Chapter 35
“A lright, I need a debrief.” Alric panned his head to look at the full table.
Cameron wasn’t officially Alric’s consort yet, or at least they hadn’t done the official ceremony in front of the clan yet.
But because they’d bonded last night, they were for all intents and purposes married.
Cameron had agreed to do this, so he sat at Alric’s right hand like he belonged there, even though it made his nerves skitter a little.
In time, he hoped he’d get used to this. For now, though, he fought the butterflies currently ping-ponging around his stomach.
They had a full table of people, what Cameron thought of as the usual suspects. Dieter, Lisette, Baldewin, Ravi, Gunter—they were a given. Cassie he hadn’t expected, but she now sat opposite him at the table.
Baldewin cleared his throat and went first. “Castle security has been doubled as of last night. We’re not taking any chances right now. We’ve also posted security around the Ordensburg to protect our mages working there.”
“And how goes the repairs?”
Cameron understood not wanting to leave any signs behind of the fight, which would only cause questions.
No one actively used the Ordensburg anymore.
It was a historical building that sat empty.
If they were quick to do the repairs, they could smooth most of this over before the nearby residents of Sonthofen caught on.
Lisette took that question. “Quite well. I estimate in another six hours, they’ll be done. We started in on them very early this morning. I do have a glamour up around the building so that from the road, nothing looks wrong.”
“Excellent.”
Cameron felt it was time he stepped up and said something instead of letting Alric handle this meeting. “What about online? Did no one notice the fireworks display of magic and fire last night and record it? I figured someone caught something on their phones and uploaded it online.”
Cassie lifted a hand. “I’m tracking that.
So far, everyone’s putting it down to fireworks and weird cloud formations.
A few people insist it really is a dragon in the footage, but everything caught on camera was too grainy to see properly.
It’s at a distance, the magic and smoke distorted the footage, so there’s no way to really see much.
I’ll keep tabs on it, if it’s alright with you guys, but I think this is heading into urban legend territory. ”
He looked to Alric, double checking this was alright with him. To Cameron, it made the most sense if Cassie took this on. She was the one with the most knowledge of computers, after all.
Alric gave her a nod. “Please do. Alright, any other issues? Any complaints from Sonthofen?”
“None.” Baldewin shook his head. “No one seems to be aware we were part of last night’s chaos. Fortunately. In the eyes of the world, we’ll have this resolved before they even realize there was an issue.”
“Good. That’s the best outcome for now. I’ve spoken to Cameron about this already, but I wish for him to repeat what he saw and heard yesterday.”
They did need to know, even though what was said to him still didn’t make sense.
“It was Thomas, that guy we saw via cat, who’s running things.
He’s British, by the way. Or at least he spoke like a British person.
He told me the reason they keep trying to grab us is that we’re stepping stones.
And I personally was bait, to draw you guys out. ”
“Stepping stones?”
“‘Stepping stones for our ascension’ were his exact words. I’m confused by what he meant, and he didn’t explain anything or give me any context.
Just that, and he wanted to kill Alric, use his death to demoralize all of you, to wipe out the dragons completely.
” Which still made Cameron plenty mad, thinking about it.
He definitely wanted a revenge match, and the next time, the Jaeggi wouldn’t come out on top.
Everyone exchanged glances, but it was obvious no one had an answer to this either.
“We know too little,” Dieter sighed, leaning back in his chair. “We can’t even guess right now. Why now? What are their aims? The Jaeggi were always powerful in magic, so needing mages as stepping stones doesn’t make sense to me.”
“Nor me,” Lisette agreed, making a face. “We’ll need to investigate this more thoroughly, I think. And be better prepared in the future. Cameron, I have a question for you. That spell you used, the one that freed Alric and cleared the courtyard of all magical traps. What was that?”
“Oh. Uh, Gunter and I cooked that up, just in case.” Cameron ruffled the back of his head.
“I wanted something on hand, just in case we were ambushed again. Something that I could mix up quick that would have an AOE effect on an area, cancel out all magic. The original spell we came up with wouldn’t have much of a range.
