by Rinelle Grey
The memory of having his family at his side, facing off against the Trima clan, of being able to do anything with them at his side, was bittersweet. What were the chances that they were still alive? Even if they had woken from the Mesmer, they would be long dead. Wouldn’t they?
“Of course I don’t want Karla to be in any danger, no parent wants that for their child,” Karla's father said calmly. His face was pale but determined. “But even more than wanting her to be safe, I want her to live her life the way she wants, the way that feels right for her. And she felt this was the right thing to do.”
Shaking his head, Taurian tried to understand, but failed. Why was he standing here arguing with this man? “Well, you can just sit here and be happy that Karla is doing what she wanted. I'm going to go save her life.”
“If that's what you feel you have to do.” The man’s calm voice was infuriating to Taurian. Did he care about anything?
He didn't have time for this. He was at full power now, and had no more excuses for not going after Ultrima. No more need to hide. Not even bothering to respond, he turned and headed for the door, slamming it behind him.
Outside, the quiet street was deserted. Taurian looked in both directions, but there was no sign of any people. Normally, he wouldn't even consider shifting in a populated area like this, but this was a desperate situation. He needed to get to Karla as quickly as possible, hopefully before she reached Ultrima's lair.
He focused his energy, imagining his dragon form, the heightened magic from his coupling with Karla sizzling through his body. The clothes he was wearing tore as his muscles rippled and grew, swelling in size. Breaking through his skin, his wings flapped, feeling free for the first time in eons.
He bounced once, revealing in the natural buoyancy of this form, then a second time, flapping his wings at the height of the jump, lifting into the air. A few more thrusts of his wings, and he was well above the houses.
Everything had changed so much. The view from the air was even more different than the ground. Narrow ribbons of black snaked through the landscape and angular boxes dotted the area everywhere. Taurian stared around helplessly. How was he ever going to find Ultrima's lair when he couldn't even see his Mesmer cave?
The houses congregated in a huddle, a blot on the landscape. Taurian circled the town, looking for a landmark he recognised, anything at all that might help him gain his bearings in this new world.
There. On the horizon stood the cliff next to his Mesmer cave. Taurian headed for the area, his long, strong strokes making short work of the distance. When he arrived, he flew a few circles around, getting his bearings, then he headed in the direction of Ultrima's mountain.
Every wing stroke brought him closer to his destination, but the progress was maddeningly slow. As he flew, he tried to compare his speed to Karla's ute, which he'd noted hadn't been outside her father’s house when he'd left. A direct comparison between the time it took to travel on the ground versus in the air was impossible, but the reality came to him with a sinking feeling.
If she knew where she was going, Karla would beat him there.
How she could possibly know, he had no idea, but somehow, he was sure she would know.
Taurian increased his pace, flapping harder and stronger. Would the resulting increase in speed mean he stood a chance of beating Karla there? He didn't know. But within a short time, the extra energy he was burning began to take a toll, and he had to slow down.
There was no point in beating Karla to Ultrima's lair if he was too exhausted to have a chance at beating the other dragon when he arrived.
If he stood any chance anyway.
No, Taurian refused to believe that Ultrima could beat him. He'd never fought against him directly, the dragon code said that his eldest brother, Warrian, was the one to fight the older dragon. And Warrian had been badly wounded last time he had tried. That didn’t bode well for Taurian, but he didn’t want to consider that.
Because now that Warrian wasn't around, it was Taurian's responsibility.
Was he up to the challenge?
Age wasn’t everything. He had youth and agility on his side. That had to count for something, right?
Lucky they had completed the Mesmer ritual. At least if he died, Karla would survive.
Banishing the morbid thoughts, Taurian concentrated on his flight, feeling the wind rushing over his wings, concentrating on the minute changes to his scales that would reduce his wind resistance and increase his speed. He focused his breathing, conserving his energy, preparing everything he could so that he would reach his destination as ready to fight as possible.
Chapter 24
The ute bumped over the rutted road, finally groaning to a stop beside a centuries old fig tree. It couldn't go any further. The road petered out, the boulders lurching among the trees making the area impassable for any kind of vehicle.
“Are we there?” Lisa asked, her voice hushed.
“Close,” Karla answered, and her heart started thumping harder. “I just have to get up this mountain somehow.” She craned her neck up, but it was hard to judge how high it was through the thick scrub.
“How do you know he's at the top, the GPS doesn't give height.”
Karla stared at Lisa in disbelief. “Do you really think a dragon is going to make his lair at the bottom of a mountain? Of course he's at the top.”
“Well, if everyone thinks his lair is at the top, maybe he decided it was safer at the bottom,” Lisa argued.
Karla didn't have time for this. “Look, it’s better if you stay down here anyway. I need you to watch for Taurian, and when he and Ultrima start fighting, start shooting arrows at them. Even if you don’t hit them, hopefully it will distract them, and stop them fighting.”
“Oh, I can hit them,” Lisa said confidently. Then her face clouded. “But if I do, then they’re going to come after me, aren’t they?”
