Dragon Sleeping (The Dragon Circle Trilogy Book 1) (35 page)

Charlie yapped happily, tail wagging, as he walked by her side, just another dog ready to play. Mary Lou tried not to look into his glowing eyes. Not only was his head changing shape, growing a hard, bonelike ridge above the eyes, but also she could swear he was about twenty percent bigger than he had been before. From the way he acted, Charlie didn’t seem to realize that anything was happening to him. One advantage of being a dog, she guessed.

The large man, the one Jason called Oomgosh, led the way. Not that the Oomgosh was entirely human. He had a stump where one of his arms should be, and out of that stump was growing a bright green shoot.

The Oomgosh was constantly telling stories, tall tales about how he made sure the rain and sun kept their proper places in the sky. Jason laughed at every other sentence out of the tree man’s mouth. Mary Lou couldn’t remember when she had seen her brother this happy.

Somewhere up above them, Raven flew, swooping down occasionally to tell them all was clear ahead, both on the ground and in the trees. Mary Lou hoped that meant the People had given up on her.

Of course, the prince was with them, too. Not that she could see him, but, the way he had talked, it sounded as if he felt his destiny and Mary Lou’s were intertwined.

She heard a cawing sound above. “The goal is near!” Raven called. “Your destination is only a few minutes’ march away.” With a flutter of wings, the large black bird descended to land on the Oomgosh’s shoulder. “I thought I should return so that we might prepare.”

“Prepare?” Jason asked. “Is something wrong?”

“Not if we are ready for it,” the bird replied curtly. “Most important, I need to be properly introduced. These people are new to our world. Without the proper arrangement, they may think me no more than a bird.”

“That will never do,” the Oomgosh said. “I will announce us.” He cupped his one hand to his mouth. “Hello, the camp!” he called in a voice loud enough to carry across half the island.

The air before them blurred with silver. Two hands appeared in the opening and pulled it wide. Mrs. Smith stepped through. Her wary look turned to a smile.

“Oh, it
is
you. Obar said you were almost here.” Her smile grew broader still as she spotted her neighbors. “Mary Lou, Jason! It’s so good to see you again. And this must be?”

The tree man bowed slightly. “The Oomgosh. Only another humble denizen of these woods.”

“And Raven!” the black bird called with a note of warning. “Only the most singular Raven!”

Mrs. Smith nodded pleasantly, charmed by the bird’s behavior. “Yes, Obar told me how important you are.”

“He did?” Raven ruffled his feathers. “Well, of course he did! Obar knows what is important around here.”

Mrs. Smith frowned when she looked at Charlie. “And who is this?”

“Nick’s dog,” Jason answered. “Charlie.”

“Oh, dear. He isn’t in pain or anything?”

“No, ma’am.” Jason looked down at the tail-wagging dog. “Charlie’s as happy as I’ve ever seen him.”

Mrs. Smith made soft tsking noises with her tongue. “Well, maybe there’s some way we can fix poor Charlie up. First, though, you should join us in the clearing ahead. It is just past those trees.”

But she couldn’t go yet! “Mrs. Smith?” Mary Lou called.

The old woman’s smile returned as she looked at Mary Lou. “Yes, dear?”

“There’s someone else that I’d like you to meet.” With that, Mary Lou wished the prince were by her side.

There was a moment of silence, but no prince. Where could he be?

“Oh, so I see,” Mrs. Smith said, as if nothing had gone wrong at all.

“Well, introduce us next time he appears, won’t you?” She waved to the others in the party. “I’ll meet you all in the clearing. These days, I’m afraid, flying seems much easier than walking.” She waved one more time, then popped from existence.

Mary Lou looked at the others and saw Jason staring at her. “Everything here has gotten weird,” her brother said. “Hasn’t it?”

“Just different,” the Oomgosh replied for her. “Everything here is just very different.”

“And Raven,” the black bird announced from the tree man’s shoulder, “is the most different of all.”

The tree man glanced down at Mary Lou’s brother. “And what do you think, Jason?”

“I think that’s all that needs to be said,” Jason replied with a shrug and a grin.

The Oomgosh’s laughter echoed across the forest. “Jason, you learn very quickly indeed. Come, let us meet the rest of your people.”

It was only a moment more before the trail they walked opened into the clearing. Mrs. Smith stood next to the ice cream man from the other night; Obar, Jason had called him. Mary Lou saw Mrs. Blake and Mrs. Jackson. And there, behind them, was her mother.

