Chapter 50: Too Far

In the early morning of the night before Bram’s party, everything went wrong. Wil and Darlene were woken by a sky shattering screech. In a flash, Wil jumped from his bed, reaching out with his senses. Nothing stood out, but the screech continued.

“What the hell is that?” Darlene asked as she clamped her hands over her ears.

Wil waved his hand and the sound around them lessened in a bubble. “I don’t know, but it sounds like my responsibility. Are you prepared to test out our messaging theory?”

Darlene nodded. “I’ll get dressed and be ready to go to the Embassy at a moment’s notice, which I will do if that piece of yourself you left in me tells me to go. That’s not weird or confusing at all.”

Wil kissed her and threw his clothes on. With his staff in hand, he ran outside and saw the source of the trouble. A massive red and black dragon flew circles over Harper Valley. It screeched and belched flames that lit up the night before it faded to a spark. His gut clenched as he realized that twice in a year he’d have to take on a dragon.

He got on his Thunderhawk and flew towards it. With any luck, maybe he could reason with it and drive it off with a bribe if things went well. Maybe a threat if things didn’t go so well. The more he thought about it, the more confident he was that he could if he needed to, but the question begged, why attack Harper Valley?

Twin lights came from the front of his vehicle and illuminated his path. At first, no one else had been out, but after the dragon screeched its challenge, some people came out of their houses. Most of them ran right back inside, either to hide or to get their families and start running. Wil couldn’t blame them. As he got closer and the dragon larger in his view, fear gnawed at him from the inside out.

Fear didn’t matter. He had a job to do, and he flew straight towards danger, pouring more power into the altered bike to climb higher. It could only reasonably get to about fifty feet in the air, but that would be enough to get a shot in and maybe lure the dragon away. It currently flew above the area around City Hall, but it headed in Wil’s direction.

He flew past a car driving slowly in the direction he had come from. It didn’t bear thinking too much about it. There were about to be many cars and carts fleeing. Wil pushed the Thunderhawk to go as fast as it could, until he was under the dragon, which…huh.

As soon as Wil was beneath the dragon and ready to try to communicate, it changed direction and headed west, letting out another roar that oddly wasn’t any louder despite it being so much closer. Frowning, Wil gave chase.

“Noble dragon, why do you attack my home?” Wil’s voice boomed as he followed.

But the dragon said nothing, it just flew in circles, occasionally roaring and making progress west. Closer to Wil’s house. His eyes widened and he realized exactly where it was going.

Wil slowed to a stop, parking along a dark patch of road. Even with the stars out, he could barely see a foot past his face. It didn’t matter, he didn’t need vision to reach inwards. He did his best to clear his thoughts and fall into himself, on a deeper level that meditation allowed.

Naturally he had his sense of self, but it wasn’t as simple as that. Most of him was right there, but there were two pieces of him off in the distance, left in Isom and Darlene. Isom’s had already been there from when Wil had helped heal his tattered mind after his enslavement, but Darlene’s was only a couple days old.

If she hadn’t been the one to come up with it, he might’ve resisted delving in and connecting with her that deeply, but now he was grateful. Wil reached out to those pieces and focused with all of his being on sending a message. “Run.”

When he came back to himself, only a minute or so had passed. Enough time for the dragon to get closer to his home. Wil fired up the Thunderhawk again and pushed it to its limits. He caught up to the dragon again, which still circled endlessly.

“Dragon, stop this now! Do not make me strike you down. Turn back now or face my wrath!”

Wil was fully prepared for the dragon to take offense at being threatened, but it still kept flying in circles away. “And when I kill you, I’ll take your hoard of treasure as my own!”

Nothing.

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“Godsdammit, it’s not real.” Wil continued after it, but the only things out there other than him was the same car from before, slowly meandering towards his house.

All the pieces clicked into place. He tore away from the dragon and went lower, flying side by side with the car. In the driver’s seat was Mark Marfolk, with Gayle beside him in the passenger’s seat with a big, rune-carved box and a battery that had lost some of its luster. When Mark saw Wil, his eyes widened in terror.

Wil jerked his thumb to the side. Mark pulled over. A second later, the dragon disappeared. Mark rolled the window down, trembling.

“What in the hell are you doing?” Wil asked, though he feared he knew the answer.

“Uh, distracting you,” Mark said with a nervous chuckle. “Please don’t hurt us.”

