Dragonfall

by Erik Schubach

  We all peered in. Mei slipped her reading glasses on and pushed at the page with the eraser end of a pencil to turn it toward her a bit. I grinned, these books made her just as queasy as me. I was able to get about two-thirds of the surviving writing. But some of the symbology eluded me.

  Mei nodded with a smile then pointed at the rune for air elementals for me. I grinned. “Me lord. Too bad that doesn't help us any right now.”

  Quinn huffed, “Ok you brainy types. You mind filling us normal intelligence people in?

  I grinned at her frustration. “Well, it seems that la Fay's leaf hurricane teleportation spell has a weakness. It is tied to the air elements she had bound to that amulet. It doesn't help now, but if any of my wee ones in the shards winds up being an air elemental, we will hit parity with her and my air Drakon would be able to interfere with the spell. Like a power struggle. The same way I was able to wrest control of her water attack on me. It becomes a battle of wills. But if the scales are tipped, then she would lose control to any air elemental.”

  I sighed. “We may have been able to break her binding on the air magic to stop her from locking it away, but that doesn't stop her from using it and twisting it into something fetid... yet.”

  Quinn smirked at me. I squinted an eye at her and furrowed my brow. “What woman don't make me drag it out of you.”

  She shrugged and put on an innocent look. “But you are already at parity.”

  What was she goin' on about now? I said slowly, “By my count, she has us outnumbered with air elementals one to zero.”

  Quinn shrugged and appeared to surrender the point. “Oh ok. If you say so Drakon Primitus.”

  It had taken a solid two count before my eyes snapped wide. She was right! I whispered, “Me lord.” Then pointed at the book. “Cover those abominations up.” James quickly wrapped them back up in plastic.

  I looked at Dawna pleadingly. She exhaled and nodded once. I really didn't want people to know all the elements I could control though it was easy to guess by watching my battles. She stepped outside for a minute.

  I closed my eyes and let my dragon senses expand. Being sure to breath through my mouth, knowing the residual smell of the tomes would likely gag me. I could still smell a little of the rot and decay as it was. I reached out to the elements. They have become my good and faithful friends. I opened my eyes and a flame playfully danced around above my outstretched palm. I grinned at its playfulness.

  Then I reached beyond my primary element. There was water. I coaxed it to me. My coffee sitting on a low table by the couch streamed from my cup and formed a ball, pulsating above my hand. I let it swoosh left and right, watching it enjoy its freedom then I coaxed it back into my mug. Mei was giggling at the display.

  I again expanded farther and found the enormous reservoir of earth elemental magic under our feet, I looked by the door at the small palm tree Mei had in a pot. I wiggled my fingers and some of the soil peeked over the rim of the pot, I smiled at it. It was fun to play with the magic rather than ask it to do my bidding. Earth magic was mischievous. I crooked my finger and made a come hither motion. A glob of the soil leapt across the room to spin in my hand. I stroked the magic with my mind, rewarding it for the demonstration. I sent it back to nourish the little palm tree.

  Then we all took a collective breath. I looked around to them. “Here goes.” I kept my palm open and expanded my mind again. I have always been able to feel and touch air elemental magic, but it was always mad and pained and refused to work with me. Like it blamed me for its pain. Now I know it blamed Drakon kind for not protecting it from what Morgan had done to it. Enslaving it to her will, making it do things it was never meant to do.

  I could feel its sweet power swirling all around me, it went beyond water and rivaled fire. I sent my sorrow for what it had endured and my compassion for its plight. I sent along my promise that I was doing all I could to stop the one that had done those unthinkable things to it. That I had already broken the binding upon it. Then I asked a small favor. I could feel it flowing through my body, it was a fresh wholesome rush then a tiny cyclone came to life in the palm of my hand.

  It seemed to stretch and swirl in joy in the freedom I gave it after so long being in chains. I giggled at the feelings I got from it. I let it do as it pleased. It left my hand and drifted to the floor. It went over and hopped up on the table by Quinn's paperwork then grew quickly and spun faster for a second before settling back down. Quinn was rushing to the paper flying all over trying to collect it back up. She chuckled at the little cyclone. “Hey now, enough of that you imp!”

