Page 23 of Queen’s Griffon (Swords & Tiaras #2)

Chapter 22

Avera

At the mention of his name, surprise creased Basil’s face. “I am Basil Currosa, but how did you know that? you are too young for us to have met.”

“My mother told me about you.” She took a breath and looked him in the eye as she said, “Her name was Calixta Voxspira, Queen of Daerva.”

“Calixte…” He breathed her name. “How does she fare?”

“She’s dead. Recently killed by assassins in a coup that had me deposed from the throne.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” His expression fell. “She was a good woman and an even better ruler.”

“So good you left her after stealing the stones.”

At least Basil had the grace to look chagrinned. “Not my finest moment. I’m afraid my greedy curiosity got the better of me. I always meant to apologize to Calixte but could never find the words. But I assume she suffered no lingering ill will since she went on to marry and have you.”

Lenno snorted. “Married, ha. You’re talking to the queen’s bastard.”

The taunt tightened Avera’s lips. “A bastard, yes, but still recognized as her daughter, and when my siblings were murdered, her heir.” Then before she lost her nerve, Avera told him bluntly, “On her death bed, my mother finally told me my father’s name. Basil Currosa from Verlora.”

At the revelation, Basil reeled. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped so far, he might never be able to hinge it shut. “No. That’s impossible.”

Frisk snorted. “Not too bright for a scientist, are you? Even the dumbest animal knows how babies happen.”

“It’s true,” Avera affirmed. “In my mother’s things, I found the same locket as yours with a picture of you and her inside.” Her hand went to her neck. “It was lost when I fell into the ocean during a storm.”

“I never knew,” Basil murmured, his voice low and rough. “Why didn’t she send me word?”

“Because you left,” Avera huffed. “Left my mother after using her to steal the rocks.”

Basil turned from her and paced. “And I felt such immense guilt after. When I set out to locate them, I never expected to meet someone like Calixte. I know you probably won’t believe me, but I cared for your mother. I asked her to come with me, even as I knew she’d refuse, her duty to her country stronger than the love we shared. Just like my obsession with the Dracova stones proved more powerful.”

“I didn’t come here for a family reunion,” Lenno barked. “Lead us to the stones. At once.”

Basil glanced at Avera. “These companions of yours?—”

“Aren’t my friends,” Avera stated, not about to lie. “Their captain kidnapped me on the emperor’s orders. He seems to think I can find the stones and wants them brought to him.”

“That wouldn’t be a good idea,” Basil murmured. “The stones are dangerous.”

“Ironic coming from the man who stole them,” Lenno mocked. “Now if we’re done playing father-daughter reunion, we’ll take the rocks and leave.”

“It’s too dangerous.” Basil shook his head.

“I’ll be the judge of that, old man. Bring us to them or I’m cutting off the first body part.”

“No need for violence, but I really do recommend waiting until morning.”

“Afraid of the dark?” Lenno wouldn’t relent and it didn’t help Frisk snickered.

“I am, and you should be too.” Basil didn’t even try to pretend bravado.

“Not all of us are cowards.”

“Is it because of the dragon?” Avera asked, surprised Lenno hadn’t delved more into the topic.

“The dragon is too large now to move through the tunnels. But there are other threats.”

“Yeah, we met some,” Lenno spat. “Giant snakes and bugs.”

“They aren’t the only things that grew to be too big,” Basil muttered.

“How did that happen? Those beetles didn’t seem natural.” Avera kept him talking.

“They aren’t. When the volcano erupted it caused much shaking. The rocky caverns we’d been using for our experiments were damaged, including a lab where we’d been working on a serum to make our crops produce larger fruits and vegetables.”

“Wait, what? A magic potion that grows things?” Frisk sounded excited.

“Not magic, science. A failed experiment, we soon realized, because while the produce did end up larger, certain animals and insects that ate it grew too. It began with the cave beetles. They ingested the enhanced produce and became enormous. They in turn were eaten by other creatures, causing a chain reaction in the ecosystem that survived the fallout from the volcano.”

“The dragon was affected,” Avera concluded.

“Aye,” Basil’s voice lowered. “The dragons in the stories, while large, weren’t as big as the one currently residing in the mountain.”

“Can it be shrunk?” she asked.

“No. Its girth is permanent, I’m afraid.”

“I’d like to be a giant,” Frisk declared. “Can you imagine these muscles supersized?” He flexed.

