“I would guess it is,” Knox said. “But I don’t know exactly how it works. We don’t have any information on it, like we did on the dragon emerald, so we aren’t sure exactly how to activate it.”
“I might be able to find some information on that,” Bree said. “No promises, but I did find a lot of information on the stone’s powers when I was doing my report for the Advocacy Bureau. There might be something in there on how to activate it.”
The others nodded, and then started peppering Knox with more questions about the recovery of the stone. Knox retold the story, while Myles started handing out beers and food to anyone who wanted it. Bree was soon happily stuffing her face with a burger and a side of baked beans, content to let Knox speak while she sat silently eating. She had not missed the fact that several eyebrows around the campfire had raised when Knox reached out to protectively squeeze her knee at one point. She supposed that the dragons here didn’t often bring women around for dinner, and they must have been surprised at their clan leader’s sudden affection for Bree. No one said anything about that, though. Whether it was because they knew better than to question Knox, or because they were just too interested in the story of the dragon sapphire, Bree would never know for sure.
When Knox had finished his tale, he asked Noah to update him on how things had been while he was away.
“Everything’s been running smoothly,” Noah said. “Everyone out on the field has been progressing well on their missions, and things here have been quiet. The most excitement we had while you were gone was when Pierce, Aria, and Levi arrived.”
“Good,” Knox said. “I feel a bit ridiculous now for worrying about leaving everyone behind.”
Noah shrugged. “Don’t feel ridiculous. You care about the clan, and that’s nothing to feel foolish about.”
Pierce laughed. “Now that he’s left you guys once, he’s going to be taking off all the time. You guys might even start to miss him.”
Everyone laughed, and Bree joined in with a small chuckle, although she didn’t really get the joke like the others seemed to. She was about to suggest that everyone go get some sleep when Noah spoke up again, using a serious tone once again.
“Have you guys seen or heard any news since you left Mountain View?” Noah asked.
Knox shook his head no. “Not really. We were just trying to get out of there as quickly as we could, and I didn’t really think to turn on the radio. I figured you’d let me know if there was anything especially interesting.”
“Well, there was something interesting, although I only saw it about an hour ago, so you might have missed it even if you had been listening to the news,” Noah said.
“Was it about the fissure in the road that we caused?” Bree asked, interrupting. She’d been worried about how that would be reported ever since they had left the scene. Any wizard watching the news on that was likely to realize that a wizard had been at work there. Would members of her clan have seen it? Would they guess that she had been there? Had they followed her at all? Bree felt her stomach tightening up with worry once again.
“Well, I wasn’t exactly referring to the news on the roadblock, although there was a small amount of coverage on that. Some were saying it was a small earthquake that caused the rift and then a fire, which burned the hole back together,” Noah said.
Bree looked at Noah like he had lost his mind. “That doesn’t make sense,” she said.
Noah shrugged and put his hands up in the air. “Hey, I’m not the one who came up with the theory. I’m just telling you what I heard. There’s been a lot of talk about the incident, but no one can explain it away. Which is unsurprising, since no one really knows that wizards exist.”
Bree felt uneasy. She hoped, for her sake, that any news coverage on the incident had been small, and had not reached the ears of her wizard clan in Falcon Cross. She had a feeling, though, that her luck was going to run out soon. There were too many coincidences and narrow escapes. How was it possible no one had found her yet. She shuddered, thinking about the pain and agony of losing her magic. Knox put his arm around her protectively, and she felt somewhat better. Would he be enough to protect her from the wrath of her wizard clan’s high council? In her mind’s eye, she suddenly saw Samuel once again, peering at her over the High Council’s table and telling her that she had forgotten all of her history lessons. She shuddered again, and forced herself to turn her attention back to Noah.
“The news I was referring to, though,” Noah was saying, “Is that there was an armed robbery attempt on the home of the gem collector who owned the dragon stone.”
Bree’s face shot up in surprise. “There was? I’m surprised. I thought the guys who were after it were trying to avoid violence.”
