Dragon Sleeping (The Dragon Circle Trilogy Book 1)

by CRAIG SHAW GARDNER

  Of course, these small, weaselly Anno made awfully easy prey. Nunn could crush a dozen of them without even noticing. But even obvious superiority could be the most positive of feelings.

  Of course, he wasn’t here for the Anno. He was here for Mary Lou. He looked across the platform, finally able to see with his human eyes what his dragon’s eyes would not show him. They had propped the girl on some platform made of twigs, above a great cooking pot. Where would someone as primitive as the Anno get a pot like that? Did they have allies Nunn didn’t know about? “I wouldn’t do what you’re thinking.”

  Another human here? Nunn spun about to confront the other. He didn’t like being startled this way. He was the one who always brought surprise.

  It took him a second to recognize the other man, perhaps because the other looked more ghost than human. But it only took a second.

  “Garo!”

  “Is that my name?” the other replied with a smile. “Thanks for telling me.”

  This was most disconcerting. “You should be dead.”

  “And I very well may be,” Garo agreed jovially. “Good of you to notice. All thanks to you and your brother.”

  This was taking Nunn away from the real reason for his appearance. The People had stopped calling Mary Lou’s name and had begun calling the dragon. It was time for Nunn to take her and leave this place.

  “It was you,” he said suddenly, “who kept me from seeing Mary Lou.”

  “Was it?” Garo continued in that same maddening tone. “Well, perhaps I still have some powers, after all.”

  Nunn shot his hand forward, grabbing for the young wizard’s neck. His hand passed through Garo’s image, as if the young wizard wasn’t there. The youngster must exist on a slightly different plane. Obar and he had been so new to magic when they had tried to kill this difficult fellow; this sort of thing was probably to be expected.

  “You can’t do any more to me, old man,” Garo taunted.

  “Can’t I?” Nunn replied. “Well, then, I imagine you can’t do anything to me.”

  He turned away from the other wizard. It was time to capture Mary Lou. Or rescue her. It all depended upon your perspective.

  This was the sort of thing Wilbert was waiting to hear. “There’s our diversion,” Wilbert announced.

  The People were screaming as if their world had ended. Wilbert knew the Volunteers would be glad to help that feeling along.

  Wilbert glanced to his left. Maggie waved him forward, as Thomas would have done for her. He waved as well, a signal to Stanley and the two boys.

  Nick and Todd seemed pretty worldly-wise for boys their age.

  Probably city kids. They always grew up faster in a place like that.

  Wilbert always thought about the damnedest things when he was getting ready to fight.

  He could feel a yell building in his throat as he ran up the trail to the Annos’ village.

  The pressure was too great. He had to let it out.

  Wilbert pulled his knife and let his voice yell for all it was worth. “Come on, Mary Lou!”

  Fifty-One

  “Here it comes,” the cloud wizard remarked in the same calm voice it used for everything. “Let us see if we can witness the action.”

  Mills blinked, and the room full of clouds was replaced by a scene of screaming chaos. The short, wizened Anno were everywhere, and they all seemed to have one thought: to get away.

  They were looking through Nunn’s eyes. The wizard lifted his hands. Tiny green fires erupted from each of his palms.

  He turned one of his hands toward a group of the Anno. Twenty of the wizened, pale white creatures screamed as they were consumed by flame.

  Mills felt as if he was watching some bad disaster film. “Does he eat those things, too?”

  “Usually, he stays away from the truly foreign species,” the cloud replied. “They tend to disagree with him. So he destroys them instead.” As soon as the sorcerous fire had reduced the first group of Anno to ash, a second group took their place. They shook spears and knives at the wizard.

  “They have gotten over their initial fear,” the cloud wizard continued. “They realize they have to protect Mary Lou and their Ceremony.”

  “They?” Mills asked.

  “The Anno always make decisions as a group. Singly, they are none too bright, but in a crowd, they can be formidable.”

  “I don’t have time for this,” Nunn’s voice rumbled through the cloud chamber.

