She had found the spell but not fast enough. She had no time to cast it. The dragon’s claw almost caught her. She couldn’t stay here. If the dragon breathed fire over the princess, then all of this would be for nothing. She tried to memorize the motions to make a spell grow as she threw the book back into the princess’s room and went out to meet the dragon head on.

Only the spells she had been using came to mind. She knew there was one with frost that Barinon had taught her but she couldn’t remember it. Maybe when she wasn’t so tired, it would come back to her. Besides, she needed to remember the done that would make the spell around the princess expand.

She summoned her shield and the dragon swatted at it, but she remained anchored to the floor. She had had no time to regain her magic. She was so tired and worried that with her weariness, she would start to forget things, like she had right before Barinon died. Thoughts of self doubt threatened to overwhelm her, but she shoved them back, focusing on Aaron and the trust he had placed in her.

“Magic made this mess, magic can fix it.” She repeated that over and over in her mind. Then she dropped the shield and began to fight. She stabbed at the dragon’s face. It screamed at her and prepared to breathe fire. Hailey ran further down the corridor. What if she put her shield over the dragon instead of herself? She tied the sheild to the dragon’s head.

The dragon let it’s fire loose, making the darkened hallway flash with orange light. The fire stayed contained in the sheild but it but it didn’t seem to hurt the beast, just make it frustrated. Still, she thought. It was something. She would have to work with that spell and see if she could do something else with it. Then it came to her, she could tie it to the dragon, trapping it where it was. Quickly, she bound her sheild to the floor. The dragon hissed and tried to break free, but its head was caught. Why hadn’t she thought of that before?

She hurried back to the princess’s room and tried to enlarge the spell that was around the princess. She practiced the hand movements once and then tried to enlarge the spell. It began to grow, but she was quickly running out of magic. She would have to use way more magic than she had left. She dropped the spell just as the dragon broke free of her spell. This time she wasn’t as quick when it swiped at her. Blood began to well around a large gash in her thigh, just above the knee.

She was going to die. She had not figured out how to defeat the dragon after all. Frustrated tears coursed down her cheeks until she realized she was being foolish. She shielded herself from the dragon’s onslaught and tore off part of her dress where the dragon had cut through the fabric. It came off in a long strip of dirty cloth. It was all she had at the moment. If she bled to death, the dragon would terrorize the countryside. She couldn’t let that happen. She tied the cloth around her leg and then stood, wincing at the pain. Then she drew her mage sword and charged the beast.

Hailey knew what she had to do now. It was their last hope, but she thought it might work. She tied her shield to the dragon’s head again, knowing she would only have moments to prepare for this. Then she separated the curse from the spell that kept the princess asleep. At the last second she dropped the shield. The dragon pushed through the wall, creating another cloud of dust. Hailey began to wonder how many walls it could knock over before the castle began to crumble. She shoved the thought away and focused on moving the curse.

Thoughts of Barinon binding the leaf to the tree flooded her mind. She need to make sure she did this right. If she didn’t bind it directly to the dragon, the spell would grow again and no one would be able to help her stop it.

Sweat beaded on her forehead. The ache in her leg was a dull throb and she couldn’t feel her toes. The curse lifted off of the princess. The dragon burst through her shield, screeching in frustration and lashing out one last time. Hailey couldn’t move. She had maintain focus. She barely had enough magic left to make the spell work and she only got one shot at this.

The dragon’s claw cut into her side before she got the curse in place. She said the final word, tying the spell to the dragon. The cloudy gray spell settled over the dragon. Hailey held her breath, fearing that she had done something wrong, hoping that it did not grow, but nothing happened. The dragon stilled and was silent.

Hailey gasped. She had not expected that, but then she didn’t know much about dragons. She collapsed against the wall, near enough to the dragon that if it had survived, she would die instantly. She couldn’t force herself up. She was so tired and she could sleep here. She cast one last spell before she let herself sleep. “Fulgaro,” she said, wanting the light incase the curse was not enough. At least she would know before she died.

She didn’t know if she slept or not or if the dragon was sending her images, but she could see something coming, something terrible. Cold grew over the earth and there was nothing that any one could do to stop it. She saw the fall of the black castle, people running every which way, trying to flee to Taivalon, the nearest city. Mages were grabbing people and shoving them through portals and fairies were working against them, trying to kill the people the mages were trying to save. So many died.

She saw the dragon, old and dying give its life to a tall and statuesque woman and then it died, living on inside her. Then it wasn’t the dragon anymore. It was the woman and she was taking children away from their homes. They were mages, or at least they would be if the mages ever found them. She didn’t know how many had been taken, but she wished they had been here with her today. Maybe so many would not have died. Other images flashed through her mind but she didn’t understand them, didn’t know if she was loosing too much blood and that’s why she was seeing things in her mind.