by Jen Crane
Ewan stood unaffected by his nakedness. I cleared my throat twice before he grasped my meaning and tied one of the coats at his hip, covering the important parts, at least.
My mother had gone still as death. She was probably in shock, the sudden force of her fight and freedom from Brandubh too much to comprehend. I couldn't understand it, either.
"I can't believe he's really gone," I croaked. “Was that normal? That light?” I looked to my friends and family for clues about my fire. “I never imagined it could be so intense.” Neither Mother nor Gresham registered I’d spoken.
Bay opened her mouth to answer, but Ewan cut her off. “Ladies, I think it’s best you take off. At least for now.”
The vicious mob had taken cover in the forest during our battle, but when we were back on two legs, a brassy few reignited the others. Fear and hatred spread like wildfire in a drought. Angry murmurs began low but grew louder as vocal incendiaries gained approval from their cohorts. There was no clear leader, but the collective was doing well enough on its own. “Dragons are killers,” and “They’ll kill us if we don’t get them first,” and “History always repeats itself; we know the stories,” rushed from mouth to ear, the cycle repeating and amplifying until the crowd of angry people encroached again, forcing us backward.
“What now?” I said, my tone sounding more whiny, more afraid, than I liked.
“Your kind belongs in captivity,” someone shouted.
“Captivity, hell,” someone else spat. “They should be exterminated, like we thought they were!”
A mammoth of a man, whose animal form may very well have been a mammoth or mastodon, produced a weapon and stepped ominously to the front.
The situation was dire. Not for us, particularly. We could burst back to dragon and kill the throng of people where they stood. But the larger truth was painfully obvious: the people of Thayer would never accept me; would never accept my family. Their fear was too deeply ingrained.
Even though we had just defeated the evil sorcerer responsible for the most violent attack in Thayer’s history, we dragons were still looked upon as the enemy. Despite all evidence proving dragons weren’t inherently evil, but had been manipulated as weapons by said evil sorcerer, the people of Thayer wanted us dead. Although the true evil lay in Brandubh and Livia’s manipulations and murder, the people around us couldn’t see past their prejudices or defeat their fear.
I let out a pent-up breath and scrubbed my weary eyes.
“Stand back,” Gresham ordered the crowd. “I’ll take it from here.”
The big man in front puffed his chest. “The hell you will,” he said. “You’re one of them.”
“One of whom?” Gresham shook his head irritably. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not a natural dragon; I’m an omni. I took the form to fight Brandubh.”
The crowd didn’t care. Fear overrode their cognition; they had no interest in rationale. They circled us, and not just Mother, Bay and I. Gresham and Ewan were lumped in with us.
“This is ridiculous,” I said and stomped a foot, growing ever more irritated with, but also fearful of the crowd. “We’re not your enemies. Brandubh and Livia were the bad guys. Brandubh’s the true cause of all this, and as you can see, he’s not a threat anymore. We just want to live our lives. Like you.”
“You’re nothing like us,” a pinch-faced old woman sneered.
Bay vibrated with anger. She wasn’t as even-keeled as the rest of us, and still had difficulty controlling herself after her recent imprisonment. She was dangerously close to changing again.
A disturbance at the edge of the forest sent more murmurs through the crowd before the chatter slowed and quieted completely.
The mob was awed.
I stood on tiptoes and stretched to see what was happening, but couldn’t catch sight of it. I looked to Ewan, who shrugged. He couldn’t see either.
Finally, the crowd parted and a tall, distinguished, sandy-haired man in an impeccable suit approached with authority.
Gaspare.
Prime Minister Gaspare Shaw, my uncle, had arrived. My first instinct was to rush to him. We had made a connection the moment we’d met that had strengthened with time. I trusted him. He was my family. And as prime minister, he had the power, the influence, the position—he was the one person that could get us out of such an impossible predicament.
