As she watched in horror, thick gouts of lava seeped out. They formed rapidly into sinuous lizards six or eight feet long, glowing cherry red. These lava lizard charged them, fiery claws upraised, mouths wide with needle-sharp scarlet teeth gleaming.
Bird froze in terror.
Mikhail’s grip shifted as he stepped in front of her. He grasped the head of his cane in his right and the length of it in his left, and pulled.
A sword emerged from the shaft of the cane. The blade gleamed with blue-white light, almost as if water rippled along the steel. He swept the sword through the first creature. It shrieked and vanished in a boiling of acrid-smelling steam.
With three swift strokes he dispatched the other three creatures, then took Bird’s hand.
We must leave, and seal this chamber. His voice in her head was as clear as speech.
With shaking hands she threw her flashlight into his gear bag. She shoved her backpack behind her, then grabbed his gear bag and clutched it against herself so that his hands would be free.
He moved toward the crevasse, murmuring, “Come, Bird. Time to exit.”
She scurried after him, slipping on stones in her haste. She nearly tumbled down the rubble pile as they emerged from the great crack, but Mikhail caught her and pulled her back from the brink.
More of those harrowing metallic shrieks echoed from the other caves. Mikhail slammed the sword back into the sheath, then took something from one of his jacket pockets. He snapped it into the great crevasse. “This ward is far stronger. It’s from the empress herself.”
“Empress?”
“You will meet her,” Mikhail smiled over her shoulder. “But first . . .”
He ripped something glittering from another jacket pocket, bent to touch it to the ground and then threw it high into the air. Brilliant blue light flashed and snapped into a thin, coruscating band of light.
Then a horde of those lava creatures oozed out of the cracks in the caves overhead, in the walls, and the floor.
The lava creatures charged them.
One got close enough for Bird to feel withering heat before Mikhail pulled his sword again and swept it through the creature, turning it into steam. Two, three, four charged him all at once. He leaped down from the rubble and slashed in a complicated pattern, turning them into vapor with such speed she could scarcely follow that glowing blade.
More came from below, above, the sides. He scythed his way through the lava creatures, Bird hovering close behind him as he advanced step by step.
What could she do except stay out of his way—and try to keep from being burned by those scary lava things? Her heart hammered against her throat as she dashed after Mikhail, his gear bag pressed to her stomach. His sword whirled and slashed, sending clouds of acrid-smelling steam boiling around them as he fought his way toward the entrance.
“Mikhail . . .” she began.
Talk to me like this, came his thought, as though far away.
He’s concentrating, she realized. Whatever sent them was probably listening through them.
She concentrated on talking without using her voice. Can you change to your dragon?
Not in here—it’s too confining. They seem to know it. Which I find very troubling.
His internal voice came taut and distant, and she knew he was concentrating.
So don’t ask stupid questions, she scolded herself. She had to find some way to help!
Unfortunately it took all her concentration to keep close to his back, to pivot when he did, and scramble when he leaped and turned so as not to foul his arm. But as she did, she looked more closely at the sword. It was a bright blue white, as if made out of ice.
Ice? He’s a creature of water and air, Bird thought. And these things clearly don’t like water . . .
As they inched their way toward the outer chamber, more of the things seemed to appear, until the chamber was hot, the air nearly on fire, thick with that acrid burning-rock stink.
I’m . . . going to . . . create a diversion, came Mikhail’s strained inner voice. Run!
She wanted to argue, to stay by his side, but inside the cavern she knew she was only a liability—she could do nothing here. She