It turned out that an English mage had brought the egg to Romania from Ireland several weeks before, and Dumitrescu had brokered a deal to sell the egg for two hundred fifty thousand euros. The exchange was scheduled to take place the following evening at a place in the woods near the town of Sinaia, about eighty miles north of the city.
“Ask him to describe this egg,” I said in German.
Antonio nodded and spoke to our informant. Göndul translated his answer. “About forty centimeters long, two-thirds of that wide. It glows from inside, with colors that ripple across its surface. He says its color is never stable enough to be able to describe.”
“That sounds like a Dragon’s egg,” Cassiel said.
I pulled my grimoire from my bag, thumbed through it, and found the page I was looking for. I turned the book so that Dumitrescu could see the picture.
“Da, da,” Dumitrescu said, pointing.
“Okay, so who is the seller, and who is the buyer?” I asked.
I picked up the names Gerald Conkling and Orlando Gonçalves from the answer.
“You’re joking,” I said.
“You know these names?” Antonio asked me.
“Who’s the buyer?” I asked.
“Gonçalves.”
I had to laugh. “Valinir and I met with him in London. He had Vampires following me around the city hoping I’d lead him to the egg. I should have just followed him.”
“Interesting,” Antonio said. “I know Gonçalves. Conkling is on the ICAA. I should think the two would know each other.” He seemed to ponder for a minute or two. “Oh, hell yes, they know each other. I wonder what kind of game they’re playing that they need this asshole.”
“I did some poking around this afternoon,” Cassiel said. “The ICAA has sent out a secret communique to its members that demands any Dragon eggs be turned into the Council.”
“Ask him how many others he’s sold this information to,” Göndul said to Antonio.
My appreciation for Göndul went up a notch. “Oh, my. Yes, that would be an excellent question. Antonio?”
Antonio asked the question, evidently in several different ways, and didn’t seem happy with the answers he was getting.
“Perhaps I should mix a potion to encourage his relationship with the truth,” I suggested. “It would be very interesting to hear about what other deals and secrets he’s working on.” Dumitrescu’s reaction to that told me that he spoke German far better than he had let on. Antonio’s eyes narrowed at that reaction, which told me he saw it, too.
“Is that the potion that burns?” he asked me.
“It depends on which potion you think would be most effective,” I answered. “There is one that makes a person feel like their veins are on fire, but that sort of thing could probably be added to any potion. Another one causes unbearable itching. It kind of depends on what ingredients you have in your workroom. That would be a terrible thing to do to a person. I’m not sure how long it would take to wear off. I might be able to concoct an antidote, given enough time. Of course, sometimes if you don’t get the antidote right, it can make the symptoms worse.”
Antonio spoke to Dumitrescu again and got a short answer of two sentences.
“He says that he sold the information about the meeting to two other parties, plus us, but we’re the only ones too cheap to pay.”
I grinned at the little rogue, and he paled. “Tell him I’m the only one not likely to pay him a final installment in steel. He’ll take us there and hang around until I see the egg. He can collect his money from you when he gets back to Bucharest.”
Antonio laughed, and Dumitrescu paled even more.
That evening, Cassiel and Göndul said they needed to go out. Not looking forward to spending an evening with Antonio, Andrei Dumitrescu, and Romanian television, I asked them to take me with them. After a long look at each other, both shrugged.
“Sure, come along,” Cassiel said. “We might even find a fun place for a drink and some music.”
As we stepped outside, Göndul said, “We think it’s prudent to get in touch with the Paladins. If we’re going to walk into a gangbang over that egg tomorrow night, it would be nice to have some firepower behind us.”
“I could call my Elf contacts,” I suggested. “They can probably send a few battle mages by tomorrow. Or I have a contact in the U.S. government. Maybe we can call in an airstrike or a tomahawk missile.”
Cassiel laughed. “We’ll hold that in reserve. I would prefer a little more discretion than your friends showed in Prague.”
