Dragon Kiss (22 page)

“And how would we ever find out why that stupid bird does anything?” Millie asked. “You’re not proposing that we go ask it, are you?”

“Not at all, but there might be someone we can ask. Let’s see if we can find him.” Spreading their wings, the dragon and the dragoness took to the air and circled once above the castle while Audun told Millie about the figure he’d seen sneaking toward the entrance to the tunnel. Together they landed beside the concealing tree and peered under the branches. There was no one in sight, so Audun pushed aside the leaves and entered the tunnel, not wanting Millie to be the first to confront whoever might be inside.

It took Audun a few minutes to find the block that opened the door. Even as the stone door groaned open, he could hear a man talking nearby. “Shh!” he whispered to Millie when she started to speak. “I recognize that voice.”

Moving as silently as a dragon could in a stone-walled corridor, Audun and Millie crept toward the sound. Rounding the corner, they saw a man outlined in torchlight. He wasn’t very tall in his long, flowing robes and his back was curved with age, but it was his distinctively shiny scalp that affirmed Audun’s first guess. Olebald Wizard was standing with his back to them, trying to get past the ghosts who blocked his way down the corridor.

“I don’t know why you keep trying, you old coot,” said a wild-haired ghost dressed in rags. He brandished a long chain with manacles attached to the end. Judging by the grating sound they made on the floor, they were far more substantial than the ghost. “My friend and I aren’t letting you by, no matter how much you wheedle and whine.”

“Quite right, Hubert,” a well-dressed ghost pointing a rapier declared. “Imagine, thinking he can sneak in here and infiltrate our castle right under our noses. As if we wouldn’t notice a buffoon sneaking around with a sack of rocks. We’re not letting you go anywhere until someone in authority . . . Ah, here are Millie and her friend now. We found this scalawag sneaking into the castle. What would you like us to do with him?”

Olebald turned with a start and noticed Audun for the first time. “It’s you,” he said. “Well, you’re too late. This castle is going to be destroyed and you can’t do a thing about it.”

“Is that so?” said Audun. He leaned toward the old wizard and exhaled a small puff of poison gas directly at his face. Olebald coughed and swallowed hard. Even in the wavering light of the torches, Audun could see the old man’s face turn pale. The dragon stepped back as Olebald lost his breakfast onto the floor. The wizard looked awful as he straightened up and gave Audun a baleful glare.

“The next time I breathe on you like that, you won’t be able to stand up again,” Audun warned him, his voice a deep growl. “Now, tell me, how did you lure that roc here?”

Olebald tried to laugh, but the effort made his face green. Even so, he gave Audun a defiant look and kept his lips pressed tightly closed.

Audun shrugged. “It’s your decision,” the dragon said, taking a deep breath.

“No, wait!” Olebald rushed to say. “I made the roc think its baby had been stolen and locked away in that tower. It won’t stop until it’s torn apart the entire castle looking for its chick.”

“Very clever,” Emma said, as she and Eadric squeezed past Millie. “So this is how you’ll get your revenge for the day I sent you to that island.”

Olebald smirked. “This isn’t about you—at least, not entirely. I wouldn’t even have thought of coming here if I hadn’t heard that the ice dragon was in love with your daughter. Just because King Stormclaw kept me frozen in his stronghold after I followed you from the magic market-place didn’t mean I couldn’t hear everything said around me. Those dragon guards were terrible gossips, but they couldn’t keep me locked away forever. After I escaped and learned that Audun had helped the old king run my protégé out of Aridia, I couldn’t resist coming back here and killing two dragons with one sack of stones, so to speak.

“I’m sure you recognize these, Audun,” the old wizard said, kicking the sack that rested beside him so that a pile of green stones tumbled out. “But you wouldn’t, would you, Emma? I had Rudolfo scatter stones like these throughout your castle while he was here pretending to court your lovely Millie. When I saw all of you come out of that hidden entrance, I couldn’t resist bringing in more stones.” Turning to Emma and Eadric, Olebald grinned. “You never did figure out that Rudolfo is Prince Jorge’s nephew. The entire royal family of East Aridia hates you for defeating us when we invaded Greater Greensward and for making Jorge marry the troll queen.”

