[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.”He shook his head, his faint intriguing smile capturing her attention and wiping out all coherent thought before she could finish.“Your imagination is running away with you.Tell me what you want to do.”“I want to get the hell out of here, but I can’t.I have to go into the cave and get rid of this compulsion.” She caught at his shirt.“I know you’re thinking of taking me away from here, but I’d just have to come back and I’d search without you.Please don’t do that, Vikirnoff.”He studied the desperation in her eyes.“I know you have this to do, Natalya.I am with you all the way.If Freddie or Troll King try to bother you, I will keep them off your back until this is finished.”Natalya let her breath out slowly, leaned forward and brushed a kiss over his lips.“Get up on this rock with me before that thing eats you alive.”His eyebrow shot up.“One of us has to be on the ground to find the opening.I know it is here, somewhere around this rock.We will have to be wary of traps.The cave does not want us to enter it.”“Good luck to you then.”He laughed softly.“I thought you might say that.”“Yes, well, I’m the practical type.”Vikirnoff studied the niche and outcropping, pacing back and forth around the front and sides of the boulder several times.Natalya was right, not only was something moving beneath the ground, but it was mimicking his every stride.The ground swelled slightly as if something large searched in serpentine motion just inches below the surface parallel to him each time he took a step.He also noticed, whenever he ceased to move, the creature raced to the boulder where Natalya was perched and remained still, melting back into the earth.The mist thickened around them, rolling in with cold blasts of air, but hovering to blanket the small peak, rather than continuing out in a path over the mountain as it should have.Voices howled and moaned and something dark and shadowy moved in the mist.“Okay, this has gone way beyond spooky,” Natalya said.“And I am so not putting my feet on the ground if there’s a chance that hairy-armed, ice-pick-for-fingernails creature is anywhere near here.” She looked around her, peered at the ground and rocks.“There has to be an entrance here.Why would it be so well-guarded if we aren’t in the right spot?”“The entrance is here,” Vikirnoff agreed, keeping his eye on the moving soil.Small plants wiggled like worms as the thing beneath the ground disturbed them in its passing.“Do you see those rocks right there? The small ones? Do they look right to you?”Natalya almost fell off the boulder as she leaned over the side.Vikirnoff steadied her with one hand at her waist.“They’re set in a pattern, but.” Her voice drifted off.“It’s not quite right,” he finished for her.“Watch that thing,” she pointed towards the shifting ground.“I think the rocks need to be put in a different order.More like this.” She reached down, still balanced on the boulder and nudged a rock out of the lineup to exchange with another three spaces over.She frowned in frustration, shook her head and leapt off the boulder to crouch down beside the smaller rocks.“This is it, Vikirnoff, the way to the entrance.I just have to rearrange the rocks into the right order.”Vikirnoff hunkered down beside her, close, where his body could shield hers, if necessary.He kept a wary eye on the churning, thickening mist, as well as continually scanning the ground.“I’ve got it!” Natalya dropped the last rock in place with evident satisfaction.The ground beside her hand erupted like a small geyser.A foul-smelling eel-like creature with spiked teeth bored straight at her fingers, emitting a high-pitched scream.Vikirnoff caught the serpent by the back of the neck, dragging the struggling body away from Natalya.The teeth snapped repeatedly, the body twisting frantically to get at her.“Look out!” Vikirnoff warned as the ground around Natalya burst open in half a dozen places, the serpentine heads rocketing out of the holes straight at her from every direction.“Jump!” He flung the snake away from him and lifted his hands toward the sky.Lightning arced through the swirling mist, lighting the edges in fiery red tones.Natalya didn’t even care that his tone held both compulsion and command.She somersaulted onto the boulder and glared at the writhing creatures [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]