Noah frowned. “I remember you saying that, and that’s why this armed robbery bothers me so much. We thought that the two ex-drug lords who were after the stone would take their time, stealing it by stealth rather than force. The fact that there has been this sudden, violent attack leads me to believe one of two things has happened. Either someone else is now on the trail of the dragon sapphire, and made their own violent attempt to grab it, or the ex-drug lords have decided that the need to get the dragon sapphire is urgent. They might know that you guys were trying to get it, or they might know that someone else was on the trail.”
Bree felt like her head was spinning once again. Noah’s suspicion that someone else was on the trail of the dragon sapphire worried her. When she had done her report for the Advocacy Bureau, no one else had seemed to know. Had that changed? Was information on the stone leaking out?
“Wait, you said attempted robbery,” Knox said, frowning over at Noah. “Does that mean that the stone was not actually stolen?”
Noah sighed. “Well, the sapphire was not stolen, but only because the robbers threw it away as they fled. It would seem to me that they realized it was a fake. I don’t think the gem collector has realized that yet, but whoever was trying to steal it is bound to be angry, knowing that someone else got to it first. I just hope they don’t know that the ‘someone’ is us.”
“We should get the stone away from here and safe into protector hands as soon as possible,” Aria said, speaking up for the first time.
“That’s very true,” Levi agreed. “I hate to break up this party, but perhaps Pierce, Aria and I should all get some rest so we can leave early in the morning and get the sapphire away from here sooner rather than later.”
“I don’t disagree,” Knox said. “But I have to say it’s too bad that you’ll be leaving so soon after arriving. We’re overdue for a proper catch-up.”
Pierce grinned. “I’ll say we are. You didn’t tell me you had a girl.”
All eyes turned to look at Knox and Bree, and Bree realized that Knox still had his arm around her firmly and conspicuously. Bree’s cheeks turned red as the group all started to laugh.
“Yeah, boss,” Myles said, crossing his arms in feigned anger. “You told us you were going off on a dangerous mission. Instead you went chasing after a pretty girl, it seems.”
Vance roared with laughter. “Aw, come on, Myles. Don’t you know anything about women? Chasing girls is always a dangerous mission!”
Knox opened his mouth to respond, but before any words could come out, Bree saw a look of shock cross his face. The next thing she knew, Knox had pushed her to the ground, and he was lying over her yelling, “Shift! Shift! Everybody shift!”
Pops of energy sounded out all around her, along with cursing, and then a new sound—the whizzing of lasers that Bree knew with certainty were coming from a wizard spell. Bree found herself being lifted in Knox’s strong arms, and then he was running like the wind toward his cabin. He pushed her inside, then yelled at her to stay down. Before she could say anything, he had slammed the door behind him. She heard another large pop of energy from outside, indicating that he was shifting into dragon form.
The noise was deafening. Animal roars, human screams, and the buzz of wizard spells f
illed the air. Bree sat, stunned and unmoving for a moment, plastered against the wall of the cabin with her heart feeling like it was about to beat out of her chest. She fingered her magic ring, wondering briefly whether this would be the last night that she wore it. She felt fear as she had never felt it before, and she squeezed her eyes shut, wishing that she was anywhere but here, or wishing she was brave. Advocacy school had not prepared her for this. She didn’t know how to fight, not physically anyway. She only knew how to make arguments with words, and words would do her no good in the violent battle raging just beyond her doorway. She heard a sound like the rushing of a great wind, then saw the night sky lighting up with orange brightness. Knox was breathing fire just outside the cabin, no doubt doing his best to fend off the wizards who were now trying to reach the cabin where Bree was hiding.
Bree felt suddenly ashamed. Here she was, hiding away in a cabin while Knox fought bravely, when the whole reason that they were under attack in the first place was her. There were wizards here, and that could only mean one thing—they had found Bree and were determined to bring her back to Falcon Cross to strip her of her magic for defying the High Council. Bree felt tears stinging at her eyelids. She would not go willingly, that was certain. Perhaps she had made a mistake, but it had been an honest one. She had only ever wanted the best for her clan. How could that be worth inflicting the worst possible punishment on her?
