Dragon Tender (Fae Unbound Teen Young Adult Fantasy Series Book 3)

by Jill Nojack

  "I apologize. I meant no offense."

  "I'll let it pass this time." Eamon leaned out as far as he could over the dragon's side to look down into the silo below him. "Och, not a lot of room in there, is there? Not a lot of places to land."

  Gurrdenn piped up behind him. "Kill elf." His hand rested on the hilt of his small, sheathed knife.

  "Right you are. I expect you're all ready to go then, are ye?" Eamon asked, looking behind him.

  The gnome grinned and nodded.

  "I'll try for Thomas on the next pass. I'd try for the globe, but I have no idea what the consequences might be of knocking it over. I'd ask where you plan to land, but I think I've guessed your target. I'll go on the first pass, then you follow me down when the dragon doubles back."

  Gurrdenn, who'd lowered himself by climbing down Avenall's long leg while Eamon gave him his instructions, looked down and saw Freoric beneath him. He didn't wait his turn. His chilling scream as he fell might have been a war cry.

  "Och, I hate gnomes! Get us over the top again quick as you can!"

  Avenall urged the dragon into a tight turn, and Eamon bailed out after patiently watching for his target to appear. He was all intensity now, prepared for a battle. He hoped it was one he could win.

  He neared his target, but the gnome's arrival had alerted the wizard below. His movement stopped in midair when Thomas caught him in a magical tractor beam emanating from the top of his upstretched hand. For a moment, Eamon felt the dread again. It was overpowering. He also felt the first scream of terror in his entire long life welling up inside him. Then Thomas brought his hand down, depositing him into the bubble with Tanji, who grabbed him and hugged him close. At least he wasn't going to scream. He disentangled himself quickly from Tanji's protective arms.

  She said, "Don't go back outside the bubble. We're only safe in here. I don't know how Gurrdenn can stand it."

  Eamon had forgotten about the gnome in his fright but looked across to the other side of the silo where the gnome clung to the elf's neck, biting into it. He lefted his head up once to take a breath and spit out a small piece of flesh. His face registered terror, but he didn't stop until the elf finally got a good grip on him and held him out at arm's length to have a look.

  Freoric laughed then. "I am impressed. You would make a fine assassin with training. I may even let you live."

  The sputtering gnome continued to kick and grab for him even as he dangled helplessly in the air. "Perhaps I'll keep you for a pet. You do amuse me."

  Eamon held Tanji back as she instinctively started toward the gnome. "Lassie, there's nothing we can do for him. Help me think—whatever Thomas is doing, we've got to stop it."

  "I don't know what he's doing. But I think he's almost done with it. You can tell he barely even knows anyone else is here now."

  Eamon turned his attention to Thomas's face and saw that Tanji was right—he looked transfixed. You could see the magic flowing across his skin as he chanted and moved his hands across the globe that contained the shifting, living swirls of magic formed by the concentrated essence of the wisps. The surface of the globe began to roil. Peaks of magical energy exploded up toward the sky and then abated. Thomas chanted louder then, but his words were unintelligible. It was a language older than even the old tongue, and Eamon didn't know it. Thomas shouldn't have known it, either.

  If Thomas had tapped the ancient magics, there would be nothing to stop him.

  Eamon tried to dash across the room to the globe, but he only got two steps along before he shriveled into himself in fear and had to turn back.

  When he'd recovered, he hung his head into his hands. "It's no good. There's not a single thing I can think of. All we can do is watch."

  ***

  Thomas was barely aware of his surroundings when he lowered the gruagach into the bubble to be with Tanji. He was acting on pure instinct now, the magic having taken control of his actions. His instinct knew that Tanji would not forgive him for taking the lives of these insignificant lower fae she called friends. It was this instinct alone that saved their lives. Thomas was busy elsewhere.

