Dark Hope of the Dragons Page 37

  There was a small gash on top of his head and his fingers came away bloody, but it was no reason to dally.

  Fighting the pain, Dephithus wiped the blood on his pants, which were already dirty enough from crawling that it would make little difference. Remembering that he still had to face Theruses, he took a quick moment to stretch a few knotted muscles before trotting in the direction the beast had gone. Rounding into the passage the creature had taken he caught a glimpse of its hind legs vanishing down yet another passage on the right. Without a thought to how little he knew of what was ahead of him, Dephithus broke into a run. He could not let this animal get away from him.

  They darted down assorted passages, all thankfully tall enough for Dephithus to stay upright. Keeping a sharp eye on the swift daemon-beast he leapt over rough spots and dodged around obstacles. The beauty of the cave was no longer important, for he was close to what he was searching for. He could feel it. Dephithus darted around another corner and barely had time to stop before running into an oddly out of place barrier of bars. The daemon-beast was somehow able to pass through the bars, and it disappeared into the dark beyond the reach of the sphere of light. Startled and confused, Dephithus peered into the darkness.

  A figure stepped into the light.

  Dephithus stared, awestruck by the delicate, lovely young girl who stood on the other side of the bars, barely within the reach of the sphere of light. The daemon-beast stood beside her now like a twisted guardian. Her long, brassy black hair framed an elegant face with brass tinted black scaling peeking out from under the locks. The clothes she wore were drab brown things and no shoes protected her dainty feet. Tilting her head a fraction to one side, a motion the daemon-dog eerily mirrored, she regarded him with striking black eyes that were also intermixed with burnished highlights.

  “Father.”

  CHAPTER FORTY THREE

  Dephithus continued to stare in awe-struck silence at the creature before him.

  This girl was far too old to be his child, but he had distinctly heard the word she spoke. She had called him Father. Perhaps this was some deception of the daenox. While his mind told him it was impossible, something deep inside disagreed with logic. As he fumbled to make some sense of what he was seeing, the young girl stepped closer to the bars. Like a wild animal, he hovered between bolting from this strangeness and moving closer to feed his soul on the beautiful enigma.

  The young girl stopped only a few inches from the bars and gazed at him.

  “Father,” she stated again, though her voice trembled close to uncertainty as her strange eyes searched his face for some response.

  Dephithus finally defeated his fear of the mystery before him and stepped in next to the bars. Reaching his fingers up he paused inches shy of touching her cheek. “How can this be?”

  “I am very young as a dragon lives,” she replied, as if this should be answer enough for anyone.

  Both her voice and her manner where more those of a young woman than a child, though there was also a distinct innocence in the way she did not seem to know what it was to be so young. He understood that the power of the dragons was much greater in her, giving her more of their traits, but it was still hard to accept this.

  Dephithus touched her cheek then, very gently because he almost expected her to shatter under the soft weight of his fingers. There was very little of Myara in her appearance, which was almost disappointing. Still, her beauty was all her own and that could only be a good thing.

  “What is your…” he hesitated, feeling awkward at having to ask his own child her name.

  “They call me Raine.”

  “They? Don’t you mean Myara, your mother?”

  Raine shook her head and met his gaze steadily. “Mother left us. She could not handle the pain of her life.”

  Dephithus felt as though his chest were being crushed. Sinking to his knees he leaned his head against the cold bars.

  Myara.

  All this way he had come for her only to find that he had already lost her. Now she would never understand why he had wronged her and he might never have the freedom of her forgiveness. Raine sank to her knees with him and he looked up at her, thinking that she shared his suffering, but it was only curiosity he saw in her eyes. Reaching through the bars, she caught a tear off his cheek and rubbed it between her thumb and forefinger. For a moment she gazed at the damp spot and then turned to regard him again.

  “You are mourning her? She chose to leave, so it seems logical to assume she would be happier this way.”

  Rage surged up with her words. The idea of Myara so alone and miserable that she chose to take her own life was more than he could bear. It took a great deal of restraint for him to check his temper before speaking. “When death is your only freedom, where is there happiness in that?”

  Raine shrugged and waited patiently for something more. Dephithus had to remind himself that she had been raised in this place, isolated and surely not loved. Despite her apparent maturity, there was much she simply was not going to understand. As he bowed his head and fought to control his anguish he remembered the sword he was supposed to give to Myara. Glancing down, he laid a hand on the hilt of the grand weapon. “This was your mother’s. I suppose it is yours now.”

  Raine scowled. “What use have I for a weapon such as that? I know nothing of such things.” Surprisingly, she seemed to recognize the hurt as it appeared in his eyes at her words. Her voice and expression softened as she reached through the bars, touching the hand that still rested on the hilt. Her fingers were cold. “This sword is best served in your hands, I think.”

  Dephithus collected himself, realizing there was still part of his quest he could complete. If he succeeded in this, there would be time later to teach her the things she did not know and perhaps find redemption in so doing. “How do I get you out of here? Is there a door?”

  “There is no door, but you and I have the same blood and the same powers within us. We can use these things to breach these bars.”

