by Ashta, Lucia
I deposited myself in the here and now and made myself remain there. “How about over there?” I pointed to the opposite side of the garden, hurrying Arianne up in getting us away from the freshly churned soil behind a large flower bush.
“Right. Oui, good suggestion, ma chérie.” She was as distracted as I’d been as she led us in the opposite direction with a single, sorrowful glance behind us.
“We won’t lose anymore,” she said, again mostly to herself and the firedrakes, I thought. “We won’t let it happen. We can’t.”
There was, of course, no guarantee that any of us would survive the fight.
When Arianne looked at Walt and me, it was obvious she was thinking the same thing. Her face transformed from the long mask of sorrow into taught determination over the course of several seconds.
“Right,” she said, her energy once more focused and on point. “That’s one important lesson for you two. We never allow ourselves to wallow on what’s already been, and what might or might not be. There is power in our focus. Especially when we’re dealing with magic, where we place our attention, energy follows. Energy is the basis of magic. Control your focus, darlings, and you’ll better control your magic.”
All righty-o. What exactly did that mean?
“Now, let’s get to it.” She put a feminine pinky finger to either side of her mouth, then whistled so loudly that it strained my hearing.
I chuckled at how impressed Walt looked, forgetting that I’d been sad just moments before.
“That was impressive,” he said.
Boys....
Arianne smiled graciously. “I’m a woman of many skills.” Then she winked at him, and Walt had the good grace to blush. “There’s little room for the nonsense of etiquette and the ‘place of a woman’ when we’re dealing with magic.”
I grinned. “That sounds very refreshing.”
“It does, doesn’t it? We’ll meet society’s norms only insomuch as it suits us. Beyond that, I have no use for them.”
I wanted to mention that she was still wearing a corset, and there was nothing comfortable about those torture contraptions, but I didn’t. What she’d said was more than I’d heard any other woman say before, and I’d revel in it, even if I was in a corset too.
Unusual sounds were coming from... somewhere, and I turned back and forth trying to locate the source of the sound.
Ah, it was flapping, a whole lot of flapping. No, flying. Graceful, prehistoric flying.
I titled my gaze upward, and even though I was expecting to see seventeen firedrakes heading our way, I still startled and took an unconscious step backward—as if that would do a thing to help if a flock of firedrakes chose to attack.
“They’re magnificent, aren’t they?” Arianne sighed. “So many of them. So wonderful.” She nuzzled Mathieu in contentment.
I took a step toward Walt.
They flew close together so that they blotted out the sun as they descended toward us. I clutched at Walt’s arm. He didn’t shake it off, so I pressed myself against his side.
The seventeen firedrakes gave the appearance of a swarm of a thousand. I attempted to bat away my growing distress as they overtook the sky and circled overhead.
Arianne clapped excitedly. “I never thought I’d see such a wondrous sight. So many of them!”
I worked hard to battle every one of my instincts, which screamed at me to run and hide—somewhere, anywhere. I fought not to cower, though I wanted desperately to tuck my face in Walt’s shoulder.
I startled to tremble, and no matter how much I wished I wouldn’t, my body didn’t listen.
I had perfect vision, and therefore had no trouble making out the multitude of teeth as sharp as a barber’s blade and talons as long as my fingers, extended in preparation for landing.
I gulped. Their eyes glowed with the red of a fiery sunset.
Walt wrapped an arm around my shoulders, and I gratefully slumped into him. He wasn’t Nando, but it still felt better than standing there all by myself while creatures, who nature clearly designed as apex predators, overwhelmed us.
“Ooh,” Arianne cooed.
My shivering minimized beneath Walt’s warmth, and I managed to take in Arianne’s face. She glowed with the enthusiasm of a small child, who hadn’t yet been corrupted by the disappointments of life.
I wanted to celebrate like her, to enjoy the magnificence of the specimens that flew directly overhead. I wanted to be joyful and brave and trusting.
But I wasn’t. I was frightened, as much of the firedrakes as what was to come.
That won’t do at all, Isa, I admonished. If you don’t feel courage, you can pretend that you do. Hadn’t Arianne just told us that where we focused our thoughts and our energy our magic followed? Well, it’d been proven that I at the very least had portal magic, along with some other kind of strange variation on it that none of the magicians had heard of.
Ah! That realization banished the shivers completely, distracting me from the approaching firedrakes. My thoughts—my memories—had transported my physical body from one place to another. That’s how powerful thoughts were—mine, at least.
Arianne was right. Thoughts and focus were powerful. Until I had more of a chance to figure out my magic, I could control the path of my thoughts. While I worked to learn magic, I’d build a strong foundation for it.
The firedrakes began to land right where we stood. I didn’t break away from Walt’s support, but I stopped slouching against him and stood straight against his side.
I’m not afraid. Not all. These firedrakes aren’t one bit scary.
No, I could do better than that.
I am courageous and strong. I have magic, so I belong here. The runes chose me to work with Arianne and the firedrakes. I’m right where I should be. The creatures only seem scary if I believe they are.
I made myself look into the glowing red eyes of the nearest firedrake. They had slits instead of pupils, but the more I looked, the less of a predator I saw.
