Dragon Sleeping (The Dragon Circle Trilogy Book 1)

by CRAIG SHAW GARDNER

  “And you had to hack off his arm?” The bird made a clucking sound deep in his throat. “Poor Oomgosh! That will tell him not to go into battle without Raven at his side.”

  “You had to cut off his arm?” Mary Lou repeated in disbelief.

  “Yeah,” Jason said in the matter-of-fact tone of someone who cuts off arms every day of the week. “It was pretty easy, actually. Like sawing through a log. And he says he can grow a new one in a few days.”

  “Of course he can,” Raven agreed. “After all, is he not the Oomgosh?”

  “I see we have company,” the prince’s voice said in her ear. Jason yelped. “Where did he come from?”

  “You’re not the only one who’s made friends around here,” Mary Lou replied. “This is one of mine. Unfortunately, he doesn’t remember his name.”

  “She calls me her prince,” the spirit said with a smile.

  Mary Lou blushed. “Well, he could be a prince, couldn’t he? I mean, look at his clothes!”

  “We apparitions are always careful about our grooming,” the prince agreed.

  “Hey, Raven,” Jason said. “You know everything. Ever seen this guy?”

  The black bird cawed softly. “Raven knows you from somewhere. Indeed Raven does. Just can’t remember where.” He ruffled his feathers. “If only Raven didn’t have so much to think about.”

  This creature fascinated Mary Lou. “If I may ask, what is on your mind, Raven?”

  “The Cosmos, Mary Lou,” the black bird replied. “The Cosmos.” He fluttered his wings. “But come, we need to see to our Oomgosh. I imagine you simply left him standing there?”

  Jason nodded. “That’s what he wanted to do. He said it gave him time to heal.”

  “The Oomgosh can be very boring in that way,” Raven said.

  “Then Charlie jumped up,” Jason continued, “and ran over here.”

  “Filthy beast!” Raven replied. “Still, this Charlie seems to have done some good this once. But we should return to our Oomgosh. We don’t want his life to become too tedious. And Raven tells you this: Those who hurt the Oomgosh will pay.”

  “I hope you don’t mind if I tag along,” the prince said. “My existence has often wanted for excitement.”

  “Your dull lives are over,” Raven promised as he took to the air. “It will get very exciting, very soon.”

  Thirty-Two

  Nunn awoke with a start, his robes drenched with sweat. Something was wrong. He hadn’t felt this disoriented since he was human. He needed to sleep far too much. Somehow, when he had taken Evan Mills, it had led more to exhaustion than nourishment. He rose from his sleeping pallet and began to pace, not bothering to light the darkness. Why did a wizard need light?

  Nunn didn’t like this weakness, this almost being human. He wondered if this was the dragon’s doing.

  Nunn knew more about the dragon than anyone, and he knew very little. Those few who had survived its last attack had been driven half-mad. When Nunn and Obar had been pulled into this world, it had taken forever to pry free the knowledge from those who had gone before them, knowledge that only came when they had also freed the dragon’s eyes and learned how to harness their power. Pity that when the three wizards had been deprived of their eyes, the three had also shriveled and died.

  But, as little as he really knew about the dragon, he could sense the creature. The dragon was close, far closer than ever before. That was surely one of the reasons for the change Nunn felt. Could the dragon take back its power as it approached, drain it from the dragon’s eyes? This was something Nunn had never considered. It was all the more reason to collect as many of the eyes as he could, to hoard that power, to try to control the dragon before the dragon controlled all of them.

  Light spilled into the room. Light! Nunn spun to confront the intruder.

  This was impossible. He controlled everything in this castle.

  Someone had opened the door. Light flooded in from the hall.

  Margaret Furlong stood in the doorway. “I need to talk to Leo,” she said.

  “I see,” he replied, lifting an eyebrow to fill this room with light. He thought he had locked her safely away with the others while he took his rest. But, impossible or not, here she was.

  “Please,” she said. “This is very difficult for me.” She did not look at all happy.

  The only way she could have left that other room and found her way to this place was if he had shown her the way. Perhaps this was the reason he couldn’t sleep.

