Chapter 8

“Well, this is a fine kettle of fish,” I said in a sarcastic voice, as I continued to look at the gang of Major Demons assembled outside of the restaurant.

“Is there fish?” Al asked, licking his chops.

“No, Al, we are the fish,” I told him in an annoyed voice, before turning to the others.

“Can you three transfer out of here by yourselves?” I asked.

“Yes,” Cassius said in a relieved voice, while Binne looked uncomfortable.

“Maybe,” she said.

“Go ahead and transfer then. I’ll hold them off until you are gone, then I’ll transfer back home with Al,” I told them. Both Cassius and Bob tried to transfer, casting the spell several times, but neither of them disappeared despite much effort.

“You can’t escape. We have a spell in effect to prevent it,” Bruiser shouted from outside the restaurant and threw Magic fire at the front of the store.

Fortunately, I had cast a ward across the front of the store after pulling my wards back up around me on seeing the Demons outside. I knew that if they opened fire at us through the front windows with their guns, they would hit their fellow Demons who were trapped in here with us but were frozen in place. While the Magic fire had no effect on the stone of the building or the glass in the windows, both Cassius and Bob appeared to be very upset by now.

“No,” Cassius said in despair, “we can’t transfer out of here.”

“Isn’t that just dandy,” I said as I drew Mandara. It looked like it was up to me to get us out of this mess. “Stay in here while I deal with those outside,” I continued, as I moved through the front door.

As soon as I was outside, I returned to my Dragon height of twenty-five feet. The elevator ride this time was very fast and the stop sudden. Mandara was now back to a blade length of eight feet.

“Would You Challenge Me?” I demanded in a loud Dragon voice that echoed down the concourse. In answer, all twenty or so of the Demons opened fire with their Tommy guns. The bullets all ricocheted off my wards going everywhere and even wounding a couple of the Demons. Did they really think they could kill a Dragon with those weapons, I wondered?

Did they think I was so stupid as to come out here without my wards in full effect? Why did people and Demons always underestimate me? Was it because I was now beautiful after the Ley Lines had rebuilt me, or was it because I was female, I wondered?

Still, this really aggravated me no end. In my aggravation, I grew even larger, winding up at about forty feet tall. Mandara now had a blade twelve feet, I noticed in passing. I also saw Demons on the sides of the semicircle backing up on seeing this. The others had nowhere to go as they were back against the stores opposite the restaurant and trapped.

To show my displeasure with them, I spread my now substantial wings and roared a Dragon roar. The sound was loud, and long enough to cause deafness in those who heard it. The sound waves bounced off of the stone fronts of the stores and apartments all up and down the concourse. Glass in the windows of the shops and the apartments shattered sending sharp shards of glass in all direction.

Demons were blown around by the acoustic waves like match sticks in a strong wind. As the reverberations slowly died away, most of the Major Demons had disappeared. Only one remained, and he was in front of me. It was Bruiser, and he had a strong ward around himself. He was the very one who had helped distract me when the Druj and the Witches had kidnapped Al. He was also the one who I had used a glamour of in Bob’s apartment to frighten his landlord.

As I looked down at him from my new height, I was now nearly touching the roof of the concourse and could see into the now glass-less windows of the apartments on the third level. He stared back up at me in a defiant manner.

“Devil!” he shouted at me. “You have ruined everything.”

“What is your problem, worm?” I demanded in my loud Dragon voice. It appeared that as I grew larger, my voice automatically grew louder, and it reverberated up and down the concourse again shaking dust free from where it had gathered.

Bruiser didn’t answer but started to cast another spell instead. It was one that I instantly recognized. It was a particularly nasty spell. In answer, I breathed Dragon Fire on him. It penetrated right through the ward around him and incinerated him in a few seconds before he could finish the spell. The Magic from the spell disappeared as his body turned to ash. I was now alone on the silent concourse. Mandara was greatly disappointed that It hadn’t gotten to drain down any of the Demons. I re-sheathed It to keep it quiet, and slowly shrank back to my eight-foot height.

On reentering the restaurant, I found only Al there. The other three had all disappeared, presumably to return to their normal locations.

“Damn, Maddy, give a little warning when you are going to do something like that. If it wasn’t for the protective spell the old Dragon gave me when he created Alva, I would have been knocked out like the others were when you roared.

“When the spell the Demons had cast disappeared, so did the three who were with you. I don’t think they had totally recovered yet either,” Al told me in a put-out voice.

“Well, they are gone, so we can go home. I’m tired of this place anyway,” I told him.

