Lara Calladine didn't bother looking away from where she was scanning the mountainside for the smallest crack that might signal the presence of a cave. She wasn't wrong—not this time. Power surged and crackled the moment she set foot on the upper slopes of the mountain. She took a deep breath and pressed a hand over her pounding heart. This was it. This was the place she had spent her life searching for. She would recognize that flow of energy anywhere. She knew every weave, every spell, her body absorbing the gathering power so that veins sizzled and her nerve endings burned with the electrical current building inside of her.
"I've got to go with Terry on this," Gerald French agreed. "This place gives me the creeps. We've been on a lot of mountains, but this one doesn't like us." He gave a nervous laugh. "It's getting dicey up here."
"No one says 'dicey,' " Lara murmured, running her hand along the face of the rock about an inch from the surface, looking for threads of power.
"Whatever," Gerald snapped. "It's getting dark and there's nothing here but mist. The fog is creepy, Lara. We've got to get out of here."
Lara spared the two men an impatient glance and then surveyed the countryside around them. Ice and snow glittered, coating the surrounding mountains with what appeared to be sparkling gems. Far below she could see castles, farms and churches in the distance despite the gathering dusk. Sheep dotted the meadows and she could see the river running, filled to capacity. Birds cried overhead, filling the sky and dive-bombing toward her, only to break off abruptly and circle again. The wind shifted continuously, biting at her face and at every bit of exposed skin, tugging at her long thick braid, moaning and wailing all the while. Occasionally a rock fell down the slope and bounced off the ledge to the hillside below. A trickle of snow and dirt slid near her feet.
Her gaze swept the wild countryside. Gorges and ravines cut through the snowcapped mountains, plants clung to the sides of the rocks and shivered naked along the plateaus. She could see the entrances to several caves and felt the strong pull toward them as if they were tempting her to leave where she was to explore. Water filled the deeper depressions below, forming a dark peat bog and beds of moss, which were a vivid green in stark contrast to the browns surrounding them. But she needed to be here—in this spot, this place. She had studied the geography carefully and knew that deep within the earth, a massive series of ice caves had formed.
The higher she climbed, the smaller everything below her looked and the thicker the white mist surrounding her became. With each step, the ground shifted subtly and the birds overhead shrieked a little louder. Ordinary things, yes, but the subtle sense of uneasiness, the continual voice whispering, warning her to leave before it was too late, told her this was a place of power. Although the wind continued to shriek and blow, the mist remained a thick veil that shrouded the upper slope.
"Come on, Lara," Terry tried again. "It took us forever to get the permits, we can't waste time on the wrong area. You can see nothing's here."
It had taken considerable effort this time to get the permits for her study, but she had managed the usual way—using her gifts to persuade those who disagreed with her that, with the universal global warming, the fate of the ice caves was unknown and needed immediate attention. More than that, microbes—extremophiles—not only survived within the caves, but thrived in extreme conditions. The hope was that the microorganisms that lived and reproduced far from sunlight and traditional nutrients could aid medical science in the fight against cancer or even produce an antibiotic capable of wiping out the newer superbugs emerging.
Her research project was fully funded and, although she was considered young at the age of twenty-seven, she was acknowledged as the leading expert in the field of ice-cave study and preservation. She'd logged more hours exploring, mapping and studying the ice caves around the world than most other researchers twice her age. She'd also discovered more superbugs than any other caver. NASA, one of the leading researchers of the extremophiles, was one of her biggest supporters.
"Didn't it strike you as odd that no one wanted us in this particular region? They were fine giving us permits to look virtually anywhere else," she pointed out. Part of the reason she'd persisted when no caves had been mapped in the area was because the department head had been so strange—strange and rather vague when they went over the map. After studying the area, the natural geographical deduction was that a vast network of ice caves lay beneath the mountain, yet the entire region seemed to have been overlooked.
