"I'll be fine," she lied, wiping her eyes.
Caleb started to say something, likely to offer her more Chinese food, when someone thumped on the door. Saba craned to see who it was through' the sheer curtains and couldn't. The thumping came again, the sound of someone kicking a door instead of knocking on it. Caleb lifted the sword Lisa had insisted on bringing up here and wrenched open the door.
Axel stood in the doorway, in the act of kicking it again. He had a wriggling, wrapped bundle in each arm and thrust them both at Caleb.
"Here," he said. "I think these are yours."
The archive was dark, no light glowing in the dragon-sized tunnels. Malcolm sent tendrils of magic to the gems and crystals in the walls, and they flickered but did not spring to life.
He tilted his head and listened, dragon senses much better than his human ones. What he heard he did not like. Not the faint, glittering music of an archive full of knowledge and the quiet weight of learning, but the heavy silence of magic not quite right.
"Metz," he growled softly.
After another long silence he heard a slap and a buzz and Metz darted out of a hole in the ceiling. "Oh, he's bothered to return, has he?" the sprite snarled. "With not a word to me about where he's been?"
Malcolm stopped Metz's tirade by swatting him down and pinning him to the floor between his claws. "Why is it so dark?"
"The lights don't work right," Metz answered, voice muffled.
"The lights never work, Metz. They live. What has happened?"
"Something bad, master."
"Elaborate, please."
Metz sighed, very calm for someone pinned under a dragon's talons.
"I can't say for certain, master. But losing that book has loosened some bad magic. The archive has always had it—the books are powerful but some of them have dark power, negative power, you know? If the books are all together in their right places, then it's fine, but if one gets stolen…" He made a whistling noise like a falling bomb. "That's why they each get their special niche, to keep it all in balance. It's tricky, it is. Sometimes the balance is a bit off, but I manage to fix it, to keep on top of it, like. That is until that damned white dragon took the most powerful book in the archive."
Malcolm dropped The Book of All Dragons out of his other claw. "Why did you never tell me about this?"
"Didn't want to you worry you, did I? It never happens while you are here. Your power keeps everything nice and sweet."
"And yet the white dragon managed to break in." Malcolm touched the book. "Here is The Book of All Dragons back again. Is that enough to restore the balance?"
"Weeell," Metz hesitated. "To tell the truth, everything's a gone a bit pear-shaped around here. The database is mostly destroyed, or at least I think it is. It will take some expert work to repair it."
Malcolm's claw started to flatten. "And how did it all go pear-shaped to begin with? How did a white dragon—who has a brain capacity very little above that of animals—manage to learn so much about this book of power and my archive?"
"I don't know." Metz stopped. "Wait a tick. Are you accusing me? Me what's been loyal to this archive for a millennium and more? You are saying I flung open the door to a clod like the white dragon and let him waltz on in?" He fumed and swore in the language of a dozen different species. "I might forgive you that someday—if you're lucky."
"The only explanation for the ease with which the white dragon was able to bypass our security is inside help."
"Well, it weren't me!"
"Then who? We have you, and we have me."
"I don't know, master. This darkness, it has a mind all its own. Kind of eating things as it goes."
"Like the lights?"
"You've got it. It seems to be pretty clever. It could have used the white dragon's ambition to grow bigger and bigger, like a mushroom feeds on rot."
Malcolm slowly eased his claw from Metz. The sprite stood up, planting his fists on his hips, bat wings flapping in anger and worry, but looking not at all anxious that Malcolm wouldn't believe him.
"What happens when the darkness eats everything in the archive?" Malcolm asked, partly to himself. "What does it do then?"
"Goes out looking for snacks," Metz answered. "I imagine you and me would be carcasses."
Malcolm sat up on his back haunches, spreading his wings for balance. "You've been in here battling it alone?"
"Yep. Ain't been easy, but I learned a few tricks."
"You'll have to teach me," he said.
Malcolm thought of Saba lying in the sheets, her lovely body doing wild things to his heart. Even as a dragon, even this far from her, he still yearned for her. She'd touched him deeply, they were bonded. Whether she liked it or not.
