Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume III

by Irene Radford

  “Maija, if you love me even a little, you will help me make sure Rejiia does not escape justice this time,” Lanciar pleaded with whoever might hear him. A second later the weight of a gold coin rested firmly within his palm.

  Black stars clouded his vision and his head felt as if it floated somewhere around the tower roofs. The ground beneath him seemed to slant sideways.

  He braced himself to keep from sliding out from beneath the sledge and into the extended brawl. Quickly everything settled and Maija lay beside him, eyes wide and moist.

  He kissed her lips lightly. “Thank you, Maija. Now help me make certain none of these people leave until we sort this all out. We have to stop Rejiia from stealing my son or reanimating her father. Stop her forever.”

  “I knew you loved me,” Maija cried, throwing her arms around his neck and returning his kiss most soundly.

  “Later, Maija. I promise that once this is over we will marry and I will stay with you. We will raise my son together with any other children we happen to have.” He held up the coin she had given him and smiled. “What happens if we drop a coin deep in the undergarment pockets of all these people?”

  Maija returned his grin. “I have listened to all these people argue. The gold is what traps them here in a ghostly existence.”

  “Then we must keep them all here for a time. Especially Rejiia. She must not leave, and she must not liberate her father from the statue.”

  “With your promise to marry me, with my clan as witness, we are already married and bound to each other for all time.” Another kiss with her body pressed tightly against his distracted him a moment.

  “Then we must work together for the safety of the clan. Help me keep all these s’murghin’ people here.”

  “Watch your language around the children!” Maija’s eyes, sparkling with mischief, belied her stern frown.

  “Will you please help me keep everyone here?”

  “Even the gadjé nobles and their retainers?”

  “Especially the s’mur—um—gadjé nobles and their pregnant daughter. If she escapes before we sort this all out, she will alert the coven and bring them here from the far corners of Kardia Hodos.” He kissed Maija’s cheek—her mouth was too dangerous with its open invitation to linger with her. Then he extricated himself from her arms.

  Maija crawled over to the nearest Rovers who rolled on the ground punching each other. She lightly removed a coin from the discarded cap of one of the men.

  “Is it one of the ghostly coins?” he asked as she handed it to him.

  “Aye. See how old it is?”

  He nodded as he picked out the outline of a long dead monarch. The date on the inscription connected it to the province of Faciar before the unification of Coronnan and the foundation of the Commune of Magicians.

  “Only the ghost’s hoard is that old.”

  Rejiia had both hands upon the tin weasel. Zolltarn worked to keep her from wrenching it away from his grasp. Sweat dripped from both of their brows. The statue retained all of Krej’s mass as a full-grown man. Neither of them could lift the thing easily. Both of their magical talents seemed depressed by the ghostly reality of the gold.

  Lanciar crawled out of his cover, careful to avoid the swooping ghost. He walked right up to Rejiia and Zolltarn. Neither took any notice of him. The weasel was more tin than gilt these days and the front legs and all of the tail seemed to have lost most of the metal, taking on a decidedly furry texture. The backlashed spell was wearing off.

  Would Krej survive? Would he emerge as a man? Or did the spell have to be reversed instead of wearing out in order for him to become other than a weasel?

  Lanciar didn’t care. He was about to irrevocably sever all of his connections to the coven. Perhaps break it apart once and for all.

  “This is for deserting our son, Rejiia, and for not giving me the right to raise him as I choose.” He dropped the antique coin down the front of her bodice. It lodged neatly between her ample breasts.

  Rejiia screeched in her most annoying voice. She clutched her temples and reeled. Zolltarn tumbled backward in full possession of the heavy statue. He landed flat on his back with Krej sitting on his chest.

  Then Rejiia’s already ghostly form dissipated more. Lanciar could barely make out an outline of her or her aura. Both had been clearly visible while she merely clutched Krej on the other side of Zolltarn’s ghostly grasp.

  “Neatly done, my boy. You’ll make an admirable Rover!” Zolltarn proclaimed around heavy gasps for air. He remained a silvery outline. The Bloodmage ghost and his wicked knife were more substantial.

