Seeking The Dragon

by Sarah J. Stone

  Ariel leaned on the doorway, watching them. Frankly, she wasn't one for emotional family reunions. But she had also never seen Alexander so emotional, so torn down. She didn't realize this would affect him so much.

  “Let's hurry up before I'm late,” she said, clearing her throat. “You know I hate rushing into the theater.”

  “How do we do this?” Peter asked. Alexander led them just outside of the prison where the magic wasn't blocked. “I've never taken the magic to Earth. Not even when we were boys.”

  “I can do it,” Alexander reached his hand out. Ariel took one, and Peter the other.

  “Can you do this with all three of us?” Ariel raised an eyebrow at him, and he met her eyes.

  “Are you challenging me?” he asked.

  She shrugged. “Look, if you could convince them not to dock me for not showing up, the two of you can go by yourselves,” she teased. She said it in English, not because she was afraid of Peter's opinion, but because she didn't want him to worry about anything else. She felt sorry for him, even if she was angry about him for abandoning Alexander.

  “Perhaps a show would do him good,” Alexander said, as the magic began to swirl.

  Transporting himself and Ariel was hard enough, but pulling his brother along was a little more difficult. Still, as crown prince, he should have been able to do it, even if he used up his store of magic for the week.

  When they got to Earth, however, Alexander dropped to his knees, panting as the color left his face. Before Ariel could get to him, Peter placed a hand on his shoulder, crouching down. He said a few words, low enough that Ariel couldn't understand. What she did see, though, was an older brother comforting a younger brother.

  She was used to Alexander being drained, and it was only a few moments before he rose. She recognized that he had taken her to the back alley beside the hotel they were staying at, so nobody noticed. His distressed brother, however, distracted him from the roar of the city.

  She gave them a moment, and eventually, he recovered his strength, rising. He brushed past Ariel without saying a word. Peter was behind her, and she turned to him, keeping her voice low.

  “That's normal,” she said to him quietly. “Especially if he hasn't eaten.”

  “Still?” Peter asked, and she raised an eyebrow.

  “Has he always had problems with control?”

  “Since we were children,” Peter answered curtly.

  “Oh,” Ariel said, as they caught up to Alexander. “Just goes to show you that you never really know who you married.”

  The check-in to the hotel was easy. Her colleagues that were out and about greeted her like she had been on a weekend trip and not on another planet. She held her head high as they checked into their suite where her bags had been transferred to.

  “So, this is it?” Ariel said to Alexander. “Your brother works through his depression, and you and I figure out whether we can take being married?”

  He gave her a soft smile, closing the door behind him as he took her in his arms. Kissing her delicately, he sent the familiar shivers down her spine.

  “And relax,” he said. “Recover.”

  “Recover,” she said, giving him another quick kiss. “Means eating something. It's Wednesday, so you need to find something to feed on. Getting away from me is a start so that your dragon hunger can take over.”

  “I'll take Peter with me then,” Alexander said. “You can get ready for the show.”

  “And everything will be fine,” Ariel assured him. “You want comp tickets for the show?”

  “Ah, leave them at the desk,” he said. “I don't know if we'll use them, but–”

  “The best kind of audience,” she smirked at him. “The kind that doesn't show up.”

  He kissed her again, and then left her to get ready. Ariel always enjoyed the downtime before a show. She was rarely quiet and alone, but this was her time to shift her mind into the proper state. She stretched, arching her hips and reaching her leg up to the ceiling. Catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror with red hair and green eyes, she wondered if her parents had a sense of humor in naming her Ariel.

  She rarely wondered about them, but occasionally a thought popped into her mind. She hated them for abandoning her, for dropping her on the doorstep of a foster agency like she was a sack of bread. Why did they do it? Did she do something so terrible in her childhood? Were they just irresponsible people?

  Eventually, she shook the thoughts out of her head, showered, and then headed to the theater next door.

  She paused in the lobby to check on whether she could have room service delivered by the time she got back. She thought Alexander would need some relaxing, and strawberries and champagne seemed like a good idea.

  While she was waiting for the ridiculously slow clerk, she took a glance around the lobby. It was a beautiful place – high class, with crown molding and gilded leaves on the wall. It was nice, and it was a nice place for Peter to relax.

  There was an attractive man standing near the restaurant, and her eyes drifted over to him. Tall and lean, he reminded her a bit of Alexander with his well-sculpted cheekbones and dark colored hair. They had an open marriage; she wasn't above looking at or even approaching other men.

  The closer she looked though, the more she thought he looked like a dragon. There was just something about the way he was standing; the way his eyes were downcast, and the way his arms were folded. Even when they were in their human form, dragons just looked a certain way. She had been around them long enough to know when they were simply standing there.

  “It's all set, Miss,” said the clerk, and Ariel turned back for a moment, smiling.

  “Thank you,” she said, and turned to the dragon. But the man was gone.

  Her brow furrowed as she searched the lobby. But there was no sign of him anywhere. dragons couldn't vanish into a puff of smoke; they had to go somewhere. But the spot where he was standing was empty, and the lobby wasn't crowded. Wherever he went, it had to have been fast.

