"I'm not that idiotic. If I throw away any advantage, you win. Give me the orb, Lisa."
Lisa hugged the bowl to her chest. She really had no idea what would happen if Donna held the orb, but she believed Ming Ue's claim that it would begin the destruction of the world. As the silver dragon, Lisa could easily escape through a portal into Dragonspace and leave the destruction behind, but Lisa was thinking about more than her own hide. That was what Donna didn't understand.
"No," she said.
Donna gave her a look a pure fury. She pointed at Caleb. "Shoot him."
"No," Lisa screamed. Malcolm grabbed the arm of the nearest demon and wrestled with him for his weapon. Lisa launched herself and her magic at the demons, but too late. Her magic burst over the demons, downing them like dominoes, but enough of them fired.
Time seemed to slow. Dimly, she saw Malcolm wrench a gun from the demon he fought and bash his head in with it. Sickly green demon blood stained the floor. In the corner, Saba chanted words with all her might.
Lisa counted the bullets that entered Caleb's body, at least twenty hitting the mark. Caleb slammed back into the wall, his deep blue eyes glazing over.
Anguish poured from of her. She had no idea what words she screamed, but her throat was raw with them. The nimbus around Saba suddenly dimmed. The young witch dove through it, her face twisting in agony, and scrabbled over the short distance to Caleb. She reached up to Caleb's arm, closed her hands over the gold armlet and yanked it down.
Lisa cried out again. Taking off the armlet might tear Caleb apart as the magic forces tried to shift him to his true dragon form. Lisa snaked her silver magic to him, wanting to hold him in, even if the bullets had already killed him.
"No!" she heard Saba shout. "Let it happen."
Lisa redirected the magic to slam down more demons. Caleb's body rippled and gleamed, forces trying to turn him inside out. Several of the demons rose again, insane grins on their faces, and let more bullets fly at him. Saba dove for the corner.
Donna, while her demons fought for her, came at Lisa. Lisa clutched the true orb, the bowl, knowing she could use the magic within it to save Caleb if she dared. She would destroy the Earth, but Caleb would be free.
Donna chanted a darkness spell that engulfed Lisa. She could no longer see Malcolm, or the demons, or Caleb. She held tight to the orb; realizing Donna was trying to make her use it, to make her know that trying to protect people made no difference.
"Give it to me," Donna said. "One of us will destroy this world, you or me. I bet you won't want it on your conscience that it was you."
Lisa tried to form a reply, but she'd run out of words. Seeing Caleb die was worse than her own death. She loved him. That love for him had manifested the silver dragon inside her, and that love would now tear her apart with grief.
"Take it," she whispered.
There was a sudden explosion, the sound of chains bursting and links slamming against metal walls. Lisa saw a flash of gold, a beating of huge wings, a wild sound of golden chimes. Then a voice growled. "Demons. Yuck."
"Caleb?"
The dark spell fell away just as Donna's hands wrapped around the bowl and yanked it from Lisa.
Lisa ignored her. She stared, open-mouthed at the huge golden dragon, fifty-feet long and gleaming with his own light that rose above them. His scaly front was pockmarked with bullet holes, but while the tiny bullets could easily tear up human flesh, dragon flesh repelled them like the heaviest armor.
Two demons became puddles of green fluid and ash as Caleb trampled them. Demons trained the guns on him, but the bullets danced off his hide. Caleb snaked his head around and gushed incandescent fire all over them. More demon ash piled on the floor along with melting metal that had once been weapons.
Malcolm brought up his captured gun and trained it on Donna. "Saba," he said. "Get out of here."
Saba remained in the corner, the gold arm band dangling from her hand. "I'm not going out there. There might be more demons."
"I hope so," Caleb said. "I haven't had this much fun in years."
He pumped his wings and flew upward, directing his fire at the demon on the bridge. "Not him," Lisa yelled. "He's steering this thing—oh."
Fire destroyed the demon to nothing, and half the controls melted with it. The barge lurched as the engine cut.
Caleb flew down and landed with a thump on the deck, his face at Donna's shoulder. He could not hurt her since she still wielded his name, but he didn't mind curling his lips to show his razor-sharp teeth.
