Page 6 of Guardian's Dilemma

Instead of circling the whole thing, I actually slowed down. I looked harder. I’d need to establish exactly what kind of magic was at work here.

There were a few different layers, all twining round each other. Even the old spells were strong and buried deep inside the earth but they were mostly warding people away; they were misdirections and wariness, not actual barriers. Anyone who could get as close as I was now – someone with magic – wouldn’t be kept out by such party tricks.

One layer was unlike all the others, though.

As I studied it, I saw it more and more clearly. The rest of the spells were dark and murky – using the tainted magic of the dragons – but this one was a soft orange-yellow colour that looked like the rays of a sunset were catching it and lighting it up.

I couldn’t work out what could have laid such spells around the place. It wasn’t a dragon’s magic, that was certain. Dragon magic didn’t look like that. It didn’t feel like that. My whole body was prickling with goosebumps at the presence of dark magic but I didn’t react at all to the orange-yellow layer.

Perhaps it had been a witch who laid that protection? Or a gargoyle or a sprite or something. I’d have to see them in order to identify the same type of magic. All I knew was: this wasn’t magic like the rest.

And – to my delight – it wasn’t as good, either.

The orange-yellow sunset spells were the most abundant, the ones that covered most ground. They stretched high above the earth – higher than I could see and probably they curved right over the territory in a dome – and they dug down, down into the earth below me.

But they were weak.

I could hardly believe my luck.

Those spells were breakable.

Slowly, not quite sure what I’d feel once I pressed them, I reached out a hand. The spells tingled over my skin but not in the usual way a dragon’s magic did. It didn’t sting or make me want to throw up. It felt soft and warm, the last sunlight on a summer’s day warming my skin.

As I pushed, I realised that I wasn’t actually breaking those defences. I was just moving through them. The spells were intact but my hand went straight through them.

Warning spells, rather than defensive?

I didn’t think they were.

My whole arm was through and I stepped after it, entering the dragons’ territory. I was in. Inside their boundaries. And it had been so easy.

Excitement struck through me, piercing my stomach and making my heart beat faster. I was in and I was going to find those dragons. I’d kill them. I’d rid the world of their evil.

Chapter 3: Glimmer

It was just like any other day at first. I didn’t have any reason to think there was anything out of the ordinary. Until I felt something press against the spells I had layered up around our territory.

I froze, concentrating on that feeling. It was… unusual.

I’d felt the hard press of someone trying to break in before. My dragon had always reared up at that feeling, already snarling and ready to fight. This wasn’t the same, though. It wasn’t as sharp, didn’t hurt. The magic I’d left all over the place didn’t rebel against their presence.

Whatever it was, my dragon didn’t identify it as an instant threat. So maybe it was a rabbit or a badger or something, snuffling around in the undergrowth.

Or maybe not.

I wasn’t here to shrug my shoulders and think ‘ah well, it’s probably nothing’. I was here to protect our clan. That was my duty.

As I stood and paced through the vaults, I tried to identify the presence, but couldn’t. It was something I had never felt before.

At least I could pinpoint where it was, and it wasn’t too far from here. I’d shift and fly over there to check it out.

I was barely outside when I changed my mind, though. I would just do a small detour. Whatever was pressing at the boundary wasn’t attacking it like normal because I’d have been able to identify that in an instant. I’d had to kill before, when someone thought they could break into Somerville territory. Two dragons had tried it, a couple of years ago, two dragons who’d heard that we had treasure and we were weak. They’d been right about our treasure. Wrong about me being weak.

Whatever this was, it wasn’t trying to break my protections or tear them down.

Maybe it was something dangerous, maybe it wasn’t. But my first priority was my treasure. I knew that Alfie often snuck out in the early morning to visit the woods near the boundary. Lord Somerville had forbidden him from going there again since he’d been shot – it was too near the boundary and someone had managed to sight him from outside, without disturbing the protections we’d laid down.

He still went there, though. Nobody but me knew. Before I did anything, I just needed to check he wasn’t there.

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