The Dragon's Song

by Claire Fogel

  He reached over and took one of my hands. “Whenever you’re ready to talk, sweetheart, I’ll be ready to listen.”

  Jason wrapped one arm around my shoulders and whispered in my ear, “Me too, cousin. Whatever you need, I’m here.”

  I looked over at Adam, sitting quietly at the opposite end of the couch. He smiled slightly, as though encouraging me.

  I looked back at my father’s grim face and blurted, “I wish Mom was here.”

  He dropped his head and looked at his hands again. When he raised his head, I could see pain in his eyes. “So do I.” He turned to Jason. “I think we all need more tea.”

  As Jason got up, there was a knock at the door. Jason was closest so he opened the door to find Kathleen, wrapped up in what looked like a blanket.

  My father rushed to the door, pulling a very wet Kathleen in with him. “What brought you out in this storm? Are you all right?”

  She nodded. “I’m fine, but I had a feeling Cara might need me. I brought some of my special tea, the kind I made for her after she and the boys were attacked a few weeks ago.” She looked at me sympathetically. “The storm is upsetting you, isn’t it?”

  Her understanding words pushed me over the edge. I closed my eyes, but I could feel the tears running down my cheeks. I hated feeling weak, especially in front of others.

  Kathleen pulled a small bag from her waistband and handed it to Jason. “Use this tea just for Cara. It will calm her.”

  While Jason made our tea, I said, “Kathleen, since my mother can’t be here, would you please stay? There are a lot of difficult things I need to talk about. Adam’s already heard most of it.” I looked up into her light blue eyes. “It’s about my kidnapping and why I’m still so frightened of storms like today’s. Adam believes that talking about it will help me get over it.”

  “Of course I’ll stay, dear.” She kissed my cheek, handing me the cup of tea Jason had just made, and sat down near me, next to the fireplace.

  Jason passed around fresh cups of tea to everyone else and sat down close to me. I sipped my tea until I began to feel calmer. As my memory took me back to the day I was kidnapped, I began speaking.

  I told them about my panic when I couldn’t find either of my two bodyguards at school during the storm, the crowd that pulled me outside of school with them, the mud making it impossible for me to run, and then the kidnapper clubbing me over the head.

  My father’s head was down, his eyes closed. I had never wanted my parents to hear all the painful details, but maybe keeping them to myself hadn’t been such a good idea.

  I drank more of my tea and looked over at Adam. His dark eyes encouraged me to go on.

  I described waking up lying on the ground in a tent, my mouth, wrists, and ankles taped with duct tape, my head pounding like it was split in two, and the nausea from the pain in my head. I described the sound of the rain beating against the walls of the tent, keeping time with the pounding in my head.

  At that point I had to stop and drink more of my tea. I paused for a few long minutes and then went on.

  I told them how I squirmed and wiggled, one painful inch at a time, to reach the tent wall, knowing I had to get out of the tent somehow, and how I had to fight the nausea because my mouth was taped shut and I didn’t dare vomit.

  Finally, I turned to Jason. “Can you tell them the next part?”

  He nodded and described how he helped me slide under the side of the tent and escape my kidnappers briefly. Then he proudly told them how I’d fooled the two men and used Vox when they tried to recapture me.

  The worst of the story was over, so I talked about how Jason had carried me through the woods while we waited for my father to find us, and my first encounter with Smoke, my father’s huge horse. Finally, I admitted that while I was only half conscious, I saw Conor and the other Elves without the glamour they usually wore. “I was sure I was hallucinating.” That made everyone smile, but there were tears on Kathleen’s cheeks. She said, “You’ve gone through hell the past three months, dear. Please remember that we are all here for you, and we always will be.”

  My father looked like he’d just endured every painful minute of my kidnapping right along with me. He leaned forward and took both my hands in his. “You should have told us sooner, Cara. You shouldn’t have felt you had to carry this burden alone.”

  I knew he wanted to make everything better for me, but I also knew he couldn’t.