"You're mine, dragon," Donna said. "And now I have the orb. I could amuse myself forcing you to kill your friends, but it no longer matters."
"Lisa would not give you the orb if she didn't know what she was doing," Caleb said. "Right, Lisa?"
Lisa hesitated. Malcolm looked at Lisa in anger, Saba in alarm.
"Right, Lisa?" Caleb asked, sounding worried.
"It's all about balance," Lisa breathed, praying the silver dragon of the past knew what she was talking about. "How much balance have you got, Donna?"
* * *
Chapter Twenty-Two
Donna gave her a frosty look. "I am a witch who has trained and extended her life for hundreds of years. How much balance do you think I have?"
Lisa stepped forward, narrowing her focus to Donna and the pale eyes that once had looked so ordinary. Now Lisa read the evil in them, a woman who lived for nothing but her own power and vengeance, uncaring who she hurt.
"It unbalanced you." Lisa heard her voice swell, the echoes of all the other silver dragons down the centuries joining her. "By absorbing the magic of evil, you've nearly unmade yourself."
"It doesn't matter, you little idiot. If I have the orb, then I have all the magic. Air, fire, Earth, and water. And with it the fifth element, Akasha, ultimate and all-encompassing. Perhaps the silver dragon is right that the energy will start an earthquake that ends this annoying city and maybe the entire world. All I have to say is, oh well."
Donna upended the bowl, sending the charms clattering to the metal floor.
"Only if you have balance," Lisa and all her other selves said, their voices stretching and vibrating. "The Earth will be shattered because of imbalance. What do you think it will do to you?"
"And you have perfect balance, I suppose," Donna sneered. "You who cut your life into a thousand and more pieces. You gave up all that precious magic and a long life so you could get married." She spat the word.
"I loved," Lisa answered. "I was born, I aged, I died. I gave birth to children and watched them grow, some I watched die and I grieved." Her other selves shivered in sorrow, Lisa's movements like the reflections of a person caught between two mirrors. "We loved men, some who were great, others who were ordinary, but all who were kind and loving and had generous hearts. I helped the people I could and wept for those I could not. I would say that it was worth the sacrifice."
"You chose weakness. You felt the silence of death and the helplessness of being a child. I chose life and strength."
"No," the voices of all the women the silver dragon had been said. "You did not."
"Oh, please." Donna closed her hands around the bowl with the dragon on its bottom and brought it to her chest. "You are pathetic. And now you will pay."
The outline of the bowl blurred and in its place a sphere began to pulse, filled with silver light brighter than the moon. Donna smiled as the silver-white light began to engulf her. For a moment, nothing more happened. Then suddenly, the barge rocked heavily, as though a large wave had swamped it.
Caleb swore. Lisa said, "Malcolm, see what is happening."
Lisa heard Malcolm run across the metal floor, a lighter tread joining him—Saba. The door slammed open, bringing in a wash of cool sea air.
"It's an earthquake," Malcolm confirmed. "It's starting."
"And I will finish it." Donna lifted the orb above her head, smiling up at it.
And then she screamed. Her face distorted, white and silver light
pulling it every which way. Her body elongated, stretching like Lisa's did when the power of the silver dragon filled her. This was silver dragon power and more, the power of the Earth and wind and fire and the savage power of the seas, and the element Akasha, untouchable, that wove its way through them. All five elements dove into Donna, searching for an outlet, power contained and held dormant for so long that the backlash was enormous.
Donna's body could not hold it. Lisa sensed her struggling, calling on her witch powers to bend herself to accommodate the forces.
All the silver dragons inside Lisa reached out to her. "Balance," they said, voices chiming. "Harmony is greater than power, because it creates and heals instead of destroys. Creating is slow but so, so strong."
"Help me," Donna cried.
Lisa held out her hand. "Seek the stillness inside you. Draw the power of the orb there."
Donna's face distorted again as she closed her eyes and willed herself to find silence in her soul.
"Why are you helping her?" Caleb demanded from what seemed a long way away.
"Find it," Lisa urged. "Find it."
