The Dragon Master

by Allyson James

  Seth was so bound to her that when he closed his eyes, he could dimly see Caleb and Malcolm standing a few feet apart, hands joined, while fire and silver light twined around them.

  The four of them together directed a stream of pure power into the column, which glowed as though lit from inside. The tiny crack at the base widened, then with a popping noise, bits of the column began to break away.

  Seth groaned out loud. Zhen in the back seat sucked his breath between his teeth. "They have opened it?"

  Seth nodded. He saw the faint outline of a man against the brightness, then the man fell forward to the floor and lay unmoving.

  Behind him rose a being of darkness. Black tendrils whipped toward Carol and the dragons, ready to kill. But the tendrils pulled away in frustration when they encountered a barrier in front of Carol. Seth felt confusion, then fury.

  He opened his eyes. Shaiming was slowing to a stop at a red traffic light. "Can't you go faster?" Seth demanded.

  Shaiming motioned helplessly to the line of cars ahead of him. The light turned green and Shaiming gently slid the car forward again.

  Seth had never felt more powerless in his existence. His fire was gone, and he was stuck in a tiny car with three small elderly people heading toward danger at a snail's pace. Meanwhile, when he closed his eyes, he saw the demon-god grow until his blackness filled almost every space in the room.

  Shaiming did try to drive a little faster once traffic thinned, and finally, he pulled around the corner to the street where the small warehouse sat.

  "Stop," Seth hissed.

  The street and small lot in front of the building were filled with men. Most of them had weapons, all of them faced the building with gleeful expressions.

  "We need to find another way," Seth said to Shaiming.

  Shaiming lost no time reversing the car and steering it back around the corner. Half a block down he turned into a narrow, inky black alley. The headlights sliced across garbage, filth, and bits that had fallen from the buildings around them.

  When Shaiming couldn't get past a large pile of trash, Seth leapt from the car and ran the rest of the way on foot. He heard an argument in Cantonese start behind him.

  The entrance to the building he wanted was locked, but before he could despair, he saw that the hinges had rusted through. He pulled the door out of the frame, leaned it against the wall, and quietly ducked inside.

  The room was empty, but light and dark flickered from the hole in the corner, the battle commencing below. He ran to the opening in the floor and looked down.

  The demon-god had grown, its body so dense that it had crushed the remains of the column. It took up most of the basement, with Caleb and Malcolm. Lisa and Carol, wedged into a corner by what was left of the stairs.

  Near them Axel and Saba crouched, drawing runes on the floor and chanting something in unison. A half circle of glittering stones separated the six of them from the demon-god, and Seth could see wards of protection shimmering above them. They'd dragged Sying the Dragon Master inside the stones, where he lay still, though Seth saw the rise and fall of his chest.

  Seth sensed the three dragons and Carol building toward a climax, their energy pouring through each other and pooling into Carol as the focus.

  A strong collective will, she'd said.

  She was channeling that collective will toward the demon-god, trying to create a crack in the universe that would suck the demon-god inside. That's why Carol wanted the silver dragon, the magical being who could open doors between worlds wherever she wanted.

  The gold and black dragons were there for strength and extra magic. But Caleb and Malcolm were limited in their human forms, and so Carol wouldn't even have the power that the Dragon Master had originally called to imprison the demon-god in the column.

  Axel could help, but he and Saba were trying to work the spell that Carol would use to seal the demon-god in as well as the wards to keep the demon-god at bay.

  Seth could feel the drag of his fire wanting to break from Carol and return to him. But he couldn't pull it from her now, or the demon-god would break free and slaughter them all.

  A sacrifice, Carol had said. A death? In this room, the weakest one was Saba, who had magic but not as powerful as that of Axel or Carol or Lisa. Or the sacrifice might be the Dragon Master, who lay exhausted and limp on the floor.

  Seth knew already that the fire Carol held wouldn't be enough. The two dragon-men's strength would eventually wane and drag on her. The silver dragon had a lot of power, but it was fire that would close the rift to the hell dimensions that the silver opened.

