Part 43 (1/2)

CHAPTER 63.

MARA STEPPED FROM the stairwell into the tunnel, a wide underground ramp below the railroad tracks, leading from the elevator doors and up to Seventh Street. Waiting for Ping to catch up, she turned right and leaned against the elevator doors. From the mouth of the tunnel, indirect light flashed and flickered, reflected off the white tiles lining the walls. Whatever was happening was just one block away-Seventh Street became the bridge immediately after it crossed Main.

Ping took the final step into the tunnel, turned to Mara. ”You've been using your abilities quite a bit recently. Are you feeling tired?”

”I'm fine. Let's keep going. We're almost there.”

”Maybe we should take a break and let you rest before we continue.”

”Straight ahead, one block.” Mara tilted her chin up the dark ramp. She pushed off the doors and started up the sloping floor.

Ping fell in step beside her. Looking out of the corner of his eye, he could not tell if she was flickering. The pulsing blue lights flooding into the tunnel made it impossible to tell.

”Mara, we don't know the ramifications if you overextend yourself. We don't even understand what happens to you when you wink out. We don't know where you go, if anywhere.”

”I'll rest after I get Mom back.”

Mara stopped at the end of the tunnel, at street level. Light flashed, receded and then intensified. Building facades appeared, disappeared in a blink. One minute the street was ablaze, the next obscured in night. Her eyes could not keep up; ghost images lingered from one burst of light and were overwhelmed by another. She rubbed them, trying to focus.

A rumble, a subtle quaking, rippled through the ground. Something eclipsed the light. A shadow enveloped them, and Ping pulled Mara back into the tunnel. She dropped the hand shading her eyes, looking irked at Ping. Wide-eyed, he gazed into the street.

With a roll of its armored shoulders, the dragon lowered its wings, allowing ambient blue light from the bridge to flood back over the entrance to the tunnel, illuminating its countenance.

Mara gasped, staggered back a step and placed an open hand against the wall to steady herself.

The ribbed wings loomed over its ma.s.sive back, folding into a leathery dome spanning Seventh Street, arching more than two stories into the air. It stood in the center of the street, facing the tunnel. It lowered its head, peered into the opening.

A brow of bone partially eclipsed the dragon's red half-moon eyes, sweeping up its skull, erupting into a crown of swept-back horns. Every feature ended in a point. Webbed spines flared from its jowls forming a gristly mane around its face. Spikes bearded its pointed jaw. The face of a reptilian goat. Viscous lips, stretched back to its scaly cheekbones, glistened and roiled, flas.h.i.+ng glimpses of fangs the size of pickets. Its nostrils flared, expelled two streams of vapor.

A three-toed talon crashed down in front of the tunnel, turning a curb to gravel and spidering cracks across the sidewalk. A nearby parking sign listed and fell to the ground with a clatter. The creature craned its head toward the noise and bellowed, rattling shop windows on both sides of the street.

The dragon lumbered forward, knocking down a darkened lamppost with its right wing. Turning, it swept its left wing forward, and flattened two signs and a parking-payment kiosk. The creature jutted its face toward them, dipping its head lower as if to get a better look, sampled the air with its damp snout, parted its jaws and let loose another scream-this time directly at them, spewing flame across the front of the tunnel entrance.

A hot wind knocked them farther into the tunnel before flames could reach them. Staggering to their feet, they pulled halfway back to the elevator doors.

”It looks like this path is blocked,” Ping said in the dark.

”No. There's no other way,” Mara said. ”My mother is out there, and I'm not leaving without her. Besides, our only other option is to run back up the stairs, and who's to say that thing won't come after us anyway. We have to face it.”

”What do you propose?”

”The dragon looks slow on the ground. I'm pretty sure I can outmaneuver him if I can get out of here. I just need to make sure I don't get toasted.”

”You can't run out into the open.”

”That's exactly what I'm going to do. You keep saying I can shape reality. If I can't shape this reality, what's it good for?”

”That doesn't mean you can't get killed,” he said.

”I know that, but we don't have any other option,” she said, turning toward the end of the tunnel.

Outside, the dragon backed up a step and sat on its haunches in the middle of the street, staring down. Mara stepped out of the tunnel, crossed the sidewalk and walked into the street directly in its path. It did not move.

Its eyes tracked something over her shoulder.

She glanced back.

Ping bolted out of the tunnel, running to the right side of Seventh Street.

