Verdant Magic: A Standalone Dragon Shifter Adventure (Dragon Mage Chronicles Book 1) Page 9

  For an instant they stood connected, air flowing by but Zane’s heat mellowing the space between into quietude. This was true strength, the ability to resist tit-for-tat bickering, to say your piece while leaving the other party with dignity intact.

  Then her companion’s palm turned upward beneath her own, his fingers trailed along the sensitive skin underneath her wrist. Amber’s breath caught, goosebumps rising atop her forearm as eyes locked onto her companion’s brilliantly blue orbs.

  Something wordless passed between them. Trust, hope, and calm potential that eased the tension stiffening her spine.

  Suddenly it seemed like the easiest thing in the world to turn to her apprentice and raise both brows. “Is that what you told them?”

  “I might need to use magic to rescue you,” Jasmine explained, her lips beginning to quiver. “And Thea – what about her?”

  What about her? The goat appeared perfectly content using her sharp front teeth to gnaw through a rope that was probably essential to ensuring the airship didn’t crash and burn. “Thea, no,” Amber commanded, wishing her apprentice was as easily swayed.

  Obediently, the goat danced back toward the railing. Meanwhile, Jasmine watched the exchange with worshipful eyes, clearly ready to bend like a willow sapling beneath the wind of Amber’s good judgment.

  And despite earlier misgivings, the Watcher now knew exactly what she needed to say. “If she and I promise not to harm anyone on this ship except in self-defense, then the collar will go away?” Amber asked the rock-solid shifter whose fingertips had slipped down to her palm, teasing subtle circles around the base of her thumb.

  A strangled noise from the crowd was traceable to the dragon shifter behind her back. Nicholas apparently wanted very much to disagree, probably wished to remove that self-defense clause from the oral contract entirely. But after a glance at his brother, the tall male held his tongue.

  “That’s all I ask,” Zane agreed.

  “Alright, then,” Amber said, her mind drifting to tiny apple seeds still sitting in the front pocket of her homemade trousers. Those seeds wouldn’t be particularly helpful anyway, despite her earth-witch powers having made them impossible to turn down while breaking her fast. Apple trees grew so slowly that any sailor with a hint of bravery could pluck one off the deck and toss it overboard before the plant could wreak even a tablespoonful of havoc. Without soil, the seedlings would be little more than party tricks.

  So Amber relinquished her dream of saving herself and her friends through an act of carefully timed germination. Instead, she threw in her lot with the shifter who had always treated her with respect. “I swear not to harm anyone on this ship except in self-defense.” Then, turning to her apprentice, she waited for Jasmine to promise the same.

  Chapter 14

  “I...” Amber’s apprentice hesitated, gaze flicking back and forth between her mentor and the dragon who had the ability to enchant with a single word. Not that Amber and Zane were the only ones the poor kid had to contend with. Charlie had pressed through the crowd to stand by his sister’s side, hand clenching down upon her much smaller shoulder in unvoiced command. Meanwhile, Nicholas was glaring daggers at the pair of them from five feet away, looking for all the world as if he’d prefer to simply push all Greenwich residents off the ship mid-flight.

  Amber couldn’t do anything about the disgruntled dragon shifter, but she could remind her friend of his misplaced common sense. “Charlie,” she warned.

  Not that she had the power to back up the admonition with anything other than words. And not that she particularly thought her friend was wrong to worry about his sister’s future either. Still, Jasmine needed that collar off. And if a promise was what it took to achieve the desired end, then the girl should be allowed to swear the simple oath.

  Charlie hesitated, though, and in the interim Jasmine made her own decision. Shaking off her brother’s hand and ignoring Nicholas’s evil eye, she stepped through the parting crowd to face Zane directly. “I don’t think I’m really powerful enough to do any damage,” she said quietly. “But Amber’s right. I won’t harm anyone on this ship except in self-defense.”

  In response, the invisible furnace that was a dragon shifter’s mood ring flared a little brighter, bathing Amber in secondhand heat. Then flames surged around extended fingertips as the shifter reached forward and flicked the hated collar loose to clatter harmlessly down onto the metal deck.

