The Dragon's Choice

by Wesley Allison

  A young troodon, it’s brilliant green feathers the most colorful thing in the neighborhood, ran from behind the shrubs and pressed its toothy snout up against the sorceress’s leg.

  “She’s getting big!” said Kerry excitedly.

  The little dinosaur zeroed in on his voice and leapt up onto the side of the car. Bryony gave a little shriek, but the creature did nothing more than hop into the boy’s lap and curl up. Kerry cooed to it and petted its head.

  “Boys and dinosaurs have a natural affinity,” opined Senta. “I suppose I’m in the rear?”

  “Too right,” said Bryony, as her husband stepped down to help the sorceress climb back between the children.

  Soon they were all on the road, heading south. Bryony turned and looked back at Senta.

  “You’ll be gone two weeks?”

  “I’m thinking more like three. We must account for travel time.”

  “That’s a long time.”

  “Don’t worry,” said Sen. “I’ll keep her out of trouble.”

  It was a journey of more than an hour to the Charmley Dinosaur Ranch, but at last they arrived. Baxter helped Senta and then Sen down from the car. The girl kissed all three of the Baxters good-bye, and lifted the sleeping dinosaur from Kerry’s hands.

  “Be a good girl,” Baxter told her.

  “Always, Daddy.”

  “We’ll be back before you know it,” said the sorceress.

  Baxter just nodded and climbed back into the car. Without another word, he drove away with his family.

  “We’re off on a great adventure,” Senta told her daughter. “Let’s go.”

  They walked to the front door of the large ranch house. The troodons in the front yard gave them no trouble, though Sen carried Felicity in her arms, just in case. Wenda Charmley met them at the front door.

  “Senta. Right on time. Walter is waiting for you in back. Come on through.”

  She led them through the house and out the back door to a broad, open porch. Walter was leaning against one of the columns, drinking soda water from a glass bottle. He looked no different than he had when he was Warden. Standing just beyond the porch, munching on greens piled in a wheelbarrow, was a huge iguanodon. He was fully forty feet from nose to tail and weighed in at nearly five tons, and he was outfitted with a howdah on his back.

  “Is that..?” wondered Senta.

  “I wouldn’t trust you to any other. Stinky really is the best. He’s an old hand at carrying passengers.”

  “I haven’t seen him since…” The sorceress looked around. “I haven’t seen him in a long time.”

  Novuary 1907 had been a long time before—fifteen years. In another week and a half, it would be fifteen years to the day. Stinky had been much smaller then and Senta had been so much younger. She had been seventeen and madly in love. Then a steam carriage had exploded. It was the same explosion that had cost Honor McCoort her leg. It had injured Stinky the iguanodon, and he had fallen on his rider—Graham Dokkins. Graham Dokkins, the boy that Senta had loved so fiercely.

  “I took him out of the city after the accident,” said Walter. “He hasn’t shown any real fear of cars, but I didn’t want to take the chance. Since then, he’s carried a howdah to Yessonarah many times, and once he went all the way to Tsahloose.”

  The sorceress stepped up to the great beast. He lifted his head, and she rubbed it between his eyes.

  “Do you remember me, Stinky? I remember the morning Graham came home and you were waiting for him. That was the same day that I got my first sigils.”

  The iguanodon snorted, leaving a wad of mucus the size of a large man’s fist on her stomach.

  “He remembers me,” she said, cleaning herself up with a simple spell. “Come along, Sen.”

  “Hut hut,” called Walter, stepping up beside her.

  The iguanodon dropped down onto his belly.

  “You’ll still need a little help getting up.” He pointed to a rope ladder handing down from the howdah. “Once you’re up there, pull it up with you, so it doesn’t get tangled on anything. There’s plenty of room for you to sleep in the howdah, so you really needn’t get out until you reach your destination, except maybe to stretch your legs. There’s a chamber pot inside.”

  Senta helped her daughter up the ladder and then climbed up after her. The interior of the little house on the dinosaur’s back was indeed spacious. There were two padded seats facing forward and behind them a luggage area, far more than enough for the women’s two small bags, along with a chest of food and bottled water, and behind that were sleeping accommodations for two.

  “Normally I’d send an experienced driver with you,” said Walter.

  “Not necessary,” said Senta. “Uuthanum tachthna pita.”

  A large bright blue butterfly appeared in the air and fluttered around near Stinky’s head. Immediately the dinosaur looked up to watch it. Then climbing to his feet, he lumbered after it, as it flitted away toward the south.

  “See you in three weeks!” Sen called to Mr. and Mrs. Charmley.

  * * * * *

  Augie sat on the portico of the Dechantagne house. On the lawn in front of him were six bright green troodons, staring at him in rapt attention. He tossed a small bit of meat to one, who snapped it out of the air. The closest beast to it, bit the air near its snout.

