Dragon Tender (Fae Unbound Teen Young Adult Fantasy Series Book 3)

by Jill Nojack

  Freoric emerged from his tent with a scowl on his face. His long legs carried him swiftly toward the hooting, farting, burping gnomes. Gurrdenn wanted to laugh at the look on his face when he hit the barrier. It would be a good laugh.

  But it didn't happen. There was no shock, no barrier, no laugh. The elf just kept coming. The magic which had always worked before failed them now.

  The gnomes turned and ran; all but Trerrfrn, whose back was turned because he'd dropped his pants and exposed his small bottom to the elf as a sign of his disrespect.

  He didn't have time to pull his pants up before the knife came down.

  ***

  It had been the same each day since the gnomes started watching Freoric.

  Gurrdenn would step out of the woods at the back of the Moore's yard with his fellow spies. They would stand at attention—or as close to attention as a gnome could be said to stand—while Eamon eyed them suspiciously.

  "Well, anything to report today?"

  "Elf hunt. Elf eat. Elf sleep."

  "He met with no one?"

  Gurrdenn would shake his head.

  Eamon would become frustrated. "I don't believe you're keepin' an eye on him! Are ye sure you havnae been sneakin' off to play games while Freoric skulks around town?"

  Gurrdenn shook his head. "Elf hunt. Elf eat. Elf sleep."

  But today, the gnomes didn't show up. Eamon waited through the appointed time, even gave it an extra hour. Maybe the spell had worn off, and they'd gone chasing rabbits or the glints of sunlight on a creek.

  Gnomes! He was disappointed in himself for suggesting them in the first place. He should have known they wouldn't be reliable.

  ***

  Tanji sat in her car, trying not to be obvious as she waited for Avenall to return with the dragons. Although she'd tried to focus at school, her brain kept betraying her by drifting off to think about the good-looking elf who'd shown her his chivalrous side the day before. He'd promised she could take a ride with him after he brought the dragons back from feeding today. She didn't know if she was more excited about riding a real dragon or about wrapping her arms around the Dragon Tender's waist while she did.

  She got out of the car and leaned far back on the chilly hood, resting on her mittened hands, to watch as Avenall brought the dragons down, snowflakes starting to swirl around them. He took his earphones out of his ears and waved.

  After he landed, he called, "Let me settle the young ones in the barn, and then Fein and I will be glad to show you the sky."

  He was very careful with her, making sure that she mounted safely and was firmly seated before he signaled to Fein to climb. Even then, she grabbed him hard around the waist and gasped as the dragon took the air.

  She loved it. It was amazing. She forgot about her arms around his waist. In fact, she forgot about the handsome elf completely as the dragon swooped through the gently falling snow and took her on the most amazing roller coaster ride of her life.

  She didn't realize she was freezing until Avenall helped her scramble off of the dragon once they were back on the ground. "Man, I need to get some heat going right now. There are icicles hanging off my ears! Is there any heat in the barn?"

  "The dragons warm the barn as needed. I could have them warm it for you."

  "Nah, I can warm up in the car. It will probably be better than a draughty old barn, anyway."

  "I've never ridden in a car, nor even upon a cart. Is it much different than traveling by horse?"

  "Uh...yeah. I'd guess it is. Not as much fun as riding a dragon, though. But if you want, I could give you a ride. You can get going a lot faster than I think your dragons travel, and you don't have to be freezing to do it."

  "I would appreciate being warm. Let me place Fein in his stall and make sure the dragons are comfortable. Then, I would be happy to ride within your car."

  The car was toasty warm by the time Avenall finished up in the barn. It took him a moment to figure out how the handle worked, but he'd watched her when she'd entered her car the day before, and he quickly discovered the mechanism. As he entered the car stiffly, ducking low to avoid bumping his head, he said, "I only wish I had some way to be sure the dragons won't be disturbed."