Gaspare wasted no time in taking control of the situation. “Ms. Stonewall, Mrs. Drakontos,” he nodded to me and Bay, but then he paused and seemed to look into my mother’s soul while searching for the right name. “Ms. Drakontos,” he finally said. She did not look up. “I must take you into custody. It’ll be best for all involved if you go with me willingly.”
Bay bristled at the idea of being incarcerated. “Where do you intend to take us?”
“Into my custody,” he repeated.
“And just what are we charged with?” Bay stood straight and set her jaw. She was prepared for a fight.
“Right now, I’m taking you in for questioning.” He offered no further details.
The crowd grew raucous at his words. They were thirsty for blood—mine, Bay’s, Mother’s…it seemed even Gresham’s.
The same pinched-face member of the mob piped up again, something about ridding Thayer of our kind for good.
Gaspare Shaw was always in control. Always calm and collected. But tiny beads of sweat gathered at the wrinkle across his forehead. He wiped his palms on black bespoke dress pants. I was nervous, too, and when our eyes met a look of regret passed over his features. Then his face and voice both hardened.
“That’s enough questions,” he growled at us. “If you refuse to cooperate I’ll force you, and you’ll regret it more than I will, I assure you.”
My head snapped in shock at the sharpness of his tone. I looked to him for an explanation, but he avoided my gaze.
“You bloody try it,” Bay seethed.
“Easy, Bay. Let’s hear him out.” I had faith in Gaspare, despite his sudden onset of hostility. I laced my arm with hers, running my fingers over her weathered hands.
“He’s no interest in negotiating. That much is clear,” she said.
“You’ll not take us into captivity. I’ll die first.” My mother joined the conversation. Her words were quiet but firm. She had yet to look up.
“You may get your wish!” Gaspare snapped.
This cruelty appeased the crowd, which quieted, watching as the scene unfolded.
I could be quiet no longer. I was all for keeping the faith, for working things out calmly, but Gaspare was being uncharacteristically unreasonable. I’d never seen that side of him, though Gresham had warned me he wasn’t always the nice guy I’d seen. His exact words were, “a hardass with a keen grasp of the greater good.” What was the greater good for Thayer? My insides turned to stone. Eliminating notoriously dangerous and despised dragons fit the bill.
“Now, wait just a minute,” I said and struggled to move my hands from their clenched position on my hips.
“I’ll have no more argument from your kind,” he boomed, his prejudice knocking the breath from me.
It was then I realized it wasn’t just his cruelty immobilizing me, but some other force. He had used his power to force my arms to my side, my neck stiff and straight. I moved my eyes to find Bay and my mother in the same state.
“What have you done?” I whispered, my faith he would never hurt me waning fast. “What are you doing?”
“I warned you cooperation was your best move.” Gaspare’s eyes were intent, hard, but not cruel. I didn’t understand him.
Ewan, who wasn’t restrained as we were, edged toward Gaspare. “Prime Minister Shaw, Stella’s done nothing wrong. Please don’t do this.”
“I’ll do as I see fit,” Gaspare snapped. “And right now I see fit to eliminate them. The people of Thayer will never again have to worry about these three. Now get back before you share their fate.”
What the hell? Where was this coming from? How did it escal
ate so fast? He said, “eliminate them.” I had thought we were being incarcerated.
“I’ll risk it,” Ewan said, his fists balled at his sides. “You can’t do this. I won’t let you.”
Gaspare smirked. “Watch me.”
Gresham, who to that point had been content to let his boss control the situation, approached with authority. “Gaspare, you can’t be serious. They must at least be allowed a trial. When it comes to Bay and Edina I can understand your outrage, but Stella is innocent.”
“Oh, I’m serious, Rowan. It is within my authority to eliminate threats to Thayer’s safety in extreme circumstances. No one would disagree this is an extreme circumstance. Yes, I’m serious. And within my rights. Now step aside.”
I gasped so loudly Gaspare finally looked my way. He bulged his eyes at me, looking distinctly like a madman. Maybe he had gone mad; it was really the only explanation.
“No,” Gresham said. “I cannot let you kill these women. I will not.”
