Arthur could barely wait to get back to the barn and tell Brixaby all that he had discovered.

He found his dragon excitedly talking to Joy. His bloodred eyes were bright, and his chest was puffed out with pride. Turning, he saw Arthur and boomed out, “Arthur! Let me tell you about my grand accomplishments!”

“Oh?” Arthur came over and glanced around. It seemed that Brixaby’s metal refuse pile, which he did not allow anyone to touch or even look at too closely, was bigger than usual. Also, he’d been working on an unusual piece over by his anvil. Was that a flat outline of a duck? A duck with teeth?

“Did you have a breakthrough with your weapons?” Arthur asked, hoping that awkward metal silhouette wasn’t supposed to be a dragon.

“I finally acquired my first class!” Brixaby let out a roar of delight that literally shook the rafters and sent dust sprinkling down on them. “It is a marvelous one! Fit for me. Tier two!”

And Arthur was momentarily distracted as Brixaby went through the benefits and attributes of his class. He wasn’t exaggerating . . . They were quite good. Even better in some ways than Arthur’s only tier-two class, Cooking.

He was briefly . . . Well, jealous was too strong of a word, but envious that Brixaby had happened upon something so productive. Other than his Stealth Class, which he had gotten by way of a card, when was the last time Arthur himself had gained a class?

Uncomfortably, Arthur realized that unless he focused more on his skills, he was in danger of falling behind his own dragon. As usual, he was stretching himself too thin.

But it was hard to feel overly worried when he thought about his own news.

His expression must have given it away because Brixaby finally stopped his boasting and gave his rider a knowing look. “You have a secret you wish to share? Did you finally expand your heart deck?”

“Ohhhh.” Joy swung her head around to him. “Did it hurt?”

“No, it’s not about my heart deck,” Arthur said. “But I think I found something just as good.”

Then he told Brixaby briefly about what he believed was waiting for them down in the Dark Heart. He didn’t care if Joy knew, as she was part of the retinue. Besides, her little squeal made Arthur grin.

The slits in Brixaby’s eyes actually expanded and contracted several times in excitement.

“If this is true, we should gather my retinue and go down there now. Why are we waiting for it to open?” He looked around wildly as if hoping Sams and Horatio would show up at any second so he could order them to accompany him. “We have three strong dragons . . . even if two are slightly underfed for the moment. No one would dare stop us!”

Arthur shook his head. “Let’s say we do that. We’d still have to battle our way back out. And at that point, it would be against an entire city who thinks we’re cheaters, right after the Reshuffling has distributed powers right and left. No, Brix,” he added sternly when the dragon opened his mouth to argue. “It’s not worth it. That card is ours. We’re going to get it and we don’t need to cheat to do so.”

Brixaby grumbled, wings slumping.

“Besides,” Arthur added, “don’t you have a new class to explore?”

That did it. Brixaby perked up at once. “Yes, very well, but woe to anyone who picks up that card before us!”

Arthur didn’t disagree.

* * *

Cressida and Horatio came in later in the evening, both with their own tales to tell. Cressida apparently had a relaxing, though not particularly fruitful, time in the library.

“Their scholars guild, which they call a public library, is four stories tall and full of books,” Cressida said, “Though the history section is less than two shelves. Most was about this city and written in the last few decades. So I asked a worker—a librarian,” she added carefully in the new language she’d acquired, “and he said that this city is one of the largest holdouts on the continent . . .” She paused for dramatic effect. “ . . . from the time before cards.”

Arthur and Horatio glanced at one another. Off to the side, Sams and Joy were eating yet another bison lunch, and Brixaby listened nearby while fiddling and twisting a metal wire into an odd shape.

“Time before cards?” Arthur repeated slowly. “There was a time before cards?”

Cressida nodded. “Apparently, it was a magicless time.”

Horatio asked the next logical question. “So how did they fight scourglings?”

“They would have had no dragons,” Brixaby said with authority. “We are created with cards in our cores.”

