Christine Feehan - Dark Curse 19

Nicolas yanked her out of the laboratory and into the next chamber. It was free of the icy spray. Vikirnoff and Natalya followed them out. Nicolas turned to her, his hands pressing on either side of her body, spreading warmth through her lungs and chest. Pins and needles ran along her skin, but the terrible pressure was gone.

«We were lucky,» she said. «Ice particles in the lungs can kill you very fast. And suffocation is a lousy way to go.» She rubbed Nicolas's arm. «Can you track the blood trail of my aunts?»

«They are above us and toward our left. We go in that direction.»

Nicolas took the lead, choosing a wider tunnel leading upward. The ice was banded tightly with white and blue thin stripes. Crackles and grumblings and the ever-present trickling of water were constant companions. The weight of ice and rock pressed down heavily on them. As they hurried, the floor became more and more uneven, as if the earth had pushed chunks of ice upward. They took to the air, skimming over the surface, following the twisting tunnel upward.

Several other galleries opened, but other than glancing inside, the four continued upward. They'd been inside Xavier's lair for sometime: They needed to find Tatijana and Branislava and get out. The shower of ice was constant, small pieces breaking off and raining down on them, so it was necessary to keep a shield above them. As the floor sloped up, icicles began to vibrate. Water dripped faster. One wall began to web into tiny cracks. Water trickled out.

«I detest this place,» Vikirnoff said. «We should just get out of here.»

Natalya scowled at him. «I'm not going to leave without finding my aunts' bodies. You saw the blood. What if they're still alive?»

Nicolas muttered something foul under his breath. «They are not alive. After all this time, it would be impossible. This is a fool's errand and you are going to get us killed.»

Vikirnoff whirled around, baring his teeth. «This was not Natalya's idea.Your lifemate dragged us here.»

Nicolas responded with aggression, his black eyes smoldering with red flames, with the need for action. «Do not use that tone when speaking of my lifemate.»

Lara frowned as she stepped between the two men. With the ice spiders weaving luminescent threads to light the way, the silky strings cast shadows not only along the blue and white ice, but over both men's faces, and they seemed dark and sinister in the shimmering glow. Along the wall, the shadows seemed to move of their own accord, growing and extending, reshaping with each movement within the tunnel.

Lara lifted her hands palm out and sang to her spiders.Tiny spiders of crystalline ice, spinning threads to make us light, throw and cast your finespun threads, digging deeper into what we dread. Enter the ice, search it well, reveal to me what's hidden by spell .

Dark streaks appeared along the ice wall and crisscrossed the tunnel itself. She drew in her breath. «He's controlling emotions. It's Xavier. Don't speak. Don't think. Keep your mind blank while I find a way to counter this.»

Again she lifted her hands and wove a counterspell.That which has been cast to control and be hidden, can be undone by the song of a maiden .

Within the icy walls, a face and form of a young girl began to take shape, and then a perfectly formed ice sculpture of a young girl emerged. She appeared to be reaching down into the ice. As she bent over, she began to sing and the notes appeared like a cold wind, blowing across the walls and up across the tube itself, coating the dark streaks with ropes of ice so that each streak froze solid. Her notes pitched higher and higher until the frequency shattered the ice ropes and they fell, harmless to the floor. The maiden climbed back into the ice and disappeared.

Nicolas grinned at Vikirnoff. «That's my woman.»

Natalya smiled at her, pride on her face. «You really know your stuff.»

«The aunts taught me everything. It's all them.» Technically, they were her great-aunts and Natalya's aunts, but Lara would never think of them any other way. «I have to find them.»

«We will,sivamet , we all want to find them and bring them home,» Nicolas assured.

Still the shadows on the walls continued to grow and lengthen. The male Carpathians put the women between them, deadly snarls on their faces. The danger in the tunnel was palpable. The shadows swirled on the blue-white walls, pushing through the layers of ice so that smoke drifted out.

Natalya gasped. She gripped Lara's wrist. «I know what this is.»

Both looked at one another, horror on their faces. «Shadow warriors,» they whispered together.

Nicolas drew in his breath and looked up and down the long tunnel. They were in the middle of the tube and all along the walls, in front and behind them, smoke began to push through the cracks in the ice. «Not even the most seasoned hunter can hope to escape the shadow guardians,» he said. «We have to get to the next chamber before they emerge from the wall. If we are caught in between them, we die here.»

«Movement attracts them,» Natalya pointed out.

«I would have to say they already know we are here,» Nicolas replied.

«If we can get to a safer place and give Natalya some time,» Vikirnoff said, «then she can perhaps deal with them, but it takes time.»

«I could because I had mage blood running in me, I think,» Natalya said. «I'm not as certain I could control them now.»

«I have mage blood,» Lara said.

«Talk later! Run now!» Nicolas caught Lara's wrist and, without waiting for an argument, put on a burst of preternatural speed.

Vikirnoff and Natalya stayed right on their heels, all four blurred they moved so fast, but the action caused a reaction from the whirling shadows. The dark smoke poured even faster from the ice wall and began to form into life-sized apparitions of swirling smoke, shadow and substance.

They barely made it to the entrance to the next chamber before the shadow warriors were after them, gliding silently through the twisting ice tube, swords raised high. The smoke swirled and shifted, often revealing an armor-clad warrior, face obscured completely, but sword gleaming and polished.

Nicolas kept moving to the opposite side of the chamber, heading for the left entrance, but several warriors spread out quickly through the room, cutting off that escape route. The only choice they had was a narrow right passage, still leading up, but away from the direction they wanted to go.

Shadow warriors were made of whatever elements were available, molecules and water. Once the most skilled and honored fighters of their time, their spirits were ripped from them and forced into service by the dark mage. They were already dead, insubstantial and nearly impossible to defeat in battle.

The warriors fanned out and the Carpathians retreated farther into the narrow corridor of ice. The men kept the women firmly behind them, walking backward, facing the enemy.

«They'll have to face us one at a time,» Nicolas said with some satisfaction.

Natalya tried to stem the flow of shadows into the room. She halted and raised her arms.

Hear me now, dark ones, torn from your resting place. I call on earth, wind, fire, water and spirit.

The warriors should have put down their swords and waited for commands, but instead, they rushed toward the two women, the smoke going from gray to black.

«That's not working so well without the mage blood,» Natalya said. «Run!»

The Carpathians whirled and ran again, using their blurring speed. Lara had a difficult time keeping up, although Nicolas was pulling her along and her feet didn't really touch the ground. She kept forgetting to regulate her body temperature and it was so cold, she ached and shivered continually. Her legs and arms felt stiff and her chest hurt from the cold. As they continued up the narrow corridor, the air changed, warming a bit, which gave her some relief, but she worried with the temperature a few degrees warmer, the ice might melt.