Chapter 8
Lisa followed the life dragon into Ultrima’s lair, feeling a little less nervous now she knew Verrian was somewhere outside, and that he wasn’t just going to leave her.
She had no idea what these dragons had planned, and was quite concerned about being stuck in the enemy’s lair. What were they going to do with her?
“Please, make yourself comfortable,” the life dragon said, leading her into a comfortably appointed cave and waving a hand at the room. “If there is anything you need, let me know and I’ll try to get it for you.”
Lisa stared at her, but she seemed to really mean it. “Why are you helping me?” she asked.
The life dragon woman stared at her for a moment, then she actually smiled. “We’re not so different you know. None of us are. We all just want to be happy in life. Maybe this is a chance for our clans to get to know each other once again.”
Her words surprised Lisa more than she cared to admit. But, staring at the other woman, she had to admit that they had merit.
Maybe the dragons in the Trima clan weren’t so different from those of Rian clan. None of them had even been alive when the battle had last raged.
That said, they had attacked Rian clan dragons every time they tried to wake Taurian’s brothers and sisters.
They’d attacked when she tried to wake Verrian.
No matter how the other dragons felt about Rian clan, their leader still had it in for them.
Maybe though, Lisa could use this opportunity. If she could turn some of the Trima dragons against him…
“Is that what Ultrima said? Is that why he did this?” she asked. She really did want to know, to understand.
The woman smiled again, this time a little pityingly. “Ultrima is no different to the rest of us. He just wants to be happy in life. Unfortunately, that happiness was denied to him when he wasn’t allowed to mate with the woman he loved.”
That wasn’t quite how she’d heard it. Lisa opened her mouth to object, to tell the life dragon the real story, then closed it again.
If Ultrima hadn’t told them the truth, then it could be a powerful weapon against him. But if she told this woman now, then she wasn’t going to believe her. She needed to gain her trust first.
How?
Lisa bit back a smile. By appealing to the one thing she seemed to believe. She forced herself to look a little bitter, not hard when she thought about the situation she was in. “I just want to be with the man I love too, but Ultrima pushed him away.”
For a minute, the woman’s blue eyes glowed. “Do you really think he would be pushed away so easily if he loved you?”
If the woman had ripped Lisa’s heart out and stomped on it, it couldn’t have hurt more.
Because it was the truth. Verrian hadn’t even tried to fight for her. He’d just walked away.
But not that far. He was still out there somewhere, close enough that she could reach out to him if she wanted to.
The life dragon didn’t seem to know that. And Lisa sure wasn’t going to tell her.
Instead she said, “Is he trying to prove something? Does he think his ‘love’ is more valuable than mine? Does he think it’s somehow greater, because he’s choosing to fight a whole clan, kill many dragons, just to prove it?” she demanded.
It wasn’t hard to stir up emotion. It was right there, all completely honest.
“We all do what we have to do,” the woman said, refusing to be ruffled.
Lisa heaved a sigh. It was all rather pointless. She wasn’t going to convince these dragons that they should return to the Rian clan. They obviously believed everything Ultrima said. One little comment by her wasn’t going to have any effect on that.
It was pointless even trying.
No, what she needed to focus her energy on was how to get out of here. Then she could hunt down Verrian, and make him realise that she wasn’t going to give up so easily.
She wasn’t just going to walk away from him because of some deal he’d made with the enemy.
She just had to figure out a way to get out of here.
*****
Verrian stood next to Rita and watched as everyone settled in for the night. Most of the Trima dragons, including the life dragon and Lisa, disappeared back inside the mountain. The police formed a camp in front, with some of them moving to surround the area. They didn’t have enough people for a full ring though, there were plenty of gaps he could slip through.
They weren’t the problem.
The problem was, he wasn’t sure what he was going to do.
What he wanted to do was sneak into the mountain, find Lisa, and get her out of there, but that would violate his deal. How could he help her from out here? Verrian stared at the mountain. How could he help her without seeing her?
An idea grew in his mind, and he grinned. From out here, he could see everything the police were doing. He could easily help Lisa find an escape route. He could probably even provide distractions if necessary.
He walked a few steps away from Rita, who was still snapping pictures, more slowly now, and reached out. “Lisa?”
There was a long silence. For a moment, Verrian worried that she was out of range, that somehow the thick rock of the mountain had blocked the dragon speech. But eventually she replied, her voice wary. “What?”
Verrian hesitated too. He couldn’t jump straight into escape, he needed to set things straight first. “I’m sorry,” he apologised again.
“Why did you do this?” she demanded. “Why on earth did you agree to Ultrima’s stupid deal?”
“What else was I supposed to do, let you die?”
That one caused Lisa to drop silent again for a few moments. “Well, couldn’t you have made a better deal?” she asked, “One that didn’t involve us never seeing each other again?”
