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A squeak on the stairs made me look up and I saw Dreda descend toward us. Her eyes were a little bleary but she held her head high. She would have made a wonderful empress.
“What news about Werd?” Ben asked her.
“He still hasn’t awoken and he’s painfully weak,” Dreda informed him as she reached the bottom step and grasped the banister. “I have never seen him in such a state. It’s as though all the energy has been drained out of him and there are strange burn marks on one side of his face.”
I couldn’t help but be reminded of the episode in the shed with the fog. I’d not only exorcised the attacking mist but Werd had been negatively affected, as well. Too affected, by what I had seen and what Dreda just mentioned.
“Perhaps he stepped out into the sun before the storm took hold,” Ben suggested.
Edouard frowned. “Then that would make him more of a vampire than you were earlier suggesting.”
Dreda spun around to face him and shot the man such a look of death that even the imposing commander started back. She narrowed her eyes and venom dripped from her words. “You will not lay a finger on him or so help me I will summon the gods to curse you and your line into eternity.”
Cal stepped between them to prevent Dreda from making good on her promise. “There is no need for threats. We will do no harm to anyone any of us considers a friend. Why do we not sit for some tea and-”
At that moment the whole house shook. It was like being inside a defective pinball machine where all the trinkets, jingles, and baubles rattled and wobbled all at once. I fell into Ben’s arms as the vibrations were followed by a horrible rumble from beneath our feet.
The color drained from Dreda’s face. “The dragon!”
CHAPTERTWENTY-SIX
I blinked at her. “What dragon?”
She didn’t answer but rushed into the west wing. Fysan swooped after her, and Ben and I followed close on his tail feathers with Cal and Edouard bringing up the rear.
I caught Ben’s eyes as we tried to keep up with his spry aunt as she dodged around all the furniture much quicker than we. “What dragon?”
A dire expression lay across his face. “The dragon in the basement.”
My mouth dropped open and I almost tumbled over a small statue of a gnome-like creature. “What the hell is a dragon doing in the basement?”
The house shook again and I felt a strange heat flow up from the floorboards. We hurried faster and soon arrived in the room with the door to the basement. Dreda stood in front with her palms pressed against the door in the center of the circle. Her head was bowed and her eyes were shut. A few whispered words flowed from her lips.
“Head my will. Undo this spell. Allow me entrance. Into his cell.”
The symbols on the door spun in a circle, distorting them into grayish squiggles before they were absorbed into the door. A heavy clunk sound echoed around the room and Dreda clenched her teeth before she pushed hard against the door. The entrance hardly budged.
Dreda whipped her head around and glared at us. “What are you doing gawking there? Get over here and help me open this door!” We scrambled over the furniture and Ben and I pushed our shoulders against the entrance while the others stood by. “Heave!” she commanded.
Ben and I pushed and the rusted hinges of the door creaked as they were forced to turn for the first time in many years. Our efforts were rewarded by a puff of hot air that stung my face. I started back and fell into a coughing fit as a stench of sulfur invaded my nostrils.
Dreda dove down a long flight of stone steps that led into the abyss. A faint red glow came from somewhere in the depths, but otherwise there was no natural light.
“My Lady!” Fysan shouted as he followed her down.
Ben latched onto my shoulder as he stared down those stairs. I couldn’t help but notice that his hand shook. “You shouldn’t go down there.”
I looked between his quivering hand and his tense face. “Neither should you, but you know we’re both going.”
I grabbed his hand and tugged him down the stairs. Cal and Edouard followed behind us and the deeper we traveled the brighter the light became. The stairs ended well below ground level and revealed a cavern-like room. The walls and floor were of some rough stone, once gray but now blackened beyond measure. Stalagmites dotted the floor and stalactites hung from the ceiling. Huge stone support columns placed in neat rows were the only evidence that a house stood above us.
The source of the light stood some two hundred feet down a wide break in the columns. My heart skipped a beat when I beheld the fearsome beast. The dragon stood some fifty feet high with the usual long neck and body. A tail swished out behind it and its four feet features claws as thick as my arm. Its scales were the color of ash and a pair of red eyes glared at us from beyond its long snout.
A faint red glow emanated from its whole body, but the light was most pronounced from its mouth. Though the jaws were shut, I could still see a faint red line of fire that at any moment threatened to explode toward us.
The only comfort I had by looking at the beast was the four manacles that were wrapped around each of its legs. A heavy chain was attached to them and dragged across the ground to the walls where they had been melted to the stone.
Dreda stood at the start of the columns and scowled at the creature. “Something has awoken it.”
