by Lee French
Rondy gave Enion his attention. “Yes, Caius did create another seal, of a sort. It was different, as he’d seen first-hand the folly of having such a thing so easily destroyed with one stroke of a sword. There are now groups of five sites all over the world. Caius traveled extensively using the power of the Palace, even to what is now America. Each cluster serves a piece of the original seal’s purpose. Breaking one seal accomplishes little. Breaking all five seals of one group releases only that one binding.
“The records regarding the new seals are unclear, possibly on purpose. I believe he designed them to somehow diminish the mystical creatures that still exist. What the Palace does—I think, and among other things—is not allow such creatures to be created in the first place. That is, before the Palace, conditions existed for dragons, kraken, and unicorns to be created through mishap or accident. Evolution, perhaps. After the Palace, no such new creatures have come to be.
“The seals, then, probably bind the existing creatures. There are accounts of the early Knights hunting such creatures down, but it’s reasonable to assume they weren’t all found. Thus, Enion. Thanks to a set of five seals someplace, he’s diminished.”
Claire crunched on her celery and let all this settle in her head. She had other questions, but adding more information on top would overwhelm her. Besides, she could always come back again later and pester Rondy for more.
“Okay. Cool.”
Rondy held out his finger to Enion, who sniffed and licked it. The dragon went back to his seeds. “I have to admit he’s cuter than I expected dragons to be.”
Claire smirked. “Yeah. I suppose everybody would know about dragons if they were big. Maybe this was Caius’s way of keeping things quiet without having to throw them all into a hole again.”
“Possibly.” Rondy went quiet, watching Enion crack open a sunflower seed.
Claire’s thoughts wandered until she arrived at the question of why Iulia turned against Caius. It sounded like no one would ever know, which sucked. “Iulia seems kinda evil. And he just let her go. I mean, there was a dragon in his face and he didn’t have a sword, but he could’ve hauled her along to his horse.” “I would caution you against labeling people as evil, or, for that matter, as good.”
“She sure seemed evil to me. I mean, she made an effort to drug him and do stuff she had to know was wrong.”
Rondy stroked his chin. “As you study history, you may notice that most of it was written by the victors.”
Claire imagined Drew betraying her and unleashing all kinds of awful things. She’d wish for it to be a lie, or something she could fix. He’d never do it without something else going on, and if she never figured out what had motivated him but was forced to kill him anyway… “There was probably a lot more to the story Caius didn’t want to tell. Things not really so flattering to him.”
“I expect so, yes. The First Knight was heroic and powerful, but he was still human.”
Thinking about Drew made Claire want to go home. She’d barely seen him since Enion had fallen into her life. They usually sat together after dinner so he could help her with her math homework. From the way Marie talked about Thanksgiving, at least she could count on being able to spend time with him at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. If football and snacks distracted Grandpa Jack and Justin enough, she could even slip outside with him for a walk in the woods.
“Are you ready to transfer the power from your locket, or do you want to try it after another night of rest?” Rondy asked.
Startled from an errant daydream about Drew kissing her, Claire blinked and had to wait for Rondy’s words to register. Not sure what she’d have to do for this task, she tensed. “Uh. Shouldn’t Justin be here for that?”
“I’m not sure I could include a third person in this. We’ll have to face Caius, and I doubt he’ll allow someone who isn’t directly involved.”
“Oh, so this isn’t a big deal.”
Rondy’s gaze flicked to the dragon tooth dagger lying on the table. “I imagine you think that because he didn’t challenge you much over the weapon?”
“Yeah. I mean, it was a little scary. He thought I was Iulia, which made no sense then but does now, and he touched my locket. But he pretty much just watched me flail, then sent me on my way.”
“Knights require weapons to do our job. He knows this. As the arbiter of all power in the Palace, Caius offers little resistance to a new Knight forging his—or her—first weapon. All you truly have to do is be willing to get up again and fight even when you know the odds are against you. When you elect to create your armor, you’ll be given a similarly simple challenge.” He fixed her with a stern gaze. “For this, something you can live without and shouldn’t have happened in the first place, he’ll be brutal and demanding. There’s a very real chance we could fail.”
