“Enough of this.” Dewi’s voice sounded as if it were coming from the bottom of a very deep well.
Aislinn blinked. The familiar ground in front of the prison shimmered back into being around her. “That bastard! He lied to me. There’s no one down there. I didn’t get any sense of their passage.”
“They went somewhere,” Dewi observed.
Aislinn stumbled to her feet. “I’m going back inside. I can track them with Seeker magic.” She met the dragon’s whirling eyes, daring a contradiction. “We tried it astrally. It didn’t work.”
Dewi puffed smoke, started to say something, and then clanged her jaws shut. Her double rows of sharp teeth made a grinding sound. “We will establish and maintain a mind link so I can see what you do.”
Aislinn smiled. “Thanks. Even though I know you can’t rescue me, it will be nice to not be totally alone.” Shouldering her pack, she trotted toward the arched entrance. Every bone and muscle in her body ached. Part of her was afraid Slototh might have gotten a second wind, patched himself up somehow, and would be lying in wait to pounce the second she crossed the threshold. That’s ridiculous. If he could have killed me, I’d be dead.
She slipped inside the relative coolness of the stucco building and summoned her mage light. Sweeping the area with her Hunter senses, she looked for the enemy. Hunter magic wouldn’t pick up shades, but she wasn’t worried about them. She felt the dragon inside her head, urging her to use Seeker magic.
“I’m getting to that,” she told Dewi. “Wanted to make sure it was safe first.”
The Seeker gift sent streamers of glimmering light through the large room and beyond. It took more magic to make a visible trail, but Aislinn didn’t want to have to keep checking her bearings. “Please,” she sent up a prayer to whoever might be listening, “don’t let me be too late.”
She walked for a long time. The large room led to another. From there, she took several flights of stairs down into the earth, passing multiple levels holding empty cells. Rats scurried along walkways littered with scraps of clothing, human waste, and the odd dish. She left markings each place she reached a choice point, hoping they’d help her find her way back if something happened and she couldn’t use her magic. Corridors gave way to tunnels weaving ever lower. She found water running down a wall and took a few minutes to fill her belly and her water bottle. Occasionally, she tried her link with Rune, but came up dry. She was just starting to question if her Seeker gift had somehow gone awry, when she heard distant footsteps pounding the ground. Aislinn pulled her magic and her mage light back quickly and flattened herself against a wall.
She heard grunting before she saw the thing. Impossibly huge and glowing, its horns spanned the width of the tunnel. It slowed as it got close to her, its bull’s head turning this way and that on a thick stalk of a neck.
“Fascinating,” Dewi breathed. “See if you can get him to talk to you.”
“I’d rather stay out of its way.”
“Come on, girl. Grow a set.”
Aislinn snorted. She’d expect a comment like that in a seedy bar, not from a thousand-year-old dragon. She turned her attention back to the Minotaur. It had stopped about ten feet from her. She heard it breathing, a wet, sloppy sound.
“What are you doing in my realm?” Its voice was low and rumbly and made the walls vibrate. It took another step toward her.
“Looking for my friends. Have you seen anyone? Just tell me, and I’ll be on my way.”
Aislinn held her breath. The thing towered over her. Christ, it was almost as tall as Slototh’s beast form had been. In a moment of unpleasant revelation, she wondered if it was really Slototh and not the Minotaur at all. Can’t be. He feels different.
“Are you the one who hurt Master?”
Shit, oh shit, he knows. “What do I do?” she asked Dewi.
The dragon laughed. “Incredible. He’s really there with you. Tell him none of us have masters. He probably would have killed Slototh himself if he could have figured out how to get away with it.”
Aislinn wondered what Dewi meant by us, but she didn’t have time to sort it out. She risked a flicker of magic for her mage light. It streamed pale against the darkness. In its light, the Minotaur looked even more daunting, like the creature out of myth that he was. Brown fur merged with skin midway down his chest. He was naked and had the biggest cock she’d ever seen. Fully erect, it curved against a flat stomach. Enormous balls hung between legs heavy with muscle that bowed out slightly. Aislinn swallowed. She might not be able to outrun the thing in front of her, but if it came down to it, she figured she was far more agile.