Carpathian 17 - Dark Curse

to him for a moment and then rounded the corner to enter the alcove. Her breath exploded out of her lungs and silent tears tracked down her face. She could see Aunt Bronnie, one beautiful emerald eye staring at her through the thick wall of ice. Scales covered the serpentine neck and ran up the wedge-shaped head. One claw was outstretched, had obviously been digging at the ice before she froze. Behind her, shielded as usual by Branislava, was Tatijana, her body almost impossible to see.
    They\'re still here, Nicolas. If I can get their bodies out of the ice, can you float them? They\'re enormously large and impossible to carry.
    Whatever you need.
    He wouldn\'t tell her the cost to his strength while he was keeping her warm and scanning constantly for the enemy. He never would and she knew that. She also knew it was getting closer to dawn. They had to get out.
    Lara stood back away from the wall and lifted her hands. This would be the most important spell she would ever cast. She had to command her spiders to bore through the ice, to cut huge chunks away to release the dragons, but she also needed to stabilize the ice so it wouldn\'t collapse in on them.
    The ice constantly groaned, reminding her just how unstable it really was. First, she needed to know if the walls were moving, because she was fairly certain they were. She took a breath. She needed a web stretched taut from wall to wall to warn her if the passage was narrowing.
    Tiny spiders of crystalline ice, weave your web, make it tight, cast your silk from wall to wall, making sure no ice shall fall. Spin your patterns, weave them tight, watch your lines command the ice.
    The spiders raced out of the ice, spread across the thick walls and began to weave and spin their luminescent threads until the shiny, glowing web was stretched in an intricate pattern from wall to wall. Satisfied, Lara wove a pattern with her hands, graceful and loving movements, tracing each weave carefully, her voice thick with emotion as she commanded the spiders to begin boring holes into the ice all around the dragons, like a giant cutout.
    Spiders, spiders, form a line, use your skills, cut-bore-and bind.
    The spiders swarmed over the wall encasing the dragons. It took some time to bore several feet inward and around such a large area.
    \"Hurry, Lara. The globes in here are changing colors, swirling with what looks like blood through each orb,\"
    Natalya called. \"We have to get out of here.\"
    Lara refused to hurry her next spell. This mattered too much. She wouldn\'t chance losing the aunts when she was so close. She added a holding spell for the ice, knowing it wouldn\'t last too long against the tremendous pressure of the glacier and Xavier\'s wrath that she could already feel in the ice itself.
    I call thee water in frozen form, hold your place though cracked and worn. Tiny particles of water, ice meld and mold, fit and splice.
    The ominous creaking and rumbling faded to whispers, but the sound of water continued to surround them.
    This was it then. She took another breath and with all the hope and love and knowledge she had, she wove her next spell to open the ice block the spiders had cut for her.
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    Christine Feehan: Dark Curse
    Thrice around this ice do bounds evil sink into the ground. Little spiders of crystalline ice, hold your webs, keep them tight. Cast them round, protect and be, so I may reach those who sleep.
    The spiders wove their silken fire strands through each bore hold and pulled the threads tight, sawing back and forth until chunks of ice broke free. They continued to work until they exposed the dragons, and then they carved holes around the bodies until the dragons slipped free.
    The dragon carcasses slid out of their ice prison, still frozen, hitting the floor with a cracking sound.

Chapter 19
    Lara crouched down beside the dragons, weeping. She put one hand on each of the ice-cold necks, bowed her head and whispered to them softly. \"I\'m setting you free. Just the way you did me, he doesn\'t have you any longer.\" Maybe it wouldn\'t matter to them in death, but it did to her. She would never want Xavier to have any part of her-in any form.
    \"Lara! Look at the web,\" Natalya said sharply. She peeked around the corner of the alcove and gasped aloud, staring in awe and dismay at the two dragon carcasses.
    The ice spiders were making a mass exodus, rushing across the thick ice wall. The web they\'d spun tight sagged in the middle by a few inches, but