Dragon's Eye

by Robin Joy Wirth

  THIRTY-NINE

  “Wake up, my sweet Felicity,” said Lancelot into her ear some time later. “Up, up, up, love. You’re missing the sunrise.”

  When she opened her eyes, Felicity saw that they were just flying over the docks of Dover, and the sun was just beginning its journey into the sky. The whole skyline was alight with pinks and pale blues, and she turned to cast Lance a pleased smile.

  “It’s lovely,” she told him as he leaned forward to kiss her cheek. “How long have I been asleep?”

  “Five hours now,” he told her. “I suppose you must have been more tired than you thought.”

  Just then Felicity felt the familiar pull of the Veil as it enveloped them all. Glancing at Lance, she knew that she would find his wand in his hand, as he had been the one to cast the charm.

  The entire landscape changed slightly below, not in its actual physical shape, necessarily, but in what buildings and other items covered it. Gone were the network of highways and roads that littered Mundania, to be replaced with cobblestones and grassy fields. Gone were the modernized structures, and more ancient ones took their place.

  “Veer to the left, Amaranth,” Lancelot instructed their mount. “And do be careful about remaining hidden over this stretch of the journey. There is still some danger to evade, for if Caracticus Snigget catches wind of our arrival, he could be a formidable enemy to contend with.”

  “Caracticus Snigget?” Felicity gasped in surprise. “I thought he was simply a story that Grelda told to entertain me.”

  “Oh no, my dear, he is quite real, I can assure you,” said Lance grimly. “But let us hope we can go unnoticed. I’m sure the dragons are becoming quite tired by now. They won’t wish to tangle with the likes of him.”

  “Indeed they are,” Amaranth agreed. “And me along with them.”

  “When we make it there, feel free to set up your camps and get some sleep,” Lance told her. “I think everyone could use it.”

  “Everyone except for me,” Felicity chuckled. “I believe I’ve had enough for us all.”

  At Lance’s instruction, the dragons landed in a field to the west of a tall manor house. They began to pitch small, white tents all over the landscape.

  Felicity couldn’t help but think they looked like an army encampment rather than the more benign force they’d come there to be. “Have this lot come here for peace, or for war?” she joked.

  “I hope that we will go unnoticed for now,” said Lance worriedly as he guided Amaranth to continue onward to the house. “I do not wish to confront that old wizard at this early hour, and with such a lack of rest to contend with. Princess, you must tell your dragons that they cannot hope to find the most amicable prey in our woods. Magically imbued beasts are not overly easy to kill, nor the most palatable of meals.”

  “For us, this is of no great concern,” she told him with a smile. “Dragons are themselves magically imbued, so we find no difficulty at all with such food.”

  “Very well, then, I’ll leave it up to your hunters to decide their next meal,” Lance said agreeably. “Later today, Felicity and I will need to return to our employer with the Grimoire Draconis, to place it in safer environs. You are, of course, welcome to come along for the ride.”

  “Of course I would wish to meet the man to whom you owe your trust,” she said agreeably. “I would not have it any other way. It is to be expected in such matters, is it not?”

  “Yes, Your Highness, I believe it is,” he said tiredly. “But for now, I must rest. You must make yourself at home. You can use one of the guest rooms if you like. Come, Felicity, we are still wearing only the robes from the ritual. Let’s see if we might be able to find you something a bit warmer, shall we?”

  When Lance said this, Felicity became decidedly flustered, and he chuckled. He brought her with him to the stairs that led up to his bedroom, nibbling her ear along the way.

  As the pair of them entered, he pulled her with him onto his rather large bed. “Sweetheart, I would love nothing more than to ravish you here and now, but I am just too exhausted to do it,” he told her then.

  “Then let us go to sleep,” she said softly, and encased herself into his arms.

  “Sweetest girl,” he whispered softly into her tawny mane, and soon he was fast asleep.

