Page 26

Despite Avera’s trepidation over their planned action, she descended the stairs with the others.

Protesting would likely do no good. They seemed determined to go through with this, and she feared the reprisal if she refused.

Especially from Titus. The man practically vibrated with excitement and his eyes held a gleam that discomfited.

He showed no doubt, no worry, nothing but a giddiness that had him practically skipping, whereas Avera practically dragged her feet.

As for his viziers, they’d returned to being faceless behind their veils.

The steps went down a few flights before ending in a tunnel that ran straight and narrow, forcing them to walk single file. The air within the tight confines warmed the deeper they went. Sweat beaded Avera’s brow while the dry air parched her mouth.

“Almost there,” exclaimed Titus, who led the way. He set off at a jog towards the orange glow at the end of the corridor. When he disappeared from sight, she knew they’d arrived.

They emerged from the tunnel into the heart of the volcano, and Avera wavered as heat blasted her head to toe. It hurt to breathe. Her eyes felt dry enough to shrivel into raisins. Her skin practically crackled as it tightened from the sudden loss of moisture.

Like the volcano in Verlora, Mount Ygnis had a ledge that ran around the circumference of the bubbling magma lake. However, it lacked a treasure trove. Would these new dragons be collectors as well? There didn’t appear to be any nearby towns for them to pilfer.

“Let us spread out,” Karoki stated, walking left while Kachezi turned right. Each of them held their bag with an egg.

Klothi pointed. “Move to a spot equidistant from Karoki.”

“Why?” Avera asked.

“Because we don’t want the eggs landing atop each other.”

An obvious point that Avera should have figured out.

With ginger steps, she placed herself at one of the four points, putting Karoki straight across from her and already cradling her egg.

Avera stood a pace from the edge where the magma rippled orange and red with streaks of black.

Her stomach clenched into a ball. The heat had her feeling faint, or was that fear?

No one else appeared frightened. Titus teetered right on the edge, egg in hand, looking all too eager.

“Shall we toss them in on the count of three?” he suggested.

“Have a little respect,” snapped Klothi. “This is not a game.”

Titus regulated his expression. “Excuse my excitement. I’ve long waited for this day.”

“Not as long as us,” Kachezi stated as she withdrew her egg from the sack.

With the three of them cradling theirs, that left just Avera.

“Go on, pull it,” Klothi murmured.

Still reluctant but unable to stop herself from joining, Avera pulled the oval-shaped stone from the bag and hugged it to her chest. Last chance for her to put a stop to this, only the words wouldn’t emerge.

Her tongue didn’t move. Her lungs refused to expel a cry.

Despite the futility, she wanted to once more ask them to reconsider.

She’d seen firsthand what one dragon had done to Verlora.

But her mouth wouldn’t open, as if held shut.

Kachezi lifted her egg and in a strong voice that carried said, “We are gathered today to bring back the dragons who sacrificed themselves to save humanity. At long last, it is time for their return. Time for them to once more save us. Today we make history as?—"

Plop. The slight splash interrupted and drew attention to Titus and his empty hands.

“What did you do?” exclaimed Karoki.

“The egg slipped,” Titus lied.

“Quickly. Drop the others. We don’t have time to wait,” hissed Kachezi, gently dropping hers so that it sank gracefully without a splash. Karoki lobbed hers towards the middle of the lava lake where it hit and caused a small rippling wave.

Only Avera remained.

“Hurry,” Klothi exclaimed, running towards Avera as lava started to churn in agitation. As if on cue, the ground rumbled.

Avera never knew if she’d have done it voluntarily because the decision was taken from her. Klothi batted the egg from her grip, sending it tumbling into the magma before grabbing hold of her arm and pulling.

“Let’s go. We need to reach the tower before the volcano erupts.”

“From what the survivors told me, it took hours for it to happen in Verlora,” Avera stated keeping a rapid pace.

“With one egg. We just dropped four,” Klothi replied.

“Wouldn’t it have been wiser to do them one at a time?” she huffed. Probably not the best time to be asking questions, but the distraction helped quell the panic at the coming peril.

“No. Dragons are territorial. If we’d hatched just one, it likely wouldn’t have allowed the others. By doing the four at once, they will emerge knowing they are to share,” Klothi explained as they passed Titus who leaned over the magma watching as they darted into the tunnel.

