I was so used to having Aisha by my side, out of instinct I found myself looking around the ledge for her, only to remember that Bahir would assist me now. He transported us away from our camp and made us appear right outside the dark entrance of the tunnel. My pulse quickened as I gazed into its shadowed depths.
“Are you certain there is only one dragon living here?” I asked Arron in a whisper.
“I am not sure of anything,” Arron replied curtly. “But based on the rumors I’ve heard, Breccan lives here by himself.”
I entered the crevice first, walking slowly along the gravelly ground and trying not to crunch too much. The tunnel was narrow, forcing us to walk in single file. I wondered whether there was any entrance in these mountains big enough for the shifter to squeeze into as a dragon. If not, Breccan must’ve changed back into his humanoid state when entering and exiting his home.
We reached a fork in the path. I glanced at Arron for his opinion. He nodded to our right. Since I had no idea, we went with the Hawk’s suggestion. This tunnel was longer, more winding, and sloped gradually downwards. As we descended, the heat that emanated from the walls, ceilings and floors of the tunnel intensified.
I kept my ears peeled for any sound of life. All the while, we looked out for any scales that could be lining the ground, although it was highly unlikely that we would find any in this tunnel. It was far too narrow for the shifter to fit in whilst in his dragon form. Still, it didn’t stop our eyes from roaming.
As we descended deeper, I began to hear what I was both hoping for and dreading. A deep, rumbling noise that vibrated the ground beneath our feet.
At least we were heading in the right direction.
As we turned a particularly sharp corner, we met a heavy iron door. My skin broke out into a sweat, something that rarely happened to me as a vampire. As I reached out a hand and brushed it against the iron entrance, it felt like the door to an oven.
Still, we had no choice but to enter. I looked toward Bahir and whispered, “We can’t risk opening the door.” First of all, it might be locked, but secondly and more importantly, I was sure that it would make a horrible creak that would echo right through the mountain.
Bahir nodded, and it unnerved me how unsettled he looked. He, a jinni.
His veil of smoke fell around us and before I even had time to prepare myself for what might be on the other side, my feet planted on the ground again. A dense fog of dry heat engulfed us. It was like being in a sauna with the heater blasting at three times its maximum temperature. My throat felt so raw, I was practically panting like a dog. I had to blink constantly just to keep my eyeballs from drying out.
We had entered a massive cavernous chamber with a circular border and high rocky ceilings. Along its border was a wide raised platform lined with beacons of fire. Below were wide stone steps leading down to the center where, curled up on a heaping pile of furs, lay a sleeping dragon. Fearsomely beautiful, his scales were a brilliant magenta peppered with speckles of bright yellow. Even while sleeping, the beast exuded an impossible heat.
I forced my eyes away from the stunning creature to look more carefully around the vast cave.
A scale.
We need a scale.
I was desperately hoping that we would find one on the ground in what was apparently his bedroom—where he moved and slept in his dragon form. If we didn’t find one here, I didn’t know where we would. And if we couldn’t find a scale that he’d already shed, we’d have only one option left. Something told me that this dragon would not be as amenable as the wolves to relinquishing a piece of his body… It wasn’t like I could use the Novak card this time either. Our island was allied with dragons, but they were dragons of The Hearthlands. If anything, mentioning Breccan’s compatriots could just make the situation worse after he’d been exiled by them.
I looked toward my companions, who were also scoping out the room. We split in two directions; Bahir and Arron went right, Julie and I went left. We all moved as noiselessly as possible, keeping to the raised platform that lined the edge of the cave—as far away as we could from the dragon. Julie and I searched in every shadowy corner we came across, every tucked-away crevice, every inch of the ground, but by the time we met up with Bahir and Arron again, we’d found not one single scale. Neither had they.
I turned my focus back on the center of the cave. Previously I’d been so occupied with staring at the dragon, I hadn’t noticed a pile of armor near his bed—armor that would only fit him in his human form, being clearly made for a man. Gem-studded helmets, silver chest plates, golden sheathed swords and wide, diamond-encrusted shields were just some of the objects I recognized. Then, also near his bed, there was a wide pit filled with gleaming jewels. Perhaps these were possessions he’d taken with him when he’d left The Hearthlands. The only possessions… Other than the cluster of armor and the jewels, the chamber was quite empty.
My heart catapulted into my throat as the dragon’s spear-like tail moved. It extended past the furs and outward to graze the stone floor.
I feared for a moment that we had made too much noise and had woken Breccan. But then the tail settled, the dragon’s breathing returning to its previous slow rhythm.
Bahir gripped my shoulder. Leaning closer, he breathed, “Arron and I will search the border once more for a shed scale, just in case we missed something.”
They left Julie and me alone. My mind worked furiously as I tried to think what our next move should be.
“What now?” Julie mouthed, the beacons’ firelight dancing in her hazel irises.