The Dragon Guard (6 page)

“A Sending? That takes a bit of strength.” Freyah watched him thoughtfully.

“I don't know what it was. He bumped me around a bit and talked trash.”

Isabella frowned until Allenby leaned over to whisper something to her, his words fluttering the feathered fan on her hat, and then she laughed slightly. “Jonnard is more his mother's than his father's son.” But she did not explain what she meant by that, as she redirected her attention down the table.

“What do you think he wanted?”

“I think he wanted me to know he was back, and it's war between us.”

“This is, of course, not good.”

Jason nodded in agreement.

“They could,” Khalil said slowly, as if choosing his words very carefully, “end us all by forcing us out into the open. But I cannot feel they want to do that, for it reveals them, as well. And removes us as targets they can drain.”

“War between us is what put all of us in jeopardy. You didn't react to him, did you, Jason?”

“I tried not to.”

Allenby fussed with his briefcase, then took a handkerchief out of his coat's inner pocket and mopped his head with it. “Surely you know what you did.”

“I was playing soccer,” answered Jason firmly. “For the semifinals! I got around him as best as I could.”

“Soccer is more important than your life as a Magicker?”

“No. Well, this time it was. But I couldn't reveal myself to anyone, and no one else saw he was even
there
.”

“This is serious, Jason, and I'd like to think you took it seriously.”

“I did!” Jason stood up. “What did you expect me to do? What he wanted me to? He wanted me to use Magick on him. He wanted me to break the rules. What would you do to me then?”

“Don't raise your voice, young man, we understand your point,” Freyah said firmly.

“No, I don't think you do. Every night, you come in here and sit down and bicker, and get mad at me ‘cause I'm not doing what you think I should, when you guys can't even agree what it is I should be doing. And, I'm out there, every day, trying to be myself
and
be a Magicker, without much help from anyone else. I'm just trying to warn everyone that the Dark Hand is ready to move again.”

Isabella stood, with a swish of red satin, and a wavering of the fan in her hand. “Then, I suggest, young man, that you get ready to move us to safety!”

“I'm doing all I can.” Jason stared at her.

“I'm too busy for this,” Isabella announced to everyone and no one in the room. She pulled one dangling crystal earring from her ear, looked into it, and was gone.

Jason sighed. He stepped back as another argument erupted around the table as to Jonnard's intentions and the strategy for dealing with the Dark Hand. He'd done what Tomaz had asked him to, and what good had it done? No one had really listened. He rubbed his palm over the crystal he still gripped and in a long moment, he was gone, too.

He found himself standing on the fallen page in his bedroom. He moved off it. Photography and computer techniques, the page read. Jason sighed. He tucked his own crystal safely away and took out the lavender one.

After very long moments, he felt Tomaz's presence in it.

“Jason,” Crowfeather said solemnly. “I can tell by your expression it did not go well.”

“I think everyone is mad at me.”

“Did you expect anything else? You brought news of a fight to them. No one in history has ever taken such news well.” He smiled, and then behind him, Jason could see a world, in dusk, and it was not the world he'd been born in. “I have many travels before I can return. Will you be all right until then?”

“Oh, I'll be fine. I always am.” Jason managed a grin.

“That is good.” Crowfeather turned his face a little then, as if listening to something behind him. He frowned. Then he said something very odd. “Whatever it is that happens to me, Jason, I ask you not to tell anyone of it.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Do I have your word on this?”

“But—”

“You will keep this secret?”

“I guess, but—”

A howl cut off the rest of Tomaz Crowfeather's words. A great darkness swirled through the crystal and across the landscape where Crowfeather stood. In it Jason saw and could almost smell the running figures of wolfjackals, growling and snarling, their jaws gaping open and their teeth glowing an eerie yellow green. The immense beasts raced through ebony darkness, surrounding the elder Magicker. The cloud encircled Tomaz and then . . . he was gone.

“Tomaz!” Jason juggled his crystal in his hands, trying to locate him, trying to see more clearly.

He heard one last ringing howl, and then nothing.

A
DULL thump hit the carpet by the side of his foot, and Jason jumped. He looked down to see the lavender crystal roll to one side before settling. He didn't remember dropping it, he thought, as he stooped quickly to retrieve it. First law of Magicking was: Never Drop Your Crystal.

Of course, as he learned more, he realized that the quartzes and gemstones were just for focusing his own inner power, so it was really a matter of . . . Never Lose Yourself. And he had, if only for a moment or two, while watching Tomaz being swept away. He stroked his fingers over the faceted stone. He still didn't know much about the minerals, even though he'd always intended to study them. He though this might be a morganite. If so, it was valuable because of its size and nearly flawless planes. Even more valuable was the presence of Gregory the Gray he could sense within, and the power that could flow through it. The crystal was far more powerful than his first bonded stone, and he'd admitted to Gavan that he was a little afraid of it.

