by Sarah Noffke
Oak halted, swinging around to face the direction of the cave, his eyes narrowed. “You can’t see it, but Micky smells a beast. It’s stalking you, and Monet and Ever would not be successful in protecting you from it, I’m afraid.”
Azure’s eyes widened, unblinking. “A beast? You mean a wereanimal?”
“No, not a wereanimal.” Oak shook his head, spinning back around and stalking toward the castle in the distance. Azure kept looking for this beast, but all she saw was grass and rocks.
Oak had gone a fair distance when Azure turned to find that Micky hadn’t left her side. “You’re really protecting me? From what?” she asked the dragon, who simply stared back at her with glowing eyes.
Azure sprinted forward and caught up with Oak. “Only those from Lancothy and those given permission can enter this land. Nothing else can get in here.”
Oak laughed, which caused him to cough. He slapped his chest. “Those rules only apply to the living.”
“What? The beast that is following me is dead?” Azure asked.
The castle was only a few yards away now. “Yes, zombies are dead, and therefore can’t be killed. You would be wise to stay as close to Micky as possible.”
Azure’s throat closed and her hands shook as she lifted them to her chest, trying to breathe past the sudden fear. She stared into the distance again. “A zombie? But that’s forbidden magic! How—”
“I’m fairly certain that vampires don’t play by the rules, nor do the ones forced to work for them,” Oak said, his voice growing fainter as he got closer to the castle.
Ata. Azure knew at once that the powerful wizard had been forced to create a zombie, which wouldn’t stop until it had her.
The dragon was still pacing dutifully by her side, although Oak had disappeared into the castle. Azure said, “Thank you. Your protection has saved my friends, and now me.”
~~~
“Okay, I got another one for you,” Monet declared, unwrapping a strawberry-flavored Laffy Taffy. “How do you get an alien baby to sleep?”
Ever thought for a moment and then shook his head. “How?”
Monet squinted at the answer written on the candy wrapper. “You rocket. I don’t get it. Why is it spelled like that?”
Ever laughed, grabbing the wrapper. “’Rocket,’ like a spaceship. It’s how aliens would travel to Oriceran.”
“But you travel to other planets and don’t take a rocket, or whatever it’s called,” Monet argued.
“It’s just a thing on Earth. They have ships that can go into outer space,” Ever explained.
Monet’s eyes widened. “Wow. I want a ship!”
“Oh yeah? I think every guy does at some point,” Ever said, remembering his love for science fiction when he was on Earth. It had mostly disappeared on Oriceran, since magic was real.
“If I had a ship I’d call it…” Monet thought for a moment and then said, “’Ricky Bobby.’”
A laugh burst from Ever’s mouth. “That’s a strange name. Why wouldn’t you call it something powerful, like ‘ArchAngel?’”
Monet shrugged. “I just like the sound of it. ‘Ricky Bobby,’” he sang, pulling another Laffy Taffy from his pocket. “I got another one.”
Ever looked over his shoulder, searching for Azure, but she’d disappeared. He wished she hadn’t gone with Oak. Although he trusted the dragon-tamer, he worried about Azure when she wasn’t nearby. Something in the air had felt different lately, something that her necklace couldn’t protect her from. That was just a feeling, though, and Ever couldn’t support it with fact.
Monet cleared his throat, opening the wrapper as they moved closer to the city. They would no doubt attract the attention of everyone there. That was another reason Ever wished Azure was there. She’d been granted access to the city, but they were only her cabinet members and could suffer from the brutal prejudice of the wereanimals of Lancothy.
“What is a parasite?” Monet asked, his green eyes looking at Ever with curiosity.
“I don’t know,” Ever said, staring vigilantly around as they approached the gates. A weretiger blocked the way into the city.
“I don’t get it again. It says, ‘Something you see in Paris,’” Monet said, popping the candy into his mouth.
“It’s a city on Earth,” Ever explained.
“Well, that’s a dumb joke,” Monet said. “What’s the big deal with this Paris place that it gets put into a joke?”