  "Oh yeah, the local news. They've been sniffing around the area, haven't they? I could do a charm if you want—I've got one that prevents anyone getting in but not anyone getting out. That way, if they had to escape, they could."

  "You are a powerful sorceress."

  The edges of her mouth quirked at the compliment. "Powerful enough, I guess. But the charm's not really that tough to do once you know how. Be back in a jiff."

  She hopped out of the car and made a circuit around the barn, then drew a mark in the snow to the right of the barn door.

  She handed him the stick she'd used to draw the charm. "When you get back, you just have to repeat the mark on the other side of the door with that stick, and the spell will break. Don't forgot that part, though, because otherwise, you won't be getting in there tonight. But if you do lose the stick or something, the spell will wear off sometime tomorrow anyway."

  "The mark, what is it?"

  "Just a question mark." Avenall's expression told her he was puzzled. "It's like this..." She took her gloves off, wet a fingertip in the melting snow on the back of her glove, and drew a question mark on the window.

  "I do not know this mark. What is its meaning? Is it old magic?"

  "No, it's not magic at all. It's just punctuation. You use it when you write out a question. Do you know how to write?"

  Avenall hung his head. "I do not. A Dragon Tender has no need of education. We take our orders, and we talk to the minds of the dragons. Learning would be wasted on us."

  "You speak at least three languages, right? And you taught yourself? I don't think education would be wasted on you."

  "What question did you ask when you made your spell?"

  She cocked an eyebrow at that, and she couldn't keep the flirtiness out of her voice. "Oh, I think there's a lot of questions I could ask, don't you?"

  "Questions you would ask me?" he said.

  "Yes."

  "What would you ask?"

  She hadn't thought he'd call her bluff. She drew a blank, then said, "Well, I like your dragon claw. Do dragons shed them? Is that how you got it?"

  "No, they do not shed them. The claw I wear came from a great dragon which died many years ago. He was Fein's sire. He was lucky to live in a time when there was no war among the fae."

  "Do you have any others? I'd love to have one."

  "No. They are rare. I was given one as the mark of the Dragon Tender, but I traded it for my music player because I already had this one and wished to wear it instead. It belonged to my master, Durian. It is precious to me. Were it not, I would gladly give it to you in gratitude for giving me and the dragons a place to stay."

  "You don't owe us anything. Papa Ross is cool that way. You ready for that ride? Because if you are, you need to snap that belt around your waist. Ohio's got seat belt laws. And you may not think so, but I always do what people tell me to." She smirked out the window as she told such a bold lie.

  Avenall looked at his waist, but he didn't understand.

  Tanji leaned toward him, "I'll do it." She pulled the sections of the belt across his lap and showed him how they snapped together. She thought it was sexy at first, but when she breathed in while close to him, she caught on to the reality that he was living in a barn without a shower or a washing machine. Okay, that was going to need a fix real fast. Definitely not sexy.

  So, it would be a quick dash around town to show Avenall the sights and, as soon as they got out of the car, an even quicker text to James with an urgent request for help with elf-boy's hygiene. Because he might be hot, but she wasn't giving him a pass on grooming. He was going to get up close and personal with human hygiene standards real fast. For his own good, of course.

  ***

  James knocked on the barn door, then opened it and peere
d inside, calling, "Avenall, hey, it's James."

  Avenall responded from high in the hayloft at the other side of the barn. "I didn't know you'd be visiting this night."

  "Neither did I. Tanji called and insisted. There's something I'm supposed to help you with that only another guy should mention."

  "This is...?"

  "Apparently it's been a while since you've had a bath or washed your clothes. Girls get nuts about that kind of thing."

  "It is true I have not bathed regularly since I became a Dragon Tender. I am given leave only once a fortnight to bathe and to clean my garments. I had hoped that such an arrangement could be made here at the barn. There is a trough I could use."

