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

by Morgan, Mackenzie

  “I have no intention of taking it away from you. You’re going to give it to me.”

  “And why would I do that?” Rolan scoffed.

  “Because you’re not prepared to die,” Kevin said matter-of-factly.

  “Die? And just how do you suppose that would happen?” Rolan asked with a snort as he sat down.

  “Glendymere would see to it. He says that the opal you stole is his, and that that gives him the right to take it back, off of your dead body if need be, and he’s right.”

  Rolan drummed on the desk with his fingertips for a moment while he glared at Kevin. “And how does he presume to do that? If I am wearing a sister’s pendant, there’s nothing he can do to harm me. The pendant would kill him.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. The pendant cannot harm him. It’s his flame,” Kevin said in a voice as cold as ice. He took a step towards Rolan’s desk, put his hands on the edge, and leaned slightly towards Rolan. “When I asked him what he planned to do when we found out who had his opal, he said that he would cause the thief’s heart to stop beating and his lungs to stop breathing, and then, when the thief ceased to live, he would remove the pendant from the thief’s neck, right before he reduced the body to ashes.”

  Kevin straightened up, but he kept his fingertips on the edge of the desk. He gave his words a moment to sink in. He saw a little of the arrogance leave Rolan’s eyes and a little of the color fade from his cheeks. “Do not make the mistake of underestimating him, Rolan. His magic is only a small part of his power.”

  Rolan puffed himself back up and asked, “Then why are you here? Why didn’t he come himself?”

  “He wanted to, but I convinced him that this is a human problem and that I should be the one to handle it. He knows I’m here, but he’s given me a time limit. If I’m not back with the pendant by the time he said, he’s coming after it himself, and I won’t be able to stop him. I won’t even try at that point,” Kevin said. Then he added, “Personally, it would be fine with me to let him take care of getting his pendant back himself, but I feel like I have to give you the chance to return it. That’s the only reason I’m here, and the offer’s only good for a very short period of time.”

  “What about the lamp?” Rolan asked as he started drumming his fingertips again. “Why haven’t you demanded that?”

  Kevin leaned back a little and shrugged. “Without a pendant, it’s useless. Keep it as a souvenir for all I care.”

  Rolan studied Kevin for a few minutes, thinking about what he had said. He could give Myron the pendant around his neck, no problem. He still had the spare in his closet. Apparently, they hadn’t connected him with Gerry yet. They had no idea that he had a spare or they would have demanded the lamp, too. If he gave Myron the opal he was wearing, no one would be looking for another one. His plans would still work. In fact, they would work even better.

  “He’s falling for it,” Dani told Kevin. “Keep the pressure on.”

  “It’s decision time, Rolan,” Kevin said. “I’m on a deadline here. I don’t have time to play forty questions with you. Give me the pendant or give it to Glendymere. Your decision.”

  Rolan sighed deeply as if Kevin had won. “All right, all right,” he said as he slowly pulled the pendant out from under his tunic and pulled the chain off over his head. Here.” Rolan held the pendant out for Kevin to take. The flame inside the opal was already dimming. “I haven’t been able to figure out how to make the thing work anyway. No one’s threatened me since I put it on.”

  Kevin closed his fingers around the pendant and held it tightly. “I have a message for you. Glendymere told me to tell you that if you ever steal anything from him again, no matter what, no matter when, he will come after it himself, and that you will not survive the encounter.”

  Rolan flipped his hair back and stared at Kevin for a minute. “He can’t do anything to me. It would be a violation of the Federation Rules.”

  Kevin grinned. “No, it wouldn’t. Remember, he wrote those rules, and he phrases things very carefully.”

  Rolan snarled and slammed his fist down on his desk and screeched, “Get out of here! And don’t you ever come to my castle again! Now go! While you still can!”

  Kevin nodded and took out his key. “Until next time.” He waited a second for Dani to touch his leg, but he didn’t feel anything, so he asked “Dani?” in his mind.

  “Go on. We’ll be along in a minute. Merdin wants to see what happens next.”

  “All right, but be careful,” Kevin said as he turned his key and vanished.

