Chapter 11 Fly #2
“Maybe you do. I’ve always been a man who feels and acts on the deepest emotions in my heart. I can see it in other people’s hearts, too,” Jasper said. “I was angry but not at you earlier. Things have not gone to plan.”
“Yeah, you didn’t become a Dragon Shifter. You’re just a dupe,” Caden remarked dryly.
But Jasper only showed a momentary annoyance at his words before shrugging. “I took a chance. Believed the wrong people. High stakes for high rewards.”
“And now?”
“And now, I read in your heart that you’ve got a plan, but you’re not sure it's going to work,” Jasper said. “Hence my disbelief and hostility. But then I remembered that we really don’t have anything else but you.”
“You really do think that I would leave everybody if I found a way back up there,” Caden realized.
“Of course. It’s what I would do if there was no other way,” Jasper answered with a little grin at the end as if he knew how much that answer disgusted Caden, but didn’t mind.
“Maybe there’s a limited amount of people that can go through.
Maybe there’s limited time to make it happen.
Whatever the limitations, I want to make sure that I’m in the best place to take advantage of them. ”
“You’re so charming, Jasper. Just like I thought,” Caden said and started to get up.
Jasper offered him a hand. “I just see things as they are, Caden. What I said as leader of Humans First was true. I speak to what people really think. What they really feel. What they really want.”
“Which is?”
“Power. Control. To be on top. No matter what the cost. And what’s funny is that there are two types of people most desperate for these things,” Jasper said with an almost dismal smile, “those at the bottom and those already at the top.”
Caden stared at that outstretched hand, but he didn’t take it. Instead, he got up himself. “You might be right, but good people strive to be better than that. To move up but not at any cost.”
“That’s so easy for you to say, Caden. You’re on top now,” Jasper said.
“I’ve been a Dragon Shifter for only a couple of weeks, Jasper. I was a store clerk before that. And I was happy then,” Caden said.
“Are you happier now?” Jasper challenged.
“I have Valerius so, of course, I’m happier. And Iolaire… I love my Spirit. It is an amazing gift and I know how lucky I am. Notice I didn’t mention power or being on top or controlling others,” Caden pointed out.
“Then being a Dragon Shifter is wasted on you,” Jasper snorted with a shake of his head.
“You don’t know anything about being a Dragon Shifter,” Caden said and he looked up at the next ledge. “By the way, Jasper, don’t get ahead of me again. If Raziel sees you first, the Black Dragon will kill you.”
Caden then easily jumped to the next ledge and the next and the next. He heard Jasper coming up behind him. He only checked to see if Landry, Ross and Harvey were safely on their way.
Soon the rock grew damp as he went higher and higher.
Clouds were all around him. They left wetness on the stone.
A chill breeze also blew and some of that wet turned to ice.
His fingers and toes slipped as he moved higher and higher.
He forced himself not to think about what would happen if he fell from this height.
Yet his mind kept “helpfully” offering him images of his body falling and hitting outcroppings of rock until he landed with a splat on the ground where all the people would look upon his smashed body with horror.
Don’t think about it. Don’t think, Caden told himself over and over, trying to grind the thoughts out.
Raziel let out another roar. It was the first in a long time.
But it was so loud now. So powerful. The mountain shook under it and Caden’s hands nearly slipped off the icy ledge.
He let out a cry then dug his fingernails into the bare stone and somehow got a hold.
The roar seemed to go on forever. When it ended, he was deafened.
His ears rang. Caden pulled himself up onto the ledge and rolled onto his side.
He just lay there and breathed before looking over the ledge. But all he saw were clouds.
“Everybody okay?” Caden yelled down.
His ears were still ringing, but he heard faint answers.
“Go talk to Raziel before it kills us!” Landry shouted from some point below.
“Keep where you are if you’re on firm ground! I’ll get to Raziel!” Caden shouted back.
He looked up and saw only clouds again before they thinned for a moment and he could see a huge jutting ledge above him and the corner of a cave.
The lair!
The ledge was double the height of the ones he’d leaped to so far. If Raziel roared again when he was about to jump or when he reached the ledge… Well, it was a very long way down.
Just be quiet, buddy. Just for a minute.
Caden crouched low and took in a deep breath. Time seemed to slow. He closed his eyes and remembered what it felt like to fly as Iolaire. He could feel the cold air blowing up along the side of the mountain. It would lift him as if he were as light as a feather. He would soar.
Caden jumped. It was more like he just lifted off. The air took him into its embrace and he was flying. His eyes opened and he was even with the great ledge. He glanced down and his feet were hovering above only air.
Flying. I’m flying, Caden thought and he did a loop de loop.
Laughing wildly, he heard Landry shout, “What’s going on up there?”
“It’s, ah, fine!” Caden couldn’t help the laughter that bubbled out. “I’m flying.”
“You’re what?!” Landry shouted.
“Flying,” Caden answered. “Just hold on. I can see the entrance to the lair and… oh, wow.”
Crimson eyes stared at him from within the darkness.
They were huge. As large as dinner plates.
He’d seen Raziel in the flesh, but in the Spirit, Raziel was even more magnificent.
The massive head came out of the lair then the serpentine neck that seemed to go on for miles.
The front forelegs were as large as tree trunks in the redwoods.
The clawed feet clicked on the stone as the Black Dragon emerged foot by foot.
“Raziel,” Caden breathed.
That head lowered so that those red eyes could regard him long and hard.
“Raziel, it’s me. Caden,” Caden said and touched his chest. “Can you understand me? Don’t you recognize me?”
The Black Dragon’s head tilted to the side and Raziel took a deep scent of him. Caden’s clothes were pulled away from his body with that inward breath. Those red eyes shut to half mast for a moment and then widened once more.
Caden? The rumbling voice was so beloved.
Caden’s eyes closed. “Raziel. Thank God.”
You should not be here, Caden. You should be with Valerius, Raziel said. He seeks you.
“The Behemoth did something to me. Separated my soul from my body,” Caden explained.
There was a hot dragon snout against his chest. Caden wrapped his arms around that head. He only could span a little bit of it. He laid his cheek against Raziel’s scaly head.
“The Behemoth puts Spirits in human bodies, but kicks the human soul out,” he explained as he petted that beloved black hyde. “Please tell me that Iolaire is with you.”
There was a whine from Raziel that would have blown him back if he hadn’t had a hold on Raziel’s snout.
“I take that’s a no?” Caden let out his own pained cry. “Oh, God, Raziel, the Behemoth must have Iolaire!”
And if the Behemoth controls Iolaire… it will soon control me, Raziel said.
“NO!” Caden burst out, his eyelids flying open. “What have I done? If I hadn’t been so stupid and gotten caught--”
No matter how fierce you are, little dragon, you are no match for the Behemoth, Raziel assured him.
“But--”
This is not your fault, Raziel assured him.
“Where--where is Iolaire? Is it still in the Spirit Realm? Can we get to Iolaire?” Caden asked.
Raziel slowly pulled back so that they were eye to eye. Iolaire is here. Feel. You will know. Reach.
“I--I don’t feel anything! I--” Caden stopped.
He did feel something. His head turned as if it were on oiled hinges. He was looking back towards the crater. It had been empty before, but now… now he knew it wasn’t. And Iolaire was still separate from the Behemoth. He could faintly hear the crackling of ice. His head snapped back towards Raziel.
“Let’s go, Raziel!” Caden cried. “We can get to Iolaire!”
But Raziel shook its massive head. If I leave here, Valerius will be powerless. The lair is my connection with him. Our bonding. Without me here, he will be in danger.