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Ganga-Quest (2022) - An Online National Quiz by Ministry of Jal Shakti and Tree Craze Foundation गंगा-क्वेस्ट (2022) - जल शक्ति मंत्रालय और ट्री क्रेज फाउंडेशन द्वारा आयोजित की जाने वाली ऑनलाइन राष्ट्रीय प्रश्नोत्तरी के संबंध में

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Hey, folks!

I was hoping to have this ready last weekend as an ebook (along with the Zav point-of-view scenes) for my newsletter subscribers, but the cover art and bonus scenes aren't quite done. I should still make my end of May goal though. If you're not already a subscriber to my my newsletter, you can sign up here and get a free copy of the ebook when it's ready: https://lindsayburoker.com/book-news/

For those who don't want to wait for the ebook and would like to read this extra adventure now, I'm publishing it right here. I wrote story to stand alone (so if you're a new reader, you can jump in and enjoy it), but it does have some spoilers for the earlier books. It takes places between Books 4 and 5 in the Death Before Dragons series.

Thanks for reading!

The Forbidden Ground

a Death Before Dragons story
Part I
The beat-up orange camper van chugged down the interstate, getting passed by semitrailer trucks, Volkswagen beetles, and motorcycles with dogs in the sidecars. As a begoggled husky looked over at us, I rubbed my face and wondered if other assassins traveled by such means. Hollywood was convinced every gun-wielding independent contractor made millions, but it didn't work that way when you worked for the military. Or maybe the problem was that people are willing to pay more to have government dictators killed than they were man-eating wyverns and murderous vampires.

My mood brightened when the exit sign for Gold Hill, Oregon, came into view. Almost there.

"Thanks for the ride, Dimitri." I nodded to my driver, forcing myself to sound suitably appreciative. "Maybe we can get done quickly and drive back to Seattle tonight."

"I'm sure I can. I just have to pick up some dirt." Dimitri waved to the glass sample containers rattling in his cupholder as we lumbered off the interstate and onto the exit ramp. They looked dainty and fragile next to his big hand. Dimitri was a quarter dwarf, but he loomed more than six and a half feet tall and had the build and pockmark-scarred face of a mafia bruiser. "You're the one who has to solve a centuries-old ancient mystery and figure out what's eating the tourists."

"Technically, Colonel Willard doesn't care about the mystery." I glanced at the little town as we passed through it in a few eyeblinks and headed up a road toward the supposed Oregon Vortex. "She just wants me to..."

I trailed off as the aura of a powerful magical being flew onto my radar. Even though I was half-human and looked human from the outside, my father had been an elf, and I could sense magic when it was close enough. That included enchanted artifacts and magical beings from other worlds who were visiting or hiding out on Earth. Or, as was the case with this particular magical being, rounding up criminals.

"Pause dramatically to flummox your driver?" Dimitri glanced over at me.

"Sorry. I sense Zav."

"Your dragon buddy?" Dimitri grimaced. "What's he doing down here?"

"He's not so much a buddy as a sometimes ally in the hunt for bad guys who have committed crimes here on Earth."

"Didn't you say you kissed him in a hot tub once?"

"No, I did not." He'd kissed me, and there had been extenuating circumstances. Everything about a dragon was extenuating. "You must have heard an unsubstantiated rumor from someone unreliable."

"I think it was Sindari."

"He's definitely unreliable." I touched the feline figurine dangling among other magical charms on a leather thong around my neck. I might not have said that if the silver tiger had been in the van, but unless I summoned Sindari, he couldn't hear us talking.

"I like him," Dimitri said. "A lot more than I like your dragon."

"That's because Zav is haughty and arrogant." Now that I thought about it, Sindari trended toward arrogant, too, but he was less obnoxious about it. And he didn't call humans vermin.

"The one time I spoke to him, he called me a mongrel, my enchanted inventions junk, and Bessy too inferior for a dragon to ride in." Dimitri gave Bessy's dashboard a reassuring pat.

"He calls me a mongrel, too, and we're-"

A great black dragon landed on the street in front of us, and Dimitri threw on the brakes. The tires squealed, Bessy fishtailed, and the van came to a halt less than a foot from the huge muscled body. The dragon didn't move. His sleek black scales gleamed under the afternoon sunlight filtering through the trees.

"-close," I finished.

"We were all almost close," Dimitri choked out, knuckles white where he clenched the wheel. "As in intertwined."

"Nah. We would have bounced off. Just like bullets do when you shoot dragons." I tapped Fezzik, the custom compact submachine pistol in my thigh holster. "Trust me; I know all about that." Chopper, the magical longsword I usually wore in a scabbard on my back, was the only weapon I'd seen hurt a dragon, and even then, the dragon had to be wounded or distracted.

"So we would have just been intertwined with the trees."

"You know the story of how I lost my first Jeep." Fortunately, the current Jeep was only in the shop for minor repairs, not debilitating ones. An irate griffin had dropped a boulder on it when he'd failed at his true goal of killing me.

"Yeah, you've told it often."

"Because I'm still bitter the insurance wouldn't reimburse me. Tell me having a dragon fling your vehicle into the treetops isn't an act of God."

Outside, Zav-known as Lord Zavryd'nokquetal, a name that nobody but other dragons could pronounce-shifted around so he could lower his serpentine neck to peer through the windshield. His violet eyes glowed faintly as he regarded us.

"It's an act of something," Dimitri muttered. "What happens if I honk at him?"

"Is Bessy fireproof?"

"No."

"Then I don't suggest it." What is it, Zav? I asked in my mind, trusting he was monitoring my thoughts.

You left your domicile in the city without informing me, his telepathic words sounded in my mind. You have been assisting me in hunting down criminals designated by the Dragon Justice Court, and I insist that you continue to do so.

Willard gave me this assignment this morning. I'll be back by tomorrow night at the latest. I was confident I could find who or what had mauled the tourists in that time.
You failed to obtain my permission before leaving. Because I don't ask your permission before I do anything. I'm not on parole, and you're not my keeper. The Dragon Justice Court believes I am.
Don't remind me. I waved at Dimitri, who was peering around for options. He wasn't privy to the telepathic conversation. "There's nobody coming from the other direction. See if you can drive around him."

"Drive around him? He's bigger than a house. And Bessy doesn't off road."

"The shoulder is open if you nudge his tail out of the way."

Dimitri gave me an incredulous look. " Nudge it? With my van? Are you trying to get me killed? I can feel his power like microwaves nuking us through the windshield. He could squash us with his foot."

Some time during the months I'd known Zav, I'd gotten used to his power and didn't find it as disconcerting as I should. Maybe because he'd healed me and helped me several times that summer. I knew he cared about me, in his own pompous dragon way.

Your companion is suitably respectful of the power of dragons, Zav informed me. You could learn from him.

Oh, I'm sure. I was surprised Zav wasn't getting uppity about me being with another guy. When he was in his human form and we were working together, he had a tendency to act like a jealous boyfriend and chase off any men who came up to me. I'd told him on numerous occasions that this wouldn't be appropriate, even if we were dating, and that since we weren't dating, and never would be dating, it was unacceptable. Since dragons were horrible at taking advice and even worse at respecting lesser species, as he called us, he ignored me. Lift your tail, please. I'll finish up here and come back up to do another mission with you, if Willard pays me to.
You will come to do another mission with me because I am removing heinous criminals from your world, and it benefits your people.
Uh huh. Tail up, please. I made a lifting motion with my hand.

Dimitri gave me another incredulous look. But Zav got out of the way, shifting to one side of the road and moving his tail out of the left lane.

You could help us with this mission if you like, I thought to Zav. With your assistance, we could finish more quickly, and then I'd be back in Seattle sooner, where you can return to coercing my boss to give me missions that align with your interests.

I wasn't tickled that he'd been doing that, but since the criminals on his list-magical beings who'd committed crimes in the Cosmic Realms that dragon-kind ruled over-also tended to be the types to murder and rape humans, we often wanted the same thing.

Dimitri drove over onto the far shoulder, flattening some roadside water hemlocks to make sure Bessy's tires didn't go anywhere near dragon appendages.

Zav watched us as we drove off, his violet eyes glowing softly. Dimitri's white knuckles didn't loosen until Zav sprang into the air and flew off over the trees.

"Is he likely to bother us again?" Dimitri asked.

"Oh, I'm sure of it."

Dimitri groaned. "Doesn't he have anything better to do?"

"In Gold Hill, Oregon? I doubt it."
Part II
As we neared our destination, the trees alongside the road changed from vertical to oddly curved, and an uneasy sensation formed in the pit of my stomach. I didn't sense any magic, other than in the weapons and trinkets I carried, but the wilderness had an eerie feel to it.

On the way south, I'd read the hoopla surrounding the Oregon Vortex-that animals supposedly avoided it and that the natives had called it The Forbidden Ground-but I hadn't expected to genuinely experience anything.

The parking lot alongside the road at the "Home of the world-famous House of Mystery," as the sign informed us, was empty. Either this wasn't as hot of a tourist attraction as promised, or the news had gotten out about the dead guys found in the woods nearby.

I got out with Chopper and Fezzik and made sure I had extra magazines in my ammo pouches. Also an inhaler in my pocket, but I didn't admit needing that to anyone but my doctor and my therapist. Hopefully, the clean wilderness air would make my lungs happy. I hadn't had many problems earlier in the summer during my mission in northern Idaho.

