There was a pitcher of water by the bed and he poured her a cup. Helping her to sit up he helped her to drink. Her voice when she spoke was a soft rasp. “Thank you.”
He shook his head. “You almost died. I didn’t do anything but spook the doctor into attacking you.”
She reached out and caught his hand. She squeezed to show she didn’t blame him for the attack. He pulled the chair closer and held her hand. “I’ve heard stories about a doctor forcing amputations on people. Was it your husband? I thought it was some backroom clinic. Your husband is a respected doctor at a good hospital.”
She nodded. “A few years.” It took her a moment to get the words out and when she continued it was barely in a whisper that had him leaning forward. “He gets paid for certain limbs. I don’t—” She coughed and by the time she got her breath back she was pale. He helped her to take another sip of the water.
“He was a mean bastard.” Everett tightened his hand over hers. He frowned. He wasn’t naïve about life. For women, it was hard to leave their husbands. It didn’t help that the doctor was abusive. No man that could hold a blade to his wife’s throat would hold her in high regard. He couldn’t imagine the fear and abuse over the years.
He turned over her arm but there weren’t any bruises. A sly smile touched Margaret’s lips. “He’d never hurt me where it would show. He was too smart for that.”
He didn’t want to keep her talking for too long but he had to ask, “Do you know where he has gone?”
She shook her head. “He would go somewhere sometimes but he would usually lock me in the house.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “I’m so sorry that I sent the Collector to leave things at your place. I knew your sister was a policewoman and the Collector thought I was threatening you on behalf of my husband. I wish I had the strength to come to you and tell you what he really was doing.”
He shook his head. “It’s alright. We now know he is dangerous and what he has been doing. We will stop him and you will be safe here.” He wondered how many people the doctor had mutilated in the name of money. He also wondered if the hospital had been aware.
His first stop was to his house where he sent one of his parent’s footmen to stand watch over Margaret.
__
Everett lifted the crystal up to the light from the window illuminated it. Rayne lounged in one of the more comfortable couches he had in the main shop area for people waiting to be fitted with a limb. She wasn’t attached to her hand and instead she was playing with one of his windup toys with her one good hand as her mechanical hand was in pieces on his workbench.
When he had first seen Rayne’s hand he had been mystified by how the crystals could work to send information from the arm to the fingers. Now he knew there was a kind of brain inside the crystals that worked along set paths. He even knew how to make his own. And he just might have to make one as this crystal had a crack through it. A bare scratch through the crystal but deep in its core. This was what was disrupting the sensors and sending the wrong messages.
He could do something to help in the meantime as it would take a while to grow a new crystal that could replace this one.
He jumped when Rayne placed the mechanical toy next to his elbow. He had been so absorbed in his work that he hadn’t even noticed her moving from the couch.
She asked, “Is it that bad?” He frowned for a moment taking his mind out of his work and bringing it back to communicating in human languages.
“Yeah, I must make you a new sensor crystal and that will take a few days. How did you manage this?”
She shrugged. “I don’t treat my hand with all that much care. It is me.”
He tilted his head and studied her. “You don’t think of yourself less because you’ve lost your hand. When did that change?”
She wrinkled her nose and said, “Just about when you left. I realised I was using the loss as a reason to keep people away. Don’t give me that look. I didn’t take that long to figure it out that you should pity me.” He chuckled at her look and turned back to the hand. He put back everything except the cracked crystal. There was something he could use to give it some stability in the meantime. As he worked he told her about Margaret.
Rayne shrugged. “Not surprising. It wouldn’t have taken much to keep her quiet. Actually paying the Collector was a good idea. He couldn’t leave it at the Yard either. We would have just complained about them not doing their jobs. Leaving it at your place certainly got my attention.” He stopped and lifted an eyebrow in her direction.
She lifted her hand in defence. “What? I would have got to it if I wasn’t so busy. Which reminds me. Did you thank your White Lady for her help?”
“Yeah. I must find her and tell her the witch doctor is in prison and she doesn’t have to worry about him.” He injected a liquid into the crack. He pulled back the needle to look at the repair. It was only because he was still wearing his eye device that he could see the small crack. He pushed aside his magnifying glasses and pulled the rest of the hand closer so he could replace the crystal.
Rayne shrugged and said, “She might be better off using the time to run. He isn’t going to be in prison for long. The only thing we could pin him with was buying body parts and that only has a couple of months.”
He closed the casing on the hand and passed it back to her. “I’ll find some way to keep her safe. It isn’t right that she has to be running away just because she is different.”
Rayne went still. “I might have an idea about that. Don’t count on it as they can be fickle but there is someone I might be able to call on to sort him out?”
Any kind of hope that Medea could live a life without fear was to be celebrated. Especially if she spent that freedom with him. “Thank you. I would love any help I can get.”
He had clearly not hidden his feelings for Medea as his sister cocked an eye in his direction and asked, “So you really like her. Even though you have spent little time with her.”
“I don’t know what it is. We have been writing to each other. And I hope one day we will be able to spend actual time together.”
