center and the loading docks, he ended up in front of the building, on a
street that wasn’t supposed to have truck traffic. He certainly didn’t
know the neighborhood well enough to realize that people on the trolley
platform in the center of the street were given to crossing no matter what
the traffic light said.
The blare of the horn and the screech of air brakes brought Judith half
out of her reverie. Instinctively she jumped back as the driver yanked the
wheel desperately in an effort to avoid her.
Together it was almost enough. Instead of receiving an obliterating blow
from the truck’s front bumper, Judith Conally was only kissed by the left
fender. But the kiss was near as deadly as a blow. Her purse flew out of
her hands in a high arc, opening in mid-air and spilling wallet, tissues,
keys and coins along the curbside. Limbs flailing, Judith spun away and
slammed headfirst into the curb.
She did not move again.
A woman and a dragon waited for them when they entered the programmers’
quarters in the Wizard’s Keep.
Of the two the woman was slightly the larger and by far the more
formidable. Shauna was broadbeamed with brown hair and an easy gap-toothed
smile. She had an infant daughter of her own and she was more than happy
to nurse Ian-and mother June and Danny as well.
“My Lords, Lady,” she curtsied. “I have a cold supper waiting.”
“Thanks,” Wiz said, “but I’ll just have something to drink.” He drew a mug
of ale from the small cask at the end of the table and plopped down on a
bench along the wall. It was something past midnight, but all of them were
too keyed up to sleep. A light meal and light conversation had become a
ritual after meeting with the non-humans by the light of the full moon.
Shauna surveyed Wiz’s thin frame disapprovingly. “You’ll never put on any
meat that way.” Then she turned to June. “Here child, let me hold the baby
and you get yourself something to eat.”
Shauna, Moira and Danny were the only three people June would allow to
hold Ian. Without protest June handed the baby to Shauna and went to heap
her plate. Jerry, Danny and Bal-Simba joined her while Moira stayed with
Shauna and Ian.
“It’s a wonder you don’t catch the ague, all of you. Out all night in the
cold and damp consorting with uncanny beings. And taking the child to such
doings, well . . .” Shauna peered under the blanket at the sleeping
infant.
Ian awoke briefly, saw he was being made much of, accepted it as his due
and drifted back to sleep.
Wiz took a pull on his mug and nearly lost it when the dragon rammed his
head into his ribs.
“Well, what’s your problem, Scales-For-Brains?” he said, reaching out to
scratch the dragon behind its ears.
Shauna looked up from Ian. “Naming such a beast ‘Lord,’ ” she said with a
shake of her head.
“Not Lord,” Wiz corrected as he dug his fingers into the scaly hide.
“LRD.” The dragon stretched his neck out luxuriously to expose a spot
behind his right ear.
“LRD?”
“It’s a TLA for Little Red Dragon,” Jerry put in from where he was
building a triple-decker sandwich.
“What is a TLA?”
“Three-letter acronym.”
Shauna looked puzzled and Moira chuckled. “Never ask them for an
explanation. You will only end up worse confused.”
Shauna sniffed and turned her attention back to June and Ian. LRD reminded
Wiz to keep scratching with a butt to the side that nearly knocked him off
the bench.
As a two-foot hatchling, LRD had been as cute as a kitten when he wandered
into the programmers’ makeshift workshop and decided he liked the company.
Now, a little over a year later, LRD was something more than six feet from
snout to tail-tip and massive in proportion. Compared to the 80- to
100-foot cavalry mounts in the aeries below the castle, LRD was still
tiny. Compared to the scale of the rooms and passages in the castle, LRD
was definitely on the large side and getting bigger every day.