crouched in a little alcove overlooking an area that was filled with red-orange light. The heat in the alcove was even more intensified, and just before I scooted up to the edge of the drop off, my mind finally made the connection between the mystery scent I’d picked up, and where I had smelled it before.
Coming to a stop beside Asha, and peering over the edge, which dropped one hundred feet or so to a pit of molten lava, the word slipped out of me in a low whisper.
“Firedrakes,” I said.
I was so busy staring down at the river of molten lava that snaked around large rocks and boulders far below, that I didn’t look up until Asha tapped my shoulder and pointed at the roof of the enormous cavern.
The sharp intake of breath that followed swallowed back a squeak of fear. Hanging from the top of the cave were what had to be hundreds of Firedrakes. Their massive wings were tucked at their sides, their bodies inverted as their clawed feet held them to the roof. Their wings mostly concealed their heads, but I saw that their eyes were closed—sleeping.
They were all sleeping, while the heat of the lava below warmed their scaly bodies, providing the perfect environment for the fire-breathing creatures.
Asha tapped me again, and pointed down below. I followed her finger to a spot in the center of the river of lava, to a larger rock that jutted out of the molten liquid. Sitting atop this jutting rock, as if placed upon a shrine, was the small red stone we’d come here to obtain.
“How the hell are we going to get down there?” I whispered, eyeing the Firedrakes hanging from above.
Asha shook her head, and I saw her throat bob as she actually gulped at the prospect. “I’m not sure yet,” she said, keeping her voice low as well. “But whatever we do, it’s probably best if we don’t wake them up.”
“Look at that,” I replied. “Another thing we agree on.”
We were silent for a few more moments as the wheels in our heads turned, trying to find a way to accomplish this goal. Instead, I thought of something else, and looked at Asha while biting hard on my lower lip.
“If all of these creatures are here guarding this stone,” I said, “are we sure we should take it? We don’t even know what it is or what it does. Are we really going to just hand it over to the Seers?”
I could tell from the look on her pretty face that Asha had been considering the same thing. “We don’t really have a choice now,” she whispered. “After everything we’ve been through, I’ll be damned if I’m leaving without that thing.”
But I heard it in her voice, saw it in the tight line of her shoulders. She felt it, too. The wrongness of the task. Everything about it felt like thievery and mischief.
“There’s always a choice,” I mumbled, but wasn’t sure who I was trying to convince—her or me.
Silence fell while the lava churned below and the Firedrakes slept above.
“What if this action has a ripple effect that ends up not being worth the reward?” I asked.
“Dear Gods,” Asha replied through clenched teeth. “Why in all hell would you pick right now to be all philosophical and shit?” She shook her head and sighed. “Look, we need that stone. We need to bring it back to those baldheaded bastards so that we can free the Dogs. We need to free the Dogs so that we can keep Adriel from doing something stupid. That’s it, so we’re getting that stone.”
I stood on the precipice of the moral dilemma, but the Demon’s words worked, and the mention of his name had brought Adriel’s face into the forefront of my mind. I saw his easy smile and the scarlet of his irises, felt the flutter in my stomach and the skipping of my heart.
I nodded. “Okay,” I said. “So then what’s the plan?”
Asha leaned out over the opening of the alcove and peered down. I scooted to the edge as well, feeling the familiar drop in my midsection that accompanied being at great heights. The heat of the molten lava licked at my face, and a drop of sweat worked its way down my brow.
“One of us has to go down there and get it,” she said, freeing the length of rope that she’d been carrying coiled at her side.
“Just one of us?”
Asha met my eyes and nodded. “The other should stay here, where the Firedrakes can’t fit to reach us,” she replied, nodding back at the space in the rocks that we’d crawled through. “And if the one who goes down can’t get back up here for whatever reason, she’ll be able to throw the stone up to the other.”
“Right,” I said. “That sounds fucking awful.”
Asha released a heavy breath and waved her hand. “You got a better idea.”
I cursed under my breath when it turned out that I did not.
Asha made a fist with one hand and poised it over the open palm of the other. “Boulder, parchment, shears to see who goes down?” she said, smiling so as to mask the fear that I was sure was reflected on my own face.
I mimicked the action with my hands, poising my fist above my palm.
“Winner takes all?” she added.
I nodded once, more sweat dripping down my neck. “Winner takes all,” I agreed.
On the count of three, we threw out our fingers, revealing our respective choices.
I lost.
