by Martha Carr
Bella nodded slowly. “For me, it’s mostly, ‘Oh, can’t that giant report you’re scribbling wait another hour, Bella Bear? Come for supper. There’s pie.’ And then my dad always wants me home to help around the property. It’s not like we have a huge ranch or anything, but—” She leaned forward to peer around the end of the porch, glanced behind them at the back door, and whispered, “I think my grandparents are starting to slow down a little, you know? And my dad doesn’t get how important it is for me to blow through Fowler Academy with flying colors and get the best mage assignment I can right out the gate. Yeah, whatever I end up doing, part of it will be to help them here. But I have to get out of here, off this little plot of land and out of Brighton. I’ve always known I was meant for bigger and better things than breaking the town record for the biggest pumpkin or whatever. You know?”
She smirked. “Are they actually trying to break that record?”
“Probably.”
The girls watched a few birds swoop into the field to pick at the food they’d found, and Raven brushed her fingers briefly against her mom’s red and silver pin on her jacket. “I think I know what you mean.”
“It probably sounds like I’m simply complaining.” Bella picked at a loose piece of chipped porch between them. “It’s not something you have to worry about, huh? You can simply hop on your dragon and fly away wherever you want.”
“Ha. Hardly.” She blew loose hairs out of her face. “I couldn’t fly Leander out here, could I?”
“Very funny.”
A little grunt issued around the corner of the porch before an older man with a full head of thick white hair appeared at the bottom of the steps. He smacked his thick work gloves against the corner of the porch as he climbed and exhaled a heavy sigh.
“Hi, Poppy.”
The man jumped and steadied himself with a hand against the wall. “Oh-ho! You got me there, girl. Good one.”
Bella’s smile was more genuine as she pushed to her feet. “You kinda stepped right into that one.”
“Well. I didn’t see your fancy flying lizard around yet, so I—”
Wesley swooped over the house roof and into view and screeched right on cue.
“And there he is.” The man chuckled and hobbled forward across the porch to wrap the girl in a huge hug, grumbling a little as he patted her back with heavy thumps. “It took you a while.”
“She was waiting for me,” Raven said and stood to join them.
“I see.” He grinned, released Bella from his hug, and extended a hand toward their visitor. “Gerald Chase. Bella’s Poppy.”
She shook his hand. “Raven Alby. Bella’s…training partner.” Her smile widened to cover her surprise. I don’t even know if she thinks we’re friends.
“Training partner, eh?” Gerald threw his head back and boomed out a laugh much stronger than his slow shuffle would suggest. “That’s a good one. It’s about time she had some friends as clever as she is. It’s good to have you here, Raven. Good to have you—ah.” The man hunched and grimaced as he pressed his hand against his lower back.
“Are you okay?” Bella stepped toward him and stretched her hand to help her grandfather.
“Yes, yes, yes. Absolutely…whew.” He looked at her and smiled as he waved her off. “There’s no need to hover. It’s not like I’m an old man who’s been out planting crops all day.”
“Uh-huh.” The girl gave him a warning look, then glanced at Raven.
“What I need now is a heaping plate of your Grams’—aha.” The back door opened again. Thomas and Betsy came out with their arms full of platters and trays and bowls. “That’s what I call good timing, eh?” He winked at the girls, and Raven crossed the porch quickly to hold the back door open.
“Look at you. Aren’t you sweet?” Betsy chuckled and nodded before she hurried toward the long table that had been set an hour before.
Gerald reached toward his wife with slightly crooked hands. “Let me help you with one of those—”
“Don’t you dare.” She lifted the dishes out of his reach and slipped smoothly around the side of the table to put them on the surface. “I have these balanced perfectly and you’ve worked enough today.”
“Come on, now. Picking up and puttin’ down a few bowls isn’t work.”
“Keep talking like that, Gerald Chase, and you can cook your own supper after you come in from the garden.”
Bella’s grandpa grabbed the back of the closest chair, leaned on it slightly, and winked at his granddaughter and her friend. “She’s been telling me that for fifty years. I know a bluff when I see one.”
“You know it’s not a bluff.” Betsy set the last bowl down and dusted her hands. “That’s the only reason you still offer to help set the table.”
Her husband gave her a sheepish smile and shrugged. “Got me.”
“Yeah, I’ve been gettin’ you for fifty years, too.” The woman smiled coyly at him, then pulled out the chair beside him and glanced around the table. “We’ve waited long enough, haven’t we?”
Everyone else took their seats, scooted their chairs in, and passed the bowls of steamed garden vegetables, spring quiche, roast chicken, and salad around. “Grown right in our own garden,” Betsy added with a nod.
“Except the chickens.” Thomas pulled a drumstick off and passed the platter to his daughter. “I swore I’d never raise animals, no matter what else I had to do, and chickens are no exception.”
Wesley swooped from the sky and landed on the porch a few feet away from the table. Bella lowered her head to hide her smile while her dad eyed the firedrake with feigned contempt. After a moment, the man tore off a chunk of chicken meat and tossed it to his daughter’s familiar. “Including that one.”
The firedrake snatched the meat out of the air and spread his wings and lowered himself toward Thomas Chase in a little bow.
