by Bianca D’Arc
“I—I…” Jiffrey stuttered, falling into the chair next to his fighting partner, rubbing his head. “Can it be that we…?” He turned to look at Benrik, his face growing even paler. “Sweet Mother of All. What have we done?”
“It’s more what you failed to do,” Prince Nico said.
The princess was still engaged in coiling the magical fire around the room, though both Mace and Drake had pulled their fire back. Riki, it seemed, was doing a more thorough examination of everyone present, sending her blue-green flames out into the crowd, and even out the door, into other parts of the Lair. Gowan realized she must be quite the mage to be able to power her spells all around the Lair.
“Gowan, the dragons,” Genlitha warned him a moment before both Tiluk and Anira collapsed, their long necks twitching as they seemed to lose consciousness in some sort of fit.
Drake and Mace raced around the high table, one on each side, moving swiftly to the fallen dragons’ sides. Drake took the female, Anira, while Mace concentrated his mage fire on Tiluk. Krysta stood watch over Drake’s shoulder and motioned for Gowan to do the same for Mace.
“What’s happening to them?” Gowan sent to Genlita.
“The mage fire is holding them here. The spells it dissolved were deep-seated and connected to their own magical core. How else could they be so corrupted? That’s all I can think of, and frankly, it scares me, Gowan. It scares me to my bones that a dragon could be so overcome by an evil spell. We have built-in protections against such things. That someone, somewhere, has found a way to override our basic natures… It doesn’t bear thinking about.”
Gowan had never heard that note of sheer shocked terror in his partner’s words before. If whatever this was had Genlitha this upset, it was something really awful.
“When you say, holding them here… Do you mean to say they are dying?”
“The evil spells that wrapped them in confusion and treachery must have drained them. When they were broken by the firedrakes, it left them open. Magically bleeding. Drained of magic, which to a dragon, means drained of life. The firedrakes are working now to help restore some of the balance, but it will be a long road to recovery…if they make it.”
Gowan was stunned. This was much worse than they’d thought. It wasn’t just laziness or old age that had made the leadership of the Lair shirk their duty. It was evil. Something outside had taken control of them all and made them do things they otherwise would not have done.
If such was the case, they were to be pitied, now that they were free of the taint.
Jiffrey was weeping, his hand clinging to his fighting partner’s arm. Benrik had struggled back to consciousness, but was staring at his dragon partner, the most heartbroken expression on his face that Gowan had ever seen.
Gowan took stock of the hall, evaluating possible threats. Several of the older knights were sitting hard in their chairs, looking as stunned as those at the high table. They would have to be examined once the immediate crisis had passed. But what about their dragons?
“Gen, can you tell if any other dragons have been struck down like these two?” Gowan asked her quickly.
“A few, but none as bad as these. The princess moderated her magic when she saw what was happening here. Her mage fire is holding them in place, not stripping them all at once of the evil taint. There will be much work to do here for her and the firedrakes, and it will take a long time for this Lair to heal. If it can heal at all. This is terrible, Gowan. Truly terrible.”
The next hours were spent going from chamber to chamber within the Lair in the company of the two firedrakes. Gowan hadn’t known what a firedrake was before today, but it seemed to have something to do with the ability to handle magical flame and root out evil spells. Both Drake and Mace were human firedrakes, apparently, and their dragon partners were able to help stabilize some of the bespelled dragons around the Lair.
One by one, they cleared the evil from each of the residents of the Lair that were affected. As they worked, Gowan tried to piece together a pattern in his mind based on who was affected. Most of the older knights were tainted, except for Seth’s parents, thank the stars. Once Gerard and Paton had been cleared by the firedrake magic, they and their dragon partners, Randor and Alirya, were put to work helping their comrades who were weakened by the loss of the evil magic that had surrounded them for who knows how long.