27
Asha sighed in relief that I hated her for, and waved a hand for me to get on with it, which made me hate her even more.
Rolling my shoulders and neck, I flashed her a vulgar gesture and took a deep breath. Then, I took the end of the rope Asha offered me and secured it around my waist. Flipping onto my belly, I swung my legs over the
edge and said a final prayer.
My fingers dug into the rock as the tips of my toes dangled over the ledge below. Letting go of my grip took more faith than I knew I had, but my body was strong and agile, and I landed lithely on the narrow surface with a huff of relief.
My stomach had to be pressed flat against the rock in order to maintain my balance, and when I glanced up, I saw Asha’s curly head looking down at me. She waved a hand, telling me to hurry up, and it was hard not to curse out loud at her.
Looking down, I saw that I only needed to bungee down about eight more ledges, hop from rock to rock through the river of lava, grab the stone, and then climb back up the rope that I could only hope Asha would still be holding onto, all without disturbing the sleeping Firedrakes.
Piece of cake.
Making sure the rope was tight around me, I leaned backward and placed my toes against the rock face, testing Asha’s hold on me before fully committing. When the Demon didn’t let me fall to my fiery death, I leaned back with the whole of my weight, and began propelling my way down.
I found out very quickly that glancing down at the churning lava below was not wise, especially as the heat of it intensified the closer I got to it. Looking up was an equally bad idea, as the small shifts and rustles of the sleeping Firedrakes were not particularly encouraging. So I stared at the rock face, holding onto a mental picture of Adriel’s face in my head.
After an amount of time that felt like ten eternities, the soles of my boots rested at the bottom. I breathed a sigh of relief that was short lived as I turned toward the molten river, spotting the first large stone ten feet away. It parted the burning stream like a small island, its surface not nearly as flat and smooth as I would prefer.
Because of my Werewolf strength, a leap that distance was not a problem. I could leap twice that width in my mortal form, and even more than that in my Wolf form. But this was not a little jaunt through the meadow or a hunt in the forest, and the other various factors had me breathing heavily at the task.
Unwinding the rope from around my waist, I set it on the ground near my feet. Then, I forced myself to tunnel in on the mission, my vision narrowing on that rock, my body starting the calculations that would land me where I needed to be. I backed up the few steps the surface on which I stood would allow, evening out my breathing as best as I knew how.
I felt the power coil in my legs, took a couple running steps, and launched my body across the boiling, glowing red stream.
The rush of heat from the lava was magnificent, and I shielded my face against it while trying to maintain focus on my landing pad. When I landed atop the rock that I’d been aiming for, I was sucking down air as if I’d just run a marathon.
Buckets of sweat were now dripping down my spine, and I wasted no time in picking out the next rock I needed to jump to, this one only eight feet away, with a total of forty feet of flowing river between me and the ruby stone.
I leapt and landed, leapt and landed, stifling the grunts of exertion that escaped me as I moved as quickly as the heat and pressure would allow. Above me, the Firedrakes did not stir, and Asha was watching with wide eyes and tight lips.
Five leaps away now.
Then four.
Two.
And, finally, I was only one jump away from the stone, the rock on which it rested a twelve-foot leap away.
Praying to any God that might be listening, I jumped a final time, my body sailing over the lava and landing on the final large rock. I gripped the jagged surface while I caught my breath, hardly believing that I had actually made it this far.
A glance behind me reminded me that this was only halfway; the mission was far from accomplished just yet.
I climbed up the rock quietly, careful about where I placed my boots so as not to disturb any smaller rocks or pebbles that might stir and make unnecessary noise.
At last, I reached the stone, peering at where it rested between three jagged points on the rock’s surface, as if the earth itself had sprouted fingers just to hold it. Again, that feeling of wrongness surged through me, and honest to Gods, it was almost strong enough to turn me away.
But I ignored this little warning, telling myself that wrong things done for the right reasons were not so bad, believing it in that moment, because I had to.
I reached out and grabbed the ruby stone, marveling a bit at the glassy smoothness of its surface. It was about the size of an apple, and the way it glittered in the light of the lava was downright breathtaking.
But as soon as my fingers closed around it, and I lifted it from its resting place in the rock, I felt, rather than saw the change from the creatures hanging inverted above me, and though every part of my body warned against looking up, my head tilted back, anyway, and my eyes widened as fear bloomed and burned in my heart.
Hundreds of sets of diamond-shaped eyes popped open, and wings unfurled as mouths yawned wide.