  They'd soon have to contend with the Order, too. Seth heard the men outside approach. Before they opened the front door, Seth swung his body through the hole to the basement, held on to the edges, and dropped to the floor.

  The Dragon Master sat up when he heard Seth, but the others were too involved in their tasks to notice.

  "Fire dragon," the Dragon Master hissed, his eyes glittering in joy. He lifted his hand and sang the first notes of Seth's name.

  Dark threads twisted around Seth's mind, but Carol's bright touch was still there, and Sying couldn't catch hold. But Carol felt the attempt and swung her attention to them.

  The fire swirled and became Carol. She was naked, her body upright and beautiful, her hair damp with sweat.

  She stared at Seth and the Dragon Master with wide eyes. "Seth, get out of here."

  The demon-god rose, arching over the protected half-circle.

  "You need all of my fire," Seth said in a hard voice. "You don't have enough. It has to be a complete joining."

  "He speaks true," Sying said.

  "You told me it would kill you," Carol protested.

  "It might. But didn't Axel say you needed a sacrifice? Maybe this is what he means."

  He felt Axel's gaze on him, but the Baku didn't stop his chant.

  "I was trying to save you from that." Carol's eyes were wet with tears.

  "I know. You try to save everyone, but this time save yourself."

  The notes of his name lose like chimes in a fierce wind. "I'll send you away. Don't think I won't."

  "That thing is out, the spell has started, and the Order is trying to breach the wards. They have guns, they'll shoot everything moving down here to save their master. You need to finish. Now."

  "And you need to stop wasting time arguing about it," Malcolm snarled, opening his eyes. The orbs of them glowed silver. "He's right, we need more power. Let him go for it."

  Seth shucked his coat and came to her. Lisa's silver lights swarmed over everything, and Seth felt a hot tingle on his body as they encompassed him. He slid his arms around Carol's waist and gently kissed her.

  "Let me."

  Tears wet her cheeks. "I don't want to lose you."

  "Keep singing my name." Seth told her. "And I'll always be part of you."

  The golden dragon swung to them, his eyes molten blue. "We have to do this now."

  Seth pressed his face to Carol's neck, inhaling her sweet scent for the last time. Then he touched the fire that was in Carol and reached for the spark she'd left him. He felt the pain of it as they melded, pain that grew rapidly by the second.

  "I love you," he heard her whisper. I love you, too.

  They were one. Carol felt Seth become part of her, his fire and his name mixing with her very essence. The Dragon Master in her scooped it up, and strength she'd never felt in her life flowed through her.

  Then they were both fire, one being.

  They felt the wards upstairs suddenly fall away. Footsteps and shouts sounded overhead, then men were dropping in through the hole, guns in their hands.

  "No, you don't." Lisa the silver dragon whirled and stopped the barrage of bullets with a wave of magic.

  The men lowered their weapons, but they waited. If their demon-god won, they would be more powerful than anyone in this room. None would stop them.

  Lisa swung back to the swirling fire and focused her silver en
ergy on a point in midair. Axel's and Saba's chanting grew louder, and the fire fused with Lisa's magic to rip a hole in the air.

  The fire being caught the magic of the black and golden dragons, wrapped it with the silver dragon and themselves, and poured it into the hole. The opening began to drag the darkness toward it, but only a tiny bit.

  I can do this, Carol thought. She felt the beautiful melding of herself and Seth, a heady joy like an orgasm, but better. They were one, fires joined, and a tiny flicker of a new life inside her drove her on.

  The drag on the demon-god increased. He fought hard, grabbing the ceiling with huge claws and pulling part of it down. Axel dragged Saba and the Dragon Master closer to the other wall, and the men of the Order crouched there with them.

  Carol knew she was stronger than the demon-god. She had the power of dragons, she had the fire of the most powerful dragon of all, and she had the silver dragon, the most magical creature in the universe.

  Laughing, she pointed all their energy to the hole and the demon-god. "Go."

  The hole grew wider, until suddenly it exploded into a void, sucking the demon-god into it in its entirety.