Göndul shuddered. “I never would have believed I’d watch a magical battle on Earthen television.”
It was my turn to laugh. “You should have seen the demon eating people on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., two years ago. They actually showed that on TV. A demon captured a TV cameraman and ate him while he was holding the camera and taking a selfie. And they showed it on TV, over and over. Did you know that Humans used to hold public executions? They have very grisly appetites.”
“Their television in general is extremely violent,” Cassiel said. “But I think it’s to our benefit to maintain a low profile. One thing I don’t want is to get into a fight with a Dragon, and I’m afraid too many of the people lusting after that egg don’t understand how bad that could be.”
“If a Dragon shows up, do we just walk away and let it have the egg?” I asked.
Göndul snorted. “That’s what I would do. Let the Elves and the Council and our bosses know, and let them deal with it. I’ll pick a fight with a Dragon when I’m old and gray and tired of living.”
I felt a surge of relief when I glanced at Cassiel and saw he was nodding.
Although I knew the city far better than they did, I followed their lead, and it soon became obvious we were headed into the Old Centre—the heart of the nightlife district. As night fell, the crowds on the streets grew younger and louder.
When I was in Bucharest, Antonio often took me to dinner in that area, at a restaurant he favored, with white linen tablecloths, crystal glassware and waiters in tuxedos. I always received a menu without prices, so I had no idea how much it cost, but judging from the clientele, I couldn’t have afforded it. The staff there treated him like royalty. I paid him back by cooking him the best Elven cuisine I could manage with local ingredients. He seemed to consider it an even bargain.
Cassiel and Göndul led me to a club on a street with multiple nightclubs and throngs of partying young people. We walked past the line of people waiting to get in. Cassiel showed something to the doorman, and we went inside.
Instead of walking straight into the club, we took a right past another bouncer, and up a narrow flight of stairs. Another bouncer at the top stepped aside and opened a door for us to pass through. No one spoke a word.
I discovered we were on a balcony, or mezzanine, overlooking the main club below. Everything was much slower and quieter, the tables much farther apart, and the clientele dressed a bit better. Cassiel led us to the far end of the room, where once again a bouncer opened a door for us. We found ourselves in a private room overlooking the club but shut off from intrusion from other patrons.
“Göndul, my sweet! So good to see you!” a halfling Elf jumped up from the table and hurried over, pulling Göndul into a hug and kissing both her cheeks. About a dozen people were there, mostly halflings, though I did see one full-blood Elven woman, and most called out greetings.
I was introduced, and a waiter was called from outside the room to bring drinks. After he left, I realized I was the center of everyone’s attention. Göndul’s exuberant friend turned out to be Roger McCarthy, the owner of the club, and all of those present were members of the Paladins.
“I assume all of you are aware of the Dragon’s egg, rumored to be here on Earth,” Cassiel started.
“Rumored to be here in Romania,” Roger said. “I’m sure it’s rumored to be in half a dozen other places as well.”
“I’m hoping there’s only one of
them,” Cassiel said. “Kellana has been following the egg since Ireland. We met her in Prague, where we ran into Mondranar. Now, we’ve found an informant who tells us he knows where the egg will be tomorrow night.”
That caught everyone’s attention. They all stared at us like children waiting for sweets.
“The problem is,” Göndul said, “that half the city knows where the egg will be, because our informant sold that knowledge to anyone who would meet his price.”
A period of silence was followed by someone saying, “Please tell me you’re joking.”
“Unfortunately,” I said, “it’s not a joke. That’s why we came here.”
Cassiel said, “We didn’t want a repeat of Prague, so we wanted to talk to you before Kellana called in the Elves again.”
“You were involved in that fiasco in Prague?” Roger asked.
“Unfortunately. My lady’s friends felt the need to engage with Mondranar.”
“I didn’t call them the first time,” I shot back. “I really don’t give a damn about Mondranar and what he’s done. I do care about what happens if a Dragon decides to go looking for its egg in an inhabited area. But I don’t think a Dragon could have created more chaos in Prague than that bunch of Elves did.”
