by Jody Wallace
“Stupid dragon, I said transform,” Shula demanded. Nadia flinched when flesh struck flesh. More clouds of smoke blocked their view. She covered her mouth and nose with her shirt, and their eyes met over the top of the fabric.
This was getting ugly, fast.
“Charmaine hasn’t the power left, idiot. You used it trying to set me on fire.” In a nicer voice, Fliss continued, “Child, would you be so kind as to put on your wings and rise above this smoke?”
“Yes, commander,” the girlish voice from before responded. “I think I can manage it.”
After a minute or two, the gust of air from the takeoff of the iron dragon parted the smoke above them. The small dragon was aloft, her transformation less rapid than Nadia’s. But then, most dragon transformations were. The iron was young, perhaps three-fourths grown. The sun glinted on her steely, sharp wings, and she didn’t glance at the rocks below, where Barnabas and Nadia huddled near the smoldering bushes.
Nadia was transfixed by the sight of the other dragon before the smoke hid the sky from view. Barnabas clasped the transportation amulet in one hand and Nadia in the other. Surely the gnomes would have the sense to run from battling wizards, deeper into the safety of Magic. He had no idea how the wizards’ awareness of the gnomes’ car would affect the protective barrier.
But gnomes, apparently, did not have that kind of sense.
“It appears to be some sort of local conveyance,” the dragon trumpeted. Dragons had very good eyesight. “With tiny people driving it. It’s headed this way.”
Barnabas’s subtle efforts began to decrease the smoke and fire. The gnomes’ vehicle bumped across the uneven ground, raising a cloud of dust. He considered options—deserting their guides to save Nadia or transporting into the vehicle and convincing them to flee.
The green van swerved around the blackened creosote bushes and up the incline. One of the gnomes rolled down a window just as they passed out of Barnabas’s sight.
“You there!” piped out a voice. “What are you doing, using your magic outside the town barrier? Setting things on fire? What did those bushes ever do to you?”
“Ho, small one,” Fliss called back. “What is this about a town barrier? What town?”
“Magic, New Mexico. Don’t you know?” a gnome replied.
“I feel a magic not my own,” Fliss said. “It that a barrier?”
“Why are you new people so stupid?” the gnome sassed. “Inside we’re protected from the regular world. From harm. Do you mean harm, Granny?”
“I do not.” Fliss emphasized the “I.” “So intent to harm is instrumental in the barrier’s function. Intriguing magic.”
“This was not in the vision,” Nadia whispered. “Is this where it starts?”
“Victoria was in the vision, not Shula, and it was definitely in town.” But that didn’t mean things hadn’t changed. For the worse or the better?
The vehicle’s motor slowed to an idle as the gnomes presumably approached the wizards. As they presumably exited the barrier. The smoke began to clear, but he and Nadia held their breath for a new reason.
“We are seeking a silver dragon,” Shula told the gnomes. “She’s a criminal. A renegade in our dimension. Very dangerous to…all people here. Tell us where she is, and you will be unharmed.”
“They’re going to hurt the gnomes.” Nadia gripped his shirt. “We can’t let them.”
Barnabas would sacrifice the gnomes to save her, but would she respect that? If he and Nadia transported to rescue them, it would expose her. But leaving her behind was out of the question.
“Oh, that’s who you are,” a gnome said belligerently. Barnabas was surprised by how fearless the small man sounded when faced with wizards and a dragon. “We’ve heard about you people, keeping dragons as slaves. Me and Petey and Sal and Gomer, we don’t like that.”
“Then you do know about the silver,” Fliss said. “Our dimension is different from yours, small one. Our dragons are different. They cannot care for themselves, so we protect them. It is a mutually beneficial arrangement.”
“Lie.” Nadia’s dragon lattice began to glow silver. “Cannot care for themselves? Need protection?”
“Keep tellin’ yourself that, you old bat,” the gnome said. The van honked again and again, the engine revving. Wild gnome cackles preceded the whistle of some missile, which hit its target with a wet splat.
