by Laurie McKay
“Of course,” Caden said. He and the others trudged inside.
Manglor continued to teach Caden, Ward, and Tonya. In gym, Jasan remained pale. It seemed he would remain anemic and in need of regular blood transfusions. Despite that, Jasan worked the class harder than ever.
Derek raised his hand. “Isn’t this a little overboard, Mr. Prince?”
Jasan’s lack of blood made him even more irritable. “Start running,” he said.
Stout Mrs. Grady had survived the forest, and survived Mrs. Belle too, apparently. Caden kept his promise to her. She taught like normal. Their first day back she gave them a pop quiz. At lunch, she stepped behind the serving line instead of going to sit at the teachers’ table. It seemed she had new duties.
Ms. Jackson hadn’t disappeared like Rath Dunn. She was a fugitive. There was a video of her escaping from the jail by using her cursed ladle to knock the lock open. There had been sightings of her around town; so as far as Caden knew, Ms. Primrose hadn’t eaten her. Truly, she was treacherous. Caden had started to wonder just how old and how powerful she was if she’d managed to avoid a dragon.
Tito returned from the serving line and plopped down a tray with turkey, mashed sweet potatoes, and mushed-looking banana-something he called pudding. Jane placed her tray down and sat beside him. The food didn’t appear as sophisticated as Ms. Jackson’s or Rath Dunn’s menus.
Tito shoved it into his mouth. “I gotta say,” he said. “The food isn’t as fancy, but it tastes pretty darn good. Evil math people just know how to cook.”
With Ms. Jackson gone, Jane also ate from her tray. “It’s good,” she said. The frames of her glasses shimmered with enchantment, and Jane’s vision was outstanding with them on now, but Caden was far from surprised.
Brynne stole bites from both when they weren’t looking.
Caden wouldn’t eat lunch made by any villain. That didn’t mean he didn’t have food. When Rosa learned he refused to eat the cafeteria food, she started packing him lunch. He had organic granola, an apple—the apple he’d save for Sir Horace—and vegetable tacos. He arranged it all neatly in front of him. Brynne eyed his broccoli taco, and Caden knew he would need to guard it well.
As Caden arranged the granola next to the taco, Brynne, Tito, and Jane shared furtive glances. Caden expected commentary about his food choices and arrangement, but when they said nothing, he grew suspicious. His friends were good people. But they liked to tease him about his manners.
Maybe Rath Dunn had returned. “What has happened?”
“Nothing bad,” Jane said.
Nothing bad was still something. “Tell me,” Caden said.
Tito shrugged and looked at the others. “He’ll find out soon enough.”
From the sound of that, Caden wasn’t sure he’d like whatever this “nothing bad” was.
“Don’t look so suspicious, prince,” Brynne said. “During honors English Ms. Primrose called us to her office.” She smiled her dazzling smile. “And gave us each a reward.”
“I see,” Caden said. He crossed his arms and frowned. “She gave me no reward.”
“Yeah,” Tito said. “That’s why we didn’t want to tell you.”
They were silent again. It seemed Caden had to ask. “What did she give you?”
“She gave me the blood dagger.”
Caden was taken back. “Brynne,” he said, “that’s an evil blade.”
“But one with a strong enchantment that can be smashed and used to contact my parents.”
Oh. Then Caden was okay with that. It was a nice reward.
The frames of Jane’s glasses twinkled. She smiled. “And she gave me something called a Korvan battle staff.”
Another good reward. Korvan battle staffs were good weapons. However, they had a metal core. If such a staff wasn’t an enchantment temptation, Caden didn’t know what was. He and Brynne exchanged a knowing glance.
Tito still hadn’t answered.
“What did she give you, Sir Tito?” Caden said.
He scrunched up his nose. “I don’t want you to get upset.”
“I won’t,” Caden said.
Tito stuffed banana mush into his mouth. “A sword,” he mumbled.
Wait? What? “A sword?” Caden was feeling a bit outraged. Not that his brave and noble friend didn’t deserve a sword. However. “I need a sword.”