“We came here hoping for backup, not an assault team,” Göndul said.
“Well, let’s hear your plan, and we’ll figure out what skills you’ll need,” Roger said.
Chapter 19
“All right,” Cassiel said, turning to me. “What’s your plan?”
“My plan? When did I get put in charge of this mess?”
“Because as soon as anyone decides to do something you don’t agree with,” he said, “you’ll either take charge, or duck out and go it alone. Better to just acknowledge that at the beginning.” He punctuated his statement by winking at me.
I found myself speechless.
“He’s right and you know it,” Göndul said, nudging me with her elbow. “So, what’s the plan?”
I sat back in my chair, looked around at a dozen faces staring expectantly at me, and took a drink of my wine. Then I took a deep breath and took another drink. My mind was racing furiously, trying to sort out a plan. All the possibilities, all the facts and suppositions and guesses whirled around, falling all over each other. Then I called a halt to it all and set down my glass.
“We have very few facts,” I said, “and the source of those facts is of dubious reliability. We are told that two mages, one or both members of the ICAA, plan a transaction involving a quarter-million euros and a Dragon’s egg. The exchange is supposed to take place out in the middle of the mountains tomorrow evening. We are also told that at least two other parties have bought the location.”
I looked around at my audience. “Does anyone see the problem with planning for this?”
A lot of people nodded.
“Too damned many wildcards,” Roger said.
“Too many mages,” I answered. “According to Antonio, one of those who bought the location is a mage named Vasyli Verichenko, and the other one was a Vampire who probably represented a mage—possibly Mondranar. I have met the man buying the egg, and he can wield a significant amount of power. We also don’t know how many people each of the parties will be bringing with them. There could be more people than a rock concert.”
“Antonio?” Roger asked. “Antonio Andriescu? Is he involved in this?”
“Only as far as I ask him to be,” I replied with a grin. “He has no interest in the egg, but I’m sure he delights in helping me cause trouble. He always has.”
Roger’s eyes sought out Göndul’s attention. She nodded.
“He’s the uncle of an old friend of mine,” she said. “A mutual friend of Kellana’s and mine.”
“You’re sure he’s not involved?”
“I’ve known Antonio for forty-five years,” I said. “I’ve known his nephew longer than anyone else in this realm. We survived hell together in 1945. But if you don’t want to help, that’s fine.”
I drained my glass and started to stand.
“No, that’s not what he’s saying,” the woman—Marta, an Aesir—sitting next to Roger said. “As long as Antonio Andriescu is on our side, we’re fine. But no one here has the power to go against him. Hell, all of us together probably don’t have that much power.”
I filed that away and grinned at her. “Just show him your boobs. He’d get so distracted that you could steal his silver.”
Göndul laughed.
“So, I’m still not hearing a plan,” Roger said.
“I don’t think we can devise one,” I said. “I think our best bet is to be there, be discreet, watch, and see what happens. We might be able to take advantage of an opportunity, or we can follow whoever walks away with the egg. Other than that, I don’t have a clue.”
Marta and Roger looked at each other, then looked around at their friends. “Sounds good to me,” he said. “Let’s get a topographical map of the area and get together tomorrow morning to figure out what we’re going to do.”
We decided who would take part in the operation. In addition to me and Dorina, who was another Elf from Midgard, our group would contain three half-Elves with woods knowledge. Göndul’s illusion magic, Cassiel’s ability to fly, and Marta’s incredible shielding magic filled out the skills we decided would provide our best chance for success. We adjourned, agreeing to meet at Antonio’s in the morning.
The first thing after breakfast, I borrowed Antonio’s workshop and some of his supplies to make a handful of charms. Then I asked Antonio to spell them with a ward-magic spell, and when Marta showed up later, she spelled them with a shield spell. After drawing a rune over each one, I hung them around people’s necks, speaking the trigger Word for the rune each time.