Claire froze, remembering what Caius had said about failure. Enion cracked a sunflower seed, the sound suddenly loud in the small room.
“You mean fail like not succeed, or fail like…?”
Rondy took a deep breath and didn’t answer immediately. Several moments passed with Claire sinking deeper into dread. “He’s the final arbiter.”
Though he hadn’t answered the question, Claire got the point. She gulped and laid a hand on her chest, covering the locket under her shirt. “I can live with how things are now.”
“Yes.” Rondy clasped his hands over the table and shifted. Fidgeting seemed strange for someone his age, yet he did it anyway. “I’m not eager to tackle this. These days, I’m happier to stay comfortable and teach younger Knights. But I think it needs to be done. You’re not whole, Claire. You’ve been lucky until now. Luck is fickle. I’d hand the task off to Justin, but I doubt he’s experienced enough to handle it well. With anyone else, I can’t say they’d be dedicated enough to the task to succeed.”
Claire bit her lip and thought about how hard it had been to use a foreign couch to get here earlier. This sounded like an order of magnitude more challenging. “What if I’m not dedicated enough?”
With a deep sigh, Rondy leaned back. “If you aren’t ready, then I won’t press.”
Claire looked away, not wanting to see the disappointment in his eyes. Her gaze landed on Enion, holding his carrot again and watching her. “What happens to Enion if someone takes my locket?”
“In your unique situation, I’m not sure. Given what I do know, my best guess is they’d gain control over him.”
Enion’s tiny face contorted in horror. “I don’t want that.”
“Neither do I.” Claire straightened and curled her fingers around the dagger’s hilt. “Let’s do it.”
Rondy’s eyes crinkled with a smile. “With that much determination, we can’t fail.”
Chapter 14
Justin
Movement by the trees attracted Justin’s attention. He watched Drew stumble out and fall on his face in the wet grass. Nothing about visiting a Phasm’s demesne should be exhausting, but he supposed different people had different reactions.
Drew rose unsteadily to his hands and knees and stayed there. The light rain that had begun a few minutes ago probably didn’t help him recover.
“Are you going to help him?” Anne asked. Tariel still had her face buried in the bowl or she probably would have commented too.
Justin looked at Drew and saw someone old enough to take care of himself. He ambled over anyway and offered the kid a hand up. “Come on. We need to get back before the house explodes.”
Drew grabbed his hand. Justin had to pull the kid to his feet and hold him up. As Drew straightened, panting and wheezing, Justin could see the kid wouldn’t be able to walk on his own and called Tariel over. The horse bent down to help get Drew on her back.
As they rode past Anne, she looked Drew over. “Are you ’kay?”
“He’ll be fine,” Justin said with a roll of his eyes.
“You brought him here to wander in the woods alone and stumble out half-dead?”
“Everything i
s right as rain,” Drew said, his voice airy and breathy.
Though Justin questioned whether Drew’s brains had been scrambled by crossing the boundary back to this side, Anne smiled and nodded. “Good to hear that. Get home and take care of my sister.” She smacked Tariel on the rump.
The horse jumped and took off down the street. Justin hadn’t expected that any more than Tariel had. He twisted in the saddle to see Anne returning to her house. She had to have noticed the binding being placed on the dragons and had to know who’d done it. Dealing with that could wait until tomorrow, though. For now, he needed to get Drew home.
Tariel trotted up the street in no particular hurry. As they reached the freeway, the rain surged into a downpour. Drew huddled under the cloak. Somehow, mist billowed out in a weird, raining fog. Ahead, Justin saw dark shapes writhing in the bizarre weather and tugged on Tariel’s reins to make her stop.
“What’s wrong?” Tariel asked.
“Those aren’t cars.”
Ten long, thin shadows slithered toward them. Two spiraled up lamp posts while the rest kept going, forming a semi-circle to surround Tariel.
