Spears' Challenge (The White Dragon Series Book 2)

by Bonnie Watts

  “Two people can carry them in one arm and hold on to the straps with their other one.” Jeff suggests. “They aren’t very big in their terrier forms.”

  Dragon doesn’t like that idea at all. “We don’t know what we will be walking into. We all need to be ready to fight as soon as Lucifer materializes. Cirwin, create the bags so that they don’t interfere with Lucifer being able to fight.”

  “I prefer not to battle with the demons if we can help it, Dragon.”

  “They tried to kill the White Dragon, Jerrie. We should lay waste to Hell for that action alone.”

  Dragon’s green eyes are showing swirls of orange, which only happens when he gets angry. I definitely don’t want him going into this meeting pissed. As a dragon shifter, he is probably one of the most powerful magical beings in the world. But that doesn’t mean he’s invulnerable to harm. I feel a huge knot stick in my throat at the thought of no more Dragon in my life, with his soul-lifting laugh and his bright magic that mirrors my own.

  “They might have set up that trap before they knew Jerrie was the White Dragon. Have you thought of that, Dragon?”

  As usual, Jeff says exactly the right thing to calm the fury of our ancient friend.

  The orange starts fading as his magnificent brain kicks in. “Perhaps you are correct in what you are saying, Jeffrey. But we still need to go into Hell able to defend ourselves, not holding dogs instead of swords.”

  Beauty stares at Dragon, then barks.

  “Lucifer says that Beauty agrees with, er, Dragon.”

  Dragon looks at the terrier, then glances at me with humor in his now completely green eyes. “What did the little lioness really say?”

  “I don’t…”

  “Tell me.”

  I obey what is definitely an order. “Um, Lucifer said that Beauty agrees with her royal feeder.”

  Dragon’s beautiful laugh rolls out like a soft carpet to lay on, causing everyone in the room to smile.

  “That small one truly is a queen among dogs, to tame a dragon!”

  “I have one more question for Sir Frederick and Tor before we finish up. The Great Magics are supposed to limit magic. If those super mages invade this world, won’t their magic be limited as long as those spells are still in place?”

  I translate Tor’s answer.

  That’s a good question to ask, Jerrie. When the cabal of witch covens took out the warrior-mages, before they created the Great Magics, they conjured a spell to tie up the mages’ magic. The Great Magics only limit the amount of magic born to each person. There was another spell that tied the dragon form into the enemies’ DNA so they became shape-shifting dragons with limited magic. However, the spell that did that was a onetime only use. It wasn’t a permanent spell because it took ten full covens to conjure it and eight to maintain it. The thought was, since there were no more warrior mages, there would be no need for that spell after the enemies were transformed.

  I repeat his words to everyone.

  Dragon points out, “That spell was written and conjured by extremely powerful covens, whose witches had multiple powers. Jerrie’s family coven was as close as we could get to one matching those power levels. Even with the White Dragon acting as one coven in herself, the chance of pulling together nine more covens as powerful to create that spell again is unlikely to be even possible in this day and age.”

  “We don’t have as powerful witches now, Dragon, but we have magical beings like you, my people in the seeley court, the unseeley elves, the demons, the druids, the archangels and the djinns who possibly can act as covens to recreate the spell.” Cirwin points out.

  “That’s assuming we can get such disparate beings to cooperate, which is highly unlikely.” Dragon answers.

  “But is it, Dragon?” Jeff asks him, “For the first time in our history, a healer has been made into a White Dragon. I don’t think that was a coincidence. Jerrie, because of her compassion and healing abilities, has won over the hobgoblins, the druids, your sister the seeley queen, the brownies of Avalon and the last dragon shifter in just a few weeks. Imagine what she can do in a few months!”

  Blushing at this praise, I add, “My father said something similar in my vision last night. He told me that people follow me, not because I’d give my life for them, but because they know that I love them.” I smile. “Every last dysfunctional one of them, is how he put it. It’s true. You’ve all become as close to me as family so quickly that it scares me to think of any of you getting hurt.”