I'd also brought along a coil of rope, but for now, I left it in the van. The "vortex" didn't seem that large, so I could come back if I needed it.

Dimitri got out and scraped dirt from the edge of the parking lot and into a vial. "My job is done. I'll wait in the van."

"That's fine." I hadn't expected him to hunt down a killer with me. Even though he was a big, strong guy, Dimitri made yard art and assisted an alchemist for a living. He wasn't a natural fighter. "What did Zoltan say about this place, anyway?"

A breeze whispered through the curved trees, raising gooseflesh on my skin. It was almost August, and it had been hot in the poorly air-conditioned van, but that breeze contained a cool bite, as if someone had opened a freezer door nearby.

"That it's not mentioned in any of his books and he'll pay big money for samples. Hence my sudden interest in driving you down here." Dimitri pocketed the dirt-filled vial and drew out a few more empty ones. "He actually wants samples from different locations, so I'm not quite done."

"How much is big money?"

"Fifty dollars plus gas."

"Wow, make sure you invest some of that for a rainy day."

"And you're buying me free food for driving you. It's a double win. Besides, maybe I'll find a piece of an asteroid or a lodestone or something that would be more valuable. Or that I could use in my art."

"Do asteroid attachments make people more appreciative of bears made from recycled dishwasher racks, bicycle wheels, and urinals?"

" Everybody should be appreciative of such things."

An older couple came walking down a driveway from a house on the opposite side of the street from the sign and the entrance. Willard had mentioned that the owners lived nearby. I wondered if being across the street kept them safely out of the vortex.

"Don't let them see you stealing their dirt," I whispered, heading over to greet them.

The man was squinting suspiciously at Dimitri.

"Isn't dirt free for anyone?" Dimitri slipped his vials into his pocket.

"Not if it's on someone else's property."

"I'm Marty and this is Bessy. Are you the government agent?" The man wore overalls, a thin white T-shirt, and a straw hat. His floral-summer-dress-wearing, late-fifties Bessy looked nothing like the van that shared her name.

Marty looked me up and down but didn't comment on my combat boots, jeans, and duster-or whether I was what he expected. My magical weapons wouldn't be visible to him, or to any other mundane person, unless I removed them, but he could see my utility belt and ammo pouches, so he had to assume I was armed.

"Val Thorvald." I stuck out my hand.

He shook it, glancing down again-this time at my chest-and his wife frowned at him. My work attire wasn't exactly feminine and curve-enhancing, but quite a few men found my six-foot-tall, blonde, and descended-from-flinty-Norse-ancestors look intriguing.

I offered the wife my hand, but she ignored it.

"I'll show you where we found the bodies." Bessy walked across the road, following a path toward the House of Mystery.

"I don't suppose I can see the actual bodies?"

"Police took them. Plenty of blood left though."

"Fun."

She frowned over her shoulder at me. Marty stayed back to speak to Dimitri-or make sure he didn't scrape any more prized dirt into vials.

I had no idea why our alchemist friend Zoltan had sent him to gather the stuff, especially if he didn't have any real information on this place. It had a creepy vibe, and those trees had a decided kink to their trunks, so maybe there was a paranormal influence around, but it was hard to imagine it would make the dirt of interest to an alchemist.

Bessy walked past a crooked one-room cabin with the walls and floor tilted to the side. It looked like something built for a fun house, but the wood was old. The place must have been a roadside attraction back when Model Ts were cruising the countryside.

Looking at the structure added to the unsettled feeling in my stomach, but my guide didn't stop to talk about it.

As I hurried after her, I almost tripped, something my more-agile-than-average feet hardly ever did. But the woman appeared to be listing to one side as she walked. It wasn't a limp. She was walking normally, but her entire body was as tilted as the cabin.

"What's the explanation for the weirdness here?" I asked as we continued past the cabin and into the woods.

"There isn't one. Been lots of studies. Some say magnets. Some say ghosts."

Over the years, I'd been in a few haunted graveyards, houses, and asylums-all made so by spells cast by magical visitors from other worlds-but there hadn't been anything notable about the gravity in those places, nor had I encountered optical illusions.

"Magnets?" I asked. "Like what? Neodymium iron boron or maybe a nice alnico?"

That earned me another glare over the shoulder. I didn't bother waiting for her to turn back to roll my eyes. Maybe Dimitri was having a better conversation with the husband. I doubted it.

As we walked down a well-worn path, gouges and bumps in the hardened mud promised that this area was usually as damp as the rest of Western Oregon. We came to an area of trampled undergrowth beside the trail and a tree with broken branches.

Bessy pointed at the ground. "The blood has soaked in, but you can see where it's dark. And there are some stains there." She waved to the side of a tree. A rusty smear marked the jagged end of broken branch. A thick broken branch. Something large must have hit that. "The police looked all over but didn't find any tracks other than those of the boys and other people who have walked back here. They didn't find a murder weapon either. I've got pictures of one of the bodies."

She pulled out a smartphone and swiped around until she could show me the gory remains of a teenage boy, his intestines torn out, one eye missing, and the rest of his face clawed up so badly that it would have been difficult to identify him.

"You took these?"

Bessy in her dusty floral dress and sandals didn't look like the squeamish type, but this was downright garish.

"I didn't look real close, but I took them," she said grimly. "Some other tourists got some too before the police shooed them off and put up tape. That was yesterday. This is all over the local news now and on the internet too. The only visitors we've had today wanted to hunt the monster, not pay for a ticket to the House of Mystery."

"Did you let them?"

"Marty drove them off with his shotgun. We don't need more people getting killed on our property."

"Understandable." I flipped through the pictures, a lot of photos of the body and some of the surrounding blood-spattered broken foliage and branches.

"We had a tracker friend and his dog come out this morning, and they went off looking, but he didn't find any tracks. The dog was too agitated to work. Animals don't like it back here."

"So I've read." I texted a few of the photos to myself and handed the phone back to her. "I'll look around and see what I can find. I've got an animal who's fearless."

Mostly fearless. Sindari had a healthy wariness of dragons.

"You have a dog?" Bessy glanced back toward the parking lot.

"I have a tiger."

Judging by the look she gave me, Bessy thought I was nuts and that the authorities had sent me by accident.

I touched my cat-shaped charm and summoned Sindari. If she could take pictures of eviscerated bodies, she probably wouldn't shriek uncontrollably when a magical tiger appeared.

Bessy gaped as a silver mist appeared at my side, a great feline shape forming in it. Sindari looked exactly like an Earth tiger, but his head came to my shoulder, and he was silver instead of orange or white. During daylight hours, you didn't notice the faint magical glow to him, but at night it was more pronounced.

I extended my hand toward him. "As I said, I have a tiger."

Sindari gazed at me with his sharp green eyes and spoke telepathically into my mind. Actually, you have a charm that summons a magnificent Stalker and Hunter of the Tangled Tundra Nation on Del'noth, who is, because of the pull of the magic, willing to assist you in your endeavors.
I know that. I'm simplifying it for her.
"He's kind of like a service animal," I added to the dumbfounded woman.

"Oh," she mouthed.
We have discussed this before. I am neither a pet nor a service animal. Services animals are allowed to go in hotels and sleep on beds. You should approve. I am considering gnawing your foot off. Don't do that. I'm going to need it to fight the wyvern.
Wyvern? Sindari lifted his head and sniffed, also reaching out, I knew, with his magical senses.
It could be a roc or griffin. Or even a dragon, I suppose. Whatever killed the two tourists here didn't leave any prints, and the gouges visible in the pictures this lady showed me looked like they were from talons.
"Can I get a selfie with him for my website?" Bessy asked, recovering.

I didn't know what to make of the request, considering we were standing on dried blood and I was here to hunt for a killer. "Will that help with the tourism?"

"Once you get rid of the monsters, yes. Should I stand next to him? Is that okay? This'll be great for the website." Bessy maneuvered closer to Sindari but didn't touch him as she tried to find an angle to capture herself and a seven-hundred-pound tiger in the shot.

"Yeah, it's okay. He likes his ears rubbed."
I permit Dimitri and Nin to touch my fur because they are your allies and have respectful hands. This woman is a stranger.
Maybe she's good at ear rubs. I took her camera and waved for her to stand next to Sindari.

Even he seemed to be leaning to the left in this strange place. After I took the picture, Bessy left.

Sindari sneezed three times. That woman smelled of dead flowers.

Thank you for being a noble ambassador and allowing her the picture. And for me to tease you. I liked to remind Sindari that I genuinely appreciated him. The magic of the charm ensured that he would obey my wishes-as he'd been forced to obey the vampire who'd held it before me-but I preferred he be a willing companion and not a resentful one. I'd once asked if it was possible to free him from what was essentially magical servitude, but apparently his people had made a deal with the dragon makers of the charms long ago, and they expected to one day be called upon to pay back their half of the bargain. Do you want to help me locate a deadly flying creature now?

He sashayed past, rubbing against my jeans and jacket, leaving silver fur on them-and scent marking me, too, I supposed. The joys of working with felines.

As he sniffed around the area, I walked farther up the wooded trail, looking for more clues. So far, I hadn't felt anything magical, but magical beings didn't usually leave special signatures behind, so that wasn't surprising.

Zav flew past at the edge of my range. My guess had been correct. He was hanging out, probably to make sure I finished promptly and returned to hunting the criminals he wished.

