Dark Curse (Dark 19)

Nicolas studied the snow-covered mountains rising sharply above them. Ringed in swirling mist, the mountains appeared a peaceful place of cold beauty, but he heard the soft: voices murmuring continually, and felt the steady flow of energy, a force field subtly sending out signals tuned to brain waves.Stay away. Fear this place. Forget this place .

Even the locals avoided the mountain. The upper peaks were inhospitable. Nothing grew but a few straggly plants in the midst of boulders and once you climbed past the boulders, there was the glacier itself. Unwary travelers who braved the uneasy, disturbed feeling often found themselves victims of falling boulders or a heavy avalanche. The mountain shook and rumbled the moment anyone dared set foot on it.

He walked along the base, studying it from every angle, looking for anything that might conceal an entryway. Natalya, Vikirnoff and Lara spread out several yards apart and did the same, all of them careful not to get too close and trip any hidden traps or alarms that would trigger the mountain to protect itself.

"What do you think, Lara?" he called.

The wind whipped his words away from the mountain, slamming his voice back down his throat. It was an aggressive move and he'd been unprepared for the attack. They weren't actually on the mountain. He exchanged a long look with Lara.

She nodded her head and moved toward him. Nicolas signaled to Natalya and Vikirnoff to watch above their heads and below their feet, in the ground itself. Lara placed her feet carefully, all the while scanning along the snow-covered ground for the slightest movement.

If we triggered an alarm, then we have to be close to an entrance. It will be something ordinary, easily overlooked, but simple.

Nicolas spotted a crack that ran the length of the overhang at the base of the mountain. The line was narrow, tiny really, no more than an inch thick running just under the overhang, nearly hidden in the shadow of the limestone cliffs. He scanned along the crack, inch by inch, but couldn't see where there could be an opening.

From the air, Nicolas had noted the pattern of rocks, which looked, with its ice cap, like an undulating sea of blue beneath the glacier-a sure sign that far below melt-water had carved canyons and formed large ice caves beneath the surface. He might know a labyrinth of chambers was beneath the mountain, but finding a way in was difficult.

It's here, Lara said with confidence.Very close .

Now that she knew she was in the right area, she knew what to look for. No, not look. "Feel" for. Scent. Xavier had sealed the entrances, but they were there and she shouldn't be looking for an opening, she should be following the taint of evil, just as she had when she searched the women's bodies for mutated extremophiles.

A short distance from them, deer moved out onto the meadow, but none approached the thicker grass a few yards from where she was standing. She touched their minds. Gentle creatures as a rule, interested in feeding. A few pawed the snow to reveal short stalks of grass beneath the white layer. Not one looked or scented the thick offering pushing through the snow.

She closed her eyes and inhaled the night, taking in the information her surroundings offered. The night was crisp and cold. The snow had ceased to fall but the smell was there, a clean feel to the air until you went deeper. She caught the whiff of tainted magic and wrinkled her nose, turning in the direction where it was strongest before opening her eyes. She was looking at that patch of tall grass that poked through the snow, yet didn't tempt hungry deer.

She took a couple of steps closer to the green stalks now rippling as if wind drove them-but there was no real breeze on her face. The ripples increased, until the grass undulated as if water ebbed and flowed around it. Something moved in the forest of green, a stealthy crawl that drew her eye. A bat emerged, using its wings as legs, coming out of the deep grass to creep silently toward the grazing deer. A second and third bat appeared, and then the ground seemed covered by them, a stealthy, dark-furred army, circling an unwary doe, cutting it off from the rest of the herd.

Lara gripped Nicolas's arm as the bats swayed back and forth, walking on the tips of their wings, to close the net on the deer.Vampire bats just take a small amount of blood. They don't behave like that . As if they were stalking the deer for darker, more sinister purposes.

Before Nicolas could reply, the bats rushed the doe, wings flapping, so that the circle appeared solid. She caught a glimpse of huge teeth, not like a vampire bat, but more like a shark, razor-edged and rows of them filling the muzzles. The sheer weight of numbers drove the doe to her knees and then down to the grass. Blood ran onto the snow. The herd whirled and raced away from the meadow, back into the forest.

The bats swarmed over the doe, her sides heaving, her pitiful bleats tearing at Lara's heart. When she would have moved, Nicolas stopped her.

