The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume I: Volume I

The blond man smiled reassuringly. “The blond child understands you and translates.”
    Katrina stared at the squirming children. She hadn’t heard them speak. Jack didn’t need to speak. Were these people magicians as well?
    “Jack sent us here for healing.”
    “Jack?” All three adults shook their heads.
    “Yaakke!” proclaimed the dark man after exchanging a long stare with the blond child.
    “He said his name was Jack.” Her Jack wasn’t part of a legend, though he’d performed some pretty miraculous feats. He hadn’t brought about the prophecy of doom. Simeon had.
    (Jack, Yaakke. Same man. Different attitude,) Shayla interjected.
    “Where is the man you call Jack?” the dark-haired man asked slowly but in perfectly accented SeLenese.
    “I fear King Simeon and his witch killed him. They killed P’pa too. And they killed SeLenicca. Queen’s City is in ruins,” Katrina cried. Tears fell down her cheeks unchecked. “All is lost.”
    “The Simeon destroyed his own capital?” the blond man asked anxiously.
    “Jack thinks . . . thought . . . said that the influx of magic put too much strain on the burned-out ley lines. They . . . the lines collapsed. Earthquakes. Fire. People trampled to death. Rovers looting everything.” Suddenly the horrors she had witnessed during the last two days caught up with her. Her teeth chattered with unnatural cold. Her body trembled uncontrollably. She nearly dropped Corby. The second woman, the one with hair the colors of a calico cat, took the injured bird from the basket of Katrina’s skirt. She caressed him gently, cooing and murmuring soothing phrases.
    (They come!) Shayla proclaimed. The anger and fear in her mental voice proclaimed the approach of foes.
     
    Jack felt more than heard an audible whoosh of wind and a crack of the sky opening to the void; the signal that Shayla had successfully departed the valley.
    The resulting vacuum dragged the breath from Jack and destroyed his balance. Rejiia and Simeon seemed equally disoriented; balance off, eyes unfocused.
    Jack used the distraction and the falling sensation to duck out of his armor and roll behind a scrubby willow shrub. He left the protective spell in place, around a fuzzy image of himself. Rejiia’s next magic attack crashed through the armor but found no target.
    The black-haired witch recovered with amazing speed. She held up two white feathers. A wicked smile played over her lovely face.
    A magician was tied to his familiar beyond the simple bonds of a pet. More than that, the stupid bird was the only friend and companion Jack had ever truly known. S’murgh it, she was beautiful, even when she personified evil. Rejiia de Draconis enjoyed watching others suffer.
    Rejiia wove a complicated gesture around the feathers, summoning the owner of those feathers to return to her.
    But Corby was unconscious. He couldn’t move. Would the spell levitate him back to Rejiia? Or worse yet, would it force Shayla and her mate, who carried him, to return to the vale?
    Jack didn’t wait to find out. An arrow-shaped probe formed in his hand. He threw it at the feathers and dove for a clump of tall grasses, armor returned, before Simeon found the spell to launch a new missile. The sorcerer-king looked dazed and distracted. His eyes kept wandering toward the sky.
    The probe found the feathers, latched onto them, and yanked them from Rejiia’s hand. In the blink of an eye, spell and feathers disappeared into the void. Hopefully they would find Corby and keep him in place.
    Rejiia looked tired. She hadn’t many spells left in her. But Simeon was still strong and filled with the need for vengeance. He’d conserved his spells for the lace shawl. His obsessive gaze landed on the heap of inert rags laying by the pool that could only be Fraank. Alive or dead?
    Dragon magic was still in the air. Simeon gathered it and returned his attention to Jack. He stalked his prey, vision narrowed to one purpose, face set in grim determination.
    If I can divert one more attack, Jack thought. Just one more assault, then Simeon will have used up the last of the dragon magic.
    A blinding flash of sunlight on crystal flashed between Jack and Simeon. The big blue-tipped male dragon had come back. A huge supply of magic was at Simeon’s fingertips while Jack’s internal reserves were dwindling fast.
    Then the bits and pieces of cloth and flesh moved, revealing Fraank’s face. Neither the king nor Rejiia seemed to notice the man