The Dragon Master

by Allyson James

Lisa came to embrace her, making her daughter gurgle. "We'll stay with you a bit if you don't mind and help you plan. It's a chore to lug these two across town, and I could do with a rest." She sat down with a thump and lifted Severin to her lap.

  "You'd better give me Li Na," Caleb said, moving toward Carol. "She's been burpy today, and dragons tend to burp on the acidic side." He stopped. "Oops, there she goes. I hope that wasn't your best blouse."

  "I feel so used," Axel said.

  The next morning Carol drove with him back down to the warehouse where the Dragon Master waited. It was rush hour, and the roads that led from bridges were clogged with commuters pouring in from Oakland, Berkley, and places farther south. Hardly anyone was driving on the back roads toward the old abandoned buildings of SoMa.

  "Bringing you was the only way I could get Lisa to agree to stay behind," Carol said, navigating the streets. "She likes to rush in."

  "Not like you. Quiet, calm Carol, never doing anything dangerous."

  "I'm just investigating," she replied. "You're protecting me. If I'd have run down here last night when you were unavailable, that would have been impetuous."

  "I'm a Baku. Night is my busiest time."

  "When do you sleep?"

  "I don't need to." Axel patted his tight abs. "This body isn't real, just the one I show so I don't scare anyone. I think I'm gorgeous, but most people would fall over gibbering if they saw me. Except kiddies who think I'm cute. And lady Baku."

  "There are lady Baku?" Carol liked that he was rambling as he usually did�it kept her from panicking.

  "Sure. There's one in particular I'm thinking of. She's always telling me what an idiot I am." He grinned. "I think she likes me."

  "How can you be so powerful and so ridiculous at the same time?"

  "Because I got over myself millennia ago. Fighting evil shouldn't make you morose." He showed his pointed teeth in a smile. "It's too much fun."

  "If I were a lady Baku, I'd like you, Axel."

  "Oh, she flatters me. Something's on your mind, Carol. I mean besides Seth and Dragon Masters and the Order and demon-gods. What's wrong, sweetie?"

  Carol hadn't wanted to tell anyone, at least not yet, and not a male friend. But Axel was different, maybe because he was a god so beloved of children. Lumi had told her he'd found himself opening up to Axel for no good reason when he didn't even know the man, and Carol suddenly wanted to do the same.

  "I bought a home pregnancy test last night," she said. A lump formed in her throat, and she couldn't continue.

  "I see." Axel's bantering tone softened.

  Carol's vision blurred with tears. "Those tests aren't one hundred percent accurate, and it might be too soon to know anyway." She'd been telling herself that since she'd checked the test this morning after a sleepless night and found it positive.

  "Does Seth know?"

  "He thought it was possible, which is why I took the test. I can't really believe it. I'd have insisted on birth control if I'd thought that I could have children with a dragon."

  "Honey, I'll bet birth control was the furthest thing from your mind:"

  "Yes." Carol remembered her wild lovemaking sessions with Seth and flushed. "I never could think very clearly around him."

  "You're going to tell him, right?"

  She gripped the steering wheel. "That depends. He might try to kill me if he sees me again�I am the one who enslaved him, after all. Lisa said he was different when he came to her, very animal-like. I've always thought that about him, that he was more dragony than Malcolm or even Caleb."

  "Fire dragons are strange beasts, that is true. But I saw the way he looked at you. He cared for you."

  "While he was ensnared by his true name," she said. "It wasn't exactly of his own free will."

  Axel frowned, started to say something, then broke off and shook his head.

  They'd reached their destination, thankfully, and Carol parked her car and switched off the engine. She felt eyes on her back as they entered the building, but Seth's dragon marks still burned brightly on the walls.

  Carol stared down into the dark hole of the basement, her skin prickling at the noisome chill. Axel snapped on a flashlight and played it around the room below. The light caught on the ripples of the glasslike column.

  "Still there," he grunted.

  "It feels different."

  Axel gave a terse nod. "You want to go down there? Even though I think you shouldn't?"

