The Dragon's Flame (The Chronicles of Terah # 2)

by Morgan, Mackenzie

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  An hour later, Drusilla was seated at a makeshift desk in Brena’s bedroom sorting through pages of notes on sister assignments. She worked steadily all day, stopping only to get up, stretch, and check on Brena. Colin brought her meals to her, as well as fresh cups of coffee during the day, and mugs of scog during the evening. Finally, around midnight, she decided that her eyes just couldn’t take any more, so she stretched out on the cot they had set up in a corner of Brena’s room and drifted into a light sleep.

  By daybreak, she was back at work, and shortly after nightfall, Drusilla knew how many extra pendants should be stored in the closet. She waited until the others had gone to bed for the night before she went to the workroom to check. She counted the extra pendants three times, but each time she came up one short.

  She went back to Brena’s room and quickly counted how many pendants were in use, just in case she had counted wrong earlier, but she came up with the same number again. She rubbed her eyes and the back of her neck and stared at the records. Unless she’d made an error somewhere, one pendant was missing. She had been hoping against hope that all of the pendants were safe.

  Drusilla didn’t sleep well at all Tuesday night, and she was awake before sunrise Wednesday morning. By the time Colin and Verna got up, Drusilla had breakfast well under way in the kitchen. While they were eating, she turned to Verna and asked, “How’s your day lining up today?”

  “Wednesday’s the day I normally head over to the next valley. There are about ten small farms over there and I drop by all of them to see if they need anything. Why?”

  “No reason, I just wondered. Colin, what have you got planned for today?”

  “Nothing,” he said as he picked up another piece of toast. “Why? Is there something you want me to do?”

  “Well, I’d like to have someone else go through Brena’s records and see how many extra pendants we should have on hand. I don’t think I made any mistakes, but you can never be sure.”

  Colin nodded. “Sure, no problem.”

  Drusilla tried to sound casual about it, but Verna caught the tension in her voice. “Why? Are some of them missing?”

  “I’d rather not say anything until everything has been double-checked.”

  “I can postpone my rounds for a day or two if you need me here,” Verna offered.

  “No, that’s all right. You go ahead. Someone out there may be counting on your coming by today. While you’re gone, I’ll handle the chapel and Colin can keep an eye on Brena while he works on the records.”

  An hour later, Verna had her buggy loaded with herbs and bandages and was ready to leave. She told Drusilla that unless something came up, she would be back around sunset.

  As soon as Verna was out of sight, Colin asked Drusilla if she had a moment. “There’s something I need to tell you, but I’m not supposed to tell you if anyone else is around.”

  “Sounds interesting,” Drusilla said with a grin. “Let me guess. Myron’s orders, right?”

  Colin nodded.

  “Knowing him, I’d say he has someone out there watching over us and doesn’t want anyone else to know about it. Did I get it right?” she asked with a twinkle in her eye.

  Colin’s mouth dropped open. Then he shut it firmly and nodded. “There are two retired soldiers pretending to be mountain men who are keeping an eye on the chapel, especially at night. Myron wanted you to know about them in case you happen to spot them.”

  “All right. If I see two mountain men outside my window, I won’t scream. Now, is there anything else?”

  “No, that was all.”

  “Fine. If you’ll come with me, I’ll show you what I want you to do.”

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  Colin worked on the records all day Wednesday, Thursday, and until mid-afternoon Friday. He double-checked his addition and then he took his results to Drusilla.

  Drusilla sighed as she looked at his tally. He had come up with exactly the same number of pendants in use as she had. She had put it off as long as she could. She had to let Kevin know that one of the pendants was gone.

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  That evening, shortly after dinner, Chris knocked on Kevin’s door, waited a moment, and opened it. When Kevin glanced up, he said, “I’ve just received a note from Drusilla. Want to see it?”

  Kevin held out his hand. After he quickly scanned it, he asked, “Did you read it?”

