Damsel Under Stress

by Shanna Swendson

  “I’ll have to check my calendar,” I replied with a coy smile.

  We got our coats at his lab, then headed out, taking the subway uptown to Times Square. From there, we headed over to Fifth Avenue and walked up a block or so. I spotted the store at the right address across the avenue from us right away. It wasn’t nearly as splashy or impressive as the ads would have had us believe. Instead, it was in a narrow old building that didn’t seem to have seen much remodeling. Then I realized that was the way I saw it. “What does it look like to you?” I asked Owen.

  He shrugged. “A store. Too much neon for my taste. The strobe light might not be such a great idea. Just looking at the store gives me a headache.”

  “It seems like we’ve found one place he’s cut corners. To me, this isn’t too different from those ten-dollar clothing stores downtown.”

  “Maybe we should get a better look,” he suggested, taking my arm and heading toward the nearest crosswalk.

  But then I saw someone standing on the other side of the avenue—someone wearing what looked suspiciously like a flamingo-pink 1980s prom dress with her tarnished tiara. I couldn’t see the back of her dress, but I’d have bet a week’s pay that there was a big bow on the butt. Ethelinda waved her wand at me, and I immediately tugged on Owen’s arm. “Let’s get lunch first. Then we can catch the store on our way back.”

  “Okay. There are a lot of places for lunch back toward Times Square.”

  We hadn’t made it half a block before I saw another familiar face, and this time it was someone I’d been looking for rather than someone I was trying to avoid. A fairy with curly blond hair wove her way through the crowds on the sidewalk across the street from us. I gripped Owen’s arm. “Don’t make any sudden moves, but Ari’s across the street from us.”

  He kept walking but slowed his pace ever so slightly as he cast his eyes in that direction. “I don’t see her, but she’s probably disguised. Let’s follow her and see where she goes.”

  “But won’t she see us?”

  “Two can play that game. Stick to me and she won’t see a thing.” With that, he reversed direction and took off. “Tell me which way she turns.”

  It was a challenge keeping up with Owen’s brisk pace while not taking my eyes off Ari. I’d expected her to head straight to the store, but she turned in the opposite direction. I tugged on his arm to steer him the right way, feeling kind of like Rocky telling Rollo when to brake or hit the gas. “Do you think she might be heading to their secret headquarters?” I asked.

  “We can only hope. Is she the one making a rude gesture at that cab she just stepped out in front of?”

  “Yeah, that would be our girl.”

  “Okay, then, I’ve got her in my sights, too.”

  And that was a good thing, because I then spotted Ethelinda heading toward us, and it was all I could do to keep track of both of them. I wasn’t sure how I could manage to avoid a fairy godmother while tracking an evil fairy. Fortunately, Ethelinda didn’t seem to have much interest in contacting me. She just seemed to be following and watching, which meant she must have been able to see us. I supposed Owen was targeting his spell strictly to Ari. That made sense. You could get trampled walking down a crowded city sidewalk when you were visible. Going totally invisible would have been practically suicidal.

  “Looks like she’s heading to Grand Central,” Owen remarked, speeding his pace.

  “Maybe their secret headquarters is out of town. That would explain why we’ve been having trouble finding them.”

  “Somehow, I have trouble imagining a magic spell with ‘Made in Yonkers’ on the label.”

  “That’s why it’s such a brilliant hiding place.”

  “Okay, she’s definitely going into the station.” He picked up his pace, which put me at almost a run. “We’ll have to get closer because it’ll be easier for her to lose us in there, even if she doesn’t know we’re following.”

  And he was right. In the cavernous main concourse, there were too many people moving in too many different directions with no clear-cut pathways for it to be easy to track any one person. Fortunately, there weren’t that many people with wings, which made it a little easier for me. I wasn’t sure how Owen was doing it, unless he’d locked in on the sense of her magic or was using his precognitive abilities to anticipate her moves. Meanwhile, I completely lost track of Ethelinda. Even in Grand Central Station, I should have been able to spot a fairy godmother wearing a bad 1980s prom dress.

