“And false roses are poisonous?” Hazel felt her stomach tie in knots. “It would have been bad enough if they’d been roses. Cl’rnce is allergic to those, but would this false rose have killed him?”
Gaelyn said very lowly, “It’s a good thing Silkkie spotted the unicorn in the garden. It’s possible she was digging out the false roses so we wouldn’t discover the poisonous plants had been there.”
Hazel nodded, but she didn’t feel any better. Cl’rnce still looked ill to her, even if he acted as silly as he often did. At the very least, they needed to get away from this poison.
“Stop muttering,” Cl’rnce snuffled. “I want to get out of this place.”
Hazel buried her fear and put on her Big-Sister-Taking-Care-of-Cl’rnce face. “Yes. I’ve heard there are ninety-nine other gardens here. We can still let Gaelyn recharge. Everybody, follow the path. Stop sneezing, Cl’rnce.” Hazel ordered. “If the unicorn followed us, she’ll hear you.”
Cl’rnce sneezed four times in a row. “I can’t help it.”
“Then keep moving.” Hazel looked at Gaelyn. “How are you doing?” She needed her Partner’s help saving Cl’rnce, and at the same time she worried about Gaelyn and all she had been through that day.
“Better. Any plant life helps restore my powers.”
“That explains all the plants you have in your chamber, and that garden you keep back at Wiz-Tech,” Hazel said, talking to keep from panicking that she was depending on a worn-out Partner and a bumblespelled wizard. She strode out in front of the others. “Is this the right direction?”
Great and Mighty started to answer.
“Not you,” Hazel said. She knew she was being rude, but there just wasn’t time to soothe hurt feelings. They needed to get going.
Gaelyn caught up to Hazel. Walking side by side, her Wizard Partner said, “Yes, we’re doing fine. All the paths lead to other gardens.” She stopped talking for a minute. “Is he allergic to anything else?”
“Only not getting to eat,” Cl’rnce answered. “I hope one of these gardens has food.” He sneezed once more and wiped a fistful of mucous from his snout.
“An army travels on its stomach,” Hazel said. “An old saying, but they didn’t figure on one Dr’gon eating all the food.” She leaned down to Gaelyn. “It’s not about him being hungry and allergic. Did you know? My twin-sense tells me he’s dying or close to it. We have to save him. When he got sick as a Dr’gonelle, Mother would keep him hungry and purge him. I can’t tell. Do you think it would help now? I don’t know what’s wrong, but would it help?” Hazel caught her breath and told herself to slow down, calm down.
“I’m not sure. If we had a purge, it might help temporarily. But he’s already testy about being hungry.” Gaelyn looked back at Cl’rnce as he wiped his snout with a wide leaf.
Hazel hoped they were not near any of the plants even a little bit related to the false rose.
“We have to keep him occupied, so he doesn’t eat.” Hazel thought for a moment. “I’d rather put a saddle on an angry cat, but I have an idea.”
They passed through an arbor and into a garden full of little creeks, weeping willows, small ponds, and many, many lush plants.
Cl’rnce took a deep breath without sneezing. Tapping him gently on the shoulder, Hazel said, “Cl’rnce, we need to hide from the unicorn. What do you remember from your Shape-Shifting class?”
Cl’rnce waded into a pond, dunked his head under the water, and came up with a nose dripping leakage as well as pond water. He sputtered and choked for a second. Hazel watched hoping for once he would actually vomit and maybe get rid of anything poisonous, but he did not. Finally he said, “I learned that there are a lot of excellent practical jokes that can be played if one is small enough to morph into any number of hard to see creatures.”
“That’s what I was thinking. We can morph into other creatures to hide from the unicorn when she arrives.” Hazel waited for Cl’rnce’s objection. They didn’t have time to argue.
He shook his head, spraying mucous. “I said, morphing is for smaller creatures. Everybody but you and I can be morphed into small things. We’re stuck being big.” He sneezed and the spray stopped just short of Hazel. “But it would be a great trick to play on the unicorn.”
Hazel had an inspiration. Something that might even help a sick Dr’gon for a while. “You’re right. We can’t be small creatures, but, Cl’rnce, what is one of the things we can be?” He was going to love this one. Especially since he had already connected morphing to practical jokes, his favorite past time.
“I don’t know.” Cl’rnce gave her his distrusting slitty-eyed look.