“You’ve been brave before,” Bree whispered to herself. And it was true. It had not been easy to stand up in front of the whole High Council and tell them that they were making a mistake by not contacting the shifters. It had not been easy to run away, knowing that doing so might mean she could never return to Falcon Cross or to the advocacy job she had worked so hard to get. But she had done what she felt she needed to do in the moment. And now, in this moment, Bree knew she needed to fight. She needed to be brave once more.
Slowly, she rose to her feet. She turned to look out the front window of the cabin, expecting to see wizards near at hand, fighting down the shifters to get to her. But what she saw was not only wizards. It was wizards, shifters, and humans—all seemingly in total chaos. There were the dragons, and, of course, the visiting shifters—a wolf, a panther, and a unicorn. Bree had never seen a unicorn before, and she couldn’t help feeling amazed at the sight of one, despite the fact that there were so many pressing matters at the moment.
But the shifters that were fighting for the Redwood Dragons were not the only shifters in the fray. As Bree looked out, she saw that there were several other shifters fighting alongside the wizards. Most of them were bears and wolves, with a few lions thrown in here and there. But that couldn’t be right, could it? How would the wizards have come after her with an army of shifters when the whole reason Bree was on the run in the first place was that she was the only one who thought it was necessary to let shifters know that wizards still existed? Unless the High Council had had a drastic change of heart, there should not be shifters here. And if they had had a drastic change of heart, why were they attacking Bree? Shouldn’t they have been coming to tell her that she had been right?
And why were there so many humans mixed among the wizards? That was the weirdest thing of all. The only group wizards feared more than shifters was full humans. There’s no way wizards would have willingly asked humans to fight with them. What was going on? Was this group here against the wishes of the High Council?
But before Bree could let her mind wander much further down that trail, she saw, to her horror, that the High Council Wizard Samuel had just jumped in front of Knox. Knox, of course, did not know who Samuel was, or that he was one of the best spellcasters in the country. Knox tried to send a wall of fire at Samuel, but Samuel deftly shot up a shield using a shield spell, and laughed in Knox’s face.
“Even dragons are not more powerful than my magic,” Samuel yelled. “The sooner you surrender and give us what we want, the better off things will be for you. The longer you fight, the more of your men are going to have to die!”
Bree saw a flash of anger rush across Knox’s eyes, and her own eyes teared up a bit with love. She knew in that moment that Knox would die before giving her up. She also knew that she had to stand and fight. She didn’t understand why the High Council had suddenly decided to enlist shifters and humans in the fight to get her, but if it was a fight they wanted, she would give them one. If she had to die, at least she would die knowing she had done the right thing. She had helped make sure that the dragon sapphire stayed in good hands. If that was a deed worth dying for, then so be it.
With trembling hands, but a firm resolve, Bree went to the front door of the cabin, swung it open and lifted her magic ring to point in the direction of Samuel.
“Magicae arma,” she cried out. Instantly, her shield spell sent up a force field around her. She knew Samuel was a powerful wizard, and it probably would not take him long to break through her shield spell. But she had to at least try to defend herself. Startled by her sudden entrance into the fight, Samuel turned to look at her. When his eyes met hers a shocked look crossed his face.
“Well? It’s me you want, isn’t it?” Bree yelled out at him, sounding much braver than she felt. “Come and get me, if you dare.”
Time seemed to stand still. The moments that followed, before Samuel spoke, felt to Bree like the longest moments of her life.
Chapter Eighteen
“Bree?” Samuel finally choked out. He was still holding his arm up, his own shield spell still going strong. But he did not make a move toward Bree, at least not right away. He stared at her as though she was an alien, and Bree suddenly realized that he had not expected to see her here at all.
He was not after her. He was after the dragon sapphire.