“Mom!”

“Mary Lou!” Her mother allowed herself the slightest of relieved smiles. “I’m so glad you’re safe! Jason! Come here and let me hug you!”

Jason ran in front of Mary Lou to meet their mother, acting more like a boy of ten than his current aloof fourteen. Mary Lou followed somewhat more hesitantly. Ever since that trouble with her older sister, her mother had seemed to want to keep her distance.

Mary Lou glanced at the others as she crossed the clearing. People looked different than they did back in the neighborhood. Mrs. Smith looked better than she ever had before; positively radiant. The others mostly seemed like they’d been living in the woods for the past couple of days, a smudged cheek here, and a torn sleeve there. Even her mother’s hair was starting to lose its shape.

“Hey, Mary Lou!” a boy’s voice called from farther back in the trees. She looked over and saw Nick. He tried to smile, but the expression didn’t seem to want to stay on his face. He looked a little wild, like he hadn’t slept in the past couple of days. One of his hands played with something at his belt. It looked like the handle of a sword.

“Hey, Nick,” she managed after a moment. She turned back to her mother for the requisite hug and peck upon the cheek.

“Oh, Mary Lou!” her mother gushed suddenly. “I’m so glad both of you are safe.”

“We’re all together now, Mom,” Mary Lou agreed. “Is Dad here?”

Mother frowned and pulled away. “Your father? No, he didn’t come with us. You see, we all escaped from this other fellow, Nunn—a terrible man. But your father, he wasn’t sure what he should do. You know Harold. He can never make a decision. So”—she paused to take a deep breath—“he stayed behind.”

“Dad stayed behind?” Jason cried in disbelief.

“You know your father,” his mother repeated, her tone even more disapproving than before.

He can never make a decision. Mary Lou knew what that meant. The only one in her family who could really make a decision—who was allowed to make a decision—was Mom. And if anyone disagreed, or put the family in a bad light, her mother turned away. After her older sister, Susan, got pregnant, it was like she no longer existed. Would the same sort of thing happen to her father, to Jason and Mary Lou, as her mother shut them off one by one? Mary Lou was surprised how clearly she saw this now.

“Charlie!” another voice yelled.

There was terrible pain in that voice: the sort of hurt and anger she felt deep inside but couldn’t express. She looked away from her mother. It was Nick. He had seen what had happened to his dog.

“Oh, dear,” Obar murmured. “This comes from that light-creature.

I’m afraid there’s been a—well—a bit of an infection.”

That didn’t calm Nick at all. “A bit of an infection?” he yelled. “Look at him! He’s turning into some sort of monster!”

Charlie barked for joy, happy to see his master.

“Hey, Nick,” Jason called. “Charlie’s all right! No matter what he looks like! He helped save my life!”

Obar nodded at that. “Inside, I think he’s still your dog.”

Nick turned away from the others to study the prancing Charlie. The tiniest smile tugged at one corner of his mouth. “C’mere, boy.” He waved the dog forward. “You and I can be monsters together.”

Charlie bumped his rough head against Nick’s knee. Nick scratched his dog behind the ear.

Monsters together? Mary Lou wondered what that meant. “Things sometimes change in this place,” the Oomgosh offered, “in order to survive.”

“I won’t let it!” Mary Lou’s mother burst out suddenly. “Nothing’s going to happen to my perfect daughter. Or my fine son!”

“Yes, Mother.” Even as she said it, Mary Lou knew that her words—and her mother’s words—weren’t true. And not just the part about the perfect daughter. Didn’t her mother realize that everything had changed already?

“So, did all the rest of the neighbors stay behind?” Jason asked.

This time Mrs. Smith answered. “Some of them did. They’re still back with Nunn. Your father, Mrs. Furlong, Mr. Jackson. And I think that a couple of the others are dead. But we’re still expecting Todd to join us.”

Todd was still all right? That made Mary Lou feel even better. She shouldn’t care about Todd at all with the way he treated her. Well, she didn’t care about him, really, especially when there was someone as fascinating as the prince around. But she could never quite shake the feeling that, under that rough exterior, Todd had a sensitive side that might really be worth getting to know.

“And we’re going to take back some of our own, too,” Mrs. Smith continued, “beginning with Bobby.”

“Bobby?” Jason asked.

