Nick and Urs jumped onto the box seat. Nick snapped the reins.
When they made it to the ring road, he glanced up at the mountainside. The tharuk was a furlong below dog rock. Marlies was nowhere to be seen, but she was up there, all right. She’d been wearing one of Master Giddi’s mage cloaks, which helped her blend in with her surroundings.
“Pa, look.” Urs pointed.
Marlies appeared, just below the tunnel.
The tharuk surged upward.
Nick breathed a sigh of relief. That hadn’t been an accident. Marlies had deliberately shown herself, luring the tracker on to buy his family time to escape. He touched his scar. He owed her his life—again.
§
Marlies ran into the tunnel. Not wasting precious moments to let her eyes adjust, she patted the right wall until she found the alcove, and went inside. There were Nick’s supplies. But, from here, with light glaring from the cave mouth, she wouldn’t see her enemy well.
She moved down the tunnel, finding another alcove. Here, she’d be able to see the tharuk in the dim without blinding herself. Marlies dumped her rucksack, nocked her bow and waited.
A faint scrape sounded outside the tunnel. Goosebumps skimmed her arms. It was coming.
If only Hans were here, he’d use his dragon sight to look through the rock, and mind-meld so she could see. Heart thumping, Marlies drew back her bowstring.
Another scrape. The light at the entrance was blotted out for a moment. There was a snuffle. The beast was inside, hovering around the cave entrance. It went straight to the first alcove. She’d taken freshweed in the forest, so it couldn’t have scented her. Had Nick betrayed her? As she positioned her bow, the end scraped the wall. The tharuk tensed, then charged.
Shards, did it have night vision?
Marlies let an arrow fly. It bounced off the beast’s armored vest. Too low. She nocked again and aimed at its forehead. The tharuk instinctively ducked and the arrow hit its arm.
The beast bellowed, its roars reverberating in the tunnel. The tracker lunged, claws out, its rot smothering her. Dropping her bow, Marlies drew her sword. As the tracker lunged again, she rammed the sword at its belly. But the sword bounced off armor.
Marlies struck again, a glancing blow off the monster’s neck. The tharuk swiped, just missing her face. She danced out of reach. This couldn’t go on forever—sooner or later it would kill her. Her foot hit the wall behind her. Trapped!
“Stupid human,” the tharuk gloated. “I got you now.”
Marlies leaped toward the beast, taking it by surprise, and rammed her sword upward into the soft flesh under its chin. The beast staggered, clutching at her blade. Using her weight, she drove the sword into its skull. She let go, kicking the beast in the stomach, and it fell, arms flailing, onto the stone. The tharuk twitched a few times, then lay still. Marlies palmed her dagger and leaned against the wall, catching her breath, waiting to see if it moved.
She counted a hundred heartbeats, then placed her foot on the beast’s shoulder to tug her sword free. Slick with her enemy’s blood, her boot slipped a little. It was dead, all right. After cleaning her sword on the beast’s fur, she dragged the tracker into the alcove and grabbed her rucksack and bow, taking a moment to put a few of the beast’s poisoned arrows into her quiver. She had to get a move on.
Nipping along to Nick’s alcove, she looked inside and found food, water, and, of all the luck, dragon’s breath, a rare mountain flower. When shaken, the petals emitted a soft glow. Thank the Egg, Nick was resourceful. She put half a dozen vials in her rucksack, and taking some twine, shook a vial, then bound it to her forehead. Tucking a couple of dried apples in her pockets, she took a swig of water from one of Nick’s waterskins.
As she stepped out of Nick’s alcove, rustling wings filled the tunnel. Bats? No, birds, from outside. Crows cawed, diving at her, talons out, sharp beaks pecking at her face. Grabbing her sword, Marlies swung it in an arc, knocking a bird to the ground. She yelled, swinging wildly and stomping.
The birds left in a swarm, dark shadows against the light as they fled.
Her dragon’s breath light casting sinister shapes on the wall, Marlies ran deeper into the tunnel. It was only a matter of time before those crows reported her presence to other tharuks, or even to Zens himself.
Trapped
Marlies jammed the toe of her boot into a crevice and pulled. A few more handholds and she’d be out of this endless vertical shaft. Thank the Egg, she’d kept up her training, often journeying into the Grande Alps to keep her mountaineering skills sharp. Half the reason they’d trained Tomaaz and Ezaara in combat and archery was to keep their own skills honed—and because one day, she and Hans had hoped to ride their dragons with their family at their sides.
Mind you, she’d never see Liesar again if she lost her grip and plummeted to the bottom of this chimney. And it had been years. Every day she and Hans had lived in Lush Valley, they’d missed their dragons, trying to bury their grief in Lush Valley life. It had never been enough.
Marlies clambered out and sat, legs dangling over the black hole. Peering down, her light only illuminated a tiny part of what she’d just climbed. She sipped water and munched on flatbread and dried beef. It’d been four days since Ezaara had disappeared from Lush Valley, so she’d have arrived at Dragons’ Hold yesterday. How was she finding it? Shards, she should
