The Dragon Guard (10 page)

Someone had also left a tray next to the lounge, and there was a mug and a platter of biscuits, and a small vase with fresh flowers. As if someone, somewhere, loved him and waited for him to wake up. As if he had not died in that awful magickal duel.

He had no air to breathe even as he let out a startled gasp, and when he blinked and drew back, everything had vanished, and he lay in his own bed again. No icy panels. No tray or lounge or blanketed Gregory, and he wondered if he had really
seen
it.

But what if he had?

This, after all, had been Gregory's own crystal. Jason held it tightly. But what did it all mean?

Before he could recover, the phone rang, its sound harsh and jangling in his room. He jumped, the open book across his lap falling to the floor in an angry rustle of pages. He picked the novel up, replacing the dust cover carefully and marking his page. The phone stopped abruptly halfway through its second ring and he knew someone in the house had answered it. To his surprise, though, he could hear Alicia's voice filtering down the hallway and up into his attic room.

“Ja-son! It's Trent, for you.”

Jason picked the receiver up, said, “I've got it, thanks!” and waited for the click before he said, “Trent? What's up?”

“You don't know?”

“I guess not.” He frowned. Gregory's crystal was still pressed into the palm of his hand, despite his having dropped the book and darn near everything else. He opened the drawer of his desk and deposited it carefully.

Words poured out of Trent in a rush. “My dad got laid off, and I don't know what we're going to do until he gets work again, and I just got e-mail from Eleanora. Jennifer Logan is leaving tonight, and we're all gathering to say good-bye. Were you asleep or something?” Trent stopped.

“No . . . I don't think so.” Jason flicked a glance at his desk clock. Not even eight o'clock yet. Downstairs the household would be gathering for their favorite TV show. They usually let him have an hour or two of game time upstairs with Trent and Henry. “She's going?”

“She's quitting. She wants to tell me good-bye, and Bailey, and all of us, Eleanora said. Bring me through, please?” With that, the phone line went dead.

He hadn't left Jason time to argue, and if Jennifer Logan was leaving Magick, Jason wasn't sure he wanted to argue. He got his own crystal out from inside his shirt where it always lay against his skin, and centered on it, reaching out for Trent.

J
ASON pulled Trent through. “You're sure about this?” The clear crystal doorway shimmered like a bubble, stretched, and then popped slightly as Trent emerged entirely into his attic bedroom.

“As sure as I can be without being able to look through my own crystal.” Trent scrubbed his hand through his hair, sending it in all directions. “And I'm beginning to wonder if Eleanora suspects about my talent, or lack of it. She sent me e-mail.” He frowned. “You don't think Bailey could have let it slip?”

“Never. One problem at a time.” It was odd that the Magicker hadn't used her own crystal to reach Trent, but Jason didn't have time to think about that now. He hadn't been reached that way either, but possibly being in Focus with Gregory's crystal had blocked him. “At least they're giving us the chance to say good-bye, and at least Jennifer asked for you, huh?” He punched Trent's arm lightly. His comment didn't seem to erase Trent's unhappiness. Jason cleared his throat. “Are we waiting for anyone?”

“Ting and Bailey are going to go through on their own. Don't know about Stef and Rich,” Jason answered with a shrug. He grabbed a windbreaker off the back of his study chair. “Let's go. I can't afford to be missed.”

“You know I hate this.”

Jason stared at Trent. “Hate Jennifer's leaving?”

“Hate traveling like this.” Trent suppressed a shudder. “Doesn't it ever give you the creeps? Stepping into a rock, for crying out loud. Remember when Bailey got lost in hers? Don't you worry about being trapped?”

“Ummm. No.” Jason rubbed his crystal a moment. “Maybe you'd prefer a flying carpet?”

“Actually, a flying carpet has mythological substance to it.” Trent leaned his lanky body against the bed frame. “If you could manage to conjure one up. But what I'd really, really prefer is a Pegasus. Great white, winged stallion with a bridle of sunlight, and a sword sheath on his saddle.”

Jason laughed, then said, “Keep dreaming,” and put his hand on Trent's shoulder, gripping tightly. He looked into his crystal, his rock of clear quartz, and gold flecks, banded with one outer wall of dark blue stone, and found a door, an entry to where the Magickers were gathered. Then he pressed through, feeling it stretch as he pulled Trent with him.