He was glad, however, that he'd left her behind. If the darkness wanted to gnaw on his bones, so be it. But he'd be damned if he let it come near Saba. He had to find a way to stop it before more of it leaked into the human world and found the woman he loved.
"San Francisco is nowhere near safe for the little critters." Axel threw himself into a chair in his favorite position, legs outstretched, ankles crossed. "What happens is, I'm in the nursery playing babysitter, and up comes those snakes of darkness right at little Li Na's bed. I had to chase them away and kill them where the nurses couldn't see me. I don't know if there's more, but the darkness seemed determined to go for your babies. It knows power where it smells it, I guess. Hey, are these veggie noodles? Anyone mind? I'm starving."
Saba waved her assent, worry tapping her. They'd already told Axel that Malcolm had returned to Dragonspace, an event Axel viewed with annoyance. "Sure, just when things get bad," he muttered, then fell to eating.
"Oh, by the way," Axel said around a mouthful of noodles. "There might be a kidnapping charge against me. The hospital didn't want to let the babies go, so I smuggled them out when I got the chance. I tucked them into the back of your car, Lisa, and drove nice and careful all the way up here. I couldn't stop Severin turning into a dragon every now and then, so the back seat is a little singed."
"He's going to be a handful," Saba warned.
Caleb beamed with pride and cuddled his son close.
"I had a long talk with Malcolm on the phone," Axel went on. "He called me and wanted to know all about the darkness and Saba's dreams, and what I had to do with it. I don't know what the darkness is, but I know evil when I taste it. And I think it's coming from Dragonspace. The white dragon brought it with him, and probably you, Saba, when you and Malcolm came back from the archive."
Saba thought about that. "But what about when I was little? You can't tell me I opened a door to Dragonspace when I was four years old. I wasn't even a witch then, and it almost kills me to do one now."
"You were dreaming," Axel explained. "Floating around the—as you call it—astral plane. You weren't really in Dragonspace, only your dreaming mind was, because you had strong enough powers to enter Dragonspace astrally without knowing it. It gave the blackness enough of an entrance to the world when you came back to your body. And you can see me as a Baku, which tells me a lot about you and your powers. Not everyone can."
Saba sat back, remembering. "When I told my father and mother you had come to my summoning, my father said I'd grow up to be a wise woman." She smiled fondly. "My mother thought I was making it up, of course."
Axel plopped the empty noodle container back on the table. "I am thinking that Malcolm is going to have a few problems back in Dragonspace. Plus I can't guarantee that the darkness didn't follow me here. It hones in on power, and right now there's more than plenty in this room."
Saba exchanged a glance with Lisa and Caleb. Severin chose that moment to morph into a dragon, and Caleb busied himself keeping hold of the tiny winged creature before the baby settled back into human form once more.
Saba fixed Lisa with an urgent gaze. "We have to help Malcolm."
"I agree with her," Axel said. "If he can destroy this darkness on the Dragonspace side, well and good. If he can't,
then these kiddies aren't safe. None of us are."
Lisa bit her lip. "We'd have to take the babies."
"Straight into danger?" Caleb said. "I don't think so."
"But possibly there'd be more danger in leaving them behind," Lisa argued. "We can't protect our children if we're in Dragonspace."
"I'll go, you stay," Caleb said, steel in his voice. "You, Axel, and Saba can deal with the darkness here while I give Malcolm a hand."
Saba stood up. "Both bad ideas. I will go. Malcolm will figure out how to fight it—that brain of his is worth something. I've seen the stuff before, maybe my experience will help." Lisa started to speak again, but Saba held up her hand. "No, I'm right. You have to protect your children, Lisa, especially little Li Na. You have to protect the heritage of the silver dragon—that is the most important thing of all."
Axel nodded. "You and Caleb can squish out the leavings here, while Saba and I help Malcolm." He grinned at Saba. "What, you thought I'd let you have all the fun? Besides, what better person to have at your side than a god who eats what scares other people to death?"
