bedeviled & beyond 06.5 - bedeviled & bah humbug (8 page)

Ralphy’s lips curled. “The Grinch considers himself the anti-Christmas. He started heating the woods about a year ago, claiming that his woods wouldn’t be celebrating winter or the most magical time of the year.”

Knowing what I did of the nasty green guy I wasn’t surprised. “So this woods belongs to the Grinch?”

“Yes.”

“And yet it never occurred to you that those prints might belong to him?”

Ralphy looked like I’d smacked him ’tween the eyes. “The Grinch would never step foot in the workshop. He’d rather get gaily wrapped gifts for Christmas.” Ralphy shuddered at the very thought.

“It seems an obvious connection to me. In fact, I actually felt his magic signature in Santa’s office.”

Ralphy’s beady elf eyes grew wide. “That’s a damn lie!”

I was pretty sure elves weren’t supposed to swear. I was about to tell Ralphy this when I noticed a crumpled piece of paper lying on the ground.

A clue!

Reaching down, I picked it up and pulled it flat. It was a flyer advertising a rendition of The Christmas Carol that was playing in downtown Angel City. I’d gone to the show several times in the past and it was very well done. “What would this be doing here?” I asked Ralphy.

Ralphy shrugged. “Santa sends one to the Grinch every year. He always tells us he’s going to talk the Grinch into going with him some time.” Ralphy’s little face took on a dreamy quality. “Santa never gives up. He’s the most determined man I’ve ever met.”

Judging from the fact that the flyer was scrunched into a ball on the ground, I was guessing that Santa would have to dig much deeper into that determination before he talked the Grinch into attending a play that celebrated the wonder of Christmas. “Maybe next year.” I murmured.

Ralphy just nodded. “Can we go back to the workshop now?”

“You can if you want to. I need to talk to the Grinch.”

Ralphy’s little shoulders drooped but he fell in beside me as I headed more deeply into the woods. The path we were on was narrow and the woods grew darker and creepier as we progressed.

Soon the reassuring sound of the wind creating icy drifts in pristine snow gave way to strange chirpings and unfamiliar screaming coming from the dark woods. Every once in a while I’d catch a glimpse of glowing orbs peering at us from the shadows.

The orbs would disappear in the blink of an eye and I’d be left with nothing but a growing sense of unease.

“It’s not too much farther.” Ralphy told me.

I’d noticed his steps had slowed and his worried gaze swept the area more cautiously the farther we got away from the snowy plains around Santa’s workshop. I opened my mouth to ask him why, but never got the chance.

The air in front of us suddenly exploded with flame and the sound of wings pounding the air thundered down on us. I grabbed Ralphy and leapt into the trees at the side of the path, hoping the green dragon pounding the air above us would lose interest if it couldn’t see us.

The dragon decided to fire the trees instead, in an obvious attempt to flush us out. All around us trees smoked and sizzled, but appeared disinclined to ignite.

Unfortunately, Ralphy wasn’t so lucky. The ball on the top of his stupid hat ignited in a flash, and flames crawled quickly over the soft material.

I reached over and yanked the hat off his head. “Hasn’t Santa ever heard of fire retardant fabric?” I shook my head, pulling my power forward. “Stay here.” I stepped back out onto the path and looked around, searching for the green scaled, red eyed fiend.

The not too distant thrum of heavy wings on the air told me the big reptile was circling around for another shot at us. Unlike last time, I’d be ready when it returned.

The green dropped out of a thick bank of snow clouds, its block-long wingspan undulating lazily against the sky as it prepared to dive for me again.

Fire erupted from its snout, the bright red of the flame looking kind of Christmasy against the massive creature’s green body.

The dragon pulled its wings back and stretched its neck in classic dive position.

I pulled power into my fingertips and waited for the green to get closer, planning my attack for maximum damage.

Power popped and sizzled around my hands, behind me, Ralphy whimpered in a less than manly way. I opened my mouth to tell him to man up but a dark shadow suddenly appeared in the sky above me and to the right.