“Let’s not wait for them to attack all at once.” Justin drew his sword and tightened his grip on the reins.
Tariel put her head down and charged to the side, where they could avoid being flanked. Horns squalled. She danced away from cars to reach the end of the line of giant snake shadows. Their first target reared to attack. Justin swept his sword in a low arc, cutting through it. One shadow dissipated.
The rest of the shadows swarmed, seven converging on the charging horse and two more throwing themselves off the posts to attack from above. Tariel bit the head off one. Justin slashed through another. Three sank fangs into Tariel’s belly. She screamed. Drew bolted upright and shrieked, throwing Justin off balance.
Rather than risk dragging Drew off or hurting Tariel, Justin let himself fall. He hit the street with his shoulder and rolled to his feet. Tariel kept running, disappearing into the gloom. Five shadows closed in on Justin, surrounding him before he could put his back against a wall. They lunged in near-unison.
Three scraped their fangs fruitlessly across his armored chest and arms. Two lunged for his legs. He cut one down before it reached him. The last bit into his jeans. Enchanted denim kept shadowy teeth from punching into his calf, but they scraped his skin enough to burn. He gritted his teeth as the rest dove at him, intent on his legs.
His sword passed through another, leaving him with three shadow snakes lodged in his jeans. They thrashed in a frenzy, forcing their fangs through bit by bit. He swept his sword through another. One stuck its fangs into his flesh, injecting him with white-hot agony. The other scraped four new lines as it tried to reach him.
Icy numbness spread from the snake’s teeth, its venom pumping through Justin’s leg. He stabbed blindly, barely able to think straight anymore. Tariel’s defiant trumpeting, muffled by the rain, gave him the strength to swipe his blade against his leg, dissipating the snake latched onto him. The last snake finally stabbed through his jeans, knocking Justin to the ground with pain.
He didn’t know where these things came from or why they attacked, and he had the sinking feeling he might never know. The shadow snake, its grip firm, whipped him to the side. His head crunched into a concrete streetlight.
Chapter 15
Claire
Rondy gripped Claire’s left shoulder as they walked down the Thoroughfare. Enion walked back and forth on her right shoulder, his tail slapping her in the neck repeatedly. The trip seemed too short and too long at the same time. Claire carried her dagger, squeezing it hard enough to turn her knuckles white.
“This is going to work,” she said for the twentieth time. “We’re going to be fine. Caius isn’t that big a jerk.” If she could just do this in her bedroom, things might be easier. Or from the safety of home. Including Justin seemed like a good idea. All three of them would be able to take down Caius in a snap.
“Relax, Claire.” Rondy had also said this a few times already. “Your nerves will only get in the way of success. Breathe in and out. Focus on steadying yourself.”
Once more, Claire took a deep breath and let it out slowly through her nose. Enion paused in his pacing and did the same.
“He will see this as important. Right?”
“Caius’s primary concern is the well-being of the Knights as a whole.” Rondy smiled down at her. “If you keep thinking about everywhere you’d rather be than facing him, it’s going to take us a very long time to get there. My will is strong, but not strong enough to override your contradictory urges.”
“Sorry.” Claire pictured the small room she’d used before and forced herself to want to be there.
Rondy stopped her in front of a small room and squeezed her shoulder. “Excellent. Now you only have to focus yourself on wanting to do the one thing you don’t want to do.” He pushed her through the archway and followed her, offering no avenue of escape. Once inside, he held out his hand and the stone folded in to cover the only exit.
Pressing down on her shoulder, he urged her to turn and face him. White light flared above his head. He smiled, reminding Claire of her father leaving her at school for the first time.
“Claire, we’re going to be fine. Believe that and it’ll be true. Remember, this is a place where your mind makes things happen, not your muscles. If you want to succeed, you have to know in your heart that you will.”
“Right.” Focusing on her mind seemed impossible when her stomach churned. Eating that sandwich had been a bad idea. If she threw up before seeing Caius, would Rondy be able to wash it off with the power of his mind?
