Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary

They climbed up onto the dais.

"The figurines," Seth said almost instantly. He led them over to where five statuettes were positioned on a circular mat. "Red dragon, white giant, jade chimera. Is onyx black?"

"Can be," Trask said. "And the blue fishy thing is the agate leviathan."

"Can I let go of the horn?" Seth asked.

Trask sniffed probingly. "I think so. If you start to feel ill, make sure you get a hand back on it."

Seth opened a pouch. "Thronis gave me this," he told Kendra. He pulled squares of silken fabric from the pouch and wrapped each figurine individually, then placed them together inside the small bag.

Trask left Kendra holding the horn alone and proceeded down the long row of elevated tables, pausing beside the glittering gauntlets. He looked behind the pedestal on which the fancy gloves were situated. "I’ve found the key," Trask announced. "He stashed it behind the gauntlets."

"Good job!" Kendra cheered. She and Seth joined Trask, who struggled to pick up the egg-shaped mass of black iron.

"Big pineapple," Trask grunted. "Patton didn’t mention the key was solid iron. This must weigh at least eighty pounds. Tough to get a grip."

"Use both hands," Kendra recommended. "I’ll follow behind and keep the horn in contact with your skin."

They shuffled in an awkward train back across the treasure room, down the hall, and through the pillared chamber, passing Siletta’s shrunken corpse. Tanu, Dougan, and Mara awaited them at the bottom of the steps.

"Success?" Dougan asked.

"We have the key and the giant’s figurines," Trask reported.

"The key looks heavy," Tanu remarked.

"Or I’m getting really weak," Trask said.

"I’ll lug the key down into the storage room," Dougan offered. "I already hauled the giant sword down there."

Trask gratefully handed off the iron egg. "Once you’re back up, I want to move out. I hope Gavin fared all right. I’m not sure I should have let him go alone."

Face red with exertion, Dougan managed to descend the rungs into the storage room cradling the egg in one arm. When he came up, they hurried back toward the hydra. Kendra tried not to fret about Gavin. She told herself that he was fine, that he wouldn’t have taken needless risks. But she knew how brave he was, and how deadly the hydra had appeared.

As they neared Glommus’s cave, Tanu went forward alone to sample the ait. He came back and reported that the air was breathable, and that he had found no sign of Gavin. "We might do well to raid the dragon’s corpse ourselves," Tanu added. "We could smear our weapons with sedatives, and it would be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to acquire potion ingredients."

"We need to hurry," Trask pointed out, "but prepping our weapons could pay dividends. Mara, come with me and Tanu."

While waiting outside the cave, Kendra saw Gavin walking back to them with a slight limp. Squealing with relief, she ran to him, and he caught her in an embrace. He was soaking wet, his clothes were torn, and he bled lightly from several cuts and scrapes.

"What happened?" Kendra asked, pulling back.

"I got her," Gavin said with a shy smile. "I found a g-gland in the neck of Glommus and drenched my spear and a few quarrels. You know how Trask shot out one of the yellowish head’s eyes? I pierced the other one with a tainted quarrel. The heads started to thrash, and I got in a few stabs with the spear."

"You’re hurt," Kendra said.

"A couple of the heads jostled me as Hespera went down," Gavin said dismissively. "Nothing major. No bad cuts, no broken bones, at least for now. She’s beneath the water. We should hurry."

Trask, Mara, and Tanu shortly emerged from the cave, and Gavin recounted his battle with the hydra as they jogged toward the lake. Trask made the others hang back as he and Gavin advanced through the narrow passage to survey the dark water. They returned promptly, and then all of them hurried through the passage and across the ledge in two separate groups.

Kendra walked quickly, ready for shrieking heads to rise from the depths at any moment, but the murky lake never stirred. With the slumbering hydra behind them, they climbed the knotted rope and hustled between the enormous stone dragons out into the late afternoon sunlight. Clouds of dragonflies drifted near the reedy pools.

"What now?" Kendra asked.

"We rush to the rendezvous," Trask said, picking up the pace. "It will take over an hour. From there, the griffins will transport us to Thronis. The giant has given his word to help us, and he cannot lie. We’ll weather the night in his mansion and then plan how to get out of Wyrmroost. Maybe some of his griffins can scout to see if Navarog is truly at the gates."

They marched single file, following a trackless route beneath tall conifers. Nobody spoke. With the woods around them quiet except for sporadic breezes rustling through the branches, Kendra supposed nobody wanted to jinx the group by disturbing the silence. They had survived the Dragon Temple. They had the key and the figurines. Now if only they could reach the griffins without attracting the notice of any passing Wyrmroost predators!

At one point Mara made them stop and crouch low as she watched a far-off dragon gliding in the sky. The creature showed no sign of having observed them and soon drifted out of view.

The trees thinned as they scaled the side of a rocky spine. About halfway up the long slope, Trask assembled the group below an overhang.

"Our griffins should await us just over this skinny ridge," Mara explained.

Trask nodded. "I’ll cross over first with Gavin. If things look good, I’ll whistle."

Kendra and the others huddled under the overhang and listened to loose rocks clack and shift as Trask and Gavin ascended the ridge. Not too long after they passed over the crest, a brief whistle shrilled twice. Mara took the lead as the rest of the group clambered up the stony slope. As Kendra picked her way up the loose rocks, she better understood why Trask and Gavin had climbed so noisily. No matter how she stepped, the rocks shifted and slid.

Near the top of the knifelike ridge, Kendra heard a flutter of wings. An astrid alighted on a rocky projection near the crest of the ridge, and words spilled into her mind.

This is an ambush. Two dragons lie in wait. Run!

Cautiously regarding the expressionless human face of the golden owl, Mara held her spear ready. "What does it want?" she asked Kendra.

"He’s warning us," Kendra said, placing a calming hand on the spear. Kendra studied the astrid. "Are you sure?"