Can you hear me? I thought to him, guessing he might be monitoring my thoughts.

Yes, Zav responded. You are getting better at projecting your thoughts.
Am I? I guess old dogs can learn new tricks. You are not old for a half-elf. You would be considered akin to one of your human teenagers or early adults. Yeah? Maybe that explains my snarky rebellious streak. If you refer to your sharp tongue and lack of proper respect for dragons, there is no acceptable explanation.
Uh huh. As long as you're flying around and doing nothing, would you mind looking for a magical aerial creature with day-old human blood on his breath? I didn't know if it would work, but I thought of the pictures Bessy had shown me and tried to share with him what the body had looked like.

I am not doing nothing. Dragon lords do not do nothing. Ever. My duties are many and demanding.
Then what are you doing? Hunting. I flew many miles to find out why you departed from our agreed-upon work location.
What was he going to do if I ever took a vacation? Stalk my plane all the way to Hawaii?

If you help me find the culprit, I'll take you to a barbecue restaurant on the way back. I half-expected him to scoff-inasmuch as one could scoff telepathically-but I'd taken him to Bitterroot BBQ in Ballard during a mission together, and it had been the first human food I'd shared with him that he liked. Really liked. Much to the staff's bemusement, he had polished off six racks of ribs while ignoring the cornbread and collard greens. Carnivore diet, I'd explained to our waiter.
What culprit do you suspect? I think a wyvern or a griffin might have done this. Maybe a roc.
I added the latter, knowing he wouldn't like me hunting down dragon kin-wyverns and griffins were considered distant relatives to his kind.
Have you sensed such a creature?
No. I could usually detect a full-blooded magical being within a mile. But I sense you. Sometimes your giant dragon aura overshadows everything else.
My aura is appropriate for my power. I have not sensed magical flying creatures, but I was searching for antelope. I've found this indigenous Earth creature quite tasty. Does your barbecue restaurant serve antelope? I don't think so, but if you can find whatever killed the tourists, I'll request they add antelope to the menu. Acceptable. I will search in the nearby mountains. All of the beings you mentioned prefer to roost in mountain caves. Thank you, Zav.
"I've arranged for some dragonly assistance, Sindari," I said, heading back to join him.

He was looking toward the canopy, a breeze rustling the ash, oak, and cottonwood leaves.

Sindari's nostrils twitched. How soon will he arrive?

"He's not coming here. He's going to look for rocs."
Then we will have to fight the oncoming creature ourselves.
Before I could ask what he meant, a huge furry monster with leathery wings crashed through the foliage, diving straight toward me.
Part III
I sprang behind a tree, pulling Fezzik from its holster, and aiming at a creature that looked nothing like a feathered roc or a scaled wyvern. The thing was furry with barrel torso and simian legs and arms. How could that creature even fly?

Huge leathery bat's wings were furled tight as it dove toward my hiding spot. Hungry, beady yellow eyes burned into me.

As I squeezed the trigger three times, Sindari crouched nearby, prepared to pounce as soon as the creature was close enough. My magically enhanced bullets struck true, two hitting it in the chest and one right above the eyes. Impossibly, they bounced off.

I gaped. That didn't happen, except with dragons. And this thing, whatever it was, didn't even feel magical.

Sindari sprang at the creature as it finished its dive. He knocked it out of its trajectory. The flying furry beast extended its wings, batting him aside with surprising power, but not before he sank his maw into one of the leathery membranes. His fangs tore into the wing, blood flying through the air.

The creature howled as it landed, coming down heavily on its shaggy hands and feet, but it never took its eyes from me. As it sprang for me, I leaned out from behind the tree and fired three more times, aiming for different targets. This monster couldn't truly be invulnerable, could it?

This time, I noticed a piece of twine around its neck, almost hidden by the shaggy dark fur. It held two ivory trinkets that reminded me a lot of the charms I wore.

The creature landed on the opposite side of my tree, claws-not talons-gripping the bark. It leaned its neck around and snapped at me with a wolf-like snout.

I sprang back, hot meaty breath blasting me as its bite missed by two inches. I returned Fezzik to its holster and drew Chopper. My magical longsword hadn't been made on Earth, and it was the only weapon I had that could hurt a dragon. It would work on this creature. It had to.

Sindari leaped again for the monster's back. It dropped down and ran at me on powerful legs. Sindari adjusted his flight and managed to come down on it, all of his weight slamming into its shoulder blades. He snarled and bit into the back of its neck. The creature's momentum faltered as it stopped, battering Sindari with the backs of its wings and trying to knock him free.

Using the distraction, I sprang in and plunged my blade into its chest. One of the ivory charms on its neck flared silver, and I met far more resistance than expected, but the tip sank in.

The creature squealed and flung its wings forward, trying to catch me. I leaped back swiftly enough to avoid the attack, taking Chopper with me. The blade was harder to pull out than usual, but I freed it and feinted toward our foe's abdomen with a quick thrust. Sindari was still on its back, sinking his fangs in, seeking a fatal target.

"Duck," I told him, then committed to a real attack when the creature was busy blocking my feints and trying to buck Sindari off.

Swinging the blade more like a logger than a swordswoman, I cleaved the creature's head halfway off its neck. With as much force as I'd put into the blow, and as razor-sharp as Chopper was, it should have beheaded the monster. The blade, glowing a fierce blue, did manage to sever its spine and major arteries.

The creature toppled forward, Sindari clinging to its back like a huge tick. He sank his jaws in to finish it off.

As I was about to thank him for his help, some instinct made me turn, lifting my sword. A second creature was diving soundlessly toward me, its mouth open, its fangs ready to snap down at my neck, its arms and claws extended to eviscerate me.

Swearing, I dropped to the ground and rolled away, but as long as its arms were, I was sure it would still get me.

A massive black shape flew in from the opposite side, the wind of its passage tearing at my clothes as it collided with the creature before it touched me.

Zav.

I jumped to my feet. The furry monsters were big-seven or eight feet tall with an even larger wingspan-but they were nothing compared to a dragon. Zav snapped down, crushing its throat, then lifting it and shaking it by the neck as if it weighed nothing.

Bone crunched, death cries barely escaping the thing's savaged windpipe. Powerful muscles rippled under Zav's sleek black scales as he hurled the creature forty feet. It smashed against a tree so hard that its wings and legs were ripped off. I hadn't known that was possible.

The remains of the corpse slumped to the ground, the creature quite dead.

Zav turned to face me, his eyes glowing bright violet as he towered above me. The force of his aura, and a little fear for what I'd just seen, almost drove me to my knees.

I locked them and lifted my chin, refusing to show that I still found him terrifying when I was reminded of his power.

"Thanks, Zav." I casually cleaned off and sheathed my sword. "It seems they're not holing up in the mountains after all."

I didn't know how he'd learned of the attack, since I'd never sensed anything magical about the creatures-I was fairly certain Sindari had only smelled their approach-but I was glad Zav had shown up. Even though I believed I could have handled the second one, I would have been injured in the process. I healed more quickly than normal humans, but that didn't mean I liked getting gouged.

Zav melted and compacted before my eyes, shifting into his human form, a six-foot-two, broad-shouldered, handsome olive-skinned man in a silver-trimmed black robe and slippers. Sometimes, he showed up in high-tops, boots, or some new men's footwear he was trying-someone had once accused him of being homosexual because of the slippers-but these were still his default. His short curly black hair was always trimmed, his short beard and mustache always tidy. Only his violet eyes were the same as they were in dragon form, the glow gradually fading now that the fight was over.

"These were not rocs or wyverns," Zav noted dryly.

"Yeah," I croaked, then cleared my throat, realizing I'd been gaping at him. When he was this close, his aura always affected me, an electric charge that radiated from him and crackled over my skin like power from high-voltage lines. Except it was a lot more appealing than that. It made me want to lean in close and bask in his presence. Which was a problem because I was not looking to hook up with a dragon and definitely not to become some enraptured mindless minion of one. "I noticed as that one was attacking me."

I don't know what they are. Sindari was examining the body of the creature we'd killed. They do not appear capable of flight. Perhaps these trinkets allow them to fly. There is some subtle magic about them, much like your charms, but I did not detect it until this one was right on top of us, so they should not be very strong. Unless they are self-camouflaging.

"Let's take a look." I knelt beside the body, not sure whether to be pleased we'd mauled it as badly as it had mauled the tourists or just grim at the whole affair. "Zav, have you ever seen anything like these, uhm, animals before?"

"I have not."

As I cut the twine necklace out of the tangled fur, Dmitri ran up with Marty and Bessy. The husband started at the tiger, but then gaped at the furry body and didn't ask about Sindari.

"Batsquatch," he breathed, as if he recognized the creature.

Batsquatch? He had to be joking.

But I tapped it into my phone for a look.

"Who are you?" Bessy whispered, staring at Zav.

"I am Lord Zavryd'nokquetal, a representative of the Dragon Justice Court."

Bessy stared at him without blinking. At first, I thought she would ask to take a selfie with him. It took me a moment to realize that she was enthralled by his dragonly presence.

Ignoring her, Zav walked to where he'd thrown the other creature, maybe to check it for charms. Eyes glazed, Bessy followed him. She lifted a hand, as if she might touch his robe, but she didn't get close enough to try.