There was another loud crash and the castle shook so that dust filtered down around their heads.

Olebald Wizard chortled. “That roc will have your entire castle down around your ears, and the stones Rudolfo planted will keep you from doing anything about it!”

Emma gave Audun an inquiring look.

“I don’t know what the stones are exactly,” he told her.“I just know that they keep magic from working in their presence.”

“He may have planted some,” said Emma, “but he couldn’t have put them everywhere. No one can get in my tower rooms when I’m not there.”

“And that protection spell you put on Grandfather worked just fine,” said Millie.

“Rudolfo couldn’t have put them down here, either,” Emma added. “Or you wouldn’t be trying to do it now, old man.”

“He tried to shove a stone in a crack in the wall, but Hubert and I stopped him and made him put it back in his bag. We’ve been watching him every minute,” said the well-dressed ghost.

“In that case, I can take care of them right now,” said Audun. Snagging the sack with one talon, he shuffled backward down the narrow corridor, turning when he reached the corner. He was back a minute later without the sack.

Everyone looked up as another chunk of the tower came crashing down.

“That roc isn’t going to give up until it finds its baby,”

said Audun. “And since there is no baby to find . . .”

“We have to do something!” said Millie. “Mother, do you have a spell that could turn it into something else? A butterfly, perhaps, or a hummingbird?”

Olebald’s eyes were bright with glee when he said, “Regular magic won’t do anything to a roc. Even if she could change the bird, it could just become something worse.”

“I’m afraid he’s right,” said Emma. “I tried to change a troll once. All I did was make him odder looking and give him a love of cheese.”

“Then I say we should give the roc exactly what it wants,” said Audun. “I know where there’s a roc nest and there were chicks in it the last time I looked. For all I know, this might even be the parent of those very same chicks. We could go get one of those babies and bring it back here. The problem is that the nest is days away.”

“My magic can take care of that,” said Emma. “I can get us there in an instant, as long as you can give me a good description of the nest and the area around it.”

“That won’t be a problem,” Audun said, remembering the distinctive stone formations that surrounded the nest.

“I’ll have to go with you to bring you back,” Emma added.

“I’ll go, too,” said Millie. “You might need my help.”

“And mine,” said Eadric.

“No!” protested his wife. “You’re staying here. You’ve already fallen off my back once today.”

“I wouldn’t bother going if I were you,” Olebald said, looking smug. “Magic won’t do you a bit of good once you get there.”

“You know, old man,” Emma said, turning on the wizard with her eyes flashing, “I’m sick and tired of you and your pronouncements. I think you need to leave, and this time I want your banishment more permanent. Let me see . . . How did that spell start? Ah, yes . . .”

Go to the isle of sun-warmed sand

Where I sent you once before.

Stay there ’til your life is spent

On that far and distant shore.

“Not again!” wailed Olebald, as a tiny whirlwind rose beneath his feet. “I hate getting sand in my clothes! And I think I’m allergic to shellfish! Don’t do this to me . . .” The old man’s voice trailed off as the swirling wind engulfed him and carried him down the corridor and out of sight.

“And now,” said Emma. “About that nest . . .”

Not knowing what they would encounter at the roc’s nest, Emma turned back into a dragon before saying the spell that would carry them to Aridia. Audun’s description of the nest and the stone formations around it were very complete, so it didn’t take her long to find it. Her magic took them to a spot just above the nest so that they were looking down on it from the sky. Even at a distance, the two chicks looked enormous. Seeing that neither of the adult rocs was present, Audun and Emma decided to take the chance and assume that the roc destroying the castle was one of the parents.