There is nothing to do for her. Look at what they are doing.

The bats tore great chunks of flesh from the deer to get at her insides, but even while some fed, others began to use their teeth to pull the weight of the carcass across the meadow toward the taller grass. Behind them, they left a trail of blood. Several bats licked at the blood before hurrying to help drag the doe.

Have you ever seen something like that before? Lara asked. She glanced at Vikirnoff and Natalya and they looked every bit as stunned as she was.

Nicolas shook his head.They aren't vampire bats .

A mutation then. Lara watched the deer carcass disappear into the longer grass. Dirt and snow boiled up, spewing like a small geyser. The grass shook. Under the swarm of bats, the deer rolled over, legs up in the air and then sank beneath the earth. The ground was quiet again.I think we've just met the guardians of the gate , Lara said.And they aren't going to be alone .

"Did you see the teeth on those things?" Vikirnoff asked.

"Maybe we should try another way in," Natalya ventured.

Nicolas watched Lara closely. She moved in a semi-circle a few yards from the patch of green grass, pacing back and forth, counting beneath her breath, one hand out, palm facing down toward the earth.

"What's she doing?" Vikirnoff asked.

"Testing the strength of his safeguards," Natalya said. "Mage magic is all about elements and energy. She's obviously extremely sensitive to Xavier's signature. Every mage has one and when you work with them you get to know their particular fingerprints."

"That's why she can detect the microbe in the women?" Vikirnoff asked. "You're mage. And you're actually Xavier's granddaughter. She's his great granddaughter. You knew him, too."

Natalya shook her head. "Not like Lara. I stayed away from him. I was good at mage spells, Razvan wasn't. I was more mage, and I thought Razvan wasn't mage or Dragonseeker, but I was wrong. I was wrong about so many things."

Vikirnoff stroked a caress down the length of her hair. "He wanted you to be. He misled everyone on purpose to protect you."

"It seems he did that all the time," Nicolas said.

He stayed close enough to Lara to protect her, but far enough away to allow her to get a good feel for the traps Xavier left behind to safeguard his lair. He noted her hair banded, the red stripes moving through the blond. Tiny electric sparks gathered around her and he felt the buildup of energy as she gathered power to her. She lifted her arms into the air.

Air, earth, fire and water, hear my call. See your daughter...

The air grew heavy with the combination of elements gathering and spinning into a combined force.

Air unseen, seek that which is closed. Earth that does hold open, unfold. Fire that burns, eat that which would harm, water that flows, break open this door.

As she spoke, the ground beneath their feet shook. The mountain rumbled in protest. Rocks and snow rained down, as though hurled from above, showering the entire area where Lara stood, but she didn't move, trusting Nicolas to keep her from harm.

He waved his hands to form a protective shield over her, careful to give her room to work. Her hands moved in a graceful pattern, parts of which he recognized. She was reversing the tight weave of a safeguard, reversing the spell so she could open the entrance.

The wind rose to a piercing whine. The earth quivered and then shook in earnest. Fire spiders webbed along the base of the mountain right above the patch of green. Racing along tiny, unseen cracks, fire rained down on the patch of green. Right behind the silken strands of orange-red flame came a flood of water to pour over the blaze and into the cave entrance to finish eroding the safeguards.

Lara's hands continued to flow gracefully.That which was set in place to harm, now give forth a warning alarm . A fine-spun pattern began to appear.Spiders, spiders of finespun ice, hear my call, spin and splice. Create a web of finest thread, to give a warning against harm and dread . The pattern burned brightly in the air for a brief moment and then slowly faded away.

Stone creaked and groaned as if rubbing against itself. Snow slid from the mountain in a long rush of white. The patch of green sunk in so that dirt, snow and vegetation fell in on itself, revealing the deep hole penetrating the earth.

Nicolas caught Lara and shoved her behind him as he and Vikirnoff examined the entrance. Even as they watched, a thin layer of ice stretched and then covered the hole so he appeared to be looking through a window into the black interior. The ice walls were textured in spots with mud, grass and a dark stain that could only be blood. In direct contrast, the rest of the wall looked pristine and beautiful, like a great ice sculpture, thick and carved into a round tube of shimmering glass.