  Felicity had not been kidding when she had said she needed no more sleep, so as soon as she discovered that Lancelot was snoring lightly beneath her head, she slid free of his grasp. She had never been here before, so she felt a bit curious about his home.

  Easing off of him, Felicity decided to have a bit of a look around. Out in the hall, she found the door to the most sumptuous bathroom she had ever seen, and happily made full use of it. She halfway considered luxuriating in the tub, but she decided she’d have plenty of time for that if he intended to keep her, since she’d hardly need to continue on at the flat then.

  The urgent problem that had built up over her time in France dealt with, she then wandered down the hallway, looking into doors here and there. Eventually she wandered into Lance’s personal library. She was not the least bit surprised to find it was an excessively large one.

  Fingering books here and there as she read the spines, Felicity quickly found the book that she’d once read in the jail cell sitting out on his desk. There was a note beside it.

  “Master Jones, as you inquired about the young Miss and what she did last night, I have sent along this book that she read for the greater part of the evening. Doubtful that it will give you much insight as to her motivations, but it looks to be a pretty good read, nonetheless. —Detective Cardin.”

  “So that’s why he had this thing at court,” Felicity chuckled. “How amusing.”

  Without bothering to peruse any further, Felicity felt a strong desire to return to the man who had been so interested in her the day they’d met that he’d even kept the book she read. She curled back against him with a contented sigh.

  “What happened to you?” he asked groggily.

  “I held it long enough to find a restroom,” she said with a laugh.

  “Probably a good thing we didn’t try anything, then,” he chuckled wryly.

  “Ew, Lance!” she grumbled, but then she kissed his temple and laughed. “You are so terrible, my love.”

  “And you are so beautiful,” he whispered. “Perhaps we could—”

  “Yes!” she agreed before he even asked. They kissed each other hotly, hands smoothing and gripping along each other’s bodies with tender need.

  Lancelot slid his hand down to the apex between Felicity’s thighs, and she bit into his neck to keep from moaning. Laughing, he unburied her sweet lips and coaxed the sound out of her yet again, so he could taste it on his eager tongue.

  “Sweet, sweet, sweet,” he whispered over and over.

  Felicity’s fingers sought out that place she had discovered once before, making Lancelot groan as well. But when he slid one finger inside her, she stopped what she was doing with a gasp.

  “Gods, that’s nice,” she told him. Lancelot chuckled, and bent to replace the fingers with his tongue, making her writhe at the exquisite torture.

  “I know something that would be even nicer,” Lance whispered against her flesh, and the words made Felicity shudder with desire.

  Their lips were still clinging together as he moved over top of her, and Felicity moaned softly, wrapping her arms around his waist. Her heart was thundering like crazy as he repositioned her legs around his own.

  With a gentle thrust, Lance entered her. Felicity gasped at the slight pinch, but it was soon forgotten as a heady desire for more took over. “Please, Lance! Please!”

  He needed no further encouragement than this before he started to move in earnest. Felicity clung to him as the unfamiliar but pleasant sensations coursed through her body.

  Wicked wizard that he was, Lancelot knew just how to work his magic on her. It didn’t take long before Felicity was writhing beneath him, and every movement he made only seemed
to increase the heat that had completely taken over.

  When she came, it was like a wave of white-hot desire flowed right over her, and she was lost. She bit into his shoulder, but this time she couldn’t hold back her sounds.

  “Sweetest girl,” Lance moaned softly as he rolled to the side and drew her into his arms. The two of them drifted off to sleep with contented smiles.

  FORTY

  Not too much later, a dragon suddenly burst through the door. Lance quickly covered the two of them with a blanket and glared at the intrusion.

  “There you two are,” said Tapur urgently. “I think we’ve got a real situation on our claws. Something is going on outside you might want to know about.”

  Lance sighed and rolled his eyes. His patience for these interruptions was beginning to wear thin.

  “Very well,” he agreed. “Just let us find something to wear, and we’ll be right there.”

  Lancelot quickly checked his closet for something that Felicity could decently wear, and tossed her a shirt and a pair of pants. She looked at the extreme length of both garments, and smirked.

