The Hungry Dragon Cookie Company

by L. G. Estrella

  “Will anyone else be able to open my vault?”

  “Good question.” Weaver looked pleased, and Timmy was tempted to ruffle Katie’s hair again. His apprentice was wonderfully cunning. “In principle, we have access to your vault, but only under the strictest conditions, such as when carrying out transactions on your behalf or when paying any interest we might owe you. These situations will be outlined in the documents I will be providing you with, but we generally only enter your vault for three reasons: to carry out transactions, if you’ve broken the rules, or if you’re dead. Your vault will also contain a safe that not even we can open. I suggest you leave more typical assets, like gold or jewels in the main part of the vault. Use the safe for things of a truly important or personal nature. I should note, of course, that you are not to use the vault for anything on the restricted item list.”

  “Restricted item list?”

  “He’ll give it to you later,” Timmy said. “But it’s pretty simple. If you’ve got an artefact that could blow up the world, usher in the apocalypse, or otherwise severely harm the bank or its interests, the bank doesn’t want it on its premises.”

  “Indeed. We are a banking institution, and although we are happy to store most items, we are not equipped to store items of an extremely dangerous nature.” Weaver pushed the crystal across the table. “Please, run your magic through the crystal until I tell you to stop, Katie.”

  Katie did as he asked, and the crystal pulsed. Its formerly transparent interior grew dark and stormy. Tendrils of darkness seemed to be trying to claw their way out of the crystal. Timmy leaned forward. Interesting. Crystals like this responded differently to different kinds of magic. It looked like there was more to his apprentice’s magic than he thought. He’d have to do a bit of digging. Her parents hadn’t been very interesting from a magical perspective, but it wasn’t unheard of for magical talent to skip a few generations. Finally, the crystal grew clear again, but it had begun to emit a faint hum.

  “Good. We’ve taken a recording of your magic. Allow me to show you to your vault.”

  The vaults were built underneath the bank and protected using the kinds of materials and magic that would make even Timmy think twice before trying to break in. If he factored in the additional security that was doubtless hidden until it was necessary, it was almost certainly impossible to break into the vaults without obliterating a large chunk of the city as well. And this was only one branch of the Secondary Bank. Any attack on it would bring down the full might of the Everton First Kingdom Bank, and whoever was responsible would either be dead or rotting in one of the world’s worst prisons within a week at the most. Even his master, fool that he could be, had not been stupid enough to attack the bank directly after they’d banned him from using their services.

  “The vault beside yours has recently become vacant,” Weaver explained as they walked past an empty vault with open doors. He lowered his voice and continued, “I’m afraid that Aiden Grant is no longer amongst the living, and we’ve distributed the contents of his vault to his next of kin, in accordance with his wishes.”

  “Aiden Grant?” Katie asked.

  Timmy wasn’t surprised that she didn’t know. His apprentice might be a tiny prodigy, but she had yet to become acquainted with all of the circles he moved in. “He’s an assassin – or he was an assassin – who specialised in eliminating high-difficulty targets outside Everton. I knew him reasonably well. He was getting a bit long in the tooth for an assassin, but I always thought he’d make it to retirement.” He paused. “He was going to become a radish farmer, I think.”

  “As did the bank. I was in the midst of finalising his purchase of some farmland.” Weaver shook his head. “We did a lot of good business with him over the years, and he helped us with certain… matters. Unfortunately, he was betrayed. The assassins’ guild is in uproar over it. I daresay it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better, and it’s going to be very, very messy.” Weaver opened the doors of Katie’s vault. If Timmy were a betting man, he’d put his money on Weaver being worried about all the paperwork he’d be stuck with in the near future. If the assassins’ guild got into another civil war, quite a few of the bank’s customers were likely to end up dead, and dead customers were bad for business. Well, except for corpse dealers, but good business for corpse dealers usually meant bad business for everyone else except necromancers. “Here is your vault, Katie.”

  Katie peered into the vault and then glanced back at the corridor. Good. His apprentice had noticed the discrepancy. “It’s bigger on the inside than the outside.”

