“I don’t,” Amelia said, nodding at her brother. “But, apparently, he does. But that’s all water under the bridge now, right?”
Marci looked at Julius, who smiled. “I can only speak for myself, but I bear no grudge against Amelia, and I’m always happy to have a friend.”
“Spoken like a true Julius,” Marci said with a sigh. “Fine, I’m in too, but I still want access to your libraryandI want you to tell me everything you know about Mortal Spirits.” She smiled sweetly. “No secrets between friends, right?”
Amelia laughed. “Eyes on the prize as always. IknewI liked you.” She emptied the last of the tacos into her mouth and crumpled the bag, tossing it into the trashcan across the room for a perfect three-point-shot before offering her hand to Marci. “You’ve got a deal, but it’ll have to wait. It’s almost noon already, which means we’ve only got seven hours and change before sunset.”
Marci’s expression turned grim as she shook the dragon’s hand. “So what do we do now? We’ve already determined that breaking my curse is impossible, and you’re too injured to fight. What options do we have left?”
“The obvious one,” Julius said solemnly. “We go and face him.”
They both whirled around to stare at him. “But,” Marci said at last. “Isn’t that exactly what you’ve been saying weshouldn’tdo?”
“It is,” he said, nodding. “But the situation’s changed. Vann Jeger has another hostage now: Justin.”
Marci’s eyebrows shot up in alarm. “How didthathappen?”
Julius looked back down at his food. Marci’s opinion of Justin was bad enough without hearing about how his brother had charged into Reclamation Land rather than let Amelia hog the glory of defeating Vann Jeger. Her question deserved an answer, though, so he stuck to the best possible interpretation of events. “He tried to get the jump on Vann Jeger and got caught.”
“And your family isn’t up in arms to save him?” she asked, confused. “I thought he was a big deal in Heartstriker?”
“No one’s a big enough deal for Bethesda to inconvenience herself,” Amelia said bitterly.
“Mother doesn’t think he’s worth the risk of running an assault on Algonquin,” Julius explained. “Shedidoffer to save him, but only if I told her where Amelia was, which I wasn’t willing to do.”
“Wow,” Marci said. “No wonder you told her to go jump in a lake. Good job, Julius.”
Julius stared at her in wonder. After so many years of being told everything he valued was wrong and weak, it was hard to wrap his head around how much it meant to him that Marci thought he’d made the right decision. He wanted to stop there and just enjoy the feeling, but time was ticking down, so he forced himself to move on.
“Strategically, the rescue angle makes things more complicated,” he said quickly, clearing his throat against the sudden tightness. “Mother said he’s still alive, but I can’t imagine Algonquin will let him stay that way once she realizes Bethesda isn’t going to bargain. If we’re going to have a chance at saving him, it has to be tonight.”
“But how?” Marci asked. “He’s Algonquin’s prisoner, right? It’s not like Vann Jeger’s going to show up to the fight with a captured dragon in tow. How will fighting him change Justin’s situation?”
“Because that’s how we get leverage,” Julius replied. “Algonquin’s only keeping Justin alive to wring concessions out of Bethesda. Concessions we already know she’s not going to give. The second Algonquin realizes this, Justin’s toast, so if we want to keep him alive past that point, we have to figure out a way to give his life value beyond his status as a Heartstriker. The easiest way to do that is to have something to trade for him. Something Algonquin wants more than killing a dragon.”
“And it just so happens that her most prized hunter is headed right for us,” Amelia finished with a bloodthirsty smile. “Not bad, Baby-J. Not bad.”
“Hold up,” Marci said. “Maybe I’m not following, but it sounds an awful lot like your plan is to defeat Vann Jeger and ransom him back to Algonquin in exchange for Justin?”
Julius nodded. “That’s exactly my plan. Vann Jeger’s a spirit, which means he can’t technically be killed, but hecanbe defeated. It’s like Justin said earlier: Vann Jeger might be strong, but he’s also a long way from home. Whatever he’s using for power here, it’s not his actual domain, which means there has to be a limit. If we can make him use up his local reserve, he’ll have no choice but to flee back to his fjord in Norway.” He glanced at his sister. “How long do you think it would take Vann Jeger to recover if we forced him to retreat?”
“For a spirit his size?” Amelia pursed her lips, doing the math in her head. “Five years, minimum. Realistically, probably more like ten to get back up to full power after a total defeat.”
That was even better than Julius had hoped. “There’s no way Algonquin wants to be without her dragon hunter for ten years,” he said excitedly. “Thathasto be more valuable than Justin! If we can just find a way of making Vann Jeger use up all his local magic, but stop just short of actually forcing him to retreat, we can barter his continued usefulness in the DFZ for my brother’s lifeandget the curse off Marci’s neck in the process. It’s a win-win!”
“That’s a pretty bigif,” Amelia said. “Not to rain on your parade, but how are you planning on making Vann Jeger fight that hard? You’re not exactly a combat powerhouse, and he’s clearly not lacking for magic here in the city. What are you going to do to him that’ll make him go so ballistic, he’ll have to run home for a refill?”
“I haven’t actually worked that part out yet,” Julius admitted sheepishly. “How wereyougoing to defeat him?”
Now it was Amelia’s turn to look sheepish. “I wasn’t, actually.”
Marci and Julius gasped in unison. “What?”
“I didn’t get to this age by being stupid!” Amelia said defensively. “It’s called fighting smarter, not harder. My plan was to show up, stall until I was sure the Sword of Damocles was off Marci’s neck, and then bail through a portal. I would have solved everyone’s problems and kept all my promises without risking a hair on my head.”
Julius scowled. It wasn’t that Amelia’s strategy was bad, but he didn’t appreciate how easy his sister had made defeating Vann Jeger sound, especially since she hadn’t actually been planning totry.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Amelia grumbled. “Vann Jeger’s called the Death of Dragons for a reason. He’s not the sort of fight I can just waltz through, and I’ve found my long term survival strategy works best if I avoid direct confrontations with dudes who can kill me.”
