Fire Bound Dragon
Page 13
I jumped up and nudged Sirris. “Hey, get up. We have company.” The snoring cut off and she opened her eyes and blinked bleary-eyed at me. She sat up and stared in open-mouthed wonder at Thomas. I knew the feeling.
“What are you two doing here?” I hissed, coming close to the bars but knowing better than to touch them.
Neither of them smiled, and Nick looked scared to death. Maybe they were here to join us.
“We’re here to break you out, we need your help.” Thomas admitted.
“Are you insane! You aren’t doing that. Where’s Roger? What did you do to him? You’ll land yourselves right in here with us is what you’ll do.” Sirris said, her voice rising as she finished.
All three of us looked at her. “Shh!”
“Unless you have a key, the bars are electrified and there is a spell in place for the lock. So, not sure how you’re going to make that happen Sherlock,” I said dryly. Both stood tall and imposing outside our door. I’d missed Fern, her diminutive stature hiding her from sight behind them.
She allowed a slight smile as she stepped forward. “We’re going to work together, that’s how. Nick will absorb the current and channel it to a neutral area and while he’s doing that, I’m going to work on the lock.” She admitted.
Nick stepped forward, his hands already moving and his eyes lighting up. “Step away from that metal bed for a minute, will you? Looks like as good a place as any. He stepped close to the bar, his eyes on the cot as his hands heated. A crackle of energy snapped over his wrists and then with utter focus, he stepped forward and grasped the bars in both hands. His mouth opened over a painful groan and then he froze and steadied.
At once, Fern stepped in and placed her hands over the lock and closed her eyes. Her brow knit in concentration and her lips moved, but nothing came out as she frowned. It couldn’t have been but a few seconds later when her eyes snapped open along with the door. She ushered us both out and shut the door behind us. Nick remained frozen, his eyes wide and pain filled. I understood what he’d done better than Fern. Nick had simply created a bypass with his own person as the conduit to direct the current in a different loop through the wrought iron of the cot. But the blankets were smoking and he wasn’t letting go.
Oh, damn, how come I knew this was going to hurt. I thrust my hands out, palms extended and heating with a dull glow; not much, just enough for a little added ‘punch’. I hit him with enough force to send him sideways and break the link. It was like taking hold of a live wire. The resulting shock that shivered through me made me moan as I absorbed the painful kick. But it worked. Nick stood free, his hands on his knees and gasping for air as his breathing returned to normal. The current had re-circuited along a normal path and the blankets looked like they’d survive. No sense burning the courthouse down. He sent me a grateful look.
We had no more time to waste. I’d wondered myself what had become of Roger. We walked past the office on the way out the door to find him reclining in his chair, a happy grin on his face, and his mouth open as he sawed logs at the top of his lungs. I looked at Fern and rose one eyebrow.
She shrugged. “I gave him a happy dream. He won’t want to leave it for hours.”
I stared at his sappy face. “Was she pretty?”
Fern’s smile widened a speck. “Gorgeous, string bikini, and she thinks he’s hot.”
We left through the front door like we hadn’t a care in the world, but we made quick work of hitting the path through the trees leading out of Drae Hallow where there were fewer eyes. Town was too open to anyone who was out for a midnight stroll.
Once we hit the trail, I could contain myself no longer.
“Are you three out of your ever loving minds? Don’t you ever talk to me about doing something dumb again. Do you have any...”
Nick interrupted my tirade. I was just warming up too. “Look, I tried to tell them. But they wouldn’t listen. Besides, they’re right. We can’t do this without you. We think we have an idea where the other portal to Wyndoor lies.”
Thomas jumped in, voice a grim hiss in the night air. “We think the rest of the missing group are alive and captive in Wyndoor. I’m getting them out.” I didn’t have to see the mutinous scowl on his face to know it was there.
Sirris reached out and grabbed his arm. “No Thomas, we are. Who says you get to have all the fun, now?”
