Backyard Dragons

by Lee French

  Justin scratched his cheek, thinking that sounded wrong for some reason. The logic held up, though. “Sounds like a plan. With the power from the fountain and Claire at my side, it shouldn’t be a problem to subdue Anne and bring her here.”

  “Good plan. See if you can haul along a handful of dragons and get to it, boy. Time’s wasting.”

  Chapter 29

  Claire

  Old-fashioned street lamps filled the area with bright yellow light. Claire wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and walked under the Burnside Street overpass until it reached open ground. Cobblestones covered the ground instead of asphalt and concrete. On the other side of the MAX rails, no cars sat in the small commuter parking lot. The area itself seemed safe. Claire hunched her shoulders and suppressed a shiver at the emptiness.

  Rushing water echoed off the brick buildings. She reached the wide cobblestone plaza with the fountain at its center and felt small. Wind funneled between the buildings, whipping her hair around and tossing dead leaves. Nothing and no one would protect her here. She’d have to protect herself.

  At the fountain, three stone steps led to the low wall around the basin. A square column in the center held a wide bowl ten feet off the ground. From the top of the basin wall, Claire thought she could reach the edge of the bowl. Doing that would suck, though, because cold water splashed over the edge in a curtain of drops half obscuring the Greek or Roman woman on the column. The statue, echoed on the other side, appeared to be holding the bowl over her head.

  Wondering at the coincidence of a Greco-Roman statue at a fountain where Justin would come to break a seal of some sort, Claire approached the fountain and climbed the short steps. The statue’s clothes resembled Iulia’s. So did its face.

  “Calm down, Claire,” she murmured. “Lots of stuff modeled on that time period looks the same. It means nothing. Can’t freak every time you see something like that.” She stuck her hand in the thin waterfall and found it unexpectedly warm. This time of year, the water should be frigid. Now curious, she tossed the blanket aside and stripped off her fleece.

  She jumped and caught the edge of the bowl, grunting as she pulled herself up. Though pullups had never been her forte in gym class, she had enough muscle to manage one. Her feet caught on some part of the statue, and she braced herself in place.

  The warm water, streaming from a pipe in the center and flowing over the bowl’s rim, soaked her shirt. She saw nothing. If this fountain had some kind of mystical seal, she knew something had to be here. Wriggling and swinging her body got her one leg over the edge, then she rolled into the bowl. She crouched, soaking wet from head to toe, and ran her hands over the submerged stone. Near the center, her fingertips found a ring of carvings.

  Shielding the spot from the central spray, she peered through the water and frowned at familiar whorls edged with dots. She couldn’t believe it and pulled her locket out to compare. The front face of her locket had exactly the same design as the one repeated in this bowl.

  “What does that mean?” She climbed down and checked the basin and pillar, but found no more instances of the symbol. The moment she stepped out of the fountain, cold air hit her wet clothes and made her shiver so hard her teeth chattered. She peeled her shirt and miniskirt off, replacing both with her fleece and the blanket. Her purple leggings, boots, bra, and socks remained wet, but she couldn’t do anything about that right now.

  With nothing else to hold her dagger, she kept it in hand, waiting for Justin to show up. The mystery of the symbol, something she had no basis to speculate about, faded away in favor of Rondy’s story. He’d told her about his past for a reason. Of course, she might have conjured all that herself, except she didn’t know anything about Jamaica or Ohio. She didn’t think she’d imagine a story where someone lost a foot and went on to become a teacher.

  He wanted her to figure something out. It probably had nothing to do with mining, Jamaica, or segregation. Claire had moved a lot. She could relate to being the odd kid out at school, but not like Rondy. Even though someone inevitably seemed to figure out she was an orphan, she still looked a lot like the other kids. In fact, at her new school, she had no trouble at all with bullies. The teachers were all really nice and understanding, which still freaked her out a little.

  At Justin’s house, she was kind of the odd one out, except not really. She did chores, spent a lot of time training with Justin, and took her turn watching the girls. Grandma and Grandpa accepted her without hesitation. Marie never said anything to suggest she resented Claire.

