Holy Smokes (17 page)

Jim wasn’t saying anything I hadn’t already considered, but I really did not have a choice.

I’m not even going to point out the obvious.

Gabriel swore I could trust him, and I had to do just that.

Rather than take care of the situation yourself, which would be far too proactive, right? And you call yourself a professional!

If he betrayed me again…well, I’d deal with that situation if it arose.

Like you dealt with his first betrayal? And just how effective was that?

I ground my teeth against the ever-persuasive dark power and focused my attention on the man who emerged from the Land Rover parked next to a sign describing the bridge. Luckily, there were no tourists to witness our meeting, huddled against the side of our van as we hurriedly caught up on news.

“You’ve heard nothing from Drake?” Gabriel asked, his silver eyes shaded by the thick black hat he wore.

I shook my head. “Still not answering. What did you find out from Fiat?”

Gabriel hesitated for a moment, sliding quick glances at his two companions, who were muffled to the eyeballs. I assumed they were his bodyguards, Tipene and Maata, and waved at them. They both nodded at me. “He said he had not heard anything from Chuan Ren for three days, but he didn’t believe that would be the case if they had captured Drake. I must say that I agree with him on that, Aisling. If Chuan Ren had Drake in her power, she would use him to destroy the sept…and you. You have heard nothing from the red dragons?”

“Not a peep.” Beneath my scarf, I chewed at my chilly lip. “It’s possible that someone else is holding him captive. A red dragon would turn him over immediately to Chuan Ren, but maybe someone else, someone who has a vendetta against him, found him doing whatever mysterious thing he was doing out here and nabbed him.”

“That is possible,” Gabriel allowed.

There was something in his voice, an undertone that sounded strained to my ears. I turned my attention to him, searching his eyes for a sign of betrayal. There was none there, but he looked away after a few seconds, as if he was uncomfortable with close examination.

“What are you keeping back?” I asked him.

He was silent for a few minutes.

“Gabriel, please, if you know something about where Drake could be, you’ve got to tell me.” I put my hands on his, giving them a squeeze. “He’s everything to me. I love him with every tiny little atom of my being. Please, help me find him. Please.”

Gabriel watched me for another minute, clearly unwilling to tell me what he knew. I considered asking my uncle to get the truth out of him, but I doubted if even Uncle Damian, wise in the ways of covert operations and the like, could handle a wyvern and his two bodyguards.

For a moment, for a brief moment that seemed to stretch to eternity, I considered using the dark power to get what I wanted from Gabriel.

Oh, goody.

Gabriel must have seen my inner struggle. “Many years ago, before I was wyvern, I heard the wyvern at the time speaking of a secret aerie in the south of Tibet that had been forgotten by most dragons. Only a few knew of its existence; even fewer knew of its location. When you said Drake was held captive in Tibet, my first thought was that Chuan Ren had found the aerie. That is why I had you meet me here. But Fiat’s comments made me think twice. Now I do not know what to think.”

“Do you know where this place is?” I asked, hope filling me.

It took him another long pause, but he nodded. “I am one of probably five dragons in existence who know. But to take anyone there from outside the sept is absolutely forbidden, Aisling.”

I lifted my chin and let him see my intentions. “I will do whatever I have to do to find Drake, Gabriel.”

He nodded, an unhappy look on his face. “I have no doubt you would destroy yourself in the attempt to rescue him, which is why I am going to go against my oath as wyvern and take you there.” He glanced at Maata and Tipene, saying something to them in a language I didn’t understand.

They sent him identical outraged looks, one of them snapping something back which caused him to smile. “I told them that I would not risk them being in trouble with the weyr for helping me break our laws. Maata threatened to break my kneecaps if I tried to leave her behind.”

I grinned at Maata. “A woman after my own heart. Thank you all. You can be sure that none of us will ever mention any of this—”

Gabriel held up a hand to stop me. “For you I will break the laws of my own sept. But I cannot allow anyone else to come with you.”

“But you know Rene! And my uncle is very trustworthy—”

“I’m sorry, it is not possible,” he said, his voice apologetic, but firm.

“Aisling does not go anywhere without protection,” Uncle Damian said, speaking up for the first time.

