The Dragon's Choice

by Wesley Allison

  * * * * *

  Zoantheria had arrived at Dragon Fortress two nights previous, warning that Voindrazius was coming. Though Senta suspected that this might mean any time in the next year, she had spent an entire day preparing spells and storing them in glamours, from which they could be called at a moment’s notice.

  They were just finishing breakfast, when Zoey looked up.

  “He’s here,” she said.

  “Good,” said Senta. “It’s time we put that big lizard in his place.”

  She strode out the door and through the courtyard of the fortress, Sen and Zoey, still in human form, following. They could all feel the jolt, when the great dragon landed somewhere outside.

  The sorceress stopped and looked at Zoey.

  “Why don’t you stay inside, Pet?”

  “What about me?” wondered Sen.

  “Do whatever you want.”

  Zoey turned back to their house, but Sen followed her mother. When they stepped through the gate, for the first time in years, there wasn’t a single lizzie to be seen. The only thing that was there was the dragon, looming as large as the fortress itself. Senta, her daughter at her heels, marched down to within two hundred yards of the beast.

  “You dare stand before me?” growled Voindrazius, his voice like thunder.

  “You don’t concern me that much,” said Senta, snapping her fingers.

  “I’ve dealt with dozens of sorcerers in my time. They’re gone now and I’m still here.”

  “And I’ve put a dragon in the ground,” she replied. “Once a year I go spit on his grave.”

  The dragon took a deep breath and spewed out an ocean of flame. The entire hillside from just in front of him to the walls of the fortress, were engulfed in fire. He kept up the stream for a full minute, pushing all his rage, wrath, and hatred out into the conflagration. When he stopped, the flames dissipated, save those still burning in the half a dozen tangled trees and shrubs, and the closest lizzie dwellings. But Senta and her daughter stood unharmed, a thirty foot circle around them the only ground in sight that was not turned into black glass.

  “Uuthanum beithbechnoth eetarri,” she said, sending a dozen large spheres of energy at the red dragon. He flinched as each hit him.

  “Like what I’ve done with that little spell?” she called to him. “Wait till you see how I’ve enhanced the one that killed Hissussisthiss.”

  “Not necessary,” he replied. “I’d like to show you how I’ve modified one of yours. Maiius uuthanum nejor paj rezesic edios zur teigor uuterro.”

  “Twenty-two syllables,” muttered Senta, unconsciously pushing Sen behind her. “You must really be afraid of me.”

  A ball of light appeared halfway between the dragon and the sorceress.

  “Have fun,” laughed Voindrazius, launching himself into the air and shooting off to the south.

  The ball of light flared brighter and brighter before slowly dimming, like a lamp that someone had turned up and then off. At last the light was gone and a lone human figure stood where it had been. It was a woman, dressed like Senta was, in black leather, and with similarly styled blonde hair. At first, Senta thought it was a reflection of herself. Even the star sigils were visible on her chest. But the woman was a few inches shorter and a bit older.

  “Sweet Kafira’s knockers!” gasped Senta. “Zurfina!”

  She could feel Sen stepping out from behind her to look.

  “Senta!” shouted Zurfina. “What are you doing over there with that strange woman! Get away from her!”

  Senta looked from her mother to her daughter and back.

  “That’s not Senta, you daft cow! I’m Senta!”

  Zurfina stared at her for several seconds.

  “Is that really you, Pet?” she asked, and then laughed. “Oh dear, you’ve really let yourself go. Uuthanum beithbechnoth!”

  A dozen magical bolts, much smaller than the ones Senta had hit the dragon with, flew right toward her and Sen. A shield spell blocked them easily enough.

  “What are you doing, you bloody bitch?”

  “What a way to talk to your mother. Who is that child, anyway?”

  “That’s my daughter.”

  “How dare you make me a grandmother!” hissed Zurfina. “Maiius Uuthanum nejor paj.”

  A pillar of smoke burst from the ground near the elder sorceress. From it stomped a fully-grown female tyrannosaurus. Spying the woman and the girl, it charged.

