Verdant Magic: A Standalone Dragon Shifter Adventure (Dragon Mage Chronicles Book 1)

by Aimee Easterling

  “Are you okay?” her dragon murmured when her silence had stretched from minor awkwardness into sheer mindless stupidity. The wall of earth at his back was far from impenetrable. In fact, the expanse was already shaking and crumbling as Greenwich’s citizens combined their strength to press magical fingers against the other side.

  “I’m going to pass out in about fifteen seconds,” Amber said rather than answering his question directly. And even though Zane’s warmth buoyed her up, she still pulled away to stand tall on her own two feet while she was able. “But you’ll be safe here until I wake up.”

  Then, without waiting for a reply, she slashed a shard of fallen slate against the inside of her wrist. Blood gushed out in a deeper rivulet than she’d intended, but the expanded offering would only work in her favor.

  “Earth,” she whispered. “Boulders and cobblestones, pebbles and bedrock. I beg of you a boon. Please turn one cavern into two and petrify this wall into impenetrability. No one but me can lift this spell.”

  In response, the Green grabbed and sucked. The air filled with steamy smoke as lava from deep beneath the sleepy crust surged upward to do Amber’s bidding.

  More than I’d counted on, she thought, knowing every action of the Green would take an equal toll on her fragile body. Blood was already pooling at her feet, her head turning woozy from the loss. She wouldn’t last much longer.

  Thea cried out at the stench of sulfur and iron. Then Amber caught the flicker of movement as Zane reached forward as if to grab her arm. But the Watcher was already fading, her final thought for the shifter who now cradled her against his broad, warm chest.

  I hope Zane can find a way back to the surface if I never wake up.

  Chapter 11

  Far too much blood, Zane thought frantically. The green halo that had initially illuminated the split-off chamber after electric lights winked out was fading now. But dark liquid continued to gush out of Amber’s slackened arm without cease.

  Meanwhile, that crazy goat stared up at Zane like she expected him to save the day. But he was collared and cut off from whatever healing magic he might once have possessed. “Damn. What am I supposed to do?”

  In desperation, the shifter pulled off his shirt and pressed the bunched fabric against his companion’s gaping wound. But the greedy earth continued cajoling blood to flow faster, sucking up every drop as it fell onto the ground by the witch’s side.

  Before Zane’s complete powerlessness had fully sunken in, though, a cascade of falling rocks caught his attention and another powerful surge of magical luminescence flickered to life near the top of the earthen wall. Two figures—one tall and broad, the other short and slender—shook themselves as they popped out of the earth.

  Yep, things had just gone from bad to worse. Not only was Amber fading fast, it now looked like her sacrifice had been in vain. The rock barrier hadn’t fully solidified in a timely manner and their shared enemies had found a way through.

  Well, there’s still one barrier left. Gently setting Amber down into the puddle of her own blood, Zane stood and placed his body between the invaders and the dying woman at his feet. He didn’t fully understand the relationship between his captor and the other humans who chose to live like tunneling rodents deep beneath the surface of the earth. But one had pointed a gun at Amber’s head and nobody had made a move to stop the man. Given that evidence, Zane refused to let an unknown quantity approach his companion while she was comatose and unable to use fancy witch powers to full effect.

  His tensed muscles began to ache, though, as nothing happened. Perhaps his newfound cave mates hadn’t yet realized he was present? For whatever reason, they didn’t advance menacingly with magic wreathing their hands as plants sprung out of the walls to bind him once again. Instead, the man reached over to tousle the smaller figure’s hair in a gesture that would have been heartwarming under any other circumstances. “Nice job, sis.”

  Shadows made it impossible to decipher a single feature on the male’s face, but Zane recognized his voice nonetheless. This was Charlie, the driving force behind their recent standoff...and the one who had prompted the gunner to shoot directly toward Amber’s unprotected chest. If his own enchanted collar hadn’t held him so firmly in check, Zane’s rage might have been sufficient to turn Charlie into a sizzling French fry unable to harm anyone ever again.