  Dephithus shook his head, trying to hold down his impatient temper. No door? What kind of enclosure was this? “I don’t know how to use these powers.”

  “I have had much time to think on this. Give me your hands.”

  Raine’s expression was full of determination, if not quite confidence, as she took hold of his offered hands. Her slender hands were so cold, but her grip was steady as she wrapped her fingers into his palms. With an eternally patient gaze she waited for him to close his fingers over hers. As he did so, a flood of irritation swept through Dephithus. Did she not understand the danger they were in? Her calmness was maddening.

  Raine gazed intently at the space between their clasped hands.

  She was so strange, and yet, how could she not be? Her years were much less than the age she appeared to be. Not to mention, those few years she had lived were spent here, isolated from the world with no one to love and teach her.

  Her eyes unfocused and he felt distinctly alone in the moments that followed.

  Where was Theruses and why was he waiting so long? Perhaps Rakas had proven to be a useful distraction after all.

  Just then, little tendrils of light, like brightly colored worms, appeared in the space between their hands and began to wind up their arms without ever touching their skin. Dephithus did not realize he was trying to pull away from the strange spectacle until Raine’s grip tightened. Her focus had not changed and he forced himself to relax as more and more of the sinuous lights wound ever faster up their arms and over their bodies to vanish back into the space between them where the bars still separated them.

  He had to trust her.

  A wave of nausea passed through him and Dephithus had to close his eyes as the chamber seemed to waver around them. The nausea was gone as fast as it came and he opened his eyes to find Raine looking at him with no bars between them. Dephithus was too stunned to say anything. Raine smiled in response to his silence, though there seemed to be little in the way of real feeling behind
the expression.

  “Enough!”

  The booming voice that raged around and within them caused them both to jump and Dephithus could feel his pulse pounding through him, thumping like a hundred drums in his ears. Before the word had finished echoing, he caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eye. Positioned as he was, he had to move very little to grab his belt dagger. Taking hold of the hilt, he flung the weapon toward the movement and leapt to his feet, pulling Raine with him by the hand he still held. The roar that followed could have been anger or pain, but Dephithus was not going to wait around and find out which.

  It seemed that Raine knew as much about the cave as he did for she followed along without a word. The pace she kept, staying close enough that he could almost feel her breathing, encouraged Dephithus onward. Perhaps she did have some idea of the danger they faced, for her breath came in short uneven gasps. With no idea of how to get out, Dephithus picked their way by turning down passages they could move through quickly and hoped for the best.

  A young woman stood in one of the side passages as they ran past and Raine stopped, pulling her hand away and turning back to her. Dephithus stopped with her, his nerves screaming at him to run. The woman had black hair and eyes like Rakas, but she reached for Raine’s hands, taking them in her own. She stared into Raine’s eyes. Her hands shook visibly, and a tear ran down her cheek.

  “I’ll delay him.” The woman’s voice shook when she spoke.

  “You’ll die.”

  The woman nodded. She leaned in and placed a light kiss on his daughter’s lips, then she released her hands. “Run.”

  Whatever their relationship, Raine didn’t hesitate. She turned, grabbing his hand, and they ran again. As they darted into a large chamber and headed for the next promising opening across the room, another figure stepped into their path, this one blocking the passage.

  A woman’s scream echoed through the passages behind them. Raine flinched.

  Dephithus stopped to face the stranger, keeping hold of Raine as she halted beside him. Though the individual before them had dragon traits, it was immediately obvious that this man was not Theruses. He had cat-like eyes that blazed with the fiery heat of their strange bronze coloring and the pants he wore were plainly borrowed for the hem ended above the boot tops, revealing more of the scaling that showed on his bare chest and arms. He was no bigger than Dephithis and he had no tail or clawed feet. If the physical traits were not enough, his expression of concern and relief marked him as a possible ally.

  “They should have trusted in you,” he snarled under his breath. “Dephithus. I am Siniva, the Fire Dragon. I came to lead your child out of here.”

  The dragons had not trusted him to succeed. As much as he wanted to be offended, he could not blame them. Still, he hesitated at trusting this stranger with the child he had only just found, but they had few options. Someone had to slow Theruses and Siniva had gotten in. He would know how to get out. As he opened his mouth to accept the offer a growl filled the chamber.

  “Siniva,” the voice growled from somewhere further behind, speaking the stranger’s name in octaves almost too deep to register.

  Siniva looked past them, his eyes narrowing a fraction.

  Icy terror filled Dephithus at the prospect of facing what came behind them, but he knew that his journey would fail if he did not.

  “You know how to get out?”

  Siniva nodded.

  “Get her out of here then,” Dephithus hissed, nudging Raine forward.

  Raine turned to him and touched his hand, a hint of awkward in the contact. She met his eyes. “She still loved you. Despite…”

  His chest tightened. “I didn’t deserve her love.”

  “No.”

  He swallowed hard. “Thank you. Now go.”

