29

Yeah, big time powerful. The advantage is that, well dragon magic had all the advantages. I wondered how the hell I was supposed to beat that. The only way I could think of was by being sneakier, or getting lucky and stumbling onto something Anolyn overlooked when he made the barrier. Our research said that dragons used internal magic exclusively, meaning they never tried to make bargains with outsiders, nor did they borrow from the world itself.
Might be something else we could use. What bothered me was how did those shades get placed on two books that both dealt with some specific dragon information and could be used against dragons if it was known. All I could think was that someone working for a dragon must have done the job as dragons don't get that small. Which brought the question to mind, 'or do they?'
I grabbed Larry and Fawn and pulled them back into the living room, and explained about the shade and the second one and how the books were scorched when they were beaten and banished. “What if, dragons can change form? I mean you're already saying that their magick is mostly internal already. What if that's another skill they have?
Larry and Fawn looked at each other. Fawn finally asked, “Can you try and find some more books that have been warded? I think we can remove the shades or whatever the ward is if we can deal with it out here.” “I'm not sure, but I'll ask. Cobb was cut up pretty bad, and I haven't seen him since we banished the shades, so I'll start with the others that he had talked with about using their libraries.”
Larry spoke after Fawn was done. “Short stuff, I'm going to make a magic finder. I wish I'd have thought of this sooner, then you wouldn't have had to fight those two shades. But I can set it up to show you if there's magick on an item, which means we may get a lot of false alarms. I remember some of the fae I talked to made mention of having some books preserved magically.”
“It beats having to open each book and see if I get attacked again. I can put up with false alarms” I told him. “Okay, it will be a day or so. I'll see you then Fernie.” “Okay Larr. See you later.” I drove on back home, in a better mood than in a long time. We'd made some solid progress, identified some possibilities, and maybe got a device that would keep me from getting bit by magick. I sure hoped so.

#

I drove back over to Fawn and Larry's the next day after Larry called and said he wanted to have me test the new magick finder. Larry laid out four books, then handed me a pair of reading glasses with plain glass put in them instead of the magnifying lenses that normally were there. “Put 'em on and tell me what you see?” I did as he asked and looked at the four books. The one on the end to my left had a slight yellowish glow to it. “That one has a yellow glow” I pointed out to him.
“Good that's one of mine I put a screamer on. Not a big piece of magick, but a loud one” he said with a grin. He rubbed his hands together. That test worked so why don't you go back to Cobb's and see if there are any texts that have some magick on them that didn't fry in your little shady fight.” I just about punched him for the bad pun.
I went back to the Underhill entrance, and Cobb was there, waiting for me. “How'd you know I'd be coming?” I asked him as I got out of my car and shouldered my backpack. “I knew that it was time for something here, but I didn't know it would be you.” Fae, cryptic as secret codes. I really didn't like that, magick makes all sorts of wild coincidences possible, and with Cobb being here at teh exact time I should be showing up to go back to Underhill? I didn't think it was much of a coincidence. The three choices I had was a) he had me followed. b) he got lucky, or c) something got him here. I was betting it was that last choice.
Now I really didn't want to go back to Underhill. Things got messy every time magick began throwing out coincidences and portents. It hadn't been up to now, so it made me wonder why the sudden coincidence causing? I hadn't done anything except get Larry to make the glasses, which suddenly made a little more sense as I thought about it. Cobb just watched me as I stood there trying to puzzle out something that was bothering me.
“Hey Cobb, you believe in coincidence? Please say yes,” I told him. “I need a good laugh right now and that would do it for me.” He frowned as if he was trying to puzzle it out, bu after a few moments he gave up and led me back to his room with the booths.
“Any chance you'll let me take a few books back to my world for reference? It would help me a lot.” He frowned at me and said with a touch of sarcasm, “I know you remember? You can't read the texts without the desk to read them on. Cease this lying and ask me straight out what you want. It will save us both time, unless you want me to say no now and we can forget about whatever it is your lying to me about.”
Directness from a fae, well wow. “I want the books so I can have them checked to see if others have shades on them or some kind of magical trap. I want to do it out here where people I know have better skills than I do and can maybe not have the book blow up in my face or get another shade trying to do me fatally like our last little dispelling did.” He got me wound up again, how one question can do that I don't know, but I was upset with him. “Besides, how the hell did those books get in a library like yours without a spell caster such as yourself knowing about the damn things?”
“Spell caster such as myself? Great gods woman, that thing surprised me as badly as it did you! I had no knowledge of it, or the other, until you brought it to my attention!” “Why is that?” I shouted angrily back. “Don't you even know ...” and I saw pain in his eyes. It was a kind of pain that just isn't, and cannot be faked. He didn't know. He really didn't know about the shades. He started to speak, then changed his mind and ushered me into Underhill. We moved at a speed and recklessness that he had never used before, and in mere seconds we were inside his halls.