Kendra rolled her eyes. "Cheer up. You may not have killed dragons, but you've gotten to see dragons. And who knows, you might still get eaten by one!"
"I'm glad I've seen some," he admitted.
Kendra huffed. "Are you really glad? Truly? It freaks me out. We almost died."
"Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to pretend I wasn't freaked out too. I thought we were doomed. But if dragons weren't freaky, they'd be... disappointing."
Kendra patted his shoulder. "Don't worry. There should be plenty of freaky stuff ahead of us. We still might not even survive."
Trask decided their group had been too clustered when Glommus had attacked, so he strung them out more as they resumed their journey. He and Gavin took the lead. Mata and Tanu followed fifty yards back. Then Kendra, Seth, Mendigo, and Dougan stayed back another fifty yards at the rear.
They traveled a long distance, generally sloping upward. The ravine narrowed and widened. It became deeper and shallower. It turned several times.
Kendra scrutinized every shadow, worried about another cave or offshoot containing a hidden dragon. Up ahead, Trask and Gavin searched the walls of the ravine high and low with bright flashlights. Kendra stayed ready for disaster to strike at any step. She knew that any minute Trask and Gavin could be engulfed in a fiery inferno.
She tried to guess what the final guardian might be. Another dragon? A giant? A huge demon like Bahumat?
Some more deadly creature they had never heard of? The possibilities were endless.
When they rounded another corner, steps became visible up ahead. The beige stone stairs reached from one side of the ravine to the other, leading up to a pillared structure. Bronze statues of dragons flanked the top of the steps. The massive building had no front wall, and was plenty large enough to accommodate dragons or giants.
Trask and Gavin waited for the others to catch up just short of the wide stairway. "Looks like we've reached the temple proper," Trask said. "Gavin has volunteered to scout ahead. We're assuming the third guardian awaits us inside."
"He's scouting alone?" Kendra asked.
"I'll follow twenty yards back," Trask said. "I'll keep him covered with my crossbow. Tanu, trail along behind me. The rest of you hang back and await my signal."
Kendra watched Gavin mount the steps and disappear into the gloomy building. Trask was halfway up the steps when Gavin came running back out, waving Trask away. Gavin raced down the stairs two at a time and sprinted toward Kendra. She involuntarily drew back as he came into the light of the nearest glowing stone. His skin had taken on a bluish cast, almost black around the neck and lips. He gazed at her with horribly bloodshot eyes. "The horn," he murmured, collapsing.
"He's poisoned," Seth realized, diving into the knapsack.
Kendra could have hugged her brother for moving so quickly. Sitting beside Gavin, she took his hand to console him. It felt cold. Black eyelids had hooded his eyes. A
buttery discharge leaked from below the closed lids like gooey tears. He began to quiver and twitch. His veins were becoming increasingly visible, black lines beneath his blue, clammy skin.
Tanu knelt beside the knapsack, his head and one arm inside the storage room. She heard him call, "Throw it!" A moment later the Samoan was approaching with the unicorn horn in his fist. He touched the tip of the horn to Gavin's blue-black throat and held it there.
The convulsions stopped instantly. The black veins faded and the blue hues drained from his skin. Gavin coughed and opened his eyes, a sweaty hand closing around the horn. "That was close," he breathed.
"Is he all right?" Trask asked.
"The horn purifies," Tanu said. "If it was poison, he should be fine."
"I'm great," Gavin said, sitting up. "It was p-p-poison. We're in serious trouble."
"What did you see?" Trask asked.
"Not much. I barely glimpsed her. I didn't speak with her. Didn't have time. The poison hit hard and moved fast. But I didn't need a conversation to know who she was. The third guardian is Siletta."
"The poison dragon," Tanu groaned.
Gavin nodded. "She didn't breathe on me or anything. The whole atmosphere in there is tainted."
"I've never heard of a poison dragon," Trask said.
"Many thought she was just a legend," Tanu explained.
"Or if not, long dead. Dark potion makers fantasize about her. She is utterly unique."
"Poison to the cote," Gavin said. "I once spoke to a dragon who knew her anciently. Her breath, her flesh, her blood, her tears, her excretions, everything is deadly poison. You saw how I looked? That was simply from being in the same room with her. Everyone should touch the horn. Even out here we may be getting exposed."
They all crowded together to place a hand on the horn.
"What do we do?" Tanu asked.
Gavin laughed grimly. "We give up. There is no way past Siletta. I couldn't conceive of a better guardian. Even if you held the horn to protect yourself from the poison in the air, she's still a dragon, with teeth and claws and a majestic aura of terror. She saw me. She's ready for us. Besides, who knows how long the unicorn horn would protect you? All magical items have limitations. Siletta is a living fountainhead of the most potent venoms ever known."
"We're pinned between a hydra and a poison dragon," Dougan muttered.
"We need to figure this out," Trask said. "She could emerge at any moment."
"I'll take care of her," Seth said.
"Don't be ridiculous," Tanu replied.
Seth scowled at the dismissal. "I'm not. I have a plan. I'll need Kendra."
"What do you mean?" Trask asked.
"We won't use the horn just to keep us alive while we fight Siletta," Seth said. "We'll use the horn to kill Siletta."
"How so?" Kendra asked.
"When Graulas was helping me get the horn, I suspected that he wanted it for himself. But then he told me that his diseases had become so much a part of him that curing them would probably kill him. If this dragon has poison blood and poison flesh, wouldn't the horn kill her?"
"Maybe," Gavin said thoughtfully. "But I doubt the horn contains enough energy to counteract so much poison. Unicorns possess tremendous purity, but we have no unicorn, just an old horn. You'd be pitting the power of a discarded horn against a live dragon."
"We have Kendra," Seth argued. "She's like a battery full of magical energy. If she holds the horn, she'll keep it charged. And of course I'll have to go with her or the dragon terror will freeze her."