"Did anyone come through the area that seemed suspicious?" Ena asked.
"We don’t get many visitors out here because we're out of the way of the hustle and bustle of other fae kingdoms. But a few said they'd seen a stranger in the woods. He wore unusual clothes, green to blend in with the forest, like he didn't wish to be seen by anyone. Like Duke Tully is known to camouflage himself in the woods to take travelers hostage. But different, his clothes were rich and more…flowing, rather than a tunic and breeches. It reminded us of a mage's garments. Anyway, that's what came to mind."
"Mage," Ena said. At least there were not as many mages as just regular fae. "Did he give anyone his name?"
"No. Whenever he saw anyone, he just vanished. No greeting anyone, which though was somewhat odd, a couple of people are hermits who live out away from the village and behave in the same way. Not all fae are sociable. So it's not entirely unheard of. He might have thought someone intended to steal from him, as richly garbed as he was."
Ena glanced at Brett. "Why would a mage need a dragon's egg? Do you know of any special reason?"
"Maybe for some potion or spell? I don't recall anything in my grandfather's books. Speaking of which, I'd like to pack those up and take them back to your castle."
"We'll do that."
"You're a mage?" the elder asked, his eyes wide, maybe surprised because Brett wore regular fae clothes and not mage gowns.
"Apprentice and I'm only just learning about all this."
Ena was wondering about Zane. Could he have done this? "Time-wise, do you think Zane could have gone to all this trouble to do this?"
"He might have. From one of my books on the subject of mages, the author described mages who do good, the ones who have an affinity for helping others out. And those who are dark mages, who love to do whatever it takes to cause more havoc in the fae world. What did the mage look like? Are there any in the surrounding area?" Brett asked.
"Long blond hair pulled back in a tail and blue eyes. Like I said, he vanished so quickly once he realized someone had seen him in the area, that no one really got a chance to really observe more than that. Well, he was as tall as you, Brett. And because of the richness of his clothes, I'd say he was a royal mage. As to where mages live—most of the major and minor kingdoms have one, some two. A few live on their own, freelancers who don't work for a royal household. The ones that are more countrified, don't dress in such rich fabrics. No need to impress anyone. Which makes me realize he had to be the one who stole the egg, because if he works for a royal house, he wouldn't be a recluse. He was attempting to hide the fact he was here for such a nefarious purpose." Colin frowned. "Despite realizing that had to be the case, we couldn't have fought him if we wanted to."
"If it was Zane, he would have kept the egg in the castle unless he had a house of his own also," Brett told Ena.
"You know the mage?" Colin asked.
"Not well. I've had some trouble with the fae from the phantom court, and I banished him to No Man's Land."
"You banished him and you're only an apprentice just learning the ropes?"
"Yes. I got lucky. So if he stole the egg, we have to find it right away before it hatches."
"Exactly. It can even imprint on an object, an old pair of boots, a shiny ale mug, or a fae within hours or days of hatching," Colin said.
"What about the timing? Could Zane have been in the area and stolen the egg while you were at the castle?" Ena asked.
"Yes. He had ample time to do so. He was gone during some of the meals even, and most of the rest of the time, I was busy with studying for the trials. He could have popped over here and popped right back in the blink of an eye."
Colin's eyes widened.
Ena shook her head. "Forgive him. He was raised by humans." She said to Brett, "Fae transport, we don't pop anywhere. And certainly not in the blink of an eye. First, let's see if we can pick up the thief's fae trail." She turned to Colin. "Do you think the dragons will mind us? We're not known in this area, and with her protecting her eggs, and since one has already beenstolen, she might be wary of us."
"I'd be careful, approach slowly, let them know you're friend, not foe. They've been standoffish, when they've never been before. I believe they know we didn't have anything to do with taking the egg, and they'll be able to smell that you didn't, but that doesn't mean they'll trust that you might not be interested in one yourselves."
