Let me have a chance to change things, Valerius prayed.
Vozyth’s jaws opened further. He could see that the purple light was like flames that boiled up her esophagus and bathed the interior of her mouth and limned her teeth. She was going to kill him.
Illarion! Do something! Valerius internally screamed.
The purple plasma erupted from between her jaws. Time slowed. Illarion’s human form would not block the plasma from hitting him and flash-frying the flesh from his bones. Except in less than a second it wasn’t Illarion’s human form between him and Vozyth, but Mephous.
Mephous’ exceedingly large butt was blocking the tunnel exit entirely. No plasma got past it. No light did either. Valerius was in complete and total darkness. Even if he’d had night vision any longer, he wouldn’t have been able to see anything. But he did hear the Dragons roar. They shook the earth. Rocks and dirt sifted down on top of Valerius’ head as he crouched there, waiting for the butt to clear. There was a peculiar odor then.
Please tell me that Mephous does not issue gas out of both openings.
Suddenly, there was a crack of light and then a mighty splash. A wall of water washed back into the tunnel, soaking Valerius as Mephous decided on the crushing Vozyth part of the plan. There wasn’t just one wave, but many as the titanic Dragon wrestled with the smaller one. But Vozyth seemed to be holding her own. Valerius shook water out of his eyes and crept towards the tunnel’s exit. Water slapped against his legs and pushed him back a time or two and nearly sucked him into the pool once. That had him gripping the wall with his fingernails and just barely keeping his feet.
There was only a thin path around the edge of the pool that led to another opening on the far wall. He would have to traverse close to half a mile before he got back under cover. He would have been sweating, but the water from the pool had already drenched him.
I can do this. Mephous is keeping her busy.
Valerius kept low and started crouch-walking along the path. He kept half an eye on the water as the two dragons spun together. There were roars and splashes. There was once even the belch of green gas that escaped the water when a large bubble of it broke the surface. Valerius slapped a hand over his nose and mouth, but, truthfully, if it had drifted over to him, he would have been dead regardless. The cloud headed in the opposite direction. Valerius increased the speed of his crouch-walk.
A ball of plasma erupted from the water and streaked towards the cavern’s ceiling above their heads. That roof was also the floor of the city up above. Valerius froze as he waited to see if the roof disappeared and people and homes came falling down. But the ball hadn’t been aimed properly and it just glanced the ceiling before performing a graceful arc and…
It was coming right for him.
The ball of plasma was twice as large as he was. It would land upon him. He couldn’t get out of its way by going forwards or back. There was only one direction he could go.
Valerius dove into the water with the Dragons.
Flawless Victory
Valerius dove deep. He wasn’t sure if the water would quench the plasma or if it would simply fall into the water untouched. Then again, even if the water did quench it, how hot would the water get?
So he dove deep.
Deeper.
Deeper.
His lungs burned and there was pressure in his head. Only when those two things became almost unbearable did he stop his downward strokes and twist his body around to look up towards the surface. The plasma ball had destroyed a large section of the narrow pathway that ran along the lake. If he had not jumped, he would have disintegrated with the stone. A wash of hot water rushed down upon him as the plasma ball was quenched. The icy pool became as hot as bath water.
He stroked up towards the surface, but at an angle away from the path and out deeper into the pool. The stone was still glowing hot where the plasma ball had “bitten” into it. He did not wish to risk getting burned. But there were other dangers too in going farther out into the middle of the pool: the Dragons.
Just as he was about to reach the surface and take a grateful gulp of air, a wave of pressure lifted him up until his face kissed the water’s surface. He took a huge draught of oxygen just before a wave washed over his face and pushed him under again. He opened his eyes.
He was just a few feet from the water’s surface and the pool’s depths were dark. The few construction lights that ringed the pool cast off only an ugly yellow light that did not pierce the darkness. So Valerius could only see the two Dragons fighting--rolling over one another again and again--in pieces as they drew nearer to him. Mephous’ membranous wing with the sharp point on the end. Vozyth’s tail with the three spikes, one larger than the next with the largest at the very end looking more like a stalagmite than a spike. Mephous’ mighty green back studded with bony plates. Flashes of Vozyth’s glowing purple eyes. Lungs burning again, Valerius forced himself to look away from this fight of the titans and rise to the surface.
He gulped in huge mouthfuls of air even as the waves the two battling Dragons made lifted him and sent him spiraling down. Their fighting had the effect of a tide on the water. As Valerius stroked fiercely towards the shore, he would be pulled back several feet as the dragons’ bodies affected the water.
The doorway that Valerius aimed to get to was directly in the path of the raging Dragons. But the safest route, one that would get him onto the path again, was not terribly safe either. The pool’s surface that had been still almost like ice was now choppy with waves. They slapped over the sides of the path and were starting to eat away at the slender length of ground. By the time he made it to a section of path that part might be gone.
Besides, the Behemoth now knows Illarion is here. It likely realizes that I am not far behind.
Valerius thought that the Behemoth would not dare kill Caden until it had absorbed Iolaire fully for fear that it would harm the White Dragon Spirit. Not that it cared about hurting Iolaire, but that would weaken its power. So Valerius hoped with everything he had that Caden’s physical form was all right for a little while longer.
Valerius ducked his head under the water and opened his eyes. He wanted to see exactly where the two Dragons were in relation to him. They appeared to be fifty-feet down below him. A wing, a tail, an arm might rise up higher than that, but still there would be a good ten feet between him and them even if that did happen. He decided to risk it and simply swim the rest of the way across to the tunnel mouth.
Determined to get across, he pumped his arms and legs against the swells and headed towards the tunnel that would, hopefully, lead him to Caden. Maybe, just maybe, by the time he found the young man’s body, Raziel and the young man would have saved Iolaire from the Behemoth and Caden would awake in his arms.
Will I know when Raziel and Caden free Iolaire? Will there be some sense of that triumph before Raziel returns to the lair?
