by D J DuMont
Cayenne let out a low whine at this news, and Willow smiled sadly at her. “Sorry I didn’t tell you all that sooner, girl. It’s hard to talk to you during dragon flying class, with Sam always watching me like a hawk. That’s why I had to come out here to the stables, even though I’m not supposed to. I wanted to talk to you, and to Clove. Besides, none of the other students want to talk to me right now. At first I managed okay, but now the loneliness has gotten hard to handle. I miss having friends to spend time with.”
Cayenne whined again and nuzzled Willow with her giant nose. Clove did the same thing, and the other dragons all jockeyed for a space to comfort Willow. For the first time since the accidental earthquake, Willow felt a little rush of true happiness. At least the dragons still cared about her.
Wiping tears from her eyes, Willow took a step back. “I should go. The longer I stay here the more likely it is that Sam or Anjali will catch me here. And I definitely don’t want to have to explain things to them.”
Cayenne did not like this idea. She shook her head “no” in a violent side to side motion, then went to stand by the door of the stable, pawing at the ground.
Willow understood, but shook her own head. “No, Cayenne. I can’t go flying with you. It’s bad enough that I’m here. If I fly with you there’s an even greater chance of someone catching me out here. I can’t even claim I was just stopping by for a quick visit if I’m high up in the air with you.”
But Cayenne did not want to hear it. She grunted, then reached up to open the door’s latch. Before Willow could say anything else, Cayenne had stepped outside and walked around to the raised walkway where Willow was standing. The dragon pushed against Willow’s chest with her muzzle, insisting that Willow come fly with her.
“Cayenne, I’d love to. Trust me, there’s nothing that would make me happier right now than going on a joyride with you. But I’m already in deep trouble. I can’t risk more by getting caught going against Anjali and Sam’s wishes.”
Cayenne pawed the ground again, then raised her head high and breathed a long stream of fire into the air. Willow frowned. She knew that when Cayenne started protesting something by breathing fire, that meant the dragon’s mind was made up. Still, Willow decided to try one more time to reason with the beast.
“Cayenne, I could lose my place at the Dragon Heart Academy. That would mean I wouldn’t be able to work with you anymore. That’s not worth the risk!”
Cayenne growled and breathed more fire. Whatever her reasons for wanting to fly, she wasn’t going to give in to Willow’s logic. Willow sighed.
“Alright. But only a short flight, okay?”
Cayenne shuffled her feet happily, and Willow couldn’t help but smile. Still, she looked around nervously before climbing onto Cayenne’s back. The odds of Sam being out here at this time of night weren’t high, but Willow didn’t seem to have the best of luck lately. She was terrified that this would be the one time he would come out, and she would get caught. The meadow around the stables remained still and silent, so Willow decided it was now or never.
“Okay, girl. Let’s go.”
Willow climbed onto the dragon’s back, and Cayenne immediately began flapping her large wings. The two of them rose into the air together, Cayenne’s dragon hide shimmering in the bright silver moonlight. Willow let out a happy sigh, and even forgot to worry about Sam and Anjali for a few minutes.
Thanks to dragon flying class, she flew with Cayenne almost every day. But flying in class was different from flying on your own. Willow much preferred being up here in the moonlight, just her and Cayenne. She didn’t have to worry about Sam nitpicking her flying technique, or telling her that she was not handling Cayenne correctly. Willow suspected that Sam had been extra hard on her lately, due to the fact that she had caused the earthquake. Even though Willow was the best in her class at dragon flying, Sam corrected her twice as often as he corrected anyone else.
No one was correcting her now. Willow breathed in the fresh, frigid air, and gave Cayenne free reign to fly where she wanted. She had expected the dragon to do some loops and fast turns, like the beast usually did when Willow gave up control. But Cayenne didn’t seem interested in acrobatics right now. She only seemed interested in flying higher and higher, straining her wings as she rose up into the glittering night sky.
Willow shrugged, and let Cayenne continue to ascend. She had long ago given up trying to make sense of every little thing Cayenne did. More than any of the other dragons, Cayenne had a mind of her own. And Willow loved her for it.