  The cyclone went right at her then dissolved into nothing as it swooped around her, blowing her hair into a matted mess. I snorted and said with a grin, “And here I thought earth magic was playful.”

  Quinn's smile faded and a more serious look replaced it as she said softly, “It is probably just happy to finally be free.”

  I sobered too. “Aye.”

  Then Quinn tilted her head and squinted an eye then I could feel her concentration. She flicked her hands and the throw rug beneath her ruffled. She looked at her hand then flicked her arm out in front of her toward the door. The palm tree slammed against the wall like it was hit by a puff of compressed air.

  Quinn squinted in apology to James and Mei then said to me, “Looks like the scales are tipped in our favor after all. You are feeding me air elemental ability too.”

  I was about to respond when I fell forward screaming and grasping my chest, my head hit the coffee table on my way down to the ground. I started trying to pull myself back up, a hand on the couch and the other on the table as Quinn, Mei and James were reaching to help. The front door flung open and Dawna and three other agents came in with their weapons drawn, moving with military precision.

  I was gasping for breath as I clawed at my chest. I was whimpering, “Not again... not again...” I found myself in Quinn's arms and I buried my face in her shirt and inhaled deeply... twice. Letting the scent of safety envelop me, calm me. I looked up at her, eyes bleary with tears as I heard Agent Grove shout, “Clear!”

  I whispered, “She killed another of me dragons.”

  Mei was pulling both of us toward the couch and getting us to sit. Her eyes were filled with anxiety and concern. Quinn started stroking my forehead with her thumbs lovingly. I realized I had scales there now, they protected me from injury when I fell. She kissed my forehead then asked, “Where?” I pointed north. She looked at Dawna who nodded and went to the HQ setup and was typing on the keyboard.

  My breathing finally normalized. The pain of guilt hit me as I realized something. “It’s me fault. She needed to heal and I mouthed off telling her we tipped the scales with the water dragons. Now the scales tip in her favor.”

  Quinn was about to say something when Dawna pulled up a feed from the State Patrol helicopter in the peaks by Boulder. There was a huge Chronos Dome there. Twice as big as the one Saint George had created. I could see an unmoving water dragon form pinned by trees in front of it. May our good lord strike her down!

  Something huge was happening inside the dome, I could feel it from here. It was sick and twisted magic. We watched as a herd of sheep seemed to rot in front of the camera and their blackened flesh seemed to stream toward the center of the dome. All the plants and trees were dying and blackening and streaming toward the middle as well. It was like everything in the mile and a half diameter dome was dying and being twisted by the magic. My heart stopped, there were dozens of cabins and a couple farms that we could see inside the dome. People were dying too!

  Dawna added another screen with reporters from Boulder at the scene, outside the dome. There were hundreds of people just standing outside the dome. I tasted bile in my throat. They were human. Hundreds of men, women, and children with thrall runes burned into their foreheads. They weren't drawn on with blood, so there was no way to obscure them with water. She was using innocent people...

  Hundreds of her arcane magic constructed beas
ts were interspersed in the line of people. A child stepped forward and she spoke in Morgan's voice toward the camera. “Myra! Queen of the Eire! You have defied me for too long! Come face your fate or all of these pathetic humans die.” Then about thirty men and women behind the girl all slit their own throats and fell to the ground to illustrate her point. All of her hell-spawn creatures then stepped in front of the thralls as the child moved back with the group.

  I gasped at the display. She just killed them, like they were nothing. She was pure evil. Those people died because of me. I was so terrified and angry. I didn't know what to do.

  Local police were holding back at the scene, they didn't want the innocent thralls hurt any more than I did.

  I started walking toward the door and Quinn grabbed my arm. I looked into her eyes and said, “I can't do nothing Quinn. I can't just let them die. I have to go, I'm so scared.”