  The Palace, though, was another matter entirely. Djembe didn’t hate her anymore, but she definitely didn’t trust him. After Rondy’s death, he didn’t seem to trust her either. Everyone knew who she was. She had almost nothing in common with any of them and only Justin and Rondy treated her as if she had any value. And all of that had nothing to do with anything except the one obvious thing she didn’t share with any of them: gender. Just like Rondy at his school.

  He’d been talking about her as a Knight. Now that she thought of it, she felt stupid for not realizing it immediately. Obviously, a Knight who only knew her as a Knight would use a story to tell her something about being a Knight. Duh.

  Enion and her dagger weren’t mistakes or flukes. Neither needed to be worked around or dealt with. She hadn’t become a Knight to do the same things all the other Knights did, the same way all the other Knights did. Tiny dragons had inherent value. Daggers could do what she needed them to do. Maybe a sword would be the better tool sometimes, but she could hand those problems to Justin.

  Did this explain why she’d lost her dagger while facing Caius? She puzzled on that question, not sure, and it led her to another. Why did they fail? Caius had to understand the threat he left open with her locket. She supposed he could have figured another month or year wouldn’t make any difference. No, that hadn’t been it.

  She shut her eyes and replayed the battle in her head. For most of it, she’d been in that stupid pit. Once she got the idea to work together with Enion instead of separately, they succeeded. That chasm forced her to go on alone, and Caius still dueled with Rondy.

  In her head, she watched their swords clash. They’d seemed evenly matched. Except Caius was a long-dead spirit of some kind in the heart of the Palace, and Rondy was only a man. He’d been a strong, capable, experienced man, but still only a man. Caius could probably have defeated him handily at any time if he’d wanted to.

  For some reason, Caius waited until she involved herself. His disappointment couldn’t have been about courage. She’d charged into the fray without a weapon. Tenacity meant persistence and determination. She thought she’d displayed plenty of that by not giving up. That left “strength of will” as the last of the three things he demanded.

  Rubbing her temples, she tried to imagine what he meant by that. If everything in the Palace happened because a Knight willed it to be so, then her ability to generate a dagger said she had strength of will. Then she thought of the couch incident. Real Knights could use anything similar to their door to cross into the Palace.

  If her will had been the problem, she still didn’t understand why Caius waited until she charged him to proclaim their task failed. She’d done everything she could to give Rondy a chance to stab Caius. She couldn’t hurt him, so Rondy needed to do the job.

  That last thought stuck and she opened her eyes with dawning realization. She’d gone into that battle thinking she was there to help Rondy, not thinking she needed Rondy’s help to fix her own problems. She’d attacked Caius to give Rondy an opening, not to attack. She’d hoped Rondy would succeed.

  How could Rondy have succeeded when the locket had nothing to do with him? He helped her out of concern for her skill, not because he had a connection to her or the locket. Caius had allowed Rondy to be there, maybe hoping she’d figure this out sooner, before he had to kill someone.

  “I’m a moron,” she told the fountain.

  “I don’t disagree with you,” Dre
w said, smirking.

  Chapter 30

  Justin

  Though he had no idea why Kurt suggested bringing dragons that were too much like birds to be useful, Justin stepped out of the sycamore and scooped up two of them. Both chirped sleepy protests. He held them in one hand and hurried out to Anne’s front door, where Enion lay curled up on the stoop.

  “Alright, dragon. Time to find Claire.” He rang the bell and waited, planning his assault while Enion jumped to his feet and watched the door intently. Justin thought he could shove past Anne to snatch Claire, run out the back door, stash her in Kurt’s demesne, and ride Tariel to Skidmore Fountain. After that, everything else would be easy.

  “Anne?” He called out. “It’s Justin. I just need to talk to you for a minute.” He checked the knob, finding it locked, then stepped to the side and peered in through the front window. Nothing seemed out of place and no lights had been turned on. As far as he knew, witches couldn’t see in the dark. “Come on, Enion. They must have gone someplace.”