The dragon stood up and roared, blew fire and stomped after Ping, sending tremors through the asphalt. Storefront windows shattered. Gla.s.s cascaded into Ping's path. He zigzagged along the sidewalk, holding up his right arm against flying gla.s.s and his left against the creature stalking him.

”I'll keep him distracted,” Ping shouted, bending to pick up a toppled green-and-white road sign off the sidewalk. ”Hurry.”

Mara ran after Ping. He waved the street sign at her. ”No, go down the other side of the street. Go to your mother.”

”I can't just leave you here,” she said and ran to him. Ping pulled her back toward the building where they crouched under a canvas awning. He lifted the heavy sign and charged out into the open, waving it like a sword, smacking the dragon's underbelly. The dragon reared on its hind legs, spread its wings and blew a torrent of fire that engulfed Ping. His body split the flame into two streams that licked at Mara. The awning evaporated in a puff of ash. Ping exploded into a cloud of dust.

The dragon dropped forward, extending its head into the spreading cloud and blinked. It sniffed the air, tilted its snout sideways and inhaled deeply, drew in some of the particles. c.o.c.king its head, it swallowed, a large bulge bobbing up and down its scaly throat. It jutted its head deeper into the cloud and inhaled, using both its mouth and snout. Soon the cloud was gone. The dragon swallowed again.

Closing its eyes, the dragon sneezed and snorted while shaking its head. After a low growl and a wet cough, it opened its eyes, glared at Mara. It sidestepped, centering itself on her, roared and spewed a torrent of fire at her.

Mara dived into the center of the street and rolled until she hit the curb on the far side, just below a darkened streetlight. She could feel the steps of the dragon reverberating the ground. She looked up to see it turn toward her. The dragon spread its wings and screamed into the sky. Lowering its head, it fixed its red eyes on Mara and lumbered toward her, sending s.h.i.+vers through the street. She backed up and fell over a fire hydrant. She scooted along the sidewalk, crab-walking on her hands and feet as the dragon swept a wing toward her, striking the streetlight, causing it to fall into the street like a felled tree.

The dragon reared its head into the air, inhaling, its chest expanding. Mara raised her arm and looked around for somewhere to hide. The fire hydrant caught her eye. It blurred into a lattice of pixels. The dragon jutted its head forward and spewed fire across the sidewalk. Swinging its head back and forth, it swept flame over the fronts of three shops. Windows exploded and hot air blew back toward the street. The fire hydrant disintegrated, and a geyser of water exploded into the air, showering the smoldering jowls of the dragon. It shook its head, backing away from the fountain of water. Roaring with confusion, the dragon flapped its wings, kicking up a tempest that blew down another streetlight and several more street signs. Holding up her arm to block flying debris, Mara staggered to her feet, but a wall of wind pushed her back the way she came until her calves struck a bench that stood off to the side of the entrance to the tunnel leading to the elevator. She collapsed onto the bench, ducked her head against the wind and held on.

The bench began to shake.

Mara raised her head, looked down Seventh Street. The dragon, its wings swept behind its body, its head tucked down almost to the pavement and its lips pulled back in a snarl, charged toward her. It emitted a scream and leaped into the air, flinging itself at her. A ball of flame blossomed before the low-flying serpent as it approached.

She jumped to her feet and held her hands in front of her.

The dragon froze. It hung suspended in the air, hovering over the road's center line, behind an unmoving, unfurling ball of fire, stopped in front of the elevator tunnel as if it were an exotic tractor trailer waiting to make a turn onto Railroad Ave.

Mara walked up to it, reached out to touch the frozen flame, jerked back her hand. Hot. She rubbed her fingers and looked down at them. They flickered several times. Movement out of the corner of her eye distracted her. A flame at the edge of the suspended fireball flitted back and forth in the wind, like a candle. Then something emitted a low, almost imperceptible swoos.h.i.+ng sound.

Mara's eyes widened, and she dropped to her knees.

The fireball flew over her back and slammed into the cement wall at the front of the tunnel, exploding into a cloud of smoke and ash, into which the dragon flew, cras.h.i.+ng into the wall, sending tremors through the ground as the wall and the tunnel collapsed. A roar shook the air. Dust and smoke billowed up the side of the bluff, then rolled over and fell onto Seventh Street. Flapping and sc.r.a.ping sounds came from the haze. The tangled metal bench she had just sat on now flew out of the cloud, landing in the center of the street with a clang next to a downed streetlight.

Mara backed away, looked over her shoulder through the spray of water still spewing from the hydrant toward the blue lights and the bridge. The way was clear. She turned and ran for it.