Death's Dragon Box Set

Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

I clapped a hand over my eye as though I could feel the color of it. My other eye furiously swept over the grounds. “A mirror. Is there a mirror around here? Or a pool of water?”

He hurried back to me and wrapped a gentle if firm hand around my arm. “This way.”

Duncan guided me off the cobblestone path and into the thicker mess of trees that surrounded the arm of the pentagram. The forest in all its wild glory once again surrounded us, and its brush was so thick that the pentagram soon disappeared from view. I felt like we were back in that forest that surrounded the farm, and my mind couldn’t quite comprehend that I wouldn’t see that place again.

A lump formed in my throat at that though and I pressed my loose arm against my chest. Don’t cry I told myself. It’s not going to help anyone.

Easier said than done.

Duncan led me a half mile into the pine-scented jungle before the trees parted to reveal a small glen. The trees here were more aspen than pine, and their white barked bodies surrounded the banks of a small pond. The crystal-clear waters reflected the starry sky above us as we made our way to the edge.

Duncan released me and stepped to one side. I swallowed the lump in my throat and moved to the shore. The pain in my eye had lessened as I leaned over to look into the reflective surface.

My pale face stared back at me. There was my usual brown eye on my right side, but on my left… that wasn’t right. It was as white as sand. I could barely tell where my iris stopped and my sclera began, and the pupil melded with the iris. Only faint rings of soft yellow told me which was which.

I dropped to my knees as exhaustion came over me. Fate hadn’t even left me my old body. I felt my heart tense up so badly that I pressed a fisted hand over the furiously beating organ. My breath came out in pants and the world around me spun a little.

Duncan’s soft voice broke the strange, tense spell over me. “Are you well?”

My heart slowed, but I couldn’t stop shivering as I reached out a trembling hand. The tips of my fingers brushed against the scared face that looked back at me. Ripples formed and vibrated outward, distorting even more my unfamiliar visage.

Duncan stepped up beside me. I kept my eyes on my reflection. “This isn’t me.”

He knelt on one knee, and I caught a glimpse of pity in his face. “You said this pain occurred after you ate the berry.” I nodded. He stretched out his hand to me. “I don’t have any answer for this change, but I might know someone who does.”

I turned my head to look at him, and there was no hiding the tears in my eyes. “Then I’m not the first one this has happened to?”

He shook his head. “It has happened before. I’ll take you to that person.”

I wiped the back of my hand across my eyes before I lay my palm in his. He stood, taking me with him in his gentle grasp. I bowed my head and bit my lower lip. “I’m sorry.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “For what?”

“For bothering you like this. I…” I turned my face to one side. “I know you don’t really want me around.” A bitter snort escaped me. “Death just kind of dropped me on you, didn’t she?”

He studied me for a brief moment before he nodded. “I won’t deny you were hastily dropped into my custody, but now that I know the circumstances of your being here, I won’t push you away.”

A gentle warmth welled up within me, and for the first time since the episode on the road I felt a deep sensation of comfort. I offered him a smile. “Thanks. I could use a friend.”

There was a strange look in his eyes when I said that last word, but he shook himself and nodded in the direction of the pentagram. “We should be going. My acquaintance keeps a Point on the far side.”

A few questions swirled into my mind as we ventured back through the forest. “I’m guessing there are five of you guys here.”

He nodded. “One for each point.”

“And that’s all? Just you guys?”

“We have our familiars.”

I looked him up and down. “Are they human like you?” I paused and furrowed my brow as I thought back to the impossible gymnastics he had performed against the troll. “Are you human?”

He stared ahead and slightly pursed his lips. “Once.”

“And Death-you called her something else.”

Duncan nodded. “A more ancient name for her is Mordra. She prefers we call her that.”

“So, what are you guys guarding around here?” I wondered as I swept my eyes over the many trees that surrounded us. “Some rare species of a tree she likes?”

A smile touched the corners of his lips. “Nothing so mundane, I assure you, but that is a conversation to be done indoors.”

My pulse quickened just slightly as I blinked at him. “Why?”

He lifted his gaze to the starry sky and frowned. “There has been more than one intrusion into the land of late.”

“So, another troll?” I guessed.

He shook his head. “No, but you’ll see in a moment.”

We left the woods and found ourselves back on the cobblestones. Duncan turned our steps away from the towering manor and toward the point just to the east. I couldn’t help but study what I could of the five directions before we dove back into the trees that separated Duncan’s point from where we were headed.

“So, all of you guys have a home?” I inquired of my guide in this strange new place.

Duncan nodded his head. “We rest and dine within them and confer with our familiars.”

My eyebrows shot up. “You need to do that?”

“Our bodies are in a state between life and death, and in order to sustain ourselves we must do both.”

I shook my head as we passed through the trees. “This is all so confusing-”

Any further words were caught in my throat when we reached a break in the forest. Unlike the glen with the pond, this opening wasn’t natural. Trees had once stood here, but they had been broken by a great force. Their shattered remains lay scattered about the fresh clearing, and scorch marks covered the trunks of many standing plants. A huge path of burned grass and brush lay in the center.

Duncan paused us on the threshold of the chaos, and I gaped at the mess. “What happened here?”

“Another intrusion,” he explained as he swept his sharp eyes over the area.

I slipped out of his hand and moved over to one of the standing trees. The heat had burned an inch into the bark. I set my hand over the mark before I half-turned to him. “A troll didn’t make this.”

He shook his head. “A dragon.”

My jaw dropped. “A dragon? A real-life dragon?”

He moved over to stand beside me and studied the tree. “After seeing the troll does that really surprise you?”

I shrugged. “I… I guess I just can’t keep up with all this stuff. So, what happened to the dragon? Did it disappear like the troll?”

A strangely contemplative expression slipped onto his face. “In a way, but we should continue on. Once my friend finds himself a book to read for the night, he’s difficult to rouse from its pages. We may be knocking on his door for quite some time.”

I followed him out of the damaged area and after walking for half a mile in the forest we stepped out and back onto the cobblestones. The shortcut had knocked off quite a bit from the pentagram route and within a half hour we found ourselves in front of the French château. Unlike the plain yard that surrounded Eva’s residence, a small garden surrounded this home. Red flowers of all shapes and sizes lined neat arching beds, twisting and turning to surround the structure in a sea of crimson right up to the stone walls. Large trees stood here and there, and thick curtains of moss hung from their branches. More moss swayed from the limbs of bushes and even the stems of flowers, giving the area a slightly eerie appearance.

The house’s two square wings were each accented by a spired, gray-tiled roof while the long central portion had a single gable. There was no porch except for a small patch of stones in front of the two elegant doors. The windows were tall and wide and featured paneled glass.

The only oddity with the home were the recesses between the thick windows. They contained life-size stone statues of skeletons. The bones were place with their arms cross over their chests and their heads slightly bent downward, giving visitors the impression that those stone sockets were staring down at them.

I looked down at the cobblestones and couldn’t help but notice another sigil in the rocks, though admittedly a lot of moss covered the stones. The symbol was the same pentagram as the other one at Eva’s house, but the symbol was different. Instead of a seedling, there was a thin sliver of what looked to be a moon.

We ventured through the gardens and up to the doors, and Duncan used a knocker to rap hard on the entrance. We waited for a long moment before footsteps sounded from inside. I wasn’t sure what to expect when the door opened, but I didn’t expect what I saw.

The door had been opened by a lad of no more than seventeen.