by D J DuMont
“Hi there,” she said softly. “I’m sorry if I disturbed you.”
The dragon cocked its giant head to one side and studied her with its large, dark eyes. It seemed almost concerned. Was it possible that the dragon had heard her crying and come to check on her? Willow found the thought comforting. Slowly, she reached out her hand and placed it on the side of the dragon’s face. A puff of smoke rose from its nostrils, but otherwise it remained still. Willow held its gaze, wondering what it was thinking. It was such a beautiful creature, and there was an unmistakable intelligence in its eyes. After a few moments, it nudged Willow’s face. Willow couldn’t help but smile at the tenderness of the beast’s touch, and her smile seemed to make the dragon quite happy. It snorted and did a happy wiggle, and Willow laughed.
“You’re a bit feisty, eh? Which one are you? I’m trying to remember what Sam said the red one’s name was.”
Willow squeezed her eyes shut and ran through the spice names she’d heard. Nutmeg? No, that had been the brown one, hadn’t it? And Saffron was the golden one. Sage was Anjali’s dragon, the green one. What had this red one been called? She furrowed her brow and thought. Then, in a sudden burst of memory, it came to her and her eyes flew open.
“Cayenne! You’re Cayenne, aren’t you?”
The dragon did another happy wiggle, and then let out a small roar of approval. Willow laughed.
“Cayenne. I wonder what you did to earn such a spicy name.”
Cayenne lowered her head to look directly into Willow’s eyes, and Willow could have sworn she saw a glint of mischief there. Then, Cayenne nudged Willow’s magic ring. Willow looked up at the dragon in confusion, and Cayenne nudged the ring again.
“I don’t understand. You want me to do a magic spell?”
Cayenne nodded, and did another happy wiggle. It reminded Willow so much of an excited little kid that she had to laugh.
“Oh, Cayenne. I’m not very good at magic. Everyone keeps telling me that I have a special gift for it, but the only thing I seem to be really good at is messing up spells. All the other trainees have far surpassed my measly attempts at magic.”
Cayenne seemed unperturbed by this explanation, and once again nudged Willow’s ring.
“Oh, all right. What could it hurt to attempt a few spells. I’m warning you, though, don’t expect much from me.”
Cayenne lay down in the grass, as if waiting for a show to start. Willow looked around for a moment. This was crazy. She wasn’t sure she was supposed to be here alone with a dragon. Sam would probably have a fit if he saw her. But Sam wasn’t anywhere to be seen right now. Even the other dragons all seemed to be off somewhere. Maybe they were resting in the stables, or maybe flying around above the forests to stretch their wings. Willow knew Sam pretty much gave the giant beasts free reign to fly around, as long as they flew away from the town of Birch Point itself. The forests out here were so deserted that it wasn’t likely anyone would see them.
Cayenne grunted, and Willow smiled at her.
“Alright, alright. Let me see, I could try a simple levitation spell. Those are pretty hard to mess up.”
Willow pointed her magic ring at a large rock a few yards away. The rock was probably heavy, so Willow might not be able to lift it very high. But she could at least get it a few inches off the ground, and hopefully that would amuse Cayenne.
“Elevare!” Willow said. And then, to her utter shock, the rock lifted high up off the ground as though it was as light as a feather.
“What in the world?” Willow said aloud. As her concentration broke, the rock came hurtling back toward the ground and landed with a big thud. Cayenne’s sides shook, and Willow looked over to see that the dragon appeared to be actually laughing at her. Willow couldn’t help but crack a smile at that.
“Hey, it’s not funny. I told you not to expect much from me.”
But in truth, although Willow had dropped the rock in a moment of shock, she had actually done a pretty good job at the levitation spell. Much better than she had expected to, and much better than she ever had before. She hadn’t done any magic spells since before she left for California. She hadn’t wanted to do any while she was staying with Alexis, for fear that someone would see her and start asking questions. And she’d been too tired from traveling to get up early and come practice before classes this morning. Now, staring down in surprise at her magic ring, Willow wondered if perhaps Anjali had been correct. Maybe Willow had just needed a break and time to rest in order to master the magical skills that seemed to be eluding her.
