“Nobody’s supposed to be canoodling at all on missions.” Blazer glared at Rysha and Trip.
“Are you sure?” Kaika asked. “People might be less grumpy if that happened more.”
“I’m game to try,” Leftie said, throwing her a wink, though Kaika’s back was to him. He and Duck stood farther down the slope behind Rysha and Blazer.
“Me too,” Duck said brightly.
“By all means, you two enjoy yourselves,” Kaika called back, slinging off her pack as she stopped in front of the cave-in. “I’ll be up here setting some explosives.”
“You two… What did she mean by that?” Duck asked.
“I think she implied she’s not willing to join us,” Leftie said. “Which is unfortunate, because I’m not nearly as excited about getting naked without a woman being involved.”
“Not nearly?” Blazer asked. “But there is some interest?”
“Uh.” Leftie eyed Duck and took a large step to the side. “No, ma’am. I misspoke.”
“I’m getting rejected a lot on this mission,” Duck observed. “Is it because I didn’t bathe in the spring when we had a chance?”
“Don’t worry,” Kaika called back. “I’ll take you with me to the Sensual Sage when we get back. We’ll find some women willing to bathe you.”
“I’d have to pay them, wouldn’t I?”
“Yes, but that’s only fair. Paying for services rendered.”
Duck’s nose wrinkled. “I can bathe myself, ma’am. For free.”
“Usually, other things happen after the bathing. Stimulating things.”
“Like what?”
“Use your imagination.”
Duck scratched his rather grimy and stubbled jaw and looked at Leftie.
“If you can’t imagine post-bathing activities to do with a woman,” Leftie said, “I’m not helping you.”
Duck wasn’t any younger than Rysha was, so she could only assume he didn’t visit a lot of brothels. Maybe the wolves that had raised him hadn’t instructed him in such things. Admittedly, she hadn’t ever visited a brothel, and she couldn’t claim the most personal experience when it came to stimulating naked activities, especially since it had been almost two years since she and Srekan had broken up. Her parents had loved him, a handsome, polite noble-born scholar. But he’d stood alongside her father when it came to lectures on how much of a waste of talent it would be if she joined the military. No wonder she hadn’t seriously dated anyone since then. She’d gotten tired of the men in her life telling her what she should and shouldn’t do.
“This is fantastic.” Kaika rubbed her hands together as she walked around, studying the cave-in from several angles. “I’m going to need my TE-84s. Yes, those will be perfect. Probably have to set up multiple detonations if the boulders go back twenty meters.”
“The soulblades and I could help, ma’am,” Trip offered from the side. “Actually, we could probably—”
“No way.” Kaika made a shooing motion at him. “I’ve waited this entire mission to be useful. I’ll handle this.”
Blazer snorted. “She just wants an excuse to blow things up.”
“That seems likely, ma’am.” Rysha picked her way up the slope to stand behind Kaika, who had extracted fuses and a couple of different types of explosives from cases in her pack and was setting them up. “May I help, ma’am? You once mentioned that you would be willing to instruct me on bombs.”
“I’m happy to share my knowledge on a wide variety of topics,” Kaika drawled and patted the rocks beside her. “Have a seat. Do you have some paper? Since you’re new, I’m going to want you to go through the calculations.”
“There are calculations? Ma’am, you’re getting me excited.”
“Save that for the Sensual Sage. You and Duck can broaden your horizons together.”
“Me and Duck? Uhm.”
“I mean in adjacent rooms. I know you’re saving your excitement for another. You can bring him along too. He could definitely stand to blow off some tension. Hand me that fuse, will you? And that explosive there. The army TE-84s are waterproof, flexible, and easy to light. I’ve got some timers in my pack, but we’ll save those for when we need delayed explosions.”
Rysha passed the indicated fuse, bemused by Kaika’s ability to talk about sex and bombs in the same breath.
She looked over at Trip, wondering if he’d heard her comments.