“We are her bodyguards,” Rene added.

“What he said. Although I think my left leg is frozen,” Jim said, shaking its back leg. “How do you tell if you’ve got frostbite?”

“About this, I cannot yield,” Gabriel said, his eyes steady on mine.

I hesitated, wanting to trust him. But I was putting myself completely in his power, giving him the opportunity to do god-knew-what with me.

Gabriel waited, clearly understanding my dilemma, but not trying to reassure me. I knew instinctively that Gabriel wouldn’t physically harm me, so I didn’t fear for the well-being of myself or the baby. The only thing he might do was betray me to Fiat or Chuan Ren, and if that happened…well, there was a way out of that problem.

So nice you remembered me.

“Aisling, I told Drake I’d protect you, and I’m going to,” Uncle Damian said grimly in my ear. “You’re not going off with that man without me to watch over you.”

It came down to a decision of Drake or me. And when put like that, there was nothing to decide.

I took my uncle’s gloved hands in mine, smiling up at him. “Thank you, Uncle Damian. I know this is going to be hard for you, but I’m going to ask you to stay here. I have to find Drake, do you understand? I
have
to find him. And if this is the only way I can do it, then that’s the way it’ll be.”

“I can’t allow—”

I shook my head. “I’m a big girl. I’ve got powers of my own, you know. I’m not completely helpless, and I’ll have Jim with me.”

“Oh, yippee,” the demon said, looking anything but thrilled.

“No,” Uncle Damian said, his face expressionless. “The subject is not open for any further discussion.”

I argued for another couple of minutes, but it did no good.

“This is ridiculous,” I stormed, stomping my way around to the far side of the car. “I’m freezing out here. At least we can be warm while I try to reason with you.”

Rene slid back into the front seat as I opened the back door. Across from me, Uncle Damian did the same. I waited until both men were in the car, their doors closed, before I slammed mine shut and drew the most powerful ward I knew on the car.

“Fires of Abaddon!” Jim said, its eyes widening. “You didn’t just—”

My uncle realized what I’d done almost immediately. He tried to open the door, banging his fists on the window when he realized the ward wouldn’t let him out of the car.

“We’ll be back as soon as we can,” I yelled close to the window, my voice faint over the howl of the wind. “Go back to town. We’ll meet you back at the hotel. The ward should wear off by the time you get there. And don’t worry about me; I’ll be OK.”

“Yeah, she’ll be OK. I’ll be minus several more toes due to frostbite, but Aisling will be perfectly fine,” Jim yelled as well.

“Not helping,” I told it.

Uncle Damian pounded some more and yelled a few choice words I decided I’d rather not acknowledge. I gave Rene a thumbs-up and hurried over to where Gabriel stood waiting.

My uncle was going to be furious at my actions, but we’d just have to live with that. There were more important things at stake right now…like finding Drake.

“
Y
our uncle is going to be sooo pissed,” Jim said a few minutes later, as we were ensconced in Gabriel’s Land Rover.

“He’ll get over it. I think. I hope,” I said, rubbing my forehead with an icy glove. “Oh, god, no, you’re right, he’s going to be livid. But what choice did I have?”

“This is not going to be an easy trip,” Gabriel warned as the car bounced over a rough, snowy track that was apparently used by sheep or goats or some nimble animal that didn’t have a problem with horrible terrain. “We will have to climb part of the way ourselves. There is no road to the aerie. I will do the best I can to take the easiest route, but you should be warned there is not much I can do to ease your path.”

Jim opened its mouth to make a no doubt snarky comment, but I forestalled it by saying simply, “We’ll be OK.”

Seven hours later, as I crumpled into a small, Aisling-shaped icy blob of exhaustion, those words came back to haunt me.

“Define OK,” Jim gasped, collapsing beside me. “’Cause where I’m standing…lying…OK is pretty much synonymous for nearly dead.”

“We’re here,” Gabriel said, crawling over to where I lay, his voice thin and reedy with exertion. “The aerie is a short distance away. Are you all right?”

“Yeah, we’re fine. Just a little light-headed.”