  Within the swirling shapes in the globe, he saw the fae's salvation. Human technology and weaponry—the guns and bombs that projected death at a distance—would be suppressed for all time. The lights of the cities would be extinguished, the vehicles would no longer outpace horses, the phones would all stop ringing. Only the forms of weapons that existed in the time before the life of the shadow realm would function. It was the next step in the evolution of the world, a world that had been ruled for too long by humans. And what had their rule brought? Cities of concrete and steel that sprawled out to destroy what once had been endless forest. Nature was the true source of power—the ancients knew it and respected it. Most of the humans had forgotten. But they would be reminded. It was what he'd tried to explain to Tanji, but she just kept telling him that he needed to stop what he was doing because no one would understand why he did it. No one would forgive him.

  But he knew they would. They would be happy when they again found their way.

  He was one with the magic now as it exploded upward. His heart sang with it: he was power, he was light, he was the magic itself. He had never felt so alive.

  He urged the swirling essence of the wisps to enter the sky and create the new earth they would guard: the lost spirits of magic would be his soldiers in the sky, forever vigilant and self-sustaining.

  He raised his head and his arms. He called up to the sky and the stream of magic followed his voice into the air, finally bursting above the top of the silo in a thin column and reaching up to the clouds where it began to disperse. It shaped itself at first in a mushroom cloud but soon thinned at the edges and transformed from glowing cloud to glowing mist. It spread quickly in all directions, dampening the light of the stars and rushing toward the horizon.

  Thomas watched, and there was nothing in all the world that could disturb him.

  ***

  Freoric tired of the gnome's antics, annoyed that while the gnome was slowing down, it hadn't yet succumbed to the spell fully and given in to unconsciousness. He flicked it across the room just as the column flared. It didn't stop kicking and yelling gnomish obscenities even when it disappeared into the column and shot skyward, caught in the updraft.

  ***

  When the blue column burst from the silo, Fein panicked, bolting backward in flight in a way Avenall hadn't known dragons could do. The bucking motion nearly cost him his mount for the second time that day, but he managed to hang on to the pommel and climb back to his seat when the dragon regained his composure. He turned his gaze to the column. It was the blue color of magic with the same swirling shapes as he'd seen inside the globe. And then, he saw something else, something more solid.

  It was...by the goblet of Bacchus, it was a gnome.

  He didn't stop to think what danger the column might present. He urged the dragon toward it, instructing him to fly close but not to touch it. He didn't know what would happen when he came in contact with it, but his mind was focused only on saving the gnome who had been his companion for so brief a time.

  As the dragon sped along the column, following the upward path of the shadowed shape of the gnome, Avenall held tight to the saddle with one hand and reached out into the bright beam of magic with the other. It stung like a thousand bees, but he didn't pull back until he had the gnome's leg firmly in his grasp. When he did, the gnome hung there lifeless.

  Avenall turned the dragon toward where the others waited, hoping James had just a little more healing magic left.

  CHAPTERTHIRTY-TWO

  Darkening Sky

  Lizbet held her breath as she watched Avenall lean out toward the column and reach in to save the gnome. When he grabbed the upward hurtling body and pulled it from the column, she exhaled sharply with relief.

  The relief was real, but small: they hadn't stopped Thomas. Whatever this column meant, whatever this film spreading across the sky like an oil spil
l was going to do, it was going to happen.

  She moved closer to James, who held her tight. They could do nothing but watch as the stars dulled.

  Avenall brought the dragon down, leapt off quickly, and lay the silent gnome out on the ground for James to examine.

  James moved his hands over the gnome and said, "I think he's fine. No bleeding, no dark spots in there. I think the magic just knocked him out. He doesn't have any injuries."

  "Good," Lizbet said. "Good..." She looked to Avenall, "...and Tanji? And Eamon?"

  "I'm sorry, my queen, I don't know."

  She stood, waiting.

  It was all there was to do.

  As she waited, the glow of city lights beyond the trees disappeared. It was suddenly so dark where the column of light didn't reach.

