The Unbearable Lightness of Dragons

Chapter Five

“This is so Mission: Impossible! It’s just like the old days when I helped you out, Mayling!”

The expression on May’s face was completely missed by her oblivious twin. “Er . . . yes. Aisling, what do you see?”

“Two guards along the south side, just as Drake said there would be.” Aisling lowered the night vision goggles and lifted her wrist to press a button on her watch. “The new shift should be coming in another fifteen minutes.”

“Are you sure this is the time to be doing this?” I frowned into the darkness. The house loomed up as an inky shape against an only slightly lighter sky. Fantastically shaped blobs of darkness lay scattered between us and the house, giving the eerie sensation that the house was guarded by more than just a handful of dragons. I eyed one of the shapes, convinced I had seen it move, but I knew it must just be a trick of the dim moonlight. They are only yew hedges, I told myself. They just happen to look like mangled, unspeakably frightening beings. “The new guards will be wide-awake, won’t they? They’ll have a better chance of seeing us than tired guards.”

“True, but the shift change gives us a couple of minutes when the guards’ attention is on each other, rather than the house,” Aisling pointed out. “That’s the best time to make our move.”

“Don’t worry, babe, we’ve done this before,” Jim said, snuffling my leg. “When Ash and May broke into the vault at Suffrage House, they did it right at a shift change, too. Worked like a charm.”

“I don’t mean to make trouble, but I’m a bit worried about my magic. It was never very reliable, and I haven’t had a chance to try it out since Dr. Kostich gave me the Grace of the Magi. I used to suppose things went wrong because I lacked the skills to control the magic, but now I gather that’s because I’m not supposed to be able to use magic at all due to the dragon inside me. Did that shrub just move?”

The three women turned to look where I pointed.

“I don’t think so. Do shrubs move on their own?” Cyrene asked doubtfully.

“No, of course they don’t,” May said calmly.

“Not normally, but what if those aren’t ordinary shrubs?” I asked, watching one of the dark blobs with suspicion. “What if Drake did something to them?”

“Man, someone’s going to give me the heebie-jeebies if she doesn’t stop with all the inanimate-objects-moving-on-their-own bit,” Jim muttered.

Aisling snorted. “I assure you he hasn’t done anything other than make sure there’s round-the-clock security on the house, and let me just add that it wasn’t easy getting details on exactly who is here on guard duty, and when the shift change happens. I had to pretend I wanted to stay at this house in order to get the details, and even that wasn’t easy. We’re just lucky he had to go to Budapest for a couple of days to take care of some business concerns, because there is no way in Abaddon I could have slipped out without him knowing I was gone. Jim, stop leaning so hard on me. The bushes aren’t evil. Ysolde is just seeing things.”

“I’m sure it’s just the moon going behind the clouds,” May said after giving the shrub in question a considering look.

“Hmm.” I looked at my own watch. Twelve minutes to go. “Is Gabriel away from home, as well, May?”

She smiled. “Home as in his house in Australia? No, we’re still here in London until a few things are taken care of.” She gave her twin an odd look, but Cyrene, sitting on the ground with her back to a tree, was too busy sending a text message to notice.

“Actually, I meant is he gone from your London house, so that you could help me out with this project.”

“Oh, no. He’s in England.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Did you have to go into the shadow world to sneak out?”

“I didn’t sneak out.” Her smile widened. “Gabriel’s here. Well, in Reevesbury, not out here with us, obviously.”

Both Aisling and I gawked at her.

“He’s right here?” Aisling asked.

“That Gabe’s a deep one,” Jim said as it wandered over to Cyrene, where it peered across her shoulder to read what she was texting. “Whoa, you’re saying that to Neptune?”

“Jim!” Cyrene shoved it aside, hastily tucking her phone into her pocket. “It’s illegal to read someone’s text messages!”

“In town here, yes,” May repeated, dragging her gaze off her twin.

“Is Brom with him?” I asked, worried that Brom might somehow get involved with my plans.

“No, he’s still in London with Maata and Tipene. I believe they were going to have a mummy movie marathon tonight. We thought it was best he stay there until you pick him up tomorrow. You didn’t want Gabriel to bring him, did you?”

“No. Not that I think there’s going to be any trouble, but I’m much more comfortable knowing he’s out of the blast zone, so to speak.”

May took in our worried expressions. “Don’t worry that Gabriel’s going to do anything to interfere with our plans. He realizes that this is probably our best shot of getting Baltic to lift the curse. Plus he never really saw the reasoning in keeping Thala prisoner any longer.”

“A sane voice in a crowd of maniacs,” I murmured.

To my surprise, Aisling laughed. “If you knew how often I’ve thought that about dragons . . . But you gotta love them despite their archaic rules.”

