"As soon as they disappear into the storage facility, you can join us. I'm going to the car now to lend Ena a hand if she needs it," Brett said.
"Stay safe," Mark said.
"They won't be expecting dragons." He transported to the car, standing just beside it, waiting to see what would happen next. The storage unit was dark and empty, except for a fae chained to the floor. Had to be Duke Tully. His eyes widened when he saw Alton and Freya arrive as hostages.
Kenny motioned for his friends to come and bring their hostages. Gary then yanked Freya out of the car, she cried out in pain, and Brett growled. He hadn't meant to make a sound, but it just slipped out. Everyone was quiet then. The fae seers stared in the direction that Brett had been, though after he growled, he quickly moved into the storage facility to free Duke Tully.
The duke's eyes were saucer sized to see the fae—the unknown phantom fae, and the known dragon shifter, Alton.
"Someone else is here. Someone we can't see," Gary said, his face ice-white.
The color had drained from Kenny's face also.
"What do we do?" Gary asked.
"We get the other one in the car and drown the three of them, pronto," Jim said. "Come on, Gary, you put that one back in the car. And stay with them. You, too, Kenny. I'll get the other one."
This worked even better. As soon as Jim moved toward Duke Tully, who was very calm, knowing he had a dragon at his back now, Brett waited for Jim to bring out the keys to the manacles since Jim had to unlock Tully from the floor.
Ena stayed with the car in case the two fae seers decided to do something to Freya or Alton, though Alton could shift at any time and show them what a mistake they'd made.
"We should have brought the two new guys," Jim said. "We could have made them kill these three and seen just whose side they are on."
Gary said, "Yeah, too late now. But that would have been a great idea."
As soon as Jim touched the key to one of the manacles, Brett punched him, knocking him on his backside. Jim cried out and did a quick backward crab crawl. Still invisible, Brett unlocked Duke Tully's manacles.
"Thanks," the duke said, though he looked a little startled that he couldn't see Brett either.
"Go home. Tell the queen that Brett and Ena and others came to save you."
Jim was still sitting on the floor, looking too scared to move. Then Brett turned visible. "Yes, I was like you—a fae seer, and the tale my friends told you about me was true. I'm Brett, by the way. Who knows if any of you are also fae, or if Mark and Bryan are, but we've come to terms with it. Wise up, or you can be the ones drowned in the lake. Or worse. Incinerated?" Brett turned into his very scary dragon form. Beautiful gold scales, but still very wicked teeth and talons.
Even Duke Tully took a step back, his jaw dropping.
The boys stumbled backward away from him. Then they heard sirens and four police cars roared down the drive into the storage facility, blocking each exit. Brett immediately turned back into his invisible state. He'd had enough talks with the police and if they saw any more of him, he figured he'd get them all in trouble.
Mark and Bryan, thankfully, had already exited the stolen vehicle and were motioning to where the trouble was—the boys with manacled hostages, telling how they'd drown them in the lake.
Well, they hadn't expected this. Then Brett noticed the men with the pickup truck and their cell phones in hand. Apparently they had seen the manacled teens and had called the police. Now, as fae, they could just vanish. Wouldn't it be better to pretend to be the innocents in all this?
Freya began talking before Mark or Bryan could speak when they should have been the ones to talk because they knew more of what to say. "Oh, sir, they wanted to get rid of us because they say we're fairies."
The boys looked aghast and Jim immediately shook his head. "We were just playing a game. Just a game. Nothing more. We didn't call them fairies."
Officers had manacled all three boys while others had removed the manacles on Freya and Alton.
One officer was taking notes. "So, you're saying this was a hate crime?"
"Oh, no, not at all." Kenny pointed at Freya, as if she'd back him up on his story. "She told the other students at school we were working on a project."
"Is that so?" the policeman asked Freya.
She showed her red wrists where the fae seer had yanked at her and bruised and rubbed her fair skin raw in places. "No. They were going to drown us in a lake. What school would allow us to work on a project like that? They said if we didn't tell the other kids that at school, they'd go after others." She let a tear slide down her cheek and then several more followed. She looked so sweet and innocent and so very sad. Then she fell against the police officer as if the horror of it had finally sunk in.
Brett smiled at her. He thought she would do great at this business of rescuing fae in the human world.
The officers asked each of them in turn—who were visible—what the story was.
Each of the fae accused the fae seers of believing they were fairies and wanted to get rid of them, and the boys vigorously denied it.
But the witnesses that had driven the pickup truck said the same thing and since they were adults, and the fae had been manacled, it really sealed the deal.
Freya suddenly straightened as if she was feeling less intimidated now. "You know, you might still be just like us and end up joining us so there's no reason to hate us." Then she smiled so sweetly that she had the police officers totally bowled over.
As to the fae seers, they knew they were in real trouble as the policemen hauled them to different police cruisers.
"We'll need to call your parents," the one officer said.
The fae could all disappear at that point, but then the boys would be released and well, they had such a great story going, they couldn't do it. Not that the fae would be around to testify or anything.