He gave a grunt and covered her hand briefly with his. Then we were moving too fast for talk, angling up the trail, past a silent and dim Rule 9 in the dark and to the portal to the outside of Shephard’s Mountain. It was well past midnight and another several hours to where we were going. We needed to hurry.
We were within an hour of the briar patch when Fern and the guys suddenly veered off the main trail on another more concealed path.
“Where are we going now, this isn’t the way?” I added from the back of the line.
“We need to pick up a few ‘friends’.” Fern murmured sarcastically.
I wasn’t sure where we were going, but I was sure whoever we were going to see, they weren’t pals.
We emerged to a rocky area, with several boulders that formed an overhang big enough to fit a bus under. My curiosity was up, I admit it. But so was my dread.
A tendril of smoke ahead, snaking up through the vegetation and trees from under the cliff face, caught my attention.
We emerged from the trail and never paused until we were within feet of the fire's warmth. I stared across the flicker of flames into my worst nightmare. They stared back at us with cold-eyed resignation.
The three demon wolves from before sat huddled around the fire and didn’t bother to get up. They had set a spit up over the flames and what looked like the back haunch of a deer roasted there, the aroma of roasting meat wafting into the air and making my stomach rumble. I realized it had been more than 24 hours since I’d eaten. It surprised me they were bothering to cook it though. I guess I’d expected them to eat everything raw. Their humanoid side was showing. Or my ignorance.
Fern took a seat and held her hands out to warm them. After a slight hesitation, the rest of us joined.
The taller wolf glared at Fern.
“Have a seat. Make yourself at home human,” he drawled, unamused.
Fern nodded. “Thanks Giat, I will.” She nodded to the other two. “The fat one is Dae. And the ugly one beside him? Liad. And its Magical. We are so much more than human.”
Liad spoke up. “Can I kill her? Please?” he growled.
Dae growled and tossed a gnawed bone into the fire. He lifted his nose into the air and sniffed, frowning in confusion.
“Is weird. I could swear I smell...” He continued to sniff and his stocky friend, leaning against a rock, frowned and looked towards Fern.
“I smell it too. Yetta’ spawn.” He looked totally baffled.
Giat was the brains of the bunch.
“That’s because she has one hiding in her shirt,” he ground out, eyes on the bulging neckline of Fern’s shirt.
As everyone watched, two ears, a nose and then two round eyes gazed over the top of her neckline. The animal looked around, curious and visible for once. That ended the moment its terrified eyes landed on the Demon wolves. With a hiss and a squeal, it ‘disappeared’. I could follow the bulge of cotton as it dove for cover on Fern’s person.
Dae leapt to his feet. “It’s been forever since I’ve had Yetta’ for dessert,” he said in excitement.
“It will be a while longer too, wolf.” Fern told him.
With a stern look from Giat, he sat back down, scowling.
Fern spoke, conversational. “We need your help. We’re going to the briar patch.” She looked around at the overhang and the dry sandy soil beneath, despite the damp evidence of an earlier rain on the way up.
“And probably a place to stay for a few days while we do it. We may have burned a few bridges to get here,” she added.
“Why should we help you, and not eat you instead,” Giat growled, eyes dark and ma
licious.
A grasshopper, big and fat, chose that exact moment to land on her knee. Without missing a beat, she snatched it up. She held him near her collar and wiggled the struggling insect back and forth. “Kit, snack?” An illusion of movement and two well blended paws emerged and it looked as if the entire grasshopper just disappeared into thin air. We heard crunching.
I couldn’t resist. “Fern, you know that’s just wrong, don’t you?”
She ignored me and responded to Giat. “Well, because I know you don’t eat your own kind, and we’re closer to that than not.”
“We’re nothing alike.” Thomas growled, sounding more like the Demon wolves than he realized.
“I eat Yetta’, though,” Dae whined.
Fern ignored him. “Something was on that mountain the last time I went. I don’t know what it was but it wasn’t friendly, and I’m sure it eats any of us. I... it was hungry, alright? I think we improve our chances of finding that portal if there’s more of us. And maybe whatever is up there, maybe you will know what it is. Maybe it came through somehow, the same way my little friend here did.”
