Licked by the Flame (22 page)

“Do you see her anywhere? No. She’s dead. He bewitched you all and took her for his own purposes.”

“Maybe he’s got her tied up somewhere or something.”

The woman was clearly becoming frustrated. She obviously wanted Nic dead. If Mr. Blanchard didn’t act soon, Lianne figured the woman would grab the gun out of his hands and take care of matters herself. She didn’t sound like someone who would stop shooting until she hit her target.

“It’s too late for her,” she declared. “You want him and his dragon swarm going after all your women, or are you going to take him out now?”

“All right, back off. Let me get him in my sights.”

“Right through the heart…there, a little more to the left.”

“I got this, okay? Just shut up and let me concentrate.”

“You have to get it right. We won’t get a second chance.”

“I get it; I know.”

The voices faded to silence. It was deafening. She still felt nothing from Nic. He must not be aware of what was transpiring. He was down in the central chamber with the clutch, waiting for danger to appear there. He had no idea he was about to die!

Well, not if Lianne could do something about that. She shifted just a bit, turning her head so that with a slight pull on the tapestry she could peer out. The man was about ten feet away from her, leaning over a huge gun that he had propped up on a tripod and aiming out one of the narrow openings in the wall.

Where was the woman? Lianne would have to move the tapestry more to get a look at her, apparently. She could hear her, though, very near to the man. She shifted just a bit. Why couldn’t she see the woman? She heard her breathing and it sounded to be right over the man’s shoulder.

Wow, she was a seriously heavy breather, too. She actually caused the man’s hair to ruffle. And the sound of her breath was rapid, almost like she would hyperventilate. Only…that wasn’t exactly what it sounded like. Something was off.

Lianne risked leaning just a bit more and tugging the tapestry. Hopefully her unwelcome guests wouldn’t notice. She was counting on their attention being fully focused on the chamber below. If she could just get a glimpse of the woman to know where she stood, maybe there was a chance Lianne could just…

Her own breathing caught in her chest. She saw the woman at last…only, it wasn’t a woman. It was another dragon.

It was a tiny dragon, actually. Half the size of a human, snakelike with leathery wings that beat the air rapidly and one set of clawed legs ready to rip into anyone who might disagree with her. The glow of heat behind what appeared to be gills at the side of her head indicated that just like a full-sized dragon, this thing could get fiery.

And at this moment she was helping Mr. Blanchard aim some kind of military-grade launcher at Nic. Lianne had to do something. Her options were severely limited and it dawned on her that whatever she did, she’d probably regret it.

At least she probably wouldn’t regret it for long. Between dragons and RGSs and volcanoes and brain cancer, she figured she really didn’t have that much to lose. If somehow Nic made it out of this and managed to save his people’s clutch, then maybe she hadn’t wasted this trip to Iceland, after all.

One way to find out. She threw back the tapestry and lunged at the man with the gun.

Lianne was in danger! Nic had been sensing her, feeling her torrent of desperate emotion for some time now. He’d hidden himself in the shadows in one of the many tunnels leading off from the main chamber and he’d reached his mind out for her. In his full form now, his senses were much heightened. It had taken a few minutes before he could sort through the multiple stimuli in his mountain and focus on her.

They were not alone in this mountain. He could sense them, sense the danger they brought with them. Also, he could feel the strange darkness he’d felt when that human machinery was running. Someone was bringing more of this machinery into his mountain. It would soon be affecting his abilities. He couldn’t yet tell where it was coming from, either.

He could feel Lianne, though. Was she reaching out to him? Yes, she sensed the danger and she was trying to warn him. Warn him of what? A gun? But how…

In his living quarters! He felt her clearly now. She was not alone, someone was with her. Someone familiar…and deadly.

He closed his eyes and tried to shut out everything but Lianne. He needed to feel what she felt, see what she saw. It was difficult; her senses were confused and her mind was in turmoil.

Mr. Blanchard.
Nic could sense him now, see him near Lianne. How had he come into the mountain, found Nic’s secret room? And what was he doing with…he had a weapon. A weapon he intended to use against Nic. He would destroy the clutch, all of them. And there was another…

He could see through Lianne’s eyes now. She couldn’t make sense of what she saw, but he understood. He’d been betrayed by the only one who could possibly know how to target him and get through his safeguards.
Eubryd
. She was working against him!

