Valkyrie Cain could smell the dead rodents that littered the cell she was trapped in as she wept, head pressed between her knees and back shaking. Her shoulders shivered from the cold gloom and she wished she'd taken her jacket down into the caves. Now she was stuck without it. She had been separated from everyone else who had been captured. Just another excuse for her to wallow in the misery, betrayal, and grief that came after the events that transpired in those caves. Everything was going so well. Everything had turned out perfect until they'd realized they had been followed.
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"It's down there," Alice said as she peered over the edge of the chasm, looking into the deep darkness below.
"But it's a bottomless pit. There's nothing down there. Skulduggery and I fell down there years ago." Valkyrie reasoned. "Well, nothing except a dragon."
"Trust me. I know he's down there." She shook her head and took five steps back.
"What are you doing?" Ellion managed to get out before she took a running leap over the edge.
"Alice!" he yelled after her.
"Well, let's go." Ellion urged the others.
"Hell no! I'm not jumping into a fire-breathing dragon pit!" Gracious reared back.
"I have one thing to say to you all. Whoever reaches the bottom first, wins." Skulduggery said simply and everyone bolted into action, diving down into the pit.
Valkyrie looked to her father who had a look of pure glee on his face as the wind ballooned his cheeks out. He looked rather demented, she decided. After a few good minutes of falling, Sapphire shifted into her dragon form, screeching against the others' protests. As expected, a bright fire lit up below them and Valkyrie and Skulduggery exchanged nervous glances. The Dragon.
"What the bloody hell Is that!" Tanith screamed as she flipped along the side stone, running along with the falling others.
"That's Gordon," Valkyrie yelled back with a grin.
"Gordon?" her father frowned.
"I know, I told her it was a bad name." Gracious shook his head.
"Gordon's a dragon." She answered her Dad's silent question.
"Is Gordon a friendly dragon or an I'm-going-to-burn-you-all-to-ashes kind of dragon?" Dexter asked and she risked a glance at him only to see his shirt had ridden up. Good lord, she told herself, get a grip.
As Valkyrie tried to get her profound blushing under the sound of massive beating wings approached in the darkness and fire lit up the cavern as Gordon the Dragon collided with Sapphire and they tumbled into a side cave. The sound of their roars vibrated off the rocks around them.
"What do we do?" Saracen swore. "I don't know about you but I don't feel like being barbequed alive!"
"Sapphire can take care of herself. I trust her. She's a tough one." Alice yelled over the noise of their clashing cries behind them. Valkyrie felt the air shift around them, expecting to reach the bottom with a large splat all of a sudden but they kept falling.
Skulduggery cocked his head and she looked to him. "What is it?" she asked.
"We're not falling anymore." He replied.
"What are you talking about?" Donegan gawked.
"It's an illusion. There's air pushing us up. We're hovering." Alice explained as she felt the magic between her fingers.
Skulduggery splayed his palm, and snapped it shut and they dropped to the floor of the cavern. The skeleton detective lit fire in his hands, illuminating the large space. They all got to their feet.
"Great, my hair is ruined," Fletcher grumbled, trying desperately to fix it. Valkyrie's father beamed like a thousand suns at the wonder.
"This is the most amazing thing that's ever happened to me." He shook his head in disbelief.
"Okay, where to now?" Ellion questioned.
Alice gazed up at the cavern exploding in flames above them and the silhouette of her friend battling the other dragon. The agonizing cries followed them down to the bottom and she wished she knew who they came from. "We keep going. This is life or death." She assured herself more than them.
"There are heaps of tunnels. Which one leads to the Unnamed?" Saracen inspected them all one by one.
"None of them." The curly-haired teen responded.
"What?" Tanith frowned in confusion.
"It's this way." She instructed as she walked slowly over to a narrow hole in the wall.
"That?" Saracen looked down at his stomach in worry. "I'm not going in that."
"We have to." She went pail and kneeled down to look at it. Ellion moved over and took her hand.
"You have to go first." He said quietly.
"I can't." Alice swallowed.
"It's okay. We'll all be right there with you." He assured her.
"I'm scared." She whimpered.
"I won't let anything happen to you. If something goes wrong, Fletcher can teleport us all out of here in the blink of an eye." He squeezed her hand.
"Okay." She nodded and looked to the others. "I'm going in."
