It took us an hour to finish.

  The part I hadn’t thought of was how we were going to get down. We were over a hundred feet above the ground. There wasn’t a trail down. If we were climbing down, then we could’ve just crawled down the same way that we came up. The problem was that there was no way to hang onto the bag of shock rocks and climb down.

  Jonnie sat down on the edge of the peak. He tucked the bag into his lap. "You wanna see something cool?”

  “Sure.” I looked over at him.

  “Not over there.” He waved me closer. "You have to be closer.”

  I moved behind him. "What do you want to show me?”

  He held out his right hand and touched one of the runes on his arm. Ice shot out of hand. It started making an ice slide in front of him.

  “See you at the bottom!” He pushed off.

  As he slid down, he kept extending the slide. About a third of the way from the ground he swapped hands. He landed on the ground in a few seconds.

  “Come on!” He waved at me from the ground. "It’s fun!”

  I sat down at the top of the slide. I couldn’t remember the last time I had been on a slide. I pushed off and slid down. The ice was cold and slick. Mixed with the cool breeze in my face, it felt almost like I was in a winter adventure. I tried not to smile as I hit the ground, but the laugh bubbled out of me. It was fun.

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  “There it is!” Jonnie grinned. "I knew you could have some fun.”

  I smiled. "That was fun.”

  He pointed at the top. "You wanna do it again?” He patted his arms. "I’ve still got enough magic for another run.”

  I thought about saying yes. It had been forever since I had actually had fun, but we needed to get the shock rocks back to Merlin.

  “Not right now.” I shook my head. "We need to get back.”

  “And there’s the business first chick.” Jonnie slung the bag over his shoulder. "It’s cool. Anytime you want another ride, just let me know.”

  I grinned and started off up the road.

  Jonnie jogged to catch up to me. "So what do you need the spell book for anyways?”

  “I told you.” I said. "Enchanting.”

  “I know that.” He smiled. "But enchanting is tough. It takes a special kind of artist to do it.” He moved in front of me. "What do you need enchanted?”

  “Just some gear.” I tried not to let it show that I was impressed he was walking backwards, though I was silently hoping I could angle him into backing in to something.

  “You don’t pick up enchanting so you can enchant ‘just some gear’.” He stopped. "What’s the rush?”

  “A dragon.” I said

  “What?” He dropped the bag. "You’re going to take out a dragon?”

  I nodded.

  “You know that there have only been like a dozen of those things killed in the last eight years.” He rubbed his chin. "Do you have a death wish?”

  I thought about explaining how I hoped to lure my brother into the fight, but the last time I had mentioned my brother, it hadn’t gone well. I decided to try a different tactic.

  “Follow me.”

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