Blaze of Magic

by J. A. Culican

  "I know," she said, trying not to let her anxiety show in her voice, "but I didn't have anything else to do. So, what kept you? Am I allowed to ask that?"

  All he could muster was a short chuckle. Even his shoulders slumped a little from exhaustion. It made her think that being the second most powerful person on the planet might not be all it was cracked up to be.

  He said, "First, we had to compare notes between our personal observations, conversations, and anything we overheard. The chief of security took careful notes and had a lot to add, too. Then we talked about how to avoid the problems that we found or to improve this and that. I'll admit, there was a lot of discussion about what to do with the mirror. Tallon showed up with his own ideas, and I thought they were stupid, but my father was patient with him. More patient than I would have been."

  They reached the top of the hill, but before they headed to the house, Bells stopped and looked up at the stars. She knew how hungry and tired he was, but if her suspicions were correct, it couldn't wait. She didn't want to have this conversation inside where someone might overhear, and it was the only thing she could think to do to delay him.

  "The stars are nice, but I'm tired. I'll have to ask you to take a rain check on the stargazing," he said, foiling her plan. Before he could turn away, she stepped up next to him and slid her arms around his waist, looking up at him.

  He said, "I guess sleep can wait a few more minutes." Even his smile looked tired.

  Bells said, "Good. Actually, there's something I need to talk to you about. If anyone can tell me what to do with this, it's you. Not that you get to tell me what to do, mister," she smiled, but he didn't smile back and only waited patiently for her to continue.

  She swallowed hard, gulping, then took a deep breath. "Okay, here it is. The short version is, I don't think Tallon is a loyalist at all. I just have this conviction that he's working with Darren, taking advantage of your father's trust."

  "Whoa. Slow those horses, Bells. You honestly believe that there's some kind of conspiracy going on in the Crown? Other than the usual games and manipulations?"

  She bit her lip and nodded. "Basically, yes. I don't think he has society's best interests in his heart. I don't think he has anything in his heart but darkness, and the darkness can't exist where there is light."

  He closed his eyes and breathed out slowly through his nose, then his eyes clicked open again. "As your friend, I feel like I should be able to tell you that you've lost your damn mind." He smiled, but when she didn't smile back, his vanished. "Look, I may not like them all, but I believe that every single one of them has society's best interests uppermost in their minds. Even Darren, in his own dysfunctional way, is loyal to his kind if not to Mikah."

  "Okay," she said, her voice trailing off as she thought about what he said. "I guess that makes sense. Certainly, the Council has been a system that works for thousands of years, right?"

  "Yes, and it has been stable for at least the last couple thousand."

  That certainly explained why Jaekob was so inflexible about the subject, but it didn't mean he was right. She steeled herself for what she had to say. He would believe her or not, but at least she had to try. "The thing is, I disagree. I don't believe that every single one of them has all society's best intentions in mind, and I don't think they all define society the same way you do."

  Jaekob shook his head, irritation shining through his fatigue. "That's ridiculous. Dragons are at the top of everything we want to be. I seriously doubt Tallon wants to bow and scrape to an elf."

  "No, of course not. I don't think that. But I've seen his aura, and I've seen his behavior. Maybe I'm only seeing it clearly because I'm an outsider and I don't have any history with him, but the only person he seems to have any support for is Darren."

  "He was only respecting Darren's rank and title, as he should. As I did, and as my father did. Dragons don't see other dragons, nor even other Pures, as being in any way less than themselves. Our leaders might rule the other dragons from the top down rather than from the bottom up like many of the human nations pretended to, but that has always been a matter of survival and efficiency. Dragons are powerful beings, but few in number and scattered. We didn't have the luxury of looking down on other races, and we sure didn't have the luxury of playing political games that might cost all dragons—including the Council. It's the same on the Crown of Pures, especially for the elf king's personal envoy."

