The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume I: Volume I

feet made restless patterns on the cave floor.
    “Can you do better?” Darville stood from his crouch beside the map to his full height. He was defensive, yet easy with his old friend.
    “Only with magic,” Jaylor admitted. “And that I would rather conserve right now.”
    Brevelan watched the two men stare at each other, measuring and assessing. She was reminded of two dominant hunting dogs in the village kennels. Rivals as well as work mates. Rivals for what?
    Jaylor’s eyes caught her own and lingered. Darville too sought to capture her gaze. She raised her chin and stared out the cave entrance defiantly. She would not be the center of their contest. As soon as Shayla was restored, Brevelan would return to the privacy of her clearing. And the loneliness.
    “Once the rogue gets out of the mountains, he can put his burden on a sledge.” Darville avoided naming the nature of that burden. All three of them shivered. “He shouldn’t be hard to track in these hills. We’ve lost part of a day. But we travel light, and we don’t need to guard our backs.”
    “On the contrary, Darville.” Jaylor added a few details to the map. “In the mountains he need only levitate the dragon. She’s heavy, but then so is a wine cup to an apprentice. For a magician so practiced and grown so strong, his travel through here,” he pointed to the southern mountains on the map, “will be easy. We have a better chance of catching him closer to other people, where he must travel surreptitiously.” He surveyed the map which was now more complete, a few lines redrawn to make it more accurate.
    “Which pass will he take out of here?” Darville crouched again to examine their handiwork.
    “This one.” Brevelan found herself pointing outside the cave toward a valley between two lines of peaks. She didn’t need a map. She could follow Shayla without one, she realized. A faint glimmer of the dragon had reawakened in the back of her heart.
    “Not likely,” Darville contradicted. “This one is wider, easier.” He pointed to a different valley.
    “This one is more familiar and direct. It is where he left you to die, knowing no one would try to help an injured wolf when they sought a missing prince,” Brevelan asserted.
    “No one but you.” Darville’s gaze softened as he searched her eyes.
    “I’m an outcast from my people because I do such things. Thorm couldn’t know I was near enough for Shayla to call.” She had to remember not to refer to the rogue by his true name.
    “There is a lot this rogue doesn’t know,” Jaylor interrupted. “But he is so arrogant he won’t admit there is anything about magic he can’t master. That is our true advantage. He thinks my magic traditional and therefore damaged with the loss of Shayla. He will travel openly in the mountains because he thinks he frightened us into believing he is all-powerful.”
    “He’s not all-powerful. He had to fight us to complete his spells,” Brevelan added. She raised her eyes to the tall magician, who moved restlessly back and forth near the cave opening.
    A raindrop landed on the rocks outside. It was fat and heavy, the prelude to more to come. A damp breeze found its way into the cave.
    “Thorm had to draw magic away from Darville to finish his work with Shayla,” Jaylor mused as he paced. “So we know his powers, great as they are, have limits.”
    “If we tax his strength every step of the way, perhaps he will have to drop the spell a little to deal with us.” Darville’s enthusiasm for the upcoming battle speeded up his own steps around the cave.
    “First we have to find him. Let’s go.” Jaylor gathered his pack and staff.
    “It’s raining.” Brevelan draped her thin, homespun cloak about her shoulders. They both looked at Darville in his borrowed, ill-fitting trews and cloak.
    “I can’t stop the rain. Only dragons are supposed to have power over the weather,” Jaylor said.
    “Without the dragons, the rains will be as heavy as they are in SeLenicca—so heavy they damage food crops. Only trees thrive in that amount of rain,” Darville reminded them. “Spring will be delayed, crops will fail.” Some of his eagerness faded.
    “And people will die,” Brevelan said.
    “I can’t change the weather, but I can provide for us.” Jaylor set down his pack. He grabbed his staff with both hands.
    Brevelan felt the change in the energy pulsating from Jaylor’s body. A ball of sparkling lights flew into the cave. Then a small