“I don’t think you will have to worry about any of the Demons bothering you again for quite some time,” Al told me, as we stepped out of the restaurant, and he looked around at the destruction up and down the concourse. It was real this time and not an illusion.

I quickly scooped Al up and cast the transfer spell. We appeared in my front yard an instant later. I was still in my Dragon form. It required several minutes for the Magic from this form to be depleted, before I transformed back into my normal Human form. I was still wearing my jeans, shirt, and boots. The backpack was still on my back, and Mandara was still attached to the backpack in Its sixteen-inch-long form. It was late afternoon here at home, but I had no idea of what day it was.

I was just glad to be home. I had walked around in the yard for the short time, that it had taken the Magic in my Dragon form to be used up. Al had leaped out of my arms as soon as we appeared in the yard and moved away from me.

“How were you able to transform into a Dragon?” he now asked, as he approached me again.

“It was the Sword, Mandara. It was hanging on the wall in the bar where we went to find someone who knew where the Major Demons who had kidnapped you, had hidden you. It called to me, and I couldn’t resist its pull,” I told him.

“It wasn’t those Demons as much as it was the Witches and that strange creature. The Witches burned a hole in the house ward, and that creature came into the kitchen and cast a spell that put me to sleep where I was hiding. I woke up later in that glass cage but have no idea how I got into it,” Al told me.

“That creature, as you called it, was a Druj. It tried to keep us from finding the Illusionist. Mandara broke her ward and absorbed her spirit, as I don’t believe that she had a soul,” I told Al, who looked startled on hearing what the creature had been.

“The Druj are the creators and bringers of evil. How did one of them get involved with the Major Demons and those Witches also?” he asked.

“I don’t know, but I doubt there were any Humans involved. I don’t believe there are any strong enough to compel those three different kinds of creatures to work together. It had to have been someone or something very powerful to have done that. I don’t believe any of the Wizards here in Atlanta are that powerful. Even Fritz Herkimer only had a couple of minor Demons doing his work for him,” I reminded Al, before we went into the house. I still needed to find out what day it was, and what I had missed while gone. I also needed a good hot shower and a change of clothes. The ones I had on smelled too much of Magic and Dragon.

Unknown to Maddy, during her absence David De Tocqueville had given up on finding a creature to watch what happened at her house, since he was unable to contact or summon Bob. Instead, he had turned to technology to do the job instead. He’d had a high-tech video camera with motion sensor activation installed to watch the front yard of her house. It had captured her on her return home and alerted him to its activation. David soon arrived to check the system, since it had recorded nothing more interesting than leaves moving and squirrels going from tree to tree since being installed for the past three days. He was seriously shocked by what he saw on the recording.

That evening, a somewhat recovered David addressed a hurriedly called meeting of the Executive Committee of the Ley Line Wizards.

“She’s back,” he told them without needing to use her name. “I had something watching her house for the past several days. She returned this afternoon and had her Familiar with her,” he told those at the meeting.

“How did she look? Was she injured?” came from several of those in attendance. David paused for several seconds before answering.

“She didn’t appear to be injured. Neither did the Familiar. She had on jeans, a shirt, and a backpack. They walked around the front yard for a bit after returning before going into the house. The wards around the property and around the house were still intact and prevented the watcher and me from learning what she did inside,” he finished, but made no mention of what else he had seen on the video.

There was time spent following this in conjecture as to how she had retrieved her Familiar. Following the meeting, several Wizards tried to summon minor Demons to learn what they might know about her trip and the rescue of her Familiar. They were all unable to call or summon any of the minor Demons they knew. This greatly surprised and upset them, as those pesky Demons were always open to opportunities to interfere in things to their advantage. Of course, none of them had even tried to summon or contact a Major Demon, as they were considered much too dangerous. It really didn’t matter, as they would have had the same results.

Word of the meeting and what had occurred was soon out on the street, as some of those attending were very adept at leaking what had occurred during them. Kennith Sweeney was one of those who heard the gossip, and later that night, he and his Familiar transferred to Maddy’s house to see if she was alright.

The first I knew of a visitor was when there was a knock on my front door after Al and I had finished dinner. Since there had been no alert from the wards, which I had checked thoroughly after showering and changing clothes, I had to presume that it was Kennith who had arrived. Still, I pulled up my wards up around both Al and me, and picked up the short version of Mandara before going to see who was at the front door.

A look out the small window in the door revealed a smiling Ken, and I opened the door. Alva immediately scooted in, and Al moved to rub up against her, as I dropped the ward to be embraced by Ken as he came into the house.