  “I’m not a child anymore. I’m sure there will be more burdens in the future that I’ll have to carry alone. But maybe this particular burden will feel a bit lighter now.” I’d finished my tea, and felt exhausted.

  I stood up and gave my father a tight hug, kissed Kathleen’s cheek and said, “Thank you for being such a good friend.” I walked back to the couch and hugged Jason who whispered, “Call on me anytime.”

  That left Adam. Remembering his no hugging rule, I sat down next to him and kissed his cheek. I whispered, “Thank you for being here.” He smiled and whispered back, “Always.” Then he closed his eyes briefly, as though he knew he’d said something he shouldn’t have.

  I stood and faced the wonderful people who only wanted to take away my hurt. “I love you all, but Kathleen’s special tea has done its job. I need to sleep. Thank you for listening.”

  I left the room, feeling a bit lighter than I had an hour ago. My pretty green and yellow bedroom was waiting for me. Kicking off my boots, I crawled under my soft quilt. I don’t even remember my head hitting the pillow. The sound of the storm outside had completely faded away.

  It was dark outside my windows when I woke up. Without a clock, I couldn’t tell whether it was afternoon or night, before dinner or long after.

  Memories of my kidnapping were again fresh in my mind. It hadn’t been easy to talk about, but if it would help me overcome my fear of storms, maybe it was worth it. Of course, I wouldn’t know until the next bad storm rolled in. Ordinary rain I could handle, and even that was an improvement from months ago.

  I sighed. I’d come to Elvenwood this week to get rid of the tension I’d been feeling, and I thought it had worked. I’d met a dragon, surreal as that seemed, and I had been feeling better without that feeling of doom hanging over me. Until today’s storm, that is. I couldn’t expect my father to stop every storm for me. Even though he had a strong affinity with the weather, rain was necessary for everything that grew. I realized now that I had simply put my rainstorm phobia out of my mind during our unusually dry summer, but ignoring it hadn’t made it go away.

  I finally got up and walked into the sitting room. My father was sitting on the couch in front of the fire. For a change, there were no papers in his hands; he was just staring into the flames.

  I sat down next to him, resting my head on his broad shoulder. One arm reached around me and I felt him drop a kiss on my head.

  “How are you feeling?” I could hear the worry in his voice.

  “Better now. The rain has died down; it’s not bothering me now.”

  “Do you think this will happen every time there’s a storm?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. I guess I’ll have to wait and see. But at least normal rain doesn’t bother me anymore. Even the sound of raindrops made me nervous for a while.” I looked up at him. “That’s progress, isn’t it?”

  He let out a deep sigh. “Sweetheart, I think we should discuss this with your mother.”

  I cringed slightly. “Mom tends to be overprotective. I don’t want her fussing over me every time it rains; that would drive me nuts.”

  He smiled wryly. “I know, dear, but your mother is a very intelligent woman. She may have some ideas on how to help you with this problem. When I think back over the past three months, you’ve been through so much, it’s a wonder you’re not howling at the moon.”

  That made me smile. “Guess that’s something to be thankful for, right?”

  He hugged me tightly. “Dinner was served a few hours ago. How about running down to the dini
ng hall with me to see if we can scavenge some leftovers?”

  “You didn’t eat?”

  He shook his head. “I thought I should be here in case you woke up and needed me.”

  “You must be starved. I think the rain has stopped. Let’s go raid the kitchen.”

  It was a successful raid. We found bread, cheese, and apple tarts, brought it all home and had a light-hearted supper in front of the fireplace. It felt like a picnic, and I think my father and I were both feeling a lot better by the time we went to bed. Tomorrow I’d be home. I fell asleep quickly.

  The sun was bright in the sky when I woke the next morning, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Sunshine was my friend; rain was not. And I was going home today.

  I was lying in bed comfortably when it occurred to me that although the premonition I’d had was gone, some anxiety was still there, embedded in my subconscious like a low pitched humming I could hear only when it was totally quiet. I didn’t think it had anything to do with the storm that had freaked me out the day before. I had no idea what it meant.

