She also knew she was on the right track when she found the remains of Rus’s crystal skull. The caustic agent inside had definitely been released, but it had not affected the dragon. The skull in here and the black crystal outside: That made two of Rus’s best efforts utterly wasted and without effect. Was the dragon somehow proof against poisons in general?
The tunnel angled down sharply, and the temperature of the surrounding walls began to rise. The heat had affected Kula’s moss, causing much of it to wither and brown. The part that remained still emitted light, but the light had an angry reddish tint.
Though it was still a wide space and roomy enough for all of Hask’s troops to march side-by-side, Cayce felt uncomfortably closed in. She pressed on, dimly realizing that it wasn’t the feeling of an entire mountain bearing down on her that unnerved her. No, what got to Cayce was the very clear sensation of an enormous open space nearby, a hollow pocket in this otherwise unbroken wedge of solid stone. Was it an instinctual reaction to something that shouldn’t be there, she wondered? Or was it a rational reaction to the party’s arrival at their foolish destination?
The air grew cooler, and the glowing moss recovered its green-hued vigor. Vaan faltered behind her, hesitating just as Cayce stepped into the wide, open chamber. Thus she was the first to see the dragon’s nest, eerily green in the light of Kula’s magic.
She had seen treasure troves before, but none on this scale and none as cluttered and disorganized. Huge mounds of coins stamped from gold, watersilver, argentum, and other precious metals were all around the chamber, heaped against the walls or scattered into irregular piles. Precious gems were sprinkled among the coins without regard to color, size, or quality. There were hundreds of pieces of polished armor and thousands of fine weapons, all carelessly cast around a raised rectangular platform at the far end of the room. Expertly carved statues were piled roughly atop one another, each marred by cracks, scorch marks, or broken limbs.
Cayce peered closer and took an involuntary step backward. There was more than one kind of trophy in this hoard. The dragon’s chaotic expanse of wealth and treasure was also rich in the bodies of its victims—the nest-trove was salted and seeded with an uncountable number of humanoid bones.
Vaan joined her then, followed by Kula and the soldiers. Cayce did not look back but instead continued to scan the grisly fortune. There were more than people bones here. Some were big enough to belong to ogres, others small, numerous, and twisted enough to represent an entire goblin tribe. Oddest of all, there seemed to be an entire dragon skeleton nestled among the rotting wooden remnants of a merchant’s barge. In the dim green light, Cayce could make out a complete monster: spine, ribs, wings, limbs, and tail. The only thing missing was the skull.
“That standard.” Captain Hask was staring through red-rimmed eyes. He pointed up at a gleaming white stone statue of a two-headed eagle affixed to a polished birch pole. “That was bestowed upon my garrison by the king himself. Trooper Fost!”
The oldest of the soldiers snapped to attention. “Sir!”
“Retrieve the eagle standard at once.”
“Sir!”
But Vaan fluttered in front of Trooper Fost before the soldier could take a single step.
“We should stick to the plan, Captain.” Kula stepped smoothly in between Vaan and the officer. “The beast could come back at any moment. We want to be standing by and ready to strike when he returns, not reclaiming stolen property. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Hask glowered, but he nodded and ordered the soldier to stand down.
“Sir?” Trooper Fost asked. “Where do you want to position the golem?”
A low, dry chuckle rolled down from the upper reaches of the chamber. The sound was smooth, cultured, and confident.
Cayce’s body went cold. Nearby, Vaan’s apprehension seemed to physically weigh him down as he nervously descended to the tunnel floor.
“Better decide quick, Captain,” Cayce said.
The shadows high above were undiminished by Kula’s glowing moss and were as solid and as impenetrable as the mountain. The dragon’s voice rolled down, lush, warm, and playful. “Another unexpected guest gains entry to my home.”
Kula’s eyes grew wide, and her face twisted in raw anticipation. Beside her Hask loosened the sword on his back and began unwrapping the white linen shroud. With a few flicks of his eyes and jerks of his head, he sent the soldiers and Boom hustling across to the closest chamber wall.
The dragon spoke again. “Am I so wretched a host? So unfriendly that no one thinks to solicit an invitation before dropping by, for fear of rejection? Are my manners so coarse, so vulgar that visitors feel they have to impose upon my hospitality in secret, rather than risk a formal introduction?”
Cayce turned to the pixie, but Vaan only offered his customary helpless shrug.
“He’s repeating itself,” Cayce hissed to Kula. “That’s exactly what he said to me when I came in alone.”
“So what?” Kula did not take her eyes off the expanse of darkness above them.
“So it must mean something. Maybe something we can use.”
“Maybe.” The anchorite shrugged and her lids drifted closed. “Maybe not.”
“Perhaps you did send word of your impending arrival,” the dragon said, his voice precisely as bright and genial as it had been before when he said these words. The sound echoed off the walls of the broad chamber, and it proved impossible to fix on the eloquent beast’s location even as he bantered on.
“Perhaps you weren’t being presumptuous. Perhaps you are instead a victim of some courier’s indolence. Is that it, my new young friend? Did you send word that you’d be coming, only to precede the herald who would have announced you?”
For Cayce, there was no longer any doubt: note for note, these were the exact same words said the exact same way. She was unable to see what this information meant, however, or how she could use it to escape.
The hidden serpent skipped a line, but otherwise kept to his earlier script and said, “Vaan? Is that you among my guests? Have you been plotting against me again?”
Vaan whimpered at the sound of his name on his master’s lips. The pixie clapped his clenched fists over his ears and sank to his knees.
“Stop him,” he moaned. “Now, damn you, now!”
Kula’s wide eyes slammed open. Her hair bulged outward, shattering the wooden braid that restrained it.
“Done,” the anchorite said. With a full-throated roar, Kula sprang up into the darkness and vanished from sight.
Something crashed loudly, and the dragon let out a startled half-roar. A flash of blue light flickered, revealing the monster’s position: He was clinging to the far side of the chamber ceiling, his long neck twisted around so that he was leering down at them from almost directly overhead. He was polished and perfect again, gleaming blue-white in the dank cavern air.
Kula’s leap had carried her within grappling distance of the sinewy coils, and she had wrapped herself around the dragon’s throat. Both arms and both legs were squeezing as hard as they could.
“Ho, vile machine!” she howled. “Unnatural beast! Let loose your lightning now and let’s see how you fare when it gets caught in your throat!” She squeezed harder still, compressing the dragon’s neck into less than half its normal size. “Fire, you coward, fire!”
Cayce was no anchorite, and she didn’t understand forest magic, but she knew a losing strategy when she saw it. Even if Kula could hold back the dragon’s blast by kinking his throat like a water hose, what would protect Kula? She was right on the site of the blockage. When this hose ruptured, she would take the brunt of the dragon’s white-hot blast full in the face.
Cayce’s scalp itched under the wooden braid. Without Kula, what would control the headband that was controlling Cayce? Maybe the anchorite sacrificing herself to kill the dragon wasn’t such a bad result for the poisoner’s apprentice.