The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume I: Volume I

down her back. With deft fingers, she rapidly released the tight weaving. A few moments later she had restored the two plaits she had missed for three long years. Assertive action began with simple gestures.
    Tonight, when the factory slept and Jack was on duty, she would seek him out and offer her help. Until then, she would do what she did best—finish the shawl.
     
    Rejiia watched through tired eyes as the Rover wet nurse fed her newborn son.
    “Your son is strong but very small, born two moons early,” the young woman commented on the infant’s vigorous suckling.
    Rejiia smiled in satisfaction. Too many plans relied on her strength and agility. The last two moons of pregnancy would have hindered her actions.
    Old Erda, the Rover matriarch and mistress of all herbal medicines and the best midwife in the three kingdoms, wasn’t available to assist her. But one of her apprentices had come with the tribe of Rovers that lingered on the outskirts of Queen’s City. The bitter herbs Rejiia had drunk last night had forced the child into early birth.
    “Your tribe will protect my son until I claim him,” Rejiia commanded the young wet nurse.
    “We will guard him as one of our own,” the Rover woman murmured. She did not lift her gaze to meet Rejiia’s.
    “Only until I can claim him!” Rejiia hadn’t the strength to compel the woman, so she pushed as much authority into her voice as possible.
    “We will welcome you when you claim him.” This time the woman met Rejiia’s look in a token promise of compliance.
    “Your name, girl. Tell me your name so that I may find you again.”
    “I am called Erda.”
    “Nonsense. There is only one Erda.”
    “Each of us who nurtures a child can claim the title Erda.”
    “Your true name, then. What name were you given at birth?”
    “No outlander may know my true name.”
    “Enough of this evasion. Give me your name so that I may find you when the time is right to reclaim my son.” Panic generated enough energy to draw a tiny spell into her words. Erda squirmed in resistance.
    “Ask for Kestra. All of the tribes of Zolltarn know of Kestra.”
    “Good. The prematurity of the boy’s birth is our secret. No one in Coronnan must suspect that my husband, Marnak, is incapable of fathering a child. By law we are still married and the child legitimate.”
    “That belief suits the needs of the Rovers.”
    “Then take the child. I will inform the king that his son is stillborn.”
     
    For now I must garner my strength so that I am ready for the Solstice Ritual.
    I will use the power of the Solstice to kill Darville through the lingering wound in his arm. Coronnan expects him to die from that witch burn. I shall hasten the process and step in to claim the throne for me and my son.
    I am too weak at the moment to investigate the disturbance in the magical energies I sense within the city. I need a familiar to aid my search. Jackdaws aplenty nest near the palace. More intelligent than mere crows, their ability to mimic will develop into limited speech through the bonding spells. I will subvert one to my will. Tomorrow. I must sleep now.

Chapter 31
     
    ‘ L ey lines don’t exist singly. Nor do they appear spontaneously,” Jack mused as he wandered Queen’s City shortly after dawn.
    Cloaked in the face and body of the slightly built palace magician, he peered easily at the land beneath his feet with every sense available to him. His magic had recharged during the time he had spent standing above the pocket of power in the workroom. A relief from the weeks of weakened abilities.
    Burned out ley lines rotted at every street intersection. If the land did not heal soon, the old channels would collapse, taking building foundations and street paving with them. Jack foresaw a shift in the riverbed and upheaval in the hills behind the city. Death and chaos would follow.
    Simeon deserved whatever destruction the Stargods visited upon him. The innocents of the city didn’t.
    Everywhere he saw the sings of decay, heightened by the short-sighted belief that the land’s resources were unlimited and meant to be exploited. When the belief proved false, no one knew how to rectify matters. Abandoned shops and houses. Dirt and crumbling mortar strewn through the streets from the collapse of a warehouse, and no one with enough energy to clear it away. No refuse for dogs to scavenge. And everywhere, the haunted eyes of the hungry and the hopeless citizens. Only the nobles seemed