“It’s considered a romantic city. That’s one of the reasons, I suspect.” Ever changed topics, indicating the weretiger. “I think we might have some trouble with this guy. I recognize him from before. He’s one of Lorde’s crew.”
“Maybe he’s just in need of a good joke,” Monet said, pulling another piece of candy from his robes.
“Then we’re screwed,” Ever said.
“Ha-ha. I see my attempts at entertainment are lost on you. You’re simply ungrateful,” Monet said.
“The city of Lancothy is closed to your type,” the weretiger said, his voice loud.
Ever and Monet halted only a few feet away. “We were invited by your council as members of the party of the Queen of Virgo.”
“We in Lancothy don’t recognize your queen,” the weretiger said.
“Under the decree of the formal council—”
A bolt of white light hit the weretiger straight between the eyes and the large animal crumpled on the cobbled path.
Monet had his wand out and a satisfied look on his face. “What did you do that for?” Ever asked.
“We both know that wasn’t going to end well. I just saved us time,” Monet said, pocketing his wand.
Ever stared down at the unconscious weretiger. Monet was probably right. It would have resulted in a fight, so they’d now avoided all the drama. Ever held up his hands and drew power from the ground under their feet. Symbols lit up on the backs of his hands and arms and he placed a simple charm on the weretiger, cloaking him so that he wouldn’t be spotted until he awoke. That would buy them some time with Lorde’s group.
“Good thinking,” Monet said, stepping over the now-invisible figure of the weretiger. “Now let’s go shake things up.”
~~~
Laurel panted as she climbed the long ladder to the cave. She was grateful that she’d been excused from entering the city. The idea of going into Lancothy after she’d fled with Queen Azure filled her sleep with nightmares. Lorde would find a way to punish her, or the officials could imprison her for breaking the supreme law that stated no wereanimal could leave the mountain. Worse than all that would have been the shame. No one was supposed to want to venture outside of Lancothy, where the rest of Oriceran would openly judge them. It had been drilled into her head all her life.
There were wereanimals, and everyone else. “Us against them,” the preacher would state at church services. “We live inside these walls because our ancestors suffered much abuse. We will not! We endure the reign of the wolves at night, knowing that the curse is far better than the prejudice we’d encounter outside these borders.”
Laurel had never agreed with this mindset, but speaking against the church and government wasn’t something any sane wereanimal did. Instead, Laurel had kept her head down and her beliefs to herself. For a long time she’d drowned her desire to travel the planet, telling herself that such aspirations were futile. But now she’d explored, seeing the gorgeous valleys of Virgo and the deserts of New Egypt, and she’d been to the top of the Mountain of Truth and met the great Mage Lenore.
Listen to your dreams, because anything is possible, she told herself as she climbed higher.
“Do you need a lift?” Manx asked, hovering beside her.
She chanced taking a hand off the ladder to swat at him. “Get out of here.”
“Climbing all the way to the cave must be a pain,” Manx said, sounding not at all sympathetic.
“I enjoy the exercise,” Laurel lied.
“Whatever you do, don’t look down,” Manx caution
ed. “If you fall from here you’ll break a limb for sure.”
“When I get to the top I’m roasting a rabbit for lunch,” Laurel said through gritted teeth.
Blisters peeked his head over the edge. “That flight didn’t take very long,” the unicorn said and flapped his wings, which made him rise into the air and nearly fall off the cliff. He scrambled to safety, sending rocks and dirt over the side and down onto Laurel. She clung to the ladder, pressing her eyes shut and holding her breath.
“Damn it, would you two mind not making my job harder?” Laurel spat. It was only about ten more feet to the top.
“I’ve considered your request, werecat, and the answer is no,” Manx said. “It is programmed into my DNA to create mischief. It literally pains me to be good…and then there’s that dysfunctional unicorn. There’s no helping him, so you’re pretty much screwed.”
“Come on, guys,” Blisters called over the edge. “It’s dark up here, and I think there’s something watching me. Oh, and there’s a funny smell, but that might be me because I haven’t bathed in a few weeks and I think I stepped in dragon poop. But seriously, hurry up! I see eyes in the dark.”
