CHAPTER 28

 

THEY RESUMED THEIR JOURNEY at daybreak—or at least what Leesa guessed was daybreak. The thin ribbon of sky above them was the same dull gray as the day before, though how long the sun had actually been up she had no real way of telling.

Kai was right when he had said they were close to the boundaries of this rift-filled land—ten minutes of hiking up a gradual slope brought them out of the crevice and into the open.

They were closer to the Dragon’s Teeth than Leesa had thought. The four peaks loomed above them, dominating the horizon at what seemed to be less than a day’s hike away, though the flatness of the terrain made judging the distance difficult.

She glanced around and saw that all of her comrades were staring at the volcanoes. She imagined that their thoughts were much the same as hers—wondering what awaited them there.

Rave took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Looks like we’re almost there,” he said.

Leesa turned her head to him and smiled, once again glad that whatever had sent them to this place had sent them together. Things just always seemed right when she was with Rave.

“It doesn’t look far at all,” she agreed.

The landscape looked much the same as the one she and Rave had crossed when they first entered this world: flat and barren, with isolated dry, gnarled trees poking up from the hard-packed dirt.

“There’ll be little cover from here on out,” Kai told the group. “Few creatures venture near the Dragon Lord’s lair, so we should be okay, unless we have the bad luck to encounter Baalgur himself as he leaves the mountain on one of his hunts. “

“And if we do?” Radar asked.

Kai smiled. “Then we’ll be faced with our battle before we really want to be. We’ll travel quickly, to lessen the chances of being caught out in the open. Let’s go.”

They traversed the mostly featureless plain at a brisk walk. With nothing in their way, they were able to travel directly toward their goal: the tallest of the Dragon’s Teeth. As Kai had predicted, they were alone on the plain, and they reached the base of the mountain with the pale sun still high in the sky. No foothills bordered the mountains—the volcanoes rose right up out of the flatlands.

“This is it,” Kai announced. “The lair of the Dragon Lord lies deep within this peak.”

They craned their necks upward, taking in the immensity of the mighty mountain. From a distance it had appeared large; now, from its base, it seemed impossibly tall, rising many thousands of feet above them. Atop the summit, a bright orange glow bathed the hazy sky. They had thought the fiery light signified an active eruption, but from closer up it was clear they had been mistaken. While an occasional explosion vibrated the ground beneath their feet and sent burning chunks of rocks flashing across the sky like miniature comets, there was no actual eruption going on. The orange glow was the reflection of bubbling pools of molten lava trapped within the crater.

Viewed from afar, the mountain had appeared smooth and monolithic, but they could see now this was far from the truth. Created over the millennia by the cooling and hardening of the lava within its depths, the surface was riddled with fissures, ledges and craggy outcroppings left behind where sections of the rock had crumbled away. Getting to the top would not be easy, but the climb seemed doable. The question in everyone’s minds was whether they could survive the heat at the summit, and more importantly, what were they supposed to do when they got there?

Not surprisingly, it was Radar who first voiced the question.

“Well, now that we’re here,” she said, still looking up, “I suppose we’re going to have to climb this thing, right? But what then?”

“We look for a way inside the mountain,” Kai replied. “If we’re lucky, we’ll find a lava tube or some other entrance before we have to go all the way to the top. If not, I guess we’ll climb down into the crater from up there.”

“A lava tube?” Sneak asked, his face and voice clearly displaying what he thought about that idea. “You mean one of those holes flaming lava flows out of? And you want to find one to go into? Are you out of your freaking mind?”

“They’re likely to be as safe as any other way into the mountain,” Kai said, ignoring Sneak’s derisive tone. “If this thing decides to erupt while we’re here, I don’t think it will really matter exactly where we are.”

“You can always turn yourself invisible, Sneak,” Rerun joked. “Maybe the lava won’t see you.”

“Very funny,” Sneak replied. “Very, very funny.”

“I can wrap us in a magical shield if necessary,” Leesa told them. “I don’t know how effective it would be against lava, but I’ll try.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Colonel Gallway said. “I don’t see any signs of a recent eruption—with luck, things will stay that way. So, let’s get on with it. Lead on, Kai.”

Kai nodded, then turned and headed up the slope. The rest of the company fell in behind him.

For the first few hours of their climb, the slope of the rocky side of the volcanic peak was only about forty-five degrees or so, allowing the company to head directly up the mountain. Even so, the going was not easy, especially for Leesa, whose leg muscles had not been hardened by weeks of hiking like her comrades. Not wanting to slow the group down, she began using her magic to help her climb.

Whenever her thighs began to burn with fatigue, she used her levitation and telekinesis to propel herself a few hundred feet up the mountain, where she would sit and rest while her friends trudged up the hillside on foot. While she floated upward, Rave ran easily beside her so she would not be alone until the rest of the party caught up.

