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“What are you doing with a creature such as this in your basement?” Edouard snapped as Cal and he hurried up to our sides.
Dreda folded her arms over her chest and shrugged. “To tell the whole truth, my ancestors built the manor on top of his home. When he was accidentally awakened we set him to sleep again and made use of his heat by connecting it to the hot water piping.”
I whipped my head around to Dreda and stabbed a finger at the creature. “That’show the water’s heated?”
“What other way would there be?” she countered as she pursed her lips. “But blast my memory, whatisthat spell to make it slumber again?”
“What awoke it to begin with?” Ben mused as he examined the area around us.
A thought struck me, and I scooted closer to Ben and lowered my voice to a whisper. “Is that where your mom got the dragon blood?”
He had a grim expression on his face as he nodded. “It is.”
“So how do we get him back to sleep?” Edouard spoke up.
Dreda furrowed her brow. “I’m afraid I can’t quite recall how it was done, but surely we’ll think of something.”
A deep, rumbling growl came from the dragon. He opened his jaws and revealed a gaping maw of hot fire.
“Look out!” Ben shouted as he wrapped his arms around me and threw me behind a pillar.
The others did the same just as the dragon spit out his fire. The flames flew past us and slammed into the stone steps. They were scorched and cracked.
“Everyone think faster!” I shouted.
“Fog!”
The shout came from the opposite side of the room where Cal and Edouard had thrown themselves. The pair of men scrambled to their feet and backed away from the wall as a low bank of fog floated toward them. I followed the wispy trail to the wall and saw that the mist flowed out of a small crack in the stone.
“We need to patch that hole and disperse the fog before we can put the dragon back to sleep!” Dreda ordered us.
Cal half-turned to us. “I can disperse it, but the hole is another problem.”
“Leave that to me.”
The offer came from Ben as he held up one hand. A ball of fire burst from his palm. Edouard narrowed his eyes at Ben and I could see the wheels of suspicion turn behind them.
Cal nodded. “Very well. Let us perform the task.”
The emperor raised his arms and like before, a great wind blew up about him. The gale pushed the fog back and into the crack. Ben rushed across the gap in the columns, catching the dragon’s attention. The beast roared and stomped his feet before it shot out another column of fire.
Ben rolled into the opposite row of columns a second before the fire flew past him. He tumbled across the ground and landed on his feet where he pushed off and raced to the wall. The last bit of fog was pushed back into the crack and Ben slammed his blazing hand against the stone. The rock melted beneath his touch and the crack was sealed.
“My God. . .” I heard Edouard murmur.
“Save your prayers for the larger problem!” Dreda scolded him as she grasped the column behind which we both stood and nodded at the beast. “His temper isn’t improving!”
Indeed, the beast slammed his tail against the ground, causing the earthquake we had felt upstairs. The creature strained against the chains that bound it to the wall and opened its mouth. It spewed hot fire across the room and forced us to hide behind the columns. The temperature in the cavern went up ten degrees and sweat broke out over my forehead. The air became stiflingly hot and I found myself having trouble breathing.
“Your flute!” Ben shouted from across the way where Cal, Edouard, and he were hidden behind their own columns.
“What about it?” I yelled back.
“Lull it to sleep with a song!”
The color drained from my face and my eyes flitted to the emperor and his guard. “But. . .”
“There’s no other choice!” Ben insisted.