“Go help him,” Laurel ordered Manx.
“Why we brought an accident-prone unicorn with us into a slippery and dark cave, I have no idea,” Manx said, flapping his wings to fly up to the mouth of the cave.
Manx might pretend he didn’t like having Blisters around, but Laurel knew the truth. If something happened to any of them, they’d be glad they had Blisters. Every part of him could be used to heal. The unicorn couldn’t perform magic, but just like Manx, he was made of magic. Laurel wished the same were true of her, but she was only a werecat. There was nothing special about her, except that she had two sets of DNA and was tightly tied to both.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Azure checked over her shoulder. She was largely powerless against zombies. They could be blasted with a spell, but they would keep coming—which was why creating zombies had been outlawed.
Her dragon bodyguard regarded her with a thoughtful stare as she asked, “Shall we go meet some weredragons?”
Micky just blinked up at her, a wisdom in the dragon’s eyes similar to what Azure had seen in Mage Lenore’s.
She turned toward the castle entrance, feeling odd entering the building alongside a dragon. Her life just kept getting stranger. Azure wasn’t sure if she was more surprised by her escort or what it was protecting her from. Zombies and dragons… It seemed silly to her that months ago she had found it hard to accept that she was half-human. That was the least unusual part of her life now.
Torches lined the arched entryway. Its walls were covered in bright green moss, and the smell of smoke was heavy in the air. Ahead the entrance gave way to a large courtyard from which loud noises could be heard.
Micky froze in the shadows of the entryway and Azure turned back to her, wondering if she should stay back as well. She blinked at the dragon, unsure what to say. It wasn’t like she could understand the dragon, or vice versa. And then, quite clearly, she heard a voice in her head say, Go.
A dragon’s roar made Azure jump, and when she swiveled to face the sound she felt something nudge her back. Micky was looking at her intently.
Okay, just when Azure thought things couldn’t get weirder, they did. She nodded at the dragon and pivoted to face the courtyard. When Azure stepped into it, the sunlight made her squint. The yard was large, and the ground had buckled in many places. Half a dozen weredragons were gathered around a single figure in the middle of the courtyard. Oak crouched there with a long staff in his hands.
A weredragon wearing black armor, its orange wings extended, launched himself at Oak, who pivoted, deflecting the weredragon’s assault easily. On the other side of him another weredragon hurled himself forward, but Oak ducked and the attacker flew over his head. The fight looked like it had been choreographed, and for that reason Azure simply stood and watched the strange dance. The weredragons all wore armor, some metal and others black leather. Each had the body of a man or a woman, although their skin was covered in iridescent scales and their backs were adorned with clawed wings of various colors. Their faces were more like Micky’s, with sharp angles and horns protruding, and their eyes matched their wings and scales, making Azure wonder if each color was linked to a special ability.
A weredragon with bright-blue wings and scales caught Oak’s staff and pushed him back with it, and where before the wizard’s face had been focused now fear sprang into his eyes. Azure tensed, grabbing for her wand as Oak stumbled back weaponless. He halted when he’d been backed up to the stone wall. The bright-blue weredragon stalked forward, breaking the staff over his knee. The other weredragons just watched.
Azure lifted her wand. What should she do? If she attacked the weredragons to save Oak they’d never give her a scale, but she decided it didn’t matter and pointed her wand. The bright-blue weredragon opened his mouth and roared. Ice shot from his lips, and he moved his face in a half-circle. Azure was trying to determine the best spell to use when laughter filled the courtyard, and the one laughing loudest was Oak. Around him on the wall was a line of ice and frost as if he’d been framed against the stone.
“It appears I’m no match. I guess I’m rusty from the new life,” Oak said, pushing off the wall and smiling broadly.
“Valiant effort, my friend,” the bright-blue weredragon said, nodding at Oak.
Azure lowered her wand. So it had been a game, of sorts—sparring practice. She relaxed her shoulders. Knowing Oak hadn’t been in real danger was a giant relief and Azure released a breath, thinking that this was going to be a whole lot easier than she had thought.
