Bryn pushed him toward Moregon. “That sounds like a marvelous idea. Ask her.”
Suddenly Malenfant materialized out of thin air right in front of Bryn. He held the Lazarus dagger high over his bald head. Before Bryn could do anything, he stabbed. He was aiming for her chest, but she jumped just in time and the tip of the dagger only grazed her forearm. Blood spurted from the slice as Bryn whirled around to grab him. She missed the slick little weasel as Fenix appeared out of nowhere screaming bloody murder. She raised her hand and shot a fireball at Malenfant. He squealed and disappeared. The fireball was sucked through after him into whatever dimension he’d gone.
Bryn was frozen with shock. She held her arm, putting pressure on the long slice. It refused to stop bleeding. Fenix took her hand and examined the wound as Quinn arrived to help.
“This is very bad,” Fenix said.
“It’s just a scratch,” Bryn snapped.
Fenix lifted her head and gazed into Bryn’s face. Her golden eyes brimmed with tears and concern. “It was made with the Lazarus dagger wielded by someone with evil intent. It might never heal.”
A screaming wail erupted over their heads and a black hole opened in the center of the cavern. Moregon roared as Malenfant, his scarlet robe blazing, flew out of the hole and shot straight for Draak Priest trailing smoke and flames.
Priest’s mouth opened but no sounds came out as he backed rapidly away from the black hole. Malenfant raised the dagger, smacked Priest on the top of his head. Priest was now able to voice his terror, and shrieked wildly. His hair parted and his head opened to receive Malenfant who dived through the gap in the crown of Priest’s head. He disappeared with a puff of smoke and Priest’s head closed.
Priest fell to the ground shrieking and clawing at his hair. “Nooooo, you were gone. Aaaaak! It hurts. It hurts. Moregon save me.”
The dragon roared, filling the cavern with even more noise. Stunned, Bryn didn’t know what to do. Fenix ran to Priest, chanting a powerful spell that should force anything inside Priest to immediately evacuate, but nothing happened. She turned to Bryn. “Can’t you see how bad this is? The dagger is inside Draak. We shall never recover it if we can’t make the little troll get out.”
Moregon used her snout to push Fenix out of the way.
“She wants to help,” Bryn said. “Let her.”
“I can hear her as clearly as you,” Fenix snarled. “Why must you always try to rule me?”
“I wasn’t.” Bryn was truly puzzled by Fenix’s outburst. She’d only been telling Fenix what the huge golden dragon was broadcasting. She didn’t know Fenix could hear it, too.
“It matters not,” Fenix said. “Look, even Moregon can do nothing. Priest invited that evil creature into himself when he used his bones to perform that ritual and only he can eject him.”
Priest had fallen to the floor of the cavern and was rolling around with both hands holding his head. The golden dragon began licking him with her enormous pink tongue. The swipes seemed to calm Priest, who stopped flailing wildly and sat up. His eyes were unfocused and he seemed dazed. “Where am I?”
Moregon’s strange cry sounded like a dog’s whine. Priest looked up and into the dragon’s eyes. “Moregon.”
She licked him again and this time her cry was full of joy. “I can’t get rid of him,” Priest said. “Now that he has the dagger, he plans to use its power to take me over completely. Everything that is me, my essence, will be sent into the horrible void.” Tears ran down Priest’s face and the dragon licked each one.
Bryn, still holding her makeshift bandage over her dripping wound, knelt beside Priest. “We shall help you, Draak. We need that dagger and the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
Chapter 18
Quinn, Fenix and Bryn sat in a circle around a campfire built on the floor of the cavern using broken furniture from Moregon’s huge stash pile. The dragon had killed two strange African antelope. One was roasting over the fire and the other had disappeared down Moregon’s gullet. Quinn cut a slice off the breast using a dagger encrusted with jewels. He handed the slice to Bryn who took it using a napkin fashioned from a scrap of brocade cut off an eighteenth-century gown.
They washed their meal down with wine in golden goblets poured from amphora also found in Moregon’s stash pile. Priest’s eyes were glassy, but he ate, urged on by Moregon who hovered over him like a mother hen.
