Backyard Dragons (9 page)

Not wanting to argue in front of the girls, he walked with his wife to the hall beyond the living room. “I’m sorry. This can’t wait.”

She covered her face and rubbed her eyes. “Jay, you know the first day at the store is always hard on me, especially since it’s the day before Thanksgiving, and I need to make the pie, and you forgot the butter. How am I supposed to make an apple pie without butter?”

Thinking back to his trip to the store, Justin remembered Missy whining about being bored the entire time. When he’d turned his back on her to get milk, she’d bolted. Five minutes later, he’d found her surrounded by picture books on the floor.

“I’m sorry. You’re right. I let Missy distract me too much. I’ll stop for butter on the way home, I promise.”

Marie took a deep breath and gave him a weak, tired smile. “At least let Drew finish the dishes. You didn’t do them before you left.”

Though judging Kurt was much more important than something as mundane as dirty dishes, Justin nodded. “It can wait a few minutes.”

“Thank you. Is any of this going to spill over into tomorrow?”

He wanted to promise he’d be around all day. With Claire here, they could divide and conquer the girls. Maybe he could lounge on the couch in Jack’s basement den and watch some football.

“I don’t think so.”

Marie gave him a quick, light kiss. “Good.”

More than anything, he wanted to sweep her off her feet and carry her to the bedroom to lavish attention on her for a while. Missy screamed in the other room. With a sigh, he squeezed Marie’s bottom and let her go to deal with the disaster. He ducked into the bathroom to avoid being drawn into it.

By the time Justin returned to the main room, Drew had finished the dishes and Marie had Lisa coloring at the table while Missy played with her stuffed unicorn by the couch. He chose not to interrupt the tenuous peace and beckoned for Drew to follow him outside in silence.

In the mud room, Drew shrugged into his jacket. “What’s going on? Is Claire in trouble?”

“No.” Justin pushed the boy ahead of him to where Tariel snacked on tall grass near the driveway. “I ran into someone you need to meet.”

Drew set his foot into the stirrup and took Justin’s help launching himself into the saddle. “Someone? Who?”

Hauling himself up behind Drew, Justin wondered why he wanted to be so coy about the matter. He gained nothing from keeping the kid in the dark. “I believe he’s your grandfather.”

“What?” Drew cranked his body around to peer up at Justin with his brow furrowed. “How?”

“It’s complicated.” Justin turned Drew around to face forward as Tariel walked down the driveway. “The important thing is he wants to see you.”

Tariel launched into a gallop down the street, making further conversation impossible. That suited Justin fine. He didn’t know what else to say about the subject, especially not to Drew. If it was Claire, they’d talk about Phasms and identifying corruption in them. They might also discuss how to cross into a Phasm’s demesne and how things worked on the other side. None of that would help Drew, though.

His thoughts wandered back to Marie. Her seasonal job at the nursery her sister worked for always ran her down. In January, when the job ended, he could expect her to come down with a wretched cold. He needed to do something for her, maybe something to help her stay healthy. She always wanted wool socks. Flowers or chocolates would make her smile, but wool socks would make her happy. Maybe he could find gloves and a scarf to go with them.

Of course, he had no money to get these things, but that didn’t have to stop him. In an emergency, he had no trouble bending or breaking a law or two. He’d certainly done it before, and he’d definitely do it again. This counted as an emergency, of sorts.

Several minutes later, Tariel slowed to a stop in front of Anne’s house. Justin flipped his cloak aside to let Drew see the place.

“He lives here?” Drew asked.

“Sort of.”

“He’s squatting in the woods?”

Justin hopped down and helped Drew dismount. “Not exactly.”

They heard the flock of dragons chirping before reaching the trees. The silver creatures clustered around the hollow stump, some perched on edges and broken branches, others lounging inside it. He grabbed Drew’s jacket and hauled the boy stumbling past the flock, ignoring how the kid gaped at the creatures.

He reached the nearby sycamore. With a simple press of his will, they left the normal world and entered Kurt’s demesne. The sunset remained as breathtaking as it had been before. Justin had seen it before and didn’t care. He looked around, finding nothing but sand, water, and grass. “Kurt? He’s here.”

Drew turned all around, eyes wide with wonder and mouth hanging open. “Where are we? How did you do that?”