"We'll be careful." Ena had gotten close to real dragons before and knew how to do it successfully, though in a case like this with a protective mother guarding her eggs, it was a little different scenario. Ena said to Brett, "Unless you think you might want to wait this one out."
"No way."
"One of us might not be as intimidating as two."
"I'm going."
"All right. Since you're only earning a quarter of the payment, I just thought it fair if I offered."
He smiled, like he didn't mind her rubbing it in. She smiled back, and then they thanked Colin and went outside to shift.
"Just follow my lead. Are you good with animals?"
"They love me," Brett said.
"Good. Think of the situation like these are big dogs. Approach with caution, offer friendship in a non-aggressive manner, let them make first contact. We don't want to fight them. If they act aggressive in any way, we take off far away from their cave, which they would be protecting. They should leave us alone after that. We'll look for any fae dust trails that might have been left behind."
"Gotcha."
After shifting, Ena led the way and hoped that Brett truly was good with animals, that if the culprit was Zane, they could find the egg easily enough, without his help, and return it to its mother before the imprinting occurred.
Chapter 18
Brett thought he was ready for this. But he was so new at doing everything, the mage stuff, the dragon flying stuff, the popping from one place to another—he would teach Ena some new vocabulary even if she was opposed to it—he wasn't sure how this was going to work out. Yes, he was good with pets, but pets like dogs and cats. Dragons? This was something entirely new to him.
As they neared the caves, several dragons in the area began to circle them like airborne sharks. He glanced at Ena to see what her take was on this new development. She continued to fly toward the dragon's cave as if she didn't see the danger all around them. The dragons didn't venture any closer. Brett followed her lead, as if they had been invited for a visit. He didn't mind admitting he was a lot nervous.
When she landed on the ledge in front of the mouth of the black cave, he landed right next to her. She peered around at the ledge looking for fae dust. He kept an eye on the female dragon, her head up, watching them, her body curled around her eggs. One had a distinctive crack. So not good.
Her tail was perfectly still, her eyes narrowed a little, her mouth shut tight. She didn't look happy at all to see them. Not that he blamed her in the least.
He didn't know what made him do it, maybe the fact he wanted to reassure her as he would have if he'd been human and tried to reassure a nervous dog. "We're here to help you. We've been asked to find your dragonling. Your egg." Of course, his voice came out as a dragon roar. He had forgotten that part.
Ena growled at him, her own eyes narrowed. She was pissed.
Hey, he was only doing what he would have done if the momma dragon had been a dog. Didn't Ena tell him to do that?
The dragon visibly relaxed, roared a thank you, and that was it.
Ena stared at the dragon in shock, then turned to Brett. He gave a little dragon shoulder shrug. She pointed to the ground where a fae dust trail had been left behind. It looked suspiciously like Zane's.
Then she bowed her head a little to the dragon. The dragon didn't seem to know what Ena was trying to say.
At the risk of earning Ena's further wrath, Brett said, "We are off to find your baby. We'll return as soon as we do."
The dragon smiled!
Ena's dragon jaw dropped.
He told her he was good with animals. He just hadn't realized that would include dragons.
She motioned with her head to leave, and he followed her off the ledge, where they flew off to the phantom fae kingdom. That night, she motioned to an area where several keeps were situated a mile or so apart. Was that where the dragon shifters lived? He so wished he could see if he was related to some of them, but he had to find the dragonling quickly. If one egg was about to hatch, wouldn't the others? What if he and Ena became its parents?
What a mess. Though he could see Ena's staff welcoming the new baby into the fold as if he or she was their baby to care for and protect.
Ena motioned for them to stop and rest in a clearing in a grove of piney woods and shifted.
"Did you see that one of the eggs was cracked? How long before the baby comes out all the way? And the others soon follow?" Brett asked.
"Hours, a day or maybe more. Hopefully more. This is going to be a disaster if we don't get the baby home before that happens. What did you say to the dragon?"
"We were getting her baby back for her."
Ena just stared at him, not speaking, as if she truly couldn't believe he could do that.