  For a second, she leaned closer as if to hug him or kiss his cheek, then she drew away and turned, giving Siniva a nod. She glanced back at Dephithus once more with reluctance in her eyes though she was already breaking into a run and Siniva turned, bolting down the passage with her.

  Drawing his sword, Dephithus turned to face Theruses. The imposing figure entered the passage a few heartbeats after Raine left.

  Unlike Siniva, Theruses, with his pale gold scaling and black hair and eyes, was inhumanly large. He bore almost more resemblance to the dragons than to a man. A long barbed tailed snapped back and forth behind him and his feet were large clawed things that forced him to stand with his knees slightly bent. When he grinned, Dephithus could see the vaguely pointed teeth that lined his jaws. Theruses bore no weapons and there was some small satisfaction in the blood that ran down his leg from a wound below his ribcage. Dephithus had thrown the dagger to penetrate the chest of the average man. Obviously, this had been an underestimate, but at least the beast was wounded.

  “Raine is much stronger than you, boy, but she will fall just as you are going to now.”

  Dephithus did not disagree with that last part, so he held his silence. There was little doubt that Theruses had an advantage over him. Several advantages. All he could hope for was to delay him long enough. If they were swift, Raine and Siniva would be free of the cave before he fell.

  Standing his ground between Theruses and the passage they had gone down he waited with Myara’s sword ready.

  Theruses growled his impatience and advanced suddenly. Dephithus dodged to the right, swinging his sword low to try to catch a leg and cripple the beast. The blade made contact, but it slid across without breaking the skin. Remembering what had occurred when he attacked Rakas at the inn, Dephithus knew his only chance was to surprise Theruses. He dodged the beast twice more without striking back. The third time he feinted to the side then lunged into Theruses. The sword made contact this time, cutting a deep gash along the monster’s ribs.

  Spinning back toward his opponent, Dephithus realized he had overestimated the effect the wound would have on him. Theruses had already recovered and was coming at him again. As Dephithus struggled to salvage his misjudgment, Theruses caught hold of the sword blade and growled, the sound vibrating through the weapon. He did not take the time to protect himself, ignoring the pain as the weapon cut into his hand, sending rivulets of blood streaming down the blade.

  “Enough playing,” Theruses snarled.

  “She’s probably already free,” Dephithus shouted at him.

  Theruses smirked. “Not yet.”

  Before Dephithus could do more, he was thrown back with tremendous force, though he was sure Theruses had not touched him. The force that threw him also caused him to let go of the sword hilt as he was slammed into the rough rock wall several feet above the floor. As he hit the floor his legs gave out and he slumped over, trying desperately to recapture the air that had been knocked from him with the impact.

  There was so much pain. Broken ribs at the very least.

  He sat gasping, not aware of Theruses approaching until the large hand closed on his throat and lifted him from the floor.

  Already short of air, Dephithus could feel his life ebbing away and he thrashed against the strangling hold, but Theruses was too strong and he was weakening fast. Blood trapped in his skull pounded ferociously as he stared into the face of his enemy with rapidly diminishing coherence. Theruses moved his face in close enough that Dephithus longed for at least enough strength to bite him, but he could only dangle helplessly in the grip that was probably going to be his death.

  “You have failed, Dragon-child.”

  There was a lack of conviction in the words that brought Dephithus a strange blissful pleasure despite his predicament and his lips found the strength to smile. Theruses threw him even harder this time and he flew across the room like a rag doll with no control of his abused body. Theruses was already turning to leave when Dephithus hit one of the chamber walls headfirst. The impact brought a flash of blinding light and pain. He landed on his side and was able to roll onto his back, but it was hard to draw in a breath. Strange shadows moved across his vision in t
he light that Rakas had left him with. An overwhelming need to close his eyes and rest clouded his thoughts.

  Just when he thought he might go ahead and close them, Rakas leaned over him with Myara’s sword in hand. The man knelt beside him, his face twisted with remorse and his lips forming words Dephithus could not focus enough to understand. This was not the image he wanted to hold as he lay here. Raine was on her own now, and he had to believe that she would escape. Maybe the dragons would continue to help her. Whether she escaped because he had delayed Theruses, or simply because she was determined and strong he did not care. His daughter would be free.

  Pulling up a picture of Myara in his mind he closed his eyes to rest. Her image was perfect, sitting in the Mother Tree with her golden beauty and laughing. He could hear her laugh as though he sat there with her. Indeed, it seemed as if he was sitting in the Mother Tree with her, a warm summer sun folding them in warmth. The bark rough under his hands. Reaching out he took hold of her hand and smiled.

  CHAPTER FORTY FOUR

  Siniva and Raine rounded another bend and entered the twilight zone of the cave, the area where the light from the entrance permeated the darkness. Raine stopped so fast that she almost fell over her own feet. Throwing her hands up in front of her face she began to back away from the invasive sunlight. Siniva turned and caught hold of her arm before she could vanish back down the way they had come. Pulling her arms down he saw sheer terror in her wide eyes as she stared past him toward the entrance. She had looked no more than a hint uneasy while they were running from Theruses, now she looked near tears with terror.