Of Dreams and Dragons

by Karpov Kinrade

Kaden clears his throat, but Phoenix answers first. "We speak with the town council, then interview everyone, as you said. Then we track and see what we're dealing with."

  I nod and Kaden winks at me as we finish our meal, then head to the Commons, where the council has already been called, or so we've been told.

  The village council consists of three middle-aged white men in ornately carved chairs. Before them are rows of hay stacks placed for everyone else to sit.

  The men wear black robes with golden clasps and each hold staffs that look custom made. Everything about their presentation is a pretentious nod to what little power they wield in this tiny village. The eight of us walk in, but rather than sitting on the stacks, we stand before the council looking rather impressive, if I do say so myself. Our power is not for show. It is real, and it effective.

  There's something about these men that rub me the wrong way without them even saying anything. Particularly the man in the middle, who looks to be in charge. His eyes are small and beady, his salt and pepper hair is plastered to his head with some kind of animal fat, and he has a lecherous way about him that makes my skin crawl. He keeps glancing at Raven and licking his lips. I shift my eyes to her to make sure she's okay, but her face is expressionless.

  The man to his right looks like he's done his best to emulate the middle man, down to the same part in his hair. It's only the man on the left that smiles at us when we arrive, and seems grateful that we are here. He has warm brown eyes and gray hair that flops around his face. He reminds me of a kindly grandfather.

  "I am Head Council Charles Lambarington Rothcrust," the bloated man in the middle says. His accent is manufactured. That of someone trying to sound above their rank. "And these are my seconds; Jerrit Rubling Dreaklest to my left and Frankelton Mortlur Karspurple to my right." Jerrit visibly cringes when Charles uses his whole name. Conversely, Frankelton puffs up like one of those poisonous fish.

  "We've called you here today to give you the opportunity to perform your sworn duty to this realm by ridding us of the devil that is hunting and killing our children. It is, if I may say, a disappointment that we needed to call you at all. That your people haven't managed in all these years of existence, with all the financial charity you receive from the kingdom, to rid us completely of the need for these tragic events."

  Kaden and I exchange exasperated glances, and he clears his throat, cutting off Charles before he can continue. "Gentlemen, time is of the essence. Are any of you personally connected with any of the victims? Or a witness to anything that happened?"

  Charles pouts his lips at being interrupted. "We have, of course, spoken at length to each and every—"

  "That's all well and good," I say, not bothering to hide my frustration. "But we need the names and locations of those who lost loved ones or witnessed what happened so that we can interview them directly."

  Charles glares at me, then returns his eyes to Kaden. "I believe the men were speaking. If you could please control that girl."

  Are you kidding me?

  Kaden smirks at Charles. "If you had any idea how powerful 'that girl' is, you'd be eating your tongue before speaking to her, or about her, that way." Kaden looks to me to continue.

  I turn back to Charles. "If you're unable to help us, we will take our leave and begin asking around. This is a waste of our time, and will likely lead to more innocent people getting hurt."

  Charles eyes bulge out his wide face, but before he can sputter some defense, Jerrit stands. "Of course. Forgive us for interfering." He comes around the table and hands a piece of paper to me. "Here are the names of the victims, their immediate family members, dates and times they were last scene, and other individuals with possible knowledge of what happened. I'd start with Penny Stratus. Her daughter was the first taken, and she claims to have seen a monster in the shape of a dog the night it happened."

  I accept the paper and glance over it, then nod. "Thank you. We'll be in touch."

  The eight of us turn and walk out without another word. I can hear the council members begin to argue as Charles chastises Jerrit for 'usurping' him. I have to choke back a laugh at that. These men have really set themselves up as little kings.

  Once outside, Kaden and I study the paper. It includes a roughly drawn map of the village, with X marks to indicate the homes of the victims.

  "Let's divide and conquer," I suggest. "We each take one of these names, get as much information as we can, then meet back at the inn to discuss the next step?"

