Christine Feehan - Dark Curse 19

«Do you want me to look for you?» Nicolas asked.

She shook her head. This was her quest-her promise. She would do this herself. She squeezed his hand and let go, straightening her spine and forcing her body to put one foot in front of the other. Vikirnoff, Natalya and Nicolas fanned out to protect her, watching the room closely for an attack-certain one was imminent.

Lara crossed over the ice squares, ignoring the horrific memories pouring into her mind. Deliberately she reached for the good-and there had been good-all because of two women. She'd never seen them in their human form, only the dragons, but their voices had kept her sane, made her feel loved, taught her everything she knew and then some. These women had been her only real family and she desperately wanted to bring them home. Xavier couldn't have them any longer.

Please. Please. Her throat felt swollen. Her heart hammered loudly. Her chest was tight and her eyes burned.Please . It was a litany. She wasn't certain she could face not ever knowing. They had done so much for her, kept her sane, given her values, taught her right from wrong, given her a chance at life, sending her out into the world with as much knowledge as they could give her. They had loved her, and because of them, she knew what love was.

I am with you, Nicolas assured.

She realized he was merged with her, his strength and love flowing into her, bolstering her. Lara clung to him for a moment and then rounded the corner to enter the alcove. Her breath exploded out of her lungs and silent tears tracked down her face. She could see Aunt Bronnie, one beautiful emerald eye staring at her through the thick wall of ice. Scales covered the serpentine neck and ran up the wedge-shaped head. One claw was outstretched, had obviously been digging at the ice before she froze. Behind her, shielded as usual by Branislava, was Tatijana, her body almost impossible to see.

They're still here, Nicolas. If I can get their bodies out of the ice, can you float them? They're enormously large and impossible to carry.

Whatever you need.

He wouldn't tell her the cost to his strength while he was keeping her warm and scanning constantly for the enemy. He never would and she knew that. She also knew it was getting closer to dawn. They had to get out.

Lara stood back away from the wall and lifted her hands. This would be the most important spell she would ever cast. She had to command her spiders to bore through the ice, to cut huge chunks away to release the dragons, but she also needed to stabilize the ice so it wouldn't collapse in on them.

The ice constantly groaned, reminding her just how unstable it really was. First, she needed to know if the walls were moving, because she was fairly certain they were. She took a breath. She needed a web stretched taut from wall to wall to warn her if the passage was narrowing.

Tiny spiders of crystalline ice, weave your web, make it tight, cast your silk from wall to wall, making sure no ice shall fall. Spin your patterns, weave them tight, watch your lines command the ice.

The spiders raced out of the ice, spread across the thick walls and began to weave and spin their luminescent threads until the shiny, glowing web was stretched in an intricate pattern from wall to wall. Satisfied, Lara wove a pattern with her hands, graceful and loving movements, tracing each weave carefully, her voice thick with emotion as she commanded the spiders to begin boring holes into the ice all around the dragons, like a giant cutout.

Spiders, spiders, form a line, use your skills, cut-bore-and bind.

The spiders swarmed over the wall encasing the dragons. It took some time to bore several feet inward and around such a large area.

«Hurry, Lara. The globes in here are changing colors, swirling with what looks like blood through each orb,» Natalya called. «We have to get out of here.»

Lara refused to hurry her next spell. This mattered too much. She wouldn't chance losing the aunts when she was so close. She added a holding spell for the ice, knowing it wouldn't last too long against the tremendous pressure of the glacier and Xavier's wrath that she could already feel in the ice itself.

I call thee water in frozen form, hold your place though cracked and worn. Tiny particles of water, ice meld and mold, fit and splice.

The ominous creaking and rumbling faded to whispers, but the sound of water continued to surround them. This was it then. She took another breath and with all the hope and love and knowledge she had, she wove her next spell to open the ice block the spiders had cut for her.

Thrice around this ice do bounds evil sink into the ground. Little spiders of crystalline ice, hold your webs, keep them tight. Cast them round, protect and be, so I may reach those who sleep.

The spiders wove their silken fire strands through each bore hold and pulled the threads tight, sawing back and forth until chunks of ice broke free. They continued to work until they exposed the dragons, and then they carved holes around the bodies until the dragons slipped free.

The dragon carcasses slid out of their ice prison, still frozen, hitting the floor with a cracking sound.

Chapter 19

Lara crouched down beside the dragons, weeping. She put one hand on each of the ice-cold necks, bowed her head and whispered to them softly. «I'm setting you free. Just the way you did me, he doesn't have you any longer.» Maybe it wouldn't matter to them in death, but it did to her. She would never want Xavier to have any part of her-in any form.

«Lara! Look at the web,» Natalya said sharply. She peeked around the corner of the alcove and gasped aloud, staring in awe and dismay at the two dragon carcasses.

The ice spiders were making a mass exodus, rushing across the thick ice wall. The web they'd spun tight sagged in the middle by a few inches, but that was steadily increasing. The creaks and rumbling in the ice increased to an almost angry roar.

Nicolas rounded the corner of the alcove at a run and slid to a halt so fast that Vikirnoff, on his heels, bumped into him.

«You got them out,» Vikirnoff said. «You found them and got them out.»

Nicolas frowned and walked around the two bodies. He glanced at Vikirnoff. «They really are in dragon form.»

«You knew they were,» Lara said, «I told you. And you were with me…» She trailed off, glancing at Vikirnoff and Natalya, who were walking around the two dragons. Lara stroked loving caresses over the scales, usually shimmering with iridescent color, but now drab and dull.

«But they are part mage. How can they shift?» Nicolas murmured aloud.

«You said I could shift,» Lara pointed out.

«You can, as long as I'm holding the image for you. Your Dragon-seeker blood is strong but…» He trailed off and looked at Vikirnoff.

Vikirnoff crouched down beside the two women. «Natalya, reach for them.»

«I don't understand.»

«Lara should. She's spoken numerous times with them telepathically,» Nicolas said. «Lara, reach deep along the path you used to speak to them. Call them to you.»

«You can't possibly think they're alive. Look at them. They're frozen solid. They're thin and drab.»

«They are not mage,» Nicolas said. «They are Carpathian. Fully Carpathian. How that came to be, I do not know, but they could not have survived all these years frozen, encased in ice,-and you said they were kept in ice even when you were a child-unless they are Carpathian. Mage would die. I do not know how I missed that. How any of us did. How could they be caught in the bodies of dragons?»

«You're saying they're still alive?»

«It is a possibility, yes,» Nicolas said.

The ice continued to protest, crackling as icicles rained down on them, as large chunks sloughed off to

crash to the floor. The trickle of water became louder.