  Rolan waited a couple of seconds to be sure that Kevin was gone. Then he burst out laughing. “I can’t believe he fell for it. That stupid, arrogant, … I’ll get him before the week is out. We’ll see what his precious Glendymere does then.”

  Rolan was still snickering as he opened his office door. His page stepped up to see what he needed. Rolan shook his head and said, “I’m going back to my quarters. Do not disturb me again today, no matter who shows up, or you won’t live to see tomorrow. Do you understand me?!”

  “Y … yes, sir,” the young page whimpered.

  Dani and King Merdin followed as Rolan walked down the hall to his bedroom with a definite spring in his step. As he approached his room, the guard opened the door for him. While he was standing in the doorway, Rolan told his guard to send someone to the kitchen and tell them that he wanted his breakfast in half an hour, but other than that, he was not to be disturbed.

  Meanwhile, Dani and King Merdin slipped through the door and ran over towards the fireplace.

  As soon as Rolan closed his bedroom door, he stepped over to the closet and started removing the ward. Once he had the ward off the door, he slowly opened it.

  At first, all he could do was stare at the empty shelf. Then he clenched his fists, shook them at the ceiling and screamed, “Aaargh!’’ After a moment, he slowly sank to his knees, shaking his head back and forth and beating the floor with his fist as he moaned, “No, no, no.” Tears of frustration began to flow down his cheeks.

  A few moments later, Rolan looked up towards the shelf again and bellowed, “I’ll kill him. If it’s the last thing I do on Terah, I’ll kill him. He is a dead man even as I speak.”

  Then he jerked back up to his feet, slammed his fists into the wall, and energy bolts started flying haphazardly around the room. One of the bolts hit the cabinet in the closet, shattering it and throwing fiery pieces of wood and red-hot bits of metal at the walls and floor of the closet.

  Another bolt hit the chest of drawers on the other side of the room, showering the whole room in burning bits of wood and clothing, which ignited the bedclothes and curtains.

  When a third hit the couch, reducing it to ashes and shattering the coffee table, King Merdin grabbed Dani by the leg, turned the key, and took them both back to Glendymere’s cave in Willow Canyon.

  The explosions had vibrated throughout the castle and the smell of smoke permeated the air in a matter of seconds. Captain Yardner was rounding the turn into Rolan’s hall just as the guard opened Rolan’s bedroom door to see what was going on. A fourth bolt hit the door, blasting it to smithereens and reducing the guard to a pile of ashes. Captain Yardner screeched to a halt and stared at the shambles that had once been Rolan’s bedroom, and at the ashes that had been one of his guards only moments before.

  As Rolan’s temper finally began to burn itself out, the bolts stopped flying. He looked around at the mess, turned up his nose, and stepped through the empty doorframe. “Find a new guard for my door. The old one’s been fired,” Rolan growled to no one in particular as he stepped over the little pile of ashes in the middle of the doorway. “And I’ll need a new door, too.”

  Then Rolan walked down the hall to one of the guest rooms and opened the door. “I’m going to stay in here this morning. Have my breakfast delivered here,” he snarled as he stepped into the guest room. “And see to it that my room is thoroughly cleaned. I want to be back in there by lunchtime, so tel
l them to get a move on.” Rolan turned away from the door and slammed it shut behind him.

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  While King Merdin and Dani were dodging energy bolts, Kevin was pacing back and forth. Glendymere was lying against the back wall, patiently watching Kevin. Chris had collapsed next to Glendymere. He had done his pacing while waiting for Kevin to return and was too tired to pace any more.

  “Where are they? What if something’s happened to them?” Kevin asked for what felt like the hundredth time. “Should I go back and see what’s going on?”

  “Give them a few more minutes,” Glendymere said with a yawn. “Merdin knows what he’s doing. So does Dani. They’ll be here.”

  Kevin shook his head and picked up his pace.

  “Sit down. You’re making me tired. Or at least stand still.”

  A shimmer of light caught Kevin’s attention, and as he watched, King Merdin and Dani materialized.