  “Teiius Uuthanum,” said Senta, with no more concern that she would have shown to say, “Pass the butter.”

  The tyrannosaurus skidded to a stop, staggered a moment, and then fell over, letting out a loud, wet snore.

  “What are you doing? Why are you attacking me?”

  “Ariana Uuthanum sembor,” said Zurfina, throwing another spell. “I don’t really know. I can’t seem to help myself.”

  “Uuthanum zet. It’s that dragon. He’s adulterated my spell, compelling you to attack me.”

  “What dragon?” wondered Zurfina. “And more importantly, what did you just do?”

  “I dispelled your web. I’ve had a counter for that since I was fourteen. And the dragon is Voindrazius. He used my Summon a Protector spell to bring you here to fight for him.”

  “Your spell? Well done, Pet! Bechnoth uuthanum pestor paj.”

  “Prestus Uuthanum!” Senta threw up a shield that protected her and Sen from a cone of freezing magic. “Stop attacking me, Kafira damn it all!”

  “I can’t stop. Why don’t you fight back? Let me see what you’ve got. Uuthanum rechthinov uluchaiia.”

  A bolt of lightning shot across the distance between them far too quickly for Senta to have stopped it, had she not already carried a contingency spell that protected her.

  “Uuthanum rechthinov uluchaiia.”

  Another lightning bolt flew in the opposite direction, hitting Zurfina right in the middle of her chest, sending her flying back twenty feet and slamming her to the ground. She sat up, smoke drifting around her.

  “How come I can’t remember anything? I certainly don’t remember you getting so old and ugly, Pet.”

  “I’m not ugly, you twat! I’m gorgeous. You don’t remember anything because you’ve been gone, presumed dead for fifteen years.”

  “Huh,” said Zurfina, climbing to her feet. “Uuthanum Regnum.”

  “That’s what you pull on me? Enfeeblement? You need to stop fighting me. I’m much more powerful than you ever were. I’ve spent as much time preparing attacks and defenses as you did obfuscation.”

  Zurfina laughed. “Your body must be covered with sigils.”

  “I’ve got a few,” said Senta through clenched teeth. “You can’t win. You don’t even have your glamours.”

  “We’ll see,” said her mother. “Uuthanum uusteros pestor.”

  Zurfina split apart like an amoeba, and then split again. Now there were four Zurfinas. One cast invisibility on herself and disappeared. The second shot a fireball at Senta. The third fired off another lightning bolt. Senta grabbed two of the glamours orbiting her head and activated their protection spells.

  “Erros uuthanum tijiia,” she said, and one of the Zurfinas was crushed into the ground by a giant spectral hand.

  “Intior uuthanum err,” hissed the fourth Zurfina, but the spell was not aimed at Senta.

  Immediately, Sen began to laugh, uncontrollably. A look of fear spread across her features, but she continued to laugh, falling to the ground and curling up into a fetal position.

  Another lightning bolt flew, hitting Senta in the side and tossing her into the air. She landed on top of her daughter, who continued to shriek with horrifying laughter.

  “Uuthanum destus pourthanium err,” barked Senta, still where she had fallen.

  A sickeningly green cloud of gas rose from the ground and floated in the direction from which the lightning bolt had come. A hacking cough revealed the location of the invisible sorceress, just before she appeared, gasping for air and clawing at her eye
s.

  “Rezesic edios uuthanum erros paj,” said Senta.

  One of the two remaining Zurfina’s shot high up into the air, only to drop back to the hard ground with a sickening smack. Senta quickly dispelled the magic on her daughter and barely had time to shield them from a fireball cast by the lone remaining version of her mother.

  “This has to end,” said Senta.

  “Do what you have to do, Pet,” said Zurfina, “because I will. Are you prepared for Epic Pestilence?”

  Senta planted her feet and pointed both arms toward the elder sorceress. “Uastium premba uuthanum tachthna paj tortestos—talik!”

  Zurfina seemed to explode in a shower of sparks that flew high into the sky and then rained down over the blasted hillside. Senta dropped to the ground next to Sen and pulled her daughter’s head into her lap.

