Valley of the Dragons (Rule 9 Academy, #3)

by Rain, Elizabeth

  I SAT NEXT TO NICK at lunch, picking at my burger and salad and trying to figure out how I could strike up a civil conversation with him that wouldn’t result in him snapping at me. He was studiously ignoring me as it was and I was sure it was on purpose.

  I sighed. “Nick, can you pass the salt?”

  Salt in my hand—no words.

  “Nick, and the pepper.”

  Pepper slammed down on the table—at my elbow.

  “... and Nick...” I started.

  “What else do you need Sadie, hmm? Can’t you see I’m trying to eat?” he ground out. I stared at his untouched burger and fries.

  Well, that was plain. He didn’t want to talk at all.

  With another sigh, I shoved a bite of salad in my mouth and chewed. I ate my lunch in silence, hunger making me finish, though I didn’t feel much like eating just then.

  Sirris nudged me on my right, leaning in to whisper. “Where are we meeting tonight again, Todd wants to know?”

  I leaned close to her ear. “Top of the main road leading into town at the start of the woods. I wish we had a decent distraction. I really don’t want anyone to realize we’re gone. Especially Franz, he’d know right off what we’re about I’m afraid.”

  Overhearing the last thing I said, Thomas leaned across Sirris and hissed. “That’s because everyone knows that when we get together, it’s mayhem and chaos. We’re naturals at it,” he teased with rare good humor.

  My good mood returning, I grinned. “You, don’t you mean. I’m the easy going, rule following one of the bunch.” I added, deadpan.

  I jumped back when Sirris snorted, bits of milk spraying from her nose as she choked. Ew!

  “Hey watch it, lady!” I laughed.

  A sudden lull in the room had us looking towards the front. Franz Hobert was standing and waiting for the conversation in the room to abate. For what seemed like the first time in days, he was actually smiling, though there was still evidence of the strain he was under in the fine lines bracketing the corners of his eyes.

  “I have an announcement. Tonight we will do a one night lifting of the flight restrictions again.” He looked around the room, his mouth twitching.

  “There are a lot of students in this room that are getting pretty stir crazy, what with the sitting around and not stretching their... wings. We might as well make a party of it. We’ll have a bonfire and supply dogs and s’mores for you kids to partake of in between your ‘flights of fancy,’ so you keep your energy up. How does that sound to everyone?”

  A loud round of cheers went up in the air. Our table shouted just as loud. It disappointed me we’d be missing the festivities. It sounded like fun. But at least now I had my distraction. Nobody in camp would miss Flight Night, except us.

  TERRENCE HATED BUGS. It was why he lived in the city and did his hunting there. He liked to leave the tromping through the woods activities to his sons. Only, this time he didn’t dare and so he moved with them up the darkened road just past nightfall. The road was narrow and wasn’t suitable for anything less than four-wheel drive. The second hand Malibu they kept parked out of sight on a side street would never have made it. Besides, stealth was more important than comfort. They moved with care, not wanting any surprises along the way. None had forgotten their run in with the group of Magicals a couple weeks back and the wicked aim of the girl with the bow.

  Tonight wasn’t about hunting though; it was about finding information. That was best served if they stayed hidden. Terrence still wasn’t feeling confident about leaving Jonah behind to guard the girl. It was a little like leaving the wolf to guard the sheep. Unless she turned into a fire-breathing dragon and ate the wolf. The analogy made his lips twitch.

  They were within a stone’s throw of the opening into the main valley when noise up ahead made them slow down and move off the trail to watch.

  Moments later, several groups of chatting teenagers moved onto the main road. Most were on foot, but the steady growl of an engine reached their ears and several decent sized Kubotas emerged and passed those walking. The ATVs looked to be loaded with boxes and supplies. He noticed that several of the what looked like students were also sporting heavy back packs. They waited until they were sure there was nobody else coming and then edged back onto the road and followed them at a distance. They listened for any noises behind them, making sure they hadn’t missed any late stragglers.