Lara caught Nicolas around the waist from behind and peered down into the hole, noting the darker spots lining the tube, most of which dotted the first two hundred feet of the shaft. The stains of grass and blood formed a distinctive trail to the scattered spots. They looked solid, but on closer inspection, that same sheet of thin ice that formed the window covered holes.

She indicated them with her chin. "That's where the guardians live."

"Bats with big teeth that will crawl out of their little holes and drop on us to gnaw our heads off as we descend," Natalya said. "Great. Someone ought to make a movie."

Vikirnoff grinned at her. "You and your movies. She has the worst taste in movies."

Natalya blew him a kiss. "Just for that, you can go first."

Lara shook her head. "Let me remove the ice cap and then I'll weave a holding spell. We should be able to get past them without too much trouble." She sent Nicolas a faint smile. "And I'd rather have someone protecting me from above."

She made a move toward the hole and Nicolas caught her arm. "You do your mage spell, but you do not set one foot in there by yourself. Vikirnoff can go first to make certain we land without too much harm and I will bring up the rear to protect you from above."

Lara put a hand over her heart and sent a quick grin in her aunt's direction. "I love it when he does that."

Natalya rolled her eyes. "He-Man and She-Ra."

Nicolas frowned. "Who?"

Vikirnoff groaned. "Do notever make the mistake of asking." He looked up at the night, took a deep breath. "The safeguards are down?"

Lara nodded. "In theory, you should be able to go right through the thin layer of ice and straight down the tube without disturbing the guardians. Once into the lava tube, avoid touching anything that might trigger a response."

"Great, thanks," Vikirnoff said. He shimmered into mist and slipped through the layer of ice covering the entrance.

Natalya followed him immediately.

"I will hold the image for you," Nicolas assured.

Now that she'd had some experience with shifting, she knew what to expect so the sensation of her body disintegrating into vapor didn't alarm her and she just let it happen. Oftentimes, when caving in an ice cave, the ropes used could collect a thin layer of ice. There were hazards from falling icicles and great chunks of ice bursting out of the walls due to the tremendous pressures from the sheer weight. Becoming mist seemed so much easier.

The world beneath the earth, inside the ice cave itself was, to Lara, a world of uncommon and magnificent beauty. As she descended into the dark moulin, essentially a deep pit, she whispered a brief spell, calling for soft light to spill along the walls and floors wherever they walked. Using her childhood spiders, the only friends she had to light the way, she chanted softly.

Spiders, spiders of crystal ice, spin your webs of softest light. The little spiders appeared instantly out of the walls of ice, spinning and dancing to freely form a continuous fine web of translucent icy silk, covering the walls and rushing ahead of them down toward the floor.Spin and dance, surround and form, so our eyes may see to prevent all harm .

At once the tube turned blue, a beautiful, surreal world of ice. The water spraying continually from above had caused an avalanche of various sized ice balls to cascade down the walls so it appeared as though a waterfall of blue ice rushed downward, when in reality, the ice balls were stationary, attached to the thick

walls surrounding them. She was used to the sound of creaking ice punctuated by the thunderous roar as the tremendous pressure sent giant chunks hurling out of the wall to slam against the opposite side and fall to the floor below.

As she passed the darker holes, she realized the entryways were a maze of dwellings woven into the ice to allow the bats communal living. Through the thick window of ice, she could see bones and hair and blood from discarded carcasses. The cave dwellers feasted on their kill, lived for a while on the remains and then every so often swarmed to the surface to drag a hapless victim to their lair. Anything or anyone venturing too near at the wrong time was fair game.

They floated past a ledge that ran the circle of the tube, not very wide. Hanging below it was a variety of long icicles, each one coming to a lethal point.

We need to break those off,she told Nicolas.He'll use those against us and we don't want to be caught on the floor when they come flying at us .

At once sound echoed through the tube, a high note that set the icicles rocking. Some shattered. Others broke loose and fell to the cavern floor several hundred feet below. The sound was loud-too loud-too abrupt. The bats flew at their entrances, the movement frightening to watch through the ice, but Lara's safeguard held against the battering bodies. Tiny fire spiders rushed down the sides of the walls, using their silken threads of flames. As the bats emerged from the holes, using their wings like arms to creep out onto the sheer wall, the nets made of flames and silk dropped over them, consuming them entirely.