  I heard my father moving around in the sitting room, so I washed up and packed quickly. When I walked into the sitting room, there was a welcome basket of muffins waiting on the table, and my father had already made tea for us.

  “Morning, Dad. Did you save me a few muffins?”

  He looked up, smiling. “If you don’t get over here quickly, I can’t guarantee there will be any left.”

  I smiled and sat down with him. “Thanks for making tea. How soon will I be leaving?”

  “We’ll be leaving in half an hour, dear,” he said. “I decided to take you home myself. Adam will be accompanying us, of course, but I want to talk to your mother today.”

  That took the smile off my face. “You’re going to talk to Mom about my rainstorm problem today.” I took a noisy deep breath and looked at him.

  “I don’t think we should put this off any longer. So, yes, today I want to discuss it with your mother. Don’t worry. You don’t have to sit through our discussion. You can call your friends and go out and enjoy your new car.”

  As if that would be possible while he gave Mom more reasons to worry about me. We had our tea and muffins silently. I had nothing more to say. The sunshine had already gone out of my day.

  When I’d finished eating, I ran across the road to say goodbye to Ian. He nodded sadly as I explained that the heavy rain had kept me at home the day before. I knew he was disappointed, and I knew it was mostly my fault. Things like dragons and rainstorms had gotten in our way.

  “Maybe sometime soon, I can take you back to my Mom’s with me for a visit and you can see where I live. Would you like that?”

  His eyes were suddenly bigger and his freckled face lit up. “Can we really do that?”

  “If your mother approves, I think we can. I’m sure my mother would love to meet you, so let’s plan on it in the near future.”

  His face was clearly confused. “When’s the near future?”

  I couldn’t help smiling. “The next time I come to visit overnight, you can come with me when I leave the next morning. I’m just guessing, but it will probably be at least a month from now. I’ll be back in school in a few days, and I won’t have all my weekends free. But I’ll be back as soon as I can, I promise.”

  Ian finally smiled. “All right, but I hope it will be soon. I miss you when you’re not here. I miss Uncle Brian too. He’s not here as much anymore.”

  I hugged Ian, kissing his cheek, which turned his face red, and said goodbye. My father had the horses ready to go, and I saw Adam waiting.

  After seeing Ian, I was slightly more cheerful, but it was still a very quiet ride home. Adam smiled and winked at me when I mounted Pigeon, but I had a feeling he already knew why my father was riding with us.

  When we reached my father’s camp, Adam left us, reminding me to let him know if I was going out after I got home.

  “I will be going out, probably very soon.” I glanced at my father. Adam nodded, his eyes understanding as he led his horse to the camp’s makeshift stable.

  A few minutes later, Smoke and Pigeon walked up to my mother’s back porch as Mom rushed out the back door to greet us. I got down from Pigeon and walked into Mom’s arms. I threw my arms around her and whispered, “I missed you.” She looked up at Dad, probably surprised to see he wasn’t smiling.

  She looked at me closely and said softly, “I can see something’s wrong, dear. What is it?”

  My father put his arm around her shoulders. “Let’s go inside. We need to talk.”

  When I walked into my mother’s sunny, welcoming kitchen, I smelled cinnamon and vanilla, two of my favorite scents. “Did you bake?” My mother loved to cook, but baking was not something that occurred in the Connelly home often. She always joked she didn’t need the calories.

  She smiled at me. “I was home today, so it was a choice between housework and baking. Easy choice.” On the breakfast bar was a cinnamon-colored Bundt cake covered with sugar sprinkles. It looked, and smelled, delicious. She added, “I thought it might be good after lunch.”

  If a cinnamon cake could get rid of a bad mood, I was ready for some now.

  My father said, “Your mother and I can talk while you go out to see your new car. After all, there’s nothing we’ll be talking about that you haven’t already heard, dear.”

  Mom was looking back and forth between us, clearly puzzled. The next second, I was sure he was sending her a mental message because she nodded and tossed a set of car keys to me.

  “Go take a look, honey. Kevin was sure you’d love it.”