I jerked my gaze in that direction and my mouth dropped open. Then another shadow appeared. And two more, coming from the other direction.

As the massive dragons dropped down from the sky, toward the green, I opened my mental drawers.
Hey, Glynus! Fancy meeting you here.

Mother halfling. Did you forget I was here visiting Snoopy’s family?

I snorted, while sending censure through my mind.
Glynus, he’s going to be king of the whites someday, you really shouldn’t call him that.

What? He likes it.
The elegant black dragon threw back her head and screamed, the sound bringing the rogue green out of its dive, its head jerking upward in alarm. When the green saw my tadpole heading straight for it with fire in her pretty eyes and her contingent of faithful white dragon subjects, the rogue gave a single, alarmed bellow and veered off, leaving me to deal with the future queen of the white dragons and her fiancé, the gorgeous and humble Spencer.

“Is that Glynus?”

I turned to find Ralphy standing right next to me. “Yes. And her boy toy, Spence.”

Ralphy’s small face was pointed to the sky, his expression awed. He’d put his charred hat back on and it sagged pathetically. “She’s gotten big.”

I smiled sadly. “She has, hasn’t she? And beautiful.”

We watched as Spencer shot fire into the sky and roared at his guards to hang back, then he and Glynus headed straight for us.

Ralphy took a step back. “Has she learned to land better?”

I laughed. “I’m pretty sure she has.”

The elf frowned. “Pretty sure?”

“You might want to just step into the trees in case.” I was teasing him of course. Glynus was no longer the clumsy, gawky teen he’d met the previous year. She’d grown a lot in the last months, as dragons tended to do. But then I realized she was going to try to land in an area that wasn’t even as wide as her legs.
Um, Glynus?

Yes, Mother halfling?

I don’t think you and Spencer are going to fit.

But they just kept coming.

I think you’ll be surprised.

Glynus...

They neared the tops of the massive trees.

Glynus! 

I looked at Ralphy. “Okay, I was kidding before, but I’m not now. They’re about to crash and burn. You’d better step into the trees.”

Ralphy shook his head. “It’ll be okay, Astra.”

The two dragons were ten feet higher than our heads and half a block away when their massive legs dropped and they spread their wings to slow their momentum.

“Glynus, no!” I started toward her at a full out run. Not sure what I was going to do to save her, but going on pure instinct. I’d been her protector for two years and it was a hard habit to break.

To my shock, Glynus laughed in my mind.
It’s okay. Really, Mother halfling. See?

To my amazement the two dragons landed safely and gently, only the wind from their wings creating a stir as the trees in the wood somehow gave way to their enormous bulk. In fact, as I watched in amazement, all of the trees disappeared around us, leaving behind a vast wilderness of frigid, white beauty as far as the eye could see.

“It’s an enchanted forest, Astra. It was never really here.” Ralphy supplied helpfully.

I glared at him. “Thanks for telling me. After I almost had a heart attack.”

We were back in the vast wasteland surrounding Santa’s workshop. And in the distance, without the obscuring trees to hide it, a single mountain range loomed.

The Grinch’s mountain.

High in the central peak, a dark archway rose in jagged splendor. And standing at its center was a small green and red speck, whose hostility somehow wafted across the space between us.

The Grinch.

CHAPTER 3

The air above the vast wasteland that is the North Pole was even more frigid than the air on the ground. Glynus’ heat kept me from turning into ice, but just barely. At the moment it seemed ridiculous to be worrying about the North Pole warming.

Flying solicitously close beneath us, Spencer spread an impressive set of glistening, white wings and all but disappeared from view against the snowy ground below. Only the vibrating red and green rodent riding on his back, wearing a charred stupid hat, broke the endless span of sparkling white.

Ralphy clutched one of Spence’s spikes in both gnarly little hands, his knuckles bright white. His eyes were tightly closed and his formerly rosy face was almost colorless. He was terrified.

I grinned. That’s what he got for shifting me into the workshop nakies.

Spencer sure is handsome, Glynus.

Her response was a fire tinged snort.

And he seems very sweet.