Bryn nibbled at her meat. Apparently, she wasn’t hungry. The wound on her forearm refused to close. It bled sluggishly, soaking bandage after bandage. Fenix had to sit on the other side of the fire. The smell of her sister’s blood affected her, making her moody and restless. She yearned for the blood. She ran her tongue over her lips and felt her eyeteeth with the tip. They were longer! She closed her eyes and wished for Lazarus to appear. He wouldn’t do so in front of all these people, yet still she tried.
“We must travel to Egypt as soon as possible,” Bryn said.
“It’s a long journey and we are on foot, my love,” Quinn told her as he ate another healthy portion of the roasted meat.
“We need to set the capstone. Maybe once we’ve done that our curse will be ended and we shall have enough power to help Draak.”
“The most important thing to do right now is stop the cut on your arm from bleeding,” Fenix said. “It’s draining your strength and will eventually kill you. And besides, it’s drawing me into the world of the vampires. I’m doing everything I can to fight it, but the blood, it smells so delicious. I want it so badly.”
“Can’t you cure me?” Bryn asked as she nibbled on a thin slice of meat.
“I can’t get near you,” Fenix snarled and showed her growing fangs. “The smell is intoxicating. You can’t possibly understand.”
“Then we must travel to the pyramids as fast as possible,” Bryn said calmly. “Once we set the capstone everything will be better. You’ll see.” Bryn took the stone out of her pocket and rolled it over and over in her hands. “The Eyes of Horus are different on each side. Look.”
She handed the triangular cube to Fenix. A drop of her blood fell on the stone and Fenix moaned. “Please stay on the other side of the fire. I can’t be trusted right now.”
Bryn scoffed. “You could never overpower me.”
Fenix shot across the fire and grabbed Bryn by her collar. Bryn tried to pry Fenix’s fingers off her shirt and could not. Fenix picked up Bryn’s injured arm and sniffed the blood. She closed her eyes as the heady scent filled her senses. Her fangs elongated and she shuddered with need.
“Please?” Bryn begged.
The sound of her sister’s voice penetrated the blood lust filling Fenix’s brain. Tears dropped from her golden eyes, falling on the bandage covering Bryn’s arm. The golden tears seeped into the fabric and began to smoke. The bandage ignited into blue and gold flames. Bryn screamed and shoved at Fenix who popped out of her stupor and backed away rapidly.
“I’m so sorry,” she cried. “I couldn’t help myself. Please forgive me.”
Quinn had leaped into action. He tore the bandage off Bryn’s arm. Her skin was scorched and blood poured from the wound made by the Lazarus dagger. He ripped a piece of his shirt off and wrapped it tightly around her arm. It was soaked through in minutes. “What are we going to do?” He moaned. “She’s going to bleed to death right here.”
Moregon heaved her bulk close to the fire. “She wishes to lick the wound,” Fenix said. “I’d let her. It might help.”
Quinn removed the makeshift bandage and exposed the ugly gash. Moregon’s huge pink tongue swiped the blood off the wound. Her saliva caused steam to rise off Bryn’s arm. Bryn screamed in pain and struggled in Quinn’s grasp as her flesh bubbled. He held her tightly as Moregon licked the wound over and over. When she backed away, the wound had almost closed. The gush of blood had dwindled to a trickle. Draak Priest put his arm around Moregon’s golden neck. “She says you must get the capstone placed soon or the flow of blood will slowly increase until you are drained dry.�
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His voice was tired and dispirited. He leaned on the dragon, using her to hold his body erect. Fenix found herself actually feeling sorry for him. Having the monstrous cardinal inside his mind had somehow showed him the evil of his ways. He seemed genuinely different.
“How do you propose to travel all the way to Giza? It’s almost three thousand miles away.” Quinn cuddled Bryn close to his chest. Fenix watched his tender gesture jealously. Bryn had someone to love and support her where as Fenix’s love lived in another world, a dimension separated from her by death.
“I do not know,” she said. “Ask Bryn. She knows everything.” Fenix could not keep bitterness from entering her voice.
“Why do you suddenly seem to loathe me?” Bryn asked. “We’ve always been the closest of sisters. Where is my darling Fenix?”
“She died and you see before you a vampire who hovers between two worlds. I know so much more now, dear sister, and I have become very powerful. If only you could recognize my worth. Maybe then I would not feel so angry.”