  The Anno shrieked again as they suddenly looked up at the wizard looming over them. Then just as quickly they shrank in size as the platform flew by beneath the wizard’s gaze. Mills realized Nunn had left the ground and was flying toward the pot and Mary Lou.

  “Nunn always was an exhibitionist,” the thunderhead remarked.

  There was the girl below. The Anno had tied her to some sort of platform, a structure now surrounded by thick, green smoke. The wind shifted so Mills could see her face. Mary Lou was choking.

  “Caw!” a harsh voice interrupted. “Stop right there!”

  Nunn’s gaze shifted upward. There, hovering in the air before him was a large black raven.

  “Raven will rescue the girl!” the black bird announced. “Leave this instant, or face Raven’s anger!”

  “Is there no end to this nonsense?” Nunn’s voice rumbled in return. He clapped both hands together. Bright green light flashed from his fingers, striking the raven.

  The bird screamed as it was tossed away, high into the air.

  “Now, Mary Lou,” Nunn murmured. The girl on the platform rushed toward them.

  “Zachs has never seen Nunn so powerful,” the light-creature whined, “or so angry.”

  “Or so careless,” the cloud wizard replied. “There will be some moment soon when he will be taught to respect us.” One of the cloud’s eyes appeared in the midst of the scene before them. Mills thought the clear blue eye was looking directly at him. “You will have to be ready. I may need your assistance.”

  At this point, Mills imagined, he was ready for anything.

  Once Wilbert started running, Todd followed. He didn’t want to think about anything else. Together, somehow, they’d save Mary Lou from these miserable little creeps.

  The creatures were screaming already, at something in their midst. What could Raven have done to upset them like this? The way these Anno things were running around now, it would be no problem at all to push right through them.

  Wilbert shouted in front of him. He heard Thomas and Maggie and Stanley pick up the cry. Even that wimp Nick was shouting behind him.

  Todd grabbed the dagger in his belt and pulled it free. And he yelled, letting his voice give speed to his running feet as they jumped on the platform.

  He remembered, then, when he had roared with the dragon. It was something about that anger that had saved him. Something about that anger that the dragon lived for. Something about that anger that would let all of them live, or cause all of them to die.

  One of the Anno was in front of him. The thing had a knife. No more thinking now.

  Todd held up his own blade, hoping the creature would run away. The Anno bared its pointed teeth and charged. “Merrilu!” it called.

  Or maybe all the Anno yelled that together.

  Todd knocked the knife arm aside. He thrust his own blade forward, but the creature squirmed past the knifepoint, its snapping teeth lunging toward Todd’s hand.

  Todd jerked his hand away, surprised at the small thing’s fierceness. But only for a second. One thing he had learned in all those playground fights was never to be surprised a second time.

  There was a great scream nearby, and a burst of strange-colored fire. Both Todd and his opponent froze for an instant as a man in dark robes rose above the crowd on the far edge of the platform, levitating above the mass of shrieking Anno.

  Todd saw other movement out of the corner of his eye. His own personal Anno had whipped its head about, its teeth set for Todd’s wrist. Todd jerked his
wrist back, so that the thing’s teeth clamped shut on his sleeve. The thing, startled, seemed unable to open its mouth for an instant. It was trapped by its own attack.

  Todd drove his blade into the thing’s belly.

  The creature’s mouth opened then to scream. It thrashed about, trying to hack at Todd with its own, smaller knife. But there was no strength behind this last attack. Todd avoided it easily. The creature stiffened for an instant, then went limp. Todd raised one sneakered foot and pushed the thing off his blade.

  This, he thought far too calmly, is the first time he’d ever killed anything.

  More screams. A pair of Anno launched themselves toward him. Which one? Todd thought. He couldn’t cut both. A sword blade flashed forward on his left, slicing easily through one of the attackers. Todd heard Nick laugh.

  He turned his attention toward the other, slicing the air with his blade so that the Anno rushed into it. The creature’s face erupted with blood.

