“I’m glad I didn’t slash the minotaur,” Warren said to Kendra.
“I saw you as a goblin,” Kendra said.
“Who stabbed me?” Tanu asked, hand over a wound on his thigh.
“Sorry,” Warren said, wincing. “I didn’t catch on at first. You seemed like a werehyena.”
“Where is Pioleen?” Tanu asked, dabbing some goo onto the injury, then hastily wrapping a bandage around it.
Kendra scanned the room. Though the door that would take them onward remained closed, the door they had entered through stood open. The little dragon no longer splashed in her puddle.
“On the wall!” Raxtus exclaimed.
Looking higher on the wall of the cavern, Kendra saw the little dragon climbing like a lizard, perhaps thirty feet up. She wondered whether Pioleen’s wings worked, or if this was just more eccentric behavior.
“A gorilla told me it would squash us,” Tanu said.
“After counting to thirty,” Raxtus added.
“Quick, Kendra, take her out,” Warren urged.
Kendra drew the bowstring back and aimed. “Twenty.”
When she released the string, twenty arrows shot toward Pioleen. At the same time, a piece of the ceiling broke off, falling to intercept the swarm of arrows before they reached the dragon.
Thirty. Time’s up, Kendra heard in her mind.
The rock wall where Pioleen climbed bulged outward, becoming the perfectly sculpted head of a huge dragon. Pioleen perched on the head as the rest of the dragon emerged from the stone wall, complete with four legs, a pair of wings, and a long tail, detailed down to the texture of each individual scale.
Warren guzzled his potion and Kendra backed away as the stone dragon stalked toward them. The dragon stomped on Warren, mashing him cartoonishly flat, but before the living statue reached Kendra, claws gripped her from behind and swung her into the air. Raxtus carried her beyond the reach of gaping jaws that bristled with rows of stone teeth.
“Try again,” Raxtus urged, flying up toward the shadowy ceiling. “More arrows.”
Pioleen remained atop the stone dragon’s head, crouching low, wings spread wide. It seemed apparent the little dragon was controlling the larger one. Trying to keep her bow steady despite gliding high in the air, Kendra pulled back the string and whispered, “one hundred.”
When she released, a deluge of arrows hissed toward their target, but the dragon simply raised a wing like a stone shield, and the projectiles pinged away harmlessly. The stone dragon now pursued Tanu, who had evidently taken another speed potion, judging from how swiftly he evaded the pounding claws and snapping teeth.
Warren had peeled himself up from the floor and was starting to regain his shape, though for the moment much of his body remained disgustingly flat. He pawed at his fallen sword with flimsy fingers.
“What should we do, Raxtus?” Kendra asked.
“I’m really not sure,” Raxtus replied. “This stone dragon is a heavyweight, and who knows what other magic Pioleen might be ready to use? It might be best if I fly you out of here.”
Raxtus veered abruptly as several stalactites fell from the ceiling, barely missing them. He swerved again as more stones tumbled from above.
“We can’t give up,” Kendra said. “There has to be a way. Can you get in for a closer shot? One that it can’t block?”
“I can try,” Raxtus said, wheeling and diving.
Down below, a barefoot woman dashed into the room, tall and lithe, wearing a dark green gown and carrying a sword in each hand. The stone dragon swiped at her with its tail, but she nimbly jumped over the attack and fleetly raced toward the rear of the dragon. Pine cones nested in her dark braids.
“Cyllia,” Kendra said. “The hamadryad.”
Tanu continued to dodge the front claws of the dragon, and Warren clambered clumsily to his feet, sword in hand. As Raxtus swooped near the stone dragon, Kendra pulled back her bowstring again. “Twenty,” she whispered.
The flock of arrows flew, but the stone dragon tipped its head up and opened its mouth wide, and they sailed inside. Then the ferocious head shot toward Kendra and Raxtus, missing only thanks to a spiraling turn that made Kendra’s head swim.
As Raxtus climbed higher, Kendra saw Cyllia sprinting up the back of the stone dragon, following the spine. The dragon bucked and twisted, but she continued at an astonishing pace and remained surefooted. By the time she neared the base of the neck, the head of the stone dragon swiveled around and darted downward to bite her. Cyllia not only dodged the strike but leaped onto the head, driving one sword through the little dragon and decapitating it with the other.
The stone dragon instantly became rigid. As the immobilized dragon started to tip, Raxtus dove. Waiting until the last instant, Cyllia sprang from the head, and Raxtus snatched her with his hind legs. When the stone dragon struck the cavern floor, the neck broke off, as did a wing. After the impact, the stone dragon remained motionless.
Raxtus glided Kendra and Cyllia to the floor, then raced over to the small corpse of Pioleen and ate it in a single bite. “Just to be sure,” Raxtus explained after swallowing. “Plus, bragging rights.”
“Thank you,” Kendra told Cyllia, amazed by the height of the hamadryad up close. Head and shoulders above Tanu, she must have been nearly eight feet tall.
“I am assigned to protect you,” the graceful woman replied. Her arms looked too slender to casually wield such long swords. After swishing them through the air, presumably to dispose of flesh and gore, she sheathed them.
“You’ll stay with us until we get the Harp?” Kendra asked.
“I will serve you for as long as I am needed,” Cyllia said.
“Our chances just went up,” Warren said, his speech slurred, tottering toward them. “Did you see a woman in the previous room?” he asked the hamadryad.
“Vanessa encouraged me to hurry,” Cyllia said.
“Have you been in many fights?” Kendra asked.
The hamadryad smiled. “This was my first battle. Much like my tree, I am newly born. But I