  She spoke with a calm surety, “Do you understand what is happening Myra? Why she is doing this? She is scared of YOU. Don't let your own fear control you.”

  I closed my eyes and I felt tears on my cheeks. I nodded once and said, “It is when we face our fears that one can gauge the true measure of oneself. I'm ready to face me fears now.”

  I glanced at my friends then at my love. She took a deep breath and just nodded once and let go of my arm and strode toward the door with me, calling out, “Make a hole!”

  Mei was calling after us, “You don't need to do this Myra!”

  As we walked to the door I whispered back, “Yes... I do.”

  Quinn snagged her flying jacket from beside the door and looked back at Agent Grove as we walked out. “Red Alpha.” Dawna nodded once and was instantly on her radio.

  I ran across the lawn with my protector at my side and leapt into the air and my wings exploded from my back as my dragon came out. Quinn landed between my shoulders as my mighty wings stroked, pulling us quickly into the sky, I stretched out my wings and glided north, bellowing out my challenge to the Dark One.

  Chapter 16 – Step Out of the Shadows

  Within minutes, I was landing in a field by the dome in the peaks of the Rocky Mountains. Quinn slid off my shoulders to the ground. There were military vehicles, fighter jets and armored helicopters arriving. The police were trying to keep people back from the dome.

  I winced at the smell of the rot and decay coming off of the twisted creatures standing between the thralls and the people coming up from Boulder. Were these people daft? They needed to get to safety!

  I paced with my wings half folded, my tail twitching roughly as I looked at the enemy, my head swinging from side to side. These didn't scare me, it was Morgan and what she might do to the innocent people that scared me.

  I let my dragon aspect dissolve as a soldier who appeared to be in charge made his way to me in a Humvee. Quinn interposed herself between us as the man dismounted with a couple other soldiers, she cut him off before he could speak. “I need a situation report Major.” She flipped her badge and ID at him. “Agent Trask, head of the International Arcane Ttaskforce.”

  He eyed her with some aggravation but kept his feelings reigned in when he spoke. He looked at me. “So you're just giving her what she wants? We don't negotiate with terrorists.”

  I cut Quinn's reply off as I glared at the man. “I'll not hide away while innocent people get hurt. The same people I am pledged to protect!” I'm sure my dragon eyes were full of fury.

  He hesitated then turned to Quinn and started relaying the current situation and all of the assets on site and in transit. I moved toward the line of creatures and some of the people behind them began raising knives toward their own throats. I moved back and their arms lowered. I hissed toward the line and rejoined Quinn.

  After a few minutes, we agreed that I would try to contact Morgan. Everything inside the dome looked like a barren wasteland, no life anywhere. I was about to step forward to challenge her when Quinn's radio hissed. It was Agent Grove. “Inbound with assets. Clear an area. I repeat, clear an area... a big one!”

  I snapped my head south at the sound of helicopters inbound. Coming fast. The humans will be able to hear them in a minute or so, there were a lot of them! A couple minutes later, no less than thirty helicopters of all types crested the ridge. Military, transport, and civilian. I blinked, there weren't enough people in the entire task-force to fill all those choppers.

  They started landing in the same field as I had used and agents spilled out as well as some cloaked figures, Steve, and a couple satyrs. I blinked as more and more mythical creatures, cloaked men and agents poured out of the other helicopters. As they unloaded the helicopters moved off for more to land.

  Dawna, Steve, and a cloaked man walked up to us. Agent Grove yelled over the sound of the helicopters. “I brought backup!”

  I looked at the huge crowd assembling. The military people were converging on the group, bringing their weapons to bear. “No!” I shouted at the major and he was ordering everyone to stand down, repeating that they were friendlies.

  Quinn was looking between Dawna and the cloaked figure. The tall blonde agent half smiled and said, “Agent Trask, Doctor O'Connell, meet Hector Klein, head druid of the Denver assemblage.”