But he was gazing at the mountainside, as if he were looking through it, and wore a concerned expression.
Rysha worried that the tons of rock and the miles of tunnels inside might be the least of their problems.
• • • • •
The third explosion took out the last of the caved-in boulders. Somehow, Kaika had laid her bombs so that most of the rocks flew outward instead of inward. Trip wasn’t sure how that was possible, but he was glad. Even though he felt much better since they’d left the magic dead zone, his intuition itched, telling him something unappealing waited for him ahead. A part of him wanted to walk away without ever confronting it. Another part wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.
“That was a good one,” Rysha said, grinning, soot coating the side of her face. She pushed her spectacles higher on her nose. She’d managed to get soot all over their frame too.
Trip smiled fondly at her even though she wasn’t looking. He loved that she was so enthusiastic about so many things.
Kaika slapped her on the back. “Yup, you set them well.”
Jaxi sniffed in Trip’s mind. Azzy and I could have cleared those boulders out faster. And without alerting everyone for twenty miles around that we were coming.
Fortunately, there’s nothing but lizards and animals around.
I wouldn’t be so sure about that.
What do you mean? Trip asked warily, though he worried he knew exactly what Jaxi meant. Earlier, he’d thought he’d sensed something alive down there, something aware of and waiting for them. He’d told himself that was silly, especially since it hadn’t felt like a dragon, and since, a moment later, he hadn’t detected it when he’d tried again to sense it.
Jaxi shrugged. The magic is obscuring more than the chamber down there, but I believe something’s alive inside the mountain.
Perhaps the very dragon that we seek is what you sensed, Telryn, Azarwrath said.
I don’t think so. I know a dragon when I sense one. This was something different, something… odd.
Kaika walked toward Trip while waving to Blazer and the others, indicating that it was safe for them to come up to the entrance.
“Before we head in,” she said when they’d all gathered, “I thought you should know that those rocks weren’t caved in thousands of years ago.”
“It didn’t look like it,” Blazer said. “Was it recent?”
“I don’t think so. There were a few cactuses growing in nooks here and there. But I do think it happened in the last twenty or thirty years. None of the cactuses were as large as the full-grown ones we passed elsewhere on the mountainside.”
“How do you know if a cactus is full-grown?” Leftie looked at Duck.
Duck shrugged. “We don’t have a lot of cactuses in Iskandia, so they’re out of my realm of expertise. I do know the flowers are edible. And the tall ones with the arms can live two hundred years. Oh, and the pads of those prickly low ones over there are edible. You just have to remove the thorns. There’s a lot more to eat in the desert than people think.”
“Is anyone else puzzled that more women aren’t interested in him?” Blazer asked.
“No,” Leftie said.
Trip barely heard them talking. His breath had caught at the words twenty or thirty years, and he had to remind himself to inhale and exhale again. “My mother,” he said quietly, meeting Rysha’s gaze. “She would have been here a little more than twenty-five years ago.”
“Why would your mother have blown up the cave on the way out?” Blazer asked.
“Because something was following her?
” Trip thought of the life he’d sensed deep down there. “Or someone?” he added, his thoughts shifting. “My grandmother said—uhm, I got the sense that my mom had been worried that someone might want me for nefarious purposes.”
“That’s almost as puzzling as someone wanting Duck for bathing purposes,” Leftie said, grinning at his own humor.
“No, it’s not,” Blazer said. “A half-dragon sorcerer? I could see how anyone from a king to an emperor to some street tough looking to profit would want to raise a kid with the potential to have great power.”
“I’m not sure who it was,” Trip said, “only that my mother was worried about it when she got home.”
“She might have wanted to keep people from finding the dragon too,” Duck suggested. “If he’s sleeping down there somewhere.”
“Well, the way is open now,” Kaika said. “Let’s go take a look, eh?” She stretched out an arm and bent in a semblance of a noble gentleman’s bow. “Mages first.”
Trip snorted, but didn’t object. Now that he had his power back, he was the logical choice to lead.
