“Perhaps,” Rafe agreed. “All right, nothing to be done for it. It’ll just take a little more work to reach them.”
Turning back to the dragon’s chest, Rafe sank his sword into another of the wounds and then moved the blade through dragon flesh in a straight line to his first entry point. Turning the blade, he connected the third wound to the first two and then completed the triangle, ending back up where he had started. He traced the triangle once more with his blade and then pulled the blade free. He shook it once and the few bits of flesh and frozen blood that had clung to its spelled steel flew free.
“Hold this,” Rafe said and I took the offered ivory handle.
Getting a grip on the edge of the cuts with his gloved hands, Rafe gave a slow pull and a triangular piece of meat slid from the dragon’s chest. He dropped it to the concrete, leaned in, and studied the cavity.
“So much for no one knowing we were here,” I said, eyeing the large hole.
“Couldn’t be helped,” Rafe said. “Damn, look at this.”
I stepped closer and Rafe moved aside to let me peer into the dragon’s chest. A white rib, as big around as my thigh, gleamed at the bottom of the cavity. It took me a moment to figure out what Rafe had wanted me to see, but then I saw three separate x-shaped cuts in the rib. The three cuts overlapped.
I turned to face Rafe. He had a stupid grin on his face. “What’s that mean?” I asked, referring to both his grin and the overlapping marks of my bolts.
“Remember that blessing Joe gave you?”
I nodded. The morning of the fight in the Garden of the Gods, Joe Leatherneck had placed a hand on my hand and said a brief prayer in his native language. I’d felt energy release, indicating that he’d cast some type of spell. Rafe had told me then that it was a shaman’s blessing.
“You remember I also told you that when a powerful shaman such as Joe blessed someone you couldn’t tell what form the blessing would take?”
“Yeah, I remember. What’s that got to do with my shots?”
“One of the forms I’ve seen his blessing take is to affect the receivers luck. I think that’s what he did for you. I think his blessing has made it impossible for you to miss what you aim at.”
“You don’t think I could have just been that good?” I asked, not really believing I could have put those three shots that close together if I’d been standing at the dragon’s feet.
Rafe grinned again. “You might be good, but those bolts are converging. How much would you bet me that we find the three of them stacked on top of each other?”
I glanced back toward the cavity and shook my head. “No bet. So, Joe made me into William Tell? How long will his blessing last?”
“That, I can’t say. It might already have faded or it might last for years. You can’t tell with luck magic,” Rafe said.
Still studying the cavity, I said, “So how deep do you think those bolts went?”
“I’d guess they all reached the damn thing’s heart.”
I snapped around. “Seriously? That’s got to be five or six feet inside this monster’s chest.”
“Yeah, a lot deeper than I had expected. So unless you want to start hacking away at its chest, I’m going to have to try something else.”
I looked at the blade I held. It was about thirty odd inches long. To cut deep enough to reach the dragon’s heart I’d have to be buried inside its flesh. I’m not usually squeamish, but the thought of cutting a hole deep enough for me to crawl in and reach my bolts was turning my stomach.
“I think I’d prefer some other method, if that’s okay with you.”
Rafe nodded. “I think I can make it a little less messy. Step back and give me room to work.”
I complied, moving a few feet behind Rafe as I watched to see what he’d do. He pushed his sleeves up to his elbows, baring both forearms. I’d only seen him do that once before. He snapped his forearms together and I felt a surge of power. A tattoo glowed red beneath the flesh of his arms and a wave of incredible energy pulsed out. The wave struck the dragon. It split flesh and bone back away from its path. A few seconds passed before Rafe darkened the tat.
Where the thirty-inch deep cavity had been was now an enormous spit that went from the floor up to the top of the dragon’s chest. The opening was wide enough to walk through.
Rafe pushed his sleeves down and held out his hand. I handed him his sword.
“Your turn,” Rafe said.
I looked at the cleft in the dragon’s chest and frowned. I swallowed sudden bile. “Damn.”
Rafe gave me a light pat on my back. “You can do it.”
I wrinkled up my face and swallowed again. “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I want to.”
“Just think of it as a giant cow,” Rafe said.
“You aren’t helping.”
He gave me a nudge and I reluctantly stepped forward. Looking down, I saw that the concrete floor was also cracked, but at least it wasn’t so wide that I couldn’t walk over it. I took another step and was inside the dragon’s flesh. The broken ends of ribs appeared white in the dark red flesh of its muscles. The cleft narrowed after the foot thick