  Kaden nods. "Smart plan." He rattles off names and pairs people up. He and I take Penny Stratus.

  She lives in what I'd generously refer to as a shack in a run down corner of the small village. When we arrive, she's bent over a cast iron pot hanging above a fire just outside her home. She sees us, then looks back down at her pot. "Makin' stew, I am. For Caroline. She be comin' home any time now. That's what they said."

  I glance inside the pot, but it looks mostly like water with a rabbit foot floating in it. The woman herself looks probably twenty years older than I imagine she is, with hair turned white and skin leathered with lines. She has two front teeth missing and chapped lips she nervously licks every few seconds. The smell emanating from her makes it clear she hasn't bathed or changed clothes in some time.

  "Who told you she'd be coming home?" I ask.

  "The Councilmen. They be in charge here and said she'd come home."

  Kaden and I sit in the dirt next to her by the fire as she continues stirring the rabbit foot. "Can you tell us what happened?" Kaden asks.

  "The devil done took my baby," the woman says, sniffling through emotion. "She was a tiny tike. Only nine years on this wretched earth. I heard an animal outside late that night. Didn't sound like no normal beast neither. Sounded sick. Twisted. I grabbed a stick to beat it away, and saw red eyes glowing in the dark. Then it walked closer and I screamed. It weren't alive, but it were. Its skin crawled on its body, showing all its bits and insides like they was coming out of its belly. Its teeth dripped with red. I ran back inside to get my baby, to take her somewhere safe, but when I returned she weren't there. I looked everywhere, but never found her. The devil took her. Swear it on the dragon eye. She were the first, but weren't the last. More's gone since then too. Other little girls, just like her."

  We ask the woman to show us where she saw the beast, and she walks us around back, toward a clearing that feeds into a forest. After, she allows us to look in her home. In one corner there's a broken table with two chairs and a few shelves for what should be food and supplies but mostly holds dust. On the other side of the room is a small chest with a broken lock hanging off it, and a bed of hay covered by a thin blanket. It's a heartbreaking scene. But it leaves us no clue about what happened to her daughter.

  "Was there any blood?" I ask. "In your home or outside?"

  She nods and opens the trunk, then hands us a small blanket. "Is hers. She was sleeping with it that night, and I found it on the bed, like this."

  The blanket has a few tears and some dried blood. "Do you mind if we take this?" I ask.

  "Give it back though, will you? It's all I have now. She were supposed to have a good life. They promised. If she served, she would be rewarded. She's a smart girl, not dumb like me. She could've been something."

  Her last words give me pause. "Who is 'they'? Who was she serving?"

  "The councilmen," the woman says, as if it should be obvious.

  "She served them?" Kaden asks. "In what way?"

  The woman struggles with her words, her eyes glazing over. "In the ways. The ways of service. It be tradition. They want them young, to teach them, then they can rise up and get good work. In proper home's. Make a good marriage. Get a chance at something. She won't be like me. Won't do what I've had to do to keep food in our bellies." She stirs the pot again and lapses into silence.

  We try asking a few more questions, but she just hums under her breath as if she can't hear us.

  We leave the woman to her own gr
ief and examine the wooded area around her shack. "What do you make of this?" I ask. "If I didn't know better, I'd say she's on drugs. Is that a thing here?" For as long as I have lived on this world, there is still so much I don't know. I've been very sheltered at the Cliff.

  "There are ways," he says as we continue investigating for any signs of struggle, blood, trails. "Herbs and plants that can be used to alter the mental state. Alcohol is common. It's also possible she's just very broken. She hasn't had an easy life."

  "No, she hasn't." I don't readily spot anything that can help us and I sigh in frustration. "Landon and Bix both have Spirits with unusually good senses of smell. Maybe we should ask them to sniff around, see if they can catch a blood trail?"

  Kaden nods. "And they can compare the scent to other abduction scenes."

  "I wonder if anyone else got any clues to help us," I say as we head back to the inn.