“Of course not,” Karla said with a confidence she didn’t fully feel. “They’re going to be intent on fighting each other, not you.”
Lisa tilted her head to one side and raised an eyebrow.
Karla bit back a sigh. “Look, I know it’s risky. But it’s Bruce’s only hope.”
She had no right to ask this of Lisa. She may have told Ultrima where they were, but she really couldn’t blame her. She probably would have done the same thing if a dragon turned up on her doorstep. This was her responsibility, not Lisa’s.
But while she might be able to rescue Bruce without Lisa and her bow, Taurian would still be in danger.
Lisa sighed and nodded, a determined frown replacing her fear. “I’ll do my best.”
“Thanks,” Karla said softly. Then she squared her shoulders. “I'm going to find a way to the top.” Karla set out confidently in the direction of the foot of the mountain.
Pushing her way through the undergrowth, she divided her attention between looking up, trying to gauge the best place to approach the mountain, and down at her feet, picking her way over stones and logs, and watching out for snakes.
A rustle on her left caught her attention, and she glanced that way. A carpet snake, his body thicker around than her arm, was curled up in a patch of dappled sun, his unblinking eyes staring at her. Karla put her hand to her chest, feeling the blood pulsating through her veins.
Just a carpet snake, nothing to be worried about. He wouldn't bother her if she didn't bother him.
She pushed on, branches scratching at her arms. The trees thinned out, mostly because there were only a few patches of soil for them to grow in amongst the boulders. Some of the rocks towered above Karla now, hiding her goal as much as the trees had.
Scrambling over a waist high rock, Karla peered around one of the taller ones, coming up against an almost sheer cliff. Her heart sank. She looked left and right, but the view was the same, the rock face towering above her.
Vines wound their way up, somehow finding cracks in the rock to hold themselves on, and about twenty metres above her head, there
was a narrow ledge.
Could she climb it? Karla swallowed.
She had no experience in climbing whatsoever. Not even enough to judge whether an experienced climber could make the ascent or not. There was no way she could, that was for sure.
It was the mountain for a dragon who didn't want to be found. Hard enough to climb to deter the causal hiker, and not tall enough to draw the more experienced climbers.
But she hadn't come all this way to be deterred by the first obstacle. This was only one side of the mountain, she wasn't giving up until she'd been all the way around.
Climbing onto the tallest rock she could find, she shaded her eyes and looked back the way they'd come. She scanned the sky, but there was no sign of Taurian yet. Good, she still had time to find a way in before he arrived.
She slid down from the rock, glanced right and left, picked a direction at random, and began to walk.
She'd barely made it a hundred meters before she heard a snapping of branches and a growl, followed by a girlish scream. Oh crap, she should have known she couldn't leave Lisa alone for a minute. She'd probably found a wombat or something.
For a minute, she debated ignoring the woman. She had more important things to do, but a second scream, more urgent, followed the first. This time, it was accompanied by snarls.
Not a wombat.
Karla abandoned the edge of the mountain, running back in the direction of the sound, pushing her way through the trees.
She broke into a clearing and stopped dead.
Lisa stood in the middle of the leaf littered circle. In front of her were three wild dingoes, the reddish-yellow hair on their backs rising and their teeth bared in a snarl.
Karla had never seen dingoes so big. Then again, the only ones she'd seen before had been in the zoo. They'd looked like scrawny, friendly dogs, about half the size of these ones.
And a lot less fierce.
Weren't they supposed to be nocturnal?
“Help!” Lisa called, her voice wavering.
The high pitched sound seemed to encourage the dingoes. They all took another step towards Lisa at the same time.
There was no time for hesitating. Karla snatched a large stick out of the underbrush, and raced towards the dingoes, brandishing it wildly and shouting. “Get out of here!”
To her surprise, the dingoes held their ground. She had managed to shift their attention from Lisa though. Now all three pairs of eyes were fixed on her. They growled in unison again, the sound sending chills up her spine.
She swung the stick again. “Go on, get out of here.”
They didn't budge.
Were all dingoes this fierce? Any backyard dog would back down at a swinging stick like this. Shouldn't wild animals be more timid, even carnivorous ones?
Something was up. The way all three of them moved together every time was unnatural. These weren't just ordinary dingoes.
But what were they?
Karla continued to swing the stick, even though the dingoes were paying it no heed. They kept edging closer, meaning she had to take a couple of steps back.
Lisa retreated even faster than she did, all the way back to the line of trees. “They came out of the cave back there,” she said, pointing to a shadow behind the trees on the opposite side of the clearing. “I saw it while I was looking for somewhere to shoot from, and thought it might be the dragon’s lair, but apparently it was theirs.”
“’They’re guarding it,” Karla said slowly. “And I don't think it's for themselves.”
And if they were guarding the cave, she really wanted to get a look inside it.
As though sensing her determination, all three dingoes made a lunge for her, completely ignoring the swinging stick.
Karla’s heart hammered in her chest. Their teeth were huge, and they were so close she expected to feel their hot breath. And to smell it too.
Instead, there was nothing.