  Ari headed down one of the side passageways that lead toward both tracks and retail shops. I’d be really annoyed if she was just going to a bookstore after we went to all that effort to follow her, but she turned in the opposite direction, which seemed to lead to train tracks. I lost sight of her for a split second, then Owen pulled my arm. “Come on, this way,” he said.

  “Are you sure? I thought I saw her turning the other way.”

  “No, she went right down toward this platform.”

  As he pulled me in that direction, I looked back over my shoulder, but I didn’t see any wings, so I gave in and followed him. He was probably right. Except, there was no train waiting at either of the tracks along the platform we were on. “She kept on going. See, there she is ahead.”

  “I don’t see anything.” Or did I? There was a hint of movement at the far end of the platform. “Are we supposed to be down here?”

  “Relax, I fixed it so nobody can see us. We won’t get in trouble.”

  We reached the end of the platform, and he stepped off onto the ground below, pausing to help me down. At this point, there were only the dimmest of lights. I supposed that was good because the bright light of an oncoming train wasn’t what we wanted to see. The tracks led into a cavelike area where railroad supplies were stacked up against brick pillars. It was all very spooky. I halfway expected to come upon a candlelit underground lake with the Phantom of the Opera rowing himself across while singing love songs to a spellbound soprano.

  By this time, we were well away from the tracks, and it was extremely dark, without even a few safety lights. Owen created a small, glowing sphere that hung in the air above his hand. It worked to guide his way, but it left me almost blind. I was glad he’d recognized Ari because I now couldn’t see a thing.

  I could hear something, though, and it didn’t sound like a disgruntled fairy giving the secret password to the hidden headquarters. It was more like a roar that echoed through the cavern. The roar was followed by a burst of sulfur-scented flame that shot straight toward us.

  “Uh-oh,” Owen said just before he doused his light and pulled me out of the flame’s path.

  Twelve

  T he flame exposed far more detail than I really wanted to see: scaly skin, yellow eyes, and sharp, pointy teeth. I’ve never thought of myself as a shrinking violet or damsel in distress looking for a knight in shining armor to rescue me, but I couldn’t stop myself from screaming and clinging to Owen. I figured I got a free pass on any girly behavior when it came to real, live dragons. And that’s exactly what seemed to be facing us in this cavern. There were several of them, all looking like something out of a scary movie, complete with ugly horned heads, leathery wings, and spiked tails.

  Owen angled himself to shield me while he raised his right hand, deflecting the next burst of flame and sending it to hover in a ball of fire just below the ceiling. Although Owen was reacting calmly and logically, especially considering the circumstances, when I looked at his face, I saw that he looked more unnerved than I’d ever seen him.

  Dragons didn’t seem to be all that bright, which was lucky for us. They were sidetracked by the ball of flame and didn’t appear to understand what had happened. That bought us some time. One of the beasts was between us and the only way out we knew of, but there was a niche in a crumbling brick wall that offered a small degree of shelter. Owen shoved me into the back of the niche, then hid just inside it, shielding me.

  I hoped he knew what he was doing, because those monsters were t
ruly terrifying, and there were more of them than I’d initially realized. We must have stumbled into a nest—assuming dragons lived in nests—which wasn’t the sort of thing I expected to find under Grand Central. They kept roaring and breathing fire at us, and Owen kept deflecting the flames. I knew he was pretty powerful and he could probably keep doing that all day, but we needed to get out of there eventually if we were going to survive this. If nothing else, food and water might become an issue. For us, not the dragons. If they caught us, they’d have food taken care of, and I didn’t know if they needed water.

  “I thought the dragons in the sewer system were an urban legend,” Owen remarked as he deflected yet another burst of flame. By this point, there were enough fireballs hanging in the air to make this underground cavern look like a July afternoon in Texas. The first ones were dissipating in a shower of sparks.