When Raven burst out laughing, Bella kicked her leg gently under the table to get her attention and handed her the next dish.
Chapter Nine
“Now, the way I heard it,” Thomas said through a mouthful and waved his fork over his plate, “the two of you are heroes.”
“Dad—”
“He’s right.” Gerald thumped his fists on the table and grinned at the girls. “Our Bella, out to compete in one of the most prestigious competitions for young mages—”
“It’s the only one that size, Poppy.” Bella pushed her fork around on her plate and tried to hide a smile. “Probably the biggest competition in Lomberdoon. And I didn’t even get to compete in a match, so it’s not that big a deal.”
Raven darted her a sidelong glance and returned to her meal. She doesn’t talk like this around anyone else.
“Not that big a deal?” The old man huffed and stared around the table. “Oh, sure. I suppose Azerad would have been fine all on its own if you hadn’t gone in the first place, huh?”
Thomas took a long drink from his cup and smirked. “I should have gone to Fowler and stopped your headmaster from sending you there. Because it sure did feel like you were gone for four days—”
“Okay, fine. Maybe it’s still a big deal that I got to go.”
“Damn right it is.”
“Gerald.” Betsy raised an eyebrow at her husband, and he chuckled.
“Whoops. I must be gettin’ too old to remember all your rules, darlin’.” He smiled sweetly before he leaned over his plate to fix both girls with a wide-eyed stare. “It is definitely still a big deal.”
“And if you hadn’t gone,” his wife added, “you wouldn’t have been there to save all those people when the raiders attacked.”
“It wasn’t that many, Gram. Only three hostages. And it wasn’t all me, either.”
Thomas spread butter on another slice of bread and nodded. “That’s right. You got to ride on that little dragon too, didn’t you?”
Bella’s fork clattered onto her plate as she stared at her dad with wide eyes. Raven choked on her sip of water and covered her mouth. �
��Sorry.”
“That’s not what happened?”
She shook her head and took another sip of water to keep from choking again. “No, that’s definitely what happened. I only, um… Leander’s not really little.”
“Who’s Leander?” Betsy asked.
“The dragon, Gram.”
“Oh, yes.”
The two girls looked at each other and burst out laughing. After a moment, the dark-haired mage looked at her family and sighed. “I wouldn’t have been able to do anything if Raven wasn’t there. Or Leander. They were incredible.”
“And those raiders would’ve taken the governor’s wife right out of the city if Bella hadn’t shown up when she did,” Raven added. “It was a group effort.”
“As is anything worth taking credit for.” Gerald narrowed his eyes at the girls and nodded slowly. “And now we get to sit here having dinner with two heroes of Azerad and the entire kingdom.”
Her mouth fell open, and she turned to Bella again. The other girl wrinkled her nose. “We’re not really heroes, Poppy.”
“Sure you are. You worked hard to get into that tournament and instead of fighting a few kids who don’t have half your skills, you fought a party of raiders and brought those bastards to justice.”
“Gerald.”
“Oh, what would you have me call them, Betsy? Bad guys?”
“Scoundrels would work fine.”
“It doesn’t have nearly the same bite to it.”
Thomas laughed and took another bite of bread.
“It’s good to find someone who you know will always have your back.” Gerald stabbed his fork into his chicken and nodded. “That’s very important if you’re gonna fly around saving Lomberdoon from all manner of scoundrels, eh?”
Raven leaned back in her chair and smirked at Bella. “It’s a good thing we were stuck in a guest room together, huh?”
The girl laughed so hard, she leaned dangerously low over her plate and almost dipped her face into her food. “Not as good as when you finally let me off your dragon. You guys heard about the way Raven and Leander fly, right?”
Gerald glanced across the porch at the sky now lit up with orange and pink and yellow at sunset. “In the air, I assume.”
Betsy and Thomas laughed with him.
“Besides that.” Bella glanced at her visitor and rolled her eyes playfully. “They don’t use a saddle.”
Her dad cleared his throat. “Then what the heck do you use to steer?”
“Nothing.” Raven grinned.
“How do you…you know. Get on?”
“With a little boost.” The minute she said it, she and Bella fell into another fit of laughter. The family looked at each other across the table, and Thomas shrugged.
“Well, I tell you what, girls.” Gerald beamed at them and stabbed his fork absently over and over into what was left of his salad. “This whole kingdom should be throwing flowers and garlands and fancy little cookies at your feet for what you did in Azerad.”
“You’d better make it gold coins instead of flowers, Dad.”
“That too.”
Raven took a huge breath through her laughter. These people are great. Why is she in such a rush to get out of here?
“Don’t worry.” Bella wiped tears of laughter from the corners of her eyes and released a long sigh. “When I get my first mage assignment, I’ll come home and throw coins at you myself.”
Her dad chuckled but the humor seemed to seep out of him. “You still have time before all that, Bella. It’s best to keep your head in the now, huh?”
The easy laughter around the table died down, and while Thomas’ family watched and waited for him to say something else, the man merely took another mouthful and chewed serenely.