As Cayenne flew, Willow watched the snow covered world below growing smaller and smaller. She loved nights like tonight, where the moon was bright and the snow glistened. Dark pine needles made the perfect background for shimmering white, and everything was still and quiet except for the flapping of Cayenne’s wings. For a brief moment, the world felt perfect. Back in D.C., there were far too many city lights to be able to properly see the stars. But out here, the night sky always looked like it was full of diamonds. Willow lay flat against Cayenne’s back and took in the beauty, enjoying the gentle rise and fall of Cayenne’s back as she took in deep breaths of air.
This reverie did not last long, however. A few minutes later, Cayenne’s flight leveled off, and instead of flying almost straight up she flew parallel to the ground for a few moments, then stopped to hover in one place. Willow had a flashback to the last time she’d been up here with Cayenne, hovering, and an uneasy feeling filled her stomach.
“Cayenne, are we…” Willow sat up straight and looked around without bothering to finish her sentence. Sure enough, they were hovering just below the magic shield.
“Cayenne, I shouldn’t be up here by the shield. Everyone thinks I’m the one who broke it. Who knows, maybe I was and didn’t realize it. Apparently I can’t properly control my magic.”
Cayenne only whined in response, and started flying slowly forward.
Willow was once again struck by the strange way the shield glimmered, like iridescent glass. But this time, there were far more cracks in that glimmering iridescence than before. In fact, the spot where Cayenne had first stopped to hover was one of the only places where there weren’t any cracks. Everywhere else, large fractures in the shield spread out like spider webs. Willow swallowed hard as she took it all in. As she looked around, she realized with certainty that she definitely was not the one responsible for the cracks. There were far too many of them, and Willow had not been up here near the shields in months. In fact, she hadn’t even been near the dragon stables in months, except for when she had class.
“What’s going on here?” Willow asked aloud. Cayenne made no response. She only kept flying in a slow, lazy pattern back and forth across the night sky. Willow kept her eyes fixed on the cracked magic shield, feeling more sick to her stomach with every moment that passed.
Someone, most likely Stein Viker or his crew of Dark Sparks, had been attacking this shield on a regular basis. Cayenne was clearly eager to show this to Willow, but, now that Willow knew, what was she supposed to do about it?
She had to tell someone, and Anjali was the most likely person to tell. Somehow, these attacks were being made without Anjali realizing it, and, as the most senior Agent at the Dragon Heart Academy, Anjali needed to know. But if Willow went to Anjali and told her about this now, there would be a lot of trouble. For one thing, Willow wasn’t even supposed to be spending time out by the dragons by herself. And for another thing, Anjali was sure to blame Willow for the cracks, even though Willow was positive these had not been her doing.
But if not Anjali, then whom could Willow tell? All of her friends had deserted her, and she felt like she had no one to trust. Suddenly, the night sky didn’t seem so beautiful anymore, and Willow felt claustrophobic even though she was surrounded by open air. With a trembling hand, Willow patted the side of Cayenne’s neck with the signal to land. Thankfully, the dragon did not protest. With gentle, circling movements, Cayenne made her way back to earth and lan
ded next to the dragon stables. Once they were there, Willow hopped off and gave Cayenne an affectionate pat and a hug around the neck.
“Thanks for showing me that, Cayenne. I’m not sure what to do about it, but I’ll figure it out. Something has to be done.”
Cayenne nuzzled her gently, then turned to head into the stables. Willow slowly made her way toward the forest path, back to the main Dragon Heart building, and then to the Birch Point side of campus. Willow tiptoed as quietly as she could back into the dorm room, and managed not to wake Sylvie or Alexis. But she herself could not sleep. The school was under attack by Dark Sparks, she knew that deep in her bones. But who would believe her? And how had Stein managed to even find the school, let alone to make cracks in such a strong magic shield?
Things weren’t adding up, and Willow felt like it was up to her to figure them out. She tossed and turned, and then, just before dawn, she managed to come up with a plan.