He pulled her down to sit beside him on the floor and draped his arm over her shoulders. “Concentrate on what you want to do. Just like the first time you did this. Breathe and focus.”
“Sure, it’s that easy,” Claire grumbled.
“You’ll be fine.” Rondy squeezed her. “I’ll see you on the other side.” He relaxed against the wall and his body went slack.
“Right, just like that.” Claire snapped her fingers and huffed.
“Did it before, can do it again!”
“Yeah.” Claire patted Enion on the head, glad to have him along for this. “Get comfortable. We might be here for a while.”
The dragon draped himself around her neck, his wings buffeting her as he jostled into place. “Let’s do this.” He sounded so cute and determined.
Claire took a deep breath, nodded, and closed her eyes. More than anything, she wanted to keep Enion safe. Not having this huge, glaring vulnerability would help. By keeping him safe, she’d also keep Drew safe, and Marie, Missy, and Lisa. No one would get to use Enion. Ever. For anything.
Leaning against the wall, she pushed aside distracting thoughts about the people in her life and demanded a chance to prove her need to Caius. As before, she suddenly found herself sitting on that precipice with Enion no longer around her neck.
“It’s a point of weakness, and I don’t see a better way to eliminate that,” Rondy said.
Caius leaned over Claire and pulled the pendant out of her shirt. “Why not merely destroy the locket? This seems the obvious route.”
Her heart thumping in panic, Claire grabbed his wrist and raised her dagger. She opened her mouth to protest, but only a tiny squeak came out.
“That would kill her. You recently deemed her worthy of a Knight’s weapon. It would be a waste. Of all the Knights, you should well know we can’t afford to waste any.”
Caius tugged on the chain, seeming to weigh the options. “She’s barely able to defend herself.”
“She’s young. In time, I believe she’ll become one of our most powerful Knights.”
Rondy’s vote of confidence bolstered Claire. She’d had no idea he thought that and saw no reason for him to lie here. Caius would probably see right through him if he tried. “I’m worthy,” she managed to tell Caius.
“Are you?” Caius let go of the locket
. “Prove it.” He planted a sandal on her back and shoved.
She flailed and caught nothing. Plummeting through the air, she saw the ground slowly coming closer and didn’t want to watch. She turned her body over. Above her, Enion pumped his wings furiously, trying to reach her. Beyond him, she caught flashes of silver from Rondy and Caius battling at the top of the cliff.
With Enion in sight, a burst of hope exploded in Claire’s chest. She reached for her dragon, wanting him to catch her so hard it hurt. Enion folded his wings against his body, letting gravity carry him closer. As he neared, he flung a claw out and wrapped it around her foot. He pulled her close. She curled around his body.
He snapped his wings out, slowing their fall. The one large eye she could see widened in panic. His body twisted. Claire buried her face in Enion’s smooth skin. She knew he could pull up in time. His muscles bulged and bunched and rolled. He grunted.
They crashed.
She’d never felt so much pain. The impact tore her apart and crushed everything. Claire groaned and had to work to open her eyes. Sudden agony ten times worse than the initial crash coursed through her as she saw her broken body. Breathing became difficult; she had to puff and pant to suck in tiny lungfuls of air.
Blood-slicked stone spikes impaled her arms and chest. Her locket dangled from the tip of one spike, the point stuck through the loop holding it onto her necklace. A giant pile of dragon lay slumped over her legs, more spikes ripped through his wings. With so much girth, at least none had punched all the way through his body.
Enion groaned and rolled farther onto Claire. White sparks encroached on her vision. She made breathy, screechy noises around the blood dribbling out of her mouth. Enion rolled the other way. Crushing spikes with his body, he rumbled in pitiful agony.
Flashes of steel against the bright blue in the distance urged Claire to get up. Rondy still fought on her behalf. She should be doing this on her own, not with a chaperone. Knights fought their own battles. Without Rondy, she’d probably already be dead, but he didn’t deserve to bear the brunt of this struggle.