“Hey, now,” Fliss exclaimed. “There’s no call for that. My Goddess. Is that…is that feces?”
“Get out of our town!” More cackling and the thump of tires on rocks and squeak of axles. Wet splats interspersed the ruckus.
“This dimension is a horrible place.” Fliss’s voice had thickened with disgust. “I’m taking the amulet back to Victoria, Shula. You should have done this days ago instead of getting so far above yourself. She’s losing her patience with you, and mine is completely gone.”
But Shula had other ideas.
“Give us the silver or die!” the red wizard demanded, and flames roared above so loudly that the air seemed to quiver.
The gnomes shrieked.
Nadia thrust herself away from him and leapt into the air…while transforming into a dragon.
Chapter Nine
She’d brought trouble and disaster to this place when all she’d wanted to do was be free. Nadia’s head and heart swelled with rage as her body swelled with magic.
She shot up through the smoke like an arrow, trumpeting threats at the top of her considerable vocal range. “I will not let you harm them! Stop now or I will show you what I have learned since my escape.”
Which was approximately nothing, at least when battle was involved, but Charmaine was depleted, and iron dragons were slow.
“This is too easy.” Shula’s river of fire engulfing the van choked off, only to be redirected at Nadia.
But she was in the air. She was on top. She dodged. Barnabas suddenly appeared behind the flaming vehicle, and the blue shimmers of water magic burst around it.
Hopefully the gnomes inside had survived.
Nadia swooped down the incline, grabbed a large boulder, and darted straight for Shula. She passed through the barrier, and the spider-web sensation coated her skin.
“Fliss, we have her!” Shula screeched. “Help me now or your granddaughter—”
Whatever else she was going to say was drowned out by Nadia’s rage. Yelling the nastiest curses she could think of, she bombed Shula with the boulder. The wizard used ice to deflect it. Was her fire magic depleted? What other amulets did she wear? She wouldn’t go after Fliss unless Fliss came after her.
But the elderly, grey-haired wizard stood a good distance beyond as if she’d hightailed it away from the conflict. She was coated in what looked like mud and held an amulet stiffly away from her body. And she had not aided Shula.
“The tracking amulet works now.” Fliss gestured in the air in the signal for her dragon to land. “It’s got to be this barrier. The scholars will be fascinated.”
Nadia, looking for another boulder, didn’t see the iron dragon coming. She whooshed past, grey wing nearly razing Nadia’s skin.
But she also hissed, “Silver, you must flee!”
She didn’t recognize the little iron, but the other dragon could have hurt her. Badly. Iron dragon wings were weapons in and of themselves. Was her kindness due to Fliss’s influence or dragon comradeship, like Charmaine during the battle at the springs?
But dragons with thrall crystals had minimal choices. She landed beside Fliss, who was tugging another amulet from under her muddy dress. Barnabas, meanwhile, had the fire on the van out and was using a different amulet himself.
Plants shot up around Shula’s feet, quickly growing into cactuses. She yelped and cut them down with an ice blade. Before he could conjure more, a sputtering stream of fire blasted at him. He dodged behind the blackened hulk of the van. No sign of the gnomes. Those poor people.
While Barnabas was occupied with extinguishing more flames, S
hula shot ice daggers at Nadia. She swerved through the sky and behind the rocky protrusion for a moment of protection. This time she got four boulders, one for each set of talons.
Alas, she hadn’t had much practice with aerial assault, and her first throws weren’t even close.
Wind buffeted her suddenly, tossing her through the air. Around and around she twisted, losing her sense of direction. But she did know which was up, so that was where she went.
She nipped above the mini-twister, got her bearings. Shula was twirling an amulet in around her like a lasso. Very theatrical, when all she had to do was hold the damn thing to use the magic in it.
She hurled her last boulder at Shula, and because of the crazed air currents, it nearly hit.
Shula cursed and barely deflected it in time, but it did eliminate the cyclone.
Barnabas began to pelt Shula with stones, stalking forward, his arms out beside him. She had to raise a wind shield to protect herself.