  He lowered his hood and nodded to each of us. Quinn was about to speak when he did, “We took a vote. All of the magic users and beings that you and your clan were protecting by your loft Queen Myra. We could not stand by when you and yours put yourselves in harms way, time after time, to protect us and the human population. It is time for us to step out of the shadows and fight.” He sneered toward the line of evil constructs.

  Quinn said, “You are civilians, this isn't your fight.”

  He shook his head. “But it is. This is a fight for the very survival of every living being on the planet. It isn't a burden that Queen Myra should shoulder on her own. We cannot face the Dark One, only the Drakon can defeat her evil. But we can most certainly help to lay waste to her evil creations here.”

  She closed her eyes, I could feel the turmoil inside her. Then she opened her eyes and nodded once, to the protestations of the major. She spoke in an emotionless tone, “Shall we call the president and see what he has to say about it?” The major blustered but backed down.

  She glanced at the Chronos Dome. “Doctor O'Connell can defeat the dome. We need to get the thralls out of the picture without harming them or allowing la Fay to harm them.”

  Hector nodded once. “Leave that to us druids. But we will need to get them away from the creatures.”

  I grinned evilly. “I can handle that.”

  Hector nodded and said, “That leaves the assembled creatures.” He looked at Quinn. “Your team and our group of mystical beings can lay waste to them.”

  Quinn shared a predatory grin with him. We shared our plan with all involved. The local police and military moved all the civilians back from the area. Then with the druids at out backs, the international task-force and the mystical beings of Denver stood in front of Morgan's horde.

  My protector flicked her wrists and her arms erupted into flaming granite. That was the signal and all the druids started chanting. Their voices fused into an eerie singular tone and moments later all of the human thralls slumped over into a deep sleep before anyone could react.

  I screamed, thrusting my hands up and a wall of granite burst up from the ground between the twisted creatures and the slumbering thralls. Quinn sent the impression of saying, “Behind me!” across our bond. The next moment I almost went deaf as the horde and our line all roared and charged each other. Seconds before our lines clashed, Quinn punched the air in front of her violently and three griffons in the flood of advancing enemy flew back to crash against the granite wall and slumping to the ground into a lifeless mound.

  She was already figuring out how to use the air element to battle with. She was a magnificent warrior. Through shrieks and gunfire the battle went on. There was a group of creatures that had circled around and were about to strike from b
ehind to fight on two fronts. I yelled, “Back!” Everyone stood clear from me as I let my dragon out. I roared at the incoming enemy and my flames shot from my mouth as the ground shook.

  Everything in front of me was taken by my flame. Griffons, minotaurs, and bat creatures were all reduced to ash and the gargoyles were reduced to slag. One gargoyle who had survived my onslaught but was flopping around on the ground, was still trying to get to me. I raised one of my front claws and brought it down, crushing its head into gravel. I snorted in disdain at it, flames licking from my nostrils.

  I swung my head on my serpentine neck toward the front line, but all was silent. Quinn was standing with one flaming granite leg on the back of a fallen minotaur. I blinked. We... we won?

  I started running toward the granite wall, holding one hand outstretched and the wall crumbled and lowered back into the ground. I got to the thralls on the ground with Hector and Quinn beside me. I looked at the forehead of the woman on the ground in front of me. The fecking rune was burned into her head. How could any of these people ever be free?

  Hector looked into my pleading eyes. He shook his head. “The only way to release them is to kill Morgan. But then they would be no better than vegetables with nobody to give them instructions.” He paused and took a deep breath. “But...”

  I looked at him. “What is it man? Spit it out!”

  He closed his eyes and took another deep breath. “But if we obscure the rune...”

  I squinted at him and my protector spat out at him, “Just say it man!”

  He nodded and instead put his hand above the woman's head and started chanting. Her skin began to sizzle and another line burned into her forehead. Changing the symbol from the 'Dark One' to 'tranquility'. He chanted something else and the woman's eyes fluttered open. She sat up suddenly and scooted away from us. “Who are you, what am I doing here?”