Rainwater had teased him mildly about that, and then taught him another trick or two about meditating upon the object. Gavan Rainwater held a bit of showman about him, acted a little flamboyant. He was very young for the leadership he'd taken upon himself, and that was part of his cover. He knew the Dark Hand didn't take him as seriously as they should, and that was fine with Gavan. “Lad, there's nothing wrong with being underestimated, as long as you don't underestimate yourself! Know your strengths.”

He didn't, yet, Jason thought, as he warmed the stone between his hands. He did know he wasn't strong enough to go after Tomaz and help. And he wasn't sure he could be strong enough to do as Tomaz asked, and tell no one, although knowing
why
might have made it a lot easier.

Why didn't Tomaz want anyone knowing what he was doing, and why would he not want help if something happened to him?

Jason shivered. He'd been so close to Tomaz, linked with him . . . and he'd never felt any fear, even as the beasts swept around him. Whatever it was, Tomaz seemed to know what he was doing, for Jason hadn't sensed a single wavering of the Magicker's strong will. He'd have to find hope in that. And, perhaps, even in another source.

He sat down at the computer and opened himself up to a different kind of magic. With a few key taps, he found Rich online, with Stef almost certainly sitting on the overstuffed chair in the den behind him, probably munching on something and reading a sports magazine. Rich confirmed as much with a smiley face as he typed in,

Quick as a flash, Henry was on, with a new SN “theSquibbler.” Despite his worries, that made Jason laugh aloud. He could almost see Henry peering at him, then taking notes as his habit had become. For without notes, his Magick (like his life) seemed to be in a chaotic jumble which Henry muddled through with typical good-naturedness, if slightly worried about the outcome. Quicker than he got in trouble, Henry greeted Jason and asked what was going on, and had he heard from Bailey and Ting.

“No,”
Jason typed back.
“Not recently. I just had to attend a Council meeting, and I want everyone to join me in a chat.”

“Tell me about it.”
Jason then messaged everyone to follow him to a chat room. As if knowing they were being thought about, Ting signed on, and then Bailey bounced into the chat room with a
“Hi! Hi!”

Trent signed on last, his typing in spurts, just like his tendency to whistle or hum song snatches came and went, his fingers often drumming.
“What's happening? Do I sense trouble—
➡
at Bailey. What did Lacey steal now? Heya, Henry. Ever get Lantern under control?”

Lantern was the ability to send one's crystal into a well-lit glow, like lantern light. Henry often started a fire instead. He used to practice Lantern wearing heat-proof oven mitts at camp.

“Rut-roh,”
broke in Rich.
“Stef wants the keyboard!”

Jason sat back in his chair as his computer screen filled with smiley faces and all sorts of other symbols and message jargon in a storm of color. He laughed, for Stef was more and more like the overgrown bear cub that was his shapeshifting other self, rather than the bear cub growing more like the teenager Stef. He waited till the flurry of symbols died away before typing,
“Heya, Stef. Okay guys, this is a little serious. I had to go visit the Council tonight.”
He waited until they'd all communicated their sympathy for that one.

“So,”
Trent typed, “
the real question is: what did they want?”

Jason found himself sighing as he responded.
“They want a Gatekeeper who can actually find Gates.”

“What? Two aren't enough for them!”
He could practically hear Bailey's outraged huff.

“I understand what they're saying, though.”
That was Ting, thoughtful as always.
“We need a place where we can safely go and train. Maybe even hide.”

Amid a cloud of emote symbols, Stef managed to type,
“Ida join the circus.”

“Who's Ida?”
asked theSquibbler.

“HENRY,”
wrote Bailey.
“Stef means he would . . . I'd join . . . the circus.”

“It's always the last place you look,
” Rich wrote, after successfully wrestling the computer keyboard away from Stef, for the snowfall of colorful smiling faces and other emotes disappeared and words took their place.

“I'm not the freak. He is. I'm just the friend of a freak.
”

“Explain,”
typed Trent.

And so Jason did, telling them all about the ninja-styled Jonnard who'd appeared and challenged him. That stunned them all into computer silence, except for Henry who typed
“Woah”
over and over. Or maybe he leaned on the repeat key by accident.

“Anything! Everything.”
Jason stopped, and took a deep breath. What could they do? He didn't really know.

“First of all,”
Trent wrote,
“we all need to be looking around carefully. Maybe we can spot something Jason can't, because he's blind to it. Second, we need to watch each other's backs if Jonnard and the Dark Hand are getting ready again. Third, we need to stay in touch with each other, no matter what.”

“Anything and everything,”
Trent shot back to Henry.
“Something that is kinda out of place, but not really. Or something that should change, but doesn't.”

Ting wrote, and Jason could also see her shy smile as she did,
“Then Bailey had better clean her room so we can see better.”