“Huh,” Willow said. Then she lifted her magic ring toward the rock, and once again said, “Elevare.” This time, she actually tried to concentrate and perform the spell as well as she could. The rock slowly lifted, higher and higher—much higher than Willow had ever been able to lift anything so heavy before. And then, Willow slowly lowered her hand, bringing the rock down at a steady pace. When the rock gently came to rest on the ground again, Willow looked back at Cayenne in shock.
“I’ve never done that before,” she told the dragon. To her surprise, Cayenne’s dragon lips turned up in a smile. Willow stared at the giant beast for several seconds.
“You believed in me, didn’t you?” she said. In response, Cayenne sent a little puff of smoke up from her nostrils. Then, a loud roar behind them filled the air, and Willow looked over in surprise to see another dragon coming out from the stables. She remembered this one’s name right away: Clove. Cayenne looked over at Clove and roared back. The two dragons grunted back and forth at each other for a few moments, and Willow wondered what they were saying to each other. Whatever it was seemed to make Clove happy, because he came to lie next to Cayenne on the grass. Both dragons then looked expectantly up at Willow.
“What?” she asked them. “You want me to do more magic?”
Clove huffed, as though that should have been obvious, and Willow laughed.
“Alright, alright. I’ll see what I can do.”
She lifted her magic ring above her head and said “Concelo.” Instantly, the world around her turned somewhat blurry on the edges, indicating that the invisibility spell was working. Cayenne and Clove looked intently at where she had just been, then at each other, and Willow knew they couldn’t see her. She ended that spell and then tried another one.
“Liquidum!” Water shot from her magic ring, just as perfectly as it did from Anjali’s ring when Anjali performed the water spell.
“Ignis!” Fire shot from her ring.
“Amplifico!” Willow spoke a few words, and they were amplified as though she were speaking into a microphone.
“Suspendo!” Willow said, pointing her magic ring at Cayenne. The dragon was instantly suspended in midair. Then, Willow turned her ring to Clove.
“Levis!” She walked over and tried to pick up Clove. As expected, the spell had made him as light as a feather, and Willow was able to lift the entire dragon easily with one hand. Clove and Cayenne kept looking at each other in amusement, clearly enjoying the little magic show Willow was putting on. Willow was more amazed than amused, though. On and on she went, trying out spell after spell. All of the charms that had caused her so much trouble before the holiday break now seemed to come with ease. Willow was so ecstatic that she might have gone on for hours, if it hadn’t been for Sam’s voice suddenly breaking through her concentration.
“Holy hexes! What is going on here?”
Willow instantly stopped the spell she’d been performing and swung around to face Sam with a guilty yelp. Clove and Cayenne looked just as guilty.
“I…I was just practicing my magic spells,” Willow said, looking down at her feet.
“In front of the dragons?”
“I didn’t mean to. I just accidentally ended up here by their stables and they seemed to enjoy the show and…I dunno. It seemed harmless.”
Sam looked back and forth from Willow to Cayenne to Clove. His expression was unreadable, but it didn’t exactly look happy. Finally, he pointed to t
he two dragons. “You two, back to the stables. And no more of this nonsense. And Willow, you come with me. I think Anjali is going to want to hear about this.”
“Y-yes, sir,” Willow stammered out. She scrambled after Sam as he started walking toward the forest path that would lead back to the main Dragon Heart building. But she turned around one last time to look at the dragons, and saw both Cayenne and Clove smiling at her.