  ***

  It felt like days but was only hours before the globe was empty and the sky full. Thomas lowered his hands but his skin still glowed faintly with his power. He turned to Tanji and said. "We'll be going soon. The journey won't be long. Freoric has a ship waiting for us. A proper sailing ship with a strong crew. We'll be in France before you know it."

  "I don't want to go to France. This is my home. I just want you to undo whatever you did and go away. Far away. I don't want anything to do with you."

  Freoric interrupted. "You can quarrel later. I demand proof now that this spell has done what you promised."

  "And you've got it. Right next to you. Pick up the torch. You know it was working an hour ago when you used it to rummage through your pack."

  Freoric flipped the switch on the flashlight and nothing happened. "Yes, as you say, this light shone an hour ago. And this—this was a functional weapon when I took it from its owner," he continued, reaching into a deep pocket and pulling out a pistol. "I know because he didn't like that I took it. I had to test it on him. Let us see if it is working now."

  Thomas didn't flinch as the hammer clicked down on the bullet. Nor was he surprised when nothing happened. "And now you have your proof. Let's go. Help me with these things." Thomas looked at the wall where the door had been, and the door appeared again. Then he turned to gather a duffle-bag and pack he'd previously stowed in the silo. "You'll need to run interference if Tanji's friends try to stop her leaving with me. We'll all make up someday, I'm sure, but for now I want them kept away without being harmed."

  As Thomas spoke, he was at first surprised, then angry that the elf grabbed him from behind, his arm tightening around his body. "Are you thick as well as disobedient? Don't you remember what I just did?" Thomas waved a hand, and a burst of magic meant to immobilize Freoric passed through him with no effect.

  Freoric pulled him even closer and then Thomas felt the sharp edge of the elf's long hunting knife under his ribcage. "And don't you remember you made a ward to prevent me being affected by magic?"

  The blade bit deep as Freoric thrust the point upward toward Thomas's heart. Thomas slumped downward. He looked up into the elves' eyes and asked, "Why?" as he slid downward.

  Freoric leaned down to whisper in his prey's ear as his life flowed away, "Why? The Abomination asks me why. But you have always known I was an assassin."

  Laughing, Freoric stood and used one foot to shove Thomas's body face down into the dirt. He cleaned his knife thoroughly before sheathing it again.

  ***

  The gnome woke up when the silo door opened to discharge Freoric with his pack and bow slung across his back. Freoric glanced at the humans, then walked purposefully and unhurriedly into the woods, leaving them behind. Gurrdenn bounded up and wobbled toward him on unsteady legs, still intent on revenging his friend and huddle-mate.

  "Gurrdenn, stop!" Lizbet called, but the gnome had already wandered far into the spelled zone. Still, he seemed to be gaining speed, not losing it. She turned to James, "Do you think..."

  "Only one way to find out." They both tore toward the silo with Avenall behind them.

  When they reached the door, James looked cautiously around the doorframe and his eyes met Tanji's where she sat on the ground, Thomas's head on her lap, and her hands covered with blood. Eamon stood next to her with a hand resting on her shoulder. "He wasn't all bad. He could have killed all of us, but he didn't," she said, as the tears streamed down her cheeks. "You know that James, he wasn't all bad..."

  He reached for Lizbet's hand behind him, and they walked into the silo together.

  Avenall spoke from the doorway after they'd gone inside to Tanji. "I'll locate Freoric. You must stay and comfort your friend." He left with the gnome trailing behind him. After Avenall mounted, he waited for Gurrdenn and stretched down a hand to boost him up. He would not refuse the company of a proven warrior on this search.

  They flew low across the forest in the direction Freoric had gone.

  ***

  James tried to start his car, but like all of their technology, it was dead. They left the useless car and walked toward town and the police station. Thomas was a human. His body was not the responsibility of the fae, and they would have to report his death. It was probably also a good idea to let the authorities know the electricity wouldn't be coming back on any time soon.

