PURE OF HEART (17 page)

“Your turn now, Lorious,” Dean snarled as he walked toward the broken doors. “Time for you and me, skull face.”

“You are a simpleton, boy,” Lorious sneered. “As I said before, I don’t fight.” He waved his hand and the shattered doors moved back together.

Dean jumped through just as the doors slammed shut.

“Nice try, Lorious. Now I don’t think you have a choice. Let my companions go,” Dean ordered as he lowered his sword.

“Do you think I’m powerless, Theradine?” He stood there; six blue flaming spheres surrounded him. “I am power,” he screamed and thrust his hand forward. The six spheres streaked straight for Dean.

Dean froze as the spheres bore down at him, seemingly from every angle. There was nowhere for him to jump. Dean twisted his wrist. The shield sprang out and Dean ducked behind it. The shield held, but the impact blew him off his feet.

Dean hit the ground hard. Pain shot through his whole body. In spite of the pain, he got up. “Nice shooting, Lorious. Too bad you hit like a baby,” Dean sneered. His arm hurt so badly he didn’t know whether he could raise it. He managed to twist his wrist and the shield closed down to its small size. “This is your last chance.”

Dean ran forward. He saw the tile he stepped on flash. Chains sprung from the floor and wrapped around Dean. With a crack, they drew tight.

“Theradine, son and nephew of my murderers,” Lorious howled as he tightened his fist and the chains pulled tighter around Dean, “I’ll have my creatures tear you apart limb by limb for the next thousand years.”

“You have some serious psychological problems,” Dean groaned as he struggled in his bonds.

Lorious held up his hand and closed it into a fist.

Dean screamed in pain as the chains constricted around his body.

“Leave him alone,” Oieda screamed.

“Let your suffering begin,” Lorious proclaimed as he took another little black cube from his cloak.

Han squeezed through the bars of the cage and hung on the outside. Snarling like a beast, Han dropped on Lorious. The cube tumbled from Lorious’s hand and landed at his feet.

Lorious reached back and grabbed Han by the shirt on his back. He smashed Han down onto the floor.

Han cried out in pain. Lorious bent down. His skeletal hand closed around Han’s little throat.

“You insect,” Lorious growled.

Han reached out and grabbed the smoking cube.

Lorious yanked Han up. “You dare to touch a king?”

“I dare,” Han gasped. “Eat this.” Han shoved the smoking cube inside Lorious’s chest.

Lorious screamed in rage as the box began to grow. His cries quickly turned to ones of pain as the cube expanded. He dropped Han, who scooted away.

Lorious’s ribs were filled with the growing mass. Bones cracked and then broke. His body suddenly blew apart. Pieces flew all over the room but his head and shoulders fell next to the throne.

The chains around Dean vanished. The smoking cube vanished before it hit the floor.

“Move,” Bravic and Oieda yelled as the cage disappeared and they fell.

Oieda landed on her feet, but Bravic landed on his side. Dean ran over and helped him up. Dean took the shield off his wrist and handed it back to Bravic. “That thing is awesome.”

“I did it,” Han exclaimed. “I killed Lorious.” He jumped in the air.

Dean walked over and picked his jacket up off the floor. “Way to go, buddy.” Dean held his hand out in a fist but Han raised an eyebrow. “It’s called a knuckle bump. Put your fist up.”

Han raised his fist, Dean tapped his fist to it, and then opened his hand.

“Boom.” Dean grinned as he wiggled his fingers. “That’s how you do it. Then you say ‘blowing it up.’”

Han grinned. “Neat.” Han raised his hand toward Oieda. When she raised her fist, Han tapped it and shouted, “Boom!”

The whole room shook.

“I didn’t do that,” Han squeaked.

Dean looked back at the throne.

Lorious’s upper body moved. His fingers frantically scrawled on the floor. Lorious raised a boney hand, picked up his fallen crown, and placed it back on his head. “You may have defeated me, son of Panadur, but this room will be your tomb now.” Lorious smashed his hand down.