I rolled my eyes and read the handful of entries on the batsquatch. It was toted as a bat-sasquatch hybrid. The drawings accompanying the reports of sightings and livestock being eaten did look similar to these creatures. Huh.

Filing that away for later consideration, I went back to the charms. There were two of them, one that gave me a zap when I touched it. Cursing, I dropped it.

The little shield-shaped object lay in the dirt. The shapes of most of my charms were clues to what they did, so I wagered these were similar. This might have created the barrier that had made it so difficult to kill the creature.

The other one was shaped like a footprint. It didn't zap me, so I curled my hand around it, probing it with my senses. It warmed against my palm and, seemingly of its own volition, my arm rotated around my body to point off to the northwest. A little tingle went down my spine as the urge to walk in that direction came over me.

"Hm."

Dimitri touched my shoulder. "Are you all right? You're spattered with blood. Is any of it yours?"

"No."

"Does it come off that jacket?" He waved to my leather duster.

"Yeah. I had my dry cleaner put a fancy stain guard on it. She's half gnome, and her magical power is getting blood, guts, and excrement out of clothes."

Dimitri wrinkled his nose. "Excrement?"

"Sometimes, when people and animals die, bodily functions happen."

"I'm glad I'm not in your line of work."

"Are you? Zoltan's ingredient lists for his alchemical potions have a lot of stinky and disgusting things on them. Remember the sasquatch anal gland secretions he wanted?"

"He wanted you to get those, not me."

"Oh, right."

Zav returned and held out a palm, displaying two charms identical to the ones this creature had been wearing. I looked for Marty and Bessy, debating how openly we should speak, but they were wandering back toward the road.

"Your admirers left?" I rose to my feet.

"I convinced them," Zav said, "that you would solve the problem more easily without their presence."

"I didn't hear you say anything."

"Magic does not require words."

True. I thought of when we'd first met and he'd touched my temple and compelled me to do things. That had almost gotten me killed. But we'd been more enemies than allies then, so I didn't hold a grudge. I did, however, remember how creepy that power was.

I plucked the identical footprint charm out of Zav's hand. As with the other, it tried to direct me to the northwest.

"Think its trying to get me to visit the monsters' lair?" I eyed the charms and the dead creature Sindari was sniffing and pawing at like a feline forensics investigator examining a body. "Or walk into a trap? Do you think there are more of them?"

"Are you addressing me or your sidekicks?" Zav asked.

"Uh, anyone who has answers."

" Sidekicks? I'm at least the chauffeur." Despite the joke, Dimitri looked disgruntled enough to punch someone. But not a dragon. He eyed Zav warily, not standing too close.

Sidekick? Sindari also protested. Does he not know that I am an unofficial but highly respected ambassador for my people?
He once said your kind were not unwise.
Hm. Sindari appeared faintly mollified. Praise from dragons was rare.

"Since they are not magical, I cannot tell if there are more nearby," Zav said, "unless they get close enough for me to smell them. They have a peculiar odor."

It's true, Sindari agreed. They smell like numerous other animals on this world.

"They look like numerous other animals." I waved at the corpse. "Half ape, half giant bat, half wolf."

"That's a lot of halves," Dimitri said.

"You disagree?"

He considered the creature with his artistic eye. "No. It's more hideous than most creatures found in nature."

"Sindari and I did maim it thoroughly," I said.

"Yes, but I doubt it had aesthetically pleasing lines before that."

"I couldn't believe it could fly with that kind of body." I took out my phone and dialed my boss. As far as I knew, my job was to kill the creatures that had killed the tourists. If there weren't any more of these around, I had accomplished my mission and could go home. Following a charm into a lair shouldn't be required... unless there was a whole nest of these monsters back there to deal with.

Willard didn't answer, so I left a message. And then texted her pictures of the dead creature. Hopefully, she wasn't enjoying a dinner date with a hunky guy. It was Saturday evening.

"I will see if more are in the area." Zav shifted into his dragon form again and sprang into the air, finding a gap between the trees to fly out through.

Thank you for your help with this, I thought after him, touched that he'd flown all this way to assist me. Technically, he'd flown all this way to nag at me for not being at his beck and call, but still. For a dragon, he was considerate. I'd now met enough other dragons to know he was special.

It is not entirely altruistic, Zav replied. I expect you to provide the barbecued meat you promised.
Of course. I never thought otherwise. This time, you will send a message ahead to ensure there is enough prepared for me. Silly me not to think six racks of ribs would be enough last time.
I am a dragon. I have eaten mammoths and arakshunoth.
I don't know what that latter thing is, but I'll assume it's large. And succulent, correct. Perhaps your restaurant can stock their ribs. They will have to widen their doorways to get them inside.
For some reason, the closing to The Flintstones popped into my mind. I'm sure they'll be agreeable to that.

"Val?" Dimitri asked.

"Yes?"

"I asked if there was anything I could do to help. I ran up just in time to be useless."

"Sorry, I was taking instructions for Zav's BBQ order. And you're not useless. You're my ride back."

"Your chauffeur, not your sidekick."

"Precisely so."

Look at this. Sindari had used his sharp claws to tear away clumps of the creature's fur.

A patchwork of grayish skin lay beneath, strange seams making it look like someone had sewn it together from spare parts. But we would have sensed magic in play if that had been the case. This had to be a weird but natural skin formation. Or maybe those were scars, not seams, and someone had tortured the creature at some point and left marks all over its body.

"A mystery." I sighed.

You sound distressed, Sindari said.

"I don't get paid to solve mysteries. Just to kill things."

"You did accomplish that," Dimitri said. "And then some." He pointed to the creature with the missing arms and wings. "What did you do to that one?"

"Zav threw it against a tree."

"And its limbs flew off?"

"It was a very hard throw."

"I knew I was right to avoid nudging his tail with my van."

"You're pretty smart for a sidekick."

Dimitri glowered at me, but my phone buzzed before he could retort.

"Yeah?"

"Haven't we discussed that it would appropriate for you to answer, 'Hello, Colonel Willard,' when talking to me?"

"We have discussed it. Are you disappointed I haven't implemented this new phone policy?"

"Every time I speak with you." Clanks sounded in the background.

"Are you at the gym again, Willard?"

"Yes. So?"

"It's Saturday evening, and you're single."

"There are men here."

"Good. Grab a sweaty well-defined one and take him for BBQ."

"BBQ?"

"Guys are into it. Did you get my pictures?"

"Yes. They didn't put me in the mood for food."

"Weird." I described the fight and the charms to her. "What do you want me to do with the bodies? They're not magical, so there's no need to bring them back, right?"

I didn't like the long pause that came after my question. Dimitri frowned over at me in mild concern. That would turn into extreme concern if we had to wrap the bodies in tarps and carry them six hours back to Seattle on the top of his van.

Occasionally, Willard did want strange dead creatures brought back for the paranormal morgue that didn't officially exist. She had a doctor in the office who did autopsies and studies on weird phenomena.

"You're sure they're not magical?" Willard asked.

"I can't sense anything from them. Neither can Sindari."

"And there's no chance they'll regenerate themselves and come after people again?"

I grimaced because we'd encountered magical beings that could do that. "I wouldn't think so, but I can incinerate them before we leave."

Dimitri nodded firmly, even though he could only hear my half of the conversation.

"Your Jeep is in the shop, right?" Willard asked.

"Yeah, Dimitri gave me a ride in Bessy."

"Is that the dented orange camper van that smells like a rolling pot factory?"

"Yes."

Dimitri might have caught a couple of her words, for he raised his brows for clarification.

"She likes your van," I told him.

Willard snorted. "Incineration is fine. Also, look around and make sure there aren't any more manslayers."

"These two wanted to be woman-slayers."

They'd definitely been targeting me instead of Sindari. Because I'd looked like an easier mark? Or because half-elves were tastier than tigers?

"Make sure there aren't any more of those either," Willard said. "And don't walk into any traps."

"Advice like that is why you get paid the big officer money."

"No, it's because I have to deal with subordinates like you." She hung up before I could advise her further on dating.

I looked at Dimitri. "For the record, I'm an independent contractor, not a subordinate."

"Better than being a sidekick."

"I suppose." Though I was wary, I let the charm guide me off the trail and into the woods. I hoped I could avoid traps, but this seemed like the quickest way to get the bottom of this. It would be dark in a couple of hours, and I didn't want to spend the night here.

"Are you following that charm?" Dimitri trailed after me, and when I looked back, Sindari appeared lopsided. We were still within the sphere of weirdness that was this place.

"Yes."

"Is that wise?"

"Probably not."
Part IV
The pull of the charm led me away from the trails that meandered through the tourist area, no broken twigs or tracks hinting that others ever came this way. But the creatures would fly, not walk. Perhaps thinking the same thing, Sindari paused often to sniff at the air.

Dimitri stopped to collect another dirt sample. I didn't know if he'd found anything more significant to take back to Zoltan yet. Aside from the crooked trees and the slightly off feeling in my gut, I hadn't experienced anything tremendously otherworldly about this place.

I'd no sooner had the thought than the ground crumbled under my feet.

Swearing, I lunged to the side, landing on my stomach. The ground crumbled there too. I snatched for a bush, fingers wrapping around the thin branches. But its roots pulled free, and it sank right along with me. I tumbled into dark nothingness.

