Sneak remembered Kai dousing him with seawater to hide his smell from any predators back in San Francisco. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t work with lava.

  “I don’t think we need to worry about that,” Kai said. “The heat of the lava makes the air rise quite strongly. Any scent will be carried upward, away from Baalgur. No matter how keen his sense of smell, he won’t catch a whiff of Sneak.”

  “I guess that’s settled, then,” Leesa said. “Plush and I will fly Sneak up to the horn so he can grab it.”

  “Wait a minute,” Plush said. “I’m not sure if I’ll be able to help lift Sneak if I can’t see him. Can you do that, Leesa? Lift something you can’t see?”

  Leesa shook her head. She hadn’t thought about that.

  “No, dammit, I don’t think I can. That never even occurred to me.” She pondered the problem for a moment—there had to be a way. Finally, one came to her. “I’ve got the answer,” she said.

  She whispered a brief spell, then touched her fingertip to the top of Sneak’s head, marking him with a magical yellow dot visible only to her. Next, she uttered another spell and touched Plush right between the eyes, giving her the ability to see the mark as well.

  “Can you see it?” she asked Plush.

  Plush nodded. “Yeah, I can.” She pointed to the top of Sneak’s head. “A glowing yellow spot, right there.”

  “Only you and I can see that mark,” Leesa explained. “It will stay visible to us even when Sneak turns invisible. We’ll use it to direct our powers.”

  “That should work,” Plush agreed.

  “Now that we’ve got that settled,” Sneak said, “there’s just one more thing. Once I grab the horn, yank me back here as fast as you can, in case taking the horn wakes the dragon. I don’t want to be out there with that monster any longer than I have to. He might not be able to see me, but he’ll sure as hell be able to see the horn.”

  “Don’t worry,” Leesa replied. “We’ll pull you back as fast as we can.”

  Leesa, Sneak and Plush crept to the end of the tunnel. Rave and Kai went with them, as did Leah and Rerun, in case their Powers were needed. Fiona perched on Rave’s shoulder, her red glow so dim it was almost invisible. The rest of the company moved far back into the passage, for safety and to be out of the way should their comrades need to beat a hasty retreat. This time, Dolph needed no persuading to move on his own. He had no desire to be anywhere near the tunnel’s entrance should Baalgur awaken.

  “Are you ready, Sneak?” Leesa asked.

  Sneak nodded. “As ready as I’ll ever be. Just remember to pull me back FAST, please.”

  “We will,” Leesa assured him. Using her telekinesis, she lifted Sneak a few inches off the floor of the tunnel. “Fix your Power on him while you can still see him,” she said to Plush.

  Plush focused her eyes on Sneak. “I’ve got him.”

  Sneak gave them a small smile. “Don’t drop me,” he said before he winked out of sight. Leesa saw only her magical yellow marker where the top of his head had been seconds before.

  “Can you still see my mark?” she asked Plush.

  “I can, yeah.”

  “Okay…let’s do it, then.”

  Together, they floated the invisible Sneak up out of the passage, sending him slowly toward the tiny horn several hundred feet away. The others couldn’t follow Sneak’s progress, so they alternated between watching the horn and keeping an eye on the sleeping dragon far below.

  “He’s halfway there,” Leesa informed them after twenty or thirty seconds. “I’m not feeling any strain on my power.”

  “Me, either,” Plush added.

  The two young women continued to stare out into the vast space of the volcano’s core, their eyes fixed on a tiny yellow light only they could see.

  “He’s almost there,” Leesa said. “Get ready, everyone. We don’t know what’s going to happen when he grabs Ariandre’s horn.”

  A moment later, the horn lifted up off the rock shelf where it had been resting, plucked by Sneak’s invisible hand. Leesa and Plush immediately pulled him backward as fast as they could. Still, it would take nearly half a minute before he reached the tunnel.

  “Uh, oh,” Rave said, staring downward. “I think Baalgur just woke up.”

  A thunderous roar that seemed to shake the entire cavern confirmed Rave’s dire words.