Huge cracks appeared in the floor and pieces of the ceiling fell inward. Dean jumped to the side as an enormous section of the ceiling landed on Lorious and crushed him into the floor.

“Let’s get out of here before that happens to us,” Dean yelled.

“There’s a passage behind the chair. I saw it from the cage,” Oieda said.

They all raced up the stairs as the room crumbled behind them. As they dashed through a small opening behind the throne, they saw a dark, rough tunnel. The world seemed to shake all around them as they sped forward. They continued onward and upward. The ground rumbled and shook as they blindly raced forward.

Oieda fell. Dean helped her up, groaned in pain, and sank to one knee. She slipped her arm around his waist. “Lean on me,” she said as she helped him up.

Dust started to fill the passage.

Bravic was the first to reach a solid stone wall. “What a poorly worked secret door,” Bravic spat. “This is some of the worst workmanship I’ve ever seen. Notice that—”

“Just open the door,” all three cried.

Bravic reached up and pressed a place next to the wall. With a grinding of stone, a panel before them slowly turned. Before it opened completely, the four rushed through. They ran into a small cave, the gray outdoors visible ahead.

“We made it,” Dean gasped as he patted Oieda on the back.

Her face lit up as she took in the light.

They staggered forward. The rumbling from far below stopped but they kept walking until they reached the cave opening. It looked out over a long, barren, stone valley between two large cliffs. At the edge of the valley, nearly two thousand feet away, were scraggly bushes and trees. Farther on, they could see the peaks of three mountains. The one in the middle rose much higher than the others, disappearing into the dark clouds that swirled above it and creeped down its slope.

They collapsed at the mouth of the cave, eager to feel the fresh air on their faces. Dean lay down on the ground and stretched out. He was about to fall asleep when Bravic nudged him.

“The Mountain of Despair.” Bravic pointed to the tallest peak.

“It’s where Ahulata said Carimus is kept.” Dean pulled himself up on his elbows.

“Dean, are we going to get him out?” Han looked hopefully up at him.

“Han,” Oieda gently put her hand on his shoulder, “time is short. If we try to save Carimus, it might be too late to save anything else.”

“The Elf’s right, Dean,” Bravic said. “We can’t risk it. Not with just us.”

As Dean bowed his head in thought, Han blurted out, “But if we do get Carimus, he could help. He could fight Volsur with us.”

“Han’s right,” Dean agreed after a moment. “If we can get Carimus out, then maybe he can help us. Even if he can’t, it’ll let people see they can fight Volsur.”

“It’s too risky, and it will take too much time,” Oieda said as she planted her foot.

“Look, Bravic, you said the only way through the mountains was through the Mountain of Hope, right?”

Bravic nodded. “It will take two weeks to go around.”

“I don’t think we have that much time anymore. I just feel it.”

“Feel it?” Oieda rolled her eyes.

“You want to tell me you don’t go by feelings?” Dean’s jaw clenched.

“A leader uses wisdom to make decisions.” She stepped forward.

Dean spun on his heels and took two strides away. He stared out over the valley. His shoulders slumped, and he hung his head. “I never said I knew what to do. I don’t. Yeah, I’m flying by the seat of my pants, and I’m going with my gut. Panadur told me I knew what I should do in here.” He touched his chest. “Believe me, I wish I knew it up here,” he tapped his head, “but I don’t. I know it doesn’t make sense, but in here,” he touched his chest again, “that’s what I think we need to do. We need to try.”

“But what if we fail?” Oieda asked. A stillness followed her words.

“If we fail, we die.” Bravic tossed his hands up. “Once he makes up his mind, that’s it. We’d only stay up half the night arguing about it, so let’s just do it and get some sleep,” Bravic grumbled and made camp right where they stood.

Oieda turned and walked to look out on the valley. The others lay down to try to get what little sleep they could. Suddenly the ground vibrated, softly and slowly at first. The shaking grew more violent and a great rumble rose from the earth.