Quinn brought them back to the topic of importance. “Think. How do we get to Giza?”
Bryn sighed and shook her head. “I have no idea. If we walk it will take at least a month just to get to the Nile where we can find a boat to travel the rest of the way.”
“By then you will be dead,” Priest said. “Where is your Mr. Tomlinson and his new friend Commodore Brighthouse? Weren’t they going to work on some flying machine owned by the vampire ship captain?”
Fenix sat up straight and her eyes flew open. “They were working on a new kind of flying machine belonging to Tures. Do you think they managed to make it fly?”
Bryn nodded. “One of us must immediately travel back to Stanley Falls and see. If he has a machine capable of carrying us to Giza, we must have it.” She lay back using Quinn to support her. It looked as though she had used up all her energy resources.
“I’ll do it,” Fenix said. And indeed, she would be glad to get out of this cavern and take to the skies as a phoenix.
An hour later Fenix stared up the huge tunnel the dragons had used to exit the cavern. Bryn and Quinn stood next to her, and in the back of the cavern Fenix felt the dragon’s huge presence. Everything rested on her; saving them, saving Bryn, it was all on her. She must find Tomlinson and Brighthouse. The flying machine must be operational. There was no other option. The Lazarus dagger had the power to end Bryn’s immortality. The cut on Bryn’s arm would drain her dry if they did not find a way to stop it.
Bryn hugged her and Fenix suffered the gesture. The smell of Bryn’s blood was intoxicating. She turned her head to avoid the scent so close to her face. “I know you shall succeed,” Bryn whispered. “You’ve changed. You’re all grown up.” Tears dripped from Bryn’s violet eyes. “I love you so much.”
Fenix pushed her away. “Your blood,” she gasped.
Bryn sobbed. “Just be careful.”
Fenix lifted her hands, said the words and morphed into a giant golden phoenix. Bryn backed away as Fenix stretched her wings, flapped them a few times, and took off into the tunnel. It curved sharply toward the sky and she erupted from the mountain into early morning where she circled slowly to get her bearings. Being underground had her disoriented. It took several turns above the mountain to realize she needed to head west to find Stanley Falls.
Flying was a tremendous release. As she swooped above the forest canopy, she saw monkeys in the trees, smaller birds and forest elephants. The air at the higher altitudes was cool as it flowed across her feathers. After the heat and humidity of the jungle, it was a welcome relief. The freedom of flight cleared her head of all that had transpired. She forgot to be angry with Bryn, forgot about the lost dagger and remembered only how much she loved Lazarus and how much he loved her. When clouds descended and it started to rain, she’d already covered most of the distance. She slowly circled above the falls searching for the barn where they’d left Tomlinson and Commodore Brighthouse. When she spotted it along the trail into the jungle, she dropped out of the clouds, landed and reluctantly transformed herself back into her human body. It was hard to abandon her phoenix self. She’d felt unbelievably free as she soared high above the jungle.
It was still morning. She tromped down the path toward the barn, praying the flying machine would be operational. Bryn’s life depended on it. Banging noises came from the barn. Fenix pushed the giant double doors open and peered inside. The air in the barn was cool. A breeze circulated inside and Fenix wondered at it. The flying machine squatted in the center of the huge structure. It had two sets of blades high above a body that resembled Tures’s underwater vessel. The nose was made of glass panes for viewing, there was a fin on the back like a fish tail which must be for steering and the body was vaguely tubular. There were four wheels on the bottom to facilitate landing. As she stared in awe at it, the blades on the right side of the aircraft began to turn. Inside the building the roar of a massive steam engine echoed off the metal roof.
“Arthur!” Fenix called for the inventor as she walked around the huge aircraft. She received no answer so she walked under the aircraft to the other side. There she found Tomlinson and Brighthouse tinkering with an engine located in a pod beneath the rear of the flying machine. When Tomlinson saw her, he pushed his rubber goggles up on top of his head and ran to embrace her.
“Fenix, what on earth are you doing here?”
“Will this thing fly?” She had to know. Everything depended on it.
“We haven’t tried it outside of the barn,” he said with a look of concern in his round eyes. “We got it to lift and hover just under the roof, but we haven’t had it out of doors yet.”