  They were easy enough to follow, most of them seeming to be in high spirits and too busy chatting with each other and being kids to notice what followed them.

  They passed the opening to the valley where the teens had come from and chanced a peek, noting the wide open meadow and the ring of cabins some distance away. They continued on.

  Twenty minutes later they were hopping off the road once more to make room for another set of ATVs roaring up behind them. When they returned to the road after it passed they were momentarily surprised to see everyone had disappeared.

  As they approached where they’d last seen them, the distant sound of voices and low hum of motors made them hop on the well-traveled trail angling off the road and deeper into the woods.

  As they got closer, they moved off the trail again and angled into the denser forest, picking their way with care and moving slow. There were many people up beyond where they hid, excited voices whispering back to them in a blur of shouting and laughter. It sounded like they were having a party. A large open expanse spread out ahead of them, beyond the trees, showing a steady wink of the night sky and a smattering of stars peeking out from behind the wispy clouds dotting a mostly clear heaven. They realized they’d wandered into a second valley, smaller but deeper than the first, forming what amounted to a gigantic bowl shaped scoop out of the mountain.

  Using his hands to indicate they should move off the trail farther, they skirted the noisy crowd of youngsters and moved out and along the valley ridge further down, careful to remain concealed and out of sight. Close to a hundred yards beyond they came out on a sliver of plateau, partially concealed by several massive boulders. It offered a perfect view of the valley below that dipped and spread out before them for close to a mile. From their concealment they looked along the ridge and realized the kids had started an enormous bonfire near its edge, the flickering light casting eerie shadows over the group of grown-ups moving about and setting up tables. They really were getting ready to get lively.

  “Well, great. What a waste of time. Looks like their getting ready to roast s’mores. Now what?” Wyatt hissed, the rank smell of onion breath hitting Terrence in the nose with a foul blast. Terrence ground his teeth. “Get the hell back, your breath stinks!” he hissed. But he didn’t disagree. They’d made the walk in the dark for nothing. He swatted at his umpteenth mosquito, in a foul mood as they waited for something interesting to happen. Whose job was it to bring the bug spray?

  “Maybe, but we should stay put for a while just the same. Sides, that many kids and vehicles, we don’t want to be on the road if they forgot something and have to go back. Let em get settled and the party rolling and we’ll head back out.”

  A crackle of paper and a flickering match, and he looked over to see Jazz lighting up a joint. With a growl of disgust, he knocked it from his hand and ground it out beneath his boot. “Are you stupid? You can’t do that crap here. It stinks to high heaven. And especially if they are shifters. Do you want them to come investigate who’s smoking the dope? Were you planning on offering to share?”

  Jazz ground his teeth, but he didn’t argue. He wasn’t about to admit his father was right, though. Instead, he leaned back against the boulder with a huff and settled in to wait beside his brother, who sat with his back against the base of the boulder and was staring out over the star-studded valley with tired eyes.

  Close to thirty minutes passed as they waited, slapping at bugs. Wyatt removed a chunk of jerky and broke off a section to share with his father and Jazz.

  When the first large shadow moved rapidly overhead, shutting out t
he moonlight for a split second, they all sat up in confusion. Terrence had dozed off, his lids drooping in the silence. Now they snapped up, instantly alert and searching. A loud whooshing sound reached their ears and they looked out, eyes bugging to see what looked like a bird the size of a compact car winging their way. They cringed, folding themselves back and away into the crevasse of the two rocks they sat between. As it passed by, eyes glittering and reflecting the moonlight, that massive head angled and seemed to stare right through them.

  All three men struggled to breathe as they watched more dark shapes join the first until the sky seemed to be alight with the great winged beasts. Every shape, size and color of dragon took to the sky, some swooping low and deep to skim their clawed feet over the treetops and others winging high to thread their way through the feathery clouds.