Basil shook his head. “The serum doesn’t work on every living thing. Humans, for example, show no effect, neither do squirrels or mice. Which I found odd, seeing what it did to the rats.”

“Take us. Now.” Lenno, seeming to grow tired of the conversation, pressed his sword to Basil’s neck drawing a pinprick of blood.

Avera’s father—such a strange concept—sighed. “Very well. But don’t say you weren’t warned.”

Basil took the lead as they went through a doorway and entered a tunnel. Avera kept pace with him. Who knew how long they might have to speak. She had so many questions, not necessarily about her mother and their relationship.

“Why did you seek out the stones?” Avera queried.

“When I did my research on them, there was mention of them being special. I wanted to study them. To understand what they were and what they could do. It’s what scientists do, you know.”

“How did you know of their existence?”

Basil tucked his hands in his sleeves. “I found out about them by accident when we cleared a blockage passage. Mount Etna is riddled with tunnels, most left behind from the last time the volcano erupted. We began using them as a way to keep our experiments contained and for climate control.”

“Climate control?” Avera didn’t recognize the term.

“Once you get deep into the mountain, the thick rock ensures temperature remains constant. Ideal for experiments.” Basil cleared his throat. “I digress. Anyhow, during our mapping and excavation, we found a chamber that had been untouched for centuries, maybe longer. Within there were scrolls, dozens of them, talking about a past that seemed impossible. A time when dragons roamed the skies and yet also lived in harmony with humanity.”

“What happened to them? Why did they disappear?”

“You mentioned its name earlier. Zhos.”

“You’ve heard of it,” she breathed.

“Yes, and by all accounts it was a nasty being. Not originally from this world, it somehow found a way to cross over and began laying waste to the land. The dragons gave their lives to save humanity, using their magic and very life force as a sacrifice to subdue the alien entity, burying it deep, sealing off all exits, leaving it to die.”

“Fraegus Spire,” she muttered. “Only Zhos didn’t die.”

Her claim startled Basil. “Of course it did. Nothing could survive that long, especially buried as it was.”

“It’s not dead. I’ve spoken to it,” was her grim reply. “Ever since you took the stones away, it’s been growing stronger. Strong enough that once my mother died it managed to mesmerize an entire town into coming to the spire and lighting fires to melt the ice keeping it prisoner.”

“No, that can’t be true,” Basil murmured. “The accounts I read claimed it was gone forever.”

“Not gone, merely impotent until you removed the seals keeping it from influencing our world.”

“Who told you they were seals?” he asked.

“The guardian in the spire claimed the stones contained magic that prevented Zhos from returning.”

“What guardian?” He frowned.

“The one my mother spoke to while you were down by Damnation Lake, removing them.”

“There was no one in the mountain,” he claimed. “Your mother and I went alone. It was the strangest thing. We were lost in a snowstorm with me ready to turn around, but she knew where to go even though she’d only been there once before, just after her coronation. She guided us into that ancient place and showed me the rocks embedded in the ice. Told me how on her last visit, she’d given them each a few drops of her blood.”

“Why would she do that?” And why hadn’t her mother told her? She’d been so mysterious about the whole thing, insisting Avera discover it all herself.

“When I asked, she shrugged and claimed the first time she visited it was like she knew what had to be done.”

“Magic,” Avera stated.

“Most likely, which I found fascinating. You see, Verlora didn’t have such a thing. We were a place of science, where everything followed set rules. But the scrolls plus some artifacts I found, followed by your mother’s experience, spoke to another power, one I didn’t understand.”

“But wanted to know more about.” Avera understood, at least now, where her curiosity came from. “How could you just take them and leave her?” She kept pace with him as he navigated them through tunnels, some smoothed by human tools and hands, others rough as if naturally formed.

“To this day, I’m not sure what came over me,” he admitted. “While she slept, I found myself out on that ice, measuring and observing. I chiseled it in spots, melting it to see if it was simply water or a mixture of something else.”

“You melted it?” Avera shook her head. “That was a mistake. Zhos has somehow imbued that ice with its presence and can act through it.”

“Act how?” Basil asked with a frown.

Avera explained what she’d seen firsthand, and wonder of wonders, Lenno and Frisk didn’t interrupt. By the time she finished, Basil looked even older than before.

“Your experience explains so much. Zhos must have influenced me. Until now, I never understood my driving need to take the stones. Never understood how I could betray your mother. In the years after, a part of me wanted to return, to apologize, to make things right, but a stronger part couldn’t stop experimenting with the stones.”

