The Dragon's Secret (The Fay Morgan Chronicles Book 2) (5 page)

BOOK: The Dragon's Secret (The Fay Morgan Chronicles Book 2)
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I cursed and jumped to my feet. I ran at the nearest wall and punched it with my fists. I spun toward Merlin and kicked him in the gut. He howled and punched my leg as he doubled over.

Just as quickly as it had arrived, the hellish red light faded away. The world turned suddenly drab in the backwash of magic. A deep emptiness filled me for all that I had lost. All that I had outlived and what was the point of any of this? It was all death in the end. Nothing mattered.

Some small part of me knew that this too was part of the magic, and we had to do something and quickly. I was barely able to speak with the crushing sadness bearing down on me, but I muttered, “Make a following.”

Tears streamed down the wizard’s face as he ran toward his satchel. He grabbed a glass orb from it and flung it at the suite’s tallest window, uttering a low stream of words as he did.

Instead of smashing through the window’s glass, the orb sailed right through it and flew up into the air. The orb spun and bounced as it chased the red magic that receded through the sky. It would follow the magic back to its origin. When it found it, the finding orb would hover above wherever the magic was and be a beacon for us to follow.

I wiped tears away from my eyes as the magical sorrow began to drain from the room. “What was that?” I whispered. “Not even a dragon can lose that much magic and be okay. He must be searching for someone who can follow his magic and save him.”

“Y Ddraig Goch must be desperate for any and all kinds of help,” Merlin agreed. “Within his magic I felt a threnody.”

“A death song,” I agreed as I wrapped my arms around my shivering core.

Lila groaned in her sleep. Despite the commotion, our two friends were both still asleep and pressed close to each other. Lila lay curled up in a fetal position. Tears streamed down her face.

Merlin noticed and frowned. “Only the magically inclined would have sensed the dragon’s sorrow. What kind of creature is Lila, Morgan? I’ve been wondering for a while. Have you put some kind of glamour on her to hide her? She seems outwardly normal.”

“She is no danger to you, and she needs my protection.”

“Let me guess, she’s an unusual creature, hunted and rare. She’s from a race with a horrible yet undeserved reputation of evil.”

“What do you know?” I asked coldly.

He laughed. “I know nothing, but I do know Morgan le Fay loves the ugly beast with a heart of gold.”

“When I get my memories back, you won’t be able to taunt me all the time.”

“Aye, lass. I won’t be able to do much of anything with you,” he said and turned away. “Now, on to the business of finding and saving this dragon.” He picked up his black bag and thrust his arm inside, all the way up to his shoulder.

“We can stop off at my shop and load up on spells,” I said. “Probably a good idea to check on the frozen dragon, too. And we still don’t know what relic they have, so we should bring a wide array of spells.”

Merlin nodded, still facing away from me. He spun around swiftly and threw something at my face.

“Widdershins,” he said as flecks of metal confetti hit me.

They wiggled and wormed their way across my cheeks and into my ears, eyes, nose, and mouth. I gagged and tried to spit them out as they invaded my throat and then pulsed down into my belly. They surged downward still, until I felt the bits of metal settle into my ankles, knees and hip joints.

“No,” I said, and ground my teeth. I braced my muscles as I fought the compulsion spell for a full two seconds before I started walking widdershins: counter-clockwise. I walked in a circle around the room, my legs moving swiftly. “You did not just put a spell on me, Merlin Ambrosius,” I said. “Unbind me.”

Merlin looked at me as I marched around him in a circle. “You really thought I would take you into this battle? These men seek
me
, Morgan. Not you. I long ago wronged the Red Dragon. Today I will set that right or die trying, and I won’t have anyone I love be hurt in the process. This is my journey, not yours.”

I stomped past him. “I will break this spell before you even leave this room.”

Merlin shrugged. “I bound together a couple spells to keep you busy, my headstrong lass.”