Everything happened at once. Nic sensed it all, but could do nothing. Lianne attacked Mr. Blanchard. The gun shifted. Eubryd screeched into action, her serpent body heating with rage. Flames shot out—Nic could feel them, see the glow in the tiny rock crevices high on the wall at the other side of the chamber. He could hear Lianne’s cries as much as he could feel the terror within her.

Without warning, an explosion rocked the mountain. A huge fireball erupted through the far wall where Nic’s living quarters had been. The gun must have gone off, turning the rock wall into a rain of shrapnel and ash. The sound was still reverberating through the mountain when Nic leaped out of his hiding place and unfurled his wings.

The explosion had, indeed, blasted an opening in the wall. He launched himself upward, soaring through the smoldering maw and blinking in the haze of smoke, heat, and dust. He barely fit in the space, feeling cumbersome and alien in what used to be his home. It was nothing more than charred rubble now. This was not his home and there was nothing human about him.

He clawed at a slab of rock that had sheared off the ceiling. By the Fires, there was a body below. A body that did not move. He swiped rubble and pages from books aside, relieved when he recognized Mr. Blanchard. Not Lianne.

Where was she? Could she possibly have survived the blast?

“Is this what you’re looking for?”

Eubryd appeared, coming around the corner from the bathroom nook. Her eyes were fiery wild, her wings beat furiously, and in her talons she gripped a motionless Lianne.

“What have you done to her?” he demanded.

“I was actually going to fry her, but she ducked in here and I’m afraid I sizzled my friend Mr. Blanchard over there instead. Guess that set off the launcher and sort of took out your wall.”

“Get your claws off her, Eubryd.”

The wyvern shrugged, then dropped Lianne’s limp, dusty form onto the floor.

“I never could understand what you see in these fragile little humans, anyway,” Eubryd said, still hovering dangerously close to Lianne’s body. “But you always have liked to pretend being one of them, haven’t you?”

“Get away from her.”

“If you move any closer, Nicolai, I’ll turn her to ash.”

“Don’t. I swear, Eubryd, if you harm her any more I’ll—”

“You’ll what, shed a few tears? For a
human
?”

“It appears I’m not the only one keeping human company lately.”

She didn’t appear to appreciate being reminded of that. Her pointy tail flicked angrily and the heat within her was practically melting the paint off the broken chair crumpled beside her. He worried for Lianne.

Was she alive? It was hard to believe a human could survive that explosion, but if she had gone into the bathroom as Eubryd indicated, just maybe she’d been protected from the brunt of it. He watched her for any sign of life. A tiny throb at her neck reassured him her heart still beat, but for how much longer he couldn’t know.

Damn Eubryd! He trusted her and this was how she repaid him? It was all he could do to keep from scorching her along with everything in sight.

“I guess you were right,” she cooed, dropping low enough that her wings tossed Lianne’s hair and stirred dust into choking, swirling eddies. “Humans do serve a purpose every now and then.”

“And what purpose did
that
one serve for you?” Nic asked, whipping his tail to smack the rubble beside the body of Mr. Blanchard.

“He knew how to get his hands on that weapon there.”

“A grenade launcher? Why, Eubryd? Why destroy the clutch this way? You’ve been sworn to our clan all these centuries. Why turn against us now?”

“Against
us
? I’m not turning against
us
. You already did that, Nicolai.”

“What are you talking about? I’ve dedicated myself to the clutch, to our future.”

“What future, Nicolai? All these years I’ve watched you with your human ways, your human books, your human females. You have made yourself one of them!”

He flared. Smoke billowed from his nostrils, glowing red then fading as it dispersed into the air. His tail thrashed and he spread his wings as much as he could in this confined space.

“Do I look like one of them, Eubryd? Look at me!”

“Look at yourself, my old friend,” she continued, snaking through the dusky air and edging past him. “Your clutch is under attack out there, Nicolai, and yet you are in here with your human things, begging me not to harm your pitiful woman.”