  CHAPTER 34

  LEESA AND PLUSH NEEDED to keep their eyes glued to the magical yellow mark and to the horn as they continued pulling Sneak back toward the cave, but everyone else looked down and saw Baalgur lift his huge scaly head, shaking it slowly back and forth as if to wake himself from a deep slumber. A moment later, he unfurled his leathery, membranous wings. A cloud of flame snuffed from his mouth as he readied his dragon fire for attack.

  With one flap of his enormous wings he spiraled upward, using the rising currents of hot air from the molten lava below to add speed to his climb.

  Leah watched anxiously, measuring the dragon’s speed against the pace of the shining white horn drawing ever nearer to them. The race was going to be a close one—it could go either way. She had a decision to make, and not much time to make it in.

  Baalgur opened his massive jaws. Leah could see a ball of orange fire rising from his throat.

  “Run, everyone!” she cried. At the same time, she reached out and grabbed Leesa and Plush by their upper arms, hoping her Power would be enough to protect them from the dragon fire. She didn’t know how she would be able to protect Sneak, though. She had only two hands. If he made it back to the ledge in time, she hoped he had the sense to grab onto her somewhere.

  Despite her warning, nobody ran. Instead, Rave and Kai took hold of Leah’s shoulders, and Fiona alighted atop her head. None of them knew for sure whether the contact would be enough to save them from Baalgur’s fire, but they were not about to abandon their friends to the danger.

  They all watched as a plume of blazing fire burst from Baalgur’s mouth, streaking straight toward the tunnel’s entrance. Even from this distance, Leah could sense that the Dragon Lord’s fire was far hotter than the fire of the dragon she had slain back on Alcatraz. This was the king of the dragons, after all, the biggest and mightiest of them all. She wasn’t certain if even her Power would be able to withstand the searing heat of his fire. It looked like they were about to find out, though.

  Suddenly, a flash of red light exploded in the dragon’s right eye, causing him to jerk his head to the side. The abrupt movement caused his stream of fire to veer away from its intended targets. The flames crashed instead against the rock wall of the volcano mere yards from the passage, scorching the stone and sending a wave of heat washing across the tunnel’s entrance.

  At the same moment, Sneak landed on the edge of the precipice. He immediately turned visible.

  Kai grabbed Sneak’s arm and tugged him into the cave. He took Ariandre’s horn from Sneak’s hand and shoved it down into his quiver.

  “C’mon,” he shouted to the rest of them. “We’ve got to get out of here. That dragon is not done with us, not by a long shot.”

  Freed finally from her task of transporting Sneak, Leesa looked downward. Kai was right. Baalgur had already recovered from whatever had caused the burst of red in his eye. His massive head was turning back toward them. More fire appeared in his throat as he readied another blast. Leesa knew the narrow passage would act like a funnel for the dragon fire, speeding it along far faster than they could run. Rave might be able to carry her away quickly enough to escape the flames, but that would mean leaving her friends to their fate, and that was something she could never do.

  A desperate idea came to her. If it was going to work, she needed to act swiftly.

  “Get back, everyone,” she shouted. At the same time, she cast as thick an air shield as she could manage across the entrance to the cave, hoping it might slow the dragon fire at least a little.

  Leah looked at Leesa questioningly, not wanting to move from her spot between her comrades and the dragon. She knew that she was the one best equipped to face the Dragon Lord.

  There was no time to argue. Leesa grabbed Leah’s arm and yanked her backward, stumbling back with her friend until they were almost twenty feet from the opening to the cave. She hoped it was far enough.

  The air outside brightened as the dragon fire streaked toward them. Still backing away, Leesa raised both hands and fired twin beams of yellow energy at the roof of the cavern, unleashing more of her power than she had ever risked before. The magic blasted deep into the lava-hardened rock, but it was taking too long. In the back of her mind, she could sense Baalgur’s fire beginning to burn through her shield like it was a mere sheet of paper. She forced herself to ignore the imminent danger, keeping her concentration focused entirely on her energy beams, praying her plan would work.

  Chunks of rock began to break loose from the top of the cave. As her magic burned deeper, the hunks of stone falling to the floor grew steadily larger.

