In principle, it was the simplest thing in the world. But things rarely go by principle and Jasmine and her friends were wearing down, fast.

Albert rolled up to his feet, sword back in his hands and dodged the ice ball as it came crashing down on the tree behind him.

“Hurry, Jasmine!” Albert called out, dashing back towards the giant silver dragon that stood in the sand, a mixture of Kurventhor and Fragmaroginog, still melded together and metallic but not bound, shrunk or paralyzed. Not a pendant any longer, Jasmine had already focused her energy on removing the spell that kept Kurventhor and the wizard immobile and dwarfed. Now they faced the thing she had created, a beast neither wizard nor dragon, infused with unicorn blood and angered that it had been kept prisoner so long.

Jasmine and Salina concentrated on the fastitocalon scale they held together between them.

“Focus,” said Salina, “Focus.”

“I’m focusing,” said Jasmine. Now shut up about it. For a split-second, the dragon halted. In that moment the red knight fired another of his silver-tipped arrows, but the dragon broke free of Jasmine and Salina’s spell just in time to catch the arrow by its shaft and snap it in two. It glowered at the red knight, reared and stomped down.

They heard something crunch and it tore Jasmine’s attention from the fastitocalon. Jasmine called out, wishing the sand would settle faster so she could see past the cloud it had formed in the air around the dragon’s front claws.

“We are no help distracted,” Salina reminded her. Jasmine gritted her teeth, returned to the magic. She didn’t see that it was Albert under the beast’s talons, that his sword had snapped and the air was being crushed from his chest. The red knight, recovering from his daze, knocked and fired an arrow right into the dragon’s eye. It scrambled back, footsteps booming, and shrieked in pain.

“Prince,” said the red knight, heaving him up. There was no blood, but his body was limp and his breathing was shallow. He was out cold. That could have been him, if Albert hadn’t shoved him out of the way.

The dragon lingered near the edge of the forest where the Veins danced back and forth in the bark, spreading to avoid its tail. Enkaiein had the dragon occupied now, charging it back with jabs of his hooves and slaps of his wings that left trails of ink splattered ugly and dark on its silver scales. Salina and Jasmine, both aglow with magic and illuminated below from the Veins curling by their feet, chanted together in Singer’s Tongue.

“Come on, lad,” said the red knight, shaking Albert slightly, “Get it together!”

Albert groaned, rubbing his head. “My sword…” The red knight shoved the sword hilt into Albert’s palm.

“Don’t lose it again,” he said. Albert staggered to standing, clumsy on his feet until he regained the rest of his balance. He took a deep breath and deepened his stance, watching as the silver dragon hurled Enkaiein aside. It rushed Albert and the red knight then, because they were standing in between it and Salina and Jasmine, who were still working the spell.

The red knight shot another arrow to throw it off balance and Albert parried its talons. The ground sunk down under his feet but he held fast, twisting the blade at the last moment, using the dragon’s own leverage to throw it off its equilibrium. With another three arrows to its belly, it fell, but it wasn’t long before it was back on its feet, wings at full span, ready to lift off. If it could not charge through Albert and the red knight, it would simply go above them and over to reach the girls.

Enkaiein got in the way, taking the brunt of a few more ice attacks, one of which landed too close for comfort near Jasmine.

“Watch it!”

“Jasmine, concentrate,” said Salina with her eyes still clenched shut to work the spell. She hadn’t even flinched. “You remember what Victor said. If we are not synchronized, the magic will fail.”

Jasmine tensed her face and kept on thinking. Think, think, think! Imagine, because that’s how the magic works. Salina began chanting again to keep her own concentration and Jasmine focused on a memory, on how it felt to ride through the woods back home, how the air rushed around her like a storm and the sun dripped through the canopy, flashing her eyes to blind her temporarily whenever she and her horse passed underneath a clearer part of the forest or burst out of the tree line into the midday sunlight. Then she focused that image on the silver dragon, pushing it back with a wind that came from nowhere. Enkaiein flapped his wings, floating midair, as the dragon crashed into the sand, spraying Prince Albert and the red knight, who both brought their arms up to protect their eyes.

The red knight coughed. “Did they do it?”

The silver dragon shook itself off while it rose back onto its feet. It may have been stunned, but it wasn’t broken.

“No,” said Albert, “We have to buy them more time. Let’s go!”

