chapter 1

prologue


The streets were still. Everyone had long scence gone inside. The curfue had been raised again to 9:00 and the bells were already chiming 12.

Then a shadow. Moving with silent grace. A flash of life, in these otherwise dead streets. A girl, only a dark form. The streets waited breathe held. The girl's hood fell back revealing a flash of silver-blonde hair. The streats breathed.  She huridly tugged it back up into place. She was a shadow again.

Even though she's done this before, many times, her heart still beat faster and she had to keep herself at a human run. Her wings itched to be free. Her lungs burned to taste the night. At her waste hung a velvet pounch, safe and full. She touched the pouch absently, the sharp edges of the jules proding her finger tips. Their voices hummed through her, their energy making her wings pull and scratch beneath her human skin.

The jules were a payment for the work she loathed. She haited being reduced to this, working for humans. This world, and many others, were filled with humans like a plague they spread to every corner of the worlds. Their stentch was everywere. The rotting copse of humanity. It was better here, at least there was magic.

She slid around another corner. Silent as a cat. Just one more street, one more turn. She crept silently through the shadows hesitating to listen as she went. Finally the last corner, the last patch of shadow and dark street lamp. She slunk towards one of the alleys darkened door ways.

Then pawsed to wisper
"Pan"

The sound felt flat and loud in the darkness like a gavel on the stillness. Inside the doorway a shadow moved. It detatched from the wall.

The boy who had before been only a shadow smiled. His teeth flashing like white daggers. His eyes were mismatched, one blue, one green, they shawn with a golden light. His black hair was still damp from another worlds rain.

"Finn , what took you so damn long? I was beginning to think you had run off with some fancy Persian drake."

finn laughed tension seeping from her.

"it didn't take me that long. And even if it had I dought I could find a drake of any kind at this hour. And even if I could find one the bloke couldn't be Persian. Persia does not exist in Mackeb."

Pan's smile widened, "that makes no sence dear."

Finn stuck her toung out at him, "yes it does you idiot."

A sound made them both jump, a cat darted from a pile of garbage at the end of the alley, Finn gave a startled lagh, her hand sliding from the hilts of her two swords that hung still at her belt.

Pan rolled his eyes, "alright bonnie, lets go before the coppers catch us."  

Finn snorted "sure thing clide"

she slid past him into the shadows. Pan pawsed and glanced into the night. Then he turned and, grabbing the door frame, swung into the liquid darkness. A piece of white paper fluttered down to the street.

There it lay, unnoteced, till dawn began to beat back night. A women dressed all in white with short, feathered black hair and golden eyes darted to the mouth of the alley. She hesitated there a moment and glanced furtivly over her shoulder. Then she ducked into the lingering night of the alley. She rushed to the door way were Pan and Finn had been only the night before.

There she stoped and nelt. Her pail hand closed around the scrap of paper. Her eyes darted over it, devouring the words with a hungry intensity.

When the woman was done she quickly folded the letter and stuffed it into one of the folds of her gown. Then she straitened and, without a backward glance, sliped from the alley and merged semlessly into the crowded streets.


The first taste of batrayl,
The first hint of darkness
Open your eyes
you screem
But I say nae
What kind story would it be
if every one knew who would betrey
So close your eyes
Fumble on
Let the story go
And only when its done let the fog be gone
And the shadows make way for dawn
















Chapter 1

Finn sat on the thick carpeting of her beadroom glaring down at a book. Why the hell were all the characters such freaking morons? She put the book down with a moan of discust and pulled her laptop over. It took her a couple tries to get the metal thing humming right. Electronics and magic don't really coegsist well, if at all. And the poor old mac had been magically enhanced for years. Still Finn refused to replace it even when she spent more time cursing at it then actually working.

Today after school Finn did what she always did, she octopussed. She flopped down somewere in the house pulling out everything she had to do and spreading it all about her, so that it resembled an octopuse's arms. And, pan joked, you'd need eight arms to reach anything.

Today Finn had an extrodanary amount of homework, in every subject, plus all the paper work and document signing that came from running your own rebellion/nomadic country/ mafia/ corperate business/ monarchie from the comfort of home.

After the mac had finally hummed to life Finn dug through her favorite sites menue to find a news site. It only took her a matter of seconds to find one and pull it up on her desktop.

The news she was looking for was front and center. Hurricane serena was all anyone had been talking about for the past few weeks and today was the day it was to hit. Already winds were at a record braking high and the sea was frothing through the streets. The perfect vacation spot for a dragon. Finn and pan had been planning to go flying in the storm but he had said something last minute had come up. So instead they were going a bit early. Finn was fine with that. Any time she got to spend with pan was good enough. Tonight she got to skip her normal duities and go for a pleasure flight.

Her wings hummed with anticipation. She loved flying with pan, they were a perfect balance of power and speed. Blue and violet. And hurucanes were one of her and pans favorite weather. Normally if Finn was lucky she'd be able to sneak a flight after school wile she "walked" iris, her "dog", and in the pacific northwest the best she could normally hope for was a wind storm. Lighning and thunder were rare, and even wind storms were hard to catch.

She wished she could visit laden more. The young desert dragon lived in Arizona and she always loved flying with him. Unfortuantly ordinary dragons hate storms. Even most starlings dislike foul weather, it hides the stars and blocks out light so demineshing their power. For Finn though it was a blessed repreave from the constant press of power.

Finn glanced at the clock, 9:30 an exeptable time to go to sleep.  She got to her feet and headed off to the bathroom.

She stared at her own face in the mirror. It was a humans face. The face of a child. It was her face, and not hers at the same time. this face was as alien to her as her own would be to it. As she watched the mirror her face began to change. overlaying the image of her human face, the face of the girl she had created, scales slid down to hide her pale skin, though the scales were even paler then her human flesh. They were a pale perline white. Her hair changed to scaled threds that moved as if of there own accord.  Her eyes changed last their color first pailing then changing again. Darkening to a deep purple. There pupils thinned slitting like a cats.

After a moment she turned away and grabbed a tooth brush. She didn't have time for have time for petty vanities. As she scrubbed at her teeth her cell phone buzzed. She quickly fished it out of her pocket an flipped it open.

"hello", Finn paused a moment listening to the voice on the other end. As she did her face fell, she closed her eyes, shutting out the world. She shook her head

"Pan we cant rescedual again you know how long it took me to get this much time off." She hesitated listening to Pans voice on the other end. Her face fell farther and she rubbed at her forhead with one hand, biteing her lower lip. She nodded, slowly leaning back against the wall. "ok I'll call laden he can send some one to pick me up, and then when your done-" she stoped and listened. Then she hung up. She put the phone on the counter and slid down onto the tile. She sat there for a moment, head between her knees eyes tight shut. Then she reached up and dialed a number. Gabriel picked up on the third ring.

"hey gabbe" Finn tipped her  head back to stare up at the lights. "ya I know, Pan canceled. What are ya doing tonight." She stoped listening.

"ok ill just call laden and have him take me up to the office. All right bye." She hung up. She sat there for a moment staring at the phone. Then with a sharp snarel she threw it across the room. It snapped against the wall. She pressed her paulms to her forhead with a groan. "God I hate this, all of it. Why cant I just be human."