No one stopped us to ask where we were going, as if Phelan and I walking around armed wasn\u2019t unusual. I guess in some ways, it really wasn\u2019t. A few minutes later, our feet hit the bridge over the ravine and we were well on our way to retrieving Sif and figuring out this water monster business.<\/p>\n
\u201cTell me about dragons,\u201d I said abruptly.<\/p>\n
Phelan looked at me, blinking slowly. \u201cDragons?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you heard me,\u201d I said, giving him a withering look. He let out a little laugh and shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou startled me, that\u2019s all. Why are you asking about dragons all of a sudden?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBig giant monster in the water that\u2019s making people a hell of a lot older than I am pretty squicked out,\u201d I said. \u201cMy head says dragons. Don\u2019t ask me why.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve played too much D&D, that\u2019s why,\u201d Phelan said, his wry smile and tone saying he was teasing me. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s a dragon, Mar, so I really wouldn\u2019t worry about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if I still want to know about dragons?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I\u2019ll tell you once we\u2019re done dealing with whatever\u2019s out in the water.\u201d<\/p>\n
I eyed him for a moment, then shrugged. \u201cAll right. This round to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re keeping score now?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe.\u201d<\/p>\n
We climbed the small hill where the remnants of the Shakespeare Garden still stood, half-buried in a winter\u2019s worth of snow and ice, hiding the destruction that the camazotzi<\/em> had wrought the past autumn. That had been the event that had driven the faeries to their new home among us, hidden in the tents and cots and the environs within our wards. Carolyn could see them. Sometimes, a few of us\u2014me included\u2014could catch fleeting glimpses of our tiny neighbors. She could see them as easily as breathing.<\/p>\n The barrow where we\u2019d buried our dead was below that hill, in a lower spot. Lawn torches still stood at the four corners of the space, somehow still standing despite the weather that had hammered campus over the long winter. I could feel the strength of the wards we\u2019d laid there, of the protections we\u2019d granted our dead.<\/p>\n Standing at the edge of the barrow was Sif, her head bowed as she stared blankly at the snow in front of her feet, blood dripping into the snow as she clutched the blade of her sword in both hands, edge biting into the tender flesh of fingers and palms, her shoulders shaking silently and the sun glinting off her hair.<\/p>\n Whatever had driven her here probably wasn\u2019t good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" No one stopped us to ask where we were going, as if Phelan and I walking around armed wasn\u2019t unusual. I guess in some ways, it really wasn\u2019t. A few minutes later, our feet hit the bridge over the ravine … Continue reading