  “What’s so funny, sweetheart?” he asked as he pulled on his own clothes.

  “Are you sure I couldn’t just wear the shirt as a dress?” she asked with a chuckle.

  “Get some clothes on, imp,” he said as he quickly pulled on his shoes. Felicity got out her wand and made the clothes her size before she pulled them on and followed him down the hall.

  “What is that horrid sound?” she asked when they heard a loud wailing fill the sky. “Is it some weird kind of storm?”

  “Yes,” Lancelot told her grimly. “It is the very same storm that always precedes a most unwelcome visitor.”

  “Do you mean Caracticus Snigget?” Felicity asked worriedly.

  “One and the same,” he said. “But I do believe this time we will be able to give him a run for his money.”

  “With a fleet of dragons at our disposal?” Felicity chuckled. “I should think so.”

  Princess Amara waited at the end of the long hallway for the pair to appear, and fell into step as they headed for the stairs and down to the front door. “Do you know what is going on? I have not heard a noise such as this for—well, for well-nigh longer than you two could possibly remember.”

  “That is the distinctive calling card of Caracticus Snigget, apparently,” Felicity told her. “Lancelot says he always arrives like this.”

  “That’s a dragon-made storm,” she informed them sagely. “Did you not tell me that this Snigget character becomes a dragon?”

  “Yes,” Lancelot said. “It’s said he was given the skill by the fairies.”

  “I fear that is a great load of nonsense,” Amaranth assured him as she transformed to her dragon form. “Only a true dragon-mage could possibly know how to produce that storm. And have I not told you before that dragons like to keep different personas for their two forms? This Snigget is a dragon, just as surely as I am. But I had thought the other dragon-mages disappeared when I did. I wonder how he escaped the curse.”

  “I don’t really know,” Lance admitted. “From every accounting I have heard, Caracticus once served on the Council of Elders, but he was thrown off for being too radical in his thinking by none other than his friend, Archibald Flanders. And he’s been making trouble for people ever since.”

  “That only makes sense,” she told him as she cast a glance in his direction. “A dragon-mage would hardly think along the same lines as a group of very old humans. And a dragon slighted can be a fury to behold.”

  “Don’t put the Council down too much,” he teased her. “I intend to be one of those old men myself someday.”

  “And I’m sure you will do very well at it,” she told him.

  “Thanks,” he said, chuckling when Felicity frowned at the exchange. He and Amaranth both smirked as they headed out the door.

  “That better not be a flirtatious remark, dragon,” she called after her as Amaranth laughed. But she was not laughing for long.

  “Oh, my,” she gasped as she looked around. Several of the tents had caught fire, and still the perpetrator of the crime was nowhere to be seen. Most of the dragons had formed one large group, backs inward, as they gazed up at the sky.

  “Do you really think invisibility is going to work on me, Mr. Snigget?” Amaranth scoffed as she flew up into the air, straight and true to where she alone knew the other dragon to be.

  An angry roar broke the air. It sent shivers down Felicity’s spine, and she backed up toward the wall of the building behind her, filled with terror.

  Lancelot brandished his wand as he glared at the now visible creature who flew above them. The great red dragon reared backwards and clawed at Amaranth with a powerful swipe.

  “Where did you come from, female?” he demanded irritably. “There are no dragon-mages left. How can you be here?”

  “Don’t be stupid,” Amaranth admonished him. “You must know of my legend. Who else could I possibly be?”

  “You could only be one,” he agreed. “Yet, one that was defeated once before. I can easily defeat you again.”

  “Don’t be a fool, you doddering old beast,” she told him. “You know well enough that I have been hidden away in my mountain with the Grimoire Draconis as my constant companion for years unnumbered. There is no telling how much I may have learned from it in all that time.”

  “If you know it, then you should be able to prove it, female,” he sneered.

  Without another word, Amaranth blasted him with a breath of fire even as she cast a lightning bolt that hit him square in his side.

