Dragon Guard: Book 1: Prophecy of the Dragons (16 page)

"Now, Andi." Ben grabbed her in a tight hug. "Concentrate on wanting them dead. Do it!"

She clutched her eyes shut and repeated, "Die, bugs, die," over and over. A strong energy burst out of her, but too late. Thousands, millions, of bugs fell on top of her and Ben. She screamed, waiting for the pain to hit. Tears came to her eyes as she realized his would come first.

After a few seconds, nothing happened. In fact, all she could feel from Ben was relief.

She opened her eyes and found all the bugs lying dead. "Gross," she said. Ben had already climbed to his feet, so he helped her up. "What happened?"

"I couldn't do anything about them on my own, but I knew together we could get rid of them."

They stepped through the pile of dead bugs, crunching plenty with each step. "That's not possible." She thought back to everything Mom and Dad had told her about the dragon-Dragon Guard partnership, and nothing about shared powers, besides communication, came up. She was there basically to be the flying, acid-spewing muscle, as Dad described it. And that was when they were fully bound, which they weren't yet.

He shrugged. "Possible or not, it happened."

Once they were past the dead locust, she grabbed his shoulders and forced him to look her in the eyes. "You shouldn't be able to do so much of this, Ben. I'm not kidding when I say this is impossible." She hugged him tight. "You're scaring me."

"The prophecy?"

She nodded into his chest.

"But we already talked about this. Evil isn't the only option. Remember?"

She tried not to cry, but tears ran down her cheeks. He was right, but it was all too much. "Nix seemed like such a nice lady, but she wanted you dead. She thought the world would be safer."

"But you said Max believes that's not true," he said, wiping a tear from her cheek.

"I know, but I think Nix knows more about it all than Max. Don't ask me how. It's just a feeling."

"We'll get through it. Anyway, let's worry about it later. For now, shouldn't we be happy about these powers? We might as well use them, right?"

She nodded and wiped away the rest of her tears. Yes, that made sense. Whatever the prophecy said, it wouldn't happen until after they were fully bound, and they'd need every bit of power to even get there.

He kissed her forehead and said, "Do you love me?"

Her voice stuck in her throat. He knew she did right? She managed to nod, which brought out a smile in him.

"Good. Then use that love and trust me. I won't do anything to hurt you. I promise. Okay?"

"I know," she said.

They stood there, clutching each other tight, until he chuckled and kissed her forehead. "You realize we're standing in the middle of a maze filled with a bunch of stuff trying to kill us, right?"

Andi sighed but smiled. "You and your logic."

"But, hey, who knows. Maybe that was the last of the bad guys. Knock on wood." He rapped his knuckles against the side of his head, bringing out another laugh from her.

They continued on, again with him and his shield in the lead, and her behind, scanning every inch of where they were headed. Why did she trust Nix over Max? He'd seemed nicer than her. But Ben was right; she should be happy he had so much power. And starting now, she would be.

Yeah. Ultimatums to one's self always worked, right? She let out a deep breath and focused on the left turn up ahead.

As they neared the next turn, Ben did his best to not think about Andi saying everything he was doing was impossible. They needed to get through all of this first. He had to admit, while his unexpected powers scared her, they gave him a thrill. He'd never been much of a superhero comic fan, but he'd be lying if he didn't admit he occasionally had fantasies of superpowers. Now he actually had them.

"What do you sense?" Andi whispered behind him. "You're excited."

"Nothing, sorry. Thinking about something else." She rolled her eyes. As fun as it was, he still wasn't used to all of this. Whenever he thought he had a handle on Andi's emotions, he was reminded she could sense his, too. What was it going to be like when they could communicate inside each other's heads? Would she be able to read his thoughts whenever she wanted, or did he have to give them to her? He'd ask, but he was sort of afraid of the answer.

They rounded the corner, and Ben's instincts lit up. He feared at first it was a replay of his warning system overreacting like when they first entered the labyrinth, but real danger appeared at the end of the hall and charged. He nudged Andi back and yelled, "Don't let it touch you."

He ran at the wraith, careful to keep his shield up. This creature looked like every clichéd caricature of the infamous Death. Its long black robes fluttered behind it, while skeletal hands and feet peeked out. Its face couldn't be seen under the oversized hood, but two glowing red eyes shone out of the blackness. Though the wraith looked substantial, Ben knew he'd have to concentrate on his blade to connect with his swing, let alone land a killing blow. It was basically a ghost, though a supercharged one. He marveled for a second at how these facts, along with its name, filled his mind, as all things undead had since the minor binding. No, that wasn't true. He'd known all about the zombies when he first saw them on that fateful morning before school. His conscious mind hadn't trusted the info yet for him to believe it.