“Damn you, kid, having that much energy left. You’re making me look bad,” said the red knight. Oh, but he charged back toward the silver dragon with a grin and a warrior’s roar. Into the sand he and Albert went, keeping the dragon on the ground with their attacks in tandem, not giving it time to spread its wings again. The red knight fired two arrows at once out of his bow and circled back to knock another while Albert leaped up to slash at the dragon’s belly. He missed, but managed to scrape its skin with the tip of his blade, indenting one of the armored plates that protected its chest.

“I got it,” said Albert, almost surprised that he had made a dent in the thing.

“Keep moving!” The red knight fired the arrow he had drawn, but the dragon slapped it out of the air with its wing. Even though the arrow hadn’t hit its mark, it gave Albert enough time to slide between the dragon’s legs and get out from underneath it.

Enkaiein stood at his post between the girls and the silver dragon, watching Albert and the red knight as they fought. He folded his wings for the moment, feeling the magic build behind him. One ear was pointing towards the silver dragon and the other was swiveled back to face Jasmine and Salina. Salina’s chanting was getting louder, more passionate, and Jasmine joined in after a few more stanzas. It took her a verse or two to get in sync with Salina but once they were speaking as one their magic unleashed full-force, spreading outward from where they stood, building as it went, headed straight towards the silver dragon, Albert and the red knight. Enkaiein galloped faster than a winning race horse to Albert and the red knight, grabbed them both between his teeth by their shirt collars, jumped on the silver dragon’s chest deftly like a mountain goat running up a rock face and launched off the dragon’s chest into the air, barely avoiding the magical wave that washed over everything after that.

From the sky Enkaiein watched the magic twist and turn, enveloping the silver dragon. Even so high up he could hear the chant, louder and louder as the energy coiled around the dragon’s wings, forcing them to fold, forcing the dragon flat onto its belly.

“They’re doing it,” said the red knight.

“Yes,” said Albert. The scene bobbed up and down with every one of Enkaiein’s wing-flaps but Albert was too caught up in wonderment to become airsick. Below them the border of Fowlina’s Forest glowed bright as the Veins danced back and forth but Jasmine and Salina were brighter still, as was the magic swirling around the silver dragon. The sand at the forest’s edge and beyond floated into the air like a dust cloud, rolling away from the girls and towards the dragon in a thundering rumble that contrasted the dragon’s high-pitched scream enough to pop Albert’s eardrums.

“Is it working?”

“We shall wait and see,” said Enkaiein.

Below, Jasmine was trying with all her might to keep her brain from splitting open. She didn’t have the time or energy to assume Salina was doing the same. They chanted and chanted until their throats were raw and Jasmine’s voice box felt numb and her tongue flipped drunkenly over every vowel.

Salina imagined her own riding experience, her coming-of-age ceremony where she had ridden a cloud around her home castle, flying for the first time as commoners and royalty alike watched from far below. Such enthusiasm, she had heard them say when she hopped off her cloud, she will make a lovely queen. At the time, Salina had thought it was her own kingdom she would be ruling, not one in a far-off land whose name she did not know. But Albreton was welcoming and soon became the only place she wanted to live, and Albert the only man she ever loved. She would not let some wizard get the better of Albert or his allies and she certainly was not about to lose to Fragmaroginog, no matter what form he took.

Salina and Jasmine felt each other pulling in opposite directions on the fastitocalon scale. They opened their eyes, still chanting, and stared back at one another. Determined, resolved, they nodded.

Then they tore the fastitocalon scale in two, Jasmine pulling one way and Salina pulling the other. When it ripped, the magic holding the silver dragon also diverged, splitting down the middle in a knife of light that blinded everyone and made the Veins recede into the forest, squirming over each other like frightened worms.

And when the light faded, Kurventhor was himself again, lying against the tree he had crashed into, bark, branches and leaves falling around him into the sand.

“They did it!” Prince Albert said as the red knight let out a heavy exhale, “Look there! I see Kurventhor!”

“They have not finished yet,” said Enkaiein, “Look closely.”

Down below the silver dragon was much smaller, far less bulky, but it was still there digging its face into the sand neurotically as if it were disoriented or crazed.

“We almost have him,” said Jasmine. Salina fell to her knees, gasping.

