Page 59 of Dragon Fire

Gowan heard the telltale click of the dragons’ preparation to flame, but when the fire came, it came not from the two dragons standing behind their hapless partners, but from the hands of three humans—well, two humans and one royal black dragon. And the flames were not the normal red, orange and yellow of fire, but an eerie blue-green and purple mixture that put it in a category all its own.

Gowan looked again. The fire leaping from Princess Riki’s hands was the blue-green-purple, while the flames issuing from Sir Mace and Sir Drake’s hands was closer to the expected colors of fire, though meshing with Riki’s overpowering influence.

Riki’s fire was aimed at Jiffrey and Benrik while Drake and Mace took on their dragons, somehow stopping the flame in the dragons’ throats before it could issue out to fry the hall and all those in it. Something…melted away, was the only way Gowan could describe it…in front of his eyes as the magical flames worked on the quartet behind the high table.

It took long moments. Again, it felt like time slowed to a crawl while the magical fire filled the hall. When it was done with the leaders, leaving them limp and staggering, it wound its way around the hall, stopping here and there among the older knights. Not all were touched by it, but it seemed to consider each and every being in the Lair as it made its way around.

“What, by the stars, was that?” Gowan heard Jiffrey whisper as he leaned heavily against the high table. Benrik had collapsed into his chair, panting.

“It was evil, Sir Jiffrey,” Drake answered in a voice that carried. Gowan began to believe the stories about this handsome knight having the gifts of a bard. “The four of you were heavily bespelled. Tell me what you remember of the past weeks.”

“I—I…” Jiffrey stuttered, falling into the chair next to his fighting partner, rubbing his head. “Can it be that we…?” He turned to look at Benrik, his face growing even paler. “Sweet Mother of All. What have we done?”

“It’s more what you failed to do,” Prince Nico said.

The princess was still engaged in coiling the magical fire around the room, though both Mace and Drake had pulled their fire back. Riki, it seemed, was doing a more thorough examination of everyone present, sending her blue-green flames out into the crowd, and even out the door, into other parts of the Lair. Gowan realized she must be quite the mage to be able to power her spells all around the Lair.

“Gowan, the dragons,”Genlitha warned him a moment before both Tiluk and Anira collapsed, their long necks twitching as they seemed to lose consciousness in some sort of fit.

Drake and Mace raced around the high table, one on each side, moving swiftly to the fallen dragons’ sides. Drake took the female, Anira, while Mace concentrated his mage fire on Tiluk. Krysta stood watch over Drake’s shoulder and motioned for Gowan to do the same for Mace.

“What’s happening to them?”Gowan sent to Genlita.

“The mage fire is holding them here. The spells it dissolved were deep-seated and connected to their own magical core. How else could they be so corrupted? That’s all I can think of, and frankly, it scares me, Gowan. It scares me to my bones that a dragon could be so overcome by an evil spell. We have built-in protections against such things. That someone, somewhere, has found a way to override our basic natures… It doesn’t bear thinking about.”

Gowan had never heard that note of sheer shocked terror in his partner’s words before. If whatever this was had Genlitha this upset, it was something really awful.

“When you say,holding them here… Do you mean to say they are dying?”

“The evil spells that wrapped them in confusion and treachery must have drained them. When they were broken by the firedrakes, it left them open. Magically bleeding. Drained of magic, which to a dragon, means drained of life. The firedrakes are working now to help restore some of the balance, but it will be a long road to recovery…if they make it.”

Gowan was stunned. This was much worse than they’d thought. It wasn’t just laziness or old age that had made the leadership of the Lair shirk their duty. It was evil. Something outside had taken control of them all and made them do things they otherwise would not have done.

If such was the case, they were to be pitied, now that they were free of the taint.

Jiffrey was weeping, his hand clinging to his fighting partner’s arm. Benrik had struggled back to consciousness, but was staring at his dragon partner, the most heartbroken expression on his face that Gowan had ever seen.

Gowan took stock of the hall, evaluating possible threats. Several of the older knights were sitting hard in their chairs, looking as stunned as those at the high table. They would have to be examined once the immediate crisis had passed. But what about their dragons?

“Gen, can you tell if any other dragons have been struck down like these two?”Gowan asked her quickly.

“A few, but none as bad as these. The princess moderated her magic when she saw what was happening here. Her mage fire is holding them in place, not stripping them all at once of the evil taint. There will be much work to do here for her and the firedrakes, and it will take a long time for this Lair to heal. If it can heal at all. This is terrible, Gowan. Truly terrible.”

The next hours were spent going from chamber to chamber within the Lair in the company of the two firedrakes. Gowan hadn’t known what a firedrake was before today, but it seemed to have something to do with the ability to handle magical flame and root out evil spells. Both Drake and Mace were human firedrakes, apparently, and their dragon partners were able to help stabilize some of the bespelled dragons around the Lair.

One by one, they cleared the evil from each of the residents of the Lair that were affected. As they worked, Gowan tried to piece together a pattern in his mind based on who was affected. Most of the older knights were tainted, except for Seth’s parents, thank the stars. Once Gerard and Paton had been cleared by the firedrake magic, they and their dragon partners, Randor and Alirya, were put to work helping their comrades who were weakened by the loss of the evil magic that had surrounded them for who knows how long.

It was a long, long day. The affected were moved to the dining hall, which had been set up as a makeshift hospital. The Lair’s elderly healer, Bronwyn, had taken over the kitchen and was helping brew restorative broths for everyone and ordering special meals for the dragons who’d been afflicted. Seth could have been of great help here, but of course, he was still on Gryphon Isle. Paton pulled Gowan aside for a quick word, asking him to tell Seth that all was well with his family and they were very proud of him. Gowan was only too happy to agree to deliver the message.

Gowan realized, about that time, that he actually missed Seth. He’d become so used to working with him as his partner. They fit together comfortably, their skills complementing each other’s perfectly. Seth would have been a huge help here, both to Bronwyn and those she’d drafted to help her with basic healing and to shore up the fighting reserves. With so many senior knights down, the Lair was incredibly vulnerable.

Of course, there were two royal black dragons in residence, and it didn’t look like either Nico or Riki were going to be leaving anytime soon. Riki was doing her best to help heal those who had been laid low while Nico took on the running of the Lair, handling the administrative details that had fallen by the wayside under the previous leaders. He sent dispatches back to his brother, the king, in the capital and had pulled Gowan aside to ask about going back to Gryphon Isle as soon as Genlitha was rested enough to make the flight.

Gowan knew Nico would have gone himself to speak with Gryffid, but the situation at the Lair was dire. Instead, Nico prepared a series of messages for the wizard, which he entrusted to Gowan.

“I’m sorry to send you and Genlitha out right away like this, but it’s imperative we open lines of communication with Gryffid as quickly as possible,” a harried Nico told Gowan after summoning him to the messy office the previous leaders had used. “Thank the stars you and your friends took it upon yourselves to do the right thing. The problem here is much worse than any of us could have expected.” Nico looked grim as he sorted through scrolls, looking for another blank one. When he found it, he began to write rapidly.

Gowan felt relief, on one hand, that he and his small group of mutineers wouldn’t be in trouble with the crown for taking the actions they had. On the other, he lamented the seriously bad things that had happened to the leadership and key knights and dragons here that had required Gowan and company to mutiny in the first place. But at least things were being fixed now.

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