Chapter 10

Sunday started out just like any other day lately. I woke up next to Ken warm and contented, after a great night’s sleep. We awoke a bit late today, as yesterday had been a very exciting and wearing day. Being made Dragon Queen and having all of those Dragons here had been different. We’d had to deal with the police and the reporters too. Being made Dragon Queen was not something that I was expecting.

Things were all right until I started breakfast. The smell, on opening the first can of cat food, had me immediately bending over the sink, where I heaved up everything left in my stomach. If that wasn’t bad enough, it didn’t end there. The need to vomit continued though there was nothing left to come up. I had the dry heaves for a number of minutes. I heaved until tears slid down my face. I thought I would pull my toenails up through my stomach before the spell finally finished. I kept hanging onto the sink even then. I was spent, shaking, and dizzy enough to fall down.

Ken had quickly joined me to see what was wrong, but I couldn’t say anything until the heaves stopped.

“Are you okay?” he had asked.

“Oh God!” I was finally able to say but stopped there to rinse out my mouth.

“Are you coming down with something?” Ken asked while I was busy. Our Familiars were also looking up at us with surprised expressions. It took several more seconds before I could say anything else.

“Yes!” I answered. “I’m coming down with twins. You are going to need to feed the Familiars and make your own breakfast. I won’t be able to do that for a while. Fortunately, Witches have a cure for morning sickness. I just wasn’t expecting it this soon, or this hard,” I told him, as I stepped away from the sink. I had all of the necessary ingredients for the cure in my Witch supplies, and would mix up a supply of it before even trying to eat or drink anything. I would need to take it each morning for the next several weeks until the morning sickness had run its course.

I was busy for the next ten minutes or so mixing the cure, before Ken came over to me again.

“Will you be able to eat anything?” he asked in a tender voice.

“Yes, after I take some of this, I’ll be able to eat a little toast and drink some tea after it takes effect. I’m going to have this problem for several weeks,” I told him.

“You should see a doctor ... an OB / GYN. Do you have one?” he asked.

“No, I haven’t seen one in a long time. There hasn’t been a need to see one. I’ll try to find one that will see me. Many of them may not be anxious to have me as a patient,” I told him.

“Aren’t there doctors who see other Magic users and Witches?” he asked.

“I’ll need to check. They still may not want to see me,” I reminded him. “It will be tomorrow before any of them are open anyway,” I continued. A half-hour or so after taking the cure, I was able to eat a little plain toast and drink some tea, but I was still worn out. There wasn’t a lot that got done on Sunday. Ken studied, but I slept for much of the day.

Sunday was not a relaxing day for David De Tocqueville and several members of the Executive Committee of the Ley Line Wizards either. They too got up late, but it was because they had been up late the night before planning what they were going to tell the Atlanta politicians the next day. They were sure none of them would be happy with what they had to tell them.

That afternoon, they met outside of David’s apartment building before they all transferred to the City Council’s chamber just before 3:00 PM. The members of the council were already there, and none of them appeared to be happy. David was the one to address them, being the de facto leader of the Wizards.

“We hope you have some good news for us,” the Council President said to welcome them.

“Good news, Madam President? There were some 40 Dragons present outside of the city yesterday. They had been summoned to greet the new Dragon Queen when she emerged from the Stone Mountain nesting site. They brought an unknown number of their followers with them. When the new Queen appeared, just the sound of her voice and her name knocked out all of the police, the reporters, and the few Wizards who had gotten there. It also knocked out the Dragons’ followers, and affected many of the other visitors to the park, even those who were further away from where she appeared.

“The Dragons followed her when she left for her house. The police and the reporters followed her to where she lives when they recovered. I have a high-tech video camera there and recorded the arrival of all of them, if you wish to see it,” David finished.

“And just who is this new Dragon Queen?” the Council President asked.

“Why, none other than Madailein Kavanagh. Didn’t you watch the news last night?” David asked in a surprised voice.

“Only a short bit of it. I couldn’t stomach the carrying on,” she told them, before the Mayor broke in.

“But ... but 40 Dragons! That many could destroy the entire city,” the Mayor objected in a panic.

“You are correct. We, that is the Executive Committee, are still working on a translation of what the Dragons said in their meeting with her. Most of it was in a very old dialect of Gaelic or possibly Celtic. Our initial work on it indicated that they MAY be her followers or allies, but there are apparently other Dragons who are not,” David told them to horrified looks from the council members.

“But what can we do about all of them?” a Council member asked in a shaken voice.

“Against that many Dragons?” David asked. “Nothing,” he answered before they prepared to depart. The Council members were too depressed to even watch the video, which wouldn’t have helped them, in any case.

Monday morning was better as far as morning sickness went, but the day went down hill from there. After eating, I started calling those on the list of OB/GYNs within 30 miles of where I live, that I had looked up on the internet yesterday between naps. Some didn’t even ask my name before saying that the doctor wasn’t accepting any new patients. With others, I got as far as my name before being told that I would not be accepted as a patient. It seemed that the word had gotten out about my being pregnant.

Soon, I was left with only one name. She was the gynecologist that my mother had seen and had taken me to see as a teen. I remembered her as a grouchy old woman with a less than pleasant disposition. She had a lot of Magic users and Witches as patients. The conversation went much better on this call.

