“Peter, I’m sorry but I’m just not seeing a dragon in this picture. I see a bunch of birds flying around, which I admit were there and I’ve asked Alice to stop throwing bread crusts out for them, and something big and black that looks like it’s fighting one of the smaller ones. Maybe an eagle? We’ve had a few of those around over the years.” Edan said dismissively, putting the phone down on the counter-top and the constable picked it up and put it back in his vest pocket.
“Aye, Edan believe me, I know. I’ve been chasing weird sightings for a few days now. People reporting kelpies by the rivers, fairies in their gardens, now a dragon! Can you imagine?” the other man gave a tired chuckle as he sipped his tea and Edan and Hugh exchanged glances over his slumped shoulders.
“Kelpies?” Hugh asked skeptically.
“Fairies?” Edan echoed and Peter nodded and scrubbed his face with his hand.
“Aye, daft-sounding isn’t it? A few people have reported the sight of a very attractive young woman - or man, depending on your persuasion - walking a horse along the river banks. They call out to anyone passing by them and try to get them to come help them with something. Now, the older folks know the tales we all grew up on and they turn tail and run, fearing the person is really a kelpie and will pull them into the water and drown them. The younger set though, they think they know it all and that their elders are crazy and they almost always go to try to help. And barely escape with their lives. Of course, by the time I get there, there’s nothing to be seen.”
“Well, I’ll be damned.” Hugh muttered, lost in thought as he sipped his tea and Edan’s gaze sharpened as he looked at the constable.
“What of the fairies? People are seeing them in their gardens?”
“Gardens, kitchens, basements. Anywhere these little beasties can wreak havoc. People have been reporting dishes falling out of their cupboards and breaking, things flying through the air unexplainably, mirrors breaking.” Peter’s head was still down over his drink so he missed the way Alice’s head snapped up at the mention of mirrors breaking. She caught herself quickly and resumed her tasks like nothing had happened and Edan did his best to snort disbelievingly at the constable.
“Since when are you charged with running around chasing fairies and dragons? Haven’t you a criminal or two to track down?”
“Aye, you’d think so wouldn’t ye? But these calls have outnumbered the more criminal ones. When I got the call about the dragon I thought, bloody hell the world is going crazy. A dragon? Please! At least tell me it was red and maybe it was just visiting from Wales. When I was talking to the lad who took the picture he told me where it was and I relaxed a little. At least if I had to go chasing after a mystical creature, I could do it here and maybe deal with some sane people for a change.” He looked up at last at Edan and Hugh and they all shared a knowing look.
“Peter, you are always welcome here. Any time you want to come and investigate a dragon-sighting just let us know and we’ll make sure to have tea waiting for you.” Edan chuckled as Peter finished his tea and dragged himself to his feet.
“A dragon sighting?” Ciara asked in astonishment, appearing in the doorway unexpectedly and everyone turned to her in surprise.
“Ah, Miss Ciara. How are ye today? Ye look positively stunning.” Peter asked jovially, seeing the pretty young woman in the doorway and she smiled and dipped down in a slight curtsy.
“I’m well sir, thank you. Counting the days until these babies are born. Did I hear you say something about a dragon?”
“Aye, it seems a tourist up by the castle this morning claims he saw a dragon flying over your house. But of course it was nothing but likely a couple of birds fighting over a piece of bread.” He turned a bit sheepish and Ciara laughed lightly, coming into the room to pat his arm.
“We always see what we want to see, right? A dragon? Could you imagine?” when she laughed again everyone else did too, like it was the most ridiculous thing they had ever heard and Peter nodded his head in full agreement.
“And where would it go? Something that big ye would see fly away - over the sea, over land. More than one person would have reported something.”
“And it is your job of course to investigate. But I agree with you fully, where would something like a dragon go? They don’t just disappear into thin air!” At her giggle. he blushed and then let her guide him towards the door. As she walked him outside, Edan trailed after them and he eyed his wife suspiciously. She still sounded like she didn’t believe, but her tone was a bit different. Had something happened that had changed her mind or was she just being gentle in her criticisms because Peter was an officer of the law and just doing his job?
They walked him back down the lane-way together and waved as he got in his cruiser and left. Then, Edan looped her arm through his and turned them back towards the house.
“So,” he started as they walked slowly and his wife shot a quick look up at his handsome face, her free hand rubbing her swollen tummy absently.
“Yes, my love?” she asked and he blew his breath out in a whoosh.
“Your tune seems to have changed a wee bit about some things.” He began carefully and she eyed him with a tiny smile of amusement.
“Aye? In what way?”
“You didn’t seem as disbelieving of what Peter had to say as I might have expected from you.”
“In what regard?”
“Well, when I try to get you to try an herbal remedy to help you sleep you are quite adamant that you do not believe in such hocus-pocus. And yet, Peter mentioned the word ‘dragon’ and you didn’t even bat an eyelash, you just laughed and led him out of the kitchen back towards his car.”
“I can’t believe in dragons if I don’t believe in herbal, homeopathic medicines?” she asked, real amusement in her voice now and he blushed and shrugged helplessly.
