Chapter 3

The following character is identified in this chapter:

Tintaglia

Maddy’s Dragon name, she is a Light Blue Dragon, the only Female in the last 4,000 years or so.

The trio of young Wizards appeared outside of the building where Kennith had previously worked a few seconds after leaving the Ley Line Wizards building. They smiled on seeing the wards around the building. Joining hands, they cast a spell to crash not only all of the wards protecting the building, but in addition, all of the wards that those working there were monitoring or closing on various businesses. On finishing the spell, they threw it at the building.

There was a colossal flash of light as all of the Magic in the wards around the building and those in all of the stores that the firm protected collapsed in a second or so. The office building shook and a number of windows and trim on the building’s exterior fell off of it to crash into the ground many stories below causing more wreckage and additional noise. The reverberations from the collapse of the wards and the Magic continued for over a minute before dying out. The trio then marched through the sagging front doors.

“Where is he? Where is the Red Dragon?” they demanded in loud voices of those who staggered out into the lobby of the building from the ground floor, and shortly of others arriving from the upper floors by the stairs.

“What red Dragon?” came from the throats of many of those arriving. These were after all those on the afternoon shift. None of them had been there when Ken was fired, and they only knew that he had been let go but not why.

Finally, one of the bosses of the company staggered into the lobby from the very back of the building where he had been having sex with one of the secretaries.

“What do you want?” he demanded in an angry voice.

“Are you in charge here?” the trio’s leader demanded.

“Yes, why have you done this?” the boss demanded.

“Where is the Red Dragon?” the trio’s leader demanded again. The boss stared at him for a number of seconds before what he wanted became clear to him.

“Do you mean Sweeney?” he asked, somewhat unsure of who he meant.

“Is that his name? Where is he?” the demand came again.

“We fired him several days go. He was considered too dangerous to work here anymore. It appears that we were correct,” he finished.

“Where does this Sweeney live?” demanded the trio’s leader.

“He has an apartment at... , “ the boss told them before they vanished, leaving the building and the business a wreck.

The boss and the managers needed to call in all of their employees to help restore the wards for the businesses that they protected, and also to recreate the wards that protected their building. There was, in addition, the necessity of having the building and their communication system and computers repaired or replaced. A number of their clients were broken into and robbed while their security systems were down.

On arriving at the apartment building, the trio could only detect the decay of the wards that had been around Ken’s apartment. Appearing inside of it, they found that it had been cleaned prior to being rented again, and there was nothing remaining that was his. They spent time knocking on his neighbors’ doors, but those actually home knew nothing about his moving or where he had gone. The three met outside following that.

“We know where the Witch lives. We’ll go there. He may be there, or she may know where he is,” they decided and vanished again. Appearing outside of Maddy’s property wards a second later, the three smiled at each other before moving to and then through the wards there. They were shocked to find the new ward that sprang into existence a few feet inside the property wards. It was one they, being males, were unable to pass through or cancel, as their spells had no effect on it.

A few days ago, I had found a very interesting spell in Book 6. It was presented as a spell used by Female Dragons to protect their nests while brooding, especially those out in the open, but it also worked on nests in caves and other enclosures. The initial, or original spell appeared to be for a sphere. Below that on the same page was a second copy of the spell that appeared to be from a later date. It took advantage of the advances in mathematics that had occurred since ancient times.

This second spell was for an ellipsoid. To cast it required the size of the basic ellipse and its eccentricity. I knew the size of my land... 500 feet by 870 feet, but would need to determine the eccentricity of an ellipse that would fit into it.

All Witches, but especially those working in Covens, are well grounded in the construction and use of geometric shapes as well as being able to determine the cardinal points, especially north. Additionally, they need to be able to calculate the timing of major events such as the full moon, sunrise and sunset, plus moon rise and moon set. All of these things have an effect on certain spells that are used during those times. Therefore, I expected to have little trouble determining the eccentricity for the ellipse enclosing most of my property.

After setting up the appointment to check on my Trust Fund, Ken and I spent part of the afternoon on the computer to refresh our memory on how to determine the layout of our ellipse and how to determine its eccentricity. It turned out to be 0.817 for an ellipse to fit my property.

Following that, we went out in the front yard, and I cast the spell for the ellipsoid. I was worried that it would be difficult to cast, but on changing to my Dragon form, it was very easy to cast using the Dragon language. I also found that Female Dragons could cast this spell very quietly to keep others from hearing it. It did require a considerable quantity of Magic to cast the spell, but the two Ley Lines that crossed under my property handled it easily.

I had sent Ken to check on just how large it was and where it ended, as I had cast it a bit smaller than the actual size of my property so it would be inside of my property wards. After completing the spell, I placed it on standby, as it wasn’t needed presently, but would snap into existence on the approach of a male Dragon. I would need to have Ken very close to me when we went through it, or it would keep him out. The book had indicated that the spell was keyed specifically to the female Dragon who had cast it. From that, I presumed that it was keyed to my DNA, although it was possible that other female Dragons could pass through it. Since there weren’t any other female Dragons presently, I didn’t consider that a problem.

The new ward activated very noisily the next night, surprising all four of us.

“Trouble, Dragons,” Al said on hearing the ward come into existence. Mandara managed to slip partway out of Its scabbard to also give the alarm, as if we needed it by then.

