Breath of Dragons (A Pandoran Novel) (13 page)

"The room should be just up here," she panted over her shoulder.

We rounded a sharp corner and all but ran right into them. And that's when I saw Thad.

Chapter 7

The Shortcut

T
had stood with a small group of people, including Denn Faris and some others I recognized from my short time at the castle. They'd been in the middle of some easy conversation, but when Thad noticed us, his words fell silent. The others looked to one another in a state of confusion, all except for Thad. His gaze had found mine, and the color drained from his face.

And,
oh
, what I felt then.

So often I'd wondered how I would react if and when I ever saw him again. Would I scream at him? I should; I should be furious. Would I try to hurt him? I wasn't sure. I wasn't usually a violent person, but he'd elicited some conflicting feelings in me that made me wonder if I could be. But neither of those thoughts came to fruition. Standing there, looking into those hazel eyes that had so often brought me comfort and joy, I was paralyzed. A sudden numbness wrapped itself around my throat, squeezing the last breath out of me, and when it relaxed, something dark and heavy took its place, weighing me down so that I couldn't move.

It was Vera who broke the ice with her weapon of choice: a verbal sledgehammer. "I suggest you and the pig move out of our way."

Denn. I'd almost forgotten he was standing there. My memories of him weren't pleasant to say the least, but right then they paled in comparison to the pain seeing Thad had incited.

Thad was here, and he was with
them
.

"Now, pig." Vera held her dagger against Denn's thick neck. "Before I give you something to squeal about."

A smile twisted cruelly on Denn's face, pushing up his cheeks so that they looked like two pink balloons. "You'll be the one squealing, you whore."

Alex's sword found its place beside Vera's, right against Denn's thick neck.

"You're outnumbered, Del Conte." Denn sneered.

"You know that doesn't matter." Alex's tone was cold as ice, and I knew that Alex would not hesitate to end Denn's life.

"Still angry about what I did to your princess?" Denn's eyes flashed with cruel pleasure.

Alex gripped the hilt of his sword so tightly that his knuckles blanched, his expression hard as stone.

"She's lucky you came when you did," Denn continued, "but you won't be able to save her where we're taking you, and I will personally make sure she—"

I never heard what Denn would "personally" do because Alex rammed the hilt of his sword right into Denn's fat nose.

Denn cupped his hands over his nose, eyes red and watering, while blood trickled through his fingers. "Yaw gonna wegwet that—"

"That's enough, Red," Thad said. The lightness in his tone was gone, and in its place was something weary and…lifeless.

Denn mumbled something in his hands, but I didn't hear; my attention was fixed on Thad.

"You've come to take us to your father." My voice sounded strangely distant.

Thad's throat bobbed as he swallowed. "Yes."

"All right," I said, sheathing my dagger and extending my hands in surrender. "Take me."

"Daria…?" Alex looked at me sideways, puzzled.

But I had to be sure. Just one more time. I needed to see if my friendship with Thad had really and truly been a lie. I needed to give him this one last chance to redeem himself.

Thad's gaze dropped to my hands, and for a moment he just stood there looking like a child who had lost his way. My heart hammered as the seconds moved forward.

"Seize them," Thad said. He did not look at me this time.

The ounce of hope I'd held in my heart withered and died, and with a burst of sudden rage, I lunged at him. Alex and Vera followed my lead and the small corridor erupted with the sound of clashing metal, but I had eyes only for Thad. I drove him back, harder and harder without restraint. There was no pain in my arm in that moment; there was only fury and the flood of adrenaline. A girl with short brown hair, who'd been standing in Thad's group, tried engaging me in battle, but I shook her off effortlessly. It took all of Thad's focus to deflect my blows. He tripped over his own feet, moving back farther and farther, but he didn't fight back. No, he just blocked and ducked and parried. Not once did he strike.

"Fight me, you coward!" I screamed at him.

He winced and ducked as I swung my dagger at him. My dagger hit the stone, emitting a faint spark.

