by Sarah Noffke
“Well, that may be so, but I’m still responsible for all of you, and I can’t really defend you, now can I?” Azure argued.
“I don’t believe I ever asked for your protection, Queen Azure,” Ever said, a playful tone in his voice.
“And yet, I’m offering it to you regardless.”
Ever’s blue eyes seemed to brighten for a moment. “Then it’s only fair that I do the same, if you should ever need my help.”
A fat rain drop fell onto Azure’s head. She gazed up at the graying sky as the smell that preceded a rainstorm filled the air.
“I didn’t know we were supposed to get rain,” Ever stated, conjuring a tarp and throwing it over the crate of supplies.
Azure pulled her wand from her robe, pointing it to the sky. “I can take care of that.”
Ever placed his hand on her arm, trying to lower it. “Save your energy, Queen. We both know that halting a storm will deplete you, and who knows what you’ll need your energy for.”
Azure’s eyes fell to his warm hand on her arm. “Are you trying to be practical?”
“As your council advisor, I’m trying to help. That’s what you employ me to do,” Ever stated with a protectiveness that was unique to him. None of the other council members looked at her like that. She’d probably clock Monet if he gave her the same heated expression.
“You’re right.” Azure held her wand in the direction of the tables, muttering a single incantation that covered them with canopies. The wereanimals dispersed, running for the tents that had been set up for them.
“Go on, find some shelter!” Monet yelled from his booth. “Before you all smell like a bunch of wet dogs!”
CHAPTER THREE
Reynolds paced in front of the dining room table, his breathing deep. Sari had done her best to ignore him, but it was getting increasingly difficult.
She pinched a piece of her purple hair behind her ear and faked a polite smile. “If you’re so worried about vampires here in New Egypt, you can always leave.”
“I can’t, actually,” Reynolds barked—louder than he intended, by the abashed look on his face.
“Right,” Sari said absentmindedly. “Your transportation is broken, I forgot.”
“You mean that a vampire killed my Pegasus,” Reynolds corrected.
Sari waved him off, directing her attention back to the page from the Book of the Dead that they’d recovered from the Precinct of Mut. In truth, she couldn’t decipher any of it, but she pretended that she could as Gillian pored over the page. The gnome had a loose understanding of the hieroglyphs, although decoding each one was tedious work.
“Doesn’t it bother either of you that vampires are attacking our animals?” Reynolds asked, his voice coated in frustration.
Sari kept her eyes on the ancient page of drawings. “Not really. That’s what vampires do. They suck blood. But you should be concerned, since your shady, illegal breeder friend loaned you the Pegasi. He’ll probably break your legs for losing one of them.”
Gillian’s eyes looked tired when he looked up at Reynolds. “I absolutely understand your stress over the situation, but the increasing vampire attacks only mean that we have to work harder to find a solution.”
“We don’t even know that the missing pages from the Book of the Dead will tell us how to stop the vampires,” Reynolds complained, throwing his fingers through his thick red hair, combing it to the side.
Gillian stabbed his short finger at a symbol on the page. “Actually, that’s precisely what this page guarantees!”
“What?” Sari bolted to a standing position, staring more intently at the page, trying to see it from a different angle. “What does it say? How do we defeat the vampires?”
Gillian shook his head, pulling his bowler off and wiping the back of his arm across his forehead. “The page references both a cure for vampirism and a weapon that can be used against founders.”
Sari lowered her chin, regarding Gillian with significantly less enthusiasm. “Let me guess, it references it and says, ‘that information can be found on the next page’? The one we don’t have.”
“And here I thought you couldn’t decipher the code,” Gillian said with a chuckle.
Reynolds continued stalking back and forth. “Are you saying that we need another page from the Book of the Dead?”
Gillian pulled the page Azure had found inside the Sphinx on Earth closer to him. “This page, now that I know what I’m looking for, has part of a formula for a cure.”
Reynolds sighed loudly. “But it’s incomplete, isn’t it?”