“Dragons, Mistress. Three almost Dragons have come through your outer wards,” It told me in my mind. I quickly picked it up and drew it the rest of the way from Its scabbard.

“Hold the change until we get outside,” I told it, as Ken and I hurried toward the front door. Once outside, we both changed into our Dragon forms at the 25-foot-tall size before heading for the road, and the three young men there. We could see very well with our Dragon vision even in the dark.

“What are you doing here?” I demanded in my loud Dragon voice when we arrived at the ward. The three cringed from the volume.

“We were sent here to remove the Red Dragon with you,” the one in the middle answered.

“You will not be removing my HUSBAND,” I told them in a very loud aggressive voice.

“Husband!” the three of them asked in very strained voices.

“Yes, we were married a few days ago,” I told them before demanding, “WHO Sent you here?” It was in a much louder voice.

“It was our Master, the Leader of the Green Dragon Clan,” was their reply.

“Does this Master have a name?” I demanded, but not so loudly.

“We cannot speak his name. Speaking it even in Gaelic would kill us,” we were told.

“Go back and tell your nameless Master that... , “ and here I paused for several seconds as I realized that I now knew my Dragon name. I had thought that it would be Madailein, but now realized that I had been mistaken.

“Tell him that TINAGLIA is not interested in his lackeys or his threats. Also, if he is the one who sent the Hellhound, tell him that he won’t be getting it back,” I told them in my louder Dragon voice. They cringed even more when I said my Dragon name, even in Gaelic.

Two of them were eager to leave when I finished, but the leader tried something else instead. He breathed Magic Fire at the ellipsoid. It wasn’t a good idea, as the stream of Magic Fire was reflected back at him, and he wasn’t fireproof like real Dragons are.

Before he could be consumed by the fire completely, Mandara moved through the new ward, without canceling it, and speared him in the chest, absorbing his soul and his Magic. A still burning pile of goo fell to the ground and soon burned itself out, leaving no trace of him. The remaining two stared at the spot where he had been in shocked horror before quickly vanishing.

“Tasty but a bit crispy,” It said to me in my mind before I returned It to Its scabbard, and Ken and I returned to our Human forms.

David De Tocqueville’s hi-tech camera equipment was still in place, and he had added sound recording capabilities to it after removing the ward and spell from it that Maddy had used to disable it. It had required a lot of work and sweat plus considerable Magic to do this as he could only work on it when she was away from home. It recorded all that had occurred and that now included the sound. It even recorded Maddy and Ken as they returned to the house.

David retrieved the recording later that night, as the machine had alerted him that it had recorded something. The next morning, there was a meeting of select members of the Ley Line Wizards Executive Committee. They viewed the video and listened to the conversation. Maddy’s voice wasn’t as strong on the recording as it had been in person, but even they were affected when she used her Dragon name in Gaelic. There was a short discussion when the video was over.

“She made short work of them,” one Wizard said. “That was more than we could do,” he added.

“She certainly didn’t take any guff off of them,” another observed.

“What was the ward that the two Dragons were behind? It seemed to come into existence rather suddenly, after those three penetrated her outer wards,” a third Wizard wanted to know.

“Yes, those three seemed to go through her outer wards as easily as they went through ours. The ward that appeared, once they were inside the first ones, stopped them cold. We could use something like that. It seems that all of those Dragon people can go through our wards like they weren’t there,” the fourth Wizard finished.

“Yes, I know, but I have no idea where she got it, or what ward it is. My guess would be that it’s some kind of Dragon Ward. One that will even stop other Dragons. I would also guess that you need to be a Dragon to be able to cast it,” David told the group. None of them looked happy on hearing this, and the meeting soon broke up. There were no leaks about what had been covered in the meeting that day or the next. By the third day, they all had something more important to worry about.

For the next two days, Ken and I continued to study for most of the day. Nothing of importance happened either day. The third day was different. What occurred then happened in the middle of the day for all to see. We first became aware of what was happening when we turned on the radio just before noontime to the local news, weather and talk station.

“We interrupt our regular programming for this breaking news story from the Skycopter,” the announcer said. This was followed by the voice of the reporter in their traffic copter.

“For the last several minutes, we have been witnessing the most amazing chase that we have ever seen. It started with the appearance of what we can only describe as a huge Green Dragon high above the city center. It has a wingspan of, at least, 120 feet. It’s the size of a small commuter airplane. On appearing, it immediately headed for the Downtown area. After crossing above the interchange for I-20 and I-75 / 85, It dived to a lower altitude and appeared to be chasing someone or something along Peachtree Street and West Peachtree Street.

“It needed to shrink in size to do this as Its original wingspan was too large for it to fit between the various buildings along those streets and to still be able to maneuver. It has been breathing fire and launching something at those It’s chasing. A number of buildings along those streets have been set on fire from this. Also, whatever it is launching has caused explosions and destruction wherever it has struck. We have no idea what it is launching, as we can see no weapons on the Dragon. Of necessity, we are remaining well away from this flying menace. Our cameras are recording what is happening though.” This was followed by a short pause before he continued.

“We just got a quick look at what the Dragon appears to be chasing. It looks like two men. They keep appearing and disappearing, but continue to move up Peachtree Street and West Peachtree Street alternately. It appears that they are trying to throw off the Dragon’s pursuit by altering where they will appear. That doesn’t look to be working very well for them, as the Dragon is still after them,” the reporter continued before pausing for several seconds again.