Chapter 11

The following new characters appear in this chapter:

The Spirits of Magic:

The Spirit of Ley Line Magic, the largest of the Spirits, it appeared to be a strong young man of about twenty-five years of age or so.

The Spirit of Ordinary Magic, the younger brother, appeared to be a young man of eighteen or nineteen years of age.

The Spirit of Witch Magic, their sister, appeared to be a young woman of twenty or twenty-one years of age.

The Spirit of Black Magic, their cousin, was a figure in black as opposed to the others being in white or cream colored clothing. It appeared to be a man of, at least, thirty years or so old.

We went flying that day and the next, but we didn’t go to the demon-lands. We flew around Atlanta instead. It was time that they became accustomed to seeing Dragons in the sky. We could fly as fast as 40 mph, but often flew slower or glided from thermal to thermal. We didn’t fly directly over downtown Atlanta but flew around its outskirts. We did keep our wards around us. Would you believe that there were fools who actually took shots at us? We didn’t respond at this time, but I would need to make an announcement about that in the near future.

Several helicopters appeared and followed us while we were flying, but they didn’t attempt to interfere with us. I was sure that the people at Hartsfield Airport and the FAA were upset with us. We stayed well away from the major airports around the city and also most of the minor ones. It felt great to have actual scenery below us as we flew, and not just dusty, dry desert that appeared to be the same all of the time. We also flew around Stone Mountain but didn’t land on top of the mountain or at the Nesting entrance.

On Monday, the morning before my doctor’s appointment, I arose feeling great. Later downstairs while making breakfast, the Guardian suddenly appeared in the kitchen. She didn’t have on her usual white dress and the red robe. Instead, she had worn a leather dress that was dyed green with a chain mail shirt over it that came down below her waist. The chain mail had short sleeves that came down to her elbows. She also had on high top leather boots that came nearly to her knees. Her hair was in a bun behind her head.

“It is good that you have been practicing your flying the past couple of days. You will need to eat a large breakfast and leave food for your Familiars for the remainder of the day. There will be trouble today. The Dragon Clans are gathering, and there will be a fight ... a war. Prepare yourselves for it, as it is near even at your door,” she warned us, and the Books disappeared at her last word.

“But why are they fighting?” I asked. “And why here?” I added.

“The true story about Tualvungi and Kreuzfeur was leaked by one of the Clans. It quickly spread to the members of the other Clans. There is great anger at Kreuzfeur. Many had been angry with him already, and this only increased their anger.

“Kreuzfeur’s allies, of course, deny the story and claim it was made up by the Light Blue and Red Clans. A number of powerful Dragons have gone to the Demon-lands to check on the site of her burial and have returned even more angry.

“You, as the Dragon Queen, must be prepared to intervene and stop this,” she told us before adding, “Why here, because the Nesting site is here.” Our Familiars were already hiding under the table because of her use of Dragon names.

“What can I do? Will they listen to me?” I asked, unsure of how to stop this.

“The memories of the Queens in the Jewel will advise you, but you must be the one to rule and make the males listen,” she told me, but I had another unrelated question.

“Why are you wearing leather and chain mail? Won’t your Magic work here?” I asked. She smiled at me for a number of seconds.

“Old habits are hard to break. You will eventually learn that,” she said in a kindly voice before vanishing. I turned and looked at Ken. He was as shocked as I had been.

“We had better eat, but after making more breakfast,” he told me. “How will we know when to appear and where?” he asked following that.

“Presumably, someone will inform us where to be and when, or we could just leave for the Nesting site after we finish eating,” I told him.

“Go ahead and feed our Familiars while I work on more breakfast,” I added, as I moved to the refrigerator to get out more eggs, ham, and bread to add to what was already out.

We had just finished eating when the Guardian appeared again to alert us.

“You must leave now for the mountain,” she told us before vanishing again. After casting a reinforced silence spell around the kitchen table where our Familiars were hiding, we quickly went outside and changed into our Dragon forms. I immediately noticed that Ken was larger than usual, being closer to forty-five or forty-six-feet tall. This was easy for me to see as I was now even taller than he was at a bit over fifty-feet-tall. It was a bit difficult to tell exactly, but we were now taller than the roof of the house. Mandara had also grown longer and was, at least, fifteen feet long.

“Ah, it feels good to be my full length again, Mistress,” It informed me before we prepared to take off. Our wings had grown just as the rest of us had and were longer now also. As I spread my wings, the Emblem spoke to me.

“Fly directly to the Nesting mountain. That is where all of the other Dragons have appeared and are ready to fight. You must be there to stop them,” the Emblem told me. It then did something that I hadn’t expected.

“Open,” It directed the Nesting ward, and the top of the ward opened to reveal an exit large enough for both Ken and I to fly out of the ward. I flapped my wings and was airborne. I flew up and out of the Nesting ward with Ken only a few seconds behind me. The opening in the ward closed as we circled my property once and then flew off in the mid-morning light in the direction of Stone Mountain.

Approaching the mountain some 25 minutes later, we could see well over two hundred Dragons in the air over it. Old antagonisms, built up over the last 4,000 years were ready to boil over, and they were all ready to fight and rend one another in a fierce battle unlike any seen in all of that time.