  Chris nodded. “What do we do now?”

  Kevin shrugged. “What can we do? We know that a pendant was stolen, but we’re no closer to knowing who took it than we were last Saturday.”

  “Why take only one?” Chris asked, shaking his head slowly. “If you were going to bother to steal any, why not take all of them?”

  “Maybe one was all they needed, or maybe they thought we wouldn’t notice one, but it really doesn’t matter. With one pendant and the lamp, they can make all the pendants they want.”

  Chris looked at him for a few moments and then nodded. “Provided they don’t mind killing a few sisters to get the opals.”

  Kevin nodded.

  “Are you going to tell the other sorcerers?”

  Kevin frowned. “I don’t think so. Right now we’re going to pretend that this is a problem limited to Camden. If the sorcerers on the council knew that someone had stolen the lamp and a pendant, they would all jump on Gwendolyn’s bandwagon. None of them would like the idea that there’s someone out there who’s immune to their magic and who’s not bound by any vows. I know I don’t.”

  “And it doesn’t help matters that a sister helped steal it.”

  “There’s no way around that, is there?”

  “I don’t see one.”

  “Neither do I.”

  “So, back to my original question, what do we do now?”

  “I don’t see anything we can do until something else happens,” Kevin answered.

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  That night, just as Kevin dozed off, a soft light formed near the balcony door and slowly grew in intensity. After a couple of minutes, the faint glow registered with Kevin enough that he opened one eye to see what was going on. When he sat up to investigate, he saw the vague outline of a man and woman standing side by side in the center of a shimmering oval of light. As he watched, the light grew stronger and the images sharpened.

  Even as a spirit, Yvonne had light brown hair and gentle brown eyes. The soft folds of her light blue robe caressed her slender figure and a small silver belt encircled her waist.

  Badec was handsome in a rugged sort of way, muscular and robust, with deep, intense eyes. He wore the tunic and sash of the office he had held during his life. His arm circled his wife’s waist in a proprietary manner.

  “Sorry to disturb you, son,” Badec said, “but we thought it necessary.”

  “That’s all right,” Kevin said with a yawn.

  “You’ve had quite a few busy days lately,” Yvonne said.

  Kevin nodded.

  “We won’t keep you long. We know you’re tired,” Badec said. “We just need to talk to you about that pendant.”

  “You mean the one that was stolen from Brena’s workroom?”

  “That’s right,” Badec answered.

  “If you find out who has them, you must not try to go after them yourself,” Yvonne said urgently.

  “Why not?”

  “You can’t defend against the dragon’s flame,” Badec said. “No one can. You have to let Glendymere handle it.”

  “If a human stole them, I have to take care of it, don’t I?”

  “It’s your responsibility, but that doesn’t mean that you have to recover them yourself,” Badec explained. “You can ask for help. Talk to Glendymere about it. I know he’ll say the same thing we’re saying. Let him handle it.”

  “He told me to let him know if we found out that one of the opals was missing. I was planning to go to Willow Canyon tomorrow morning to tell him. I’ll see what he says then.”

  “Good,” Yvonne said, nodd
ing.

  Kevin yawned again.

  “Well, we’ll let you get back to sleep, son,” Badec said as he took Yvonne’s hand. “Good night.”

  Before Kevin could say anything else, their forms began to blur as the light near the balcony faded into the dark. Kevin mumbled, “Good night,” and slipped back into sleep.

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  Saturday morning, Kevin and Chris went to Willow Canyon shortly after breakfast. Glendymere didn’t answer when Chris rang the gong, but a few minutes later, a shadow fell over the canyon. When Kevin looked up, he saw Glendymere circling overhead.

  “A few more minutes and I would have been gone,” Glendymere said as he settled back down on the floor of the canyon. “I wasn’t expecting you this morning.”

  “Sorry, but I thought you’d want to know as soon as we found out about the pendants.”

  “Are any missing?”