  “I thought it was alligators in the sewer system,” I said, wincing and flinching at the next dragon attack. Eventually they were going to give up on the flames and go to Plan B, which would probably involve eating us without cooking us first.

  “That’s the cover story,” Owen said.

  “Oh. But this isn’t the sewer system, is it?”

  “If you were that powerful, would you stay in the sewers for long, or would you find another place to stay? I’m sure there’s a hole in a sewer tunnel somewhere that leads into one of these forgotten railway tunnels.”

  “Good point.” I tried to think of some way I could help. “Need me to throw a rock or two at them?” I felt I might as well fall back on my known strengths.

  “No, thanks. Right now, I think they’re guessing where we are, based on smell. I haven’t dropped the invisibility spell. I’m varying the angles on my deflections, but a rock might help them pinpoint us.”

  “Okay, then, no rocks. Us talking might not be such a great idea, then, huh?”

  “I doubt they can hear us over their own roaring, and sound bounces around in here. But yeah, we might want to limit conversation.”

  I supposed the situation could have been kind of romantic, in a bizarre way, what with my dashing hero rescuing me from the terrible dragons and all, but I doubted it would get too romantic until we were safely out of there. And then we’d both need a good shower before we’d want to go anywhere near each other for the dramatic “thank goodness you’re okay” scene. I could tell my hair already reeked of smoke.

  Soon, the dragons got a clue, which wasn’t a good sign for us. The head dragon swiped the air with one giant clawed foot, like it was looking for the hidden intruders. “Not that I’m ungrateful for you deflecting the flames,” I said as that foot got closer and closer to us, “but we probably ought to come up with a plan to get out of here. Maybe you could create a diversion, or something.”

  “I’m open to suggestions,” he said, sending away another burst of flame that came close enough that I could have used it to toast marshmallows.

  “The diversion was my suggestion.”

  “If you come up with any specifics beyond throwing a rock, feel free to share.”

  If this had been one of those movies about a dragonslayer hero rescuing a damsel in distress, we’d have been kissing and expressing our true feelings toward each other about now, fearing that we were about to die and not wanting our love to go unspoken. Instead, we were practically bickering, and we’d never had anything close to a fight before. I tried to tell myself that this was actually a healthy sign in the growth of our relationship because it meant we trusted each other enough to say what we really felt. No matter how cute I thought Owen was, sweet nothings were not at the top of my mind at this particular moment.

  “The one blocking the exit seems to be the problem,” I pointed out. “If you could zap it, or whatever it is you do, that might help. We could sneak past the others and get away.”

  “I’m not sure I know a spell acute enough to get through a dragon’s scales to kill it—not off the top of my head—but that does give me an idea,” he said, never taking his eyes off the lead dragon, which was now sniffing along the ground like a bloodhound in a disturbingly accurate path following where we’d been. It wouldn’t be long before it found us.

  “I’m all ears,” I said.

  “It’s a spell that might help, but I haven’t tried it on dragons. Or, well, really tried it in the real world. It’s just a theory. It may or may not work, and it could possibly backfire.”

  “I’m immune to magic. I’m okay with backfiring.”

  “It could make them angrier.”

  “Still not seeing how that makes our situation much worse. Trapped by angry dragons versus trapped by angrier dragons. There’s not a significant difference.”

  “Okay, then. Be ready to react.”

  “React how?”

  “I’m not sure. Maybe run. Or duck. This might be a good time to be ready to throw something. I’m going to have to lift the invisibility spell to do this because I don’t have the power to do both at the same time and be sure it will work.”

  I knelt to pick up a brick and hefted it in my right hand. “Okay, I’m set. Go for it.”

  He raised both hands over his head and shouted some strange words in a louder voice than I’d ever heard him use. In the underground chamber, his words echoed and rang. With his arms raised, silhouetted against the dragons’ unearthly flames, he truly looked the part of the powerful wizard. Suddenly, the dragons stopped shooting fire. They also stopped roaring and snarling. Instead they…whimpered?

