Fire Bound Dragon

by Elizabeth Rain

  “You could be right, Dae. It belonged to them alright. Maybe the girl doesn’t know how to get through either. Maybe Bennett’s played us both,” he spat.

  Liad straightened against the rock and laughed without humor. “He who controlled the Macu and the rest of us; his army is growing... why would he waste time on a group of helpless Other then? He does nothing without a reason.”

  Behind them Fern inched back through the trees until she was a respectable distance away before she lowered the spell. She would still blend in far better than most, but she was no longer invisible. She’d held it as long as she could. Besides, she’d learned enough.

  And her head was killing her.

  FERN’S ABILITY AS AN Empath didn’t extend just to humanity. Her greater power was in her accord with the earth. It balanced the other and allowed her to function with a degree of normalcy she might not have otherwise had. And still it hurt; even that. But with the pain came joy and the spirit of something humble that held her heart.

  When Fern left the demon wolves, she didn’t take the path that led back down the mountain. Instead—she went up. Back to where Sadie and the others had found a simple scrap of cloth in a briar patch. Where the wolves had ambushed Sadie and her friends earlier and where someone didn’t want them to be. Why?

  By the time she reached the same area, it was coming on dawn already. Fern had killed the night, and now exhaustion was pulling at her. It was an excellent thing there wasn’t any school today, she’d have never made it through Professor Shamon’s class. She stood and looked at the briar patch with fresh eyes. It had size to it, which told her it was old. But she was looking for something more, something the others, who didn’t possess her unique gift from nature, might have missed. The broken branches and signs of heavy traffic on the southeast side of the patch told her something heavy had been there recently. But her eyes pulled in a different direction to the other side of the patch to where there were no signs of recent traffic and yet the vines and burgeoning spring foliage seemed... worn. There was no joy there, almost like a bruise on the earth. Fern frowned and began making her way around the other way, heading left and up. It was slow going. Just because she had an affinity for the earth didn’t mean it didn’t like to pick on her. The thorny vines pulled and wiggled their way where they shouldn’t, though there was no blood.

  Her eyes, a gimlet grey in the predawn, sparked along the ground, searching for anomalies.

  The shoe, a child’s size eleven, didn’t fit. She bent down and picked it up where it lay partially hidden by the lower vines. And then she stayed down, continuing on all fours and low to the ground as she scooted towards the middle of the vine-covered patch. She discovered a button, and then two. The brush of friction along her nerves told her she was getting closer. The last thing she found was the pocket knife. In her hand, she used her fingers to rub the mud and dirt ground into the carving on the handle. The Tuttle family crest revealed itself. Shoving it in a large pocket, her eyes moved ahead and she crawled forward once more, when the flash of something small moving off to the side made her freeze. A rabbit, maybe? Even a raccoon was possible, but all she could think was that the movement was wrong for both. More like a cat, and fast. Despite the coming dawn, the gloom beneath the vines was deep, cutting her ability to see in the meager light. She stared hard at the last spot she’d seen movement. Something shimmered there, so slight she had to use what she was to feel its fear rather than see its unusual form. The shudder came with every breath of air, every heartbeat the small creature that hid in plain sight took. It blended so perfectly with its surroundings that only another chameleon could have seen it. Or someone as talented as Fern. The hunt for clues suddenly forgotten, she stared in wonder at the insignificant creature that was nothing she’d ever seen. The only thing that came to mind by comparison was that it resembled a cat that had taken a hard right down its evolutionary track. And this was not yet half grown, about the size of a six week old kitten. The longer she looked, the more distinct its features became as it struggled to hold the illusion and failed. Realizing its secret was up, pale lips drew back in a snarl, revealing a mouthful of perfectly developed carnivorous teeth. The face and head resembled a feline, with a sparsely furred head and short, well-developed ears. The whiskers had gone crazy though, resembling long mutton chops that grazed the ground in front of its face and twitched as it tried to catch her scent. Enormous eyes, round and the color of well-aged whiskey, stared at her in outrage. Ferns eyes moved along the streamlined body and four short stubby legs ending in claws that did not retract. Catlike, minus the dense fur. The tiger striped skin showed through the tufts of fuzz and seemed to fluctuate and shimmer into a distinct pattern as it breathed. The last feature was a long hairless tail ending in a smallish spiked ball of fur.

