The Dragon Heir (25 page)

The wizards left the trees and
moved silently toward the house, walking purposefully. They were dressed all in
black, framed in light.

“I thought you said
nobody'd be home,” one of the wizards said. “The house is all lit
up.” To her surprise, his voice said he was local.

Madison hadn't realized she
was holding her breath, until she let it out. Okay, she thought. At least this
problem is homegrown.

“Don't worry,” the
tallest wizard said. “They probably just left the lights on.” His
voice sounded familiar, but it was hard to tell, muffled through the hood.

“You're sure there's no
kids in there,” the first wizard persisted.

“Will you shut up!”
the tallest wizard hissed. Madison thought he must be the leader. “We
came all the way up here, let's do it and go.” They continued moving
toward the house.

Then Madison remembered
Grace's story about the burning of the
shed. There were four or five of them, out here in the dark. They had
torches…

No. I will not let this
happen, she thought. Not on my mountain.

“What the hell do
you think you're doing on my property?” She shouted it out really loud,
hoping to warn Grace and J.R. in the house and Jason in the barn.

The wizards jumped at the
sound of her voice and milled around in confusion, peering into the darkness,
trying to figure out where she was.

With any luck, Grace would be
levelheaded enough to grab J.R. and leave out the back door. She'd know better
than to come out and get mixed up in this.

“I knew it. I knew
somebody was home,” the first wizard said.

“Look, she can't stop us.
What's she going to do?” The tall wizard continued walking toward the house,
trailed by his accomplices, who kept looking back over their shoulders.

“What are you doing?”
Madison called. When he didn't answer, she screamed, “There are kids in
that house!”

“Well, then you'd better
get them out now,” the wizard said coldly. “Because we're going to
burn this dump to the ground.” He extended his hands, and fire coalesced
around his fingertips.

And then she knew for sure.
“Brice Roper! You come away from there or I'll have the sheriff all over
you!”

That brought him up short. He
stood frozen for a moment, then shrugged and swung around, yanking off his hood
and raking a hand through his mashed hair. “Hello, Madison.”

“Brice,” one of the
other wizards whined. “This isn't what we …”

“Shut up, I said,” Brice muttered. “I should have just
handled this on my own. Don't make me sorry I brought you along.”

“I'm warning you,”
Madison said. “You'll never get away with it.”

Brice laughed. “Who's
going to believe you? This place is a firetrap. It'll be your word
against mine, and I'll be sure and have an alibi and ten witnesses to put me
someplace else. If anyone does believe you, I'll persuade them they
don't.”

“People know me around
here,” Madison said, trying to sound more confident than she felt.
“They'll believe me.”

Right. When have they ever
believed you about anything?

“Really? You think so? I
say the word, and you're a witch. I say the word, and you burned your house
down yourself. The people in this town are sheep, Madison, and I can
drive them wherever I want.”

“You're the ones who set
all the fires last year,” Madison breathed.

Brice bowed mockingly. “Proves
my point, wouldn't you say? Here we were, burning up the whole valley, and
these idiots are blaming you. If the whole town turned against me, I'd sell out
and move away. But you didn't. Oh, no. Instead, you pull a shotgun on them.
You're stubborn as a rock. And about as smart.”

In that moment, the
gut-clenching sensation went away and she was just really, really angry. She
strode toward them, into the light. “People know what you are. Some of
them, anyway.”

“I'll tell you one thing
they know,” Brice said. “My father provides jobs for half the county—anybody who's making a decent living. What's going to
happen when we close up the mine? This place'll just dry up and blow away.
Booker Mountain will keep Roper Coal going another ten years or more.”

“And then what?”

“Well, then they'll have
a nice flat place to park something on, won't they? It'll be the only level
piece of land in the whole county.”

“I won't sell,”
Madison said. “Not to you, I won't.”

“Where are Carlene and
the kids going to live, then, after I burn this place down?” Brice
snorted. “You can't even afford a phone. I bet you can't scrape up the
first month's rent. You going to pitch a tent, or what?”

Madison clenched her fists and
took a step forward. “How can you live with yourself?”