  The one in front even seemed to be wagging its tail, which was almost as dangerous as when it had been waving its claw. It lowered its head to the ground in a submissive posture, and if I wasn’t mistaken, it was giving Owen puppy-dog eyes. In fact, it looked for all the world like a puppy begging its master to throw a stick for it to fetch.

  “Was this what was supposed to happen?” I asked.

  “I wasn’t entirely sure what was supposed to happen,” he admitted.

  “Now you tell me.”

  “I did say it was untested.”

  “So, this is how you get Jake to follow your orders,” I teased.

  “You know, I’ve never thought of trying that.” He paused, tilted his head, and grinned at the thought. “But actually, I was expecting it to subdue them, maybe even put them to sleep. I must have done something wrong. But they do seem to have become friendly enough. Want to try getting out of here?”

  “I’m more than ready.”

  He took my hand, and together we edged our way around the chamber. The lead dragon whimpered again and moved as though to follow us. “I think it wants you to play fetch,” I said.

  “That is what it looks like.” He raised his free hand and sent one of the railroad ties lying in a rotting pile in one corner flying across the chamber. The dragons all turned and happily chased it. We took advantage of the distraction to run toward the exit, but next thing we knew, there was a “thud” on the ground behind us. We turned to see a railroad tie lying there, covered in dragon slime, with a dragon sitting expectantly behind it. “Uh, good boy,” Owen said before sending the tie flying again.

  We managed to run a few more yards and even out of the chamber before the dragon brought its stick back to us. This time, Owen sent several of the railroad ties flying in different directions. That gave us a little extra time, as the dragons all collided while they ran after their sticks. We were just through the doorway out of the next chamber and into a narrower passageway when the dragons happily brought their sticks back to Owen, dropping them just inside the doorway.

  The passageway was too small for the dragons to enter, so we were safe. The last thing I expected to hear as we escaped, though, was a mournful whimper. The sound was so sad it brought Owen up short. He turned around. “Stay. Be good,” he told the dragons, who were shoving one another out of the way so they could each see him through the doorway. They settled down, resting their heads on their forearms and looking very much like Arawn had when he lay at the bottom
of the stairs, waiting for Owen to come down. “We’ll play again some other time,” Owen told the dragons, looking rather guilty.

  “You really do have a way with pets, don’t you?” I said as we hurried back to the tunnel that would take us into the train station. “But I bet you won’t feed those guys from the dinner table.”

  “Loony might get jealous, and I’d give her pretty good odds against them.”

  “You’re not really going to go back and play with them, are you?”

  “I might. I feel bad taming them that way and then leaving them lonely. Besides, you never know when a nest of friendly dragons might come in handy.”

  “I wonder if you could break any of them to a saddle so you could fly on them,” I said, remembering a book I’d once read about people who rode dragons as a form of transportation. I’d always thought that sounded kind of cool.

  “I imagine we’d first have to teach them to fly. These dragons seem to have never left the underground. Their wings might even be atrophied.” When we reached the train platform—with no trains on either track, thank goodness—he said, “Don’t worry, we’re invisible again, and I think we’d better stay that way until we get home, considering the way we look.” In the brighter light, I could see that his face and clothes were streaked with black soot. I probably didn’t look much better. Neither of us smelled all that fresh, between the sweat, the soot, the dust from the tunnels, and the dragons’ sulfur scent. In the New York subway system, our odor would probably blend in with all the other smells.

  We slipped through the terminal, leaving traces of sooty footprints behind us, then made our way into the subway station to catch a downtown train. Nobody seemed to notice the turnstiles that turned on their own as we passed invisibly through them. I wasn’t sure if the invisibility spell covered talking or not, so I didn’t try to make conversation with Owen. He nodded at me and got up one station before Union Square. I guessed that meant we were going to his place to clean up.

  Sure enough, once we’d made our way to a nearly empty sidewalk near Gramercy Park, he said, “I assume you’ll want to clean up a bit before going home.”