  What Fern knew was that whatever it was, it wasn’t from around here. How did you get here?

  But wherever it came from, or belonged, Fern’s heart went out to its obvious confusion and terror. Fern forced her tense muscles to relax.

  “No worries little one. I won’t hurt you,” she whispered.

  More teeth gleamed her way and Fern smiled.

  “Looks like you’re a little way from home.” She continued to speak, sending a brush of warmth with the words. The creature shivered, and closed her jaws a bit, nostrils flaring. One paw stretched forward, and it crawled forward a space of inches.

  All at once, Fern tensed. So did the creature, ears flattening against its well-formed skull as it glanced at something behind it, beyond the briar patch and further up the mountain.

  It glanced back at Fern and shuddered, immobile with fear. Something was coming.

  “Time to go little one.” Fern hissed. She reached forward and snagged the small body one-handed, backpedaling as fast as she could out of the thicket. She felt small claws and teeth that drew more blood than she was comfortable with. A vicious bite made her drop it as she scrambled to her feet.

  Her head pounded, feeling like it might split apart. There was no more time, Evil was coming at a run. She turned and started down the trail, weaving what she hoped was an adequate confusion spell behind her as she slipped and slid. A tug on the hem of her pants and she knew she hadn’t lost the little foreigner. It was climbing her like a tree. Fern didn’t have time to do more than register the fact that whatever it was, it had gone down the back of her shirt and wrapped around her neck, claws digging for purchase as it held on.

  Fern ran faster. Whatever chased them both scared the little passenger far more than Fern did.

  “WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO us Roger?” I asked him as he walked us towards the courthouse and the holding cell. I really hated that place.

  At first I wasn’t sure he was going to bother to answer. We were well and away from the others, who’d stayed behind to further discuss the situation when he glanced around us. His eyes fell on Sirris, walking devastated beside us. Even red-nosed and blotchy cheeked she was a kind of lovely I could never match. His eyes slid to me and I wished I knew what he was thinking.

  “You’ve got yourselves in the thick of it for sure. Not sure what you were thinking. I mean, they are killing people Sadie!”

  I shook my head. “Nobody has died yet. We can’t say the same for the Demon wolves, they’ve killed plenty. I just want to know the entire story before we condemn someone to die, don’t you?”

  He looked at me like I’d lost it. “No. I don’t. That’s Drae Council’s job. They aren’t some lynch mob and they aren’t conducting some witch hunt. They’d get a trial, fair and square like everyone else.”

  I laughed, a hint of disbelief in my voice. “Yeah, good intentions and all, but I know some of the ‘officials’ on that Council. They aren’t interested in listening, they do better to cast blame on whatever doesn’t fit in the way it should.”

  I noticed Roger wasn’t looking 100% convinced himself. Still, he was a good Guard and he had a duty to do.

  He looked down at Sirris when she spoke up
in a small voice.

  “Thanks for not putting the cuffs on me, Roger,” she whispered.

  His eyes widened. “Oh, man. You’re killing me, Sirris.” He looked like he wanted to crawl under a rock.

  I almost smiled, despite the severity of our predicament.

  We reached the stone steps of the courthouse and I had to force my feet to take me up each one.

  I repeated my earlier question. “What will happen Roger?” He gave me a worried glance.

  “Well, probably the least that will happen is expulsion. The worst? A mind wipe and a stripping of all your Magical Abilities.” I started, dread moving through me at the thought.

  “They can do that?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. What they really do is force a Magical to ‘forget’ what they are or can do. So, for all intents and purposes, they become just a normal human being.”

