Hazel grabbed Gaelyn and hugged her. They both laughed. And then as they remembered Gaelyn’s Fae secret, they both stepped apart.
“What about us?” Great and Mighty called from where she and Jeschen stood.
Gaelyn snapped her fingers. “Fall walls! Free us.”
Like the bubble they resembled, the invisible walls popped. The little wizard walked to Hazel and Gaelyn, but Jeschen stayed where she was, still watching Gaelyn.
“We can get back to curing Cl’rnce now,” Gaelyn said trying to figure out why Jeschen stared so hard at her. Why she didn’t look less scared now that the Jinn were imprisoned in iron.
Jeschen shook her head. “Yes. Hurry and cure Cl’rnce, before she finds out.”
“She who?” Hazel demanded. But Jeschen gasped and stared at Gaelyn’s side where the pain still throbbed.
Gaelyn looked down, but everything seemed fine. She almost expected a wound from the pain she felt, but there was nothing.
“Where is your pouch?” Hazel pointed to where the pouch usually hung from Gaelyn’s belt.
Gaelyn didn’t need to look down again. She knew now what caused her pain. Her pouch, filled with so much that was an essential part of her, of her magick, was gone. Her Jinn was gone. “Where is Silkkie?”
Using all the control she could muster so she didn’t scream or flame someone, Hazel whispered, “Silkkie? Why? What’s she up to?” Gaelyn’s panicked eyes answered her question. “She’s after Cl’rnce?”
But she was wrong. Gaelyn said, “No! I promise she’s not a threat to him. She’s helping me. I’m sure she’s gone to tell the other Jinn that they are attacking the wrong people. She’ll show them Elm Court has done nothing bad to her. I hope.”
“Well, that’s a good thing,” Hazel said almost afraid to let herself relax a little. “Why are you upset?
Gaelyn gave Hazel an irritated look. “How do I know they will believe her? How can we be sure they won’t think I’m tricking them? Someone very powerful has convinced them Elm Court is their enemy. And besides convincing the Jinn, they wound her family up so much the Jinn didn’t even recognize Silkkie, couldn’t see through her disguise. Normally I’d like to believe her disguise was that good, but really? A Jinn who couldn’t at least scent out another?”
“Wait. You’re saying this attack is all to save Silkkie?” Hazel asked. She thought for a minute. She could understand protecting your own. “Okay. I get it. That means Silkkie is perfectly safe. So, can we get to Cl’rnce? He may be strangling. Can we save him? Now?!”
Gaelyn nodded and snapped her fingers saying, “Cl’rnce. Take us to him!” three times. Immediately they were in Gaelyn’s chamber.
Taking a breath to steady herself after enduring another too quick transportation, Hazel rushed to her aggravating brother. He was flat on his back with all four legs in the air. For a second she couldn’t see his chest rise, couldn’t hear his annoying snores, couldn’t detect anything that told her he lived. And then he let loose a fart so loud, she jumped back, holding her nose.
“Whew!” Gaelyn said. “He’s okay.”
“He’s alive, though he smells like something that’s dead.” Hazel paced around him, switching her gaze from him to everything in the chamber. What if Gaelyn was wrong? What if Silkkie hid here? Maybe the cat-Jinn was as afraid of the Jinn as the Elm Fae should be. “Find the Jinn,” she ordered Gaelyn without looking at her.
“You mean leave and go back to Elm Court?” Gaelyn said, her voice full of disbelief. Then her eyes went wide. “I can’t believe it. How did I let this happen? I should have done something so she wouldn’t run to Elm. I am so sorry. You’re right. We need her!” Gaelyn barely swallowed a high-pitched whine. “I need to go get her.”
Turning, Hazel held up a paw. “You will not go alone. But first, Cl’rnce. We can do this together, ourselves. You sent me for the Fang, didn’t you? Can we use it now? How?” She sighed. “It’s supposed to be so awesome, powerful. It won’t work for me. Do you have some Fae magick to force it to cure him? We can’t wait for Silkkie,” she babbled not quite making sense.
Gaelyn took a breath. Her brow wrinkled as she walked around Cl’rnce. He rolled over with a great snort, and now his rump stuck up in the air vibrating slightly.
“He’s going to blow. How much worse would it be if you warded him to keep the hot air inside a bubble and away from us?” Hazel asked. She’d once made the mistake of being too close when her ridiculous brother had farted a meal of river weeds.