  Kaden and I are first to arrive, and we order lunch and drinks for everyone as we wait. Eventually the rest begin trickling in, and none look particularly happy.

  Once we are all there, Kaden asks for reports. Bix and Mabel go first, with Mabel taking the lead. "I talked to my sister." Her eyes flick to me and she smiles. "She's safe. And expecting her first child! She's heard all the rumors, but didn't know anything first hand. Then we talked to the father of the second victim. His wife died a few years ago, and he's been raising his little girl alone. They're poor, and he's broken. Can hardly see or think straight anymore."

  I glance at Kaden, who raises his eyebrow. This sounds like our woman. "Did he say anything about the night she was taken?"

  Mabel shrugs. "Not a lot. He heard a noise, thought he saw glowing eyes. Went to look but nothing was there, then came back and his daughter was gone."

  "Nothing else?" I ask, desperate for some clue.

  She takes a long swig of ale before answering. "He did mention something about how things were improving for them. That she'd been selected to serve."

  My heart beats more rapidly. "To serve? The councilmen?"

  "Yes," she says. "Why? Did yours say the same?"

  Kaden and I nod.

  "As did ours," Phoenix says. "Raven and I interviewed a mom who also was poor, alone, and out of sorts. Her daughter was serving the councilmen."

  I look to Zev and Landon, and Landon nods. "Same story with us. Poor mom, looking crazy, rambling about how her daughter Lucy would have a good future."

  "So, four little girls around the same age go missing, and all of them come from poor single-parent homes, and all of them are connected to the council? Maybe we need to talk to the council members alone," I say. I think of the leader, Charles, and how he looked at Raven, my skin crawls. Raven has grown during her years in the Order of Ash, but she still looks very young. Too young for a man of his age to be ogling.

  I cringe when I consider where this is going.

  "My sister said the council didn't want to call us in," Mabel says. "That the villagers basically forced their hand."

  "Interesting."

  "What about the sightings?" Zev says. "More than just the parents claim to have seen things. Red eyes glowing in the woods. A dog that looks undead and as if its body is pushing out of its skin."

  "Who else saw this?" I ask.

  He shrugs. "Ask anyone at the market and they will likely have some story. How much is true eye witness account and how much is imagination fueled by fear and fascination of the macabre, who knows?"

  That's the tricky bit. Who do we trust?

  I pull out the blanket with blood and put it on the table in front of me. "Landon, Bix, we need you to take this and use your Spirit senses to track this blood." I give them directions to where Caroline was abducted, and instruct them to cross match the scent with the other crime scenes. "I'm going to have a chat with a particular councilman. The rest of you, talk to everyone in the village. See if you can pin down who was where when. Find out more about this program for the girls. See if anyone knows anything about it. Have other girls gone through this 'service' and actually come out with a good life? Better prospects?"

  Alba comes to collect our plates and tsks at what I say. "Them be up to no good, you ask me."

  "The councilmen?"

  She nods. "They have stories. Girls who served, then went on to marry higher up in other villages, or got good jobs working in noble houses in the capital. Nonsense. We ain't never seen those girls again. My son Billy, he took a shining to a little girl once. They played. Were friends. Would catch tadpoles at the lake. She went into service. They said she had a better life somewhere now, but Billy and me, we looked for her. Talked to her mum. Never found out nothing. Mum said she didn't hear from her but knew she was happy. Now mum is living it up in a nice house with fancy clothes and more food than one person needs."

  Kaden and I exchange glances. Someone is making girls disappear from this village, but it doesn't sound like a Spirit.

  It sounds like a man.

  Thirty-Five

  Power Corrupts

  We track Charles down at his house. It's not hard to find, as it's the most garish and ostentatious house in the village. He's had custom work done to create moldings and statues of nymphs and dragons and all manner of detail that individually could be really beautiful but collectively are an overpowering display of gaudiness.

  When his Keeper invites us in, I'm not surprised to find that it's even worse. Gold everywhere. How does this man afford such things? How can anyone earn this much money in such a small village?

