“I can’t believe that you would do something like that,” Sunny said, wiping away her tears of laughter.
“Why not?” Clint asked, chuckling a little bit himself. “I don’t seem like the fake cop type?”
“It’s just that you seem so straight-laced and proper. I have a hard time imagining you running around like a hooligan and pulling people over with a bullhorn.”
“Never underestimate the stupidity of a group of teenage boys with too much time on their hands and no adult supervision,” Clint said. “Besides, I’m not as straight laced as you think,”
Sunny was about to argue with that statement, but Clint’s face had suddenly turned serious.
“I just have a lot on my plate right now. Not much time for fun.” His voice sounded wistful.
Sunny chewed her lip, wondering if she should press him for details. He seemed like a very private person, but he had opened up a little bit tonight. Maybe she could get a bit more out of him. “Busy at work?”
He grunted in response.
Sunny almost gave up, but then figured she didn’t have anything to lose. The worst he could do was shut down her inquiries. She knew what it was like to want to keep secrets, and she wouldn’t be offended if he didn’t want to talk to her. She understood that sometimes there were things you just couldn’t tell.
“You work at the Dragon Utilization Department, right?”
Another grunt.
“What do you do there?”
He didn’t make any sounds, not even a grunt, for several long moments. Just when Sunny thought he wasn’t going to answer her at all, he finally spoke up.
“I’m responsible for the team that works with the Dragon Recovery Bureau to try to bring more dragons to live in Torch Lake. Business is not so good at the moment.”
“Oh.” Sunny had heard plenty of rumors about the struggles that Torch Lake was having with recruiting dragons. The city had no shortage of cash, and frequently offered huge financial incentives to dragons to move here. But they still hadn’t been able to get any new dragons for quite some time. “I bet that’s a stressful job.”
“It is. And I should be getting some sleep now instead of drinking way too many beers.”
Clint stood up. Her cue that their impromptu pizza party was over. Sunny felt the disappointment wash over her in waves. She had wanted this night to last forever, and not just because Clint was impossibly handsome, and yes, what girl wouldn’t fall for a dragon? It was more than that. She’d felt happy and relaxed for perhaps the first time since she’d left her clan in a hurry all those years ago.
Clint was already gathering up the pizza box and paper plates, though, and Sunny knew better than to overstay her welcome. She stood as well, and put on a bright smile. “Thanks for the pizza. How much do I owe you? I can swing by with some cash tomorrow.”
Clint waved her away. “Don’t worry about it. I got it.”
Sunny thought about politely protesting, but she was too relieved to say anything else. Her bank account balance was hovering just above zero, and she wouldn’t get a paycheck from the Bewitched Bean for three weeks. She’d have to live off of her cash tips until then, which meant she was probably going to be eating a lot of Ramen noodles. Wizards weren’t exactly the most generous of tippers.
“Thanks. Good night, then,” she said. Clint grunted in response, and Sunny turned to walk home feeling somewhat dejected. Whatever wall he’d built around his heart had come down for a brief moment tonight, but the wall was back up now. Sunny felt disappointed, but she told herself it was for the best. Yes, he was an attractive man, but did she really want to get into some sort of relationship with him? She needed to keep her secrets, too.
She went back into her small house with Mocha trailing along behind her. It was late, but she didn’t think she’d be able to sleep yet. Her brain was swirling in too many different directions. So she went to the pile of boxes in her living room and sifted through them until she came to one labeled “Eagle Thicket.”
Slowly, almost reverently, Sunny opened the box. This small box was all she had left of her old life back in Eagle Thicket. It held the few things she’d taken with her when her old High Council had sent her into hiding. She wiped a few tears from her eyes as she pulled out a picture of her parents and younger brother, all of whom had never been heard from again after the fire. She sniffed at a dry flower that was pressed between the pages of an old novel. The novel was nothing special. She’d been reading the book the day she’d been sent away, so she’d brought it with her to help pass time while she was holed up in her secret hideout. But the flower was precious to her. It was a wildflower she’d picked from the city garden to use as a bookmark. Now, it had dried out between the pages of her book—a tiny, preserved memory of the place she had lived before the war. The place she had loved with all her heart and would never see again.
Sunny set the book aside and dug deeper, pulling out a book from the Academy of Ancient Magic. The book was an exhaustive encyclopedia of ancient magic spells. Barnabas, the Head Wizard of the Academy, had given it to her right before she left, telling her to guard it carefully.
“You never know when you might need to use one of these spells,” he’d said, his wrinkled, leathered hands shaking as he handed it over to her. Now, as far as Sunny knew, this was the last complete ancient magic encyclopedia in existence in the world.
A pang of guilt struck her. She should show the book to Torch Lake’s High Council. She knew they’d be interested in it. They might even try to start an ancient magic academy here, with her as some sort of teacher. They would tell Sunny she had an obligation to pass her knowledge on to future generations of wizards, and they would be right about that. But she couldn’t bear to think about ancient magic. Not when it had been the reason her clan had been obliterated so violently during the War. The dark wizards had wanted the ancient magic spells forgotten. The spells were too powerful, and could do too much to hold back evil.
