Page 38 of Daring the Drakarn Warrior Lord
Below me, Lexa jumped for the lowest handhold. Her fingers caught. Held. She started climbing, her face set in grim determination.
The voices behind us grew louder. Warriors entering the chamber. Seeing us on the wall.
"Climbing?" Someone laughed. "This I have to see."
I didn't look down. Just kept moving. Hand over hand. The holds were rough against my palms, volcanic stone that wanted to shred skin. My arms burned. My shoulder felt like it was tearing itself apart.
Halfway up.
Lexa was maybe three meters below me, climbing with single-minded focus. Her injured arm left blood smears on the stone.
Something hit the wall beside my head.
I jerked back instinctively, nearly lost my grip. Looked down and saw a Drakarn warrior at the base of the shaft, another stone in his hand. He was using us for target practice.
"Keep going," Lexa shouted.
Another stone flew past. This one clipped my leg, sent pain radiating through my calf. I gritted my teeth and reached for the next hold.
The top of the shaft appeared above me. A ledge. Safety.
I pulled myself over the edge and collapsed, chest heaving. Every muscle in my body shook. But I was up.
Lexa's hand appeared at the ledge. I grabbed it, hauled her up with strength I didn't know I still had. She rolled onto solid ground beside me, gasping.
Below, wings beat. The warriors were flying up the shaft, taking seconds to cover the distance we'd spent minutes climbing.
"Move," I said.
We ran.
The passage here was wider, carved with more care. Symbols decorated the walls, religious markings I didn't have time to decipher. The air grew thicker with incense. We were close to the sanctum. Had to be.
The corridor opened into a final chamber.
Larger than the others. Circular. Heat crystals embedded in a pattern that made the whole space glow like the inside of a forge. And at the far end, through an archway carved with protective sigils, I could see it.
The blood-flame.
It sat on a pedestal in the center of what had to be the inner sanctum. Pulsing with internal light. Red and gold and alive. So close I could almost feel its heat from here.
But between us and that archway stood at least a dozen Drakarn warriors.
Not guards. Warriors in the Skalanth. All of them converging on the same goal. All of them willing to go through anyone who got in their way.
The chamber erupted into violence. Warriors fighting each other, fighting us, fighting anyone who got close to that archway. I lost track of Lexa almost immediately, caught up in the chaos of bodies and wings and claws.
A tail swept my legs. I went down, rolled, came up with my blade already moving. Caught a warrior across the arm, not deep but enough to make him back off.
Someone grabbed my hair from behind. Yanked hard enough to bring tears to my eyes. I twisted, drove my elbow backward into scales. The grip released.
The archway was maybe ten meters away. It might as well have been a thousand.
I fought toward it anyway. One step. Two. Using every dirty trick I'd learned in eight months of survival. Nothing honorable.Nothing fair. Just desperation and the will to keep moving forward.
A massive shape blocked my path. Purple scales. Yellow eyes.
The novice who'd cornered me in the corridor days ago.