“Didn’t tell him a thing, eh?” Kurt appeared behind them. “Damn, you’ve grown, boy. Last I remember, you were maybe this tall.” He held out his hand, indicating roughly three feet tall, and smiled wistfully. “Spitting image of your dad.”

“What?” Drew turned and blinked, staring at the misty form of Kurt. His mouth opened and shut several times until he finally poked Kurt’s arm. Drew pulled his hand back, rubbing his finger against his thumb. “Whoa. What
is
this place?”

Justin smirked. “It’s your grandfather’s demesne.”

“This is really…wow. But, um, where is he?”

“Right there.”

Drew frowned at Kurt and cocked his head from side to side. “No, that’s not—”

“It’s all right.” Kurt chuckled. “You only ever saw me old. This is what I looked like in my twenties.”

Justin shrugged. He’d expected this to be different, smoother. Drew should’ve been overcome with emotion. Instead, he seemed confused and didn’t even recognize his own grandfather. “He’s a ghost, Drew. He died about a month ago.”

“But—”

“Death doesn’t stop a Knight, right, boy?”

“No, sir,” Justin said with a grin. “It sure doesn’t.”

“Wait—”

Kurt set his hand on Drew’s shoulder, and the boy’s mouth snapped shut. “How about you give me a little time with the kid? He probably needs the whole spiel. That’d bore you to tears. Besides, I got a few private things to say.”

If Drew came out possessed, Justin felt certain he’d notice. Now that he knew how to get into and out of Kurt’s demesne, taking care of any corruption should be a simple matter. “Sure thing. Send him through when you’re done, and I’ll take him home.”

With Drew seemingly deep in thought and Kurt waving him away, Justin backed out of the demesne and returned to Tariel. She stood beside the house with Anne petting her nose and offering her an apple. Tariel inhaled the fruit.

“He’s a big jerk, isn’t he,” Anne cooed at the horse. “I’ll bet he never feeds you properly. A magical creature like you probably needs all sorts of things he won’t make the effort to give you.”

Justin scowled. “Yes, she starves regularly. That’s why you can’t see her ribcage.” He sighed and rubbed his face, trying to wipe his weariness away. “All the same, do you happen to have some oatmeal I can give her? It’s been a strange day.”

“I might.” Anne patted Tariel’s nose affectionately. “I’ll go check. In a bowl?”

“Anything big enough for her to stick her mouth into is fine. Thanks, Anne.” He watched his sister-in-law disappear inside the house. After the door shut, he noticed how quiet this area was. At home, he could always hear birds chirping, kids screaming, small animals chittering, kids shouting, and frogs croaking.

“I hate oatmeal, and you know that. It’s mushy and gross. Are you trying to irritate me on purpose?”

“No, I tried to pick something simple, fast, and warm. Aren’t you starving to death?”

“Yes,” Tariel grumbled. “How long are we staying here?”

“As long as Kurt wants to talk to Drew. He won’t be able to get home otherwise.”

“He has a bus pass.”

“Marie is already frazzled enough. Let’s get her babysitter home as soon as possible.” Justin patted Tariel’s neck and cocked his head to the side. He still heard nothing. “There’s no ur-phasms here.”

“Good. One more reason to believe Kurt isn’t corrupted. That makes everything easier.”

Something seemed off about that to Justin, but he couldn’t imagine why. Tariel was right. They had no reason to worry about Kurt. He needed to be watched, certainly, but not quite so closely. “I don’t think we should introduce Claire to him. Not yet, anyway. She’ll only get confused and try to stab him.”

“Agreed. I’m amazed
you
were able to see he’s not a threat.”

Justin raised his fist to rap Tariel on the nose for being a snot, but Anne returned, carrying a steaming metal mixing bowl. She gave Justin a dark, superior look while he turned the gesture into scratching his cheek.

Anne held the bowl where Tariel could stick her nose into it. “Are you staying for dinner?”

Justin glanced at the woods, wishing Kurt and Drew would hurry. “I hope not.”

Chapter 13

Claire

Chewing the last bite of the best sandwich she’d ever had, Claire watched Enion crack sunflower seeds open while Rondy sipped from a mug of tea. Her dragon sat on a saucer, having already devoured a layer of other seeds. Beside him lay a carrot stick with tiny grooves where he’d gnawed on it. The celery stick on the far side of the plate had only one bite missing. Enion now knew he didn’t like celery.