“Dr’gon ships!” Hazel said knowing he’d go for it and hoping an inanimate object morph might stall the sickness. The long-keeled ships with Dr’gon heads and warrior shields along the sides were definitely something her brother would enjoy.
And she was right.
“Yes! I get to pick mine out first.” He looked at Great and Mighty, Jeschen, and Gaelyn. “You’d better hurry up and make yourselves into little furry creatures.”
Irritated, Hazel watched Silkkie jump in and out of her ball, like this was some big game. She grabbed the ball when Silkkie was inside and said, “Stay!”
“What about me?” Silkkie asked. “I’m stuck in this ball. Let me out so I can shift too.”
“No!” Hazel said. “I’ll hide you in my Dr’gon ship.”
Gaelyn nodded and shifted into a small green elf, who quickly hid under a leaf of the nearest weeping willow.
Great and Mighty picked a rabbit. A good choice, since it would have speed if necessary.
But the tubby Jeschen shifted to a fat frog. Hazel was about to tell her to pick something with speed, when Jeschen leapt into the pond and disappeared for a second before her two eyes emerged peering about. That would definitely do.
“Go ahead, little brother,” Hazel said.
Cl’rnce shifted himself to a fifty-foot long boat, gleaming with gold. Hazel lightly smacked the Dr’gon’s head on the front of the boat. “No! You have to float in a pond and look like an ornament in the garden. You won’t fit in the pond. There is no way that Monad won’t be warned immediately that something is wrong.”
Cl’rnce sighed and shifted until he was a duller bronze and small enough to float in the pond at their feet, but he took up all the water.
“Smaller. I have to float near you.” Hazel waited. Cl’rnce shrank himself until there was just enough room for both of them.
Hazel made herself his size but took on a hull of wood. Gaelyn ran out from under the weeping willow and jumped on board.
As she landed, the air vibrated with thunder. Pounding waves of sound from the direction of the first garden rocked the pond.
“She’s here,” Hazel whispered.
Balancing on the slightly rolling ship, Gaelyn tucked her crystal ball behind one of the shields along Hazel’s side. The ball vibrated, but Silkkie stayed silent. The cat-Jinn wasn’t purring this time, more like shivering. Fear? This made Gaelyn pause. Silkkie was a lot of things, but afraid had never been one of them.
“What’s wrong?” Gaelyn whispered.
“That unicorn. She’s killed Fae using Jinn. I know Cl’rnce or Hazel would restore the Jinn you reduced to ashes, but if we don’t find a way to use the Fang against Monad, won’t she erase all of us?”
Gaelyn thought for a second. The Fang was surely said to be that powerful, and Monad was that evil. She couldn’t think of anything to reassure Silkkie. Gaelyn was certain it all depended on them figuring out how to use the Fang against Monad.
The Fang! Did Hazel still have it? In her morph to a Dr’gon ship, could she have lost it? Even if she kept it, so many things could have happened to it. It could be inside the wood of her ship form, or be a decorative part of the ship, or it could have been left on the shore. They should have discussed keeping it safe long before this.
Gaelyn glanced down at Hazel. Like a regular ship, Hazel ke
pt her head still and her eyes focused forward.
A second later the unicorn trotted into the garden and looked around. Through the long mane falling over her face, the beast’s eyes flared red. Never a good sign. She paced, sniffing the air, and coming close to the bush Great and Mighty had darted under. Gaelyn held her breath.
A small splash made Gaelyn look back to the pond. Next to Hazel, Cl’rnce’s ship rolled a bit. Gaelyn guessed he had seen the unicorn. With no paws to smack her brother into being silent and still, Hazel slipped through the water angling to get in front of Cl’rnce. But Cl’rnce shifted with her, keeping between his sister and the shore. He was going to ruin everything. Based on his past impulsive behavior, Gaelyn was sure he’d morph back to a Dr’gon and attack the unicorn if she got any closer to where Great and Mighty hunkered down.
Before Cl’rnce could do anything rash, Gaelyn cast a quick short spell and leapt off Hazel’s deck and onto Cl’rnce’s. From there she jumped to the shore. Gaelyn heard a frustrated grunt and knew Hazel had tried to let go of her ship morph. Hazel might still be angry about Gaelyn’s lies, but she was trying to protect her Wizard Partner. A louder grunt and ship-Hazel trembled as the Dr’gon tried again to shift back, but Gaelyn had prevented it from happening. She had to protect her Partner.
