Genesis (Cain and Abel #1)

Chapter Twenty

The travelers moved with tremendous speed toward Eden. Abel carried Ruth first, but they soon found they made the best time when the brothers traded off ever couple of hours. There was very little talking between them, because the wind whipped away their words. Ruth's presence did limit their speed somewhat, because she was bulky to carry, because they couldn't go at full speed without harming her, and because they needed to stop to feed her and let her rest more often than they would have found necessary alone.

Food was plentiful, but time was scarce. Abel and Cain agreed that it would be best if they fed the night before confronting Amos, so they could be at full strength. They mainly dealt with Ruth's needs by slaying a wolf the first night and smoking its meat into dried strips, which Ruth could nibble on as need be.

Traveling in this way, the three of them arrived at their destination in only four nights.

"Are you sure this is right?" Cain asked doubtfully, looking around him as Abel motioned him to a stop. "I thought you said Eden was supposed to be tropical."

"Maybe it is, inside," Abel said hopefully. Scotia was certainly not proving tropical thus far. Mainly, with winter coming on, what it was was rainy. And the further west they went, the rainier it got. It was cold rain, too, although not freezing, and they'd had quite the time finding shelter and building a fire for Ruth as each day approached. But the stars had been insistent, and had led them to their current position: in a ravine, looking up at a towring cliff face. "Come on; the entrance has to be somewhere near here."

It didn't take them long to find it: a narrow break where this cliff met the next, its entrance a triangular crack at its base. It was far too small for a dragon to pass through without transforming-a safeguard, no doubt-and guarding it stood a vampire.

The vampire had been plucked from his humanity in the prime of his life. He was a man of tremendous size, heavily muscled and strongly jawed, with a wide, flat nose and piercing eyes. In his hands he held a great sword a full six feet long, its edges razor sharp and made of a material none of the travelers had ever seen before: the color of silver but clearly far stronger, and with an internal fire that gleamed under the midnight sky. This was a fire vampire, the only other one in existence, and far older and more powerful than the travelers could know.

The guardian's eyes turned upon them, accessing them. "Turn away, vampires," he said; "you are not welcome here. Human woman, take your child and go. There is no safety here any longer."

The three of them exchanged glances, and Ruth tapped Cain to let her down. She stood before the guardian and stuck her hands on her hips. "Young man," she said in her most matronly voice, "this is no time for fussing. Don't you know there's an ice dragon in there set on destroying the world? If there's anyone you should have stopped with your fancy weapon, it's he!"

The guardian blinked at her. Apparently, no one had ever spoken to him this way before-or not in thousands of years. "A dragon did pass this way," he admitted, "but one who grew up in these parts, and the last of his kind. I don't see what harm he could do."

"He's looking for the Fountain of Eternal Fire," Abel said. "Heard of it?"

"Why yes," said the guardian. "He asked me where it was. He has a perfect right to know, of course, being the last dragon, so I told him. Why? Is there a problem with that?"

The three travelers made it known to him with many emphatic words and gestures that yes, there was a problem with that, and what it was.

"Oh," the guardian said foolishly. "Oh. Then it's a good thing you three are going to stop him. I'd help you, only I can't leave my post. Wait! Here's an idea. Which of you is the finest fighter?"