Eventually, the slope grew too steep to attack head on, and the company was forced to veer off at an angle, following ridges and ledges that provided safe footing as they slanted up the mountainside. Rave and Kai frequently scouted ahead so the group would not lose time traveling along a passage that might turn out to be a dead end.

Most of the time the going felt safe enough, with the paths they followed being solid and wide enough to keep them from having to walk too close to the edge. Occasionally, though, they were forced to navigate along narrow ledges that had them hugging the side of the mountain and trying not to look downward over the edge, where the dizzying drop could be a thousand feet or more. In such places, they prayed the volcano would remain quiet and not threaten them with any of the underground trembling that shook the mountain at irregular intervals.

They were traversing one such precarious ledge when the company was brought to a complete halt because a section of the pathway several hundred feet long had crumbled away.

“This was not here when Kai and I scouted it,” Rave said, staring out across the abyss, which was far too wide even for him to jump across.

“It must have collapsed during that last quake,” Kai said. “We’ll have to go back and find another route.”

“And we should do it quickly,” Colonel Gallway said. “We don’t want to be standing here if this section decides to give way during the next quake.”

“Wait a minute,” Leesa said. She had been scanning the rock above them, looking for some way up. “I may have a better idea.”

The colonel turned toward her. “Let’s hear it.”

Leesa pointed upward to a spot fifty or sixty feet above them. “See that ridge? From here, it looks like a route we could use.”

Colonel Gallway followed Leesa’s finger. “It does indeed,” he agreed, “if we had a way to get up there.” He studied the sheer, almost vertical cliff face. This wall doesn’t look very climbable, though.”

“I could levitate up to it, and take the rope with me. Maybe there’s something I could tie it to up there. Then the rest of you could use it to climb up.”

“And what if there’s nothing to tie it to?” Rave asked. “You’re not strong enough to haul any of us up.”

Leesa frowned. Rave was right, but that didn’t mean she shouldn’t try, at least.

“Do you have a better idea?” she asked him.

Rave smiled. “As a matter of fact, I do. Jordy, give me the rope.”

Jordy dug into his pack and pulled out the rope. He handed it to Rave, who draped the coils over his shoulder.

“What are you doing?” Leesa asked worriedly. “Even you can’t jump that high.”

“No, but I can climb this easily enough.” Without waiting for a reply, Rave turned and began scrambling up the rock face, using his supernatural strength and agility to cling to hand and footholds that would have been impossible for anyone else.

His comrades held their breath as he hauled himself upward—all but Leesa, who levitated up beneath him, ready to try to catch him in case he lost his grip and fell.

Rave didn’t fall, though, and in just a few moments he was standing on the ridge Leesa had pointed out. She landed softly beside him. Rave smiled at her.

“Fancy meeting you here,” he said.

They turned and studied the ledge, following it with their eyes off into the distance. It definitely looked like it would serve as an alternate route up the mountain.

As Rave had predicted, there was nothing here to fasten the rope to, so he looped it around his waist and used himself as the anchor. Kai hauled himself up the rope easily enough, then Leah followed. Rather than have her struggle to climb the nearly vertical cliff face, Rave simply pulled her up. When she reached the top, Kai grabbed her wrist and lifted her the rest of the way onto solid ground.

Raj came next, climbing as easily as his brother. Doc followed Raj, pulled up by Rave in the same manner as Leah. She was about halfway up when the mountain suddenly began to shake violently. Rave braced himself as solidly as he could, and Raj grabbed the rope as well, but even their combined efforts couldn’t stop it from swinging wildly from side to side, taking Doc with it. For several long, heart-stopping moments, she clung to the narrow strand with all her strength. When the quake finally ended, Rave and Raj hauled her up as quickly as possible.

At the top, Raj grabbed her by both arms and pulled her to safety.

“Oh, my god,” she sobbed. “I thought I was going to die.”

Raj drew her into his arms. “It’s okay,” he comforted, stroking the back of her head with one hand. “You’re safe now.”

Looking over Raj’s shoulder, Doc caught Leah’s eye and winked. Leah grinned. She had thought Doc’s reaction was a bit uncharacteristic for her.

The rest of the company made it up to the ridge without incident. The Marines climbed the rope hand over hand, while the Miracles allowed themselves to be pulled up. Once everyone was gathered at the top, they took a short break while Rave and Kai scouted the route ahead.

“This is exactly what we needed,” Kai told the group when he and Rave returned. “The path is perfectly safe, and there’s a lava tube less than a mile ahead that we can use to enter the mountain.”

Leesa and her friends weren’t sure if that was good news or not.