  “I’m lost without my Leo,” she whispered.

  She did look lost in that doorway, both vulnerable and alone. Nunn was surprised to find how attractive that made her. When he had gained power, he had dispensed with these simple physical pleasures. He had had power for a very long time.

  But a part of him wanted her. A very human part. Apparently, Nunn thought, there were still some things that could surprise him.

  “Yes,” he said in Leo’s voice. “Why don’t you come over here?” He held out his hand. “We haven’t been close in a long time.”

  “Oh, Leo,” she said as she walked toward him. “I’m so sorry for everything.”

  For an instant, Nunn felt sad himself, as if it really was Leo’s voice that spoke through his mouth. Perhaps he was splitting himself into too many pieces. If only he could take a few moments to rest. If only the dragon wasn’t so close.

  He watched Margaret cross the room toward him. She looked deep within his eyes. His eyes, in Leo’s face. Perhaps he could rest for a minute. Perhaps he could find some human warmth.

  “NOOOOOO!”

  A scream smashed into the room. Nunn stumbled back, assaulted by the light.

  “Zachs hurt! Zachs screams in pain!” The room pulsed with light: red, then blue, then yellow-green. “He tried to kill Zachs! But Zachs still too fast, still too clever! He protected Mary Lou! He called himself a prince, but Zachs knew better! Zachs knew what he really—”

  Nunn threw a burst of energy back at the cascading creature of light, causing its shrieking to redouble.

  “You do not—” Nunn began.

  But the creature was beyond listening. “Zachs hurt!” A ball of fire grew in its hand. “Zachs hurts back.” It hurled the fireball at the floor. Margaret cowered, covering her head. “Zachs kills everyone!”

  “Enough.” Nunn opened his palm to expose the jewel. Zachs’ light shrank back into its monkey form as it spun to face the wizard. Nunn held up his palm to face the creature.

  “No! Zachs will be good! Zachs sorry!” Zachs cried as if Nunn was crushing its soul. Not, of course, that the creature had a soul to crush. Its glowing form flowed toward the jewel. Its arms and legs thrashed wildly, as if it was swimming hopelessly against the tide. And then with a final shriek it was gone, sucked deep within the jewel.

  “I apologize—” Nunn remembered who he was supposed to be. His voice changed again. “I’m sorry, Margaret.”

  “Leo?” Margaret replied.

  “It’s safe now, Margaret,” Leo said in his most reassuring tone. “Leo,” she replied, and then again. “Leo, Leo, Leo.” The tone of her voice slid up and down, as if she sang a nonsense song.

  Nunn reached out a hand for her. “Margaret?”

  “No!” she shrieked at the touch, cowering even more than before. “Leo,” she sang. “Leo, Leo.”

  Nunn stared at the woman curled on his floor. Humans were so fragile. He would be better without them. This attraction was a momentary weakness, nothing more.

  Margaret Furlong was still in the room, but she was no longer with him. Nunn thought for a second of taking her energy as well. But something still wasn’t right, something to do with Mills. Nunn didn’t want to stuff himself.

  Besides, a part of him wanted her to recover. He could still think of other things to do with this one.

  He sent her back to the others with a wave of his hand.

  The room was quiet once more, and dark. But Nunn could no longer sleep. The jewel with his
creature throbbed where he had lodged it in his palm, as if even the dragon’s eye didn’t want to hold the light-thing. Zachs was becoming too difficult to control. Nunn would need new allies. He had to change. He had spent so much time planning; he had forgotten how to act. He could not mistake weakness for strength. He was not doing too much. He wasn’t doing enough.

  He opened his right hand and accepted the strength of the eye. His mind reached out across the island.

  None of the red furs were left. All were dead. Three, quite recently.

  The thing that had been the neighbor Sayre was using the Captain’s energy quite well. He would be here shortly. He could be very useful. Nunn would have to introduce him to the other neighbors. Jackson had wanted to work for Nunn. He wondered how eager Jackson would be to work with Sayre.

  Other things had changed while Nunn slept. He could see the Anno. Mary Lou wasn’t with them. He let the dragon’s eye roam. She was still on the island somewhere. His other abilities could sense her presence. But now she was the one that he couldn’t see.

