James Maxey - Dragonseed

She tossed her shotgun to Shay. "This will only slow me down." She took off running, darting down the alley that led behind the tavern. She looked up as a shadow flickered overhead-Vulpine? -but it was only the smoke blotting out the moon. She tripped as she reached the back of the ally, landing hard, skidding in the dirt. Lizard's weight on her shoulder vanished as he flew off. A darker shadow fell over her. The hairs on the back of her neck rose at the metallic clank to her right. From the corner of her eye, she saw the thick, scaly foot of an adult earth-dragon.

She rolled as the earth-dragon grunted. A battle-axe bit into the earth where she'd been an instant before. The earth-dragon was dressed in full battle gear, breast plate, helmet, shield.

"Bad boss!" shrieked Lizard, sounding terrified.

The earth-dragon growled as he pulled the axe free of the cold ground, brandishing it above his head to strike again. Jandra kept her eyes fixed on her attacker. As he swung, she rolled again, to the side of the blow. Earth-dragons were strong, but not especially fast, definitely not under a full load of armor. Jandra braced her back against the ground and kicked up with both feet, targeting the dragon's elbow. Her feet connected with a satisfying crunch and the dragon hissed as its talon released the axe handle. The beast staggered back, pain flashing in its eyes. Just as quickly, the pain turned to rage. The dragon dropped his shield and lunged, his free talon aimed at Jandra's face. Jandra again rolled away, using her momentum to spring to her feet as the earth-dragon landed with a clatter on the spot where she'd been.

She leapt over his body before he could rise, grabbing the axe buried in the ground. The weapon was impractically heavy, probably fifty pounds. Before the genie tuned her body, there was no way she could have swung it. She spun around, letting momentum add to the strength of her swing. The dragon was raising his head as she sunk the axe into the back of his neck, just below the helmet. The force of the blow tore the weapon from her hand. She looked down, wincing at the large black splinter buried in her palm.

The dragon collapsed, lifeless. Lizard skittered forward and poked the half-decapitated earth-dragon on the beak.

"Not move?" he asked.

"Not move," she said.

She turned as she heard footsteps behind her. It was Shay. He looked at the dead dragon, wide-eyed. "Are you all right? I heard a fight."

"I have a splinter," she said, holding up her palm. Her words were drowned out by a loud crash from inside the tavern. Sparks shot from every window. The fire roared as the wind whipped it into an ever-growing fury. Jandra scooped up Lizard and cradled him against her breast as she ran toward the tunnel. Shay followed at her heels. Her eyes searched the shadows for any further sign of dragon-stragglers.

"Thorny!" she yelled as she reached the tunnel doors. There was a small pile of clutter next to the tunnel, boxes full of tools, several round dials, their faces covered with numbers, plus stacks of notebooks, and vials of unrecognizable fluids.

"Thorny!" Shay shouted, using his hands as a megaphone. No one answered.

"Come on," said Jandra, running down the tunnel. The doors at the end were closed, but reddish-orange light danced through the gaps. The air was distinctly smoky. Before they could approach the doors burst open, sending forth a blast of heat and a cloud of smoke. A tall, black-haired girl in buckskins with an old man slung over her shoulders marched out of the cloud.

"Anza?" Shay asked. Anza gave a slight smirk, as if to ask who else he might have been expecting. Thorny coughed violently. Anza marched up the slope, breathing evenly. Her buckskins were splattered shoulder to ankle in blood, but as near as Jandra could determine, Anza didn't have a scratch on her.

"But… you were just in the street," Shay said, following Anza. "How did…?"

Behind them, there was another crash, and another wave of smoke gushed up the tunnel, hiding everything from view. Jandra found the tunnel wall and held her breath as she groped her way back toward fresh air. Behind her in Burke's workshops, things began to pop and sizzle in small explosions. Over this noise came a series of powerful twangs as springs began to burst free of the braces that held them.

Jandra made it outside and took a deep breath of the relatively clean air. She looked toward the tavern. Red hot iron rods six feet long were shooting up into the air, rising a hundred feet before they fell back toward the burning building, already losing their glow. The heat of the flames could be felt even here. The human villagers gathered around to gawk as the building began to tremble. Something deep within the guts of the building exploded with a deep bass rumble and the entire structure fell in upon itself. Jandra stepped away from the tunnel entrance as a jet of sparks shot out into the night air.

"Good light!" Lizard said, excited. The sparks swirled up into the winter sky like some sort of reverse snow. Jandra did have to admit that, stripped of all the horrors of the night, the sparks possessed a sort of primal beauty.

Shay stared down the tunnel, his face forlorn. "All those books," he whispered. "Have I been cursed? Why does every book I touch lately go up in flames?"

"It's just bad luck," said Jandra.

"It's more than bad luck," said Shay. "It's the end of my dreams. I had no plan but to escape to Dragon Forge. Now that I'm not welcome there, I don't know where I'll go. I had thought perhaps, with a few books, I could find some village that would want my services as a teacher. Without books, what do I have to offer?"

"You could come with me the rest of the way to the palace," said Jandra. "If I get my tiara back, we can move freely through the place since I'll have full control over my invisibility again. You can take all the books you can carry."

"So… you admit you're a wizard?"

"No," said Jandra. "I'm a nanotechnician."

"I don't know what that word means," said Shay.

"It means I command unimaginably tiny machines," said Jandra. "At least, I used to."

Shay looked at her skeptically, as if judging whether she was putting him on. He held the shotgun he carried out toward her. Jandra shook her head and loosened her gun belt, offering it to him.

"You keep it. You have a talent for it."

Anza had laid Thorny on the grass after she'd carried him from the tunnel, but now the old man was back on his feet, his cheeks tarnished with soot. "Damn," he said. "I didn't get a tenth of the stuff on his list. If I were younger, or my hands a little stronger…"

Anza flashed him a few rapid hand gestures.

"You're right," he said. "I'm alive. That's what counts."

"You understand Anza a lot better than I do," said Jandra.

"She grew up in my company," said Thorny. "I'm like an uncle to her. By the time she was seven or eight, I never even thought much about the fact she didn't speak. Once you know how to read her, she gets her thoughts across just fine with her eyes and her hands."

"She's never talked?" Shay asked.

"She made some noises as a baby, but stopped when she was about a year old. After that, she didn't even make sounds when she'd cry. Some of the townsfolk whispered that she might be an imbecile, but anyone who knew her could see that she was smarter than other kids her age. Burke used to tell anyone who asked about her that it's better to be silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."

Anza crossed her arms, looking uncomfortable with this discussion.

"I guess I should go talk to the rest of the townsfolk," Thorny said. "Tell 'em what I know, have them get ready to head to Dragon Forge. Get Burke his notebooks and those gauges. The note said the rest of you were heading on to the dragon palace. We can probably find somewhere in the village where you can rest up for what's left of the night. Get you washed up, too. Anza, you look a fright."