Praying there was a bottom, I twisted in the air so I wouldn't land on my head or my back and snap my neck. Brushes and clumps of dirt tumbled down beside me. I fell twenty, maybe thirty feet and glimpsed rock below with just enough time to prepare.

I landed on my feet, turning it into a practiced roll to keep from breaking my ankles. That move was always smoother without a sword strapped to my back, but I survived it and came up with the blade drawn. I peered around, expecting an attack from any quarter.

Darkness stood all around me, the daylight streaming into the hole making it impossible to pick out details until my eyes adjusted. I didn't see or hear anything, but the musky smell of those creatures lingered in the air. And for the first time, my senses twanged, alerting me to nearby magic. A lot of it.

Not magical beings but artifacts of some kind. What had I fallen into?

And where was Sindari?

He'd been right beside me. It wouldn't surprise me if he'd been able to leap away in time to avoid this fate, but I no longer sensed him in this world at all.

When I touched the cat figurine on my thong, it was as cold as ice.

"Sindari?" I whispered, trying to summon him in the usual manner.

Nothing happened.

"Val!" Dimitri called from above-almost forty feet above.

I grimaced, amazed I'd survived the fall without breaking any bones. Roots dangled down from the jagged edges of earth and grass around the hole I'd fallen through. The sinkhole. I'd been walking on solid ground, or so I'd thought.

Climbing out wouldn't usually be that challenging for me, but the hole wasn't anywhere near a wall. As my eyes adjusted, I could make out the dim details of a large underground chamber around me, with a dirt and rock floor and chiseled stone walls rising to a ceiling high above. A wide crack ran across the ceiling, my hole right in the center of it, and I realized this might not have been a trap but an accident. I'd stumbled onto-into-some ancient... what?

An enchanter's workshop? A mad scientist's lab? My nose crinkled as I caught the animal scent of those creatures again.

I pulled out the footprint-shaped charm. It was no longer trying to direct me anywhere. I had arrived.

A trickle of water came from a stone fountain built into the wall closest to me. Surprisingly, ivy and other vining plants grew up the side of it. How had they gotten enough sunlight-or any sunlight?-to grow down here?

Dimitri's head came into view, followed by clumps of dirt raining down on me.

"Careful," I called up.

He'd scooted close to the edge on his belly. "I think that's my line for you. A little late."

"Willard did warn me to avoid traps."

"You don't seem to be that good at listening."

"I'm a rebel." And I wasn't sure this was a trap so much as a careless mistake.

Dimitri squinted down into the gloom and swore. "How are we going to get you out?"

"If you get the rope in your van and tie the end to a tree up there-a tree on solid ground-that would do it."

"Okay. I'll be right back."

Right back in a half hour maybe. We weren't that close to the parking lot anymore.

I tried summoning Sindari again, but the charm remained cold and nothing happened. The idea that it might be permanently broken sent a wave of horror through me.

"No." I refused to believe that.

This place might be nullifying the magic, but falling through a hole wouldn't have destroyed the charm. It couldn't have. Besides, if there was some kind of shield that blocked magic, that would explain why I hadn't sensed this place when I'd been right above it. Magical artifacts were all around me now.

Curiosity drove me to explore them-I also wanted to see if there was a more legitimate door in and out of this place. If the creatures had been coming here, there had to be.

As I stepped away from the cone of light trickling down from above, a sticky cobweb invisible in the dim lighting blanketed my face. Lovely.

" Eravekt," I whispered, drawing Chopper. I wasn't sure if the command would work, when Sindari's charm did not, but blue light flared from the blade, illuminating my surroundings.

Thousands more cobwebs draped bookcases, tables, curio cabinets, workbenches, and quirky glass displays. Everything appeared to be centuries old, but that didn't make a lot of sense. Oregon hadn't been settled until the 1800s, and Native Americans hadn't been known for installing glass curio cabinets in their dwellings.

A chill went through me as my gaze fell upon what looked like an antique operating table. It was bolted to a hard slab in the dirt floor, and flywheels on the sides allowed the metal surface to be raised and lowered or adjusted at what might have been the neck and knees.

It was empty, save for a book with yellowed pages open on one end, but bloodstains and bits of old gore spattered the surface. I tried to scrape a tiny chunk away, but it had been there so long it had dehydrated and glued itself to the table. My first thought was that it was strange that rats or other scavengers hadn't found the place and consumed any forgotten pieces of protein, but a magical warmth flowed up my arm from the surface. It might have been warning, or it might have been a ward; I withdrew without contemplating it deeply.

The ink on the pages of the book was faded, but I could make out handwriting in tidy rows of symbols. It was nothing I could read.

Behind the surgical table stood several double-door cabinets that reminded me of walk-in refrigerators. I assumed this place had never had electricity, but I checked for lightbulbs anyway. At the four corners of the roughly square ceiling, dusty orbs were mounted, making me think of magical illumination spheres I'd seen. They appeared dormant but still radiated more magic than anything else in the chamber.

I opened one of the double-door cabinets and jumped when a fog of cold air rushed out. It was a refrigerator. A magical one, still cold after however long it had been since this place had been built.

As the fog evaporated, Chopper's glow illuminated racks of vials of blood, and another chill ran through me. This reminded me of the laboratory of the dark-elf alchemist where I'd been trapped and almost died.

Several strange blue and silver diamond-shaped disks were stacked on a shelf below the vials. They reminded me of...

"Dragon scales?" I touched one before it crossed my mind that I shouldn't be poking anything down here. Nothing had happened yet, but that didn't mean I wouldn't chance across a deadly trap.

I pulled my hand back, but not before brushing my fingers over one of the scales and feeling a faint tingle. It reminded me of a muted version of Zav's aura.

If those were dragon scales, did that imply those vials held dragon blood? Where had the scientists who'd created this place gotten all of that? Had they somehow killed a dragon? And would they come back one day, or were the contents of this place up for grabs?

I didn't need scales or blood, but I had no doubt Zoltan would pay a pretty price for them. Supplying alchemists with materials wasn't a typical part of my job, but I'd bought so many potions and services from him this year that it would be nice if I could get a credit against future purchases.

An owl hooted in the forest above, and I jumped. The bird was probably only announcing night's approach, but the sound reminded me that I wasn't alone out here.

With a twinge of guilt, I closed the door, hoping Zav didn't find me in here scoping out dragon bits. He would be enraged by the contents of the refrigerator, that someone had collected blood and scales from one of his kind and maybe even experimented with them. And I didn't want him to think that I approved of such notions.

We worked together, traded jokes, and were even friends, inasmuch as a mongrel half-elf and a dragon could be friends, but he'd made it clear before that he didn't fully trust me. For whatever reason, he couldn't read my thoughts, so he never truly knew my mind, and that bothered him. He'd been betrayed before by an elf who'd pretended to be his friend-no, his lover -and then tried to assassinate him. As powerful as he was, a thousand times more powerful than I, he never forgot that someone like me had almost killed him before.

Moving on, I opened other refrigerators, revealing less damning evidence-one was full of squirrel tails, bat wings, and pieces of fur-and made my way to a couple of large cabinets where the doors had been dented open and, in one case, ripped off. From the inside out. They smelled strongly of those creatures. The cabinets were under the crack in the ceiling, a crack that also ran down the stone wall behind them. Maybe it had also damaged the cabinets and allowed the creatures to escape.

"Earthquake?" I wondered.

They were rare in the Pacific Northwest, but they did happen from time to time. I remembered one from 2001, when I'd been coming home for leave and my plane had been guided into SeaTac by the temporary air-traffic-control trailer.

If this crack had happened that long ago, the creatures had been out and on the prowl for a long time, but that might explain those silly batsquatch stories. And southern Oregon was lightly populated enough that strange animals could live out here for years without being spotted.

"Animals?" My gaze drifted to the surgical table. "Or creations?"

There were only two empty cabinets that smelled of them. Maybe that meant I'd succeeded at my mission and the only two that existed were dead now. That made me feel like a genocidal maniac, but I reminded myself they'd killed at least two tourists. And possibly other people who'd gone missing and never been found.

I sensed Zav's aura as he flew high over the trees and debated whether to tell him to come down or tell him he didn't want to come down. I was still debating when he soared over the hole, his head tilted so that a violet eye was briefly visible peering down at me.

You don't want to come down here, I thought, realizing he couldn't unless he changed form. The hole wasn't large enough for a dragon. I've confirmed that we killed what should be the only two creatures. I'm waiting for Dimitri to bring some rope to get me out of here since I... I hated to admit I'd stumbled into here by accident instead of on purpose. I've seen everything I needed to see.

A shadow fell over the hole. Zav floated into view in his human form, inadvertently confirming to me that he still didn't wear underwear under his robe.

He let gravity bring him down and landed in a crouch, as if a forty-foot fall was nothing to him. When he stood, looking around, his eyes glowed softly in the dim light.

"Why did you not wish me to see this place?" His gaze skimmed over me and probed the dark equipment and storage areas.

Once, he'd told me that when his eyes glowed, it either meant he was using his magic or issuing a warning. I hoped he wasn't suspicious of me.

"I think someone was experimenting with dragon parts. I thought it might piss you off."

"Yes." His eyes flared brighter. "It would."

He strode toward the book open on the surgical table. Maybe he would be able to read the writing. I had a hunch it was dark elven, even if this place didn't remind me aesthetically of their stark tunnels. There hadn't been any fountains or plants in their lair under Seattle.

