I can thicken the air to carry your group to the bottom without injury, Azarwrath said.
We just step off the edge, and you’ll float us down? Trip eased up beside Blazer and looked over the edge into the deep shadows below, shadows that the moon and stars did nothing to illuminate. He had to use his senses to detect the bottom—a good three hundred feet down. Uhm.
We can do it, Jaxi added. You’ll have to trust us. It would take hours for you to climb down in the dark, even if you had the right climbing gear.
“The swords are going to levitate us down,” Trip said, even as power flared from his hip, and a rush of air swept in from all sides. His feet left the ground. He fought down an alarmed squawk that tried to come out. The others wouldn’t want to follow him if they knew he was afraid. Besides, it didn’t feel like he was floating. The compressed air was almost like a platform that he stood upon. “There are no easy routes, and it’s a long drop.”
“Levitate?” Leftie blurted.
“Do it,” Blazer said, glancing toward the flying dragons. They were already more than halfway to the airship.
“No, don’t touch me with that damn magic. I’ll stand guard up here.”
“We’re not splitting up.”
Can you do us all at once? Trip asked silently.
No, Jaxi said.
Yes, Azarwrath said.
Trip sensed Jaxi scowling at the other soulblade.
This is not a difficult task for me, Telryn, Azarwrath informed him.
Jaxi’s scowl deepened, an impressive thing since she had neither a face nor lips.
Do we take the ignorant one down against his wishes? Azarwrath asked while Jaxi fumed.
Is that Leftie? Yes.
I don’t care how powerful you think you are, Azzy, Jaxi thought. You won’t be able to levitate anyone with a dragon-slaying sword.
Ah, this is true. They must drop them down first, then retrieve them at the bottom.
“Drop them?” Trip asked.
They are magical blades. The fall will not damage them.
Aware of Blazer frowning at him, Trip explained.
“Not a problem,” Kaika said, striding to the edge and dropping her sword point down into the canyon.
Rysha gave her a startled look.
“We don’t have a close relationship. It’s been trying to make me surly around our magical allies, the way Therrik is.” Kaika glanced at Trip. “And I have a lovely disposition, so I object.”
Rysha walked forward, drawing her sword, but she wasn’t so quick to drop it. She stood at the edge with the blade across her gloved hands and struggled to let go. Long seconds passed, her jaw clenched. Finally, with a jerky movement, she dropped her hands, and the sword plummeted into the darkness.
Blazer’s feet left the ground. She dropped into an alarmed crouch, her arms spread for balance. She and Trip sailed over the edge, and his heart tried to leap out of his chest as fear overrode logic. He knew the soulblades were powerful and could handle this. But hanging in the air over absolutely nothing terrified him.
They descended rapidly, but not like they were falling. It was a controlled descent.
When Trip’s feet touched the ground, he gazed up at the slit of stars high above and his comrades being levitated down after him. A strange feeling came over him, something akin to peace, serenity. He still sensed the dragons, but the pressure in his head had lessened, and the icy canyon walls emitted a warmth that made his skin tingle in a pleasant way. Magic? He tried to decide if he sensed that. There was definitely an otherworldliness about the place.
“This canyon is a geological oddity,” Rysha said, as she landed beside him, apparently too intrigued by their surroundings to have been disturbed by the magical descent. Kaika was the one to retrieve their swords and hand her borrowed blade to her. “Unless I’m grossly mistaken, we’re below sea level. Well below. And look at the walls. And the floor. This is all ice. Yet the walls are smooth. There’s no sign of glacial activity. We—”
A hand gripped Trip’s shoulder and spun him around.
“Do not let them do that again,” Leftie snarled, anger and terror radiating from him.
“It was the fastest way down.”
“You don’t pick someone up with magic when he’s not—when it’s not— It’s gods-cursed magic, damn it.” Leftie circled his heart with two fingers while still grasping Trip’s shoulder.
“Enough,” Blazer said, pushing between them and breaking Leftie’s grip. “We need to find the portal before those dragons—”
Booms sounded in the distance, and her gaze lurched up toward the stars.