  “Zolltarn’s had the wind knocked out of him,” Lanciar said. “Marcus, Robb, somebody help him up.”

  Lanciar had difficulty seeing the men he called to for help. But Jack and Katrina remained clearly visible, along with Vareena and Queen Miranda and her party. He must have slipped back into reality when he let loose the coin into Rejiia’s bodice. Rejiia’s violent transition had kept him from noticing the sense-shattering shift.

  One by one the nobles became opaque ghosts. Strange that the mundanes were more visible than those with magic. Rejiia and Zolltarn were the hardest of all to see.

  Then Maija popped back into full view. She smiled at him. The sun seemed to burst through the clouds and brighten his day. She had definitely inherited that smile from her father.

  “Let’s hope you have a few more scruples than your father,” he muttered as he moved to join her.

  “Changing sides again, Lanciar?” Jack confronted him, keeping him from Majia. He leveled his staff, aiming the tip directly at him.

  “Trust me, Jack. Please, trust me just this once. I know which side offers me the best hope of regaining my son and raising him in a loving family, learning to use magic responsibly.”

  “I don’t believe you any more than I did back in King Simeon’s mines. You were a spy for him and the coven then. I know you still spy for them.”

  “Traitor!” Rejiia aimed her wand directly at Lanciar.

  Lanciar saw two brief blasts of fire, one purple and silver, the other red and black, then there was nothing.

  “Enough,” Marcus said. “I’ve had enough.” He took a deep breath and fingered the three gold coins in his pocket.

  Robb, Jack, Vareena, and Margit looked at him strangely. He smiled at them. Only half his mouth turned up.

  “I’m sorry, Robb, you really deserved to figure this out first, but I can’t take any more of this. I’m getting out.” Deliberately, he sank his hand into his pocket and retrieved the three coins.

  He held them up to the sunlight. They glinted enticingly, begging him to hold them, caress them, keep them forever.

  He closed his eyes and gathered his strength. With a mighty effort he threw them at Ackerly. “Take these back, you cursed ghost. I have no more use for your hoard. I want to live poor rather than remain trapped here with your riches.”

  Ackerly snatched the gold out of the air as he circled the compound once more. He juggled his bloody knife while he fumbled to hold onto this returned wealth. For a moment he looked as if he might drop them both. Then he sighed and disappeared into his library.

  Light flashed blue and white and red. The world tilted. Up and down exchanged places three or four times. And then Marcus found his feet firmly planted on the ground. The misty haze that had covered his vision for so long lifted and he could see Vareena and Margit quite clearly along with Queen Miranda and her party. Robb, the Rovers, Rejiia, and the pregnant woman and her party remained insubstantial forms.

  But the heavy fog remained across the top of the courtyard.

  A moment later Robb emerged from his haze to stand before him with a big silly grin on his face. “I was waiting for you to figure it out.”

  Marcus hugged him tight and slapped his back.

  Robb returned the comradely embrace.

  “Now what do we do?” Marcus asked them all.

  Chapter 36

  “It seems to me tha
t part of completing a quest is cleaning up the messes along the way,” Jack said quietly. Guilt immediately heated his face. He’d left a terrible mess in SeLenicca.

  But he was going back there, with Katrina, to do what he could. And the gold seemed to be one of the answers to that country’s many problems. If they could convince Ackerly to give it up and remove the curse.

  At least he’d temporarily stunned Lanciar enough to keep him from interfering.

  “Our quest is a bit redundant,” Robb replied. “We were sent to bring the dragons home and possibly find you. You seem to have completed both of those tasks quite handily. Our duty to the Commune is to return to the University for a new assignment.” His face fell, as if that were the last thing he wanted to do. His eyes strayed to Margit and Vareena.

  “Marcus and Robb, do you intend to leave this situation unsettled?” Jack asked. “These Rovers and the others trapped between the void and reality, with a ghost to haunt them, need a solution. So does the village that will impoverish itself trying to feed them.” Jack needed to prod them into making their own decisions. He couldn’t do it for them. They’d never become master magicians if they relied on others to make their decisions.

