The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume III: Volume III

newscrier three years ago,” Yeenos said, almost gloating. “Magic is illegal in all of Coronnan now. I’m going to the capital to talk to the priests, and to the Council of Provinces. I’ll get the obligation removed from us. Ghosts or no ghosts, there will be no more food and supplies wasted upon those who haunt the monastery.”
    “You can’t!” Vareena gasped.
    “You can’t stop me, Eena. It’s time.”
    He whistled one last time to his dog and turned his crook over to his father. Then he stalked into the house and began throwing journey rations into a pack.
    Vareena took off running for the hill crested by the abandoned monastery.
    “Vareena!” her father roared. “Come back here.”
    “Never. I have to save my ghosts. I can’t let them die of neglect.” She had to find a way to bring Robb back to life. Marcus, too. If the Stargods showed any mercy at all, they’d allow her to kiss her love just once in this existence. She’d give up the freedom Farrell promised her for one kiss from Robb.

    “How much time do we have?” Robb asked at Vareena’s breathless news.
    She shrugged her shoulders, inhaled deeply, and spoke. “A week. Perhaps two. Depends if Yeenos changes steeds along the way, or if he talks his way onto a barge.”
    “We’re doomed.” Marcus slid to a heap in the corner of the refectory. He wrapped his arms around his knees and began rocking.
    Robb wanted to do the same, but refused to give in to the despair that his friend exhibited.
    “ ’Tis a long way from here to the capital and back.” Robb finger-combed his beard. Years ago he had copied the thinking gesture from Jaylor. Now he’d done it for so long that it had become a part of him. “We’ve walked from the capital to the border often enough in the past three years. Even with magic urging a steed to greater speed and endurance, the trip always took at least a week each direction. Once Yeenos reaches the capital, he’ll need to gain an audience, first with the priests at the Royal Temple, then with the Council of Provinces. That could take weeks. Moons. Until he returns with an edict withdrawing village responsibility for us, we have food and supplies. We have time to trap that ghost in the library and get some answers.”
    “Papa has agreed to village responsibility to feed you two until Yeenos returns. But he refuses you the supplies you need for the spell.” Vareena turned her face away from him.
    Robb wished he could watch her eyes, know what she hid. But the mist that separated her from the two magicians veiled her eyes and her mind from his probes.
    Strange how physical objects retained their crisp outlines, but the people looked as insubstantial as a dragon. He could touch physical objects, lift them, probe them for long-lost memories, but a kind of armor prevented him from touching other people—except Marcus.
    Perhaps if they probed the walls rather than trying to climb them, he could discern the nature of the spell that kept them within. Later, when he was alone and could concentrate. Hard to do since the entrapment.
    “Can you find these supplies for us?” Robb asked Vareena.
    “Some of them. The herbs are common enough. Some of the minerals, but crystals and the cauldron . . .”
    “We’ve got little crystals in our supplies. We’ve got a little cooking pot. They will have to serve for now. A smaller spell. Less chance of success, but perhaps enough to show us what can be done.”
    “I’ll bring you what I can.” She rose up on tiptoe as if to kiss his cheek, then reared back, repulsed by the energy barrier. “I’ll go now.” A tear formed in the corner of her eye, like a perfect dew drop glinting in the sun. Then she ran off on her errand.
    “Stargods! She’s in love with you,” Marcus choked on a sob. “I might as well curl up and die. I’ve lost everything.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    Marcus moaned and buried his head in his knees. “I can’t do anything right, can’t even love the right woman!”
    “Marcus, stop wallowing in misery and help me. We have a ghost to trap.”
    His friend only moaned again.
    “Marcus.” Robb stalked over and shook him by the shoulder. “What are you talking about? Until we got here, you were madly in love with Margit—and she with you. Before Margit, you loved that little dairymaid in Hanic. You are always in love with someone. Now you think you love Vareena, and you think she loves me. You aren’t thinking straight.”
    “I