Malcolm explored the archive, which was dismal and gloomy without the glowing crystals. As a dragon, he could see well in the dark, but not well enough. Trying to coax the lights to glow again didn't work; it was as though they'd absorbed the darkness and had no heart left.
He decided not to return The Book of All Dragons to its usual place, because that particular niche lay in the worst of the gloom. Instead he put it for safekeeping in a corridor Metz had managed to free of darkness, secure behind a cover of glowing diamonds.
The entire archive needed to be cleansed. As Malcolm made his way to the database room where Metz tinkered, he thought about how Saba cleansed things in her witchy way, with salt, water, and smoldering sage. She knew how to make everything sharp, clean, and free of evil.
He needed her for other reasons as well. He wondered whether Saba had confessed to Lisa she knew his true name after finding him gone, but he knew with certainty Lisa hadn't erased the name from Saba's mind. Though he and Saba were now in different worlds, he still sensed his tie to her, and it was intense.
"It's one big mess, that's what it is," Metz said from behind the banks of the database. "Whatever egg that witch laid, it hatched and spread problems."
"The virus," Malcolm said.
"A virus what divided itself and had babies. It's going to destroy the place, master, and nowt we can do to stop it." He brightened. "That witch you know, that Saba, maybe she can help. She knows all about databases, I could tell when she sifted through it."
"She likely could, but I don't want her here. It's dangerous, as you have observed."
"True," Metz conceded. "She can hold her own, though, I warrant."
"I want her alive, well, and unhurt."
Metz looked thoughtful, his wings moving slowly back and forth. "It don't work that way, master. You can't keep her all cushioned and locked away like a golden egg or The Book of All Dragons. We thought that was all nice and safe, and look what happened."
"I have to keep her safe, Metz. If something happened to her, if she died…" He trailed off, unable to express his feelings.
Metz gave him a sharp look. "It's like that, is it? The big bad black dragon has gone and fallen in love?"
"Love." The black dragon that was Malcolm examined the emotion and put it through several mathematical calculations. The man that Malcolm had become knew for certain. "Yes, I believe that is what I've done."
Metz cackled with laughter. "Poor old sod."
"I am more to be envied, I think."
The statement sent Metz into further gales of laughter. He wiped his streaming eyes. "It's caught you flat, and that's a fact, master."
From somewhere down the corridor came a distinct boom. After a moment, dust floated into the database room, dimming the lights. Metz sighed more in annoyance than fear. "Now what?"
Malcolm's nostrils flared. He smelled the stink before he felt the pain in his mind, the fiery tether that made him turn and go before Metz could splutter out questions.
The white dragon waited in the ruin that used to be the cavern. As large as Malcolm, the dragon radiated white light and his eyes burned green. Darkness swirled around his white haunches, snaking up and down his body.
"Slave," he hissed. "This is all mine now."
Malcolm gave him a cool stare despite the burning in his brain. "The place is in ruins. Have you come to help clean up?"
"I am free now," the white dragon said, ignoring him. "The dark magic freed me, because I freed it. It sent me here."
"I wouldn't exactly say free," Malcolm observed, watching the tendrils wrapping the white dragon's haunches.
The white dragon sneered. "You have no understanding. The silver dragon bound me, yet I escaped. It proves her power is limited, that even she can fail."
Metz, who'd followed, now zoomed upward, flitting next to Malcolm's head. "Is he daft, or what?"
"Daft," Malcolm agreed. "Insane."
"No," the white dragon said. "You are simply blind. You fear the silver dragon, but if I can escape her how much more should you fear me?"
White-hot pain streaked Malcolm's body, and he felt blood begin to ooze from under his scales, but he felt no fear. Instead, rage strong enough to tear down the cave lashed through him. To be bound to such a stupid and evil thing infuriated him. Black dragons had pride and arrogance that could bring down moons, and to be a slave to one such as this enraged him beyond thought.
"Perhaps I should let Caleb bash in your brain, as he keeps crudely offering to do," he said.