Terry and Gerald had exhibited exactly the same behavior, as if they didn't notice the odd structure of the mountain, and both men were superb at finding ice caves from the geographical surface. Persuasion had been difficult, but all of that work was for this moment, this cave, this find.
"It's here," she said with absolute confidence.
Her heart continued to pound with excitement, not at the find, but because walking had become such a chore, her body not wanting to continue forward. She breathed away the compulsion to leave and pressed through the safeguards, following the trail of power, judging how close she was to the entrance by how strong her need to run away was.
Voices rose in the wind, swirled in the mists, telling her to go back, to leave while she could. Strangely, she heard the voices in several languages, the warning much stronger and insistent as she made her way along the slope searching for a crack, for anything at all that might signal an entrance to the caves she knew were there. All the while she kept her senses alert to the possibility that monsters might lurk beneath the earth. But she had to enter—to find the place of her nightmares, the place of her childhood. She had to find the two dragons she dreamt of nightly.
"Lara!" This time Terry's voice was sharp with protest. "We have to get out of here."
Barely sparing him a second glance, Lara stood still for a long moment, studying the outcropping that jutted out from smoother rock. Thick snow covered most of it, but there was an oddity about it that kept drawing her gaze back to the rock. She approached cautiously. Several small rocks lay at the foot of the larger boulders, and strangely, not a single snowflake stuck to them. She didn't touch them, but studied them from every angle, carefully observing the way they were arranged in a pattern at the foot of the outcropping.
"Something out of place," she murmured aloud.
Instantly the wind wailed, the sound rising to a shriek as it rushed toward her, blowing debris into the air so that it shot at her like small missiles.
"It's the rocks. See, they should be arranged differently." Lara leaned down and pushed the small pile of rocks into a different pattern.
At once the ground shifted beneath them. The mountain creaked in protest. Bats took the air, pouring out of some unseen hole a short distance from them, filling the sky until it was nearly black. The dark crack along the outcropping split wider. The mountain shuddered and shook and groaned as if alive, as if it were coming awake.
"We shouldn't be here," Terry nearly sobbed.
Lara took a deep breath and held her palm to the narrow slit in the mountainside, the only entrance to this particular cave. Power blasted out at her, and all around she could feel the safeguards, thick and ominous, protecting the entrance.
"You're right, Terry," she agreed. "We shouldn't" She backed away from the outcropping and gestured toward the trail. "Let's go. And hurry." For the first time she was really aware of the hour, the sun setting, the gathering darkness spreading like a stain across the sky.
She would be coming back early morning—without her two companions. She had no idea what was left in the elaborate ice caverns below, but she wasn't about to expose two of her closest friends to danger. The safeguards in place would confuse them, so they wouldn't remember the location of the cave, but she knew each weave, each spell, and how to reverse it so that the guards wouldn't affect her.
Ice caves as a whole were dangerous at all times. The continual pressure from overlying ice caps often sent great frozen chunks of ice blasting out of the walls, like rockets
being fired, capable of killing anything they struck. This ice cave held dangers that far outweighed natural ones, and she didn't want her companions anywhere near it.
The ground shifted again, throwing all of them off balance. Gerald grabbed her to keep her from falling and Terry caught at the outcropping, fingers digging into the widening crack. Beneath their feet, something under the ground moved, raising the surface several inches as the creature raced toward the base of the rocks Lara had realigned.
"What is that?" Gerald shouted, backpedaling. He thrust Lara behind him in an effort to protect her as the dirt and snow spouted into a geyser almost at his feet.
Terry screamed, his voice high-pitched and frightened as he tipped over backward and the unseen creature raced toward him beneath the earth.
"Get up! Move!" Lara called, trying to get around Gerald's solid bulk to throw a holding spell. As he swung around, Gerald's backpack knocked her off her feet and sent her rolling down the steeper slope. Her birthmark, the strangely shaped dragon positioned just over her left ovary, suddenly flared into life, burning through her skin and glowing red hot.