“The airship must be firing its cannons,” Kaika said.
“It won’t do them any good,” Dreyak said grimly, the entire group on the ground now.
“No, but it’ll help us,” Blazer said. “Ravenwood, where—”
“That way, ma’am,” Rysha said, waving for everyone to follow. “If the maps are correct, there’s a cave down there. We should check it first, but I wish there was time to explore everything. Those are magnificent.” She pointed toward the sides of the canyon.
Statues carved from the walls, from the ice, rose a hundred feet over their heads. Trip couldn’t tell what they depicted yet, not with the darkness so thick at the bottom of the canyon, but he would be surprised if they weren’t dragons.
I believe they’re statues of dragon gods, Jaxi said, as the group walked under them on their way to a dark opening in one side of the canyon. Which is rather remarkable since many dragons seem to believe themselves gods.
They do? Trip hadn’t heard any of them proclaim that yet, but he’d only had a prolonged conversation with one of them, the bronze dragon at the pirate fortress.
Well, perhaps not many, but of the two I know well, one believes he’s a god. And he’s deluded others into believing he’s a god, as well. There’s a temple in the capital.
Really?
Ridge and Sardelle got married there. Her part-time job is being his high priestess.
Er, does she believe he’s a god?
No, but she, Ridge, and even King Angulus have been willing to feed Bhrava Saruth’s delusions since he’s been our best ally. He heals and blesses his followers regularly. It’s a shame he’s been missing for several months. I’m sure his followers are bereft without their god.
“Oh, I wish dearly that I had a lantern.” Rysha paused at the mouth of the dark cave, looking left and right toward the walls. Looking for her ochre and umber paintings?
Trip stopped at her side and drew Jaxi. Can you—
Of course, Jaxi said, glowing a soft silvery blue.
“Oh,” Rysha blurted, grinning at him. “I forgot about the swords.”
She pulled out her own, and it glowed its usual pale green. A somewhat sickly green that wasn’t nearly as appealing as Jaxi’s illumination.
How kind of you to notice its clear inferiority.
Trip suspected that dragon wasn’t the only magic-user with delusions.
Really. Jaxi sniffed.
The swords’ light brightened the cave walls, illuminating a dark ice mixed with dirt that supported the crude paintings from the past. How old were the paintings? Did their presence mean this ice never melted? And was there no insulation down here? Trip thought he remembered some trivia that caves were roughly the same temperature all over the planet, a temperature well above freezing.
Not caves made with magic, Azarwrath said. You were right out there. There’s not a lot of it remaining, but the walls of the canyon and this cave are imbued with it. I believe this place was ancient even in my time.
“Don’t turn those swords up too bright,” Blazer grumbled, glancing back into the canyon.
Booms continued to filter down to them, so the airship hadn’t succumbed yet. Trip couldn’t imagine they would be able to hold three dragons off for long.
“The chapaharii blades object to the magic that seems to be infused into the very nature of this place,” Rysha said
. “I don’t think we can get them to dim themselves.”
“Keeping them sheathed helps,” Kaika said dryly.
“But then I wouldn’t be able to see the artwork.”
“Darn.”
“Let’s get a move on,” Blazer said.
With obvious reluctance, Rysha tore herself from the old paintings, which depicted dragons flying or swooping down to pluck up giant buffalo or something similar.
Trip glanced left and right as he headed deeper into the cave. In one faded painting, a human rode a dragon while holding a sword aloft. A soulblade? Or one of the dragon-slaying blades? Or simply some crude copper weapon from a long bygone era?
“I dreamed of being a dragon rider when I was a girl,” Rysha whispered to him. “My grandmother used to tell me tales about noble dragons helping humankind fight against evil dragons. I suppose they were mostly just stories, but there are ruins of dragon-rider outposts around the world. Some of that must have truly happened.”
She steered the group around a wide bend, the ground made from slippery ice that challenged even their special footwear.