  “Are you all right?”

  “I peed myself.”

  “Don’t feel bad. It happens to grown men with that spell.”

  “Did you kill her?”

  “No. I couldn’t kill her,” said Senta. “Well, I could kill her, but I wouldn’t. She’s my mother. I sent her away.”

  “To where?”

  “To wherever she came from.”

  Sen climbed further up into her mother’s lap and pressed her face into Senta’s shoulder.

  “I love you,” she said.

  “You’re getting pee all over me,” Senta replied.

  Chapter Twenty-Five: Generations

  Aalwijn Finkler followed the waiter, bringing the vast tea tray to the table. He looked around appreciatively at the full dining room. Some of his staff had opined that there would be no one dining out on Accord Day, but he had known that it would be a full house. Nobody wanted to stay home on a warm evening, especially after such a long summer. He smiled at the four ladies seated at the table, as Irv set out cress and cheese sandwiches, plates of chips, vegetable sausages, pea fritters, curried eggs, lemon and nettle salad, and a veritable mountain of scones.

  “Happy Accord Day, ladies.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Finkler,” said Egeria Korlann.

  He lifted the teapot and poured into her cup.

  “You know, Mrs. Korlann, you were the first lady to ever invite me to tea. Do you remember?”

  “I remember quite well,” she said. “As I recall, both you and Senta attended. I rather thought at the time that you two made a cute couple.”

  “I did fancy her a bit back then. It all worked out for the best. It’s hard to run a restaurant when you’ve been turned into a toad, I imagine. Besides, I wouldn’t trade Gaylene for all the tea in Mallontah.”

  “Was that the spring we had so many tyrannosauruses?” asked Yuah Dechantagne from across the table.

  “I believe it was,” Aalwijn confirmed.

  “I remember those days. It seems so long ago now.”

  “It was so long ago,” said Egeria. “and we were all so young.”

  “Enjoy your tea,” said Aalwijn, before turning and leaving.

  “What was my mother like then?” asked Egeria’s daughter Olivia, the third diner.

  “Short,” said Yuah.

  “I was young,” said Egeria. “Can we leave it at that?”

  “No,” replied Olivia. “I want to know. You never tell me about yourself. I want to know about you and Papa.”

  “Oh, that really was a story,” said Yuah, leaning over toward her half-sister. “She went after him like a terrier goes after a rat. The poor man didn’t stand a chance.”

  “At least I didn’t sit mooning and sighing over him from afar, but never really taking the initiative to try and achieve my goal.”

  “Who are we talking about?” asked the fourth diner, Gladys Highsmith.

  “She’s talking about Terrence and me,” said Yuah. “Not that she knows anything at all about it. She never laid eyes on either of us before we set sail on the Minotaur.”

  “I admit that I only caught the last act of that play,” said Egeria, “but I stand by my thesis.”

  “Enough talk about old times,” said Yuah. “The past is gone, and in my case, the physical remains of the past is gone as well.”

  “How long before you’ll have a house to move into?” asked Egeria.

  “Probably forever. Augie and his architect keep adding things onto the plans. By the time they’re done, our house will be the biggest building in the empire.”

  “It’s exciting though,” said Gladys. “Who else can say they live in a home designed and built by the famous Zereb Kremmik.”

  “I’ve never heard of him,” said Olivia.

  “He designed the Shrine,” said her mother.

  “Oh, that is a very pretty building.”

  “Your mother still making you go to both the shrine and the church?” asked Yuah.

  “Yes, well no. She doesn’t make me go. I like to go.”

  “Are you still upset about Terra becoming a Kafirite?” Egeria asked.

  “Who said I was upset?” demanded Yuah. “I’m not upset. I want my children to be happy. That’s all I care about.”

  Gladys rolled her eyes, but Egeria kept a straight face.

  “Anyway, why are we talking about me?” Yuah continued. “I much prefer talking about you, Egeria. What about the telegraph thingy that you were working on? Is it going to make you even richer than you already are?”

  “I’m afraid it will. Dot and Augie too.”

