This place stinks.
Barb scrubbed her knuckles under her nose and blinked the stinging tears back as a wave of brimstone washed over her. She thought she’d left the burning sulfur smell of Centaur Mount behind her, yet here they were again. And she’d been the one to beg them to return.
What was I thinking?
Barb pressed the back of her head into the jagged rock wall in the corridor that lead to the magma chamber. Even here, the heat from the lava boiling below was overwhelming. How had she and Jenny made it out of this alive?
But there was no time to think about that. She could reminisce over their narrow escape as frequently as she wanted once they had gotten everyone else to safety. Above them, the entire mountain had gone crazy. Dragons screaming. Centaurs shouting. Complete and utter chaos. And then, it had just gone silent, with only the drone of Tiron’s voice barely audible above the roaring of the lava below.
She wasn’t going to be able to hear. She’d parked herself in her position with the hopes of being able to listen in on whatever was happening, but it was too far away.
Rocks skittered behind her, and she glanced back into the corridor where Jenny hurried toward her.
Jenny Mitchell. Shara-Yodha.
What on earth?
Jenny was a yodha? How had that even happened? Well, she knew how it had happened. She’d survived mostly on account of it. Still, the moniker didn’t exactly sit on Jenny’s slender shoulders as naturally as it might have, not as long as she skipped everywhere instead of walking.
Shara-Yodha, the terrifying archer of the forest, who wears poofy pastel skirts with flowers in her hair, will shoot her arrows through your eyeballs. And her pastries are to die for.
Freaking Mitchells, man. They were all extraordinary. She wasn’t sure whether to be excited or terrified at discovering what made Danny unique, because he was the one she knew the least. But he was still a Mitchell, so there had to be something special about him, other than the fact that he’d survived the female members of his family with some modicum of sanity remaining.
Jenny reached her and took her arm. “Are you okay?”
“Would you stop?”
Jenny pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows. “You were a lot more polite when your kidneys were hanging out.”
“I thought it was my spleen.”
Jenny rolled her eyes. “You’re going to push yourself too hard if you aren’t careful.” She poked at the bandages around Barb’s waist. “Why are you so stubborn?”
“Why are you so annoying?” Barb batted her hand away. “Knock it off. We have bigger problems.” She tilted her head toward the sudden silence at the top of the magma chamber. “I can’t hear anything.”
Jenny looked around her.
“It was mad chaos up there for a little while, and now it’s just gone silent. I heard Tiron, but now?” Barb sighed. “I’m getting nervous, Jenny.”
“The Yodha sent a scout.” Jenny stepped back. “They found another way in so we don’t have to climb up the magma chamber.”
“Thank God.”
“And they brought news.” Jenny started down the corridor. “Come on. We have to hurry.”
Barb pushed off the wall and followed her. The pain in her ribs still throbbed, and the new shoes and bandages on her feet did little to mask the stinging sharpness in every step. But the burning fever was gone, and the all-consuming agony of the gaja’s venom had faded to the background of her senses.
She wasn’t at the top of her game, but she was enough to make a difference.
Jenny led her back down the narrow lava tube to a cross section of tunnels where three armored Yodha waited.
“Shara. Taylor-Woman.” Judtha met them, his eyes squinted in tension. “I sent a scout ahead who has been watching the battle in the main chamber. The news is not good.”
“Can we move and talk?” Barb pointed down the corridor.
“That would be best.” Judtha bowed again. He started up a lava tube with a steep incline.
Jenny followed him, and Barb stayed on her heels. Judtha’s voice echoed a bit in the tube but not enough to be unclear.
“We were unable to intercept Sathi-Jana and her friends before they were captured by the Centaurs.”
Jenny looked over her shoulder. “Sathi-Jana is Meg.”
Barb nodded. “Do we know what happened up there? There was a lot of noise.”
Judtha didn’t look back, but he made a grunting noise. “The infant gajas were released somehow. It was unfortunate, but it did provide enough of a distraction for Sathi-Jana and her force to fight to freedom. But the Centaur Tiron released the Shadow again.”
Judtha stopped and finally made eye contact with both of them.
“There is no defense against it. It swallowed them all, and we suspect that the Centaur Lord will sacrifice them all to the volcano.”
Barb sighed heavily.
Well, they’d need to do something about that, because there was no way Jim could climb out of a volcano. She had enough trouble getting him to crawl out of bed in the mornings.
“What is it with this Centaur and throwing people in volcanoes?” Jenny wailed. “Doesn’t that get old after a while?”
Barb rolled her eyes. “So, what’s the plan?”
Judtha crooked his finger and started walking again. They followed him up the incline and through another series of lava tubes, some more steeply tilted than others. By the time he stopped again, Barb was breathing hard.
The heat changed the higher they climbed. It was still hot and still and uncomfortable, but it wasn’t so overwhelming. Barb knelt as the tunnel closed in too tightly for her to stand up straight.
“From what we have been able to gather,” Judtha said quietly, “Kadima, Sathi-Jana, and all the others have been taken prisoner. The Centaur Lord has the Shadow. And there are many Centaurs yet alive, along with at least one full-grown of his dragons.”
Jenny sagged, letting her head hang, and Barb groaned.
“Great,” Barb said. “I don’t like the sound of those odds.”
“No, indeed.” Judtha shook his head, the fur on his face shifting in the dimness of the tunnel. “I do not believe this is a battle we can win.”
Barb didn’t know much about Centaurs or Josharons, but she knew enough about strategy to recognize when she was outgunned.
“We don’t need to win,” Jenny said.
Barb glanced down at her.
Jenny lifted her head. “Winning isn’t the point.”
Judtha scowled at her.