  “This way!” he heard Wilbert shout in his ear. Todd saw Stanley, Thomas, and Maggie all in a line, each surrounded by piles of small corpses. The Volunteers looked like they were going to fight their way along the edge of the platform, skirting the main body of the Anno until they got close to Mary Lou. Todd risked a glance back at Nick. The other boy brandished his sword over his head, the blade so covered with blood that it seemed to glow from within.

  “Damn it!” Wilbert suddenly shouted on his other side. “Nunn!” Todd turned to see a human shape hovering above the place where

  Mary Lou was tied to the branches. That flying figure had reached her before them. So that was Nunn?

  The Anno had stopped fighting for an instant, too, their bloodlust replaced by hysterical calls of “Merrilu! Merrilu!” Maybe they realized that, with Nunn here, things wouldn’t work out quite the way they’d planned. But Todd didn’t see how the Volunteers could get to her, either.

  “Have to move!” Thomas called from the front of their line. “Now!”

  Charlie was going wild.

  “Is it the Anno?” Jason asked.

  “Not yet,” the Oomgosh replied. “The dog reacts to something that isn’t here yet.”

  Charlie stood his ground, eyes glowing, as he barked at a bare spot in the middle of the clearing. A second later, Obar and Mrs. Smith popped into existence in the same spot. Bobby and his mother showed up a little bit behind them. Mrs. Furlong didn’t look too good. Mrs. Jackson walked quickly over toward her.

  “Good dog,” Mrs. Smith remarked.

  Charlie yipped in surprise. The red embers in his eyes dimmed slightly.

  “Are we too late?” Obar asked.

  The Oomgosh looked up in the tree. “The battle is overhead. Mary Lou is still there.”

  “Shouldn’t you know all this?” Mrs. Blake asked. “I thought at least one of you was a wizard.”

  “Well, I’m afraid, Joan, there’s been a couple of setbacks,” Mrs.

  Smith replied quietly. “We’re running a bit behind.”

  “We’ve lost a bit of power,” Obar admitted.

  “Then you can’t save Mary Lou?” Mrs. Dafoe asked.

  “No, no,” Mrs. Smith answered firmly. “That’s the very reason we’re here.”

  “Just needed to reconnoiter a bit,” Obar added.

  “Speaking of that,” Mrs. Smith began.

  “Shall we?” Obar agreed.

  Charlie barked once as they popped back out of view.

  Jason decided that Mrs. Smith was getting every bit as confusing as Obar.

  She must be truly becoming a wizard.

  Jason went over to Bobby to ask him just what had really happened.

  Sometimes the dragon wings were the color of the smoke, a deep, deep green, like the very darkest of leaves. At others, the wings seemed to have no color at all, as if they refused to have light bounce from their scales.

  Whatever their color, they were coming closer to Mary Lou. Soon she would be lost completely in their shadow. In only a moment, she could turn her head and see the great green eye of the dragon staring back at her.

  “You’re not leaving yet,” a voice announced. A voice far too human to be the dragon.

  Mary Lou blinked. She took a deep breath of smoke-free air. What was happening to her?

  The dragon’s wing was gone. She looked up and saw a human face.

  No, not exactly human. The face belonged to Nunn.

  “Why, Mary Lou,” he said with a smile. “Don’t ever leave without saying goodbye.”

  She shook her head. She had trouble making sense of what he said. “Goodbye?”

  Nunn’s smile grew even broader. “We’ll be leaving now. Together.”

  She felt something at her wrists and ankles. She looked at her right arm and saw her bonds were untying themselves.

  “If you’re so polite,” another voice interrupted, “why don’t you say hello?”

  Mary Lou looked up again. There, just past Nunn’s shoulder, stood Mrs. Smith and that other wizard, Obar.

  Nunn didn’t seem the least upset. He laughed instead, a deep and hollow sound. “So you’ve come to give me your last dragon’s eye?”

  “If that’s what you want to believe, brother,” Obar replied. “However, the reality of this situation might be somewhat different.”

  The Anno didn’t even seem to notice them now.

  Todd couldn’t believe it. One minute, these creatures seemed like they wanted to fight them to the death, and the next, they turned, mesmerized by the drama that took place on the raised dais, where the three wizards hovered around Mary Lou. It was like these creatures listened to silent orders in their heads, telling them to chant, or attack, or simply to watch.

