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through each bore hold and pulled the threads tight, sawing back and forth until chunks of ice broke free. They continued to work until they exposed the dragons, and then they carved holes around the bodies until the dragons slipped free.

The dragon carcasses slid out of their ice prison, still frozen, hitting the floor with a cracking sound.

Chapter 19

Lara crouched down beside the dragons, weeping. She put one hand on each of the ice-cold necks, bowed her head and whispered to them softly. "I'm setting you free. Just the way you did me, he doesn't have you any longer." Maybe it wouldn't matter to them in death, but it did to her. She would never want Xavier to have any part of her-in any form.

"Lara! Look at the web," Natalya said sharply. She peeked around the corner of the alcove and gasped aloud, staring in awe and dismay at the two dragon carcasses.

The ice spiders were making a mass exodus, rushing across the thick ice wall. The web they'd spun tight sagged in the middle by a few inches, but that was steadily increasing. The creaks and rumbling in the ice increased to an almost angry roar.

Nicolas rounded the corner of the alcove at a run and slid to a halt so fast that Vikirnoff, on his heels, bumped into him.

"You got them out," Vikirnoff said. "You found them and got them out."

Nicolas frowned and walked around the two bodies. He glanced at Vikirnoff. "They really are in dragon form."

"You knew they were," Lara said, "I told you. And you were with me..." She trailed off, glancing at Vikirnoff and Natalya, who were walking around the two dragons. Lara stroked loving caresses over the scales, usually shimmering with iridescent color, but now drab and dull.

"But they are part mage. How can they shift?" Nicolas murmured aloud.

"You said I could shift," Lara pointed out.

"You can, as long as I'm holding the image for you. Your Dragon-seeker blood is strong but..." He trailed off and looked at Vikirnoff.

Vikirnoff crouched down beside the two women. "Natalya, reach for them."

"I don't understand."

"Lara should. She's spoken numerous times with them telepathically," Nicolas said. "Lara, reach deep along the path you used to speak to them. Call them to you."

"You can't possibly think they're alive. Look at them. They're frozen solid. They're thin and drab."

"They are not mage," Nicolas said. "They are Carpathian. Fully Carpathian. How that came to be, I do not know, but they could not have survived all these years frozen, encased in ice,-and you said they were kept in ice even when you were a child-unless they are Carpathian. Mage would die. I do not know how I missed that. How any of us did. How could they be caught in the bodies of dragons?"

"You're saying they're still alive?"

"It is a possibility, yes," Nicolas said.

The ice continued to protest, crackling as icicles rained down on them, as large chunks sloughed off to

crash to the floor. The trickle of water became louder.

Lara cleared her mind and reached. She knew the path intimately, had clung to it as a child, her only stability in a world of absolute madness. She reached with a mixture of love and hope.Aunt Bronnie. Auntie Tatijana. Can you hear me ?

There was a weak stirring in her mind. Lara lost all color and gave a little cry. "I felt them. They're there. I felt them."

Nicolas looked grimly at Vikirnoff and then to the spiderweb, which was now sagging by at least a foot more. "I'm calling in aid. Let us go now."

Warrior to warrior! We have great need. We have found two of our women in the ice caves and we are under attack.

Nicolas sent the call and immediately levitated the dragon's bodies. "Let's get out of here. Vikirnoff, you take the lead, I'll hold the rear."

Vikirnoff glanced back at him in total understanding, and then turned and ran. The look that passed between them said a multitude of things. Nicolas was entrusting the other half of his soul to Vikirnoff. He was telling him not to guard his back, but to take the women to safety no matter what happened behind him. Vikirnoff accepted the responsibility of the women and also the consequences should Nicolas die in the ice cave protecting their flank.

Natalya grabbed Lara's wrist and yanked her into a blurring run, racing after Vikirnoff. Behind her, the bodies of the two dragons burst through the tunnels, sheering bits of ice off the walls.

Nicolas ran behind