The ground underfoot shivered harder.

“Might want to run faster,” Titus called out as he joined them in the corridor. “Seems like Avera’s tale of earthquakes was true.”

“Why would I lie?” she huffed as she redoubled her pace. Not easy given the shaking floor. Under other circumstances, it might have been comical to see the viziers hiking their skirts to run faster, but Avera found nothing amusing about the situation.

The end of the tunnel and the stairs to the keep appeared and from this direction Avera noticed the tunnel extended past the steps.

“Move faster. It’s getting hot back here,” Titus called out.

Pausing on the first step, Avera made the mistake of looking behind and her eyes widened at the glowing orange wave coming at them. Well, that explained the conduit that continued past the stairs.

“Lava!” she squeaked.

“You don’t say. Hurry up now. I like these boots,” Titus declared, giving her a little shove.

Avera climbed and emerged onto the main floor of the shrine but didn’t stop there. She kept climbing, puffing her way to the top, a hand plastered to the wall to keep steady even as she prayed she didn’t fall and that the stairs didn’t collapse from the shaking.

At Titus’s urging, she went past the living level and up another flight—much to her screaming legs’ annoyance—until she emerged on the roof, a flat terrace that offered a terrifying view of the smoking volcano.

The clouds overhead had trebled and darkened, and a light snow of ash tumbled.

The rumbling of the earth could still be felt, an ominous grinding noise that almost drowned out panicked bleating.

A glance behind showed a dozen sheep penned on the far side of the rooftop.

Sheep. On a roof. Would they be enough to feed the dragons? A question for later, given the more pressing matters.

As she watched the spreading dark clouds, fiery red boulders rained down. Literal fireballs.

Luckily none hit the roof, but small embers did flutter in their wake, causing Avera to sway and dodge lest one of them catch fire to her outfit.

Klothi chuckled as she strode past Avera. “Fear not, the gown cannot catch fire.”

So she claimed. Avera preferred to keep shuffling out of the embers’ path even as she saw the fiery motes landing on the guardians and extinguishing without leaving a mark.

The viziers linked their hands and began to chant, their monotone in a language Avera couldn’t understand. Its low tenor and the way the air around her electrified sent a shiver through her. Now what?

To her relief, the magic they called upon cooled and freshened the air. Avera hadn’t realized how scorched each lungful of breath felt until she could draw air without pain. The spell also acted as a shield, the glowing embers that hit it extinguishing harmlessly.

With her safety less in question, Avera once more glanced upward at the volcano, watching the billowing smoke and ash-filled clouds that dropped lower and lower as they fattened, occasionally glowing orange as a flaming boulder emerged.

The vibration underfoot intensified, and it took Titus murmuring, “Looks like we’re getting new ditches,” for her to notice the ground below split apart.

The plains literally cracked, creating new ravines that ran between the channels, resulting in a patchwork effect that glowed orange as lava began to fill them.

They were now trapped at the shrine. Avera saw no clear path back to the ravine and the safety across it.

The air thickened, not with heat or smoke, but something else.

Something that made her flesh tingle. A sudden concussive blast knocked her off her feet.

She hit the rooftop in a daze and lay on her back, blinking at the smoke-filled sky as three more shock waves radiated from the spewing and very angry mountain.

The trembling continued so she remained prone. A good thing she did, or she might have missed it.

From the ash cloud overhead swooped a tiny, winged beast.

A dragon had hatched, a flying beast soon joined by three others.

Despite her trepidation, wonder filled her at the sight of them swooping and trilling, their joy obvious until they spotted the humans.

As if of one mind, the quartet suddenly arrowed downward, seeming as if they would attack only to suddenly alight gracefully on the roof’s ramparts. They perched in a line, the four of them sporting different shades of scales: opalescent, deep green, dark blue, and a sandy tan.

Avera sat up and gaped, for up close they weren’t as small as expected. Probably waist-high on her and, unlike a newborn, their gazes were alert.

Unnerving.

Dare she say judging?

They stared at the humans before them.

The tan dragon cocked its head. You must be the ones who set us free.

The alien voice startled, and she wasn’t alone in hearing it for Titus stepped forward. “Greetings. I am Emperor Titus Gugerknaut.”

Humans and their titles. The voice she heard this time had a slightly different cadence from the first.