The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume III: Volume III

me for a reason.” Jack clenched his fists in a serious effort to keep from shouting and throwing flashes of fire from his staff.
    “What do we do?” Jaylor asked. He ignored the tension that grew almost tangibly among his master magicians.
    “Link together, Jaylor to my right with Iianthe between us. Each of you stand on a point of the eight-pointed star.” Jack forced his hands to relax as he gently caressed Iianthe’s horn bud. Unlike Amaranth’s, this one had grown. It had started to spiral into a sharp point.
    Shayla crooned in the background. The baby dragon coiled his tail around himself. At least it wasn’t sticking straight out and elevated in preparation to bolt.
    “Rovers induce a trancelike state through music and dance. They then draw magical energy from all life by reaching out and touching it with their heightened senses,” Jack reminded the other magicians. “That’s how the original spell began.”
    There’d be no dancing to recreate a Rover spell tonight. Jack had to remain rooted beside Iianthe in order to gather dragon magic.
    But the men of the Commune could sing and move their feet while standing in one place.
    Jack gave out his instructions quietly. No sense in spooking Iianthe. He reached for the shoulder of the man to his left. Jaylor placed one hand on Jack’s shoulder to complete the circle of eight magicians.
    They chanted the poetry of the Rovers, words Jack had dredged up from his memory and sent to the other men to memorize earlier in the day.
    And then they marched in place, keeping time with the rhythmic repetition of the song.
    Iianthe shifted uneasily beneath Jack’s hand. He sped up the chant and the march. His eyes crossed as the power rose within him. It grew, expanded, writhed like a living being in a myriad of colors representing each of the magicians in the circle.
    Jack drew a deep breath and grabbed the power, molding it to his will. Between one heartbeat and the next the auras of every being within the circle took on the lavender-and-silver overtones of his magical signature.
    Amaranth responded to the compulsion within the chant, shrinking, collapsing in on himself, absorbing all the light his silvery hide normally reflected. He darkened as he shrank until . . . until . . .
    A black cat, so dark its fur reflected purple lights stood beside the queen. It yowled loudly and fluttered black-feathered wings. A flywacket. A creature of legend and prophecy.
    In that instant, Jack grabbed at the source of the queen’s double aura and yanked.
    Amaranth yowled again.
    Iianthe reared up, breaking Jack’s contact.
    The circle of magic dissolved.
    Jack doubled over in exhaustion with a curious pain in his gut. Strange afterimages showed around everything he tried to focus his eyes upon.
    “I’m free!” Mikka shouted as she sank to her knees. Her head looked too heavy for her neck to support. “I’m free of that blasted cat.” Tears of joy streamed down her face. Her husband rushed forward and knelt beside her, scuffing the marks of the eight-pointed star. He cradled her against him, kissing away her tears.
    “Are you hurt?” Darville cupped her face in his long-fingered hands.
    “A curious emptiness. Tired. A little dizzy—disoriented.” Her strength gave out. She collapsed in a faint. Darville caught her.
    “Thank you, young man.” Darville looked up from his wife’s peaceful countenance. “We—all of Coronnan—owe you a debt of gratitude. Hopefully, now we can stabilize the succession without Lord Laislac and his daughter.”
    “I’d best send you home, Your Grace, before you are missed,” Jaylor said. He took a deep breath. His face still looked a little gray.
    “No more magic until you all eat!” Brevelan proclaimed.
    “Food,” Jack murmured, recognizing the cause of some of his disorientation. The afterimages continued to plague his vision like half-formed ghosts. His skin felt clammy, and his knees wobbled. “I need food.”
    An unknown journeyman stuffed a hunk of bread into Jack’s hand, followed by a thick slab of cheese.
    Jack ate hungrily, methodically. He had to restore his energies quickly.
    “Jack, I’ll see you in my study in the morning. We need to discuss security within the palace.” Darville swallowed convulsively.
    “SeLenicca,” Jack croaked. “You promised to send Katrina and me to SeLenicca as ambassadors.”
    “Later. I need you in Coronnan City more than I need you across the border now that the war is over. We