“I wonder where all those noble dragons have gone,” she added. “Were they all left behind? In the world beyond the portal?”
“Jaxi was telling me about a dragon in the capital that helps humans,” Trip said.
Captain Kaika, who was walking behind him with Blazer, snorted.
“Do you mean Bhrava Saruth?” Rysha asked. “The dragon who believes himself a god?”
“Apparently. Does that not qualify as noble?”
“He did help defend the city from other dragons a few years ago, and he does heal people, I understand,” Rysha said. “If you can catch him in his temple. I saw it once. It’s quite pretentious. And large. Larger than the temples in the city to the real gods. I’m not sure noble is quite the word to describe that dragon.”
Given the distaste in her voice, Trip decided not to ask what she thought about Sardelle being the dragon’s high priestess. Maybe that wasn’t well known. Or maybe Sardelle didn’t wish for it to be well known.
You’re catching on, Jaxi said.
“Oh, more paintings,” Rysha said, hefting her glowing blade high and jogging toward a wall ahead of them. She was remarkably agile on the ice, keeping her balance without appearing to try.
Even though she has no dragon blood, Azarwrath said, I believe she would birth capable sorcerers, presuming a union with a sorcerer. She seems intelligent.
Er, yes, Trip said, flummoxed by the random comment.
I believe Azzy just gave his blessing, should you two wish to rut with abandon and create babies.
It’s only been a few hours since we kissed for the first time.
Sardelle and her soul snozzle turned their first kiss into their first rutting session all in the same night. Granted, babies didn’t come until much later, but I’ve observed that people overcome by attraction are perfectly capable of accelerating their mating rituals.
Sardelle and her what?
Trip stopped beside Rysha, as there was nowhere else to go. They had reached the end of the cave. He raised Jaxi to help spread light across the walls, though he was hoping for a secret passage rather than more dragons hunting buffalo.
Soul snozzle, Jaxi said. Ridge.
I don’t need to know those things about my commanding officer, Jaxi.
Those things? Nicknames? Or rutting habits?
Both.
“Lieutenant Ravenwood,” Blazer said dryly. “I’m sure those dragon stick figures are fascinating, but we have a problem.”
“Yes, ma’am. This is what the Cofah map described. A canyon and a cave, and nothing else. But there must be something else. Or why would Jylea’s team be coming back here?” Rysha faced Trip. “Did you say you—Jaxi—sensed something in the mountain?”
Trip nodded. Holding Jaxi aloft, this time to provide lighting for himself, he examined the back of the cave and the floor at the base of it. He didn’t see any scrapes or cracks to suggest a secret door opened anywhere. Nor did claw marks mar the ice at their feet, but if the dragons came in and out this way, they might fly.
“Duck,” Blazer said, “take your tracking abilities over there to help him.”
“I’ve never tracked a dragon, ma’am.”
“Just see if you can find sign.” Blazer looked over her shoulder. The booms had stopped.
“Dragon sign? I haven’t noticed any spoor in the canyon or this cave, but perhaps they—”
“The door. Find sign of the door.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Any ideas, Jaxi? Azarwrath? Trip worried the dragons had defeated the airship and were on their way back.
Actually, Jaxi thought, a second airship has appeared in the distance. The dragons have pulled back to consider it.
A second airship? Trip sheathed Jaxi so he could run his gloves along the ice, peering close and searching again for cracks. The bared chapaharii blade nearby provided plenty of light.
It’s of similar construction to the Cofah airship, Jaxi thought.
Backup?
It seems a possibility. Also, there are two dragons accompanying it. Guarding it, it seems.
“Are we sure there’s something back there?” Kaika asked. “A continuation of the cave or another room? Because I brought plenty of explosives along. I can blow a hole in that wall if it isn’t too thick.” Her lips quirked. “And possibly even if it is.”
I could also melt a hole in it, Jaxi thought. If there’s another cave back there. I can’t tell. The ice you’re touching appears to be reinforced with magic, and I still sense the portal or some other artifact within the mountain, but I can’t tell quite where. Everything is obscured, and the nearness of the dragons and their powerful auras doesn’t help. They drown out everything around them.
