by Jamie Davis
“Not that kind of honor, Quinn. They plan on trying and sentencing you in one move. The court of honor will require you to fight their chosen champion under terms they set—to the death.”
“What?” Taylor said. “That’s barbaric. How can they do that?”
“It’s my fault,” Clark said. He shook his head. “I didn’t plan ahead when I had Miranda tell you to invoke sanctuary. That gave them the right to open the proceedings under ancient rules.”
Quinn said, “I don’t care. Let them bring on their so-called champion. I’ve beaten the worst the supernatural community had to offer so far. I’ll be the one who wins.”
“They know what you can do, Quinn,” Clark said. “That’s what worries me. Both princesses have seen you at work in one way or another. They know you’re strong and capable. They wouldn’t have taken it this direction unless they had a plan they thought couldn’t fail.”
Taylor took the summons from Clark. “It says you’re to appear at the Crystal Well with both the egg and the journal in your possession. They know you have them. They’ve covered everything.”
“What happens if we don’t agree to go along with this?” Quinn asked.
Paddy bustled over as soon as she spoke. “Don’t do that, girlie. They’ll come and take you by force and destroy my bar in the process. We’ve given you sanctuary under the old law, but now you have to comply with their orders. I cannot protect you and would be bound to help them take you into custody.”
“I won’t do anything to hurt you, Juni, or the bar. If they want a showdown, we’ll give it to them. We’ve only got two days to help the egg and the baby dragon inside. That will be my focus until then. Taylor, dig into the journal and figure out what we need to do to remove that barrier Aurora put on the egg.”
“Got it,” Taylor said. “Miranda and I will go through the journal and pull together the details for the spell first thing in the morning.”
“Good,” Quinn said. “I’m going to bed. All that swimming earlier wiped me out. I’ll check in down at the workshop when I wake up.”
Clark nodded. “Get some sleep. I’ll tell Naomi about the summons. Maybe she and I can learn more about what Filippa and Aurora have planned for you.”
Quinn smiled and headed up to her apartment. The swim had done a lot more than tire her. Something about the dragon encounter left her shaken. She’d never encountered a creature that large and powerful. If Chessie had wanted to end her, she wouldn’t have had a chance. It made her wonder what the Fae court would have waiting for her in two days. If they had a challenger with that level of power, she was finished.
The worrisome thoughts left her tossing and turning for almost an hour before sleep finally set in.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Quinn woke just before noon the next day without the rested feeling she usually had after several hours of sleep. She stumbled into her bathroom and stared into the mirror for a long time, trying to decide if she should just go back to bed.
After several seconds of studying the circles under her eyes, Quinn bent over the sink and splashed cold water on her face, then grabbed a towel and dried off. She glanced at the mirror again. Her reflection didn’t look any more awake than it had seconds before. Quinn shrugged. It would have to do. There was a lot to accomplish today.
She made herself peanut butter toast and coffee and sat at her small table to eat. When she pulled out her phone, a message from Taylor waited for her, sent an hour before.
The message seemed ominous, considering all the worries about the court from the night before. Quinn glanced at her bedroom. Did she have time for a shower before she got dressed? She decided if it was that urgent, Taylor would have come up and awakened her. Given the previous night’s activities, including the swim in the bay, she needed a shower. Maybe it would help her shake off the fatigue, too.
Rising, Quinn walked back to her room and stripped for her shower. As the hot water sprayed down on her, Quinn’s mind couldn’t stop going over everything her imagination could think of concerning the cryptic text message. She decided to rush through the shower despite the lure of the warm water on her tired muscles.
Fifteen minutes later, Quinn had pulled her still-damp hair back in a ponytail and headed down to see what was up. The workshop door was ajar when she arrived, and she headed inside. Taylor chatted in the corner with Miranda.
“Maybe if we grind two of them against each other, we can generate the shavings called for in the recipe?”
Miranda sighed. “They rubbed against each other in the duffel bag, but there was no sign of residue. We checked, remember?”
Taylor shrugged. “There’s got to be a way to do it.”
“Do what, T?” Quinn asked.
“Good, you’re up. I—” Taylor stopped when she glanced at Quinn. “Did you get any sleep? You look worse than you did when you went up to your room.”
“Gee, thanks. I eventually got to sleep, but it wasn’t as restful as I’d have liked. Anyway, I came down in response to your message. Is what you’re working on now the problem you mentioned?”
“No, this is a different issue. We’re trying to create shavings from the dragon scales as called for in the spell. So far, we’ve ruined two expensive carbon-steel chef’s knives from the kitchen and have yet to make a mark on the scales.”
“Okay, if that’s not the problem you texted about, what is?”
“This,” Taylor said, picking up the journal and flipping through it. “I read beyond the instructions for the egg’s coating in search of instructions to grind shavings from the scales. That’s when I found this.”
Taylor pointed to a page near the back of the journal. Quinn came over to read it, but the runes meant nothing to her.
“T, I can’t read that. What’s it say?”