It was a long, long day. The affected were moved to the dining hall, which had been set up as a makeshift hospital. The Lair’s elderly healer, Bronwyn, had taken over the kitchen and was helping brew restorative broths for everyone and ordering special meals for the dragons who’d been afflicted. Seth could have been of great help here, but of course, he was still on Gryphon Isle. Paton pulled Gowan aside for a quick word, asking him to tell Seth that all was well with his family and they were very proud of him. Gowan was only too happy to agree to deliver the message.
Gowan realized, about that time, that he actually missed Seth. He’d become so used to working with him as his partner. They fit together comfortably, their skills complementing each other’s perfectly. Seth would have been a huge help here, both to Bronwyn and those she’d drafted to help her with basic healing and to shore up the fighting reserves. With so many senior knights down, the Lair was incredibly vulnerable.
Of course, there were two royal black dragons in residence, and it didn’t look like either Nico or Riki were going to be leaving anytime soon. Riki was doing her best to help heal those who had been laid low while Nico took on the running of the Lair, handling the administrative details that had fallen by the wayside under the previous leaders. He sent dispatches back to his brother, the king, in the capital and had pulled Gowan aside to ask about going back to Gryphon Isle as soon as Genlitha was rested enough to make the flight.
Gowan knew Nico would have gone himself to speak with Gryffid, but the situation at the Lair was dire. Instead, Nico prepared a series of messages for the wizard, which he entrusted to Gowan.
“I’m sorry to send you and Genlitha out right away like this, but it’s imperative we open lines of communication with Gryffid as quickly as possible,” a harried Nico told Gowan after summoning him to the messy office the previous leaders had used. “Thank the stars you and your friends took it upon yourselves to do the right thing. The problem here is much worse than any of us could have expected.” Nico looked grim as he sorted through scrolls, looking for another blank one. When he found it, he began to write rapidly.
Gowan felt relief, on one hand, that he and his small group of mutineers wouldn’t be in trouble with the crown for taking the actions they had. On the other, he lamented the seriously bad things that had happened to the leadership and key knights and dragons here that had required Gowan and company to mutiny in the first place. But at least things were being fixed now.
Genlitha wasn’t optimistic about a quick reversal of the damage here, but at least she believed it could be fixed. In time.
“You can tell Gryffid that I’m going to install Drake, Mace, Jenet and Nellin as the leaders here for the time being. We need a strong Lair here, and I believe they are the least susceptible to the kind of magic that was used to corrupt the previous leadership. I expect they’ll fly over when time allows, but it won’t be right away. If Gryffid is willing to show them more of his magic tricks, that would be very welcome.” Nico talked even as he wrote the latest missive, signing his name with a flourish before he put the scroll aside to be sealed later.
Gowan realized he could help. “Sire, I’m not much of a clerk, but I’d be happy to help seal those for you, if you’re in a hurry.”
Nico looked up at him, gratitude in his eyes. “Dig in, Gowan. I can use all the help I can get right now.”
Nico made room behind the standing table, leaving space for Gowan to do the final touches on the scrolls he’d written and signed. The prince gave Gowan his signet ring as soon as he’d lit the special opaque red candle that would provide the official wax to seal the scrolls. The signet
was heavy and carried the prince’s personal sigil that would indicate to any who saw the seal that it had come directly from the hand of the prince himself.
It was only a few hours later when Genlitha took to the sky, Gowan on her back, his satchel filled with sealed scrolls, his head still reeling from the unexpected problems of the day. Working side by side with the Prince of Spies all afternoon had taught him a thing or two about the state of the kingdom. Not only was the fighting in the North intensifying, but Nico had already sent word through his spy network to seek Fisk and any who might deal with the pirate.
In addition, Prince Nico granted Gryffid’s request to assign Xanderanth and Leo as ambassadors, messengers or in whatever other capacity Gryffid needed them. In fact, Nico offered the wizard any knights or dragons he wanted. All he had to do was say the word. In essence, Nico was giving Gryffid carte blanche with the personnel of the Lair. The trust the Prince of Spies—and therefore the crown—had in the wizard was greater than Gowan had believed.
