Rhen stayed close to Lars' side as they journeyed into the heart of the caverns. Though Lars focused his attention on Dameon and keeping them safe, he couldn't hide his smile. Every time she touched him, his heart fluttered, and his cheeks burned. Her proximity gave him hope.
An ancient bridge appeared out of the darkness, sprawling over a wide river. Lars pushed on the wooden planks with his staff, testing their strength.
"Will it hold?" Rhen whispered.
With her lips so close to his ear, he had to take a second to reply. "Ah, if we don't all try to cross at once. I think two at a time is as much as this wood can handle, even if I reinforce it with earth."
Rhen nodded and turned to their group. "I'll cross with Lars first. The rest of you follow in groups of two."
Dameon stepped forward, taking Rhen's hand. "No, cross with me, Rhen. I'll protect you. That sorcerer can't heal like I can."
Lars hissed, "This sorcerer, plans on keeping her safe, so there's no need to heal her."
Rhen withdrew her hand and shook her head. "I'd prefer Lars to accompany me. You're more useful in the middle, Dameon. You don't have the kind of offensive magic we do. If we're attacked, you need the group's protection. Lars doesn't."
"I have offensive magic."
"Not powerful enough for wyverns, Sun Druid," Te'ijal said. "The Sword-Singer speaks wisdom. Stay with me."
"There is no way I'm walking with you, Vampire. I value my life."
"I don't doubt that," Lars retorted. "Over and above everyone else's."
Dameon glared daggers at him.
The sorcerer shrugged. "What? I call it like I see it."
"That's enough, boys," Rhen chided. "We're friends here. Dameon, I've already said where we need you. Te'ijal is trustworthy."
Galahad said, "Even if we vampires were not, creatures of the night cannot bear the blood of sunlight."
Te'ijal glared down her nose at the druid. "Yes, he is a special brand of poison I would prefer not to … indulge in. I would be sick for months, if the fumes did not kill me sooner."
Galahad shuddered. "Even Marge's ale is more appetizing."
Marge huffed. "Damn right, it is."
Lars had to cover his mouth to suppress a snicker.
Dameon slammed his hand into his hip. "This is silly. I'm staying with Rhen, and that's that."
John narrowed his one good eye at the sun druid. "If you recall, Rhen is captain of this crew. Mind your orders, Lad."
Dameon fired back, "I'm her fiancé, you idiot, not her subordinate!"
"Quiet, Druid!" Elini hissed. "Do you want to bring the entire cavern on our heads?"
"No," Dameon grumbled. "But I belong beside Rhen!"
"Do you?" Lars stood belly-to-belly with the druid, sparks flying from his eyes. "Why so insistent? Can't you protect her as well from a few paces behind? I know your magic reaches further than that." He lowered his head to glare into the shorter man's face. "What are you hiding? What's so important about going with Rhen first, hmm? Is there a trap waiting on the other side of that river for the rest of us?"
Te'ijal and Marge started with surprise, but the others turned concerned expressions on Dameon. The sun druid's face had gone stark white.
"You're calling me a traitor!"
"Like I said, I call it like I see it. If there's nothing to worry about, then why make such a big fuss?"
Dameon's jaw worked, and his eyes flashed, but Lars didn't back down. He used his size to his advantage, towering over the druid.
Lars leaned in closer and growled, "Well, Druid?"
Dameon ground his teeth, but soon, his shoulders slumped, and the fire faded from his eyes. He lowered his gaze.
"I just don't like you so close, Sorcerer. I see the way you look at her."
Lars' breath caught. His ears burning, he drew his cloak around himself and turned his back on Dameon.
"Your imagination exceeds your discretion, as usual. Rhen comes with me because we're placing our strongest fighters across the bridge first. It's strategy, not a matter of affection." He clenched his fist around his staff. "Besides, I know where her heart lies."
"Fine. Then just keep your hands off of her."
Lars' nostrils flared. "No need to worry about that, Druid. I am honest."
Dameon glowered, but said nothing else. Lars nodded to Rhen, and she came to his side, walking with her back to his as they crossed the bridge.
"Keep close," he whispered over his shoulder. "I have a bad feeling about this."
"So do I. Lars, is he shielding you?"
"Dameon?" Lars waved his hand in front of him, but sensed no current of magic where the druid's shields would be if they existed. "No. Why?"
"Because he is shielding me. Be on guard and stay within the range of my shields, if you can."
Lars' grip tightened on his staff. "All right."
They made their way across the bridge with great care, then stood off to the side while Te'ijal and Dameon crossed. John and Elini followed, but before the summoner and dragon rider made it across, a shrill roar and burst of flames filled the cavern. Elini leapt back into John and the sailor pulled her behind him, drawing his rapier.
Elini pointed down the river to a bright orange light, drawing closer at a rapid rate. "What is that?"
John dragged Elini toward the bank. "Run, woman!"
Galahad grabbed Marge's hand and pulled the heavy woman onto the bridge, rushing against the approaching inferno.