  Sirris whimpered beside me. I knew the feeling. I realized then just how much I’d changed. Less than a couple of months ago I had craved normal, hating to be different. Now the thought of going back to what I had been scared me to death. I wasn’t that plain and awkward girl from North Dakota with a mile-wide chip on my shoulder and a penchant for chewing my nails to the quick. Instead, somewhere along the way, I’d become comfortable in my skin. Now I was Sadie Cross and I was a Magical.

  THE CELL DOORS CLOSED behind us. When Sirris moved forward to wrap her fingers around the bars, I held her back and shook my head. Great, I was an experienced jailbird. I remembered the shock I’d received the last time I’d grabbed them. Not only were the doors locked through an enchantment spell, the bars were electrified as well.

  Instead, we both backed away from the door as Roger left us with one more puppy dog sad look. We sat on the cot and I wondered if they’d changed the sheets since I’d last been here. There were three other cells next to ours and all of them were empty but ours.

  The judicial system in the human world moved slow. I wondered how long we’d be in here. I looked at Sirris. She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself for warmth. I snagged the blanket folded behind us and wrapped it around her shoulders.

  For me, as bad as the thought of a mind-wipe and loss of my powers was, I knew it didn’t touch what was in store for Sirris. She’d never been anything other than what she was. She’d been Magical her entire life. For her it wasn’t just a matter of going back to normal and boring. She would lose everything she was. And her father, I didn’t want to be there when she told him what she’d done. I didn’t want to see his face when he realized what his only daughter was up against. I sat with my back pushed to the wall and closed my eyes. Damn, double dog damn, what a mess.

  I didn’t stay quiet for long though. I mean, exactly what else did we have to do except talk. I thought about the vamps.

  “Why do you suppose they don’t just go back? I wonder if it’s like what your dad told us. Remember? He said that some portals are only one way.”

  Sirris glared at me and I waited for a sarcastic remark about why none of it mattered, anyway. I could see the thought form in her eyes. But then she sighed, realizing what I was doing.

  “That’s what I believe happened. I think someone, maybe you know who, forced them here as a distraction. If we’re busy chasing vampires, we’re not looking at anything else that’s happening,” she murmured.

  “I know, but; what is happening then?”

  “What if it’s not about the vampires at all?” she asked, looking at me with sad eyes. “I mean, who knows what he’s doing in another dimension where we can’t see him. Think of how much damage he caused here?”

  She was right. Something else occurred to me. “They were wrong. But they didn’t give me time to point it out.”

  One slim brow rose in question. “What are you talking about?”

  “Didn’t you notice? What was wrong about the dead guy?”

  Sirris mouth pulled down into a moue of disgust. “He smelled bad? I think he’d been dead at least a couple days.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, he stunk. No, that’s not what I mean. He was dead and the Council and everyone else immediately thought of the vampires. The biggest question they had was how he ended up there when he disappeared clear on the other side of the mountain. But that wasn’t what they should have been asking.”

  Sirris looked confused, but she was listening. Her world had just been turned on its head. She wasn’t much good for thinking outside the box right then. I continued. “The biggest question should have been, who really killed him? It wasn’t the vamps. They had nothing to do with his death.

  “Did you see how plump and full he was, and yes, I mean beyond the bloating. What didn’t he have on his neck that all the other victims had, Sirris?”

  I watched her mind process the question, and the exact moment when the light bulb went on. Her eyes widened and flashed.

  “He had all his blood. And no puncture marks.”

  “Yeah, that’s right. There was dried blood on his shirt. I think they stabbed him. I didn’t see any weapons at all on the vamps, and they’re starving. They wouldn’t waste food.”

  Sirris nodded, expression grim. “No, they wouldn’t.”

  WE WERE STARTLED AWAKE the next morning by our first visitor. They’d allowed her ten minutes and no more to speak with us. From the way Roger kept glancing over his shoulder and the confused vacancy in his eyes, I wondered if a spell might be afoot. But I was too busy staring at the last person I expected—or hoped to see.

  Fern Mason stared at us through the bars. She turned and looked at a nervous Roger. “We’ll only be a few minutes, why don’t you go fix yourself a cup of coffee, you know it’s been a long night and you are sooo tired.”

