Verdant Magic: A Standalone Dragon Shifter Adventure (Dragon Mage Chronicles Book 1)

by Aimee Easterling

  Matters like getting Sarah to safety before the older woman’s wound could become infected. Like figuring out whether Electra was a danger or a benefit to the world at large. And perhaps like poking through the seed vault in search of other contenders for the role of Fade prevention and dragon savior.

  “I’m going for a walk,” Amber replied more curtly than she’d intended to. At least traveling overland was easy once again, with Electra moving obstacles out of her way even more politely than the Green had previously expedited such journeyings.

  Alone yet not alone, she tromped down what had once been city streets, scuffing feet through thin soil that now sat patchily atop asphalt. Over the last twenty-nine years, rusted-out cars had converted into fox dens and turtles had taken up residence amid sculpture-dotted formal gardens. The sight brought at least a hint of a smile to Amber’s pinched lips.

  Then, finally, the endless expanse of Electra faltered, broke apart, turned into the more complex network of the Green.

  Both breath and steps sped up as Watcher neared the boundary between old and new. Electra was an attentive companion, but Amber had missed the deeper sentience of her original partner. Had missed the many voices that thrummed in her veins as soon as she sank toes into moist leaf mold. Perhaps the Green could even use its grid of connection to send word to Greenwich, to discover whether Zane had safely delivered her apprentice, goat, and friend back to their underground home. Perhaps the Green would tell her where her missing dragon could be found....

  Back, back, back!

  The Green warned...then it bit. Rocks and roots and ants lashed out the instant Amber’s feet touched Green-tainted soil. And if Electra hadn’t possessed the foresight to swoop in and pull her mistress into full retreat, the latter might have fallen to the earth and never risen again.

  This wasn’t the anonymous resistance she’d experienced while walking through the forest in Nicholas’s footsteps. No, the Green currently recognized Amber for who she was...and it wanted her gone. She’d unleashed a new sentience on the planet, had betrayed her role as Watcher, and had now officially become persona non grata across 99% of the earth.

  “Is that really what you want? To have no Watcher at all?” Amber demanded. It was hard to keep her voice steady, to treat the sentience firmly and ask for what she needed rather than beg for understanding. Hard...but possible when the alternative exceeded the limits of her imagination.

  Could she really be losing the most central facet of her life? Could her role as Watcher be disappearing like morning mist on a summer’s day?

  For a moment, the earth witch stood with shoulders squared, facing the Green just as Sarah had stared down Electra the day before. But the Green wasn’t a child. It wasn’t a newborn infant willing to bend to its mistress’s every whim for the sake of its own security.

  Instead, trees and vines and even the earth itself twisted and twined and buckled until an impenetrable wall formed between Amber and her potential path ahead. This was ten times worse than the barrier that had prevented her from accessing streams of flowing water the day before. In fact, if plants had possessed human appendages, the Green might as well have turned its face aside and spouted the pre-Change aphorism: “Talk to the hand.”

  ***

  All breath went out of Amber in an instant and she sunk down onto her haunches in defeat. Then, despite her best intentions not to look upwards for the thousandth time that day, she tilted chin aloft in hopes the answer might come flying out of the endless blue.

  But there was nothing in the sky, not even a bird or a butterfly. Just a few fluffy clouds off to the west, the sun directly overhead, and a haze of humidity along the southern horizon.

  In the end, Electra was the one to answer her silent plea for help. In less than twenty-four hours, the plant had developed a new kind of stem, slender and twining and lacking the jagged spikes that had ravaged Amber’s skin on their first introduction. Now, one of those softer branches curled around her mistress’s waist consolingly while another danced featherlight across her cheek.

  You want to speak with the Green? The words bubbled up through the soles of Amber’s feet, danced down her nerve endings, entered her brain via electrical impulses that flowed directly from plant to witch.

  “That would be nice. But apparently the Green isn’t listening.”

  And Zane wasn’t coming. Amber had spent the entire day telling herself that her dragon was around the next corner, that he’d show up as soon as he’d completed his mission. But dragons were speedy fliers and Zane had enjoyed over a full day at this point in which to make his round-trip journey.

