The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume I: Volume I

arrest,” the leader, wearing three silver stripes on his cuff, informed them. He stepped into the office so his companions could flank him.
    “What crime has my wife committed?” Brunix remained firmly in place between Katrina and the uniformed men.
    “Wife?” Three-stripe raised an eyebrow in surprise. “I was told the girl is a maiden.”
    “My wife has been with me all morning, developing a new pattern.” Brunix waved a hand at the bolster pillow. “What makes you think she is the person you seek?”
    “The queen was struck down during the birthday parade. His Majesty picked that woman out of the crowd as the perpetrator. She was wearing a black cloak and a wide lace shawl about her neck and shoulders. We arrested another woman wearing her cloak, but not the lace shawl. She is being detained until we find the true culprit and the lace.” The officer’s eyes strayed to the hook where the cloaks hung. Brunix’s outdoor garment was dark green. Katrina had been wearing Iza’s brown. The shawl was draped beneath them both, not visible to the guard.
    “How can my wife be guilty? She has been here with me all morning. And though we make lace to sell, who but the nobility can afford to wear it?”
    “Your lies won’t protect her, outland half-breed,” Three-stripe sneered. He raised his arm as if to backhand Brunix across the mouth.
    Brunix caught the man’s wrist well away from his face. He squeezed and twisted the guard’s arm backward. “My father was a true-blooded citizen, my mother half,” he ground out. Brunix’s eyes grew darker with cold anger. “How much true blood runs in Simeon’s veins? He is the outlander, and a sorcerer. Yet you trust him over me, a lawful citizen of the queen . How did he single out the name and address of one woman in the crowd, who was not there, as the assailant? Look to him for answers before you arrest and accuse innocent citizens.”
    He wrenched his hands away from contact with the guard as if the man were dirty. The guard hopped back a step, shaking his arm and wrist.
    Three-stripe’s mouth opened and closed without a sound. Indecision marred his posture. He suddenly seemed shorter and less imposing. The two men flanking him edged backward, toward the hall.
    “We will be back.” Three-stripe turned on his heel and retreated with less noise than he had come.
    “And now, my dear, the time has come to pay what you owe me.” Brunix gathered the cloaks and the lace shawl from the rack as he gestured toward the staircase. Up the long series of steps to his apartment on the top floor.
    “Hmm, distinctive design.” He studied the shawl as if unconcerned with her obedience to his wishes. “Unusual concept. We will discuss payment for this design after I teach you the delights of sharing my bed.”
     
    “You are certain you can do it?” Jaylor asked Marcus for the fifth time. “Sensing a concentration of dragon magic is crucial in this quest.”
    “I’m certain, sir,” Marcus replied tiredly. “I was gathering dragon magic before Old Baamin died.”
    Jaylor turned to his other journeyman. “What about you, Robb?”
    “Master Jaylor, I was levitating winecups long before any of my class.” The young man looked indignant at the question. “Successfully.”
    “Then I charge you both with the quest to go see an invisible dragon,” Jaylor said quietly. Unconsciously he’d used the same phrase Master Baamin had spoken when giving Jaylor his journeyman’s quest four years ago.
    But Jaylor was Senior Magician now. So much had changed in the intervening years. Coronnan needed journeymen magicians to seek Shayla and bring the dragon nimbus up to full strength more than ever. Without dragons, Communal magicians could not combine and augment their magic by orders of magnitude to overcome the solitary rogues. Only with the enhanced power of several magicians joined together could the Commune hope to impose and enforce honor, ethics, and justice into all uses of magic.
    Until then, judges, lords, and mundane citizens looked to the Gnostic Utilitarians to protect them from all magic, good and bad. Good thing the Gnuls and the coven hadn’t worked together on their separate plots to depose Darville and his queen.
    “I hope you are more successful in restoring the dragon nimbus to Coronnan than I was.” Jaylor draped his arms about the shoulders of his journeymen.
    “You freed Shayla from Krej’s glass sculpture. That was a start,” Marcus reminded