Winged Pursuit Page 7

  Nothing much beyond the door was familiar. I supposed I’d seen all of the creatures before, including the ginormous scarlet dragon, who looked like he could snap you in half and not bat an eyelash at the crunching of your bones. Humbert had indeed landed on the roof of the Magical Arts Academy. His red eyes with horizontal slits were half lidded as if he felt at ease.

  Yet my heart was pitter pattering in my chest.

  Above Humbert, more than a dozen firedrakes circled, swooped, dove, and nipped at each other... all in apparent play. I spotted Sylvia’s opalescent scales, her red eyes engaged on the others. Mathieu, with scales the color of a deep forest green on his back, which lightened to the color of moss across his belly, flew at Sylvia’s side, separating only for what seemed to be coordinated maneuvers in whatever games they were playing.

  I stared, appearing to be many degrees lower than my average intelligence, at the prehistoric-looking creatures I never suspected existed until I saw them in the flesh. Now there were lots of them. Seeing so many magical creatures all together was causing my brain to stick, like an orchestra forced to play the same string of notes over and over until the performers got them right.

  The firedrakes were all colors. There was a violet one, a burgundy one, and two in different shades of blue. Flashes of oranges, reds, and yellows swooped overhead. Nearly every color of the rainbow reflected in a reptilian scale, leaving me either fully mesmerized or dizzy, I wasn’t sure which. What was for sure was that I didn’t want to look away.

  Never before had I seen such a display of raw power, sleek execution of movement, and mystery of design. The beasts were a secret of creation—at least of the world I’d inhabited while at my uncle’s house—yet they behaved as if they’d always been a part of this world.

  “Isa!” a voice croaked across the rooftop.

  It was perhaps the only sound guaranteed to snap me out of my reverie in a flash. I titled my gaze downward and scanned the roofline, desperate to spot my brother. But all I saw were sun spots!

  “Nando!” I made my way across the roof before I found him, careful to avoid Humbert’s mountainous form.

  I rounded the dragon and saw Nando running toward me. Spackled in sun spots, he was the best thing I’d ever seen.

  “Nando!” I ran at him with open arms and crushed them around him in the fiercest embrace of my life.

  He squeezed me back for so long I feared something was wrong. He’d never held me this long.

  But when he rested his chin on the top of my head and breathed in deeply before allowing his chest to relax, I realized he was just relieved to see me. He caressed my long hair, and I wanted to remain like that forever. In my brother’s arms I was safe.

  It didn’t matter that prehistoric beasts rested just a few feet from us, or that they circled the sky right above us, Nando would never let anybody or anything—magical or otherwise—hurt me.

  I breathed in the scent of him and melted into his arms.

  “I was so worried about you,” he whispered. “I woke up on the back of the strangest bird I’ve ever seen, behind a man I didn’t know, and you weren’t there with me. It was the worst moment of my entire life. I feared I wouldn’t find the way to get back to you.”

  I felt a wave of guilt that I’d allowed myself to be distracted by the novelty of magic when my brother thought only of me. “I was worried about you too. Here we are, picked up by some random stranger, then we’re attacked by the SMS—”

  “What’s the SMS?” he asked, but didn’t let me go.

  “Sorcerers for Magical Supremacy. They’re who kidnapped you, and they’re the same group who attacked the carriage and hit you with a killing spell.”

  “It was a killing spell?” His words were soft enough to sound terrified.

  “Yes, but bless everything holy, you weren’t hit with the spell directly, so it only knocked you out. I don’t know what I would have done—” I couldn’t finish the sentence.

  “How long has it been since the spell put me out?”

  “Uh, I’m not sure. Things have been really strange.”

  “They didn’t hurt you, did they?” He pulled back to look me in the eye.

  I smiled reassuringly. “On the contrary. They provided for me nicely.”

  He pulled me back against him. I felt as if he wouldn’t be letting me go anytime soon. “Did they hurt you?” It was a question I was afraid to ask, but I had to know. After all, the SMS sorcerers had already proven they had no problem killing to get what they wanted. What else might they be capable of if lives were expendable?