“It's your fault. You
should've agreed to sell. That's the way the world works. Everybody knows that.
But not you. You walk around like you're royalty in rags or something. Like
you're better than me. Me!” he repeated, his voice rising.

“Brice,” one of the
other wizards said. A girl, from her voice. “Let's do it or go.”

Brice collected himself.
“All right, Madison. You have five minutes to get those kids out of the
house, and anything else you want to keep. There can't be much worth
saving.” He smiled. “Don't worry. We'll still give you a good price.
The house doesn't add any value, if you know what I mean. We'd just tear it
down.” He paused, and when Madison didn't say anything, added, “You'll
thank me in a year.”

Madison caught a flicker of
movement out of the corner of her eye, and then someone screeched in pain. One
of the wizards—the whiny one—went down on
the ground, clutching at his head. He lay there, groaning, pressing his hands
into his bleeding scalp.

Then Madison saw Jason,
backpack slung over his shoulder, J.R.'s baseball bat in his hand, backing away
from the downed wizard. A baseball bat against wizardry? She opened her mouth,
meaning to shout, to say something. Jason shook his head, raising his hand to
shush her.

And then she realized—he was unnoticeable to the other wizards in the yard.
Noticeable only to her, the elicitor.

“Hey! Carl?What's
up?” Brice called. “You trip over your feet or something?”

Carl only moaned some more.

Jason pulled a knife from his
backpack and headed directly for another of the wizards, a stocky boy in
low-slung camouflage pants and those giant high-tops. Jason came in close, thrust
in and up with the knife, four quick strokes, and the wizard screeched and
clutched at his midsection. He ripped open his shirt, revealing a crude M
scratched into his chest and belly. “Wh-wh-what's going on?” he
mumbled. “I'm bleeding! Something stuck me. It—it looks like a …” He looked up at Madison, eyes
widening. “Did … did you do that?”

Thinking quickly, Madison drew
herself up, tossed back her hair, and smiled at him. “What do you think?”

The three wizards still on
their feet bunched up, facing Madison. She advanced, hands extended, and they
retreated. All of the anger, fear, and humiliation of the past year bubbled up
inside her. She found herself wishing she did have magic, that she could
incinerate them with a gesture.

Jason kept moving. He pulled a
metal can from his backpack, one that Madison recognized from the barn.

What is he doing?

He unscrewed the cap and
upended it over the girl wizard. The girl shrieked and covered her head with
her arms, fighting off her invisible opponent.

“What is this?”
She sniffed, then screamed and ripped off the hood, flinging it away, revealing
a pale, horrified face. “That's kerosene!” She backed away from
Madison, shaking her head slowly from side to side. “If you think I'm
going to set fire to a house while I'm drenched in kerosene, you're
crazy.” She turned and fled into the woods.

Madison walked toward Brice,
forcing a smile onto her face. She was afraid her heart might burst right out
of her chest, it was beating so hard. “So, Brice,” she said, “I
hear you like to play with magic.”

“What th-the hell?”
The usually articulate Brice looked like he was in the middle of a very bad dream and
hoped he'd wake up soon. “How are you doing that? You're not a wizard. I …
didn't feel anything…when I touched you.”

“You say the word, and
I'm a witch,” Madison said, low in her throat. “Isn't that right?”

Brice backed away as Madison
advanced, raising his hands to fend her off. “Stay away from me.”
Meanwhile, Jason came at him from the side.

“Spell me, why don't
you?” she taunted. “See if you can. I dare you.” Her shadow
extended before her, tall and angular.

He stretched out his hands,
but then pulled them back, no doubt remembering what had happened in the
studio. “Madison. Come on. Let's talk about this.”

She extended her hand toward
Brice, mimicking a hex sign Min had used. Unnoticeable Jason swung the bat,
smashing Brice in the face. Brice jerked backward, yelling, pressing his sleeve
to his face to stem the flow of blood from a perfect nose that was now smashed
off-center.

“Ouch!” Madison
said, shaking her head. “You're really not all that good at this, are you?
I guess you need a little more practice. Want to play again?”

Brice spat out blood and a
broken tooth. “I don't get it,” he mumbled through his damaged mouth.