  Kevin nodded. “Only one, but I don’t have any idea who took it or why.”

  “When you find out, don’t try to go after it.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because you wouldn’t stand a chance against one of those pendants. They’ll even protect a person against a dragon’s magic.”

  “So they’ll be invincible?”

  “I didn’t say that. I just said magic wouldn’t work. I can get the opal back.”

  “How? If you can’t use magic or your flame, what else is there?” Kevin asked.

  “There are other ways,” Glendymere said. Then he sighed and added, “You really don’t want to know.”

  “Yes, I do,” Kevin insisted.

  Glendymere looked at Kevin for a moment and then quietly said, “The lungs will stop breathing. The heart will stop beating. The body will cease to function. The person will die. And then I’ll get my opal back.”

  “Oh,” Kevin murmured as he slowly released his breath.

  “Now, I have to go. Let me know when you find out where it is,” Glendymere said as he lifted off the ground and soared into the sky.

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  Sunday morning Theresa woke up feeling great. She’d been in Drisden for a week and had enjoyed every minute of it. Although it had been over a year since she’d last been here, everyone in town recognized her. She couldn’t remember ever having so many people make a fuss over her.

  And it didn’t hurt that a handsome young man accompanied her everywhere she went, opening doors for her, carrying her packages, and in general acting just like an attentive fiancé should. All of the women in town were half in love with Marcus already, and considered Theresa one of the luckiest women alive. The irony of the story was that she was probably the only one in town who knew that Marcus was falling in love with Hayley.

  Theresa got up, dressed, stepped out into the hall, and gently pulled the door to so that Hayley could sleep a little while longer. Since the door between the living quarters and the rest of the chapel was still shut, she figured Marcus and Harald were still asleep, too. She went into the kitchen to make some coffee and while she was waiting for the coffee to perk, she tried to think of some errand she could send Hayley on that would require Marcus’s presence, preferably an errand that would take long enough that a picnic lunch would be in order.

  A few minutes later, Harald walked into the kitchen. “Someone needs to take herbs to the farms today. We usually go on Saturday, but yesterday was pretty busy around here and I forgot about it.”

  “How many farms are you talking about, Harald?”

  “About twenty, ma’am.”

  “And that’s pretty much an all day job, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, ma’am. A lot of those women don’t get a chance to talk to any other womenfolk between visits, so Drusilla always sits and has tea with them.”

  Theresa chuckled. “I remember. I went with her one time while I was here last year. Do you know the route?”

  Harald nodded. “I always go with her and drive. She likes to write down notes about each family after she visits them.”

  “I guess we should plan to leave after breakfast. Will that be all right with you?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  While she fixed Harald some breakfast, Theresa nodded to herself. This would work out just as well. She was going to insist that Hayley stay at the chapel to handle any emergencies that came up while she was gone, and since there was only room for two people in the buggy, Marcus would have to stay with Hayley.

  By the time Theresa had finished cooking breakfast, Hayley and Marcus were both up and in the kitchen. She set the food on the table and they all sat down to eat.

  After Harald had finished and left the kitchen, Theresa said, “Harald and I will be gone most of the day delivering herbs to the outlying farms. Hayley, I want you to stay around the chapel to handle whatever comes in, and Marcus, I’d like for you to stay here with her.”

  Marcus shook his head. “My orders were to stay with you.”

  “Not exactly. Your orders were to protect the chapel and make sure that Hayley and I were both safe. I have a pendant. Hayley doesn’t. Of the two of us, she is definitely more at risk than I am.”

  Marcus mulled it over for a minute and then he said, “I don’t like it.”

  “I understand, but my first responsibility is to Drusilla’s patients. Look, the buggy only holds two people. I have to go, and Harald is the only one who knows the route. And yes, I know you could ride one of the horses, but I am not leaving Hayley here by herself.”

  Marcus still didn’t like it. He knew if anything happened to Theresa, Myron would blame him, no matter what. He looked at her but didn’t say anything.

