Licked by the Flame (14 page)

Okay, whatever. This hallucination or nightmare or tumor-induced delusion kept getting weirder by the minute. She kind of wanted to know where it would go from here, actually. At some point she was bound to wake up and laugh at it all, wasn’t she?

N
ic did his best to shelter Lianne as they passed into his safeguarded entrance. He reached out with his mind to disarm the security measures made of ancient magic he had placed as enchantment here, but to his surprise he could not find any. His securities had been stripped.

Carefully depositing Lianne on the smooth floor of the fire-worn cavern, he whirled to find the two fairies trailing him. They had no trouble passing his security, either.

“What have you done?” he demanded.

The male fairy glared at him defiantly, but the female was more intent on Lianne.

“Is she all right?” she asked, pointing at Lianne’s limp, silent figure.

“Yes. I’ve put her into a sleep. She’ll be fine.”

It had actually been very easy to overcome the woman’s jumbled thoughts. She was fully overwhelmed; her mind had welcomed his suggestion of sleep. She’d struggled only briefly, then gone limp in his arms as he carried her in here. He’d expected to need to shield her from the securities he’d placed here to keep humans out, but obviously not.

“Now tell me how you disabled my magic,” he asked the fairies. He allowed the fire within him to show close to the surface, a clear threat for these tiny creatures just in case they had any ideas of lying to him.

“We did nothing,” the male fairy said. “We were sent here to find out what’s going on.”

“Who sent you?” Nic asked, twisting his huge form in the narrow passage so that he was able to keep himself between Lianne and these two fairies.

“That doesn’t matter. What we need to know is, what were you doing on the mountain with a human?” the fairy asked sharply.

Nic had to give him credit for bravery, fluttering into his secret abode and facing him boldly. The only reason he hadn’t fried the little insects already was because they had tried to help him. Now he needed to know why. If he wasn’t happy with their answers, their fluttering days would be over.

“You’re a little out of your element, I think,” Nic stated. “This is dragon territory. How did you disable my safeguards?”

The fairies simply shrugged, glitter spilling off them with even the slightest movement. Their colorful glow combined with the heat emanating from Nic’s own body, causing shadows to dance over the walls of his carefully constructed entryway. Stray gusts from outside penetrated occasionally, making Fairy Dust and raindrops filter through the air.

“I didn’t see any safeguards,” the gold-colored fairy said, his small voice surprisingly strong as it echoed off the cold rocks. “What is this place, dragon?”

“I am Nicolai Stefanya Vladik and I will ask the questions here. Why have you come to this mountain?”

“We’ve come here to find out what you and the humans are working on,” the female fairy declared. “We know about the machines the Fairy Council is secretly using, and that someone has been redirecting them here. We want to know why.”

She spoke with conviction, her tiny finger wagging in his face. So the Fairy Council was somehow involved in this scheme? That was most interesting. Everyone knew elves held primary jurisdiction in Iceland, and
they
certainly had enough sense to stay away from this mountain. What would fairies be doing here?

“You must be confused,” he said. “Human scientists are here studying the viability of using this mountain as a power source for their cities. I am here to prevent that. Now explain why you believe your Fairy Council is here.”

The male fairy sneered at him. “They’re involved with the machines. We know about them, dragon.”

“Do you mean the sensors the humans have placed here to monitor geothermal and seismic activity?”

“No,” the female answered. “We mean the hybrid machines, the ones that gather magic.”

They certainly seemed earnestly troubled by these machines, as anyone with half a brain ought to. Could he really trust them? He still wasn’t sure.

“No such thing exists. The Veil prevents that.”

“You saw them yourself,” the female declared. “We watched you. You were so angry that you destroyed the machine in that little building.”

“And did that disrupt your plans?” he asked.

The male fairy was getting downright belligerent. “We don’t have any plans. We weren’t the ones who set up those machines, but we’re for damn sure planning to find out who did.”

The female watched Nic’s reaction carefully. “If you didn’t do it, then it seems like we’re on the same side.”

“If that is the case, then perhaps you wouldn’t mind allowing me to know your thoughts,” Nic suggested. “Just so we can all be assured.”