  "I want to talk to the Dragon Master."

  Axel frowned at her. "One itty-bitty thing goes wrong, I take you out of there."

  Carol didn't argue. She started to ask how they would climb below when Axel grabbed her wrists and the world jolted. When she blinked, she was standing in the basement next to the column.

  She jerked away. "Please warn me when you're going to do that."

  He smiled his imp's smile. "More fun to surprise you."

  Help me. The cry came stronger than before, and Axel's light fell on the outline of the small man pressing his hands to the wall of the column.

  Carol couldn't see him well through the opaque glass, but his thoughts drifted to her clearly. The threads that touched her were weak but thick and dark gray.

  You are the one called Carol.

  Carol put her hand on the glass. "That's me."

  You are a powerful Dragon Master. The line has continued well. She felt a trickle of pride.

  "It might not have continued at all if it weren't for Zhen," Carol replied.

  She surprised herself with her sudden warmth for the old man. She realized now that the Order would have found out about her mother even if Zhen hadn't told them. Lian's power would have screamed to them, like Carol's did now. Zhen couldn't have saved her mother, but by knowing the Order's plans, he'd saved Carol from them twice.

  You set the fire dragon free, the Dragon Master whispered. Why?

  "He was unhappy, and I didn't like enslaving him."

  The Dragon Master seemed puzzled. But we need him. You have the golden and black at your disposal, and even the silver, but the fire dragon is essential.

  "I care about him. I prefer that he stay with me out of choice."

  Choice? His words were incredulous. You are a Dragon Master. Dragons do service to you. They have no choice.

  "Times have changed, Sying. Sying is your name, isn't it?"

  It's been a long time since I have heard it on the lips of a girl Yes, I am Sying, Dragon Master to the emperor called Ho. He sighed. His family is long gone to dust, his empire vanished.

  "China is still there," Carol said. "My great-grandfather came here from Hong Kong, along with many other Chinese. The country is still there, but a little different." She pondered. "Maybe not so different. People there are just trying to get on with their lives like people anywhere."

  Axel cleared his throat. "This is all very interesting, but what about this demon-god thing? We came here to ask about him;"

  Carol felt Sying fix his attention on Axel, in wonder. This is a lesser god of a foreign nation. Have you ensnared him, Li Mei?

  "No one ensnares a Baku," Axel scoffed. "I feel you trying, so don't even bother."

  "He's a friend," Carol said. "And how did you know my nickname?"

  I have heard Zhen say it fondly. Sying's touch withdrew, but he regarded Axel in curiosity. Have you no one in your power then, Li Mei?

  "Not currently. What I need you to tell me is about that demon-god in there with you, and what happens if we let him out. Also what happens if we don't."

  He will emerge soon, Sying said. Look at the base of the column and observe the crack. Through that hole the demon-god will eventually draw enough power to free himself.

  Axel flashed his light around until they found what he was talking about, a hairline crack that ran under the column. Axel crouched down and pressed his fingers to it.

  "Through that?" Axel asked.

  That's all he needs.

  Carol blew out her breath. "That means we have n
o choice."

  "You have a choice," Axel said, getting to his feet. "You can move to Australia."

  "I'm not leaving San Francisco. Why should I? My life is here, and I'm not letting some demon-god push me out. I fought hard for what I have."

  "True, but this isn't a business organization trying to topple your empire. It's a demon. A very powerful one."

  Carol massaged the bridge of her nose, the cold and damp giving her a headache. "I know, but he's trapped, and he'll do anything to escape. I have a feeling Australia won't be far enough away if he does. What we have to concentrate on is what we'll do with him once he's out."

  Kill him, Sying said.

  "Do you have that kind of power?" Carol asked him. "If you did, he'd be dead already."

  You have the power. You are strong. How many dragons can you command now?

  "I have no idea. I only had Seth, and that wasn't on purpose. When I practiced calling the others, it was one at a time."