Chapter Sixteen
Willow had never been in Anjali’s office before—at least not her real office. She’d been in the office Anjali kept over on the Birch Point campus countless times. That office was where the tunnel from Birch Point Academy to the Dragon Heart building was located, and Anjali kept it up as a cover. If anyone needed to visit her who didn’t know about the Dragon Heart Program, then that’s where they went. Anjali simply hid the Dragon Heart Academy paraphernalia with invisibility spells. But the office Anjali actually used on a daily basis was a small but well-lit room on the third floor of the western side of the Dragon Heart building. The back wall of the office was made almost entirely of windows, and, despite Willow’s anxiety over how Anjali was going to react to today’s escapades with the dragons, Willow actually forgot to be worried for a few moments when looking out the office windows. The sunset view from this office was incredible.
Sam had deposited her in the office and told her to stay put, then walked off to find Anjali. Willow glanced at her watch. Potions, the last class of the day, would just be ending. Willow hoped Sam would at least speak with Anjali privately, rather than blurting out in front of everyone that he’d caught her messing around with the dragons. If Locke got wind of this, Willow would never live it down.
Willow waited for what felt like an eternity in that office. Her stomach felt like it was twisting itself into tighter and tighter knots, and Willow wondered what was taking so long. At this point, she just wanted to get this confrontation over with. At least then she would know whether she was going to be punished, and what her punishment would be, rather than sitting here imagining all sorts of horrible possibilities.
But when she heard the sound of shoes clicking on the tile floor far down the hallway, she suddenly felt less ready for this confrontation than she’d thought. She was pretty sure Anjali was going to be furious with her, or, at best, disappointed. Willow let out a long, tired sigh. This was not the best way to start off the new semester.
A few moments later, Anjali appeared in the doorway of her office and shut the door behind her. Willow was glad to see that Sam was not with her. He must have gone back over to the dragon stables, which made Willow happy. She didn’t want to have to deal with two angry adults at once.
“So, Willow,” Anjali said as she sat down. “Sam tells me he found you doing magic over by the dragons. That’s not exactly what I had in mind when I excused you from class this morning. I thought you’d go find a quiet room somewhere to regain your composure, and then come back to class.”
Anjali raised an eyebrow at Willow, but Willow still couldn’t tell how angry she was. Sometimes these Dragon Heart Agents made it really difficult to tell how they were feeling.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to end up by the dragons. I just ended up running and running because I was so upset. I ran through the forest and ended up there. Cayenne came out to see me and asked me to do magic for her.”
Anjali wasn’t able to hide the surprise in her eyes. “Cayenne asked you to do magic?”
Willow shifted nervously in her seat. Did Anjali think she was lying? “Well, I mean, she didn’t speak, obviously. She just kind of nudged me and I got the feeling that she wanted me to show her some spells. So I did. I know that probably sounds crazy, but it all seemed to make sense at the time.”
“No, I don’t think it sounds crazy,” Anjali said. “I’m just surprised. So how did Clove end up out there, then?”
“He just came out and joined Cayenne at some point. I don’t know why. The two dragons were sort of talking to each other with grunts and little roars. Then they both watched me do magic spells until Sam came and found us and flipped out.”
“I see,” Anjali said. Then she tapped her fingers on her desk in that way she always did when she was thinking. Willow could feel little beads of sweat on her forehead, and she wished Anjali would stop tapping and say something. But Anjali didn’t speak up, and finally Willow couldn’t take the tapping anymore.
“It was all just an accident, I swear. I didn’t mean anything by it. I didn’t go purposefully looking for dragons.”
To Willow’s surprise, Anjali smiled at her. “I’m sure you didn’t. But tell me, how did you feel about your magic spells? Do you think they’ve improved any since before the holidays?”
Willow sat back, somewhat surprised by the question. “Well, yes, actually. It was weird. All of the spells I tried seemed to come effortlessly. I don’t know what changed, but everything I was struggling with didn’t seem to be such a struggle anymore.”
Anjali leaned back in her chair. “I’m glad to hear it. I’m also not surprised to hear it.”
