The Mountain of Fire loomed on the horizon, jutting out of the earth, its summit afire with reddish-orange light as though it were some kind of doorway to the depths of hell itself. The barren wasteland surrounding the mountain was pockmarked with foothills and vague trails, black dirt rich with nutrients but left to rest uselessly.
“If they’d farm their own soil, they’d have better crops that we do,” Danny had grumbled. “They wouldn’t need to raid.”
Meg crouched behind a large boulder protruding awkwardly from the mountainside and inhaled deeply the scent of brimstone and sulfur and tar and dust. If hell had a scent, she imagined this would be it. She’d always suspected that Centaur Mount wasn’t a very pleasant place. The Centaurs weren’t pleasant, so it would make sense that their mountain matched their temperaments. But this was a bit more extreme than she’d expected.
She swallowed and clutched the shimmering medallion hanging around her neck. The cold crystal sparkled against the skin of her palm, tingling like life creeping back into a numb limb.
Velanna had given her the Kirana. The ancient weapon and heritage of Velanna’s family was now hers to use to stop the spread of Tiron’s Shadow.
The scurrying pitter-patter of rocks falling drew her gaze. Velanna gracefully moved toward her on the incline, her pale face pinched and drawn. Mickey hung behind her, arm offered in case Velanna needed it.
She paused, one foot planted higher on the incline than the other. “We must continue,” she said. “If you are able, we should resume our ascent.”
Meg exchanged a look with Mickey, who smiled and nodded, and they both stood. Further down the mountainside, Jim and Danny worked together to climb toward them. Tzaitel took up the rear, scowling and radiating her general unfriendliness.
Why had she even come? Was she just there to make everyone uncomfortable? She’d been unpleasant enough before she’d taken out her frustrations on Velanna, and now it was like a wall had been constructed between mother and daughter. They wouldn’t even look at each other.
It was a great sense of teamwork they were carrying into battle.
They continued the trek up the mountain in silence, the only sound the mournful wind wailing across the barren landscape. At least, it was the only sound until they approached the gaping mouth of a cave on the side of the mountain.
The summit of the mountain reached much further into the sky, its jagged peak scraping at the clouds as they passed, but their goal was the yawning hole near the top from which black smoke belched into the sky. A thick stone ledge jutted out from the mountain like a tongue, and the closer they came to it, the more clearly Meg could hear voices.
Was that—chanting?
She strained her ears, trying to make out words, but the jumble of interlapping voices made it impossible to translate. Jim pressed into the smooth stone next to her, squinting his eyes as he listened intently.
“I don’t—really know that,” he muttered. “It sounds familiar, but I can’t catch the actual words.”
“Surely we’re going to run into a language you haven’t studied,” Meg smiled. “This isn’t Terran, you know.”
Jim shrugged, still listening. “All language has roots, Meg. It all started somewhere.”
“Yeah, but are you sure they all came from the same root?” Danny peeked over Jim’s shoulder. “I’m pretty sure Terran trees and Centaur trees would be enemies.”
“Enemy trees?” Mickey smirked.
Danny’s grin widened. “Yeah. They’re barking mad at each other.”
Meg rested her brow on the warm stone and fought the urge to smack him. Here they were, perched below a ledge that led to an entire nest of murderous Centaurs, and Danny was cracking jokes about trees.
Why can’t he handle stress like a normal person?
Mickey glared at him. “You’re hysterical.”
“I’m just going out on a limb here.” Danny shrugged, still grinning.
Jim echoed his grin. “You need to branch out, Danny.”
“Oh, no, not you too,” Mickey groaned.
“I’m a language nerd.” Jim blushed. “I can’t resist a good pun.”
“Come on, cuz.” Danny leaned closer to Mickey. “Leaf him alone.”
Mickey leveled a blank glare at him. “You keep that up, I’m going to stab you.”
“Okay, okay.” Meg raised her head. “Enough. We can crack jokes later.” She climbed up a bit further so she could poke her head over the ledge.
The ledge led into the mountain where a steady stream of smoke and sulfur puffed into the air. The entire chamber beyond glowed with a reddish-gold light, and about a dozen red-cloaked Centaurs stood around the center of the chamber. From this vantage point, she couldn’t see much more than that.
“Margaret,” Velanna hissed. “Do not give away our position.”
Meg bit the inside of her cheek and settled back down to the stone.
“Did you see anything?” Jim asked.
“Just about a dozen of them,” Meg said. “All wearing weird red cloaks.”
“Are they the ones making that sound?” Mickey tilted her head. “Sounds like chanting.”
“Are you certain there are no more?” Velanna crept up behind where Meg clung to the skin of the mountain. “Just the twelve priests?”
Meg glanced down at her. “They’re priests?”
“You said they wear red.” Velanna scowled up at her. “Yes?”
“Yes.”
“They are the Priests of Munga-wa-Damu, then.”
“Geshundeit.” Jim nodded. “Hold on.” He carefully crept forward and lifted his head above the ledge, gazing around the chamber as carefully as he could. His cautious, slow motions were purposeful and confident, especially for someone who was usually so clumsy.
He settled back down to his position again with his lower lip caught between his teeth. “I can’t really see too much.” He glanced at Meg. “Just the red Centaur guys and a whole lot of stone.”
Meg pressed her brow into the rock again and took another breath, the overwhelming odor of the sulfur making her eyes water. “We need a plan.”
The rocks on Meg’s left shifted, and Tzaitel crawled up next to her. She barred her teeth, green eyes sparking. “We cannot stay here. We are exposed.”
Meg blinked at her. “Well, they haven’t seen us yet.”
“Yet,” Tzaitel hissed. “And this position is not strategic.”
