Page 36 of Riding My Dragons

It was a scan of Jenna, lying in the grass, unconscious.

Scales broke out on my back and shoulders.The human part of my skin turned red.“Damnit!What did they do to her?Did Cade’s family do this?If they did that to her and think no one can touch them…”

”No,” said Byron, shaking his head and taking back his mirror, gazing into it with fire in his eyes.“It wasn’t theTaisce’s.It was whoever they’re working for.Cade says they drugged her with a tranquilizer claw.Right here, out in the open, someone just came and…”

The sound of Cade’s muffled voice coming through the mirror cut him off.Byron put the mirror back to his ear to talk to Cade again.While he did, I stood there clenching and unclenching fists that were turning to dragon claws.

“Okay,” said Byron finally.“You go on to where Ross told you to go.We’ll leave now and meet you there.And whatever you do, Cade, try to keep a grip on yourself.We’re all going to have to keep our wits now.Right.Yes, we’ll think on our feet, but we need clear heads now, whatever shape we’re in.All right, Elliot and I’ll see you there.”

As Byron ended the call, I asked, “Where are we going?”

”The client moved up the deadline on the Taisce’s,” Byron explained.“They want the box now, and sent directions for where they want Cade to bring it.So, he’s going there and so are we.”

My heart felt as if it were a prisoner, pounding on my ribs like the bars of a cage.“Where is it?Where is Cade going?”

”It’s this place where…,” Elliot began.And right in the middle of his sentence, another sound cut him off.It was the sound of another incoming mirror call—but this time not on Elliot’s mirror or on mine.

The call was on the mirror in my hand.Jenna’s mirror.We looked at Jenna’s mirror and our jaws dropped open.

“Do you think it’s them?” I wondered aloud.

“Answer it!” Byron said.

Shaking, I took Jenna’s call.From the other end came an unfamiliar voice, a man’s voice.“Jenna?”

For a second, Byron and I stared mutely, shaking our heads at each other.Then I answered Jenna’s caller.“Who is this?”

On the other end, the man sounded as baffled as I was.“What do you mean?Who is this?Who are you?Where is Jenna Callaway?”

I felt the spines breaking out along my neck as my anger at Jenna’s abductors flared up.“What do you mean, where’s Jenna?Don’t you know where she is?”

The man said, “I wouldn’t ask if I knew.And who are you, answering Jenna’s mirror?”

”My name is Elliot Ladon.Now are you going to tell me who you are or not?”

”I’m Neal Callaway,” the man said, sounding as impatient as I was.“Now for the last time, tell me where Jenna is right now.”

We blinked, startled.Byron and I both recognized that name.Byron said in a hush, “Neal Callaway?Remember back at my place?Didn’t she say that was the name of…?”

I finished for Byron, talking into the mirror.“Jenna’s uncle?Is that who you are, Jenna’s Uncle Neal?”

”Yes, young man,” said the voice on the other end.“I am Jenna Callaway’s uncle.We call each other regularly to stay in touch.Her call is overdue.What are you doing with my niece’s mirror?”

Feeling just slightly calmer, knowing I wasn’t necessarily talking to an enemy, I explained, “Mr. Callaway, I’m a…friend of your niece.”That was the best way I could put it, not prepared to tell him exactly how “friendly” with his niece I actually was.“Sir, I don’t want to upset you, but I think something might have happened.My other friends and I are trying to find her too.”

”Good Lord,” said Neal Callaway.“Where was Jenna the last time you saw her?”

”She was on a transit, heading back to campus.That’s where we are now.We came looking for her and…Sir, we only found her mirror.”

”No…no, no, no,” Callaway said, and I could just picture the look on his face.The best word that I knew for the way he probably looked was “stricken”.He went on, “And this is right after that break-in at the University warehouse last night.I don’t think this is a coincidence.These two things happening so close together, no, it’s no coincidence at all.”

”We don’t think so, either, Sir,” I said.Then I had the presence of mind to ask, “Mr. Callaway, do you have any idea what it was that someone took from that warehouse?”I was careful not to mention who took it.That might have given him the wrong idea, make him suspect something was out of joint.

Callaway said, “It’s something from the Old Wars between Scalers and humans.Some information that no one was supposed to have—top secret.We suspect a soldier on the Scalers’ side was trying to get it into the hands of whoever was meant to use it, but he didn’t live long enough to fulfill his mission.People collecting artifacts after the wars were over must have picked it up and not realized what they had, and it went into the University’s collection of war relics.Someone must have hacked the warehouse inventory and tracked it down.”

“But what is it?” I asked intently.“Do you know?”

The human replied, “If this is what I and some people I’m working with think it is…it’s something not to be talked about here and now.We’re going to have to meet in person, in a protected location.”

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