“Out of the cave!” Dean ordered and they all ran out.

Right in front of them, a geyser of steam erupted a hundred feet in the air. They watch the pillar of super-hot water hover for a moment like a giant pillar.

“Back in the cave,” Dean screamed.

The pillar of water collapsed back upon itself. A ring of steam blasted out from the geyser. The steam burned at them as they raced to the safety of the cave. Again and again, geysers erupted in a line across the valley, moving toward the far end. Within minutes, it was over. Steam rose from the valley floor and filled it with a cloud that slowly settled back into the ground.

“The Dragon’s Breath,” Bravic said in awe. “I never thought I would see it.”

“Dragon’s Breath? That name fits,” Dean said.

“My mother told me the story when I was a child,” Bravic continued. “She said the geysers were really the breath of a sleeping dragon.”

“It looks like it’s awake to me,” Han said with a little grin.

“The pressure builds like a wave,” Bravic explained. “They start going off here and then all the way over there.” He pointed toward the end of the valley.

Dean peered across the field. “How often do they go off?”

“I don’t know. We can wait a while to see,” Bravic said.

“I guess that’s our only choice.” Dean moved over and leaned against the wall. “We have to get across it to get out of here.”

“I’m glad you said that.” Han sighed as he sat down. “I didn’t want to try to run across that thing without knowing when it was going to breathe again.”

“Neither would I, Han.” Oieda laughed as she sat down next to him.

As the four waited, they all fell asleep. Fifteen minutes later, just as Dean was closing his eyes, the ground trembled again. The rumble soon grew into a roar. The steam hissed into the air again, nearly touching the tops of the high cliffs on either side.

“Fifteen minutes.” Oieda rubbed her eyes.

Dean rose to his feet. “We can make it across there in fifteen minutes, no problem.”

“We don’t know if it’s going to be fifteen minutes, though. One test doesn’t mean they all will be at the same interval,” Bravic explained.

Han gulped. “We could still have been cooked. I’d listen to him, Dean.”

“I’m going to. We’ll hang out awhile. We need sleep anyway.”

The four settled back down and watched the silent valley. As Dean scanned the ground, a shadow drew his attention to the sky. He gazed at the gray clouds and, circling into view, were many dark forms.

“Stupid Tarlugs,” Dean growled in rage as he leaped to his feet. “We have to do something about those things.”

“They’ll never leave us alone.” Han threw a stone against the wall.

“They won’t unless we do something about them. Oieda, how much time before the dragon breathes again?” Dean asked.

“About five minutes. Why?”

Bravic moved to stand in front of Dean. “What are you thinking?”

“Those things aren’t going to get off our backs unless we get them off. We can’t fight them because there are way too many of them. But right now they’re flying right over our heads. They’re over the Dragon’s Breath. If I can get them to come after me, and I time it right, they’ll get fried in one major way.” Dean grinned coldly.

“And if you time it wrong?” Oieda asked as she, too, blocked Dean.

“Dean,” Han looked up at the sky, “let me go. You’re too valuable.”

“Don’t give me that. You’re just as valuable as me. Besides, I’m the fastest. Does anyone care to dispute the fact that speed is going to give whoever goes out there the best chance?” Dean asked daringly. “Time’s a wasting. I have to do it now.”

“I’ll go.” Oieda started to unstrap her armor.

“No. There’s no time.” Dean swung his arms and stretched his legs.

“Wait until the next cycle,” Oieda begged.

“Then they’ll know it’s happening. Don’t worry about it.” Dean pointed his thumb at himself. “You guys want to see fast? I’m going to move at light speed, mach five.”

Without looking back, Dean raced outside the cave. He gazed up at the many dark shapes that circled above the cliff. He jogged forward and waved his hands in the air as he yelled. “You stupid Tarlugs,” he bellowed as he skipped backward. “I want to invite you to my little cookout, you dumb flying Krulgs!” He broke into a little trot. “Come on!”

One Tarlug started to hover in place. It lifted its spear and pointed down at Dean.