  I left by the front door, completely wrapped up in my own thoughts, but when I reached the sidewalk I stopped short and stared.

  In front of my house, wearing a big, red bow, sat a large, sleek, shiny black car. Even sitting there, it looked fast. It also looked twice the size of Mom’s economy car. I approached it slowly, finally running my hands over the satiny black paint. I had no idea what it was, but it was a lot more car than I’d expected.

  Walking around the extensive length of the gleaming black car, I unlocked the driver’s door and slid behind the wheel. The seat was a bench-style that would seat at least three people, and the width of the windshield seemed huge to me. Nervously, I put the key in the ignition and turned it. The sound of the engine wasn’t too loud, more like a strong purr. Then I stepped on the gas a little harder, and was thrilled to hear the engine actually roar. Wow! The black car even sounded powerful, powerful and fast.

  Why on earth would my mother get me a fast, powerful car? So I could get away from bad guys faster? I couldn’t help grinning. There was no limit to the mailbox damage I could inflict now.

  I lowered the window, reached out and pulled the red bow off the roof. This car was definitely too masculine to be wearing a bow. I tossed it in the back seat. That was when I noticed a white envelope sitting on the back seat. I reached back to grab it and was surprised to see my name written on it in what was obviously a man’s handwriting.

  I opened it. “Dear Cara, I have enjoyed driving this car for the past five years and believe it will be the perfect car for a young lady who has worked hard learning how to defend herself. This car will protect you in many ways. Take good care of it and it will take care of you. Congratulations on your first car, and drive safely. Sincerely, Thomas O’Donnell, Chief of Police, Thornewood, NY.”

  I was speechless. This big, beautiful car had belonged to the Chief of Police. And now it was mine. I began checking out where all the controls were, which buttons did what, and was happy to see a CD player as well as a radio. I had another thought that made me laugh. Chief O’Donnell had been kind enough to remove the light bar from the top of my car. Too bad. I would have had fun with that.

  I heard a knock on the passenger window and looked over to see Adam standing there, eyebrows raised. I lowered the window with a grin. “Was there something you wanted, Adam?”

  “Going somewhere, Miss Conne
lly?”

  I giggled. “Get in, and we can go together.”

  He slid in beside me. “Where are we going?”

  “Hmm. I haven’t decided yet. Could you stand an early lunch?”

  He chuckled. “If it consists of a cheeseburger and fries, no problem. By the way, have you actually driven this car yet?”

  “Nope. This will be its maiden voyage with me behind the wheel.”

  He grinned. “Should I be afraid?”

  Laughing, I said, “I don’t think so. This used to be the police chief’s car, so I’m pretty sure other drivers will simply get out of my way when they see me coming. By the way, are my parents still sitting in the kitchen talking about me?”

  “I’m afraid so, love. When I heard you start the car’s engine, I went to your mother’s back door and your father pointed in this direction.”

  “Adam, this car is making me feel powerful, so who cares about a little rainstorm phobia? We’re going down to the Grille.” I put my new car in Drive and drove away from the house. I had to be careful not to press too hard on the gas; it was extremely responsive.

  “You know, I still don’t know what kind of car this is, but I love it. It looks dangerous, doesn’t it?”

  He chuckled. “Cara, any car with you behind the wheel would look dangerous.”

  I couldn’t help laughing. “You may not agree, but I feel totally safe in this car. It has a protective vibe, don’t you think?”

  “I hope so. You’re going fifty miles per hour right now.”

  Shocked, I glanced at the speedometer. He was right. This car rode so smoothly, it didn’t feel that fast. “Sorry. I’ll slow down.”

  When we reached The Grille, there was a nice big parking space in front. They obviously knew I was coming. Parallel parking wasn’t one of my best skills.

  “I can smell the burgers. Let’s go eat.”

  It was Saturday, but it was a little early for lunch so it wasn’t crowded. I knew it would be packed in about an hour. We took a booth and placed our order.

  “How do you like riding in my new car?” I asked.