  He was being so deliberately stubborn that it was almost painful. She had to bite her tongue not to reply without thinking first. She shrugged and said, "You know dragons better than I do. And maybe dragons once viewed things that way, and maybe I'm wrong and they still do, but from what I've seen... That's just not the case. They do look down on other Pures, and I've heard them talking amongst themselves when they didn't think anyone could overhear them."

  "I find that hard to believe. Now, can we get back to the house? I'm hungry, I'm tired, and I'm sure we can talk about this tomorrow."

  "I can't make you believe what my gut is telling me, but the other Pures don't all see each other as equals, right? Elves think fae are little better than humans, and the Pures completely drove humans from the city—and really, from the planet."

  Jaekob took a deep breath and let it out quickly through his nose. He said, "Maybe, but none of them are dragons. It doesn't apply."

  She looked up into his eyes without blinking, silently pleading for him to take her seriously. "Is it so hard to believe I might be right? Follow Tallon, please. Find out what he's up to and who he meets with. My gut says you're going to be very surprised by the result," she said, but to take the sting out of it, she added, "I'll bet you three back rubs I'm right, but either way, I'm going to prove one of us right. I'd love for you to come along and help me do that. If you're that convinced I'm wrong, what's the harm?"

  He looked up at the stars, and as he took a long breath, he brought his arms up to rest them on her shoulders, his fingers entwining with her hair at the back of her head. When he looked at her again, he seemed earnest. "I wish you would just trust me about this. Tallon is no traitor, and Darren is no real threat. Please, just let it go."

  "Why? You ask me to just trust you and do as you ask, but you won't do the same for me.”

  "You can't just sneak around following one of the most important people in the world, and you sure can't do it by yourself without something really bad happening. That's why I'm asking you not to go. Plus, finding me with you when he caught you might make an actual enemy where there was none before."

  "Fine," she said, looking into his beautiful eyes. It would've been nice if they could stand there like that forever, but she had work to do. "Well, I just had to tell you. Anyway, I know you're hungry, so let's go get something to eat."

  She had already eaten, but Chef would probably know where Tallon stayed when he was in the city, or he would know who to ask. He did seem to know everything about everyone.

  Bells crouched on a rooftop, her heels and thighs aching from maintaining the position for so long, and watched the tavern across the street. She had followed Tallon for an hour, but so far had learned nothing new. Tallon visited a couple shops in the market plaza before heading to the tavern, but the only purchases she saw him make were a light meal and a human-made disposable lighter.

  She carefully went prone, lying on her stomach to give her limbs a chance to stop cramping, and rested her chin on her arms atop the roof's peak.

  After fifteen minutes of chatting with people at the bar and buying drinks, Tallon settled into a booth seat that didn't give her the best view of him, but it was good enough to see him if he got up, or anyone who sat with him.

  She muttered, "What do you think, Sword, are we going to catch him in the act?"

  The sword never answered her questions directly, at least not using pictures like she had told Jaekob. That was merely the easiest way to explain it. She often tried to think of better ways to explain how the sword communicated, but she lack
ed the words. It connected with her mind on a deep level—somewhere instinctive, even primal—sending her what felt like flashes of intuition.

  Maybe it tapped directly into her subconscious. She tried not to think about the time Jaekob said he worried about how it was affecting her mind. Talking to her subconscious could certainly do that, though it was only one possibility. However it spoke to her, it only answered her question one way in all the times she had asked. While it acknowledged that Tallon didn't tell the whole truth to the Crown of Pures and had left something important out, the sword stopped short of agreeing that Tallon was a traitor. That bit of intuition was entirely her own.

  So, why was she risking her safety on some high roof while chasing a powerful elf through the city at night when weres were out? Ultimately, she trusted her gut when it spoke to her strongly. If she was wrong, it only cost her a night of sleep, but if she was right...

  A familiar tingle started at the back of her mind—her rider bond with Jaekob. "So, he's following me like I'm following Tallon. Bah. He's not very good at this."

