The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume I: Volume I

final healing.
    If he managed to save himself long enough to patch her wing. If he managed to think of something else during Rejiia’s spell. He didn’t dare consider what would happen to Katrina. He had to somehow survive until he was sure Katrina was safe.
    “I am the king,” Simeon asserted. “My will rules. This kingdom exists to serve ME. Kill the blasphemous boy.”
    “In this house, by your own decree, the coven rules,” Rejiia returned. “And I am the focus of the coven.” She stared at the red-haired man with contempt.
    Good. Division within the coven reduced their power and purpose. And Rejiia was female, she couldn’t gather dragon magic. She, too, was limited by her body’s reserves.
    “You were the focus only while you were pregnant. I allowed you to take the focus because of your connection to the Gaia. You aren’t pregnant anymore, and you lost the child, so I take back the focus.” Simeon pouted like a little boy. The reek of Tambootie on his breath intensified.
    Jack guessed the leaves of the dragon tree had finally inflated Simeon’s sense of superiority beyond all limits of reality. The same thing had happened to Krej and Janataea. Neither believed themselves mortal anymore and had left their bodies open to physical attack.
    “Don’t push me, Simeon. The coven looks to me for leadership,” Rejiia warned. Then she turned her attention back to her prisoners, authoritative and purposeful. “Loosen the girl’s chains so she may sit or lie against the opposite wall. Then clear this room. I need space and concentration.”
    The guards obeyed, fixing a long chain between Katrina’s right manacle and a ring in the wall. Then they backed out of the cell. Simeon refused to follow, but he did station himself against the door, leaving Rejiia free to work inside the damp stone room. She planted herself between Jack and Katrina.
    An advantage to Jack. If he couldn’t see the girl cowering in the far corner, then he wouldn’t be distracted by her. Wouldn’t allow his thoughts to linger on her and draw Rejiia’s attention to her under the influence of the probe.
    Jack blanked his mind, trying desperately to think of nothing at all. If Rejiia’s spells had nothing to latch onto, perhaps they’d fly in one ear and out the other.
    “What about this?” A new man wearing the uniform of an army officer entered the cell. Lanciar, the spy from the mine, who had helped Jack escape and then betrayed him. He carried a dead bird by the feet in his outstretched arm. His nose wrinkled in distaste.
    “Ah, the familiar. Throw it into the midden,” Rejiia dismissed the man and his burden.
    “No!” Jack howled. “You murdered Corby. You’ve taken my only friend in the world.” Once before he’d scattered a mind probe into erratic bird thoughts. Maybe he could do it again. If they believed his grief and panic.
    “That’s right, boy.” Lanciar smiled. “You have nothing left to live for. You might as well give up your secrets so you may die in peace. But before you die, I want to thank you. That little session we had searching for the dragon opened me to my full powers where the coven’s rituals couldn’t. I am now a master magician, one of the coven and eager to watch this spell so that I may learn to use it interrogating prisoners of war at the newly activated front. We won a stunning victory last week and captured or killed at least half of Darville’s troops.”
    “Not Corby!” Jack yelled again, ignoring this latest disaster. Think like a jackdaw, remember the bird’s scattered thought patterns.
    “We’ve done this before, boy. Three years ago, at the coronation. That time, the stupid bird intercepted the probe. Now he’s dead. There is only you and me and my magic.” A small dart of glowing dark green appeared in Rejiia’s hand. As dark as her magic, almost black. The same color he’d found in another dungeon, back in Coronnan. Rejiia had broken Jaylor’s wards and stolen Krej from his cell. Krej, who lingered in his tin statue form at Simeon’s side, blinked at Jack with knowing eyes.
    Can’t think of Krej and that one hint of animation. Can’t think about Jaylor or Coronnan. Think like the bird. Random. Meaningless.
    Rejiia lay the probe on her outstretched hand, murmuring an incantation. Eyes half closed, her face became a mask of emotionless concentration.
    The probe grew in length. Its sharp point broadened into an arrowhead, big enough to hunt wild tusker. Wide.