They met in the center of the corridor. The wraith grabbed for him, while Ben jammed his sword at it. Neither managed, as Ben maneuvered his shield into its way and the wraith contorted its insubstantial body away from his blade. Andi's rage bubbled up. He wanted to shout for her to stay out of this, but two against one worked much better. If anything happened to her …

She struck at the wraith, her head transformed to a dragon's. It reached for her, and Ben slashed its arm. It didn't do much, if any, damage, but the blow kept it from touching her.

"Careful," he said. "I'm not kidding. A single touch can kill you."

Her emotions said she understood. She snapped at the wraith, and then flipped over its head. Ben gasped and struck with his sword to distract the monster. What was she doing? She needed to stay behind him, behind his shield.

The wraith whirled around and swung at Andi. Ben lunged hard, putting all his weight behind his sword, and ran the blade straight through the monster. It bellowed an inhuman howl, a sound he'd never heard and hoped to never to hear again. Before he could yank the sword free, the wraith turned on him, his blade still firmly in its body, but swishing around as if the monster was made of pure liquid. Andi growled out in her dragon language, and fear erupted from her. The wraith rammed his shield, and they tumbled to the ground, Ben pinned beneath. He couldn't believe how heavy it was, considering it was made of nothing but energy. It freed one hand, but Andi's jaws latched onto the robe. Ben concentrated, thrust his sword up through its body to its hidden face, and the creature disappeared, never to return.

Andi leapt onto of him, showering his face with kisses. She was much more welcome on top of him than the wraith. "I thought you were dead. I thought it got past your shield and touched your chest."

He managed to corral her and maneuver them up. "It would have got me at the end if you hadn't stepped in. Now, come on, according to the map, we're almost there."

"What else can there be?" she wondered aloud. He didn't bother answering because she was right. What else could this place throw at them?

They passed down a U-shaped pair of corridors before taking a left to get to the home stretch. No warnings came, but he didn't let down his guard. This place had already thrown them enough surprises.

Ben rounded the corner out of the final U-shaped corridor and stopped. There was a wall where one shouldn't be. The map showed two choices. They could go straight, but that turned left to a dead-end, or they could turn left now. They'd face an immediate right that went nowhere, or another right after that one that led to the end of the maze, but that final choice wasn't here in the actual labyrinth, as their remaining options were dead-ends.

"What do we do?" she asked.

"Maybe it's a fake wall," he said. "And if not, one of the other ways might be the new path."

She shivered. "That doesn't feel right."

"I don't feel anything," he said. He shut his eyes, but no warning tingles or supernatural help came to him.

They stepped forward to where the unmapped wall was, and a voice rang out. "Paved over. Turn around and go left. That leads to the exit."

"Who said that?" Ben asked.

Andi pointed to the right of where the open passage should be. "It's a mouth."

He looked closer. Whoa, it was a mouth, about as big as a football, connected to the wall. No other facial features were there, just the mouth. It had to be some sort of trick, maybe a projection, but the closer they got, the more real it looked.

"Go back, go back," it said. "The great builder decided this wasn't the way. The other path is far superior."

Ben turned to follow the mouth's instructions, but Andi grabbed his arm. "Where are you going?"

"The way it told us to. It knows a lot more about this place than we do."

"I do," the mouth said. "I watched them wall this passage up. On your way now. You have a maze to finish."

Andi kept him from moving as he tried to go back. What was she doing? Why did she look so concerned? This was over. All they had to do was follow the directions, and they were done.

"That's right, son, go on," the mouth said. "Don't let the girl dissuade you."

Andi said something, but he couldn't make it out. She had her normal human face, even if it was covered with blue scales, so he shouldn't have any trouble understanding her. He pulled against her grip, but she wouldn't let go.

"Use your sword, son," the mouth said. "You won't hurt her. She has tough skin. That will get her to let go. And if you jab real hard, maybe you'll get lucky."

That would be one way to get free. She was yelling now in her dragon grunts. Why didn't she just speak English? It wasn't like she didn't know how. They'd already talked a lot. Hadn't they? His thoughts were all swimmy. His sword hand tightened on the hilt, and he prepared to bring it up, but didn't he want her to go with him?

In his confusion, he relaxed enough for her to gain the upper hand. She flung him back towards the wall that shouldn't exist. He braced himself, ready for impact, but instead sailed straight through the rock and landed in a heap on the other side. The wall was gone. Andi stood on the other side, concern spilling off her.

"Ben? Ben, can you hear me?"

He understood her again. She'd stopped speaking Dragon. He shook his head, and it felt as if he were stepping out of a thick fog into a bright spring afternoon. Somehow the thought she'd been speaking a different language seemed silly now. He was the one who caused the momentary rift.

"Ben?"

Her panic, more than her voice, reminded him to speak up. "Andi, it's okay. There is no wall. It's an illusion. Come on through. The map is right."

She didn't hesitate, and when she was through, she rushed into his arms. "What happened? You were gone. Your mind was, anyway. Your eyes stared at me, but they weren't yours." She shook her head. "I don't know. Does that make sense?"