Before Zav reached the book, the four orbs at the corners of the ceiling flared with green light and exploded with magical energy that flooded my senses. Zav jumped back, but one-foot-thick green beams slammed into him from all four points.

I shouted, "Look out!" far too late to be useful.

Surprise flashed across his face before he gritted his teeth and focused. I sensed him hurling an attack at one of the orbs with the same kind of power that he'd used to throw that creature across the forest, but the magical artifacts neither budged nor broke. The beams poured into him, hurting him-his clenched jaw and tight eyes couldn't hide his pain-and holding him in place.

"Hang on," I blurted, running toward one of the beams with Chopper.

It looked like a laser rather than some kind of attack I could stop with my blade, but I had to try.

My magical sword passed through the beam as if it were air and did nothing to affect it.

The orbs, Zav whispered into my mind, a mental order accompanying the words. He wanted me to use my sword to destroy them.

My body spun around to obey so quickly that I almost lost my balance. Normally, I would fight any dragon's attempt to compel me to do something, but this time, I wanted to help. I rushed toward the closest orb, jumping up on a workbench so I could reach it.

Before I could swing, the orb pulsed twice and canisters I'd thought nothing of earlier flew open, lids clattering to the floor. Brown powder puffed out and swirled in the air, stirred as if by a breeze, but there was no breeze.

Zav groaned and dropped to one knee. Cursed magical scientists, would those beams kill him? The only dragon I'd met who wasn't an ass?

"What the hell is this place?" I roared in frustration.

Then wished I hadn't, because the rapidly spreading powder coated my tongue and throat. I broke into a coughing fit. My nose and eyes watered, as if I'd walked into a gas chamber.

Furious, with tears streaming from my eyes, I whirled toward the closest orb, swinging Chopper at it with all my power.

The sword didn't utterly shatter it, as I'd hoped it would, but the light flashed twice and a hairline crack appeared. I swung again and again, striking as hard as I could. My lungs, the biggest threat to my status as a badass assassin, tightened, and I worried the weird powder would close up my airways altogether. I had my inhaler, but I kept bashing the orb, worried for Zav and frustrated that I'd inadvertently led him down here.

More cracks appeared. The beam flickered. One more huge swing and the surface shattered.

My elbows and shoulders ached from all the blows to what had felt like a brick wall. A lesser blade would have broken, but Chopper flared brighter, ready for more.

Coughing and wheezing, I jumped down. The three remaining beams continued to hold Zav in place-worse, he'd dropped a fist to the ground, as if he was losing the battle.

I rushed to the second orb and clambered onto a table to reach it. My lungs heaved, struggling to get enough air in for the demands of my body, but I swung the blade with fury and determination. Again, it was like striking impenetrable stone, but hairline cracks appeared.

Sweat ran down the sides of my face, and tears streamed from my eyes. That damn powder still floated in the air. Green glowing dots danced in my vision from looking at the orbs too long. But I kept hammering away. The light flashed several times before the beam succumbed and went out.

Only two beams coming from the far side of the chamber remained. I jumped down and started to run past Zav to reach them, but as I drew close, the brown dust floating in the air swirled faster around the chamber, and a big cloud of it rushed toward me. I squinted my eyes shut as minuscule particles hammered my face and needled into my ears.

What was this stuff?

Images flooded into my mind. I didn't know if they came from the dust or the orbs, but I saw Zav flying over a city, black and terrible, raining fire down and slaying people left and right. My progress across the room halted as my legs stopped of their own accord. My vision cleared, and I saw Zav before me, not in his human form but as a dragon, and some outside compulsion came over me to attack him with Chopper while the chamber held him helpless in place.

His head had been bowed, but he lifted it, his gaze meeting mine.

Logically, I knew he'd never razed cities-of all the dragons, he was faithful to a flaw about upholding their laws and protecting lesser beings-but the images wouldn't relinquish their hold on my mind. Some foreign entity made me want to plunge my blade into his heart. Into the hearts of all dragons, starting with the one in front of me.

In my hands, Chopper shifted toward him. One swing was all it would take. He was weakened.

Zav squinted at me, and I longed to yell that I didn't want to do this, that I would never choose to lift my blade toward him. He had to know that. I'd been trying to free him.

My hands shook where they gripped Chopper's hilt. I would not do this. Would not attack him, no matter what magic compelled me.

My fingers were numb. My extremities weren't getting enough oxygen. Maybe I would black out and then Zav wouldn't be in danger. Should I hope for that? But how would he get free if I couldn't stop the remaining beams?

A surge of insistence rushed into me, forcing me to lift Chopper higher, to aim for his neck.

"No!" I roared, and forced my fingers to open. If I wasn't holding that blade, I couldn't hurt Zav.

Chopper fell from my grip, thudding to the ground near Zav's hand. He grabbed the hilt.

Fear slammed into me as I envisioned him using it to kill me.

He managed to turn enough to throw the blade. It spun through the air and slammed point first into one of the remaining orbs.

Unlike with my hacks, his strength was enough to break it with one blow. The sword lodged into it, and the light went out.

"Get the last one," he rasped, trying to rise but still held in place by one more beam.

His eyes flared violet as he met my gaze again. Destroy it, he growled into my mind, again adding a magical compulsion to his words. You are my ally, not a pawn to some elf you've never met. Mine!

My legs lurched into motion. I was everybody's damn pawn today. Or puppet.

I had to climb the vines on the wall to reach the broken orb, my sword still protruding from it. My wheezing breaths filled my ears as I wrestled to free it. My sweat-slick palms almost betrayed me twice, but I finally tore Chopper from the orb and dropped to the ground.

My weakened legs didn't support me, and I pitched onto my side. But I focused on that single beam and pushed myself upright. I climbed the vines to reach the orb, glad they were well-anchored to the wall. Magical vines that grew in the dark.

Elf, Zav had said. Not dark elf.

Questions floated through my mind, but I only had the energy to focus on one thing. Breaking the final orb.

As I hacked away, my back to him, I imagined Zav watching me, disappointed with how weak I was, how long this was taking. With a wheeze of frustration, I finally struck the orb hard enough to break it.

I almost expected some backlash of energy to strike me, accidental or deliberate retaliation for freeing the dragon the chamber had captured. But the magic simply disappeared. I half climbed, half tumbled to the ground, falling to my hands and knees as weariness overtook me, my lungs raw from my exertions, from the powder scouring my trachea.

Once freed, Zav rose to his feet and glared over at the surgical table. The open book burst into flame, instantly incinerated.

He sprang the forty feet to the hole like a cat that had walked on a hot burner. He disappeared from my sight and I rolled onto my back, digging my inhaler out of my pocket. Next time, I vowed, I would use it earlier, whether a dragon was watching and judging me or not.
Part V
The dust finally settled, the odd wind that had stirred it gone.

My senses told me that Zav was nearby but well away from the hole and the chamber. After that experience, I was surprised he hadn't flown all the way back to Seattle-or opened a portal to his own world.

Shaky, I walked toward the hole, the daylight coming through it much weaker now, as twilight descended on the forest above. I eyed the cabinets and cases, wondering if I should take anything back to Zoltan or Willard. Considering that several dragons significantly less friendly than Zav had visited Earth this year, it might not hurt to come up with-or copy-some weapons that could harm them. But Zav might object and torch anything I took out, and I couldn't blame him.

I stood under the hole to wait for Dimitri with the rope.

Are you done? Zav asked into my mind.
Are you injured?
No. Unless my lungs aching and my throat being raw counted. Are you?

He hesitated, which probably meant yes and that he was looking for a way to avoid admitting it without lying. I will recover.

Invisible power wrapped around me and floated me into the air. Even though he'd levitated me before, my stomach dropped at the weird sensation, and I had to resist the urge not to flail. But there was no need. His magic settled me onto solid ground as gently as a songbird alighting on a branch.

Zav stood in the shadows about twenty-five yards away, his face hard and difficult to read. Warily, I headed toward him, not sure if he would blame me for any of that. He'd rarely lost his temper with me, but he got snippy from time to time. I would be snippy if some ancient magic had ambushed me and almost killed me. With the help of a mongrel half-elf who was supposed to be on my side.

I wished I could say it was the first time someone or something had tried to use me against him, but this was becoming a theme, and my inability to fight off these more powerful beings frustrated me to no end. This hadn't even been a being. It'd been a bunch of dusty old artifacts.

When I was halfway to him, brilliant orange light flared behind me. A jet of fire roared straight up out of the hole, and snaps and cracks of burning material came from the chamber. Zav's eyes flared bright violet and his magic swirled past me, ripping several trees from their roots to fall precisely onto the hole, covering it up. The thuds shook the ground.

I didn't have to see inside the chamber to know that everything had been incinerated. Fortunately, the flames died down before lighting fire to the entire forest.

"You seem irked," I said, striving for casualness. Maybe we could pretend I hadn't tried to kill him down there.

"Yes." He'd been looking toward the hole and focusing on his magic, but as it faded, his gaze settled on me.

Even though I didn't believe he would attack me or retaliate in any way-it was his disappointment I feared, or maybe the acknowledgment of my own weaknesses-an uneasy uncertainty made me pause several steps from him.

Before I'd come out of the hole, I had sheathed my weapons, and I stuck my hands in my pockets now. He had never said it, but I suspected it bothered him that I carried a sword capable of hurting dragons. If things like this were going to keep happening, it might be better if I didn't, but Chopper was too valuable for my work for me to set it aside.