I swore and said some unmaking words as I touched the spelled button on my shirt. My spell flared, but I kept walking around the room. I touched my ring to my lips and muttered “amddiffyn, amddiffyn.” A strong protection spell coursed through me, but Merlin’s spell was wound too tight inside of me. On I marched.

“Damn you, Merlin.” I stomped my bare feet on the ground. “Adam. Lila, wake up!” I shouted.

Neither stirred.

“A sleeping spell?” I asked. “Leaving us behind has been your plan all along?”

“I have lived a long time, Morgan. Perhaps too long. It is lonely to be in this world, and being near you? It only makes me ache with the fact of how soon you will be gone again.”

“Then I promise I won’t leave you. I vow it. Undo this spell.”

“That you cannot promise, not without knowing your own self,” he said quietly. “But worry not, lass. There’s fight left in this old dog. I may still surprise everyone. Myself included.” He put on his inky-black coat and hoisted his satchel over one shoulder.

“This is idiocy. You know I am an asset in battle, Merlin. You know you are weaker without me.”

“Yes. Always, my love.”

The windows flew open and a cold wind blew in. Merlin took an oaken staff out of his black bag, hit it on the ground three times, and rose into the air.

“Don’t do this,” I pleaded. “You can’t—”

He flew out of the window.

“Leave me,” I finished, as I walked around and around widdershins, cursing the name of the only man in my whole life who had ever known me. Who I had ever loved. I might not know my own memories, but of that much I was certain.

 

 

 

 

 

9

The Flying Carpet

“Lila! Adam!” I flung cold water from a kettle at them. It had taken me twelve rotations past the stove and sink to fill it up, and another four circles around the room to get near enough to the couch to get them wet. “Wake up or I will throw boiling water on you. Wake up or I will set this penthouse on fire,” I yelled.

Neither stirred. On the next rotation I got in a good slap to Lila’s face as I passed swiftly by.

“Morgan?” she slurred. “What. The. Hell?”

When I circled back around Lila was sitting up and blinking slowly. She yawned and started to lean back toward the couch.

“Fall asleep again and I will break your leg,” I threatened.

“Seriously. What the hell?” she said, sitting fully upright.

“A sleeping spell. Stand up and make some coffee. Go.”

I yelled baseless threats at her until she was drinking a dark and bitter brew. “A sleeping spell?” she asked and yawned.

“Yes. Merlin is acting the martyr. He has left us. We have to follow him. Wake Adam.”

“Okay.”

Lila kicked Adam a bunch of times before he woke up growling. She gave him coffee and explained what was happening.

I circled around them and wasted seven different spells on myself as I tried to stop moving.

“You must sit on me. Hold me down,” I ordered them when I was out of ideas and spells to try.

“What?” Lila asked, looking alarmed.

“Do it. It will break this damn spell.”

Adam nodded, stood up, and clobbered me from behind as effectively as any football player. Lila sat on my shoulders and he sat on my back as I struggled with all my force to get up and keep walking widdershins.

A humiliating five minutes passed before my body stopped struggling and the spell was broken.

“The things you ask your shop-girl to do.” Lila said as she hopped off of me and offered me a hand up. “I totally need a raise. Just kidding. That was way funner than dusting.”

“Where did Merlin go? How can we help?” Adam asked.

I looked at both of them: sleep-rumpled and young. “You two can help by staying here and waiting for further instruction. I will—”

“No,” Lila said.

Adam crossed his arms over his chest. “Merlin needs us. You need us.”

“You have no idea the dangers we will find,” I said.

“Exactly. Merlin saved me when I was a werewolf about to murder lots of people. I owe him. And we may not be magical like you two, but we’re better than nothing.”

Lila nodded. “For reals. You can’t be mad at Merlin for ditching you, and then ditch us. We’re coming with you or we’re going to sit on you again.”

I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my nose. They weren’t wrong. I needed all the help I could get. “You will do what I say. You will leave if and when I command it.”

They nodded.