“I don’t see how you reading our minds will make us any more comfortable,” the male grumbled.

Nic shrugged his enormous wings. “It might make me less inclined to turn you to cinders.”

The female’s eyes grew large and terrified. “Well, that does make for a compelling argument.”

“Very well,” the male assented. “Read mine, but leave hers alone. She’s only here because I brought her. If you need to know what we’re up to, you wouldn’t get anything from her that you can’t get from me.”

Nic was almost impressed. “How chivalrous of you. Very well, you first.”

His first impression was that the fairy did indeed possess some secret information about the machinery in question. Upon deeper probing, however, he came to understand what that was. Indeed, no wonder he’d felt such interesting, arousing sensations as he’d tracked the movements of magic on the mountain. This equipment had some unique side effects on these fairies.

Just as the male fairy had said, it seemed these two had only recently come here, interested in finding the source of this new technology, just as Nic was. They did not trust their own Fairy Council, but the reasons for that were not entirely clear. Nic had to search the fairy’s mind for more details. They were getting increasingly difficult to come by, for some reason.

“I sense deception in you,” he announced. “You are hiding something from me.”

The gold fairy glared at him. “It’s nothing that involves you. Surely you keep a few secrets yourself, dragon? Things that you’d rather not let everyone know?”

“Like what you are doing hauling a human female up here to your lair?” the pink fairy interjected.

“My personal affairs are my own,” Nic informed her. “But you are correct. I find no reason to suspect you two are a danger to me or to my plans.”

“Then perhaps you might share those plans with us,” the gold fairy said.

“No, I don’t think so,” Nic replied.

“Tell me what you intend for the woman,” the male fairy said and locked his tiny amber eyes with Nic’s.

He certainly was bold, for a fairy. There was something different about him, too. He had a depth that Nic had never encountered within a fairy before. A quick probe of the creature’s mind ought to give Nic any details that he lacked.

The wind howled outside the cave entrance, yet the silence inside was almost deafening. Nic tried to reach into the fairy’s mind to find out why he was unlike countless other fairies he’d encountered over the years. He was surprised to find so much resistance.

“Stay out of my mind, dragon,” the fairy snarled at him.

“Why? What are you hiding?”

“Nothing that you need to know.”

“Oh, just tell him already,” the pink fairy admonished her friend. “He’s going to find out.”

The male fairy continued to resist. Finally the female huffed and turned her attention to Nic.

“He’s half-human,” she announced. “And we have been carrying on a forbidden relationship, and I don’t regret it even a little bit.”

“Damn it, Raea, stop implicating yourself,” the male said. “I wasn’t going to let him find out about that.”

Nic decided it would be rude to laugh at their paltry concerns. “Sorry, but I knew about the affair. That much was easy to read the moment I saw you two.”

“You did?” the female asked.

“I did. You’ve both been thinking about it pretty loudly.”

She blushed, but her partner kept his angry frustration focused on Nic. “That is none of your business. If you turn us over to the Fairy Council, they’ll take away our magic and then no one will stop them from whatever it is they’re planning to do with these machines.”

“No worries,” Nic said at last. “Kyne, is it? Yes, I know your names now, Raea and Kyne. So that’s what you were so intent on hiding from me; he’s half-human and you two can’t keep your glittering little hands off of each other. By the Flame, who knew fairies were capable of such…stamina?”

“What goes on in our private lives is our business alone,” Kyne declared. “Can we count on you not to give us over to the council?”

“I have no dealings with the Fairy Council,” Nic assured them. “And you’re right, I don’t really care how often you do whatever you do in your private lives. What I
do
care about is this hybrid machinery we’ve discovered.”

“We know nothing about any of this—” Kyne began.

“Don’t waste my time with lies,” Nic interrupted him. “I’ve been inside your mind. I know what you’ve been told about these devices, and I know you came to Iceland to learn more.”

“I
will
learn more,” Kyne replied. “The Fairy Council has one agenda, whoever stole the machinery has another, and obviously you have your own. How many more factions will turn up? We could be dealing with a dozen plots, not simply one or two.”