Sari pursed her lips and gave Reynolds a disapproving glare. “All solutions come in three. Come on, even newbie wizards know that.”
“Sari, I worry for your safety the longer you stay in New Egypt,” Reynolds stated adamantly.
“But you accompanied me knowing that we’d be in danger,” Sari countered.
Reynolds massaged his temples. “I accompanied you to protect you.”
“But you changed your mind when you realized that nothing was sacred, when the vampires attacked the illustrious Pegasi, is that right?” Sari asked, amused.
Reynolds wasn’t wrong to be concerned, but his worry had exponentiated since the attack. Sari had to admit that it hit a little close to a nerve for her, as well.
“The fact remains,” Gillian began, smoothing the wrinkled page on the table, “that if we don’t find a solution, vampires will take over all of Oriceran, and there will be no safe place. All magic will be threatened.”
“So we need to find the last missing page from the Book of the Dead,” Sari stated. “Where should we look next?”
“The first page was found in the Sphinx on Earth,” Gillian mused, his tone low.
“And the second was in the temple of Mut,” Sari added.
“We haven’t searched the Great Pyramid of Giza yet,” Reynolds offered.
Gillian shook his head. “Because it’s been magically sealed with a spell too difficult for any of us to break.”
“The pages wouldn’t be in there, anyway,” Sari reasoned.
“Ah, yes. Khufu was the ruler who asked the gods to curse the vampires; they originated during the construction of his tomb,” Reynolds stated.
Sometimes Reynolds’ extensive knowledge on diverse topics endeared Sari to him. However, the gnome was more educated than anyone she knew, and she never found herself attracted to him.
“So what we need to do is think like a vampire.” Gillian tapped his finger on the side of his head. “You’re a bloodthirsty vampire and can’t destroy the pages from the Book of the Dead, but you want to keep them concealed. Where do you hide them?”
“There’s significance behind each of the locations where we found the missing pages,” Reynolds stated. “So where is some place of importance for vampires that we haven’t searched yet?”
“Osiris,” Sari whispered, a revelation sparking in her mind.
“Queen Mother, you’ve thought of something?” Gillian asked.
She nodded. “Vampires revere the god of the afterlife, Osiris, correct?”
“He is the god they can thank for their immortality,” Reynolds agreed.
“And we already know that the Book of the Dead pages can’t be damaged,” Sari said, her brain working through the new idea.
“Which means…?” Reynolds prodded.
“Which means that the lost page could be at the bottom of the Nile river and still be fine,” Sari stated.
“But why the Nile?” Gillian asked.
“Because to find the page, we should recount Osiris’s path,” Sari said. “The god of the afterlife was murdered, and his coffin thrown into the Nile.”
“How do you suppose we’re going to find a single page in a river as large as the Nile?” Reynolds asked.
“The same way that Isis, along with help from others, found Osiris’s body so she could resurrect him,” Sari said, triumph rising in her voice.
Gillian’s eyes widened. “They us
ed a tracking spell.”
“Exactly!” Sari said, pulling her giant grimoire to her from the other side of the table.
“Do you think you can create a tracking spell that will locate the page deep within the river and pull it to the surface?” Reynolds asked, leaning over her shoulder as she flipped through the pages.
Sari paused and stared up at Reynolds. “I’m no Egyptian goddess, but I’m fairly certain I am up to the challenge.”
CHAPTER FOUR
A furious growl ripped from the weretiger’s mouth. It lunged low, about to pounce on the wizard. Alfie held his wand at the ready, red sparks flying from its tip in warning.
The weretiger was soon joined on either side by another from its pack, both snarling, hot anger in their eyes. Three wizards ran out of the crowd, coming to Alfie’s aid.
Laurel watched the soon-to-be blood battle, paralyzed. She’d tried to intervene, but the weretigers rejected anything she said, calling her a traitor. She held her paw to her face; it was badly scratched from where the weretiger, Reese, had assaulted her when she tried to reason with him.