“It refers to a secret Fae organization attempting to return the world to their control. It specifically references opening dimensional rifts to allow demonkind to rejoin their Fae brethren on this plane. Aurora, or whoever wrote this down, calls it ‘righting the Great Error’ or something close to that. The translation is hard because some Fae runes don’t have English counterparts, especially older arcane words.”
“Aurora mentioned something like that to me when I went to ask for help with Gemma.”
Taylor nodded. “Did she tell you she was a member of this organization of dark Fae?”
“No.”
“Well, I’m pretty sure she is.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Quinn said. “She helped me fight Gemma. Aurora told me Gemma worked for that same organization.”
Miranda said, “Just because both Filippa and Aurora are part of the same sinister organization, it doesn’t mean they don’t have an intense rivalry. The Fae are famous for their court intrigue. It puts anything from human history to shame since some of these grudges have gone on for centuries.”
Quinn said, “Okay, so the two of them aren’t just trying to get the dragon egg back, they’re also working together to destroy the world as we know it. Got it. I guess the Fae trial and court is part of all this, too, then?”
“Maybe,” Miranda said. “It could be only a few members of the court working with the princesses. Others on the court may have their own agendas or owe the princesses favors. It’s hard to say. The Fae magistrates have long been known to be harsh but fair in their rulings.”
“Fair?” Taylor asked. “They want Quinn to fight to the death against some Fae champion. How’s that fair?”
“It’s a harsh form of judgment, true. But if—” Miranda stopped, correcting her words. “No, not if. When Quinn beats their champion, the magistrates will support the outcome as final and binding. The princesses will have no recourse since they’ve put things in the court’s hands.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Miranda.” Quinn sighed. “Now all we need is to find out a little about who this mysterious champion is. Then I could prepare what I need to defeat them.”
“It co
uld be anyone or anything,” Miranda explained. “The aggrieved party gets to choose. After that, only the court knows who or what it will be.”
Quinn shook her head. Worrying about it wasn’t going to help her rest. She’d face the champion, and she’d win. She wouldn’t waste time thinking about the alternative.
“Okay, so there’s a secret group of evil Fae out there that is determined to kill me. I’ll deal with them when the time comes. What were you talking about with the dragon scales when I came in?”
Taylor put the book down and picked up one of the triangular scales. “The issue is that despite the deceptively light weight of these things, they’re impervious to damage. Nothing we have can make a dent in them. If we can’t grind them into powder or shavings for the mixture, we can’t remove the coating on the egg.”
“What other options do we have to try?” Quinn asked, looking from Taylor to Miranda.
Both shrugged.
Miranda said, “We’ve tried every tool and sharp object we can lay our hands on. Nothing has worked. We need something stronger than hardened steel alloys.”
“Okay, what’s harder?”
Taylor held up the scale. “The options move to ruby, sapphire, and diamond hardness scales. That makes it problematic and pricey.”
“How pricey?” Quinn asked.
“Not sure,” Taylor replied. “I’ve reached out to several industrial machine and tool companies in the area, along with some commercial construction companies. I figure there’s got to be a diamond-surfaced grinder out there somewhere.”
Quinn picked up the other dragon scale from the table. “How much do we need?”
Miranda said, “The spell calls for equal amounts of each key component to make a paste that will then be used to coat the entire egg.”
“By weight or by volume?” Quinn asked. “These scales weigh nothing.”
Taylor set the dragon scale next to the bags of dung. “We figure volume. Otherwise, we’d need a hundred or more scales to have an equal weight to the dung needed to cover that football-sized egg.”
“What about the magic part of it?” Quinn asked. “Is that part hard?”
Taylor shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. It seems pretty straightforward. We are going to need to do this in a safe location outdoors, though.”
“Why?”
Miranda said, “Because after we coat the egg and let the layer harden, we have to set fire to it.”
“What? You can’t do that. Won’t it cook the baby dragon inside?”
“We don’t think so,” Taylor said. “First, that egg is as hard as a rock. Second, my guess is that dragons, even baby ones, are pretty tough.”
Miranda said, “It’s a necessary step to the spell. The note on the process makes it sound like the paste mixture, once dried, becomes a sort of magical thermite. That’s why we have to do this outside. It’ll be hot enough to set fire to anything for a few feet in all directions.”
“I’ll talk to Clark and Naomi. We should be able to sneak out again, one way or another.”
“Quinn,” Taylor said. “I don’t see any reason why we can’t do this without you along. We’d just have to put the egg in a box to keep it hidden from anyone watching. Once the process was finished, we’d come straight back.”
“I’m not letting that egg go anywhere outside this building without me along to protect it. That’s what this whole thing is about. I don’t know what’s so special about it, but those Fae women want it back for something.”
“What?” Taylor asked. “Other than it being a dragon. This is the first dragon birth in hundreds of years. That’s got to be a big deal for everyone.”
“Yeah, T, it is. This dragon is an orphan and needs our protection. That’s what makes it important to me. What I don’t know is why they think it’s so important. That’s even more critical, now that we know about this dark Fae organization they’re part of.”
“Whatever it is,” Miranda said, “I can’t see them giving up easily. If you’re sure you need to come along, we’ll have to find some way to distract them from what we’re doing. They’ll be watching extra hard now that they suspect you went out once already.”
