Page 68 of Cast By Flames (Dragon's Breath)
He took a deep, calming breath. “What made you look this time?”
“I slept terribly last night,” he said, features drawn enough that it was believable. “There was a large lump, and it drove me crazy for hours until I finally decided to look.”
Aidan gestured at the ancient and worn book. “Very well. Now you have it, but what has it told you so far?”
“To be honest, it’s in several languages, most of which I don’t know. I will need time to translate it all, but I found a few pages in our native tongue.” He reached forward and opened the tome to a marked page. “This one in particular is most concerning.”
There was a drawing of a strange face, or perhaps a mask? Aidan read the passage below it and tensed. It was a warning about toxic magical gases the Kandoran formulated to target humans, infecting anyone who breathed it. It wouldn’t work on dragons or slayers due to genetic differences, but everyone else would be susceptible. The sketch showed the type ofprotective device to use.
"What are we supposed to do? It’s not like we have time to make enough of these strange masks for our human forces or the supplies.” Aidan clenched his fists. “And this picture hardly provides a blueprint for their construction.”
Kade’s artistic skills were average at best, as shown in his childlike sketch.
His uncle shrugged. “I’m only showing you what I found. I still don’t remember drafting the page or any further details.”
Bailey entered the office. She took one look at him and furrowed her brows in concern. “What’s wrong?”
Aidan gestured for her to come to him and enveloped her in his arms. He breathed deeply of her scent, which somehow made his headache more bearable.“Kade found his book.”
“That’s great news,” she said, pulling back a few inches to gaze up at him. “So why do you look so stressed?”
“He still has to translate most of it, but a few pages were somewhat…decipherable.” Aidan pointed toward the tome. “As you can see.”
She turned in his arms to look where it sat open on his desk.
“Why is there a military gas mask drawn on there?” she asked after studying it. Most likely, she could read a few of the words, but she wasn’t fluent in the language yet.
“Kade says we’re going to need them.” Aidan went on to explain the rest of what the page said. “I don’t see how we can manufacture these to work properly, much less in time.”
She drummed her fingers on his desk. “Tinker should have some, but I’m willing to bet there are still a bunch at Ft. Sill since that was a training base and had active duty units. I can’t imagine why anyone would have bothered to loot them. Until now, chemical warfare has been the least of our concerns since dragons returned.”
“So these exist already?” he asked, relief filling him. That would make things considerably more manageable than trying to assemble them without proper directions.
She nodded. “Yes. There should be loads of them at all the military bases and maybe some at police and fire stations, but are we sure they’d work against magical gases?”
“The page says the binding ingredients in the gases won’t be able to get through the filter, and without that, the magic can’t work,” Kade replied.
Bailey’s eyes narrowed. “Wheredidyou find the book?”
Aidan grunted. “Under his bed.”
“Seriously?”
“In my defense, I do not think it was there before last night,” Kade said, shrugging. “Books of magic tend to have minds of their own and do as they please.”
Bailey rubbed at her temples, as if she were starting to develop a headache as well.His uncle tended to have that effect on people. There were times such as now that Aidan understood why his father had confined his uncle to the library for centuries.
“I miss when the laws of nature and physics worked properly,” she sighed.
He gave her a commiserating look.
“I know Tinker is in our territory,” Kade said, returning their attention to him. “But where is…Ft. Sill?”
Bailey drew a deep breath. “Uh, it’s in Kandoran territory, but not too close to the shield. Miles and Justin are familiar with military bases, so they could point out the likely mask locations for us to look.”
Every time they sent people into that land, things went wrong.Aidan’s headache took a turn for the worse as he mulled over whether the expedition was worth it.
“Will there be enough for all our human forces?” Kade asked.
