“Now what?” Apex grumbled, as he slowly made his way over to join them.
“Now we open that door even faster,” Ridge said. “Need any help with that, Tee?”
“No.” Tolemek eyed him through his ropes of hair. “Tee?”
“Your name’s too long, and I haven’t come up with a suitable nickname for you yet.”
“Yet? I thought that dubious honor was reserved for your pilots.”
“Anyone’s a fair target.” Ridge drummed his fingers on the wall as the circle of goo started to smoke. He eyed the weapons. “They’re pointed at the ash pile, not us, so we should be fine, right?”
“Maybe,” Apex said. “Maybe not. We fell into a security system. You wouldn’t think you could avoid being incinerated by simply moving out of the way.”
“There is ash everywhere.” Tolemek knelt back from the door, apparently having done all he could until the goop finished eating through the metal.
Ridge hoped it wasn’t a thick door. “It’s getting hotter. The weapons. They’re radiating heat like furnaces.” The hum was growing louder, too, with the pitch becoming less deep.
“I think it’s a fancy crematorium.” Apex pointed at the layers of ash. “Everything that falls down here gets incinerated, not just what’s in the pile. There’s just a pile because more things fall over there.” He backed up until he bumped into the wall next to the smoking door. “And if we’re in here when the weapons go off, we’ll be incinerated too.”
“A reasonable hypothesis,” Tolemek said.
Ridge thought of Nowon’s body, the way his skin had been melted off. Had he fallen down here? Or into some other trap powered by the heat of the earth?
“How’s that door coming along?” Ridge almost gave it a kick to check for himself, but he didn’t know if doing that too early might disrupt the goo.
“Soon,” Tolemek said.
The hum was growing higher and higher in pitch. “It’s definitely building to something.” Ridge jerked a thumb at the door. “Will we be safe as soon as we get out?”
“Eventually. I’m not sure how far we’ll have to be. The heat could pour through my hole, and if it’s just a tunnel or staircase on the other side, it could be quite intense out there.” Tolemek gave the door a kick.
“Go, go,” Ridge urged. He wanted to leap through himself, but ushered Apex through. Thanks to his injury, he would be slowest and needed any head start he could get.
Thankfully, he didn’t object. Apex cried out as the sides scraped his ribs, but he hurled himself through the hole without hesitation. Tolemek grabbed his bag and dove through next. With the high-pitched hum so loud and powerful it felt as if it were tunneling through his eardrums, Ridge scrambled after them.
His candle went out, but Tolemek still had his lantern and led the way up a set of cement stairs. An impossibly long set of stairs that disappeared into the darkness above. Ridge sprinted up them and could have passed the others. Instead, he urged them on with pats on the back. They might have been shoves. All he could think about was the expression, “Heat rises.”
The hum culminated in a strange wail and flash so intense it flooded through the hole and up the stairs, lighting every shadow with the power of the sun. A wave of heat slammed into Ridge’s back, wrapping around him like water. Hot water. It seared his skin, and he was terrified that it might be melting his flesh right from his bones. No, that would hurt more. It had to, didn’t it? The heat was uncomfortable, but he wasn’t in agony. Not yet. He kept running, sprinting up those stairs even though his thigh muscles burned, and the air he breathed seared his lungs and scraped his throat raw.
Something burned his hand, and he cursed, imagining skin melting off. Tolemek’s lantern didn’t provide enough light for him to see the wound. Maybe that was for the best. He ran on.
After an eternity or two, the heat finally faded. The machines cycling off? Or maybe they had simply run out of reach.
Apex stumbled and went down, grasping his ribs. “A minute. Please. Just need—”
“Take it.” Ridge stopped, putting a hand on his shoulder. The door they had escaped through had fallen back into darkness and disappeared from view.
“The top is ahead,” Tolemek said. “I see another door.”
It felt like they had climbed enough stairs to have run out the top of the mountain and up into the heavens by now. Ridge rested a hand against the wall. There was something lumpy on the side of his palm, deadening his feeling. He gulped, remembering that pain he had felt. He held his hand up toward Tolemek’s light, afraid of what he would see.