  He nodded, relieved, and turned towards the door.

  After he left, Fern came closer to the cell. “Careful, those bars pack a punch.” I told her. She didn’t seem worried.

  She got right to the point. “While you two were chasing vampires and dead bodies last night, I went up the mountain.” Fern announced.

  Before I could ask her why, she went on. “I got close enough to the demon wolves to catch part of their conversation. They might be cold blooded killers; or maybe not. Not if Will Bennett was controlling what they did. The three left on Shephard’s Mountain might be idiots, but I don’t think they are the same now that they aren’t under his control. They were talking. They mentioned there were more wolves in Wyndoor, where they come from. I think Will Bennett’s building an army.”

  I started. Was that the answer to the question from earlier on why the Vampires? It begged the next question. What did he plan to do with that army?

  Sirris jumped in. “The vampires said something about that too. Mentioned someone controlling the wolves. And that dead body? No marks or loss of blood. I think it was a plant for us to find. A distraction.”

  Fern nodded, unsurprised. “That’s not all. I went up to that briar patch where you guys have been looking. Only, I was looking on the other side.”

  I’d been watching her face as she spoke, and the way she looked so calm, with her grey eyes clear and focused on us as if she were talking about the weather. Her long braid fell over her shoulder and down her front, waving in the breeze... wait, breeze?

  “I found these.” She was fumbling in her pocket and my eyes pulled away from her braid, which seemed to have a life of its own beneath her chin, bouncing about and jiggling up and down. I watched as she pulled out a child’s shoe and a couple other items. Sirris stepped up beside me.

  “Those buttons have the Tuttle Crest.” Sirris observed in amazement. She started to reach through the bars and I slapped her hands, with a warning look towards the cell door. With an irritated glance my way, she shoved her hands in her pockets.

  “Yeah, I know. And I wonder if the shoe belonged to the little boy that was with them. There’s a small knife, too. Also, with the crest. I think I was getting close.” Her voice faded.

  I leaned forward. “And...” the door o
pened behind her and I thought I saw a flash of irritation in her eyes. Roger was back, right on cue.

  Didn’t plan that spell out all the way, did you, Fern? I thought.

  “Times up.” He stated cheerfully, draining the last of an enormous cup of coffee. He would really have to pee.

  Fern’s mouth firmed as she started to turn away. A flash of movement beneath her braid drew my attention. I blinked. Had I just seen a set of eyes peeking out from beneath her hair? I shook my head and the illusion was gone.

  Fern gave us a small, sly smile and left.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Thomas sat down across from Nick, book bag clattering as he tossed it into the chair beside him. Nick gave him a cool glare as he unloaded books, making enough noise as he slammed them, along with pencils, onto the table to draw the attention of the irritated librarian who frowned in his direction. He frowned back, in no mood.

  “I didn’t invite you. I’m not real fit company right now.” Nick complained. Staring hard at Thomas. He realized that Thomas might look worse than himself, with his matted hair that was sporting bits of fuzz and hadn’t seen a pic in days. His eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep. Nick was sure they reflected his own.

  “It’s a splendid thing I don’t care what you want, Seul. I figure misery loves company and you are as miserable as they come.” Thomas opened his book and stared at the words.

  “I think we screwed up.” Nick said all of a sudden, surprising them both. Thomas glared at him.

  “No, you did. You knew Sadie wasn’t going to let things be. You could have stopped her. Sirris wouldn’t have gone without her to lead them...”

  Nick waved his hand in the air in a sharp cutting motion, sparks flying in the quiet room. Of a sudden, Thomas' voice cut off, though his mouth was still moving.

  “That’s stupid. We both know I’m the last person Sadie would have listened to. She would have been more likely to pay you a mind before me. And as for Sirris? You don’t give her enough credit. She went with Sadie because she wanted to.” Another wave and suddenly Thomas could speak again. He looked like he wanted to come across the table and punch Nick in the mouth.