Light Dragons 03 - Sparks Fly

Bartholomew, Mo Lo.”
    I could hear Maura sigh even from the foot of the stairs. “I’m so going to regret ever opening my mouth,” she muttered before stopping in front of a large stone tomb.
    Savian flicked his light over it, casting into faint relief markings typical of Romanesque design, mostly battle scenes, but some domestic carvings as well, including one of three men involved in an act that looked quite inappropriate for a chapel. “This dog here, this is the first piece. Press the stone and you should feel it click. Then over to the north side, do the same to the snake that’s about to seduce Eve. The third is the knights fighting-you press the charger’s rear flank. And last, you go back to the stone dog and press it again.”
    As she suited action to word, the stone gave a loud click. Maura leaned down and shoved, the entire top half of the tomb grinding to the side to reveal a short drop down to an earth and stone passage.
    “Cool!” Brom said, peering down into the tunnel.
    “Voilà, the bolt-hole. Take the right branch in the tunnel, and it will lead you to an exit about half a mile below the castillo . You can’t miss it. Now, unlock this damned thing so I can go do what I have to do.” Maura held out her arm to Savian.
    “We certainly won’t miss the turn, because you’re coming with us,” Savian said grimly, pulling her after him as he entered the tunnel.
    “No! I said I’d help you get the boy out, and I’ve done that. But I can’t leave! Thala will-”
    “I really don’t give a damn what Thala thinks,” I said, swearing to myself as I stumbled over a root, stubbing my toe in the process. I grasped the back of Brom’s T-shirt, feeling blinder than blind as we crept along the tunnel.
    “You don’t understand! I can’t leave-” Maura’s protest came to an abrupt halt when Savian, with a muttered oath, leaned down and flung her over his shoulder.
    The next ten minutes were fraught with irritation, mostly due to Maura’s complaining loudly about Savian’s actions, antecedents, and at one point, the fact that he was holding her leg in a manner he should be ashamed of in front of a small child.
    “Really,” I told Savian when he at last set her on her feet, sputtering threats and vague promises of death and destruction, “I think she has a point about the handcuffs. She’s done what we asked. You can let her go.”
    “Just as soon as I know you’re safe,” he answered, patting his pocket, a slightly panicked look coming across his face. I pushed past him, shoved aside the overgrowth of aptenio, a persistent ground covering plant found everywhere in this part of Spain, and emerged into the full morning sun.
    A small clutch of four negrets that were ripping something furry to shreds looked up, staring in surprise at me, blood and bits of fur smeared across their mouths. Beyond them, the hillside was covered with small figures, slowly making their way up the slopes to the fortress.
    “Holy-” I spun around and shoved Savian and Maura back into the tunnel, yelling at the same time, “Get back to the crypt! We’ve got to close it off! Brom, run!”
    Gareth may have been Brom’s biological father, but, luckily, my genes appeared to be stronger in him, at least so far as his intelligence went. He didn’t say a word; he just turned on his heel and ran. Savian stopped muttering to himself, took one look at the pack of negrets ripping through the aptenio to get to us, and, grasping Maura’s hand, ran after us.
    The negrets caught up just as Savian and Maura were bolting up the stairs. Brom and I were already at the stone tomb, leaning into it, ready to shove it closed just as soon as they cleared the entrance, but even as Maura emerged, she was jerked backward when the negrets flung themselves on Savian with high, piercing cries.
    “Candles!” Savian yelled as he struggled to beat them off himself. “They turn to metal when touched by fire!”
    “You don’t need candles when you have me.” Shifting into dragon form, Maura lit up the tunnel with a blast of dragon fire that caught the frozen expressions of four extremely startled negrets before it dissolved into nothing.
    Four metallic thumps could be heard, followed shortly by Savian yelling about his clothing being on fire. By the time we got him up the stairs, his head and face were black, his shirt both shredded by the negrets and burned by the dragon fire, and blood was welling across his back and chest where