I didn't know where my strength came from, but my movements hummed with power. I hit and kicked his sword from his hand and pinned his wrist against the wall. I spit in his face; red saliva dripped down his cheeks and nose. I could've killed him then. The edge of my blade was right at his throat. I could see the vein pulsing in his neck—his life pulsing
right there
. Never in my life had I felt such pure and overpowering rage. His eyes were resigned—almost pleading—and my entire body shook.

"Daria."

Alex stood behind me. He reached around and grabbed my wrist—the one that held my dagger to Thad's neck.

"He's not worth it. Come on—we have to go." Very slowly, Alex pulled my hand and dagger from Thad's neck. Thad sagged against the wall with a deep breath, and Alex pulled me away from him. I noticed Denn and the others were all on the ground, moaning, and Denn had a very nasty looking gash on the side of his face to match his bloodied nose. I didn't need to ask who'd given it to him.

Vera stood impatiently farther down the hall, her body half in a doorway. "
Hurry
!"

I limped as I ran toward Vera, with Alex holding on to my hand, while more voices echoed down the corridor. A large group of guards and half-giants suddenly appeared around the corner.

Not good.

We rushed through the doorway and into a large, empty room. There was no décor; it was just a square of stone like a small theater. The flooring dropped in a series of steps that led to a sunken platform below. Vera motioned us down to the platform, and as we ran down the broad steps, I noticed the platform's flooring. There were all sorts of symbols and runes etched into the rock in a circular pattern, like some kind of giant hieroglyph. Vera crouched low and placed her hand in the very center, directly on top of a symbol of an elongated diamond with a line angled through it.

Was this drawing the portal-like shortcut to Gesh?

Guards banged on the door, and Vera cursed in another language.

"What's wrong?" Alex asked Vera, but she didn't answer.

Something rammed against the door with so much force it almost ripped the door from its hinges.

"Can you stand?" he asked me.

I nodded, and he released my hand and drew his sword.

Boom
!

The door trembled again, hanging on by a thread.

"Vera…" Alex started.

"I'm working on it!" she yelled.

The door didn't survive the next ramming, and the guards poured inside like water through a broken dam. Alex raised his sword and pulled another from his belt. Where did he keep finding all these blades?

"Vera!" Alex exclaimed.

The half-giants had joined the guards, and they descended upon us. We were not going to win this fight; there were simply too many of them and we were trapped.

A great earthquake suddenly shook the room. Large chunks of rock and stone broke from the ceiling and tumbled to the floor while everyone—guards and half-giants and the three of us—scrambled to secure our footing. The blaring of a hundred horns blasted through the air, sonorous and filled with hot fury. It was the same sound I'd heard deep in the dungeons, only this time it was deafening. I cupped my ears to mute the sound, but it still rattled my brain. One of the walls exploded and a great reptilian head burst through, closing enormous jaws around the first guards in sight.

"Dragon." Alex's eyes were huge. "Dragon!" This time, his tone was much more frantic.

My ears were still ringing as everything erupted in chaos. Guards and half-giants alike scrambled away from the carnivorous head, screaming as the dragon wreaked havoc in a room that was very quickly collapsing. Huge talons raked and dug at the stone as the dragon tried to claw inside, leaving deep divots in the rock. And we were still standing on the platform like some sort of religious sacrifice.

But the dragon didn't seem the least bit interested in us. Its appetite was for the guards and the half-giants. Was it possible that it recognized its captors?

Vera was still hunched and trying to make the platform work, somehow, while Alex and I dodged falling rock. Movement in my periphery caught my eye. It was the little boy from the streets—the one I had attempted to rescue who had ever so conveniently disappeared into thin air. He looked at me with a glint in those mischievous eyes, waved emphatically, and then vanished again.

He had done this. He had loosed the dragon. But was it to help us? I couldn't be sure.

"
Got it
!" Vera exclaimed as a great thundering racked the room.

Light shone from her wrist in the shape of an elongated diamond with a line crossing through, matching the image on the floor. The light passed from her fingertips and into the etching, diffusing outward as though the drawing in the floor were empty veins and she were filling them with silver blood. It wasn't long before the entire platform glittered a silvery white.

The dragon blared and a clump of ceiling directly above us cracked free and began falling.

