Silkkie kicked and thrashed like her life depended on it. Answers would have to wait. For now, Gaelyn needed Silkkie where she was safe—and where she couldn’t add to the problems if her Jinn loyalty won out over her oath to Gaelyn. Gaelyn tapped the crystal ball and shoved the Jinn inside.
Silkkie pounded on the sides. “Let me out!”
As the cat’s mouth moved, a powerful wave of air slammed into the glade, knocking everyone including Hazel to their knees.
“Swords up!” Ian yelled, getting to his feet. Hazel rolled to stand on four legs, the edges of fire already creeping from between her fangs.
Past the ring of Elm guards, Gaelyn saw the disturbance in the air again, only this time it had expanded. The air rippled as if it was made of clear gelatin. The blasts of wind coming at them dented the distortion before them. Gaelyn strained harder to see the Jinn hidden by the blurriness.
Struggling against a wind that tilted the trees nearest to the circle, Hazel pushed her way to a space close to where the distorted air looked thickest. Gaelyn hadn’t thought anyone else could see the blurry spot, but from the way Hazel reached a tentative paw out toward it, Hazel saw it too.
Hazel shooed two Fae away from her. “Stand back.” They scrambled behind her. She took a deep breath and fired a flame hotter and wider than Gaelyn had seen the Dr’gon create before. For a second the flames ate through the wind, then the blurriness cleared, and Gaelyn saw a six-foot tall male Jinn holding two well-muscled arms out in front of him. As Hazel gathered flame, another pulse of power shot from the Jinn’s fingertips, knocking her back.
Silkkie’s ball rolled on top of the sword, and the Jinn disappeared. The force he’d thrown ricocheted around the circle knocking Fae down before dissipating. He hadn’t killed anyone, like in the previous attacks. Had he sensed Silkkie? Was he being careful because of her?
“Anyone? Did anyone see him?” Hazel asked. The two Fae behind her nodded. “Did you see anyone else besides the big guy?”
No one answered. Then heads shook.
“Can one guy be a whole army?” Hazel asked.
“No.” Gaelyn looked at her crystal ball. Silkkie stood, her eyes huge still watching the spot where the Jinn had disappeared. “He’s a Jinn.” She scooped up the ball and held it level with her eyes. “Do you know why he attacked Elm? Why he’s here?”
Silkkie shook her head then flipped so that her back was to Gaelyn. Gaelyn sensed her Jinn was confused, scared, and sad.
“Is Silkkie in on this?” Hazel asked.
“No. She didn’t even sense him at first. She’s as surprised as I am.”
“I don’t know about that. She looks like she’s hiding something to me. She looks guilty.” Hazel shook her head and spit.
“No. You’re wrong,” was all Gaelyn could say. She was lying again. She sensed that Silkkie did know something. Probably why the Jinn were here.
“I’ll get the truth. If this Jinn is killing Fae, I’ll make her pay.” Ian made a swipe to grab the crystal ball out of Gaelyn’s hand.
But she side-stepped him and said in a voice more authoritative than she normally used, “I will deal with this.”
Ian nodded and bent a knee, quickly bowing to Gaelyn and giving her the respect a Queen deserved.
For once, Hazel had nothing to say. Or that she trusted herself to say without killing someone. She’d re-read the Prophecy and puzzled out more of the Ancient Dr’gon language that she’d previously skipped over. Or she thought she had. The Prophecy did not simply say Fae would steal the Fang and attack the Primus. It definitely said a Fae Queen. Gaelyn was a Fae Queen. Gaelyn’s lies were bigger and bigger. So why should she trust Gaelyn? Why should she stay and help the person who might be really behind Cl’rnce’s illness?
But a wave of grief almost shook her knees out from under her. The one person she was closest to might be an assassin? It couldn’t be. And it could.
However, the scene before her, Gaelyn and the kneeling Ian, reminded Hazel how serious things were for Gaelyn. Hazel couldn’t put aside the hope that there was something else she had translated incorrectly in the Prophecy. There wasn’t time now, but she had to find someone who could give her the certain translation. And she hoped more than she should that the Prophecy would prove Gaelyn wasn’t an assassin Queen.
With her feelings bouncing between wanting to believe in her long-time friend and being furious that Gaelyn might indeed be a killer, Hazel stood frozen. She looked at the friend who was a Queen and whose Court was under siege. Hazel was a Dr’gon! She could help the people of this Court, and then deal with Gaelyn.