  Caracticus swore in his own language, and Amaranth gasped at the insult, attacking him yet again as she held her anger in check.

  “What’s the matter, you don’t like me to point out that your gender is inferior?” he scoffed. “I hadn’t heard that women’s lib extended to our species.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she growled. “I merely did not like your assumption that I would lie. The giants once accused me of lying, and look what I did to them.”

  “You may have exterminated the bulk of their race, female, but they managed to exterminate you as well, for the most part,” he reminded her, barking out a laugh of disdain.

  “You would be foolish to underestimate me,” she said, blasting him with another breath of fire.

  “Don’t you know that your fire is useless against my thick, red hide?” he asked. “Has it been so long since you battled a real dragon?”

  “You call yourself a real dragon?” she sneered. “A real dragon would never seek to take advantage of the lesser beings as you have taken advantage of these humans over the centuries.”

  Felicity smirked when she heard this. It rang much too closely to what she had said about her own people, and their treatment of the Mundanes. Perhaps such thoughts were universally held.

  “Women,” Lancelot scoffed lightly beside her, and she turned to see him shaking his head vigorously.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Felicity with a raised brow.

  “You’re all alike,” he said with a smirk.

  Since she’d just been thinking something similar, though with far less disdain, Felicity could hardly argue the point. Besides, arguing during a pitched battle seemed to be a bit stupid, if one thought about it, so she didn’t say anything.

  When Amaranth blasted the other dragon three more times in quick succession, he finally decided he’d had enough. With a deafening roar, he turned and flew away. The other dragons cheered and shook their tails at his retreating form.

  “Well, I’m fairly certain the old boy will be back eventually,” Lancelot commented. “At least we have someone around who can put up a better fight when he does.”

  “I agree, human,” said Amaranth as she alighted beside them and transformed. “We will have to put up a guard against him, it seems.”

  “Good idea,” Felicity said with a nod. “He did not look like he wa
nted to play nice.”

  “Males,” Princess Amara sniffed disdainfully. “They’re all alike, are they not?”

  Laughing at Lancelot’s face when he heard this, Felicity grinned broadly and said, “Yes, I do believe they are.”

  FORTY-ONE

  “We really must get the Grimoire Draconis to the Magical Museum before Caracticus decides to come back,” said Lancelot with a worried frown. “If he puts it together in his mind that Amaranth must have the book with her, he’ll stop at nothing to possess it. Once it’s inside the Museum, it will be safe.”

  “Yes, I quite agree with you,” said Amara as they headed for the manor. “A dragon-mage is no laughing matter, especially one with so much power and bitterness pent up inside of him. I believe this Snigget will be a terrible foe.”

  “You don’t think Caracticus will try to follow us to the Museum, do you, Lance?” asked Felicity with some concern.

  “If he does, I’ll take care of him yet again,” said the princess with a vindictive smirk.

  “Come, we will have to leave within the hour,” Lance said. “Post your guards as you will, Princess, and then we will see the deed done.”

  Not too much later, Lance and Felicity mounted Amaranth and they flew off towards London, leaving a vigilant group of dragons behind. The sun was high in the sky now, and they made quick work of the journey.

  “We have arrived now, Your Highness,” said Lancelot as he pointed to the Magical Museum. Amaranth landed, and Lancelot helped Felicity down. “You should probably come in as a human, Princess. We wouldn’t want to give Dervish a fright.”

  Chuckling wryly, Amaranth said, “No, we wouldn’t want that, would we?”

  As they traversed up the long hallway to where Dervish’s office resided, Princess Amara glanced curiously at all of the items on display. “Is this what you intend to do with my book, then?” she wanted to know.

  “Of course not,” Lancelot told her. “The items out here are just for show. They are put here to keep the general public from attempting to see what is really being kept inside. Beyond this part of the Museum, where others cannot see, is a secret area guarded by many spells and wards. Only those who have permission to access that place can ever get inside.”