  Terrence stared in horrified wonder beside his brothers. Jazz trembled, remembering the terrifying power in the young Dragoness in their basement. Here was an entire sky filled with them, and almost all of them were a lot bigger than she’d been. They stood riveted to the spot for several long moments until many of the shifters had landed and the sky grew empty again. The hooting and hollering from the crowd of youth reached their ears. The flames of the flickering fire grew higher and they knew they’d built it to a roar. It was time for Terrence and his boys to go. None of them needed to be a genius to know their fate if they were discovered on that ridge spying and watching them transform.

  They pulled back into the concealment of the woods and carefully made their way down the mountain, picking up the main road with caution when they were several hundred yards away from the teenagers and that valley.

  As soon as they hit the smoother surface of the hard-packed dirt, they picked up their pace and jogged, panting heavily after the first mile. None of them were in particularly good shape.

  “We need to make that call. It’s a good thing we checked things out. No way we can handle all of them. I’m calling Solomon Reddit first thing in the morning. Their group is a lot larger and more experienced than we are... hopefully they’ll know what to do. A group of Dragon shifters that large? They could destroy the entire population of Purdy in a night. It would be a massacre. Good thing we discovered them when we did.”

  “SO REMIND ME AGAIN, why am I missing Dragon night?’ Niel whined as we walked together with the rest of the group, following the path to the road leading down the mountain.

  “You don’t have to come if you don’t want to.” Nick muttered, bringing up the rear. His voice sounded hopeful that would be the case.

  Niel looked back over his shoulder at him with a saucy grin. “Nah, and let you have all the fun Seul? No way.”

  I sighed. “We’re going to see if we can find out where they are holing up. Maybe we’ll get lucky and Janice Whitmore is still alive.”

  Not that any of us held out much hope of that being the case, though. It had been well over a week and in our experience, whoever this was that was attacking the Magicals in town didn’t waste that much time. Whoever they were, they apparently really enjoyed their work.

  Sirris and Thomas, along with his brother Todd, walked ahead of us. I hung back with Fern, who as usual seemed content with her silence, taking in the dark weave of the blackened branches overhead, silhouetted against the light of the moon through the dense leaves.

  “What are we going to do if we do find them? We know nothing about them, how many there are, what kind of weapons they have. We don’t know that the three we saw attacking Todd are all there are, either.” Nick persisted.

  At least he was talking again. His brooding attitude of late had really grated my nerves raw. “We’re going so we can find all those things out, it’s what we do. Maybe you’ve forgotten that.” I ground out.

  “I have forgotten nothing, Sadie.” He finished flatly. I had the sneaking suspicion we were holding two vastly different conversations.

  “Look, I don’t know what we’re going to find, but I don’t think we can wait any longer either. Maybe we find Janice and she’s dead. It could be too late. But what if it isn’t and we don’t do this...” I didn’t have to finish the thought; we all knew the answer.

  Fern suddenly piped up out of the blue. “Can we stop by the pharmacy on the way first? I have to pick something up.” Several sets of eyes turned in her direction.

  “What do you need from there at 9:00 at night?” Thomas asked. Fern didn’t answer, but the look on her face should have been his clue.

  Sirris elbowed him lightly in the side. “Don’t you worry about what she needs Thomas, just keep walking.”

  “Wha...?” he started and then gave up. Nick looked equally confused. The look on Niel’s face reminded me he had sisters.

  The Pharmacy was on Walton street. It was more of an eclectic store holding a variety of goods. But it was also a drugstore. We wandered in and while Sirris and Fern took off for the far side of the store; I wandered down an aisle filled with allergy meds and diabetic supplies, among other things. Todd and Thomas stood examining something that made them giggle a bit, their backs turned to me. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what held their amusement. I glanced at the different gauzes and antiseptics, passing time. I wanted to go. Another man wandered into the aisle and paused in front of the diabetic supplies.

  He caught my attention at first because his appearance was so startling. Aside from the fact that he desperately needed a bath, his furtive movements caught my eye. He was probably one of the palest humans I’d ever seen, almost devoid of color. One brief glimpse of those pale blue eyes made something inside of me freeze in fear. Off, there’s just something weird about him. I looked away when his eyes swung up to meet mine, suddenly picking up a bottle of antiseptic and examining the writing on the back, not reading a word. I felt his eyes hold on my person for several drawn out seconds before he went back to what he was doing, examining needles and scalpels with interest.