  “Marcus, just stay here with Hayley and let me do my job.”

  “All right, but I want you to write a note stating that those were your orders,” Marcus growled.

  Theresa nearly laughed, but she choked it back and nodded. “I’ll leave it with you when I go.” Then she got up and said, “I hate to leave you two with the dishes, but I really do have to get ready to go.”

  While Theresa was getting the herbs together that she needed to take with her, Hayley walked into the workroom. “Why did you insist that Marcus stay with me? You know I’m not in any danger.”

  Theresa stopped what she was doing and looked long and hard at Hayley. “Do you like Marcus?”

  Hayley blushed to the roots of her hair. “I’m not sure what you mean. As far as I know, he’s nice enough but I don’t know him that well.”

  “Then consider this a chance to get to know him a little better.”

  “But the two of us? Here together all day? What in the world will we talk about?”

  “I don’t know. Ask him about his home, his family. Ask him if he likes being a sorcerer, what his plans are. Get him talking about himself and everything will probably take care of itself.”

  Hayley’s blush deepened. “I’ve never been alone with a man before. Not like this.”

  “Hayley, relax. It’s not like the two of you are courting. This is a chapel, and you are a chapel aide. Just treat him as a guest of the chapel. You’ve done it a hundred times.”

  Hayley squared her shoulders and nodded. “All right, if you insist, but I really do think it would be better if you took him with you and left me here by myself.”

  “Out of the question. Now I have to go. See you tonight,” Theresa said as she picked up the bags of herbs and headed out the door.

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  While Theresa was out visiting patients, Drusilla was in Brena’s room reading over Verna’s notes from the previous week. The low groan coming from the direction of the bed didn’t register at first, but a few seconds later it hit Drusilla that the sound was coming from Brena. She jumped up and rushed over to the bed.

  Brena’s head was tossing back and forth, her forehead was knotted up in a frown, and her breaths were coming in gasps. Drusilla put her hand on Brena’s shoulder and gently shook it. Brena’s eyes slowly opened, but they didn’t focus, and after a couple of seconds, her eyelids dropped, her
forehead cleared, she settled back against the pillow, and began breathing regularly again.

  Later that afternoon, the same thing happened again, only this time, Brena managed to mumble something about someone needing her. She rolled her shoulders around a little like she was trying to get up, but once again, after a couple of seconds, she sank back on the bed and slipped back into sleep.

  Drusilla felt sure that Brena was reliving the last few minutes before she was hit over the head. She must have heard something, assumed that it was one of her patients, and gotten up to go see what was wrong.

  Monday morning, Brena opened her eyes while Drusilla was wiping her face with a cool cloth. Her eyes traveled around the room for a couple of minutes and then focused on Drusilla. At first she looked puzzled, but then she frowned.

  “What are you doing here, Dru?” Brena asked as she tried to get up. “What’s going on?”

  “Shh,” Drusilla said as she gently pushed Brena’s shoulders back down. “Take it easy.”

  “Why? What happened?”

  “You got conked on the head,” Drusilla answered with a grin. “Good thing you have such a hard one.”

  Brena reached up and rubbed the top of her head, wincing when her fingers touched the lump. “How long have I been out?”

  “A little over a week.”

  “A week?!” Brena exclaimed as she tried once again to sit up.

  “Here,” Drusilla said as she grabbed a couple of pillows to prop Brena up. “Don’t try to get up yet. You’re too weak.”

  “Where’s Verna? Is she all right?”

  “She’s fine,” Drusilla assured her. “She’s taking care of the chapel.”

  Brena looked around her room, noticing the makeshift desk and the cot. “Who’s looking after yours?”

  “Theresa.”

  Brena frowned. “How?”

  “Myron took her up there when he came to get me. Don’t worry about it now. Just rest. I’m going to go get you some tea. Try to stay awake until I get back.”

  Brena nodded, and promptly fell asleep again.