Nico was also requesting a gryphon representative, or pair of representatives, to act in the same capacity at the Lair. Nico left it up to Gryffid and his folk as to who they sent and in what numbers, but he’d given a more or less open invitation to gryphons and their fey fighting partners to join the ranks of the Southern Lair.
Gowan was grateful to be away from the chaos, but worried about how things would settle out in the Lair. Still, he would rather be heading for the people he’d left behind on Gryphon Isle. He wanted to be certain Livia, Seth and Hrardorr were safe and well. Only then would Gowan’s heart be content.
*
Seth had spent part of the day down at the beach with the sea dragons. Livia had accompanied him, but she’d gone off with Flurrthith, who had flown down to the beach with his mother to say hello. It was good to see the young gryphon safe and happy with his family. He’d taken a moment to speak with Seth, as well, thanking him for coming back to the island to help. Seth had spent a few minutes assuring the young gryphon that he’d done a heroic deed in flying to the mainland all alone to seek aid from the dragons and knights, giving the gryphon full credit for his actions.
Seeing the half-sized gryphon flying alongside his mother, though, really brought home how young Flurrthith still was. He would grow into an amazing being, Seth knew, and he hoped their paths would cross again in the future, on much more pleasant terms. Seth rather liked the idea of having a gryphon as a friend.
Hrardorr was truly in his element underwater with the sea dragons. He’d confided to Seth that the sea dragons were teaching him quite a bit about swimming while he tried to share his knowledge of patrol formations and strategies. It was an equal exchange, Hrardorr insisted, and it made the blind dragon’s emotional state almost buoyant. Unlike the Hrardorr Seth had come to know at the Lair.
The thought cheered Seth, but also worried him. Would Hrardorr want to stay with the sea dragons when this was all over? Would he go back to the Lair? And if he didn’t, how would Seth survive losing his friendship?
Seth realized he was deeply attached to the dragon. Way more than he should be. But there’d been no way to stop the bond forming between Seth’s heart and the dragon who had needed someone in his corner so badly. Seth admitted—if only to himself—that he loved Hrardorr like a brother, and his life would be incomplete without Hrardorr in it.
He inwardly cursed himself for allowing it to happen, but he really couldn’t see how he could have avoided it. Hrardorr was such a great dragon. So full of contradictions and so in need of friendship, even though he claimed to not need anyone or anything.
While Seth was happy Hrardorr had found some friends among the sea dragons, Seth couldn’t help but hope that the blind dragon wouldn’t want to stay. Seth wanted him to come back to the Lair. Seth knew he was being selfish to think it, but he couldn’t help himself.
After a full day on the beach, they made their way back to the Lair to consult with Gryffid. A thorough search had been made of the keep, turning out each and every person in the massive structure, room by room, until it was completely empty of life except for the lone wizard. Gryffid had then done some kind of magical spell that put a sort of glowing barrier around every entrance and exit, every window and chimney. Nothing could enter the keep again without first passing through the barrier.
Seth and Livia had to pass through it on their return, and Seth felt firsthand what it did.
It was hard to describe the feeling exactly, but it was as if, for that split second that it took to cross the glowing threshold, Seth was being examined by whatever magical intelligence ran the spell. He was being weighed and measured, considered and judged.
Having apparently passed muster, he was allowed into the keep. Seth supposed that if someone tried to pass through who was not what they pretended to be, the barrier would react quite differently, but nobody was saying exactly what would happen. He supposed they’d find out if and when it happened.
So far, though, only the one traitor had been unmasked.
Captain Lilith came into the great hall as Seth and Livia said down to dinner. The Captain of the Guard joined them and, surprisingly, filled them in on what she’d so far learned about the traitor who had been impersonating her.