Tito swallowed his food. “Yeah, that’s why I didn’t want to tell you.”
Brynne seemed amused. “It’s a fine elvish weapon with a diamond-encrusted hilt and a blade that shines with sharpness oil.”
This was all very unfair.
Tito shrugged. “We can’t pick our stuff up until after school, though.” He pointed his fork at Caden. “Bro, don’t look like that. I mean, I’d rather have a book.” Tito flattened his potatoes with his fork. “And I’ll let you practice with it.”
Caden had given up his dream. He’d made an unbreakable vow in a forgotten tongue not to become the Elite Paladin he’d always wanted to be. However, just because Caden had to serve a dragon didn’t mean he couldn’t use a sword. Matter of point, he’d likely need one. Caden couldn’t help but feel irritated, a bit empty, and a bit sad.
That’s when the speaker in the lunchroom crackled to life. Mr. Creedly’s voice hissed out. “Attention, students.” He was back to work. Actually, Ms. Primrose had decided to let him be vice principal and secretary. Mrs. Belle was back to teaching science, too. It was hard to look at her nails without imagining her spiderlike form, but Caden was trying. While she wasn’t an ally, she wasn’t an enemy either. “Caden Prince,” Mr. Creedly hissed. “Report to the principal’s office.”
Ms. Primrose had redecorated her office. She’d painted the walls a silvery gray. Behind her, he noticed a cage, but he couldn’t tell what was in it. She’d replaced Rath Dunn’s books with bowls filled with her beads and rocks. Although, there weren’t as many as Caden expected. He mentioned this to her.
“The rest are at my home.”
Caden peered at her. “You mean the town house?”
“You did give it to me, dear.”
So it seemed Jasan had yet to get his dragony roommate to leave. “Yes, ma’am. I did.” He stood straighter. “I’m staying with Jasan this weekend.”
“Well, that’s bothersome,” she said. “Make sure not to move my things.”
Caden knew not to mess with her baubles. “I will treat them with the utmost respect.” He nodded to the cage. “What’s that?”
She ignored him. Instead, she tutted around her desk, rearranged some buttons so they were lined up in a row. “You ask a lot of questions for one who has vowed to serve me.” She huffed like his questions and his service were quite the annoyance. “But that was the pact.” She picked up a dented bead and admired it. “And we are both so bound.”
Caden was bound to the service of a dragon. Not to the king. Since the pact, he’d felt a strange grief and sadness creep through him. He wouldn’t be an Elite Paladin like his brothers and father. It wasn’t fair, but he’d chosen his path.
However, as he stood before Ms. Primrose, mighty and powerful Elderdragon, a new worry turned his stomach. He crossed and uncrossed his arms. She was a dragon. He’d seen her in her full form. What if she wanted him to do something against his moral code?
When trying to save the city and stop the villains, it was possible Caden hadn’t thought out the ramifications of a pact with her. “I hope,” he said, “I can act honorably in my service to you.” He cleared his throat. “And you will only give me honorable things to do.”
It was possible his words offended her. “Don’t I always follow my rules?”
“I won’t help you eat anyone. Even if he or she is evil.”
“That’s not for you to decide, is it?” She tapped her gnarled hand on her desk. “Now stop. You’ll make me hungry with all this talk of food.” As she finished, a small burp escaped her lips. “And I’ve eaten enough as of late.”
So that’s whe
re the missing teachers went. He raised his chin. “As you are now the Silver Elderdragon, I’d hoped you’d stopped eating people.”
“I still must eat, dear.” She considered him. “So you like me better like this, as only the Silver aspect of myself.”
“I respect all your aspects,” Caden said. “I’m less afraid of this one, that’s all.”
“Comments like those are why you charm me.”
“Ms. Primrose,” Caden said, respectfully, “there is something I’ve always wondered.”
Her hair was silver, her pale-blue eyes had silver specks. She sighed. “What is it, dear?”
“Why is your lair and your school in Asheville?”
She peered at him. “Why do you want to know?”
Truly, Caden had no good reason. “I’m curious.”