Aisling, May, and I smiled. I thought of Baltic, so infuriating at times that he made me want to pull out my hair, and yet so filled with love that just thinking about what he’d been through had the power to bring tears to my eyes.

“Why don’t you try your magic now?” May suggested as Cyrene rejoined us, Jim following her. “We’ve still got nine minutes. It would be a good opportunity to see if this Grace Dr. Kostich gave you will help.”

“Good idea.” I looked around for something upon which I could cast a spell.

“Oooh, magic!” Cyrene said. “I love magic. Can you change Jim into something? Like a toad?”

“Hey!” Jim protested, backing away from her.

“Tempting, but I think I should start smaller.” I narrowed my attention on a small rock that was partially visible in the soil at the base of a nearby willow tree. “I’ll do a simple spell to turn that rock into a tongue stone.”

“What on earth is a tongue stone?” Aisling asked, moving next to me to watch as I picked up the rock and dusted off the bits of grass and dirt that clung to it.

“It’s something that was taught to me by a member of a Serbian Romany tribe. They are traditionally made from small meteorites or, alternately, lightning-struck stones, and are highly charged with power that is used for divination purposes. Anyone can make a tongue stone, but since it’s made by burying it and urinating on it”—I gave Jim a sharp look as its ears perked up—“I’ll use the magical equivalent.”

“Mage pee? Ew,” Jim said, snuffling my hand as I passed my hand over the stone, drawing a pattern in the air.

“I’ve never actually seen a mage work,” Aisling whispered to May. “I thought they did spoken spells, not wards.”

“There are elements of both in mage work,” I said, trying to find the place in my mind from which the magic flowed. I knew if I could just find it, I’d be able to cast the spell, but it seemed to be obscured by Baltic’s dragon fire. I’d just have to use that instead.

“From the farthest star, to the deepest earth, stone borne of lightning, to me you will speak.” I held the stone over my head, drawing on the fire to imbue the stone with the power of divination. “Lightning-borne, wrought in fire, plunged in water, buried in earth. The elements combine in thee; reveal your true nature now!”

There was an instantaneous flash of blue-white light, thankfully silent. I lowered my hand, aware almost immediately that something had gone wrong.

“Er . . .” Aisling pursed her lips.

“That doesn’t look right,” May agreed.

I stared in surprise at the small brown and white rabbit that sat equally astonished on the palm of my hand. “Well, crap.”

“A bunny!” Cyrene said happily, taking it from me.

Jim shouldered me aside to get to her. “You mean dinner! Yum.”

“You even think about it and you’re going to the Akasha,” Aisling warned.

“It’s not real,” Jim objected. “It’s really a rock. Right, Soldy?”

I went over the spell again, trying to figure out what I’d done wrong. “No, it was all correct. That should have done it,” I said, shaking my head. “The tongue stone spell isn’t anything at all like a polymorph spell. It should have worked. Why aren’t you a stone?” I asked the rabbit.

It twitched its nose at me, then leaped from Cyrene’s arms to scurry off into the night.

“You guys are no fun at all,” Jim grumbled, watching it leave with much sadness.

“I think it’s probably safe to say that your magic is still affected,” May said, hesitating before she continued. “Perhaps we should do this another time, when it’s been restored?”

“I don’t know when I’m going to have another opportunity,” Aisling said. “Drake doesn’t like leaving the babies for long, and with all due respect to Gabriel, he won’t entertain the subject of letting Thala go. I’m afraid that for Jim and me at least, it’s going to have to be tonight.”

“It’ll be all right,” I said after some thought. “I think the problem is that I had to use Baltic’s fire, and not my happy place. That no doubt caused the spell to go a bit wonky.”

“Your happy place? Is that anything like a door in your head that you open to see things differently?” Aisling asked.

“Not really. It’s the place in my mind where my magic comes from. It’s calm there, and filled with light, and I use that light to make things happen. The problem is that I haven’t been able to find it since I came out of that last fugue, but I’m sure that’s because of everything that’s happened. Dr. Kostich used to tell us apprentices that we might occasionally lose track of our happy place, but we never lost it for long.”

“I don’t know about anyone else, but I would give good money to see Dr. Kostich say the words ‘find your happy place’ to someone,” Jim said.

May laughed. “Me, too.”

“You’re sure your magic is up to this?” Aisling asked me. “If not, we can sacrifice Jim or something in order to get the same effect.”

“Hey! Ixnay on the acrificesay!”

“It’ll be fine,” I reassured her, not feeling quite as confident. A lot was riding on my ability to break down the various protective spells that were no doubt covering all entrances to the house.

“Right.” She consulted her watch. “We’re almost at the zero hour. Everyone ready?”

There was a murmur of assent.