“You’re not?”
Anjali chuckled. “Of course not. I’ve been telling you since the beginning of the school year that you have quite a special magical talent. I knew it would just take a little bit of time to kick in. Once you got away and rested, you were able to stop overthinking things and let the magic flow through you.”
Willow looked down at her hands, which were folded in her lap. “Well, that’s great. Except it doesn’t matter so much anymore, does it? The search for my father has been given up thanks to this stupid terrorist attack. It doesn’t matter how great I am at magic. I’m never going to see my father again.”
“Willow, the chances of finding your father alive were always slim, you know that. I don’t mean to downplay your grief, but I hope you can eventually see that the best way to honor his legacy is to be the best Dragon Heart Agent you can be. Your father loved this agency, and the dragons. He would be so proud to see you following in his footsteps.”
Willow sighed. She was tired of hearing that her father would be proud of her. She wanted to see her father, and hear from his own lips that he was proud of her. But that was looking less and less likely as time wore on. Willow felt so drained right now. Her heart couldn’t take any more of these lectures about doing well for her father’s sake. She looked up at Anjali and gritted her teeth.
“Am I in trouble for being near the dragons?”
Anjali looked surprised. “No, you’re not in trouble. Why would you be in trouble for that?”
It was Willow’s turn to look surprised. “I thought that’s why Sam brought me here? To tell you that I was hanging out with the dragons when I shouldn’t have been.”
Anjali laughed. “No, Willow. That’s not why Sam brought you here. You wouldn’t be in trouble just for hanging out near the stables. Sure, Sam gets overprotective of his dragons, but even he knows that there’s generally no harm in being around them. Those dragons are well-trained and they respect human life. It’s highly unlikely any of them would do anything to harm one of you students. And I know all of you would never do anything to try to hurt or bother the dragons.”
Willow frowned. “Then why did Sam tell me that you were going to want to hear about what I was doing?”
“That didn’t have anything to do with the fact that you were over by the dragons. Sam knows I wouldn’t care so much about that. What Sam wanted me to know is that you somehow convinced Clove to come out of the stables.”
Willow’s frown deepened. “I still don’t understand. I didn’t do anything to convince Clove to come out. He came out of his own accord. And besides, why is that such a big deal?”
“It’s a big deal because Clove hasn’t been out of that stable since he came back from the mission where he lost your father.”
Willow stared at Anjali. “He hasn’t been out of the stable? Like at all?”
“That’s what I said. He literally has not come out into the fre
sh air since he came back. I don’t know what it is about you, Willow, but you have a special touch with that dragon. You have a special touch with magic. You’re just plain special. I was hoping you could explain to me how you helped Clove, but it sounds like you yourself don’t even know.”
Willow shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. I don’t know. I was just out there showing Cayenne some spells, and Clove came out to watch.”
Anjali smiled. “Well, my theory is that he knows that you’re Sigmund Ember’s daughter, and so he feels comfortable with you.”
Willow considered this. “Do you know yet when we’ll be choosing dragons? Or rather, when they’ll be choosing us?”
“Yes, actually. That was another announcement I made today, but you missed it because you’d already left. Sam and I agree that all of you are ready to start training with a dragon, and we’ve set next Monday as the date for dragon selection.”
“Do you think there’s any possibility Clove might work with me? I know Sam said before that he would only work with my father, but maybe since he came out to see me that means that he wants to work with me, after all. I could—”
“No, Willow,” Anjali said, shaking her head. “Clove came out to see you, but he’s still not ready to work with anyone other than your father. He’s still holding out hope that your father is alive.”
“Well then I should hold onto that hope, too,” Willow said, stubbornly sticking out her chin.
Anjali sighed. “I wish you would let it go, but I know that’s a decision that you can only make when your heart is ready to make it. But, anyway, even if Clove was ready to work with someone else, it wouldn’t matter. Another dragon picked you first.”
