by Leela Ash
The announcement was received like the plague. Muttered whispers spread round the encampment and the women began to draw back, several of them whipping out their wands and clutching them at their sides.
Kathy’s mouth fell open, but she didn’t move backwards; she stood her ground, staring at him with a mixture of awe, anger, disgust and fear.
“The real danger is the rift, sisters. As it widens, nothing will keep it from happening in our forest,” Klyana added. “We could all get yanked back to Alabad, body and soul.”
“He’s a scaly dragon,” Kathy spat, brimming with disgust and ignoring Klyana’s last words.
Drake glared at her, “Would it help if I told you I generally didn’t have scales? I’m a Greenhorn Waterboarder,” he told her.
His species had few scales but were the most deadly. He realized his mistake in revealing that when the gathered witches gasped as one.
“Don’t let him come close to you, Kathy,” one of the witches standing around yelled.
Kathy drew herself up to her full height, “I’m afraid we cannot help you Dragon. You’ve wasted a trip. Now please leave.”
He stared, feeling crushing disappointment slam into his chest. It was his turn to draw himself up to his full height as he glared at the enticing little minx, “You have no say in the matter. Klyana already agreed to help me and she is the leader of the Tribe.”
Kathy smiled at him, a genuine smile for once but somehow it sent a trickle of alarm down his spine. “Klyana may be leader of the Tribe, but I am the Tribe. I get a say.”
Klyana sighed, “She’s right.”
Drake frowned. What the hell did she mean she was the Tribe?
Klyana continued, “I am only their leader because they let me. I cannot decide for them. If they say we don’t help you, then we don’t help you. I’m sorry Dragon. Like Kathy said, you did waste a trip. Please find some other community of witches to help you.” With that final advice, she turned and disappeared into a small hut, leaning heavily on her cane.
The other witches dispersed too, leaving him standing with Kathy. She tossed her head, a glimmer of triumph in her eyes as she placed both hands onto her hips and cocked an eyebrow.
“Well? Weren’t you just leaving?”
Drake was furious. He grabbed both her shoulders and shook her. “You little fool. What have you done? Your mother had already agreed to save the world, to save us all, and you stopped her? Why? Because you loathe me? How could you be so petty?”
Her smile was cold and sarcastic as she wrenched his hands off her shoulders and blurted, “I haven’t bribed you yet, and here you are touching me.”
It took a moment for her meaning to slam into him. Gawd, she’d overheard part of his conversation with Klyana. That flash of movement he’d thought he saw had been her!
Now her anger made sense.
He sighed. Witches were still women, obviously with the attendant pride and vanity. “Look you misunderstood the context of—”
“I misunderstood nothing,” she interrupted coolly.
Drake stared in disbelief. She was genuinely hurt. How could he, whom she barely knew, have hurt her with his words?
“It’s almost nightfall,” she said looking around. “Our magical alarms go up in five minutes Dragon. I suggest you start flying out of here because if you’re here when they go up, you’re dead meat.”
Then she simply disappeared into thin air.
With a frustrated growl Drake looked around. All the witches had turned in for the night and left him standing here like a fool. He badly wanted to throw in the towel and head for Weirna right now but he knew doing that without a witch in tow was an admission that he had failed and they could all get ready to die.
He sighed. He couldn’t do that to Derek, Jack, Bo, Luke and Joshua. They were all counting on him.
He scrubbed a frustrated hand down his face again. He would wait outside the encampment. He didn’t believe that drivel about magical alarms and even if he did, he knew it couldn’t hurt him. He’d grown a lot in the past few months during his secret training and now he was almost immune to all witches’ magic.
But he wouldn’t reveal the nugget just yet, he decided. He had a feeling he would need all his wits about him and that extra edge to deal with Kathy Calder.
4.
The nightmare was more real this time; Nabradia appeared, her hands stretched out, clawing for Klyana’s throat just as always. But this time, her daughter Alcacia was right beside her, also trying to strangle her aunt.