  "Now," she screamed.

  She sang Seth's name as the other dragons backed away. The being of fire that was Carol and Seth formed around the edges of the hole. The demon-god battered at them, trying to get out, trying to reach the humans of his Order.

  The fire being swirled around the edges of the hole, burning brighter and brighter. Dimly Carol sensed everyone else in the basement scrambling for a way out, Lisa and Axel carrying them quickly up, the men of the Order screaming for help.

  The flames grew larger and brighter until they rivaled a small sun in incandescence. They burned their way inward, closing the hole a little at a time.

  The demon-god reached out, sending sticky black tendrils straight into the fire. He roared as he burned, but Carol felt the bond between her and Seth breaking.

  She sang Seth's name with all her might, and heard Seth's answering music. The fire whirled into a violent vortex, pulling the last of the edges of the hole in on itself. With a sudden bang, the edges came together, then the hole vanished completely.

  The fire dropped to the floor, a string of shooting flame, and then it burned out.

  Carol felt her body solidify, and the hard, dank basement floor under her. She hurt all over, and her skin stung like she'd been sunburned.

  She rolled over and saw Seth next to her. He lay flat on his back, the flame rolling out of his body to dissipate into black smoke. He looked at her once, then the last of his breath left his body in a gasp, and his eyes went blank.

  Carol screamed. She dragged Seth up to her, calling his name, both human and dragon, but he didn't respond.

  She was dimly aware that the basement hurriedly filled again, her friends returning, but she couldn't see them. She held Seth's bruised body against her own burned flesh, rocking him.

  He couldn't be dead. He couldn't have been the sacrifice. Axel had got it wrong.

  "Carol, honey." Axel crouched next to her, trying to wrap a blanket around her naked body.

  She clawed at him. "No, no, no. You're wrong."

  "Carol." It was Saba, her dark eyes tired, but her hand cool on Carol's skin. "Let Lisa have him."

  "No." She held onto Seth and sobbed into his red hair. "Don't take him away from me."

  "I have to." Lisa's chiming voice flowed around her, the silver lights touching Seth's body. "I'll get him back to Dragonspace, where he belongs."

  Carol couldn't let go of him. She continued to rock and sob, until Saba and Axel pried her hands away. Lisa flowed around Seth, lifted him toward a black rent that had appeared in the air, and then was gone.

  Carol fell facedown on the floor, incredible grief spearing her. The Order had taken her mother and her father from her and now they'd taken the only man she'd ever loved.

  She wanted them all dead�every man in the Order should be slain. The darkness that was the Dragon Master in her began to call the other dragons, telling them to rise up and kill them.

  "Stop her," she heard Malcolm grate. She wasn't sure who he was talking to, and she didn't care.

  She felt the blanket on her back again, and then Axel's voice saying things she didn't understand.

  Slowly the blackness eased away, and she found herself flat on the filthy basement floor, her face wet.

  * * *

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Carol sat at a table in Ming Ue's Dim Sum, staring sightlessly past the plate of ha gow that Shaiming had put in front of her. Shrimp dumplings were her favorite, but now the odor rising from them made her sick.

  "You have to eat something," Ming Ue said, thumping down in the seat next to her. "You have to think of the baby."

  Carol didn't answer. In the three days since Seth had died, she'd gone to the doctor, chivvied by Ming Ue, and discovered that she was indeed pregnant and also very healthy.

  Of course she was healthy�the dose of magic Seth had given her had made her physically stronger than ever. She picked up her chopsticks and moved the dumplings around the plate, but couldn't make herself eat one.

  Across the room, Zhen hovered around Sying, the Dragon Master, bringing him food and drink whenever the man waved his hand. The Dragon Master took this without embarrassment, and Carol realized that he was used to being waited on.

  Ming Ue had insisted they bring Sying home and nurse him back to health. Carol had the feeling that a few weeks with Ming Ue would change the man's imperious attitude.

  "Do not worry, Li Mei," Sying said around a mouthful of rice. "You can always call another fire dragon."

