Dragon Magic: Book 3: Prophecy of the Dragons (17 page)

Once they got home, Andi took Ben up to her room to show him the letter. It read word-for-word as she said, and the part about them being powerful enough to take on the Dragon Council did look like it had been added later. Also, the thing was saturated with magic.

"Well?" she asked. "What do you think?"

"It's hard to miss Sasha and Timothy's taint on it, but I mostly sense Sasha. She must be a wizard. I was hoping they were using a trinket to do their thing. What makes it scarier is that she was able to do something to hide it even from me. From us."

"That is a scary thought."

"Yeah, but what should we do? Should we tell Angus and the others, or should we go after them ourselves? We have a good excuse, with them possessing you and all."

"I don't know." She took the note out of his hands, set it aside, and looked deep into his eyes. He couldn't quite make out what her emotions meant, as they were a strange jumble of lust and determination with a tiny bit of hesitation built in. It wasn't until she leaned forward into his arms and gave him a kiss that he figured it out. This was it, and there was no chastity spell or possession to put a stop to it this time.

Except one thing.

A knock sounded on the door. They both groaned and pulled apart, smoothing out their clothes. At least they hadn't gone very far. He could only imagine the scramble if they'd been… He blushed, and Andi giggled.

"Come in," she said, and Felix entered.

"Did you look at the letter?" he asked, and then saw them and grinned. "I take it you two don't know the ol' necktie on the doorknob trick."

"What's that?" Ben asked seconds before the answer dawned on him. This time he blushed so hard he imagined he emitted a red light so bright that it bled through the walls and illuminated the whole neighborhood. They likely saw him up in the International Space Station. Felix and Andi, despite her own embarrassment, laughed at this.

"Anyway," Ben said, "here's the letter." He handed it to Felix.

He read through it and said, "Interesting. Did you feel Sasha's taint on this?"

"Yeah, it's hard to miss."

"Indeed. If this means what I think it does, I can't believe I never sensed it in her before."

"Andi and I said the same thing."

"So does it mean she's a wizard," Andi asked, "or that she's the one with access to a bunch of powerful artifacts?"

"I'm almost positive it's the former," Felix said, "though the latter is possible. We need to keep an eye on them, but at the moment, it's best not to press very hard. They'll have their defenses up as high as they can get them because of this botched disc business."

Andi blanched and Ben gripped her hand. Felix reached over and patted her shoulder. "That's not an accusation, Alexandria. You're the only one not at fault here. Ben and I both should have realized how bad things were."

"I figured out Sasha was in control of you right before we left to head to The Stronghold. I should have mentioned it to someone, and I shouldn't have allowed you to get a hold of it."

"Thank you," she said, tears coming to her eyes. She brushed them away. "What's next?"

"We forget those two for now and let our friends on the council worry about them. In the meantime, I have a few tricks for you. These require absolute trust, and that hasn't been possible yet. I believe you have that now?"

Ben and Andi shared a look and grinned. Yeah, that was an understatement. He could now consider her his Alexandria again, while he was her Benjamin.

"Good. Shall we hit the training room until dinner?" He winked at them. "After dinner, I'll go catch a double-feature far away from this bedroom."

Ben groaned, while Andi giggled. This time, with their combined blush, Ben was sure the Mars Rover could see them. Before either composed themselves, his text message alert chimed. Dad. He read it and frowned.

"Listen to this. 'On your own for dinner tonight. Fillmore is taking us t' I don't like how it ends so abruptly. It seems pretty obvious he got interrupted."

"Especially since Fillmore is working for Timothy and Sasha," Andi said. "Call him."

He did, but was sent to voicemail. "Come on. Let's go see what's going on."

Heidi was about to get dinner started when the doorbell rang. She and Trent met in the entry hall. He'd been doing laundry, and must've finished folding the last load. They didn't bother checking the peephole, and were pleasantly surprised when they found Fillmore standing there.

"Fillmore," Trent said, and shook his hand. "Come in, please."

