Ivory couldn’t believe how nervous she was as she floated just above the stones covering the entrance. She wanted to leave no tracks, and disturbing the snow would do so. She made certain she took a detailed picture in her mind so everything could be arranged exactly as it was before they moved the twin stones opening into the long narrow tunnel that led to the caves beneath the ground.
Razvan realized what she was doing and immediately followed suit. He had a photographic memory. If she wanted the area pristine, he would make certain it was left that way when they were gone.
Ivory floated the two small rocks away to reveal a crawl space low to the ground. They both shifted into vapor and poured into the narrow opening. Ivory wove safeguards to hide the entrance while they were inside and then proceeded along the curving tube, following its direction down into the warmth of the earth. The crawl space was no wider than a small man’s shoulders, but in their present form, they traveled fast.
The tunnel began to widen and the ceiling became high enough for them to stand, but Ivory, conscious of disturbing the natural balance of the ecosystem, remained as vapor until she got down into the cave itself. The cave was quite large and wide, terraced with many levels.
She left off her shoes when she shifted to her natural form, letting her feet sink into the rich soil just to absorb the feeling.
“Hurry, Razvan, like this. It is so wonderful—like heaven.”
She flashed a quick smile his way, but Razvan could tell it was a bit tentative. That always moved him. His confident warrior always became a little nervous when she was having fun or being a woman. He stayed just inches from the soil with his bare feet. “I do not know about this, Ivory. I have been in heaven, you know.”
She looked up with a small frown, realized his meaning from the look in his eyes and then she blushed. He loved that—the sweep of color moving up her neck and creeping under the porcelain of her skin when he teased her.
“Put your feet in the soil,” she said, shaking her head at him.
He floated to just in front of her, keeping his feet hovering above the enticing richness of the dark loam. His body bumped against hers. “I cannot quite settle. I am new at this you know.”
“You are always up to something when you give me your little-boy smile.” The one that melted her entire body and left her weak and breathless and ready to do anything he wanted right there on the spot. In a kind of desperation, she gripped his arms and yanked him down. His body slid along the length of hers, sending a shiver of excitement spiraling through her.
Razvan’s bare feet sank into the rich soil nearly up to his ankles. His fingers curled around her arms as they stood with only a breath between them. “Ivory!” Excitement shook him. “This is such a find.”
Pleased, she shrugged. “It is not really my find. I was given the location by the earth when I was deep beneath the layers and fighting for my life. I crawled here. Inch by inch.”
She swallowed the dark memories of those difficult days and leaned into him, unconsciously seeking the shelter of his heart. She hadn’t realized until that moment how much she already relied on him. It both frightened and elated her that Razvan had become so important to her so quickly.
“I would crawl as far as I could when there was no moon to burn my skin,” she explained. “In the first attempts to rise for a few hours and start the trek, even the smallest light hurt my skin. The pack would guard me and then I would sink beneath the soil and recover until I could manage to gather the courage and endurance to go farther.”
His arm swept around her and he brushed kisses over the top of her head. She wasn’t asking for sympathy, she simply was giving him the facts. Everything he was rebelled at the images of her crawling on her hands and knees, dragging herself over the rough terrain on her belly, using elbows and knees to propel herself forward. He hadn’t been there to aid her and the thought of her enduring such agony without him to help her left him sick.
He traced the thin white lines segmenting her body, the one around her throat, the one over her upper arms and down the swell of her breast. He tipped up her chin, using two fingers, waiting until her lashes lifted and he was looking into her eyes. “I love you.”
Her womb clenched. Her heart stilled. She could see it in his eyes. Feel the emotion surrounding her, swamping her, lifting her up. Her mouth opened, but nothing came out. He shook her with his love. His slow smile made her tremble and she veiled her eyes again as his mouth descended to take possession of hers. The earth trembled beneath their feet.
Ivory tangled her fingers with his as he lifted his head. “I want to show you something. This place is a treasure trove of gems, but more importantly, metals.”
