Chapter 8 #2
Illarion kept hold of Valerius when landed lightly. Valerius felt rather like a maiden being saved from a Dragon in Illarion’s arms. The kids were pointing some more. Illarion let him down, but kept a firm hold on him nonetheless so he didn’t collapse. They moved as one towards Anwar.
“Anwar! Anwar! Can you hear us?” Valerius asked as they reached the Silver Dragon King.
Anwar had managed to sit up, but there was blood trailing down one temple.
He lifted a hand to it and winced. The wound was fading, but it had been brutal enough to take him out.
Valerius’ heart lodged in his throat. Caden had been taken by these people.
Anwar’s gaze still seemed a little unfocused as he looked at Illarion and Valerius.
“Little Dragon, where is Caden?” Illarion demanded of Anwar.
“I--I don’t know. He had one of the Behemoth’s possessed there when I saw him while flying,” Anwar said and pointed over to an ice cocoon that had been shattered.
No one was in it. “The doors there opened and more of the possessed emerged. So many. These people got in the way of Caden’s ice breath.
I had to stop their car from hitting the building. I got out a few light blasts but then…”
“Then you lost Caden? How useless are you? Caden may not be a warrior but you are!” Illarion roared, his cheeks reddening with anger and sulfurous green showing in his eyes. “Stupid, little Dragon!”
Anwar’s head lowered with every word. Valerius wanted to shout just like Illarion was, but he didn’t believe that Anwar would fail to assist Caden. There must have been a reason.
“How could you be so stupid, Anwar?” Illarion continued to swear as he paced like a caged panther. “How--”
“Enough, Illarion! We need to keep it together. For Caden’s sake,” Valerius reminded him. Those words helped both of them settle. Illarion put his hands on his hips and glared at Anwar while Valerius tried not to rush him as Anwar was clearly traumatized as he asked, “Then what?”
“There were children, Valerius,” Anwar’s voice choked up for a moment.
His eyes were haunted. Anwar had lost children of his own long ago.
It would have flayed him to attack them, even to save Caden.
“Children. No more than eight or nine… and I couldn’t…
I couldn’t… I should have attacked them! Caden was swarmed, but I… I…”
“Hesitated,” Illarion grunted. “Good tactics on the Behemoth’s part. Even a hardened criminal will hesitate to attack children.”
“Yes, most would hesitate,” Valerius said and any anger he had evaporated.
“And then they were on me and I… there was some gas. The world spun and I was going down,” Anwar explained. “They wanted to take me too, but they were most worried about Caden, I think. And then… then I was out. Unconscious and I have not been unconscious for… for so long.”
“We need to know where they went, Anwar. Where did they take Caden?” Valerius asked. “Do you remember anything? Did you see or hear what direction they went in?”
“No, I was out,” Anwar said, grimacing. “I shouldn’t have hesitated!”
“The doors. They went through them.” One of the teenagers from the car pointed towards the rusty entrance to the tunnel that cut through Reach like a hot knife.
“Are you certain?” Illarion growled causing the teenagers to shrink away.
These teenagers were obviously shocked already, and seeing him, Illarion and Anwar like this wasn’t helping them recover. But Valerius couldn’t care about their mental health right now. If they had information, he needed it from them.
“Answer! Answer us!” Valerius commanded.
All four of them nodded.
One of the boys managed to get out, “They carried the White Dragon King off with them through the doors and barred them and shit. We tried to open them, but we couldn’t!”
“How long ago?” Valerius asked.
“Just like five or ten minutes ago,” one of the girls said.
Five or ten minutes coincides with the pain, Valerius realized.
Must get to Iolaire! Must not let them imprison Iolaire again! Raziel demanded.
We will get to them, Valerius swore.
“Let’s go!” Illarion spun on his heel to head towards the doors.
Anwar got up to his feet, trembling and swaying. “I’m going with you!”
“No, Anwar!” Valerius put a hand on the center of the smaller Silver Dragon King’s chest.
“I will not fail again, Valerius! I was just… shocked. Not any longer. I will do what must be done,” Anwar answered.
“That is not why I do not want you to accompany us. You need to get a hold of the other Dragons. I want those not waiting on info up in the air,” Valerius explained. “Use one of these teenagers’ phones. There is little service in the tunnels. I need you to coordinate.”
Anwar bit his lower lip, but then nodded. “It will be so.”
Iolaire! We must get to Iolaire! It will not survive being enslaved again! Raziel cried.
A cold chill went through Valerius. Iolaire’s extreme fear of the Behemoth had nearly paralyzed it before. To go through that again… to take Caden into that maelstrom… would the young man even survive it?
We will not find out!
Valerius took off after Illarion who was already wrenching open the metal doors. There was a tearing, shrieking sound as the doors came off their rusted hinges. Illarion tossed them to the side as if they were made of paper.
“Your legs are still shaking,” Illarion muttered as the two of them strode into the muted darkness of the tunnel.