A pink Cadillac drove up and a woman got out. Not any woman, but Queen Viviana herself. She had a home in the human world and had raised her daughter, Alicia, as a human for years, so she did have a driver's license and all the ID she needed to prove who she was. "I'm responsible for these teens. Freya, Tully, and Alton are my stepchildren."
"Will you see that they come forth as witnesses concerning this case?" one of the police officers asked.
"Of course. Gladly."
"Good. This kind of thing needs to be stopped. We appreciate your cooperation."
"Okay, kids," the queen said with humor lacing her words, "Let's go back to school. I'll talk to your teachers about your absence."
"Oh, Momma, thank you. I had a test in English and…" Freya said, climbing into the pink car.
Tully and Alton hurried to join her, grinning. Brett was sure the queen was getting a kick out of Freya calling her momma.
Ena took Brett's hand and said in a hushed voice. "Let's go."
"What about Mark and Bryan?"
"The others will come back for…no, the queen is waving for them to get in also."
"But…maybe they should return to their home, as far as what was their home."
Queen Viviana asked the very same question of Brett's two friends. "Would you prefer living in the human world?"
Mark and Bryan emphatically said no. "We have so many more adventures with Ena and Brett. Life would never be the same back home," Mark said.
Bryan agreed.
Ena pulled Brett into her arms and kissed him, sweetly at first, and then much more like a dragon shifter with a mind of her own. They were floating in the dark between worlds, wrapped up in each other, and Brett was eager to be the one and only one for Ena.
"Does this mean—?" He was hoping she'd settled on him and no more considering the other dragon shifters.
"It means you passed one of my trials. At least the first one. If you want to be my mate, you'll have to earn as much as I do. We'll be the wealthiest dragons in the kingdom."
Amused, he raised his brows. "I thought you wanted me just for being m
e."
She smiled. "You know that you are the one for me. Since you seem to have declared I am the one for you. But I had to make sure that you could go on missions with me and not mess them up."
He laughed. "Man, I like this kind of trial. Or at least the finale." Then he kissed her again, loving her, loving what he was now, and yet, he had loved being human, too. Just maybe having been in both worlds, he saw their viewpoints somewhat more clearly. Maybe he could convince the fae seers and the fae that they didn't need to kill each other off, but could work things out. Maybe not be friends, but they didn't need to be enemies either.
"What will happen to the fae seers?" Brett asked, wishing this could have ended better for all concerned.
"We won't be there to testify against them. We'll have disappeared into thin air. The pink Cadillac will go back to wherever it belonged and the queen will most likely never return."
"How in the world did Queen Viviana know to come here and rescue us? I never thought we might end up facing the police and that we'd need an adult to get us out of the jam."
"When you were watching everyone else, I fae transported back home, told the queen the trouble we were bound to have, and she came back with me. She saw the pink Cadillac at the mall next door, borrowed it, and there you have it. She'll return it and everyone will fae transport back home." Ena smiled up at Brett. "Did you like turning into a dragon for them?"
"You bet. Maybe the fae seers will hope they're like me. And not kill any more fae. Maybe they will all try to wait it out and see if they are like us. If so, we have truly accomplished the mission." As they settled down in the courtyard of her castle, he asked, "So what is our next mission?"
"Find a missing dragonling, baby dragon. But I also want to help you learn who your parents were, quickly."
As soon as they let go of each other in the courtyard, her staff ran out to greet them. "Oh, my lady," her lady's maid said, "we have learned that Brett isn't listed as a golden dragon baby to any family in this area. So that's good news, isn't it? He can't be related to you?"
That was good news, Brett thought. But Ena still didn't seem real sure of the situation. "What did the phantom fae healer mean when she said you weren't one of them?"
"I was part dragon shifter." At least that's what Brett assumed.
"What if there is more to it than that? You spoke an ancient dragon language. I've heard of it, but no one uses it and hasn't for centuries. How did you know it?" Ena asked.
Everyone on Ena's staff stared at Brett wide-eyed.
"I just do. It just seems natural, as if I was Doctor Doolittle, only I can't speak to all animals. Did you want to talk to the healer and see why she said I was not one of the fae?"
"After we locate the missing dragon's egg. It's extremely time sensitive."
"Wait, dragon shifters hatch eggs? You were hatched?" Brett asked, shocked.
"Real dragons. I mean, dragons that aren't dragon shifters. They live up on the cliffs in a rugged area where the fae don't travel. But the nearby village has been attacked twice by dragons and the fae want a dragon shifter to locate the egg and return it to the mother. I don't know if the dragons will accept us since we're fae and dragons. But I've got to give it a try. Beyond that location is another community of dragon shifters. We can go there and see if maybe you are related to some of those. They have all dragon shifters there. They rule their own colony and don't work for a fae community like we do."
"Okay, sounds good to me. I'm ready to go." He was dying to learn about his heritage and rescuing a dragon's egg sounded good and heroic. He really loved being here. With Ena, that made it all the better.
"But Cook prepared Brett's favorite veal and dumplings," Muriel said.
This time Ena rolled her eyes.