As he started into the mostly cleared passage, he wondered if he should even let the others go with him. This was his mission, after all, even if he wasn’t the commander. Did he have the right to risk the others when it could be dangerous?
But as Rysha jogged to catch up with and fall in beside him, he couldn’t imagine telling her that she couldn’t come. Especially when she patted Dorfindral’s scabbard and gave him a firm nod, as if to say she was ready to battle dragons or whatever else they encountered. And if Trip came face to face with his sire and his sire decided to kill Trip for his impudence, he would need Rysha and Dorfindral. And probably Kaika and Eryndral too. It wasn’t as if he had the power to defeat a dragon by himself. Even if he was learning a few things and growing stronger, he would never be a match for a dragon, especially a strong gold who had been a force of nature thousands of years ago, when humans had been mastering bronze weapons and pushing stone blocks together to build huts.
He snorted, admitting that a lot of the structures in the capital today were little more than bricks stacked atop each other. Was that less primitive? Because the stone blocks were smaller? And technically, bricks were made from clay and shale.
“What?” Rysha asked.
“I’m being amused by my thoughts on how little basic building practices have advanced over the millennia.”
She cocked an eyebrow at him.
“Are you going to call me an odd boy?”
“Do I need to? It’s been established.” Rysha smiled, but didn’t swat his arm or do anything playful, as she might have the day before. She was walking at his side, but farther away than she would have before.
His return smile was sad at this reminder that he’d destroyed something between them.
“You two paying attention up there?” Kaika asked, veering to the side. They had moved past the previously caved-in area and into a wide tunnel with smooth walls and a high ceiling. She plucked up a lid from a small cracker tin. “More proof that this isn’t a pristine and unexplored place. This is an Iskandian brand. Winged Eats. I remember seeing this style of tin when I was a kid. More to suggest that whoever last walked these tunnels did so twenty or thirty years ago.”
“Twenty-five,” Trip said again, taking the lid from her hand and turning it over in the light of a lantern that Rysha had lit. He ran a thumb over the faded paint on the top. A silly thing to get emotional about, perhaps, but he couldn’t help but think that his mother might have held it all those years ago, sitting and having a snack before venturing into the dragon’s lair.
He still had no idea what had prompted her to come out here. Had it been the existence of the dragon? Maybe she had found some clue in the outpost that had eluded his team.
Surely, Moe Zirkander hadn’t been there back then to offer the name of the mountain. But if those cultists hadn’t been in the outpost—he assumed their sacrifices were infrequent events and that they didn’t live there—she would have had more time to explore. Maybe the dragon had never been what interested her. Maybe someone had pointed her to more intriguing mold out here. Or some other underground growth she had heard had medicinal properties. Would she have traveled all the way out here by herself to look?
“If Trip’s going to stand and fondle every piece of trash we come across, it’s going to take us a month to find the dragon,” Blazer said.
The lid was too large for his collection of pocket scraps, so Trip slung off his pack and made room for it inside. Out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed Kaika elbowing Blazer.
“This is a personal mission for him,” she said.
“So? He can fondle things later.”
With his lid tucked away, Trip turned to face them, all of them. “You’re right, ma’am. It is a personal mission. You all may already know, but I’m the one who suggested it to General Zirkander.”
None of them appeared surprised. Blazer merely arched her eyebrows, as if to ask if he had a point.
“I don’t know if he ordered you all to come along—” Trip looked at Leftie and Duck as well Blazer, Kaika, and finally Rysha, “—or asked if you were interested, but either way, I appreciate you being here. I hope…” He stopped before saying the words that came to mind, that he hoped he didn’t get them all killed, and switched to, “I hope we find the dragon and can convince him to come help Iskandia, so that this won’t have been a waste of all our time.”
“I’m sure he ordered the pilots to come along,” Kaika said, propping an elbow on Blazer’s shoulder, “but he asked me, since I’m far superior and more valuable than a pilot.”