  The smaller figure, though, was the one he should have been guarding against. Muddy green light that had initially signaled the duo’s arrival now blazed into a brilliant halo as the girl ran down the talus slope toward Zane, magic at the ready. “What are you doing to Amber?” she screamed.

  Jasmine. The child had seemed so innocuous when she first turned up, choosing Amber over Charlie during that initial battle of wills. Now, though, Zane realized that the girl was an earth witch, less powerful than the woman he protected but also significantly more awake.

  As if to back up that assessment, the closest wall shifted in response to the girl’s anger, dirt raining down upon his unprotected back. Any minute now, the earth might open up and swallow both him and Amber whole. Time for a gamble.

  “I’m not hurting her. But you are,” he said quietly. Jasmine was already within arm’s reach, her chest heaving and eyes flashing as she attempted to dodge past the shifter to approach her fallen friend. When Zane sidestepped to stop her a second time, though, his opponent lost all pretense at adulthood and began pounding vainly against his rock-hard chest, tears streaming down her childishly round cheeks.

  The man—Charlie—wasn’t far behind, but he paused when Zane caught his sister’s arms into a manacle-like grip. “You,” Zane said, pointing at the other male with his chin, “I don’t trust at all. Come any closer and you’ll regret it.”

  Jasmine gasped as Zane’s hand tightened around her wrists. The bones there were so slender he could easily confine both of her appendages in one lazy grip. How hard would it be to squeeze a little tighter until twin arm bones cracked?

  Not that Zane would ever do such a thing. Earth witch or no, Jasmine was little more than a child.

  Still, Charlie didn’t know that. And the male apparently cared enough about his sister not to push his limits. Taking one step backward, he leaned nonchalantly against the wall just far enough away so Zane wouldn’t expect an attack at any moment. And after a moment of slitted-eye consideration, the shifter decided he’d be able to bat the human away like a fly if the latter did go on the offensive.

  “You I might trust,” Zane said at last, loosening his grip as he bent down to look at the girl leaning against his chest. If he was being honest, he’d admit the tears were what decided him. Anyone willing to cry for Amber likely wouldn’t do her harm and might actually be able to help. “Amber’s losing too much blood. Can you heal her?”

  It was as if his softening stance had allowed a draft into a wood stove and set the fire inside raging. Forgetting the fact that she was a prisoner, words poured out of the girl’s mouth in a torrent. “I don’t know! We hadn’t really gotten to that part of my lessons yet. I mean, big things like manipulating soil aren’t too hard. But you’re talking different layers of skin cells and microscopic blood vessels and...” She hiccuped as her words descended into another round of racking sobs.

  Not very confidence-inducing, Zane thought, peering over her head to check on Charlie one last time. The man had sunken down into a crouch and seemed content to ponder darkness for the foreseeable future, so Zane returned his attention to the girl crying into the breast of his newly dampened t-shirt. “Can you at least try to heal her?”

  He hadn’t really meant to manipulate, but one last tendril of hoarded magic slipped out along with his words. And once the thread of energy was out there, he figured he might as well make use of it. Embracing the minor power, Zane visualized soothing a sodden kitten as he set Jasmine down beside the woman he’d been parted from for one agonizing minute too long. “Anything you can do will be better than leaving her here like this.”

  Th
en he held his breath, hoping Jasmine wouldn’t be able to shrug off the glamour just like Amber had done. Luckily, the girl was both weaker—if the color of her halo was any indication—and far less experienced than the witch bleeding out at their feet. “Okay,” she whispered at last, dropping to her knees and picking up the older witch’s unmoving arm.

  The child fumbled, though and the appendage flopped in her grasp like a captured fish...or like a literal dead weight. Wincing, Zane was forced to look away before his breakfast came back up his aching throat.

  Then small female fingers tugged at Zane’s trouser leg, drawing his attention back to where it by rights should have remained the entire time. “I need a little help here,” Jasmine demanded, her tone no-nonsense as if the small boost of wet-kitten magic was all she’d needed to regain her inner equilibrium. “You, sit down there and put pressure on her wound here. I can’t heal and stop the bleeding at the same time.”

