The moment she touched it, she felt the faint psychic connection latch into place. The stone’s power filled her and surrounded her: benevolent goodness combined with the dark chaos of the universe.
It was beautiful.
Lesya leaned over the nest and showed the stone to her companions below. Rivka screeched in excitement and leapt up a down before launching into a hug with Andrei.
On a background of her friends’ excited yells, Lesya looked down at the stone in wonder. It was seemingly innocuous, a normal, gray rock exterior. But imperfections in the stone revealed the smooth, black interior, with striations of brilliant rainbow colors.
It struck her that this stone had once traveled the universe. It had flown through the vacuum of space high above, an alien rock that plummeted to their planet. The stone she held had once touched the stars.
Maybe it was a star.
Lesya pocketed the stone and petted the sleeping puffins, then climbed from the nest.
Getting down was ten times easier than it had been to climb up. Lesya threw a leg over the edge of the cliff and eased down while a group of anxiously chirping puffins watched. As she felt Viktor’s hands on her ankles, she took a deep breath and let go. She landed safely in his arms.
Lesya’s feet hit the ground and she turned, but Viktor didn’t let her go. She found herself locked in his embrace, his blue eyes on hers.
“You okay?” he asked. His voice sounded a little breathless, though that could have been her own nervous breaths. He was solid and warm against her, their bodies pressed together and his face only inches away.
“Yeah. You?”
“Honestly? Got a little nervous when you stepped off my shoulder.”
Lesya grinned. “Made it up and down again. Thanks to you.”
“Happy to be of assistance,” Viktor murmured.
They broke away from each other, and Lesya patted her pocket. “Let’s get back down there and save the world.”
After climbing gingerly down the mountainside, Lesya leapt the last foot and a half and found herself caught up in Rivka’s arms.
“So much touching,” Lesya grunted as the siren squeezed the life out of her.
“I was worried. And you did it!” Rivka let go and stepped back, holding out a hand. “Can I see it?”
“Of course.” Lesya pulled the stone from her pocket and dropped it into Rivka’s waiting palm.
Suddenly, a tremendous roar shook the mountainside. Loose rocks showered from above, sending the group into a mad dash for cover.
They ducked behind a giant boulder to avoid the tumble of falling rocks. The roar had ended, but now they heard heavy pounding - as if something very large was walking right toward them.
“What is that?” Rivka hissed. To Lesya’s relief, she still held the stone in her grip.
Lesya tiptoed, taking a quick glance over the boulder.
She wasn’t prepared for what she saw.
She sank quickly, yanking Viktor down before he could make himself visible to the beast.
“It’s a dragon!” Lesya whispered.
Andrei’s eyes widened, and he stood to look. “Wow. I didn’t even know they were real.”
Rivka grabbed his cotton shirt and yanked him back to the ground. “Idiot, don’t let it see you!”
“Marina said the legend about the meteorite said the stone was guarded by the mountain.” Lesya pointed a thumb over her shoulder. “Guess we just met the guardian.”
The beast’s shuddering footsteps had grown closer. He was so big, so heavy, that the entire mountain seemed to quake beneath him.
“We have to run,” Viktor said. “Run!”
As one, the group launched down the mountainside.
Lesya skidded on loose gravel and landed on her ass, but only long enough for Viktor to grab her under the arms and launch her back to her feet. She raced so fast over the ground, she barely felt it beneath her. One glance over her shoulder at the monstrosity drawing closer made her put on a burst of speed.
Then she stumbled.
She pitched forward into a barrel roll. She rolled once, twice, three times until she landed on her back and slid forward several more feet. She came to a halt upside down and facing the dragon. Rivka, Andrei, and Viktor were nowhere in sight. They hadn’t heard her fall and had continued to run.
Lesya let out a strangled cry as the dragon locked his menacing gaze on her. This close to him, she could see he was quite beautiful. His scales were a dozen shades of blue and shone like pearls in the sunlight. Delicate horns grew from either side of his face and curled elegantly behind his head. His long snout, complete with sharp white teeth, crested into pale yellow eyes.
