The dial went through the contact area without clicking. That was it. Four clicks. I breathed in relief. That meant it was a combination of four numbers.
Now it was time to find the four numbers. I began turning the dial again listening for the clicks, my mind noting the results. It was slow process, and I had to be sure I had it right. If I made a mistake here, we would waste a very long time. Finally, I had them all. Four numbers.
Five, twenty-five, forty-two, eighty-three.
“The dragon is moving,” Harutaka said. Even at the low volume I tensed in pain as his voice tore through my ear canal.
“Just a few more minutes,” I whispered. “Kane, get the circle.”
I had the numbers, but I didn’t know their order. It could be twenty-five, eighty-three, forty-two, five. Or it could be eighty-three, five, twenty-five, forty-two. Or any other combination. Four numbers gave me twenty-four possible combinations, and I would have to try them all. If it was a five-numbers safe, there would be one hundred and twenty combinations. Six numbers would mean seven hundred twenty combinations, and trying them would take all night.
Behind me, I heard loud scratching. Kane, drawing the teleportation circle on the floor.
I began trying the combinations one by one. Kane chanted, his voice loud and pounding, and I gritted my teeth. I was sure he was chanting as quietly as he could. By the eighth combination I was a bundle of nerves. What if I’d gotten it wrong? I wouldn’t have time to start over. Thank god there were only four numbers.
Were there only four numbers? I began to doubt myself. Wasn’t there a fifth click? That would change everything. That would…
Another click, much louder. It was my twelfth attempt. The safe was open. I backed away from it, amazed that it had worked. That it had all worked.
I pulled the safe door open and peered in. There were two items inside: a small, worn-looking leather pouch, and a black box, the size of my palm, its surface smooth. The box had a tiny lock, with an intricate key inserted in it. Kane and I just stared, frozen.
Once we touched either of them, the dragon would know.
“Is the circle ready?” I asked in a whisper.
“Yeah.” He did his best to lower his voice.
“We move on the count of three. One…” I tensed, could hear Kane hold his breath. “Two…” Our heartbeats were racing, a cacophony of beating drums. “Three!”
I snatched the box. Kane took the pouch.
I could almost feel the heaviness of the gaze suddenly upon me. Somewhere above, Ddraig Goch paused, realizing there were intruders in his vault. That they were touching his most valuable possessions.
Almost instantly, the vault door clanged shut. I heard the mechanical clunking as it locked, shutting us inside. Trapped. The dragon must have moved it with his mind.
Something roared above us. I cried in pain, falling to my knees, hands on my ears, trying to mute the sounds. It was impossible. There was nothing beyond that roar. I couldn’t think, couldn’t talk, couldn’t move.
And then the roar slowly dissipated.
Harutaka said something, but it was hard to hear him over the throb of my skull. “Dragon… moving… tore a gate… get out!”
I looked at Kane. He already stood in the circle. The pouch was in his left hand, and one huge, blue, gleaming scale lay atop his right palm. His lips were moving as he muttered incantations, tapping into the power in the dragon scale.
Another roar shook the mansion, and suddenly the world ruptured. A black, pulsing void appeared in the air just a few yards away from us, growing larger. A tear in space. The dragon was ripping apart dimensions to get to us.
The circle of charcoal began to glow with a blue light. It grew brighter as Kane kept chanting.
“Get into that circle!” Harutaka roared into my ear.
I stumbled to the circle, but it seemed small, almost too small. I stared at Kane standing in it, wondering if I was about to be abandoned here, stuck, as the dragon appeared. Was Kane going to leave me behind? Memories hit me full blast as I gazed at him, my head pounding and dizzy. Of a job years ago. Of the man I’d loved, who ran away without me. Of the handcuffs latching onto my wrists…
And then Kane shifted, moving aside slightly. He grabbed my arm and pulled me into the circle, hugging me close to him. I could smell the scent of clove and pine. Kane’s scent. Above me, his voice rose to a crescendo that vibrated through me.
Would the spell work? It had to work. In a minute, we would be safe and sound, in the conference room of HHT.
Beyond Kane’s body, the void widened, and in it, the silhouette of the dragon’s head began to materialize. Its jaw opened, emitting an ear-shattering roar. Harutaka yelled something, but it was impossible to hear, and Kane’s voice shouted strange ancient words above the din as his arms pulled me to him, one around my waist, the other on the back of my neck, pressing my head to his chest.
A sharp glimmer, like lightning, and then, suddenly, darkness. We were out of the vault.
My shuddering breath of relief caught in my throat. We weren’t in a conference room at all. We were surrounded by looming, dark shapes.
The shapes of plants.
Chapter Thirty
For a few seconds I just stood frozen, petrified. Kane still held me tightly, protectively. His heartbeat was much louder now, with my ear to his chest. A fast, deep drumming sound.
Then I pulled away. “Where are we?”
“I don’t know,” Kane said. “Something went wrong. The dragon sensed the spell, he tried to pull us down. I took us as far as I could, but—”
“I have eyes on you!” Harutaka shouted, and I winced in pain. “You’re in the damn greenhouse on the top of the mansion!”
A sudden loud, sharp noise screamed around us, the wail of a siren going off.
“Sinead, we need you to pick us up,” I said, praying she was still on the chat.
“Turning the car around!” Her voice crackled above the sound of the car engine screaming. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“Make it five, or we’re dead.”
“Get the hell out of there, guys,” Harutaka said.
The night was flooded with lights as spotlights were suddenly lit. Enormous beams of light moved, searching. Somewhere in the distance, I heard men shouting. Below us, the dragon roared again. The cacophony in my ears was hard to bear.
We ran out of the greenhouse, the cold night wind momentarily taking my breath away. It was difficult to spot the roof’s edge in the dark, and I had to crouch as I ran, my hands before me, my eyes straining to see. I reached the edge of the roof and spotted our rope, dangling down the wall, where Sinead and Isabel had left it after climbing down.
“Not there,” Harutaka said. “That way is full of guards. And you’ll never get out the front gate.”
I looked around us. The roof spread in every direction, a mess of pipes, wires, and antennas. “Which way, then?”