  “That man’s crazy, and he’s dangerous,” King Merdin said. “You should have seen it when he opened that closet. He screamed, dropped to his knees, and beat on the floor, like a two-year old. And his temper tantrum didn’t stop there. When he stood back up, energy bolts started flying around, and the worst part of it was that he didn’t decide to throw them. It just happened.” Then he shook his head and continued, “Myron, you need to watch out. He vowed that he’d see you dead if it was the last thing he ever did.”

  Kevin shrugged. “Well, at least he’s consistent.”

  “And this is the man you wouldn’t let me take care of?” Glendymere asked with a raised eyebrow. “One of us is going to have to kill him one day, you know. Better me than you.”

  Chris looked at Kevin, but Kevin didn’t say anything. He hadn’t told Glendymere anything about the vision he’d had about Rolan and Landis facing off.

  “At least neither of you got hurt,” Kevin said to King Merdin.

  “When the bolts started flying, we left. I don’t know what happened next. He may have destroyed the whole castle for all we know.”

  “We should be so lucky,” Chris said as he slowly stood up and stretched.

  “I guess we’d better be getting back before anyone notices that we’re not there and sends out an alarm,” Kevin said.

  “Are you going to take the lamp and pendants back to Brena?” Glendymere asked.

  Kevin nodded. He pulled out the pendant he had in his pocket and looked at it. “Funny, they don’t look dangerous,” he mumbled. Then he said a little louder, “Chris, have you got the other one?”

  Chris handed the second pendant to Kevin. Then he picked up the lamp.

  “Well, if there’s nothing else, I think we’ll be on our way,” Kevin said. “Thanks again, King Merdin. I couldn’t have done it without your help. And thank you, too, Dani.”

  “You’re welcome,” King Merdin said. “Anytime. Keep the chimes. If you ever need the help of a gnome again, just hang them on your balcony. We’ll come.”

  Kevin nodded. “Thanks. See you soon.”

  Chris put his hand on Kevin’s arm and the two of them left.

  “Your boy did a good job,” King Merdin said.

  Glendymere nodded. “Dani, thanks for keeping an eye on things in there for me.”

  “I was glad to do it. I didn’t want to see him come to any harm either.”

  “Does Myron know that Dani could have put Rolan in a deep sleep?” King Merdin asked. “And that he had orders to do it if Rolan decided to attack?”

  Glendymere shook his head. “No, and I don’t think we need to tell him about it either. I don’t think any of the humans realize that telepaths can do that. Let’s just keep it our little secret for now.”

  King Merdin nodded.

  “I couldn’t let him go in completely unprotected, especially with Rolan wearing one of my pendants. The important thing is that he thinks he did, and so does Rolan.”

  “I agree,” King Merdin said. “Maybe Rolan will think twice about going up against Myron now.”

  “I doubt it, but one can always hope.”

  “Well, guess we’d better be on our way. Dani, ready to go?” King Merdin asked.

  Dani placed a paw on King Merdin’s arm and purred. King Merdin turned his key and they both vanished.

  Glendymere slowly unwound, stood up, and went back to his chamber for a nap.

  Chapter 46

  Aftermath

  When Kevin and Chris arrived in Timera Valley, it was only mid-morning, although they both felt like it should be late afternoon. Kevin stepped up to the chapel door and knocked. A few minutes later, Verna opened the door.

  “Hello, Verna,” Kevin said with a smile. “We’d like to see Brena for a minute if she’s not too busy.”

  “Of course,” Verna said as she moved aside so that they could come in. As soon as Kevin stepped inside, she saw Chris, and the lamp he was carrying. “Brena!” she called out. “Come quick! They’ve got the lamp!”

  A few seconds later, Brena came running down the hall from the direction of her workroom, wiping her hands on her apron as she ran. When she saw the lamp, a smile broke out across her face that spread to her tear-moistened eyes.

  “I can’t believe it,” she said as she reached for the lamp. “I thought I’d never see it again. You found it. Oh, thank you. Thank you,” she said with tears running down her cheeks, her eyes never leaving the lamp. “Now, let’s get this back where it belongs.” She turned around and carried the lamp towards her workroom. “Come along, Myron. You, too, Chris,” she said over her shoulder as she walked. “Verna, would you fix a tray please? Bring it to my workroom when you have it ready. We’ll be in there.”