  Jeff nods. “That’s why I think we’ll be able to pull this off. Because one of Jerrie’s gifts is to love the people who are close to her, making us respond the same way, no matter how dysfunctional we are!”

  Everyone laughs at that.

  “So the plan is this: Lucifer goes and gets Liam right now. Jeff looks at the drawings and plans where we’re going to go, and Lucifer brings the Order General here to make our final plans. Then we go meet the demons, and that needs to be sooner, rather than later. After that, we go to Belgium to revive Tor and reanimate Sir Frederick. If the enemy catches up with us in Belgium, we fight him there. If not, we head back here, I completely heal Tor, we meet with the elvish ambassadors, the djinns and the hobgoblins, and possibly the kobalds to start building our army. Somehow we’ve got to start watching the void so we know when these guys break through. With Sir Frederick’s help, we need to look at the possibility of recreating that spell, or another like it. Also, if we haven’t fought this vampire witch, we take that sucker out, hopefully before those super-mages come to our world.” I smile at my new family. “Piece of cake!”

  “Oh, and before I forget, Dragon, can you start teaching me how to use a sword? Tor told me that I should learn just enough to keep an attacker busy until the warriors can get to me in the case of another attack from a magic-resistant enemy.”

  “I would be honored to instruct you, Jerrie, if her majesty will release me from my duties?” He eyes the female terrier with amusement.

  Beauty gives the shifter a regal “make it so” nod, which starts everyone cracking up. Laughter is the best way to end a planning meeting, I think, and stroke my smallest general’s head as a reward for her wisdom.

  -8-

  Liam comes back covered with dust and has red irritated eyes from the ancient records he has been scrutinizing. Clutched in his hands is a leather cylinder that obviously contains our rolled-up files or scrolls. I ask Cedric to feed my head brownie then send him off to a bed, with the same treatment for my Familiar. He had tired himself out with all the dimension hopping he’d been doing today. Not to mention fighting for my life yesterday.

  Jeff practically snatches the plans out of the brownie’s hands.

  “Eager to do some archeology, my Consort?”

  He grins at me. “This is the coolest archeology project around, are you kidding? The Order has never let anyone excavate here before. They turned it into a shrine instead.”

  “Well, don’t get carried away. Just put us in the general vicinity of the tombs, and my Finder magic will enable me to pinpoint where they are.”

  Jerrie, the whole point is not to use your magic until you find our bodies. Otherwise the enemy will be able to home in on you easier.

  That isn’t the way Finder energy works, Tor. As soon as we appear in Belgium, the enemy will pick us back up by homing in on me, not my magic. He’ll only recognize our magical signatures when he is closing in on us physically. I hope he’ll still be in Arizona watching the gateway to Avalon. Then he will need to book a flight to Europe, travel to our site, and go through or around the Knight Protector army to get to us. By that time we’ll either be finished and gone, or finished and you and I will be waiting for him.

  You’re going to be working some major spells, Jerrie. You won’t be in very good condition afterwards. Neither will Fred nor I, most likely.

  Then running will be our primary option. I can do the majority of the healing of your body after we get back home.

  “Ea
rth to Jerrie.”

  “Sorry, Jeff, I was talking with Tor. He’s a little confused about how Finder magic works. Tor thought our enemy would find us by homing in on our magic. That isn’t the way it works. He finds us by homing in on my direction. Once he closes in, then he can use our magical signature to catch us.”

  “Right. Which we hope all the Knight Protectors around will delay and confuse him long enough for us to get away.”

  While he’s talking, Jeff is putting on some cotton gloves the archivists had provided and starts unrolling the scrolls. His face has an expression like he is holding the holy grail as he looks through the blueprints of the original Order Headquarters. I leave him to his work and go out to the kennel to find Cerwin. The Houndmaster and his assistants are running the su sith through the obstacle course he’d had the brownies build. The faerie dogs are definitely uncanny, all of them moving one right after the other in a perfect line, all totally intent on their task.