  Amber released her pent-up breath in one long sigh of relief...only to realize that she’d relaxed a moment too soon. Because the last few sailors backed away as Jasmine rubbed healing fingers across a rapidly fading sore. Meanwhile, the expressions on the remaining bystanders’ faces ranged from anger to fear, making Amber wince. Apparently, even such a minor use of power was frowned upon beyond the sheltered tunnels of the witches’ home town.

  Despite the crowd’s reaction, though, Zane didn’t retreat a single inch from the unfettered magic user. Instead, he stood firm as a tree...but not a walnut tree like the one Charlie reminded her of. More like a deep-rooted beech that could weather the worst storms, swaying gently but always remaining true to his own internal sense of equilibrium in the process.

  “Shall we?” he asked after an interminable pause, motioning toward the rope that still trailed behind and below the airship’s sculpted belly. Did the shifter realize how easily that tether would connect Amber and Jasmine to the unlimited power of the Green? If so, he didn’t show it. Instead, Zane waited, beech-like, for Amber to stretch toward the line with tentative fingers.

  As soon as she touched the rough surface, the sound of wind roaring in her ears transitioned to the overwhelming rush of blood as Green latched down with tendrils of overpowering temptation. Hundreds of yards separated Amber from her patron, but she immediately understood that the earth would answer if she called. Vines would surge skyward, trees would wrap themselves around the cable, and the airship and everyone on it would be pulled inevitably down toward the treacherous earth.

  Hair whipped into her mouth and eyes as she considered the Green’s tantalizing request. It would be so easy to let the forest decide for her. So simple to refill her energetic coffers and return to the earth from which her power sprung.

  And yet...she knew the Green had little grace to offer to the fire-blooded being she’d promised not to harm. Oath aside, Amber couldn’t shake that strange awareness of the dragon shifter currently hovering behind her back. She craved a little more time to figure out the meaning of the trust slowly germinating within her belly. Time the impatient Green would never offer.

  “Can you ask the plants to latch hold so we can draw up a haul for Thea?” Zane asked quietly, taking a step toward her. So close by, he smelled sweet and sour all at once, like a hard candy that would spend all day melting atop her tongue while tinting the world outside a little brighter with its glow.

  Amber yearned to ignore the bystanders and savor the taste. Instead, she forced her voice to remain steady as she answered. “Of course.”

  Then, silently, she parlayed instructions to the Green. Just a little, she requested...and nearly lost hold of the rope as vines grabbed anchor in an unyielding grip.

  Before she knew what was happening, shifter hands were atop her own as sailors yelled and gusting wind beat against all of their faces. Firmly yet gently, Zane tugged the cable upwards, tearing plants away from their mother earth as the weighted line broke free. With one last heave, rope and greenery settled onto the deck in a tangle of brown and green and Thea dove into the middle as if she was starving.

  To the soundtrack of chomp and chew, both earth witches collapsed into the leaves by the goat’s rapidly expanding side. Amber felt every bit as voracious as her pet, her momentary connection with the Green having made little headway into refilling the empty pit that yawned cavernously within her belly. After a few minutes brushing up against vegetation, though, the vines’ vitality leeched into her skin sufficiently to take the edge off her most pressing hunger, allow
ing her to relax at long last.

  For a moment, Amber forgot that she was a prisoner in a strange world she knew nothing about. Instead, she lay back and closed her eyes in pure bliss as sun beat down upon her head and strength coursed back into previously weakened limbs.

  Then smaller fingers met hers, hidden beneath the plants’ shielding greenery. Hard, flat ovals were passed from apprentice hand to Amber’s calloused palm.

  Clenching her fist, the Watcher knew at once what she’d been given. Kudzu seeds. A weapon, a way out.

  Unlike apple propagules, kudzu grew like the wind. The species barely needed soil for anchorage, could find enough nutrition to begin life in a pile of goat manure collected within a crevice of rock...or on the flat expanse of an airship’s metal deck.