Lacking any other option, Lesya called for the spirits.
The familiar sensation of falling through time and space rolled through her until she was alone on the foggy mountain under a night sky.
An old woman limped out of the fog, using the handle of a gnarled broom as a walking cane. She was round beneath her heavy robes, with long black hair that fell past her hips. Though her face was pocked with deep lines and craters, her eyes were a clear, piercing green.
Lesya let her head fall back to the dirt.
She’d called fucking Baba Yaga.
“You rang?” the old woman said, tittering. “What’s wrong, child? Think I aim to eat you?”
Lesya sat up and leveled a serious gaze on the witch. “I don’t know. Are you?”
“I’m not hungry.” Baba Yaga waved a hand. The air shimmered and shone as a bench manifested. The old goddess sank onto the bench with a loud groan. “It’s been a while since a human has been capable of calling me. I’m impressed.”
“If I can fuck anything up, I generally do,” Lesya replied.
Baba Yaga raised an eyebrow. “Full of bitter vinegar, aren’t you? Who broke you?”
The question gave Lesya pause. “Broke me?”
The goddess gestured at Lesya. “Look at you. You’re broken into tiny pieces. Daddy issues? Mommy issues? Molested by a creepy uncle?”
“No! Jeez.” Lesya stood. She couldn’t handle the goddess looming over her on that dumb fake bench. “My parents were great people. And I didn’t have any uncles.”
Baba Yaga nodded sagely. “Parents were. Past tense. You were young when it happened. The ocean claimed them. That’s why you stay away from the sea. A shipwreck?”
Lesya’s heart pounded. The old witch’s words stabbed like knives, awakening an old pain inside her chest. She felt laid bare, her rib cage split open, and her heart on display beneath Baba Yaga’s scrutiny.
“How do you know that?” Lesya snapped.
“I know everything, child. Don’t presume to think otherwise.” She sat back against the bench seat, resting her hands on the broom. “I also know you called me because a frost dragon is about to turn you to ice.”
“Frost dragon?” Lesya said, baffled. She shook her head. “I didn’t call you. I was trying to call the leshiy.”
“You aren’t in the leshiy’s territory, child. He doesn’t leave his precious woods. He can’t fly like me.” Baba Yaga cackled. The eerie sound echoed off the rocks around them, longer than physically possible, as if a second person were laughing in the distance.
“Can you help me not be an icicle?”
Baba Yaga leaned forward and closed one eye. “You don’t need a frost dragon to be an icicle, child. You’re already made of frost. The dragon is the least of your worries.”
“I’m not made of frost!”
“That cute siren. You wouldn’t let her in. She came onto land, a completely alien place to her, and asked for your help.”
“And I helped her.”
“Begrudgingly. Because she’s tenacious, and you’re a grumpy old witch in the skin of a young mage.” Baba Yaga banged the ground with her broom handle. “You have to open up eventually. Live in your isolation with your improbability of puffins forever, and you’ll turn into me. A grotesque old witch who gets her jollies terrorizing
the countryside and stealing babies to eat.”
“You actually eat babies?”
Baba Yaga grinned, revealing a snaggletooth. “They just think I do. Keeps them away from me, doesn’t it?”
Lesya had to admit the genius behind her techniques.
The goddess stood and disappeared her bench with a flick of her fingers. She started to turn away but paused and looked back at Lesya. “You don’t need my help, Lesya Markova. You already have someone on your side.”
Then Baba Yaga walked away into the dark, foggy night.
The stars spun and the world turned sideways. Lesya stumbled but rode the waves of the change until she was back on the mountainside, staring down the frost dragon.
He opened his mouth, exposing two rows of serrated teeth. The dark of his throat began to glow, to swirl with brilliant blue energy, and Lesya realized he was about to freeze her.
She recalled Baba Yaga’s words: You already have someone on your side.
Lesya closed her eyes and wished for a swift death.