"As soon as I saw the book, I knew it was the work of the elven scientist Yerrani Sunglade," Zav said. "He was an ally to the old elven rulers, the faction that attempted to assassinate several key dragons to wrest control of the Cosmic Realms from my kind."

Several key dragons, including him. He'd told that story before.

"I hadn't realized he'd done experiments -" Zav's mouth twisted on the unpalatable word, "-on this world. But it makes sense. Until I came this year, there had not been a dragon presence here for a long time. He would have been able to work without worry of being discovered."

"Do you think he's responsible for the weirdness of this place?" I waved toward the leaning trees and in the direction of the crooked cabin.

"Something he did may have caused it. Or he may have chosen this place because people of the time were avoiding it."

The Forbidden Ground, right.

"I didn't realize it was elven. I couldn't read the book." I bit my lip, knowing I was making excuses for why I hadn't warned him more seriously not to come down there.

If anything, he'd come down because of my warning, believing I'd been hiding things. Which I had been. Disturbing vials of blood in a refrigerator, not elven booby traps, but it had amounted to the same.

Zav gazed into my eyes again. The violet glow had faded, but some of it lingered, a reminder that even when he was in human form, he wasn't entirely human.

Zav spread an arm. It took me a moment to realize he was offering a hug. He so rarely did.

Relieved he wasn't angry, at least not with me, I came forward and stepped into the one-armed embrace. The electrical tingle of his power washed over me, stirring all of my nerves to life with intense awareness of him.

Usually, I wasn't much for hugs, but I'd given up on trying to pretend I wasn't attracted to him. Of course I would never admit that to him, nor would I stop reminding him that I was my own person and hated it when he magically compelled me to do things. This time, I couldn't blame him for that. He must have doubted that I would successfully stave off the elven magic and keep from attacking him.

"You freed me," he murmured, leaning his forehead against mine and lifting his hand to the back of my neck, massaging it with strong fingers.

"Yeah," I said, my voice coming out raspy. I looked at his nose instead of his eyes, afraid I'd do something stupid like kiss him if I didn't.

The last time he'd touched his forehead to mine, he'd said it was something my father's people did, an elven gesture of a bond between warriors. It wasn't a sexual pass. But he also hadn't rubbed my neck last time, sending shivers of pleasure through my entire body, and I didn't know what to make of that.

In the past, we'd agreed that it was safer if we worked together without any romantic entanglements, especially since dragons were into claiming and mating and not real romance anyway. At least this seemed to mean he wasn't irked with or disappointed in me, even if I couldn't help but feel that way about myself every time I failed to resist magical power being exerted over me. Someday, I vowed, I would learn to do that.

And if he didn't stop rubbing my neck in the next three seconds, I would end up wrapping my arms and legs around him and melding my lips to his.

"Who else would go out to barbecue with me if I let some elven artifacts kill you?" I stepped back out of his embrace.

His eyes narrowed, glowing slightly, a reminder that if he wanted me to stay in his arms, he could use his magic to force me to-to even make me want to. I wasn't sure he was human enough to understand why I would hate him if he did, but he didn't compel me back into his arms.

Zav smoothed his features and clasped his hands behind his back. "Do your sidekicks not accompany you?"

"Sindari doesn't eat in this realm, and Dimitri, despite being a big guy, can only eat one rack of ribs."

"Only one?" His eyebrows rose. "That is why he is a sidekick. Not a legend."

Zav thought he was a legend? Amazing how nearly being killed by elven magic couldn't put a dent in his ego.

"Maybe so," I said, "but he's a much cheaper date."

Especially since dragons didn't have money and I had to pay for Zav's rib fest.

His chin came up. "But I am a superior date."

"You certainly have a superior ego."

"In all ways, I am superior."

A flashlight beam shone through the trees, coming from the direction of the path.

"Your sidekick approaches," Zav said. "With a rope."

"I was wondering if he got lost. He's a city boy."

"Perhaps you can replace him with an assistant more adept at woodland navigation."

"I have Sindari for that." Remembering the trouble I'd had summoning him, I grabbed my charm. It was no longer cold to the touch, but I called on him to make sure I could.

The familiar silver mist formed, heralding his return to Earth, and I sagged in relief.

I am ready to go into battle and fight valiantly, Sindari announced, looking toward the dwindling flames from Zav's bonfire.

"Too late."

"Val." Dimitri's light found me, and he looked toward the smoldering trees covering the hole. "You got out."

He flicked the flashlight to my side-maybe he hadn't seen Zav in his black robe-and the light shone in Zav's eyes. Zav narrowed them, and a snap and a flash of orange came from the flashlight. Dimitri cursed and dropped the burned-out case.

"Feeling cranky?" I asked Zav.

"I will return to your city and wait for you to come assist me on my next mission," he said, ignoring the question.

He stepped away from me, giving me a long look over his shoulder that I couldn't quite read. He sprang into the air, shifting into his dragon form and flying away.

"I'm definitely glad I didn't nudge his tail," Dimitri said.

"I wish he'd stuck around to incinerate the corpses of the creatures," I said, remembering Willard's orders.

Consider it done, Zav spoke into my mind, though he'd already disappeared over the trees. Do not forget to order my ribs in advance so there will be a sufficient quantity to sate my hunger.
You're a demanding ally.
But he wasn't, I admitted, nearly as demanding as he could be with that power.

THE END

If you enjoyed this adventure, please check out the series on Amazon:
Death Before Dragons Urban Fantasy Series

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Bonus Story: The Forbidden Ground (Death Before Dragons)

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Hey, folks! I was hoping to have this ready last weekend as an ebook (along with the Zav point-of-view scenes) for my newsletter subscribers, but the cover art and bonus scenes aren't quite done. I should still make my end of May goal though.

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Suzanne Carreker, Ph.D., CALT-QI, Principal Educational Content Lead, Lexia Learning
In spite of the fact that we learn to listen and speak without explicit, systematic, and cumulative instruction, it should not be assumed that we learn to read and write in the same manner. Indeed, although spoken and written language may seem to be inverse operations similar to addition and subtraction, they are not (Adams, 1990; Gough & Hillinger, 1980; Seidenberg, 2017; Wolf, 2008). Spoken language is a natural act that evolved over thousands and thousands of years, causing our brains to become "wired" for listening and speaking; conversely, written language was only invented a few thousand years ago, meaning our brains are not wired for reading and writing. The Science of Reading has shown that learning to read and write is not a natural act-rather, this undertaking requires explicit, systematic, and cumulative instruction (Castles, Rastle, & Nation, 2018; Gough & Hillinger, 1980; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [NICHD], 2000; Seidenberg, 2017).

What is the Science of Reading? It is evidence: Evidence from the accumulation of research on reading acquisition and instruction that has been conducted using gold-standard methodologies and has identified effective practices (Reyna, 2004; Seidenberg, 2017). Simply put, the Science of Reading is not an opinion, nor is it a philosophical belief. The accumulated Science of Reading evidence should be trusted to inform the why, what, and how of reading instruction. This paper considers the impact of the Science of Reading on reading instruction.

The WHY of instruction

Why do we teach what we teach? We teach it because the accumulation of scientific evidence from high-quality, well-designed research has proven it to be effective in helping all students learn to read and write. Regrettably, the reading instruction in many of today's Whole Language/Balanced Literacy classrooms is not well informed by the Science of Reading as it is guided by views rather than the evidence behind the acquisition and effective instruction of reading (Adams, 1990; NICHD, 2000; Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). For instance, some teachers encourage students to use pictures or semantic and syntactic cues to guess unfamiliar words in texts because they believe these strategies preserve meaning, which is counter to how skilled readers actually process printed words (Adams, 1990). In another example, teachers may offer no or limited grammar instruction under the belief that grammatical rules interfere with the flow of ideas in writing even though knowledge of grammar has been shown to support both written composition and reading comprehension (Foorman, Koon, Petscher, Mitchell, & Truckenmiller, 2015). If there is evidence of sound instructional practices, then why are unproven practices still in use? Seidenberg (2017) suggested, "Whereas science is adversarial and theories compete, on the education side, greater effort goes into maintaining a shared belief system" (p. 260).

Castles, Rastle, and Nation (2018) proposed "an agenda for instruction and research in reading acquisition that is balanced, developmentally informed, and based on a deep understanding of how language and writing systems work" (p. 5). The researchers concluded that understanding why certain skills are important to teach has been obscured by a singular-and polarizing-focus on phonics. Without a deep understanding of language and writing systems, it is difficult to understand why phonics works, as well as why there is more beyond phonics that needs to be taught.

The WHAT of instruction

The Simple View of Reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986; Hoover & Gough, 1990) is a validated framework that deepens understanding of how language and writing systems work, along with how these systems inform what we teach-which both includes and goes beyond phonics.

The Simple View of Reading proposes that reading comprehension is the product of decoding (or word recognition) and linguistic comprehension (or language comprehension). Neither component is sufficient on its own, which means inefficiency in one aspect may lead to overall reading failure, and each component is made up of its own underpinning components that are supported by scientific evidence. Teaching all components is critical to ensuring reading success.

