The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume I: Volume I

whatever mind haze held the prince. He fought his way to the center of the milling men, avoiding the flailing limbs and snapping teeth of attacker and defender.
    A silvery-blue line of magic wandered beneath Baamin’s feet. He anchored himself to the surging power and rolled a fistful of magic into a barrier between Darville’s hands and Krej’s vulnerable throat. He was about to throw the barrier when the golden light around Darville surged defensively toward the ball of magic.
    “Stargods!” Baamin breathed shallowly through his teeth. “The boy’s been infected with magic.” Instead of throwing the magic, Baamin wrapped it around his hand, like an armored glove. He reached between the two men to separate them.
    Darville jerked back and away from his touch as if burned. He lay on the ground, twitching. Spittle foamed at his mouth as his upper lip continued to curl back from elongated fangs.
    “Get a healer,” Lord Andrall called to a hovering retainer.
    “No!” Baamin countermanded. “No magic must be thrown, even to heal.” He knelt beside the now fully human young man. Anxiously, he drew all vestiges of magic back into himself. He held one hand over the prince’s heaving chest. Red sparks bounced into Baamin’s palm. Magic sparks. No natural fire on Coronnan burned any color but green.
    “What’s wrong? Why did he revert to his wolf form?” A cowering lord ventured to peer into Darville’s pain-contorted face.
    “Who threw the spell to transform him?” Jonnias looked about nervously, as if expecting himself to be the next victim.
    “ ’Twas no new spell.” Baamin continued his examination of the prince. “I’ve read of this. When a mundane is the victim of too much magic, his blood becomes infected. Like a disease. The emotional stresses of this night further weakened him. Exposure to any magic at all, even that of a healer, will only make it worse.”
    “Can it be cured?” Lord Andrall peered over Baamin’s shoulder.
    “In time.”
    “Can he rule?”
    “When he is cured.”
    “What will we do until then? The king is dead. The prince is almost dead.”
    “We have a regent,” Jonnias reminded them. “Lord Krej led us quite nicely for many moons during the boy’s absence. He is an able general, as well as a diplomat. I don’t see why he shouldn’t continue. With the Council’s guidance, of course.”
    “Krej is a rogue magician!” Baamin protested. “We wouldn’t be in this mess without his treasonous manipulation of temporal and magical power.”
    “That has yet to be proved, Baamin,” Krej choked a response, rubbing his injured throat. Bright finger marks were already bruising.
    “A compromise?” Lord Andrall inserted himself between Baamin and Krej. “This witchbane drug you spoke of earlier. How effective is it?”
    “The ancient sources claim it will neutralize a man’s magic instantly. Given in the proper dosage, the effect lasts about eight days.” A heavy dosage had been thrown at Krej at the beginning of the night’s adventures. No wonder he hadn’t armored himself against Darville’s attack.
    “Then, if Lord Krej agrees to take a dose of witchbane every week, he can’t continue his magical plans, if he had any magic to begin with.” Lord Andrall glared at each of the Council members present, daring them to contradict him.
    Jonnias was the only one brave enough to question the man whose diplomatic skills had soothed many a problem in the Council of Provinces. “What if Lord Krej is falsely accused and is actually a mundane? The drug could kill an innocent man.”
    “Witchbane has no effect on mundanes,” Baamin asserted. “And it causes only brief pain to magicians.” He hated the thought of Krej being placed into power again. But what choice did they have? Until Darville shook off the effects of magic infection or Krej was proved guilty of treason, there was no other man of royal blood left in Coronnan.
    And there were no more dragons to choose a new king. Sadly, Baamin agreed to the compromise. His eyes turned once more to the ugly breach in the stone walls of the keep. “I have seen a dragon!” he whispered to the wind. “The last dragon anyone is likely to see for some time to come. I cannot guess how this kingdom will survive without a dragon. But I can live, or die, with no regrets, for I have seen a dragon!”

Chapter 1
     
    D ragons have hunted my people for a millennium. Our existence is bane to them. For when the populace