  If he planned to find me, he would have been here by now. A lone tear trickled down her cheek and Amber dashed the moisture away.

  Then, between one moment and the next, visions flowed into her mind. Images of Jasmine carrying a sack of possessions into the cottage that had been built by Momma’s and Poppa’s bare hands. Of Charlie helping his sister drag a crate of food and supplies across Green-saturated soil to the open door.

  The siblings were laughing, joking. Jasmine pushed her big brother and he pretended to fall, a kudzu vine cradling his descent courtesy of his sister’s lightning-fast change of heart.

  Then Jasmine paused and turned to look directly into Amber’s eyes. “Are you there?” the child whispered or yelled or sang or said. Amber couldn’t actually hear the words, but she could feel the question rolling down the length of the Green, passing through Electra’s willing conduit, and trickling into her own brain milliseconds later.

  Sure enough, when Amber blinked away welling tears and looked out with her real eyes, she took in a sight that would have seemed impossible only a few hours earlier. Electra and a honeysuckle vine were communing along the boundary of their two kingdoms, the plants tenaciously twining around each other even as the rest of the Green attempted to rip them apart.

  “I’m here,” Amber answered. “I...” She paused, her voice choking as she finally admitted out loud what she’d known in her heart ever since waking in Electra’s embrace. Accepting the inevitable, she spoke directly to her apprentice, to her new floral protector, and to the Green. “I won’t be coming home. You’re the Watcher now.”

  Last week, Jasmine would have quailed in the face of such an abrupt elevation of status. But now, she merely straightened her spine and nodded. “The Green told me,” she answered. “I’ll miss you.”

  Charlie nudged his sister questioningly then and Jasmine turned away to answer. Through the unconventional conduit, Amber could see rather than hear the siblings conversing. Could see the color leave her oldest friend’s face as Jasmine explained what her once-mentor had said.

  The walnut-solid man winced and averted his eyes, jaw clenching with what looked like anger but was actually emotion of a different sort. His fists clenched and he scuffed at soil that had never done him any harm.

  He’s hurting. Charlie’s pain lodged deep in Amber’s gut, taking up residence alongside the urge that kept forcing her chin to rise and scan the heavens in search of a dragon who never quite materialized out of thin air. Her once-fiancé was a good man, a kind man. And Amber had forgotten him so deeply that she hadn’t even thought about the implied future she was flinging aside as she tossed walnut ring into dense undergrowth to save Zane’s mother’s life.

  “Please tell Charlie I’m sorry. That he’ll make some lucky woman very happy...”

  Jasmine opened her mouth to reply. Then a thorny black-locust limb tore through the knot of connection that tied two women together even though their feet were planted hundreds of miles apart. The signal was lost, the final attachment to her former life severed.

  But there wasn’t really anything more to say. Because even such a fleeting glimpse into Amber’s familiar stomping grounds had proven she’d never be able to slot back into the simple existence she’d once considered her entire world.

  She no longer wanted to cram her round self into the square hole her parents had left behind. It n
o longer seemed possible to take the easy path and team up with a man whose presence failed to lift her heart and tempt her to spread wingless arms in an attempt to fly.

  Instead, an unexpected future loomed before her—big, bold, and beautiful. For the first time in recent memory, Amber possessed a project all her own, one that was well worth sinking teeth into.

  Training Electra. Exploring the vault Momma had helped stock. Finding a way to refill the hole Zane had left behind when he flew out of her life.

  Her new future wasn’t as safe and easy as the one Amber had walked toward ever since growing old enough to understand her future as Watcher. But it was exhilarating and invigorating all the same. Fulfilling and purposeful.

  The path ahead was either a sharp drop off a steep cliff...or perhaps the impetus a nestling needed to learn to soar.

  “Well, at least I won’t be bored,” Amber said to Electra. Then, turning on her heel, she headed back the way she’d come.

  Chapter 31

  Infection struck at midnight. Sarah had been quiet all evening, face more pinched than usual and words scarce. But Amber put the change down to worry over the long-awaited rescue. Or perhaps her companion was simply sick of bananas.