Chapter Twenty
Willow felt like a zombie through all of her classes the next day. She had barely slept more than an hour, and even though she was exhausted, her mind wouldn’t stop spinning. All she could think about was getting started on her plan to figure out what Stein and his cronies were doing. Concentrating on world literature just wasn’t happening today.
Paying attention during her magic classes was even harder. Anjali kept looking at her with a suspicious expression on her face, but never said anything. Willow did her best to look normal, but she could tell that Anjali wasn’t buying it. When the last class of the day ended, Willow half-expected Anjali to ask her to stay after class and talk to her. Fearing this, Willow bolted for the door as soon as class was dismissed.
She didn’t slow down as she made her way toward the tunnel that led back to the Birch Point side of campus, and she continued walking as fast as she could until she reached the deserted corner of the Birch Point library where she had been spending much of her time lately. Once there, she looked around suspiciously as though someone might have stalked her there. But this part of the library was as quiet as ever, and Willow finally relaxed a bit.
With a nervous feeling of anticipation, she reached into her backpack and pulled out the file on her father that Agent Watford had given her the day she learned that the search for her father had been called off. Willow hadn’t been able to bear the thought of looking through it until now. She hadn’t wanted to see all of the reasons that had been listed for no longer continuing the search for Sigmund Ember. But now, Willow had a gut feeling that if she found her father, she would find Stein Viker and the Dark Sparks.
The more she had thought about it, the more it didn’t make sense to her that Stein would suddenly give up trying to pry the secrets of magic out of her father. As far as everyone knew, Willow’s father was the only wizard that Stein had captured. So why would he abandon him? Either something had happened where Stein was getting information from another wizard, or the whole “abandoning Sigmund Ember” thing had been faked. Either way, Willow thought that if she traced all of the information on her father’s captivity as far as she could, she would start to get clues on what the Dark Sparks were doing.
She knew better than to try to explain this to Anjali, or even to Sylvie. They would only tell her that she was obsessed with finding her dad, and was making excuses to continue the search. Of course, Willow was obsessed with finding her father. Who could blame her for that? But her wish to find him was based on more than just the fact that she wanted to find her father. There was something strange about the way Stein had supposedly abandoned her dad, and she was going to find out what it was.
With shaking hands, Willow opened the folder. The beginning of what was inside was familiar to Willow. She either had reviewed the information during her time at the C.I.A. this summer, or had directly worked on it. But when the information started to go beyond August, it became more and more unfamiliar. Willow had tried to keep up with the search, but it had been difficult to do while away from the D.C. office. Now, she read through everything thoroughly.
Much of it was as expected. There were sightings of possible Dark Sparks, together with high levels of magical energy, which indicated that Willow’s father was very likely nearby. The C.I.A. had also managed to gather quite a bit of information about Stein himself in its attempt to track Willow’s father. There were photographs of the Dark Sparks’ leader—the majority of them grainy—but they were photographs nonetheless. The man had the same evil scowl that Willow had seen by her attacker at the very beginning of school. Sometimes she still had trouble believing that she had actually seen Stein face to face. It all felt like some strange, weird nightmare. But the file photos of Stein, even though blurry, left no doubt in Willow’s mind that she had seen the man. The other Dragon Heart Agents who had been escorting Willow on that dragon flight had refused to discuss the matter with Willow, but she was certain that they knew, too.
Willow continued through the file, looking for anything that might help her figure out the cracks in the magic shield. Two hours passed, and she was starting to wonder if her gut feeling had been wrong. Maybe there wasn’t anything useful in here, after all. The file slowly dwindled into periodic reports that a Dragon Heart Agent had not found a single bit of information on Willow’s father during a long search for him. Then, after weeks of nothing, a report came where Willow’s father was actually spotted on the same day that Stein Viker was—in twp completely different locations. Stein was in Italy, apparently chasing down a Dragon Heart Agent assigned to a mission there. Willow’s father, meanwhile, was escorted in chains into some sort of bunker in D.C. The Agency used this as conclusive proof that Willow’s father had been abandoned by Stein.