“So,” said Emma, eyeing the two chicks, “which one should we take?”

“They’re both so big,” breathed Millie.

Audun shook his head. The last time he had seen these babies they had been the size of large horses; they were now the size of full-grown male dragons. Even Emma, the oldest dragon there, was smaller than either of the chicks. “We should take that one,” he said, pointing to the smaller of the two.

“Audun and I can distract the other chick while you take that one back, Mother,” said Millie.

“I shouldn’t be long,” said Emma. “I already know what I’m going to say.”

While Emma descended to the edge of the nest closest to the smallest chick, Audun and Millie began harrying the larger of the two babies. Millie dove past and the baby snapped at her with its wicked-looking beak, but didn’t come anywhere near her. It was ready, however, when Audun flew close, because it hopped into the air three times higher than he would have thought possible and almost caught him. After that, Millie and Audun were more cautious and tried to keep its attention from a distance.

“Is everything all right?” Audun called to Emma when more than enough time had passed for her to have taken the baby back.

“No, it’s not,” she replied, sounding exasperated. “My magic isn’t working. I’ve tried and tried, but I can’t move this bird.”

“I was afraid of that,” said Audun. “You heard what Olebald said about magic not working here? He probably planted some of those stones in this nest.”

“You mean like that one?” Millie asked, pointing at a stone buried so deep among the intertwined branches that it would have been impossible to remove.

“And those,” Emma said, gesturing toward a scattering of smaller stones in the bottom of the nest.

Seeing how many stones there were, Audun wondered why he hadn’t noticed them before, even if he had been kept occupied with the baby bird. “We won’t be able to move the chick with magic, at least not from the nest. We’ll have to get it far enough away from here that your magic will work again, Emma.”

“It looks awfully heavy,” said Millie.

“I’m sure it is, but we can lift it if we all work together. I’ve done something like this before,” he said, failing to tell them that that time it had been in water.

Pulling out some of the enormous vines that held the nest together wasn’t easy. It was even harder to tether the larger chick to the opposite side of the nest to keep it away while they wrapped more vines around the smaller of the birds, pinning its wings to its sides and securing its lethal beak and talons. Once the baby roc was trussed up like a chicken, Audun took a loop of vines in his own talons and beat his wings, struggling to lift the chick high enough that Millie and Emma could get underneath. With the two dragonesses pushing from below, they were able to raise the bird to one of the neighboring pinnacles, where it struggled to get free while they caught their breath.

“Where are you going . . . to put the baby?” Millie asked her mother.

“The base of . . . the tower,” Emma replied. “If it’s still there.”

Audun held his breath as once again Emma tried to take the chick back with her magic, exhaling loudly when both dragon and chick disappeared. He’d scarcely had time to wonder if he and Millie would have to fly back when Emma reappeared and touched her wings to theirs and then all three of them were perched on the parapet where King Limelyn had been standing only hours—or was it minutes—before.

“Look!” Millie said, gazing down at the rubble where the tower had stood for hundreds of years. After screaming her rage for so long, the mother bird’s cry was a hoarse bleat, but even those unused to the sound of a roc’s voice could tell when it changed from anguish to delight. Peering down through a gap in the floor below her, the roc cooed to her chick, ripped up the floor with her beak, and plucked the hefty youngster into the air with her massive talons. Screaming in triumph, the enormous bird beat her wings and rose into the clouds, heading west toward Aridia.

Although most of the castle’s inhabitants had fled into the surrounding fields and forest as the roc demolished the tower, they returned now, singly and in groups, laughing aloud in their relief that the attack was over. “Do you see your father or your grandparents?” Emma asked, looking worried.

The three dragons sat side by side, watching for members of the royal family. Audun was turned around when he heard a small sound behind him. Something moved beneath a patch of crushed stone, which shuddered and fell in a small avalanche down the side of the wreckage. A moment later, You-too emerged, fluffing his feathers and preening with his beak.