“We’re hidden.” Danny poked his head over Meg’s shoulder. “Seems pretty strategic to me.”
“They have the high ground,” Tzaitel snapped. “All they must do is walk to the ledge, and they will discover us. And we will be helpless.”
Mickey started to respond, and Meg set her hand on her elbow. “Tzaitel, do you have a plan?”
Tzaitel grunted. “I see a way to get inside. Follow me.”
She crawled away, and Meg frowned at her back. Danny made another face.
“Is it okay if I don’t wanna?”
Meg batted his ball cap’s brim. “Come on.”
“Is going inside really the best idea?” Jim grimaced.
“Come on, Jim,” Mickey sneered. “It’s strategic.”
Jim scowled as he crawled after them. “You keep using that word. It doesn’t mean what you think it means.”
Tzaitel led them under the ledge to a rough hewn stairwell cut into the side of the mountain. She levered herself onto it and pressed herself into the mountain wall, inching up the steps while the rest of them made their way onto the steps. Jim helped Velanna get to her feet.
“Tzaitel,” Meg hissed after her. “Wait up.”
Tzaitel didn’t respond and didn’t wait.
Meg reached behind herself to feel the borrowed energy saber in the hilt at her lower back. They weren’t getting out of this without a fight. She knew that. But it would be really great if they could at least get into the mountain and look around before they alerted everyone to their presence.
She made sure that Danny, Jim, Mickey, and Velanna had made it onto the steps before she followed Tzaitel inside.
The path led around the side of the ledge and into the mountain chamber through a narrow corridor of carved stone. It opened up into a massive amphitheater of lava rock with a giant jagged hole at its center, around which the red-cloaked Centaur priests chanted and tossed bundles of dried herbs and flowers.
Tzaitel hovered in the doorway of the corridor, saber hilt already in her hand, fingers clutching it tightly. Meg knelt at her feet and peered around her.
Still, even though much of the chamber was now visible, there were hundreds of nooks and crannies where soldiers could be hiding. They couldn’t just attack without knowing where the possible attacks could come from. Meg winced at a burning sensation in her chest and forced the discomfort away. She needed to focus.
Jim knelt next to her and released long, shaking breath. “Holy Temple of Doom, Batman.”
Meg glanced at him. Jim said the strangest things.
“What?”
“Who am I kidding?” He sagged against the boulder that concealed them. “This is way worse than the Temple of Doom.”
In a fluttering of robes and a heavy sigh of exhaustion, Velanna pressed into the wall on the opposite side of the corridor. “James, your assessments are confusing.”
“But they’re not wrong,” Jim mumbled.
Danny and Mickey knelt toward the back of the corridor, tensed and ready to move. Both Tzaitel and Velanna had their sabers ready to ignite. Jim held his handgun.
They just needed to do it. Rush in. Take the priests down. Demand to be taken to Jenny and Barb.
God, let them be alive. Meg shut her eyes as she pulled out her saber hilt. Let them still be alive.
The burning in her chest grew stronger. What was it? Was something biting her?
She stood and met Tzaitel’s gaze. “Got a plan?”
“I count twelve priests,” Tzaitel said. “Eliminate all but one, and perhaps he will give us the information we require.”
“Wow, that’s dark,” Danny grunted.
Tzaitel glared at him. “Perhaps you have a better solution, Daniel?”
“We could, I don’t know, sneak around and search the place.” Danny glared back. “And not kill anybody.”
“That is a highly unlikely scenario, Daniel.” Velanna pulled off her headscarf and used it to tie back her hair.
“I’m good with highly unlikely,” Danny said.
Sharp, jagged pain lanced through Meg’s chest, and she pressed her hand against her collarbones with a groan.
“Margaret?” Tzaitel grabbed her shoulder.
The corridor spun as the tingling, burning sensation against her chest narrowed to the piercing pain of an ice pick stabbing into her. Meg pulled her hand away from her heart, Velanna’s medallion coming with her. The pain in her chest didn’t dull, and the light sparkling at the heart of the Kirana crystal was almost too bright for her to look at.
“Margaret, what is wrong?” Velanna snapped.
“Meg, what is it?” Jim touched her knee.
What was wrong with her? What was wrong with them? Didn’t they see how brightly the light in the crystal was shining? Couldn’t everyone see it? She couldn’t stare directly at it without it sending shockwaves of pain through her.
A loud bugle call rattled the air of the mountain, and the chanting priests stopped swaying and throwing their incense into the volcano.
“Mother?” Tzaitel looked toward her.
Velanna glanced right and left, expression blank but growing rapidly concerned. In moments, it wasn’t just priests in the chamber. Dozens of more Centaur guards joined them, all bearing tehnyga pulse canons.
The burning hadn’t stopped.
Meg tried to force the pain away, to focus on the events around them rapidly spinning out of control. She clenched her saber hilt in her hands. They should have moved quicker. They should have gone when Tzaitel said. They might have known where Barb and Jenny were by now, but she had hesitated.
So much for her great leadership.
“Oh, rats.” Danny snarled behind them.
Meg spun to face her brother and froze as he and Mickey backed up into the corridor with their hands raised. Behind them, two tehnyga-wielding Centaurs came into view.
Tzaitel hissed something profane under her breath and tucked her hilt back into her robes as she raised her hands.
Meg slid her saber home as well and mimicked her adoptive sister.
A loud, angry voice rattled close air inside the corridor, shouting in the harsh guttural dialect of the Centaurs when a familiar four-legged form came into view.
T’pau.
Meg clenched her teeth as the burly, red-faced Centaur captain towered over them with a devilish smirk.
“Well, well, well.” He beamed at them with crooked yellow teeth and a twisted expression, only made more horrific by his bleeding right eye socket. “Look who’s come to the rescue.”