“Doctor Graham’s office,” the receptionist answered.

“This is Madailein Kavanagh. I would like to get an appointment to see the doctor,” I said as I had many times that morning.

“And the reason for the appointment, Miss Kavanagh?”

“I’m pregnant ... about a month pregnant,” I replied.

“I see, and have you seen the doctor before?”

“Yes, but it was many years ago,” I answered.

“Just a minute,” she replied, and I could hear keys clicking over the phone. “Yes, it has been almost nine years! Are you still at the same address?” she asked, but seemed surprised that I was still in their database.

“Yes, the same address and telephone number,” I told her.

“The doctor will be able to see you on Tuesday of next week at ten o’clock in the morning. Is that acceptable?” she asked.

“Yes, that’s fine. Is there anything that I should bring?” I asked.

“We will be mailing you some paperwork to fill out before arriving here. Be sure to bring it with you,” I was told, before she added, “We’ll see you Tuesday of next week at ten, then.” The line went dead as we hung up.

The attack started a half-hour later. I had been checking on how much food was left, and what we would need to get more of soon when there was a loud explosion against the Nesting ward which I had felt activate seconds before that. It was quickly followed by another one.

“Dragons are attacking,” Al told me on coming awake from his morning nap at the sound of the explosion. Mandara was also halfway out of Its scabbard.

“Two Dragons attacking, Mistress. The Nesting ward will not be able to deal with both of them. WE will be needed,” It spoke in my mind, as I reached for It.

Ken had been at the table studying, but stood beside me now.

“What is our response to this?” he asked just as there were another pair of explosions. They were followed a few seconds later by a multi-directional burst of Magic from the Nesting ward. That fact had appeared in my mind when I wondered what had happened.

“That got something,” Al told us, as both Ken and I opened our Magic senses. Immediately, we could sense two separate centers of pain near the outer limits of my property wards.

“How did that happen?” Mandara asked. “The ward was never able to do that before,” It told me.

“It seems that the Emblem and its Jewel have taken a hand in directing the response of the Nesting ward. It spoke to me just a few seconds ago,” I told the Sword.

“Let’s go outside. We’ll need to be at our largest size to face these attackers,” I told Ken, as we transferred outside where we transformed into our Dragon forms. The elevator ride this time was very fast and the stop sudden. Our Magic senses told us exactly where the pair of attackers were. The property wards were also flashing brightly enough to tell us where they were even in the bright sunshine. Mandara had also extended to Its maximum size.

We transferred to the inside edge of the Nesting ward nearest the attackers, and I held Ken’s claws as we both passed through it. We then passed through the property wards with no trouble. I could feel the nearness of one of the Ley Lines under the ground below us as we moved toward the pair of Dragons. One was Purple and the second one was a Gold color. This was the second Purple Dragon that I’d had trouble with. Both of these Dragons were just barely conscious but were still unable to move. We would need to keep them from moving and from attacking us, as that was obviously what they had intended to do.

I didn’t want to freeze them, as they wouldn’t be able to hear me then. I knew a spell in Gaelic that would keep them completely still. It was “bhe ith i do staic,” but how would it come out of my Dragon mouth, I wondered? I cast it in my mind.

“CCah$%#sec,” came from my Dragon mouth. The words rolled across the field where they had crashed, holding them and everything else in place. The Dragons, the grass, insects, and other creatures in the field were prevented from moving. Branches on trees out in the field were broken off, as the spell prevented them from moving, but the acoustic waves from my voice broke them off at their weakest point.

Once the reverberations from my words had died down, I turned toward the Purple Dragon, as he was the closest.

“Who sent you here?” I demanded in Celtic. He looked at me with a belligerent smile but didn’t answer.

“The strong silent type, I guess,” I said. “Perhaps Mandara can convince you to say something,” I continued, and brought the Sword up close to the Dragon It was eager to drink it down. The Dragon paled but not because of the Sword. No, it was because the Jewel in the Emblem of the Dragon Queen was flashing.

“Kreuzfeur sent us to test your defenses. We didn’t know that you have the Nesting ward or that it was so strong. You also have the Emblem, but we didn’t think that it was working. It’s clear that it is,” he finished. I wasn’t sure what to say to this, but those in the Emblem were.

“Return to Kreuzfeur and tell him what you have learned. Tell him also that the Queen is displeased with him and his conduct. He must also answer for the murder of Tualvungi. He was sent with our Right Hand to guard her along with Mandara. He murdered her to hide his own incompetence and cowardliness.

“Take this other one with you. DO NOT make us take notice of either of you again. You will not like our displeasure,” the voice from the Emblem said before canceling the spell with a quiet word. Both Dragons rose from the ground and took off at once. They circled my property once before disappearing. Ken and I stood there in shock watching them.

“Where did that voice come from?” Ken asked quietly once they were gone.

“It came from the Emblem of the Queen. The Amethyst is what spoke to them. I wasn’t sure what to do with them, but apparently those who wore this in the past did,” I told him. We both shivered then before returning to the house.

David De Tocqueville’s high-tech camera had a power panning feature, and it had followed the action both in the air and then followed what went on in the field. It had recorded all that had occurred and then alerted him that it had recorded something.