  “They didn’t get the chance to do anything too crazy.”

  Nando didn’t exactly answer my question. I hoped it wasn’t an intentional deflection to shield me from his pain.

  “The magicians from here, I’m not exactly sure what to call them....” He trailed off, hoping I’d supply him a name, but I didn’t know what to call them either. It seemed like we needed a catchy name.

  “Anyway,” he continued, “they rescued me in flight. I’d only just woken up, confused as can be, as you can imagine, flying on the back of some... creature, when a dragon—a dragon!—pulled alongside us.

  I pushed back from Nando to look at his face when he spoke. My eyes were as wide as a tea saucer. “The dragon pulled next to you?”

  He nodded excitedly, as if we were talking about something entirely normal, not a magical rescue on the back of a dragon. We’d only just arrived at the Magical Arts Academy, and already our lives were nearly unrecognizable from what they’d always been.

  “The dragon lined up next to the creature I was on, and the man and woman on the dragon started shooting, I don’t know, lights?—magic?—at the man holding me hostage. Then the red-haired man jumped—he actually jumped!—next to me.”

  My bottom jaw fell open before I managed to get my lips to express my thoughts. “He did not!”

  “Oh, he did.”

  “But....”

  “But it’s crazy? I know, it totally was, and all I could do was hang on, because as soon as the red-haired guy—”

  “His name is Gustave.”

  “Great. So as soon as this Gustave hopped onto the back of the weird bird behind me, the bird started to fall.”

  “Too much weight for the firedrake, I’d imagine. How would Gustave even fit? It doesn’t look as if there’d be room for three men on a firedrake’s back?”

  “So these creatures are called firedrakes?”

  I nodded. It felt strange being the one who knew things he didn’t.

  “They’re pretty unusual.” He looked up at them, and I followed his line of sight to the mesmerizing circle of them. “They look like miniature dragons.”

  “They do. Maybe they are, I have no idea.”

  “I get the feeling I’m going to be shocked at how little I know of how the world really operates.”

  “Tell me about it.” We stared at the firedrakes for a long beat. “So, you’re unhurt, for sure? You started falling when Gustave landed on the firedrake?” I prompted.

  “Right.” He looked at me again. “Well, we started to fall pretty fast. To be honest, I was prepared to die at that point.”

  I stared at him, barely breathing. I would have been so scared.

  “Eventually, the red-haired woman....” He waited for me to fill in the blanks.

  “Gustave’s twin sister, Arianne.”

  “Arianne brought the dragon level with the firedrake. That’s when it got really crazy.”

  “Even crazier?” Was that possible?

  “She started telling me to jump.”

  “No... you didn’t.”

  “Oh, yes I did.” He grinned. A pang to my heart told me how much I’d almost lost. My brother was my best friend. “I jumped from a falling firedrake to a dragon. Wait, let me say that again, because I really, honest-to-goodness, can’t believe I’m saying it. I jumped from a firedrake to a dragon, in mid air.”

  “That’s unbelievable. And you landed on H
umbert well?”

  “Humbert?”

  “The dragon.”

  He just nodded. “Right, the dragon. It wasn’t smooth or graceful, but I landed well enough. Arianne caught me when I started to slide and pulled me behind her.”

  I brought a hand to my mouth. “You almost slid off Humbert?”

  “I almost slid right off him. That fall would have been my death, without a doubt. The end.”

  A couple of days ago, I would have agreed. Now that I took magic into account, I wasn’t so sure. Still, I was infinitely relieved Nando was well and whole and standing right next to me.

  “So you’re all right.” I let out the biggest sigh of relief of my entire life and collapsed back into his arms.

  He squeezed me again but then nudged me backward so he could look at my face while we spoke. “I’m well, but Gustave isn’t.”

  “Oh no. What happened? Did he die? Is he here?”

  “He lives, and he’s all right, I guess. But....”

  “But what?”

  “He doesn’t remember who he is or anything about, well, much of anything.”