Giat said nothing as he considered. He reached in and snagged a sliver of venison, amid the snap and crackle of grease over the open flame. He sat back and took a large bite. “Maybe that helps back up our theory? That there’s another way in. That Yetta isn’t from here. Still, I’m not sure what we need you for.”
Nick spoke up. “So, you’re hesitating. You must have had some luck finding the portal on your own then? When you tied us up and went exploring last time?”
Dae growled. “We didn’t find a thing. Nothing chased us down the mountain either.” He added. His expression said he didn’t put much stock in whatever had alarmed Fern.
I did. If it scared her, it was worth running from.
Fern continued. “So, are you in? Or are you out and whatever we find we don’t share with you?” She added.
She shoved to her feet, removed a small knife hidden in her belt and reached over the fire. She cut off a sliver of meat and popped it in her mouth. “Love venison.” She nodded approvingly.
She did an about face, ignoring several growls of disapproval and started back up the path. She never looked behind her to see if anyone followed. But I knew as I gained my feet to fall in line that there would be eight of us heading up that mountain.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
We were in a hurry and made excellent time. Despite my exhaustion, my fingers tingled with nervous excitement. I sensed we were closer than we’d been before. We reached the briar patch and spread out, concentrating our search on the east side where Fern had last looked before something chased her off. It seemed strange to be working with the same beasts that we’d spent so much time battling. I had to remind myself that they’d been under the direct control of Will Bennett, and that now they were only under their own. Didn’t mean I trusted them. Who was to say their own agenda was any better.
Still, they had as much interest, maybe more, in finding that portal back to Wyndoor. They weren’t any fonder of Will than we were.
I grimaced, down on my knees in the mud and creeping along under the pulling bramble once more. I was exhausted by now of dense thickets and thorns. We were well apart, and though I could hear the others to the left and right of me, the underbrush was too thick to see them. The smell of decay and fresh earth rose with every disturbed inch of muck I crawled through as I pushed deeper than I’d been before, my eyes sharp and focused and looking for anything I might have missed.
At one point I heard a shout to my left. But it was brief, and I wondered if someone had found something. I kept digging deeper. Ahead of me I realized was the same log I’d seen on my earlier trip, only now I was on the opposite side from before. I crept closer.
To my right was Giat, nose quivering, shaggy hide not having any more luck than my beater jacket and jeans against the thorns. He winced and glanced my way with a scowl. We both turned to stare at the log. I had just noticed the vast gaping hole, easily large enough to hold a man, in front of it, when I heard the sudden agitated chittering of Fern’s alien pet. The demon wolf froze, his nose quivering and in the air. I watched his eyes go round with horrified comprehension as they slashed to mine. Uh oh. What scared him made the spit in my mouth dry up.
“Time to go!” he hissed, scooting backwards as quick as he could go, ignoring the pull of brambles along his hide that left deep furrows and drew blood. I wasn’t foolish enough to ask questions and moved back just as fast.
When we emerged, we were already too late.
The scene laid out in front of me was a tabloid to my worst nightmare. Sirris, Thomas and Nick had emerged as well as the other two demon wolves. One of them hadn’t been so lucky. Liad was on the ground in a mangled, screaming heap. What stood over him was a monster as big as a VW bug. Easily eight feet long, it resembled a Komodo Dragon. But this had bright blue spikes that ran along its back and blazing red stripes that ran the length along each side. Its reptilian eyes focused on all of us, a forked tongue emerging several feet in front of it to taste the air. Liad, beneath its clawed feet, shuddered and tried to move, his eyes hopeless and livid with panic.
I didn’t have to be told that it was already too late to save him.
Giat growled beside me. “That’s a Juggat Dragon. They are crazy fast; we can’t outrun it. That forked tongue is razor sharp; it contains enough toxin to paralyze you on contact. The bite is deadly.
None of us moved, instinctively not wanting to encourage it to give chase.