Then Gaelyn smelled the heat. Hazel’s temper was revving up. Fire erupted from her blasting stomach snapping out of her nostrils.
Gaelyn was torn between ignoring Hazel and casting a spell to put out the fire that might consume the ship. At that moment Cl’rnce’s ship rocked, and a wave washed over Hazel. Gaelyn checked one more time to make sure the two Dr’gons were still safely warded. They were.
Changing her focus back to the unicorn, Gaelyn held her breath. Amazingly there was no sign Monad had heard or noticed the Dr’gon ships or even Gaelyn herself. Perhaps Monad couldn’t hear over the ear-aching song she screeched as she thrashed her poisoned horn into the bushes, sweeping deeper and deeper. As she plunged her horn here and there, the leaves the horn touched died. If that horn touched Great and Mighty …
Gaelyn’s own temper started to grow hot. If she had been a Dr’gon, she’d probably try to blast the unicorn. Maybe she should use a fire spell and level it at the unicorn. She drew in a deep breath and found the words for the spell. She did not care if the unicorn turned and saw her. She almost hoped Monad would.
More leaves dropped off, and Gaelyn spotted Great and Mighty huddled like the scared bunny she had transformed herself into. The unicorn’s head was higher than the little wizard. Luckily the angle of her head kept her from seeing the crouching Great and Mighty. Then Monad stopped poking under the bush and leaned farther down, her horn inches from the Great and Mighty-bunny.
Just as she might brush the rabbit-wizard, two things happened: Great and Mighty chanted and shifted back to wizard, and Gaelyn did the same. Thanks to the green plants all around, Gaelyn felt like the Elm Queen and a Dr’gon Wizard Partner with all the power she would ever need. This certain strength made her chant so loudly and with so much energy, she let Hazel’s immobility ward go. Gaelyn’s chant was so loud that Hazel could probably propel her ship-self onshore and plow through the mud, and Monad would never notice anything but Gaelyn.
Gaelyn turned to Great and Mighty. This was their time. The wizards had decided to fight.
Apparently startled, the unicorn stumbled away from Great and Mighty, her hooves tangling themselves. Great and Mighty smiled like she was more than pleased with how the unicorn tripped. That grin meant Great and Mighty had sent a successful spell to trip Monad.
But Gaelyn had more planned than just tripping the unicorn. She stepped away from Monad as the unicorn crashed to the ground. Squatting down, one hand digging into grass and muddy dirt and the other outstretched, she chanted: “Be gone. Be Gone. Be Gone!”
Silence fell. Monad’s eyes rolled up and met Gaelyn’s. Her muzzle peeled back from her fangs. “Do you take me for a fool, Elm?” She rolled onto her side and regained her footing. The words were fierce, but her eyes strayed from Gaelyn.
Gaelyn followed Monad’s gaze. The Dr’gon’s Fang. It was only feet from Monad, just beneath the bush Great and Mighty had hidden under. Gaelyn wished she knew more about the Fang, but even in her ignorance, her ability to sense harnessed power buzzed with the knowledge that this relic truly held an unheard of magnitude of power. It would make Monad unstoppable. It would make anyone who mastered it unstoppable. There was no way she could let Monad get the Fang.
The unicorn stood only a foot from Great and Mighty. Gaelyn watched, waiting for Monad to say something that showed the unicorn knew Great and Mighty was half of the Primus. Gaelyn waited for Monad to try and kill Great and Mighty, the way she had poisoned Cl’rnce. But the unicorn just stared. The little wizard stooped then held the Dr’gon’s Fang up. It gleamed one color after another, running through the entire rainbow.
The unicorn was too close. There was no way Great and Mighty could use the Dr’gon’s Fang, even if she had the power. The legend said only the heart-bound Dr’gon and wizard could do it. Not Great and Mighty by herself.
Great and Mighty showed no sign that the Fang was hurting her as it had Cl’rnce. As relieved as Gaelyn was that Great and Mighty was fine, the little wizard had a record of bumbling spells. This was a big one, and Gaelyn had a deep feeling this was not going to end well. In the next second, if the little wizard didn’t do something, undoubtedly the unicorn would spear her and gain the Dr’gon’s Fang.
Behind Gaelyn, something ticked across a wooden floor. She looked back to see Silkkie inside her crystal ball running like some kind of hamster in a wheel. The ball rolled impossibly fast along Hazel’s deck, so fast it bumped into a rib of her boat shell and flew into the air.