  I didn’t know what to say.

  “Awful, I know. I heard Arianne talking with the other red-haired woman....”

  “That must be Clara.”

  “Clara. I heard Arianne talking with Clara, and they think the sorcerer tried to hit Gustave with a killing spell, that Gustave managed to protect himself, and that the killing spell didn’t actually kill him—”

  “But it wiped his memory,” I said on a gasp.

  He nodded. “That’s what I heard.”

  The magician we barely knew sacrificed himself to save my brother, and now I couldn’t even thank him for doing it. If he remembered nothing, he wouldn’t remember saving Nando.

  “Watch yourselves!” a small voice commanded. “That lumbering beast is about to take off.”

  Nando and I backed up, looking at the ‘lumbering beast’ and the source of the voice.

  Sir Lancelot popped out from behind Humbert with a screech. “Did you see that?” he asked us, enraged. “He flicked his tail at me and almost hit me. On purpose.”

  “I wouldn’t think he’d have done it on purpose,” I told the flustered owl. “Maybe he didn’t see you there.”

  “Oh, he saw me all right. He has it out for me. He has from the start.”

  “A talking owl?” Nando whispered to me through the side of his mouth.

  I grinned. “A very gregarious one,” I whispered back.

  “He has no respect for the more refined aspects of life,” the gregarious owl was saying. “We could be friends if he weren’t so intent on frightening me to death.”

  “Or if he could talk.” I smiled.

  “Right. He’d need to talk to establish any kind of friendship.” Training his eyes on the ‘treacherous’ dragon, the owl came to land right in front of us. He didn’t even reach halfway up my calf, not even with the ruffled feathers on his crown, which were standing nearly straight up.

  The owl crossed his wings across his chest like a human would cross his arms.

  I felt Nando turn toward me with a smile. Maybe magic school will be fun. As long as there was no more killing, kidnapping, or memory wiping. Maybe magic school will be one long reign of terror.

  “There she comes,” the bird said over his shoulder, his voice precise enough to carry over the squawking of firedrakes, the unfurling of a dragon, and up to our ear level. “Make way.”

  Sure enough, Clara came running past us, scrambled up Humbert’s now-standing front leg, and shimmied up onto his back.

  I didn’t think it was my place to ask, but I did just the same. “Where are you going?”

  She flicked a quick glance at me. “To bring Marcelo and Brave back before they get too far in their search for me.”

  “Well, good luck.”

  She smiled, but she was already looking ahead. “Luck has little to do with it.” And with that, Humbert stretched his gigantic, leathery wings, and leaned back into his haunches.

  “He’s about to take off. Careful,” Sir Lancelot said. “The beast can’t be trusted.”

  With a quick flick of wings that reached perilously close to the petite bird, Humbert pumped his wings, and launched into the air, carving a path between the firedrakes, who understood who was the master of beasts in the sky and moved to create space for him.

  “Uh. Did you see that?” Sir Lancelot brought his wings to his midsection. “He flicked his wing at me intentionally.”

  I wanted to reassure the owl and tell him he was exaggerating, but I kind of thought Humbert might have messed with him on purpose.

  I watched Humbert rise into the air and stabilize. Clara circled him around in a wide loop before they disappeared from view, with Sylvia and Mathieu trailing behind like sentinels.

  I didn’t think I’d ever grow tired of watching a dragon fly, or a firedrake for that matter. It was all so new, so fascinating, so... inspiring, I supposed.

  When my attention returned to my brother and Sir Lancelot, I realized the owl was looking up at me. “What?”

  “Aren’t you going to introduce me, Lady Isadora?”

  “Of course. My apologies for my distraction. Please understand, Sir Lancelot, this is all so new and strange for us.”

  “Why of course, Lady Isadora. It’s completely understandable.” He was all grace and good manners once more.

  “Nando, this is Sir Lancelot. He’ll be one of our teachers. He’ll instruct us in Magical History.”

  “I’m very pleased to meet you, Sir Lancelot.” Nando gave a deep bow, obviously catching on that this owl was hardly fowl.