  A note of despair entered his voice. Li Mei, you must summon all the dragons you can. We cannot rid ourselves of this demon-god unless you do. It took five dragons to put him in here.

  "Seth told me he helped you, but he doesn't remember now how he did it."

  That is so. This is what you must do, Li Mei. You must take the dragons and concentrate their power with yours to one point, so much so that they forget all about their own wills. It is a power so intense�you will never feel anything like it.

  "Almost like hypnotizing them," Axel said. "So they don't know what they're doing."

  A very perceptive little god, Sying said. The dragons were on the whole easy to manipulate, except the fire dragon. He was always willful. I admire you for taming him as much as you did.

  Carol felt a dart of glee that Seth had not been as obedient to Sying as Sying would have liked. Seth had still been wild at heart.

  "That's why he remembers some of it, if only vaguely," she realized.

  Yes, when you call him again perhaps between the two of us, we can quell him.

  Axel gave the column a look of disgust.

  Carol wondered whether, if she had lived in Sying's day and age, she would have been as arrogant and greedy for power over the dragons as he was. Then again, Carol thought, she had already shown such a desire for power, though she had channeled it in a different direction. The staff of her restaurants always scrambled about worriedly when she walked in the door.

  "If I ask any dragons to help, it will be because they want to," Carol said. "I want to know what we need to do first, so I can explain it to them."

  Sying's thoughts were stunned and uncomprehending. Axel chuckled. "She's a New Age kind of Dragon Master. Sensitive and sweet."

  Carol frowned at him. "You're not helping. And I've been meaning to ask you�how would a person banish or kill a god?"

  * * *

  Chapter Twenty

  "Not exactly information I want made public," Axel growled. He busied himself playing the flashlight around the column and wouldn't look at her. "I'm a god, too, you know."

  "But he's a demon," Carol pointed out. "I thought you weren't."

  "It's not the demon part of him that's the same as me, it's the god part." Axel fixed his flashlight on Carol as he spoke, the light blinding her so she couldn't see his face. "I'm not a lightning-and-thunderbolts, destroy-the-world kind of god, and I wouldn't want to be. But I'm still a god, which puts me on a certain plane of existence with different rules from humans and dragons. He's a demon, sure, but he's a demon-god, a being of power and destruction which makes him more like me than I'm comfortable with. You see? So I tell you how to get rid of him, I'm giving you a way to get rid of me. You're a powerful Dragon Master�what couldn't you do with that knowledge?"

  "You're my friend," Carol said. "I'm grateful to you for all you've done for me and my family and friends. Does that count for anything?"

  "But I've seen what the power inside you can do. And what about him?" Axel flicked the light to the column.

  "If I'm as powerful as everyone thinks, maybe I can make him forget. I can make everyone forget."

  You do have that power, Li Mei, Sying said somewhat wistfully.

  "And who will make you forget?" Axel asked her.

  Carol gave him a smile reserved for recalcitrant investors. "You'll just have to trust me."

  Dragonspace was vast and beautiful. Seth absorbed its beauty with all his senses as he soared over open terrain. His territory stretched for leagues in all directions, everything his as far as he could see. Jagged mountains creased the horizon, separating black and gold desert from bright blue sky.

  He rode the thermals, wings stretched, his freedom sweet. A hawk split the sky not far from him, a predator like himself, searching the ground for a meal.

  Seth had flown almost nonstop since he'd arrived. He caught himself searching for something, but he didn't exactly know what. Dragonspace was vast, beautiful, and empty.

  It took him a long time to realize that the emptiness was inside himself.

  He'd been bound to the one called Carol for ten days as humans calculated time, and he'd grown used to it. He had to expect it would take a while to become unused to it.

  He'd never learned her true name. He'd come very close to it, hearing the beginning notes that spun around Carol and her nickname Li Mei.

  Seth didn't know it now, and he found himself wishing he could at least remember the music of it. Things he'd experienced with her were fading, memories drifting from him like sands stirred by desert winds.