She tutted and sighed again. Then she seemed to come to a decision. “Well,” she said, “I suppose curiosity is in your nature.”
“It’s a good quality.”
“Don’t be immodest, dear; it’s unbecoming,” she said.
Caden waited.
She leaned back in her chair. “If you really want to know, I was brought to this land for the same reason as you.”
Caden didn’t understand. “You are very old and have been here many, many years.” He felt his brow furrow. “I was brought here by mistake but eight months ago, by a mix-up in the words of a spell.” The lunch witches had brought Caden to Asheville when they had meant to bring his brother. “I don’t see how it is possible that you and I are here for the same reason.”
“If you don’t understand, it’s not my problem.”
She ran the school. She made him attend. If he didn’t understand, it was her problem. Caden straightened his posture. “As you are an educator,” he said, “isn’t it your responsibility to help me understand when I’m trying so hard to do so?”
She blinked at him. “You were brought here by imprecise words and magic without thorough thought. The same is true for me.”
“I don’t understand,” Caden said. “Explain.”
She raised her brow. Her scales shimmered. For a fleeting moment, Caden thought he saw one lone blue scale among the silver.
“I mean, please explain, ma’am,” he said.
After a moment, she spoke. “Long ago, after the other Elderkind went to their various fates, I made an agreement with the Council of the Seasons.” Caden had heard of the once-great Council of the Seasons. It was an ancient governing body of the Greater Realm. The Greater Realm Council was patterned after it.
“I agreed to leave them to their own devices. But a dragon still must eat. In return, they agreed to send me the convicted and banished as food and entertainment. I’m generous, though. I don’t need to eat all the time. Those who serve me well, who please me, I let live.”
“Perhaps you should consider becoming an Ashevillian vegetarian and eat no one?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, dear.”
She dropped a treat into the cage beside her desk, then turned back to Caden. “Powerful magic often has incantations. They were supposed to say ‘To appease the hunger of the Elderdragon, to fulfill our pact, so we don’t suffer the fires and go to ashes, villains we send them, to her.’”
“That’s not how it sounds in the Common Tongue.”
“No, it sounds something like ‘to Ashe-villains we send them.’” She waved her hand dismissively. “I had to follow my food. At first, there was nothing here but mountains. I collected my rocks, ate whoever came. I wasn’t surprised at all, however, when the city was built up in the valley and was named as it was.”
“They sent the villains here before the town was founded?”
“Magic doesn’t care much for time,” she said. “It got boring, though. So I founded the school.” Perhaps Caden looked perplexed, for she added, “I am, at the core, an educator.”
“And you were brought here by mistake.”
“Many things in all realms, good and bad, lucky and not, start as mistakes.”
“Then why make yourself follow your rules? Why not only follow them when you’d like.”
“My rules are for balance.” She was getting a bit huffy. “They moderate the different aspects of my being.”
“But now you’re all Silver,” Caden said.
“Am I?” Ms. Primrose said. “Are all Jane’s tears dry? Does Brynne have no more hair? And Jasan? Does blood still flow in his veins?”
“I see,” Caden said.
Something squealed in the cage. Caden’s gaze wandered back to it again. She stood and motioned him to look. “The new school mascot.”
He moved closer. Inside, he saw a red guinea pig. It had one blue eye, one brown. There was a bald spot atop its head; one leg was charred. Toys and exercise wheels filled the cage. For a guinea pig, it had a nice home. Caden placed his hand on the bars. He slid his gaze to her. “Is that— Ow!” Caden pulled his finger back. The guinea pig bit him.
“It’s in his nature to bite,” she said, like she was fond of it. “An interesting animal, indeed.” And it reminded Caden of how she often viewed Rath Dunn. He peered at it. Was it Rath Dunn?
Ms. Primrose snapped to get his attention. “Enough chitchat. Since you serve me, you’ll need to learn when not to talk, too. Now for why I summoned you.” She cocked her head. “You gave me back what was lost as you promised. You spoke the forgotten tongue without me prompting you. You’ve pleased me, and I always reward those who do.”
