Light Dragons 03 - Sparks Fly

if I said I like you better when you look like a normal person?” Brom asked as we trotted down the stairs to see how the others were doing.
    “Of course not.” I put my arm around him, rubbing his back, relieved to be in my human form once again. “I liked my tail in the dragon form, but I prefer this body, too.”
    “You have normal arms now,” he pointed out.
    “Yes.” I frowned as we approached Nico, who squatted next to Holland. The latter, I was pleased to see, was still alive, although mostly unconscious, and missing one arm and part of an ear. Maura had helped Savian to his feet, his shirt and pants covered in blood and dirt. He weaved as he staggered against her, gesturing toward us. “And don’t you think I won’t have a thing or two to say to the First Dragon about those puny dragon arms when I see him next.”
    “Are you all right?” Savian called.
    “We’re fine. The negrets got in through the crypt, though. We need to block it off again in case more try to come through that way.”
    Nico and I did most of the work since Savian just wasn’t up to it, and Maura was still firmly attached to him. We left them to watch Holland and the door while we swung the tomb back into place, and we wedged the base with a bit of broken wood from a window shutter.
    “Let’s hope that holds. Nico, are you all right to come with me?”
    “Yes. Just a bit worn out,” he said, trying to put a brave face on what I knew were some pretty grievous injuries.
    “Good. Savian, you and Maura stay here with Holland.”
    “If he would just unlock me, I could help you,” Maura complained, shooting a potent glare at Savian.
    He lifted a feeble hand at her. “I would if I could, princess, but I told you that somehow, in all of the excitement, the key fell out of my pocket.”
    “Great, just great.” Maura huffed to herself as she plopped down on the ground next to him. “This is so how I wanted this day to go.”
    “At least you can heal yourself,” Savian said with a soft moan as she jogged his arm.
    “If Holland recovers consciousness, tell him we’ll get him to a healer just as soon as we can,” I told them. “You may not want to let him see his arm lying there, though. That’s an awfully startling thing to see when you just come to your senses. You’re sure the bleeding has stopped?”
    “His, yes. He’s a corporeal spirit. Me, I’m human,” Savian said, leaning back against the sun-warmed stone wall with a groan of pain.
    “We’ll get you and Maura a healer, as well,” I promised, hesitating when my gaze landed on Brom.
    “Can I come with you?” he asked, and I saw fear in his eyes that I knew he would never acknowledge.
    “You would be a big help.” He smiled in relief as the three of us went to pick up the Molotov cocktails that Brom had managed to make before the negrets had burst in on them.
    I yelled up to Baltic my intentions, receiving in return a warning to be careful. We hurried over to the other side of the wall, which fortunately none of the negrets had managed to breach.
    “With luck, they’ve either run out or realized we’re just going to toast them into extinction,” I said as I hurled a lit bottle down on the small cluster of negrets.
    “You wouldn’t think there was an endless supply of them, would you?” Nico asked as he-taller than me-tossed a bottle over the wall.
    “I sure hope not.” I bent down to drop another bottle, but movement to the far right side caught my eye. “What now?”
    “ What what?” Brom asked, handing me a bottle.
    I handed it back to him. “You supply Nico for a minute, lovey. I want to see what’s going on over at the far side. If the negrets have found a weak spot, we need to know about it.”
    “Don’t leave the curtain walk,” Nico called after me as I hurried down the narrow walkway.
    The movement that had caught my peripheral vision was around the north side of the fortress, where the wall melted into the heavy stone mountain that rose above our heads. I peered down through the branches of a half dozen lemon trees that ringed a low stone wall that formed a drunken oval outside the bailey. The ground inside the oval was much less rocky than the surrounding area, although a few large flat stones were scattered around. My eyes narrowed as I focused on one of those stones. It looked like a headstone. I turned to look behind me, into the bailey. The chapel was directly below me with Maura, Savian, and Holland propped up against