  “Okay,” Zane agreed quietly, trying not to startle the young witch out of her work. Despite his subdued tone, though, a tiny flicker of flame flared back to life in his belly. He couldn’t be sure whether the newfound magic stemmed from sheer relief or from Amber’s magnetic proximity, but whatever the cause he’d accept the boon with gratitude.

  Unfortunately, initial joy faded as he moved to obey. Amber was smaller and lighter than she’d looked while harnessing floral mayhem like the conductor of a tremendous, living orchestra. And unlike her previous vibrant self, the witch’s wrist was now sticky and cold against his hands, her breath barely audible against his ear. “What now?” he couldn’t help asking.

  “Now you shut up and let me work,” the girl bit back. She wasn’t thrilled at having a dragon shifter two inches away from her kneeling form, Zane knew. Still, bravely, Jasmine closed her eyes, the green halo around her hands expanding as she ignored her own peril and focused on the dying woman at her feet instead.

  At first, nothing seemed to happen. But then the skin beneath Zane’s fingers crept a little closer together as welling blood subsided back into healing arteries. Far faster than the shifter would have expected, Amber’s wrist was once again smooth and whole, her life no longer bleeding out to feed the soil at their feet.

  ***

  Jasmine swayed in reaction to the drain of such a hefty dose of magic, but this time Zane was ready for the incipient collapse. On the other hand, he wasn’t ready to be knocked off his feet as the earth behind their backs shook itself like a wet dog, rock and dirt flying in every direction.

  Charlie yelled and his sister gasped, but the shifter went predator-still. Earthquake or earth magic?

  Despite his urge to discover the source of the mayhem, Zane had to admit it didn’t really matter. The only relevant point was that Amber had once again been drawn into danger, and Zane was the one close enough to protect her from harm.

  So thrusting Jasmine down atop her friend, he moved to shield the two smaller figures with his own much wider body. Warm fur pressed against his side a moment later as a very scared goat tucked herself beneath his armpit, then rocks tumbled faster yet as the entire cavern geared up to collapse around all of their ears.

  Despite the thunder of falling stone, though, Zane breathed a sigh of relief. Everyone except Charlie was accounted for, and the other man was big enough to take care of himself. So as the last glimmer of light winked out beneath him, the shifter merely closed his eyes and settled in to wait.

  Good thing I have a hard head, he mused thirty seconds later as fist-sized rocks continued to pummel his back and legs. Maybe it was his imagination, but the earth felt like a petulant child throwing a temper tantrum. Then, just as quickly as a cascade of toddler tears turned into sunny smiles, the quake slowed and finally petered out.

  Raising his head, Zane saw...nothing. Jasmine and Amber were comatose against the ground, their forays into magic having tripped the switch that led into healing slumber. Meanwhile, lack of emerald halos meant the cavern was now pitch black, only the throbbing pulses of the supine women proving that they’d survived the tumult.

  Amber’s goat, on the other hand, nearly kicked him in the face as she returned to her feet and wandered off, taking much-needed warmth with her. Is that what my life is coming to? Zane found himself wondering. To regret the absence of a pint-sized goat?

  Thea was quickly forgotten, though, when a trickle of daylight shone down through a crack in the ceiling above. But was the glint of white really daylight or...fire?

  And then the joyful hoots of his foster brothers filtered down through rifted rock. Zane caught a word here and there: “dynamite” and “found him” and a rather long string of self-congratulatory curses. In reaction, he relaxed fully for the first time all day.

  The tracker in his boot must have worked as advertised, attracting Zane’s siblings to the earth witches’ subterranean lair when he failed to return home in a timely manner. Soon, fire would release him from the stifling collar around his neck. Cold, damp earth would recede into distant memory, and a golden dragon would once again rule open skies.

  The tables were about to turn. And despite the sweet apple aroma wafting up from the earth witch beneath his chest, Zane could hardly wait.

  Chapter 12

  Amber woke to a vise-like grip around her upper ribcage and a swooping discomfort in her belly. If the latter sensation was any indication, she was flying through the air at the speed of a moderately energetic rabbit...which made no sense at all.