  When they reached the workroom, Brena carefully set the lamp on her workbench next to the closet. She opened the closet door and took the other lamp out, the one that Glendymere had sent as a replacement. “What do you want me to do with this one?”

  “I’ll take it back to Glendymere,” Kevin said.

  “Good,” Brena said as she set it on the workbench next to the cherished three-tiered lamp. Then she picked up the lamp that the Sisterhood had been using for over five hundred years and gently set it on its shelf inside the closet.

  Before she could close the door, Kevin said, “Wait a minute. You’ll need to put these up, too.” He took the two pendants out of his pocket and handed them to her.

  Brena fingered the two pendants for a couple of moments, softly caressing the black opals in the center. Fresh tears filled her eyes. When she looked up at Kevin, two tears spilled over and ran slowly down her cheeks.

  “Gerry’s dead then?” she asked quietly.

  Kevin nodded.

  Brena opened a small drawer in a chest at the back of the closet and tenderly placed the two pendants among the others. Then she shut the drawer, stepped back out of the closet, and put her hand on the side of the closet door.

  As Brena slowly shut the door, Kevin said, “I can’t give you all the details, but Gerry died trying to return the lamp to the Sisterhood.”

  Brena nodded as more tears meandered down her cheeks. “Thank you,” she whispered. Then a couple of minutes later, she asked, “Do you think she was involved in your father’s death?”

  Kevin hesitated and then he nodded his head one time. “I’m pretty sure she supplied the Sleeping Angel, but I don’t think she knew what it was going to be used for.”

  Brena looked at Kevin and said, “I’m so sorry.”

  Kevin shook his head. “Not your fault, not in any way. She just put her faith in the wrong person, Brena. You couldn’t have prevented it.”

  “She always was a little bit reckless,” she said with a hitch in her voice.

  “Don’t worry about it. It’s over now.”

  “The other person. The one Gerry trusted. Who was it? What happened to him?”

  “I’m sorry, but it’s best that you not know.”

  Brena nodded slowly. “A seated sorcerer. I suspected as much when we found out that a key was involved. Yes, i
t’s probably better that I not know.” A weak smile made its way across Brena’s face. “Well, at least our lamp and pendants are back home again. We can never thank you enough, Myron.”

  “It was my pleasure,” Kevin said with a slight bow.

  Then Brena cleared her throat and asked, “Can you let Drusilla know? I hate to put anything in writing about any of this. I’m always afraid my letters will fall into the wrong hands.”

  “I know what you mean. Chris and I’ll go to Drisden and let her know what happened.”

  “Thank you.”

  At that moment, Verna walked in with a tray laden down with four mugs of coffee, a plate of muffins, some cheese, some fruit, and a couple of small tarts. “I wasn’t sure what you might want to eat, so I brought a little of everything.”

  Brena laughed as she handed out the coffee mugs. “Help yourself. I’m stuffed from breakfast.”

  “Umm, don’t mind if I do,” Chris said as he picked up a muffin.

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  Half an hour later, Kevin and Chris were back in Kevin’s office. Chris set the spare dragon’s flame lamp on Kevin’s desk and collapsed into one of the armchairs.

  “I don’t know about you, but I’m wiped out,” Chris said with a deep sigh. “What a day! And it’s not even lunchtime yet.” He settled back in the chair and stretched his legs out in front of him as far as they would go. Then he suddenly jerked upright and started fishing around his neck for his chain. “Before I forget, here.” Chris pulled his chain off over his head and took the key to the Gate Between the Worlds off. “Glad I didn’t get a chance to use it,” he said with a wide grin as he handed it to Kevin.

  Kevin chuckled as he took the key and put it back on his chain. “Same here.”

  “Do you think it’s over? With Rolan, I mean.”

  “No. It won’t be over until one of us is dead, but I imagine we’ll have a little bit of a lull while he comes up with a new plan.”

  “You’re probably right,” Chris said with another sigh. “By the way, what you said to Brena. That was nice.”