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Cave of the Basilisks, Las Quijadas, Argentina Day 10
Prize: Two eggs of the Basilisk, each worth thirteen points
T he crackle of flexing scales and the sibilance of a forked tongue sounded behind Kaderin, echoing throughout the cavern system
With her sword sheathed at her back, she sprinted, her night vision taking her froround chamber to the next She&039;d covered every inch of this hive of tunnels dug through solid rock in antiquity
Yet she&039;d been unable to pinpoint the exact position of the three beasts she&039;d heard stirring down here Nor had she been able to find either of the eggs, or an alternative exit
Each tunnel had a high-ceilinged chamber at its teriant scaled dragon with dripping fangs the size of her forearms and a lethal tail, corded with s but found none There was another cavern system in the mountain a ravine over - the prizes s she&039;d found here were the ancient remains of feists of the ill-fated variety
The name of the area, Las Quijades, ion was nah these valleys, who gnawed on cobones Or they assumed the name referred to the abundant dinosaur fossils discovered here
Neither was correct The basilisk young killed by ripping the jaws from the heads of those hu here didn&039;t understand that not all the dinosaurs were embedded in rock yet They would explore, deeper and deeper, and then a teaovernment would say they were lost in a flash flood -
NoSilence In the lull, Kaderin&039;s ears twitched, detecting footsteps - running, with a quick footfall but heavy in weight Bowen It had to be
She&039;d known they would have a confrontation and had suspected the high point value of this task reedy for those points as well, and there were two eggs Ah, but just to , Cindey was on her way here as well Kaderin had spied her renting a Jeep in San Luis, the closest town, just before she herself had set out
A sudden quake of the entire tunnel A basilisk was angered and ready to kill, signaling its fury by swatting its ainst the tunnel walls Each hit sent boulders tuing, shuffling her feet through the ancient bones
Though basilisks were fearsome, they moved slowly in their hive, and she knew she could kill one, possibly two, at a time But she didn&039;t want to - she had an affinity forto low-creature young in the Lore: "Eat your grubs, or Kaderin the Cold will sneak under your bed to steal your head"
Turning back for the entrance, she sprinted past walls with ghostly cave paintings until she reached the three-way junction at the entryway The sun was shining a welco there Before being sealed in, each sacrificial victiiven a reed filled with a type of paint She would place her hand against the wall, blowing the paint around it, leaving the outline The handprint was the only monument she ever received There were thousands of theht of Bowen across from her
A face-off Time seemed to slow He&039;d taken out half of the coest ones except for Lucindeya and Kaderin and Sebastian She knew he sought to relowed in the dark - just as hers did - and his expression was full of eneration Exhaustion seeh on his shoulders The witch&039;s curse It was true
Her head jerked to the right - the direction of her only escape
When he began sprinting to the entrance, she recognized i her just like the others She dug her toes into the gravel, shooting forward into a focused charge
She was fast for a Valkyrie, but even cursed, he beat her there In the sun once lanced up She&039;d be able to escape before he could bring down the rocks, she&039;d be able to -
Casting her a cruel s into his jeans pocket Dread settled over her He slid out that diaainst this
It glittered in the desert sun, radiating sharp blue and white points of light I revealed ly endless
He tossed it in her direction Just to touch it When it was still in the air, her gaze locked on it, following it down until it landed at her feet on the loose gravel She froze, transfixed, dropping to her knees as though praying to the stunning necklace So so fine couldn&039;t be left in the dirt Not this She scooped it up with both hands, running her thuly over the stones
She could hear Bowen straining outside, cursing in Gaelic, could hear his claws scraping down boulders to dislodge them But she couldn&039;t pull her eyes away
Not until the cave went dark in a series of deafening boo, Sebastian had left Kaderin sleeping peacefully Then, as usual, he&039;d traced to her flat to shower and drink
As he dressed, he&039;d reflected that he&039;d ress with Kaderin over the last week If for no other reason, he needed to go to Blach a resource he badly needed - his brother ed to a Valkyrie One as blood-related to Kaderin Which
Once he&039;d forced blood down, he traced to Nikolai&039;s shuttered office, finding hih usually so reserved, Nikolai didn&039;t bother hiding his pleasure at Sebastian&039;s arrival He quickly stood and said, "Sit Please"
Sebastian took the seat he indicated, but being back here again made his shoulders knot with tension
"We&039;ve heard you entered the Hie," Nikolai said, taking his own seat once more "The first vampire ever to do so We were quite astonished"
Sebastian shrugged
"Myst goes on the computer each day and checks the results She has a half-sister in the competition Is she your Bride?"