Two dark-green tentacles burst from the snow-covered ground, slick with blood, the color so dark it nearly was black. They emerged on either side of Terry's left ankle. The sound of bubbling mud rose, along with a noxious, putrid stink of rotten eggs and sulfur, so overpowering the three of them gagged. The bulbous ends of the tentacles reared back, revealing coiling snake heads, and then struck with brutal speed. Two curved, venomous fangs clamped through Terry's skin nearly to the bone. Blood dripped into the pristine snow. The small gap in the ground began to widen into a larger hole a few feet from Terry. At once, the tentacles retreated toward the hole, slithering across the surface, dragging Terry by his ankle. His screams of fear turned to pain and terror.
Gerald flung himself forward, gripping Terry under his arms and throwing his weight in the opposite direction. "Hurry, Lara!"
Lara scrambled to the top of the slope. The mist whirled and thickened around her, making it difficult to see. She spread her arms as she ran, gathering energy from the darkening sky, uncaring of her companions, knowing she was Terry's only chance at survival. She hadn't used the knowledge inside of her, the wealth of information her aunts had shared with her—indeed, she hadn't been certain it was real—until that moment. Power flooded her. Her mind opened. Expanded. Reached into the well of knowledge and found the exact words she needed.
"It's too strong." Gerald dug his heels into the earth and held on to Terry with every ounce of strength he possessed. "Stop wasting your energy and help me, damn it. Come on, Terry, fight."
Terry abruptly ceased screaming and began to fight in earnest, kicking with his free leg in an attempt to dislodge the two snake heads.
The vine threw more tentacles out, the greenish-black stems writhing hideously, looking for a target. The teeth sank deeper into Terry's ankles, sawing at flesh and bone in an effort to keep their prey.
Lara flung herself forward, lifting her face to the sky as she muttered the words she found in her mind.
I call forth the power of the sky. Bring down lightning to my mind's eye. Shaping, shifting, bend to my will. Forging a scythe to sharpened steel. Hot and bright the fire be, guide my hand with accuracy.
Lightning zigzagged across the sky, lighting the edges of the clouds. The air around them charged so that the hair on their bodies and heads stood on end. Lara felt electricity snapping and sizzling in her fingertips and focused on the thinner space between the long, thick bodies and the bulbous heads of the snake-vines.
White light streaked across the short distance and pierced the necks of the creatures. The smell of rotting flesh burst from the vine. Both severed bodies dropped limply to the ground leaving the teeth, with the heads attached, still sunk deep into Terry's ankle. The rest of the tentacles reared back in shock and then burrowed beneath the dirt and snow.
Terry grasped one of the heads to pull it out.
"No!" Lara protested. "Leave it. You don't know if the teeth are barbed. We have to get out of here right now."
"It burns like acid," Terry complained. His face was pale, nearly as white as the covering of snow, and beads of sweat dotted his forehead.
Lara shook her head. "We have to get off this mountain now. And you can't take chances until I can look at it."
She took his arm and signaled to Gerald to grab his other one. They steadied Terry between them and began to hurry from the slope to the well-traveled path off to their right.
"What was that?" Gerald hissed, his eyes meeting hers over Terry's head. "Have you ever seen a snake like that before?"
"Was it two-headed?" Terry asked. Anxiety made him hyperventilate. "I didn't get all that good a look at it before it struck. Do you think it's poisonous?"
"It isn't attacking the central nervous system, Terry," Lara said. "At least not yet. We'll get you back down to the village and find a doctor. I know a few things about medicine, I can treat you when we get to the car."
The mountain rumbled ominously, shivering beneath their feet. Lara glanced up at the swirling white mists. Above them, spiderweb cracks appeared in the snow and began to widen.
Gerald swore, renewed his grip on Terry, and started sprinting along the thin, winding trail. "It's going to come down."
Terry gritted his teeth against the pain radiating up from his ankle. "I can't believe this is happening. I feel sick."