  I must be dreaming, she thought, reaching upward with an effort to settle one shaking hand around her memory locket. The cool metal soothed her mind, although it made little headway against the raging thirst in her throat and her gummy eyes’ recalcitrant inability to open. Perhaps if she just allowed sleep to carry her under deeper, then discomfort would fade away?

  Except her brain refused to cooperate with what Amber had thought was a perfectly logical request. Instead, Thea’s mournful cry from a few inches distant was followed by an ocean-like swaying that sent Amber’s body spinning in nausea-inducing circles. “Do you have to?” she muttered. Then, in self-defense, she opened her eyes at last...

  ...And immediately wished she hadn’t. Her steadfast caprine companion was dangling in the open air beside her, being hoisted aloft by a network of lines that mirrored the ones tied around Amber’s own aching torso. Of more immediate interest, though, was their location—a hundred or more feet above the treetops and an equal distance below a menacing airship that blotted out the sky above both of their heads.

  The airship itself wasn’t a surprise. After all, massive metal-ribbed balloons with gondolas dangling underneath were one of the safest ways to traverse the Green now that animated vines hunted down every spark of fire that crossed their path. With electricity and internal combustion engines a failing proposition on the planet’s surface, most travelers took to the sky or water to avoid angry plants’ insidious grip.

  So, sure, Amber had caught sight of airships like this one many times before as they passed over Greenwich’s borders, the passengers and crew ignorant of the enclave hidden beneath the surface of the earth. On the other hand, her role of Watcher had spurred her to sound the alarm during each of those previous crossings since the region’s airways were more often ruled by pirates than by law-abiding citizens. No matter how she cut it, Amber couldn’t quite turn the floating vessel above her head into anything other than the sun-blocking terror it appeared to be.

  This is no time to panic, she reminded herself, clamping down on her incipient consternation with an effort of iron will. Thea was thrashing about so wildly now that the poor goat was likely to do herself harm...or perhaps to put out one of her mistress’s eyes. The goat was definitely panicking enough for both of them. So, ignoring the receding ground and the lassitude of her own limbs, Amber lunged sideways and latched onto one of Thea’s leads. Then, drawing her pet closer, she took the terrified animal into her trembling arms.

  “Shh. It’s gonna be alright,” she crooned. The
a, always a lap goat at heart, subsided as soon as her forelegs bent across her mistress’s chest. A few skillful scratches in just the right places and the animal began nibbling on one of Amber’s curls, aerial journey entirely forgotten.

  “I wish I could calm down so easily,” the Watcher muttered. Then she shrieked as a fiery ball of dragon swooped within inches of her unprotected head. Golden and resplendent, Zane paused to hover so close to her face that Amber worried he might burn through her rope and send her plummeting to the forest below.

  While the Green might catch her if it was in a particularly good mood, Amber didn’t particularly want to push her luck. “Could you...?” She paused, clearing her throat to eradicate the pained croak, then tried again a little louder. “Could you back off a little? You’re terrifying Thea.”

  Thea wasn’t the least bit scared. The goat had moved on from hair nibbling to throat nuzzling, searching for any leftover greenery that might have fallen down the back of her mistress’s shirt. Unfortunately, the motion set the duo swaying yet again, and Amber’s stomach lurched painfully. Turning, she vomited chewed remnants of two cucumbers and one tomato into midair, then continued hacking vainly as nothing else existed to come back up.

  Lovely. Just the picture I wanted to present to a dragon I recently enslaved and threatened with walnut asphyxiation.

  Distantly, she heard the return of Thea’s frantic yodels. Not entirely unexpected. After all, Amber’s lap had disappeared in the violence of intestinal upheaval and the goat had once again noticed she was dangling in midair with nothing to eat but human curls.

  Meanwhile, hot wind rushed past Amber’s ears as the dragon did...something. She wasn’t quite sure what.

  The easy way to find out what was going on would have been to look behind her and see what Zane was up to. But Amber had long since squeezed her eyelids back together, hoping against hope that if she didn’t glance down then the agony in her gut would ease.