Donna's face began to flow back to human lines, and the crazy fires of the orb began to dim. Lisa held her breath, willing the woman to understand. Donna opened her eyes, still filled with white light, and then she smiled in triumph.
"I did it," she said. "The power is mine."
"Get down!" Lisa screamed. Malcolm and Saba dropped to the floor, and so did Caleb, flattening his huge body with amazing speed.
Donna swelled with light and power, her laughter suddenly giving way to screams. Again her body distorted, swelling and cracking with wild light, and then, quite suddenly, she exploded.
A blare of incandescent light filled the room, followed by bursts and flares of fireballs whizzing far above them to the high ceiling. The fireballs sizzled against metal walls and seared through the thick, dirty glass, shattering the windows and sending a hail of shards on the four below.
Caleb gathered Lisa, Malcolm, and Saba to him with a sweep of his forearm, shielding them with his stronger body. Lisa pressed back against his supple gold scales, Malcolm cradling Saba's body on her other side. The magic dove and swooped above them, triumphant in its release. Lisa fancied she heard faint silver laughter woven through the sizzling Stardust.
And then, just as suddenly, the bright light went out. The dragon bowl dropped with a muffled clank to the deck, and all was dark, but for the dim, bluish glow of the ordinary control lights of the barge.
Caleb's muscles unclenched one by one as he eased his claws across the deck with a brutal squeal. "Is it over?"
Malcolm scrambled up, lifting Saba to her feet, then he enclosed her in his arms and pressed his cheek to her hair. Lisa, too rose, her limbs rippling as the other silver dragon women occupied the space with her. Caleb wondered what it was like for her, if the memories of all her other lives invaded her thoughts and whether any of the silver dragons remembered Caleb.
"It isn't over," Lisa said, hundreds of voices joining hers. The deck heaved and pitched, waves grating the hull of the barge. "The earthquake is still going, and this barge is still rushing toward shore."
"Ah," Caleb answered. "Not good."
Lisa walked to the fallen bowl, the silver radiance from her lending light to the air. She knelt on the deck and retrieved the bowl, then picked up each of the charms—the dragon, the moon, the blossom, the bird's wing—and piled them back into it.
Caleb extended his neck to put his head next to hers, watching what she did. "Were the charms part of it?"
"A big part." Lisa looked up at Caleb and pressed a kiss to his nose. "They keep the orb magic stable. Donna was too foolish to understand that."
"Can you stop the earthquake?" he asked. "It's going to be bad, isn't it?"
"Yes." She gave him a somber look. "But we can try to prevent it."
Caleb rubbed his face against her body, inhaling the perfume of her. She smiled her sweet Lisa smile and rubbed between his eyes, right where he liked it.
"You're sexy, you know," he said. "I think that even when I'm a dragon."
Lisa blushed. "The end of the world is happening. Remember?"
"That doesn't mean you don't have great legs."
She growled and planted another kiss on his nose. "Stop it. Get Saba and Malcolm and have them come over here. I need you all."
Caleb moved away, chuckling under his breath. He managed to pry Saba and Malcolm apart and make them follow him to where Lisa was scratching out a small circle with the edge of the moon charm. "Which way is north?" she asked.
Malcolm studied an instrument panel and pointed to the wall with the door. "That way."
Lisa made a mark on the circle. "Saba, will you stand there? I'll need you to represent north and Earth. Caleb, stand just opposite." She hurried to the other side and made another mark. "You'll be fire." She made a third mark. "West. That will be you, Malcolm, water. I'll stand east, and represent air."
"Do you want me as a dragon?" Caleb asked. He coiled his tail around himself and stood with his feet pressed exactly to the mark she'd made.
"Yes. You have more power—at least, I hope you do. I didn't know you could exist as a dragon outside Dragonspace."
"I didn't either," Caleb said. He raised his head high and shot a small stream of fire from his mouth for the pleasure of it. "So few believe in dragons here anymore. But maybe because you do, and everyone in this room does, and Ming Ue and Shaiming do, then I can exist at least for you." He lowered his head and held it level with Saba. "Did you know I could?"