Rondy sat opposite her at the sturdy wooden picnic table, a half-eaten bowl of broth and vegetables warming his hands. With Claire eager to avoid encountering too many Knights too fast, they’d made lunch in the kitchen, then found a small, empty room nearby.

“I’m pretty sure I need to check out those other stories,” Claire said, “but why did Iulia break the seal? That seemed pretty dumb to me. I mean, she loved Caius, right?”

“Caius later had her executed without questioning her, so we’ll never really know. All the stories are told from a Knight’s perspective, not hers.”

Claire picked up the celery stick and tapped it against the table, not sure if she wanted to eat it or not. “Why’s she got such a prominent, detailed picture, then? I mean, shouldn’t the story of how the Palace became a thing be more important?”

“Caius decided how to arrange the stories. At the time, the sting of her betrayal presumably shaped his opinion on a great many things. As you’ll discover in the earlier stories, he loved her with his whole heart and soul and wanted to protect her. Though he tried to shield her from his efforts to create the Palace, it’s likely she knew the danger she unleashed when she broke the seal.”

“Okay, hang on. Caius created the Palace? Why? It’s great and all, but without it there wouldn’t be Knights. And without the Knights…there wouldn’t be Phasms. Right?”

Rondy pushed his bowl aside and laced his fingers together. “Records from before the Palace are minimal and of questionable quality. We don’t truly know everything that prompted Caius to create the Palace, nor do we understand the mechanism that causes Knights to become Phasms.

“What historical records do exist clearly show that evidence of the supernatural declined significantly after the Palace was constructed. The rise of science had something to do with this, of course. Most people no longer attribute diseases to curses. On the other hand, we know kraken existed. They haven’t been a problem since the Palace. Likewise for dragons, hydras, giant wolves, and other beasts now believed to be mythical.”

As he spoke, filling the small room with his rich, melodious voice, Claire decided she preferred this method of storytelling over being tossed into a vision. Justin probably felt the same way, which explained how he knew so much and so little at the same time.

“Does it block good stuff with the bad?”

“More than likely, yes. The darkness held back more than justifies it.”

Claire took a bite of the celery, mulling that over. Giant super-monsters sounded pretty bad, but if heroes could use superpowers, that seemed like it would balance the whole thing out. Then again, only a few weeks ago, a minor ghost puff had almost murdered Justin’s family and Claire along with them. Someone operating right under Justin’s nose had managed to bind Enion’s entire flock against their will. Those heroes would wind up acting like police all the time, squashing monsters and probably power-mad wizards and things.

“Okay, so here’s what I don’t get about all this. Actually, there’s lots of things, but this one is bugging me right now. What’s Enion?”

The dragon froze in the act of biting down on a seed. “Me?”

“Yeah, you. In that history vision-thing, dragons were sealed away and Iulia broke the seal. I’m guessing Caius eventually won and made another seal or something. That dragon looked like it wanted to rip him a new one, and he seems like the kind of guy who wouldn’t just let that happen. Thing is, that dragon looked just like Enion, how he appeared when we faced Caius to make my dagger. He really doesn’t look like that right now. He’s tiny. What’s the deal with that?”

Rondy gave Enion his attention. “Yes, Caius did create another seal, of a sort. It was different, as he’d seen first-hand the folly of having such a thing so easily destroyed with one stroke of a sword. There are now groups of five sites all over the world. Caius traveled extensively using the power of the Palace, even to what is now America. Each cluster serves a piece of the original seal’s purpose. Breaking one seal accomplishes little. Breaking all five seals of one group releases only that one binding.

“The records regarding the new seals are unclear, possibly on purpose. I believe he designed them to somehow diminish the mystical creatures that still exist. What the Palace does—I think, and among other things—is not allow such creatures to be created in the first place. That is, before the Palace, conditions existed for dragons, kraken, and unicorns to be created through mishap or accident. Evolution, perhaps. After the Palace, no such new creatures have come to be.

“The seals, then, probably bind the existing creatures. There are accounts of the early Knights hunting such creatures down, but it’s reasonable to assume they weren’t all found. Thus, Enion. Thanks to a set of five seals someplace, he’s diminished.”