  Still, when stifled moans woke the Watcher-no-longer hours after both had bedded down on scrounged pallets on the otherwise bare floor, Amber knew at once what was happening. She’d cleaned her companion’s wound in spring water that first day. Had wrapped the damaged arm in a slightly cleaner bandage, then aired it out and changed the dressing the following morning. But that was the best the two had been able to come up with while stranded in the middle of an abandoned city where all useful goods had long since been scavenged out of existence.

  Amber’s earth magic was similarly useless. Perhaps in a few weeks, she’d manage to tie into Electra’s vitality the way she used to tap into the Green. Perhaps then she’d be able to channel plant energy into healing power...or at least beg for antibiotics to be delivered by helpful soil bacteria beneath her feet.

  For now, though, her newfound connection was too tenuous to allow transfer of power. And thanks to the dampening effects of the dragons’ collar, Amber’s reserves were so low she’d nearly passed out when trying to mend Sarah’s wound using her own stores.

  “Don’t worry about it,” her patient had consoled the day before. “I’m a tough old bird. I’ll heal myself.”

  But she hadn’t. Instead, when Amber fumbled for Nicholas’s tablet and used its dimly glowing screen to make her way across the room, she found her companion soaked in sweat despite the cool night air. Sarah lashed out without opening her eyes and the tablet skittered away into darkness.

  “No,” Amber said firmly, speaking not to Sarah but to the infectious critters that had slid into the older woman’s open wound. Working slowly so as not to agitate her patient further, she pried back cloth and found skin swollen and hot to the touch. In the dim light emanating from the distant tablet and even more distant moon, Amber could barely make out darker lines forming along the edges of the laceration. But she could see enough to make her wince.

  A septic wound without access to modern medicine or healing magic was bad news. But Amber gritted her teeth and refused to accept the obvious. No, this isn’t the way Sarah’s story is going to end.

  Collecting Nicholas’s tablet once again, she picked her way down the stairs and out into the open air. Here, the moon was so bright she was able to power down her external light source...which was good news since the device’s battery had nearly given up the ghost after such extended use.

  Sinking toes into earth, Amber felt along the pathways of soil for any potential assistance Electra might be able to give. Sure enough, her floral companion was wide awake and willing to help. But the plant’s ability to do so was limited by inexperience.

  “Do you think you could try to give me a boost one more time?” Amber asked quietly. She dropped all the way to the ground this time, sinking fingers into dirt and pressing her cheek against scratchy leaves. Tendrils twined around her arms, her legs, her entire body and Amber pulled against her companion with all her might...

  ...then jolted backward as electricity zipped between fingers and snapped across spine. For an instant, her heart stopped. Then blood pulsed and lungs billowed once more as Amber unfolded to her feet with a pained grunt. She possessed no more magic than she had a moment earlier and her entire body was now significantly worse for wear. Bad move.

  “Well, it was worth a try.” Amber’s mind raced, pondering alternatives. If she begged Electra to carry her sick friend to the edge of the Green, would Jasmine be able to command enemy plants to transport Sarah to the girl’s side? Would the older woman survive such a journey, living through several hours of jolting danger and contact with a sentience that no longer considered Amber a friend?

  Maybe as a last resort. But Sarah wasn’t quite sick enough to risk it yet. Instead, it was back to the game of wait and see and try not to lose all hope.

  Then a glint in the moonlight, a damp, cool weight settling into her palm. Amber glanced down and smiled sadly as she recognized a ring she’d long since thought lost amid the greenery. “Good idea,” she told Electra. “But I don’t think there’s anything left in there to use.”

  Just to make sure she wasn’t dismissing a potential source of salvation out of hand, though, Amber closed her eyes and concentrated on the tiny carving. She could sense the ring’s affinity for magic. Could almost taste the powerful jolt the jewelry had once delivered.

  But there wasn’t even enough power left to sprout a seed. Electra had sucked the walnut circlet dry.