He craned his neck to see. By the Fires, she was right. Even now he could sense the dark absence of magic growing stronger in his mountain. The others had arrived. They were setting up more equipment to replace what he had destroyed. They were resuming their assault on the clutch and he had allowed it to happen.

“You and all the rest of the clan have forgotten what we are,” Eubryd went on. “We are dragons. There is no power on earth to compare to us! We could rule everyone; none could stand against us, Nicolai. But what have you done? Nothing. You and the clan chose to brood a clutch, but what sort of dragons will these be? Cowering, fearful creatures taught to hide themselves in human bodies, denying their powers and living as slaves to the Veil and its protectors? Creatures not fit to call themselves dragon.”

“And that’s why you planned to destroy them, to partner with these humans and wipe out our kind?”

“No, to make our kind rise up and take their rightful place.”

“But the humans bring machines, Eubryd. They are taking our magic, draining us of our very essence.”

“They’re only humans, Nicolai. When the rest of our clan see what they’ve done, when the humans have taken our lives and devastated the clutch…well, then they’ll stop hiding. Dragons will rule once again, Nicolai. The foolish humans will tear down the Veil and nothing will stop dragons from taking their rightful place.”

“You were doing this to instigate war?”

“It’s for our future, Nicolai. You will be the first martyr. Our clan will avenge you and humans will stand no chance. You fear their machines? They will be ash when the clan rises against them.”

“Eubryd, no…it can’t be like that.”

“No more hiding, Nicolai. No more dragons forced to deny their true nature.”

“But they’re destroying the clutch!”

“You’ve lost so much of yourself already, you can’t even see this is the only way.”

“It’s not the only way. Get out of here, Eubryd. Don’t ally yourself with my enemies.”

“I’m your last true friend, Nicolai,” the wyvern said. “That useless female is your enemy. All of them are.”

She shot a scorching blast directly at Lianne. Nic barely had time to throw up his wing to shield her. His action, however, left the hole in the wall fully untended. Eubryd darted through it and out into the brood chamber. He had to decide, would he go after her to defend the clutch, or stay to try and save Lianne?

Damn it, maybe Eubryd was right. He
had
forgotten who he was. Instinct took over, and without hesitation, he pulled himself back into his human form and stumbled over the debris to reach Lianne.

W
hat’s going on?” Raea whispered.

“Not a shipwreck, that’s for sure,” Kyne replied.

They hovered over the ship, high above it and oddly safe from the storm that raged all around them. The ship, it appeared, was actually at the very center of the storm. Whatever created this strange weather, it had created an eye just large enough for the ship to remain undisturbed while the waters and winds nearby went absolutely wild. They’d very nearly not made it through the storm to find rest now in this spot of calm.

Raea worried that they’d be detected, in fact. Without the raging weather to hide them, she felt dangerously exposed, even at this high altitude.

“It does seem like this ship is at the heart of the weather situation,” she mused. “How do you suppose they are making it happen?”

“It’s got to be magic,” Kyne replied.

“I don’t feel any magic. Do you?”

“No, and I don’t think that’s a good thing. There’s no way the humans can do all of this without some sort of magic. The fact that we can’t detect it must mean they’ve got it harnessed, pent up somehow.”

“That’s really strange.”

“And dangerous.”

“We’ve got to go tell your father,” she said.

“We will. I just…have you got any more Fairy Dust? I need to be invisible so I can get down there and take a closer look.”

“Don’t be crazy.”

“I’ll be careful. Have you got any dust?”

“Not very much.”

“All I need is enough to get closer for a little while, just to find out what’s going on.”

She felt for the little pouch she kept the precious stuff in. She’d been right, there was not very much left, and they were still a very long way from home. They’d need some for the journey. Did she dare risk giving a little bit to him here, where so much was at stake and so much could go wrong?

“I don’t think you should go down there,” she cautioned. “We don’t have any idea what’s going on.”

“Exactly why we need to get closer. Look, what’s that? See, someone is moving around on the deck.”

She could see what he was pointing at. She could see why it caught his eye, too. It wasn’t simply a form moving around below them, but the form had a glow. This huge vessel was built by humans for humans, and they’d seen humans apparently operating it, but this person they were watching right now wasn’t human. And he wasn’t the only one of his kind.