“You mean capture the foul air so it doesn’t incapacitate us all?” At that moment Cl’rnce’s innards rumbled. Gaelyn threw her hands up, and she circled them in front of her, capturing fresh air into a mass that she threw onto Cl’rnce’s backside just as his innards’ air started to erupt. The bubble bounced up and down leaking a bit of really nasty fumes.
Gagging and coughing came from the area of Cl’rnce’s muzzle, but the pitch of the voice was too high, all wrong for the large Dr’gon. “That’s not Cl’rnce.” Hazel pushed on her brother’s floppy body. A tiny pink cat head peered out from just under his head, spitting and coughing.
“Got her!” Hazel yelled, grabbing for the Jinn.
But the next second Silkkie disappeared.
“Where?” Hazel grabbed her brother’s shoulder and rolled him back and forth to look for the cat-Jinn.
“How did I not sense her before? She’s invisible now,” Gaelyn said. “But this time she’s covered in Dr’gon fart, so not un-smellable.” She tapped the side of her nose and walked up to Cl’rnce. Then she turned slowly in a circle. “She’s still here.” Gaelyn looked relieved. She turned in a circle, her eyes closed, and murmured like she was talking to someone. Then, she clapped her hands together and slammed shut the chamber doors, at the same time shuttering the great window-slits.
The chamber went dark, nearly too dark. Hazel found the desk-table and fumbled for a second until her paw touched the wick-lamp. With a quick spit of flame, she lit it. Holding the clay pot lamp up, she looked around them. “Something is glowing over there.” She pointed to a small spit of light squirming under a carved chest near a west-facing window-slit.
Clapping her hands together and then weaving her fingers, Gaelyn threw a net of glowing gold on top of the crawling light. “Silkkie!”
Silkkie backed out, her head hung, her little pink nose pointing to the floor. “I thought I could, but I don’t think I can go back to Elm Court and talk to the Jinn. Something is very, very off about them. What if it affected me too?”
“Oh. I hadn’t thought of that,” Gaelyn said as she untangled the cat. “I don’t blame you for being afraid. We’ll go together. We’ll come up with a plan.”
“Look. I’ll help if first we can help my brother!” Hazel said.
But a second later, the air popped and Great and Mighty and Jeschen appeared. Jeschen held a bowl and a towel. “What is going on? Why couldn’t we get the door open?”
“We … we …” Gaelyn started.
Hazel said, “I don’t know about the door. You better not have brought that Jeschen unless you have the cure for Cl’rnce.”
“Yes!” Great and Mighty gestured toward Jeschen. “We have it. It’s a new anti-expanding soup!”
Silkkie snorted.
“Shut it!” Gaelyn and Hazel said.
“Help me roll him over,” Jeschen said. “He’s still asleep. I can tell from the snoring. We’ll have to drop the soup down his throat. Who will open his mouth?”
“I wouldn’t do that,” Silkkie said.
“We won’t get bitten,” Gaelyn said. “It’s perfectly safe.”
“Not for Cl’rnce. I wouldn’t give him the soup.” Silkkie turned her back on them and started playing with the net instead.
“What are you talking about?” Great and Mighty asked.
“Where did you get the ingredients?” Silkkie said biting at the net’s strings.
Jeschen and Great and Mighty said at the same time, “The schoo
l gardens.”
“And you’re sure no one has poisoned the garden?” Silkkie said.
Hazel made a swipe for Silkkie, but Gaelyn pulled her close. Hazel said, “I’m her Master. She said so. I want her to tell me what she knows. Is she just stirring up trouble? Maybe she’s become like the Jinn in that ball, and she’s trying to stop us from curing Cl’rnce. She said she was worried she’d turn like the attacking Jinn.”
Silkkie squirmed and scratched Gaelyn until she let go. The little Jinn raced to a window-slit, forcing it open. She hung out, peering down at something for a moment, and then threw herself back inside the room. “She’s down there. I thought I smelled her before I was trapped under that smelly Dr’gon’s head. Don’t any of you smell that unicorn?”
Gaelyn froze, her eyes huge. She ran to the window-slit and peered around an edge carefully.
“That’s the She the Jinn mentioned! Throw out the soup!” Silkkie yowled.
“Sillkie’s right!” Gaelyn hissed. “This has to be the one the Jinn spoke about. How did the unicorn get here?”