Caden straightened his posture. He sucked in a breath. She was going to give him a reward. Her past rewards had been poor at best. But she’d given Brynne, Tito, and Jane good rewards today. And Caden really wanted a sword. A sword like Tito described would be perfect. Lots of non-Elite Paladins carried swords. But best he flatter her some more so she was in as good a mood as possible. “You are indeed gracious.”
“I am,” she agreed. “I’m glad you understand.”
“I do,” Caden said. He knew he shouldn’t get his hopes up. But what better reward for him than a fine sword with a sharp blade. “What is it?”
“I’ll send you home to your family, to your father. Just until lunch is over. I expect you back for your science class.”
Wait? What? “You can just send me home?” He felt his brow crease. “And then bring me back?”
“I’m an Elderdragon, dear.” She seemed to be getting irritated with him. “I’m great and powerful. But it’s not something I do on a lark. Nor is it easy. Don’t expect it again.”
“But it’s something you can do?”
“If I feel like it.” She reached out her gnarled hand and placed her fingertips on his forehead. “This may sting.”
“Wait,” Caden said. “Jasan should come with me.”
She narrowed her eyes. “That’s not your choice. Besides, I offered to send him home for good so I wouldn’t have to share my town house. He declined. Maybe I’ll turn him into a falcon again tonight.”
Before Caden could make sense of that, or ask why she couldn’t just get her own town house, he felt a pinch. The office faded away. He found himself in the octagonal room. The mirror across from the door was still broken.
There were three other people there. Their backs were turned, but Caden knew them at once. On the left stood first-born Valon. He was bandaged and held a crutch, but he was alive. On the right stood third-born Lucian. His battle daggers were strapped to his leg. The king stood in the middle. They were discussing Crimsen and how to defend the border.
“They will regroup. Maden and Martin will fight with them against us.”
Caden stared for a moment. But only a moment. His time was short. Science class would soon start, and he would fade from this room. “Father?” Caden said.
Valon, Lucian, and King Axel turned around. They looked shocked.
“Caden?” King Axel said.
“I can’t stay long,” Caden said. He needed to explain things fast. “Ms. Primrose, she’s an Elderdragon, and—” His voice cr
acked. It was difficult not to get emotional seeing his brothers Valon and Lucian alive, seeing his father after so many eventful months. He took a deep breath. Best he say what was important while he had some composure. “I’ve missed you,” Caden forced out.
The king’s chin trembled. He strode up to him and put his hands on Caden’s shoulders. “And you have been missed,” the king said. Then, for the third time in Caden’s life, his father hugged him.
I truly appreciate all the support my agent, David, and my editor, Jocelyn, gave me as I wrote this book. I’d also like to thank Eric Deschamps for the wonderful artwork. And, of course, I am grateful to HarperCollins for publishing my series!
I also have to thank my friends and family—my mom, Pat; my sister, Sarah; my brother, Orren; my nieces and nephew, Clara, Marie, and Edward; my brother-in-law, Stephen; all the wonderful Balls, especially Sandy and Donny, Jenn and Andrew, and Terri and Donald; Sandra; my friends Kat, Joe, LauraMac, Lorrie, Krista, Christine, Amy, Adrienne, and Janie. They’ve all supported me even when I was a little bit overwhelmed with everything.
Also, I’ve met many wonderful people since being published: writers, booksellers, librarians, readers. It’s been a great experience. I feel like I’ve made friends. And I’m very grateful for that.
So to my family, and to my friends old and new, I’d just like to express a heartfelt and warm thank you.
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About the Author
Photo by Sarah Ball
LAURIE McKAY is the author of the Last Dragon Charmer series. She lives in Durham, North Carolina, with her family and her two dogs. Follow her on Twitter @McKayLL and visit her online at www.lauriemckay.net.
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Books by Laurie McKay
The Last Dragon Charmer Series
Villain Keeper
Quest Maker
Credits
Cover art © 2017 by Eric Deschamps
Cover design by Bob Steimle