The firedrakes couldn’t help their appearance. They’d look ferocious even if they were gentle in demeanor.
I’d give them a chance, and give myself the opportunity to become the brave girl I hoped I could be. I’d been chosen as a witch in training. I was ready to embrace that role.
I swore the firedrake was trying to smile. That might have been the precise moment in which I lost my marbles, because I smiled back.
Chapter 7
“All right, darlings, let’s do this,” Arianne said. Her voice quivered just the slightest bit, undermining much of the resolve I’d built over the last few minutes. The red-haired grandmother, who possessed the vitality of someone decades younger, was normally assured and confident. She wasn’t the kind of woman who hesitated in anything she did.
She was hesitating plenty now, taking in deep breaths to steel herself before beginning whatever it was she was going to do that would free these firedrakes from their curse.
“Mathieu, Sylvia, I’ll need you by my side the whole time.” That was a given. It’s where they would have been regardless of her request. In theory, Sylvia was Mordecai’s firedrake, but since Sylvia and Mathieu were mates, and Mathieu was Arianne’s firedrake, Sylvia was around the witch nearly as much as Mathieu was. Mordecai didn’t seem to mind; he liked being around Arianne too.
She moved to the dozen firedrakes that the SMS had used as steads in the sky. “You, darlings, please form a circle around us to help hold in the energy. I promise I’ll attend to you too. I’d never forget you. I just need to attend to the other firedrakes first.”
When she said she’d never forget them, I believed her. She might forget an ordinary human or a magician, but not a mythical creature in need of her help. Never.
The dozen firedrakes, including Elwin, the bluish indigo creature who’d fallen from the sky during Nando’s rescue, appeared to understand Arianne perfectly. I wasn’t sure how, as none of them gave any outward indication they spoke our language, but they sh
uffled backward to enclose the rest of us in a large circle. They spread their wings until the tip of one overlapped the tip of the wing next to it, and I resisted a sudden surge of claustrophobia.
It’s no big deal, Isa. It’s only a circle, and it’s open to the sky.... Yeah, but it’s a circle of firedrakes.
I breathed deeply and took half a step closer to Walt, who’d released me once I seemed to relax.
“Isa and Walt,” Arianne called, and I was thankful to place my attention on her instead of the creatures, no matter how friendly that Elwin one seemed to be with his strange firedrake smile. “I want you to watch exactly what I do, but stay out of the way.”
I nodded—I was happy to stay out of the way—but Walt stiffened.
“What I’ll be doing is dangerous,” she continued. “In fact, I’ll give it a try, but we might have to stop at some point and wait for Gustave to join us. For now, I think I can do it on my own. He needs the time to help Humbert, the poor darling, suffering for what those terrible sorcerers have done.”
She momentarily went somewhere else in her mind—reflecting on poor Humbert, no doubt—then snapped back to us.
“Please don’t interfere under any circumstances. Unless I ask you, I want you to remain within the circle of the firedrakes’ protection, but as far away from the magic that I’ll be doing as you can. Understood?”
“Yes, madame,” Walt said, surprising me with his immediate acquiescence.
That wasn’t like him, not at all. Unless he realized how dangerous what Arianne was about to do was... and he was all too happy to stay out of it. No, that wasn’t like him either. He wasn’t exactly chivalrous, he was a little too rough around the edges for that, but I didn’t think he’d be willing to stand around and do nothing if someone—especially Lady Arianne—were struggling.
“Isa?” Arianne interrupted my fruitless ruminations. “Do I have your agreement as well?”
“Of course.” Of course I wouldn’t jump in on magic I had no idea about and was wholly unprepared for, most especially when it involved a whole bunch of firedrakes.
“Very well then.” I didn’t like how her voice contained evidence of trepidation, but I admired her for continuing with whatever she’d planned just the same.
She turned to face Mathieu and Sylvia, who shadowed her, and laid her forehead against Mathieu and closed her eyes. The fear I’d experienced the first time I saw her do this was gone, replaced by total fascination. Here was a witch, who looked no different than an ordinary woman. And yet she communicated—and loved—creatures that most of the world wasn’t aware existed.
She sighed in contentment, placed her hands on the firedrake’s shoulders (as wide as her own when his wings were tucked against his body) and smiled. “Merci, mon cher.” Whatever they’d spoken about in their minds, she was grateful for it. “Je t’aime.”
“Sylvia, darling, you heard what I said?”
I’d learned that as connected as Arianne was to the magical creatures, Mordecai was the only one who could communicate with Sylvia the way Arianne did with Mathieu. It seemed that once the bond between magician and firedrake was forged, no one else could link to the creature in the same way—or something like that. As with so much of what I’d learned since arriving at the academy, it was an assumption based on my observation.
Sylvia nodded her long, opalescent face, as shiny and iridescent as mother of pearl.
“Wonderful, my darling. You’re so precious. Merci.”
Then Arianne whirled toward the five firedrakes grouped in the middle of our enclosure. “I’m ready to free you, my darlings. Step away from the students and toward me.”
I hadn’t even realized the firedrakes had crowded near us, but they’d been doing that whenever I was close since they’d followed me into the portal by the river.