  Behind her, Leah finally realized what Leesa was trying to do. She sent a stream of her fire blasting toward the same spot in the ceiling, joining it with Leesa’s magic in carving through the rock. Just as Baalgur’s fire burst through Leesa’s shield, the entire roof of the tunnel came crashing down, filling the air with dust but sealing it against the dragon fire.

  Leesa and Leah faltered backwards, trying to avoid being hit by the debris from the cave-in. A jagged piece of rock struck a glancing blow to Leesa’s forehead, opening a shallow but bloody cut. She ignored the blood that streamed down the side of her face.

  “Let’s get out of here,” she said. “I don’t know how long those rocks will hold.”

  Rave took Leesa by the arm. “Go, everyone. We’ll catch up.”

  No one argued. They knew Rave could easily overtake them. They turned and fled deeper into the cavern.

  Leesa looked at Rave with a puzzled expression. “What are you doing? We need to get out of here, pronto.”

  “Shhh…” Rave whispered softly. “This will only take a moment.”

  A tiny blue flame burned from his fingertip as he lifted his hand toward Leesa’s head. He used the fire to cauterize the wound, stopping the bleeding.

  “You or Doc can heal that more fully later,” he said as he scooped Leesa up into his arms and began racing down the tunnel.

  Leesa smiled, letting her head rest against Rave’s muscular chest as he carried her to safety, happy to enjoy the ride she had been thinking about only a short while before.

  They caught up to their friends in mere seconds. A few moments later, they rejoined the rest of the company, who had been waiting much deeper back in the cavern.

  “Is she okay?” Doc asked worriedly, seeing Leesa cradled in Rave’s arms.

  “I’m fine,” Leesa said. “Took a little bump on the head is all. Rave sealed the cut with his fire.”

  “Let me take a look.” Doc moved closer and began examining Leesa’s forehead. “Rave did a good job. It’s swollen, though, and it could get worse.”

  She laid her hand on Leesa’s skin and let her Power go to work. “This’ll be quick,” she said.

  When she took her hand away, all signs of the wound were gone.

  Meanwhile, Colonel Gallway crossed to his daughter. Assured that she was okay, he got down to business.

  “Did you get the horn?”

  Leah nodded. “Yeah, we did, just barely. Kai has it. Leesa and I managed to seal the end of the tunnel, too. We might not have made it but for some unexpected help, though.” She turned to Fiona, who was hovering nearby. “Did that burst of red light in Baalgur’s eye have something to do with Haeli?”

  Fiona’s glow dimmed. When she spoke to Kai, her twittering sounded slower and more somber than usual.

  “Haeli imploded her magic in the dragon’s eye,” Kai translated. “She sacrificed herself to save us. Fiona will make sure the faeries know that Haeli died a hero, not a traitor.”

  “We owe her, big time,” Sneak agreed. “I thought we were goners—me especially.” He twisted his head around and glanced behind them. “Can we get out of here now, please? I think I’ve had enough dragon for a while.”

  “I agree,” Leesa said from her perch in Rave’s arms. “There’s no telling how long those rocks will hold, or what might come through if they don’t.”

  “Hold on a second,” Plush said. She nodded toward Dolph. “What about him? I’m not sure my Power is up to carrying him all the way back. I could use a break while it recharges.”

  Leesa looked at the gnome, who seemed to be watching everything with great interest.

  “Nobody needs to carry him,” she said. “We’ll leave it up to him. If he wants to come with us, fine. But he stays shielded and he walks or runs like the rest of us. If he chooses to stay here, we’ll let him. By the time we’re far enough away for my shield to fade, he’ll never catch up. Then he can go wherever he wants.”

  Kai turned to the gnome. “Well, what’s it going to be? Are you coming or staying?” He added hand signals to his words to be sure Dolph understood.

  The gnome provided his answer in the clearest way possible. He slid his back down along the wall of the passage and sat on the ground.

  Kai allowed himself a small smile. “I guess that’s settled. Rave, do you want to carry Leesa for a bit more, until we’re sure she’s okay? I can take the lead with Raj.”

  Rave looked down at Leesa’s face. “If she’ll let me, I will.”

