B0075M2D1U EBOK (16 page)

“
Whaaa???!!” Jeremy exclaimed, twirling around, looking for Anya.

“
Where did she go?!” I screamed at Brennan.

“
It’s okay,” he soothingly answered. “She went back to the island to cast more spells on Sirrush. She’s going to use a Sleeping Spell. It will only work for about five hours, six at the most, but at least it will give us a little time to talk to Father and the Royal Counsel before Sirrush takes his vengeance on the town.”

I yelled back, “Well why the hell didn’t she just do that Sleeping Spell when we were on the island?”

“
Because, we were focusing all of our energies on trapping him so we could escape. Sirrush is a very powerful dragon, and Anya and I needed to make sure we could get you safely away. That was our number one priority. We needed both of our energies to put the binding shield around him. But it won’t hold for long. The magic only lasts about 30 minutes. Plus, she needed to draw on the energy from the plants from Fey in order for the Sleeping Spell to work. We wanted to make sure we all made it safely back to the boat, then, if we needed it, we’d use the powers from the Fey plants to put the Sleeping Spell on Sirrush.

“
Way to fill us in on the plan, genius!” I shouted over the revving boat engine as I slapped his arm. He flinched. “You coulda told us what you had in mind!” Jeremy sat there silently in shock, watching the island grow smaller in the distance.

“
We didn’t want to cause any undue stress. Besides, sometimes it’s better if you don’t know everything Ruby.”

“
Um. Undue stress?! Have you
seen
what Jeremy looks like right now?” I directed my hands over to the zombie-like Jeremy. Brennan glanced over at him and shrugged. “He’ll be fine. He’s tough.”

I snorted sarcastically, “Ha. Yeah. Jeremy’s about as tough as a Girl Scout selling cookies.” Brennan chuckled at my joke and I couldn’t help but start laughing. Nervous energy I suppose. Jeremy suddenly came out of his zombie-like trance and pouted, “Heyyyy! I am at least as tough as a Cub Scout!” We all laughed again, and suddenly my laughter faded. Brennan looked at me with concern as my face got serious.

“
But, what about Anya? Will she be okay?”

Brennan’s expression grew soft, “She’ll be fine Ruby. I can feel her. She is strong and she is just fine. We are always connected. I would know if she was hurt or in danger. She’s going to meet us back at the cottage.” I breathed a sigh of relief. I knew Brennan was telling the truth. Fairies couldn’t lie. It was impossible. Sure, they could withhold information, like they did with the plants and Anya’s plan to go back to use the Sleeping Spell, but they couldn’t tell a direct lie. I trusted that Anya would be at the cottage, just as Brennan said.

Chapter 20

Brennan expertly pulled the boat into the docks at the cottage while Jeremy and I scanned the grounds and back porch, looking for any sign of Anya. “She’s not here yet,” Brennan answered, not even looking at us, as he was intent on lining up the boat just right. “I can tell,” he said, sounding a little softer and glancing over at me with a small smile. For some reason, his look was comforting to me. He didn’t look worried, which made me feel a little more at ease.

Jeremy jumped out of the boat and reached his hand down to me to help me out, “So,” he said, “We’ve got…what? About six hours to catch a dragon now?” Brennan nodded as he followed me off of the boat, “Sounds about right.”

We headed back up to the house and my head was swimming. I just didn’t know how we were going to do that. We were not knights with steel swords and catapults and whatever else they used back when they slayed dragons in medieval times. “Sooo…any clue as to how we’re gonna achieve that, Brennan?” I asked as I looked over at him. We got to the back porch and all took a seat on the white cushioned outdoor furniture. I settled into the overstuffed, comfy chair and tucked my bare feet to one side while I leaned over on the arm. “What do we do now?” I sighed, looking over at Brennan.

Brennan stared out at the water and answered, “Now? Now, we wait. Anya will be here soon and then one of us will need to go inform the Royal Counsel of the situation. They should have some answers for us by now.”

“
But, if you have to like, zappadoodle over to Fairyland,” Jeremy said, and I interrupted, “Uh, it’s
Fey
, Jeremy.” He rolled his eyes and shook his head at me, “Whatev – if you have to zappadoodle over there and talk to the Counsel, and get back to us…how long is that gonna take? Do we have that kinda time?”