“What was that for?” Cassiel asked.
“It locks it on you. You can’t lose it, no one can steal it, and I can track it. I’m not anxious to repeat that little journey we made into Transvyl. If one of you gets lost or captured, I want to be able to retrieve you before you suffer too much damage.”
“And if it’s you who gets captured?” Göndul asked.
“Then come and get us,” I said. “Your charm can be used to track any of the others.”
“Us?” Cassiel asked.
“Yes, us. I’m not letting you out of reach. I need you to track that egg.”
I used a variant to create a charm that I put around Dumitrescu’s neck, then hauled him out to one of the cars Roger provided, and we drove north. I wanted to station ourselves around the meeting point hours beforehand.
To get to the actual site of the meeting, we needed to drive north from Bucharest, through the city of Ploiesti, and then take a side road before reaching Campina. From there, several twists, turns, and side roads led through farmland into an area of grazing lands where the pastures were separated by forest.
Whether one came from Brasov, where the ICAA, and we assumed Conkling, was based in the north, or from Bucharest in the south, the final several miles required travel over a winding dead-end road with no branches. One way in, one way out.
Elves weren’t able to lie, but we were masters of betrayal and ambush. Considering the tendencies toward those same traits among Humans, I assumed that both parties to the deal planned on double-crossing the other. Then there were the mages who paid Dumitrescu for information about the meeting. I figured they were probably already in the middle of setting up their own plans to steal the egg, the money, or both. Antonio told me the mage he knew was of lesser concern than Gonçalves or Conkling.
But of all our potential adversaries, the one that concerned me was the one who sent the Vampire to pay Dumitrescu for the information. Gonçalves was accounted for, but Mondranar also used Vampires for manpower.
It took us about two hours to drive from Bucharest to the area where the exchange was planned. We left the cars around noon before turning onto the final road. Göndul cast an illusion spell to hide them, and then all bu
t the drivers set out on foot. Cassiel and Göndul flew off to reconnoiter, hoping to spot any other people in the area.
Dorina ap th’Delinir, silver haired and silver eyed, was a full-blooded Elf mage and realm walker about a hundred years older than I was. Her magic was strongly oriented toward what Elves would call engineering. In Alfheim, Midgard, and other Elven realms, cities usually were grown from the plants and earth using magic. Drinking water and irrigation systems, municipal lighting, and other infrastructure were all created from the world around us using magic.
I had built my nursery in Washington, D.C., using that type of magic, but my little cottage, greenhouses, and irrigation systems were a far cry from the grandeur of the great Elven cities. Dorina had the talent to build the Elven equivalent of the Taj Mahal.
Dorina and I took off and ranged ahead of Marta and the halflings. None of them could keep up with us unless we slowed our pace considerably, plus they were noisy and clumsy. We didn’t say that, of course, and they were like shadows compared to Humans. But true Elves are closer to the world around them than any other sentients. We can feel the texture of the path under our feet before we set our feet down. We can feel a branch in front of us in the dark before we touch it. Sliding soundlessly through the forest is something we do unconsciously.
We could see the first snow of the season on the mountaintops, and all the broadleaf trees and bushes had lost their leaves. The fir forest we traveled through was rough and rocky, but the lack of brush provided an easy passage, and we made good time.
“It’s really pretty out here,” Dorina said as we hiked along.
“Yeah, I wish I was out here for pleasure,” I replied.
She smiled. “The mountains are one of the major benefits of living in Romania. I spend as much time as I can outside in the summer, but I don’t get out as much this time of the year. Soon, all this will be covered in snow.”
After half an hour, we topped a ridgeline where we could see the meeting place in the distance. I looked up and saw a hawk circling over us. Then the illusion dissipated, and Cassiel, with Göndul strapped to his chest, dove in toward us. Even as robust as Göndul was, she looked thin and delicate against Cassiel.
Dragon's Egg (Dark Streets Book 2) Page 15