Lara kept her eyes on the mountain behind them as they raced, dragging Terry every step of the way. "Faster. Keep moving."
The ground shifted and rolled and small fans of snow slid in artful patterns toward the slope below them. The sight was dazzling, hypnotic even. Gerald shook his head several times and looked at Lara, puzzled, slowing down to gaze at the undulating snow. "Lara? I can't remember what happened. Where are we?"
"We're about to be creamed by an avalanche, Gerald," Lara advised. "Terry's hurt and we've got to run like hell. Now move it!"
She put every ounce of compulsion and command into her voice that she could muster on the run. Fortunately both men obeyed, concentrating on getting down the steep slope as quickly as they could and asking no more questions. The safeguards protecting the cave were not only lethal, but they confused and disoriented any traveler stumbling across them. The warning system was usually enough to make people so uneasy they left the area, but once triggered, the safeguards fought to erase memories or even kill to protect the entrance to the cave.
It was the place she had been looking for. Now she had to survive in order to come back and discover the long-buried secrets of her past. Gerald stumbled and Terry screamed as one of the snake heads slammed against a particularly dense pile of snow and ice, shoving the teeth further into his flesh.
Lara felt the mountain tremble. At first there was silence, and then a distant rumbling. The sound increased in strength and volume until it became a roar. The snow slid, slowly at first, but picking up speed, churning and roiling, rushing toward them. Lara forced back panic and reached into the well of knowledge she knew was deep inside of her. Her aunts had never appeared human to her, but their voices had been, and the immense wealth of information they had collected over centuries had been stored in Lara's memories.
She was Dragonseeker, a great Carpathian heritage. She was human, with courage and strength of the ages. She was mage, able to gather energy and use it for good. All of her ancestors were powerful beings. The blood of three species mingled in her veins, yet she belonged in none of those worlds and walked her chosen path—alone, but always guided by the wisdom of the aunts.
She felt strength pour into her, felt the crackle of electricity as the sky lit up with lightning. Looking over her shoulder once more, she sent a command to the wilds of nature to counteract the protection guard the dark mage had used on the mountain.
I summon thee, water ice, fit to my hand, provide me with shelter as I command.
The snow stopped movement abruptly, sprayed in air, fro
zen in place, curled over their heads like a giant wave motionless in mid-air.
"Run!" Lara shouted. "Go, Gerald. We've got to get off the mountain."
Night was falling and the avalanche was not the worst they might face. The wind had stilled, but the voices remained, shrieking warnings she dared not ignore. They gripped Terry and half ran, half slid down the steep slope. Above their heads, the heavy mantle of snow formed a wave, cresting over them, motionless like an ominous statue.
Terry left behind streaks of blood as they skidded over the icy surface. They were sweating profusely by the time they made it to the bottom. Breathing heavily, they paused, looking around for their car. It stood out like a sore thumb. In this particular area of Romania, most of the locals used carts with tires pulled by horses. Cars weren't a common sight at all and, as small it as it was, it looked far too modern in a place centuries old.
Gerald dragged Terry through the meadow to the where the car was parked beneath some naked branches. Lara turned back toward the mountain, let out her breath and clapped her hands together three times. There was an odd, expectant pause. The wave rolled, snow dropped. The mountain slid, raising a cloud of white into the air.
"Lara," Terry gasped. "You have to get these teeth out of ankle. My leg burns like hell and I swear, something's crawling inside of me—inside my leg."
He sprawled on the small backseat, his skin nearly gray. Sweat soaked his clothes and his breathing came in ragged gasps.
Lara knelt in the dirt and examined the hideous heads. She knew what they were—hybrids of the dark mage, bred to do his bidding. She'd seen the beginnings of them in her nightmares. The snakes injected a poisonous brew, including tiny microscopic parasites, into their victim's body. The organisms would eventually take over Terry's body and then his brain, until he was a mere puppet to be used by the dark mage.
"I'm sorry, Terry," she said softly. "The teeth are barbed and have to be removed carefully."