Jenny sighed. “Within the main chamber, there are many ledges. Nooks and crannies where archers can stand.” Jenny faced Judtha with an unyielding stare. “Place your archers above, in those ledges where the Centaur weapons can’t reach. Have them shoot as many Centaurs as they can.”
“The dragon is impervious to our arrows.”
“Don’t worry about the dragon.”
“And the Shadow?”
“If you keep your distance, it won’t get you.” Barb set her hand on Jenny’s shoulder. “Just stay away from it, and it won’t affect you.”
Jenny smiled at her and then turned back to Judtha. “Get to the ledges above the audience chamber. Take aim. We’ll give you a signal when we are in position. On our signal, you start shooting.”
Judtha kept scowling.
“You’re right, Judtha,” Barb said. “We can’t win. But we can help, and maybe together all of us can win. We just have to give Meg and others a fighting chance.”
Judtha’s expression didn’t change. “Your strategy is to sacrifice my brothers and sisters so that your friends may have a chance to escape?”
Barb held his gaze. “Our strategy,” she said sharply, “is to create a distraction from a distance so that your brothers and sisters experience the least amount of risk, while we go to rescue our brothers and sisters.” She arched her eyebrows. “Work for you?”
Jenny snickered, and slowly, Judtha began to smile.
“Taylor-Woman, you are fierce.”
“Thank you.”
“Perhaps, we will name you too.”
Barb laughed a little. “Whatever floats your boat, Judtha. Name me later.”
Judtha chuckled and turned, making hand signals to the yodha in the tunnels behind them. “Your strategy matches the one we had conceived, Shara-yodha.” He nodded at her. “We will take aim from the heights. You and Taylor-Woman, do what you can below. Perhaps if we are able to free Kadima and Sathi-Jana, we may yet escape with our lives.”
Jenny held out her arm, and Judtha seized it.
“Be brave, Judtha,” she said.
He nodded. “And you, my sister.” He glanced at Barb. “And you, Taylor-Woman. Live, if you would. I believe you could be a powerful warrior with more training.”
“Your confidence is astounding,” Barb said dryly.
Judtha smirked and scurried away in a blur of black fur and silvery claws.
Jenny tucked her arm through Barb’s elbow, and they continued through the tunnels together, hunched over side by side.
“What are doing, Jenny?” Barb asked.
Jenny let loose a nervous giggle. “We’re going to go stab a Centaur or two. I thought you’d be excited.”
“That’s one word for it.”
They wove through the tunnels, the walls growing narrower and narrower until it emptied into a much larger corridor. Barb poked her head out and glanced one way and then another. It was empty, so she crawled out into it and stood up, cracking her back and rolling her shoulders.
Loud roars of laughter and cheering were obvious now, reverberating up and down the corridor. Orange light spilled out of the doorway at the far end of the hall.
Jenny followed and tip-toed to toward it. She peered around the corner and snapped back, rigid, eyes wide. She pointed over her shoulder and mouthed something Barb couldn’t translate. Barb braced herself on the wall over Jenny’s shoulder and peered around the corner.
On the other side, the main audience chamber with the lava pit spread out before them. Centaurs lined the walls, focused solely on something happening at the very center of the chamber. The mezzanine level squirmed with Centaurs as well.
Jenny crept around the corner and padded in the shadows cast by the overhead mezzanine through the perimeter walkway that surrounded the main audience chamber. Barb followed her, barely breathing as they slid behind an army of Centaur backsides. They were all so focused on whatever was happening before them that they didn’t even think about looking over their shoulders.
Tiron kept droning on about something, but now his words were clearer.
“At last, my brothers!” The Centaur Lord raised his voice in triumph. “We possess both Light and Shadow!”
Barb jumped slightly as the entire chamber erupted in shouts of joy. Jenny paused and glanced back at her with her brow furrowed.
A strange worried feeling began knotting in Barb’s stomach. Tiron had been desperately searching for something he called the Light. Did he have it? Had he found it? He thought he had. He’d been certain that Velanna had it, and now Velanna was in his grasp.
A quiet voice answered him.
Jenny stiffened and clutched her fist to her collarbones as she strained to see. Barb couldn’t make out the words, but she’d recognize that tone anywhere.
Meg.
Meg Mitchell was talking back to a Centaur bent on world domination.
Because of course she was.
Freaking Mitchells, man.
Jenny crept around another corner and slid into a hollowed out area of the perimeter walkway, narrow enough for the two of them to crouch but far too small for a Centaur to enter. Centaurs on one side, Centaurs on the other side, all focused at the front. Barb and Jenny knelt between the concealing rocks and stared at the chamber.
Centaur bodies were strewn about the chamber in random piles. Infant dragon corpses lay in stacks of bloody limbs and wings. And one of the giant full grown dragons was missing its head, its body stretched out like an obscene carving of jet or obsidian.
What had happened? Who had killed that horrible thing?
Barb leaned forward and watched as Tiron berated the much-smaller figure at his feet. She scanned the room too and spotted Jim kneeling near to Danny and the others. He was still breathing. Still alive for now.
But not for long.
Tiron said something, did something, and one of the other Centaurs seized Danny by the hair and dragged him to the lava pit.
Jenny clutched at Barb’s tunic, mouth dropping open in horror.
A flash from the ceiling caught Barb’s eye, and she lifted her chin. On a ledge high above the chamber, she could barely make out the mottled color of a yodha’s coat, black against the reddish brown of the mountain rocks.
Judtha.
The flashing came from him. He caught the light from the world below and bounced it off the arrowhead he was currently aiming. From his vantage point, he could see them when no one else could.
Barb patted Jenny on the shoulder. “You ready for this?” she whispered.
Jenny gathered the bow and arrow the yodha had given her.
They’d make a run for it. They’d take out as many as they could. With any luck, even if they didn’t win, they might all survive.
Jenny nocked an arrow into her bow, and Barb got ready to run.