The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume I: Volume I

altar of Simurgh. I shall offer the entire coven in sacrifice. I don’t need them any longer.
    All I need is the Tambootie and Simurgh.
     
    The door to Baamin’s bedroom flew open with a bang. Brevelan looked up at Yaakke with annoyance. Not that the boy’s careless and noisy burst of energy would affect Baamin. The old man was even now sliding deeper into his final sleep.
    “I can’t let him die yet!” Magic radiated from the boy in visible waves. His aura extended toward the limp figure on the bed.
    “You’ve got to let him go, Yaakke.” Brevelan rose swiftly, grabbing Yaakke’s shoulders. “His heart is worn out. He can’t be healed, believe me, I’ve tried.” She shook him to distract him from his projected spell.
    “But I can lend him strength. I can support him until . . . until . . .” he broke off in a sob.
    “He can’t be healed, Yaakke. All we can do is wait and project our love so that he can die in peace.”
    “But I need him!”
    “The entire kingdom needs him. But there is nothing we can do.”
    “Darcine?” Baamin called to his friend, Darville’s father, who had been dead nearly seven moons. His voice was frail, barely more than a whisper.
    Brevelan stilled her entire body in eerie surprise.
    “Darcine?” Baamin called again. “I have seen her.” A smile curved his bloodless lips.
    Cautiously, Brevelan approached the bed. The old man’s hand twitched. She grasped it lightly, pouring love and strength and healing into him.
    “I have seen a dragon.” He stopped speaking, but his lips kept moving.
    Brevelan leaned closer to catch his whispers.
    “All these years, I never saw a dragon. But I saw Shayla!”
    And he slipped away.
    Tears trembled in Brevelan’s eyes.
    “I can lend him my body.” Yaakke grabbed Baamin’s lifeless hand away from her.
    “NO! Look what happened to the magicians who borrowed magic from Krej. They disintegrated very rapidly and very painfully. They are aging before the eyes of their guards. The remaining three will be dead by dawn. How much worse would it be to borrow an entire life. Do you want the same thing to happen to you? There is no way you can both survive.” She choked back a sob as the pain crowding her heart suddenly burst and dissipated.
    The last of Baamin’s emotions passed through her. There was a moment of emptiness. Then, miraculously, a wonderful joy flooded her.
    Brevelan looked at the wasted body of an old, old man, stunned. She had presided at a number of death watches. Her empathy had guided more than one spirit into the next plane of existence. Usually she encountered fear, loneliness, and regret. Inevitably, a little piece of her soul bonded with her patients and passed over with them. This was the first time she had felt such a wonderful anticipation and a restoration of her individuality—as though all the lives she had guided onward had returned the bits and pieces of her soul they had taken with them.
    “Can you feel him, Yaakke?” she whispered. “Look at the smile on his face, Yaakke. Master Baamin wants to leave this reality. He’s relieved to pass on his responsibilities to younger, more capable hands. You are a part of his grand plan for our future.”
    “He’s going. I can bring him back. Really I can. I know the spell.”
    “How dare you!” She stayed his hand. “Such work is forbidden. You have to let him go.”
    “But . . . but. . . .”
    “No. I don’t care what you are capable of, Yaakke. Ability has nothing to do with right. You’ll never be a true magician until you learn the limits of what you may and may not do.”
    “But I can do this.”
    “There is a difference between ‘can’ and ‘may.’ Look at him, Yaakke.” She stood behind him, forcing his face to the bed where a slim shell of an old man was lost in the expanse of sheets and coverlets. “Really look at him and think about what is right for him. Not what is most comfortable for you.”
    The taut muscles of Yaakke’s back crumpled. Tears streamed down his face. “What will I do without him, Brevelan? He’s the only one who ever cared about me. He’s . . . he’s like my father and mother both. He’s the only good thing that ever happened in my life.”
    “He gave you a wonderful gift, Yaakke. He gave you the right to think for yourself. He gave you the skills to make decisions. The time has come for you to reach beyond Baamin and find out what your life is meant to be.” She plunked down into her chair and picked