  He climbed onto Tariel’s back, wondering if Claire or Anne had figured out what he’d been up to. Without checking a clock, he had no idea how long he’d been in Kurt’s demesne. Anne could have spent that time figuring out what all those sites had in common, or otherwise tracking the power. She could have taken Claire to collect the power at the last site for herself.

  “Skidmore Fountain,” he told Tariel. “Fast.” He held on while Tariel shot up the street, sheltering three dragons under his cloak. Coming all the way back to Kurt’s almost seemed like an utter waste of time, except for how much better he felt now. Staying with Kurt had been better for him than going to the Palace, something he’d remember in the future.

  Tariel flew up the city streets in darkness. They crossed the river again and slowed when they reached the cobblestone path to the fountain. Rounding the corner, he saw a girl he assumed to be Claire sitting on the fountain steps, wrapped in a green blanket. Another figure in a bright yellow raincoat walked up and surprised Claire enough to raise her head and stare at him.

  Both turned to see him, presumably hearing Tariel’s hoofbeats. As they approached, he recognized Drew as the other figure. Justin glanced around, checking to see if Anne stood nearby, waiting to pounce when he got close. This situation had the feel of a trap, and he preferred not to be caught unawares.

  “Didn’t I send you both home?”

  Enion flew out from under his cloak, too small and quick for him to catch. The sprite probably had no idea about his Knight becoming tainted. Either that or he’d been intended as bait to lead Justin into the jaws of this ambush.

  When Claire huddled into her blanket again, Justin noticed her shirt and skirt lying on the ground. Trap or not, tainted or not, he jumped off Tariel’s back to rush to her side. On one knee beside her, he tapped under her chin to raise her head. “What happened?”

  She looked up at him with red, puffy eyes. “Lots of things.”

  Certain about what must have gone on here, Justin whirled to face Drew. He curled his hand around the hilt of his sword. “We took you in, and this is how you show your gratitude?”

  Drew held up his hands and obviously faked a gulp of panic. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  Justin pulled his sword and leveled it at Drew. “Of course you don’t,” he growled. “If you ever touch Claire again, or even think about it, I’ll kill you.”

  “Whoa!” Claire jumped to her feet, dropping her blanket, and threw herself between Justin’s sword and Drew. She held her dagger where Drew could snatch it or bat it aside. Her sloppy bladework needed to be dealt with. For now, if he needed to, he could use it against her to avoid hurting her. “I don’t know what you’re thinking, but I guarantee it’s not even close to the truth.”

  Still glaring at Drew, Justin growled, “Try me. Start with the clothes lying on the ground.”

  Claire blinked and flicked her gaze from him to her clothes and back again. “Really? That’s your problem? They’re wet. I was checking out the fountain. I think Anne and Kurt are manipulating you, trying to get you to release something. This is the fifth seal, but I don’t know what for. You’ve already broken the other four, and now this one is the only thing stopping something really bad from happening.”

  “Someone is certainly being manipulated.” Justin lowered his sword, now knowing without a doubt she’d been tainted. “You’re too busy being part of the problem to see the solution. Where’s Anne?”

  Claire took a step back from him, toward Drew. “Why do you want to know? What are you going to do?”

  “Just tell me where she is.” His concerns about an ambush redoubled, and he scanned the area.

  Seeing no one else, he refocused on Claire. She’d backed into Drew and muttered something to him. Justin saw the boy’s hand slip onto her hip. He strode forward and knocked Claire aside to punch Drew in the face. Drew twisted with the blow and crumpled, howling in pain and holding his jaw. Claire recovered better, staying on her feet.

  “Dammit.” Claire rushed to Drew’s side and checked on him. “You’re such an idiot, Justin.”

  Mist billowed into the open square, swirling out of nowhere. In seconds, Justin could barely see his own hand in front of his face. He remembered the fountain being right behind him. However Anne had done this, he needed the extra power to defeat her and make it stop.

  “Kay, we had a deal!”