“No. You don't. But I'll
tell you what. I'll make the same deal you offered me. I'll give you five
minutes to gather up anything you want to keep.” She glanced around—at Carl, who had sat up, blotting blood from his face
with his shirt; at the other wizard who was still contemplating the wound in
his midsection, looking like he might pass out. “Can't be much worth
saving,” she added.

Brice slid his hands under
Carl's arms and hauled him to his feet, both of them beat up and bloody.

“One more thing,”
Madison said. “You better hope my life runs real smooth from here on.
Anything happens to this place—fire,
explosions, earthquakes, the well goes dry, bridge goes out, the apple trees
get blossom-rot—I'll know who to blame. And I'll come after you. You ever set
foot on my property again, I'll incinerate you.”

For once, Brice had nothing to
say. He and Carl hustled off into the woods, heading for the road.

Madison waited until the
wizards had been out of sight for a good five minutes. Then she crouched next
to the old chicken coop and vomited, heaving until she had nothing left. Jason
squatted next to her, gathering her hair in his hands and pulling it back out
of danger. Then he fetched her a mason jar of water from the spigot so she
could rinse her mouth. He helped her back to the house, and they sat down on the
porch steps. Madison was trembling, her teeth chattering. Jason put his arm
around her and pulled her close, patting her back.

“God, you're good,”
he said, shaking his head. He seemed stunned by her performance. “I
couldn't believe it. You're so brave. You scared the hell out of them.”

“Me?” Madison said,
shuddering. “You.” Tears pooled in Madison's eyes, escaped, and ran
down her cheeks. “I've been … so stupid. I should have seen it coming. I know
him. I know what he is. What would have happened if you hadn't been
here?”

“You could've taken
them,” Jason said, taking her hand in his and squeezing it. “No
problem. You're like a … a lioness, defending your den. I mean, juice ain't all
it's cracked up to be, compared with that.” He rolled his eyes and
she laughed, but there was something in his expression, like he'd had an
epiphany.

“I better go find the
kids,” she said, wiping her tears away. “They must be scared to
death.” She stood and turned toward the house, but just then she heard
Grace's voice from the woods back of the barn.

“Madison? What's
happening? Can we come out?”

“Come on,” Madison
said, and Grace and J.R. emerged from the woods, Grace with a vice-like hold on
her brother's hand. Madison sent up a silent prayer of thanks. Grace had done
just the right thing. She'd taken J.R. and hidden in the woods.

Her little sister was growing
up.

“Where'd those men
go?” Grace asked, glancing around the barnyard. “Those were the same
ones who set fire to the shed.”

“How much did you
see?” Madison asked, exchanging glances with Jason.

“We didn't get to see anything!”
J.R. complained. “Grace made me go in the woods.”

“Don't worry. Jason and I
ran them off,” Madison said. “I don't think they'll come back.”

After the kids had gone to
bed, Madison invited Jason into the house for his belated dinner. They sat at
the kitchen table, and the dogs laid practically on their feet.

Things had changed, though
Jason couldn't quite say why. For one thing, he'd stake his life—and Seph's, too—on the fact that Madison Moss was not
in league with Warren Barber. Or the Roses. Jason didn't know how to explain
the painting,
and he knew it would freak her out if he asked about it. But, somehow, he no
longer needed to.

“So. What are you going
to do?” Madison asked Jason. So she, too, sensed they'd reached a turning
point.

“Maybe I better stick
around in case Brice and his friends come back,” Jason suggested.

“You don't have to,”
she said. “I'm guessing Brice won't want to tangle with me any time
soon.”

Okay, Jason thought, I'm
expendible again. But this time he felt it was more like he had options.
“Well. I'd wanted to go back to England. Hastings is planning an attack on
the ghyll, and I wanted to get in on it.” He shrugged “It's probably
already happened, by now.”

“So you've changed your
mind?”

He nodded. “I could go
back to Trinity, I guess. But, I never felt that useful when I was there. I
felt like, next to Seph, I was…” His voice trailed off. He couldn't quite
believe he was confessing all this to anybody. “I couldn't stand that,
doing nothing. When I left to come here, Seph told me he needed me to come
back, that he could use my help. But I figured he was just saying that, because
we're friends.”