  “Wow, they’re amazing! So precise like that, to stay in such a perfect line!”

  Drumas, who is less shy than the other assistant Houndmaster, answers my comment. His hair is a darker blond than Cerwin’s, almost a tawny color, with golden-orange eyes to match. I can see that his magic matches his looks with the orange-yellow streak of fire magic and the green of earth magic, both medium strong elemental powers.

  “They have been trained that way since whelping, my Lady. When they run in the spectral hunt, they automatically fall into that formation to lead the hunters after game, all following behind the alpha male dog.”

  “Will that formation change now that Lucifer has taken the alpha male position?”

  Cerwin answers that question. “The spectral hunt is an elven event of the courts, my Lady. These dogs will be protecting Avalon. This formation is used for exercise only. They are also being trained in their new duties as well.”

  I smile. “Canine police su sith. How did Graceful settle in with Lainn, Cerwin?”

  My Houndmaster smiles, his pale face lighting up and his now vivid blue eyes sparkling. He had come a long way from the half-dead fading elf who’d walked in my door a few days ago. God, was it only a couple of days? It seemed like months had passed since then, so much has happened.

  “She made straight for Lord Cuchulainn’s closet in his master bedroom, twirled around a few times, sighed, and fell asleep on his shoes. We didn’t have the heart to wake her and put her in the kennel area we were planning to keep her in. Lord Cuchulainn wouldn’t even wake her to put her bedding down. He said he would wait until she got up to do it. I suspect he will instead clear out his shoes and let her sleep there. That was well done pairing the two of them together, my Lady.”

  I smile. “Thank you. Now if I can just get Lainn and Aggie to admit their feelings for each other, I’ll have our Chief Guardian all sorted out. Maybe I should ask Beauty to take them in her paws. She’d probably be able to blink her little black eyes and have them married. She certainly has all the rest of us straightened out. Do you have any idea why she thinks she should come along with us to Hell, Cirwin?”

  “No, my Lady, but if she does, then I have a feeling that it is for a good reason. My sister has the sight, and it seems like she bred that into her terriers along with other skills, though I’m sure that is impossible.”

  “I don’t know, they certainly figured that Torq was a risk to me before the door was even opened. If that isn’t the sight, then what is it?”

  “Good question. I just wish I had an answer to give you.”

  “Have you heard from your sister about the other issue?” I have to be careful of my words because Cerwin’s assistants didn’t know that the seeley queen had come to me for a healing consultation.

  Cerwin motions for his assistants to take over the training and steers me out of earshot range.

  “There have been two executions, my Lady. Twelve other people were infected by that spell, not including the king and queen. They traced it back to its source, an old enemy of the king’s. His sister is the healer who supposedly examined my sister and found her healthy. She conjured and placed the spell then, and it just spread from there.”

  “You’re lucky it didn’t infiltrate any further than the fourteen people. That spell was virulent and designed to jump hosts easily. I hope that Ceresa can still have children. I healed everything and her organs all look okay, so there’s a good chance now.”

  “Thanks to you.”

  “I wouldn’t be alive to do it without the queen’s gifts to me, Cerwin. Beauty and Courage saved my life. Queen Ceresa and I are even. Please make sure she knows that.”

  I want to reiterate this point to my Houndmaster because fey do not like to be beholden to others, and it could cause me no end of problems if the seeley queen thought she was in debt to me for discovering a saboteur in the court. Powerful supernaturals can get dangerous if they think they are in debt to someone.

  “I will do that, my Lady, with emphasis on the debt being concluded.” Cirwin understands my concerns about debt stress with powerful elves.