It was meant for about a ten-foot radius. ”
Gunter gave a nod, turning in his chair to explain to her directly, “The spell used had captured dragon’s fire, reflected sunlight, and filaments of a meteor, and of course whatever power he chose to draw from Alric.
It was a level thirteen spell, which I know is volatile, but we kept the elements separate for that reason.
Once Cameron needed it, he could throw everything into a single glass tube and release it. ”
Lisette looked like a migraine was impending. “But he didn’t just use those elements. Cameron? Why draw on everything around you like you did?”
“Um.” Cameron almost blurted out ‘instinct,’ but that would go over so poorly.
“So, as I was running, I caught glimpses of all these different spells buried or hidden in the courtyard, and I had a feeling they were like mines. And I knew that if stumbled into, they’d be bad mojo, and I wasn’t about to let that hit Alric or any of you, so…
I figured I’d better enhance the radius of the spell.
No way to do that with what I had on me.
I pulled in every element I could around me, enhancing what power I could, and I modified the spell to where I didn’t bring the dragon’s fire into it.
Not what I had in the bag, anyway. Plenty of dragon’s fire live and in action, so I drew on that, and Alric’s power.
It was borderline a fourteen when I released it, which I know was beyond iffy.
But the intent of the spell was to run amok and break everything in range anyway. ”
“And you didn’t see the harm.” Lisette rubbed at her eyelids with two fingers.
“Um. It worked?”
Alric took his hand and held it, smiling at Cameron as if he couldn’t have been prouder. “That it did.”
Cameron might have basked under that smile. Just a little.
“It’s just as well I’m already grey,” Lisette sighed in resignation. “Between having you, Cassie, and Ha Na as students, you would have sent me into an early greying anyway. I’d like to examine precisely what you did later. We’ll need a modified version, I think, to arm all of our mages with.”
In other words, she liked the effect the spell had, but the way Cameron had unleashed it scared the fuck out of her. “The original version is perfectly safe and portable.”
“Precisely what you did,” she repeated sternly.
Co-ruler he might be, but Cameron was still her student. “Yes, ma’am.”
“We’ll need to figure out where the Jaeggi have moved to.” Baldewin took off his glasses and rubbed at one temple. “I’ve not had much luck in that quarter. I doubt we’ve seen the last of them.”
“We’ll redouble our efforts until we find them,” Alric promised in a voice of doom.
“I can help with the computer end of things,” Cassie offered. “You’d be amazed what the right search algorithm will come up with.”
“We’re counting on you.” Alric flashed her a quick smile.
“Alright, let’s focus today on cleaning things up.
If no one has realized dragons and mages are still alive, then let’s take advantage of that while we can.
The world will likely realize the truth soon enough.
We should enjoy our anonymity while we can. ”
Lisette cleared her throat in a pointed manner. “And after we’re finished today, I think we should sit and properly plan a ceremony. Congratulations, both of you. I’m glad to see you didn’t let this nonsense stop you.”
Cameron couldn’t help the besotted smile on his face as he looked at Alric. “Rather the reverse. Made me realize I didn’t want to lose any more time with him.”
Lifting their joined hands together, Alric kissed the back of Cameron’s hand softly, his smile just as warm. “Indeed. And we’d like a proper ceremony, Lisette.”
“We’ll make sure it happens. And soon.”
Soon sounded perfectly wonderful to Cameron.
* * *
To Cameron’s surprise, the ceremony was not held in the great hall with its ancient banners and Alric’s obsidian throne. Instead, he found himself standing in the middle of a vast green field on top of a mountain. A field that could only be reached on the back of a dragon.
He and Alric rode together on Baldewin’s back as part of the great thunder of dragons flying up into the mountains.
An honor guard circled Baldewin in his flight while more guards surrounded Sasha as she carried Cassie.
Of course, Halmeoni had selected Ravi as her escort, which gave both him and Alric palpitations.
Alric helped Cameron down from his perch when they reached the field.
Cameron paused to pat Baldewin on the side of the neck, thanking him for the ride before he stepped fully into the late-morning sunlight.
The place was like something out of The Sound of Music with its vibrant green grass dotted with little white flowers and snow-capped mountain peaks.
Well, this version would have been The Sound of Music meets Game of Thrones thanks to the dragons.