They emerged with a faint popping of ears, and for a brief second Jason thought that Trent might be right. Was this any way to travel? His doubt vanished the moment he saw everyone waiting for them on Jennifer's back lawn, illuminated by the porch lights. If he'd any doubt about where they were, the monstrous moving van parked out in the street in front of the house, and the House for Sale—SOLD sign dispelled it.

Jennifer, Ting, and Bailey sat on the lawn, reminding him a little of a pile of puppies . . . wiggling, cute, and excited. Jennifer was very much like his stepsister in that she was a few years older, willowy with long blonde hair, but the difference between the two was like night and day. He wanted to strangle Alicia. Jennifer, well, he didn't feel about her the way Trent did, but he would protect her any way he could. Alicia was quiet and a little calculating. When Jennifer smiled, it lit up her whole face. Although, since she lost her Magick, she hadn't been smiling much.

Gavan Rainwater and Eleanora stood over the girls . . . or rather, Gavan stood and Eleanora floated. Gavan carried his wolfhead cane, the instrument at odds with the soft shirt and jeans he wore, but the crystal gripped in the handle's pewter sculpture was one of his powers and would never be left behind. His dark hair had been brushed back from his face and fell in a wave to his collar, and the night reflected in his intense blue eyes, but he smiled at Jason.

“There you are. Took the long way round?” The wolf's jaws glittered as he swung about to wave at them. His other hand held a goblet with a deep red liquid in it, and Jason's heart did a funny skip beat thing. The Magicker held a drink that would not only wipe the memories clean but take Magick away with them. Jennifer was really, truly leaving them then.

“Is Henry coming?” Jason blurted out, his thoughts immediately full of their friend who'd drunk that brew once, and nearly lost everything, but he had been able to come back . . . well, nearly so. Magick with Henry was an off and on thing, but it had always been like that.

Eleanora put her hand, framed by soft white lace hanging down from her sleeve, upon Gavan's wrist. “No,” she said softly. “We thought it kinder not to have him here.” She looked . . . well, thin, Jason thought. Worn thin as if she might be looked all the way through. He turned his gaze away quickly to keep her from seeing the surprise in his eyes at the change in her.

Trent approached Jennifer silently and just stood for a long moment. Then he said, “I know you have to go, but do you have to leave . . . everything . . . behind?”

Jennifer looked up at him. She wore a lavender velvet jogging suit, and she had one arm about Ting's waist and one around Bailey's. She had been smiling, but now she stopped. “Eleanora and I talked about this. It seems the best thing to do. I can't hurt anyone this way.” A strand of blonde hair curled about her face, catching the lights streaming through the night. It was still too chilly in the year for mosquitoes, yet early enough to feel that spring was definitely here.

“You couldn't hurt me,” Trent protested, and then stopped at the surly sound of his own voice.

“I know it seems harsh.” Eleanora moved to Trent, in that odd floating way she had, for she used some of her power to keep herself elevated three to four inches taller than she really was. Petite and brunette and altogether lovely in an otherworldly sort of way, with her dulcimer and her lace and long skirts, and the cameo on a ribbon at her throat. It was no wonder Gavan loved her, for she was beautiful. They could all see it on his face as Rainwater looked at Eleanora, and he wondered if she knew it, too. Trent shrugged as she came near; fending off any kind of hug or comfort she might offer. He didn't want a hug. He wanted to know that Jennifer would stay. If not here, in this house, in this city, at least in the ring of Magickers, so that he would still be friends with her. Sometimes life just dealt too many low blows. First his dad, now Jennifer. Not that he ever expected anything to be easy, but at least a breathing space between catastrophes, please?

Eleanora looked at his face, as though reading his thoughts, and shook her head, sadness crossing her features. “I'm sorry, Trent.”

“I'm sorry, too,” he mumbled, and crossed his arms over his chest and retreated to stay at the edge of the shade where the porch lights did not reach. He didn't even know why they were all there, if Jennifer wouldn't even remember them or their good-byes!