  But the Anno were giving their special greeting to other members of the neighborhood. Two of the boys, two of the first to escape, Todd Jackson and Bobby Furlong. Arrows, stones, spears, twigs, anything the Anno could grab was being thrown at the two running youngsters.

  Perhaps it was time to save them. Nunn would particularly like to get these two back and reward them for their initiative. Maybe the boys would like to join their parents. Or not. The young ones held a lot of potential. And a lot of energy.

  But he could no longer use Zachs; at least not until he had a chance to make a few adjustments. And his other allies had disappointed him as well. They had died so easily. If the boys were to be fetched, Nunn would have to do it himself.

  It couldn’t be helped. He’d have to go and fetch them back. Perhaps, as a reward, he’d eat one along the way.

  Thirty-Three

  “You are very talented, you know.”

  Nick looked up from where he sat huddled against a tree. Obar’s voice had broken the silence. But the wizard wasn’t talking to him.

  Nick hugged his arms close to his body. He couldn’t stop himself from shaking.

  He never thought he’d be this glad to see his mother. She had hugged him; he found himself surrounded by warmth and familiar smells. For a second, he’d felt like he was a teenage boy on Chestnut Circle. For a moment, he’d forgotten all the blood.

  He’d sat down against one side of a great tree, and his mother had sat down beside him, just past one of the great roots that jutted from the ground. She had fallen asleep, as had some of the others.

  And Nick had begun to shake. There was no way he could sleep. Every time Nick closed his eyes, he saw his sword plunge into the belly of a wolf. The animal struggled, howling with a voice that knew it was already dead, its blood sucked from its veins.

  “You don’t wish to talk?” the wolf said with Obar’s voice.

  Nick’s eyes opened with a start. Obar stood in the small clearing only a few paces from Mrs. Smith. The old woman stood with her back to the wizard.

  “I don’t want to be here,” she said.

  Obar laughed. “Do you think that any of us came here by choice? Once we learned there was no going back, we taught ourselves how to survive. You’ll have to learn that, too, if you want to save your neighbors.”

  With that, Mrs. Smith turned and looked at him. She did not seem happy.

  “Oh, yes,” Obar continued. “You’re the only one with enough power to save them, if you choose to use it. Nunn is much more powerful than I am. I can hinder his actions, but I don’t know if I can stop them. With the two of us working together, well—” He smiled and shrugged.

  Mrs. Smith didn’t reply.

  “Nunn has two of the dragon eyes, you know,” Obar went on quickly. “And he wants all the rest of them, and all of us too. I think he believes, if he controls all the parts of the dragon, he’ll control the dragon as well.”

  “And what will that give him?” Mrs. Smith asked sharply. “Everything, perhaps,” Obar replied. “At the very least, a chance to survive.” He sighed and stared for a moment at the trees beyond his miniature sun. “I’ve been here for a very long time—not that time means much to this place. I was one of the first to arrive, after the last visit of the dragon. I saw the devastation of the islands—cities leveled, forests uprooted, people torn to little pieces. A very few survived. One of them became my tutor.”

  The mage laughed again, a much more sour noise than before. “I did not trust my predecessor, even as he taught me so much about the powers that we all consider magic. Never trust a wizard, you know.

  “But I believe one thing he told me: If you use the dragon, you will become a part of it. But if you do not, the dragon will destroy you.” He waved at the trees around him. “It’s a little game the dragon plays with humans. This whole world is his board, and the stones we call the eyes are the pieces. If you can find a stone, you can be a player. Maybe, if you find all of them, you can win.”

  “Stone?” Mrs. Smith asked. For the first time, she seemed interested rather than angry.

  “Seven stones. So my tutor said. I have one. Nunn now possesses two. The other four are somewhere on the seven islands. Should we be able to find them, we should be able to defeat Nunn.”

  “And if we don’t find them, we don’t survive?”

  Obar nodded. “If Nunn doesn’t destroy us, the dragon will.”

  “You don’t paint the most pleasant picture.” Mrs. Smith thrust her hands into the pockets of her housecoat. “I suppose you would like us to work together.”