  He makes us wait in the library for quite some time. It's a power play, and it's frustrating as hell. I run a finger over the leather books that line his bookshelves. "These haven't been read," I say to Kaden.

  He nods. "I noticed."

  "This man has the depth of a teaspoon," I say.

  Kaden winks at me. "That's probably an insult to teaspoons."

  Someone behind us clears his throat and we turn to see Charles standing there in what I imagine to be the most refined clothing he owns. Top coat, hat, cape, all shiny and adorned with gold. His hair is pushed into something like a pompadour, with more animal fat to keep it in place. I can smell it from here and it turns my stomach.

  "I expected you would be out hunting a Corrupted Spirit, not harassing the head councilman," he says, his lips pushing out strings of saliva as he talks.

  "This is part of our investigation," I say. "You failed to mention all the girls who have gone missing were part of some kind of service to your council."

  His eyes widen, and then he waves at us dismissively. "That? Oh that's nothing. Just something we started to help the more impoverished families. They can't afford to care for their children, and those children have no future. So we train them, allowing them to serve in our homes and to learn proper ways of speaking and acting. They learn skills such as cooking, cleaning, managing a home, and then when they are older, we help place them, either with good families or in good marriages, depending on their aptitude."

  "Aptitude being another word for who turned out better looking to sell off in marriage." It's a statement, not a question.

  He narrows his eyes at me. "Better than those poor girls growing up and selling their bodies to men to buy food. They would have no future without us."

  "Then where are the girls you have placed? Why do their parents not hear from them, if their lives are so good now?" Kaden asks.

  "Do you think they want to be reminded of this hovel, once they get out?" Charles asks. "Do you think they have fond memories of parents who beat them, or neglect them, or are willing to sell them to pay for their vices? Those girls choose not to come back. We don't force that on them."

  If I didn't find this man so vile, and this whole thing so questionable, I might believe him. His words make a certain kind of sense, if viewed through a lens I don't possess.

  But all my instincts tell me something much bigger is going on. This isn't as altruistic as it looks. Men like this don't do anything out of kindness. The
re's always something in it for them.

  "How do you afford to live this way?" I ask. "If this village is such a hovel, as you said."

  "Not all of us were born here. I was sent here by the Emperor himself—may he never burn—to serve him in creating order from chaos. I am doing my divine duty to His Majesty by being here. My family has long been part of the royal line, going back generations. In fact," he puffs out his chest as he continues, "it would only take five-hundred and sixty-two people to die, for me to become Emperor myself!"

  I don't know what to say to this, so I keep my mouth shut. The delusion in this one is strong.

  I'm about to ask more, when the Keeper comes in. "I'm sorry to disturb, but our guests have an urgent message."

  Kaden and I walk quickly to the front door, and find Landon and Bix waiting. "There's something you need to see," Landon says. "Immediately."

  We nod and make our excuses, promising to return soon. I hate leaving Charles before we've finished questioning him, but we must.

  Bix leads us to the clearing where Caroline disappeared. "We've been tracking the scent," Bix says. "There is same smell each place. Three smells. The girls. Something Corrupted. And this."

  He holds up a silver button, and I take it, turning it over in my hand. It's a simple thing, without any embellishments on it. "You said you smelled something Corrupted?" I ask.

  They both nod.

  "Are you positive?" Kaden asks.

  "Very." Landon wrinkles his nose in disgust. "It's a distinctive smell, like rotting flesh mixed with magic. The villagers saw something. They weren't imagining it. What they saw, I don't know. But there is a Corrupted Spirit attacking this town. There's one more thing you need to see."

  We follow them deeper into the woods and Landon points at something by a tree. Kaden and I creep closer, and I recoil instinctively. "What is that?"

  It's crawling with bugs and looks like a rotting intestine.

  Kaden furrows his brow. "It's a piece of decomposing dog that was taken over by a Corrupted Spirit."