He couldn’t argue with that. “I should have, but I wasn’t thinking straight. I panicked, and I would have agreed to anything just to keep you alive at that point. Taurian would have done a much better job.”
“Well, I don’t want Taurian,” Lisa said flatly. “I want you. You know I’m not going to be bound by his stupid deal, right? I didn’t make any deals.”
Verrian couldn’t help grinning. “I suspected you might not.” Suddenly, the shadow that had been over his heart since he’d agreed to Ultrima’s deal felt a little lighter. He could breathe again without it hurting. “We can worry about that later, first we have to get you out of there.”
“Got any plans?” Lisa asked.
Verrian didn’t even know where to start. To get to Lisa, he’d not only have to get past all the Trima dragons in the mountain, but the police too. It seemed like an impossibility for one dragon. Even if the whole clan was here, taking on this many humans and dragons would be risky.
“I’m thinking,” he said.
He could almost feel Lisa’s amusement. “When you come up with something, let me know.”
“Those bastards.” Rita’s hushed whisper was loud in the silence. She was staring at the bush, some distance closer to the mountain than where they were.
Verrian followed her gaze. At first he couldn’t see anything, then he caught sight of it. A flash of light, reflected off something shiny. Once he knew where to look, he could see the shadows moving through the trees stealthily.
The police? Were they cutting around to sneak into the lair and arrest Lisa?
“Who is it?” he asked Rita.
“The TV news crew.” Her voice was disappointed. “Who’s going to care about reading my story if they can watch it on TV?”
“You said you wanted this recorded for history,” Verrian said reasonably. “Surely that means the more people recording it the better?”
He could see the struggle on Rita’s face. Her very real belief in getting news out, combined with wanting to be the one to do it. She scrambled to her feet. “I’m going to see where they’re going. They look like they’re heading for the mountain. Who knows what they’re up to.”
For a lack of anything better to do, Verrian followed her as she hurried through the bush after the other reporters.
Besides, if they were trying to get into the mountain, that could be his chance.
It didn’t take them long to catch up to the other reporters. They were burdened with a lot more equipment than Rita was. Their camera was five times the size, and they had large sticks and bits of cable everywhere.
They turned quickly as Rita marched up to them, their faces relaxing when they saw who it was.
“Rita, fancy meeting you here,” a young man said with a cheeky grin.
Rita glared at him. “How did you find out about this, Todd?”
“We have our ways, just like you do. And we’re not sharing sources any more than you are.”
Both of them glared at each other.
Verrian just watched in amusement. Until the man happened to glance in his direction, and his eyes widened. “Is that one of the dragons? How’d you find him?”
Rita glanced back at Verrian, then shrugged. “He ran into me. We’re old friends, hey, Verrian.”
He really didn’t want to be dragged into this. He had more important things to be worrying about. He shouldn’t have followed Rita, he should have gone his own way.
The TV reporter’s eyes narrowed, and he stared at Verrian with a calculating frown. “Is he likely to help us find out more about these dragons?” he asked Rita.
She put her hands on her hips. “Help you, no chance. He’s helping me.”
“Helping you what? Surely he doesn’t want news of his kind getting out any more than the rest of the dragons.”
Rita pointed a finger at him. “Verrian isn’t like the others. He likes humans. In fact, his girlfriend is stuck inside the mountain, and we’re trying to figure out how to get her out.”
They were?
Of course, that’s what he was trying to do, he just hadn’t realised Rita was helping him.
Somehow, he suspected she’d just said that to make herself sound important. To make them better friends than they were. But if he could convince her to really help him…
Todd looked thoughtful. He hesitated for a moment, then said, “We’ve heard there’s a way in, a secret passage. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”
Verrian’s ears pricked up. A secret passage? Of course there was. Ultrima would be sure to have more than one way in and out of his lair, the sneaky dragon.
Rita’s eyes widened too. Then she tried to look disinterested. “The news isn’t inside the mountain, it’s out here,” she pointed out.
“What, you don’t want to get pictures of inside a dragon’s lair?” Todd teased. “That’s not like you, Rita.”
“You wouldn’t want to be getting any closer to these dragons than you already are if you’d seen them fighting,” Rita said, looking thoughtful.
“Well,” Todd said cheerfully, “Since we both obviously want different things, we’ll catch you later.”
“Wait,” Verrian said, holding up his hand. “You’re really trying to get inside the lair?”
Todd looked at him calculatingly. “You want to get in? Help us, and you can come with us.”
“Do you know where this secret entrance is?”
It wasn’t like Verrian cared if the humans saw the inside of Ultrima’s lair. He just wanted to rescue Lisa.
Of course, he wasn’t going to be able to do that without ‘seeing’ her. That was his problem.
But if he could convince these humans to rescue her…
“Sure we do,” Todd said confidently. A little too confidently.
Verrian looked at him calculatingly. He suspected this human was full of hot air.
But he was the best chance he had.