Firedrake - By Bianca D'Arc Page 0,69

the castle shortly for reunion with Declan, Arlis and your mother. Oh, and you should know, I turned time to flow naturally once more on this island. You won’t suffer the same effects of crossing my time barrier when you fly away from here. The outside world will not have aged much from when you left it and none of your family, Drake, suffered permanent injury, though it was a close thing.”

“You’d better be telling the truth,” Krysta warned.

“I have no reason to lie. Even if Drake here knew the full extent of his magic and how to wield it, he still could not damage me. He has only an echo of Draco’s power, while I am a wizard.” No conceit filled his words, just simple truth.

For the first time, Drake laughed at the absurdity of it all. There he was, sitting at a wizard’s table, chatting. There weren’t supposed to be any wizards left in the world. They’d all been killed or exiled after the wars they had caused. But now, here was one of the ancient ones, still meddling in the affairs of man. Drake wondered how many others were still out there, quietly plotting. It was a frightening thought.

Everyone was watching him, but Drake couldn’t fight off either the laughter or the fear. Relaxing back in his chair, he reached out for Jenet, the warm, reassuring heat of her grounding him.

“I’m sorry. This all just strikes me as rather odd. The youngster we were sent to retrieve is now a man. I’m suddenly a mage—and a knight—sitting having a chat with a wizard.”

“Put like that,” Krysta said with a rueful chuckle, “it is a bit much.”

Only Mace didn’t smile of those seated around the table.

Chapter Fourteen

There was a bustle at the large doorway and moments later a striking woman entered the hall. She was stripping off her gloves as she approached with a wide smile on her lovely face.

“Ah, they’ve come then. Welcome, all of you!”

Gryffid stood and kissed the lady’s cheek in greeting. “Let me introduce my granddaughter, Gwen. Gwen, this is Krysta, Drake and Mace. The beautiful lady behind Drake is Jenet and I bet you saw Nellin on your way in, didn’t you?”

She smiled brightly. “It’s why I came back early. A strange dragon above Gryphon Isle is a curious sight indeed.”

The men stood and bowed formally to the lady as Krysta watched. The girl was about her age, she judged, with golden-blond hair and an angel’s face. Krysta wanted to hate her for her perfect beauty and the attentiveness of her new mates, but Krysta found she couldn’t. This Gwen seemed to have no idea of her effect on the men and, as Krysta watched carefully, did nothing to encourage it.

Still, the way their eyes followed the other woman’s every move annoyed Krysta. Her toe started tapping in agitation, but other than that, she kept her face schooled to calmness. It wouldn’t do to let them see how jealous she was.

“I was out hawking, but it was growing dark, so I headed for home. Then I saw the dragons in the distance.” The blond beauty walked to the fireplace and the waiting gryphons. She smoothed their neck feathers with obvious fondness as she threw her cloak and gloves over a nearby chair. “We seldom have visitors.” She almost looked sad for a moment, but Krysta decided it must’ve been a trick of the flickering firelight. “I’ll go down to the kitchens and see about dinner. I’m sure the entire keep knows about our visitors by now, of course, but I’ll ask them to serve dinner a bit early. I can see you’re all tired from the crossing.” Her sympathetic gaze alighted on each one of them, ending with Krysta. A little nod of understanding passed between the women, and Krysta suddenly realized the other girl wasn’t totally oblivious to the effect she had on males of the species. Without waiting for comment, Gwen left.

Krysta had seen her kind of magic before. Every few generations, a Jinn woman would be able to channel her magic in such a way as to affect each and every male around her. Most thought it a fable, but Krysta knew from firsthand experience how dangerous a magic it really was.

She’d known just such a girl in her clan. The beauty had every man in the clan panting after her, but they protected her as well. She inspired fierce loyalty in every male she met, but that girl’s selfish