She could, but … her first responsibility was with Cl’rnce. Time could be running out for him while she tarried here. There was no sign of Jeschen, who supposedly had the cure. She had to get back to Albion where someone she trusted might find the cure.
Hazel flinched when Gaelyn elbowed her and said in her normal gentle and a little humorous voice, “Bet you’d like to see your brother bow to you.”
For a second Hazel could breathe. For a second Gaelyn was her old friend. Hazel let a tiny grin crease her muzzle, and for a second, she could step out of her anger. “Well you taught him to ‘stay’ with your spell. Maybe there’s hope.”
Gaelyn straightened her back and stared at Hazel, her smile gone. “I need to check on him. Here, watch over Silkkie while I cast.” She tossed the crystal ball to Hazel. Silkkie rolled in the ball, head over tail.
A thought came to Hazel. Maybe she could get information from Silkkie. Hazel held the ball close to her snout and whispered, “Feel like cooperating now?” She breathed on the ball and polished it on her chest scales. “You’d make a pretty ornament in my rooms. Would you like to live there forever if anything happens to Gaelyn?” She hadn’t meant to threaten Silkkie, but it felt better letting her anger out on the tricky Jinn. “I need to know what Gaelyn is up to.”
But there was no chance for Silkkie to do more than stare back. Gaelyn chanted, “See Cl’rnce. See Cl’rnce. See Cl’rnce.” She pointed to the ball and wiggled her fingers for Hazel to hold it out.
Hazel needed to see her brother. Nothing appeared in the ball except Silkkie sitting, her legs primly together and her tail wrapped around them. “I promised to help you. I will help. You don’t need to threaten me, Dr’gon. And remember, Gaelyn has my loyalty. Always.” The Jinn’s eyes were angry slits.
Hazel spit out. “You’re blocking a view of Cl’rnce. Stop it now!”
“Nice, Dr’gon. Do I threaten you and then demand your help? You treat me like some kind of scum-pond. Do this. Do that. You have no feelings. I owe you nothing.” Silkkie squinted at Hazel and hissed.
“It’s pond scum,” Hazel said.
“See! She’s rude to me. You calling me stupid, Dr’gon?”
Gaelyn pulled the ball to her. “Enough, Silkkie. I know what you’re doing. You’re not actually mad. You’re stalling while you try to bring up a vision of him, but something is blocking you. Something is wrong. What is it?”
Silkkie shook her head. “I can see him. The fat Dr’gon is asleep, in stasis like you left him. His puny friend is snoring away. King of the nappers, that Dr’gon and his wizard too.”
Hazel and Gaelyn looked at each other. “Show us Cl’rnce!” Gaelyn cupped the ball in both hands. “I know you are worried about the Jinn army. I promise we will figure it out, but first I need you to show us Cl’rnce”
The ball went clear, empty with no sign of Silkkie. Then an image formed of Cl’rnce still on his back with all four paws in the air. Great and Mighty slumped next to him, her head bobbing gently in time to what most probably was snores.
“Well, she told the truth,” Hazel said relieved that Cl’rnce looked no different. She didn’t believe Great and Mighty would sleep if Cl’rnce was worse.
Ian interrupted. “Is that the Primus? I thought Dr’gons were all deep colors, dark green, almost black purple, scarlet. He’s an awful odd shade for a Dr’gon, isn’t he? Pale.”
“Yes, and if we don’t find Jeschen and get a cure, he could die,” Gaelyn said.
“Who is Jeschen?” Ian asked.
Gaelyn swallowed like she didn’t want to tell him, but she did, “She’s a Fae, and … I suspect she’s behind Cl’rnce’s poisoning.” She took a breath. “I don’t know how she traveled to the Dr’gon plane, but I followed her back here.”
Hazel walked to the edge of the circle where she had flamed the attacker. “You travel between planes. What’s the mystery?”
Gaelyn said, “Fae can’t, other creatures can. I use Silkkie’s Jinn Magick. The thing is, I detected no other Jinn around Jeschen.”
Hazel thought about it. “So Jeschen had to have help traveling between the planes. She came back here? What non-Fae creatures live in Elm? Something that could help her.”
“Just Fae,” Ian said.
“No. There must be others like unicorns, animals …” She looked from Gaelyn to Ian. Gaelyn had mentioned a Jinn army. They were definitely here, but why would anyone attack Elm?