A noxious odor permeated the moulin. Despite being insubstantial mist, Lara felt sick.

Nicolas flashed into human form, waved his arms to create a breeze, and then before any of the falling debris could strike him, was back to vapor form.

Thank you.

He seemed to think of everything for her comfort and she was grateful, because this place brought back too many horrific memories. She had to steel herself to the idea that she would find her aunts dead and bring them home. She didn't want their bodies to remain imprisoned as they'd spent their lives that way.

The cave floor was just beneath her and she hovered there, studying the layout, the way the chamber widened and ran into a maze of galleries. She took her time, not wanting to miss the slightest taint of dark magic that would herald an attack. This was Xavier's private realm. She recognized the high ceilings and network of lava tubes leading to various chambers where he conducted his gruesome experiments.

We got lucky. This is Xavier's exclusive domain. The entire mountain is a maze of tunnels and chambers and we were lucky enough or crazy enough to find his private quarters.

Her voice shook and she pulled back to get a better grip on her emotions. She hadn't considered what it would do to her to be surrounded by Xavier. He was everywhere, his mark on everything. His smell filled her with dread. He had been there recently. No matter what anyone said, his pipe tobacco mingled with the pungent scent of blood smelled all too fresh. No matter how long ago it had been, she couldn't forget the difference between old blood and new and the way his tobacco intermingled, making her gag.

If at any time, Lara, you have to leave this place, Nicolas reassured,tell me and I will get you out. And I will come back and search for your aunts . He wanted to hold her, to wrap her up in comfort and make her feel beautiful and safe. No one was ever going to understand what it cost her to come to

this place, to be haunted by the torment of that young child.

Thank you. She sent him waves of warmth.He's been here, Nicolas. Very recently. And if he's still using these chambers, he would never leave them without serious traps. The floor is washed in magic. I think the entire room is a trap .

Nicolas shifted to the common Carpathian path.Do not touch anything. We should move on to the next chamber .

Lara tried to remember where she had seen the young woman miscarrying.Take the left tube and move slowly. Even the disturbance of air could trigger an attack .

The four of them went as carefully as they could down the twisting ice tunnel until they came to a series of smaller chambers. Lara sucked in her breath, the smells hitting her like a punch in the stomach. Water trickled from the walls, dripped from the ceiling and poured out in other places so that she heard a continuous echo, loud and growing even louder until it rang in her ears and filled her mind with confusion.

She remembered that sound from her childhood. The sound seemed to be an alarm, roaring through the chambers, or whispering quietly, but warning her of the monsters lurking everywhere. Her heart beat too fast and she could barely draw air into her lungs, but she kept moving, directing Nicolas toward the terrible chambers where the screams of victims drowned out the relentless sound of water.

Lara stopped just inside the room where Razvan had been kept chained. Memories rose along with bile and she couldn't hold the form even with Nicolas helping her. She needed to kneel on the ice floor and put her head down to keep from passing out.

Nicolas dropped a hand on her shoulder. "You do not have to do this."

She drew a breath and nodded. "I do. I do have to do this."

But she couldn't look at that alcove where her father had been chained so much of the time. Where she had been kicked and beaten, where the flesh had been torn from her wrist so sharp greedy teeth could bite deep and drain her to the point she was dizzy and wheezing for air. She remembered crawling across the floor, the cold biting into her knees and arms, on her belly, like a dog, he'd said, too weak to get up.

"There's fresh blood here," Natalya said. "It's all over the place." She touched a manacle, smeared the blood on her fingers and held it to her nose. Her face paled. "Razvan. This is my brother's blood. He had to have been here within a rising or two." The blood was sticky and congealed, but not dry.

Vikirnoff examined the manacles. "Vampire blood to burn him while he's chained."

Lara shuddered. "There's so much blood, and stab wounds in the ice. Look at that," she pointed to the wall. "It looks as though he was stabbed and the instrument went through him and out the other side."

Natalya skimmed her palm down the wall without touching the blood spatter. Lara could hear her heart pounding and the rhythm matched the drumming of the water coming out of the walls. Natalya's body trembled as she kept her hand over the blood of her twin.

