Dimwater's Dragon by Sam Ferguson Page A

weapon, such as this very dagger, could ever end our lives. So on the day that I helped you escape, I stole it and replaced it with an illusion. You were always so sure of your own intelligence that you never suspected I might try to trick you.” Lady Caspen snapped her fingers and fire engulfed the ruby encrusted handle of the dagger and spread into the vampire’s chest.
    “Then I curse you, witch.” The vampire raised his right hand and made a couple of swift movements in the air. “Inasmuch as the one I love has been kept from me, so too shall Kyra be kept from the one that she loves. And as my child is the reason I am dying, should Kyra ever conceive a child, it will destroy her from the inside and she will die.”
    Lady Caspen moved in quickly to counter the curse, but the vampire waved his hand and a magical force knocked her to the ground. As flames consumed the vampire, the glowing rune in the air solidified the demon’s curse.
     
    *****
     
    Lady Caspen returned to the manor quickly, but she did not go into her room. Instead, she went straightway to her study. She walked up to the third bookshelf from the far window and tapped the top of each book as she counted seven books in from the end. Her fingers fell upon a large book and she pulled it out hastily. She knew she should finish setting wards about the house, but only now was she hearing what the vampire had said when he had seen the dagger.
    “That is what the others hunt,” he had said.
    What could that mean? Why would anyone want this dagger? It was powerful enough to kill a vampire, but there were other such weapons in existence. She turned the blade over in her hands, marveling that there seemed to be no soot or dirt staining any part of it. The dagger was as pristine now as it was when she had first seen it on the vampire’s desk in his large library. Whatever it was for, she had to get rid of it. She couldn’t risk demons hunting the blade and imperiling her daughter.
    She turned around and slammed the large, red book on the nearest table. She opened it hastily, fumbling through the pages until she came to the middle of the book.
    “Web of fate and silk of destiny, suspend this offering in your grasp and release it not. Hoon’do ro’kimith. Habera bon’des derion, cul hemeth.” Lady Caspen placed the dagger on the pages and then shut the book. A sickly vapor emerged from the magical book and a green light poured over it. The book shrank and fell away into a large rift that tore through the fabric of the air in front of her. A great, black hole opened up and swallowed the book and the dagger.
    After the rift sealed itself, Lady Caspen went to her desk and pulled out a small piece of paper. She hurried to write her message and then cast a spell over it to change the words. The true message was meant only for Kyra’s eyes. To any other who opened the letter, it would appear as a plain letter from home, written by a mother who missed her child. She slipped it into a small envelope and then hid it in a drawer.
    A sudden scratch at the glass startled her and she whirled around to see a gaunt figure with narrow eyes staring back at her as it scraped its long fingernails over the glass in an effort to raise the window. Lady Caspen didn’t waste any time. She cast a spell to blind the creature. It screamed and fell back into the night.
    Lady Caspen rushed to the window and threw it open. The pale, thin man writhed on the ground below. A quick bolt of lightning ended his life. She glanced around, checking for any other sign of intruders. If the vampire had been telling the truth about adding his protection to the manor, then she knew there was a good chance that many others could be lurking about in the shadows now that he was dead.
    She had always been prepared for them to come for Kyra. It seemed that monsters spawned from demons and hell always hunted out their ilk, even if they were only half-bloods, as Kyra was. She had been so careful to hide