Then he laughed.
“Glad you find the news so promising,” Tolemek said.
“My hand is covered with wax,” Ridge said.
Both men stared at him.
“The candle melted,” Ridge explained. “I thought—never mind. A door, you say? Any chance this one isn’t locked?” He doubted it.
Apex shifted, and Ridge helped him stand up.
“I’m fine, sir.”
“Good.”
“It is unlocked,” Tolemek said.
“I hope whatever’s on the other side is cool,” Ridge said. “My skin feels like… I don’t even know. A bad sunburn.”
“Be glad that’s all we got.” Tolemek pressed an ear to the door, listened, then shook his head. “I don’t hear anything.”
Ridge eased past Apex, drew his pistol, and nodded for Tolemek to open the door. “Ready.”
He stepped past Tolemek and into a cement hallway, ready to fire in either direction. A second or two passed before he realized there was a dead guard on the floor. Like the first one they had encountered, his neck had been slit.
“When nothing’s going your way, it’s comforting to know that things aren’t going the enemy’s way, either,” Ridge murmured.
Ridge?
He jumped, surprised by the voice, even though he recognized it an instant later. Sardelle?
You’re alive! The relief that came through the link almost brought tears to his eyes. He was relieved to know Sardelle was alive, too, but her emotion was more intense.
You thought I wasn’t?
I couldn’t sense you. Neither could Jaxi. I thought…
Oh. We were in a, a crematorium, I guess you could call it. The walls were metal. Iron.
Sardelle had admitted once that she couldn’t sense things through iron. Ah.
Where are you now? Are Ahn and Duck all right too? Did you have to go back out?
We’re all here. We deactivated the statues and went up. But we’re… in a little trouble now. If you could find us, we could use Tolemek’s help.
Just his? Not mine?
Maybe you can hold his bag.
Very funny. I don’t know where we are. You haven’t found a map, have you?
“Sir?”
“Hm?”
“I asked if you had a preference as to which way.”
“Hold on. I’m seeing if we can get directions.”
A surprisingly strong grip latched onto his forearm. “Caslin?” Tolemek asked. “Is she all right?”
Ridge nodded. “Yes, they went up.”
Jaxi says for you to take the wider hallway, go up two more flights of stairs, and look for the lift on the floor with all the labs. There are some stairs at the other end that should lead to our level, one up from there. We’re on the other side of the lift though, so you’ll have to figure out a way to burn through a metal wall to get to us. Oh, also, there are people along your route. If they’re like the people we’ve run into, they’ll be expecting trouble. Us.
At this point, I’d be delighted to deal with something as normal as “people.” Ridge pointed down the wider hallway and started walking. “This way. Stay alert.” Where are you now? You said you needed help?
We’ve found the vault, but we’ve been shut off from the lift. Sardelle sounded sheepish. We’re locked in for the moment.
The vault? The vault full of dragon blood?
Yes.
But if Jaxi can’t melt a hole in the door, that’s where we’ll need Tolemek. She thinks she can handle it, but she does have a high opinion of her abilities.
I’d never have guessed.
By the way, Jaxi has had time to inspect the mountain and says the peak can open and that the hot air balloons are stored up there. That may be our way out once we’re done.
Understood. We’ll get to you. Don’t take any chances until we get the team back together, all right?
They had been “speaking” back and forth rapidly, and Ridge expected a prompt answer. He followed Apex up the first set of stairs Jaxi had mentioned—since he was distracted, he was letting Apex lead—and onto the second set before prompting Sardelle again.
Right?
No answer.
He cursed softly.
“Sir?” Apex.
“I’m afraid the others are… taking chances.”
Chapter 15
“Sardelle?” came Ahn’s soft call from the front of the corridor.
“What is it?” Sardelle had been about to finish talking with Ridge and join the two lieutenants—Jaxi was heating up, preparing herself for her attempt to melt the door, and it was about to be far too hot for a human to stand close.