Jason nudged him slightly, but Trent would not look up at him. He had known why they'd come, but he'd hoped it wouldn't happen.

Gavan leaned on his cane. Very quietly, he said, “The heart always remembers a little, Trent. And I cannot tell you that there won't be a day, sometime in the future, when Jennifer will remember us, need us, even return to us. So good-byes are always hard but not necessarily the last time we see someone.”

Trent glanced up quickly. He traded a long look with Gavan. Rainwater nodded slowly. Eleanora's body shimmered as she rose even higher on her magickal tiptoes. She whispered in Trent's ear, “And I wouldn't want you to remember that you made her even sadder than she already is.”

He took a deep breath, then moved to the group on the grass and sat down behind Jennifer, putting his arm about her shoulder. She smiled at him then, and for a moment, he forgot everything but the warmth that twinkled in her eyes.

Ting passed over a charm bracelet she had dangling from her fingers. Each tiny charm held an even smaller piece of crystal. There was a frog, a bear cub, a mouse, a lightning bug, and a heart. “The mouse,” said Bailey, wrinkling her nose, “is really a pack rat.”

Jennifer laughed. “As if I could forget!”

In answer to the sudden happy surge in their voices, Bailey's shirt pocket rippled and Lacey stuck her whiskered nose out, sniffing the early evening air. The tiny pet/pest who had stolen whatever she could from their summer camp cottage before being captured and tamed by Bailey peered at all of them curiously. The pack rat's eyes shone with what seemed to be a laugh of her own, before she turned tail and dove back into Bailey's pocket, leaving only her tufted tail hanging out and twitching happily.

Jennifer hugged Ting and Bailey both. “Thank you!” The bracelet chimed and twinkled as she slipped it onto her slender wrist. Jason took her hand and said, “Friends wherever,” and she held his hand for a very long moment. The crescent-shaped scar on the back of it burned sharply till she let go, and he sat back, a little confused.

“I haven't got anything,” Trent said. “Really.”

“That's all right. I do.” She smiled faintly with the wisdom of an older woman, leaned around and kissed him, very gently, and very quickly. Trent's face immediately went fiery red.

Bailey, Ting, and Jason laughed.

Jennifer grinned, murmured, “Sorry . . .”

“Oh. I'm . . . I'm not. Kinda.” Trent sat back a little, his face staying red hot, and his eyes watching her closely.

Eleanora, however, watched Jason. “What is it?” she asked quietly.

Casually, he moved his hands out of sight. “Nothing. Just the Draft of Forgetfulness and all that.”

“Really.”

He stood and moved to the side, Gavan giving him a judging look, and nodding to Eleanora. The lovely Magicker stood in the night shadows with Jason, as Rainwater began to weave a spell over Jennifer, to protect her however he might, although with her Magick gone, even the Dark Hand would no longer have an interest in her.

Jason watched. He rubbed the back of his hand. Eleanora touched it.

He took a deep breath as she repeated, “What is it?”

“My scar,” he answered softly. “It's burning. Either something is very near or . . .”

Eleanora turned her head, in a tumble of brunette curls, and looked toward Jennifer. “Or it's her.”

He swallowed. “Yes.”

“I know. I've been fighting it with her since that awful night last fall. It's one of the reasons she's leaving. She's convinced something terrible may happen if she doesn't.” Eleanora touched him again, and coolness slid over the back of his hand.

Gavan finished weaving his web of Magick, tapped his cane on the ground, and said, “Done.” At his word, a spiderweb of incredible lightness seemed to fall like a gentle curtain over Jennifer and then fade away. He held out the goblet, and Ting and Bailey shrank away instinctively as Jennifer reached for it. Lacey gave a tiny squeak, and her tufted tail jerked and disappeared into Bailey's pocket. Jennifer took a deep breath. She said, in a faint, breathy voice that did not quite sound like her, “Good-bye all,” before lifting the cup and drinking down the thick, syrupy juice as fast as she could.

The cup fell from her fingers as her face went pale. She swallowed a last time, as if fighting to keep the drink down. Jennifer shuddered, and Jason shivered with her. Ting and Bailey made a sandwich, with Jennifer held close between, and a tear slid down Ting's face.