“You have to.”
“Watch out!” Wolf grabbed Red and pulled her forward. An arrow hit the rock wall inches away from her head. Another arrow came. And another.
Wolf aimed the crossbow. He rapid fired three arrows down the passageway. They heard a scream echo off the walls.
“It’s now or never, Rose, come on.” Red turned back to the girl.
Rose leaned back against the rock face. Her eyes bulged. A little smile played at her lips. Red looked down. Rose clutched at her stomach. An arrow stuck out grotesquely.
Red grabbed her. She brought her hand down to the arrow to yank it out. Rose stilled her hand. She shook her head.
“I’m sorry.” Red looked up into her face.
“Don’t be. I am finally free.” Her eyes rolled back in her head and she gasped one last breath.
“Go, Red. We have to go.” Wolf shot another arrow down the passage. An arrow came back in defense. It nearly hit Wolf in the leg.
Red looked down at Rose once more. She looked over at Wolf and jumped into the hole. She gulped in air and went under.
Wolf tossed the crossbow down and jumped in after her.
* * *
The guards rushed to the hole. They looked down into the rushing water. Drake came up behind them.
He pushed them away. He stood at the hole and peered down into the cold water.
“Where does this water lead?”
The guards all looked at each other. They shook their heads. One guard spoke up. “Don’t know, my Lord, we didn’t even know that it was there.”
Drake took in a deep breath. “Well, someone knows. Search the castle and find me someone that I can torture.”
“Yes, my Lord.” They turned around and marched back down the passageway.
Drake continued to stare deep into the icy water.
Soon steam rose from the hole. He raised his hand over the hole. A talon popped out from his other finger. He slowly cut his palm. Droplets of blood dripped into the water. The red pool swirled around like a living entity, defying the laws of physics by staying in one place.
Drake reached into his robe and took out a small red velvet pouch. He opened it. He tilted it over the hole and sprinkled the black powder into the bloody water.
“Relente de morte. Relente de Drago.”
The red and black water swirled violently. It swirled into a long funnel underneath the earth. The funnel took on shape. A loud roar rang from the water.
Drake smiled.
Chapter Ten
The water crushed Red in its icy grip as it carried her along. Her lungs were bursting. She didn’t know how much longer she’d be able to hold her breath. She could see no light ahead. The water was as dark as her thoughts.
She had not intended for the girl to be killed. She had promised herself that she would get her out. The girl had risked her life for her. And for what? For the first time in her life, guilt gripped her tightly in the chest. Red would not have done the same for her. If the roles had been reversed, she would have left Rose to die painfully on the chopping block. Red’s lungs burned. She couldn’t hold them any longer. They needed release. She opened her mouth. Water rushed in.
She felt something grasp her arm. She was pulled sideways and up. Soon her head was above the water.
She coughed and water spewed from her mouth.
Red looked around her. Rapunzel bobbed next to her. They were in a small air pocket underneath the earth.
“I thought I was done.”
“I almost let you go by.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Well, you’re kind of cute, in a brutal, violent, animal-like way. So I thought we could kiss and make up later.”
Red narrowed her eyes at her. Then she laughed. It was something she hadn’t done in a long time.
Rapunzel laughed with her.
“You know, I almost don’t want to kill you,” Red said between guffaws.
“Well, that’s a relief.”
The water broke beside them. Wolf’s head bobbed out of the water. “I’m glad you girls are having a good time.”
“How did you find us?”
“I followed your scent.”
“You can’t track in the water.”
“The hell I can’t. I can smell you anywhere.”
They stared at each other, the water around them heating rapidly.
Rapunzel looked from Red to Wolf and back again.
“We should move on. This trip is far from over.”
Wolf paused. His ears perked. He turned his head slightly.
“You hear something?” Red asked, concerned by his alert.
“Maybe. We should move, and now.”
They all took in deep breaths and went under the water again. This time they stayed close together. The current quickened. It tore at their bodies as it swept them forward. They were nearly out of air, their lungs imploding, when they saw the first ray of light piercing the murky water. They swam toward it.
Wolf paused and looked behind them. He saw a swirling black mass as it gained on them. A black mass of scales and talons. A dragon surged toward them.
Wolf cried out a warning to the others, the sound almost muted in the water.