"Hurry, Galahad!" Lars hissed.
Just as the paladin's feet made contact with solid ground, the bridge burst into flames behind him. Marge stifled a cry as the wood gave way beneath her, but she didn't fall far. Lars threw out his hand, and the water solidified, catching her and bringing her to the shore. Galahad and Te'ijal heaved the woman up onto the bank just as a towering gray figure crawled out of the shadows.
A wyvern, and this time, there was no escaping it.
Its glowing red eyes fixed on Elini. The summoner cracked her whip to drive the creature back a few paces. It growled and shot flames at her, but Lars blocked them with a wall of earth.
Elini's demon orb glowed. "A flame beast, are you? I know what to do with you!" She raised her hands, palms together, to the level of her eyes and whispered a chant.
"Cover her," John barked.
"I am." Galahad swung his beast of a sword at the wyvern, distracting it thoroughly.
The creature charged, but Te'ijal and Galahad held it off. Lars readied a powerful ice spell, just in case, and watched Dameon out of the corner of his eye.
The druid edged toward the back of the group and kept whispering to Rhen.
She glared and hissed, "Not a chance, Druid. Lars, be ready!" A song of ice and death shrill on her tongue, she raced for the beast, weaving a harmony with her whistling blade.
The sword caught the beast's leg, and it roared in pain, unleashing a blast of fire straight at Galahad. The paladin leapt back, but not fast enough. Fire set his arm and shoulder ablaze, and with a scream, he dropped to the ground.
"Galahad!" Te'ijal rushed to him and smothered the fire out, but the knight bore heavy injuries. She called in a breaking voice, "Lars, help me!"
Lars barked at Dameon. "Heal him already, you dolt!"
Dameon fumbled with his staff, dropping scrolls everywhere. "I'm trying!"
"Idiot!" Te'ijal spat. "Lars! Can you?"
"Not enough. Get him out, Te'ijal!"
Te'ijal cursed and drew Galahad into her arms. "Hold on, husband. I will help you."
"I am not your, h-husband yet, demon-spawn."
Galahad squirmed, but Te'ijal dragged him to safety despite his complaints.
While the vampress towered over a struggling Galahad, firing arrows at any part of the wyvern she could reach, Rhen scrambled under the beast's claws and aimed a strike at the wyvern's underbelly. She managed to cut the beast, but only enough to anger it. Rhen had to scurry to avoid its stomping claws. John and Marge rushed to her aid, though their weapons had little effect on the powerful serpent.
Lars launched ice spells left and right, but he held some of his power back. He didn't want to drain his mana, not after the way Dameon had acted earlier.
Elini stood nearby, chanting in an angry voice and clapping her hands together to no avail.
John knocked back one of the wyvern's claws from the distracted woman and bellowed, "What's the matter, Elini? Get that demon out here!"
"I cannot!" Elini cried, fear edging her voice. "Indra, I, she is not responding!"
"What?" Rhen ducked under a swing of the wyvern's tail. "Why? She came before."
"I, I do not know. It is like she is gone."
Lars gasped. "Gone? Not possible! We trapped her!"
"Even so, she will not answ—"
A cold, feminine voice sent chills up Lars' spine. "Looking for me?"
The sorcerer whipped around and gasped. Indra, white, glowing, and free, stood behind them, tossing a ball of ice in her palm.
"What the …?" Lars glanced to the sun druid, and cold fury spread through his core.
Dameon was smirking. Smirking, while their team fought too powerful a creature, and a demon prepared her spells.
The druid had betrayed them!
"You traitor bastard!" Lars shouted, sparks flying on his breath. "You did this!" He unleashed his ice on both wyvern and sun druid.
Dameon scampered out of the blast radius and shielded himself.
"Not so fast," Indra hissed.
A wall of ice rose between Lars and the druid, but Lars burned it down and blasted fire and lightning at her. Indra shrieked and backed away.
"Foolish sorcerer!" She blocked herself in a shield of ice. "You were lucky the first time. Do you think you will defeat me a second time with half your party out of battle and a wyvern to fight, too?"
Lars moved to attack, but even as he readied his most powerful magic, he had to concede that the ice demon had a point. They were outmatched—if the other monsters in the cave caught onto their plight, they were finished.
Fire surged into his veins. "I don't care! I'll kill you both!"
Electricity arced through his fingertips, amplified by his orbs. Thunder resounded in the cavern as the bolts zeroed in on their enemies and surrounded them with blinding blue light. His attack should have decimated both demon and druid, yet Dameon threw shields around himself and Indra, and the lightning bounced harmlessly away.
The wyvern had no such luck. The electricity sunk deep into its wounds, and the creature voiced a shriek of agony that shook rocks down from the cave ceiling. As the beast fell, lifeless, into the river, the distant call of a second wyvern echoed from somewhere deep within the caves. And a third. And a fourth.
Lars' heart sunk. The beasts were coming.