Saba gazed at him with unperturbed dark eyes. "To be honest? No."
"Ah," Caleb said.
"If you'd remained a human, you'd be dead," Saba pointed out. "I took the chance."
Caleb breathed out, but warm air only, no fire. "Thank you."
"I wish," Malcolm said tightly, "that you would have brought him back as a mute dragon."
Caleb rumbled. "Black dragon. Another phrase for smart-ass."
"You know, Malcolm," Lisa said as Caleb drew back to his space, "if Caleb can exist here in his dragon form, so can you. The binding spell that kept you here powerless is broken."
Malcolm started as though he hadn't thought of that. He glanced at Saba, arms folded across her slim chest, and at Caleb. Then, as he had in Lisa's apartment, he started to peel off his clothes.
Lisa politely averted her eyes, but Saba did not. Poor girl. Once unclothed, Malcolm closed his eyes, reached his arms above his head, and changed. His black tattoo distorted, then human muscle and bone flowed into a dragon body, sable and gleaming, black like the deepest night. His body was long, powerfully muscular, and his wings rose above him, full and tight.
He opened his huge eyes, silver like glistening lamps, and looked down at them from his great height. Saba stared up at him, her face white.
Malcolm regarded her for a long time, his eyes cool with black dragon hauteur. He was an ancient dragon, Caleb could tell, probably three thousand years old. He fanned the air with his huge black wings, then folded them back into his body and lowered himself to the mark on the circle. "I'm ready," he said. "Let us save the world."
It wasn't that simple. Lisa held the bowl between her hands and told them to each touch it, Saba first, then on around the circle, clockwise. Caleb's and Malcolm's talons nearly dwarfed the bowl, but they managed to touch it delicately.
She sensed Caleb's power and Malcolm's, both equally as strong, but very different. Caleb's power was raw and energetic, much like the fire he represented in this circle. Malcolm's magic was old and honed and very, very strong. The phrase still waters run deep definitely applied to him.
"Earth, air, fire, and water," she murmured. "Sun, moon, mountain and heavens, sea and sky. Four points of the compass. Balanced. Equal."
She felt her other selves within her reach out with their silver dragon magic, pouring it into the orb to restore the balance. She saw people in her head she did not know, men smiling
, dark eyes warm, children laughing up at her, older women putting hands out to touch her. Lisa felt the heat of passion as the silver dragon awakened to human desire for the first time and then the many times after that. She felt the brutal pain of pushing a human child into the world, the wonder when she heard its first cry. She felt the stab of grief when holding the wrinkled hand of a husband or friend as they slipped into death, felt the fear and then peace as her own senses began to darken.
So much existed within her. She was the same silver dragon through the ages, but Lisa's silver dragon self was unique, her own. The silver dragon might have sacrificed her long life, but joy had returned to her a thousand-fold.
Saba's powerful Earth magic flowed in next to Lisa. The young woman's eyes were closed, her short hair mussed by the fight. She had a sweet face that hid vast, untapped power that would soon come to the fore.
And then Malcolm's magic, coolly logical, made of mathematical intelligence, power bent to precise coordinates. After that Caleb's magic which made her smile. It was so like him, hot and fierce, deadly when focused, yet playful and warming.
"Earth, air, fire, and water," Lisa repeated. "Four points of the compass. Balanced, equal."
The elemental magic flowed into the bowl, which jumped and bounced in Lisa's hand, the charms dancing and clinking. She'd always been drawn to this little bowl with the dragon on the bottom, even when she was a little girl and fascinated by Grandma Li Na's Chinese things. She sensed Li Na in the myriad women inside her and waved a silent hello. Grandma Li Na smiled back at her.
The three in the circle worked with Lisa, the dragons and the witch, none of them grabbing the power for themselves, or tilting the balance in any fashion. They knew what they had to give to make the magic work, to restore the balance to this world, and they were willing to contribute it.
Slowly, very slowly, the waves shaking the barge subsided, the roll lessening, imperceptibly at first. Lisa continued to concentrate on the bowl and the four magics filling it, smoothing out the strength to build the orb's equilibrium.
Dragon Heat Page 26