“I hate you!” the little cat-Jinn yowled. Her crystal ball slammed into the back of the unicorn’s head, and Silkkie flew out, tumbling to the ground. Monad went down like she had been hit with a battle axe.
Great and Mighty tucked the Dr’gon’s Fang in her pouch. Gaelyn ran and reached to scoop up the cat-Jinn and her ball. But Silkkie was not done. “No!” She threw herself through the air, landing next to the unicorn, a fraction of an inch from the deadly horn. Neither Silkkie nor Monad moved. Silkkie’s eyes blazed, but Monad’s eyes looked dead.
Silkkie didn’t move. The unicorn didn’t move. Was she really dead? Was it that easy? Gaelyn threw up her hands and shot a green-lit spell at Hazel and Cl’rnce; she whipped her hands in a complicated pattern that released anything left over from the wards. Hazel ducked under the pond’s surface; when she came up, she was fully Dr’gon. She stomped to the shore causing waves that crashed over the bank and drenched Gaelyn.
Patting Gaelyn’s head, Hazel said, “Unbelievable. I thought we were done for.”
Cl’rnce shook the water off himself. “I knew we’d be fine. Great and Mighty saved the day.”
Hazel swapped glances with Gaelyn, who shrugged. They both turned to the little wizard who dipped a hand into her pouch.
Great and Mighty didn’t look up at anyone but said in a mechanical voice, “Sure, I’ll throw it to you, Cl’rnce, but it’s perfectly safe in my pouch.” She dug the Dr’gon’s Fang out and pitched it toward the supine unicorn. Finally looking up, Great and Mighty’s eyes were glazed as if she was hypnotized.
“Monad’s faking. She’s enslaved Great and Mighty. Stop her!” Gaelyn screamed and stumbled forward reaching to get to the Fang before it finished its arc to the unicorn, but Gaelyn wasn’t fast enough. The unicorn leapt to her feet in a flash, lunging upward on two back legs and snagging the Dr’gon’s Fang in her teeth. As she came back to the ground, she disappeared.
Gaelyn couldn’t believe she hadn’t been prepared for the unicorn to fake her death and use the time while they weren’t paying close attention to manipulate the little wizard and then escape. Fists clenched, Gaelyn stilled her anger with herself and tried to use her Third Eye to scan. She’d rarely used this psychic magick an
d wasn’t sure of it, but she had no choice. She had to follow the Fang and the unicorn.
Silkkie tapped her. “I’ve heard it said the Dr’gon’s Fang sings a path of light that can be followed. Can you hear anything? See anything?”
Gaelyn shut her eyes and focused on psychically seeing light and a trail. She listened as hard as she ever had to hear a path forming out of a song’s notes. She heard nothing, but the ability to find the path would be rare or the Fang would not have been so well-hidden in the first place.
She looked at Hazel. Could her Dr’gon Partner see and hear the Fang? She hadn’t said anything about it. Dr’gons’ Magick was different; maybe when used by Dr’gons, it included seeing and hearing magick from a long dead Primus. But had Hazel tried listening for the Fang?
“Hazel, do you hear a song? Do you see a lighted path anywhere?” Gaelyn asked.
Hazel looked startled. She shook her head.
“Silkkie says the Fang sings and creates a lighted path. I do not see it, but wouldn’t a Dr’gon sense that? Not a Fae?” Gaelyn asked.
“Fae?” Cl’rnce asked. “You mean Jeschen?”
“I’m Fae,” Gaelyn said.
“Huh?” Cl’rnce looked to Hazel who nodded.
“I think Monad’d go where you wouldn’t expect. And I think she’ll be back to attack again. Doesn’t she still need Cl’rnce and Great and Mighty?” Silkkie asked. “She has the Fang, but can she make it give her all the power it has? You’d think she would have kidnapped Cl’rnce and Great and Mighty, but she didn’t. And think about this. She attacked Elm and, in a way, brought you into this, Gaelyn. There is something we’re missing about what she wants and needs. She’ll be back. The problem is that she may be able to use some of the Fang’s power.”
“You’re right,” Gaelyn said. “But where would she go now?”
“I can’t get rid of the feeling she involved you in this because she needs you for something. She attacked Elm through the Jinn, because you love your Court and your people. She’ll go—” Silkkie began.
Dragon Bonded: A Bumblespells Novel Page 14