“Don’t make me do this, werecat!” Alfie yelled at Reese, brandishing his wand like it was a mighty sword.
A guttural growl split the air. “That is a weak werecat,” Reese yelled, throwing an accusatory glare at Laurel. “I’m a weretiger and king of the land. Whatever you do, wizard, will be punished tenfold.”
“This is not your land!” one of the wizards behind Alfie yelled, shooting a yellow bolt of lightning at the weretigers.
Reese was struck, and fell to the ground. The other weretigers reacted immediately, springing after the wizards. Screams and growls echoed as the fight sped out of control. Laurel, unable to watch a moment longer, unlike the crowd around her, covered her eyes. A moment later, the cacophony of noise vanished.
Perplexed, Laurel peeked through her claws.
The weretigers and wizards were all individually tied with ropes and lying flat on their backs. Laurel lowered her paws and stared around at the crowd, but everyone was doing the same as her: looking for the source of the restraints.
A deep growl parted the crowd, and Queen Azure stepped through the onlookers and straight into the center of the ring, with the green dragon called Micky at her heels.
“What is going on here?” Azure’s voice boomed over the crowd. She held the staff made of Howling Willow that held Mage Lenore’s crystal ball. Her blue hair swept in the wind behind her as she stared down at the offenders.
“Those weretigers attacked us unprovoked,” Alfie yelled, rolling to sit up.
“We did not!” Reese roared. “You offended us!”
“By looking at you the wrong way!” Alfie exclaimed.
“Enough! We are not to fight each other!” Azure screamed, making everyone freeze. She pointed to the side of the crowd where Laurel stood amongst mostly wereanimals. “You may think that the world of Oriceran is out to judge you, to persecute you for being different. Nothing is further from the truth. We are all one, we’re in this together. But if you’re looking for a fight, you will find one. When you believe others are gawking at you because you’re different, I want you to consider that they are staring because you’re magnificent. Those on Oriceran have not seen wereanimals in centuries. You must expect to be regarded with a bit of awe.”
Azure caught Laurel’s gaze, but her eyes fell after seeing the scratches across her friend’s face. “And if you are fighting each other, you’re not doing yourself any favors. You don’t want to be regarded as wild beasts?” Azure said, pointing in the distance. “Then I would encourage you not to act as such.”
Around the crowd, many of the wereanimals hung their heads, shame evident in their demeanors. Azure spun to face the witches and wizards gathered on the far side of the circle. “And those of you from Virgo, you must show more tolerance to our new friends. Integrating isn’t easy for them, and if you’re quick to anger, there will be no peace among us.”
“Yes, Queen Azure,” many of the witches and wizards muttered.
The storm had subsided at sunset, and many of the torches around the camp were being lit, casting the queen in an orange glow. “If you prefer to spend time alone, that is completely understandable. I’m not forcing any of you to interact. However, for those who decide to put aside your differences, I’ve arranged something I think you all deserve.”
Music started low, growing in intensity from somewhere on the other side of the crowd. Micky the dragon swung her tail, and a group of witches parted as a band playing musical instruments stepped forward. Dancers dressed in vibrant shades of pinks and purples twirled around a fiddler as he cranked out an infectious tune.
A gasp from the crowd pulled Laurel’s attention to a commotion at her back. A wizard on stilts toddled forward, wearing a costume dangling with bells and tassels. He lifted his wand and blew on the tip, sending a sharp bolt to the makings of a bonfire. It lit like a volcano, showering light on the crowd. The atmosphere shifted instantaneously, as laughter and sounds of amusement filled the air.
Azure pointed her wand at the bound weretigers and wizards, releasing them with a punishing look.
Laurel could hardly believe how quickly and efficiently the young queen had taken care of an altercation that could have spread like a virus. She approached Azure, bowing to her when she got close.
“How can I help? Do you want me to continue serving food?” Laurel asked Azure.
She smiled. “Actually, I hired servers, and they arrived moments ago.”