“Just Fae besides the smaller creatures now,” Gaelyn said. But Gaelyn looked away, not meeting Hazel’s eyes. She was lying about something; Hazel’s anger pricked again.
Gaelyn kept talking. “Do you think Jeschen is a creature shape-shifted to look like a human, a cook? Maybe I’m wrong about her being Fae.”
Silkkie snorted. Even she didn’t believe Gaelyn’s ramblings.
Hazel sniffed and moved closer to the spot in the circle where the attacking Jinn had been. “You seem very bothered about who the attackers are. What’s the deal with them being Jinn?” she asked.
“Jinn don’t declare war on their own, and they haven’t been known to fight in groups,” Gaelyn said. “Something is driving them. I can’t tell what. Maybe it’s Jeschen. I think all the power of these Jinn is affecting Silkkie’s magick. She didn’t know they were Jinn until I added the power of my Queen’s Sword to her magick.” She took a deep breath. “Like you say, when something goes wrong, it goes very wrong.”
“Seems like we’re in the middle of very wrong, but if Jeschen is making the Jinn attack, shouldn’t she be around? I don’t smell any other creatures. I don’t smell anything but us. This is ridiculous. I’m a Dr’gon. I can smell everything.” That wasn’t so true, but Hazel just needed to say something. She walked around the circle, trying to figure out why Gaelyn thought Jeschen was here or responsible for the fighting Jinn.
As Hazel paced, Gaelyn walked along. Hazel waited for her to talk, but Gaelyn had her hands out as if she was trying to sense as hard as she could. When they finished the circuit, Gaelyn stood her shoulders slumped. “I can’t even detect the Jinn now. Perhaps they’re gone.” Her tone suggested she didn’t believe her own words.
Hazel decided, if a Dr’gon could not sense this creature alone, and Gaelyn could not, why not combine her Dr’gon Magick with Silkkie’s? Gaelyn had been using Silkkie’s power for years. It could be the right combination of magick to pull out the facts. “Let me try working with Silkkie.” She held out her paw, and Gaelyn passed the crystal ball to her.
“Silkkie, tell us again where Jeschen is.” Hazel held the ball in two claws over a flat rock. “Gaelyn, what happens to a trapped Jinn if the ball breaks?”
“Don’t, Hazel. She’s not being a problem. There’s really something stopping her and me from getting a good sense of this Jinn army.”
Silkkie yowled. “Listen. I think I should help the Dr’gon, even if she’s awfully pushy. Maybe our combined magicks will work.”
Hazel was too surprised to snap anything back at the little Jinn who had always been so hostile to her.
Gaelyn gently tugged Silkkie’s ball out of Hazel’s palm and put it on a flat rock. “Hazel, if you will just touch the orb where you see Silkkie’s paw, you two should be able to combine magicks.”
Hazel settled a claw to the curved glass where Silkkie’s paw touched on the inside.
Silkkie let out a small meow that sounded a lot like “Yippee” when pictures started to flow in the glass. Images of Cl’rnce and Great and Mighty, of Elm, of the circle of Fae guards. Of a circle of creatures who looked just like the big Jinn who had attacked.
“There!” Hazel pointed to the faint picture that Silkkie meowed at. “There!” Hazel’s fire pit stomach started to heat. “There’s Jeschen! She’s hanging over my sleeping brother. Great and Mighty isn’t paying attention!” She whipped around to Gaelyn, the fire in her stomach begging to be thrown. They had to do something before she flamed every Fae in sight. Hazel was not ready to restart the Dr’gon and Fae Wars. That might come, but not yet.
“We go back. Send me at once!” she ordered Gaelyn. As she demanded this, Ian jumped to his feet. “What?” Hazel turned on him; war or not she was ready to burn any Fae who would keep her from her brother.
“The attacking Jinn. If you both leave, I don’t think I can hold them off again,” Ian said slowly as if the admission hurt him more than a sword bite.
Gaelyn said nothing. Her eyes were closed, and her face kept moving as if she was feeling a thousand emotions.
Hazel scanned the guards positioned around the circle. For the first time, she noticed that as still and straight as they tried to stand, their shoulders slumped a bit, and a few of them clamped hands stiffly to their sides. This army was exhausted. They had fought too long alone.
Gaelyn opened her eyes and watched them, but she said nothing. Instead she nodded to Hazel.