Razvan looked up at the terraced walls with the veins of silver and gold. Along the walls and scattered throughout the dark soil, he could see evidence of sparkling gems.
“Iron. Not from ore, but from a meteorite. It is in its purest form, straight from the skies, Razvan. The protection properties are tremendous. And lead is here as well. I have been experimenting with lead to aid in lengthening the endurance of my coating with protection spells. I can make our weapons of natural metals that do well with magic so we can easily transport them. The coating is essential when we fight vampires.”
“Amazing,” Razvan agreed. “This place is beyond important, Ivory.”
“It was entrusted to me and I have to keep it safe.”
“I agree.” He crouched down even as he was looking around at the various properties she pointed out to him. Scooping up a handful of soil, he let it slide through his fingers. “This soil is not contaminated.”
“Why would it be?” Ivory said. “Xavier has no idea it exists. No one does.”
“The microbes are in the ground, Ivory. They do not stay in one place. They spread. That is what he sent them out to do, spread to far lands and contaminate. That, coupled with the fact that they are nearly impossible to destroy, is why Xavier used them. You can bet he sent his microbes across the sea to every continent. Xavier is a very thorough man.”
“How do you know they are not here?”
“I lived in the ice caves in the middle of the experiments for more centuries than I care to remember. I feel them.”
“Like Natalya said Lara does.” She spun around to look at him. “But she is still mage; they believe she feels them because she is mage.”
He shook his head. “No, she can hide her presence from them because she is mage. That is why they cannot convert her. She is the only one who can at this point.”
“You are thinking that you can find a way to aid your daughter.”
He nodded. “
We
can find a way,” he emphasized. “I cannot do it without your help. She cannot be converted and lives a half-life in order to keep the unborn children alive. If we can find a way to rid the soil of the mutated microbes, she can be converted.”
“Razvan . . .” Her voice was gentle. “It is most likely the microbes have not found their way in yet. It is probably only a matter of time. As I understand it, extremophiles can live under pretty much any condition, no matter how harsh. If there was a way to destroy them . . .”
“You said yourself, you can reverse what he did.”
“Yes, but not destroy the ones already in the ground. I can stop them, but it will take time. Years even.”
Ivory hated to disappoint him. He was looking at her as if the moon waxed and waned with her. She laid a hand on top of his head. “We will find a way to help her.”
“It is here, Ivory. The answer is here,” Razvan insisted. “In this cave. Life began in microbe form. There is something in this soil that protects against the invasion of the mutated microbes, I am certain of it.”
She sank down beside him, feeling the healing earth move around her as if to cushion and blanket her with its warmth. Whenever she came to the cave she felt as if she’d come home. She’d spent a lot of time beneath the ground here, covered in the rich soil, absorbing the healing properties through her skin.
She scooped up a fistful of dirt and allowed it to run through her fingers like water, feeling the individual properties as the substance moved over her skin. Was it only her imagination because she wanted to do this for him so much, or did she really feel as if there was something different, an element in the soil she was missing?
“You said there is always a balance of good and evil, Ivory,” Razvan reminded.
“Yes, but I deal with what is natural. Xavier twists what is natural into something evil. The microbes started out good, not evil, or at least neutral. They were not put on this earth to harm Carpathians. Xavier changed them for his own evil purposes. Had they been naturally poisonous, I would have no doubt that the cure would be close to them, as is always the case with nature. I can reverse his spell. I am certain I can, given the time to study it. But to find something to destroy what he has wrought . . .”
“It is here,” Razvan insisted stubbornly. “I feel it.”
She looked around her. She had utilized the precious metals and called the gems to her for her weapons and her warning system. She had used the soil for her bedchamber, painstakingly transporting it until she had a full basin. Occasionally she replenished the soil with new, fresh earth, although the healing properties had always remained as powerful as within the cave itself.
She believed in feelings. Ivory was very tuned to the earth after spending so many centuries deep within its rich beds of healing soil. If the metals and gems were the very veins and blood and bones of the earth, perhaps the organisms were her heart and soul.