  As a result of Jasmine’s quick thinking, Amber now possessed the very tool she needed to escape from captivity. The question was—could she really break her word in order to do so?

  ***

  Wind pressed against the trailing edge of Zane’s wings an hour later, tilting him upward as he swooped around the swollen oval of the airship’s gas-enclosing envelope. From above, the oblong shape was tinted green, algae in the outermost layer visible as the microorganisms converted sunlight and water into buoyant—if ultra-flammable—hydrogen gas. Zane was still dubious about bringing his internal fire into close contact with such a vessel, but the captain had assured him it was perfectly safe to land on the flame-retardant observation platform that topped the balloon’s rounded peak. And since Alexander had refused to speak about their mission beyond vague mutterings where anyone unwinged could overhear...atop the airship it was.

  “Slowpoke,” Nicholas greeted him as Zane sucked fire back into his belly and shifted midair to land lightly on the balls of two human feet. Words didn’t last long, though. Instead, a shift in wind currents was the only warning received before Alexander tackled him from behind, all three falling onto the spongy pad in a tangle of pummeling, pounding arms and legs.

  The attack came as no surprise. After all, this was the first time the three had been alone together in weeks, and dragons always welcomed each other like puppies...with a not-so-mock battle that generally resulted in very real cuts and bruises. In this case, the fight continued until all three rolled over the edge and were forced to grow wings in an effort to remain aloft.

  Landing on the observation platform a second time, Zane and his brothers were more subdued. “Ready to talk business?” Nicholas asked, glancing first at his twin then at the sibling who shared memories but no blood. In response, Alexander shrugged, staring off into the distance as if he’d rather be flying than talking. But the tension in the latter’s shoulders suggested that even this more playful twin was concerned about the quest they’d embarked upon together.

  “Sarah told me some of it.” Zane was glad to see his brothers, but a subtle ache in his chest tugged him back toward the passenger cabins below. So he skipped word games and offered what he already knew in an attempt to get the ball rolling. “She said you’d found new information about what might have prompted the Change?”

  “Yeah,” Nicholas answered, smiling faintly. It went against their upbringing to gloss over small talk and rush straight to the point. But Zane’s brother knew better than to press the point. Instead he tucked the tablet he’d been fiddling with into his jacket pocket and instead drew out a sheaf of papers, one page of which threatened to fly away as the pile moved from shifter hand to shifter hand.

  It was enough reading material to keep Zane busy for hours, so he merely rolled the offering back up and stuck it through his trouser waistband for safekeeping. “The short version?” he suggested.

  “Short version is the Green might have been created.”

  Zane narrowed his eyes and squashed the growl that threatened to rise up through his throat. Despite their family tie, Nicholas was playing with him. Drop a bomb then wait to see where, who, and what would explode.

  It was the dragon way to test, to tease...but Zane didn’t intend to let his sibling gain the upper hand. Instead, he merely hummed his interest as he mulled the information over. So that explained the strange look in Sarah’s eyes when she’d carefully sidestepped half of his questions the night before.

  “The papers will fill in all the details,” his foster brother continued at last. “But the upshot is that our new sister-in-law’s mother was an intern at a facility outside Washington, DC, back before the vines took hold. Apparently family legend meshes with the data we’ve tracked down since to suggest the facility in question played an important role in creating the Change.”

  “I’m listening,” Zane offered, competition forgotten. This was more information than he’d ever heard about why both Green and dragon shifters had popped into existence in the same moment twenty-nine years in the past. No wonder Nicholas had appeared so smug—his bombshell was explosive indeed.

  “According to Phoenix’s memories of her mother,” the latter continued, “scientists were looking for an easy housing solution for impoverished countries. They figured it was a good idea to bioengineer vines that could look out for themselves and also create sun- and weather-retardant domes to live in. Drop fruit down through the ceiling to feed people. Capture rainwater to drink. Stuff like that.”

  “Sounds nice.”

  All three men glanced earthward, taking in the sweep of unbroken vegetation that showed the true result of a sentient-plant breeding program. Why would the Green bother sheltering and feeding the poor when they could instead take over the world?