“I don’t care about any of that. How do I kill it?” I hissed back. That was really what we all wanted to know.
“They have very tough, scaly hide, hard to penetrate. Only vulnerable spot is the underbelly, but none of us are fast enough to get to it before it either guts us with its claws, rips us apart with its teeth, or nails us with that tongue and takes its time to eat us while we watch.” He shivered and I knew what it took to terrify a Demon wolf.
Movement caught my attention and I realized that both Fern and Nick were doing something with their hands in front of them, weaving a pattern in the air and whispering something I’m sure I wouldn’t have understood even if I could hear what they said. All I had was my bow and my fire. I had a sneaking suspicion the fire was useless, but if I could put one of those poisonous bolts into that tender underside, maybe...
The Juggat looked down at its victim, and slid a tongue along the ravaged torso, leaving a weak ribbon of red as it sliced a thin path. I wondered if it was tasting its meal in anticipation of its first proper bite. Then those green flecked reptilian eyes lifted and it took a step sideways, long tail swinging behind it as it moved, trying to decide which of us to go for first. It shook its head and started towards Sirris, taking several lumbering steps. Then it stopped and its eyes swung in Thomas’ direction. Two more steps and again it froze and shook its head. It stood swinging its rock-thick skull to take us all in. I realized it was confused, trying to decide what to do. It stood in place and suddenly there were millions of fingerling vines snaking up and over its body. It lurched sideways with a roar, breaking free of most of them, but more raced to take their place, climbing over the body and trying to snug it tight while it struggled to decide. And then I realized what was happening. Fern and Nick were working together. One of them was working an enchantment to confuse it, while the other was using earth magic to hold it down.
I sprang into action, my bow swinging round and a bolt on its way to being notched, I sent a sliver of magic along the bolt’s length and the tip fired up and settled to a warm orange umber glow. Thomas’ bolos were already swinging above his head and I knew he’d be aiming for that wide maw of teeth and that flirting tongue. He let them loose with a shout and as they wrapped around that snapping jaw and pulled it tight; the Juggat snarled and reared as far off the ground as the vines would allow. It wasn’t much of a window, but I came within a matter of yards, and as the front feet left the ground I focused on the th
in strip of cream-colored flesh that never saw sun and fired. It sliced in at an angle even as the beast hit the ground, teeth snapping and front claws working at the bolos wrapped and embedded on its snout.
I wasn’t sure what I’d hit, or if I’d even pierced that tough hide. I had another bolt loaded as I danced out of the way, ready to try again if given a chance.
But it turned out to be unnecessary. The poisonous bolt was as effective on the Juggat as it was on the Macu, starting with a shudder of palsied limbs and a white foamy breath that oozed around its tied lips. The beast sagged to the ground and shuddered, eyes rolling white as it lay still.
Dae took a knee next the Liad, checking him over. He looked up at his leader and shook his head. He was gone.
I turned and looked at Giat. “What other kinds of joyful surprises are in that dimension you call home, anyway?” I asked him.
He gave me a glare of disgust. “As many as there are here, in your own, Magical. Different strokes...” he muttered. He began gathering dead fall and branches and piling them on the fallen wolf and the Juggat, covering them both. His remaining companion did likewise.
“What are you doing?” Sirris asked in horror.
The Demon wolf stared at her like she was demented.
“We have to burn them. Every part of that Juggat remains poisonous. It will kill anything that touches it. Fire is the only thing that will destroy it.”
I grimaced and bent down to grab more firewood to help. Distasteful or not, I didn’t want anyone else stumbling upon the remains. Besides, finding a giant alien lizard and a dead werewolf on Shephard’s Mountain wouldn’t help our cause to keep our existence a secret if a hiker happened upon it. There was more than one reason to hide what had happened here.
IT TOOK US THE BETTER part of an hour to not only gather fuel to create a fire big enough to hide the evidence, but also to dig a wide enough furrow around them both to prevent a visit from Smokey the Bear. We didn’t want to burn down Shephard’s mountain.