"Thank you."

He stepped in, and Heidi closed the door. "To what do we owe this pleasure?" she asked. "I was about to make dinner. Would you like to stay?"

"Actually, dinner is why I'm here. Not to dine here, of course – I'm not that presumptuous – but in the Stronghold. Timothy and Sasha had a business dinner planned, but it was cancelled at the last minute. Sasha enjoyed meeting you, and she and Timothy thought the two of you might enjoy a tour of the Stronghold. The servants constructed a feast, and it should be shared. What do you say? Would you care to join?"

"That sounds great," Trent said. "We'd love to see the grand old place."

"Are we allowed there, though?" Heidi asked.

"You couldn't go on your own for vacation, or as a night out, but you're invited as guests of council members, which Timothy and Sasha are. It's empty at the moment, except for the servants, but you'd be welcome even if the full council was present."

"Well, then, yes, excellent," she said. "Count us in."

"Great. Shall we?"

"Before we go," she said, "have you given any thought to letting Ben and Andi help you? I know they'd be happy to."

"As I said, Mila may not survive the transfer of power. I can't risk it. Besides, Timothy and Sasha wouldn't be pleased with the betrayal." Hurt and desperation flashed across his face.

Heidi wanted to tell him that if Timothy and Sasha felt that way, maybe he needed to find other friends to associate with. She bit her tongue, however. She and Trent could discuss it with them tonight over dinner. Surely they wouldn't feel like that if it meant fixing Fillmore's mate. Maybe they didn't understand how powerful Ben and Andi were.

Before Fillmore got his emotions back under control, Trent pulled out his phone and started texting. Probably to Ben, telling him they were going out for the night. The kids and Felix would likely order pizza, or maybe they'd head over to Orangeville Acres. They sure got their use out of those annual passes. When Fillmore noticed, however, he screamed, "No!" and smacked the phone out of Trent's hand. He then grabbed them both by the shoulder and said, "Time to go."

Heidi had no idea how she saw it, but time slowed down enough for her to see Fillmore's fingertips smack the send button when he hit Trent's phone. Something here had gone wrong, but at least Felix and the kids would have some sort of clue. The house disappeared around her, and an instant later, they stood inside a huge fortress.

They entered Ben's house, though, in the back of her mind, Andi found that distinction silly. In reality, her house was more his than this one, both in the figurative sense since he spent most of his time there, and the literal sense since his name was beside hers on the deed. In any event, all three saw Trent's phone lying facedown on the carpeting in the living room right outside the entry hall.

Ben picked it up and they found it on the text message screen. The last sent had indeed been the cut off one Ben received. They scoured the rest of the area for any further clues about what happened, but had no luck. They then swept the rest of the house, but came up empty there, too.

"So here's what happened," Ben said. "Even though they never mentioned it, Fillmore had befriended them sometime in the past. The text sounded like they were already familiar with him. He could have taken them anywhere, but I'm guessing it was the Stronghold. Both have told me how much they'd like to see it, ever since they had that shared dream on Christmas Eve night or Christmas morning or whenever. They thought it was going to be a fun evening out, but Timothy and Sasha have something nefarious planned. When Fillmore saw Dad texting, he knocked the phone out of his hand. Dad either hit send at the last second, or Fillmore did when he smacked it. I don't think it could have been the floor. Either way, it was a happy accident for us. Fillmore then grabbed them and took them wherever they were going, as I said, hopefully the Stronghold. He used whatever magic Sasha has given him."

Andi looked around to see where he was coming up with this. Sure, it was a good guess on what happened, but his emotions sang that he believed it almost one-hundred percent. "Wait, how do you know all this?"

"It's a guess," he said.

"But you're almost positive."

"Well, it is a wizard guess."

She frowned, looked at him, and then over at Felix.

Felix smiled and nodded. "It's how I read the situation. I may need to give you more credit on how close you are to becoming a master."