Klyana screamed and jerked awake and to her horror, she saw the shadow form of Nabradia in her room. The witch was a faint apparition, as pretty and vivacious as ever, her face twisted in that familiar evil sneer she wore every time she saw her sister.
“What the hell?” she shouted.
“Hell is right,” Nabradia sneered.
Klyana sneered right back, “If you’re in form of a wraith then the rumors must be true. You’re dead.”
“Not for long,” Nabradia countered. “I don’t have my body anymore, which means I need a body to enjoy my second stay on earth,” she finished, looking meaningfully at Klyana.
Klyana glared at her sister with hatred, “I’d like to see you try to take over my body.”
Nabradia’s shadow grinned, “Alcacia will help me take over your body and then she can take over that … prodigy of yours. Together, we will rule this earth.”
“I would die before I would let you take over my body,” Klyana intoned wishing she had acceded Kathy’s request to let her install a magical alarm in her room.
“As you wish,” Nabradia agreed with a purely evil grin.
She raised her hand and pointed at Klyana. A stream of smoke erupted from the end of her finger and wrapped itself like a steel band around Klyana’s wrists. Klyana tried to scream but she couldn’t. Her voice had seized. She stared in mounting horror, her eyes wide as she watched her life being sapped from her inch by inch by the most dreaded curse Nabradia could only have wielded as a Wraith of Alabad. It was the Miseri Curse; spirits could use it to bring a living person to the brink of death and then take over their bodies totally forever.
Just as Klyana started to feel her spirit levitate from her body, someone crashed through her door. It was Drake and Kathy was on his heels, furious as she tried to stop him. They both skid to a halt when they saw what they had interrupted.
Klyana started to shout a warning but her voice was completely gone.
Drake roared with rage as he saw Nabradia’s wraith with Alcacia’s beside hers. His dragon fire erupted from his eyes, aimed straight at their shadow forms. Dawning horror and pain slashed across Nabradia’s face as she and Alcacia went up in flames.
The dying embers took their screams with it and Drake rushed toward Klyana, “Are you alright ma’am?”
Several witches were also arriving in the room, their voices loud as they chattered among themselves in excitement.
“Are you hurt?” Drake demanded again, worried by her silence.
Kathy snapped out of her frozen terror at Drake’s voice. She glared at him, “Get away from her.”
Klyana raised a hand, “It’s okay, child. He’s only here to help.”
Kathy reached Klyana and personally shoved Drake’s hands off her mentor’s arm. She turned Klyana’s arms over to examine for herself the twin red stripes Nabradia’s magic had left on the old woman’s wrists.
“Oh no. You’re hurt,” Kathy cried.
Klyana’s breaths were shaky as she raised a gentle hand to Kathy’s cheek. “Don’t be so harsh on him my child. He saved me.”
“Maybe. But he brought those creatures with him. The rift may have opened up in his own part of the world but not in ours. He brought those things with him,” Kathy declared, her eyes shooting raw anger in his direction.
Klyana’s gaze flicked to Drake but before he could say a word in his own defense, she interrupted, “He’s a dragon, yes. And by that definition, we count him a
n enemy. But Kathy dear, he saved my life just now. And he had nothing to do with Nabradia’s wraith showing up here. I think she came specifically to find the nearest community of witches, so she could inhabit one of us.”
Kathy was still a little unconvinced, “Then why did she choose you in particular?”
Klyana smiled wearily, “It’s no secret there was no love lost between me and my sister. She would harm me anyway she could. Always.”
Sister? The word reverberated through Drake like a canon blast and he stared in shock. Was this woman Nabradia’s biological sister?
She must have read his thoughts because she smiled at him, “Yes, biological. Centuries ago. It didn’t end well.”
Kathy sighed, “It’s still dark out, Klyana. Think you can get some rest before dawn?”
Klyana smiled, “Yes. I just need some of that turmeric paste for my wrists to help with the pain. And Kathy? Please put our guest in one of the empty huts. Bring him before me in the morning.”