  “It is indeed.” Weaver’s voice radiated pride. “Admittedly, we’re not as adept at manipulating space as corpse dealers, but we make do, and our magic is far more stable and difficult to interfere with. A corpse dealer has to contend with transporting vast numbers of corpses across great distances. As a bank, we are more concerned with the security and stability of our vaults. Now, do you have anything you’d like to put in here today, or will you be coming back later to make a deposit?”

  Katie reached into her robe and pulled out a sack. Without her shadows to support it, she’d never have been able to carry it, and it would have jangled noisily with each step she took. “My master asked me to bring this. Where should I put it?”

  “Are those coins?”

  “Yes.” Katie smiled shyly. “I’ve been saving a portion of my allowance each month.”

  “An excellent idea, Katie. Developing good financial habits early is the key to future financial success. I recommend the chests over by the wall there. Much like this vault, they are larger on the inside than the outside.”

  Katie carefully sorted her coins into the chest. As Timmy had expected, she separated them according to their composition. Gold coins went into one chest whereas the silver and copper coins went into other chests. She looked over at the safe. “Can I use that today too?”

  “By all means.” Weaver strode over to the safe. “Let me show you how to operate it.”

  Interesting. Katie hadn’t known they would be opening an account for her at the bank today although Timmy had advised her to bring some of her spare money. Whatever she was about to put into the safe, she must have been carrying with her for some reason. From what he’d learned about his young apprentice, it was likely something of great sentimental value rather than monetary value. Weaver took a moment to explain the workings of the safe before he and Timmy looked away and let Katie use it. Once she was done, they left the vault and shut the doors.

  Weaver took out the crystal he’d asked Katie to touch and pressed it against the door. The crystal flashed, and a host of intricate symbols flared to life. They curled across the whole surface of the door and even along the walls nearby before they swept back around to the pair of crystals imbedded in the doors themselves. “The doors are now partially keyed to your magic. To gain entry, you need to run your magic through those two crystals and the doors. If for any reason, your magic is not working properly or is too depleted to let you operate the doors normally, please come and see me.”

  “Partially keyed?” Katie asked. “And can’t someone copy my magic with one of those crystals?” She pointed at the crystal Weaver held.

  “More good questions. Not many of our customers think so deeply about matters of security.” Weaver gave Katie another appraising look, and Timmy frowned at him. He was not about to let Weaver steal his apprentice. “The doors are only partially keyed to your magic, which is why I must now ask you to open the doors. Those two crystals will take an even more detailed and complete sample of your magic, something that cannot be copied without your presence. They will also take a small sample of your blood. The crystal I have is only a partial key. It can only unlock the doors of your vault when combined with the magic and keys of certain employees of this bank, such as myself, who are authorised to enter your vault for the reasons I mentioned earlier. It should not be possible for anyone else to open those doors once they have been fully keyed t
o your magic.”

  Katie gulped at the thought of the door taking a sample of her blood, but she stepped forward and reached for the crystals. There was only one problem. “Master,” she whispered. “Can you lift me up?”

  “Ah, right.” Timmy managed to not smile as Weaver hid a laugh behind a cough. Katie wasn’t tall enough to easily reach the crystals on her own, and she most likely didn’t want to use her magic to lift her up for something so important. “It’s a good thing you’re so small, or I might hurt my back lifting you whenever you need to reach something.”

  Katie scowled adorably but refrained from saying anything until she’d done as Weaver asked and opened the doors. “One of these days, master, I’m going to be taller than you.”

  “Not likely. I’ve met your parents. There is no way you’ll end up taller than me.”

  “We’ll see,” Katie grumbled as they closed the doors again.

  Weaver led them back to his office, and they were about to leave when the banker motioned for them to stay. “If you don’t mind, Timmy, I’d like to ask you for your help in dealing with a certain… issue.”

  “Oh?” Timmy sat back down. “Is this in an official or unofficial capacity?” Depending on Weaver’s answer, he might have to refuse. He wasn’t an especially wanted criminal, but there were places he couldn’t go without risking immediate arrest and imprisonment.