Alex yanked me to him, the two of us grabbing Vera's hands, and the world around me flared white as lightning before turning pitch black. Air squeezed from my lungs and I couldn't breathe, and then my body was squished with so much pressure I thought my bones might shatter.

The pressure released, and I rammed into something and rolled. And rolled and rolled and rolled until I lost momentum and stopped. I hurt
everywhere
. My joints felt like they'd fused together and my insides felt tangled and bruised, and it was like a hammer was driving a nail into the back of my head.

But I was alive.

There had been a huge piece of ceiling about to flatten me into a pancake, but I was alive. And there was noise. Not the noise of battle, but a natural noise: the symphonic pulsing of a million insects. We weren't in Thieves anymore.

With a soft moan I rolled onto my back, coughing and gagging hot, sticky air. I opened my eyes. For a moment, all I could see was light. I blinked and winced against the bright greens and golds and moved to sit up. My brain whirled around in my skull and I thought I was going to be sick. I shut my eyes and took a few slow breaths. My stomach had moved to my throat and was just waiting for a moment of weakness so that it could jump out of my mouth and free itself.

A hand touched my shoulder, followed by a tingling sensation that swept over me from head to toe. "I'm right here," Alex said.

I opened my mouth to respond, which, unfortunately, was the green light for my stomach. I retched. Alex presented a canteen of water, which I took with a trembling hand. The water helped, and when I tried handing the canteen back to him, he insisted I drink more.

Alex sat on his heels beside me.

"Thanks." I handed him back the canteen.

His consciousness swept over mine again; I could feel it moving through my body with concern, but as soon as he finished his evaluation, he cut off the connection. "Can you stand?" he asked.

"I think so…"

He took my hand in his and helped me up. I swayed on my feet and would have fallen back down if not for Alex's steadying grip.

"What in the blazes did you do to your hand?" He looked alarmed as he held up my left hand.

It was covered in dried blood and the skin on my knuckles was pink and raw. That was the hand I'd ingeniously punched into the stone floor of my cell in a fit of rage. I shook my head. I was too tired to talk. I was even too tired to
think
. He frowned but didn't ask again, and once he was satisfied that I had somewhat regained my balance, he let go of me.

My body hurt everywhere, with particular emphasis on that little spot at the back of my head where I'd been thrown against the wall by the half-giant. I reached back with the fingers of my right and mostly good hand and touched a good-sized bump, wincing again. Honestly, I didn't think I could incur any more physical damage.

Alex studied me, and then said, "We need to rest here for a bit."

Here? Where was here? I knew it had to be somewhere in Gesh, since Alex had said the shortcut would drop us a day's walk from Gesh's capital. I tried looking around, but my vision blurred in a sludge of green and more green. Alex grabbed my arm to hold me steady.

"We can't stay here," Vera said sharply.

"She has a mild concussion," he continued. "We can't go on with her like this."

"I wouldn't care if her highness had been knocked senseless," Vera snapped. "We can't stay here. It'll be dark in less than an hour."

Alex was silent a short, reflective moment. "Fine," he said, though his tone suggested it was not in the least bit
fine
. "But if she starts fading, we're stopping."

Vera made a snorting sound in the back of her throat.

"How's your shoulder?" Alex asked gently, touching his fingertips to my wound. The pulsing there immediately stopped; his fingers acted like a salve.

"Better," I managed. "Thanks. Whatever you're doing, it helps."

He pulled his hand away and slipped it around my waist, pulling me against him. "Think you can walk?"

I nodded. My world, however, kept nodding and then whirled so I shut my eyes again.

Ungugh.

"I'd carry you, but I need my sword arm," he said.

"If you carry me, I'll carry your sword," I murmured, opening my eyes a wink.

Alex grinned down at me. Vera, however, grumbled and rolled her eyes so high they almost disappeared inside of her head.

"Here, give me your pack," Alex said.

I handed him my pack and he looped it through his belt. Once it was secured, he tightened his grip around my waist and we followed after Vera, who had already marched off. Eventually, my eyes adjusted, and then I
saw
.