  She rolled over onto her back, reeled her fae senses in from the beam she had kept on Tallon for the last half-hour, then pushed them outward in every direction. Experience told her that when their minds connected like this, it meant Jaekob was in range of her senses.

  Sure enough, she found him heading in her direction, creeping down a nearby alley. Once again, she wondered how he found her. Their rider bond probably told him what direction she was in or something. She had already come to accept the idea that he could find her anytime he wanted to. Apparently, this was one of those times.

  She refocused her senses on Tallon. She could probably dodge Jaekob by using her shadow walking abilities, but she didn't bother. He would find her again, but at least he would see it with his own eyes when Tallon slipped up. Bells felt certain that was going to happen soon.

  A woman appeared out of nowhere in Tallon's booth, and Bells gasped. That was impossible. She would never miss someone walking up to the booth and sitting down. The woman must have used magic. Unlike Bells, Tallon didn't jump at all when the woman appeared, and his body language showed he was comfortable, even relaxed, as he and the woman chatted. Although his mouth was moving, she couldn't hear what he said. Oh! Right, she had her senses pulled back to help her to find Jaekob. Frustrated, she hurled the tightest beam she could create at the booth occupants.

  The woman with him was no dragon—Tallon was meeting with an elf. The knot in Bells' gut immediately settled down. This was it...

  Bells never understood how her intuition often made her aware of things to come, but she trusted it more than she trusted most people. Her instincts didn't let her down. She paused for a moment of confusion, though, when her fae senses didn't bring her any other information. She should be hearing their conversation, but the only thing it had told her was that the woman was an elf.

  More magic? Bells growled in frustration, but there was nothing she could do against that kind of spell, not before they both left the tavern.

  She didn't have to wait long before the elf woman and Tallon stood at the same time. He threw something down on the table and then they headed for the exit together.

  Bells frantically scrambled to get off the roof before they came out the door, succeeding by only a couple of seconds. Her fae shadow abilities would probably have kept her prey from spotting her, but with magic involved, she took no chances.

  Tallon and the woman came out the door onto the street, then turned north.

  Bells grinned, realizing she would have plenty of time to get Jaekob.

  Bells found Jaekob easily, despite him doing his best "I'm really a trash dumpster" impression. When she stepped in front of his hiding spot and looked right at him, he growled and muttered something under his breath. It was probably for the best that her enhanced senses were busy elsewhere at the moment.

  That thought made her grin and after second, he grinned back. "How did you find me?"

  "You know very well. You may have a better grip on the weird bond we got when I rode you—"

  "Twice," he said with a wink.

  "What?"

  "You rode me twice. You're probably the only person alive to ride a dragon twice. I suppose you should feel honored, right?" He smiled again

  Bells rolled her eyes but couldn't help smiling back at his cocky, mischievous face. "Great. You know how to count, and I am totally honored you did it for me."

  "You should be."

  "Can we celebrate later, though? Tallon just left the tavern, and while he came alone, he left with an elf woman who just suddenly appeared next to him in the bar. Magic, I assume."

  "That's a safe assumption. Lead on, little fae, but please try to stay as far away as you can without losing track. If the woman has magic, she's a wildcard, so play it safe."

  "Always," Bells replied, and then she headed down the alley, moving parallel to Tallon. Even though Jaekob followed her from as far back as he could manage, Bells didn't need any extraordinary senses to hear his heavy steps in the alley. He was quiet enough, for a dragon, but he was a big man. She thought it was unlikely the target would hear him, though, so long as the behemoth didn't knock over a trashcan or something.

  Block after block, she followed Tallon north through the city. He skirted the main market plaza, so Bells had to take a wide berth as she followed. Once beyond the open market area, her target turned left, then right. Right again. Left. He never traveled on the same street in the same direction for more than two blocks in a row, but his many turns never took him far off track as he continued heading north.

