Light Dragons 02 - The Unbearable Lightness of Dragons

out scone crumbs. I want to hear what she has to say about her captivity.”
    “Yeah, should be good, especially if Drake had her tortured.” It must have seen the look on my face because it hurriedly added, “I’m sure Ash wouldn’t let him do that. For a badass demon lord, she’s totally wimpy when it comes to hurting people.”
    “I’m reassured to hear that. All right, sit down, and let me concentrate on what I need to do.” I calmed my somewhat frazzled mind and tried once again to access that magical spot in my brain that gave me access to arcane powers. It remained elusive, just on the fringes of my consciousness, so close I could almost see it. Dragon fire was there, banked as usual when I wasn’t physically near Baltic, but it glowed hot in my mind, and I couldn’t help but wonder if it was that which had upset the balance of my magic. “I’ll just have to try it regardless.”
    “Oh, man, that doesn’t fill me to the brim with confidence,” Jim said, its eyes filled with foreboding. “You’d make a horrible motivational speaker, babe. Aren’t you supposed to be in charge and professional, like Aisling?”
    I stared at it. “Good lord, no. Magic isn’t at all orderly.”
    “I’m gonna die!” it wailed.
    “Be quiet, I’m intoning.” I turned to the east. “Air surrounds thee.” I faced south. “Fire fills thee.”
    Jim stopped whimpering, watching me with curious eyes. “Calling the quarters, eh? Aisling does that, but she says different stuff.”
    “Hush.” I turned north. “Earth nourishes thee.” Finally, I faced west. “Water gives life to thee. Demon in birth, demon in being, by the grace within me, I release thee from thy form.”
    Jim’s body shimmered for a moment, twisted in upon itself, and then re-formed.
    “Oh, great!” it said, looking down. “Now I’m going to have to buy another kilt!”
    I spun around to face the house. “ Why are you naked again?”
    “The question is more why aren’t I standing here in my magnificent form? What’s wrong with your magic? Why can’t you change me back? Are you even trying? I don’t think you’re trying!”
    “I am trying, and I don’t know what’s going on. That spell should have done the trick.” I chewed on my lower lip as I thought. “It has to be Baltic’s fire that’s messing things up. I’ll try it again without it.”
    Jim heaved a martyred sigh as it sat down on the grass. “Whatever. Just change me back. This grass tickles, and I don’t think you want me scratching where it itches.”
    I cleared my mind and tried the spell again, attempting to pull energy from the living things around me, but nothing happened. “It’s the dragon fire. It’s interfering with my concentration,” I told the demon as I mentally shooed the dragon fire away. “We’ll give it another shot.”
    “I think something just bit my ass,” Jim said, rising up on one cheek as it tried to look around at its behind. “Do bees live in the grass? Maybe it was a snake! Do they have poisonous snakes in England? Fires of Abaddon, you gotta suck the poison from my ass!”
    “I am not sucking anything, and calm down. You’re distracting me.”
    “I’m gonna die! At least it wasn’t my fabulous form that has been poisoned. Things are going a bit dark, Ysolde. I see spots and stuff. I think I may ralph. Does snake poison make you want to puke?”
    I ignored the demon’s hysterics as I gently but persistently dampened every last bit of Baltic’s dragon fire that resided within me. “Now, let’s try it,” I said, rolling up my sleeves as I sketched a clarity spell in the air. I spoke the words, waiting for the familiar tingle of magic to surround me.
    “Farewell, cruel world. Tell Cecile I loved her!” A loud thump followed that declaration. Jim lay flat on its back, its arms stretched out dramatically.
    “You’re still naked. And human. And for the love of all that is good and glorious, grab some fig leaves or something! I don’t want to see that.”
    “I had clothes on, until you stripped them off me,” Jim grumbled, sitting upright. “Hey, the spots are gone. I guess the snake poison was no match for a demon.”
    “Snake poison?”
    “Yeah, from the snake that bit me.” It stood up and turned around. “Right here on my ass.”
    “That’s a rock, not a snake, you idiot,” I said, pulling off my T-shirt and smacking Jim on the butt with it before handing it to the demon. “Loincloth that, and don’t