“Nunn’s got him,” Obar explained. “Not a good situation, oh, no.” He looked to Mrs. Smith. “If we’re going to try and save him as you suggested, we should go as soon as possible.”

“Before Nunn does something really horrible to the boy?” Mrs. Smith asked.

“Both that,” Obar confessed, “and I would rather go before I lose my courage. Nunn and I have had fights before, you see.” Mrs. Smith shook her head at that. “But now you have the aid of a second dragon’s eye.”

“Yes, I do.” Obar smiled and shrugged. “Maybe this time will be different. Maybe this time we can do something to Nunn.” Mrs. Smith turned to the Oomgosh and Raven on his shoulder. “Thank you for joining us,” she said.

“It was our privilege,” the Oomgosh replied. “We don’t often meet folk as pleasant as Jason and Mary Lou.”

“Or as important!” Raven squawked. “We are all very important now, though perhaps none are so important as Raven.”

“Obar has told me a lot about the both of you,” Mrs. Smith continued before the bird could grow any more full of himself. “Although I am sure it is but one small fraction of the glorious stories either of you could tell. So we know a small piece of your history.” She quickly introduced Raven and the Oomgosh to the others in their small circle of neighbors.

“I am very glad you’re here,” Mrs. Smith continued to the bird and tree man. Mary Lou was impressed with the way the older woman was handling everyone. You might think she was the one with years of magic knowledge, rather than the somewhat distracted man by her side. “Obar and I need to leave here as soon as possible,” the old woman explained. “I would consider it a great favor if you were to stay here and watch over the others while we are gone.”

The Oomgosh nodded his leaf-strewn head. “It would be our pleasure.”

“Sounds like a very important task!” Raven agreed.

“Oh,” Mrs. Smith added, almost as an afterthought. “Four Volunteers will be coming with Todd. Please let them join us.”

“We know the Volunteers,” the Oomgosh said.

“Raven knows everyone!”

“I am not always certain that is an advantage,” the tree man commented. “We will be wary of all other visitors.”

“Good,” Mrs. Smith said as she glanced over at Obar. The wizard nodded back to her. “We will be going.”

And they were gone.

There was a moment of silence. What did one say, Mary Lou wondered, when someone popped out of existence right in front of you?

“What was that?” Jason asked, looking up at the trees.

So he had heard it, too? Mary Lou was hoping it was just her imagination. Only a few seconds after the wizards had disappeared, Mary Lou thought she had heard faint but all-too-familiar voices, high in the trees.

“G
ood boy, Bobby. If you’ll—” The voice started to cough. Nunn frowned. He was having trouble with Leo Furlong.

“Come on, now, Bobby,” he said, using Leo’s voice to speak to his son. “Don’t you see how much easier it will be if you just work with— “

The voice stopped abruptly for the second time, almost as if Leo was fighting him. That was ridiculous! When Nunn consumed his victims, he kept their personalities, but only for his own use, one small part of the original, which he employed for his own purposes. They were like ghosts that the wizard stored in the back of his mind, pale shades he could call forward and use whenever he felt it was appropriate. They were really little more than memories of the people once alive before they met with Nunn. Memories! How could a memory fight back?

Perhaps, Nunn thought, this was further evidence of his fatigue. He smiled at Bobby, his features rearranging themselves to the countenance he generally employed as a wizard. Furlong would be stored for use another day.

“Forgive me, Bobby,” he said quietly. “My timing seems to be off. But don’t you think it would be better to work with me than against me?”

The boy said nothing. He stared sullenly into another part of the room.

“You know, of course, that I could make life quite unpleasant for you,” Nunn mentioned.

“Keep away from me!” Bobby demanded. “I won’t talk to you. I want to see my father, my real father!”

Oh, dear, Nunn thought. It appeared that young Bobby would need to be taught a lesson. Nunn had to be careful about dispensing pain. He found he enjoyed it far too much. Sometimes it was very difficult to stop.

“Now, Bobby,” he said with the most charming of smiles, “I will teach you how very bad it is for you not to agree—”

His own voice stopped, as if, for an instant, he had forgotten how to speak. The smile fell from his face. Something was very wrong.

He took a deep breath. Perhaps he’d been holding himself back too much. He’d had other moments of fatigue, even moments when he’d lost the conviction that his plan would succeed. Perhaps he should give in to it, after all. He always felt much better once he’d caused somebody pain.