Decoding × linguistic comprehension = reading comprehension

Decoding

Decoding is the reader's linkage of the printed words on a page to their spoken equivalents, which is dependent on the reader's understanding that the letters in printed words represent individual speech sounds in spoken words (i.e., the alphabetic principle). Without the ability to decode words, the reader will not be able to derive meaning from the printed page. Decoding begins with the reader's understanding of the sound system of language and proceeds to an understanding of the writing system based on the underpinning components of phonology, orthography, and morphology.

Phonology is the sound system of language. The English language is composed of approximately 44 speech sounds, or phonemes, defined as the smallest unit of sound that makes a difference in the meaning of a word (e.g., changing /s/ in sat to /m/). The importance of a beginning or struggling reader's ability to detect and manipulate the individual phonemes in spoken words (i.e., phonemic awareness) is well documented, as is the importance of the instruction that develops these skills (Blachman, 1995; Bradley & Bryant, 1983; Catts, Neilsen, Bridges, Liu, & Bontempo, 2015; Liberman & Liberman, 1990; NICHD, 2000).

Phonemic awareness tasks include identifying the initial or final sound in a word, blending sounds into a word, segmenting a word into sounds, and changing a sound in a word to produce a different word. Prior to engaging in tasks that require the detection or manipulation of individual speech sounds, beginning and struggling readers undertake tasks such as identifying rhyming words, blending spoken syllables into words, and segmenting spoken words into syllables (i.e.,phonological awareness), all of which can be completed without the presence of letters or print. Early identification of and intervention with difficulties in phonological or phonemic awareness prevent difficulties in learning to read (NICHD, 2000; Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998).

Orthography is the writing system of language. The English writing system is composed of 26 letters that represent the phonemes in spoken words, either singular or grouped (e.g., th, ng, tch), and there are constraints about where and how letters can occur in words-for instance, the letters ck do not occur in initial position, while the letters h, y, j, and w do not double. Phonics, the method of instruction that teaches the associations of letters and phonemes (i.e., letter-sound patterns or correspondences), is crucial for beginning and struggling readers to become proficient readers (Ehri, 2014; Foorman, Francis, Fletcher, Schatschneider, & Mehta, 1998; NICHD, 2002). Paired with sufficient practice, explicit instruction builds letter-sound patterns in memory. Students' spelling errors on tests or in daily writing provide insight into their understanding of letter-sound patterns and inform responsive instruction (Ehri, 2014).

For beginning, struggling, and skilled readers alike, it is more productive to "sound out" an unfamiliar word than to guess the word based on semantic or syntactic cues alone (Adams, 1990; Seindenberg, 2017). Once words are held in memory because of repeated exposure and increased knowledge of letter-sound patterns, readers can instantly recognize them without needing to sound them out. Automatic word recognition leads to fluent reading, which frees cognitive resources to focus on meaning (Ehri, 2014; Perfetti, 1985). Students with dyslexia often experience difficulties with the acquisition of automatic word recognition skills due to deficits in the phonological and/or orthographic components of language (Hook & Carreker, 2019).

Morphology deals with the meaningful units of words (prefixes, roots, suffixes, and combining forms), which are called morphemes. Instruction of morphemes has a unique role in synthesizing several aspects of the Simple View of Reading (Henry, 2018; Kirby & Bowers, 2017) as morphemes combine phonology, orthography, and semantics (meaning). For example, while learning the Greek combining form phono, students identify the initial sound as /f/, notice the pronunciation of ph as /f/ and the spelling of /f/ as ph, and establish the meaning as sound as in phonology, phoneme, symphony, and cacophony. A meta-analysis of morphological interventions (Goodwin & Ahns, 2013) found positive effects of morphological knowledge on phonological awareness, decoding, spelling, and vocabulary.

Linguistic Comprehension

Linguistic comprehension-the other necessary component of reading comprehension, according to the Simple View of Reading-has its own components that must also be taught, with Hoover and Gough (1990) describing it as "... the ability to take lexical information (i.e., semantic information at the word level) and derive sentence and discourse interpretations through listening" (p. 131). For the most part, the reader with adequate decoding skills and adequate linguistic comprehension will demonstrate adequate reading comprehension (Hulme & Snowling, 2009; Nation, 2005). However, it cannot be assumed that all students will achieve adequate linguistic comprehension without instruction, as adequate linguistic comprehension requires ample vocabulary, identification of semantic relationships, sensitivity to causal structures, use of language in a particular context, background knowledge, and ability to make inferences. These elements are taught through the underpinning components of semantics, pragmatics, syntax, and discourse.

Semantics pertains to the meanings of words and the relationships among words. Given that a reader's breadth and depth of vocabulary contributes to reading achievement (NICHD, 2000), Beck and colleagues suggested broadening vocabulary by focusing instruction on high-frequency, high-utility words found across the curriculum (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2013). Instruction that focuses on academic language, which includes understanding nuances in word meanings and multiple-meaning words in addition to utilizing precise word choice and other sophisticated words and phrases, deepens students' vocabulary and further promotes success in reading across the curriculum (Friedberg, Mitchell, & Brooke, 2017). It is also beneficial to teach word-learning strategies, such as contextual cues, synonyms, and morphology (Friedberg, Mitchell, & Brooke, 2017; Henry, 2018; NICHD, 2000).

Pragmatics deals with the rules of conversation (e.g., eye contact, taking turns) and the use and interpretation of language in a particular context, wherein "context" refers to the circumstances before and after a particular event. In spoken language, the speaker's tone of voice, facial expressions, gestures, and body language provide cues that the listener can use to determine meaning, which may be non-literal (e.g., sarcasm, metaphors, idioms). These features of spoken language can be imitated in print with dialogue, bolded words, italics, capitalization, and punctuation. When taught systematically, pragmatics facilitates the social use of language, fluent reading, and comprehension; this component is particularly important for English learners, students with deficits in executive function, and students with developmental language disorder (Gordon-Pershey, 2018; Pershey, 1997).

Syntax, which is subsumed under grammar, refers to the order and relationships of words in oral and written sentences, along with the structure of sentences in oral and written language. Because the order of words may impact the meaning of a sentence (i.e., The baby sleeps soundly and The baby soundly sleeps convey the same meaning whereas Dinner is at six conveys a different meaning from Is dinner at six), success with complex texts is dependent on a reader's understanding of sentences with multiple clauses, and particularly of the connective words that signal the relationships of clauses within and across complex sentences (Foorman, Koon, et al., 2015). For example, connective words may signal additional information ( and, also, in addition to), contrasting information (but, although, however), or causal relationships ( because, so, therefore). A reader's knowledge of pronoun references, verb tenses, and subject-verb agreement is predictive of reading comprehension (Foorman, Herrera, Petscher, Mitchell, & Truckenmiller, 2015; Foorman, Koon, et al., 2015); thus, instruction that includes the parts of speech and syntax supports reading comprehension and written composition.​

Discourse refers to the organization of spoken and written communication. Students' proficiency with words, phrases, and text at an oral and listening level predicts reading comprehension (Gough & Tunmer, 1986; Hoover & Gough, 1990). Students learn about written discourse through reading high-quality and engaging books. To support comprehension of written discourse, the National Reading Panel (NICHD, 2000) recommended using multiple strategies proven to be successful in developing metacognitive skills: comprehension monitoring, graphic organizers, question-answering and generation, cooperative learning, story structures, and summarization tasks.

However, because deep meaning of written discourse comes from relating what is being read to what is already known, it is also important to spend instructional time boosting students' background knowledge (Willingham, 2006). Defined as "the prepotent determinant of comprehension" (Adams, 2009, p. 184), knowledge can be increased through explicit instruction and deep reading in multiple domains and about multiple topics (Adams, 2009; Willingham, 2006). The ability to make inferences-which are implied by a text and require students to integrate their knowledge with the information in the text (Cain & Oakhill, 1999)-best differentiates students with good comprehension from students with poor comprehension at all ages (Oakhill & Cain, 2007; Yuill & Oakhill, 1988) and can be taught explicitly.

How we teach reading instruction (i.e., instruction of all the aforementioned components) is characterized by these principles: explicit, systematic, cumulative, diagnostic, and responsive (Birsh & Carreker, 2018; NICHD, 2000). Explicit means that concepts and skills are directly taught and practiced; it should not be assumed that students learn these on their own. Systematic refers to a logically ordered presentation of skills and concepts that progresses from simple to complex, and cumulative indicates that new learning is built on prior learning. Diagnostic and responsive indicate that students' instructional needs and strengths are identified, instruction is designed accordingly, and progress is monitored, with adjustments to or supplements to instruction as needed.

Summary

Learning to read is not a natural act; rather, it requires explicit, systematic, and cumulative instruction that is also diagnostic and responsive. The Science of Reading solidifies an understanding of how language and writing systems work by informing the why, what, and how of effective instruction, both including and going beyond phonics. Although instruction informed by reading science is necessary for all students, it is essential for students who are at risk for reading difficulties due to dyslexia, developmental language disorder, deficits in executive function, status as an English learner, or other factors. Ultimately, instruction that is informed by the Science of Reading is the only proven way to ensure students can become proficient readers and confident learners across the curriculum.

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Trust the Science of Reading to Inform Instruction

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Suzanne Carreker, Ph.D., CALT-QI, Principal Educational Content Lead, Lexia Learning In spite of the fact that we learn to listen and speak without explicit, systematic, and cumulative instruction, it should not be assumed that we learn to read and write in the same manner.

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