Hazel frowned at her. “There are unicorns all over Albion. What are you talking about? They’re harmless.” She leaned past Gaelyn looking out the window-slit. “You’re upset about that unicorn digging in the garden outside the kitchens? Who cares?” Her look told Gaelyn that Hazel thought something was wrong with Gaelyn.
Gaelyn held a finger to her lips. “Whisper. Don’t let her hear us. Look really hard at her. Look at her eyes.”
Hazel cocked her head. “I can’t see her eyes. What are you talking about?”
“I saw her eyes. They’re red. Only one unicorn has red eyes: the evil one Uncle Firth banished. Or imprisoned. I can’t remember. The one that tried to take me years ago. But I’m sure she’s not here for anything good. Think about it. Have you ever seen a unicorn dig in a garden?”
Hazel shrugged. “I thought they ate moonlight and marshmallows.”
“The marshmallows part is wrong,” Silkkie said. “It’s true about the moonlight. And I smell the rot and evil on her. Why can’t you?” She stared at Hazel.
“Because you’re wrong?” Hazel snapped.
At that moment the unicorn looked up. Gaelyn felt again the cold fear caused by her uncle’s warnings about the red-eyed unicorn mare who had threatened her years ago.
She grabbed Hazel’s arm. “Tell me you saw her eyes now!”
Hazel nodded. “Scary eyes,” was all she said.
“My uncle sent me here partly to keep me safe from her. She’s evil. She tried to kidnap me. I think she’s followed me here. I’m so sorry. And,” she took a breath with the sorrow this caused deep inside her. “I think she poisoned Cl’rnce to get at me.”
They looked at the garden again, but the unicorn was gone.
Hazel grabbed her shoulder. “Take a breath. Unicorn?”
“Her name is Monad. She’s evil. She tortured Silkkie, tried to kidnap me. Like I said, she’s one of the reasons Uncle Firth wanted me out of Elm until I was strong enough, powerful enough to deal with her,” Gaelyn said.
“She looks like the unicorn woven into the tapestry the Fang was on. Maybe she’s not here for you. Gaelyn, maybe she’s trying to kill Cl’rnce for the Fang. I’ve never heard of another unicorn that was evil except for the one in the myth about the Fang.”
Gaelyn thought for a minute. “I suppose it could be the same one, but why did she come after me all those years ago?” She shook her head. “Too many things are happening at once. Now there’s a unicorn who should have been imprisoned, here in the Dr’gon Realms?”
She paced across and back to the window-slit. “What if she’s behind the Jinn army? What if she told them Elm Court kidnapped and hurt Silkkie? Why would she do that? She had to know I would go to defend my Court.” She took a breath. “There it is again. Why get me to Elm? To get to me? To get the Elm Queen? Why?”
Hazel shook her head. “Yeah, why?”
“Maybe she attacked Elm to get me to show up and so she could follow me back to the Dr’gon Reams. And get to Cl’rnce.”
“Possibly. Your uncle made your whereabouts a big secret. Right? You said even Silkkie was disguised, and still is. It’s why her Jinn relatives can’t see her. No one but your uncle supposedly knew where you were. But how would this Monad know to get to you would be to get to Cl’rnce?” Hazel asked. “She shouldn’t have known you were here.”
“That’s true. Okay. Let’s think this out. If this is the same unicorn from the myth, she was part of the ancient Fae and Dr’gon Wars, so that’s a long-time vendetta. Back then, she wanted the Fang and the Primus dead. Maybe she still does. I don’t understand how she crosses the planes, but she could have …”
Hazel’s head snapped up. “She could have poisoned the Fang months ago. After I touched it but before I knew Cl’rnce was snooping around. Before I warded the secret room. She could have put something on it that came off on his paws. Argh! Marsh weeds and Barforami and everybody knows, he’s awful at scrubbing his paws clean. Is there a poison that works this slowly?”
Silkkie said, “Lots of them. And some that become lethal if other ingredients are added later on.”
“But that only explains the Fang and the Primus. What is my part in this? Why is she messing with Elm?” Gaelyn asked.
“We don’t know that she is,” Hazel said. “That could be someone else entirely. Just a coincidence.”
Coincidence felt all wrong. “Something else is going on. I still think she’s the ‘She’ the Jinn mentioned.”
“So do I,” Silkkie said.