  She shook her head, wondering if she had been imagining things. After all, it was just hours ago that she had been in the palace, surrounded by dragons. They hadn't exactly had a relaxing time since she had left. Perhaps her eyes were just playing tricks on her.

  As she walked to the theater though, she realized that it was more than just her eyes that were playing tricks on her. She could feel magic everywhere, only it felt odd. It was tainted by the Other. She was sure of it. After all, she had spent so much time absorbing it from Peter, she couldn't miss it.

  Normally, when Ariel was on Earth, she didn't feel magic too often. Occasionally, here or there, she would absorb something normally left over. Dragons and other shifters didn't come too often. There was magic everywhere though – in the air, in the trees, and from the sky. It wasn't enough to turn her head or even make her raise an eyebrow.

  Something was certainty going on.

  The show wasn't something that she had to put a lot of brain power into. Frankly, she was thinking that musical theater wasn't for her. It wasn't as artistic or as beautiful as the ballet she normally performed, and she was used to being the star of the show. Today, however, she was glad that she wasn't in charge of leading the show. She kept thinking that she saw a flash of yellow eyes in the audience, in the lobby, in the dressing room.

  By the time the show was over, her heart was pounding, and her head was spinning.

  She picked up her cell phone from her dressing room counter, dialing Alexander.

  “Hello?” his voice sounded muffled, and she crossed her arms.

  “Are you eating?” she said. She didn't really care if he was ripping the head off one of her colleagues, as long as he was eating.

  “Not at the moment,” he replied. “But I have. What's the problem?”

  She sighed.

  “I think I'm going crazy,” she said. “Everywhere I go, I think I'm seeing dragons, feeling dragons.”

  “What?” he said. “Everywhere where
?”

  “In the hotel lobby. In the theater. At least six or seven times.”

  “Well...” he paused. “You may be just used to the palace.”

  “That's what I thought, too,” she said. “But I feel the magic. I can't be imagining that, too, can I?”

  “No,” he said. “What can I do?”

  “I feel like a stupid clingy girlfriend,” she said. “And I know the hotel is right next door. But can you come and walk me back?”

  He had never heard her ask for this kind of help for her. Ariel was brave and strong. She didn't like holding his hand. She didn't even express that she had missed him when they were apart. If she was asking for help, then he wasn't going to turn her down.

  “I'll be right there,” he said. “Where are you?”

  “In my dressing room,” she said, which alerted him even more. She would normally wait for him in the lobby, but she clearly didn't feel safe.

  “See you soon,” he said, hanging up. She leaned against the mirror, closing her eyes.

  Chapter 6

  “I would have thought better of you than to marry a dancer,” Peter said as they entered the theater.

  Alexander raised an eyebrow.

  “But you know she's a carapace,” he said. “And possibly the most powerful one we've ever met. A carapace-dragon alliance is something that has long been sought after.”

  “Was that before or after our father ordered the slaughter of them because of how dangerous they were?”

  Alexander evaded the question. “They aren't dangerous,” he said. “As long as they are on your side.”

  “I hear they can be addicting,” Peter said, giving him a sideways glance. “Have you ever heard that?”

  Alexander evaded the question as well, leading him through the maze of underground hallways that took them to her dressing room.

  He was surprised when Ariel saw him in the hallway and threw her arms around him. He hugged her back. “Darling?” he asked.

  “I'm going crazy. I need to sleep,” she said. “Sorry, I thought I was tougher than this. You dragons mess with my head.”

  “It's alright,” he chuckled, running a hand through her hair. “It's fine. Grab your bag and we’ll walk back.”

  “Thanks,” she said, locking her dressing room door behind her as they began to walk. She was still in her stage makeup, and he could see the weariness in her face. Alexander was looking forward to a nice, relaxing night. Peter seemed at least quieter and less self-destructive than he was twenty-four hours ago. Alexander even had plans for a romantic evening, and he was about to ask Ariel what she thought when she suddenly she stopped dead on the sidewalk.

  “Darling?” he asked. She was staring straight ahead across the sidewalk. In front of their hotel was the very man she had seen in the lobby earlier today.

  “There,” she said, trying not to be obvious. “Is that not a dragon?”

  Both of the boys looked across the street, and Peter turned pale.

  “You're not crazy,” Alexander said, looking closer.

  “If I'm not crazy, why do you two look so stunned?”

  “Because that is a dragon,” Alexander finally managed. “His name it Otto.”

  “Good?” Ariel replied, but Alexander wasn't done speaking.

  “He's dead,” Alexander finished. “Otto has been dead for two years. I personally saw him vanish into the Other. He worked in the palace as my father's aide-de-camp.”

  “He was with me,” Peter said. “In the Other.”

  “Didn't you just get finished telling me that Peter coming back was some sort of miracle?” Ariel asked. “How are there two of them now?”

  “Three,” Peter said, and both their heads swiveled towards his pointing hand.

  Wandering down the street looking confused was what Ariel recognized as a female dragon. Her neck was longer, her eyes the telltale yellow, and she looked recently changed.

  “Do you recognize that one, too?” she asked her husband, who slipped an arm around her.