But the spells were not foolproof. They had not protected Sunny’s family, Barnabas, or her friends. And Sunny would not live her life in fear of being sought out and harassed, harmed, or hurt. Worse, she would not live her life in fear of anyone close to her being harassed or hurt. Not that there was anyone close to her right now, but you never knew when friends or romance might enter your life. Sunny wasn’t going to take a chance on dragging someone else into her mess.
No, the secrets of ancient magic would probably die with her. And maybe it was better that way. After all, the spells were powerful. And power often corrupts. Sunny set aside the book and reached into the box for the last item, an old, worn-out t-shirt. The t-shirt was a bright blue in color, with a white logo on the front from the Eagle Thicket’s Academy of Ancient Magic. It had been a throwaway t-shirt before her clan’s destruction—the kind of thing you wore to mow the lawn or work out in. Now, it was one of Sunny’s most treasured possessions. Just like the dried flower, it represented a small bit of everything she had lost.
Sunny couldn’t take any more of the sadness tonight. She pushed the box away and decided to go do something useful, like unpacking her kitchen. She didn’t have a lot of stuff, so if she worked at it she might even be able to get everything put away tonight. Sunny soon lost herself in the task of sorting dishes and flatware, and she even managed to hum a little as she worked. By the time Sunny fell, exhausted, into her bed, it was nearly four a.m. She was too tired to change back into pajamas, or to try to find the comforter that she still hadn’t unpacked. She just lay down on the bare mattress and drifted off into a deep, deep sleep, never suspecting that tomorrow would change everything.
Chapter Seven
Clint paced in front of the door to the High Council’s courtroom. He had never been so nervous in his life. He was a dragon, after all. He didn’t usually have to deal with nerves. He spent most of his time confident that he could handle whatever the world threw at him. But this time, the world might have thrown him more than he could handle.
He glanced at his watch. In two minutes, it would be nine o’clock. The High Council heard concerns from citizens each and every Friday at nine in the morning. It was their way of making sure that anyone could have their voice heard when they had a concern about the way things in Torch Lake were run.
Clint had never attended one of these meetings. Usually, when he wanted to talk to the High Council, he made an appointment with them and spoke with them in their conference room. But today, he wanted his voice to be heard loud and clear by all the citizens of Torch Lake. He hoped that pressure from the public would convince the High Council to listen to him and give him the funding he needed to learn about ancient magic. He hoped the High Council would pay attention and realize the seriousness of the issue. Surely, one of the older, wiser wizards on the Council would know of a way to train a wizard in ancient magic.
The doors began to open with a loud creak. Two military guards pushed the ornate, heavy wood panels back as they called for people to stand aside. Clint watched the faces of the other citizens who were waiting outside the room. Most of them looked like they were at least twice as nervous as him. One woman was chewing on her fingernails so hard that Clint worried she might accidentally bite off one of her fingers. A man standing a few feet away from her was wringing his hands. At least half a dozen people were pacing.
“You all may enter,” one of the guards proclaimed. “Please take a seat quietly and wait for the Council to enter.”
Clint followed the small crowd inside and found a seat on the back row. The room had two sets of long benches separated by a center aisle. In the front of the room, a long, raised table held a dozen chairs, where the council members would be sitting soon. Right below the table stood a podium with a microphone, where soon all of the nervous citizens would have a chance to make their shaky voices heard.
A few of the people who had walked in had large notepads and tape recorders. Clint smiled when he saw them. They were members of the press, and they were exactly what he needed. He hoped they would latch onto his story and print it far and wide for the whole city, and maybe even other shifter-wizards cities, to read. The more people who realized that action must be taken to stop the dragon disappearances, the better.
“All rise for the honorable High Council of Torch Lake!” one of the guards shouted in a loud voice. Clint stood along with everyone in the room as the High Council entered, decked out in dress robes and dress uniforms. No matter how many times he saw the Council dressed up like this, the sight never stopped filling Clint’s heart with awe. For a moment, he forgot to be frustrated with the Councilors, and just stood there taking in the sight of their splendor. The wizards on the Council wore the midnight blue dress robes typical of Torch Lake. The robes had the town’s seal embroidered into the left chest in golden thread. The wizards also wore tall midnight blue wizard hats which shimmered with a smattering of golden thread. The shifter members of the council wore midnight blue military dress uniforms with the golden Torch Lake emblem on their left chests as well. The council was evenly split between shifters and wizards, with six of each. Of the shifters, three were dragons, two were wolves, and one was a bear. The shifters were all older and not as strong in body as they had been when they were younger, but even at their advanced ages they still stood tall and looked fearsome. Clint had a feeling that what they lacked in youthful strength they more than made up for with the wisdom they had gained through the years.
“Thank you, everyone,” Councilor Blaise Morgan said in a loud voice. He was the Head Councilor of the group and always took care of all the formalities during meetings like this. “You may all be seated, and we will hear our first citizen presenter, Wilson Gray.”