“Maybe she’s just that evil. She likes to murder Elm as well as Dr’gons,” Hazel said. “You’re not connected to the Fang. Fae aren’t connected to using the Fang, only the heart-bonded Dr’gon and Wizard Partners.”
The way Hazel snarled, “Fae” stung, but Gaelyn shrugged. Hazel was right and wrong. Gaelyn was connected according to the Prophecy, but it was a direct connection between Gaelyn and the unicorn. That didn’t make sense. But if the unicorn was the same one from the Fang legend …
“Oh, for greasy-goats’ sake!” Silkkie piped up. “Ask the little wizard to look in one of her books. Isn’t it obvious? This Fang keeps coming up. Fae Queens keep coming up. You two are missing something in the legend. Check it owwwttt!”
Hazel shook her head. “I don’t think Great and Mighty reads Ancient Dr’gon. The myth is written in it. I am having a hard enough time puzzling it out.”
Great and Mighty held up a finger. “Wait. One of my books will help with Ancient Dr’gon translations. I’ll go look into this Fang and the unicorn, but not until we do something to save Cl’rnce.”
“Silkkie,” Gaelyn said. “Jinn have the power to push away death.”
“Only temporarily. But I’ve been thinking. You and Hazel have Cure spells from your Medical Arts Spells class. I know none are meant for someone who is dying, but I can weave my Death-Staying magick with yours. Right? That could make a spell that cures Cl’rnce from this … death thing,” Silkkie said.
“No more delay. Let’s try!” Gaelyn said. “Hazel, the spell for the Sleeping Sickness seems closest. Cl’rnce has been napping a lot. Like now. And sleeping is sort of like death.”
“If dead people snored,” Silkkie snorted. Then she said in a serious voice, “You start. I’ll add mine in.” She stood next to Cl’rnce one paw on his tail.
Hazel gave Silkkie a sour look. “She doesn’t behave like I’m her Master or anything like I expected. I don’t trust her.”
“Hazel! What choice do we have? Cl’rnce is not getting any better. He could die. If the unicorn is involved, he will die.”
Hazel grabbed Gaelyn’s left hand, the one closest to her friend’s heart, and started the Sleeping Sickness Cure spell. Gaelyn joined in, and Silkkie added words between words.
Hazel and Gaelyn chanted, “Awake this Dr’gon. Bring him back—”
Silkkie added, “from death—”
All of them waved sig
ns in the air to call the magick. They finished with, “At once!”
Each took a long breath then repeated the chants and signing twice more.
“While we wait, I’ll look up Ancient Dr’gon and that Fang myth.” Great and Mighty trotted across the chamber with one of the many books she had hauled in. Her finger traced some words on the opened page. She looked up and nearly dropped the book. “Cl’rnce!”
Slowly he sat up, his head still drooping, but he gulped in a deep breath and straightened his back. Looking around, he said, “I won’t to do that again. I promise!”
“Do what?” everyone including Jeschen asked.
Cl’rnce got to his feet and stepped back from Hazel. “Don’t be mad.”
Gaelyn laid a hand on Hazel’s arm. She felt the tension in Hazel, but Hazel nodded and through gritted teeth said, “Okay. What am I not supposed to be mad about?”
“I found your secret room in the tower chamber months ago. I knew from the ‘Do Not Enter’ sign and the wards that you wouldn’t want me sneaking around in there, but I went in and picked up that sparkly fang.”
“And?” Hazel and Gaelyn said together.
“And the next thing I know I’m feeling really weird, then really sick. And then the next minute it went away for a while. And then it started to come back, the cold chills, and the sleepiness. And then you got all upset about anybody going to the tower, so I didn’t want to tell you about it. But today it got worse, maybe because we were all in the tower again. I swear I didn’t touch it today.” He looked at Hazel. “You’re not mad?”
She sighed. “I’m not mad. But we think you managed to poison yourself. Well, we think it might have been a trap, and you fell into it.”
Great and Mighty piped up pointing to two books. She closed her eyes as if she were seeing both books at the same time. “That might be true, but there’s something else here. The Legend of the First Primus includes an evil unicorn, Monad. That’s the unicorn you’ve been talking about, I think. Seems the more years that pass after the First Primus died, the more deadly the Fang becomes—to another Dr’gon Primus. It wasn’t poisoned. It is the poison.”
Dragon Bonded: A Bumblespells Novel Page 12