Willow’s brow furrowed as she paged through the last pages of the file. The C.I.A. tried to keep tabs on Stein in Italy, but they eventually lost him. Stein either lost track of the Dragon Heart Agent he’d been chasing, or gave up trying to chase the Agent altogether. The Dragon Heart Agents thought he might go back to the bunker to see Willow’s father again, but apparently he never did. This was the agency’s proof that Stein had “given up” on Sigmund Ember.
A few weeks after deciding that Stein wasn’t going to come back for Willow’s father, the Dragon Heart Agency stormed the building where Sigmund was being held captive. The Agents noted in the report that, to their surprise, the defenses in the building weren’t that strong, and they easily overcame them. But once they were inside they found an empty building. The place had been abandoned, although they weren’t sure how. They had been watching the hideout night and day. Their best guess was that there had been a secret tunnel.
Whatever the case, Sigmund Ember was once again lost. Willow burned with anger as she read the reports and realized that they had been so close to rescuing him, but had waited too long. She slammed her fist on the table and fought back tears as she thought about how she might have been with her dad now if they hadn’t botched this rescue.
If there was one thing she’d learned over the last year, it was that the Dragon Heart Agency never moved quickly. They took their sweet time with everything, from an investigation into unauthorized use of magic, to a rescue attempt for one of their top Agents. They waited until the last possible second to do things, and sometimes, as in her father’s case, they waited too long.
Not only was Willow upset that her dad had not been rescued, she also didn’t think that the agency’s determination that he had been abandoned by Stein was correct. Yes, Stein had left him alone to go to Italy. But Stein had never found the Agent he was chasing in Italy, which meant he would still need Willow’s father if he wanted a Dragon Heart Agent to torture for information.
“My father is missing, and Stein is missing,” Willow said aloud to the library wall, leaning back in her chair as she spoke. “And Stein needs a Dragon Heart Agent. That means there’s a good chance they are together somewhere.”
Willow frowned, and flipped through a few more pages of her father’s case file, most of which cont
ained information on attempts to relocate her father’s trail. No one could figure out where he’d gone. Then, in a report dated one week before Agent Watford had come to tell Willow that the search for her father was over, Willow read that Stein had once again been spotted. A Dragon Heart Agent in D.C. had been leaving a meeting for a congressional budget committee when Stein had crossed his path, waving a large gun that shot blue light.
Willow swallowed hard. She knew that blue light. It showed up everywhere around her it seemed. It was the same blue light Stein had used to attack Willow during her escort from the airport, the same blue light that had been used to attack the magic shield over the Dragon Heart campus, and the same blue light that Locke had been practicing with the day Sylvie and she had caught him in the school’s deserted top floor. But what was it?
Willow scanned the rest of the report, reading about how the Dragon Heart Agent had tried to chase Stein down right there in the middle of D.C. Apparently Stein himself had been chasing someone, but once he realized he was being chased, he’d abandoned his attempts to catch the person he was chasing and disappeared into the large city crowds.
The rest of the report gave the opinion that Stein was still very dangerous and active in his pursuit of magic. The Dragon Heart Agent recommended that the search for him be intensified, and that the search for Willow’s father be ramped up as well. The Agent reported that the blue light had not seemed natural, and that he thought it was magical in origin. This was cause for grave concern, because it meant that perhaps Stein had figured out a way to capture magic.
At the end of the typewritten report, “Ancient magic capture plus projection?” was handwritten in blue ink. In different handwriting underneath that, however, someone had written. “No—that’s an ancient magic myth. Not actually possible.” Then, at the very bottom of the page, in still a different handwriting, someone had written, “Request Denied. Agency Resources not available to search for Sigmund Ember, who is deemed permanently lost. Case Closed.” An official Dragon Heart Agency seal had been stamped onto the page, and that was it. Willow had read through the whole file, and seen every shred of evidence the Agency had given for why it wasn’t worth looking for her father.