Silas had been wrong.Traveling by gold dust was not like being filtered through a straw.It was worse.Much, much worse.
“Here, drink this.”Polina brought a bottle to Silas’s lips.
He drank greedily, sputtering when his initial thirst gave way enough for him to taste what he was swallowing.Whatever it was, it wasn’t water.
“What is that?”He stuck his tongue out, hoping the frigid cold would numb his taste buds.
“A potion of water lily root, orchid worm, and spirulina to speed recovery and combat altitude sickness.”She crossed the cave to Jason and brought the tonic to his lips.
Silas double-checked that his backpack was still on his shoulders, then pushed himself up on his hands and knees.He pulled his parka tighter around him.They were right inside the mouth of the cave, where blowing snow made the outdoors look like a winter wonderland.
“Come on,” Jason said, coughing.He regarded the bottle in Polina’s hand as if it were rat poison.
He led them deeper into the cave, the cavern becoming darker and darker as they descended into the mountain until even Silas’s supernatural sight failed him.
“Allow me,” Polina said.The tip of her wand glowed to life.
“There’s a fireplace against that far wall,” Jason said.“If you hocus-pocus that thing, it will make it easier for us to see.”
Polina circled her wand, and a large fire ignited in aCitizen Kane-sized alcove in the stone, bathing the cave in warm light.A carpet and sofa in the main chamber were covered in a thick layer of soot, although a frayed corner suggested it was once patterned red.Behind the furniture, there was a coffin-sized silver egg.
“She’s here,” Silas said.
But Jason clearly already knew as much.He was standing next to the metallic pod, running his fingers along its shell.The thing was eerily lustrous, like an alien artifact, with plate-sized overlapping scales that reflected the flickering light of the fire.
Jason knocked on the shell.It sounded solid.Something was in there.“She’s got to be inside.”
Approaching slowly, Polina raised her wand, her eyes wide with distrust of the foreign object.
Silas slid the backpack from his shoulders.Once he’d freed the heart from its purple velvet bag, the egg vibrated, emitting a low hum.
“Did you see that?”Jason held his hands over the egg, grinning excitedly.“I’d say she knows we’re here.”
“Are you suggesting the dragon fae has been inside this thing all this time?”Polina paced the periphery, inspecting the scales.
“As far as we know,” Jason said.
She touched the egg, her face straining against some invisible force.“It looks like metal, but it isn’t.I’m a metal witch; I have no power over this.It’s biological, not elemental.”
“Selene told me Nickelova might react to the proximity of the heart,” Jason said.“Try it, Silas.”
Cupping the large, throbbing ruby in both hands, Silas passed it over the cocoon, stopping where he’d expect Nickelova’s chest to be.Loud and clear, he said, “Come out, Nickelova.I have something for you.”
The egg vibrated again, and the giant plates began to shift.With a sound like grinding gears, the scales slid and stacked, one on top of the other like some giant puzzle box.As the hard, metallic shell folded away, a leathery snakeskin was exposed.It writhed as if the serpent within had swallowed a giant rat.
Silas squeezed the heart.“Come on, you bitch, come and get it.”
The snakeskin split down the middle, the sound of tearing leather making Silas feel queasy.A puff of foul-smelling steam rose from the broken flesh.
“Ugh!”Silas covered his nose and mouth with the back of his arm.
The skin shriveled and rolled, the cocoon opening like some gigantic fleshy baked potato.Polina crept forward, wand pointed menacingly toward the opening.The steam was too thick to see inside.Jason waved his hands in a ridiculous effort to fan the haze away while Silas squinted his eyes in the hopes of confirming a visual of Nickelova.The heart tight within his grip, he leaned over the opening.
A pale round sphere broke through the fog.No, not a sphere.A head.The bald head of a corpse with shriveled skin and receding lips.Skeletal arms splayed over the sides of the cocoon, one bony hand reaching for Silas and the heart.
“Miiine,” the thing rasped, its dried tongue protruding between its teeth.
“Is that Nickelova?”Jason stepped back in revulsion.