“Fairies,” she breathed.

“Whatever they’re using to manage the weather, it’s based on fairy magic,” Kyne said. “By the Skies, this is a lot bigger than we thought.”

“You’re right. Okay, let’s use just a little bit of dust to drop down low enough to try to find out what they’re up to. Then we’ll go straight to your father, all right?”

“I’ll use the dust and go in closer. You stay up here where it’s safe.”

“Safe? We’re about ten feet away from lightning and hurricane forces up here. How will I know when they alter the little bubble they’ve set up around the ship? Hanging around up here, I might end up in the middle of the storm any second.”

“We flew through it to get here; you’ll be just fine. If something happens to me down there, I’d rather know that you can still get away and take that piece back to Baylor.”

“We go
together
, Kyne. You agreed to that. We’re partners now, connected to each other. What we do, we do
together
.”

“I plan to be with you forever, Raea. We’re partners in everything. But this…damn it, you never planned to be involved in anything like this.”

“And you did? Come on, Kyne. This is a joint effort. We’ll be okay as long as we stick together. Right?”

“All right. But just…be careful down there.”

“We’ll only go as close as we need to, and we’ll stay out of sight. And away from any of those awful machines!”

“The good news is the machines must not be sucking up magic, if we can see a fairy moving around,” he said, then frowned. “The bad news is if we can see fairy glow from here, then that fairy can see us.”

“We’d better disappear quickly then, huh?”

She doled out the dust and they made their wishes. Instantly Kyne and his vibrant golden glow faded into obscurity. She could still feel his magic near her, so she knew they couldn’t dare get too close to anyone on that ship. If the machine that depleted all their magic wasn’t being used on board, then any magic creature nearby would sense them. An Invisibility Wish couldn’t cover for that.

“Take my hand,” he said.

“That would have been easier to do about two seconds ago.”

“Hold your hand out and I’ll take it,” he said.

Even in the middle of this storm and the almost impossible things they’d been through tonight, his voice still warmed her and made her believe that things would somehow work out. She held up her hand. Somehow he took it, even despite the buffeting wind and the fact that they were invisible.

“Let’s go,” she said.

He led the way and she was happy to let him. The ship was huge. She couldn’t even guess what humans needed to do with such an enormous vessel. Its size would work to their advantage, though. It was more than big enough for a couple of invisible fairies to dip down unseen toward the inhabited parts of it and hide among the towers and hoists and other unidentifiable ship elements.

“There he is,” Kyne whispered.

She was glad he still held her hand. He’d been so quiet that if she did not feel the warmth of his body so close and his fingers laced tightly with hers, she would have thought he’d gone off somewhere without her.

Fortunately, he hadn’t. The pale yellow glow of the fairy on the deck below their hiding place could not in any way be confused with Kyne. He was no one she could recognize, but at this distance she couldn’t see him very clearly. She could, however, easily see that he was hovering near a pair of humans.

They worked near some crates. Raea and Kyne shifted position as needed to stay near enough to hear their words as they moved around, apparently checking the binding on first one stack of crates then another. There was no indication what was in the crates, but it was obvious they were important.

“Sure don’t like being in the middle of all this,” one of the humans was saying.

“Better here than out in all that mess. How long you suppose they’ll keep it going?” his companion replied.

“Not sure.” The human dropped the clipboard he held down to his side and turned to look up toward the yellow glow of the fairy with them. “What are they trying to do? That storm looks pretty rough over land there, but I don’t see any kind of town or anything. Who are they going after with it?”

“If they wanted you to know the target, they might have told you,” the fairy replied. He had a strange accent. Clearly he was not from their Fairyrealm, but one of the others scattered across the globe. Again, that indicated this was a much bigger problem than they’d suspected.

“Well how are we going to know if they hit the target? Outside the safe zone, our instruments don’t tell us a hell of a lot in this mess.”

“Just keep checking on these crates,” the fairy instructed them. “We’ll be headed out pretty soon and things need to be secure.”

The information was tantalizing, but hardly enough for Raea to make any guess at all about what might really be going on. So the ship would be leaving this area soon? Where would it go? She wondered if maybe Kyne was making more sense of what they were hearing.