"Sort of, I guess. I think the mouth cast some sort of spell on me. It was like there was no doubting whatever it said, and I couldn't understand anything you said. You were talking Dragon."

"No, I wasn't." She let out a deep breath. "But that must've been what you heard. What do you mean about the mouth? It just kept repeating the same thing over and over. 'Paved over. Turn around and go left. That'll lead to the exit.'"

"It said that the first time, but then it said all sorts of other things to get me to go the new way. It even tried to get me to stab you to let me go." He shuddered as he said it.

She reached up and kissed his cheek. "I notice you didn't." She kept a straight face, but he heard the smile in her voice.

"I thought about it. Not real hard, but it crossed my mind." He hugged her tight. "But I wouldn't hurt you. Not now, not ever."

This time she kissed his lips, and he savored everything about her. With her blue scales, her lips weren't as soft as normal, but that didn't matter. And he meant what he said. No piece of magic could ever cause him to bring harm to her.

He pulled out the map. "We're almost there." He looked around their current corridor. They had to follow it until it turned right, and that would lead them to the exit. But what horrors lay between here and there? His neck didn't tingle, but that didn't mean they were home free. They had to stay careful.

Nothing attacked, nothing shot at them, nothing dropped from the ceiling, and the floor didn't give out. They rounded the final corner and found a solid wall where the map showed the exit. What differentiated this wall from any others were four arrows pointing in four directions: up, down, left, and right. It reminded Ben of the directional buttons on a video game controller.

"Now what?" Andi said. She pushed on the bricks, and these were no illusions.

Ben didn't say anything at first. At the bottom of the map were those strange arrows. Could they be …? No, that was silly. Why would that be in a demon realm? But …

"Andi, I know what to do. Push the arrow I tell you to. It's like a video game cheat code."

She turned back, ready to argue, but when she looked at him, she sighed and nodded.

"Okay, good. Push the up arrow." She did, and it slid into the wall, popping back out when she let go. There were twelve arrows in all: up, right, up, left, left, right, down, up, down, up, left, right. He read each off to Andi, and she pushed the corresponding one. When she pushed the final right-pointing arrow, instead of popping back out, a grinding noise sounded from somewhere in the wall. The other three arrows also sunk inside, and each brick pivoted and slid away from the center, opening into a doorway. It led to a huge room, like the field of a gigantic football stadium, though instead of grass, the ground was covered with dirt.

"Never bet against a boy and his video games," Andi said. "Look out in the center. What is that?"

He followed her finger and saw a golden statue resting on a marble pedestal in the very middle of the coliseum's floor. "Maybe that's what we're supposed to bring back to Rico. It looks big, but not unwieldy."

She nodded and gazed in every direction. He did the same. Other than that idol, there was nothing worth looking at. Just dirt and walls. "Sense anything?"

Ben closed his eyes and concentrated. "There's danger here, but nothing immediate."

"Okay," Andi said, taking a deep breath. "I guess we should get to this, then."

They stepped out onto the dirt, and nothing attacked. His tingles still warned to stay vigilant, but that was it. The area was lit as if by the sun, but there was no sky or ceiling above them, just emptiness. Now that they were out of the maze, the walls all vanished, too. Even the labyrinth's exit disappeared. The dirt went on as far as his eye could see in every direction.

"This is spooky," Andi whispered.

"Just keep going. We're safe enough at the moment. Maybe once we grab the statue, Rico will whisk us back to his realm."

They reached the golden idol with no problems. It depicted some sort of ugly demon with four arms, two heads, and plenty of sharp claws and teeth. Despite its horrible, nightmare-inducing appearance, a genuine feeling of good radiated from it. What was this thing, and what demon did it represent? Ben thought back to the original clue Rico had given them. Did this have something to do with dreams?

Andi reached for it, but hesitated and glanced at him. "Go ahead," he said. "Even when you reach for it, I still only feel the nagging warning."

"Okay," she said. "But be ready for anything when I touch it."

As soon as her hand made contact with the idol's gold skin, the pins and needles almost ripped Ben's head off. "Andi, move!" He jumped back, sword and shield ready, and watched her twist out of the way, transforming into a dragon as she did. They moved just in time. A giant claw swished through the air right where they'd been not seconds before. When Ben saw what the claw was attached to, he had a tough time breathing.

The huge monster dwarfed even Andi in her dragon form. It was roughly humanoid in shape, with bulging muscles to go along with its razor-sharp claws. It didn't have scales like Andi, but the leathery skin looked as formidable. Would his sword even slice through? It also had a pair of membrane-covered wings that stretched out twice as far as it was tall. Its face reminded him of a cartoon bat, with long pointed ears, beady black eyes, and fangs that meant business. It looked like a vampire on steroids. If there was anywhere to run, Ben would have much preferred that option.