Page 5 of Guardian's Dilemma

Chapter 2: Kingsley

The magic in Lower Dipton was strange. Normally, magic layers up around people in certain ways, from generations of witches and other creatures like gargoyles who could cast spells. They leave an impression, in a small way, and someone who could sense magic – like me – would feel it like a low-level hum.

However, there was an area in the village that had no spells in it at all. It was as though they had been stripped away. That made me suspicious. I considered that it was the presence of the troll which was causing it but there had been magic in the café while he was there. That’s what had drawn me there in the first place.

So it was something else.

Something weird going on around here.

I wanted to find out more. Partly, it was curiosity. Anything out of the ordinary made me want to look harder. I’d always been that way and it had been the main criticism I’d received from the Council over and over again. It had taken me a long time to learn not to ask questions.

Partly, though, it was my job. I was here on reconnaissance and my team – Leonard’s team – needed to know as much as possible to give them the greatest chance of success. Any surprises would put them at a disadvantage and I’d already lost two brothers to dragons. I didn’t want to lose more.

It meant I walked the village a few times, drawing some strange looks from the occasional passer-by. Then I headed further afield.

I was looking for any signs of dragon habitation: any spells I could detect, any markings it had left, any signs of trauma… I saw nothing.

Eventually, I got in my car and began to drive around. It was likely that the dragon didn’t actually live in the village or, if it did, it had another lair somewhere else. Dragons often kept separate places they could guard where they stored their treasure. I’d never actually seen inside a dragon’s lair because the ones I’d helped to hunt were loners. They tended to be the ones that had been excluded from their clans. Outcasts. Even other dragons didn’t want them.

Just as I was starting to think it was futile, I got a prickling sensation along my arm and I looked out of the open window to see what could have caused it. At first, I couldn’t identify anything out of the ordinary but I was definitely sensing magic, so I looked harder.

I was driving a country lane which was only just big enough for my car and I dread to think what would happen if I met another car coming the other way. I drove on until I found a place to turn around – the gateway to a field – and then I drove back. This time, I got the prickling sensation on the other arm.

Brilliant. Now I had a direction.

With the way the lanes cut through the fields, it was hard to navigate around and Google maps and even my old road map didn’t do any good. Half of the tracks I could see in front of me weren’t even marked on there, and I knew it wasn’t because they were too new. These roads had been here for years – generations even – and nobody had put them on a map? The dragons had concealed them. I was starting to get somewhere.

The lack of reliable maps meant I was navigating by a bit of guess-work and the feeling of magic nearby. The closer I got, the more certain I was that it was dragon magic. I got the same sick feeling I normally got when I was around one of the monsters.

As I drove nearer, I had to zig-zag towards the place where the magic was emanating from because none of the roads led to it directly. The closer I got, the more certain I became. This wasn’t the magic from one lone dragon, this was several dragons. I couldn’t tell how many yet but there were different layers to the spells, suggesting a few of them had been doing the same thing.

That old woman who reported a lone dragon in the village hadn’t known what she was on about: this was a whole clan.

Finally, I stopped my car and got out. The way the magic radiated out at me was almost buffeting me backwards. It was strong. The strongest I’d ever encountered.

I felt a thrill of excitement and anticipation and pride: I’d found a dragon clan’s territory.

There was no doubt about it, this was a whole clan. The spells were hundreds of years old and had the blended feeling of lots of magic working together. I’d need to report this. My whole coven would need to come out and work together to eliminate this threat, not just one team.

The sheer number of spells around the place told me two significant things: the first was that we were dealing withuasaldragons; the second was that this territory was old and somehow the Council had missed it, sitting right there, for hundreds of years.

Well, no longer.

Standing in front of the barrier of magic, I decided I’d check it out and then report in. I’d need to be able to tell the Council as much as I could about the place: a rough estimate of the size of the territory so we’d know how much ground we had to cover and where the dragons could be situated, as well as perhaps estimate the number of dragons cowering inside.

The more I could find out, the better prepared we’d be for the attack.

I began to strip off my business suit. Out here, in the middle of nowhere, I didn’t need to pass as an ordinary person any longer, and my clothes would be too restrictive once I started fighting. Underneath, I wore the same black armour that allridirewore. We were presented with it when we graduated our training and each piece was incredibly valuable, retaining magic and dense with protections.

Mine was nearly five years old. Although I was thirty-one,ridiretraining was intense and rigorous and we had to prove ourselves on countless missions before we were deemed ready to become a trueridire. I was considered to be a baby among the otherridireand, I had to admit, a little hot ember of pride burned inside me at the prospect of delivering a whole clan of dragons to the Council. A territory like this hadn’t been found in over fifty years and I was the first to find it.

I spread my hand across the hard plate of my chest and drew another protection over my head and one over my neck. Just in case.

I took a drink of water, grabbed my essential tools and then set out. I’d circle the territory and report back with all the information I could gather.

At least, that was the plan.

When I’d been walking for an hour already, I began to realise that this territory was big. Not just big but huge. It was miles long, at least, and a little niggle of worry formed in my mind that there was more here than I realised. A clan that could defend such a territory from other avaricious dragons wouldn’t be a pushover.

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