She had no more than reached Ahn and Duck when a soft scrape came from the ceiling in the corner of the big lift room. There was a square hole there that she hadn’t noticed before. It looked like some kind of vent or duct entrance with the grate removed. Ah, there was the grate lying on the floor. Ahn and Duck were both aiming at the hole.
Ridge was asking something, and Sardelle was about to answer when a tin canister dropped through the hole. Duck fired.
“Wait,” Ahn whispered, “we don’t know what it is.” The warning came too late. The bullet took the canister in the side, and smoke poured out of the hole.
It was a different color than the earlier smoke weapon, a reddish-pink this time, and Sardelle’s stomach roiled as soon as the first fumes reached her nose.
“Hold your breath,” Duck said. He kept standing there, like he meant to hold his breath and shoot whoever came out of the duct, but Sardelle’s senses screamed that this was more dangerous than the other smoke, that it had toxic properties.
“Get back,” she whispered. “Both of you.”
She could have made a shield, an airtight bubble around herself, but she wouldn’t be able to attack through it, so she pushed past them and focused on the smoke billowing from the can. She drew air from the room behind her and pushed it against the air in that corner. Her churning stomach made it hard to concentrate, but she managed to squash the smoke into a small area for a moment.
She was debating on how to destroy the canister and the tainted air completely when the first guard dropped through the hole. Well armed—and wearing a mask—he landed in a crouch.
Sardelle waved her hand and ripped the mask from his face at the same time as a second guard landed, this one aiming straight at her. A shot came before she could raise a shield to protect herself. But the shot came from behind her, not from the man. Ahn had leaned around the corner, risking the smoke. The man in the mask pitched to the floor.
The guard who had dropped into the room first had fallen to his knees and was clutching his neck. Eyes huge, he reached for the mask Sardelle had ripped off, but he collapsed before he touched it. She didn’t know whether he was dead or unconscious, but the ramifications horrified her either way.
“Get back,” she repeated to Ahn and returned to trying to confine the smoke. Sticking it back into the canister was impossible, but she did what she should have done immediately. Using the surrounding air again, she pushed the smoke up to the ceiling and into the hole—she could sense more people in the ductworks up there, now that she was looking for them. She tried to usher the gas toward them. It was like trying to throw sand through a hole, but if she could at least get most of it out of their space…
Her stomach interrupted her fight. Clutching at her gut, she ran from the room. She could have vomited right there, but she didn’t want the people in the duct to hear her and believe they had affected her. Instead she ran back to the first observation room, just managing to pass through the doorway before heaving her dinner all over the floor. She gripped the wall, her sides and chest aching from the effort even as she was unable to stop the spasms. What was that gas? She thought of the inhalant Tolemek had created. It couldn’t be related to that, could it be? If it was, would she die in seconds?
Don’t die. I’m working on the door. Getting through it.
Sardelle finished throwing up, but she couldn’t manage the mental energy to respond. Her body was shaking, and sweat poured down the sides of her face. She wanted to collapse on the floor, but that was a mess now, and her dignity overrode her physical weakness. She staggered toward the hall, hoping to find a clean place to slump against a wall. She also hoped nobody would notice the mess she had made if she closed the door behind her.
But Duck was standing in the corridor outside. His face was flushed red and bathed in sweat, and he looked like he had thrown up somewhere too. He gave her a lopsided smile, though.
“You’re human.”
Yes, sorcerers could vomit, the same as anyone else. All she said was, “Apparently so.”
“That’s not.” Duck stepped aside to nod toward the back of the corridor.
Jaxi lay on the floor, where Sardelle had left her, but a bright two-inch-thick orange stream of energy shot out of the tip of her blade, flames dancing along the beam. Sardelle didn’t think the flames were necessary. Jaxi had probably added them for flair.
“No, that is a special soul.” Sardelle turned toward the open end of the corridor. “Ahn?”