Razvan had experienced the same connection to the earth. Mother Earth had accepted him, attached her veins to his and encased him in her gems and minerals to save his life. She flowed in his veins in the way she did Ivory’s. Perhaps, with his newfound life, he was closer to the soil and could feel the minute differences in ways Ivory hadn’t explored yet, but that still didn’t make sense. She’d spent centuries in the earth, hooked to the ebb and flow of the earth’s lifeblood and she couldn’t detect what he thought he felt.
“Clear your mind of everything,” Razvan suggested. “Sit like this.” He lifted his left foot and placed it on his right thigh and tucked his right foot onto his left thigh.
Ivory sat facing him, assuming the position without question.
“Spine straight, relax your shoulders. That is right.” He nodded his approval. “You want to make an oval with your hands, left hand on top of right, with your thumbs together and your middle joints of your middle fingers together. Let go of yourself. Similar to what you do in healing, but mind and body as one, and just let information flow into you. Take it in and let it out. Do not try to hold on to anything. Just be still. Breathe. Match the flow of my breath and then let yourself forget that, too.”
Ivory did as he asked, giving herself up to the moment. To the cave. To the earth. It was not only the connection to the earth, she decided later, it was this—Razvan’s stillness, his peace, the way he was one with everything around him—that allowed her to first feel the presence of the organism.
She drew in her breath and slowly lifted her palm, using her body like a divining rod. She slowly turned and found that she’d picked up the existence of the life-form in every direction, as if the soil was saturated with it.
“It is everywhere,” she said, letting her breath out, a little shocked at the widespread dispersion. “I have to figure out what it is.”
“Can we take a sample?”
“We have an entire basin full,” Ivory reminded. “We sleep in it every day.”
Razvan frowned and ran the soil through his fingers again. “I think we should take a new sample, to make certain it was not contaminated in any way by us.”
“I always ask permission before I take anything from this cave,” Ivory warned. “If the answer is no, we go with what we already have. The earth has been more than good to us and we cannot allow greed to creep into our hearts, not even for a good cause.”
“The earth is a mother, Ivory, she saved us. She will want to save the children of her people,” Razvan reasoned.
Ivory smiled. She loved the way Razvan had such faith. Where had it come from? He had been tortured by his own grandfather. His people had believed the worst of him, yet he still had faith in the goodness of the world.
Razvan caught her looking at him with that look on her face she reserved only for him. Tender. Loving. Proud. She probably didn’t even know she had that particular look, but it made him soft inside whenever that expression crossed her face, no matter how fleeting. It was enough for him that she knew him and understood why he did the things he did. No one else had to know, only Ivory.
Ivory lifted her hands and closed her eyes, using a melodic voice to plead their case. She was startled when Razvan joined in, harmonizing in his deeper male voice.
Mother, oh Mother, we come to you for aid
.
Hear our children, hold them close, never let them fade
.
Mother, oh Mother, our children are dying
Catch our tears, we plead with you, stop our crying
.
Listen to our plea, see what is in our hearts
.
Hold us together, don’t let us fall apart
.
We ask for the life in the soil to bring strength to our young
Heal their wounds, protect our special ones
.
Around them the ground shimmered and the gems sparkled bright. Above their heads columns of stalactites hummed, vibrating with the tune of their harmony.
Ivory bowed her head in gratitude and Razvan slid his hand almost lovingly through the soil before they lifted their voices in thanks.
Mother, oh Mother, you are great indeed
Your gift is so precious, we’re humbled by thee
.
Razvan scooped up handfuls of the precious material and, forming a silken pouch, poured it into the bag. “How much will you need?”
“Enough to conduct several experiments just in case it is not an easy answer.” She couldn’t keep the excitement from her voice. Usually there were no easy answers, but this time, they might have just gotten plain lucky. If there was a life-form that kept the mutated microbes at bay, or better yet, actually destroyed them, she should be able to find it fairly quickly. It wasn’t as if she had a lot of combinations to choose from.