  “No Cecil! If you want a treat, you must do what you’re told! Now sit!”

  The troodon in question dropped down into a seated position, making it look even more like a big chicken than it already did. The man threw it a piece of meat.

  “Good boy.”

  “Marinus, up!”

  Another of the creatures hopped up into the air.

  “Good boy!” said Augie, rewarding him.

  “Augustus,” came a voice from the front doorway.

  “Good morning, Mother. Good morning, Gladys.”

  “Gladys isn’t here.” His mother crossed the portico to stand in front of him.

  “Oh,” he said, looking up. “I just assumed. What can I do for you today, Mother?”

  “You can explain how I have to learn about this from the paper!” She held up a copy of the Birmisia Gazette, the headline reading “Princess Terra!”

  “That would be a question better addressed to your daughter, one might think.”

  “Oh, I’m going to give her a talking to, of that you can be sure. But you knew! You knew and you said nothing to me! Nothing!” She stamped her foot and waved her finger in his face. “I know that you knew. This is what you were talking to Iolanthe about.”

  “The important thing is that we all know now. We’ve got to start planning. Are you going back to Brech City for the wedding?”

  “Brech City. I never really thought of going back. It’s so far away.”

  “True, but you won’t be sailing on a battleship this time. You’ll be going first class.”

  “Will you be going too?” she asked.

  “I haven’t decided. I was just back a few years ago.”

  “I have a lot to do,” she said.

  “Yes, you do.”

  “I might meet the King.”

  “I dare say you will,” he replied, “as you will be in-laws.”

  “I should probably have some new dresses made.” She turned and walked to the front door. “I definitely need new shoes.”

  “Malvolio,” said Augie, turning his attention back to his pets. “Up.”

  He tossed the specified troodon its treat.

  “Benjamin!”

  Whatever task he was going to demand was forgotten and the little dinosaurs went scurrying in every direction, when a loud whomp signaled the arrival of the coral dragon. Kayden, who had been quietly guarding the front door, slipped inside the house. Augie jumped to his feet and rand down the steps. Hurrying across the yard, he didn’t stop until he was within a yard of the great scaly monster, where he skidded to a stop.

  “Sweetheart,” he said, smiling up.

  The great wings slowly fol
ded, and the spiked head lowered, but the long serpentine tail remained in constant motion. A mouth that could have easily eaten him in two bites, came to a stop just in front of his face. A long forked tongue, shot out touching first one side of his face and then the other.

  “You taste delicious.”

  “Where have you been, dearest?” asked the man.

  “I’ve been to the south.”

  “You’ve been with him?”

  “It’s not like you think. It’s not a physical thing.”

  “But you’ve chosen him.”

  “No,” said the dragon.

  “No?”

  “I went to tell him that I am not and never will be his.”

  “I imagine he was angry,” said Augie.

  “He will be… when he wakes up and finds out.”

  “Will he come after you?”

  “Maybe. First he’ll go after Senta. He’ll blame her for what he thinks of as my contamination.”

  “She’s gone south,” said Augie, frowning. “You should warn her.”

  “She can take care of herself. I’m going to take a nap.”

  “I was going to invite you to dinner.”

  “Good. One week from tonight. Pick me up at my hou… Senta’s house.”

  The young lord nodded and then watched as the dragon shot into the air, stretched out her wings, and flew west.

  * * * * *

  The slow plodding movement of Stinky the iguanodon kept Sen in a sort of semi-permanent drowsy state. Her mother, on the other hand, simply slept. Several times during the course of each day, they would stop and climb down to stretch their legs. The rest of the time, they remained in the little house on Stinky’s back. The iguanodon stopped to sleep at night, but they stayed inside, protected, as the beast was, by potent magical wards.

  As they made their way through the great pine and maple forests, it was easy to doze off. It was cool and shady, and there wasn’t much to see. On the open planes, it was a different story. The beating sun brought the temperature in the howdah up to nearly ninety-five degrees, though it would have felt even hotter without the shade provided by the dinosaur-back shelter. There was much more to see too. Great herds of dinosaurs roamed the plains, most far larger than any of the domesticated beasts back in Port Dechantagne.

  The fourth day of their journey took them across one of the largest open stretches that they had seen. Grazing across the savannah was a vast herd of edmontosaurs, very similar to Stinky in size and form, but with enough differences that it was easy to distinguish between. The edmontosaurs had a tall ridge running down the length of their backs, which would have made it impossible to carry a howdah, at least without extensive modification. And the iguanodon had a formidable spike on their front legs that the edmontosaurs lacked. Still, the local beasties didn’t seem to pay Stinky any attention as he wandered through the herd. The same couldn’t be said for a trio of large bipedal predators. They had been following a group of saltasaurus, but when the lone iguanodon left the herd of edmontosaurs, he immediately aroused their interest.