“Well, my heart, it might seem like a bit less of a stretch to believe in medicine over fantasy.” He defended himself and she laughed softly and squeezed his arm affectionately.
“I had an amazing dream of a dragon the other night when we switched bedrooms. It was chasing that crow away that was keeping me up at night.” Ciara pretended not to notice her husband trip over his own feet at her words and continued, “Besides, the way you and Hugh have talked for years about the old dragons that used to live along this coastline, are you really surprised?”
“When you put it that way, I guess I shouldn’t be.”
Chapter 12
Ciara stuck to her word and after another visit to my cottage to discuss if there was anything I might want for myself, she had Edan take her into town. They visited a few nurseries under the pretense that Ciara wanted to plant some trees and shrubs before it got too late into the season and she abandoned Edan after they walked through the door, looping her arm through a staff member’s as she told him what she was looking for.
Edan was completely baffled by his wife’s actions, she had never expressed an interest in planting anything other than a few flowers around the estate, but after each visit they came away empty-handed.
“Are you not finding what you’re looking for, my heart?” He asked curiously as they left yet another greenhouse with nothing to show for it and Ciara nodded with a wide smile.
“Aye my love, I’ve picked out a few trees and shrubs that I like. The chap I was speaking to offered to have them delivered to the estate since they aren’t the smallest things in the world. They should arrive tomorrow before lunch.”
“Oh!” Edan exclaimed, a touch surprised as he helped his wife into their vehicle and when he climbed in beside her, he turned to her with slightly raised eyebrows. “Dare I ask what you’ve picked out for us?” he asked, starting the truck and leaving the parking area.
“A few rowan trees, a couple of blackberry bushes for the garden, some ivy for hanging baskets.” She shrugged, pretending to be unconcerned about her choices while at the same time thinking about our earlier conversation about wreaths on doors and burning herbs a
s incense. She had needed to pick out decent sized bushes and trees so that the branches would be substantial enough to pluck and entwine together and for that reason, she had purposely left Edan by the doors when they’d arrived. He wouldn’t have understood her need for larger plants without her having to explain herself, not because price was an issue, but curiousity about the need for them in the first place.
“Well, I’m glad you were able to find what you were looking for.” They turned back towards the estate and when Ciara walked into my cottage just before dinner, she found me pacing the floor in agitation.
“Kailani, what’s wrong?” she asked in a bit of panic at the look on my face and I shook my head, keeping my gaze on the floor. Ciara looked around herself and spotted a very old, dusty, journal sitting on the dining table. She drifted over to it and saw its pages were full of tightly-written script and she scrunched her face up.
“Tell me you haven’t been trying to read that old book? It would make a person’s head want to explode, the writing is so small and compact.” She exclaimed, turning to watch me pace and I sighed and nodded.
“That is an old journal written by one of my ancestors. Whenever I have a bit of free time, I come here and read either one of them or one of the ones that my mother wrote that my friend Rachel is in the process of scanning and emailing to me.” I admitted and she raised her eyebrows in a bit of confusion.
“What are in the journals that you’re reading them? Or is it just for interest’s sake?”
“Survival mostly. I’m trying to understand what I am and what I can do and between my Dad’s side of the family, and whatever my mother wrote, I figure I should be somewhere in the middle.”
“And what did this particular one tell you that has you pacing a track in the concrete floor?”
“When I first arrived here and discovered I was a dragon, I wondered what good I would be at protecting you while in dragon-form. Hugh had said that every Williams descendant before me had been a protector and they couldn’t leave the property because of their pledge to the first Cameron Laird to stay and protect the family as long as they resided here. I just couldn’t understand that. Not in today’s society with all of the technology and weaponry we have at our disposal - how can a fire-breathing dragon defend against today’s rifles, handguns, and even tasers? And now I’ve just finished reading that I’m not any good at protecting, because I’m not meant to protect anyone but myself!”
“What are you talking about?” Ciara sat down at the little dining table, pushing the journal in front of her off to the side delicately so she didn’t damage it.
“I am not stuck here on this property because of some long-ago pledge to protect the Cameron clan. I’m bound to this piece of coastline because my ancestors lived here first. With the Fae. Long before humans took over the land and made it their own. I am bound to this property because every dragon before me was bound to this property. Because that’s how the Fae kept their dragons from wandering off. And that is why I cannot leave without a Cameron male escorting me off the property. I have to stay with whoever the master is of the land.” I said darkly and Ciara’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“But ye are a protector! I’ve experienced it myself.” She argued after a moment and I stopped my pacing long enough to give her a dubious look.
“You’ve seen me chase a bird around as a dragon. I wouldn’t call that a protector. Anything else I’ve done has been in the form of spell-casting and that’s not something I’ve done as a dragon.”
“What difference does it make? Ye’re helping to protect this entire estate from who knows what. Whether you’re armed with wings or spells, it doesn’t matter an ounce to me, and I’m sure it doesn’t matter to anyone else here.” She defended me adamantly and I smiled tightly.
