“He’s the leader of the Supernatural Council. It was prudent he should know.”
Alwyn nodded. “There is much of Bran within him, both in physical appearance and in character. You chose wisely in sending him to seek out my presence.”
I held back a smile. My only hope in evading Megan’s trap had been in her father witnessing the truth for himself. Just as I’d been eager to fall at Joe’s feet and pledge my loyalty, so would any other dragon who knew Bran the Blessed. Our tribal leader, King of all the Silure clans, including the dragons.
My heart raced when Alwyn rose from the chair and walked towards me. He placed his hand on my shoulder. “You have spent too long away from home,” he said, and looked around the room.
Each of the seven elders nodded their heads.
“Our doors are open should you wish to return. We are, and always have been your family.”
I let out a deep breath, studied his eyes, and saw the truth in Megan’s words. When he’d told me to leave, I’d been too distracted and focused on fighting the war to see the truth then, and too distraught in the years since. But looking at him now, I knew in my heart he’d done it for me as much as the clan. I couldn’t sit by and do nothing. I had to fight. He had to protect dragon-kind. His only choice was to free me of my obligation to stay, knowing it would destroy me to do so.
I wanted more than anything to return to my family, but I’d changed over the years. Yes, at times, I felt loneliness, but I’d become accustomed to my way of life.
I stood there for a moment, and Alwyn saw my answer before I spoke the words.
He patted me on the shoulder. “Although,” he said. “I have a feeling we will need a liaison between the Supernatural Council and dragon-kind, someone who can bridge the gap between both worlds. Yes. I think if you are up to the challenge, you should aid Joe and the council in their endeavours, just as you once aided Bran.”
I nodded and smiled, grateful for his understanding. I was no longer in exile. I had a clan to call home. I also had work to do.
I hope you enjoyed this story. Trystan’s first full-length story, The Black Cauldron will be available later in 2020.
You can read more about Trystan, Summer, and Thomas in the Rune Witch Mysteries.
Draco Magis: A Musimagium Story
Mary Kit Caelsto
Draco Magis © 2020 Mary Kit Caelsto
All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Chapter 1
Normally listening to the Radio Arcanum frequencies reminded Deanna she wasn’t alone. That even though she lived remotely, others existed who were just like her. Today, the conversation scared her.
“A unicorn academy? Can you believe that? What’s next? The Musimagium going to say that leprechauns and fairies are real? Unicorns don’t even exist,” one man said, his voice full of scorn.
“Pegasus academy. If we’re going to pull fairy tales out of thin air, get them right.” A second man guffawed. “I mean it’s bad enough some of them claim to talk to animals. But magical creatures are going too far. They don’t exist. This is the real world, even if magic is more widespread than it was.”
Deanna smirked at the incongruity of someone claiming magical creatures weren’t real when the Great Dividing had shown everyone that magic was more real and more widespread than anyone had ever believed. She reached up and petted the creature sitting on her shoulder. Her hands smoothed over scales warm to the touch, and the gentle caress of a leathery tail against the back of her neck reassured her. She, just like her grandmother before her, lived here and protected the dragons. If the strangers on Radio Arcanum didn’t believe in unicorns or pegasus, they sure wouldn’t believe in dragons, and it was her job to make sure no one found out about them.
She reached for the power button to turn off the radio. Listening to men scoff about things they didn’t understand wasn’t a good use of her time and she wanted to hike out and check the nesting grounds before the first real round of spring storms moved in.
“…some say dragons exist too. That they’ve seen them in the desert. You read that article in the Times, didn’t you?” the first man said.
“What article? There’s been a lot of crazy stuff there lately,” the second man replied.
Her hand halted in mid-air, caught by the mention of dragons. She struggled to remember if she’d read anything about dragons, but couldn’t recall anything. The weekly news tried to bring the various magical factions together, and as someone who couldn't care less about the Musimagium, she skimmed a lot. Stuffy lot of old blowhards, as far as she was concerned, and she hadn’t seen or experienced anything to the contrary.
“A couple of weeks ago. Some Musimagium guy was on an expedition to Brazil and thought he saw little dragons in the rainforest. I think he ate some mushrooms or something. Maybe mistook a python or lizard for something it wasn’t,” the first guy replied. “Look, as far as I’m concerned it’s just one more way for the Musimagium to think they’re better than us. If they have magical creatures, then they can act as if they’re more powerful or something.”
Deciding she’d heard enough as the man went on a tirade about the Musimagium, Deanna switched off the radio. “Anacondas, you moron. The big snakes in the rainforest are anacondas or boa constrictors.” She sighed and leaned back in the chair. Her dragon nuzzled her neck, and though she lacked direct mind-to-mind communication with the youngster, she sensed his need to reassure her. She scratched the back of his neck. “I’m okay. Just afraid that someone will discover you and I don’t know what will happen then. Guess I’m going to have to find this article and hunt down this member of the Musimagium.” She frowned, not really wanting to deal with anyone belonging to that magical society.