  “Well, I was getting to that,” Obar replied hurriedly, as if the slightest bit annoyed. “I think that if we don’t, we will all die. And, perhaps, if both of us can search, we can find the remaining stones and outwit Nunn at the same time. But we must begin at once. The dragon is close, and there are four of the eyes left.”

  Mrs. Smith pulled a hand from her pocket. “Three.”

  Nick forgot to shiver. Mrs. Smith held a stone in her hand that shone with brilliant light. Nick glanced away quickly before he could be drawn in again.

  “Where did you get that?” Obar demanded.

  “I don’t know,” Mrs. Smith admitted. “I reached in my pocket once, and it was there. You don’t mind if I put it away, do you? It’s all a bit melodramatic.”

  Nick looked up as the clearing once again dimmed to the light given off by Obar’s tiny sun. The magician was staring openmouthed at the old woman.

  “I believe,” Mrs. Smith said after a moment’s silence, “that the dragon gave me this.”

  “What are you talking about?” Obar blustered. “The dragon doesn’t hand out gifts!”

  “How do you know that?” Mrs. Smith asked.

  “I just—that is—everything I’ve learned about the power—” Obar stopped abruptly. “I don’t, obviously. Everything I know is really built on assumptions.” He smiled at Mrs. Smith. “Apparently, our dragon has decided to play favorites.”

  Mrs. Smith nodded her head, as if bowing in acknowledgment. “Perhaps the dragon will also guide me to the others.”

  “Then you will work with me?” Obar hopped from one foot to another, barely containing his excitement.

  She patted her pocket. “How could I ignore this sort of invitation?”

  “Many of the others have talents as well, you know,” Obar continued gleefully. “The dragon picked you all very carefully. If we work together”—this time his laugh was full of joy—“Nunn doesn’t have a prayer!”

  “Is there something else?”

  “I was thinking about the eye.” He looked straight at her with the warmest smile Nick had ever seen. “I don’t suppose you’d give that to me?”

  Thirty-Four

  Todd wouldn’t cry out, no matter how much he hurt.

  Something had hit him in the back. Part of it was still sticking out of his shoulder. Todd didn’t have time to look at it. He had
to keep running.

  “I don’t want to be here!” Bobby was screaming enough for both of them. “Stop throwing things! Get me out of here!” The kid had managed to avoid everything those creeps were throwing at them from the trees. But with every one of Bobby’s shouts, a hundred high- pitched voices taunted them from up above.

  And still the missiles fell. Something glanced off the back of Todd’s head.

  “Over here!” a deeper voice called. Thomas stepped from behind a tree, an arrow flying from his bow. There was a scream above. Something fell to earth behind Todd. He still didn’t want to look back.

  The other Volunteers appeared from cover to fire their missiles in turn.

  “God, are we glad to see you!” Bobby enthused. “These things wouldn’t listen to us at all!”

  “Not very social, are they?” Wilbert boomed. He, Maggie, and Stanley fired their arrows together. They were greeted by more screams overhead and the crash of small bodies falling through the leaves.

  Bobby looked at the bowmen in wonder. “How do you see them up there?”

  “Don’t have to see them,” Thomas replied. “Way the Anno crawl all over the branches up there, you almost can’t help but hit ’em.”

  “Like fish in the barrel,” Wilbert agreed. “Wish I still had my Winchester. Now, that would make them run!”

  Todd realized that the arrows had stopped falling around them. The shrieks of rage from the Anno were becoming less frequent, and farther away.

  “Plus, you hit a couple of them, hey?” Stanley surveyed the trees. “Next thing you know, they’ve skedaddled!”

  The screams had stopped completely. Stanley looked like he almost might smile.

  “What do we do about Mary Lou?” Maggie asked as she slung her bow over her arm.

  “Have to find another way to get her,” Thomas answered. “Something’s going on with the Anno. Never knew them to get so skittish, so fast. Usually take their time sizing up newcomers.”

  “Don’t want to turn down any potential meals,” Wilbert agreed. Todd heard a moan. It took a second to realize it came from his lips. “The boy’s been hit,” Maggie called.