“I’m fine,” Valerius growled.
He wasn’t. But he was getting better. He could stand on his own. That feeling of terror, the helplessness, flooded him again. He gritted his teeth. Caden needed him. He would fight through this weakness to strength. But they had to be smart too.
“Ah, it reeks in here!” Illarion waved a hand in front of his face.
The strange ozone-like scent that the Behemoth gave off flooded Valerius’ nostrils and he grimaced.
“It will make tracking them potentially easier,” Valerius said.
Illarion grunted. “Can you run?” Valerius wondered if he could. “I can go ahead--”
“No, splitting up is a bad idea, Illarion. I can keep up,” Valerius said. “We’ve already misjudged this creature.”
Illarion grunted again, his eyes running up and down Valerius’ form, clearly disbelieving that he could keep up. The two of them started to jog. Valerius thought that Illarion, too, was still recovering from the gas otherwise he would have left him in his dust.
The Behemoth was just five or ten minutes ahead of them. The amount of people that it possessed would make moving through the tunnels likely slower. He and Illarion might be able to catch up.
Slowly but surely, their rate of speed increased. They were flat out running once the end of the tunnel disappeared behind them. The stink of the Behemoth was everywhere. It clogged his nostrils. He was nearly gagging from it.
They slowed, then stopped, before three tunnels that branched off from the current one they were on. The central passage went straight ahead while the tunnel to the left slanted upwards and the tunnel to the right spiraled down.
Which way did they go?
“Gah! Even the rotting garbage smells better than it!” Illarion brought a hand to his nose. “Which way do we go? Every tunnel stinks equally.”
Illarion was correct. It was clear that the Behemoth had been using all of these tunnels recently.
He drew in a deep breath from each. He studied the garbage-strewn floor for any fresh footmarks.
What he discovered wasn’t comforting. The stench seemed to equally waft from all three tunnels and there were footmarks going down each.
“They split up to confuse us,” Valerius remarked.
“Clever pig that Behemoth,” Illarion spat.
“Yes, it is.”
The Behemoth had had a long time to think and plan and know these tunnels. It had obsessed itself with revenge. They were just handling this on the fly.
Caden? Caden, can you hear me? Valerius sent out. He thought he heard the faintest pulse of a response as if Caden were roused slightly from deep sleep.
“Well?” Illarion stamped his foot. “Which way? We should split up--”
“Quiet! I’m listening!” Valerius growled.
He shut his eyes and concentrated.
Caden, can you hear me? Valerius asked. Open your eyes, baby. Show me where you are!
For a moment, he thought he saw a curved stone ceiling with the construction lights every few meters. But that looked like every other ceiling. But he had heard something through Caden’s ears.
Listen hard, Caden. Listen with all your might, Valerius told him.
And he heard the splashing of water very distinctly. Not just a drip-drip-drip but an almost waterfall of liquid falling into liquid and he knew where they must be.
“Down!” Valerius cried as his eyelids shot open.
He was running before he checked to see if Illarion was following him.
There was a very low area where a pool had formed.
It bubbled up from a natural crevice in the earth and water also flowed down.
It streamed out of the mountain’s sides.
But the pool was deep and dark. That’s what Caden had been hearing.
Valerius’ senses were alert to every little sound, movement, and scent. He was expecting traps. They must have already known he was coming after them through Ross and Harvey. They were one being after all.
“If we find any of those possessed, can we kill them?” Illarion asked.
Valerius’ jaw set. Part of him wanted to wipe them off the face of the Earth. But he guessed that the parts of the Behemoth would simply go into other humans. That would accomplish nothing other than putting other of his people at risk. So he shook his head.
“Do your best not to kill them. It is a Hydra, Illarion, cut one head off and, for all we know, two more grow in its place.”
Illarion flashed him a grin. “Well, that makes it interesting, doesn’t it? A challenge!”
But Valerius could not muster up the enthusiasm for a fight that the Green Dragon King had. Caden and Iolaire were in danger and that only made him rageful and afraid. He feared what he would do to save them.
Destroy Reach?
Destroy his territory?
Destroy the world?
He smelled and heard the water before he saw it. The tunnel abruptly opened up and there was a thin “shoreline” around the pool. Valerius put an arm up in front of Illarion to stop him from running into the pool.
“What is this? A dank swimming pool?” Illarion chuckled, but there was a sense of unease.
On the other side of the pool was another tunnel entrance. Valerius was sure that they had taken Caden that way. But he stayed where he was. His eyes were fixed upon the pool.
“There are ripples,” Illarion said softly. “Something is down there.”
“Yes,” Valerius agreed.
And then Valerius saw the glowing, jewel-like eyes of a Dragon beneath the surface. Not one of them, but one of the mates. Looking up at them.
Illarion pointed down at the Dragon. “Do you see--”
“Yes, Illarion.”
“Did it get free of the Behemoth?” Illarion sounded hopeful.
But Valerius closed his eyes. “No.”