“Doing what?”

“Everything. I tried shattering them open and broke every tool I used. I heated them. Cooled them. Submerged the stones in fresh water and salt. Poured acid. Nothing I did made so much as a scratch.”

“You claimed earlier you might have caused the volcano to blow. How?” she asked.

“One of the stones ended up falling into the magma lake.”

“Hold on, are you saying one of the rocks is missing?” Lenno interrupted, showing he’d been listening.

“I’m afraid so. Only four of them remain.”

“Emperor’s gonna be peeved,” Frisk muttered.

“Not our fault this idiot got rid of one,” Lenno blustered. “And four is still better than none.”

“I never realized it would be so easy to make a volcano erupt,” Avera remarked, ignoring Frisk and Lenno.

“It’s not. I’ve thrown all manner of things into the lava in the past as it’s great for getting rid of garbage, especially the dangerous stuff. Even explosive items never did more than make the magma burp.”

A theory began forming in Avera’s mind, but mindful Lenno and Frisk listened, she didn’t speak it aloud.

Basil tucked his hands behind his back. “Most likely the stone wasn’t the cause, and the volcano was simply due to blow. They go through cycles, you see. Active and inactive. Its decision to suddenly erupt took us all by surprise. We assumed we’d have warning.”

“How much further?” Lenno interposed.

“It’s a way still,” Basil curtly replied. “The more secret and dangerous the experiment, the deeper the lab.”

They’d moved from the smooth walls of the building and entered a corridor chiseled right into the rock, the space lit at intervals by globes set into the wall with a metallic tube running between them.

Avera pointed to the light. “I don’t see a flame. How does it work?”

“Gas. See that metal piping? It carries gas inside and allows the lamps to glow when ignited.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?”

“Only if you shatter the globe and release the gas. I don’t recommend that,” was Basil’s wry reply.

“Are we almost there?” Lenno interrupted.

“We’re getting close,” Basil announced, “But I must warn you again, this isn’t a place you want to go at night.”

“Why?” Avera inquired. “What threat is guarding the stones?”

“Not guarding. However, the cavern where they are being kept has acquired some residents.”

“So long as it ain’t the dragon, we can handle it,” Lenno boasted.

“Doubtful.” Basil didn’t sound hopeful. He pointed to a barricade ahead of them blocking the end of the tunnel. “The stones are beyond that, but I really would urge caution. The residents of the cave will be awake and hungry.”

“What is in there?” Frisk asked, frowning at the blockage.

“Bats,” Basil replied somberly.

“You’re worried about bats?” Lenno mocked. “Everyone knows bats eat bugs.”

Basil leaned close to Avera and whispered, “Not these ones.”

She could have warned her captors, but… Honestly, so long as they didn’t send her in, she didn’t care enough for them to bother. Thugs who kidnapped people and treated them poorly didn’t deserve consideration.

Lenno nudged Frisk. “Go and move that stuff and tell me what you see.”

“Me?” Frisk huffed. “Why can’t it be one of them?”

“Because I said so,” snapped Lenno.

“I ain’t paid enough for this shit,” grumbled Frisk as he approached the detritus blocking the entrance.

It didn’t take him long to create an opening he could fit through, but Frisk hesitated. “It’s dark in there.”

“Good thing I came prepared,” drawled Lenno. He pulled a torch from his pack and lit the end of it. “Here.” Lenno handed over the torch and Frisk put the fiery end through the gap.

“Still can’t see shit, but I can hear movement,” Frisk stated. “Hold on, let me get to the other side for a proper look.”

Frisk slipped into the other chamber, and they could only see part of him in the light he shone around. He whistled. “Holy shit. He wasn’t kidding about the bats. The cave is full of the fuckers. And they’re huge!”

“Do you see the stones?” Lenno called out.

“Not yet. I’m standing on a ledge that seems to run around a large room. Can’t see the floor.”

“Where are the rocks?” Lenno asked Basil.

“Last I saw them, they were tucked inside a box at the bottom of that chamber. There are stairs going down if he moves to his left.”

Frisk must have heard because he replied, “Going to check it out.”

He didn’t get far. At least so she assumed because suddenly there was a strident shriek.

“Fuck. Get off me. Argh. It’s biting. It’s—” Frisk uttered one last long scream before silence fell.

Lenno looked shocked.

Basil, however, appeared smug as he said, “Told you to avoid going into the cave at night. Bats sleep during the day.”