The Firedrakes were awakening, and they did not look pleased to see that I had snuck into their home while they slept.
Shit, I thought.
“Run!” Asha shouted.
I tucked the stone into my jacket and took off, my heart thundering loudly enough to nearly drown out the sound of hundreds of sets of wings unfolding and flapping.
Nearly, but not quite.
I did not risk another glance up, was sure that doing so would cause me to die of terror on the spot. Instead, I ran like my tail was on fire, knowing that that could very well become a reality if I didn’t hurry it up.
A blazing trail of orange fire shot out of the maw of a swooping Firedrake, heating my back as I leapt across to the first rock, barely missing being burned alive.
Birdlike screeches began to fill the cavern, echoing back from the walls and multiplying until it was a symphony of screams. I ran and ran, leaping from rock to rock over that raging river of molten lava, my eyes fixed on the rock wall ahead, where the rope that would pull me to safety hung waiting.
More Firedrakes began swooping, and I had to rely on my ears to tell me when one was diving in. I ducked and dodged, rolled and spun, the gauntlet around me making every effort to stop my escape.
Two more rocks and three more leaps, and I was there. My arms and legs pumped for dear life, the heat around me growing more and more intense with every passing second.
I barely managed to dip out of the way as one of the Firedrakes came roaring toward me, its massive wings flapping and fueling the flames blazing all around.
The one that dove in next was too swift to dodge, and I didn’t have the time to recover. I leapt, trying to reach the final rock between me and that rope, but the beast swept in low and fast, and there was little I could do while in midair above a river of burning lava, but feel my stomach drop and my eyes widen at the fact that I was about to be scooped up and eaten whole for my thievery.
But just before the Firedrake reached me, a flash of blue cut through the yellows, oranges, and reds of the scene around me, and the drake that had been about to grab me with those massive claws was struck in the chest with a bolt of blue lightning.
My eyes, no doubt as round as full moons, found Asha leaning over the alcove above, blue sparks flashing at her fingertips and curly hair standing out over her head.
“Hurry!” she shouted, as if I might think I was on a leisurely stroll.
This drew the attention of some of the Firedrakes, and more blue bolts flew from her fingertips as a few swiveled her way.
I ran hard, launching myself into the air for the final leap.
I almost made it.
My feet were only inches from the platform with the rock face and the rope. In fact, I was so close to the finish line, that when I was snatched up, sharp claws digging deeply into my shoulders, and I watched the toes of my boots recede from the ground, it took me a few precious seconds to even realize what had happened.
As I rose into the air, the drake’s purchase on my shoulders unbreakable, I kicked and cursed and screamed.
Higher
and higher, the flames and lava and chaos all around me standing out in sharp relief. The cliff face flashed before me as I rose, and in the next moment, I was eye-level with Asha, one hundred feet off the ground.
The Demon female flung out her hands and shot the drake that was carrying me with a larger blast than I’d ever seen her issue before. As the blue sparks struck the creature, it screeched a sound that was ear piercing, and this only seemed to further rile the others.
But it also made the Firedrake loosen its vice grip on my shoulders, and as quickly as the ground had receded, it came rushing back up. My stomach lifted all the way up to my throat as my limbs flailed for a hold that they did not find.
Then something gripped my arm, nearly yanking the shoulder right out of the socket, and my body went slamming into the rock face. The air was knocked out of me, and I tasted a bit of blood in my mouth.
I looked up to see that Asha had caught me. Her pretty face strained with the effort, the top half of her body hanging over the edge of the alcove and her hands gripping my forearm with every bit of might she contained.
Her white teeth were gritted, her neck shiny with sweat as she held onto me, and I reached up with my other hand to grip the ledge as well, helping her haul me over.
Though it only took a couple of seconds, it felt like an eternity as I dangled over that ledge, with the lava below and the Firedrakes swooping and spitting fire at my back.
But, then, I was up and over, landing on top of Asha, who was panting beneath me.
“You’re still here,” I said, surprised that my voice even worked.
She scrambled to her feet, both of us receding into the tighter point in the back of the alcove, where the Firedrakes couldn’t reach us.
“Yeah, well, you’ve got the stone,” she replied, and climbed into the sliver of space in the rock through which we’d gotten here.
“I love you, too,” I mumbled, my eyes widening as I glanced behind me and saw that while the drakes could not reach us themselves, that didn’t mean the flames they spit from their mouths could not.