Jax narrowed his eyes in concentration. He could remember the solid feeling of land under his back, then a quiet voice from somewhere above his head, then…
A mouth.
On his.
He grinned. He wasn’t delusional enough to think that it had been anything but rescue breathing, given the circumstances. But still.
She had practically kissed him.
“She’s not home.” Dmitri’s voice interrupted his revelations. “She must be out in one or another of the enclosures. I would offer to let you wait for her, but I don’t know that I trust you to be alone.”
Jax looked around, spotting a small flock of swans floating on the surface of the lake. One of them broke off from the groupand approached the shore near where they were standing. “I can stay with the birds,” he offered.
Dmitri crossed his arms as he considered, looking from Jax to the swans and back again. “If you try to catch them, Odessa will feed you to the lions.”
He held up a solemn hand of promise. “As I have not been contracted to do any Bird Catching, I consider myself to be on holiday and will therefore engage in no bird seizing activities.”
“Fine.” Dmitri let out a long exhale through his nose. “I have some tasks that I need to take care of before the day is over. I’ll come back once I’ve finished.”
After several more reassurances of Jax’s intentions to stay out of mischief, Dmitri finally took his leave. Jax watched him leave, then wandered across the sandy ground to sit at the water’s edge. The swan he had noticed before was floating just out of arm’s reach, eyeing him cautiously. He smiled.
“Hello, friend. Don’t mind me. I’m just here for the view while I wait.”
The swan stared at him for a few moments, then swam away.
Jax chuckled, then closed his eyes. Though the sun was warm on his face, the cool breeze that ruffled his hair and danced over his cheeks kept it from becoming unpleasantly hot. The trilling chirps and sweet songs of the jays and larks in the trees beyond called to his soul, and before he fully realized what he was doing, Jax was once again reaching for his magical senses. This time, he sat with the discordant sounds, realizing that the longer he listened, the more sense they made to his ears. The music was different, but the songs still seemed to perform the same functions.
He sifted through the strange sounds, searching for the familiar dragon song. It was faint, but unmistakably there. He opened his eyes and looked up, realizing that the whole flock of swans had gathered near while he had been distracted.
“I don’t suppose you could tell me if you’ve seen a leather satchel lying about? It’s about this big.” He held out his hands. “And has a golden egg inside?”
The birds ignored him, and Jax rose and stretched. “I hope you won’t mind if I take a look around? I promise I’ll stay out of your way. Just let me know if you happen to see a satchel. Or a?—”
He froze as the fiery music he had been searching for suddenly flooded his mind, reverberating so loudly in his head that he instinctively covered his ears, as if the sound were coming from outside. He forced the magic down to a more manageable volume as he spun around, his eyes frantically searching every corner and every shadow.
“Dragon.”
Chapter Six
ODESSA
A few hours earlier…
Someone was burning the Menagerie.
At least, those were the words that raced through Odessa’s mind as she jolted awake to the acrid scent of smoke in her nostrils. She jumped away from the walls of her cottage, where she had eventually settled in the late hours of the morning after recalling that she had left the stranger’s bag sitting on her doorstep before her transformation. As a swan, she was unable to open the door and toss the bag inside, and rather than leaving it lying out where Boris might come across it, she had dragged it by the leather straps into the grass behind her.
It took her a moment to realize that the smoke was coming not from the Menagerie or the cottage, but from the bag itself. Tendrils of dark grey curled and twisted as they rose lazily from inside.
The house isn’t burning yet, but it will be if the grass catches fire.
Odessa snatched up the straps and pulled the bag out from the grass and onto the hard dirt, then used her beak and teeth to tip it bottom-end up so that the contents would spill out. A golden egg rolled down the path, wobbling side to side, and slowly came to a stop. Large cracks ran along its surface, and the smoke was coming from a tiny hole near the narrower end of the egg.
What in Kovskia is that?
She edged closer, craning her long neck to try to get a better look. The smoke stopped, and she leaned over the dark hole, then jumped backwards with a startled honk as the space was suddenly filled by a sparkling, sapphire eye. The vertical reptilian pupil searched around for a fraction of a second before latching onto her. Odessa held her breath, unable to look away.
The eye blinked once and disappeared, only to be replaced by a black snout edged with tiny teeth that gnawed on the edges of the shell. Little claws poked out as well, scrabbling and tearing away at the golden prison. Finally, with a satisfied chirp, the creature climbed out, pushing away the remaining bits of shell, and blinked its wide blue eyes at her.