He’d been elevated from the position of an unwelcome intruder to a guest, Drake noted in silence. His chances were vastly improving.
All the witches dispersed to their caves in silence, and Drake followed Kathy in silence. Animosity rolled off her in waves as she sauntered ahead of him, her long skirt swirling around her ankles, and her nose in the air as she held a lantern aloft to light their way.
She flung open the door of a hut with such force that the already weak door shattered and hung drunkenly on its hinges. She eyed the now-damaged door, peered inside at the dusty room and then turned to him with ill-concealed glee gleaming in her green eyes with the light of the lantern reflecting in them.
“Sleep tight,” she offered. “Do enjoy our hospitality and don’t let the bedbugs bite.”
He eyed the room which now had no door and sighed inwardly. The mischievous little witch…
“Whatever,” he grated morosely and strode away from the room, heading in an entirely different direction.
“Where the hell are you going to?” Kathy demanded.
“Back to where I was before the Nabradia drama. Keep your ‘hospitality’ for someone more desperate.”
“Wait,” she called after him.
He strode past the circles of huts, not looking back at her until he had disappeared entirely from sight, hidden by the trees.
Morning dawned fast and when Drake re-entered the clearing, his gaze was drawn to where Klyana was coming out from her hut, a small duffel bag clutched in one hand.
She stopped when she saw him, then looked around at the gathered witches.
“I have made a decision, sisters. The events of last night proved the veil has indeed been torn and every minute we spend here, thousands of dead, vengeful witches could also escape from Alabad and try to harm us. I must do this for us and for the rest of the world.”
“But we can’t trust him,” Kathy began.
“I can,” Klyana interjected.
A strange silence ensued and both women stared at each other. Something arched between them and then Kathy announced, “I’m coming with you.”
Drake glared, “No, you’re not.”
She ignored him. “Klyana, wait a second while I grab my own duffel.”
“Kathy, I need you to stay here,” Klyana intoned.
Klyana’s knees started to give way beneath her and Drake dashed forward and grabbed her in his arms. “Are you alright? Still suffering some ill effects from last night? You should take a seat.”
“You’re not a hundred percent, Klyana,” Kathy observed, the corners of her mouth turning down in a frowning sulk. “I’ll go in your stead.”
Klyana shook her head, “You’ll never be able to seal the rift without guidance.”
“Then it’s settled, you both come,” Drake interrupted, eager to be off.
Kathy eyed him. What sort of cold, unfeeling creature was he? All he wanted was to seal the rift and he didn’t care if Klyana keeled over, trying to get to the damned thing.
Something had changed imperceptibly between him and Kathy, Drake reflected, as he caught the look she shot him. But he wasn’t sure what. Where before she’d treated him with all the warmth reserved for an enemy spy, now she was looking at him as though she didn’t think it was possible for anyone to sink lower in her estimation than he had.
Unbidden, his gaze drifted to her soft-looking pink lips and a wayward thought crept into his brain; what would she do if he grabbed her and planted one on her?
Her eyes widened and she stared at him for a heartbeat as though she’d heard his thoughts. Then her eyes flicked away.
Klyana was watching both of them with interest, something indefinable glittering in her black eyes.
Then Kathy turned away and returned, scant seconds later, her own little bag clutched in her hands.
As the trio began to make their way out of the witches’ settlement, an elderly witch with a heaving bosom and arms the size of small tree trunks stepped forward to clasp Klyana’s frail hand.
“We support you Klyana,” she said. Then she flicked a mistrustful glance in Drake’s direction before adding in a much lower and more meaningful tone, “Be careful.”
Drake kept up a punishing pace as they walked the few yards from the witches’ settlement, his thoughts in a whirl. The fastest and smartest way to travel was to take his dragon form and fly them both to Weirna. But could he really trust two witches on his back? Especially when one of them was Kathy Calder?
He didn’t trust her one bit; she was mischievous, unpredictable, willful and stubborn as a mule.