  Weaver’s expression grew pinched. “It’s a bit of both, I’m afraid. The son of one of my… associates was recently kidnapped by bandits. I don’t think they realise his connection to the bank or me, but I’m not willing to rule it out. My associate has been communicating with the bandits, and he is willing to pay the ransom. Unfortunately, the bandits involved are a highly unsavoury bunch, even for bandits. I’ve done some digging, and I have reason to believe they have no intention of returning the boy alive. I would ask the assassins’ guild to take care of this – they are extremely efficient at dealing with bandit riffraff – but there may be some complications, and the other guilds have thus far been reluctant to lend their aid because of those… complications.”

  “You think people from the assassins’ guild are involved?” Timmy sat up straighter. If the guilds, especially the assassins’ guild, were involved and they were doing this to put pressure on Weaver and his associate, this could be taken as a declaration of war. “Why not go through the official channels? You’re not like me, Weaver. You can go to the authorities, and Everton has some of the finest law enforcement officials in the world.”

  “I would prefer to keep this as quiet as possible,” Weaver said crisply. “And I would prefer not to have to answer any questions that might arise during any investigation. The boy’s father and I have an understanding, but it would be best for everyone if the exact nature of that understanding remained private.”

  Well, that was interesting. Weaver’s associate must be involved in some serious criminal enterprise if he didn’t want to involve the law. Given Weaver’s expertise, the most probable explanation was that the boy’s father was involved in illegal financial activities aimed at Everton’s enemies or the bank’s enemies. Due to the potential fallout if the boy’s father was discovered, and he would be if law enforcement were involved, it really would be best for everyone if more informal channels were used to secure the boy’s safety.

  Timmy’s brows furrowed. He’d heard vague rumours of some uncommonly bad luck amongst certain merchants. “Is your associate targeting the holdings of Eternal Empire-aligned merchants in Everton?”

  Weaver winced. “Yes. Yes, he is. I’m impressed you were able to figure it out from such little information. As you can imagine, his activities also benefit the bank since the chief backer of many of those merchants is the largest bank in the Eternal Empire, which just so happens to be one of our main competitors. I would definitely prefer it if he were allowed to continue his activities.” He wrote a number down on a piece of paper and pushed it across to Timmy. “This is how much money he’s been able to embezzle from Eternal Empire-aligned merchants in the past year alone.”

  Timmy had to read the number three times to convince himself it was real. “Wow. He’s a busy guy, and I can see why you think he’s worth keeping around. Okay. I’ll handle it, but I need as much information about those bandits as you can give me.”

  * * *

  Timmy and Katie headed back to the isolated clearing about half a mile from one of the roads that led into the city from the surrounding hill country. They’d undertaken the final part of their journey on foot, but they’d done the majority of their travel via zombie wyvern. Once they reached the clearing, Timmy checked to make sure they were truly alone before he gestured sharply with his shovel. The ground split open, and the earth parted to reveal two zombie wyverns and a dozen of his zombie warriors. He smiled. Earth magic wasn’t as visually impressive as fire or lightning magic, but it was incredibly handy. Because zombies didn’t need to breathe and were very durable, his magic let him use the entire countryside as a hiding place for his zombies.

  Katie studied the hole in the ground. “Master, how should I hide my zombies when I start using them more? I don’t have earth magic, and I don’t think I can hide them for long with my shadows unless I stay close to them.”

  “You’re overthinking things. Keep it simple. Your shadows are getting stronger and more flexible every day. It won’t be long before you can use them to dig a hole for your zombies. If not, you can always get the zombies to dig the hole and then smooth it over with your shadows once they’ve gotten into it. At night, it’ll be even easier. You won’t need to use your shadows at full strength to hide things. Even a sliver or two of your shadows should be enough to hide your zombies unless someone runs right into them. In the meantime, it’s not like you’ll be running around on your own. You’ll have me around.” Timmy ruffled her hair and then stepped back to avoid a clumsy swipe from a shadowy claw. “You’ve got potential, but you still need more time to turn your potential into real power and skill. It’ll be at least a couple more years before you can come tomb raiding with me and at least a decade before I even think of letting you wander around on your own.”