  The Volunteers didn’t even bother killing any of their enemy. Thomas simply pushed the Anno out of his way, clearing a path for the others as they rushed toward Mary Lou.

  “Merrilu!” the Anno chanted. “Merrilu! Merrilu!” As if saying her name would change everything.

  A fifth figure appeared to hover about, although the newcomer was not quite so solid as the others. It was Mary Lou’s prince.

  “Now,” the cloud announced.

  Mills and the creature of light looked at each other, as if someone must know what the cloud was talking about.

  “It’s time for a confrontation,” the cloud wizard explained. “Nunn will once again call upon his power. And, once he calls his power, we can use it against him. This time, though, I don’t think we should settle for something as simple as disabling pain. This time I think Nunn must make a sacrifice.”

  “You said you would need our help?” Mills asked.

  “I’m afraid I will,” the cloud agreed. “You see how I am manifested here, with nothing but these clouds and sky. I hardly have any physical presence whatsoever. Until you arrived, I was little more than a figment of Nunn’s imagination. Now, though, I have reclaimed my memory, thanks to the difference you have made. You see, the two of you are the most physical presence Nunn has ever allowed within. And I think we can use that physical nature to our advantage.”

  For a moment, Mills felt like he was listening to something like theoretical physics. “Yes, but what do you want us to do?”

  “Simple enough,” the cloud replied. “I want you to push.”

  “Push?” Zachs finally spoke up. “Zachs can push!”

  “Right there,” the cloud instructed.

  The left-hand wall of the room suddenly no longer looked like a view of endless sky, but a real wall. In the middle of that wall was a great green boulder.

  “That’s what we have to push?” Mills asked.

  “Exactly,” the cloud continued in that same calm voice. “As soon as Nunn begins to generate his power.” The voice paused for a moment. “Ah. Yes, now would be an excellent time to begin.” Somehow Mills and Zachs found themselves directly in front of the great stone.

  They pushed.

  “In a moment,” the cloud’s voice encouraged, “Nunn will think twice about e
ating any of us ever again.”

  Mary Lou’s head was clearing at last. For the moment, the smoke and the dragon were gone. They had been replaced by any number of wizards.

  “Mary Lou,” a gentle voice said at her side. The prince had returned. “Good heavens!” Obar whispered. “It’s you!”

  The prince nodded his head. “Your brother and I have already been introduced.”

  Mrs. Smith floated forward. “Mary Lou, I think we should get out of this place.”

  “I’ve been sent here to tell you to stop this,” the prince said to all the wizards floating about. “All your interference.”

  “Interference?” Obar asked with a frown.

  “With the People’s Ceremony,” the prince explained. “They want you to know that if it is not completed, the results will be regrettable.”

  “So you are working for the People,” Mary Lou said. Somehow she’d feel so much better if that was the case.

  The prince glanced down at her again. “In some ways, I suppose I am. Frankly, I just don’t know anymore.”

  “I’ve had enough of this nonsense,” Nunn remarked curtly. “I think I’ll destroy all of you.” He lifted his hands toward the new jewel in his forehead. “Except for dear Mary Lou.”

  “Mary Lou,” Mrs. Smith insisted. “We have to get out of this place now.”

  “Mary Lou,” the prince said. “The People need you here.”

  “Mary Lou,” Nunn smirked. “You’ll be coming with me.” Mary Lou quickly looked from face to face. All of them wanted her for different reasons. But not one of them, not even dear Mrs. Smith, asked her what she wanted.

  Nunn giggled as green sparks flew from his fingers. He was the real danger here. He was the one who had to be stopped.

  Suddenly, surprisingly, Mary Lou thought she caught a glimpse of the dragon. Not in any of the wizards, but behind her eyelids when she blinked, as if the great beast hadn’t left, after all, but was waiting there to burst forth and destroy everything around it.

  She sat up. The image of the dragon gave her strength. She knew she had to stop Nunn. He was keeping her from her destiny.