  “No,” he said. “But I'll hazard a guess to say that you can feel the Other magic off her, too.”

  Ariel closed her eyes for a moment. “I think so. It's not an exact science, you know.”

  “We have to get inside the hotel,” Alexander said. “Did you see a back entrance?”

  “Probably that way,” Ariel pointed along a side street. “Why are there so many here?”

  Alexander glanced to Peter who raised his head a bit.

  “Because they are gravitating towards their king,” he said. “It's built into them. It's how we control our subjects a bit easier than human monarchs. It's built into their magic to rely on us, to seek us out when lost.”

  “So much for free will,” Ariel said. “Come with me.”

  “I'm not going to ask how you know how to get into a hotel the back way,” Peter said, speaking up as she snuck them around the worker's entrance. “No doubt questionable motives.”

  She glared at him. “People recognize me for my work, jerk,” she said. His brow only furrowed because the word didn't translate. “Why are we running, by the way?”

  “Less questions, more hiding,” Alexander said, and her heart skipped a beat.

  “I've never known you to be afraid.”

  “I'm not afraid,” he answered. “I'm confused, and we need to figure this out before they get to Peter.”

  Peter snorted.

  “Are you afraid they will drag me back to the Other?” he asked, as the elevator door opened, and they were able to let themselves into their suite.

  “That would be difficult here on Earth with a carapace,” Alexander answered. “So good luck to you, brother. What I want to know is why are there dragons – dragons whom I know died – suddenly wandering the streets?”

  “Maybe the Other failed,” Ariel sank onto the bed. “Maybe it needs to be rebooted.”

  She said it in English, and it drove Alexander crazy that she could switch languages so fast. He translated as best he could, looking to his brother.

  “You have no idea why you are back, do you?” he asked.

  Peter remained silent, and Alexander repeated the question.

  “Peter. Were you pulled back?” he asked. “Did you want to be there?”

  “You know that I wanted to be there,” Peter replied. “You know that I'd prefer to be there rather than anywhere else.”

  “So you didn't have a choice,” Alexander said. “You didn't possibly have a part of yourself that wanted to be back, with us? With me?”

  Peter remained silent, and Alexander ran a hand over his face.

  “What are the reasons that the Other could fail?” he asked.

  Peter shifted, glaring at Ariel. “Isn't that obvious?”

  “One carapace cannot pull down the magic of the Other,” he scoffed.

  “What makes you think she's the only one?” Peter said.

  “Because Father took care of the rest.”

  “Sorry, your Father did what?” Ariel asked, raising an eyebrow. Peter smirked.

  “For being married as long as you two have, you'd think you know everything about each other. Our father ordered the slaughter of all carapaces because he was afraid.”

  “It's not like that,” Alexander quickly turned to her. “There were a few who were dangerous, who were using their power for the wrong reasons.”

  “And slaughtering them wasn't using your power for the wrong reasons?” she said. “Look, Alexander, you know I don't judge you, and I certainty don't judge what your family does. That's not your fault. You've been good to me. But is it possible that's why I'm a screwed up foster kid?”

  “It's possible,” he admitted, and she got up, shaking her head.

  “Whatever,” she was clearly not alright with the history that was being presented to her. He could see the emotion brewing under her skin. “So, if you're blaming carapaces, Peter,” she said, “are you thinking they missed a few? Because I’m still here?”

 
“I'm thinking,” he answered, “that unless my memory serves me incorrectly, it's been thirty years since the slaughter of the carapaces was ordered. An anniversary is a perfect time to get revenge. If you were missed, how many others were missed?”

  “What is the big deal, anyway?” she asked. “So the wall between living and dead falls? Shouldn't you rejoice that all your dead friends are back? Your father would be back, wouldn't he? That should delight you.”

  “Except that means everyone is,” Alexander said. “Including the ones who were executed for their evil intentions. Every magical creature when they die goes to the Other. Hundreds of years of history.”

  “Why would they be here?” she asked.

  “They can be anywhere,” Alexander shrugged. “If Peter got his magic back, then anyone could have.”

  “This is ridiculously dramatic,” she buried her head in her hands. “I'm going to get some air.”

  “Ariel,” Alexander reached out for her. “Now is not the best–”

  “Do not give me orders,” she snapped at him, with more anger than he expected. She charged out of the room, leaving the boys in silence.

  “Thank you,” Alexander said angrily to Peter, who simply raised an eyebrow.

  “How have you kept all of that from her?”

  “Because Ariel doesn't care,” Alexander replied. “She has never judged my history, my quirks, my position in life. The marriage that we have is not based on love.”

  “But it is based on trust,” Peter replied. “And even if you did not marry for love, you cannot be married so long and not come to care about each other. We see it all the time in nobly arranged marriages. Our parents were married out of an arrangement, and look how father wept when mother died.”

  “And because of that, you must make sure she knows everything?” Alexander snapped at him. “She already wants to divorce me, Peter. I don't need any help.”

  “Why does she want to divorce you? A very human notion, by the way.”

  “Because marriage doesn't fit her style?” Alexander asked. He laughed.

  “A wonderful queen you've damned us to,” he said. “You're addicted to her.”