“Time to break out the flying wings, Dragon,” Kathy said just as though she had read his mind. “We’re far enough away from the settlement that turning into your dragon form won’t upset the other witches.”
“He can’t fly Kathy, not until we’ve gotten in half a day’s worth of trekking,” Klyana decreed.
Drake shot her a startled look. “What the hell does that mean?”
Klyana offered a humorless grin, “I was afraid you might try to kidnap one of us during the night so along with the magical alarm, I hexed you to contain your flying abilities until high noon. You cannot fly until noon. So we walk.”
5.
Drake stared at her as though she had grown three heads.
His phone rang just then before he could say anything to the witch and he cursed at the loud noise. Loud noises in the jungle were never advisable because if enemies were anywhere close by it tended to give one away. He grumbled beneath his breath as he whipped the phone out of his back pocket. He would have put the damned thing on silent, except for the fact that he hadn’t expected to get any reception here.
Caller ID showed Derek’s name so he picked the call at once. “Hey man.”
“We have been so worried. Why the radio silence?” Derek barked down the line.
Drake rolled his eyes, managing to keep an eagle eye on the two women walking ahead of him.
“Be grateful you even got through this time. It’s a freaking jungle, so splotchy network is pretty much a given,” Drake drawled, amusement coloring his voice as he spoke to the man he had come to think of as an elder brother.
Derek sighed, “Well get back here. Things are getting worse in a hurry. Yesterday school kids came home frightened after a teacher suddenly seemed to have developed the peculiar ability to levitate. Then this morning, three ladies were found stashed in a shallow grave. Their necks had been bitten.”
“Vampires?” Drake demanded. He saw Kathy pause mid-stride, her head lifting a little; then she continued walking with Klyana.
“Of the worst sort. These ones drain every last drop of blood in their victims. I spoke with Vlad last night and he confirmed no vampire alive now can do that. He’d introduced some sort of implant in their bloods that gets them full after a few sips. So whatever vampire did this, certainly isn’t from this time.”
“Yeah, it’s gotta be an escapee from wherever vampires go,” Drake heard Luke mutter in the back
ground. “Coz Vlad has a tight rein on his people.”
“Hurry back, Drake,” Derek said.
“You got it,” Drake agreed. As he ended the call, he quickened his pace, leading the women faster and faster along the roughened trail.
Klyana paused when they reached the edge of a stream, her eyes shimmering with raw power.
Drake looked a question at her, and she shrugged, “Across that river lies the most dangerous path we could possibly tread on this journey.”
Drake quirked an eyebrow, amusement stamped onto his aquiline features. “And how would you know that if you’ve never been to Weirna?”
“The Halsanas are a clan of bloodthirsty balkwants, dangerous creatures which are a cross between harpies and magical elves,” Kathy supplied. “They hate witches but trust me, they hate dragons even more.”
His grin faded a bit, then he shrugged, “Well, in that case, I’ll stay in my human form.”
“And a lot of good that would do,” Kathy growled. “If I can smell you from a mile away, trust me, it would be a piece of cake for them.”
Drake paused, unwilling to pass up such a golden opportunity to rile this witch with the liquid green eyes and tempting mouth. “You can… smell me?”
He let his eyes gleam suggestively at the question and was gratified when a blush stole up her cheeks.
She looked away, “We need to shake a leg.”
“Right,” he grunted and started forward.
Klyana’s voice stopped him, “Kathy wasn’t exaggerating, Dragon,your... scent is so intense, a blind man could pick it up from miles away. We need to mask it for our collective safety.”
She seemed slightly more accepting of his presence, he noted, which was a good deal because if he was stuck with them both through enemy territory and for the flight back to Weirna, it didn’t hurt for at least one of them to stop fighting him.
“How?” Drake and Kathy demanded in unison.
Klyana looked from one to the other, and that indefinable something passed in her eyes again. She smiled tremulously, “You soak in the pool before we cross.”