“Oh?” Laurel asked, scanning the crowd for these servers. Now that she was looking, silver platters were in fact floating through the thicket of wereanimals and people. They were piled high with cheese, crackers, various vegetables and ripe fruits. However, Laurel couldn’t see what was holding the floating trays up. She blinked, her eyes refocusing.
Laurel laughed with delight when she saw what was carrying the various trays. Three or four tiny fairies held ropes attached to the platters, flying them through the air.
“What I’d like you to do, is enjoy the festivities,” Azure said to Laurel, her eyes resting on the scratches marking her cheek. “Thanks for all your help. You’ve been through a lot.”
“I tried to stop the fight,” Laurel stated, shame making her face feel hot.
Azure shook her head, her sensitive smile not faltering. “I have no doubt that you did everything you could. Give the wereanimals some time. They will see you for who you are.”
“A deserter,” Laurel said, wishing her tone didn’t sound so defeated. It was hard to hold her chin up, with so many giving her constant, contemptuous glares.
Azure shook her head. “No, I was thinking a revolutionary.”
The atmosphere of the crowd began to seep into Laurel, and she found herself smiling. “I hope you’re right.”
~~~
Azure watched the werecat retreat through the crowd before turning to the dragon dutifully standing behind her.
“It’s going to be dark soon, we should tighten guards at the perimeter,” Azure said.
Per usual, Micky appeared reluctant to leave Azure’s side. But after a moment, she gracefully turned, making her way to relay the message to the other dragons.
“I have a complaint,” Finswick said at Azure’s back.
She rolled her eyes before giving her familiar her full attention. “Please tell me that it’s of some significance.”
“Things are going missing around the camp,” the cat answered, his back arched and ears back.
“Things?” Azure asked.
“Monet reported that his flask was stolen. My crystal encrusted collar is not where I left it. And Blisters says that he’s pretty certain he had a cashmere sweater that has disappeared,” Finswick stated.
“First off, Monet probably got drunk and lost his flask. And Blisters doesn’t have a cashmere sweater, because he’s a fucking unicorn. But I’m sorry about the collar. I know it’s a family heirloom. I’ll keep an e
ye out,” Azure stated.
“Ever also reported that he had a talisman disappear, and Manx says he had some coins stolen.”
Azure considered this and shrugged. “Well, it’s possible we have a thief among us, although I hope it’s a mistake.”
“You’re not concerned enough,” Finswick accused, flicking his tail back and forth.
Azure swept her arm at the festivities. “I’m taking a moment to enjoy that things are going marginally well. This is supposed to be a celebration, you know?”
Finswick blinked his green eyes up at Azure impassively. “What if I told you that Bob’s genie lamp is missing?”
“What? Why didn’t you tell me that from the beginning?” Azure asked, sudden dread filling her.
“Oh, now that it’s something of yours, you’re concerned,” Finswick strode off through the crowd, his head smugly held high.
“Damn cat!” Azure whipped her wand out, thinking up the right spell. She could search the camp or even make threats, but she thought that a well-spoken spell could do the trick for her. “A thief at large is found, when a string is tied round. The trail leads without a sound,” she sang, flicking her wand.
A glowing, magical string of light tied around Azure’s wand, snaking its way through the crowd. Azure followed the invisible trail that only she could see, moving through the dancing wereanimals and people. Her eyes narrowed at the end of the string, which disappeared into an irregularly shaped tent.
Azure paused outside the entrance to it, bracing herself to come face-to-face with a wererhinoceros or werehyena, or something else as vicious. She tightened her grip around her wand and barged into the tent.
Stunned, Azure froze at the sight before her. Objects were piled high, teetering one on top of another. Mugs, watches, jewelry and trinkets of all sorts crowded every inch of the perimeter, threatening to bust the walls of the tent. In the center, sitting on a plush pillow and nibbling on a piece of cheese, was a small and unassuming wererat.
“Did you steal all of this?” Azure asked.
The wererat jumped, his cheese crumbling in his claws and falling into his lap.