Dragon Magic: Book 3: Prophecy of the Dragons (12 page)

Andi transformed back into her dragon self and led the way through the front gate of the evil fortress. Not that the structure was in itself evil. There were plenty of dangers inside, but most of those were there to protect, not to initiate the infliction of pain. Ben sort of wished the place was pure evil. He sensed danger fine, but evil was easier to deal with overall. Both his necromantic and Dragon Guard powers saw to that.

Once in the courtyard, they were faced with two choices. They could continue across to the fortress proper, or they could head over to a small opening leading to stairs in the ground to their right. The outside wall and fortress met to the left, offering nowhere to go that way.

"I don't know about you," Andi said, "but something's pulling me to the stairs down. Is that right, or is it trying to trick me?"

"Let me check." Ben felt the same pull, so he concentrated on it. There was more danger that way, but it also led to their goal. Which made sense, even if he'd have preferred to go the easier route. But when was easy ever an option? "Down we go."

"Figures." She sighed and changed back to human to fit through the opening, though she did keep her scales as added protection.

Once they went down what he guessed was the equivalent of two stories, they found themselves in a long rocky hallway. It had been carved out by magic eons ago, as he could feel scant traces lingering. He always found it interesting how magic, no matter the type, would stick around seemingly forever. He noticed before in places of epic magical battles and events, but it struck him as odd that even something relatively mundane, like burrowing through rock, could leave such traces. It wasn't as if the rock couldn't have been carved through with manual labor.

"Eerie in here," Andi muttered, breaking him out of his thoughts. At least it was lit with torches in sconces every ten feet. Not that they needed the light since he could have cast a spell, but it spoke to the fact that this was the right way. Stupid, sure, since this could be nothing more than a well-used passage by whoever or whatever lived here, but he didn't think so.

"Look," he said, pointing ahead. The passage forked. Again, like with the choice between the stairs and the fortress, one direction pulled at him. To be sure, he asked Andi, "Which way?"

"Left," she said, with no hesitation. He thought the same, so it had to be correct.

This went on and on. They came to dozens of forks in the tunnel, but each time they both agreed on the way. It got to the point where they didn't even voice it and simply walked to the appropriate passage. The deeper they went, the more the rocky walls changed. And deeper was a good way to put it. They were getting further into the maze, but the path angled down the entire way. Not by much, but enough that by now it put them deep underground. He voiced this, and Andi readily agreed.

When they'd started, the walls had a brown, brittle quality to them. Not brittle in any sense that they might crumble and collapse, but in that pick-axes and other such tools would have been able to carve them out. Down here, however, these rocks had a solid, almost iron feel. Maybe magic was the only way to burrow a tunnel through. Another thing he noticed was magical plants that looked like lichen that grew in many of the crevices. Every instinct told him not to touch them, and when he relayed this message to Andi, she gave him a look that said, "Duh."

He winked and gave her a quick kiss. "I sense danger all around, but nothing immanent. I'm guessing the real danger here is getting lost and not being able to get out again."

"Yeah, me, too."

That had happened a lot since she'd gotten back. Or at least often enough for him to notice. "You seem to be more intuitive when it comes to magic lately."

"Am I?" Her emotions spelled out that she had no idea.

"You remind me of me before Felix. It doesn't always happen, but in a time of necessity, like right now, the power speaks to you."

She considered this and shrugged. "I guess. Remember when you were put in that anti-magic bubble when we fought the Nightmare Syndicate?"

It was his turn to give her a look that said, "Duh."

"When I charged through the warriors, I felt the power swirling around me. I couldn't control it, but it was there, keeping me safe. The warriors couldn't touch me, and I couldn't miss. It didn't help when they flung me across the room, but it didn't help you, either."

"Did it go away?"

She thought about it for a few seconds, and then shook her head. "I don't think so, but I can't tell unless I bear down and look for it. I think it was even with me the entire time at the Stronghold. I never gave it any thought since I didn't need it. Now here it is, front and center, and I hardly notice."

"Yeah, that's sort of how it was for me before. I wonder if you're going to be able to cast spells, or if you'll stay a magic-enabler?"

"I'm guessing it's all pointing towards the latter. Isn't that what Felix basically said? If we can trust him." She said it in a joking tone, but, of course, he could sense the true concern. At least with Felix she only asked the question, unlike the out-and-out anger she spewed when any of the Dragon Council besides Timothy and Sasha were mentioned. Anyway, he let it slide so they didn't get into another argument.

"Yeah. I'm glad you get magic too, and that we truly are in this together."

She hugged him. "Me, too." A mischievous streak flashed off her. "I mean, it's kind of a gyp I can't cast many, if any, spells, but I guess I'll make do."

He nudged her. "You turn into an acid-spewing, armored, flying war machine. Let's see if I spill a few tears for you."

She nudged him back. "I don't get to be an expert with a sword and shield, either."

"Again, killer dragon. And plenty of dragon in between." He motioned to the blue scales all over her human body.

To her credit, she tried to hide her smile for longer than a few seconds, but failed. She burst out laughing, and said, "Yeah, when you put it like that, I am pretty awesome."

Ben rolled his eyes at her, but couldn't hold back a laugh of his own. "Yeah, you are pretty awesome."