Between Nadia and Barnabas, could they vanquish the red wizard? She needed more boulders. Or perhaps she could just squish Shula with her big silver ass.
“You’re not welcome in Magic!” a gnomey voice shouted at Shula. At least one had survived. “Begone or we’ll shit you down like the old bat.”
“You won’t be welcome in Castle Valiant anymore, either.” Fliss was astride the little iron dragon now, and she looked angry. It was telling that she hadn’t attacked Nadia, Barnabas, or the gnomes, despite whatever danger there was to her granddaughter. “I’m fetching Victoria to clean up your mess. She won’t be happy with you. At all.”
“Do you think I’m alone in wanting Victoria to shed the silver?” the fire wizard retorted. “Do you think I’m the only one who thinks it has made her pathetic?”
Fliss pushed a dirty strand of hair off her face. “I’ll be sure and make Victoria aware of that, too.”
“This isn’t the end.” Shula snarled and lifted an amulet. The pop of transportation magic echoed across the smoky, stinking hill as she and a crying, pitiful Charmaine disappeared.
Fliss and Nadia faced off, and Nadia didn’t know what she’d do against iron magic—against her blood boiling and exploding. But perhaps the dragon didn’t have enough energy to spare.
And perhaps Fliss didn’t want to kill her like Shula did.
“I don’t suppose you’ll just come home with me, young lady?” Fliss asked hopefully. The dragon’s snout was wrinkled as they hovered in midair. It took a great deal of flapping and angling in the wind currents, but it could be done.
“Never,” Nadia responded. She swooped closer to the ground, ready to defend Barnabas and the gnomes if need be. “And I’m going to…”
What was she going to do?
“I have my own wizard now,” she declared. “I hired him. Like the free person I am. And he will do as I say and predict everything Victoria thinks of to catch me again.”
They were only about twenty-five feet in the air. Fliss glanced down at Barnabas who was tending the injured gnomes with his healing amulet. “Like that, is it?”
“I’m a free dragon. This iron dragon should be free. All dragons should be free.”
The little iron bobbled in the air as if tired—or unhappy. She wouldn’t make eye contact with Nadia, her long neck curved toward the ground.
“Before you stir up rebellion in my new girl, I believe I’ll head for the portal.” Fliss bucked her heels into the dragon’s sides. “Enjoy your vacation, Silver. Victoria will be here soon, and this barrier won’t stop her now that I know its secret.”
The deep foreboding that filled Nadia as she watched the iron dragon shrink to a dot in the sky didn’t require a prophecy spell. It only required logic.
Victoria might not be the maniac that Shula was, but she did not brook defiance. She would come for Nadia and rain fire down on Magic and its residents as Barnabas had foreseen.
There was nothing left to protect the town besides Nadia’s surrender.
# # #
Nadia paced around the tiny living room of her brother’s house, checking the front window obsessively. They were resting and recharging, attempting to ready themselves for any attack that might come. Their first agreement had been that they would not venture into Magic proper, to spare the town Victoria’s vengeance.
So far, however, she hadn’t convinced Barnabas to let her end this the easy way. “Perhaps we can run,” she suggested. “Victoria isn’t here yet, and Shula can’t find me.”
Barnabas waved a fried chicken wing at her. “Victoria may not be in a great rush to leave her demesne, but she will eventually come to fetch you and punish Shula, no matter where she tries to hide.”
“She and whatever bonky wizards she’s enlisted.” The dragons had their hierarchy in the stable, and the wizards had theirs. Despite the fact that Victoria had achieved more conquest than any governor in modern Tarakonan history, that did not mean her reign was entirely peaceful.
“There is no government so secure that no one dreams of a coup,” Barnabas agreed.
“But back to the issue at hand.” She hadn’t spoken with the townsfolk as much as she’d have liked the past three days as they’d prepared for battle, but she’d learned a few useful things. “There are other dimensions besides these two. One called Glacien is supposedly made of ice. We could go there. It wouldn’t be as hot.”
