Dragon Earth
an excerpt

Caro’s warm finger made a little crescent of steam on the cold window as she slowly traced a raindrop down, over the gold and black lettering of “Delancy’s Books”. It was the third cold and rainy day in a row and customers had been fewer and fewer each day. Actually it was a good thing, allowing her and her assistant, Sarah, to go through the multitude of boxes of books she had purchased at the last estate sale. She had already come across some interesting finds, making the sale profitable before she had even finished unpacking.
Reluctantly she flipped over the old-fashioned CLOSED sign and turned to walk back through the store to the storage rooms in back. Caro stopped and looked at the tarot spread she had been reading while waiting for the non-existent customers to come in out of the freezing rain. She had done the spread strictly out of boredom and a compelling feeling as she didn’t like to do a reading on herself. She usually saved her energy for her customers.
As she gathered the cards to placed them back into the dark green velvet bag she kept them in, she pondered again all the contradictions of the spread. She was going on a journey, but yet not going on a journey. There would be a man who wasn’t a man.
Well, the “not a man” thing was easy. There hadn’t been a man in her life in ages. Maybe longer. She couldn’t really remember the last time she even had dinner with someone who wasn’t part of a group or strictly a friend. But that was life!
Going from switch to switch, Caro slowly wanders through the stacks and shelves of books in the shop. It had been her family bookstore for two generations. Both her father and grandfather had loved books and had an uncanny ability to locate rare and used books. When the shop became her’s upon her father’s death, she had expanded the selection to include new books, increasing walk-in customers, while still maintaining her father’s cliental. Business was good enough she could afford an assistant and time to work with customers doing tarot readings at a small back table in the store.
Caro walked through the screen of thick brocade curtains which separate the front of the store from the storage area and stairs to the living quarters upstairs. As she entered the back room she saw only the bottom half of her assistant sticking out of a large cardboard box of books. The dust from the old books being pulled from the boxes tickled her nose, making Caro winkle it in order to stop a sneeze.
“It’s not really that bad”, joked Sarah and she pulled back from the box, several books in her hand. Setting them on the floor she pulled down the tail of her t-shirt and prepared to dive back into the box.
“No,” Caro said, “you are working so hard you’re stirring up all the dust.” Smiling, she moved to a box she had started unloading earlier in the day.
Their priority was to get all the boxes unloaded and then they would go through the books, one by one, dusting, cleaning, repairing if needed, cataloging and deciding which to sell and which were just junk. It would take several days, if not weeks, to go through the haul she had just purchased. It had been from a really obscure estate sale she had only come across by accident. She had been driving from another sale and seen the handwritten signs for this sale and had driven up just in time to score all the books. Apparently the owner of the estate had an extensive library and some very eclectic tastes, especially of the esoteric nature.
Some of these books fit well in with her own interests. Caro knew she had certain abilities, but tended to keep them to herself, especially around Sarah. Sarah was a little uncomfortable with anything outside of the “norm”.
As she bent over the box for another few books, Caro heard the bell at front door of the shop ring. Knowing she had locked the door earlier, Caro knew it had to be her cousin, Kat. With the weather being what it was, Kat was probably looking for a dry spot and someone to entertain her, much like her name suggested.
Sure enough, Kat bounced through the drapes at the doorway and immediately claimed her perch on a nearby stool, whipping off her raincoat, splattering water everywhere as she shook it off.
“Hey, watch it!” Caro shouted.
“Those old things could use a bit of soap and water,” Kat stated, dropping her coat on the floor beside her stool.
“Shall I open the trunk next?” Sarah asked, pretty much ignoring Kat. Sarah and Kat had an uneasy truce. Neither knew what to think of the other, so they pretty much left each other alone.
“Sure,” Caro said. “I’ll come help you out.”
The trunk had been interesting to Caro, just because of the trunk itself. It was wooden, with leather trim and extensively carved with all sorts of animals and leaf motifs all over it. It did have an old lock on it and Sarah went and pulled the key out of the envelope which had come with the boxes of books.
With a little fiddling, the key was inserted into the lock and with a little effort, turned to open the lock.
From her stool, Kat looked on with interest. “What’s in there?” she asked. “Not more books, I hope. Maybe something good, like some old clothes or jewelry.”
Giggling, she said, lowering her voice into a mock-hag-like tone, “or maybe a body!” she cackled.
Sarah shivered and threw a stern glance at Kat, not liking her teasing about the contents of the box. Some things to her seemed like omens. It took two of them to lift the top of the chest, creaking and protesting all the way up, just like in the best horror movie.
“Nope,” Caro said. “Nothing here but books it appears.”
“Darn,” said Kat, “You never get anything good.”
Caro started taking books out and stacking them on the floor around herself and Sarah. With the two of them working, it only took a few minutes to empty out the trunk.
