Li gave me a look that reminded me of Amber’s scathing-pitying expressions. “We are not on Earth.”
“I know that, but… Zav didn’t mention a lich. I’m positive he would have if he’d known about it.” I thought about sharing that the dragon who was supposed to rule over this world had disappeared, but Li wasn’t my ally. Telling her everything I knew wouldn’t be a good idea. Better to find out what she knew without spilling my own guts. “What’s this dragon, uh, lich's name? Did it tell you?”
“It did not. I do not know what it bellowed at me as I was fleeing through my portal back to Earth.” Li scrambled down a slope more agilely than one would expect from a dwarf—or half-dwarf—keeping her balance as scree tumbled loose.
“Why were you here visiting a lich?”
“I did not expect it to be inside Mount Crenel. I was there to find proof that the sword you carry is rightfully mine.” Li came to the bottom of the slope and slanted an indecipherable look back at me.
“Ah. And did the lich have that proof?”
Li snorted. “It is camped out on top of it. For some reason, it chose Mount Crenel as its base of operations. I did not learn this until I traveled here, found the entrance, and was halfway to the ancient dwarven tomb and knowledge repository before I sensed its presence. Soon after, I ran into its minions. I was still able to slay many of them and get close enough to take photographs of the Wall of Ancestry and Wall of Great Makers. But unwisely, I grabbed a couple of artifacts that I thought might be useful in dealing with you—” Li gave me another look over her shoulder, “—and that roused the lich from its ruminations. It sent more minions to chase me out and attacked me with its own power. Even though it was from afar, it almost killed me. The lich is even more powerful than a dragon, thanks to the deal it made with the underworld.”
“Uh.” I stopped and held up a finger. We’d reached a valley of the same squat evergreens I’d seen when visiting this world with Zav. “The lich’s new lair is the place you want to take me?”
“Yes.”
“How about you just show me the photos and then we go back to Earth?”
Li turned to regard me. She hadn’t cleaned her wounds or even wiped the dried blood from her face. If I’d had my own pack, I would have offered her the contents of my first-aid kit. Maybe she had her own first-aid kit and simply couldn’t be bothered to stop and tend to her wounds. Her eyes had the hard determination of a zealot on a mission.
“You would accept photographs as proof that I am the rightful owner of that sword?” Li touched a lump in her pocket that was probably a smartphone.
“No. You could easily have doctored photos.”
“I assumed that would be your response. That is why I will take you and show you in person.”
“While the lich is there?”
“It leaves sometimes.”
“No pizza delivery to underground tombs?”
“I believe not.” Li turned, as if we’d made our decision and were going.
“Look, I’m open to checking this place out—” hell, my entire reason for coming to this world originally had been to check it out, “—but not with only you for backup. No offense.”
“Summon your tiger again then.” Her voice had turned bitter, and she touched the claw marks on her face. “Only keep him off me.”
“If you hadn’t been trying to steal my sword, he wouldn’t have jumped on you.”
I touched Sindari’s charm, tempted to do exactly what she suggested, but I didn’t need him for a hike through the woods. If we came face-to-face with undead minions—or a dragon lich—I would need him then.
“I was thinking more of Zav,” I called, though Li was speed walking away from me again, heading resolutely toward the dark, distant peak. “He knows there’s a problem here, and he’s in a meeting right now with his dragon kin about this very world. How about we go back to Earth, grab a hot apple cider, and wait to storm the tomb until after the dragons have handled the lich?”
That sounded like a reasonable request.
“We can’t,” Li said.
“Why?”
“Your trap and your tiger separated me from the belongings I brought. When I freed myself from his claws, there was no time to grab the rest of my gear. I saw you near the Zhapahai and had to act quickly.”
Quickly or impulsively? I worried where she was going with this.
“I am without the portal generator that would have allowed us to return, and the Zhapahai was also left behind.”
I stopped walking. “Meaning we’re trapped here?”
“Yes.”
I trusted Zav would realize I was missing and come to find me, but how long would that take? From what I’d seen, dragons didn’t make decisions quickly. His meeting could involve days of deliberation. And until he returned to Earth to check on me, he wouldn’t know I was missing. And even when he realized I was, would he know to check here? He hadn’t known where that box would lead. He might first spend days scouring that haunted world in search of me.
Li had not stopped walking. I was tempted to fold my arms over my chest and refuse to continue with her, but I didn’t have any supplies or gear for surviving on an alien world. She might not have her portal generator, but she had a pack that probably held food and water. I hoped. So far, I hadn’t seen any water out here, and who knew if streams on dwarven worlds were safe for humans to drink from?
She must have realized I’d stopped, for she turned to look at me. “You will not come?”
“It’s a bad idea. We should wait for the dragons.”
To my surprise, she tilted her head and seemed to consider it. “When will they come?”
“I don’t know. It might be a few days.” Or weeks. I grimaced at the idea of trying to survive off the land here for that long.
She also grimaced. “That is too long.”
“You got a hot date you need to get back for?”
“My people need me.”
“They can’t need you that badly, or you wouldn’t have quested all the way to the US—and to here—to steal my sword.”
Li hesitated. “It was at their request—at my mother’s request—that I came. I have only recently become aware of you and that you have my father’s sword. Recently, it was emitting a beacon that allowed me to sense it.”
Her and everyone else. I sighed.
“I told my mother I knew where the sword was, and she insisted that I retrieve it. I must honor her request.” Again, Li hesitated, as if reluctant to share any of this with a stranger. “I wish for my mother to see that I am successful before… She is dying.”
“Sorry,” I said automatically, though I didn’t know yet if I cared. I was stuck here because of Li.
I also didn’t trust that this wasn’t an elaborate spiel that she was making up on the fly to win my sympathy. Admittedly, I wanted that to be the case, because if she proved to me that Chopper belonged to her… what then?
21
The soreness of my feet suggested we’d walked at least ten miles before we came out of the rugged forest and onto a road built of pavers. Wide and gray and flawless, the uniformly shaped and fitted stones stretched through the trees, heading toward the black mountain that grew larger and larger as we traveled closer.