19
Rivka
Rivka had never before watched someone else’s life flash before their eyes, but that was exactly what passed over Lesya’s face the moment the dragon opened its mouth. A look of pure terror reflected in Lesya’s eyes along with the electric blue energy heading right toward her.
Without a thought or care for her own safety, Rivka shoved the stone in her pocket and then dove for Lesya. Her form flew through the air like she swam through water, effortlessly and in perfect sync. She collided with the mage and knocked her back several feet as the blast hit Rivka square in the back.
Rivka held her ground against the attack. Her eyes tracked Lesya as she rolled to a stop farther down the trail. Her pack opened up and supplies scattered across the ground. A crystal orb rolled out behind everything else, clinking across the gravelly terrain. It came to rest between a large clump of grass and weeds.
Lesya’s face lit up with recognition. Where her eyes had once held the knowledge of imminent death, this look sparked hope.
Rivka canted her head, confused. She wanted to ask Lesya what the hell the shiny ball was, but she was frozen in place, protecting Lesya from the dragon.
The stream of subzero frost abated, and Rivka’s shoulders sagged. The dragon reared back, and a roar exploded through the air. The shockwaves made her heart skip a beat.
Andrei drew her attention away as he rushed forward. He checked her over and patted his hands over her back. “Does anything hurt? Are you okay?”
His concern endeared her a smidge more.
“I’m...I’m fine.” Hysterical laughter bubbled up and out of Rivka’s mouth. “I’m more than fine. I didn’t feel a thing when the dragon blasted me. Nothing.”
Andrei didn’t seem convinced. “You sure?”
“Actually...yeah. I think I’m resistant to the frost.” She held up her hands, marveling at her own body. “Is that even possible?”
“Sirens are capable of withstanding freezing temperatures in the ocean. I mean, I know the temperatures have risen considerably over the years—” Andrei cut off his speech as the dragon’s roar penetrated the mountainside.
Lesya rushed to join them and thrust the orb in front of Rivka. “Do you know what this is?”
“Um, a fragile ball you shouldn’t be shoving around willy-nilly?” Rivka backed up out of harm’s way.
“Yes and no. It is fragile, but it’s an inversion orb!” Lesya shook it excitedly. “Marina is a genius for putting this in my pack! I know what it does. The problem is I don’t know how to activate it.”
An angry dragon claw swiped their group, and all four leapt out of the way. Viktor was a split second too late and pitched forward as sharp claws swiped his back.
He grunted in pain, and shoved Lesya forward. “Run, before it recharges its frost!”
As they pitched down the mountain with the dragon close on their heels, Rivka shouted, “You better figure out how the fuck it works, or we’re all going to die!”
Lesya tossed a shocked glance at her friend. “Did you just cuss all on your own?”
“Maybe. Did I?”
Lesya leapt into the air with a laugh. “I’m so proud of you!”
The mage had completely lost it. They were being attacked by a dragon and threatened with death for like the twentieth time in the past twenty-four hours, and here she was, doting like a proud mother.
“Focus, Lesya! The orb!” Rivka reminded her as she leapt over a patch of small boulders. “We need to figure this orb out now! Our fate literally rests on that stupid glass ball.”
Another shot of frost bellowed from the dragon’s maw. Rivka leapt to shield Lesya from the blast, while Andrei protected Viktor. The humans threw their hands up to protect their face but were pushed back a foot or more by the force. Crystal shards of ice littered their hair, but both escaped unscathed by the dragon’s frosty breath.
“Do something!” Rivka shouted to Lesya as she and Andrei faced down the dragon. “I can’t protect you from teeth and claws.”
Lesya raised the orb in the air, chanting words Rivka didn’t know the meaning to. Her words crescendoed until Lesya was screaming at the orb.
“Just work. Dammit!” She shook it. “What do I need to do to get you to protect us?”
The dragon stepped forward menacingly, its intelligent yellow gaze looking at Rivka and Andrei as if they were dinner.
Lesya launched into the spell one more time, the words tumbling faster out of her mouth than before. Crazed panic punctuated each foreign word, but when she got to the end - still nothing.
