Gaia, you were taken as a child and brought to the evil one by Xavier. You have been down here since.
Have I? I know every escape route. Do you think I can’t come and go as I please?she countered.In any case, we should drop the subject, as I need to concentrate on this next passage.
Gaia hadn’t been raised by Carpathians. She was totally independent of them. In some ways, she ran wild and free. Lilith most likely didn’t pay that much attention to her.
Who raised you, Gaia?
She was silent for a long time, her head going back and forth between the walls before she stepped forward into the next section.Mostly, it was Justice. Some of the demons would poke at him with sharp sticks and throw fiery rocks at him. They had these really long spears, and they’d jab him with them. I was really little, but I didn’t like it, so I would throw rocks at the demons to try to make them leave him alone. They would chase me and say they were going to eat me. I had hiding places I could fold myself into that they couldn’t, but one day I wasn’t fast enough. I duckedinto Justice’s pen to keep from getting eaten. As it was, they scraped the skin off my legs.She gave a delicate shudder at the memory.
Afanasiv had his own memories of the cannibals. He could well understand a child living with the nightmares of a terrifying band of demons pursuing her, yelling that they were going to eat her. She would probably have a difficult time getting over that trauma.
Justice caught me up before they could drag me out from under the gate, and he protected me. After that, I stayed with him most of the time. None of the demons dared to come inside his territory. He was too fast. He was deadly. And he was my friend.She said the last defiantly, as though she thought he would ridicule her.
I’m thankful you had him,Afanasiv said sincerely.He is a legend in our world. His sacrifices for his family and his people are incomparable. Clearly, he has passed that same code of honor on to you.
Gaia suddenly held up her hand, and everyone halted instantly.Siv, take a look at this and tell me what it is.
Afanasiv quickly moved ahead to look at the spot where Gaia indicated. The passageway was extremely narrow and angled up toward the surface. The dirt walls had crumbled away in places, leaving little stacks of debris on the ground. Above their heads, roots hung from the ceiling. Rust-colored water dripped down one wall, falling from one of the many shoots hanging from above them. As he neared the dangling roots, the smell hit him. It wasn’t water. This was blood, leaking from some chamber above them.
Not just any blood, Siv. That’s Dragonseeker blood. It’s been tainted. Compromised in some way,Vasilisa told him.Have there been other Dragonseekers that the evil one has had down here?
Not to my knowledge.He switched to the path that included Gaia.What room is directly above us?
That is the only “cold” room down here. The freezers are kept there. It’s a huge room. Xavier and his brother require a great deal of blood for their experiments. It is kept there frozen.
It appears as if the freezers had a meltdown,Afanasiv pointed out.
Must have been that earthquake.Gaia sounded complacent. Those demons shouldn’t have been practicing those low notes the evil one wanted them to perfect.
Afanasiv took the lead. He started ascending up the steep slope, very conscious of each step the Lycans would take behind him. It was nearly a blackout in the passage. Very little light seeped in. He had an advantage in that he didn’t need his physical vision to see. Gaia didn’t either. The Lycans had good night vision as a rule, but this wasn’t about night vision. This was a false darkness.
Off on the right side and low to the ground was a pinpoint of light running about a foot long. Directly above that was a similar pinpoint of light running about a foot long. A door built into the wall and camouflaged with dirt and rock.
Let me take a look before any of you move.He didn’t wait for a protest; he slipped under that crack to find himself in a wide area dug out to resemble a room of sorts.
Three demons sat in chairs sipping at homemade brew and chomping on old bones. They each held playing cards in their hands. The cards were smeared with grease and dirt. Old blood stained them, but the demons didn’t seem to notice. They tipped their chairs back and continued with their conversation.
“She won’t stop until everyone is dead,” purple shirt groused. “I’ve never seen her so driven before. Lucifer shouldn’t have laughed at her.”
Polka-dot shirt nodded solemnly. “He’s going to find himself with a spear through his heart if he doesn’t watch out.”
“And she’s got those creepy mages working for her,” pink shirt added. “She’s taking over down here, and no one’s noticed, least of all him.”
“Because he doesn’t think she’s a threat to him,” purple shirt said. “Why does she want that Skyler girl so much? The mage wants her as well. What is it with everyone and the girl? Maybe we should get inon that and get to her first.” He threw two cards on the table and added two new ones to his hand.
“She’d skin us alive,” polka-dot said. “Are you crazy? She’s done that before, you know.”
Pink shirt tilted her head. “Why does she want that girl?”
Polka-dot shirt sighed. “Quit cheating. You can’t just take new cards whenever you want them. You didn’t hear this from me. It’s who her mother was. Her father is Dragonseeker, right? Razvan is really her birth father. And he’s Dragonseeker. But her mother...”
“Human,” pink shirt said with a little sniff of disdain. “They don’t even taste all that good.”
“Do you want me to tell you or not?” polka-dot demanded.
Afanasiv wanted to know. He thought a gag might be appropriate to put over pink shirt’s mouth. He waited.
“Her mother came from a big-deal mage family. I heard the whispers after Xavier was sent here. The mother also had some big affinity to Mother Earth and all that mumbo-jumbo crap Lilith likes to talk about. You know how she is about being one with the earth. She could heal the earth and had all kinds of power over it.”