Blazer glared at her and gave the elbow a pointed look.
“I said to him,” Kaika went on, smirking at Blazer but not moving her elbow, “‘I’m willing to go if you can promise me some fun. Will it be fun?’ He said, ‘A hunt for a dragon? How can that not be fun?’ Well, I have to admit I haven’t been overly entertained thus far, but now that I got to blow up fifty tons of rock, I’m having more fun.”
“I’m glad to hear that, ma’am,” Trip said, though he wasn’t quite sure what to make of this response.
“If you can find me a few more things to blow up, I’ll go home happy. And so will Lieutenant Ravenwood.”
Now, Rysha’s eyebrows twitched upward.
“She was extremely excited when she was handling those explosives,” Kaika assured Trip. “She’s not one to jump up and down or whoop, but I could tell. I know my young protégé.”
“It might have been a little fun, ma’am,” Rysha said.
“A little. Please. Blowing things up is as good as sex. Or in your case—” Kaika eyed Trip, “—probably better.”
Trip rubbed his head, now regretting his impromptu decision to share his gratitude with his teammates. Even if Leftie looked highly amused. No, because Leftie looked highly amused.
Rysha blushed, glanced at Trip without making eye contact, then studied the ground.
Trip had no idea if he should protest and proclaim that he was indeed good, or keep his mouth shut. After all, his brief sexual experiences thus far had all involved inadvertently breaking things with his mind and scaring the women he was with—if not scarring them for life. All Rysha knew about was his kissing, and he reluctantly admitted that she’d taken the lead on most of that. All he’d done was telepathically tell her sword to leave them alone. Gods, he needed to be more… more. If she gave him a chance again, he vowed he would think more about her than about how good things felt for him.
“Any chance of us finding this dragon before it dies of old age?” Blazer asked into the silent tunnel.
“Not according to Moe,” Duck said.
“Let’s try anyway.”
“I’m ready, ma’am,” Trip said and strode into the passage. He’d never been so glad for Blazer’s relentless determination to complete missions. Maybe he would buy her a sewing magazine when he got home. One that covered practical things. Like b
oxing clothes. And boxing gloves. Gloves that could be used to punch Kaika in the nose.
“I’ll bet he is.” Kaika snickered.
Maybe Trip would forego the sewing magazine and simply have a new set of boxing gloves delivered to Blazer’s door. With a card containing suggested uses for them. Such as nose-punching.
In my time, a powerful sorcerer did not allow a woman to say embarrassing things about him to his face, Azarwrath said as Trip walked deeper into the tunnel, keeping his back to Kaika.
Oh? Jaxi asked. The powerful sorcerer made sure the woman waited until his back was turned to say embarrassing things?
No. He acted in such a manner that a woman was forced to treat him with respect.
Forced, sure. What happened when the woman was the more powerful mage in the duo?
If she was a healer, then it did not matter. The man still wielded greater real power.
Because healing, that’s not real, right? It’s just saving lives. Not important at all.
That is not what I said. To answer your question, when the woman was more powerful, such relationships were often fraught.
I’ll bet, Jaxi said.
But that is not what is happening here. Telryn is allowing these mundane women to mock him. This is totally unacceptable. I do not believe this military organization is a good thing for a sorcerer. It gives others a false sense of power over him. Azarwrath, in his indignation, seemed to be doing the telepathic equivalent of sputtering.
Relax, Pointy and Curmudgeony. The spittle you’re spraying is going to rust your blade. Besides, if you had any brain cells left alive, you’d know Kaika is simply trying to give our young handler an incentive to treat her protégé well. Trip, if you don’t know how to do that, I’m sure she would be available to advise you.
Trip wasn’t as outraged as Azarwrath by all this. He simply felt mortified. And he’d already vowed to treat Rysha well, so he didn’t want to discuss it further. I’m positive I can figure it out.
Based on events so far, I’m not. You better take any advice you can get.