A few more twists and turns led to a large cavern, about the size of a hockey arena. Now the lingering danger of getting hopelessly lost gave way to a more immediate threat. Andi tensed, proving she felt it, too. He was about to suggest full-dragon, but she transformed before he could get the words out. He should have known better than to tell her how to dragon.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Not sure yet." He reached out with his mystical feelers. He had a sense, going on their prior conversation, that she could have done this, too. At least he knew where Felix should focus their next few training sessions. He often felt unstoppable with her by his side, but soon, when they learned what she was capable of, to go along with the new resurrection powers, it would probably be true.

"Well?"

He found something. Something big, and it was coming to the cavern from somewhere below. "Watch the ground. Maybe we should hover for a minute."

"That bad, huh?"

"I think so. It's not evil, but it can put the hurt on."

"Sounds fun." And the tone of her voice in his mind said she meant it. She dipped down to give him easy access to her back. Once he was on, she lifted off the ground. In the nick of time, it turned out, as the entire floor of the cavern buckled, opening a chasm in the middle.

"Wait for it," he said.

"For what?"

"I'm not sure. That was meant as much for me as you."

She gave him the ol' internal eye roll, which turned into a gasp. Out of the chasm crawled a huge lobster-like monster, easily twice as big as Andi. Every bit of it was armored, even the joints on the legs, including where the legs and body met. Its plates were all a dull black, carrying plenty of old battle scars, except for the one over its head, which was clear, like its own personal windshield. The part of the monster that stood out the most, however, were the two huge claws, each the size of Andi's Volkswagen Bug back home, and no doubt strong enough to crush the car. Or them.

"Do you think it can fly?" she asked.

"I hope not."

"Can't we fly out of here? Running isn't always a bad option."

"I agree, but can you feel which way we need to go?"

She was silent for a second, and then said, "Ah, yeah, so I guess we fight." The powers had pointed out what he already knew; their exit was down that chasm, and they'd never make it past that thing.

She nodded her head towards it. "May I have the honors?"

"Please."

She sped down towards the lobster monster and unleashed a blast of acid. Instead of melting away, the thing's plate armor repelled the stream as if it were nothing more than water. "No fair," she muttered, and then said, "I guess it's up to you to show the thing how we roll."

One of his more powerful dark energy bombs came to mind. He concentrated, clapped his hands together, and pushed his palms out towards the monster. The spell zoomed out and struck home, but when the blast subsided, the monster was none the worse for wear.

"That didn't seem to do much," she said.

"No. Maybe it needs something simpler." Like the demons when Felix sent him to help harvest organs for his alchemy. He shot out a few bolts of dark energy, but they bounced harmlessly off.

"My acid's almost built back up. What if we attacked at the same time?"

Ben shook his head. "I'm being stupid. Let me scan it to find its weakness."

"Wait, what? You could have done that from the beginning?"

"I got caught up in the moment."

She rolled her eyes at him again. Ah, yeah, now it felt like old times. As they'd hoped, the thing couldn't fly, so the scan proved easy. It had originally been the size of a small lizard he was used to seeing back home, but powerful magic had transformed it into this hulking guardian before them. It still didn't have much going for it other than size and its claws, so the armor plates had been added. The plates both protected it from physical harm and made it impervious to any magical attack, as they'd found out. If they could somehow manage to pry off the clear plate covering its face, they could blast it to oblivion. Unfortunately, to make that happen, they needed to throw a frontal assault at the thing. Sure, they could sneak up on it, but those claws would be able to snap at them if they were anywhere close to its face.

"Alright, here's the deal," he said, and relayed what he learned, and the plan he'd come up with. She wasn't happy about it, but at least they had a goal.

"I still say we should try to fly past it into the pit," she said. "Not for nothing, but I'm pretty fast. Not to mention you could put a shield spell on us. That wouldn't hurt the thing, so it should protect us."

He shook his head. "I have a feeling its magic armor-plated claws would pierce through any shielding spell I could put up. Plus we don't know how fast it is. The scan didn't tell me that. It would be better to use that as option two if we can't get its faceplate off. At least we'll better know how it moves then."

"Fine. Makes sense. How do you want to do this?"

Good question. "Best thing would be to have you fly around, get it focused on you, while I sneak up and pry the faceplate off. The problem is…"

"Why would it be distracted by me at a distance and ignore you up close? Especially since I can't hurt it."

"Yeah." Ben stared down at the monster. It had stayed still since crawling up out of the ground, so he couldn't even get a bead on how it moved. He'd been too mesmerized when it first appeared to take notice then.

"Maybe we could both go for it from different directions," she said. "We'll better see how it thinks and reacts."

"That could work."             

"But you have another plan."

"We have to get the clear faceplate off and blast it, but what about the other plates? I wonder if we could pry one off its back and attack the flesh underneath? It wouldn't kill the thing, but maybe it'd be the distraction we need."

"Why wouldn't your scan tell you that? It was specific about the faceplate."

"I think it only gives the ultimate answers, not the minutia of how to get there."

"You think? Why don't you know? Didn't you spend three months learning this stuff?"

He bent and kissed the scales on her neck, which brought out a tiny purr from her. "Yeah, and I'm sure you were the perfect dragon after three months of training. Or whatever the equivalent of three months was."

"Point taken. But I still don't understand how getting past those mega-claws can be considered minutia."

Ben shrugged. "How about, first things first, we buzz past it to see how it moves?"

Andi dipped down and flew past. She kept a fast pace, but didn't get close to top speed, all the better to test out the monster's capabilities. She zipped right at it, and the thing scuttled backwards and brought both claws up at an avoidable speed. She circled around, and they buzzed it again with similar results. She then rose, and they hovered high above again. The monster went inert.

"Unless it's toying with us, it's pretty slow," Ben said.