  “And Sir Lancelot,” I continued, “this is my older brother, Hernando Soranzo, whom I call Nando, for short.”

  The diminutive gentleman bowed low. “It’s my pleasure to meet you, Lord Hernando.”

  “Please, just call me Nando.”

  Sir Lancelot nodded as if the etiquette of introductions were as serious as the threat the SMS posed, and I bit down a chuckle. If I closed my eyes, it would be entirely possible to forget he wasn’t an actual man.

  But then, with the dragon gone, when I looked up I saw Arianne, Gustave, and Gertrude, back in the body of a girl. The two women hovered over the man, whose confused expression was evident even from across the roof. Mordecai paced beside them, walking back and forth across the spot where I’d killed a man to save him just this morning.

  “We should probably go over and see if there’s anything we can do to help,” I suggested.

  Apparently, Sir Lancelot agreed, because he took off and headed straight toward them.

  Nando leaned over to whisper in my ear. “You’re sure that’s not a man in the disguise of an owl?”

  I grinned, linked my arm in his, and started across the roof. When I took in Mordecai’s preoccupied expression, I remembered something. “Did Albacus come back with you?”

  “Who’s Albacus?”

  How to answer that question? “He’s the ghost of Mordecai’s dead brother.”

  “Hm. I see.” Either Nando was taking all of this extremely well, or he was too overwhelmed to take in anymore to process. “I didn’t see any ghosts.”

  “That’s too bad. I don’t see him here either.”

  “So he’s a ghost you can see?”

  “Oh yes, you can see and hear him.”

  “Why am I not surprised? Does everything talk here?”

  “Probably.”

  We reached Mordecai first. I put a hand on his forearm. He stopped pacing and looked up at me. He clearly hadn’t noticed our approach. “Any news on your brother?”

  He put a sun-spotted hand over mine. “None yet, my child. None yet.”

  I tried to smile encouragingly, but I wasn’t sure he registered it. He squeezed my hand and resumed his pacing.

  We reached Arianne and the others. “Uh, is there anything we can do to help?”

  When Arianne looked at me, I took half a step backwa
rd. The pain etched across her face was unbearable. Just as quickly, she hid it, and helped her twin to standing. “Come, Gustave. It’s time to go.”

  “Go where?” he asked, with the tone of an innocent child.

  “Inside, mon cher, where you’ll be safe.”

  “Oh, all right.” He smiled blankly.

  “Isa, darling, you can help by bringing the firedrakes inside.”

  I gulped. She wasn’t serious.

  But then she started leading Gustave away, making it clear that she was. I dropped Nando’s arm and ran after her. “Wait. I have no idea how to bring them inside. And what do I do once I have them inside?”

  She turned. “Why, you get them set up in their beds, of course.”

  Of course.

  I feared she’d turn back around and leave me there to do this impossible task. “And how do I do that?” I asked hurriedly.

  “Grand-mère,” Gertrude said. “Remember that she doesn’t know how to connect with the firedrakes like you and Clara do, or like Mordecai does.”

  “I can only connect with Sylvia.” Mordecai stopped his pacing, revealing that even when he looked distracted, he didn’t miss much. “It will take someone with your family’s special skills to bring them inside. Either you, or Clara, or Gustave.”

  We all looked at Gustave. “Or very possibly Gertrude.”

  “I can’t do it.”

  “Of course you can, ma chérie,” Arianne said in her lilting voice.

  “Then you have to teach me first.”

  Arianne smiled, but her heart was only half into it. “Then I will, my darling. I certainly will.”

  She continued on with Gustave across the roof toward the door that led inside.

  “Are you coming back to deal with the firedrakes then?” I called, probably a bit more frantic than I should have been.

  She stopped, her shoulders slumped for a second, then she turned. “Right. I’ll deal with them now.” She spoke to Gustave with extreme gentleness. “Wait here, my dear. I’ll return in just a moment.”

  He nodded absently, tilting his gaze to the sky and the marvelous sight of a dozen firedrakes flying.