Chapter 20
The dragons they’d spotted in the distance had disappeared by the time Agrevlari and Tonasketal reached Scar Peak, one of several mountains rising high enough to have snow above the tree line, even this late in the summer. They circled it, looking for caves or mine entrances.
A few times in his life, Vorik had flown this far south over the Everfrost Mountains on the way to the great desert to the east, but he’d never come close to this peak, only noting from a distance the deep and jagged canyon that ran from its apex for miles down the bare, rocky side.
It looked like a wound left by the gods hurling lightning bolts.
For their second lap around the mountain, Agrevlari flew at a lower altitude, the smell of pine trees wafting up when his belly brushed the tops. A squirrel chattered irately at them but only after they were safely past.
I am catching a few scents lingering in the foliage, Agrevlari said. Scents of dragons.
Since we saw dragons recently, that isn’t surprising, is it?
But we see no sign of them now. I thought they may be headquartered here with their human allies.
They may have flown farther north. That’s the way they were going when we spotted them.
Vorik would prefer if they could slip in, find the teal ore, and continue on without dealing with the Freeborn Faction—or their dragons.
He didn’t want to deal with any of what he could only think of as deserters.
Some of the faction members were elders or women who’d never joined the Sixteen Talons or Storm Guard, and he felt they had the right to leave the tribes whenever they wished, but he struggled not to resent those who’d sworn to serve in the military and then departed.
Look for caves or mines, will you? Any possible entrance that could take us to teal ore, ideally ore located close to the surface.
General Jhiton hadn’t sent mining picks along, and Vorik had used his explosives on the gargoyles. He didn’t fancy hacking at solid rock with his sword.
If we locate the faction’s headquarters, we can ask them if they’ve seen the ore, Agrevlari suggested. If they have been in the southern end of the mountains for many moons, they may have encountered it.
We can find it without them.
If we fly aimlessly, the princess may locate the ore first. She likely has no aversion to dealing with your faction.
They’re not my faction. Vorik bristled at the idea of being linked to them in any way. They’d given intelligence to the Garden Kingdom military on numerous occasions. That was a betrayal to the stormer people.
You claimed to be a part of it when you sought to seduce her.
You know that was a ruse. Didn’t you say you sensed magic within the mountain?
There have to be caves. Vorik peered left and right and sniffed at the mountain air, as if it might offer clues to finding the second shielder component.
It was much cooler and dryer than the humid tropical heat that had smothered the rainforest, but if the scents of magical ore lingered in it, he couldn’t detect them.
“Sir!” Wise called, waving from where Tonasketal flew above the canyon. “There’s a huge cavern entrance over here. Big enough to fly into, and I see evidence of mining equipment from the past.”
“There we go.” Vorik waved an acknowledgment and urged Agrevlari to fly in that direction. “Wait for us to go in!” he called to Wise, thinking of those dragons that had disappeared and that Agrevlari had smelled.
Though it was unlikely he and Wise would chance upon the precise spot where the Freedom Faction made their headquarters, he didn’t want to stumble into them.
Just as he didn’t think kindly of them, he doubted they would welcome a loyal stormer officer into their abode.
Especially if they were trying to keep that abode secret.
Wise nodded, but his dragon had a different idea. Tonasketal flapped his wings hard and flew out of view, descending into the canyon. Maybe he’d spotted a tasty-looking mountain goat.
“We’d better make sure they don’t get themselves into trouble,” Vorik said.
Already flying in that direction, Agrevlari picked up speed. His nostrils twitched as he flapped his wings. The scents of dragons are wafting out of the canyon toward me now. They include… There is a female in her fertile time.
“Is that why Tonasketal isn’t waiting?”
Vorik and Agrevlari soared over the edge of the canyon in time to spot Wise’s dragon carrying him toward the cavern he’d mentioned.
With the entrance at least twenty feet high and the width even greater, it offered room for the outstretched wings of a dragon.
Wise was gesticulating while clutching the amphora, but Tonasketal didn’t slow down, and they disappeared into the cavern.
“Catch them.” A premonition of danger came over Vorik, and he almost gave the opposite order, for Agrevlari to stop and wait.
