Free No Place for Magic by E. D. Baker

lava or burrow through mountains of ice, and all the while feel as comfortable as a human on a warm spring day. A whole world waited to be explored in a way only dragons could manage. If I remained a dragon, I could see sights no human had ever seen, go places no human had ever gone. I'd never have to put up with people like Frazzela or my mother or . . .
    And then I thought about my dear, sweet Eadric, who never failed to hold my hand when he thought I might be frightened, who always tried to come between me and danger even when I didn't need him to, and who cared how I felt about nearly everything. Eadric was kind and strong and brave and honorable—the kind of knight that other knights only claimed to be. He was also the love of my life, no matter what form I happened to take.
    Although staying a dragon meant that I'd be free to do whatever I wanted to for the rest of my life, I already had something even better waiting for me in a tent, snoring so loudly that I could almost believe I heard him from far away. I could be a dragon now and then, but I knew that I could never leave Eadric for long.
    Dipping one wing, I turned around again, heading back to camp and the far more ordinary life of a human witch.

Six
    A s a dragon I'd seen that we had almost reached the edge of the forest, so I wasn't surprised when the trees thinned out, giving way to a rocky slope. Eadric assured me that his parents' castle was only half a day's ride away. I'd been hoping it would be much closer.
    The road we were on wound around the mountainside. Although it afforded us fantastic views, the steep incline tired the horses and made our travel slower. We hadn't gone far beyond the tree line when the ground began to shake and pebbles shifted under the horses' hooves, making them skittish and hard to control.
    "Are earthquakes common here?" I asked Eadric.
    "Not at all," he said. "I don't think this is an earthquake. Notice how rhythmic it is? I think it's probably a . . ."
    "Giant!" shouted Lucy, pointing wildly as she hung out of the carriage window. The curve of the mountainside prevented us from seeing more than the giant's head and shoulders, although it was enough to tell that he wasn't in very good shape. His coarse brown hair stuck out from his head like straw, and his tunic was rumpled and dirty, unlike most of the giants I'd seen who kept themselves very well groomed. From the way he was moving he looked as if he were staggering, his head lolling with every step.
    "This is bad," said Eadric. "There's a village just a few miles farther in that direction."
    "I can't imagine why a giant would want to go so close to a village unless he wants to make trouble," I said. "He has to know how much damage he can do just by walking down the street." A giant this big could do even more damage than most. His head was higher than my father's tallest tower and broader than that of any giant I'd seen before.
    "He's either sick or drunk," said Eadric. "Look at the way he's walking. I'll go see which it is. You stay here with the carriages, Emma. It's safer here. There's no telling what he'll do when he sees me."
    "Then you shouldn't go by yourself," I said, turning Gwynnie to join him. "I can use my magic to stop him if he's really out of control."
    Eadric looked exasperated when he shook his head and said, "If you won't stay here because I ask you to, consider how many people there are in the village who could see your magic. Do you really want to risk it?"
    "But. . . ," I began, then realized that he was right. Unlike Greater Greensward, where my father's subjects expected me to confront trouble, the people of Upper Montevista would be horrified to see a princess facing a giant and even more so when they realized that I was a witch.
    I watched helplessly from Gwynnie's back as Eadric and my knights picked their way across the rocky ground. "I can't just sit here," I muttered to myself. After what had happened with the sea monster, I wasn't about to let