Clint watched as Councilor Morgan scanned the list of names in front of him. Somewhere in the middle of that list was Clint’s name, printed neatly in his bold scrawl. Clint knew the exact moment that Councilor Morgan saw the name. The Councilor’s eyes widened in surprise and he looked up, searching the crowd until he found Clint sitting in the back. Clint held Councilor Morgan’s gaze, but the man’s expression wasn’t easy to read. With a slight nod, Councilor Morgan looked away and sat down in his chair to listen to Wilson Gray’s complaint.
Clint half-listened as people discussed a variety of issues they felt were important in Torch Lake. Most of the conversation today revolved around the new regulations that allowed companies to make deliveries using broomstick flying. There were some heated arguments against the new regulation, but Clint doubted it would be changed. The High Council had long resisted changing the law, and they would not have done so unless they were sure about the decision.
One woman complained that there were not enough dragons protecting Torch Lake, and that there was not enough transparency with the general public about why no new dragons had been recruited, or what methods were being used for recruitment.
“Stick around, lady,” Clint whispered under his breath as the lady grew more and more agitated during her presentation to the High Council. “You’re gonna love hearing what I have to say.”
A few more complaints were heard about zoning regulations and preventing pollution in Torch Lake, and then, Clint’s name was called. Clint saw all of the High Councilors react with surprise when Councilor Morgan called his name, and he was pretty sure he saw a few of them stiffen in their seats. So be it. They were uncomfortable because they knew they hadn’t paid enough attention to him. They had chewed him out for not working hard enough, without really listening to what he had to say. They were going to listen now.
Clint knew this was a risky move. Tempting the wrath of the High Council always was. But he had moved here because he believed the High Council would listen to its citizens when it really counted, and he was hoping that now they would prove that belief right. Clint took a deep breath as he walked up to the podium, then began speaking.
“Good Morning, your Honors.”
They all replied with courteous good mornings. Behind Clint, he could hear whispers from the crowd in the benches. They were murmuring about the fact that he was a dragon, no doubt. Good. Let them murmur. The more worked up the crowd got, the more the press would take interest. And the more pressure the High Council would be under to actually do something.
“Your Honors, I’m here today because I believe our city is facing a serious situation, and that something needs to be done about it immediately. As many have noticed, despite strong recruiting efforts on the part of both the Dragon Recovery Bureau and the Dragon Utilization Department, the number of dragons in Torch Lake has not increased. At the same time, the general population of wizards and shifters has exploded. If our town is to continue to be safe, we need more dragons around to protect us.”
More murmurs came from the crowd. Councilor Morgan’s face was set in a tight line, but he did not say anything except, “Go on.”
“My team has dealt with a strange phenomenon where the dragons we track down disappear, along with all of their belongings, with only a red ‘X’ left behind.”
Clint heard gasps behind him, and a few whispers of “It’s dark magic.” He knew he had to choose his next words carefully. He wanted to make sure everyone in the crowd, especially the press, understood that this was not dark magic, but rather a type of magic that most had never heard of.
“The disappearances fit perfectly with an ancient spell known as the Evanesco spell,” Clint said, standing as tall as he could and trying to sound as authoritative as possible. “This spell comes from an ancient branch of magic that is not dark magic, but rather very difficult magic that most wizards cannot perform without extensive training and practice. This ancient branch of magic was believed to have been extinguished completely when the Eagle Thicket Clan’s city was burned during the Great Dark War. The only known place in the world where this type of ancient magic was still practiced was within the Eagle Thicket Clan.”
“Yes, Clint,” Councilor Morgan said. “Which is why it’s impossible that the Evanesco spell is responsibl
e for the disappearances. We’ve been over this already.”
“Your Honors, there is no other explanation that fits other than the Evanesco spell. Somehow, some wizard from Eagle Thicket Clan must have escaped the fire and joined the Dark Warriors. Or perhaps the Dark Wizards saved some information on the ancient spells before burning Eagle Thicket to the ground. We must act immediately, or we run the risk of all the dragons disappearing before we can get to them. We must find the best wizards in town and begin to train them on these ancient spells.”
“Clint, we don’t have any way of training a wizard! Don’t you understand that? All the spells, and all knowledge of them, was lost in the War.”
“That knowledge is out there somewhere. Someone has it, or they wouldn’t be able to perform this spell. We can’t just roll over and do nothing. We have to search for it, and find a way to train a wizard to do a counter spell. Otherwise all our efforts to get more dragons to Torch Lake will be for nothing. Eventually, we will have too few dragons and too many people, and be vulnerable to attack by the Dark Warriors. We cannot let that happen.”
Clint heard fevered whispering from the crowd, but he did not turn around to look back. He kept his gaze fixed on Councilor Morgan. Clint wanted the entire High Council to know that he would not back down until they took action—action other than yelling at him and telling him that this whole mess was his fault. It wasn’t sloppy work on his part. It was ancient magic, and they needed to start dealing with the threat.
Dragon Protecting (Torch Lake Shifters Book 4) Page 4