"There's something here."

Lara put out her palm to feel the energy band. It was low, humming, very much alive. "The energy

doesn't feel dark."

Natalya shook her head. "It's Razvan. He left something here. When we were children we used to leave messages for one another right under Xavier's nose." She frowned and paced the length of Razvan's prison, both hands palm out away from her body as if feeling the air.

Lara tried not to be that little girl, worthless and lonely in the cave with only ice spiders for friends. She detested how pathetically jealous she was that Natalya had good memories of her father. She rubbed at the ridges on her wrist.

Nicolas reached over and took her hand, bringing it to his chest.I love you, sivamet .

Her heart fluttered. She wasn't that lonely child anymore, living in terror, feeling worthless and unloved. She looked up at him, at his beautiful face, so masculine and strong. There was love in his eyes, tenderness in the way the pad of his thumb swept back and forth over the palm of her hand. This tall, dangerous man loved her.Loved her. With all her failings, even her aversion to letting anyone take her blood, he loved her, and that was everything.

Nicolas turned up her wrist and brushed his lips over the fading scars.I am very grateful that I found you .

She sent him a quick, teasing smile.Actually, I found you .

Natalya's gasp drew her attention.

"I found it. He left a message behind." Natalya leaned over the ledge of ice, waved her hands gracefully, murmuring low.

That which is hidden from all sight, created between two who shared the fight. Blood of blood, twin and twine, show me now the twining rhyme.

The ice lit up from within and an image wavered, a hologram of a man ravaged by time and torture. He was manacled to the wall, no shirt and his trousers in shreds. Lines cut deep into his face. His hair was in dreadlocks, streaked with gray, but it was his eyes that Lara couldn't look away from-so filled with sorrow and pain.

The hologram began to glow and the man spoke, but his words were garbled, unintelligible, a twin talk devised and scrambled between the brother and sister. Natalya's hands moved, gently weaving another unlocking spell, rearranging the notes of his voice, working to make sense of the message left long ago-and meant only for her eyes and ears. Slowly she began to see the pattern of the language, unraveling it until he made sense.

"Natalya. Beloved sister. I pray you find this message I've hidden at great cost. I dare not let Xavier ever touch you or my Lara. He's evil beyond all imagining. I no longer have the strength to fight him, although I believe I've put up a worthy battle. He uses my body to produce children he can feed on and, although I have tried, I cannot stop him." He shuddered, pain crossing his face. "The knowledge that it is me he uses to cause such harm to others, to those I love, is far worse than any physical torment he has ever devised."

Natalya let out a soft cry of distress. Vikirnoff circled her waist with his arm.

"When I could, I helped their mothers escape him and take the children far from him, but I do not even

have that ability left to me. I opened my soul in a moment of weakness and he owns it now, commanding me for his foul purpose and, though I am aware on some level, I cannot resist his commands. I think that amuses him so much he wants to keep me alive. Few things amuse him these days."

"Razvan." Natalya whispered her brother's name and turned her tear-streaked face up to Vikirnoff. "Look what Xavier did to him."

There were scars. Horrible scars on his neck and throat, on his arms and chest, his wrists, even his legs. The links of the chains smeared in vampire blood had burned the images into his skin-Carpathian skin that didn't scar.

Natalya drew in a sobbing breath. "He is Dragonseeker. He would never turn. I should have known and believed in him. Instead I tried to kill him."

The hologram continued. "I beg you to find my daughter. She is so like you. Tatijana and Branislava have agreed to help her escape. I've convinced them not to tell me their plans. Xavier still likes to occupy my body and I'm afraid if he does, he'll discover the plan and we won't be able to get her out of here. I dared not let Lara know too much because if Xavier suspected anything, he would torture her until she told him everything."

He hung there, his chains cutting into his flesh, his tangled hair hanging down his back and around his shoulders. He was painfully thin. Even talking tired him out, that and the use of magic as he recorded his message to his sister. He moistened his cracked lips.

"He keeps us all drained of blood and weak. He's using me to find a way to kill the Carpathians. Everything from poisons to parasites. He has to be stopped. Find the prince and tell him, Xavier has to be stopped. But first, find my child. Her mother was not my lifemate, but the mage in me loved her dearly. She was sunshine in a world of madness. Find Lara for us and love her, Natalya. It is the last thing I ask of you."

