Marci did. Trouble was, Emily and Raven’s goals weren’t hers. They were fighting for the bigger picture and the lofty ideals. Marci was just a human mage watching the dragon who’d saved her life more times than she could count drown because of her. Drowning for nothing, too, she realized, because even if she agreed to work for Algonquin, the spirit couldn’t actually make her do what she wanted. If the road to being a Merlin really was through her spirit like she thought, then there was nothing Algonquin could do to force her to take it. No matter what happened, Marci’s magic was her own, and once Julius was free, she wouldn’t have to obey a word.
And we can always escape again,the Empty Wind reminded her smugly.Algonquin won’t keep us for more than a day.
Now that was a plan Marci could get behind, and she turned back to Algonquin. “If I agree, do you swear to let Julius and everyone else here leave the DFZ alive and unharmed?”
“Don’t do it!” Emily yelled.
“Of course,” the Lady of the Lakes said over her. “You think one more whelp matters to me? Surrender, and your little dragon will be free to scurry home until the next time he’s stupid enough to enter my lands.”
Marci nodded, putting out her empty hands. “Then I surrender.”
“No!” Emily roared, startling Raven off her shoulder. “Think about what you’re doing! You’re betraying your entire race for adragon!”
“I’m not betraying my race,” Marci said angrily. “I’m saving my friend.” That word was nowhere near enough to describe what Julius was to her, but Marci didn’t have time to think of a better one. Especially since Julius was still drowning. “I said I surrender!” she yelled at Algonquin. “Release him!”
“I never go back on my word,” Algonquin said, her watery voice insulted. “But first, a little insurance.”
She nodded toward the UN team, and the Leviathan obeyed, sending tentacles out to coil around Emily and Myron as well, binding their arms and legs before dragging them both to the ground. Myron went down peacefully, but General Jackson fought the whole way, catching the black appendage with both her arms and stopping the monster cold.
Another time, that show of strength would have made Marci gasp. She’d yet to see anything that could even faze the Leviathan, much less stop it. Now, though, she didn’t even have time to care. She only watched the general’s fight long enough to make sure Emily wasn’t actually going to break free before she turned back to Algonquin. “Okay, you’ve got them,” she said, eyes locked on Julius, who’d stopped struggling. “Now let himgo.”
“As my Merlin commands,” Algonquin said, waving her hand. The watery prison burst as her fingers passed over it, and Julius spilled out onto the grass, coughing up lungfuls of water before he took the most beautiful breath Marci had ever heard.
“He’s alive,” she said, almost falling to her knees. “He’salive.”
“For now,” Algonquin said coldly. “But if you want him to stay that way, you’ll have to keep your end.” She raised her hand to beckon Marci over. “Come. We have much work to do to repair the damage you caused.”
Marci took a step then paused. “What about her?” she asked, looking at Chelsie, who was still trapped inside her own unbreakable bubble. “I said everyone.”
The spirit shook her head. “Bethesda’s Shade is a dangerous, treacherous snake. I’m afraid I can’t set her free until you’re safely with me, so if you don’t want her to drown and be added to my pile, you’d better hurry.” She snapped her fingers and pointed to the ground beside her. “Come.”
The indignity of being commanded like a dog hit Marci hard, but she was the one who’d signed up for this, so she went, walking across the muddy, bloody grass until she was standing where she’d been told at Algonquin’s side.
“Don’t listen to her!” Emily yelled, her voice strained from her ongoing fight with the Leviathan. “It’s not too late. Run, Marci! You can’t—”
“Shut her up,” Algonquin growled, jerking her head at the Leviathan. The monster obeyed instantly, adding three more tentacles to the pile it was using to force Emily to the ground. This proved to be too much even for the general. She went down with a crunch, sinking out of sight into the mud beneath the weight of the Leviathan’s glistening, eel-like flesh.
“Much better,” Algonquin said, turning back to Marci. “Let’s go.”
“Wait,” she said, looking at Julius, who was still catching his breath on the muddy grass in front of them. “Can I at least say good-bye?”
“No,” Algonquin said crisply. “You’ve proven too untrustworthy to be allowed niceties, and I’ve had about as much human sentimentality as I can stomach for one day.” She crooked her finger, and the Leviathan pulled one of the tentacles off the pile it was using to crush Emily and lowered it to the ground beside Marci. “Get on.”
As before, just touching the monster’s slimy appendage made her queasy, but Marci’s eternally plotting mind was already going double time. She knew the meeker she played it now, the better her chances for escape would be later, and so she lowered her eyes and played the conquered human to the hilt, grabbing onto the offered tentacle like obeying Algonquin was the only thing she had left to live for. She was twisting her head to sneak one last look at Julius when a thunderingcrackrang out through the crisp morning air.
It was a sound Marci had heard only twice before, but the thunderclap of General Emily Jackson’s incredible magical cannon wasn’t something you forgot. Sure enough, when she looked up, the general had wrestled her arm out of the Leviathan’s grasp, her glove smoking from the laser-like shot that had just fired from the magical markings on her metal palm. It happened so suddenly, Marci actually had the time to wonder what General Jackson had shot before she saw the wisp of smoke rising from her own chest.
“Marci!”
Julius’s frantic scream sounded very far away. Everything felt like that as she looked down to see the perfectly round, still-smoldering hole Emily’s attack had burned right through the center of her body.
Thanks to the instant cauterization, realizing what had just happened hurt more than the actual shot. Marci hadn’t known the general well, but she’d been certain Emily was on her side. Fatal mistake, apparently. Fortunately, the sting of betrayal was as distant and hazy as everything else as Marci toppled off the Leviathan into the mud. She was enjoying being able to lie flat when Julius’s frantic face appeared above her, his soaked hair dripping cold lake water onto her forehead as he screamed at her to hold on. To stay with him.
Oddly, it was his fear, not her own, that finally kicked her into action. Everything still felt detached and far away, but the moment Marci realized she was going to die in Julius’s arms, she decided to start caring. She forced her mouth open, forced herself to breathe, as much as she could, anyway, with burning holes in her lungs. She even pulled in magic because she’d read on the Internet once that simply holding magic could preserve a mage’s life. There were numerous practical reasons why that wouldn’t make a lick of difference, of course, but she did it anyway, clinging to life in every way she could think of while Julius worked on her wound, tearing off his shirt and pressing it into her chest in a desperate effort to staunch her wound.
Lying flat on her back, Marci couldn’t see how that was going. From the look on his face, though, her guess was not good. As he grew more and more desperate, Marci began to finally understand that she was dying.Actuallydying. For real.
Marci!