“Here,” Ahn called softly. “There are more vent grates in that room. I’m watching them, but we should check in those little rooms too.” Her face was also flushed, and her hands shook, but she hadn’t dropped her gun, and she looked like she would die there in the mouth of the corridor rather than leave her self-assigned post.
“Ridge and Tolemek are alive,” Sardelle said.
Ahn glanced back at her.
“Apex too. I thought you should know before you decided to get suicidal defending us.”
“Good.” Ahn didn’t deny the suicidal bit. Hm.
“I’ll watch with you,” Sardelle said. “I’ll know how to react now. Canister goes back up into the hole before it explodes.”
“Or some idiot shoots it,” Duck muttered from behind them.
“I’m sure it was designed to spit the gas out anyway,” Ahn said.
Sardelle’s stomach gave another little twinge. She wasn’t sure if she had gotten enough of the gas out of the room to keep them from suffering further deleterious effects, but she hoped so. That guard still wasn’t moving. The first one had been shot dead, but she felt compelled to check on the second. If he was still alive, she might be able to do something for him. But he must have caught an entire lungful of that gas, or maybe his body tolerated it less well than others. Either way, he was dead.
Remembering that she had been communicating with Ridge when all of this had started, Sardelle reached out to him again. Ridge?
Sardelle, you’re all right?
She decided not to mention the vomit. Or the fact that her belly was still shivering with the aftereffects of that vile concoction. Tolemek must have a like-minded soul here. She shuddered, imagining going up against that person.
For the moment, we’re fine. Still stuck, but fine.
Good. We’re trying to get to you. We’re—
Busy? Sardelle guessed when a moment passed without a response. She stretched out, trying to find him in the maze of a mountain, but she ran into the Cofah first. There were more guards moving around in the ducts above the front room, and a pair of them were crawling along on elbows and knees, making their way over the laboratories. They must be angling for a vent in one of those observation rooms.
She almost missed Ridge’s response of, Yeah.
We have more trouble to deal with here, she told him. Be careful. I’ll check on you as soon as I can.
Wait, Ridge added. Do you know how those soldiers blew up your mountain three hundred years ago?
What? I mean, why do you want to know?
I’d like to do the same thing here, if possible. After we leave.
Sardelle shuddered at the idea of collapsing the mountain with people in it, even if they were Cofah soldiers and scientists making deadly weapons to fling at her homeland. She didn’t have an answer for him anyway. I don’t know what they used exactly. It was all a blur of running to the meeting point and assuming others would make it too. I didn’t see any of the detonations myself and don’t even know if it was some form of magic or not—though it seems strange that they would have used magic against the very magic users they feared and wanted to destroy.
All right. A determination accompanied his words, like he meant to succeed with that plan, one way or another.
She trusted he would warn her in advance, so she would worry about the most pressing problem first.
“Ahn,” Sardelle whispered, “two are trying to come in behind us. I’ll be right back.”
Ahn gave her a quick salute. There wasn’t likely any thought behind it, beyond acknowledging her words, but it made Sardelle smile anyway. It was as if she had been accepted as part of the squadron. Who knew vomit would do that?
She walked back toward Jaxi. Heat was rolling off that vault door, and noxious smoke as well—their lungs would all need the attention of a healer after this—but Sardelle couldn’t tell if the soulblade had broken through yet. She would ask for an update after she dealt with the two guards.
She slipped into an unlit observation room. Whatever lay beyond the glass in this one, it was too dark to tell. What lay above the ceiling was more concerning. Enough light seeped in from the corridor that she made out a vent in one corner. She closed her eyes and once again located the approaching men. Inspired by Jaxi’s heat wave, she applied some energy of her own to the bottom of the duct, close to the vent. Her mind ached, and her eyes felt gritty, like she needed to close them for a few hours—or a few days. She had been expending too much of her power and feared her muscles were trembling from more than the effects of that poison. Still, she managed to heat the thin duct metal nicely and was rewarded with a yelp of pain when the first man reached it, placing his hand on the hot spot.
The Dragon Blood Collection, Books 1-3 Page 75