But if Tonasketal got Wise into trouble—a fertile female might have a male mate nearby who wouldn’t appreciate another male approaching—they would need help.
With wings spread to catch the currents, Agrevlari soared into the dark cavern. No, it wasn’t as dark as one would expect. Ahead, a strange aquamarine light glowed from the depths. Or was that… a teal light? Did the teal ore glow?
I sense magic, Agrevlari said.
More than that possessed by a fertile dragon? Vorik’s hopes rose that they would not only find that ore but that some lay exposed at the surface.
Yes. This is—
Abruptly, Agrevlari tilted sideways and into a dive, but he couldn’t go far, not with the bottom of the cavern scant feet below. Motion to the right made Vorik duck low. At the same time, a startled oath sounded ahead, followed by the screech of a dragon. Tonasketal.
A huge blade swept in from the side of the cavern, like one of the scythes the gardeners used to reap wheat and rye, but ten times the size.
And the blade was edged in gargoyle bone.
It swept through the air above Vorik’s head.
A few inches lower, and it would have struck him and knocked him off his dragon—if not sliced through his skull.
The blade disappeared into a slit in the stone wall on the far side.
“Sir!” Wise blurted, the word drowned out by Tonasketal roaring again.
Had another scythe swung out to attack them? And struck the dragon?
Over Agrevlari’s head, Vorik glimpsed Tonasketal, his gray wings beating erratically. On his back, Wise struggled to stay on and keep hold of the amphora.
The floor of the cavern dropped away like a waterfall, descending vertically for dozens of feet before leveling off again. There were campfires at the bottom, burning between hides hung to denote sleeping areas. The teal glow—several teal glows—came from the back of the large cavern.
Agrevlari flew toward an open area, a possible landing spot, but men and women ran out from behind rock formations and the hide flaps. They carried bows and quivers full of arrows.
“Don’t land,” Vorik barked, though he looked longingly toward what had to be the ore he sought. “This was a trap.”
Maybe it hadn’t been a trap, simply defenses the inhabitants had set, but, either way, they didn’t look to welcome visitors.
Above them, the wounded Tonasketal had been trying to recover from being hit by a blade, but his wing clipped a stalactite, and he pitched sideways. Wise managed to stay on but lurched as the dragon tilted. The amphora tumbled from his grip.
Vorik cursed and, even as Agrevlari started flying up again, obeying the order not to land, Vorik sprang off his back.
He dropped fifteen feet, landed in a crouch, and sprinted to catch the amphora before it hit the ground.
The memory of catching Syla by the Kingdom lighthouse popped into his mind.
She had been heavier than the amphora but much more pleasing to hold.
At least he kept the ancient container from breaking.
Aware of the archers striding toward him with their bows, Vorik set it down and drew his sword, turning to face them. Agrevlari landed nearby, but two big dragons surged forward to keep him from breathing fire at the archers. More dragons crouched in the back of the cavern near the glowing ore.
Outnumbered, Vorik and Agrevlari would have to step lightly here.
Tonasketal recovered and landed twenty feet away. Wise scrambled off his back and joined Vorik. Unfortunately, they were still outnumbered.
“Sorry, sir,” Wise whispered, glancing at the amphora. “My dragon got an itch.”
“When you ally with creatures as mercurial as dragons, you must expect that occasional chaos will be thrown into your battle plans.” Vorik remembered his brother saying that after their dragons had attacked each other over Wreylith, and was fairly certain he’d been quoting a famous rider of the past.
“No kidding.”
The archers moved to surround them. Vorik’s instincts made him want to run and put his back to a rock wall, but these people already looked irked and twitchy, like any sudden movements would prompt them to loose arrows.
Agrevlari growled at the two dragons that had approached. They stopped advancing, but they didn’t back away.
“It’s rude to enter a cave claimed by others without requesting permission beforehand,” came a woman’s voice from behind the archers.
“It’s also rude to try to slash the heads or wings off those flying into a cave that had no markings to indicate it was occupied,” Vorik said.
“Surely, our presence here couldn’t have been a complete surprise.”
“It was fairly surprising until Tonasketal detected a female in her fertile time.”
The archers parted to let the speaker through.