Rayne picked the mechanical hand and went behind a screen to attach it. “I think mom will freak when she finds out.”
“Why? She doesn’t care about class.” He raised his voice so she could hear him on the other side of the store.
“Oh, not about the class. She might be albino but she is also from Africa.” She came out from behind the screen tugging on her coat.
“Mom won’t care about that.” Though as he said that he wasn’t so sure. She had certainly pushed Rayne to marry Victor when the dragon had come calling. Dragons though were the most sought after match. Though there was no slavery in the Empire, unlike the new world. There weren’t many who were from Africa living in the empire either. He knew in some parts of the empire there was more of a mix but not in the islands.
“She might when the children aren’t perfectly pale. Victor tells me that any offspring will be a mixture of you and her. That what makes her pale will most likely not pass onto your children.”
“I don’t care.” He had always been fascinated with Africa ever since his tutor moved there. Even before that they had read about the culture and the wildlife together. He had also marched with the groups that were protesting the slavery of Medea’s people in the New World.
Rayne looked up from buttoning up the last button. “People will look at you if you ever go out. They will accuse her of cuckolding you.”
He growled. “She would never do anything like that.”
“I know that. You don’t have to get angry with me. I’m just telling you what it will be like.” He put away his tools as he thought. He knew his sister was right. He had watched how they had treated her for years like she was something less and imperfect because she had lost a hand. A hand she had lost because of him. Not that he had done it on purpose but if he hadn’t been sick, they wouldn’t have been in that carriage in a storm and they wouldn’t have
crashed. Rayne wouldn’t have crushed her hand needing the amputation.
She had learned to ignore their opinion. He would just have to do the same.
Chapter Thirteen
Rayne lowered her head close to Victor’s back as the wind whipped her hair around. Wincing as she pulled out some strands that caught in the fine gaps in the articulated hand. She had pinned it back but the long flight had done its toll on the coif. She would have been blinded if it hadn’t been for the goggles she had thrown on along with a thick fur coat. This wasn’t her first flight with Victor and not even their longest.
The castle where Lala and Harlen lived sat deep in the side of a mountain just over the strait. A few years ago Lala and Harlen had come to Londinuim to sort out the dragon problem there. Only to find it was a human who was stirring up things. As fixers for the Wyvern Empire they were often sent into tricky situations.
Victor changed direction and she risked looking over his side to see where they were. She could see the castle with the occasional spire that poked out of the top of the stone. There were no roads to the castle and it was only accessible by air. It was part of the protections that was needed as the leader of the dragons also lived there. She had never met him and she hoped she never did as he sounded intimidating.
She tightened her grip on the saddle horn as Victor landed. It didn’t help as she was shoved forward by the sudden stop. She slammed her cheek into the warm scales of Victor’s back. Shaking her head she gathered herself to slide off his back. She landed in a crouch as her legs were jelly. Stumbling to her feet she unlatched the strap that held on the saddle. It clunked to the ground as she couldn’t move fast enough to catch it. Blue light flashed and she raised her arm just in time to save her sight. The saddle also disappeared which meant he had stored it away somewhere between. She still didn’t know how the dragons’ magic worked. Just that as long as they owned something they had some connection to it which allowed them to control its matter. Where it went was still a mystery. Victor had explained but only her sister Katherine actually understood.
Victor slipped an arm around her waist and helped her to stand. She leaned on him but her legs were getting used to being on solid ground again. A servant approached them with a slight bow. She left Victor to speak as they would listen to him in this bastion of dragoness.
“Please take us to Harlen.”
The servant frowned and said, “Prince Harlen is not in residence. If it is to do with his work, maybe his daughter Charani could be of assistance.”
“Daughter?” Lately because of her own pregnancy she had become more fascinated by the progeny of dragons. Rayne wondered if this daughter was a half-dragon hybrid like her own child would be.
Victor nodded and said, “I heard she was a dragon hunter so she should be able to help us.” Then definitely not a dragon hybrid. Dragon hunters were humans that had something special about them that allowed them to tell a dragon from a human in any circumstance. They were stronger and faster than most humans. But that hadn’t helped them after the treaty when they were hunted down by the dragons with no allies amongst the humans to keep them safe.
She had no idea how a dragon hunter could end up as the child of a dragon but since she knew Lala was a dragon hunter it could be her child from another relationship.
She hoped the daughter could help but she hadn’t been sure she would have been able to convince Harlen and Lala and she knew them. This unknown person only added in uncertainty. They followed the servant through the winding corridors deep into the mountain.
The servant knocked on a door and announced, “A dragon and his mate to see your father, lady Charani.” The servant didn’t even wait for an answer but stepped out of the doorway and walked away.
Rayne looked at his retreating back and asked, “What would we do if she isn’t even in there?” There was no way Rayne could find her way back through the maze of corridors without a guide. Victor flashed her a grin before he opened the door. Where were his manners or were the rules different when it came to dealing with other dragons? Victor was the only dragon in Londinium so neither of them dealt with other dragons often.