She cleared her throat, and every weredragon in the courtyard swung around to face her. The bright-blue weredragon shot across the intervening space, halting only a few feet from her. Azure tensed at the sudden movements. The weredragon looming over Azure opened his mouth, his breath misting. “How dare you enter our sanctuary, human! Your death will be fast.”
Azure stumbled back. “Wait, I only followed Oak in here. I’m Queen Azure—”
“I don’t care if the officials allowed you to come to Lancothy. Trespassing here is punished,” the weredragon snarled, his eyes narrowed with hostility.
“Hoarfrost, she’s with me—the one I told you about,” Oak interrupted. He attempted to stride over, but was prevented by the other weredragons.
“It doesn’t matter. This is our home, and she shouldn’t have entered. What if I just barged into your home?” Hoarfrost asked her.
“I’m sorry. Oak entered, though. I don’t understand,” Azure said.
“Oak is one of our brothers, and this is just as much his home as it is mine,” Hoarfrost said.
“I’m sorry, I’ll—”
Azure’s words were cut off by something in her head—a voice like the one before.
Don’t apologize. Dragons believe it shows weakness. Assert yourself.
Azure wondered if that was Micky. She straightened. With Oak being restrained and Hoarfrost bearing down on her she had little choice.
“I meant to say that I’m here because I have business,” Azure began, her voice clear and loud. “I’m the queen of Virgo, and the new protector of the Howling Willow. If you have a problem with the fact that I invited myself into your castle, maybe we should fight. I, however, think that’s a horrible waste of time while vampires are spreading an epidemic and a zombie is loose in Lancothy.”
Hoarfrost studied her with anger flaring in his eyes.
“None of that erases the fact that you have trespassed and spied on us,” the weredragon said, frost on the edges of his lips.
Azure paged through possible replies. How could she not apologize? How could she show strength? She felt Micky somewhere in her mind, lending her a strength she’d never felt before. It felt as old as time, and felt like her connection to the Howling Willow. Azure drew in an unhurried breath. “Again I ask, do you wish to duel over this
matter? I’m not your enemy, but if you persist then you’ll make one of me.”
Hoarfrost opened his mouth, and Azure tensed. She was bluffing so hard she thought a sign was printed on her forehead declaring it.
Quite suddenly, Hoarfrost bowed low and the weredragons at his back knelt. When he straightened his face looked quite different, and he had a prideful appreciation in his eyes.
“You have my respect, Queen Azure. I took you as a cowardly witch, but now realize I judged you poorly.” He indicated a giant room off to one side. “Please, will you join us? We will be dining soon.”
Azure wanted to jump up and down. It had actually worked! She had been seconds from being frozen, but thanks to Micky she’d stood up to the weredragon and saved her ass. She nodded, holding her chin high. “Yes, I accept your invitation.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Monet and Ever strolled through the city of Lancothy trying to pretend that the glances they were receiving from the vendors they passed didn’t indicate contempt. Monet had even chanced a jolly smile at a wereoctopus, which was why there was ink all down the front of his robes.
“Guess that will teach me to be friendly!” he remarked, pulling his wand from his robes.
Ever held up a hand to stop him. “Remember what Laurel said about using magic in Lancothy?”
“That the Weres have an inferiority complex, and would probably revolt against such things,” Monet said with a sigh, putting his wand away again. He directed his voice to the stall where the wereoctopus was still seething. “Fine. I adore wearing octopus ink on my robes. It’s a lovely pattern.”
“Good job not attracting attention to us,” Ever said through a laugh.
“Is it really my fault if my dynamic personality and stunning good looks attract attention?” Monet asked seriously.
“No, it’s not. Such a curse you were born with, you sexy mofo,” Ever said as they left the market area and passed into the city center. The main government building stood in the center of the square, the flag high on its steeple waving in the wind. The faces of a dozen animals could be seen on the rippling fabric, and engraved over the entryway were the words Inside the Mountain we find Peace.