"Wait-wait-wait," she said, shaking her head. "You guys talked about wizard guesses at the Stronghold, too. What the heck are they? They're still just guesses, right?"

"Yes, but not really," Felix said. "A master at magic can focus on the energies left behind and read what happened. We can, to a point, look directly into the past. And, at times, that mystical energy will spell out what will happen next."

"Can you guys do this often?"

"We can try whenever we like, but it's emotionally charged situations that leave the best chance for us to find the truth," Felix said. "In fact, Alexandria, I'm almost positive you'll get there, too. You won't pick and choose when to use the powers like we do, but when it strikes you, everyone better take notice. Whatever you see will be of the utmost importance."

She shook her head. "This is all too weird. I think I liked it better when I was Ben's battery and amplifier."

A strange look crossed Felix's face to go with his thin smile. "Oh, you're a lot more than that, but that's a discussion for another time. For now, I believe we have places to go, parents to save."

She wanted more than anything to push him for more answers, but he was right, they needed to get to the Stronghold to save Trent and Heidi, assuming, as Ben and Felix had, that's where they were. "Maybe we should text Max and Nix to let them know we're on our way back over. Hopefully they're home already."

"Already done," Ben said, holding up his phone. "And they are. He returned a text immediately."

"Good," Felix said. "Shall we?"

The drive to Max and Nix's place went by in a blur. They joked that Ben's truck could make the trip on autopilot since this seemed like a regular destination now. During the drive, Felix gave them a new way for Andi to amplify Ben's spell strength. She already did by being near him, but he assured them this would be a world of difference, like comparing a candle to a floodlight. They couldn't practice because it took concentration, and Ben needed that for the road. Felix, however, told them it would be no problem. As long as they trusted each other completely, it would work.

"That's why you didn't teach us this before, right?" she asked. "Even though you weren't sure why, you knew there was something wrong."

"You got it. But now I think you two trust each other more than I trust myself." He winked at her. "And I'm a trustworthy guy."

She and Ben laughed, and then Ben asked. "So why the trust? That doesn't seem like a normal prerequisite for a spell or ability."

"You make it sound like a role-playing game," she said with a snort.

"Why not? Sometimes our lives seem like a Dungeons and Dragons campaign."

"My parents and I tried playing that once. They surprised me with a whole slew of the hardcover rule books and supplements, and we figured it would be a neat way to spend our days, since it was a period when I was taking a break from school. We got into it a little bit, but when Dad and I couldn't play dragons the way dragons really are, we got bored. Mom couldn't take fighting the battles with dice instead of acting them out."

"Yeah, she always struck me as someone who would have been into LARPing."

"What in the world is LARPing?" Felix asked. He then shook his head. "No, no, no, don't answer that. Do you want to know about the trust thing or not?"

"Sorry, yes," she said.

Ben added, "Got off track."

"The truth is, you don't have to trust each other to use this ability, but while you're concentrating, one of you could attempt to take control of the other's mind. So if one or both of you are thinking about that, it will kill the effectiveness of the boost. If you trust each other, however, you won't have to worry about it. First off, you won't even consider trying to take over the other's mind, while, second, the trust makes that impossible anyway."

"That's both backwards and perfectly logical all at once," Andi said. "Magic's weird."

"I've stopped worrying about the logic of such rules," Ben said. "Because, yeah, magic
is
weird." Then, to Felix, he said, "So if you'd taught this to us a few days ago and Timothy and Sasha found out, they could have ordered Andi to take over my mind, thus controlling us with even more ease?"

"You got it. I didn't know it was that dire, but I still knew not to bring it up. I have a few other shared abilities to teach you, too, but those require actual training. As I said, I'm confident you can pull this one off cold."

At that point, the 55 Freeway ended and became Newport Boulevard. Ben needed to mind the gradually slowing traffic, so no one said anything for a few minutes until Felix broke the silence.

"Okay, I'll bite. What's LARPing?"