Before Bree could process what this all meant, she heard a fresh commotion coming from the west side of the clearing. Suddenly, a small army’s worth of fresh wizards burst in, ready to fight with their magic rings raised. For a moment, Bree was even more confused—and she was very distracted. Then she saw that Peter, the leader of the High Council, was leading this new group. His eyes seemed to blaze fire as he looked around the clearing, taking in what was happening. Bree let her guard down for a split-second, and in that split-second, Samuel quickly broke through her shield spell. He quickly grabbed her, pinning her arms to her body, and then yelled.
“Peter! Over here! I’ve caught Bree! I’ve caught her. She was gathering all of these wizards, shifters, and humans to do battle against Falcon Cross!”
“What? No! It’s not like that,” Bree said. Before she could get another word out, though, Samuel roared in pain and let her go. In the excitement of the moment, Samuel had let his own shield spell weaken, and Knox had taken the opportunity to breath fire onto his legs. Now, Samuel was rolling on the ground in agony, trying to put out the fire. In the meantime, a great unrest seemed to suddenly be taking over the group of humans, shifters and wizards that had been fighting with Samuel.
“You never said anything about attacking Falcon Cross,” one of the wizards said.
“Yeah, we were supposed to be here to recover the dragon sapphire and then leave to start our own city,” another said.
“We better still get our cut of the profits,” a rough voice called out. Bree was startled to see that the voice belonged to a man who looked exactly like one of the ex-drug lords who had been trying to steal the dragon sapphire. A horrible realization washed over her. Not only was Samuel here for the dragon sapphire, he had also been in league with the ex-drug lords from the beginning. No wonder he had argued so firmly against involving shifters in a search for the dragon stone.
Bree opened her mouth to yell at Samuel in anger, but before she could say anything, Knox had lifted her with his dragon mouth and had started flapping his wings. He rose high into the air, pulling her above the battle just as things really started to explode. When he reached the top of the forest, he deposited Bree on the highest branch of the tallest redwood, and then swooped back down to th
e battle.
Bree cursed aloud as she realized what he had just done. He didn’t want her in harm’s way, so he had flown her up here and left her stranded in the trees. She had no choice but to watch the battle from afar now, and he knew it. Bree desperately tried to think of some sort of spell that would allow her to glide down softly without injury, but she could not remember any good spells with certainty, and she wasn’t willing to risk her life by experimenting with spells. If she performed a spell incorrectly before jumping from this high, she would certainly die.
And so, she watched as a massive battle unfolded beneath her. She could not tell from up here who was winning, or who was responsible for the screams of pain that echoed out through the night. Occasionally, she saw a flash of fire from a dragon, or a piercing laser from a wizard. But most of what she could see was just a blur of shadows in the darkness. She wondered constantly whether Knox was safe, and whether the dragon sapphire was still in good hands. She wondered most of all, how it was possible that Samuel, a member of the High Council who was sworn to protect all wizards with his life, had been working with two criminals who wanted to destroy society with the powerful dragon sapphire. Nothing made sense, and she had a feeling that it would take a while to sort everything out, if she ever got a chance. Briefly, she wondered how she would get down from the tree if Knox was killed in the battle. But then she decided that if Knox was killed in battle, she would find it hard to care about anything, anyway.
And then, almost as suddenly as the chaos had begun, it stopped. Bree saw shadows fleeing away from the cabins and into the dark forest, and she saw other figures in pursuit of them. But she could also see shifters gathering around the campfire. Several pops of energy rang out, and Bree could see Knox, Noah, Myles, Vance and Owen all in human form. They were speaking with Peter, who was surrounded by a small wizard army. Bree could not, of course, hear what they were saying. But several times she saw both Knox and Peter gesticulating wildly with their arms. Whatever discussion they were having, it was quite a heated one. Bree fiddled with her magic ring nervously, even though if Peter attacked with any kind of magic spell, there wasn’t much Bree would be able to do to stop him. He was far too powerful for her to handle on her own.
Defiance and the Dragon (Redwood Dragons Book 1) Page 14