Caro glanced back into the trunk one last time to be sure there wasn’t anything they had missed. She had plans to take the trunk upstairs after cleaning it up and using it as a table and maybe store extra linens or such in it. As she glanced back into the trunk, she noticed a faint crack outlining the bottom of the trunk. With delicate fingers, Caro reached in and traced part of the crack.
“Look,” she said, “it seems there might be a false bottom to the trunk.” She compared the point inside the trunk to the outside and realized there was a good 6 inches difference.
“Goody”, Kat said, “there just might be something interesting in there after all.”
“Not big enough for a body though” Sarah retorted.
Kat sat back and arched an eyebrow. Sarah didn’t often make jokes, so this was a bit unusual.
“Point taken,” Kat replied. “But it is big enough for treasure and jewels,” rubbing her hands together in pretend greed.
“Ok you two,” Caro scolded.
“Hand me the screwdriver and hammer, please, would you, Sarah,” asked Caro.
Sarah got up, brushing off her knees and went to the workbench in the shop, picking up a heavy screwdriver and hammer and bringing them back to Caro. Handing them to her, she kneeled back down beside the trunk and Caro to give her a hand.
Caro carefully angled the tip of the screwdriver into part of the groove around the bottom of the trunk. With a little pressure, she slowly pressed down on the handle, lifting up on the edge of the loose board. With a small groan of protest, the board in the bottom of the trunk slowly lifted. Sarah took hold of the wooden plank as soon as it got high enough and helped hold it up.
Caro laid down the screwdriver and grabbed the other corner of the plank as she and Sarah slowly lifted the wood from the bottom of the trunk.
As they pulled the bottom from the trunk and laid it on the floor beside all the books they had pulled earlier from the trunk, they both stuck their heads into the trunk.
Sure enough, in the bottom of the trunk was a fabric lined hole. In the hole was a bundle, wrapped in what appeared to be black velvet.
Caro reached in and pulled the bundle from the trunk. As soon as she touched the book, hairs stood up all along Caro’s arms and the back of her neck. Kat, on her stool, was all but falling off, leaning over to see what was going on.
“What is it?” she asked. “What you got there?” weaving back and forth slightly to get a better view from the stool, rather than just getting up and coming over.
“I can feel it’s power over here,” she said, rubbing the hairs on her arms.
“What’s going on,” Sarah asked in a shaky voice, rubbing her arms nervously.
“Don’t know.” Caro said. “It’s heavy. Feels like a book. But I haven’t ever felt power like this before.”
“Figures,” Kat sighed dramatically. “Nothing good.”
“But it would have to be good, if it was all wrapped up like this, wouldn’t it,” Sarah asked Caro. Sarah was always nervous when the cousins started talking about things like “powers” and “abilities” and “magic”.
“You would think,” Caro replied. “Let’s see what we’ve got.”
Caro balanced the object in one hand with difficultly and started unwrapping the velvet from around it. Sure enough, as she peeled back layers, Caro could see a richly tooled leather book, many of the motifs similar to what was on the trunk itself. Finally holding the bare book in her hands, she runs her fingers over the richly tooled leather cover.
“What is it?” Sarah asks, “What’s going on?” pointing at Caro’s hands. As Caro looked, sure enough, there was a faint white glow around her hands. Caro closed her eyes and concentrated on the book, but good get no images or feelings other than a feeling of energy or power coming from the book up her arms into her body. While she couldn’t get a reading on what kind of book it was, she was not getting a feeling of evil.
“Don’t know,” Caro replies. She slowly opened the cover of the book to what would have been the title page. Instead of typewritten pages, she saw handwriting; ornate and old-fashioned, swirls and curls abounding. Carefully turning to the next page and then the next, Caro made a discovery which makes her give a small gasp.
“What?” Kat asks impatiently. “What did you find?”
“It’s a grimore.” Caro softly replies.
“Grimore?” Sarah asks, not familiar with the term.
“Yes,” Caro answers, distracted as she is slowly turning page after page. “Someone’s book of magic.”
“What!” gasps Sarah, as she lets go of her side of the book.
Not expecting the sudden, off-balanced weight of the book, it falls to the floor, it’s pages open to a spread with dragons drawn around the edge of the paper, intertwined with vines and leaves. Caro quickly picks up the book, for some reason feeling it is wrong to have it laying on the floor of the workroom, unprotected.
Sarah leans over the book in Caro’s hands, not touching it, but looking at the pictures of the dragons around the edges of the pages.
“There’s a poem here,” she says, and starts to read the poem.
“In fantasies and dreams,
Lay magic and dragons,
To move someone from here,
To there where they live.”
“NO!” shout out both Caro and Kat as they realize she is going to read the poem outloud. At the same time, as Sarah finishes the poem, there is a large clap of thunder and a bright light appears and disappears just as quickly.
Kat rocks back on her stool, blinking at the sudden light and asks, “What was that!”
As she eyes adjust to from the sudden flash of light to the lights of the store room, Kat realizes she won’t be getting an answer to her question. The floor in front of the trunk is empty, bare of Caro and Sarah, like they had never even been there.