She had no choice. The discovery of unicorns and Pegasus changed everything, as if the Great Dividing hadn’t done enough. The dragon flew to the top of the lamp. She raked her fingers through her hair and turned to the computer to bring up past issues of Radio Arcanum Times. She used the search feature to find the article. Dr. Khalid Bijan described a visit to the Sahara to look for the magical Echis viper, a relative to the white-bellied carpet viper. She shivered. As much as she didn’t mind scaled creatures—the dragon chirruped from its perch on the arm of a pole lamp—venomous snakes freaked her out and that particular species of viper was responsible for a lot of deadly snake bites. What kind of guy would go looking for them? She hadn’t even heard of the magical Echis viper; just recognized the common name from nature shows she watched.
Deanna breathed deeply. The worst she’d encountered was a pygmy rattlesnake sunning itself on a rock near the big cave where the dragons lived. She searched for Dr. Khalid Bijan and found him giving a talk in Florida about their python problem. Apparently he didn’t deal with only magical snakes. She found an email for him through the London Musimagium offices and quickly sent a message indicating that she’d like to speak with him about his sighting. A man like him would rush to the Ozarks to see her dragons, she guessed if he knew of them. Instead, she told him she had information related to his sighting for ones in America and hoped for the best.
“If he comes, you guys will have to keep out of sight. I know you like to play in the forest this time of year. But i
f a stranger shows up here, he must not see you.” She told the small dragon.
A wave of understanding, an image of a hawk’s shadow falling over him and a group of dragons and their scurrying to hide in the leaves, filled her mind.
“Yes. Like that,” she confirmed, never knowing just how much the dragons understood.
Her phone chimed with a weather alert. “Not now,” she muttered, but even as she slid her finger across the screen she saw the truth. The storms were coming faster than previously predicted. She had to check the nesting grounds. “Accompany me to the nesting grounds?”
The dragon chirruped and flew across the room to land on her shoulder. Deal with one thing at a time, she told herself. Keep them safe from Mother Nature, then worry about keeping them safe from humans, a never-ending job. She slipped on her heavy hiking boots and put on a hoodie to protect her against the chill, then grabbed her cell phone and tucked leather gloves in her pocket just in case, then with the dragon resettled on her shoulder stepped outside.
The air hit her with the promise of heavy spring storms. The wet scent of loam filled her nostrils, the humidity slapping against her skin. Dark clouds roiled against the horizon and something crackled in the air. Even the dragon craned his neck, looking around, and gave a worried trill as they stepped on the path in the woods. Trees budded with new green leaves, not quite ready to unfurl. Grasses and weeds poked through the leaf litter on the ground, reaching for the life-giving sunlight.
In her pocket, her cell phone buzzed with another message. She checked it. A watch had been issued for her area. “No kidding,” she muttered under her breath, knowing the National Weather Service often failed to call the weather in her part of the state. The ground grew steeper and rocks poked through the trees. A gust of wind rattled what few of last year’s leaves still clung to bare branches. She shivered in her hoody and glanced at the sky as the dark clouds grew closer.
A spiral of doubt wound deep within her. Maybe she ought to have brought her coronet. Without her instrument, her magic ran weak, pitiful even. Her singing voice lacked the strength to rouse her energy, and if she needed to protect herself and the dragons, she feared being unable to do so. The dragon on her shoulder huddled closer to her. “It’ll be okay, little one. According to the radar we’ve got a few hours left. It won’t take us that long to check the nesting grounds.”
She emerged from the woods to barren ground in front of a large cave. She’d left the cave alone, noting the small dragons darting in and out of it and considered the place their home. Acres of federal forest lands surrounded them, so remote that not even the occasional deer and turkey hunters stumbled on this place. Her property ended just behind the cave, and she’d liberally placed PRIVATE PROPERTY NO TRESPASSING signs along the perimeter.
A trio of dragons raced toward the cave.
Another gust of wind rocked the trees, sending their limbs lashing against one another. Electricity filled the air. The dark clouds moved from the horizon, churning towards her like a steamroller. She pulled out her cell and brought up the radar. This looked scarily close—too close. The phone shrieked with a tornado warning. “What?” She asked as the wind picked up and pushed her toward the cave.
The dragon hopped from her shoulder and flew into the opening. An image of trees bending, cracking, violent swirls of wind filled her mind. She watched the creature disappear. Did he know something she didn’t?
The radar finally loaded. Deanna’s stomach sank. She knew enough to recognize a well-defined hook echo, and when she zoomed in, it appeared headed straight for them. The warning flashed across the screen: TORNADO.
She glanced behind her. Did she have enough time to get back to the house? Another gust of wind, stronger than the first, answered her question. No. Getting caught in the forest, where trees could topple on her and branches fall only put her in harm’s way. Closer now, the dark, churning clouds became visible and scarily recognizable. No, there’d be no way she’d make it back to her house. Ducking her head against the ever increasing wind, she raced for the cave.