He looked to his left. His body shuddered and his skin took on a grayish tinge. "He's coming for me and I'll hold on as long as I can until Lara is out of his hands, and then I will find a way to force him to kill me. Natalya, do not ever come back here. And don't look for me. Find Lara and let that be enough." He turned his head and looked straight at them.

Lara could feel his piercing gaze right through to her soul. The mental anguish he suffered was far worse than any physical torture Xavier could conceive. She didn't even realize she was sobbing until Nicolas turned her into his arms and held her close.

"I've hated him for years. I thought of him as a monster," she whispered. "He wanted me to think of him that way so he could protect me."

"He's alive," Natalya said. "He's out there, Xavier's prisoner, and he's alive."

"We don't know that," Vikirnoff objected. "There's so much blood here,sivamet , and it is all his. If he survived this, it would be a miracle." He caught her to him. "I know what you're thinking, but he does not want you to try to find him. Either of you." He glanced at Lara before turning his attention back to his lifemate. "Don't you see? You and Lara are the two people he loves most and he's managed to protect you. We have to give him that. It's all he has to hang on to to keep him sane. This man has given up his life, his soul, everything he is or ever was in order to insure you and Lara have a life. You cannot take that away from him."

"I can find him."

"What do you think it would do to him if you fell into Xavier's hands after all of his sacrifices?"

Natalya shook her head, refusing to answer.

Lara knew she would never give her word not to go looking for her brother. Lara wouldn't either, if Nicolas asked it of her. She took a deep breath, let it out and looked cautiously around her. The others, always so confident in their power and skills, weren't as nervous being in Xavier's lair as she was. And they were growing in confidence the longer they went without anything attacking them, but the lack of resistance only made her leerier.

She stayed very still, watching the cave as the others fanned out in an attempt to find more clues. Natalya used her connection with her brother, hoping to find more messages, while Nicolas and Vikirnoff examined the devices shelved in the ice where Razvan was chained to the wall. Obviously the various instruments had been stored where he could see them to build anticipation of torture.

"Xavier is one sadistichan ku tuulmahl elidet ," Nicolas commented.

Life-stealer, Lara translated, and thought the phrase more than appropriate. Xavier was definitely a stealer of life. He took from everyone-family, species, everyone he met-and the Carpathian meaning was so much more, not just the words, but the inflection, the darkness behind the words.

Vikirnoff bent down to examine marks gouged into the ice. "What is this, Nicolas?"

Lara followed his gaze as both men crouched beside what appeared to be claw marks running along the ice floor. Her heart jumped. The aunts in the form of dragons? Could it be? The marks were recent. Had they been there? Hope sprang even though she knew it was impossible. Both had been so ill all those years ago.

Nicolas and Vikirnoff stroked fingers along the grooves in an effort to figure out what had made those marks. Heart hammering, she crouched down beside Nicolas.

Nicolas turned his head to look at Lara as her shoulder brushed his. The scent of her enveloped him. Although she'd braided her hair, stray strands curled around her face, making him want to brush them aside just for the pleasure of feeling her satin skin and the silky texture of her hair. He had lived long, battled hard, seen beautiful places and none of it, not one thing, compared to the treasure he had been given. The gift.Lara . He whispered her name in his mind, wanting to take the anxiety from her.

Their eyes met and his heart slammed inside his chest in reaction. His belly knotted at the intensity of his love for her. The emotion seemed to grow each rising, filling him so completely, he barely recognized himself anymore. There was a gentleness in Lara he was drawn to. Maybe because he felt there was little in him. Maybe she brought out the best in him-made him a better man. Whatever it was, he ached inside for her. He thought of her, watched for every expression to chase across her face. He didn't even know exactly when it had happened to him-the growing love and need of her-but he accepted that it was only going to get stronger.

"What?" she asked, a small smile chasing away some of the shadows in her eyes.

He smiled back. "Just looking at you."

She blushed and looked down at the claw marks, running her palm over the area to get a feel for what had made the gouges. At once she felt the taint of darkness. Gasping, she scrambled back. "It's a trap. Don't touch it. Get away from there."