  Lizbet's supply of pixie dust was played out, so she couldn't carry any of them through the aether. No one said anything about it, but she could feel none of the others wanted to be alone either. The four friends walked along the side of the road together.

  The night was so dark without the glow of the streetlights or passing cars. There was no one on the streets. Lizbet figured most people would just assume it was a normal power outage like any other and go to bed early. Except in the morning, there would still be no power, and everything about their lives would be changed.

  With no flight paths over town, no planes would have fallen out of the sky here. But there would have been accidents as cars stalled and electrically assisted brakes suddenly needed an enormous push to work. Closer to the lake, planes would have come down with no way to land them safely. There would be ships stranded at sea with no way home. Hospitals with no source of power. Thomas might not have been all bad, but because of what he'd done, whether he was all bad or not didn't make a difference.

  "What do you think the media will call this one since Fae Day's already taken?" Tanji asked, still sniffling but trying to put on a brave face and not completely lose it.

  "What media?" replied Eamon. "They'd have to go house to house like town criers, ringing their little bells."

  "The Faepocalypse?" said Lizbet. "Trendy and catchy."

  James threw his arm around her shoulder and gave her a hug. "Yeah, that's my queen." He pulled out his phone and said, "Anybody want to listen to some music?"

  "Sure, that'll work...oh wait, it won't." Lizbet took out her own dead phone and said, "Might as well not even carry this around anymore, right?"

  James took it from her and said, "Except we're fae. Sort of. We have a power source." As he held the phone in his hand, it started to glow and then the screen lit up, displaying the time and the lock screen.

  "Sure, as long as you keep feeding it magic."

  "No...I don't think we have to. I just filled it up, stored some like you'd store it in a battery. Like..."

  He set it on the ground, took his hand away from it, and it stayed lit. "I set it up so that it will run for a while, losing just a tiny bit of magic as it goes. You know how starweed, some of the other herbs, and lots of magical creatures can absorb magic? That even includes humans who can fiddle around with low levels of the stuff. Why can't we figure out something that does that—pulls the magic out of the atmosphere and feeds it back to power what electricity used to power? I mean, like on a big scale. A really big scale. I mean, isn't that what Thomas's globe was doing? This could work until we can figure how to undo whatever he's done."

  "I cannae believe there's really that much free magic floating about."

  "Sure, sure there is—what do you think the Tree of Life used to keep the shadow realm going? Magical creatures pull the
ir magic from somewhere. It's not like they're just born with what they're going to have, and if they use it up, it's gone. It's more about the size and shape of the reservoir. When Thomas filled me with wisps, he increased the amount of magic I could carry as a human from almost none to a lot. And when I use it, it isn't just gone. It's all around us. Every day. I just didn't think about it before because who needed to? That's something Thomas would have thought about..." James went silent for a moment as his throat suddenly tightened, making it difficult to speak normally. He took a deep breath to relax it and went on when he'd recovered. "He was the philosopher. I'm practical. But now that it's practical to think about it, I can see how some of this can be put right."

  Lizbet turned and said, "Your car! Let's try your car."

  The group hustled back to James's car, and he magiced up the battery. The lights turned on, the radio played white noise as loud as they liked, but the car still wouldn't start. James closed the hood and leaned on it heavily. "That should have worked. I put enough magic in there to power twelve cars. He did something else besides just turning off the electricity."

  James looked around, then walked swiftly to a telephone pole at the end of the road where a transformer hung grey and dark next to the electrical lines. He looked intently up at the transformer, then turned his palms toward it. A bright ball of magic slowly lifted up to the metal container, then buzzed slightly as it pushed up through the bottom of the housing. When it did, the streetlight closest to the transformer came on.

  Then, the streetlights slowly began to light up one after another. When the magic reached the row of houses, the lights within started to light, too. "See? The magic can flow just like electricity, although it'll stop after a while instead of just spreading out forever. But it will flow along the lines for a couple of miles, I think. It may last a week or two, and then it will need to be renewed.