*****

Max and Nix waited in the driveway as they pulled up. "The Stronghold should be empty," Max said once they were out of the truck. "The next session isn't for another week or so, and the council members rarely stay between sessions, and everyone who was there a couple of hours ago has left. You think Timothy and Sasha went back?"

"That's the hope," Ben said.

The five of them headed for the pier, and then made the magical jump to the Stronghold. If what Max said was true, then it would be the perfect place for Timothy and Sasha to take Trent and Heidi. None of them even knew what they wanted with Ben's parents, other than to use them against her and Ben, but was it a simple hostage situation, or had the two planned something more sinister? She supposed they'd find out soon enough.

Once they stood in the garden, Felix said, "We should get them out as quick as possible. Who knows what they have planned."

"You can't guess?" Andi asked. From what she understood, that's how the guesses were supposed to be most helpful.

"Not in cases like this. There's not a raw enough emotional situation here for the mystical energy to supply any answers. When we get to where they're being held, it's possible, but I doubt it. Maybe when Timothy and Sasha make their move."

"Wizards can hide these energies from other wizards, right?" Ben said

"Exactly. I'm almost positive Sasha is a wizard as opposed to hoarding trinkets, though I'd be willing to bet an artifact of some power was used to whammy Alexandria as hard as she did. That's not to say she doesn't hold a huge well of power. Not as much as you two, which I'm guessing is the main reason for their animosity. They thought they were the only wizard-dragon duo worth anything."

"Until you two came along, they thought the prophecy was about them," Nix added.

"How do you know?" Andi asked.

"The magic-users aren't the only ones who can make guesses. Any prophecy scholar worth her salt can take facts and circumstances and mix them together to come up with likely truths."

"Interesting," Felix said.

"Yeah," Ben said, "but something to kick around once we rescue my mom and dad."

"Indeed." The group continued towards the main entry hall.

"Where to?" Andi asked.

Max pointed up the huge staircase to their left. "The most likely place would be their private chambers." He then frowned and looked at the passageway which led towards the main council meeting room. "Though since no one else is here, they could have taken them to their public chamber, or even the main council chamber itself."

"We'll find them," Ben said. He threw his thoughts out into the ether, and Andi concentrated on him, hoping she could amp up his power like Felix taught them.

Before she could see if it worked, though, some of the servants stepped out from behind the scenes and stared at them. Were they here to check on what was going on? But that wasn't their normal procedure. Max and Nix were welcome any time, and she, Ben, and Felix came as their guests, so the servants shouldn't care. As more and more of them came out from the stonework, she saw they did care.

"This is bad," Max whispered.

"What? Why?" Andi asked. "They seemed so gentle when I was here."

"They are, normally, but they're also programmed to be the most powerful defense mechanism the Stronghold has."

Andi ducked into her brain encyclopedia. She'd never thought to look them up because they'd been so passive, so kind, and even happy. Now, though, she saw what Max meant. As he explained it to Ben and Felix, she got the info straight from the source and saw Max wasn't kidding when he said they were in big trouble.

She'd never questioned their thick gray skin and stocky build, figuring it was the way their race appeared. Now she saw how useful that appearance was. Their skin served as an almost impenetrable armor for both physical attacks and magical strikes. It would be like fighting that big lobster monster again, but fifty or sixty instead of one. Also, while the lobster monster had, for the most part, only attacked when they provoked it, the servants, now defenders, would strike quick and hard. She sighed. Yeah, challenges could be interesting, but why did she and Ben always have to face so many?

"They shouldn't be attacking, though," Nix said once Max finished his explanation to Ben and Felix. "They know we've been here plenty of times, and you're our guests."

"The stench of Sasha and Timothy are all over them," Felix said. "I believe their switch has been flipped to defense mode by magical means."

"So now they want to kill us," Ben said.

Andi sighed. "Everyone and everything always wants to kill us."

"Isn't great power fun?" Felix said as the defenders advanced.

"Yeah, yeah," she muttered. She and Max changed into their dragon state, and they all readied for combat.