“I’ll get the oxygen,” he answered, going back to where Tipene and Maata were lying alongside a rocky outcropping. I rolled over and cast an eye down the side of the mountain we’d just climbed, my eyes crossing at the nearly vertical expanse of snow, ice, and rock. Winds whipped through us with needlelike icy blades, making me shiver despite the arctic-class garments we’d bought on Gabriel’s advice.

I breathed deeply from one of the oxygen tubes Tipene had hauled up, feeling better almost immediately.

“Jim?” I asked.

“Hit me,” it said, its eyes closed.

“I’d have thought that being immortal and all meant we wouldn’t be prone to altitude sickness,” I said a short while later as I accepted Gabriel’s hand to get to my feet.

He shot me an amused look. “You would not be here now if you were not immortal. It would have been impossible to climb as high as this without acclimatization. That is one other reason we could not bring your uncle.”

“Oh. Well, then. Shall we?”

Gabriel nodded, unhooking the ropes that had connected us. “We won’t need these now. The aerie should be just around the curve. It is built into the solid rock of the mountain.”

I had no idea what to expect from a secret dragon aerie hidden on the side of the Himalayas, but the forbidding stone building set deep into a natural overhang sure fit the image.

“That’s one hell of an aerie,” I said as we picked our way along a faint rocky path.

“It is, isn’t it? I’ve only seen it once before. It’s hidden from aerial view by the rock overhead, and as you can see, it was built to blend into the background. Unless you knew to look for it, it would be all but invisible. We will approach from the side.”

We followed Gabriel silently as he led us along what seemed to be a nonexistent path that wound through twisted snow-covered rock. The light was starting to fail, leaving the terrain difficult to make out in the long shadows, but eventually we crept our way up to the side of the building.

I stared at it, wondering if I was walking into a trap…or about to save the man who was everything to me. “What now?”

“You stay here with Maata. Tipene and I will see if there are guards,” Gabriel announced.

I nodded, wanting to go along with him, but knowing it was wiser to let him scout out the area. A few minutes later he returned, minus his hat.

“It is clear. Hurry, the light is going, and it looks as if a storm will be coming in soon.”

“You OK?” I asked as he flexed his hand.

He flashed me a fast grin. “It has been a long time since I had the opportunity of taking down another dragon with my fists.”

“Another dragon? Red?”

He shook his head and motioned me to be silent. We followed after him as he led us alongside the stone building, back into the shallow cave formed by the overhang to where a door’s outline could dimly be seen. Two bodies were stacked alongside the building, out of the weather. I paused at the sight of them, raising an inquiring eyebrow at Gabriel.

“If they’re not red dragons, what sept do they belong to?” I whispered.

“None,” he answered, taking me by surprise.

“What—”

“Shhh,” he warned, carefully opening the stone door. He and Tipene slipped through the opening. I waited for his wave before continuing, Maata following Jim and me.

We were in a hallway, the walls and floor made of the same stone, evidently quarried right out of the side of the mountain itself. The light was dim, one bulb hanging behind us at the junction, another ahead some sixty feet or so.

“Which way?” I asked Gabriel in a whisper.

He hesitated, turning first one way, then the other. Tipene said something, nodding to the end closest. Gabriel shook his head, pointing to the left. “We have removed the guards for this door, so you should be safe here. We will scout ahead, to the left.”

I shivered despite being out of the atrocious weather, but nodded to let him know I understood. The three of them slipped into the shadows and disappeared around the corner, silent as ghosts. There was no noise in the building, no sounds of human occupation, no noises of any sort, just a faint little hum of electrical lights from the bulbs. It was cold inside as well, not as cold as outside, but still cold enough that my breath hung in the air before my face.

“I’m not going to have any toes left by the time this little caper is over,” Jim moaned softly to itself as it shook off a doggy bootie to examine its paw. “Oh, man, I think gangrene has set in! My toes are black!”

“That’s your fur, you idiot,” I said, kneeling to feel its feet. They were cold, but not icy blocks of lifeless flesh. “Thank god for immortality. Your feet are fine. So are mine, for that matter. I’m cold, but not deathly cold. This place sure does give me the willies, though.”

“Definitely creepsville,” Jim agreed, padding down to the end of the hallway.