I sighed. This battle was so unknown. Perhaps they could help in some small way.

“Then let’s be gone,” I said and walked to the ancient Persian rug that lay on the ground near the suite’s biggest window. I’d noticed it the first time I came to this penthouse, and had a good guess of its true nature. “
Ryg hedfan.”

The rug did not move.

I frowned. “Rise up.”

Adam smirked.

“What?”

He shrugged. “Just thought you should know that Merlin is a huge Gandalf fan.”

“Really?” I said and sighed. “That man. Then I suppose

F
ly, you fools
.”

The flying carpet rose a couple inches into the air, giving us a moment to sit down and get our bearings before it carried all three of us out of the room and into the morning sky.

 

 

 

 

 

10

Kikimuris

We sailed across the heavens with a cold wind whipping all around us. Lila and Adam clung to the edges of the carpet at first, but before long they were holding their faces up to the weak morning sun and smiling. Nothing good was coming, yet it was a simple human joy to delight in flight and motion. I peered down on the city, lovely in its miniature form, and searched for any beacons pulsing with Merlin’s magic. We flew over downtown and then up to Capitol Hill.

“Shouldn’t we stop by the store?” Lila asked, shouting over the wind.

I shook my head. “There isn’t time. Merlin will try to act quickly as he knows we’ll be coming. I have some spells on me. They’ll have to do.”

I catalogued my spells as I flew: a black leather bracelet that was a distraction spell, two silver rings that were truth spells, another ring that could transmogrify, three bobby pin protections, and the buttons sewn into the bottom hem of my shirt that were concussive spells. I didn’t fool myself that any of them would best men who controlled a dragon, owned a relic, and would potentially have turned Merlin to their cause by the time we got there. But no spells would. Wits would have to win the day, not magic.

We circled above the city, moving across the Central District and Beacon Hill, until I saw the bright flash of Merlin’s silvery beacon to the south.

We flew there in minutes, and the flying carpet touched down gently in the parking lot of a large warehouse at the southern industrial edge of the city. I bade the rug to hide out of sight, and then studied our surroundings. The warehouse was beige and tall with only a few small windows, high up. There was some kind of dampening spell wound around the place and I couldn’t sense magic within. The place had a small door at the front of it.

I stood there a long moment. I needed information. “You two go in the door. Act confused and genial and leave within five minutes.”

“Confused? We got this.” Lila said.

I pulled out two of my bobby pins and whispered “
diogelwch
” as I gave one to Adam and one to Lila. “Be careful in there. Eat and drink nothing. If your gut tells you it is time to run, run.”

Lila kissed my cheek and then marched toward the door, arm in arm with Adam. I wanted to hold them back, but there was no use wasting their diversion.

I silently and swiftly rose up into the air as they knocked on the front door. I flew up to the nearest window, three stories up, and muttered a couple of words as I pressed my onyx ring against the glass. The window turned ephemeral at the same time I heard the door open below me and a man’s voice ask, “What do you want?”

I stepped into the warehouse room and stood balanced on an exposed wood rafter. Waves of powerful magic hit me from all direction, and I swayed back and forth as I clenched my jaw and closed my eyes. Each magical strand carried a different scent and feeling, some of them reeking of Merlin’s magic, some of them the Red Dragon’s. I had no choice but to let them wash through me as I willed myself to acclimate. When my head finally cleared, I looked down, still dizzy, and saw that none of the five men below had noticed me.

Perhaps because a very enthusiastic Lila stood laughing and explaining that she and Adam were on a geocaching expedition, and maybe they had made a wrong turn, but wow, cool warehouse, and this didn’t happen to be the place where there was a cache, was it? She giggled convincingly and touched the arm of the nearest man. Good girl, I thought. I’d been teaching her some of the tricks of feminine wiles, and she deployed them well. I looked away and focused on the room.

BOOK: The Dragon's Secret (The Fay Morgan Chronicles Book 2)
2Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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