"All right," she said, skeptically. "And she said?"
"Thank you."
"You can't know that."
Brett let out his breath. "I don't know how I can, but yes, that's what she said. I thought the words I spoke and then said them, only I expected my words to come out more human like."
"Fae like," she corrected him. "Get…it…right."
"Right. Fae like. Only all I did was roar."
"You got that right. Maybe she didn't truly understand you."
"Don't you?"
"No. You don't make any sense. You speak in some ancient dragon language."
"Maybe the original real dragon's language?"
"How can you know real dragon?" Ena shook her head. "You understood Freya when she was a raven, too."
"Yeah, I thought it was because she was only a cursed fae."
"But these dragons aren't fae."
"But I'm part dragon."
"Ohmigoddess, Brett, if you can do that, it's amazing."
"Thank you. About the fae dust, it looked like Zane's, I thought. Though I'm not really trained in tracking fae dust, so I could be wrong."
"It is his. But do we go to No Man's Land and force him to tell us where he hid the dragon, or do we find it on our own?"
"I doubt he'll want to give it up unless I give him his freedom. I think that would be a dangerous thing to do. Let's attempt to find the egg before it hatches. Maracose should know where the mage apprentice lived, if not at the castle. Or otherwise, where he might have been able to keep a dragon's egg."
"Agreed. It'll take us another three or so hours to reach the castle."
"I'm good."
"Okay, let's pray that we find the egg and can return it before it's too late. If the dragon imprints with us or someone else, the mother won't take her back and the village will be at further risk, I’m afraid." Ena shifted and flew off.
Brett joined her and if it wasn't for the situation they were in, he would have loved just flying like this with her, the stars so bright in the black night sky, the moon shining like a beacon nearby.
When they finally saw the towers in the distance, he felt relief, but he was dog-tired. Without rest, no way could they fly all the way back to the dragon caves if they found the baby right away.
They saw movement on the wall walk as guards noticed the dragons flying down to the castle. He hoped they didn't think they were coming at this late hour to cause trouble.
They landed on the wall walk, shifted, and greeted the guards.
"We've come on an urgent errand," Ena said. "Does Zane live here at the castle? Or does he have another home somewhere else?"
"In the hills of Chevron. It's a quarter mile from here," the archer, Hammer, said. "That direction. It's a small keep. Maracose said he'd take possession of it tomorrow. But for now, he's been busy preparing his new rules for the kingdom."
"Thank you. We'll have to check it out." Ena shifted back into her dragon form.
"Did you need our help?" Hammer asked, sounding a bit contrite.
"If we do, we'll let you know." Brett didn't want anyone else to get involved in this.
"I'm sorry about…about what happened," the old archer said. "I saw you release the horses from the burning wagons, and for that, I didn't try to shoot you. I didn't have any idea you were the golden dragon." He glanced at Ena. "I aimed at you. But seeing's how you aided us in getting rid of the queen, I have to apologize to you also."
"At the time, you thought you were doing the right thing. No hard feelings. We've got to go." Brett didn't blame the archer. If Brett had been him and had the job to do, he would have done the same thing. Brett sure didn't want anyone to know why he had gotten shot either. Not anyone other than Alton and Ena who had been there at the time.
Brett hadn't wanted them to think he was clueless about getting in the way of a couple of deadly bolts meant for Ena. He wondered if he could have an archer practice shooting bolts, and then he would catch them in mid-air. He thought it could come in handy sometime. Maybe. But only if he didn't get shot again.
He and Ena flew to the site where Zane's castle was supposed to be and found a vacant meadow. Zane's fae dust ended right here, as if it was a gateway into the castle grounds. They set down on the ground and shifted.
Ena walked around the meadow. "There's nothing here. Would it be underground?"
"It's here. Right here." Brett looked around for any evidence that Zane had wandered about the area, but he hadn't. "I think he's hidden it, cloaked it from view like a Klingon Bird-of-Prey."
"A what?"
