Chapter 14

Nastassia aimed her bolts. Between her power and Vassily's, augmented by the machines in the dungeon, they might be able to withstand even the assault of the dragon.

But as she lifted her arms, she was seized by a windward force that sent her sprawling in a epileptic fit.

Angelique saw her fall and braced herself for the moment when Nastassia sought who had done that to her and retaliated.

Barnabas's chest rose. Maybe life was returning to him... Maybe it was working. George looked at the eyelids. Maybe they were beginning to flutter.

Maybe the sexual energy was getting to him. He looked down, but saw no response yet...

Barnabas had to wake up. He had to get up and unhook himself from the machines.

Vassily came to Nastassia's aid. he could not deal by himself with this new threat, but he could send his gargoyles after it.

Megan saw two of the gargoyles who were assaulting her veer away, downward. She wondered what it was, but could do nothing about it. Amy saw it too, and shot them with the gun Megan had given her. Would the bullets have effect on the gargoyles?

It was becoming harder to hold on... If George could not wake Barnabas now.

Angelique defended herself against the gargoyles as best she could. She sent a bolt against one and it fell down. She turned to the other, but this one plummeted, shot by Amy.

But Vassily had discovered her. He was looking at her with cold, cruel eyes.

"She is yours." he told Nastassia "show her how powerful you are."

The dragon was losing altitude, due to the continuous assault of the gargoyles. Amy could shoot them down, but she only had so many bullets...

Soon the dragon would fall, and the fire of its breath would not save it from destruction.

"We are falling" Amy said.

"We have to hold on." Megan's hands pressed on the dragon's neck, giving it her strength. "George will wake up Barnabas, you'll see."

Barnabas opened his eyes. "What..?" he said weakly, and then sank back into unconsciousness.

George shook him. "Wake up. You have to wake up!

Megan and Vassily looked at each other.

"Do you surrender?" Vassily asked her. "I will be merciful to you."

Megan shook her head. "It is you who must surrender."

"The dragon has lost power over me. You deceived me well, Megan Graham, but I will be merciful to you still. You shall be given a place of honor."

"Like the one you gave Barnabas Collins?"

Vassily said nothing.

"I do not want to kill you."

Vassily laughed and lifted his arm, ready to deliver the one blow that would bring down the dragon once and for all.

Then the color drained out of him and he stumbled.

He fell down to his knees. The dragon breathed on him and he was enveloped in flames.

Nastassia also stumbled, and the next bolt from Angelique finished her off.

Barnabas got unsteadily to his feet, helped by George, who finished disconnecting him from the machines. He could not think straight, could not recognize where he was, nor how he had ended there. He would remember soon. He fought off his desire to go back to sleep. He knew that he should not. It was too important that the did not fall asleep...

Julia waited. What was happening? Had they succeeded? Or failed? And if they failed, what could she do?

Would she dare the I Ch'ing again? Last time they had tried Dave had barred the way... but maybe it was because any action of her part would damage what Megan wanted to do. She recalled Dave's words and Tammy's response to them. Tammy had guessed what was going on and had done her best to protect Megan.

It was then that she saw the flies come her way, a long line of small black flies. Only that they grew and changed. And the one in front was not black, but red, and it was a dragon, with Megan and Amy riding it. And behind were men and women, all flying through the air, being dragged by the powerful wings of the dragon.

The dragon came down on the ground. Megan and Amy dismounted and the dragon began to shrink again. then the people grew... no, only some of them. George, and Barnabas, and Angelique... and Zeb, and Jessica, and Urien, and Howard, and Frances, and George Patterson,, and Derek and Roger...

The others remained shrunk, looking dazedly around them.

Angelique gestured, clasped her hands in front of her, and when she parted them, she held the egg.

It was a small delicate jewel again, but it had been blackened by fire inside it. Two of the dancers had been melted down. The others had burns on them that marred the enamel of their gowns an uniforms...

But the machinery still worked.

"It is over." Megan said, closing the egg again. "And if you call the hospital you will find out that Peter is now out of his coma."

"What about them?" George said about the little people surrounding them.

What about them, indeed? They were tiny. They had no place to go. The only home they knew had been destroyed. Some of them were American, could be expected to somehow adjust to a new life. But the Russians, not knowing the language, not knowing the customs, lost in an alien country,... what could they do?'

Angelique helped Megan to gather them. A shoebox was the best they could do in short notice. "Better make it shoeboxes" Megan said. "We have to keep the nobles apart along with he guards. We do not want any lynchings."

At least they would be safe there until a better home could be found. And Amy ran to the Burger King for an extra large order, to feed them all. For the slaves, accustomed to gruel, that would be a rare feast indeed.

Megan sat down to consider the situation.

"How many undocumented aliens who cannot speak English can the town of Collinsport support?" she asked calmly.

No one answered this.

"I know what you'd want to do. You want to let these people grow to normal size so that we can wash our hands off them, with the excuse that they are adults, and that we should not presume to dictate to them. But in all honesty, we can't. The only home they knew has been destroyed. And what we have to offer them is not a very welcoming place. Like it or not they are undocumented aliens. Illegal aliens. And they have no idea of what it is like out here.

"This does not mean that they can't learn." George said. "nor that we cannot provide them with papers. You are very good at things like that."

"I can provide them with papers. yes But it will take time. And they will not learn English overnight. And until they do they have to be fed and clothed, and where will the money for it come from? Are we willing to support a large refugee population which is at least as large as that of Collinsport?"

"What you are saying that keeping them small will make it easier to provide for them." Howard said.

"Yes. And they need to stay that size until they are ready to come out into the world. Only we cannot release them en masse. But ten people leaving Collinsport each month and given the chance to blend into the population of a large city is quite feasible."

"What do you think they will decide?" Amy asked Angelique.

"They will keep them the size they are. Otherwise it will be a logistic nightmare. Probably make the egg livable again so that they can go back to what is familiar to them. George will insist in allowing them to leave and integrate themselves in modern society, but he can be made to see that the egg can be a good halfway house for those who want to leave."

Amy shook her head. She had hated the place. She had wanted to see it destroyed.. and now it would be put together again.

"It will be under new management. One of the first acts will probably deal with the nobles who exploited the slaves and the guards who enforced their will... It might well be that the jail to hold them might be the first buildings we put up. But I do not see any reason why the egg cannot be made into a decent place to live... I think that Howard would like that very much."

"Still, it seems wrong."

"In a sense, it is. But also it is the only way to do it. Moral considerations do not apply in extreme situations. Same as with Derek killing Sebastian Shaw."

"Derek killed Sebastian?"

"Sebastian had turned informer. He would have betrayed us all. Derek sacrifices himself for our sake. George not only accepts it, but admires him now more than he ever did. Had Derek done it here, in Collinsport, he would see it as a crime and arrest him. But given the circumstances, he wants to give him a medal."