“Lesya?” Rivka pleaded.
“I know. I know. Let me try a different spell.” Lesya opened her mouth.
The dragon had apparently grown tired of waiting. He brought his tail around and smashed it into the mountainside. Puffins screeched in terror, fleeing their nests for the safety of the sky.
Rivka’s knees buckled under the intense shaking, and she fell on her butt. In her peripheral, she caught sight of Lesya pitching forward and the orb flying through the air.
“Nooo!” Rivka yelled, but it was too late.
The shiny surface of the orb swirled with unspent magic. It bounced once, a crack splitting down the side. And on the second time bounced, it shattered by the dragon’s feet. Shards of shrapnel sprayed outward.
Blue tendrils of magic snaked up and around the dragon’s scaly blue legs. The beast stared down, unconcerned by the cloud of smoke.
So much for magic saving their hides.
20
Lesya
Lesya grabbed her head, disappointment flooding her. She’d had a chance to save them, and she’d fucked it up by falling. Now their only hope was in tiny shards at the dragon’s feet.
Tiny shards like Lesya’s tiny pieces. Fucking Baba Yaga.
Lesya waited for the dragon to lunge and rip into them with his claws and teeth. But the dragon didn’t move.
Confused, Lesya stood. The dragon appeared to be looking right at her, but he didn’t respond to her sudden movement. She walked closer and waved a hand in front of his face.
His eyes remained glassed over.
“It worked,” Lesya murmured. Then louder: “It worked!”
Rivka lifted her head from her arms. “What?”
Lesya shoved the dragon's snout. It didn't budge. “Inversion! He's frozen! Let's get the fuck out of here!”
She grabbed her pack and slung it over her shoulder, and her companions did the same. Then they took off, leaving the frozen dragon behind them.
Lesya had never run so long or so fast in her life.
She ran without direction, her only goal to get as far from the frost dragon as possible before it unfroze and came after them. When the ground leveled out and turned to flat plain, she found another burst of energy. She felt like she was flying, her feet above the ground and the ocean spreading before her like a giant sapphire blanket.
She didn’t get far, though. Rivk
a’s tinny voice called out behind her, begging her to stop.
Sighing, Lesya put on the brakes, skidding to a halt in the grass. She had to wait for her companions to join her. Andrei and Rivka limped painfully, probably because their bodies weren’t used to running. And Viktor trailed even further behind them.
“I can’t run anymore,” Rivka said apologetically as she limped to a stop.
“We need to get away from the mountain before the inversion wears off. Can we at least do a brisk walk?”
Rivka snorted. “To be honest, I’m not sure how I’m upright now, as it is. A brisk walk might be out of the question, too.” Her brows knitted together as she asked, “You don’t think the dragon knows where to find the stone, do you?”
“I have a connection to it. What if the dragon does, too? There’s no telling how long he stood guard over the stone or what kind of connection he forged with it.”
“And he’ll show up here to eat us and take his stone back,” Andrei added as he joined them, shuffling slower than usual.
Rivka glared at him. “Thanks for the pep talk, Captain Positive.”
“Well, let’s see the damn thing,” he said, waving at Rivka’s pocket. “We can put our heads together and try to come up with a plan that doesn’t include being eaten by the dragon.”
Rivka pulled the stone out of her pocket and held it out between them.
It looked so small and benign on the siren’s palm. Lesya couldn’t believe that tiny stone had the power to save the world.
As Viktor joined them, Lesya asked, “You can’t sense anything?”
Rivka shook her head. “I can feel its power. But I don’t get anything else from it.”
“Do you think it’s like a fortune cookie?” Viktor said, gingerly picking the rock up. He turned it over as if looking for some hidden key. “We get those in port sometimes from the east. Maybe we have to crack it open to find out what’s inside.”
“We are not cracking the mystical world-saving rock open,” Lesya said, snatching the rock from him. “That’s your fever talking from the fact your back is serrated like a rack of lamb.”
Sordid Depths (The Cursed Seas Collection) Page 13