Cloak & Dagger: Book II of The Dragon Mage Trilogy
Read Cloak & Dagger: Book II of The Dragon Mage Trilogy Online
Authors: Carey Scheppner
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© 2014 Carey Scheppner. All rights reserved.
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Published by AuthorHouse 5/28/2014
ISBN: 978-1-4969-1465-1 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4969-1464-4 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-4969-1463-7 (e)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014909353
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Part III The Cure For What ‘Ales’ Ya
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
About the Author
A Sinister Plan
A
re you sure it will work?” hissed Gif.
“Of course!” hissed Garf in response. “I tested the spell this morning.”
“It had better!” hissed Frag enthusiastically. “I’ve been itching to see what our uncle has been hiding in that study!”
“What if he finds out?” whined Gif.
“Just don’t touch anything,” retorted Garf. “If nothing’s out of place, he’ll never know we were in there.”
“Besides,” added Frag, “Graf’s our uncle. He won’t hurt us!”
“I don’t know,” muttered Gif.
“This is it,” announced Frag as they stopped in front of a dark door set in an alcove to one side of Graf’s living room.
“I still think -,” began Gif.
“Shh!” interrupted Garf. He pocketed the pick he had used to gain entry into Graf’s home. “I need silence for this spell to work!”
Gif and his older sister waited silently while Garf cast his spell. The door shimmered and the protecting ward on the door melted away.
“There!” whispered Garf excitedly. “I told you it would work!”
Frag reached for the door handle and turned. Silently, the door swung inward, revealing a large room adorned with a wooden table and chair and many shelves crowded with a wide variety of magical books, vials and components.
Gif’s mouth dropped. “Wow!”
Garf grinned evilly. “What do we check out first?”
Frag was already by one of the book shelves. “Look at all the spell books! No wonder Graf is such a powerful spell caster!”
“I’ve never even seen some of these spell components before!” exclaimed Garf from the other side of the room. “I wonder what this black liquid is.”
Gif, not wanting to venture too far into the room, spotted a wooden box on the nearby table and approached it slowly. Cautiously, he lifted the lid and looked inside. “Hmm. I wonder what this egg is for.”
“Egg? What egg?” said Frag. She ran up to the table and shoved Gif aside to see for herself. “It’s cracked!”
“What’s cracked?” asked Garf. He strode up to the table and gazed into the box. “You idiots! That’s not just an egg! It’s a dragon orb!”
“Dragon orb?” asked Gif.
“Are you sure?” asked Frag.
“Of course!” retorted Garf.
“Well, it’s broken anyhow,” said Gif.
“Not necessarily,” said Garf. “Remember the human necromancer Graf told us about? He activated a broken dragon orb and turned into a bone dragon!”
“He also told us it was pure luck it turned out that way,” said Gif. “Graf said that the magic stored inside a broken dragon orb is unstable.”
“It’s only a small crack,” mused Frag. “Maybe it’s not completely broken.” She reached for the orb.
“Let me!” interrupted Garf. He tried to reach past his younger sister’s hand.
“Wait!” exclaimed Gif at the same instant. He anxiously reached out to stop them. “You told us not to touch -!”
It was too late. Frag’s hand contacted the egg at the same time as Garf’s, and Gif was holding Frag’s wrist when it happened. A vibrating sensation traveled from the damaged orb up the trio’s hands and into their bodies.
“L-let go!” stammered Gif.
“I - I can’t!” cried Frag.
“S-something’s happening t-to us!” hissed Garf. “My - my body is changing -!”
Suddenly, the vibrating turned violent and a bright flash engulfed the three young lizards.
“Nooo!” they shrieked together.
Then, as suddenly as it began, the light and vibration dissipated.
Frag looked from one side to the other at her brothers. “Would you guys mind giving me some space?”
Graf tried to pull away and found he could not. He looked down and his eyes opened wide in shock.
Gif gasped and drew Frag’s attention. She saw her younger brother looking down as well. She looked down herself and stared when she learned what the others had already discovered. Protruding from what felt like her own body was her brother’s neck and head. She spun her head and stared into the face of her other brother, whose head also protruded from the same body. Dazedly, she looked down at her grotesquely deformed body.
The body was green like a lizard’s, but shaped like a dragon’s, with two large, clawed hind feet, and two slightly smaller ones in front. The front claws, however, were pressed to the ground due to the massive bulk of the body, which was a thick bunch of muscles used to keep the three necks and heads in position.
“What happened?” wailed Gif.
Frag spun on her brother’s head. “Shut up!” She turned to her other brother. “You’re the magical genius! How do we get out of this?”
“There are some spells I could try,” said Garf, “but I haven’t got any hands to cast them with.” He looked down with a worried expression.
Frag swore.
“At least our heads are unaltered,” said Gif.
Frag turned to yell at her brother again when a high-pitched, hysterical voice cut into her thoughts.
“Free at last!” it intoned. “Not the way I expected, but it will do.”
“What are you talking about?” demanded Frag, rounding on her older brother.
“I didn’t say anything!” protested Garf.
The voice chuckled.
“This isn’t funny!” shrieked Frag, turning to glare at Gif.
“It wasn’t me!” wailed Gif, drawing back.
The voice laughed again.
“Garf!” snapped Frag, rounding on her older brother again.
The voice laughed hysterically. “This is too much! But a small modification should make things even more interesting.”
Suddenly, another change began to take place. This time the three heads began to transform. The pointed lizard heads became longer and wider, and the nostrils grew in size. Teeth appeared in the mouths, growing to several inches, and jaw muscles grew and tightened around the massive jaws. The front legs also grew in size to better support the bulky body, and the claws stretched to curved, razor-sharp tips.
Frag, whose head was in the middle, panicked, and began snapping at her brothers, who retaliated in kind.
The voice laughed gleefully at the exchange. This was what it needed to maintain control of the body. As long as at least one head of the hydra was at odds, they all would be under the orb’s control. Only when the three heads were in agreement could the hydra act on its own.
The voice chuckled. A hydra was a powerful creature. It was strong, intelligent, and, more importantly, magic resistant …
* * * * *
It was dark as Alric the elf slunk along the streets of Greenwood, avoiding lighted areas and noisy inns. He was on a mission; two missions in fact. One was on behalf of the Dark Magic Society to which he belonged; the other on behalf of the thieves’ guild, of which he was also a member. He was proud of the fact that he was a member of both organizations, using one skill to aid or enhance the other. Among both guilds, he was respected and looked upon as an expert. More importantly, he was able to keep secret the fact that he was a member of both guilds. No one knew this but he, and he aimed to keep it that way.
Now, as he skirted past another inn, he concentrated on the tasks at hand. The dark magic society was an organization dedicated to the use of dark or ‘offensive’ magic used for the benefit of the elven nation. They had sent him to visit the lone human living in the community to see what he could learn about humans’ magic. He was to do this without drawing attention to the society.