Quinn smiled. “I’ve got an idea. My mother can go out disguised as me again.”
“Do you think that’ll work twice?” Taylor asked.
“I think so. They didn’t catch on last time. She could lead anyone watching for me on a nice little wild goose chase. That would give us the chance to slip out, and no one would be the wiser.”
Miranda frowned. “Your mother won’t be happy about being away from you if trouble comes along.”
“There won’t be any trouble. She’ll be leading the trouble away from us.”
“I don’t know, Quinn,” Taylor said. “She might lead some of the potential trouble away, but Miranda’s right. Trouble has a way of finding you.”
“That’s not fair. It’s not like I go looking for it.”
“No,” Miranda agreed, “it’s not fair. It’s also not wrong. Trouble comes wandering along whenever you’re out doing something risky.” The ghost held up her hands to stop Quinn’s attempts to explain. “I’m not saying you can’t go. I’m just saying we should be ready for anything.”
A ping came from Taylor’s computer at the desk beside the large work table. The tech witch walked around and checked the screen.
She smiled. “Bingo, an industrial firm that works with stone and concrete answered me. They have a diamond-grit grinding wheel made for a standard shop grinder. I’m going to go find Clark so he can take me down there to see it. I’ll bring one of the scales to see if the grit can scratch the surface. If it works, we should be good to go.”
Quinn nodded. “I’ll go find my mom and tell her the plans for the egg and the distraction we need. That’ll give her some time to get over her initial objections to the idea.”
“I guess I’ll stay here and mind the fort, then,” Miranda said. “It’s not like I can go anywhere anyway.”
Taylor and Quinn laughed and left the workshop together. The plan to save the egg was coming along.
Chapter Twenty-Four
It took a day and a half to pull it together, but by the following evening, the whole clan stood in Taylor’s workshop, prepping the final details of their plan.
Naomi and Quinn stood beside each other, wearing identical outfits. Naomi even had one of Quinn’s spare Bowies hanging from her belt by her right hip.
“I’m not left-handed,” Naomi complained. “It’s going to be awkward to draw this thing in a fight.”
“If you get in a fight, the disguise will be blown,” Quinn replied. “Feel free to use that trick to pull your sword out of thin air. I still need you to show me how you do that, by the way.”
“I’m not sure I can tell you. It’s something we’re trained in from when we’re very young, with blades tied to us. They become like a fifth limb after a while.”
Quinn shrugged. “We can try after all this is settled. It might be something the VR system can work around.”
The door to the hallway opened. Juni poked her head in. “Two Fae trackers just came in. It wasn’t hard to spot them. Quinn, you’ll want to make an appearance in the bar so they see what you’re wearing.”
“Thanks, Juni. Seriously, I don’t know how we could do any of this without you.”
“Think nothing of it. I’m pissed at the way they lord their supposed superiority over everyone. These aren’t the old days when they ran everything.”
Clark said, “That’s what’s got all this happening now. They want to return to the good old days of yore.”
“We’re not going to let that happen,” Quinn shot back. “Not if I have anything to say about it. That starts tonight, with removing whatever spell they enacted on the dragon egg.”
Naomi nodded to the door. “You follow Juni back to the bar. Order drinks and bring them back here. Make sure everyone sees you. As soon as you get back, I’ll sneak upstairs and go
out on the roof. We know they have a team watching the building. I’ll make sure they catch sight of me and then start off across the rooftops toward the center of the city.”
Quinn nodded and followed Juni into the hall. She had become a good friend to Quinn and the others. Quinn hoped this sanctuary business and their plan tonight didn’t blow back on her and her father somehow.
She entered the noisy club, but instead of following Juni toward the kitchen, she wove through the crowded tables to the bar. She knew many of the regular patrons at this point, so she stopped and said hi to a few of them on the way. Juni had been right; it was easy to pick out the two Fae trackers. The pair sat at a table by the entrance. Quinn made sure to wind past that side before turning to the bar to order the drinks. One of them leaned toward the other and pointed in her direction.
Perfect.
“Two beers and two sodas, Jack,” Quinn said to the server tending bar. He started putting the order together and setting the drinks on a tray for her.
“You aren’t fooling anyone, Huntress,” a snide voice said from behind her. A crisp British accent told her it was one of the Fae.
Quinn turned slowly, keeping her hands well away from the knife at her waist. She didn’t want to give anyone a reason to think she’d violated the bar’s neutrality and her precarious sanctuary status. “I didn’t know I was trying to fool folks. All I’m doing is ordering drinks for my friends and me.”
The taller of the two trackers, dressed in black slacks and a sports coat, leaned in, trying to loom over her. “You use the old ways to gain sanctuary, but don’t follow the rules. We know you’ve left this place. That alone should violate the terms of your protection.”
“Your concern is noted. Are you here to take me in against my granted sanctuary status, or do you plan on following me when I go back out later?”
His eyebrows raised in surprise at the admission. “You flaunt your disdain for the law so obviously. I will rejoice when I see you destroyed in the court of honor.”
