The Trap (The Magnificent 12 2)

“Vargran,” Risky explained. She seemed quite friendly. Maybe a little cocky, but no more arrogant or dangerous than any number of cheerleaders back at Mack’s school. “And now the littlest dragon.”

Risky’s eyes grew colder as she contemplated Xiao. Xiao was still human in appearance. But obviously Ereskigal—aka Morgan le Fay and a host of other evildoers—was not easily tricked by appearances. “I really thought we’d finished the last of you off. But you had only found a nice hole to

hide in. Now that we’ve found your hideaway beneath the Forbidden City, we’ll come for your sorry race soon.”

Xiao said, “I take from your words that your evil servants were repulsed from Dragon Home.”

Risky smiled. “Oh, yes. It was a pretty one-sided battle. You dragons may not be fierce, but you do know how to summon the waters and make them do your bidding. So many Skirrit and Tong Elves died. Such a pity: all that tasty meat gone to waste. And I am really hungry.”

“I can still do the burning thing!” Mack threatened.

“Yes,” Risky admitted. “But you know it won’t work on me twice, right? Now. The question before us is: What’s on the menu? Human meat? Dragon meat?”

Xiao slipped from her human mask and became the dragon once again. Then, without warning, she shot into the sky.

Mack was sure she would do something cool to Risky. Risky seemed a bit concerned herself, but Xiao rose, turned, and raced away along the wall.

She disappeared behind a mountain.

“Okay, then,” Risky said. “Human meat it is.”

“Run!” Mack yelled.

They ran in the same direction Xiao had taken. They leaped down elongated stairs.

“That’s good,” Risky called after them. “Get the blood flowing! It makes you more tender.”

Mack risked a quick glance back at Risky, who was already beginning to change in rather dramatic ways. For one thing, wings were growing from her shoulders. For another thing, a new set of arms was protruding from her midriff.

And her green eyes were bulging, bulging, and becoming patterned in thousands of small hexagonal lenses. Like a dragonfly. In fact, exactly like a dragonfly.

But bigger—like something the air force would build if it wanted a dragonfly to use in air-to-air combat.

They reached the closest tower and stopped inside, panting.

“I can’t believe Xiao bailed on us!” Jarrah yelled.

“I would if I could,” Mack said. He had a stitch in his side from running. He held it and doubled over.

“I don’t think we’re safe in here,” Stefan said.

The tower wasn’t that big, just as wide as the wall itself and extending up for maybe another fifty feet. It was brick and had been designed to be completely impervious. To arrows.

zzzz-ZZZZZ-zzzz-ZZZZZ

It was a whine like a fingernail scraping a single string on an electric guitar. Mack could see Risky through the arched, doorless opening. Her wings beat the air so fast they became nothing but a blur.

You could say she was a really big dragonfly, except that her face wasn’t a dragonfly’s face. It was still Risky, but all distended and distorted, as if someone had tried to stretch her face over a head ten sizes too big. Her lips were smeared into a wide Joker grin. The smile revealed curved, scimitar teeth that could be made of steel.

The six legs were no longer even slightly human. But they weren’t quite insect, either. More like long, thin lobster claws.

“Aaah ahha yaarrgh!” the three of them said, more or less in unison.

“We need some Vargran!” Mack cried.

“Like what?” Jarrah yelled.

“Huh,” Stefan said. “It’s kind of cool the way she can do that.”