  That had been a hard lesson to learn and one the cat within him truly resented. Rosie was more interested in watching than leading. He had to get rid of this cat and soon. He had enough problems without Rosie complicating things.

  “I’ve never known a Rover to willingly give up anything they possessed. Why did Zolltarn offer a fortune in gold to a foreign queen?” Marcus interjected.

  “Why give away the gold, Zolltarn?” Jack raised his voice over the sounds of many people arguing. Even the lords and their ladies fought over who could bow the lowest to the improbable queen in their midst even though the queen remained substantial and the nobles had become ghosts.

  The Rover chieftain opened his mouth in a toothy grin. Jack continued to look at him questioningly rather than succumb to the seduction within that smile. He knew his grandfather too well.

  “With a Rover sitting beside the queen of SeLenicca.” He nodded to their kinsman holding Miranda’s hand and guarding the pack beast and its treasure trove of expensive lace from the light fingers of a number of the combatants. “And Rover gold to rebuild the country, my clan will have a homeland. We will have the freedom to roam there forever.”

  “You won’t end a thousand years and more of prejudice against dark-eyed outlanders with a little bit of gold,” Jack reminded him.

  “And the people of SeLenicca may not allow their queen to marry another outlander. Look what the last one did to us,” Katrina added. “With the help of that black-haired bitch.” She almost snarled as she jerked her head toward Rejiia.

  The coven witch had returned her attention to Zolltarn and the tin statue.

  “Katrina?” Jack had never seen her so aggressive, or so angry. But then, Rejiia had made her watch Jack’s torture. Afterward, she had left Katrina to share his dank and miserable cell and die chained apart as the city collapsed around them.

  Memories of that awful night pushed Jack closer to Katrina. Silently he reached for her hand. United, they had defeated Rejiia and her lover, King Simeon. Together they could conquer the world.

  “I need to return to the University to find a way to lay Ackerly to rest and lift the curse from the gold,” Marcus said.

  Jack almost didn’t hear him.

  “What about us?” Margit asked belligerently. Her fist clenched as if she intended to knock him flat once more.

  “I don’t know, Margit. We need to talk. We need to find out if our dreams for the future can ever find a common ground. But first, I need to solve this problem.” He captured her gaze for a long moment. Margit looked away first.

  If a breaking heart could make a sound, Jack heard it in her sigh. But no tear touched her eyes.

  “Come on, Robb. Let’s pack and get out of here. We have a long walk back to the University.”

  “I think I’d best stay here, Marcus,” Robb replied. “Vareena and I have much to discuss. And someone needs to try to restore order to this mess.”

  “Yeah, maybe the time has come for us to work alone. We’ve always relied on each other and that is a good thing. But some things can only be done alone.”

  “I can’t give you the secret of the transport spell until you are confirmed a master magician, Marcus, but I can send you on your way in a matter of heartbeats rather than weeks. We don’t have time to wait for you to walk there and back,” Jack offered.

  “And my brother Yeenos may return at any time with an edict from the priests and Council of Provinces removing our responsibility to these ghosts,” Vareena reminded them. “We have to free all of these people before then.”

  “And free yourself as well,” Robb added. “As long as there is a chance someone will wander in here and become a ghost, you will feel honor-bound to remain here. I can’t allow you to do that, Vareena.”

  Jack took a moment to assess the status of the captured people. Marcus and Robb had returned from the gloaming. Katrina, Margit, Zebbiah, and Queen Miranda had never transferred into a ghostly state. All of the Rovers seemed to be gone, as well as Rejiia. Rejiia and Zolltarn continued to tussle over possession of Krej. The Rovers and the nobles continued to argue and brawl.

  The noise began to make his head spin.

  Amaranth screeched and flapped his wings, not liking the loud chaos much either.

  “I’ll take the offer of the transport spell.” Marcus firmed his chin. “Though the way my luck has been running lately, I’ll probably get lost in the void.”