  He flew back to his cave hidden behind a slit in a rocky cliff and blew his fire across the bed of gemstones. He had the power to make them come alive�rubies, emeralds, and sapphires, liquid with fire, melding into the mountain and singing in jangling melody.

  He hadn't had a chance to show this to Carol.

  The dragon in him writhed and twisted over the vibrating stones. She'd been his keeper, tethering him like a beast, winding his name around him like a brutal chain.

  And yet her eyes had gone so soft whenever she'd said, "I'll find a way to let you go. I promise."

  Her body had been warm and smooth to his human fingers, and he'd liked nothing better than to lick her skin and touch her. She'd been salty and spicy, and he'd never tasted anything better than the honey between her legs.

  The sky outside rent, and something invaded his territory with a rush of air.

  Seth dove from the ledge and soared across the valley, dipping to scan the two tiny people who stood watching him on the desert floor. One had a strange dark aura that was neither dragon nor human, and one was so bright it was as if she were made of flame.

  Dragon Master.

  His dragon instinct shouted at him to kill her. All he had to do was swoop down and crush her or flame her alive. She'd be dead in an instant.

  She stood looking up at him, not calling, not sending her thoughts to his, not attempting to sing his name. The darker one stood next to her tensely, Seth landed a few yards from them, his body sending dust and creosote spewing upward. The dark one sneezed.

  Seth caught the woman's scent. She smelled like flowers in the rain, always fresh. The sun caught in the black satin of her hair, making it shine.

  Seth moved closer and lowered his head to study her. He inhaled, cocking his head, alert for any attempt to snare him.

  The woman very slowly reached out and touched the scales below his eyes.

  "I don't know if you can understand me," she said, voice unsteady. "But I thought I should inform you that you're going to be a father."

  The red dragon blinked the great black eye he'd fixed on Carol and didn't respond. She couldn't even tell if he registered her words.

  The Seth she knew had gone, if he ever existed. He might have been the product of his enslavement, a being made human the way Carol wanted him to be.

  You can have him again, the Dragon Master inside her whispered. Call his name, and he's yours.

  As if sensing the voice, the dragon
's lips curled back from massive teeth. He raised his head.

  "Carol."Axel said.

  "Not yet. Please, let me try a little longer."

  At the sound of her name, the dragon lowered his head again, sliding sideways to stare at her with one eye.

  "He doesn't remember you," Axel said quietly.

  Carol's throat tightened. She'd fallen in love with Seth, the man who'd taught her to put aside the details of life and let herself feel joy.

  "Offspring," she said, remembering the words Seth and Caleb had used to discuss children. "Mine and yours." She put her hand over her abdomen. "I guess a fire dragon is magical enough to mate with a human woman, because it worked."

  His claw stirred on the ground, wings rustling.

  "He's not hearing you. We're going."

  Tears filled Carol's eyes. She leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss to Seth's scales, then reached for Axel's hand.

  Carol.

  The word whispered through her mind, but his voice was subdued as though he wasn't certain of the meaning of the name.

  "I love you, Seth," Carol said. "I always will."

  In a rush, he turned to a string of fire and whooshed around her. Axel jumped back, cursing.

  Carol.

  She felt herself rising, Seth's fire surrounding her. Axel was still cursing, and suddenly the ground and Axel dropped away, a dragon talon solidifying to hold her.

  Seth swooped with her across the valley and straight up the side of a cliff. Turning to fire again, he streamed through a crack in the surface and set her upright in a cave that spun with light. Seth landed beside her in his huge dragon form, his black eyes throwing back spangles from the gems around him.

  The dragon bumped Carol with his nose. His music spun in her head, filling her with fierce, joyous notes.

  Mate, he said.

  Carol heard a sharp, buzzing sound, and a strange creature on batlike wings hurtled in and landed beside her. She just had time to register the lion's head and long snout with teeth when it popped back into the shape of Axel.

  Seth snarled and bared his teeth, but Axel shook his head. "Nope, not leaving my friend. I'm her bodyguard."