Nor was there anything when her stick should have connected with their heads. It just swung straight through them as though they weren't there.
“They're not real,” Karla said, hardly daring to believe it.
“What?” Lisa demanded from the shelter of the trees. From where she stood, she couldn’t see the stick pass through them. “Of course they're real, I can see them.”
Karla stepped forwards, swinging the stick again. The dingoes were snarling furiously, but the stick passed straight through them, again and again.
The action gave Karla confidence. Despite her heart thumping, she threw the stick to one side and stepped forwards, her hand held out.
“Karla, be careful!” Lisa screamed.
The dingoes leapt forwards and their jaws enveloped Karla's hand. The dingoes whirled around in a frenzy, but Karla didn't feel a thing. She turned to Lisa, ignoring the writhing illusions.
“They're not real.” She held up her hand, showing Lisa it was undamaged.
Her friends face was white as a sheet, and she didn't move. “But… but…” she stammered.
“Come on,” Karla urged. “We need to see what's in that cave. It could be important.”
She was pretty sure they wouldn't find the dragon there. If he was, all that noise would surely have brought him running, but the dingo illusions must be guarding something. And something important.
Lisa hesitated, still staring at the dingoes.
Their attention shifted again and they raced at Lisa, baring their teeth and snarling.
Even though she knew without a shadow of a doubt that they weren't real, Karla didn't blame Lisa for squealing and stumbling back. She fell over in the dirt, screaming as the illusions descended on her.
Her screams continued for a couple of moments, before petering out.
Karla walked across and held out a hand to her. Lisa took it and let Karla pull her to her feet.
The dingoes writhed around both of them, like a computer simulation gone wrong. It was kind of amusing how they seemed to glitch when someone wasn't afraid of them.
“If you go far enough away from this cave, I think they’ll leave you alone,” Karla told her.
Lisa hesitated. “I’m not sure we should separate, Karla. You never know what else you might find in here. What if there are some real dingoes?”
“I’m not turning back now,” Karla said firmly. “You can wait at the ute if you like. If you stand on the roof, you’ll probably be high enough to shoot from there.”
“You're going to go in on your own?” Lisa asked in disbelief. “Aren't you even a little bit scared?”
“Of course,” Karla said. “I'm bloody terrified. But I have to find Bruce. It's my fault he's here, and I can't just abandon him.”
Every moment she stood here arguing with Lisa, who knew what was happening to Bruce. What if Ultrima had already killed him? Or hurt him? Who knew what the lightning dragon was capable of? Karla’s stomach clenched at the possibilities, and she had to breathe deeply to keep from panicking.
Lisa stared at her in disbelief for a few moments, then to Karla's surprise, she squared her shoulders. “Then I'm coming too.”
Even though she was impressed at her determination, Karla shook her head. “I need you to stay down here. Someone has to break up those dragons once they start fighting.”
Lisa hesitated for a moment, then sighed. “I’ll do my best, Karla. You just take care, okay?” To Karla’s surprise, Lisa stepped forwards and gave her an impulsive hug.
Karla retuned the hug, then pulled back. “I’ll see you soon, hopefully with Bruce.”
“Good luck,” Lisa responded, keeping her eyes above the illusionary dingoes that still snarled around them.
They did look disconcerting, although they were easier to ignore once you were certain their teeth weren't real.
Karla headed for the cave and as soon as she moved towards it, the dingoes changed focus. They ran circles around her, snarling and snapping, and she kept expecting to trip over them. Lisa took advantage of their distraction and retreated b
ack into the trees.
As she neared the cave, Karla slowed, her confidence ebbing. What if the dingoes were only the first line of defence? What if something even more sinister was waiting for her inside the cave? Something that could actually hurt her?
Karla bit back a laugh. Like a dragon maybe? What could be fiercer than that?
Still, she paused at the entrance of the cave and peered cautiously into the darkness. It was kind of hard to see anything though, and she certainly couldn't hear anything over the dingo illusions snarling.
It didn't really matter if the dragon caught them at this point since that was her plan anyway. So she stepped into the cave.
To her surprise, as the dingoes crossed over into the shadow, they evaporated into thin air.
The sudden cessation of the growling was almost disconcerting. Silence filled the cave, unnerving Karla for a moment. But she didn’t have time for that. She frowned and pulled a torch out of her backpack and shone it around. There had to be something here. Surely those dingoes weren't guarding an empty cave.
But from all appearances, they had been. The cave wasn't even that big, about the size of her father’s living room. The rocky floor was bare, and there weren't even any cracks to examine on the walls.
It was an entirely unremarkable and empty cave.
“It doesn't make any sense,” Karla muttered.
Of course, there could be any number of other caves, and possibly even a way up the mountain somewhere around the cliffs. But Karla couldn't shake the feeling that she was missing something.
Why would illusionary dingoes guard a pointless cave? Someone had gone to a lot of effort to keep them out of this cave. Why? There was nothing at all to see here.
Of course, nothing to see. Why was she just believing her eyes after being deceived by a magical illusion only moments ago?