“It must work, Arthur, or Bryn will die.”
“That’s very bad news,” he said. “Very bad news indeed. Come, my dear, it’s time for tea. You can explain everything to the Commodore and I over a cup and a delicious scone.”
“There’s no time. Bryn is bleeding to death and we must get her to Egypt, to the pyramids of Giza.”
Tomlinson took her arm and tried to lead her out of the huge barn. “Out of the question, my dear. This airship is highly experimental. Why we haven’t flown it so much as a mile. That journey would be quite impossible.”
Fenix burst into tears and Arthur Tomlinson’s face crumpled. He produced a handkerchief stained with grease and who knew what and handed it to her to wipe her tears. “There, there,” he said as he patted her back. “Please, Miss Fenix, don’t cry. I’m so sorry I have to be the one to crush your hopes, but this aircraft is not your answer. Why I wouldn’t trust it to carry me across the river.”
“Arthur, dear Arthur, it absolutely must. I cannot tell you how urgent the situation has become. Truly, Bryn will die if we don’t think of some way to get her to Giza.”
Tomlinson stopped trying to drag her out of the barn. He clutched her hand. “What has happened? Did you not recover the Lazarus dagger from the witchdoctor?”
“It’s so much worse than that,” Fenix sobbed. “Draak Priest has an evil cardinal living inside his head. The cardinal came out, stole the dagger from Bryn and disappeared. Then he reappeared and stabbed poor Bryn with it.”
Arthur’s jaw dropped. “What are you saying? My dear, Fenix, this is all highly irregular. You’re telling me there is someone living inside Priest’s head? You must be ill, my dear. I know, it’s the heat. I will take you into the house and find you a cool beverage.”
Fenix threw his hand off her arm. “I know it sounds crazy, God, it sounds totally insane, but it’s true. When Priest used Cardinal Malenfant’s bones in that hideous ritual to regain his youth, the Cardinal entered him and took up residence. He was driving Priest totally bonkers and then when there was a massacre in the village, blood was everywhere, vampire blood was swirling in the air, and he somehow escaped Priest. Bryn had the dagger. Oh, Arthur, we were so close.” Fenix started sobbing, her body wracked by a bout of crying so painful she felt torn in two.
Tomlinson’s
guileless countenance reflected disbelief and concern. He tried to comfort her and she threw him off yet again. “If you cannot help us, then I must return to the mountain and give Bryn the bad news.”
Brighthouse bustled toward them accompanied by Fingle holding a huge wrench. “Arthur, dear boy, I believe the machine is ready for a test flight,” Brighthouse said. “Roll the roof back.”
Fenix brightened. She grabbed Tomlinson by the shoulders. “If it flies, you must help us.”
“Help who?” Brighthouse asked.
“Is there something a matter, Miss Fenix?” Fingle asked. His usual hound dog expression replaced by one of concern.
“Fingle, Miss Bryn is dying. Tell Tomlinson he must help me save her.”
Fingle barked twice and Tomlinson groaned and rolled his eyes. “Commodore, I believe we are taking a trip up the Nile.”
“Capital!”
Chapter 19
Fingle worked the enormous steam-powered crank that rolled the two sections of the barn’s metal roof apart. As the roof of the huge barn separated in the middle, each side rolled back to reveal the overcast sky. “At least it’s not raining,” Tomlinson said. “This is the dampest, hottest, muggiest climate I have ever attempted to build a machine in.”
“Yes, indeed, all of this rain has been a severe trial,” the Commodore said.
Tomlinson pointed to a set of steps leading to the cabin of the flying machine. “Fingle, take Miss Fenix into the cabin and see she’s made comfortable while the Commodore and I attempt to fly this crazy contraption.”
Commodore Brighthouse slapped Tomlinson on the back. “Don’t be such a Nervous Nelly, Arthur. Think of the adventure. Why, this entire trip has been the best adventure of my life.”
Tomlinson rolled his eyes. “It has been interesting. I just don’t wish to die having it.”
Fingle led Fenix into the cabin which was appointed in much the same fashion as the underwater vessel; black leather and brass studs for the furniture, brass rails and polished wood for the walls. The windows were much like the portholes of the ship, round and bolted shut with brass fasteners.
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