“Well, at least we discovered how to disable the machines,” Raea said, then timidly tried to explain. “I mean, at least temporarily. You see, apparently the machines shut off when you—”

“I am aware of what it takes,” Nic said before she glowed fuchsia from her embarrassment. “You discovered that passion overloads their systems and shuts them down.”

“It has to be in very close proximity, though,” Raea added hesitantly. “We found it out by accident.”

Nic snorted. “I’ll bet you did. Very well, I’m convinced you have told me everything you know and are not here to threaten the clutch.”

Raea squealed and gave off a puff of sparkles. “The dragons are incubating a clutch? After all of these years, more dragons are to be hatched?”

Damn, he should have more carefully governed his tongue. These two were not his enemies, but his enemy could use them against him. It would be child’s play to retrieve this knowledge from them should they fall under someone else’s control. Even now, here he was with his defenses down and this entrance lying open. The clutch could be in grave danger and he had just informed two strangers of its existence. He’d not incur further risk by being careless with his words.

“The Dragonrealm does share our plans,” he announced. “If you wish to prove yourself my friends, then you’ll leave and go directly back to your Fairyrealm, never mentioning my presence here. The storm is dying down now; you should be safe to travel. You suspect you know the manufacturer, correct? Focus your efforts there, and stop the supply, if you can.”

“This thing is so much larger than we bargained for,” Kyne argued. “And our own people are working against us. You must want to end this as much as we do. Why not assist us?”

“My duty is to my own kind,” Nic reminded them. “You tend to your people, and I will tend to mine.”

“Fair enough,” Kyne consented. “We’ll see what we can do, if anything. But be careful, Nicolai. We might be on our own in this, but it appears you are, too. Unless your woman there is going to support you.”

“She will never remember any of this,” Nic assured them. “I will keep her safe. You need not concern yourself with her.”

“I hope we can trust you about that,” Raea said. “Do you promise to take care of her?”

“She’ll be fine. Now go. I will keep your secrets if you will keep mine.”

Kyne grumbled. “That’s easy for us, since you haven’t exactly shared much.”

The female fairy gave Lianne a long, careful look to reassure herself that everything was as Nic said. They seemed like noble creatures, and he was relieved not to have been forced to blast them into oblivion.

The mysterious storm had lost much of its lethal force. Apparently whatever had been behind that threat had given up. Nic ushered the fairies out and peered into the night after them. Lightning flashed with a muted glow now and the thunder no longer shook the whole mountain. Wind still whipped at the rock face, but it was nothing like it had been. If the fairies had negotiated that, they would certainly be able to move around freely in this.

He watched them flutter off into the dark, then he turned back to Lianne. She slept soundly, propped up against the glazed wall of this passageway. Heat had formed this tunnel, heat from the dragons who had built it and made the place ready for the clutch. Their blasts had melted through the solid mountain, polishing the rough volcanic stone as they went. The rock walls were cold now, but not as cold as the outside of the mountain. Here, even at this distance from the core, the clutch gave off a slight warmth. Lianne would be fine. He hated to leave her, but he needed to go check on things below, and, for her own safety, he was not about to take her down there.

Other than the safeguards being down, there was no indication of intruders. He could sense no one lurking about, but he needed to make certain. This clutch was his utmost priority—nothing could deter him from that, not needy fairies and not even Lianne. His body ached from his battle with the storm, and his energy was rapidly being depleted by all of his efforts, but he drew in a deep breath and headed for the darkened passageway that led deep, deep into the mountain.

There was no need to heat up his scales or blow up a flame to light his way as he went. He knew it well. He may have presented himself as a human for many years now, but this was his home and he had forsaken it too long. He had no right to be comfortable anywhere else, or
with
anyone. Especially not a human.

R
aea followed Kyne as he cut his way through gathering wind. The storm clouds were dark and furious over the horizon, overtaking the sky. Flashes of lightning ignited the air, and thunder growled low. Raea shuddered as the rumble rolled through her body. This was an alien place and she could not wait until they might leave it.