“Was this McGinnis’ idea?” Wil asked.

Gayle nodded solemnly.

Wil nodded. “Give me one good reason to not feed you to my cat.”

“Um.”

Wil smiled. “Nope, too late. If you’re not out of the Le Guin Basin by dawn, I’m going to send him after you. Get the hell out of here.”

“Yes, Master McKenzie, thank you,” Mark squeaked. With a squeal, the car took off down the dark road, taking with it the only other source of light. Wil let them go. They were small fry.

He flew to Bram’s farm, occasionally shouting out a magically enhanced message that the dragon was defeated. Later on, he’d set everyone straight. Maybe it would’ve been smarter to demand Mark and Gayle turn themselves in, but he would settle for their absence. If it was only Thomas and McGinnis, he could deal with them both without much of a problem.

He’d made it about halfway to the farm when another sound broke up the silent tension. An explosion with a bright flash of fire appeared in the distance. Wil’s heart jumped up into his throat.

The distance melted in a blur as Wil’s thoughts fled him save for one: Bram had better be okay. The thought cried in his mind, louder and louder, as he spotted his friend’s house in the distance.

Or what was left of it.

The roof and back half of the house was gone, and on fire. The flames raged on when he got closer and saw with great relief that Bram was outside, and okay. Physically, at least. By the time Wil pulled up aside him, Bram fell to his knees sobbing. His face was covered in scratches and soot, but nothing serious. One of the lenses of his glasses had fallen out. Wil supposed he was lucky it didn’t shatter in his eye.

“Why?” Bram whispered. “Why? Oh gods, the flowers. Mom!” He pointed at the disturbed flowerbed, and the flames edged closer by the second.

“I’ve got this,” said Wil, almost too quiet to be heard. He retrieved the staff from its compartment and spun it in loose circles, tightening as they sped up. There was no need to formalize a spell for so simple a working. Wil summoned the wind and dipped it in the lake. He directed the small waterspout towards the house, letting it crash against the fire.

It hissed as water and wind smothered the flames. There was no saving the house, but at the very least, the fire wouldn’t spread. The flowerbed where Addie Stevenson rested was saved. Wil put his hand on Bram’s shoulder and watched the last remnants of the fire fade to nothing.

Bram continued to cry, and Wil let him. He had tears of his own streaming down his cheeks, but it wasn’t his home. The home they worked hard together to save and renovate. The home Bram had spent days and hours working to upgrade and alter for their experiments.

“When the dragon came, I ran out,” Bram finally said, voice raw. “I ran out and then wondered how the hell I could deal with it.”

“It wasn’t real,” said Wil. “It was an illusion by those assholes from Cloverton. They were distracting me.”

Bram inhaled sharply. He stood, a storm brewing on his face. “Them? They distracted you…for this?”

Wil swallowed hard and looked at the ruined house. Only the front wall remained standing, and even that was a stretch in places. “It looks like it. This is my fault, Bram.”

“No.” Bram shook his head.

“It was. I went and picked a fight. I threatened them. And then they came after us. After you.” Wil focused on regulating his breathing, but it was like a massive hand grabbed him by the chest and squeezed until his soul hurt.

“Let’s…I need to see.” Bram walked around the side of the house, and Wil followed.

Whatever had happened, and Wil was going to find out specifically, it had completely blow half the house to pieces, all the way down to the cellar. Their new garage was also in a million tiny pieces, with broken faricite scattered about the ground. Wil groaned.

“The faricite,” he whispered. “How much of it was in the cellar?”

“Half.” Bram wiped at his eyes again. His breath came faster. “You think that’s what happened?”

“I’d stake my life on it,” said Wil. “Thomas’ friend McGinnis came here to intimidate us and maybe destroy our work, and he hit the faricite. The faricite went, and so did…”

Bram swallowed hard. He was close to hyperventilating at this point. “I’m going to kill him. I’m going to kill him!”

Wil didn’t ask which one he meant. It didn’t matter, he felt the same way. “We need to be smart about this,” he said. “They went too far. We’ll talk to my dad, and we’ll go after them. I promise.”

“Wil…” Bram wiped his eyes and looked at him in horror. “Our projects. They were almost all down there.”

As one, they peered into the smoking crater where the cellar had been.

“I think that ship’s sailed,” said Wil. “We don’t have anything to show Cloverton.”