  “I did that once, Marcus.” Jack could smile now at the devastating mistake that had begun his adventures. But he’d been young and too arrogant of his talent then. “Have you undergone a trial by Tambootie smoke?”

  “Of course. We all do upon advancement to journeyman from apprentice. It centers the talent and opens true life paths,” Marcus replied.

  “And protects young magicians from the inconsistency of raging growth and change when we reach puberty,” Jack confirmed. He hadn’t undergone the important magical trial when he’d become lost in the void. His body and talent had rebelled against each other. “I’ll make sure you don’t get lost. But just to be sure, I’ll send Amaranth along with you to guide you home.”

  And that way, he’d also have some privacy with Katrina. If this mob would ever settle down.

  “One problem at a time,” he told himself.

  Vareena joined the Rover girl kneeling beside the blond man Jack and Rejiia had reduced to immobility.

  Rejiia, who seemed to be everyone’s enemy, had time and attention only for the hideous statue. But the Rover chieftain had secreted it once more inside one of the funny looking hovels atop the sledges. Vareena had watched him hand it over to a subordinate who in turn passed it to another and another until she’d lost track of who had it.

  “Where have you hidden my father?” Rejiia screeched, much like the flywacket. With magic, she blasted open the door of the closest bardo. While the wooden panels smoldered, she began pawing through the possessions inside. She discarded clothing and boxes, cooking pots and camp furniture in her desperate search.

  “Get away from my things!” a Rover woman howled at Rejiia in protest, louder than the ghost of Ackerly had. She launched herself at Rejiia’s back, fingers arched to claws and teeth exposed to bite.

  Rejiia flicked her wrist and her assailant landed on her back in the middle of the compound. Rejiia continued her disorderly search.

  “Murderer!” Maija screamed. She dove after Rejiia. “You murdered Lanciar for no reason.” The two women rolled out of the bardo, the Rover clinging to Rejiia’s back, fingernails raking the fine, white skin of Rejiia’s neck and face.

  “But he’s not dead,” Vareena said quietly. Beneath her fingertips, the pulse on Lanciar’s neck pounded in a regular rhythm. Surely Maija had felt the same life sign.

  Lanciar opened his eyes a cr
ack. “Wha . . . what?” he croaked.

  “Hush. I’m trying to sort this out,” Vareena whispered.

  Then Jack, Marcus, and Robb joined the attack on Rejiia. First one, then the other aimed their staffs at the woman.

  “Get off me!” Rejiia fought Maija with one hand while her other plucked at something invisible that seemed to be encircling her.

  If only the brawling Rovers would be quiet, she could figure out more of the complex relationships in this strange group. For a moment she understood Marcus’ disgust with the entire situation. She wanted little more than to leave the mess and let these people sort it out themselves as best they could.

  “You cannot bind me,” Rejiia proclaimed. “I lead the coven. My magic is stronger than yours.” She bucked backward, much as a plow steed rejects a rider. Maija sprang free of her victim, a sly smile on her face.

  Jack directed Marcus and Robb with his staff. The three men circled Rejiia three times, each chanting something slightly different in a language Vareena did not understand. She was only aware of the fact that they did not speak in unison.

  “Three different spells to break, each with a different solution,” Maija told her. “Even Rejiia will have a hard time getting out of their bindings.”

  With each circle, Rejiia’s movements became more restrained. Her hands and arms pressed tightly against her sides, immobile. Only her mouth remained free and she spewed invective on every head.

  “Oh, shut up,” Vareena finally exclaimed. “I’m sick and tired of all this noise and chaos in my monastery.”

  “Your monastery? My dear young woman, this entire province belongs to me and only me!” Lord Laislac said. He puffed out his chest and attempted to look down his nose.

  “At the moment, milord, you, your lady, and your daughter are all ghosts trapped within these walls. I have inherited the responsibility for this place and the ghosts it holds. Therefore, you belong to me at the moment, and I said, ‘Shut up!’ ”