A large man stood before them. Clearly, he had come to answer the door. He frowned down at them but it didn’t hide the colour of his eyes. They were a ruby red. This was definitely not a human but the only dragons she knew with red eyes were the Roshian dragons and by all accounts, they had been hunted down to the last one and exterminated. Apparently the news of their demise was exaggerated. Victor offered a smile.
“Charani?”
Rayne rushed forward and pushed Victor back. This couldn’t be Charani as Charani was a girl’s name. This dragon was no woman. “Sorry sir. Just ignore Victor he likes to be perverse. We are here to see Charani.”
The Roshian dragon called over his shoulder, “Sweetheart.” A small woman with dark hair and dark skin came through the door tucking her shirt into her waist. She ran a hand through her hair. This wasn’t the blood daughter of Lala who was pale-skinned. Rayne took another look at the Roshian dragon. He wore a simple lawn shirt which was untucked. She blushed as she wondered if they had interrupted the two in an intimate moment.
Charani frowned at them. “You are new.”
Victor snorted. “I’m older than you girl.” The Roshian dragon growled at the implied insult. So much for convincing them to help them with their witch doctor.
Rayne turned to Victor. “Hush, we are asking a favour so we want them to like us.”
Victor shrugged. “We could always wait for Harlen and Lala. We know they like us.”
“We can’t wait that long. The court only gave the witch doctor a month’s sentence. What if Harlen and Lala are on an extended mission? None of their work can be considered uncomplicated.”
Charani cleared a throat and said, “How about you tell us why you are here and then maybe we can both get back to what we really want to do.” Rayne flushed at the insinuation.
Victor flashed a smile. “Making babies? Because we’ve already done that.” Rayne groaned. Charani though didn’t seem phased by the comment. But then she was married to a dragon she would be used to the blunt and often off colour comments.
“We came to see what dragons feel about witch doctors. Witch doctors that use body parts for spells.”
The Roshian dragon spoke with a deep voice, “We have spirit men in Rosha. They don’t have the power you speak of.”
“I didn’t say they actually did anything with the spells just what they believed. But I know dragons tend to keep out of human affairs.”
Charani frowned. “We aren’t keen on intervening when humans kill humans because usually there are human authorities to deal with them.”
“What about when they travel around the world? What about when human authorities can’t find evidence because he uses hidden means?” Rayne countered.
The Roshian dragon rumbled but didn’t say anything.
Charani said, “We have in the past dealt with some when it was convenient.”
Victor said, “We can make it convenient.” Rayne reached up and covered Victor’s mouth with her hand.
Charani asked, “Did the witch doctor take your hand? Is that why you wish for him to see justice.”
“No, he preys on the unique.”
The Roshian asked, “What do you mean unique?”
“He is chasing after an albino girl.”
Charani waggled her head to show she was thinking it over and said, “That will be in your favour. Dragons like the unique.”
Rayne rushed, “My brother likes her.” She didn’t want a slew of dragons in Londinium chasing after Medea. The city could barely handle one dragon. Besides, she thought her brother had feelings for the girl and she didn’t want him to have any competition though the idea of her little brother having a beau was mind-boggling.
Charani chuckled. “Worried one of the unattached dragons will want to court her. Not to worry. I can’t guarantee anything but I’ll have a lo
ok into it.” Rayne let out a breath.
Victor said, “Let’s go hit the library. I need to look up some things.”
The Roshian said, “Let me guide you.” She eyed him. She wouldn’t have thought the large dragon would even know where the library was.
Chapter Fourteen
Everett leaned on the doorframe of a store his sister Katherine was perusing. The store was in an area of town dangerous for his sixteen-year-old sister to visit alone but was also the only area with a store that carried the texts she needed for her latest medical enquiry.
Dragooned only occasionally, Everett didn’t mind this particular family duty, like the book stores, his sister took him to often had fascinating finds. Today his mind was on the albino woman instead.
He had completed her new foot but she hadn’t returned. Everett assumed the crazy African man kept her away. He’d written to her and told her he had completed the foot but so far he hadn’t had a response from her. He’d checked twice the hole in the wall but his original note was still there in the brick wall so he knew she hadn’t returned there either.
Everett glimpsed green fabric contrasted with cream. He dismissed it at first as he had been seeing phantoms of Medea for days as his mind dwelled on her. A brass and mahogany crutch rounded the corner.
Everett shot across the street his voice laced with his concern as he called out her name. Medea stilled like a deer in a hunter’s sight. Taking two steps back.
Her voice was shaky with fear as she asked him, “What are you doing here? How did you find me?”
Everett put a hand over hers on the crutch, afraid she might try to leave if he didn’t have that connection. “I didn’t follow you, I swear. That crazy man is in jail.”
Fear crawled through her eyes, her limbs stiff with it. “You found him?”
“Yeah and we put him in jail. Not for long though. I can help you. I’ve finished your foot. With it you can outrun him. Especially now that he is a prison for a few weeks.” His hand dropped from hers as he sensed the urge to flee had left her.
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