When they hesitated to move away from Walt and me, Arianne urged, “Come, darlings. It won’t hurt—at least I don’t think it will.”
She opened her arms wide, and none of the firedrakes was able to resist her then. They waddled forward, casting a few scattered glances over their shoulders at me.
Hunh. That’s very strange. Why were they so interested in me? It wasn’t as if I’d done much to save them. All I did was ask Madame Pimlish if they could come with us through the portal of her creation. That didn’t seem sufficient to inspire such loyalty.
“Come, come, mes chers. You’ll be so pleased once you’re free.”
After all her cooing and delay, I was wholly unprepared for her to snap into action in that moment.
One second she was all encouraging smiles and admiration. The next she was furious determination and concentration.
Her eyes snapped shut and her lips started moving rapidly. Like all the magicians here, she spoke as softly as she could get away with while still performing a spell, which apparently required its magic spoken aloud. I suspected she’d already forgotten Walt and I were there and supposed to be learning from her. It was difficult to do when we couldn’t make out the words of the spells. Except for Madame Pimlish that one time in class, but then her spell hadn’t made much sense, more random gibberish than useful words.
I strained my ears and managed to pick out some words, even though Arianne’s accent grew thicker when she spoke rapidly and only for herself and the magic that brewed inside her.
“Release the hold over these beings... their free will... my magic now overpowers... dark intentions have no place... I break the spell now!”
I definitely caught her final words, because she didn’t mumble them as quickly as she could. She roared them.
The earth trembled beneath our feet. I didn’t give a darn about appearances in that moment or the courage I’d been striving for, I shrieked and wrapped my arms around Walt’s middle.
He didn’t flinch. A bit taller than me, and already starting to mature into the body of a man, he spread his feet wide and braced us, wrapping one arm protectively around me.
The firedrakes, who held our circle, didn’t flinch either. They held strong, as if they could hold their stance even if the mountains in the distance started to crumble around us.
But Mathieu and Sylvia looked worried... and murderous. They stepped forward so they were so close to Arianne that they nearly touched her back.
The five firedrakes in the middle looked more overcome than worried, as if they were waging their own internal fight and couldn’t afford the distraction of paying attention to what was going on around them.
Their long faces appeared tortured. Some of them tilted their heads to the sky, as if seeking death as an escape to what they were experiencing inside.
Arianne had obviously been wrong. Whatever she was doing was definitely hurting them, and a lot.
But I didn’t imagine any being captured in the body of another would prefer to remain captive than endure pain. Arianne clearly believed the same because she continued.
This time with more force. With more power.
Her magic escalated so intensely that the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, and I burrowed my face into Walt’s chest, peeking to watch whatever was about to unfold. Because no matter how overpowering whatever she was doing was, there was one thing for certain, I didn’t dare miss it.
“I break the bindings of dark magic upon these beings. I erase them completely, so that no trace remains.”
The elegant lady of the house was as fierce as Madame Pimlish when someone offended her delicate sensibilities. She was fiercer than Miranda, who’d nearly frightened me into paralysis. Arianne was fierce because she was kind. She’d brook no abuse of creature or human, and that seemed to make her magic all the more irresistible.
“I assert their free will. I assert their power. Give it to them, in one grand shower. Release them of the former spell now, return their power.”
She roared to the sky and lifted her arms to it. Then in one swift movement she brought her arms down to the ground, and laid her hands upon it.
The sky
shook. The earth shook.
And lightning ripped across the previously placid sky.
A streak of wild power jagged downward, straight toward us.
The lightning snapped straight toward our circle.
When it was directly over the group of firedrakes in our midst, so quickly that my eyes barely managed to register it, the flash bifurcated into five equal strikes.
Light snapped and thunder clapped, vibrating down the bodies of the firedrakes.
My heart skipped a beat, my breath drew short, and the five firedrakes in the center of our circle collapsed.
So did Arianne.
Chapter 8
I was paralyzed, wholly unprepared to deal with emergencies of this caliber.
Walt, however, snapped right into action. He ran around the circle while his eyes studied something invisible to me. I wondered what he was looking for, but didn’t dare ask. His energy was wild, intense, searching for something important.
“Dangit!” he growled as he returned to my side. “I can’t get in to help them.”
He was thinking of going into the circle of firedrakes, where the lightning magic or whatever it was continued to give off sparks? I hadn’t realized he was crazy.
The electricity, which continued to crackle around the five collapsed firedrakes, hopped to where Arianne lay, infecting her with... well, whatever it was. Magic? Lightning? Energy? I had no idea, but I was rapidly growing frantic. Walt seemed about to crawl out of his skin in desperation, and his jumpy energy was affecting me.
Mathieu whined, and Sylvia nudged at her mate in what I assumed was a firedrake’s way of offering comfort. She pushed him repeatedly while Mathieu studied his mistress with evident anguish.
His whining grew louder, like a spoiled dog denied what he wants.
“There’s no way in,” Walt said, probably to Mathieu.
But Mathieu either didn’t understand Walt or didn’t care what he said. He started bobbing his upper body as if he were playing jump rope, waiting for the precise moment in which to run into the circle to avoid being struck.