That was enough to make even Ghost wake up, but Marci was still having a hard time wrapping her head around what Amelia was saying. Mostly because it was way too good to be true. “What’s the catch?”
The dragoness shook her head. “There is no catch. I’m askingyouto domea favor, remember? And while obviously I can’t let you useallmy magic and suck my life fire down to nothing, anything it generates up to that point is yours to use as you see fit. Think of it as me paying rent for taking up space in your body. The only drawback is that you’ll probably smell a bit like a dragon, but we smell pretty awesome, so that’s actually a plus when you think about it.”
Marci bit her lip. Itstillsounded too good to be true, but the prospect of having her own private, reliable source of high-quality dragon magic that didn’t require vamping off Julius was worth taking a pretty big risk for. “Would it make me a target of your enemies?”
“Now that I’m no longer Bethesda’s heir, my biggest enemy is sitting right here,” Amelia said, nodding at Svena. “So I suppose you’d have to ask her. Really, though, we both know she’s not going to do—or say—anything about it.”
“What makes you so confident?” Svena asked coldly.
“Because you’re too busy cooking eggs right now to challenge me,” Amelia said confidently. “And since there’s no way you’d tell anyone else what’s going on lest they exploit my weakness before you get the chance, I’d say my secret’s safe.”
The White Witch didn’t dignify that with a response, and Amelia turned back to Marci. “See? No problem. So what do you say? Do we have a deal?”
“You seem pretty eager to do this,” Marci said nervously. “Is there something else I should know? Are we about to be attacked or something?”
“So suspicious!” Amelia said with a laugh. “That’s healthy, though, and it’s exactly the sort of behavior I want in someone who’s going to be keeping my flame. But since this is a matter of trust, I’m going to level with you.”
She leaned forward on her chair, her face going serious as she lowered herself down until she was eye to eye with the much shorter mortal.
“I need to get this settled,” she said quietly. “Now that I don’t have to worry about Bethesda trying to off me in my sleep, a lot of power plays I’ve kept on the back burner for centuries are finally coming into position, and I have you and Julius to thank for that. But confident as I am in my schemes, I’m not stupid or cocky enough to try anything this big without taking out a little insurance, and you’re the best I’ve got. If you say no, my only other option is to stash part of my life fire inside some other kind of holding vessel, and we all know how things end for dragons who keep their souls inside gems.” She shuddered at the thought. “I’d much rather trust it to a friend.”
Against her better judgment, that made Marci smile. She knew better than to trust Amelia blindly, but other than Julius, she was the only dragon Marci felt she could truly call her friend. She was also showing Marci a great deal of faith by even explaining this, which was not to be taken lightly. If there was anything she’d learned over the last few days, it was that trust was the rarest and greatest currency among dragons. If Amelia was trusting her to take care of her fire, Marci wanted to honor that.
And get free magic,Ghost added.
Marci rolled her eyes. Trust a cat to wake up for food.
Actually, I woke up a while ago,the spirit whispered in her mind.I’m not letting you face two dragons alone. But this is a good deal. The magic at this mountain is thin and unreliable. If a dragon attacked us, I’m not sure you could pull in enough to defend yourself, and I can barely stay awake. If we had Amelia’s fire, though, we could take on anything.
And he would have a guaranteed food supply.
Who wouldn’t want to eat? The magic here is barely worth the name.
He had a point there. “Okay,” she said, biting her lip so she wouldn’t look too eager. “I’m in.”
“Just like that?” Amelia asked, clearly surprised. “Not that I’m complaining, but I’m asking for a pretty huge favor here. I thought your whole philosophy was that when you’ve got someone over a barrel, you shake?”
“It is,” Marci said. “But I’m already coming out of this pretty sweet, and I try not to rip off my friends too badly.”
Amelia laughed out loud at that, banishing the fire from her hand before holding it out to Marci. “Ready to make history, then?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Marci said nervously as they shook on it. “How’s this going to work, exactly?”
“I’m not sure, to be honest,” Amelia said, looking over her shoulder. “Svena’s the one who will actually be splitting my flame. She’s the detailed, technical expert. I just do the flashy stuff.”
“At least you admit it,” Svena sniffed, turning up her nose. Marci, however, was starting to feel decidedly less good about this whole idea.
“Are you sure she’s the best choice?” she whispered, looking sideways at the white dragon. “She’s not exactly…you know…”
“Trustworthy?” Amelia finished with a laugh. “Absolutely not. But this whole idea stemmed off of her theory, and there’s no way she’ll pass up a chance to actually try it out without risking her own fire. Besides, I don’t really have a choice. Now that the Three Sisters have bitten the dust, Svena and I are the only dragons left who can handle magic this complicated, and it’s not like I can perform surgery on myself.”
“You’d be unqualified to perform it on anyone,” Svena said haughtily. “You might be unmatched when it comes to brute force, Planeswalker, but this ismyarea of expertise, not yours. I saw the absolute mess of a seal you put on your mother.”
“That wasn’t my fault!” Amelia cried. “Estella had me chained!”
“But it was still your skill,” Svena argued. “Or lack thereof.” She stepped forward to stand between Amelia and Marci, motioning for them to get up as well. Amelia did so at once, popping off her chair like a cork. Marci rose more slowly, keeping her guard up, and the white dragoness sighed.
“Relax,” she ordered. “Unlike the drunken red terror,Ihave dignity. I would never stoop to attacking an opponent who couldn’t fight back.” Her face broke into the most excited smile Marci had ever seen on the normally stoic dragoness. “Especially not when I can use her as a guinea pig instead.”