Brennan looked at both of us and answered, “Whether we have it or not is of no consequence; the trip must be made.” He sounded matter-of-fact, but didn’t sound very comforting. “Only one of us will go, and the trip should take no more than two hours. The Counsel is convening as we speak. Once we tell them the situation, they will have an answer for us immediately and we can ‘zappadoodle’ back over here, as you say, right away.” He smiled confidently, now sounding somewhat cocky.

Just then, Anya appeared on the back porch with us. “That is soooo awesome,” Jeremy said in awe with a look of pure amazement on his face.

Brennan and Anya seemed to have a sort of telepathy going on. They’ve always been able to communicate with each other without really talking. Fairy stuff I suppose. They’ve said that when they’re here in their human form, although they lose their direct link to Fey, they still sense when they’re needed back home, and they can still clearly sense each other and communicate quite clearly to any fairy in our world, at any distance.

“
All set?” Brennan finally asked out loud.

Anya nodded, “Yes. Sirrush is sleeping like a baby. At least for the next five hours or so.” She seemed pleased.

“
Good. I will go to the Counsel and find out what to do next,” Brennan stood, and, before anyone could say anything, he POPPED off the porch.

Jeremy’s eyes widened and he exclaimed, “Man! I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to that!”

“
Come on guys, let’s get something to eat. It’s already two o’clock and I know you haven’t eaten anything since you got up, Ruby,” Anya said as she tried to usher us into the house. I looked at my watch. She was right, and that meant we had until about 7 p.m. until Sirrush woke up. As if on cue, my stomach suddenly started grumbling. I reluctantly got out of my comfy chair. “But how can we eat at a time like this?” I whined. “I’m still reeling from running away from that crazyass dragon. And, I lost a pair of Converse!”

“
Ohhhh,” Jeremy shook his head and acted like it was no big deal. “You have like, twenty other pairs. Besides, you didn’t lose them…you
threw
them.” He smiled playfully. I just rolled my eyes at his smartass comment.

We sat down at the huge granite island in the kitchen while Anya pulled food from the refrigerator and pantry for us. I guess we were all pretty hungry because we had no problem stuffing our faces with the sandwiches, chips and fresh strawberries Anya had spread out for us. “When is he gonna get back?” I moaned to Anya as we cleared our dishes. Brennan had said he would be gone for about two hours, but these seemed to be the longest two hours of my life! The minutes just seemed to stretch forever.

“
Soon,” Anya said, trying to put on a calm air, although I could tell she was worried. We plopped down in front of the T.V. and channel-surfed for what seemed like forever. We were mostly silent as we blankly stared at the television. Finally, almost exactly two hours after Brennan left, he soda-pop fizzed back to us. We all jumped up from our seats, looking at him with anticipation.

“
So? What’s the verdict?” I asked.

We all stood in silence, waiting for his answer. Brennan looked serious. He stood there frowning, with his lips pressed together for a few seconds before answering.

“
The Counsel has said they wish us to bring Sirrush back alive, so that he may face his punishment in Fey. However, our fairy magic isn’t enough. We must find the special plant and, along with the spell, we should be able to transport him back through the portal without injury to anyone.”

Jeremy piped up, sounding pleased and somewhat surprised, “Well, that doesn’t seem too tricky!”

“
Welllll…” Brennan slowly shook his head and looked uncomfortable. Anya stood there wide-eyed with a stressed look on her face. Obviously, she already knew what Brennan was worried about. I wish they would clue us in to the mystery.

“
Uh-oh,” I said, verbalizing my own worry. “That doesn’t sound too good…what’s up Brennan?”

He sighed, “Okay, here’s the deal. We don’t exactly know what this special plant is. It doesn’t exist in Fey. After much research, the Counsel found drawings and notes from the last time a dragon had to be captured from your world. I was able to take a look at some of the sketches. They are several centuries old.”

“
Yeah, yeah,” I nodded, “I remember. Anya said it was about 500 years ago that the last dragon had snuck through the portal.”

