Chapter 2 #2
“Oh, come on,” Vorzak said impatiently. “You’re about a hundred times the size of these little bastards. Can’t you just ignore them?”
The dragon answered with a bellowing roar.
“Come on.” Kasi grabbed my arm. “Jahrdran found what he thinks might be the entrance to the wine cellar.”
I grabbed Mikaela’s hand and we followed Kasi around the perimeter of the barn, keeping our distance from the side that housed the dragons.
We reached the end of a long line of empty stalls and found Jahrdran standing in the last one, a trapdoor open at his feet.
“Ready for an adventure?” Kasi grinned at us.
Sweet.
Jahrdran burst into shadows and streamed through the trapdoor.
Kasi launched after him, Shadow in her wake.
“I don’t know about this,” Mikaela said nervously, staring down into the darkened pit.
A loud click sounded from down below and the space lit up.
“Come on, Mikaela!” Kasi called up. “It’s just another tunnel.”
“Here.” Elliot helped her climb down onto the ladder and a few moments later, she called up, “Okay, I’m down. Come join us!”
I glanced back at Vorzak.
He was so focused on the dragons, he’d never even noticed us, which was pretty much par for the course when it came to Vorzak and me. Still, I felt a little guilty, leaving him all alone with the clearly unhappy dragons.
Then again, he’d chosen to come here, for some weird, unknown reason and was even now, still trying to cajole the dragons into accepting his presence.
Why did he even care?
“Come on, Jasmine,” Elliot said.
So, with a shake of my head, I followed Mikaela’s path, then waited at the bottom with her as Elliot climbed down to join us.
The next two hours were stressful, but also amazing.
First, we got lost in the tunnels. There was just one tunnel to start, but then it branched off in five directions and then each of those branched off into more directions.
We got completely turned around and then ended up right back where we started.
“Did we just walk in a circle?” Jahrdran demanded.
“I think we did,” Elliot said.
At that moment, the trapdoor above us popped open and Vorzak dropped down into the tunnel.
Mikaela gasped and stumbled back, ducking behind Elliot, clearly in an attempt to avoid being seen by Vorzak’s headful of snakes.
Vorzak straightened and jerked in surprise when he saw all of us standing there.
“What are you doing here?” We both demanded at the same time.
He grinned at me and said, “Jasmine, I presume?”
I only caught a glimpse of his grin, though, because the moment they heard my voice, his snakes snapped around to face me and started dancing and weaving, blocking my view of Vorzak.
“I’m Vorzak,” he said as he pushed his snakes to the side. He held out his hand and waited patiently.
Great.
Just what I needed.
It was like the entire universe was conspiring against me. I’d finally gotten over this man and now he was in my face every time I turned around.
Worse, he expected me to touch him.
Well, there was no way I was doing that. I might not be the smartest student at the Academy, but I was smart enough to know to avoid touch.
Ignoring his hand, I turned to my friends and demanded, “So, what’s the plan?”
They all stared from me to Vorzak and back again, the looks on their faces clearly expressing they thought I was an idiot.
Well, they weren’t the ones who had mooned over the man for two and a half years, only to have him ignore me the entire time. Like I was supposed to fall all over him now that he’d finally deigned to notice me? I didn’t think so.
“Well?” I demanded.
Elliot shrugged. “We could try a different branch, I guess.”
“We’ve already been down here at least an hour,” Mikaela said, peeking over Elliot’s shoulder to eye Vorzak warily. “It could take us weeks or even months to explore all the branches.”
“What are you looking for?” Vorzak asked, his voice a deep rumble that set off sparks inside me.
Damnit.
Even his voice was sexy!
Was there nothing about the man that was unappealing?
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one of his serpents glide closer.
It nuzzled my shoulder and deep inside, I melted.
Unable to resist, I lifted my hand and gently stroked the top of its head.
Two other serpents appeared, yanking Vorzak closer and demanding my attention.
I gave them each a quick stroke and a pat, then belatedly answered Vorzak’s question since it appeared no one else was going to. “We’re on a hunt for the professors’ hidden wine cellar.”
“They have a wine cellar?” Vorzak exclaimed.
“Supposedly. What are you doing down here if you’re not looking for it?”