  “Augie? My Augie? What does he have to do with it?”

  “He’s my financial partner. We’ve already set up offices here and in a dozen other cities in the Empire.”

  “Well, what is it?” demanded Gladys. “It has something to do with telegraphs, I know, but you were very cagey that day at tea.”

  “Well, it’s like this,” explained Egeria. “With our new equipment, one may send not just beeps over a telegraph wire, but the human voice. One’s voice is converted to electrical signals and the at the other end, is converted back into sound waves.”

  “Talking telegraph?” wondered Yuah.

  “I call it telephone.”

  “Can we eat now?” asked Olivia.

  “Of course,” said her mother, placing a sandwich on her plate.

  “It looks like everyone is dining out today,” said Yuah.

  The others all turned to where she was looking to see the Baxter family, along with Senta and her daughter being shown to a table on the far side of the restaurant. Seeing the four of them, Senta peeled off from her companions and sauntered over to their table.

  “Egeria, Egeria Junior, Yuah, Miss Hightower,” said Senta.

  “Actually, it’s Highsmith,” said Gladys.

  “Actually, I don’t care,” said Senta. “I just wanted to say hello, and now I’ve said it.”

  “You and Bryony seem to have become very close,” observed Yuah. “She’s allowing you in the same room with her husband now, I see.”

  “Only with her in the room,” said Senta. “Still, my evil plan is progressing.”

  “Senta, I’ve just been reminded of the time that you and Aalwijn came to tea at my house just after it was completed,” said Egeria. “I realize now that I’ve been negligent in my entertaining of late. I hope if I send an invitation for tea, you and Sen will come.”

  “Naturally,” replied the sorceress. “Please include Zoantheria. She gets upset if she’s left out.”

  “Of course.”

  “Well, ta,” said Senta, turning and making her way across the dining room to where her companions were seated.

  Gladys watched the sorceress as Egeria filled Olivia’s plate. Yuah filled Gladys’s plate as well as her own.

  “I don’t think we should associate with that witch,” said Gladys. “She’s scary and not a very nice person either.” Then she suddenly started, as she noticed Senta staring at her from across the room.

  From where she was seated, the sorceress stared daggers at Gladys.

  “What are you doing?” wondered Bryony.
<
br />   “Just messing with Yuah’s molly.”

  “I don’t know what that means,” said Bryony, “but why don’t you relax and talk to us.”

  “Fine,” said Senta, turning to her. “What did you want to talk about? We could talk about how fat you’re getting.”

  “I’m not fat, and you bloody well know it.”

  “Language now,” said Senta calmly. “There are children present. I do seem to recall that you are with child, and we had agreed to name it Senta.”

  “There are far too many of those already,” said Sen.

  “If it’s a boy, I want to name him Radley,” said Mr. Baxter, “in honor of Lieutenant Commander Staff. He was a fine man.”

  “I have no problem with that, if you’re sure that Kieran is off the table,” said his wife.

  “It is off the table. Now let’s talk about what’s going to be on the table. I’m famished.”

  “Just a moment,” said Senta. “We still haven’t decided what to call it if it’s a girl.”

  “Which it will be,” added Sen. “How about Terra, after our soon-to-be princess. There aren’t too many of those around.”

  “I think that might be okay,” said Bryony.

  Her husband nodded.

  “Well, I think it’s ghastly,” said the sorceress. “You know her nickname is Earthworm.”

  “Hello, all,” said Aalwijn, as his waiter set out teacups. “We have a lovely holiday feast, or we can bring out your favorites.”

  “The prearranged feast will be fine,” said Baxter.

  “Not too much for her though,” said Senta, nodding at Bryony. “As you can see, she’s getting quite plump.

  * * * * *

  The great mansion had risen up from the ground, formed from massive granite blocks, hauled in by railroad from Mallontah, and then pulled to the Dechantagne estate by teams of triceratops. Stonemasons were carving the large pillars in front, and the interior walls and floors were being framed with pine, magically treated to be fireproof. Augustus Dechantagne leaned over the table that had been set out in the garden, and looked over the blueprints.