The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume I: Volume I

heart.
    “As for your son, the glass is clouded,” he whispered. So far they had managed to keep the prince’s disappearance a secret.
    Darcine’s tall shadow wavered against the stone walls of the little used passage. In his youth, the king had been as tall and as strong as any warrior in the kingdom. But his illness had wasted muscle and mind. A strong gust of wind, or the loss of one more dragon. . . .
    “The men you sent on quest, do they know they are looking for the errant crown prince?” The king coughed.
    Baamin placed a chubby hand on Darcine’s shoulder. He could feel the king’s bones sharply defined beneath the layers of rich fabric. King Darcine wouldn’t notice the small strengthening spell he added to the touch.
    “Each journeyman’s task is designed to teach him the full use of his talents, and to overcome his weaknesses.” As any quest should. “I was careful to word each assignment so my students would cover the entire kingdom while they seek new recruits and the source of distrust of magic.” Baamin didn’t add the report that yet another healer magician had been stoned out of a village when he failed to save the last of the dairy herd from a mysterious wasting disease. It was the third such incident in Lord Krej’s province of Faciar this winter.
    “My students will also cover the hunting grounds of every dragon left in the nimbus. The beasts will instinctively protect the prince.”
    “You’re certain, then, that my son was kidnapped by magic. He isn’t on some wild caper with Jaylor and his hooligans? He used to take great joy in slipping away from the palace when I needed him most, to indulge in mischief with his common friends. I thought he outgrew his base preferences. Perhaps my son has just wandered into the mountains following a dragon dream.”
    “Others might wander aimlessly while in dragon-thrall; wander until they starved to death or broke their necks. But a true dragon of the king would never harm one of the royal family,” Baamin asserted. “We are certain of the kidnap, Your Grace. The glass tells us he is alive, but we cannot be sure where. His face, figure, and location are lost in a mist of colored magic. All we can see is the essence of his soul. We can’t even pin down the color of the mist and thereby identify the magician,” Baamin sighed. “But I do know Jaylor’s magic isn’t sophisticated enough to blur the glass so well.”
    He hoped. Jaylor’s talent was so unpredictable he might be throwing delusions while he and the prince devised some practical joke.
    “Do the people really believe my son is at a monastery reconsidering an inappropriate dalliance?”
    “Of course.” Baamin smiled reassuringly. “Each of the Twelve thinks the prince will eventually marry one of his daughters. So, naturally, they believe you disapprove of every other romantic entanglement.” And there were many, if rumors were to be believed. Baamin didn’t believe in rumors. He knew the truth behind the numerous ladies who claimed to have bedded the prince. Most of them lied.
    The official pretense for the prince’s absence must end soon. Some of the Twelve were grumbling about his lack of leadership. The crown prince should be leading an army to control raiders on the disintegrating western border.
    “How many journeymen did you send?” The king seemed slightly recovered as they proceeded down the dark corridor to the main hallway.
    “Every journeyman who was anywhere near ready.” Seven young men. Every journeyman in residence. There should have been a hundred.
    “Including Jaylor?”
    “Even Jaylor.”
    “Was that wise?”
    “He never got the hang of why a spell works. At best I hope he’ll stir something into action so that a more accomplished magician can follow through. I had no choice but to send him. I don’t have enough journeymen to cover the entire kingdom otherwise.” The boy was creative and powerful, but there was no proof his methods would ever be reliable or repeatable. And his magic tended to slip beyond the control of the Commune of Magicians.
    “Did Jaylor pass any of his exams?” They moved beyond the main hallway and into the residential wing. Baamin’s private study was just around the next corner.
    “A few. Master Maarklin devised a test that allowed Jaylor to qualify for his quest. But we of the Commune cannot accept that he is master material.” But we’ll use his strange talent for our own purposes, Baamin