  "Yeah, well, we've got this fancy thing called a shower in every house these days. And washing machines. And since Tanji told me to make you familiar with both, I'm doing it. That girl can be insistent! It's always better to just go along. So come on down, bring any clothes you have that you're not wearing, and I'm going to treat you to an all-expenses-paid trip to my tiny bathroom followed by this small town's premiere laundromat. I may even have some clothes that will sort of fit you if you tuck the pants into your boots. Because I'm tall, but I'm not elf tall."

  James tried not to gawk as Avenall climbed down from the loft and came toward him. It was spooky to see Arthur's head on Avenall's classically elf body. Arthur had been much shorter and stockier, with blond hair and a red-blond, wooly beard that grew high up onto his cheeks. It helped him as a leader that so much of his otherwise naturally pleasant face was hidden. It had allowed him to look more severe when it was called for. Avenall simply looked kind and open. But James didn't allow himself to believe that Avenall was a pushover. A pushover wouldn't have stolen a herd of dragons from an elvin compound. And there was that little thing he could do with a mental push, too.

  He had to ask him. He had to verify what he'd seen.

  As Avenall walked from stall to stall, checking to make sure the dragons would be fine before he left, James blurted it out. "When I saw you on the news while you were still on the ship, I thought I saw you force someone to walk away from the dragons."

  "I don't understand. I was in no confrontation when on the ship."

  "I didn't mean you got into it with anyone. I mean you used your mind to make him do what you wanted."

  Avenall was still facing away, so James couldn't see his face, but he felt sure he saw tension in Avenall's shoulders as he replied, "You have been listening to old women's stories for frightening children. Dragon Tenders have no power to enter the minds of people, only the dragons and other animals. Still, it is a sentence of death to even try. I think you must be mistaken."

  The black dragon shifted abruptly in its stall and then reared to its hind legs, looking directly at James as a small puff of smoke left its snout. Avenall turned his attention to the dragon, not speaking, but James was sure he was communicating to it. It lay back down after a moment.

  It worried him that Lizbet was convinced this guy was her great friend Arthur and that she could trust him with anything. He was sure that Avenall had not only puppet-mastered the man on the boat but had now also lied about it. James wanted to believe that Avenall was his old friend born again, but he had reservations about this teen whose emotions could stir up dragons.

  But whatever. Tanj would be way up in his face if the guy didn't get his shower. First things first.

  CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE

  I Can Help

  In the early morning of the third day after Thomas told her he'd find a way to save Mona, Tanji opened her front door to an insistent knock. Thomas stood there, blowing into his ungloved hands to warm them.

  "I've figured it out," he said. "I just need to slow the metamorphosis from tree to human. That will give you, James, and Lizbet time to heal the human parts as the change happens. It will be difficult, and it will require enormous focus, but if we work together, we can heal Mona. I'm sure of it."

  Tanji couldn't stop herself. She lunged toward him, grabbing him around the neck in a gigantic hug. One thing you could say for Thomas: he smelled good. Like soap and spiced tea.

  "Thomas! Can we do it today? Can we do it now?"

  He placed his hands at her waist, gently returning her hug. "Yes. But we'll need to stop by the shop and create a potion to douse her as she changes. I'll need lavender, valerian, and shisandra. Fortunately, we stock all of that. And we'll need a large sprayer. The kind they use for pesticides, one with a metal wand. I'll need to be able to reach all of her branches as we work."

  Tanji slipped into her coat and grabbed the car keys off the hook behind the door. "Have you told Lizbet?"

  "No. I thought I would leave that for you."

  "Oh yeah, forgot—Lizbet doesn't consider a call from you a priority. Buddy, if you can get Mona fixed up, things could definitely change with that girl. I know she'll finally forgive you."

  Thomas was no longer concerned what she thought of him, even if she was Queen of the Fae. He had already wasted too much time trying to win her favor. In the three days that had gone by while he pretended to study healing magic to save Mona, he had instead been refining his special spell, the enormous, world-changing spell that would place the fae back in their rightful place and allow him to take Tanji to their new home among the elves. As he worked, he had realized how unlikely it was that the elves would follow a human queen when their power in the world had been restored. Thomas had prepared Queen Morgan for burial. The true queen was already dead.