“We did see a lot of machines in the abandoned cities,” Horatio said, and Cressida nodded. “They’re all sort of rusted out now, but maybe that’s how they kept the scourglings at bay . . . Well, right up until they couldn’t.”

Arthur shuddered, glad he lived in the here and now when things made sense. “Anything else, Cressida?”

“No, but I’ll be going back tomorrow,” she said with relish.

With a nod, Arthur turned to Horatio. “It looks like you and Sams had fun.”

Horatio’s shirt was spotted with scourgling blood that smelled fairly rank. He grinned. “Those sheriffs practically cried with joy when they saw me and Sams fly up. Apparently, a bunch of Uncommons were really ripping at the northern wall.”

Brixaby’s head whipped around to him. “They did not tell us they needed our assistance.”

“Yeeaah, well, I got the feeling there’s a bit of distrust there, and no offense, but knowing how you two operate, I can see why.” Horatio held up his hand to forestall any argument. “I’m only the messenger here, and it wasn’t like the wall was about to be breached—they were only Uncommons—so it wasn’t an emergency. They definitely appreciated the help, though.”

With that, he held out his other hand and showed off five Uncommon shards.

“That’s good, but you would have gotten more if you were hunting scourglings with a hive,” Cressida pointed out. “I’m sure you killed more than five scourglings.”

“I did, but there’s such a thing as ingratiating yourself with the locals,” Horatio replied. “Besides, all that practice helped work out a couple of kinks in the new light card—”

He started to say more but stopped as the door to the barn creaked open.This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Everyone turned, tense. Was it thieves? One of the undersheriffs? Some government officials who didn’t appreciate dragons in the city?

Marion popped his head in, saw Arthur, and said, “Oh, this is the place. Your directions were a little unclear.”

In all the news, Arthur had forgotten that he had invited Marion and Soledad for dinner and plans. He hurried to welcome them in, and introductions were made all around. Though, of course, Horatio was already aware of Marion from his time in Buck Moon Hive.

Cressida nodded to them with the dignity of a former noblewoman.

Soledad’s eyes, however, were all for Joy and Sams, the latter of the two who took up fully half the inside of the barn. “These are your dragons?” she asked, eyes wide as she gazed at Joy. “Oh, she’s so beautiful. She’s a she, isn’t she?”

“Of course I am,” Joy said. “You can tell girl dragons from the shape of our head.” She turned hers to the side. “Not as wide, and if we have horns, they lay flatter. How do you know Arthur and Brixaby?”

“Me and the people I was traveling with were caught out in the deadlands.” She turned to give Arthur a smile that was only slightly sarcastic. “They’re proper heroes.”

“I assure you, I did most of the work,” Brixaby said.

Arthur caught Cressida giving Soledad a long look, but he couldn’t dwell on it for long as he had a dinner to put together. Thankfully, pulling already prepared meals out of his Personal Space didn’t take long. Soon, the humans were sitting at a cluster of chairs around a rough table. The dragons ate on the other side of the barn, as no one wanted to be splashed with flying bits of bison. Even if Brixaby’s portions were cooked, he wasn’t always the cleanest eater.

Arthur waited until the meal wound down before he spoke. “So, now that we’re all here, I wanted to talk about the heart. Assuming you two still want to join us?” he asked Marion and Soledad.

Soledad sucked in a breath. “Yes, of course. But why would you have us? We’re both cardless, so it’s not like we can be of any use.”

“It’s a Reshuffling. You’re not going to be useless for long there. I’ll need a good, solid team.” He looked at Marion. “Do you still have that illusion card?”

Marion nodded and brought it out of a pocket with a slightly pained look. He showed it around.

Go Clone Yo’self

Rare

Illusion

This card grants the wielder the ability to create illusionary, noncorporeal clones out of him or herself. These clones will all be visually exact to the original. The number of clones depends on the amount of mana assigned to the task. These clones have the ability to act independently. However, they cannot exert a physical force upon the environment. When struck by an outside, physical force, the illusion will be dispelled. The wielder may resummon the illusion at any time, at the cost of additional mana.

This card uses and unlocks mana.