Betsy smiled politely and broke the silence. “So, Raven. How exactly did you manage to get a dragon as your familiar? I imagine it’s much harder than connecting with a firedrake, and Bella worked hard enough to get that one.”
“It kind of happened.” Raven shook her head. “I live near Moss Dragon Ranch. My grandpa and I are friends with the owner and his son. I stopped by one day, and there was this stubborn dragon who no one could train. His only other option was to have his wings clipped before they sent him to this valley in the mountains where all the other untrainable dragons go.” She swallowed and glanced at her plate. Leander would hate talking about this right now.
“Wings clipped?” Betsy gaped at her. “That actually happens.”
“Every once in a while, yeah. I couldn’t let that happen. Honestly, Leander didn’t want anything to do with me at first. I think the only thing that stopped him from eating me was the fact that I have magic.” The family stared at her in mute horror, and she laughed. “That was a joke. He wouldn’t have eaten me or anyone.”
Gerald chuckled.
“At first, I only wanted to help him save himself. And I wanted a dragon familiar. But I’m sure somewhere, unconsciously, I saw how alike we were and simply followed that.”
“Did he see the same in you?” Betsy asked.
“Not at first. It was so much work to get to the point where we both trusted each other.” She glanced at Bella and almost laughed again. “There was probably even one point where if someone had told me I could try a firedrake instead, I would have—”
She stopped when an unexpected image entered her mind. It was the same sunset and the same sky behind her off the Chases’ porch, only the porch and the building were gone, and around the edges were the metal walls of Leander’s pen. A cover of incoming clouds blocked most of the sky directly overhead, but through those darkening clouds, a massive shadow almost blocked out the rest of the light. It was impossible to see exactly what it belonged to, but it was larger than any dragon she’d seen, and the enormous tail that protruded through the clouds was perfectly clear—long, black, glistening with hardened scales, and lined with wickedly sharp barbs along its entire length.
Those clouds are high up. That has to be three times Leander’s size at least.
The image faded, and she realized she was staring at the outer wall of the house behind Betsy and Gerald.
“Raven?” Bella nudged her shoulder gently. “Hello?”
“What?” She blinked quickly and shook her head a little. “Sorry.”
“Are you feeling all right?” Betsy asked. “You look a little pale.”
“Really?” The young mage smiled and forced out a laugh. “I’m fine. I remembered I haven’t finished one of the essays we have due next week in class. You know—that summary of our life without magic for Professor Bixby?”
She looked at the other girl for backup, and Bella’s eyes narrowed briefly before she nodded. “Yeah. One of her more pointless assignments.”
Gerald stroked his chin with a soft hum. “You and Bella really are two peas in a pod, aren’t you?”
The girls looked at him and said at the same time, “What?”
“All the studying. Standing out in small towns and big cities. Saving the day together.” The man nodded and his smile widened again. “I’m glad you met each other.”
His granddaughter tossed her hair out of her face and darted Raven a quick glance as she leaned back in her chair and folded her arms. “We do okay.”
“I’ll second that.” She took a long drink of her water to avoid the family staring at her again. Note to self. Images from Leander make me stop mid-story.
Betsy clapped her hands and raised her eyebrows. “Who wants pie?”
“See?” Bella muttered. “Told you.”
“I will never pass up a piece of your pie, darlin’.” Gerald pushed slowly out of his chair with a little grunt. “I can help you with that, at least.”
“All right.” His wife smiled at him and headed toward the back door. “Come on, then. Thomas and our two mage heroes can help clear the table.”
Bella’s grandparents disappeared inside, and Thomas stood to quickly pile as many dishes into his arms as he could. “Do you like pie, Raven?
”
“Yeah.”
“Just you wait.” He nodded and looked way too serious for talking about pie. “Nobody makes ʼem like Betsy Chase.”
As he headed into the house, the two girls stood together to start clearing what was left on the table. “What was that about?” Bella asked.
“What?”
“You zoning out in the middle of a sentence.”
She stacked a few more plates and couldn’t bring herself to look at the other girl. I’m sure she’ll know if I’m lying. “Leander sent me another image.”
“All the way from Fowler?” Her companion froze with a plate poised over the bowl in her other arm.
“Yep. Unexpected, right? Hey, at least we know it’s impossible to talk and get messages from our familiars at the same time.”
“Right.” Bella frowned and returned to stacking dishes. “Is everything okay?”
“He’s fine. I’m fine. Only surprised, I guess.”
“Okay.” When they finished clearing the dishes, Bella led her into the kitchen and muttered, “My dad wasn’t lying about Gram’s pie, by the way.”
“Well, now I’m really excited.”
Chapter Ten
After the pie, Betsy retired to the main room of the house to work on her new needlepoint project and Thomas and Gerald headed to the shed across the property to smoke their pipes.
“That’s the only place she lets them do it,” Bella explained. The girls sat on the edge of the porch again and watched the men walk slowly across the grass. “They have a couple chairs in there and Poppy’s entire stash of special tobacco. The smoke still comes in through the windows sometimes.”
Raven laughed. “Does she get on them about it?”
“Nope. Grams merely likes to have everything in its place.” With a sigh, she tossed Wesley another piece of chicken she’d stashed from dinner. “It’s so boring.”