This was her old Wizard Partner, the Gaelyn who’d worked at her side, who put everybody before herself. Hazel wanted that Gaelyn back. “I can’t let that Jeschen kill my brother,” she said, but as she did she felt the pain of what she was asking of Gaelyn. If Hazel was in Gaelyn’s place, could she abandon her people for someone’s brother?
Before Gaelyn could answer, Hazel decided. She too always tried to do good. She couldn’t ask Gaelyn to sacrifice her whole kingdom. It might be harder without her Wizard Partner, but Hazel would manage. “Gaelyn, stay and aid your Fae. I will return and take care of Jeschen. Alone.” Hazel kept the hurt out of her tone and only let them hear her determination.
“What if it runs again?” Silkkie asked in a voice that had a surprising edge of concern.
“Silkkie, you can help find Jeschen. I will aid Ian and the army without my crystal ball,” Gaelyn said. “Take it with you.” Not pausing to let Hazel argue, Gaelyn cupped the ball and said to the cat, “Please. Follow Hazel’s orders. Help her save her brother. Make sure she is safe.”
First licking a front paw, Silkkie then ran it through her whiskers. “If I must.” Oddly the usual snarky tone was missing. There wasn’t time to ask why the little Jinn was acting almost nice; Hazel had to get to her brother. So, Hazel held out her paw, and Gaelyn passed her the ball.
“There is one thing you can do before you go,” Gaelyn said in her quiet I-need-a-favor voice.
“Yes?” Hazel asked, her suspicions re-awakening. She didn’t want it to be so, but if Gaelyn was the Fae Queen the Prophecy spoke of, would she ask for something to further her plot against the Dr’gon Nations? Was sending Silkkie with Hazel really a trick?
“I know it is a lot, but I need time to cast the spells to re-energize my army, send out my psychic scouting sense, and read all of Elm to determine the situation throughout my Court. Could you leave Dragon Fire around this circle?”
Hazel took a relieved breath. There was nothing tricky about this, but still she hesitated. If she did this, the amount of flame she would use and the energy required would leave her weakened. But Gaelyn was giving her the Jinn, and that left Gaelyn with less power too. Hazel needed to show Gaelyn some trust. If Gaelyn trusted Hazel to protect the Elm soldiers, then Hazel would show that she could trust Gaelyn. Hazel walked the circle’s edge firing a ring to protect the tired army, Ian, and Gaelyn.
When she finished, she felt some of the exhaustion she was sure
the Fae guards felt. Twice in less than an hour she had used massive amounts of flame. But she would not let Gaelyn know how enervated she felt. Smiling briefly at Gaelyn, Hazel said, “Will you send us on our way?”
Gaelyn turned to Silkkie. “I may need you to help me cross once you are in Albion. Keep listening for me?”
Silkkie nodded.
“It is Silkkie who makes it possible for me to cross onto the Dr’gon plane. She will aid you.” She looked at Silkkie. “Home.”
As fast as Gaelyn finished the word, Hazel found herself in the kitchen of Wiz-Tech. Jeschen was at the fireplace stirring something as if her life depended on it. Faster and faster the spoon whipped around the cauldron.
“Stop what you’re doing!” Hazel commanded, tucking Silkkie in her ball into her neck pouch.
Jeschen did not even look up. “I can’t. Something went wrong. I should never have agreed to spy. I didn’t do this, but everybody thinks I did. Cl’rnce has to tell them. I have to wake Cl’rnce up! I have to ...”
For one of the few times in her life, Hazel had nothing to say. She could not have been more surprised. But as usual, she got her tongue back quickly. “You have to what? You’re a spy? For whom?”
“Great and Mighty, I told you to trust me. No matter what, I will help. Truth is, that’s why I agreed to come. It’s why I was sent.” The fluffy being looked up finally and went from pale to whiter than a moonlit ghost. “Oh, oh.” She looked down at the cauldron, up at Hazel, down and up. “I’ll make it right. I will.”
“What do you know about the poison?” Silkkie meowed from the pouch.
Jeschen sucked in a breath. She looked down at the pot and back at Hazel.
Great and Mighty hurried into the kitchen. “Hurry. I think something is happening. Hazel?”
This was completely wrong. “Why are you talking to this Jeschen?” Hazel screamed. Her head was filled with burning visions. She tried to stop them, but she couldn’t. She was surrounded by spies and traitors. “You betrayed my brother. You’re working with Jeschen!” If Hazel had had the strength and the flame left, she would have fried the little wizard.
Dragon Bonded: A Bumblespells Novel Page 7
