Sinister Magic: An Urban Fantasy Dragon Series (Death Before Dragons #1) - Lindsay Buroker Page 0,77
sky would have been extra dark that night.”
“Safe enough for a dark elf to pop out of its hole?”
“Her hole. Dark elves must be able to come out any night if they properly protect themselves, but maybe darker nights are preferable. Or maybe the kraken only shows up on the darkest of nights.” Dread and anticipation mingled to create a weird sensation in my gut as I scrolled further down the page and checked the date. “There’s a new moon tonight.”
“So if we hang out on a houseboat tonight, we might see a kraken?”
“If the alchemist is following the pattern and luring it in again.” I couldn’t know for certain that the dark elves were responsible for these Loch Ness monster sightings, but this was the best lead I had. Besides, who but someone with a use for kraken blood, and a need for it to be delivered close to the dark-elf tunnel system, would invite such a creature into Lake Union? “If she’s already got all the blood she needs, she might not be. But it’s either investigate this or sneak into the Underground tour and knock on the walls, hoping to find a hollow one that could be knocked down, and that would lead into the rest of the tunnel network. But you’d have to think there’s some separation between the tunnel systems for the dark elves to have avoided notice for all this time.”
“It sounds like we’ve got until dark to figure out what we need to invade a dark-elf lair.”
“We need? Dimitri, I appreciate you driving me around yesterday, but it’s too dangerous for you to go. The dragon didn’t even want to go.”
“Maybe he just hasn’t figured out where the door is.”
That was a possibility. The dark elves might have some enchantment in place to keep people, magical and mundane, from stumbling onto the entrances they use. And as powerful as a dragon was, some magic did work to camouflage things from them—I’d seen that with my own cloaking charm. Weaker beings throughout history had probably made an art of hiding from dragons.
“We haven’t exactly figured it out either.” I leaned back in my seat as the waiter took our trays. “Is the tunnel entrance just near the lake or… is it possible it’s in the lake? There has to be a reason the alchemist chose that spot to lure the kraken to. Maybe I need to shop for SCUBA gear today.”
Except that I didn’t know how to SCUBA dive, and the impression I’d always gotten was that it took instruction and some practice. Maybe I could free dive. I was a good swimmer and could hold my breath for a while.
According to my searches, Lake Union was only fifty feet deep at its deepest point. Lots of spots were shallower. Swimming with my boots and weapons would be a pain in the ass, but it could be doable if I knew exactly where to go. Maybe I could find some bathymetry maps and make some guesses about where a tunnel entrance might be. There would have to be an airlock to keep water from flooding the tunnels, and the door would be magically hidden to keep mundane humans from noticing it. Would I be able to find it?
I scratched my jaw. Was all this likely, or was I following a hunch down a rabbit hole? Maybe the alchemist simply came out on the beach at Gas Works Park and summoned the kraken from there.
“Do people do that here?” Dimitri asked. “The water is really cold, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is, and yes, they do. In cozy warm wetsuits.”
Out of curiosity, I searched for SCUBA rental outfits. There were a couple right by the lake. “Interesting. Wreck diving in Lake Union is a popular hobby. I didn’t know that. This says there are a whole bunch of old ships down on the bottom. Maybe one of them is on top of my theoretical entrance to the dark-elf lair.”
My phone rang, and I jumped. It was Mom, so I hurried to answer. I’d tried calling her as soon as I’d woken up earlier but had gotten her machine again.
“Hello?” I answered warily, afraid one of those agents might have gone back to her cabin and was using her phone.
“It’s me. Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, Mom. Are you okay?”
“Yes. I hung out behind the trees on the top of the cliff, and I think they thought I’d disappeared for good. They left once they got their tires