“Women, ha!” Gaspare scoffed. “Dragons. They’re dragons first. There’s nothing you can do to stop me. Move, Rowan, or I’ll move you.”
I cut eyes to those in the crowd who’d crept forward, the most bloodthirsty. The ugly, snarling woman’s lips pulled tight in a profane grin as she stood slavering at the prospect of violence. The mammoth man bobbed his head and ran a hand hungrily over the back of the machete he clasped in the other.
I’d often joked the world was against me when life had seemed unfair. But these people really were against us. They rooted for our demise, our death. They had no interest in justice and weren’t seeking truth. Their minds were made up. We were dangerous, inherently bad, and the sooner we got what was coming to us, the better.
“You’ll have to go through us both.” Ewan’s deep voice was confident, final.
He stalked toward Gresham, and together the two formed a barrier between us and Gaspare. Gresham straightened at Ewan’s support, and the two stood side by side like a dark guard.
“Very well,” Gaspare said and sighed. He lifted his hand dramatically, preparing to work some great magic. I’d seen the power those hands possessed. While Gresham might understand who he was defying, Ewan had no idea. The man could manipulate earth. He was some sort of telekinetic genius.
I pleaded with Gaspare in the most personal way I knew. “Please don’t do this. You said we were family. You said you’d protect me. You said it would be all right.”
“Don’t let the curveball throw you out of the game,” he sent back. “Adjust your stance and knock it out of the park.”
I stood stunned, confused as I turned Gaspare’s words over in my mind, trying to determine their meaning.
“What are you say—” A deafening bellow jerked my attention back to the scene, which was dominated by an enormous dark wolf in mid-pounce.
Ewan. Oh, God.
He landed on top of Gaspare, taking him to the ground with a thud. Ewan growled and slavered, his desire to protect me overtaking his good sense. But just as suddenly as Ewan had pounced, there was nothing beneath him. Gaspare’s clothes lay flattened beneath the wolf’s substantial weight. Empty. He had traced away.
Ewan’s lupine head shot up in surprise. He turned first to me, and then searched the area around us. I scanned the riotous crowd, my throat tight and my stomach roiling. It would be foolish to assume the ordeal was over.
Time stretched like cold taffy as we stood in silence, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
It didn’t drop. It stomped Ewan like a bug.
Gaspare Shaw thundered toward Ewan with a speed that seemed impossible in the form he’d taken. His armored body was heavy; each stride caused the ground to tremble beneath us. His flat, gray skin seemed almost dusty, as if he’d been storming through arid African grasslands. One large horn monopolized the animal’s sparse features and dwarfed a second horn just behind it. When the rhino lowered its big head and scooped Ewan up like a doggie rag doll, I gasped with horror. He threw a yelping Ewan deep into the forest.
I never heard him hit the ground. Whether it was too far away, or if he landed safely, I didn’t know. Worse, I had no idea what kind of damage Gaspare the Rhino’s thick horn had done to Ewan’s body. There was blood on the ground where Ewan had been standing before being hefted like a kitten. Too much blood. I was nauseous and shaking with fear.
My voice was so strained it came out in hysterics. “What have you done?” I screamed. “What have you done!”
Gaspare spun around to face me, his saucer-sized nostrils chuffing the soil around him. “I told you to cooperate,” he sent wordlessly. “Why couldn’t you just cooperate? Don’t you trust me?”
“Trust you? Are you insane? You’ve threatened me and my family. You just threw Ewan like a rag doll. If this blood’s any indicator, he’s lying somewhere dying.”
“He’s a tenacious cur, isn’t he?” he said lightly. “I like him. I see what you see in him. I’m sorry you’ll have to lose him.”
“Why did you hurt him? Wait. What do you mean, ‘lose him’?”
“He started it, if you recall. But don’t worry. The wolf will be fine. I just roughed him up a bit, got him out of the way.”
“Out of the way. Out of your way. What do you plan to do with us?”
“I’m going to get you out of here before this angry mob burns you at the stake.”