The circling lines of Dragons drew apart as we approached. That was when four figures appeared on top of the mountain. They appeared to be somewhat insubstantial at first, but, as we approached to land on the mountain, they grew more solid in appearance.

Ken and I had only just touched down on top of the mountain, when the largest of the four apparitions raised its hands.

“Ddee#ffic,” It shouted in a voice louder than any Dragon that I had ever heard. It had used ‘Stop’ as a Power Word, and everything in the air and on the ground ceased to move or do anything. All of the Dragons were frozen in the air in whatever position or attitude they had been in at that moment.

“Welcome Dragon Queen Tintaglia, and your Consort Khawlhring,” It said in a more normal voice and with a smile. “WE four are the Spirits of Magic in these four related Realities,” It continued.

“I am the Spirit of Ley Line Magic,” the largest of the Spirits continued. It appeared to be a strong man of about twenty-five years of age or so.

“Next to me is my younger brother ... the Spirit of Ordinary Magic,” It continued. Its younger brother appeared to be a young man of eighteen or nineteen years of age.

“Next to him is our sister ... the Spirit of Witch Magic,” It said next, pointing to what appeared to be a young woman of twenty or twenty-one years of age.

“Finally, there is our cousin ... the Spirit of Black Magic,” It finished, indicating a figure in black as opposed to the others being in white or cream colored clothing. It appeared to be a man of at least thirty years or so old.

“We have appeared here today to inform all of you of our decision on who we will continue to support in the future. For this announcement, we will need the chief protagonists here in front of us to hear directly what we have decided,” the Spirit of Ley Line Magic stated.

“To do this, the following Dragons will land here in front of us: Barchanaus, Kildarcsh, and Kreuzfeur. Land now,” It directed in an authoritarian voice, and those Dragons were freed from the spell to land. The Light Blue Dragon and the Red Dragon landed close together and near Ken and me. The Green Dragon landed further from the four Spirits of Magic and appeared to be afraid of them.

“You cannot hide from us, Kreuzfeur,” the younger brother said with a smile that you could have sharpened a knife or a claw with. The Green Dragon shook in shock at being addressed in that fashion. I noticed, however, that he only moved slightly closer to either the Spirits of Magic, or the rest of us.

“In the past, we have supported the Dragons with all of our abilities. This allowed them to achieve the leadership and first place in these Realities. It has been over 16,000 years now, and the Dragons have NOT advanced more than a little in the ways of civilization in all of that time.

“This lack of advancement is easily seen in the last 4,000 years after the loss of your Females. It was especially evident in cases where you savagely curtailed promising experiments because you were unhappy with the wishes of the Females produced by those experiments. This is not an acceptable situation,” the Spirit of Witch Magic, the sister, said to them.

“The Demons have not made much more progress than the Dragons. While they have made some progress, they would rather deal in tricks and treachery to achieve what they want. This has seriously limited their development,” the Spirit of Black Magic said following that. It gave a menacing look on finishing.

“The Humans are a much more difficult species to evaluate. Like the Dragons, some of them have made little progress in the advancement of civilization. Others, like the Demons, are more interested in tricks and treachery then advancing civilization. Others still are only interested in acquiring power for their particular group and will stop at nothing to acquire it.

“On the other hand, most Humans are interested in a better life for them and their children. They have made substantial progress in advancing civilization despite the attempts of the other groups to achieve less and to advance their own causes,” the Spirit of Ley Line Magic said in a voice so quiet, that we all had to strain to hear him.

“WE, the Spirits of Magic in these Realities, have therefore decided to withdraw our unconditional support of the OLD Dragons in favor of supporting the NEW brand of Dragon derived from their Human Offsprings. To do that, we have started with the New Dragon Queen and her Consort. Their children will be the next wave of this new composite species. They will require proper helpmates, which will need to come from the offspring of your offsprings.

“The OLD Dragons will no longer be able to draw unlimited amounts of Magic, as they have in the past. They will now be limited in what they can draw to the amount needed to be ordinary Magic users. All of you will need to learn to deal with those limitations,” the Spirit of Ley Line Magic finished before canceling the Power Word that It had used.

All of the Dragons recovered instantly. They were all also extremely angry having apparently heard everything that was said. In their anger, the veneer of civilization was essentially stripped away, and they became nothing more than animals again. In an instant, they all turned toward where the Spirits of Magic were and began to attack them. However, the attack didn’t last long, as they quickly came to realize that they now had not just reduced Magic, but No Magic at all. The Spirits of Magic had not only reduced their ability to draw on and use Magic, they had canceled it for the time being.

This infuriated them even more, and they tried to continue their attack using just their Dragon Fire and their claws. This didn’t work either, as the Spirits of Magic had cast an impenetrable ward around themselves and the four of us. Kreuzfeur had made his escape during the first confused attack attempt.

“Do they think that the Spirits of Magic couldn’t defend themselves?” I asked of no one in particular.

“They are not thinking rationally presently,” the younger brother, the Spirit of Ordinary Magic, responded.