“He passed out.”
I knew why he’d been brought here. I searched and found the swirling red mist inside him, and the dark spot of evil black. It had been the size of a pea at the ball. Now it pulsated and was the size of my thumb—and was growing. The king was dying.
*Anna, Help me,* I demanded and hoped she would respond.
*I’m here.*
*Look into the neck of the king with me. The blackness.*
She didn’t argue, ask silly questions, or hesitate. She was inside my mind, so could “see” what I did when I moved to the king. The black was swelling and near his throat, already cutting off the airway.
Elizabeth asked, “Can you do something?”
I waved her off. If the swelling continued, his throat would soon close, and he would suffocate. Before that happened, I’d used my sword to open his throat with a slice of the blade and place my fingers inside to allow him to breathe if necessary. Rational thinking returned as I realized he would choke in his own blood and I’d have killed a king right in front of the Heir Apparent. I’d never survive the day.
Anna said, *Magic is forcing it to grow. The essence was placed there to draw upon by a mage and use the power to increase the size that horrible black thing.*
*What can I do?*
*The essence!* she shouted in my mind as much as if she yelled in my ear in sudden understanding, *Use it! Drain all the power. All of it. Pull the power stored in the essence and use it to lift everything in that room into the air. Suspend it all.*
She was right. I tapped into the essence and felt the power flow from it to me. I spread it out, lifting the bed Elizabeth had slept on, the sofa, a counter near a wall, a chair. Soon, everything in the room was lifted off the floor and the black supply of essence no longer grew.
It didn’t shrink, but I was using an amount equal to what was being forced into it. I fought to think of something that would use more of the magic—and failed.
*You,* Anna whispered fiercely.
*Me?*
*Lift yourself. And the king and anyone else in the room. Make everyone float in the air.*
The idea was preposterous, but so was the floating bed and other furniture. I knew Elizabeth best, and part of my mind took hold of her body and I strained to lift her.
“What’s happening?” she shouted. “What are you doing?”
“I need to drain more power from the essence,” I grunted as she floated a few inches off the floor.
The prince was as amazed as I was, but the black remained the same size. It was as if even more essence was being forced into the king’s neck. I lifted the prince, then the king, and with sweat popping out on my forehead and armpits, started to levitate myself, my mind stretched to the limit of keeping us all in the air, along with the other things.
I couldn’t lift myself. I concentrated harder.
Anna shouted in my head, *Me too. I’m sucking as much of it away as I can.*
My hands shook. Sweat ran. My head was close to exploding.
The blackness winked out of existence.
Everything fell to the floor, we included. The furniture crashed, a leg of the bed broke, and both Elizabeth and the prince grunted in surprise.
The king clutched his throat—and smiled. His eyes were bright and looked at me. “Thank you.”
Demonstrating my ability to always come up with a witty response, I said, “Huh?”
He said, “It closed my throat so I couldn’t talk and barely breathe. You saved my life.”
*And me,* Anna’s voice danced in my mind. *I helped. Tell him that.*
“Have I told you about our friend, my little sister, Anna?”
“No,” the prince said.
Elizabeth laughed.
I said, “We will talk about her tomorrow.” My energy level, now that the emergency was over, failed. Not only was I not floating but falling. The floor rushed to meet me.
When I woke, Elizabeth was beside me in the bed. She woke when I moved and said, “You’ve been asleep all night and all day. It is almost night again.”
“What’s happened?”
“Oh, quite a lot. The king seems fully recovered and has promised me an army, supplies, support, his treasury, and my choice of his sons. If nothing else, that man holds a grudge for people trying to choke him to death.”
“The mages?” I asked.
“Last I heard, four had died, two were being hunted. I mean, literally hunted by dogs and rewards were offered for their heads. The king doesn’t want their bodies attached to collect the reward, he’s that angry.”
“What else?”
“The two generals the prince mentioned are gathering their men and preparing to march.”
“March? To Dagger and Kaon? There is a sea to cross.”
“In the Brownlands on the other side of the sea is a natural harbor with a river. About every boat in this harbor will be sailing there, no matter if it carried ten men or a hundred, then they will make another trip and another.”
“I’ve missed a lot, I guess.”
“There’s more. Landor is ruled by a cousin of Malawi’s king. He has already dispatched two of his sons, one to Landor, and one to Fairbanks. They will send their troops to meet us when we land our men at the Brownlands.”
“Fairbanks doesn’t have an army,” I said.
“Or navy. But it does have fighting men who will go to war to protect their homes.”
My mind was clearing. “How will we ever get all those men to the north of Dagger to meet up with Prince Angle?”
“We won’t. But we can send a group by ship to coordinate the attack on Dagger, Vin, and Trager attack from the north and Fairbanks, Landor, and Malawi attack from the south.”
I was about to tell her I had to sleep again when Anna came to me. *We got here. We’re near the top of a mountain and found the dragon.*
*Will it live?*
*She, not it.* Anna corrected me gleefully. *Will she live? Yes.*
*What is so funny?*
Anna pushed a burst of sparkles and tinkling sounds at me as she said, *She’s sitting.*
*Sitting?*
*On an egg, silly. The last dragon is going to hatch a baby.*
I should have been happy, but the first thing that entered my mind was that the Young Mage would find out and send every mage, Wyvern, every soldier, headhunter, bounty hunter, outlaw, and any man willing to risk his life for a fortune he and his descendants for generations couldn’t spend. He would send kitchen maids, fishermen, carpenters, cobblers, and more to kill the dragon.
They would all head for my sister. Sisters, I corrected.
But they couldn’t arrive before I did. I said to Elizabeth, “Get me on the first boat. Promise me.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
When I awoke again, I was alone. Mentally better, hungry, and alone. A plate of food was on the table, cheese, sliced meat, bread, and fresh water. Enough for two. I ate it all. Since Elizabeth was out doing princess work, I sat on the edge of the bed and closed my eyes because it made mental communicating easier.