"I would make you stop him. In fact, I could have made you slaughter them all, and I believe I will, once I bend the silver dragon to my will."
"I don't think so," said a female voice at their feet.
Malcolm's heart skipped a beat. He lowered his head to study Saba standing in front of him, hands on hips, her magic glowing around her. Next to her was Axel, the imp who was a Japanese god, hefting a sword he recognized as Caleb's, and grinning.
"Saba get out of here," Malcolm growled. "I will kill you, Axel, for bringing her here."
"Hey, she brought me. Lisa sent us both, actually. We thought you could use a little backup."
"Not at the price of Saba's life."
"This is charming," the white dragon purred. "Malcolm, my slave, I order you to kill her. It will be easy, she is so small and vulnerable."
Malcolm bent his head to put it level with Saba's. Her delightful scent filled him, femaleness, soap, and faintly beneath that, the scent of their lovemaking. She studied him with her brown gaze, which could be so serious one moment, so light and full of laughter the next.
She was delicate and graceful, as when she performed the dancelike movements of the Japanese tea ceremony, and then wild and wicked in bed. His black dragon brain calculated the probability of finding such a woman again in his life—and came up with ninety-nine-thousand-nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine-to-one odds.
Odds which any other being would call luck.
"No," he said in response to the command.
The white dragon hammered magic through him, and Malcolm felt his veins catch fire. "You must kill her or your true name will kill you," the white dragon said in triumph. "That is your choice."
Idiot.
"The witch also holds my true name. I cannot destroy one who wields it."
The white dragon paused, blinking at this new information.
Saba glared up at him. "I can read The Book of All Dragons, too, you know. Especially if you leave it lying around chained to bridges."
"That doesn't matter," the dragon said, recovering. "I have no restrictions against killing her. It might be even more satisfying to force you to watch."
Malcolm lowered his talons over Saba, enclosing her in a protective cage. "No."
"I order you to get out of the way and give her to me."
"No."
"You are asking for it, black dragon."
Malcolm regarded him calmly, despite the agony burning in every limb. "You have no understanding of the true name. You believe that you read it from the book and have me your slave forever, but you bound me in hatred and ignorance. Saba bound me in love, to save my life. Love wins, and I will protect her against you."
The white dragon raged. The name sang through Malcolm, eating away at his brain until blood began to drip from his skin. Dimly, beneath his talon, he felt Saba's magic like a spot of coolness in a lake of fire.
"Malcolm," she shouted. "What is the darkness? What is its magic?"
Malcolm could not answer. He tasted blood in his mouth and squeezed his eyes shut.
"I know that one," Metz said, buzzing high around Malcolm's head. "It's negative magic, negative power from the archive. It's trying to get out of the archive and spread—the white dragon let out a burst of it when he stole the book. We're trying to contain it, but he keeps interfering." Metz shot himself at the white dragon, then danced out of the way as the dragon snapped teeth at him irritably.
Saba's calm voice broke through the haze in Malcolm's brain. "Are you up to this, Axel?"
"It's a tall order. But I don't mind tall orders."
Malcolm had no idea what she was talking about. Her next words froze his heart. "Metz," she said in a voice like golden chimes, "shut down the database."
"What?" Metz screamed. "You're crazy, you are. That will destroy all what's left of balance and stability in this place. Do you know what would happen? Negative magic all over the place, battling anything in its path, destroying everything, including us."
"I know," Saba said. "Shut it down."
Metz folded his arms, his bat wings moving in a blur like a hummingbird's. "I don't take orders from anyone but my master, and he's not as daft as you. Black dragons are smart. He'll know what to do to get us all through this without harm, you hark at him, he'll…"
"Shut it down, Metz," Malcolm rumbled.
"What?" Metz screamed. "Not on your life. You're as daft as she is!"
"Do it." Malcolm's words died into a whisper. Even through his agony, he understood what Saba meant to do. It was dangerous and even foolish and the odds of succeeding were… Malcolm stopped himself calculating the odds, because he knew they were terrible and if he saw them in his brain he'd never agree.
The Black Dragon Page 24