“It matters to me. As a human at home, I am a security guard. It is my job to protect people or property, or both, depending on what I’m hired for. Here, I’ve discovered two new sides of me that I didn’t know existed and your husband and father-in-law are both of the impression that I’m this great protector because I can fly and breath fire! And yet I’ve done more as a bloody witch than I have as a dragon!”
“So, perhaps we find a way to merge the two.” She said thoughtfully and I paused in my ranting to stare at her.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, when we were down on the beach the other day and you showed yourself to me as a dragon, you and I could still communicate, right? Your voice in my head even though you couldn’t speak the words.” I nodded in agreement and she continued. “So why couldn’t you cast a spell in dragon-form? You can still speak, just not out loud.”
“I’ve never thought of that.” I admitted slowly and Ciara gave the old journal on the table a dirty look.
“Do us all a favor and forget those journals. I don’t think you’re going to learn anything useful in them. Read them if you’re interested in what life was like for your ancestors, but nothing more. Focus on your spell-casting. I saw how that door frame lit up under your touch in the kitchen the other day, and clearly so did Madeline. She jabbered on for quite some time about how light can play funny tricks on our minds sometimes, and I guess it was to cover up what she was afraid I might have seen. I have a delivery coming tomorrow from the greenhouses Edan and I visited today, I will have Jamie and a few others from the barn help to get them planted and then you and I can work together to take some of their branches and make a few wreaths out of them.”
“Sounds like a plan to me.” I relaxed a little, my mind feeling clearer now that I’d been able to talk to someone and hear that they didn’t care what form I took.
“Now, will you be able to join us for dinner? Will has made a venison stew that smells simply divine.” Her eyes glowed at the memory of the stew and I laughed and shook my head.
“I would love to but I want to do a Skype call with Rachel and Gran, especially now that I want to know more about spell-casting. Gran helped my mother when she was younger, I’m sure she can help me too.”
“Then I will have someone bring a bowl of stew to you later.” Ciara gave me a warm hug, giving me a brief opportunity to feel her babies kick and I giggled as we separated.
“I don’t think you’re the only one looking forward to the stew.”
“Indeed, my babies always get excited around meal times. Just like their father.” We shared a laugh as she left and I turned to the journal on the table.
“Nothing personal, great-great-grandad. But I think Ciara’s right. You guys may have never had to change form but I have and while I feel more alive and free as a dragon, I have more practical means of protecting this family - and myself - right now.” I picked up the book, carefully closed it and carried it back into the bathroom, locking it away in the hidden safe. Then, I wandered out to my laptop, turned it on and waited for my Skype client to log in.
⧫⧫⧫
“So, okay Gran slow down a little. I can project? I don’t understand, what is that?” I asked the old lady on the other end of the Skype call. Gran was sitting at the dining room table in my house with a few large books spread around her and she nodded at me.
“Projecting is a way of throwing an image of your choosing at someone. So let’s say I wanted...Rachel to see you as a dragon without you having to change forms. I could cast a projection spell and she would see you as a dragon, not as a human. Or, if I wanted to scare someone away from my rose bushes, I could cast a projection spell and create a swarm of angry bees that would chase the intruder away.”
“I could have used that ability a little while ago and saved us all a bunch of aggravation.” I grumbled, thinking back to the big flock of crows.
“You can also throw what is called a glamor. It isn’t one of the stronger spells at our disposal but it can be handy for short-term disguises. Let’s say, if you and Rachel were the same height and body size, I could cast a minor glamour and make her look like you, or you look like her. But once someone suspects that they
’re not really looking at you, then the glamor fades and they see the real person underneath it.”
“Okay, so I can cast cleansing spells and do banishing rituals, and I can cast glamors and projections. In one of Mom’s journals, she mentioned being able to move items without touching them. That’s how she caught Dad’s attention.”
“We have an almost limitless number of spells that will allow you to do pretty much anything you want. You just need to think about the situation you’re in and what would work best and the spell will just come to you.” Gran said so matter-of-factly that I blinked at her a few times, resting my elbows on the table on either side of my laptop and resting my chin on my palm.
“Hmm. Here’s my problem, Gran. I have what I believe are Fae coming here soon to try and reclaim their land. They’ve rattled a few cages around here, breaking mirrors, sending flocks of blackbirds to just circle around and make whoever is underneath uneasy. A local constable was here this morning and he was telling the Laird about some other happenings in the area; kelpies near rivers, flying dishes in kitchens. It’s hard to say right now if they’re targeting certain people or just trying to scare as many people as possible.” I admitted and watched Gran reach for a book on her left and start flipping pages.
“Your mother wore an amulet that had the inscription ‘protect thine own heart.’ She wore the amulet every day and it was meant to always protect her from anything evil.” She said, her attention more on the book in front of her than on me at the moment and I nodded.
“I remember that necklace. It had a red ruby in the center and she never took it off. She was buried in it. I think.” I mused, thinking back to the dainty chain Mom had always worn with the large stone hanging from it.
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