  Claire’s shout made Justin curse. Whoever Kay might be, deals never turned out well. He hurried to the fountain, his sword out to find the stone steps the easy way before his face found them the hard way.

  Chapter 31

  Claire

  “Sorry, Claire. Anne gave orders. By my master’s word, I can’t refuse them.” Drew rolled to his hands and knees. “I’m not free like you. When my master says dance, I have to dance.”

  “You mean Kurt. Your Phasm.” Claire sighed, wanting to chase after Justin and not sure where he’d gone.

  Drew looked up at her and caught her eyes. “You could free me.”

  “I’m not sure I can kill a Phasm on my own. I think Justin is tainted, but I’m not sure. If he is, he’ll try to stop me. And he’ll probably succeed. He’s got more muscles, more experience, and more sword. Same goes for Kurt.”

  Drew sat up on his knees and rubbed his face. He reminded her of the boy who belonged to the body. The two of them maybe would blend over time and become a single entity. She shivered at the thought.

  They heard Justin roar. Tariel trumpeted. Metal clanged on stone. Hooves rang on cobblestone.

  “What happens when the fifth seal is broken?”

  “I don’t know. Kurt didn’t tell me. I only know he wants to destroy the Palace. He already knew about these seals before he died. In fact…” Drew frowned, deep in thought. “He maintained them, kept them safe. It was part of his duty. A previous Knight charged him with that. It can’t be a coincidence, though, that the access to his demesne happens to be in Anne’s backyard, right behind a flock of dragons.”

  Claire thought about the seal Iulia had broken. The dragon had protected her after she did it. This might do the same. In that case, if Justin was bent on breaking the seal, she had only one real option: doing it first.

  She nodded and tightened her grip on her dagger. “I’m trusting you to keep your shadows from attacking me.”

  Drew touched her arm. “I was never ordered to harm you past that first time. Will you vow to free me?”

  Claire nodded again, resolute even if she didn’t know how she’d manage it. “I’ll destroy Kurt’s Phasm. Or die trying.” She wouldn’t do it for a spirit, though. She’d do it for Drew, for Justin, for Marie, for Missy and Lisa, for Grandma and Grandpa, and even for Anne. “You have my word.”

  “I trust the word of a Knight. You’re a worthy ally and safe from me for as long as I can twist my master’s orders to make it so. Go. I’ll do what I can, but Justin’s pretty good at fighting these things, and I can only do so much
at once. Also, I’ve been ordered not to seriously harm him.”

  “Yeah. Got it. Thanks.” Claire jumped to her feet and noticed the fog clearing around her. She ran at the fountain and saw Justin slicing through two shadow snakes at once. Two more shadows jumped him from behind, knocking him down.

  Seeing Justin under threat made her want to help him. He’d done so much for her already. Turning away from him in peril hurt, but she had to do it. She jumped as she’d done before, catching the rim of the fountain’s bowl and dangling from it. More shadow snakes slithered past, ignoring her while she shoved her dagger over the bowl’s edge and kicked out to get a foothold on the statue.

  Enion hopped onto the rim. “You can do it!”

  Her arms ached from everything she’d done today and refused to pull her up. She swung and contorted until she caught her foot on the rim.

  “I knew it,” Justin growled. Claire saw him slash through the snakes and keep coming for her. “You’re tainted, Claire.” He threw his shoulder into her side, knocking her loose and grabbing her. “This is for your own good. You’ll thank me later.”

  Unable to stop him and stunned by the blow, Claire gasped for breath and sagged against him. Over his shoulder, she saw Enion on the fountain and got a wild idea. “Enion!” As soon as she knew she had his attention, she mimed grabbing the dagger and pointed. With all her heart, she hoped and prayed for him to understand.

  The dragon stared at her for a heartbeat, then disappeared from sight. Justin kicked something as he hauled Claire away from the fountain. He dropped her onto her butt and whirled to cut down another shadow. Claire scrabbled to her hands and knees to crawl away from him. He grabbed her ankle.