“The amulet will track you anywhere. It crosses dimensions, just as I crossed to here in search of you.” Barnabas had explained that he’d had no issue tracking her through Tarakona. The amulet had only grown inexact once he neared Magic. Since he’d meant her no harm, the amulet had eventually brought him straight to her.
They’d literally fallen for one another, yet her first chance at a real romance was going to screech to a halt when Victoria murdered Barnabas and half the town and took her captive again.
Nadia was coming closer and closer to asking him to absorb some of her magic and glimpse the future, but would it do any good when he didn’t know how to focus it? Blast it all, why couldn’t dragons use their own power? “We could find one of these space ships I’ve heard about. The alien people can take us somewhere nobody in Tarakona has ever heard of.”
“Victoria would use a crystal dragon to create the necessary portal. I believe she has two.”
“Yes, she’s nearly as proud of them as she is of me,” she said with a sigh. “Except half the stable doesn’t resent the crystal dragons.”
“Dragon magic is one of the most penetrating forms our scholars have discovered, and they know a great deal. I don’t think running will do us any good.” Barnabas patted the chair. “Would you come and finish your supper, love? You need your strength.”
She halted next to the table. “If we aren’t running and Magic’s citizenry can’t fight, how exactly is your plan going to work? How can you possibly think to fight off Victoria and her dragons? Not to mention anything Shula cooks up.”
He fixed his eyes on hers. “I will get the amulet, and then I will transport us away. But we must destroy that amulet. And that means we must get close enough to Victoria to allow this to happen.”
“And you’ll snatch it how?”
For the first time, a hint of uncertainty crossed his handsome features. “I plan to use the talisman that was created for me to destroy your thrall crystal.”
“There’s a spell for that?” she asked, surprised. “How does it work?”
That kind of magic could free so many dragons. Perhaps the DLF wasn’t the moony band of traitors most of Tarakona assumed it was. Even Aiden hadn’t had a sterling opinion of the DLF, but if they had in some part shaped Barnabas—if they were in any part responsible for his bearing, his determination, his upstanding nature—they were not to be discounted.
“It’s a bit like one of these transporter beams in the television programmes we watched. I believe I can recalibrate the amulet to focus on the blood tracker itself instead of the thrall crystal inside your body and essentially yank
it into my possession.” He held up a fist. “I can use my blood tracker as a basis for the correct frequency.”
“Sounds scientific.” This transference was a type of magic she’d never experienced, nor heard of. Would it work? Since Barnabas didn’t seem completely certain, nor was she.
“I don’t suppose I told you,” he mused. “There hasn’t been time. The night you escaped was the night the DLF and I had planned a rescue mission. But you freed yourself.”
“That’s almost sweet.” She settled herself in his lap and took a bite of his chicken wing. “I didn’t need you.”
“But you do now,” he rumbled at her, his arm around her waist.
She shuddered at what might have become of her if she’d flown to the spring that day alone, without Barnabas to transport her to safety. Most likely she would be dead at Shula’s hand already, and she wasn’t sure if she’d rather be dead or Victoria’s captive.
She did enjoy living. Eating. Breathing. Flying. Laughing. Learning.
Making love to Barnabas.
She’d still be allowed to live, eat, and breathe, anyway.
But she had no doubt her recapture would involve Barnabas’s death, and the deaths of many more. In fact, since her magic had been used to predict it, she was sure of it. It seemed that illogical responses to various situations hadn’t been enough to change the future.
Or had she yet to be illogical enough?
Nadia took a long drink of Barnabas’s lemonade and then shoved all the plates and cups out of the way. “Make love to me. Now.”
He only hesitated a moment before digging his fingers into her hair and kissing her with all the passion he could muster. Which was, incidentally, quite a lot. The man seemed uptight and crusty on the outside, old before his time, but once she ripped off his clothing, he was a veritable tiger in the sack.
Not that she’d know the difference, having only made love to one person in her entire life. At least to completion. But he certainly displayed no reluctance to taste, taunt, and tantalize every single part of her for hours at a time.