“I hope I get to use my Taser,” Cyrene whispered to me as we followed May, who as the official shadow walker, took the lead to watch for any stray guards we hadn’t pinpointed earlier. “I’ve been dying to try it out, but Kostya is just completely unreasonable and won’t let me use it on one of his people.”

I slid her a quick look, but said nothing other than that if everything went as we planned, we wouldn’t need the Taser.

May waved us forward. We skulked along the edges of the eerie hedges, my unease not at all lessened by proximity with the hulking black shapes, but the thought of Cyrene at my back with a primed Taser gave me enough peace of mind to get past them to the side of the huge stone house. At the far corner of the house, the shadow of a man could be seen, no doubt one of the guards waiting to be relieved.

“This is interesting,” Aisling said softly as she paused next to a window.

“What is?” I asked.

“That’s a bane.” She pointed at the window, sketching out a shape. “I assumed Drake wouldn’t use them since the dragons need to get in and out of the house daily. But if he ordered up banes on all the entrances . . .”

“We’re up excrement creek without a flotation device, not to mention a paddle,” Jim finished. “You aren’t thinking of using me for that bane, are you, Ash? Sweetie? Honey? Baby? You wouldn’t do that, would you? ’Cause I just got my coat looking the way I like, and if you go and make me break that bane, it’ll destroy my fabulous form, and—”

“And you won’t stop bitching about that for months. Yes, we know,” Aisling interrupted, patting the demon dog on its head. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to try to break the bane. Those are three-demon jobbies, and we just don’t have the time. Whoops. Incoming!”

We ran for the creepy hedge as the staticky sound of a walkie-talkie moved toward the dragon at the corner of the house.

“We should have about three minutes while they chitchat,” Aisling whispered.

“This way.” May melted into the darkness, with us following in a line. We went around the side to the back of the house, thick with shadows since the moon was behind clouds.

“No bane on this one,” Aisling said softly. “This is it, ladies.”

May and Cyrene held penlights as Aisling, muttering to herself, rolled up her sleeves and wrestled with the ward that had been drawn on the window to keep people from using it. After some words I felt were best ignored, she finally stood back, panting. “OK. Your turn, Ysolde. I can’t do anything with the malediction, so it’s all yours.”

“What’s a malediction?” Cyrene asked her twin as I reached out with both hands to touch the powerful spell woven into the surface of the window.

“It’s like a bane, but uses dark magic as its source of power,” May answered.

“But Ysolde doesn’t have dark powers, does she? Why can she break it?”

“I can’t,” I said, trying to calm my mind and focus my attention on the feel of the malediction. “But arcane magic has much power against dark magic, and it can be used to break down dark spells. I think I have it, but just for safety’s sake, everyone should probably stand back.”

“Two minutes, thirty seconds,” May said, glancing at her watch.

All three women moved backward into the deep shadows, leaving Jim standing next to me.

I glanced down at it.

“Never seen a malediction broken,” it answered my unasked question. “Besides, it’s not like you can turn me into a rabbit. I’m a demon. We don’t polymorph easily.”

It had a point. I closed my eyes, the feel of the malediction making my fingertips numb as I searched for the spot in my mind that would let me draw power from everything around me.

It wasn’t there.

“One minute, forty seconds,” May’s voice reached me from the blackness. “You should probably hurry, Ysolde.”

I shook out my hands, refocusing my attention. I could do this. I tried to hold a picture in my mind of the arcane magic, glowing bluish white, of the sensation of joy that manipulating it gave me. I tried to remember what it felt like to cast a spell and watch it succeed, but none of that helped me find the place in my mind that I so desperately sought.

“Dammit.”

“One minute.”

“Problems, Soldy?” Jim asked, nudging my hands.

“No.” I bit my lip as I hesitated, but the feeling of the dragons around me decided me. “Here we go.”

I placed my fingers back on the malediction, pulling hard on Baltic’s fire, which always seemed to slumber within me. It roared to life, filling me with its power, racing down my veins until it sparked along my skin. I held the malediction for a second, then unleashed the full force of my magic upon it.

Golden light flashed before me, then reflected off the window and bounced away, dazzling my eyes in the process.

“Um . . . Ysolde?” Aisling’s voice sounded strained as I blinked rapidly, trying to clear the stars from my vision. “I think we have a problem.”

“What? Not another rabbit?” I squinted at the window, expecting to see it changed into a furry little rodent.

“Gloriosky!” Cyrene gasped. “Is that . . . is that . . .”

“Yes, it’s me,” Jim said, its voice filled with resignation.

I spun around and felt my jaw sag as I beheld a brawny dark-haired, dark-eyed man. A naked brawny man. “Jim?”

The man put his hands on his hips, his lips twisting sourly. “I can’t tell you how much I hate human form!”