  “And we’re looking for...?”

  “The lab Phoenix’s mother told her about. If it’s true that government scientists weren’t expecting the Change any more than the rest of us, then they might have left behind notes, data...maybe even seeds.”

  “Seeds?” Now Zane was dubious. “What, we want more plants like those?” He motioned out at the sea of Green. An earth witch might like the idea of growing her own home, but to Zane it sounded like plant-assisted suicide.

  Nicholas shrugged. “Ask Sarah. This whole expedition was her idea. She said maybe it would help prevent the Fade. You are looking a little gray around the edges, if you don’t mind me saying so.”

  Zane turned away again, this time to hide his face rather than to assess the distant greenery. There had been a thin layer of ash on his chair when he woke that morning, listening to the gentle susurration of Amber’s breathing. It was just because he’d slept so strangely, though, sitting upright and drifting in and out of dreams about super scary vines and enticing earth witches. He’d felt fine as soon as he strode back out into the open air.

  Before he could attempt to convince his eagle-eyed brother of that fact, though, Alexander spoke at last. “We’ve got company,” the twin noted, pulling everyone’s attention to the starboard horizon.

  At the same moment, warmth blossomed within Zane’s chest. Given the now-familiar sensation, he didn’t even need to squint to know that the dragon winging toward them would be black as soot and intent upon murder and mayhem. Chances were good that his blood brother would enjoy nothing more than lighting hydrogen on fire and watching the vessel plummet out of the sky in a pyre of flames too.

  Twenty-four hours earlier, the golden dragon would have been thrilled to meet his twin face to face at last. But now both Amber and Sarah were going about their business in the airship below, supremely unaware that death was speeding toward them on midnight wings. If the worst occurred, neither woman would be able to fly to safety.

  “Let’s go,” he bit out. Then, leaping from the ship without checking to see whether his brothers followed, Zane spread his wings and flew.

  Chapter 15

  “Battle stations!” the captain bellowed in a voice that would have put a trumpeting elephant to shame. Immediately, the ship erupted into a scurrying mass of moving bodies that shimmied up ropes, down ladders, and across the open deck. A rumble from beneath Amber’s feet even prompted her to peer over the railing and
notice the ominous black muzzle of a cannon sliding rapidly into view.

  “What’s going on?” she asked, hoping Sabrina wouldn’t mind the interruption. The two had been standing together in companionable silence, both staring out at a breathtaking blue sky while Amber alone fingered the illicit kudzu seeds in her pocket. Now, the latter recalled her duty and turned to seek out Charlie, Jasmine, and Thea. All three, along with the dragons’ foster mother, were double-timing it in her direction with worry in their eyes.

  “Unknown dragon,” the captain answered shortly. “Please do as my sailors say.”

  Then she was gone. It almost appeared as if the other woman was flying, so quickly had she scrambled up the rope ladder and into the rigging above their heads. She did pause for a moment, though, to speak with the ship’s youngest crew member, and the boy landed on the decking beside Amber just as the other passengers reached her side.

  “Ma’am,” the teenage sailor said, speaking to the air between them. He could have been addressing Amber or Sarah...or perhaps the goat. “Captain says you’re to head below, closer to the escape hatch.”

  For the first time in weeks, Amber felt her own wishes and Charlie’s click into perfect alignment. Escape was a loaded word for both of them at the present moment, and the glance they exchanged proved that the gears turning in Charlie’s head were similar to the ones moving within her own noggin.

  Because if the sailors had planned ahead for abandoning ship, then that strategy must involve a method of reaching the ground safely...a method that captive earth witches could use to regain their own lost connection to the Green without dragon shifters’ unlikely assistance. Yes, it was definitely in their best interests to accede to the young sailor’s request.

  “Lead the way,” she said, noting relief in the boy’s eyes when he wasn’t stuck ushering a sullen earth witch below against her wishes. In a matter of moments, their entire party had left the deck behind, trotting past Amber’s cabin door before descending deeper into the belly of the ship.