  They traveled at least a mile that way—as the crow flies—and Bells felt her exhaustion coming back fast. She hadn't really caught up on sleep or recovered from the ordeal of retrieving the mirror, so she wasn't operating at peak level.

  Her thoughts were focused on her exhaustion, not on her prey, when she suddenly realized she could no longer see him. She closed her eyes and pushed at her senses, forcing the tightly focused beam out even farther. Nothing. Only when she swept it back and forth did she catch a fleeting impression of Tallon and the elf inside a rather nice house up ahead. She let her enhanced fae senses dwindle to near zero and felt a bit more spring in her step, a little more energy. Fae abilities were useful but impossible to keep up forever.

  As she waited for Jaekob to catch up, she tried desperately not to fidget or pace or do some other stupid thing to give away her hiding spot. He really needed to hurry up so they could go catch that traitor doing something treasonous.

  Jaekob appeared, scurrying around a bush, and crouched beside her. He whispered, "Wow. For a farmer, you sure are high-strung. You need to relax a little." His eyes sparkled with mischief.

  Bells made sure he could see her as she rolled her eyes in response. Then she said, "Okay, I'm going to send my fae senses out and try to find their exact location. Hopefully, I'll be able to figure out what they're up to."

  She closed her eyes and imagined all six senses spreading outward from her in a cone, rolling over the house and seeping inside, seeking her prey. Nothing. She sensed the house itself, but no people inside. Actually, she didn't sense the inside, either.

  Her chest rumbled as she growled, "They have some way of blocking my senses. More magic. I can't hear or see or even feel anything on the inside. Not even the inside itself."

  Jaekob pursed his lips, drawing them to one side. "Well, that's probably a sign that we shouldn't be doing this. A big, neon sign that says to go home and leave him alone with his elf... Whatever she is. Hey, I don't judge. That's his business."

  Bells was once again a little startled at the differences between dragon and fae cultures. Dragons had no modesty by fae standards, but he respected her views if she took the time to make him aware of them.

  She said, "I can't see or hear inside the house. Can you see anything inside with those telescopic eyes of yours?"

  He looked at the house for a few seconds, then shook his h
ead. "No, there aren't any openings big enough to see through, even with dragon eyes. I'll go sneak down the embankment and crawl up to the house. If I see anything, I'll let you know," he said, tapping his temple with a finger.

  "Hold on," Bells replied, grinning. Dragons had telescopic eyes, but she had other talents to make up for it.

  She opened her small belt bag and pulled out several seeds. Spreading them on her palm, she fished through them before picking a small brown seed and returning the rest back into the bag. "This seed grows a vine, and you should see how fast it goes with a little nudge. This kind of vine loves showing off its blossoms, and it puts out trumpet flowers. I can ask it to grow into the house and then we'll hear what's going on inside, no matter what kind of magic they put up to stop eavesdroppers like us."

  Jaekob raised both eyebrows and his eyes went wide. "That's creative. And a little scary. Do me a favor, would you? Don't ever give me a plant as a gift," he said, and Bells wasn't completely sure he was only joking.

  Bells smiled as she watched Jaekob staring intently at the growing vine. He always seemed so amazed at such trivial things, and it never failed to amuse her.

  Once the vine crept its way into the house, passing under a tiny gap beneath the house's side door, she asked the plant to grow a couple of its small yellow flowers inside, as well as to grow two offshoots near where it had taken root in the soil. The offshoots dried out in seconds, turning them rigid and hollow.

  Staring at the plant, Jaekob asked, "So how do we listen in on what's going on in there?" The pitch in his voice had risen noticeably, his excitement plain.

  She replied, "I love how much you enjoy watching me work with plants. I sometimes take it for granted. So, to listen in, just put the hollow end in your ear. We'll hear them clearly and hopefully get some idea of what he's up to."

  "That was the plan, yes," he replied, one side of his mouth ticking up in a half-grin. He reached for the vine, then watched her.