  “Sarah still might heal naturally,” Amber said, trying to soothe her companion and herself. She hoped the words weren’t a lie. Hoped she wasn’t killing the older woman through inaction as she hunkered down in a plant-encircled city with no way to deliver the support Sarah craved.

  Perhaps it was the thought of rescue or merely her mind’s eternal tendency to jump tracks and veer off in the Zane direction on a moment’s notice. Either way, her head turned upward...and a broad smile spread across her face. Because the sky wasn’t empty this time around. Instead, a dark speck soared in front of the moon, too large to be a nighthawk and too high to be an owl.

  For half a second, Amber thought it was her dragon. But as the flier neared, she discerned a cigar-shaped bulge at the top, a small gondola swaying underneath.

  No, Zane hadn’t returned just in the nick of time to save his mother’s life. But at least the silvery dirigible on the horizon was the next best thing. Sabrina had been true to her word and rescue was on its way.

  ***

  “Shh. Don’t wake the dragon,” the wind witch admonished.

  For the first time since enfolding her friend into a bear hug and loading a comatose Sarah onto a transparent carrier made of nothing but air, Amber’s heart sped up. “The dragon?” she whispered, her voice so soft it was little more than a breath.

  “Nicholas.” Sabrina’s lip twisted and her face scrunched up in annoyance. “The other dragon—your dragon—headed west as soon as we dropped off our passengers. But Nicholas showed up a few hours later. He’s been in everybody’s business ever since and I’d really rather him not see how we’re carrying Sarah up to the ship.”

  Amber tried to focus, but she’d lost her train of thought as soon as she heard about Zane flying west. There was nothing in that direction but plants, plants, and more plants. Every trader who ever came to Greenwich traveled downriver from the ocean, or perhaps bushwhacked overland from the north or south during the dead of winter when most of the forest was sound asleep. There was no reason for Zane to fly west...unless he’d sensed his brother’s death and was creeping off into the wilderness to Fade far from those he knew and loved.

  Then they were abreast of the ship’s open deck at exactly the spot where dragon shifters had touched down a few days earlier. So that was why the Intrepid boasted such an easy access point. Of course Sabrina would want
to expedite her own aerial travels rather than those of pesky dragons.

  Unlike that memorable afternoon when winged fliers had landed before a rapt audience, though, there was currently no one around now to see two witches and one sick human board the ship. Sabrina must have sent her watch to bed, leaving the dirigible quiet and still in the moonlight.

  Still, that is, until a warm, hard weight bowled into Amber’s knees and nearly sent her tumbling overboard.

  Sabrina’s strong hand latched onto her companion’s arm, keeping Amber upright even as the captain chuckled quietly. “She missed you. Wouldn’t leave with your friends. Just kept peering up at me with that same sad expression on her face like she wanted to know when you were coming back.”

  “Thea,” Amber breathed, squatting down to pull the little goat into her arms. Unbidden, tears rolled down her cheeks. Then snot streamed out of her nose and Amber disintegrated into a bawling heap.

  Near death, divorce from the Green, and likely loss of her dragon hadn’t been enough to push Amber over the edge. But Thea’s warm, loving presence did the trick.

  And, unfortunately, her sob-fest was loud enough that she unwittingly broke Sabrina’s cardinal rule and woke the sleeping dragon. A fiery hand landed on her shoulder as Nicholas jerked her erect. “What did you do to my mother?” he demanded.

  “Saved her life,” Amber bit back, wiping runny nose on the sleeve of a shirt that had definitely seen better days. But she wasn’t going to let Nicholas walk all over her, not when she’d done everything in her power to ensure Sarah reached safety in one piece. “I can’t heal her now that the Green has rejected my assistance. If you’d stop shaking me, though, then you could. She’s just got an infection in her arm. Drive out the bacteria and she’ll be fine.”

  As quickly as he’d arrived, Nicholas was gone. Fire wreathed his body, then narrowed in on a palm-sized ball of heat and magic that further brightened the moonlit night. Then, as the two witches watched, the shifter pushed energy into his mother’s body...and the shivers that had wracked her form for the last hour abruptly eased. Just like that, Nicholas had burned his mother’s infection out.