The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume I: Volume I

I know the needs the drug induces.”
    Krej glared at him.
    Jaylor stared back.
    At last they both looked at the now unconscious form on the bed. “The boy must leave. His magic might interfere.”
    Jaylor nodded to Yaakke. “Go to the other side of the bathing pool.”
    Yaakke pleaded with his eyes to stay.
    “You heard him. We can’t take a chance on your uncontrolled magic breaking into the spell and destroying it prematurely.”
    The door closed silently behind the boy’s tear-streaked face.
    “What do I look for?” Krej asked in a normal tone of voice. There was only a hint of strain in his shoulders.
    “Once in the void, seek out a crystal umbilical. It should be entwined with Brevelan’s copper life force.”
    “One cannot cut crystal with a knife.” Krej placed a firm grip on Jaylor’s shoulder.
    “You can snap it with a quick thrust.” Jaylor linked his fingers with Brevelan’s limp ones. She was cold and weak. They had to hurry.
    “A clean sever could be mended with fire at a later date. I won’t allow that.” Krej focused the gold-rimmed piece of glass on the flames in the hearth. “The umbilical must be smashed into several pieces.”
    Jaylor sighed in resignation. “So be it.”
    One breath. A second deeper one. As they exhaled a third time, they melded into a trance.
    Krej’s magic pulsed through Jaylor’s blood. A bubble of blood-red and fire-green magic worked its way from the point where the two men were joined, down his chest, into his heart. It paused there a second, blocked by damaged pathways. A little extra push from Krej and the bubble pushed through and dissolved the scar tissue, seeking direction, then sped outward along Jaylor’s arm to his fingertips and into Brevelan.
    She spasmed. A second bubble followed the first, enlarging the pathway through Jaylor’s healed heart. It passed easily into Brevelan. She twitched again, less violently, accepting the magic more readily.
    A third and a fourth bubble flowed in rapid succession. Jaylor was on fire, inside and out, as the alien magic fought with his own. He forced his mind clear. He couldn’t allow himself to think, or to direct the spell. He was only a staff, only a focus.
    Krej’s aura grew and filled the room, overlapping everything else. From his vantage point outside his body, Jaylor saw his own aura seek to overcome Krej’s in intensity, then subside in subservience. Brevelan’s yellow and orange and copper colors were fading rapidly to gray.
    The magic flowed more smoothly. The bubbles swirled through Jaylor. They spread to all of his arteries and back again. There was pain, and yet no pain. He willed himself out of his body, observing this odd feeling.
    Red and green bubbles danced before his eyes. They joined in long chains and wound around and around the three linked figures in the room. The last vestiges of reality faded. The void beckoned.
    The chain of signature-colored cords, pulsing with life, extended from each of them, joining with others in the void.
    “Crystal umbilical,” Krej repeated.
    “Separate the crystal before you break it,” Jaylor reminded him.
    “There are two plaited together. One is copper, one is crystal, but they take color and texture from each other. Soon they will be indistinguishable.”
    Krej directed Jaylor’s hand to the bound cords. His fingers moved with a puppet’s lack of volition and inserted themselves between two whorls. His arm tugged gently until one loop separated. Which was it, crystal or copper?
    “Smash it!”
    His fist came up to obey.
    “Which is it?”
    “It doesn’t matter. Smash it!”

Chapter 10
     
    “S mash the cord, Jaylor. Do it now, before it bleeds all of Brevelan’s life force away!” Krej commanded.
    Jaylor resisted the puppetlike manipulation of his fist. Which loop of the umbilical belonged to Brevelan, and which to Shayla? He couldn’t be sure; they both looked the same. Neither was totally copper or crystal, but a blend of both.
    “Color defines and describes.” Brevelan’s words came back to him.
    The separate loop under his fist was dull, fading from bright metal to lifeless clay. Deep in the twining mass of colored cords pulses another one, the same color, but glowing with brightness and vitality.
    Brevelan was dying in her premature labor. Shayla was birthing her healthy brood on time. The withering umbilical at hand had to belong to Brevelan. He must grab and separate the bright one.
    “Obey me, Jaylor. Smash the