“You’re trying to help us? I don’t understand.”
“I am. Have a little faith in your old Uncle Gaspare, will you? Jeez, one little test and already you’ve abandoned everything we’ve built.”
“I haven’t abandoned…you told the crowd you were going to eliminate us. Are you really going to get us out of here? Where will we go? You can’t hide us. They’ll come after you, too.”
“I’d like to see them try,” he rumbled, stomping a heavy foot and shaking his big head. “I could protect you here,” he said. “Forever, if necessary. But that’s no life for you. I have another plan. Something…unconventional.”
The mob had stopped waiting for Ewan to reappear, and grown tired of ogling the rhino. Voices and tempers rose again, the crowd’s concerns about dragons still unanswered; their thirst for blood unquenched.
A soul-deep breath did nothing to alleviate the tightness in my chest over the decision to blindly trust Gaspare. “What’s your plan?” I asked as the pinch-faced old woman sneered in my direction.
“I’ll tell you when we get there.” If a rhino could smirk, then this one did.
“‘When we get’—no. Absolutely not. You’ll never get me out of—” My train of thought derailed and I watched Gaspare's body ripple into another form. His change was smooth, effortless.
I had been so engrossed in Gaspare’s transformation I didn’t notice at first that my ankles had been constrained, followed by my knees.
A muffled groan snatched my gaze to my mother and Bay. They had been wrapped to the ears in an opaque white filament, their entire bodies constricted like living mummies. My mouth went dry, my palms sticky with sweat. The same fate awaited me.
I looked down. The filament had already made its way up to my chest. I yelped and threw my arms wide, managing to get one arm above my head before the clingy web trapped it to my side. The victory was short-lived, for the filament continued to surround my body, pinning my bicep to my ear and forcing my hand to dangle above my head like a spastic periscope. I was angry, afraid, humiliated. The bonds stopped at our chins, presumably so we could breathe. Bay’s softly weathered eyes—practically the only part of her I could see—held the same emotions. My mother’s eyes lay closed, the freckles across her pale cheeks prominent even in the moonlight.
The filament was opaque, but visible, and I followed the web to its origin. I jerked when I saw the cause of our distress. Gaspare was himself again. Mostly. The bottom half of his body was transformed into the rough, round abdomen of a spider. Four cone-shaped spinnerets threw a web encasing our entire bodies faster than we could form a defense.
“These people want a show? I’ll give ’em a show.”
“What they want is our heads on a platter. Or a stake. God, just look at them.”
“I know,” Gaspare said, his voice desolate. “I had hoped they would someday accept you, but now I see they never will. This is the best I can do, given the circumstances. Just bear with me and I’ll get you out of here.”
“I really don’t have much of a choice, do I?” My extended arm began to fall asleep and I shook the tingling thing.
“No. You don’t.”
“You realize I can never un-see your spider butt, right?”
Gaspare’s mouth came dangerously close to a smile, but he quickly schooled it back to an evil scowl.
“Does Gresham know you’re putting on a show?” I asked.
“Ha! Look at his face. He’s mortified. He can’t decide whether saving you is worth killing me. This is fun, no?”
“No! Don’t you think he’s been through enough? He just found out Livia murdered his wife to get close to him. Now he thinks you’re going to kill me. Sure, he loves and respects you, but he’s awfully volatile.”
Gresham’s handsome face was grief-stricken and haggard. His radiant golden eyes had gone dull, filled with sadness…and a spark of genuine fear.
There was still no sign of Ewan, and my heart pounded in terror. Had Gaspare done more harm than intended?
Gaspare’s webbed bondage was complete, and it took real effort to tamp down my panic.
Just as I got myself together, I was thrust roughly against Bay and my mother. Bay grunted angrily and threw darts at Gaspare with moss-colored eyes. He’d forced our sticky cocoons together, one giant gift-wrapped package of Drakontos women.
Bay wasn’t in on the plan, and I thought it best not to tell her. Our reactions had to be believable.