  The zombies climbed out of the hole, and Timmy lifted Katie up onto one of the zombie wyverns and then climbed up behind her. She wasn’t ready to ride on her own yet, and she hadn’t gotten far enough with her shadows to make wings that could fly or even glide. “Hold on. We know roughly where the bandits are, and we’ll be coming in low.” He glanced up at the sky. The sun was setting. By the time they reached the bandits, it should be dark. “While we’re flying, use your shadows to conceal us. It’ll be good practice, and it will make us much harder to see.”

  Wrapped in shadows, the zombie wyvern would be almost impossible to see against the night sky, particularly if the cloudy weather held. As for the other zombie wyvern, Timmy had ordered it to fly slightly higher than them. If he’d been on his own, he would have ordered both wyverns to fly much higher, but he wasn’t sure how Katie would handle the thinner air and the cold. As much as he joked about her being small, she really was tiny. He’d been a scrappy kid growing up, but she was much smaller than he’d been at her age. Oh, well. He’d simply have to make sure she drank plenty of milk and ate all of her vegetables. He bit back a snicker. Getting his apprentice to eat healthily would be very fun – for him. It would also keep him on his toes. He had a feeling that telling her to eat all of her broccoli might bring out some of her innate villainy, possibly in the form of an attempted murder or two.

  He’d split the zombie warriors between the two wyverns, and as they flew he went over everything Weaver had told him. The bandits were supposed to be holed up in an area perhaps an hour and a half north of the city by wyvern. It was a secluded spot, with only one or two roads into the area. Luckily, the zombie wyverns allowed him to avoid those roads because he was certain they would be closely watched. Weaver had also told Timmy about the building the boy was likely to be kept in. It was near the centre of the
bandits’ camp beside a small hill. Weaver couldn’t be sure, but he strongly suspected that several members of the assassins’ guild were involved. Prominent members of the guild had betrayed Aiden Grant, and not everyone liked the bank or its influence over the guild.

  The bandits shouldn’t be a problem. With his earth magic and his shovel, Timmy could simply have flattened the camp and buried them under a landslide. However, there were two problems with that approach: he needed to get the boy back unharmed, and he needed to be ready for the assassins to intervene. Bandits were easy enough to deal with, but a skilled assassin could be a nightmare. He’d certainly faced enough of them over the years to know. He also had to get all of this done while watching over Katie. To be fair, he could have left her with Weaver, but her magic was extremely useful for sneaking around. Even at her age, she could already hide incredibly well with her shadows. More importantly, she was skilled enough with her magic to conceal someone else as well. Timmy wouldn’t have to fight anyone if they didn’t even realise he was there until he’d grabbed the kid and run for it.

  They continued flying until they spotted the bandits’ camp. It was built around a small cluster of hills with some rough fortifications around it. What worried Timmy was how little magic he felt from the camp. Either there were no mages or assassins there, or they were smart enough and wary enough to conceal themselves even though they weren’t expecting an attack.

  “What do we do, master?” Katie asked. She had a studious expression on her face, the one she always wore whenever she was trying to tease out the solution to some problem or puzzle. Good. She was taking this seriously, but she wasn’t panicking.

  “Relax.” He patted her on the head. “They’ve got a lot of people patrolling. Even with your magic, I doubt we can get in unnoticed unless we have a distraction. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to drop the zombie warriors first and have them pick a fight. Once they’re occupied, we’re going to land nearby and then sneak in. You need to use your shadows to conceal us. Since they’re using tents and what look like buildings with dirt floors, I should be able to use my earth magic to locate the boy. Weaver said he should be in the building in the middle, but it never hurts to be sure.” He paused. “Katie, I will do my absolute best to protect you. Unless something goes very, very wrong, you shouldn’t have to do any fighting. If we get separated or if something bad happens, you need to hide or run away. The zombie wyverns and zombie warriors will listen to you. Use them to get back to the castle or Weaver. Don’t worry about leaving me behind. I’ll be fine.” He smiled ruefully. Trust me. I always am.”