Origin (Scales 'n' Spells 1)

Reluctantly, Cameron sat up and smiled. He cupped Alric’s cheek and brushed a sweet kiss across his lips but pulled away before Alric could deepen it. If he let the dragon, he’d keep Cameron distracted enough that he’d never leave Alric’s lap.

“I believe Dieter needs you for more work, and I need to talk to Gunter,” Cameron murmured against his mouth.

“Really? You don’t want me to reciprocate?” Alric smiled widened, full of pure devilment. “I thought I’d lay you out on my desk and make a meal of you.”

“Now that’s just mean. How about a raincheck and you make me dessert tonight?”

“Deal,” Alric laughed and nipped at Cameron’s bottom lip.

Cameron got to his feet and started for the door when he turned back. “Would you like me to get Dieter for you?”

“No, thank you. I need a moment to collect myself. I’ll call for him when I’m sure I can face him without blushing.”

Cameron laughed when he strolled back out of Alric’s office, feeling good that he’d placed a smile on Alric’s face. Now he just needed to see about getting some extra protection for his man.

* * *

Cameron rubbed his hands together, a little bounce in his stride as he cleared Gunter’s door. “I’m here!”

“Good, get in here,” Gunter called back from somewhere further in the room. The table had several boxes stacked on top of it, likely with research elements. Or specimens. Or something crazy. You never quite knew with Gunter.

What with the threat of kidnappings and such, everyone felt it better to arm their mages as well as they could. Just in case. Cameron’s magical knowledge improved daily, and he soaked magical theory up like a sponge. During one of the castle game nights, he’d thrown some ideas around with Gunter, which somehow led to these afternoon sessions with the dragon. He and Gunter thought it feasible to come up with something that would allow Cameron a fighting chance, in case he was caught alone. Or caught with only one dragon guarding him.

The dragons were beyond fierce, but they were not immune to magical attack. It behooved them to make preparations.

Gunter sat at a back table, and he gestured Cameron onto the only other unoccupied stool. “I’ve got a list from Carla on good possibilities. The trick will be assembling something you can make on the fly.”

“Not have ready and available?”

“Most of what’s on her list isn’t something you want to just cart around. For one thing, an active spell like this will mean trouble for any mage trying to do a seeking spell on you, so we’ll have a hard time following.”

“What are we talking about, exactly?” Cameron leaned over his shoulder to read the list. The rather short list. “Barriers, glamour spell, reflection spell? So barrier for defense, glamour to hide our location, reflection to bounce attack spells away?”

“Ja.” Gunter frowned a little down at the list. “It’s not a bad idea, really, but…”

“I mean, doesn’t this all assume that we see the attack coming? That I have a place to duck into and put a barrier and glamour spell up? That I have the time to do that?”

“That’s rather my problem with it.” Gunter sat up, letting the list fall to the table for a moment. “In the war, the mages used different sorts of spells. I assumed she’d list off one of those. I’m not sure why she didn’t.”

Sometimes Cameron honestly forgot Gunter had been in the war, too. The man didn’t look a day over thirty. “What kind of spells are you talking about?”

“Reflective spells, certainly. To repel attacks, but also knock-backs, shields that absorbed the damage.”

“Yeah?” Cameron turned that over in his head for a moment. Maybe it was because he’d played too many video games in his life, but that sounded suspiciously like some of the action skills in RPG games. And (probably, again, because of too many video games) it gave Cameron an idea. “Were there any spells that cancelled magic?”

Gunter turned his head and regarded him for a moment, blinking as if this question didn’t compute. He often looked at Cameron that way, for some reason. “Cancelled magic?”

“Sure. Say they trap us with a spell, or they’ve got a binding spell on us, is there any way to cancel that? Odds are if they ambush us, that’s what they’ll try. That’s what they did the first time I was almost kidnapped, at least. They were trying to throw binding spells and acid spells. Mostly they missed, but if those are used, I want a way to cancel the spell.”

“Ah. I like your idea. I think there’s a way to break a spell?” Gunter frowned a little before he got up, going over to a huge tome that looked like a dictionary. He pulled it free from the shelf with a grunt of effort before hauling it back. “I always underestimate how thick this book is. This, my friend, is a list of all known spells.”