“
That’s right,” Brennan confirmed.

“
Well, do we know anything else about who it was or how they captured the dragon before?” Jeremy asked.

“
Actually, yes. It was in the early 1500s. There was a human at that time that had the gift of Fairy Sight, just like Ruby does. With his help, the fairies were able capture the dragon and send it back to Fey without anyone getting hurt…well, except for a few minor incidents. He kept detailed notes on the whole ordeal.”

“
Well?” I piped in, “Who was it? Maybe we can go to the library or search the Web and find out something that will help us.”

“
He was a painter…among other things. A scientist and inventor of his time as well – quite the forward thinker,” Brennan smiled, “He actually reminds me of your brother. He went by the name of Leonardo.”

Jeremy’s mouth dropped open and he blinked his stunned eyes, “Are you talking about…Leonardo Da Vinci?”

I stood there, dazedly looking at Brennan. Leonardo Da Vinci?

Chapter 21

“
You’re telling me that Leonardo Da Vinci could see fairies and helped catch a dragon?!?” I asked.

Brennan’s lips curled up in a slight smile as he nodded. “Yes, in fact, we have several of his journals. He documented the event quite well. Apparently, Leonardo was also a botanist and had detailed studies of plants, grains and other foliage. Some fairies believe that one of the plants seen in the background of his painting of
The Virgin of the Rocks
is the very plant that was used to capture the dragon; however, some aren’t as sure.”

“
Well, you said it’s a plant that doesn’t grow in Fey…do you know what it’s called?” I asked.

Brennan shook his head, “No. But I do have a page from Leonardo’s notebook which was in the Royal Counsel’s possession. They believe it contains the spell we must cast.” He took a very, very old piece of yellowed parchment paper from his pocket, carefully unfolded it and showed it to us.

We cautiously hovered around him, practically holding our breath as we were all too afraid to even breathe on the fragile paper.

The page was covered in crazy writing and some of it wasn’t even legible anymore. It looked like mirror-image cursive. Plus, it was in a different language. Italian? Yes. It looked Italian. Oh. Duh. Da Vinci. Of course it was Italian. I couldn’t really make out anything…how were we supposed to figure this out? If Da Vinci left us any clues as to what kind of plant they used, or how they used it, I certainly didn’t know what they were.

Jeremy complained, “I can’t understand anything written there. What are we supposed to do now?”

We placed the paper on the coffee table in the center of the room and all sat down on our knees around it to carefully scrutinize the page. I looked closely at the written text and scanned it over and over for something that might look familiar. It had already been almost three hours since Anya had cast the Sleeping Spell on Sirrush. The clock was ticking and we were running out of time.

I looked up at Anya and Brennan, who were both intently studying the paper. “What happens if we can’t figure this out before Sirrush wakes up?”

Anya looked up at me with a steady gaze, “We’ll have a very angry dragon to deal with.”

“
And perhaps collateral damage to the town,” Brennan added. I gulped. Oh great. So if we couldn’t decipher any part of old Leonardo’s encoded scribbles from this 500-year-old piece of paper, we were screwed.

“
Can’t you make out anything?” I asked Anya, “I mean, don’t you guys read all kinds of languages and stuff?”

“
Not really, “Anya rolled her eyes. “Just because I’m a fairy doesn’t mean I’m educated in mirror-imaged Italian cursive from the 1500s. I can read Irish and Fairy and English, of course. But I don’t see how any of those will help,” she worriedly shook her head.

“
Wait a minute,” Brennan gasped.

“
What? What is it?” I barely contained my impatience.

“
This word here... it’s Greek. He pointed to the word on the page:
ιπος όμοιος

“
That’s Greek?” How do you even know?” I squinted at the words as if staring at them harder would magically make them be translated into English. “Because, in addition to English, I do speak some Greek, as well as Russian, Irish, and of course, Fairy.” Brennan said. He tapped his fingers at the words on the page, with a look of concentration on his face. “Let me think. Let’s see, this word here, ιπος, that roughly translates to ‘worm’ or ‘bindweed.’…And this one here... όμοιος, that means…‘resembling’.”