"Yes," he admitted "Kaderin"
"Myst has told eous to a near freakish degree&039; And a stalwart fighter" His tone hopeful, Nikolai asked, "Do you love her?"
"No But I recognize that she is mine And that I ah More will come with time," Nikolai said "We&039;ve wondered what made you decide to represent Riora"
Sebastian shrugged "I align with no one, and she deamble"
"You could have said the Forbearers or King Kristoff"
Sebastian felt his expression tighten King Kristoff Sebastian had never been able to understand how Nikolai could have died at the hands of Russians, then, on the saiance to Kristoff - as a Russian, vampire or not
"It was only an observation The invitation to join us is always open" Nikolai added, "Every single tilad that I did"
"You&039;ve encountered theainst theers "Sebastian, I&039;ve always respected your intelligence We would welcoladly After the Hie, naturally"
After experiencing Kaderin&039;s dreaan to have distinct appeal, but Sebastian planned to take Kaderin somewhere away from constant war and death The last thousand years of her life ht have been hellish, but he&039;d be damned if he&039;d allow the next thousand to be He said simply, "Don&039;t plan on my participation"
Nikolai nodded, but Sebastian knew this was far from over "About this coan "Have you thought about using it to save our family?"
Of course, Sebastian had Even after all this ti When called to protect his family, he&039;d failed - five successive times "I don&039;t believe it ork," Sebastian said But if it would, if he could somehow undo the past
It wasn&039;t reasonable to blaical, but he couldn&039;t seem to stop Conrad had felt the same - before he&039;d lost his mind, at least
The aristocracy of Sebastian&039;s culture was raised to revere the iven hi out his family, for which there was no defense, no battle He&039;d had to sit, watching i he loved died
Sebastian had been a favorite big brother to four younger sisters He&039;d been nearly old enough to be their father and was essentially more of one than their own preoccupied father With each of their little crises, they&039;d run to Sebastian He&039;d plucked splinters and dried tears He&039;d taught them science and astrono , they&039;d looked to him to fix it
And seemed bewildered when he couldn&039;t As if, instead, he wouldn&039;t
"You can&039;t go into the past to change the future," Sebastian said absently "Not without creating chaos" Part of hih it flew in the face of reason, and even though the goddess had no evidence that time travel was possible
But if Sebastian allowed hiet his family back and then had his hopes disappointed He didn&039;t think he could take losing them twice To this day, he couldn&039;t bear to re the despair in their eyes, and then, when he and Conrad had fallen, to hear their faint, terrified cries
Both he and Conrad had wanted to die that night with their faue and faht, they&039;d done their best They should have been allowed to die
And their sisters? They&039;d been as delicate and fair as the four older brothers were dark and fierce and would have starved before they voluntarily tasted blood They couldn&039;t even have conteirls?" Sebastian asked He had no anger in his tone, but now that he was steady and rational, he wanted to hear Nikolai&039;s reasoning He wanted - for the first time - to understand it
"I had to," Nikolai bit out, averting his gaze, but not before Sebastian saw his eyes had wavered black "The thought of theht have been frozen into perpetual childhood, never to see the sun again"
Nikolai faced hied to adulthood, as natural-born immortals do It was possible"
"And our father?" Sebastian asked Their father had been longing to reunite with his wife from the day she&039;d died in childbirth eleven years prior
Nikolai&039;s expression greeary "I&039;ve never been noble like you, Sebastian Survival and living are what I revere They ht have lived - to me, the rest is incidental And after all this tiree on that subject"
Sebastian stood to leave "We do"