"Klingons in Star Trek. Sorry, you wouldn't understand." Brett had seen something about this in a mage textbook about hiding inanimate objects that were still at this same location. He had the brilliant idea that if he could do something like this, he could hide Ena's treasure in the dungeon. It would still be there, but invisible and make it appear as though the dungeon was empty. If he could undo the spell Zane had cast on Freya, Brett was certain he could uncloak Zane's castle.
"What are we going to do now if it's…cloaked?"
Brett reached out and touched what he envisioned to be the wall to the keep and wished to feel the mossy stone texture beneath his hands. Suddenly, the walls were there and a small stone tower standing inside the walls rose another thirty feet.
"Omigodess, you did it." Ena looked in awe of him.
"Yeah, but would he have set a trap?"
"No one would know it was here."
"Let me go first, just in case."
"You really think he set a trap?"
"He might have. It just depends how paranoid he is." What were the odds that another mage could uncloak Zane's castle in the first place?
It appeared there were no guards. Brett flew above the locked gate and into the inner courtyard. No one came out and fired bolts at him, so he took that as a good sign. The place appeared devoid of any fae. He dropped down in front of the massive oak door and shifted. Then he reached for the doorknob, and he saw Ena's spread-winged shadow as she hovered over him and settled next to him.
She considered the massive oak door, a mage's staff crowned with an eagle carved into the wood. "I didn't see anyone in the gardens out back where it looked like he had herbs and such for potions."
"I don't hear any movement inside." He opened the door and walked inside, Ena quickly joining him. "If he had any servants, they might have left when they learned what I had done to their boss.'
Oil paintings of landscapes of lakes and forests of the local area framed in gold hung on the stone walls. Furniture was also rich gold brocade. It looked as though the queen paid her mage apprentice well.
The castle seemed to be vacant. "Maybe Zane just paid for help to come, clean, do whatever work he needed done, then leave."
&nbs
p; "Could be," Ena said. "I'll check the top floor and work my way down. You can check the main floor and work your way up."
"All right." He kind of wanted to stick with Ena. This scenario reminded him of a horror story where everyone divided up and went off looking in different areas. But he suspected Zane was confident no one would ever have gotten into his castle when it was cloaked.
Brett considered a horrible thought—what if the egg was here, the dragonling hatched, and no one had ever been aware of it? The baby dragon would have perished with no one to care for it.
Brett and Ena quickly began exploring every room in the castle. No sign of an egg or dragon baby anywhere.
He met up with Ena on the second floor of the five-floor keep.
"What about a dungeon? Did you locate one?" Ena asked, as they headed back down to the Great Hall.
Tapestries hung on the walls picturing mages casting spells—from a mage turning a woman into a swan—which reminded Brett of Zane turning Freya into a raven—and a mage creating a wall of fire. Were these Zane's ancestors depicted in the wall hangings?
"It's worth a try. Back that way was a cellar. But it only had ale and stored food." Brett found another door and opened it. It was dark. Stone stairs descended into the abyss. Thankfully, Brett had learned the fae way to make light.
Ena created her own to chase away more of the darkness.
In one of the unlocked cells, they found a speckled blue egg—dragon size, resting in a nest of fresh straw. A hairline crack splintered the top of the eggshell, which made Brett's heart accelerate.
"It matches the others in the dragon's nest. Let's get it out of here now," he said in a rush. They heard the sounds of several footfalls in the keep and that didn't bode well, Brett didn't believe. "A welcoming party. I doubt it's good news."
"So what do we do now?"
He smiled. "We leave."
"We can't fae transport from the dungeon. The walls are made of iron ore. The same as the keep walls."
"You know how the castle was invisible and I made it visible? I can make us and the egg disappear. Just stick close to me. Feel my heat. Neither of us leave a fae dust trail and as long as we don't physically bump into anyone, we should be good. Once we're outside the keep, we can transport. Are you ready?" Brett lifted the egg that was incredibly heavy for being an egg—maybe twenty pounds.