Another glow caught her attention and she squeezed Kyne’s hand. He squeezed back and she was confident he saw what she did. Two more fairies were approaching the little group inspecting the crates. Raea instinctively held her breath and pulled back into the shadows where they had been eavesdropping. Kyne’s tug at her hand and his soft whisper of her name reminded her that they were safe.

“You’re heading to the mountain now,” one of the new arrivals called, presumably to the yellow fairy.

“But it’s still storming over there,” the fairy complained.

The other fairy grunted, apparently insulted by this show of cowardice. The third fairy of the group moved forward, his green aura more intense than the others. It was a green that Raea thought she recognized. When he spoke she had no doubt. The harsh curse Kyne uttered under his breath further convinced her. He recognized the green fairy, too.

It was Swift, the same fairy who had hauled Kyne in for interrogation and nearly cost him his magic. Somehow Swift was here, and he was working with the enemy. That meant either he was a traitor to his own council, or the council was involved in this part of the conspiracy, too.

“You’ll be with me,” Swift announced. “Things should be well under control by now, and we can arrange for retrieval of our equipment.”

“That’s it?” the yellow fairy asked. “We go out there and pick up those collectors we placed? So why all the bother with this storm?”

“I didn’t ask. Come on. You got dust?”

“Are we going to need it?”

“We need to be prepared. Let’s go. The sooner we get this done, the sooner we sail out of this place.”

“And on to Caribbean paradise, right?” one of the humans interjected.

“Hell, after this place, anywhere is going to feel like paradise,” his partner remarked.

“I hear where we’re going it
is
paradise.”

The fairy with the accent seemed to be directing things, and he scolded the humans for wasting time. They grumbled and went back to looking over the crates and marking things on their clipboard. Swift gathered up his yellow fairy and hung around to get last instructions from his leader.

“I’ll oversee things here. You go make sure things are all wrapped up in the mountain. Be quick about it.”

Instead of fluttering off as instructed, though, Swift seemed to be unsure. “Wait,
in
the mountain? I thought the equipment we were retrieving was
on
the mountain.”

“One of our associates will meet you there and explain. Just do as you’re told, Swift. The coalition appreciates your work.”

“So we have team members already on the mountain?” Swift asked. “I thought we left that equipment there to gather up surplus magic from a derelict dragon outpost. The place has been abandoned for centuries. We don’t need a team on the ground for that, so what are they doing there?”

“It’s not your place to ask. All will be explained once you get there. Go now. Eubryd will find you when you are near.”

But Swift still did not leave. “Eubryd? That’s not a fairy name I’m familiar with.”

“Because she’s not a fairy.”

“And I’m supposed to meet up with her? Why don’t you tell me what she is, then?”

“A wyvern. She’s loyal to us and will tell you exactly what to do. Follow her instructions to the letter, Swift. No matter what.”

That sounded almost ominous. So now a wyvern was in league with this coalition? Just how much of the Forbidden Realm was involved with this scheme, anyway? Raea did not like the sound of any of it.

Swift, however, seemed content with the answer and chastised the yellow fairy to stop slouching and prepare himself to leave. The fairy in charge gave them last-minute instructions and sent them off in the direction of the distant mountain. Immediately the storm began abating, almost as if someone directed it in order to make their travels easier.

It was the strangest thing and, again, left Raea feeling more than a little uneasy. Fairies were supposed to protect the natural order. Conspiring with humans and stealing magic to use for controlling the weather…well, there was nothing at all natural about that.

“This is not good,” Kyne whispered beside her.

She breathed a timid agreement. But now the glow of Swift and his yellow partner rose up into the backdrop of the lessening storm. It was obvious what she and Kyne needed to do.

“Come on,” he breathed, with another squeeze of her hand.

She didn’t have to be asked twice. She left their hiding place immediately and flew after the two scheming fairies. There was no chance that she and Kyne could get to the mountain in time to warn the dragon that his wyvern companion was in league with the others, but at least they could be there to find out what other actions had been planned. Baylor would want to know.

To be honest, Raea had a sinking feeling that she would rather not.