Nicolas caught her hand and pulled her to her feet. Vikirnoff and Natalya turned back to back so they faced outward, looking for an enemy.

Large icicles rained down on them from the ceiling. Others hurled themselves like spears from the walls. The men threw up shields to prevent injury or even death from the heavy, sharp, daggerlike ice formations.

The ice cave rumbled and shook. Water gushed from a crack on the wall above them, pouring down with a roar. The ice splintered and a spiderweb of tiny lines spread from ceiling to floor. Water seeped, began to trickle and then pour from the cracks, widening them into deeper crevasses. The ice quivered and then sloughed off in great chunks, crashing to the floor. The grinding and cracking noises increased, as if the walls were moving closer together.

"This chamber is mutating. We have to get out now," Lara warned.

"They do that?" Nicolas asked, already running toward his right where a long, narrow tunnel looked more hospitable.

"This one does," Lara said and rushed after him with Vikirnoff and Natalya close behind.

As the water filled the chamber and began to leak into the tunnel, Lara turned back and murmured her own safeguard. Let Xavier deal with a solid wall of ice several feet thick in his torture chamber.

Water that runs, shift and grow, rise high now to fill these walls. The water began to form layer after layer, growing quickly into a block of ice as big as a tower.

Satisfied that the water had halted at the entrance to the tunnel and began refreezing, she turned and ran after the others. As she ran, she heard the steady drip of water again, the same monotonous pattern she'd noted earlier. She could actually hear each individual drop plop into a puddle. A shiver went down her spine.

Something isn't right, Nicolas. Xavier's chambers know we're intruders and we're in for a fight. Watch everything, no matter how trivial. That's his specialty-the subtle, creeping up on you before you notice anything.

Out of the narrow tunnel they found themselves in a much larger room, this one intensely beautiful with ice sculptures and prisms and many orbs. Lara halted, her heart pounding. She had been in this room many times. She glanced over at the tall pillars, terrified she would see Xavier standing there with his grotesque mask of a face, his fierce eyes and the twisted smug smirk he always seemed to wear.

Shadows moved and stretched. She gasped and stepped back.

"What is it, Lara?" Natalya asked. "What do you feel?"

Lara shook her head, twisting and turning, spinning in a circle to see everything-everywhere. "Apparitions. Shadows. We shouldn't be here. Through there," she gestured toward another narrow

tube, "is his laboratory."

"We need to take a look at it," Vikirnoff said, moving toward it.

"Stop!" Desperation was in her voice. "Don't take another step. Don't breathe hard."

The others looked warily around the room. Water dripped, a steady plop into the puddle forming at the base of the wall beside a wide column. Lara turned toward the sound. Another loud drop hit a second puddle, this one closer to her, right near the tallest pillar. She stared into the water as rings expanded outward toward the edges of the small pool of water.

"Elements. Water. He's all around us. He's everywhere."

Nicolas glanced at her, alarmed by her rambling. "Lara!" He said her name sharply to snap her out of it. "He isn't here."

"You don't understand," Lara said. "He's here. He locks himself into things, into elements. He can travel that way. You don't know him."

Nicolas moved cautiously to wrap his arm around her. He was worried about her and it showed on his face. "Lara, monsters always appear larger and much more indestructible when you are a child. He may have been here recently..."

"I smell his tobacco."

Natalya inhaled, shook her head and shrugged. "If he is, Lara, he's hiding from us."

The men were cautious as they made their way across the open floor. Natalya and Lara followed, both watching above and around them. The water dripped monotonously. As they approached the archway leading to the next series of open caverns, they could see just inside the entrance. Water sprayed from the ceiling, the droplets falling into a series of pools. Each pool was a bit lower than the first and each was a different color.

Tiny frogs croaked, the notes mournful. A dark red stain dripped down from the ice and dropped into one of the pools, staining it a deep crimson. Several of the frogs stuck to the side of the wall, long tongues dipping in the blood, licking at it as it ran down. Although there was no breeze, each pool of water rippled slightly, as if something lived in them. The scent of blood and bodily fluids was heavy in the air.

"This is it," Lara said. "This is what you've been looking for, Nicolas. He mutates them here. He's experimenting with extremophiles and this is where he tests and corrupts them for his own purpose. We've found his laboratory."