“One last thing to do,” she said, “Jasmine, are you ready?”

“You think now’s the time to ask if I’m ready or not,” spat Jasmine.

“Fair enough,” said Salina, rising to her feet. They both brought forth their artifacts. Salina held in her hand a tooth from Victor’s own mouth while Jasmine held the eye of a cockatrice between two fingers, careful not to gaze directly upon it herself. Salina took a breath. Jasmine cracked her spine.

Kurventhor groaned, picking his head slowly off the sand. Enkaiein bolted down from the sky as the silver dragon righted itself, now fully recovered from its fit of confusion.

“Drop us here,” said Prince Albert, and Enkaiein did. He and the red knight landed crouched in the sand, weapons drawn and ready. Salina and Jasmine ran between them, their eyes focused only on the goal. They followed after the girls, soon catching up to them, and everyone scattered to get out of the way of the silver dragon’s claw as it crashed down on them. Prince Albert saw an opening and stabbed the thing straight through its arm, now that its arm was small enough to pierce all the way through.

“Hold him there,” said Salina, and she placed her palm on the blunt end of Victor’s tooth, jamming it into the silver dragon’s elbow.

“What’s she doing,” said the red knight.

“We’re up next,” Jasmine said and she sprinted towards the silver dragon herself with the red knight following close behind, past Enkaiein and Kur, past Prince Albert as he pulled out his blade.

The silver dragon was shrinking now, and Victor’s tooth was growing.

Prince Albert blocked the silver tail as it whipped in his direction, intent on tripping Salina no doubt, to get the tooth out of its arm. But it wasn’t the only attack coming. The silver dragon lifted its other arm high, meaning to slap the both of them away. The red knight saw that, knocked an arrow and fired, catching the dragon in its neck. It choked, falling backward, shrinking even more as it did, until it was only the size of a small dog. Victor’s tooth popped out of its elbow, big as a horn now, and Salina tossed it aside. She had another one ready, and this was the one that would count.

Jasmine was in position, holding the eyeball aloft, the cockatrice’s pupil and iris facing the silver dragon. And Prince Albert pinned the dragon in place, stabbing its left wing as it tried to roll away. The red knight secured for sure after that with a single arrow he shot to keep its right wing flattened on the ground. Salina took one look at the thing, knew it was terrified, smiled like the devil and drove Victor’s second tooth right into its heart. It began to shrink again, crying, wings tearing when they contracted past Prince Albert’s sword and the red knight’s arrow tip.

“Nobody look!” Jasmine yelled and they all averted or closed their eyes, all of them but the silver dragon. It made the mistake of staring directly at the cockatrice’s pupil. Instantly, it froze in place, tiny and helpless once more, and Jasmine made quick work of hanging it back on its chain after she put the eyeball away. Then she announced, “We did it.”

Everyone fell onto their backs with a collective groan and sigh, sprawled like beached fish in the sand. Jasmine leaned over, palms against her knees to catch the breath she hadn’t known she had lost.

“Another victory for Albreton,” said the red knight with a tired, pathetic punch to the air.

Jasmine couldn’t help but laugh at that, and the others soon joined her. It wasn’t until they heard Enkaiein’s distinct chuckle that they let their laughter fade and peeled themselves off the ground.

“Thank you all,” said Kurventhor with a deep dragon’s bow.

Salina smiled along with Prince Albert and the red knight waved his hand back and forth as if to say no need to thank me, I was just doing my job. Jasmine ran up to Kur with a newfound energy, hugging his leg tightly.

“I can’t believe it,” she said like she had found the cure for cancer.

Kurventhor nudged her with his snout and said, “If you do not release me, my wife will be jealous.”

Jasmine let go, clearing her throat.

Then there was clapping from the tree line, slow and methodic, one clap at a time in a predictable interval.

“Pretty good for a bunch o’ humans,” said Victor as he walked casually towards them. “Now then,” he opened his palm at Jasmine, “my payment?”

“You were watching this whole time, weren’t you,” Jasmine said bitterly, unclasped the necklace and dropped it, pendant and all, into his hand.

All Victor did was wink at her, smile (with a full set of teeth, no less) and saunter off, whistling. Jasmine crossed her arms, watching him disappear into the darker shadows of the forest.

“If I may,” Enkaiein said, “I do believe we have a King to return to his wife.”