  Carol bit back a retort. She realized Sying was trying to comfort her, much the same way a person might say, You can always get another cat.

  "You brought him here in the first place," she said bitterly. "Why couldn't you leave him alone?"

  Sying blinked. "I wanted to get out of my prison."

  Carol opened her mouth for another rejoinder, but Ming Ue put her hand on Carol's arm and leaned to her.

  "He'll come to understand. We must show him respect. He is our ancestor, after all."

  Carol reflected that most people's ancestors were comfortably far away in oblivion, not sitting in the dining room eating their way through half a dim sum cart.

  Shaiming came quietly in and brought Carol more tea. She thanked him, trying but failing to smile.

  He patted her arm, and suddenly she thought of the many times he'd acted as her father, going to parent-teacher conferences with Ming Ue, holding her steady on her bicycle, or patting her arm as he did now when she was sad. Tears pricked her eyes.

  She realized that she'd never truly known Shaiming, whose voice got drowned out by hers and Ming Ue's. At the warehouse, when they'd emerged from the cellar, it had been to find men of the Order with their feet fixed to the floor and their weapons inexplicably stuck to the ceiling. Carol had been too shocked at the time to pay much attention, but Shaiming had been holding his hands palm upward, chanting something under his breath.

  When she'd gotten into his car for the long ride home, she'd looked at him curiously, and he'd nodded and smiled. "I, too, am a mage, Li Mei. It runs in the family."

  She looked up at him now, and to his surprise, caught him around the neck and gave him a kiss on the cheek. He shuffled away, looking pleased.

  The restaurant had closed for the evening, but the chimes on the door rang, echoing the slight music that touched Carol's mind whenever Lisa entered a room.

  "Lisa," Ming Ue sang. "And Caleb. You are welcome. Let me see those babies." She held her arms out for Severin and Li Na, who looked perfectly happy to be transferred to Ming Ue's care.

  Lisa came to Carol, leaned down and hugged her.

  "Please don't ask me how I am," Carol said before she could speak. "Everyone keeps asking me how I am."

  "I won't." Lisa sat down, and Caleb stood behind her, putting himself between Lisa and the Dragon Master. "B
ut I will ask you to look at your back."

  Carol didn't register the odd request at first, then she blinked. "Look at my back? What for?"

  "Humor me." Lisa reached behind Carol and tugged her blouse from her skirt.

  Carol pushed away from her, but pulled the blouse a little way up her back and showed the sliver to Lisa. "There. Are you happy? What is all this about?"

  Lisa put her finger on the waistband of Carol's skirt and eased it downward an inch. "There. I knew it would show up."

  "What are you talking about?" Carol craned her neck to look, then she gasped. A flame stretched across her hips, one trickle of it inching up the small of her back.

  "Carol," Ming Ue said in disapproval. "When did you get a tattoo?"

  "I didn't. It wasn't there this morning."

  It was Seth's tattoo, the same curls and licks of flame that had graced his beautiful skin.

  "I thought it might take a few days to manifest." Lisa looked pleased with herself. "He buried it deep."

  "He buried what deep? What are you talking about?"

  "His flame. He knew he couldn't survive the melding, so he buried the last of himself deep inside you. You're a Dragon Master�you can hold the essence of a dragon."

  Sying nodded as he lifted another dumpling in his chopsticks. "That is true."

  Carol's heart squeezed. "Don't do this to me, Lisa. I'm not in the mood to learn all about dragon magic and Dragon Masters�not yet."

  "No, this is a good thing." Lisa smiled again, taking on that look she got when the silver dragon had done something clever. "I need you to come with me to Dragonspace."

  "I'd rather not."

  Caleb turned around. "Lisa will insist, Carol. Let her take you, while I stay here and look after my children." He gave Sying a wary look.

  "I assure you," the Dragon Master said. "My powers are drained for now. I can't call a dragon of any kind."

  "I won't let him," Carol said. "I can do that much."

  Lisa got up and held out her hand. "Come with me. Please. I want to show you something."