Stay strong. He is nearly sated.
She clung to that, knowing that the aunts always were aware when Razvan was about to stop feeding. She felt weak and dizzy, her knees sagging. And then everything in her went still. The hair on the back of her neck rose. Goose bumps rose on her arms and a shiver of apprehension slid down her spine.He was coming. If Razvan was a monster, her greatgrandfather was the living epitome of evil. She could feel his presence long before he ever entered the chamber.
Razvan shuddered visibly as he lifted his head and shoved Lara behind him. Lara swept her tongue across the wound, the healing agents in her saliva sealing her skin.
The scent of decayed flesh heralded Xavier's arrival. He entered, his emaciated body bent over, one hand wrapped around a walking stick as he shuffled into the chamber. The walking stick was a weapon of amazing power and could be-and often was-wielded to administer pain. The long robes covering the thin body rustled with every step, swishing across the ice floor, picking up crystals so that the hem collected shards and splinters of glistening white. The long white beard was nearly to the old man's waist. His image was blurry as he moved, but if she looked hard enough she could see the rotting flesh beneath
the glamour.
Lara felt the surge of power and knew it emanated from the walking stick rather than from her great-grandfather. Razvan cowered from the old man as he approached. She knew Xavier was the oldest mage, the master of both white and black magic. His teachings had been the foundation of not only the race of mages, but of the Carpathian people as well. Her aunts had educated her in the terrible family history of kidnap, rape, murder and war. All because of this one man and his search for immortality.
Xavier stretched a thin arm toward her, his fingers like bones, the nails long and curled. He beckoned.
Razvan shoved Lara away. «You will not touch her. You have your own supply.»
Come close, Lara, now, while they bicker over you. Come close to the wall and aid us in breaking free.
«I can no longer use them as you well know. They have become far too powerful to control. I need the book. We must find the book.» Xavier stumbled closer to Lara, his clawlike fingers reaching for her. «Once I have the book, they will not be able to defy me.»
Razvan swept Lara farther behind him. «This one is mine and you will not touch her.»
«Do not presume to give me orders.» The voice bellowed in the vast chambers. Xavier stood to his full height, Razvan shrinking before him. «I grow old, but I still have my abilities and you do not.»
Lara inched closer to the wall, all the while gathering the energy in the room.
«You cannot even control your own children. As sick as they are they still defy you! You forced me to bring you my own offspring, but you cannot have this one. You kill them with your greed.»
«You will give her to me.» Xavier swung his stick up, the tip pointing at his grandson.
Lara seized the moment, pulling every scrap of energy from the stick she could and directing it toward the ice wall. At the same time, the aunts connected their power with hers. The massive wall bubbled outward toward the chamber. Great shards fell off as the ice spiderwebbed, and then fragmented.
«Stop them!» Xavier leapt away from the splintering ice as he yelled the warning.
A bright red dragon burst through the ice, claws stretched toward Razvan as the blue dragon bent its wing to Lara.
Nova! Now! Climb on fast. Aunt Tatijana called to her.
Lara didn't hesitate. She jumped agilely onto the wing, scrambled up the sloping membrane and swung her leg over the dragons back. Immediately the dragon reared back on its leg, great wings flapping violently, creating a windstorm, blowing both men backward. Xavier lost his grip on the walking stick. Lara concentrated on it, funneling the wind straight at the thick wooden staff. It rolled to the far side of the ice chamber. The blue dragon took to the air.
There is not much time. Go, Tatijana, flee while you can, Bronnie pleaded with her sister while she flung her body between Razvan, Xavier and Lara.
Lara could see both dragons were weak. Already their skin color was fading. The effort to keep the two mages at bay was already taking its toll on them. Sitting on Tatijana she realized they were starved, had been starved for years. Xavier only allowed them the barest sustenance in order to keep them from being able to utilize their power. Of the two, Tatijana was the weakest. Bronnie tried to give her sister time to reach the surface and escape.
Lara looked down to see Razvan creeping toward the red dragon.
Bronnie flapped her wings to keep Xavier on the floor and away from the all-powerful staff.
Look out. Lara tried to warn her aunt, but the warning was a heartbeat too late.
Razvan plunged the ceremonial knife into the chest of the red dragon. Tatijana screamed. The red dragon sank to the floor.
Get off. Run. I will hold them as long as I can. Tatijana extended her wing to allow Lara to crawl off onto a ledge far above the chamber.
Go with her Tatijana, Bronnie entreated.
Come with me, Lara begged.
Tatijana shook her head. I will not leave my sister. Go, little one. Run and forget this place. Do not look back. Be free and find happiness .
Lara clutched the ice wall. She still had to find her way out of the maze of tunnels to the surface. She looked below one last time at the only home she'd ever known. Xavier regained his feet and held up his hand. The staff hesitated and then flew across the room to him.
«Be still or you will die,» he commanded. «You fool,» he hissed at Razvan.
The red dragon continued to fight, spilling blood across the ice floor in bright red streaks.
Xavier pointed the staff at the blue dragon. «Be still or I will kill your sister.»
Bronnie ceased all movement and lay panting on the ice. The blue dragon settled next to her sister, nuzzling her with her long neck and tongue in an effort to save her.
Lara held back a sob by pressing her hand tightly against her mouth.
Go before her sacrifice is in vain, Tatijana ordered.
Lara ran.
Chapter 1
«Lara, let's get out of here,» Terry Vale said. «It's getting dark and there's nothing here.» He shouldered
his caving equipment, not surprised that they hadn't found an entrance to an ice cave. If no one had discovered the cave by this time in the Carpathian Mountains, he doubted if the place existed.
Lara Calladine ignored him, continuing to scan the mountainside for the smallest crack, that might signal the presence of a cave. She wasn't wrong-not this time. Power had 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 wasit . 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 nerve endings burned with the electrical current building inside of her.
«I've got to go with Terry on this,» Gerald French agreed, backing up the other member of their research caving team. «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 it, looking for threads of power. The two men were not only her climbing partners, but her closest friends. At that moment she wished she'd left them behind, because she knew she was right. The cave was here, she just had to find the entrance.