  Leesa smiled up at him. “Carry away, handsome. I could use the rest.”

  She closed her eyes and surrendered to the fatigue.

  CHAPTER 35

  THE COMPANY HEADED up the tunnel at a brisk trot, maintaining a pace that would put distance behind them without exhausting their lungs and muscles too quickly. Once again, Leesa, Lights and Fiona illuminated the way, risking slightly brighter lights than before because of their accelerated pace.

  When they came upon a second lava tube branching off to the right, Kai led them into it. Simply retracing their steps as they fled was not an option—it would have only brought them to a dead end in the chamber where the rock bridge had collapsed. They needed to find a new way out of the volcano, and any tube that angled upward was a possible exit. They just had to hope the new tunnel did not come to an abrupt end in a wall of rock somewhere.

  Plush was the first to feel the effects of their extended run up from the depths of the mountain. Using her Power to carry Dolph and then to help lift Sneak had depleted her energy reserves.

  “I need a rest,” she huffed finally. “I’m exhausted.”

  Her comrades slowed to a halt. Most of the Miracles were breathing hard, but none appeared as worn out as Plush. The Marines still looked reasonably fresh, while Kai and Raj showed barely any effects from the run at all. Rave, who had carried Leesa many miles in the past, didn’t even bother putting her down.

  “I guess we can risk a short break,” Kai said. “Raj and I will scout ahead while everyone rests.”

  “Wait a minute,” Leesa said before the two brothers could leave. “If the other Miracles are up to continuing, I don’t think we need to stop just yet.” She turned her head to her young friends. “Can you guys keep going a bit longer?”

  The Miracles all looked at one another. Everyone nodded. Getting out of the volcano was a powerful motivator—they would all be happy to keep going.

  “Good,” Leesa said. “As much as I enjoy being carried by my wonderful husband, I’m fine now. My legs are fresh. Rave can carry Plush instead.” She smiled at Plush. “It’s very restful, believe me.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Kai said as Rave set Leesa down. “Anyone else who gets tired, speak up. Raj and I can each carry one of you for a bit. That way you’ll all get a chance to rest. We’ll stop when the Marines need a break.”

  From the looks on the three Marines’ faces, Leesa knew it would probably be quite a while before any of them admitted to being tired. They spent their lives training for stuff like this.

  Rave lifted a grateful Plush into his arms, and the company resumed their jog. The floor of the passage began to ascend more steeply, and soon a huffing and puffing Leah and Doc swallowed their pride and asked for rides. Smiling, Kai scooped up Leah as Raj lifted Doc into his arms. And then they were on their way again.

  With Rave, Kai and Raj alternating who they carried, the party was able to keep up their hurried pace without stopping even once for rest. Finally, after hours of running, dim light began to show in the tunnel ahead of them, and a few moments after that a circle of hazy sky appeared in the distance. They had found their way out of the mountain!

  They stopped just inside the end of the cavern, where they were still hidden from outside view. Rave, Kai and Raj deposited their latest passengers—Lights, Plush and Sneak—onto the ground, and then Rave edged to the very end of the lava tube to take a careful look around. Kai and Raj moved up behind him, while the rest of the company settled down gratefully upon the ground for some much needed rest.

  First, Rave edged his head out of the tunnel and quickly scanned the mountainside around them, checking to be sure there were no immediate threats nearby and making certain there seemed to be a route to take them down the mountain. Satisfied on both counts, he turned his attention to the sky, for he knew it was from above that the gravest danger would come.

  For a few moments, the sky remained empty, but Rave stayed vigilant. He did not expect Baalgur would give up the horn so easily, and he was soon proved right. The dragon’s dark silhouette appeared high above, slowly circling the volcano, searching for the thieves who had dared to steal his prize. With little cover on the barren slopes, there would be no way for the party to get off the mountain unseen. It seemed a second clash with the Dragon Lord was inevitable, and Rave returned to his comrades to tell them just that.

  “Baalgur is circling the mountain. He’ll spot us quickly when we leave this cave.”

  “Rave’s right,” Kai said. “Dragons have very keen eyesight.”