What sort of storm was this? She could have sworn those lightning strikes earlier had been specifically targeting the dragon. He’d barely gotten himself and the woman to safety. Would they encounter trouble out here? Even the dragon seemed concerned by it. Who could be controlling something so vast as the weather?

“Have you seen anything out here that might have been used to create this storm?”

“All we’ve found is that equipment in that shed and then several of those small sensor things. Wouldn’t any machinery powerful enough to control weather have to be much bigger than that?”

“I would think so,” Kyne replied. “I don’t know where you could hide something like that, especially if there’s been a dragon prowling around.”

“If there was equipment like that nearby, you’d think he would have found it,” Raea agreed. “Maybe we should go back to your father and show him what we did find.”

They’d resized some of the parts from that machinery in the shed and were carrying them tucked in their pouches. She hoped Baylor could answer some of their questions. Those machines were powerful, but nothing they’d encountered so far appeared capable of manipulating the weather. If this wasn’t just a natural storm, then they’d probably be smart to get as far away from here as possible. Soon.

Fluttering against the wind, she brushed her windblown hair out of her eyes and scanned the hulking silhouette of the mountain. It was as dark and deserted as before. No sign of anyone, magical or otherwise.

“I just don’t see anything,” Kyne said, calling to her over his shoulder. “Maybe we should do what the dragon said and head back.”

“Do you think he knows more about what the machines do than he told us?”

“Who knows? I’m getting used to being lied to.”

“I would never lie to you, Kyne. And I think maybe the dragon was telling us the truth. I got the idea that he even cared a little bit about that woman.”

“He sure put himself through hell to get her to safety. And he could have burnt us to a crisp, but he didn’t. Raea, watch out!”

She jolted as another burst of lightning flashed a bit too close for comfort. “He could have let us wait in his nice safe cave for a little while, though. This storm is getting worse again. I really don’t think this is just a random weather pattern we’re seeing.”

Kyne was tempted to agree, but he knew too much about weather to even begin to guess how anyone could control it. “Not even fairy magic could create a storm like this. Magic and nature work together; one never controls the other.”

Raea struggled against another gust. “Unless maybe someone figured out how. Baylor said the machines collect all the magic, but then they must do something with it, right?”

“They’re supposed to put the magic back into the Veil, but…Hey, what’s that out there?”

He pointed off toward the dark line of horizon, past the mountain and beyond the craggy cliffs overlooking the fjord. A narrow sliver of ocean could be seen, and as Raea hovered in place to peer into the night, she realized what he was indicating. A bright light blinked on the water.

“Is it a low airplane?” she asked.

“I think it’s a ship.”

“It’s coming into one of the fjords. In this weather, that could be dangerous, couldn’t it?”

“It could. Either that ship is drifting out of control, or it is intentionally approaching the rocks.”

“Do you think someone is coming after us?”

“Or after the dragon.”

He caught her gaze with his. She’d never seen him so dark and serious.

“The storm seemed to be targeting the dragon, too,” she commented.

“It did. You really don’t think it’s possible that…”

He didn’t finish his sentence, so she did it for him. “Whoever is controlling the weather might be out there on that ship?”

It was farfetched, but there wasn’t anyone else around right now. It looked like a pretty big ship…like a warship, maybe. And those lightning bolts had acted like weapons, targeting the dragon and his female companion. Maybe a ship was just the place for someone with a magical machine that could control the weather. They could create all sorts of havoc here, then simply sail off to their next target.

It was a horrible possibility and definitely ought to be checked out.

“We should go take a look,” she announced.

Kyne swore. “You’ve been in enough danger already.”

“Kyne, we have to.”

“I know. All right, we’ll go a little bit closer to see if this is just an average, ordinary ship about to crash on the rocks, or if it’s part of the plot.”

“Whatever the plot really is.”

“If it involves controlling the weather, it’s a plot everyone needs to know about, I’m afraid.”

“Then we should totally get as close to that ship as possible and look it over.”

He shook his head. “You know what being around one of those smaller machines does to us. Imagine being close to a whole ship full of machinery powerful enough to control weather.”

She realized what he was saying. It probably shouldn’t make her grin like she was. Yes, imagine, indeed!

“We
need
to go check out that ship, Kyne.”