She hit the entrance just as a loud crack split the air. A tree, maybe eighteen inches in diameter, slammed to the ground, the roots sticking up in the air as if a great force had shoved it out of the ground. She turned around to see the black whirl of clouds growing closer. The roar filled the air like the cry of an angry beast, and from within the cave, she felt, rather than heard, an answering roar.
Two small dragons skittered past her, flinging pebbles as they did, diving deeper into the cave. If she wanted to survive the storm, she had to follow. Fear tried to render her immobile. To think this would happen here, when all the old timers said the ruggedness of the Ozark mountains kept tornadoes from being too destructive, frightened her. The beast had to be at least half a mile, maybe wider, and all she could think about was her house, her life, all of it would be obliterated from the earth and she was powerless to stop it. Even if she had her coronet, no mage could turn back a vortex like this.
The rumble grew louder from within the cave. To go deeper and possibly have the mountain collapse on her or stay here and be sucked to oblivion. Her choices grew dire. Except the mountain had been here a lot longer than she had, most likely it dated from before humans. She’d take her chances with the rumble deep from the earth, because she knew, even without watching weather shows, that she couldn’t survive something like this. Taking a deep breath, she flicked on the flashlight app on her phone and raced deeper into the cave.
Chapter 2
The cave went further than Deanna had imagined. As a child she’d come here and her grandmother had told her never to go into the cave, that it belonged to the dragons. She stopped and pressed her hand to the damp limestone of the wall. Glancing behind her, the darkness and violence outside convinced her she’d made the right decision. The tornado’s roar echoed from the stone walls, nearly drowning out the low rumble from within. Something about the rumble reminded her of the purr of a cat, soothing and gentle, like a mother reassuring her babies.
Debris blew into the opening of the cave, pushing her deeper inside it. The ground sloped down. She imagined the way the cave looked from the outside, more like a bluff that rose over the northeastern edge of the federal forest lands. From the public side, it appeared twenty, maybe forty feet high. Judging from the steep incline as she slid down, and the growing warmth, it went farther, much farther.
She shone her light against the walls, noting marks, almost like ancient cave paintings. She longed to touch them, to inspect them. Maybe this was far enough—
A gust of wind shoved her down, sliding her feet underneath her as if she walked on ice. Darkness encompassed the cave opening, the solid thud of something big hitting it vibrating deep in her bones. Rocks trickled from the ceiling.
Deanna lay on her back, the light from her cell phone somewhere at the bottom of the incline, casting a dim illumination into the shadow. The roar grew louder, then stopped. She pressed her hand to her chest. Was it over? Was her house still there? The roar grew distant as the tornado continued on its path, and though she guessed maybe fifteen minutes had passed, it seemed like hours.
She muttered under her breath and sat up, her head spinning. She rubbed the back of her skull, wincing as she encountered a goose egg. She must have whacked it when she’d fallen. Her tailbone ached with a sharpness that told her she’d feel it in the morning. She didn’t bounce as well at thirty as she had when she’d been younger. She started to stand, but the incline made it impossible. Instead, she scooted herself down on her butt, wincing as she hit every rock and ridge until she leaned forward and wrapped her fingers around her cell phone.
Out of habit, she swiped the screen only to see she had no signal this far into the ground. Not surprised really. She lacked a good signal even on her own front porch. She tried to bring up the weather warning and watched it time out with the lack of connectivity. Well, she was in the cave and had to get back out. The tornado had passed. Either she’d come b
ack to her house or not. She had enough battery to get out of here. She turned and reached for the incline to pull herself back up.
Don’t go. A gravelly, rumbly voice like something waking up from a very long nap echoed in her mind. It’s been so long since one of your line has visited me. The warmth grew nearer, as did the rumbling.
Deanna turned around. A pair of yellow-gold eyes peered at her from the darkness, level with her own brown ones. Somehow they picked up what little light made it this far down and reflected it back, giving her a hint of a long snout and white teeth.
“What?” She scrambled backwards, reaching for the incline to scurry up it crab-style. She fumbled with her cell phone until she shone the light at glistening purple-black scales. A lot of them. Going back into the cave as far as she could see. Tiny dragons, including the one she’d brought with her, its orange scales bright against the darker, larger creature, flitted around it. Her dragon, as she’d thought of the creature, chirruped excitedly before flying over to land on her shoulder. Its joyful noise continued, piercing her ear drums.
She transferred her phone to her free hand, then reached up to soothe it. “Quiet little one. Is that?”
A sense of maternal love so deep and powerful it drove tears to her eyes washed over her. Deanna closed her eyes, thinking of her grandmother, remembering hugs when knees were scraped, or cheers at a music recital. Careful training in the back yard combined with an admonishment that the Musimagium must never come onto this property, must never know what she had here. That they weren’t ready for it, and she should never go into the cave. It wasn’t safe. Now she knew why. “Your mother,” she finished her sentence knowing that she’d spoken truly.
Yes. These are my children.
Dragons and Mages: A Limited Edition Anthology Page 119