  My first thought as I watched him, trying to remain unobserved, was that he was a druggy, looking for supplies for his next fix. But my fear factor had ratcheted up to at least an eleven. Something was wrong with him and I knew without question he was up to no good. When he turned to leave, I waited until he’d rounded the corner before I snagged the attention of Thomas and Todd as unobtrusively as I could. Together, as he checked out at the front, we gathered the rest of the group and followed him out.

  Whoever he was, he was naturally nervous. Probably because most people up to no good are edgy by nature, afraid of getting caught. So we had to hang back and nobody talked as we snuck along, following him building to building, skirting his movements along buried alleyways and behind abandoned storefronts.

  Before long we realized he’d led us down to the wharf district where all the abandoned warehouses sat empty from years before. I led, and even as I peeked around to catch his last movement, I jerked back, praying he hadn’t seen me. He’d been looking in our general direction, outside a door and looking around before he entered. The building itself was located nearly dead center of the abandoned business district and was larger than the others.

  Several pregnant seconds passed after he went in. “So, can someone please explain to me what we are doing following some stranger around the streets of Purdy. I’m sure that’s not what we’re here for.” Nick complained in a whisper.

  I glanced back at him, catching his skepticism even in the dim light cast from one of the few remaining street lights that was still functional along the abandoned street. “Maybe nothing, I don’t know. He’s creepy, don’t any of the rest of you get that feeling too?”

  “We’ve met many people, Magical and no, that fit that description.” Sirris observed drily, Thomas nodded, grim at her side.

  “I think you’ve led us on a wild goose chase, Sadie.” Niel admitted, for once agreeing with the rest.

  I glared at them. “Maybe goose is delicious. Won’t know til you try it, will you?” I added, looking around the corner to stare at the door, frowning.r />
  Fern, who’d remained silent, stepped up beside me. I looked down, startled by her sudden interest. Kit emerged from her shirt, fully visible. The small Weis reached forward and gripped the side of the wall and peeked around it, staring at the other building with gigantic eyes. She gave a squealing hiss and pulled back with a snarl. Fern reached up, her eyes black in the dim lighting, and smoothed her hand over Kit’s fuzzy head. “I agree Kit, something’s off.”

  She looked up at me, but she spoke to the group. “Sadie’s right. The vibes I was getting off him were enough to make me want to skip meals for a month. I don’t know what Mr. Pale, thin and creepy is into, but it’s not legal.”

  “Yeah, we all saw him pick up needles and stuff. He’s into self-harm, is what. Doesn’t take a Brainiac to realize he’s a user.” Todd added.

  Fern shivered. “Harm yes. But not himself. That man hurts things... an extremely dangerous man. Something about his mind is twisted.”

  “Still...” Nick started, only to be interrupted by a long thin scream that reached their ears. It seemed to be muffled and far away. Normal human ears might have missed it. But not a group of shifters.

  The guys immediately pushed forward, their protective instincts rearing their heads. I held up a hand. “Wait up. We just go charging in there, we don’t know what’s waiting. We don’t know who’s in there with him or what’s happening.” I pulled my knife, deciding it might be more effective in close quarters. The others did the same as we emerged from the shadows and worked our way towards the door, keeping an eye out for further unwelcome company. If this guy had anything to do with our attackers, then there were at least three more men unaccounted for.

  I reached the door and tested it. Unlocked. With a nod to the rest, I eased it open, ready for anything. But all that met my eyes was the darkness of an empty building. Only we knew it wasn’t. We eased in together and as our eyes adjusted; we realized we were in a huge open warehouse. Other than a few abandoned machines that had been obsolete or too difficult to disband and remove when it closed, the building appeared empty. Light at the other end caught our eye and as silent as we were able we moved in its direction.