Captain Gerrow, Lilith’s mate and co-captain, was continuing the interrogation, she told them, but they had already learned a great deal from the prisoner. Meg, it turned out, had been Captain’s Fisk’s lover. She had roamed the lands after leaving on her journeyman trip to the mainland, in disguise, hiding her fey nature. But about a year ago, she had run into Captain Fisk and become enamored of the man.
Gryffid suspected—or so Lilith told them—that Meg had been struck down by a simple love potion. Magical charms to coax one to love another were commonplace, and some were more powerful than anyone of Seth’s acquaintance realized. Gryffid had examined the prisoner thoroughly, checking for further signs of magical tampering. He’d found traces of a simple love charm that had run amok, as Lilith put it, and a dreadful compulsion that had made Meg act out of character and do things she otherwise never would have.
Meg was full of contrition at the moment, her moods swinging between sobbing and begging forgiveness, and anger and shame. The anger was directed at Fisk, which was a healthy reaction as far as Seth was concerned, but the shame could become a problem for the woman, if handled incorrectly.
If Meg had been an unwilling pawn in Captain Fisk’s game, then Seth wished her well in recovering. If, however, she proved to have been willing, then she deserved whatever was coming to her. So far, though, it looked like she had been completely duped and was genuinely contrite.
It was sad, really. All that evil perpetrated by someone who’d had no real desire to do any of it. She’d hurt her homeland, her family, herself and, potentially, the entire world, just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time and coming under the influence of someone truly evil.
The more Seth learned of Captain Fisk, the more he realized the man must be motivated by something very strong, indeed. The rumors about him being in cahoots with a demon might not be too far off the mark, after all.
“Apparently, Fisk promised to take Meg with him, but instead, he kept leaving her behind. That’s when she started trading to make her way. Her bardic gift was blocked, somehow, by the binding magic Fisk used on her, and she had been given instructions under compulsion to become a recluse trader of oddities. In this way,” Captain Lilith told them, “Meg passed information and gathered intelligence vital to Fisk’s plans.”
“That’s incredibly devious,” Livia said as they all shared a glass of wine after dinner, still seated around their table in the great hall.
“Incredibly clever, as well,” Lilith said, surprising him. “She was able to gain access to places and people that Fisk never would have been able to compromise otherwise. He had her whore for him, when there was no other way to get the information he wanted.” Lilith sighed and cursed under her breath. “It’s going to be hard for h
er to recover from this, if she even can.”
“I hope for her sake, she does,” Livia said quietly.
That was his Livia, with her heart as big as the world.
“Once Fisk has magicked her into loving him, she would do anything he asked. Thankfully, Gryffid has released her from the compulsion, and she is filled with remorse.”
“What about the way she was able to impersonate you?” Livia asked. “And those other faces we saw when Gryffid did that spell reversal thing on her in the upstairs hallway? That had to be some other kind of magic, right?”
“Oh, to be sure,” Lilith agreed. “Gryffid isn’t saying too much about it, which worries me in some respects. He’s often very straightforward with us, since he’s always told us he believes we need to know as much about what we’re dealing with as we can, in order to protect the island and its inhabitants to the best of our ability. This time, though, he’s playing his cards very close to his vest. To me, that indicates something deeper—something more than a simple love spell turned ugly. That kind of chameleon magic hasn’t been seen in these lands for centuries. I’ve only heard stories about such things, from the oldest legends. Frankly, I didn’t really believe it was true that someone could take on the appearance of another person entirely, but now, we have seen it for ourselves.”
The silence that followed Lilith’s troubling words was tinged with weary worry. They’d all been through a lot the past few days, and things still hadn’t settled down. Every time Seth thought they were due for some peace and quiet, something else popped up.
Speaking of which, Seth had to blink a few times upon seeing a light blue dragon and a weary looking warrior enter the great hall.
Seth shot to his feet. Genlitha and Gowan had returned.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