Dreyak came up beside Trip, tugging off his glove. He laid his bare palm on the ice wall.
White light flared under his hand.
“That could be a sign,” Duck observed.
“Your wilderness skills are not overrated, I see,” Blazer told him.
Trip sensed magic welling underneath Dreyak’s hand and wondered if he should remove his own glove and touch the wall. But Rysha, ever curious, beat him to it. The wall remained dark and cold under her hand, and she sighed with disappointment.
Realizing the wall must be responding to the presence of dragon blood in one’s veins, Trip clasped his hands behind his back.
“Are you unlocking a door for us, Dreyak?” Kaika said. “Or do I still need to blow things up?”
A beam of intense light appeared all around Dreyak, and Trip jumped back, his hand dropping to Jaxi’s hilt.
Dreyak stepped back from the ice and spread his arms, but the light enveloping him did not fade. He peered down his body and grimaced. Trip couldn’t tell if he was in pain.
“Is it hurting you, Dreyak?” he asked, wondering if prodding the incorporeal beam with a soulblade would do anything.
“No, it’s just uncomfortable. My skin is crawling.”
I have seen this magic before, Azarwrath announced. A long time ago. It is called a scan.
“A scan?” Trip asked, not realizing he spoke aloud until people looked at him.
Before Azarwrath could answer, someone—or something—else spoke. A sonorous voice boomed in Trip’s mind, uttering words he did not understand. Power laced the words, making them painful as they rang out, as if someone were beating the inside of his skull with a drumstick.
The others winced, too, Rysha and Kaika jerking their hands to their ears. Thankfully, the words ended after a few sentences, and the light beam around Dreyak disappeared. The wall remained in place, and it was as if nothing had happened.
“Was that a language?” Blazer looked to Rysha.
“One I haven’t heard spoken before, but yes. Old Dragon Script. I think if I saw it in writing…” Rysha closed her eyes, nodding to herself, then tore off her pack and rummaged until she found a pencil and
notebook. “Dreyak, can you do that again?”
Dreyak grimaced, but he pressed his hand against the wall. This time, there was no beam. An angry flash of white flared, then disappeared.
“I think I’ve been deemed unworthy,” Dreyak said.
The words started repeating, and Rysha bounced on her toes as she copied down what she heard. It sounded like gobbledegook to Trip. She continued to write after the words ended, her lips moving as she nodded to herself again, like someone remembering the lyrics to a ballad.
“My philology professor would be appalled at my phonetic liberations with the text,” Rysha said, holding her notepad up, “but it’s close enough. I think I can translate. Here goes.” She cleared her throat and spoke in a deeper tone of voice. “In this ancient prison, only they who are worthy may pass, the golden keepers of the law, they doing the will of the gods, they being god-like themselves. Only they or their offspring may come within to judge the merit of the imprisoned, whether they shall be released or held for all eternity. They of lesser blood shall not be permitted to judge those within, nor shall they pass through this gate.” Rysha lowered her notepad. “This is a prison? Fascinating.”
“Uh huh,” Blazer said. “More importantly, are we going to be able to get in at all?”
“I wager I can permit us to pass.” Kaika slung her pack off her shoulders.
“Perhaps this place was a prison long before the portal was built?” Rysha gazed around at the paintings again. “That one over there—I wondered about it. It seems to depict two gold dragons capturing a silver dragon. Maybe the gate will only open for gold dragons and their offspring, but the bronze and silver dragons must have been allowed to enter if they were brought through in a gold’s keeping, thus to be imprisoned. Oh, and since dragons hate cold, it makes sense that they might have created a prison here. To truly punish those who strayed. Also, dragons aren’t fecund in cold temperatures, so imprisonment might have been meant to ensure they didn’t reproduce.”
“So, what does that mean for us?” Blazer asked. “We can go in if we just find a gold dragon to escort us?”
“Or one’s offspring.” Rysha hitched a shoulder.