“I sneaked into the stables my first month at the Academy. I wanted to meet the dragons. Unfortunately, the little bastards and the dragons weren’t as eager for that meeting.
One of them tried to stamp us out and I stumbled into the stall above us, trying to get away.
Fell practically right on top of the trapdoor.
I’ve been exploring these tunnels ever since. ”
“Find anything interesting?” Jahrdran asked.
“Nope. So far, every tunnel I’ve tried just winds around and around and eventually brings me back to this trapdoor. I keep trying, though. I figure eventually, one of the tunnels has to lead somewhere exciting, right?”
“So how many tunnels have you tried?” Elliot asked.
“About half of them.” He started off down the main tunnel.
We followed and a few moments later, we reached the first branch.
“I’ve eliminated all the tunnels to the left.” He waved an arm to the two branches on the left. “And I’ve eliminated about half the branches straight ahead. I haven’t touched any of the branches to the right yet.”
Well, that was just great.
Because we’d chosen one of the tunnels to the left.
Glancing around, I saw everyone had the same expression I was sure I had on my face. Damnit.
“Wait. You’ve been trying these branches for two and a half years and you’re only halfway through them?” Kasi demanded.
He shrugged. “It’s not like I’m coming down here every day or even every week. Mostly I explore when I have nothing better to do.”
“Well, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I think buying a bottle of wine sounds like a much better solution than traipsing around the tunnels all night long,” Mikaela said.
“We should at least try one of the tunnels Vorzak hasn’t tried yet,” I said. “Otherwise, we just wasted an entire hour exploring a tunnel he’d already eliminated.”
Mikaela sighed. “Fine. One more tunnel, but that’s all.”
“I vote we try a tunnel to the right,” I said.
“But I have a system,” Vorzak said. “I’ve been keeping careful track and working through the tunnels in a very systematic way. That way I don’t end up repeating my efforts. If you just go traipsing off without a system, you’ll never explore all the tunnels.”
“Not my goal,” I said as I started down the tunnel just right of the center branch. I’ll admit I chose that branch just to annoy Vorzak since it was between a branch he hadn’t yet explored and one he was only halfway through.
I heard him grumbling behind me as he hurried to follow.
“Jasmine, wait up!”
I glanced back just in time to see Mikaela scoot past Vorzak. She had her back plastered to the wall and slid along it as fast as she could, not taking her eyes off his snakes. As soon as she was past him, she darted to my side.
“You owe me,” she muttered as she tried to walk beside me while also keeping an eye on the gorgon stalking at our backs.
“You could have stayed with Elliot.”
“What kind of best friend would I be if I abandoned you in your time of need?”
I snickered. “Come on.” I grabbed her hand and took off at a faster pace.
Over the next twenty minutes, I led the group through the most random tunnel exploration I possibly could. I took a branch to the right, then a branch to the left, then one straight ahead.
“Jasmine, you’re not getting us lost again, are you?” Mikaela finally demanded.
“Again?” Vorzak rumbled behind us, making Mikaela jump because he’d once again managed to get closer than she liked.
I ignored them both as I turned another corner, then stumbled to a halt.
Holy shit.
“I can’t believe it,” Mikaela exclaimed. “You actually found the wine cellar!”
Directly in front of us was a giant wooden door with raised carvings of wine leaves surrounding the Blackthorn crest, leaving no doubt as to who owned the cellar we’d finally found.
Mikaela and I spent a bit of time examining the door carefully, looking for any evidence of security spells.
“I can’t believe it’s not protected by at least one spell,” I finally said when we failed to find evidence of any security at all.
“Think about it,” Vorzak said. “Anyone who didn’t know the path to the wine cellar is bound to get lost. It’s literally taken me years to eliminate half the tunnels in this place. That you found it at all is only because of your chaotic search methods.”
“Hey!” I exclaimed. “It worked, didn’t it?”
“It was a million to one chance, literally,” Vorzak said. “I’m guessing this wine cellar has been here since long before the Academy was built and I’m also guessing in all the years the Academy’s been around, no student has ever discovered it.”
“Well, I’m going in,” I announced. “We haven’t come all this way to leave empty-handed.” With that, I pulled open the door.