Rapunzel and Red both looked back. The dragon was upon them.
Rapunzel opened her mouth to scream. Water rushed in. Red saw her panic. She grabbed onto her hair and pulled them up to the surface.
They all broke water, as the dragon burst forth and spread its expansive wings. It opened its mouth and bared its long sharp fangs.
“We’re dead. We can not fight this.” Red hugged Rapunzel’s limp form to her.
Rapunzel spit up the water she'd swallowed. “It is not real. It is an enchantment.”
“Magic?”
“Yes, the black kind.”
“Are you sure?” Wolf asked.
“No, but we’re still alive.”
Red nodded. She swam to shore with Rapunzel in tow. The dragon hovered above them. It opened its mouth and breathed a brutal stream of fire and brimstone.
Red ducked back into the water, but the fire razed over her. She did not feel any heat. She came back out of the water and was not burnt. The fire was not real.
Red continued onto shore.
Rapunzel stood on the banks, her hands raised above her toward the phantom dragon, warding it away. A slight green glow emanated from her fingers.
Wolf pulled Red out of the water.
“Will the magic fade?” Red asked.
“I hope so.” Wolf looked up at the massive dragon floating over head staring with red eyes. Crimson eyes they all knew.
The dragon flew up into the air. It did a graceful turn like an elegant ballerina, then dove down toward them, mouth open wide.
“I will find you wherever you go. You can not hide from me, for I am everywhere!” The dragon roared with a voice too familiar.
It swooped over their heads, then vanished into a puff of black smoke.
Rapunzel lowered her hands with a deep sigh.
Red glanced around her. The crystal-blue lake was small. Surrounded by enormous oak trees.
Wildflowers grew on the banks. She quickly glanced around again.
“Where’s the castle? We couldn’t have traveled that far.”
“I don’t know. Surely you must know,” he asked of Rapunzel.
She looked around her, her brow furrowed. “I’m not sure. I was blindfolded each time I left there, and when I came back. But it can not be too far off.”
“It’s close enough.” Wolf walked to the nearest boulder. He pulled down his trousers.
Rapunzel put a hand to her throat and stared.
“What on earth are you doing?”
“He’s marking his territory,” Red said as she wrung out her shirt.
“You are kidding?”
“Nope.”
Rapunzel watched as Wolf peed on the rock. He finished and tucked himself back into his pants.
“Why?”
Wolf turned, his eyes ablaze in the warm sunshine.
“So I can come back.”
“To what end?”
“Revenge,” Wolf and Red said in unison.
“I have never know two people more alike,”
Rapunzel commented as she wrung the water from her skirts.
Wolf smirked. Red frowned.
“We need to move. We are not safe here. They will not let us go so easily.” Wolf walked to Rapunzel. He picked up her sopping skirts and ripped them away.
She was left with only a bodice and a thin cotton petticoat. Rapunzel gasped in shock. “The heavy fabric will only slow you down.”
He grasped her long braid that nearly brushed the ground.
She pulled it away. “Not my hair.”
“It will get in the way.”
She took her braid and wrapped it around itself.
She tied it together with the rawhide string. It was secure behind her neck. Wolf nodded his approval.
He took the skirt material and wrapped it around a large rock. He tossed it into the lake. “Let’s go.”
They ran into the woods. Wolf led them, his nose raised in the air, scenting for their direction. They came upon a well-used roadway, the weeds and dirt trampled on by horse and man.
“We must keep off this path. We will follow its trail, but from a camouflaged distance.”
They crept across the trail and into the thick woods. Wolf led them through the dense forest quickly. Rapunzel followed. Red brought up the rear.
As they pushed through brush and stepped over rotting logs, Red kept glancing behind her. She had a distinct feeling of being followed.
“Wolf?” She whispered, knowing he could hear her.
He stopped and turned. He nodded. “I feel it, too.”
“What do you feel?” Rapunzel asked glancing about her nervously. A chill had set across her body, and she was shivering.
“Something approaches.”
They stood still, listening. The woods quieted.
Chirping birds ceased. The breeze froze in midstream.
“Get down!” Wolf yelled.
They dropped to the dirt floor, hiding behind thick bushes.
As if created from thin air, men on horseback galloped onto the trail. They stopped on the path.