  ***

  Sheila watched as her daughter, Tanji, and James gathered around the trunk of the tree that was Mona in her nature form. Thomas walked behind them with a plastic backpack sprayer wetting the trunk of the tree, its branches, and the ground where the roots sank into the earth. He slipped the wand into the holster at his side and said, "That's it. We're as ready as we'll ever be."

  Lizbet reached to each side to grab and squeeze her friends' hands. "Mona, I know you can hear us, so just do whatever Thomas says. He's going to guide you through this. The rest of us are here to help. And I'm really sorry in advance if it hurts..."

  She let go of the others' hands and lay her palms on the smooth bark of the Mona-tree, then closed her eyes. She breathed in the soothing lavender scent left by Thomas's potion and concentrated on it in order to focus. The others followed her lead.

  Thomas spoke quietly. "Mona, I'll take over the transformation after you initiate it. Don't push it. Just start it, and then allow me to take charge. You may fear that you'll be trapped mid-transformation, but I assure you, I won't let that happen." He lifted his hands up and closed his eyes, taking a long breath, then slowly let it out. "Start transforming now. Then stop immediately." With those words, a fine blue glow started in his palms and grew to encompass the tree. The branches shivered and then were still.

  With his eyes still closed and his body enveloped in the same glow that surrounded the tree, he spoke softly to the group around him. "Tanji, focus on healing the heart as it forms. The transformation will take place from the inside out. James, Very slowly remove what's left of the arrow as Tanji's sorcery heals her from the core. Prevent as much blood flow as you can to give Tanji time to repair the tissues. If you remove the arrow too quickly, there's danger from blood loss. Only a millimeter at a time will do."

  Sheila watched and listened as the young people began their task. She wasn't sure what her daughter's role was, other than to be there for her friends. Lizbet was politically powerful among the fae, but her magic was nowhere near as strong as the magic of the others. Sheila understood when Lizbet patted the tree affectionately and lay her cheek against the bark, murmuring words of reassurance. Lizbet was there to calm and to care as much as to be ready to lend her magic. Her daughter was good at that.

  Sheila was startled by a scuffling at her side. Looking down, she realized she'd been holding her breath as she watched the process begin. Eamon had slipped in beside her while she stood fixed in place and looked up at her solemn
ly.

  "Aye, it's a dreadful thing, not knowin'."

  "Yes, it is. It surely is."

  They didn't talk any more as they listened to Thomas's infrequent instructions to ease off or move attention here or there. The blue light sometimes swirled, sometimes darkened, sometimes stabilized. Sheila didn't know what any of it meant, but she watched as the tree became more and more shaped like her friend.

  The process took several hours. When it was done, Mona lay on the ground unconscious but breathing. Tanji waved one hand over the last mark of the arrow above the half-dryad's left breast. James turned his head away from the naked woman, and moved to Sheila to take the blanket she offered. Because Mona was unconscious, she hadn't reconstituted her clothes as she would normally have done during her transformation. He carried the blanket to Lizbet. She and Tanji wrapped Mona up in it the best they could and waited for her to wake.

  Thomas walked to Sheila. "She'll be fine," he said. Sheila hugged him tightly. She had no words to express her thanks.

  When Mona sat up and looked around, she recoiled automatically at the sight of Thomas hugging her friend, then quickly hid her feelings. Lizbet saw her reaction and wondered about it, but she kept her wondering to herself.

  ***

  Sheila fluffed the pillows again and fussed with Mona's blankets. "Are you sure everything is okay? That you don't need anything?"

  "Sheila, I'm fine. I don't need mothering," her friend replied. "I'm exhausted, and I have some terrible memories, but what you've already done for me—staying with me, reading to me, talking to me and keeping me focused on human things—what you, Ron, and Avenall did, it made all the difference in the world to me. It kept me fighting."