She turned her head, fixing me with a beautiful turquoise eye.
You sound like my mother.

I sort of am...a surrogate mother anyway.

She shrugged.

Spencer pounded the air hard with his huge wings and rose up beside us. He turned a bright, green eye on Glynus. I could tell they spoke to each other on a mental path and wondered what they were saying.

Spencer suddenly lifted his head on a roar, and several massive white dragons shot toward us across the sky, sliding in behind us in the shape of an arrow.

What is it, tadpole?

Greens. Lots of them.

I frowned.
I thought the whites and the greens had reached some sort of a truce?

The queens have. But there are factions of greens who do not wish to follow their queen’s dictates.

The Hell dragons.

Yes.

The previous year, Glynus and I had been in Hell at Christmas. Our unfortunate assignment had been to discover how hundreds of green dragons were escaping Hell. They’d been running for their lives, essentially. Hell’s sulfurous fumes were growing steadily thicker and it was poisoning them. Especially their young.

We learned that Ralphy the quivering rodent had released a few of them to the North Pole before we could stop him. There were a lot of problems with that, but the biggest one was that the Hell greens were hot blooded dragons, having spent most of their lives in the steamy environs of Hell. And being in a snowy wasteland was no doubt making them cranky.

Are they working with the Grinch?

It would appear so, yes. He’s most likely promised them an end to Santa and the workshop. They seek to engage the Escendo Prophecy.

Ahhh. So that’s what he’s up to.

Yes. Snoopy and I have been keeping an eye on the cranky little green creature for months. However, last evening our queens demanded our presence at a bridal meal.

I could clearly hear the disgust in her tone.
And the Grinch chose last night to snatch Santa and set the Escendo Prophecy into motion?

It would appear so, yes.

The Escendo Prophecy tells of a time when Santa and Christmas no longer exist. The outcome of that eventuality is in question. Some read the prophecy to foretell the end of the North Pole, thinking that, without the magic and hope engendered by Christmas and its perpetrator, Santa, the whole geographic area would dissolve in upon itself and just disappear.

Others believed, as the name Escendo implies, that the climate of the area will reverse and become tropical. It was easy to see why the greens would want the latter outcome. But I suspected the Grinch was interested purely in squelching everybody’s good time.

That would explain why temperatures have been changing,
I told Glynus.

We have noticed too. Though it is still painfully cold, at this time of year the cold is usually deadly. Each day that Santa is missing and Christmas is in danger grows the prophecy’s tendrils exponentially. It is one of the most quickly growing prophecies we have.

Then I guess we need to stop it.
I grinned at Glynus as she turned her head and showed me her teeth. Reaching down, I rubbed my dragon’s broad, glistening black shoulder in her special place and she wriggled happily, giggling in my mind. No matter how big, how old, or how elegant Glynus got, I knew she would always be my tadpole. It had been too long since Glynus and I had fought a worthy battle together. I had to admit I was looking forward to it.

Shall we go kick some Grinch ass, Mother halfling?

Spencer’s massive, white head came up and he fixed us with a bright green gaze, bobbing his head in the affirmative.

I smiled at him.
Spencer
?

Yes, Mother halfling.
His voice was very deep, with just the tiniest bit of squeakiness at the end that told me he was still growing.

I laughed. I hadn’t known Glynus was sharing our mental path with her future mate. That was the moment I realized my baby girl had grown up...and that she was happy with her mate. Soon she’d be an old married dragon.

But she’d still giggle when I rubbed her shoulder.

Welcome to the family, Spence. We’re strange and a little on the cranky side...

Glynus snorted.
Wait until you meet auntie Myra.
She told him.

—
but we stick together and take care of each other.

His grin showed massive teeth so white they made me blink.
Thank you, Mother halfling. I am honored to mate with Glynus. She is the most beautiful and brilliant creature I’ve ever met.

Glynus snorted, but I could feel her pleasure in my mind.

I’d been watching green army in the distance grow larger as we approached. I hated to ruin the greeting card moment with harsh realities, but it appeared the greens would arrive within the next several moments. And from what I could see there were lots of them.