  Dragon walks out of the house just then and over to us. He’s wearing his sword and armor, and I remember that I had asked him to teach me how to use one. I’m not looking forward to learning this skill. I can kill and have done so with the former high priestess of Avalon in a magical duel when given no other choice. But the idea of learning to fight with a sword is taking me to a mental place I definitely don’t ever want to go.

  Dragon bows to me like he always does.

  “Where do you want to do this, Jerrie?”

  “I don’t want to do this at all, Dragon! But I suppose over in the backyard where the others practice is fine.”

  We walk to the exercise area and I pull Tor out

  from his back sheath and hold him in front of me.

  “I guess I’m ready.”

  Dragon just looks at me for a few seconds, though the strength of that green stare makes it seem like hours.

  “Jerrie, why are you doing this?”

  “You mean learning how to use Tor?”

  “Yes.”

  “Because Tor said I should to keep off a magic-

  resistant enemy until my warriors can arrive to help. He said that all the witches of his time were taught to use a sword to defend themselves.”

  “Torlean only has two magical powers, Jerrie. He is a powerful witch, for sure, but he isn’t a White Dragon. He needed the extra training for protection. You, however, are the most powerful magic-using White Dragon to appear in ten centuries. You are also a healer by basic personality. That is not an accident, my dear. To even think of training a healer to kill with a hand weapon like a sword seems very close to defilement of your spirit to me. Remember how you felt when you used your healing gift to kill Morgana?”

  “I’ll never forget or forgive myself for using my gift that way.”

  “You will use magic to kill if you have to, Jerrie. But picking up that sword and learning to use it is a symbol in your mind that goes against who you are in the depths of your soul. It is not for you. I will not let you hurt yourself like that. So I won’t teach you. I can promise to protect you with my life, my strength and my magic so you don’t have to use that weapon. That is something that I can do.”

  Relieved beyond belief, I stand on my tiptoes and kiss Dragon. It was meant as only a thank-you kiss, but he tightens his arms around me, pulling my body closer, and the kiss deepens until I am surrounded by his heat. It’s like a blast furnace surrounding me, and my soul reaches for the warmth of him automatically. I can’t help but respond to the hunger and bare need that comes through the embrace. Dragon has been alone for so long, and now for the first time in centuries he’s finally found someone he can respect and who isn’t overwhelmed by his power. Someone, my empathy is telling me, he could love under the right conditions.

  The gong of another magical contract sounds loud in my ears and reverberates even louder through my soul. At the same time, Avalon shakes so
violently that we’re forced apart and I almost lose my balance and fall to the grass.

  Dragons take more than one mate. Oh, no, what have I just done?

  “Oh no. What…”

  Congratulations, Jerrie. Now you get to explain to Consort number one how Consort number two was just created! Here he comes. Good luck. I have to admit, being your sword certainly isn’t boring.

  Oh shut your face, Tor.

  I’m a sword, Jerrie, I don’t have a face.

  Jeff runs out of the house looking around frantically.

  “Jeff, over here.”

  “What the hell is going on out here? I heard the gong, then the entire house started shaking like a stage four earthquake was happening.”

  Dragon stands up, looming over the six foot tall selkie. “The White Dragon just created a new Consort is what happened, seal. A Dragon Consort.”

  My normally calm Knight Protector’s face becomes engulfed with rage, his blue eyes narrowing as he stares at Dragon. “You son of a bitch! What did you do to her to make this happen?”

  “Be careful of your words, small one, or I might decide that the White Dragon has one Consort too many.”

  Oh shit, testosterone strikes again! What am I going to do now?

  “I’ve had about enough out of you and all your crap, Dragon.”

  Both of them use their magic to bring their swords and armor into existence. Oh, no!

  “That does it! You are not going to use real swords to fight.” I use my Mover magic to disappear the swords and to bring wooden practice ones into their hands. “If you two idiots insist on beating each other up, then you can do it with sticks. But don’t expect me to stay and watch!”

  I leave the two of them as they start whacking at each other. I head into the living room, pick up Beauty, and bury my face in her fur.