Still, she continued. Until it began to drive the orms back. “Run!” she said. “Head for the boulder caves! They won’t enter there.”
As they started for them, a cold wind came whipping through the trees.
“Ignore it and keep going! Don’t look up. Eyes ahead!”
Don’t look up? Was she kidding? Now it became an imperative need to do so. But conventional wisdom said it would be all kinds of stupid to defy Brogan’s order.
All kinds of—
Crap!
Falcyn glanced up before he could stop himself.
And the moment he did, fire rained down from the sky.
Not just fire. Rocks. Lava. And some kind of stinging larvae.
Brogan made a sound of supreme disgust. “What part ofdon’t look updid you not understand, dragon!”
“The part that it’s a dragon’s nature to do what we’re told not to!”
Blaise cursed and swatted at the bugs. “What are these things?”
“Bloodvlox. Don’t let them break your skin or they can infect you and take you over. If they land near your ears, they can crawl inside and ingest your brains! And keep them away from your eyes, too.”
Medea hissed and slapped at one that was trying to burrow under her skin. “How do we get rid of them?”
“Fleabane, but I don’t have any on me and can’t conjure any until we get away from the orms.” Brogan swatted at them. “I’ll boost your powers so that you can teleport to the caves over there. It should be enough to get you to safety. But you’ll have to do it fast, before they catch on and you lose the ability again.”
Growling at the thought of blindly trusting her, Falcyn glanced around and decided there was no other out. “All right. On three, we teleport to just in front of the caves.” And if she was lying or betrayed them, he’d eat her whole. “Ready?”
“Ready!” they said in unison.
Falcyn counted down.
On one they went, but just as he started to follow, an orm grabbed his leg. He turned on the creature and caught it with his claw, wishing he could give it what it really deserved.
His dragon’s venom.
He stomped and kicked until he broke free, then he teleported, making sure he didn’t take any stray beast with him, since that could cause its DNA to merge with his—something he definitely didn’t want to happen. He was damaged enough. His luck, he’d sprout another arm or head.
Or another piece of anatomy he didn’t want to think about duplicating, because one was enough to get him into all manner of trouble. It definitely didn’t need a twin.
Especially not around Medea.
By the time he made the cave and retook a solid form, the howling had picked up volume and the fleas were stinging even more as they swarmed him the moment he was solid again. Blaise whipped at them with his shirt while Medea jerked Falcyn inside by the arm.
Urian used his powers to seal them in the cave.
Teamwork…
He shuddered. It gave him the willies. He’d never really bought into that. Dragons were solitary creatures, and while he’d fought with his brothers a handful of times, it wasn’t enough that it left him comfortable with such things. And definitely not when surrounded by this many strangers.
“Can the orms find us in here?” Falcyn asked while Blaise pulled his shirt back on.
Brogan shook her head. “But there are others who can. The forges are all in places similar to this… as are their homes. It’s why the orms avoid them when they’re free.”
“Awesome,” Urian breathed. “Are the portals here, too?”