Chapter 17
The next morning, Ena and Brett began her next mission, except that this time she didn't have an army of helpers. And she really loved having Brett for company. She still wanted to ensure that he could fae travel to places without any difficulty. She had to hold his hand though so he could learn the direction to go.
"If we locate the dragon's egg, won't the dragon suspect we stole it and want to kill us?" Brett figured it would.
"Only if it smelled our scent in her cave. And since we haven't been there before, I'm sure she would realize we're bringing her baby back to her. Dragons are intelligent animals. Though I've never had a case like this before."
"Great. Here I thought you were the expert," he said with a teasing tone to his voice.
She gave him a "watch-it" look anyway. "I am—in many cases. But I don't always have exactly the same mission as before. Just like with rescuing Duke Tully. I had rescued Princess Alicia, and you know how that came about, but it wasn't anything like how it turned out in this case. Yes, we saved him, but under totally different circumstances."
Well, he trusted her lead. He was certain she didn't want to be faced with fighting a whole bunch of dragons either.
***
When they reached the Village of Candor, Ena and Brett met with the elder, a grizzled, white-bearded man, Colin. He offered them ale and bread in his clean little cottage, a warm fire burning in the fireplace, the scent of lavender filling the air where he had them hanging to dry. Then he explained the situation. "Near here, cliffs rise high into the sky and maybe twenty or so dragons make their homes in the caves. When the young dragons grow to adulthood, they find homes of their own. Each dragon has around ten to twenty dragonlings. We live in mutual cooperation, fishing from the same sea and lakes, sharing the space, and never bothering them, while they never bother us. But when someone stole one of the eggs, the mother burned some of our outlying homes. No one was injured, thank the goddess. We were having a feast of the new moon and during the festivities, everyone joins in on the games and eating and drinking. The dragons know this, so she was aware that the homes would be empty. Which is good. We can rebuild the homes."
"Did she think someone from the village stole the egg?" Ena set her empty mug on the table. That's what Ena figured because of her attacking the village.
"No." Colin refilled their mugs. "She knows we're fae like the one who stole the egg. I assume she figures if she makes us aware of this, we'll take action to recover her egg. We have never had any trouble with the dragons until this happened."
"Do you have any idea who might have taken it?" Ena asked.
Brett sat quietly listening to the conversation and she loved that they could do these missions together, when she never thought she would ever do such a thing, even if he got a quarter of the treasure for the job. Though she hadn't asked for much from the Village of Candor, given that these people were only trying to do right by the dragon. They had nothing to do with the theft—which showed Brett was rubbing off on her because she usually asked for what she thought her price should be.
"Someone who could sell it? Someone who wants an exotic pet? Someone who wants to raise it to use for his or her dark purpose as a trained killer or something else?" Colin shook his head. "Your guess is as good as mine."
"It wouldn't be easy to hide a dragon's egg or a baby dragon," Brett said, "I wouldn't think. Not that I've ever witnessed either for real."
The elder studied Brett for a moment, his expression curious.
"He was raised by humans. He's only recently come home," Ena explained, buttering another slice of bread.
"Well, I agree that it would be hard to hide such a creature. Would a royal figure pay to have the egg stolen? Then have handlers who would raise and train it? Or is it some eccentric or power monger who lives out in the country or wilds who thinks he can tame it?" Colin shook his head. "They are wild beasts and can't be tamed for a fae's use, no matter the techniques used."
"How long before the dragonling hatches?" Ena glanced out the window at the nearby cliffs. She suspected she knew the answer before the elder even told her the situation.
"Two days, maximum. That's why the mother is so frantic to bond with her youngster.
They have to imprint between mother and baby. And the father will have the same imprinting, to show he is their father. It's necessary for them to follow their lead and it's essential to their survival in the wild. And know to court their own kind. If the dragonling fixes on the thief, the baby will follow him around, thinking he is his mother."
"So the man or woman who stole him would bond with the dragon intentionally?" Brett asked, frowning.
"Yes. Which makes us believe the fae who stole the egg knew exactly what he was doing with regard to timing."
"So then the person must have been here before? Knew when the dragon was bearing her eggs and they would be ready to hatch." Ena shook her head. "This was well planned then."
"Yes. Anyone who can take off with a dragon's egg had to have been watching the behavior of the dragons for a while. It's easy to see the female and male courting each other, flying through the air in patterns, nipping at each other's snouts as if they were kissing. Once the female began sitting in her cave and the male taking turns, the thief would know they had eggs they were keeping warm."
"How long ago did it happen?" Brett asked.
"Four days ago. We asked for King Tibero's help in the matter, and expected he'd send a dragon shifter to aid us, but then we learned of his death and the battle going on and feared the worst."
"What about the dragon colony close to here?" Ena planned to take Brett there to see if he was related to any of them.
"They go on a month-long sojourn to various parts of the world. Sometimes to the human's world."
Ena pondered that for a moment. "I wonder if the thief knew that as well."
"Might have. The dragons only have offspring once every quarter. If the fae had tried to steal the egg at any other time, we could have gone to the dragon shifters near here to ask them for their assistance."
Brett looked disappointed that the dragon shifters were gone, and Ena didn't blame him. Maybe they could find a library of information there still.