  “Mother,” said Sen. “There are three big meat-eaters following us.”

  “Tyrannosaurus?” wondered the sorceress without getting up or opening her eyes.

  “Just as big, but with green and yellow feathers, and I’m not sure, but I think smaller teeth.”

  “Hardly worth worrying about then.”

  “I said smaller teeth, not small teeth.”

  “This is the perfect time to practice your fireball spell,” said Senta.

  “I don’t know how to cast a fireball.”

  “When I was thirteen I was casting them all the time. Why, I once burnt down Finkler’s Bakery.”

  “I’m only eleven.”

  “Are you?” asked the sorceress, sitting up. “Perhaps I’m expecting too much of you.”

  “Tell me the spell,” demanded the girl with a determined frown.

  Taking her by the chin, Senta looked into her eyes.

  “Repeat after me—uuthanum uluchaiia uluthiuth.”

  “Uuthanum uluchaiia uluthiuth.”

  “That’s right. Now say it at them.” She pointed at the three predatory dinosaurs. “They’re getting a bit close.”

  “Uuthanum uluchaiia uluthiuth!” cried Sen, point out the back of the howdah toward the beasts.

  A bit of fire shot from her fingertip, but fizzled out.

  “You need more than one finger, child. Point all five fingers at them. Spread them apart. Now turn your hand over, palm up.”

  “Uuthanum uluchaiia uluthiuth!”

  This time a small ball of fire shot from her hand, growing until it was more than ten feet across, hitting the foremost dinosaur. It screamed out as its feathers burst into flames, and then it turned and ran away. The other two followed it, whether to avoid similar circumstances or to attack their injured brother, who could say.

  Half a second later, Sen screamed, grabbed her head in her hands, and fell back, blood flowing from her nose.

  “I forgot about that bit,” said her mother, unsympathetically. “I thought I was going to die when I first used a fireball on that tyrannosaurus.”

  “Gah!” cried the girl. “Help me, you bitch!”

  Senta pulled a handkerchief from her purse and wiped most of the blood from Sen’s face. Then she reached into the food cache, pulled out the remains of a loaf of bread, and tearing off a piece, tossed it into the girl’s lap.

  “Eat this. You’ll feel better. And I’ll let your cheekiness slide just this one time, since I know you’re in pain.”

  “I was speaking the truth,” said Sen. “Impertinent or not.”

  “Quit making up words!” hissed her mother.

  * * * * *

  Cheery, the butler, opened the door before Lord Dechantagne could knock. The great lizzie bowed and led the young man into the parlor. Zoey was sitting on the sofa. She was dressed in a teal and silver evening gown, a ribbon pattern motif covering most of it, but with a solid teal silk panel in front. She was hatless, and her blonde hair was carefully styled into a Mirsannan twist. She looked tired and her painted lips were turned down. She looked at Augie like she expected him to strike her.

  “What’s the matter, Darling?” He rushed forward and sat next to her, taking her hand in his. “You aren’t having second thoughts about going with you-know-who, are you?”

  “No, of course not. But I don’t want to talk about this. Let’s wait until after dinner. Or maybe we could just wait forever.”

  “Come along,” he said, pulling he to her feet. “You’ll feel much better after you eat. You always do.”

  “Do you want to drive?” he asked her, as they stepped out the front door.

  “No.”

  He helped her up into the passenger seat of his car, and then ran around and climbed behind the wheel. They drove out of Senta’s estate, turning when they reached Terrence Dechantagne Blvd.

  “I hope you’re hungry,” he said.

  She looked at him blankly.

  “Oh, I know you’re always hungry,” he laughed. “You haven’t licked me and told me I’m delicious yet tonight.”

  “I’m not really in the mood.”

  “You’re not tired of me, are you?”

  “That will never be,” she replied, her voice cracking.

  Reaching around her, he pulled her over to him. She leaned her head against his shoulder. They crossed the city quickly in what was relatively sparse traffic. As he was pulling up to Café Ada, Augie felt Zoey’s tongue tickle his neck. He smiled and turning, kissed her. She smiled for the first time since he had arrived at her home, and then looked around.

  “You don’t usually eat here.”

  “I don’t have anything against it,” he explained. “I usually find the other two establishments meet my requirements.”

  “But they didn’t tonight?”

  He grinned. “No, they didn’t.”

  Climbing down to the pavement, he walked around and help
ed her out of the car. The sidewalk leading to the front door of the café was lined with pincushion flowers and flutter roses, now in glorious bloom. A restaurant employee in a white coat opened the door and they stepped inside. Aalwijn Finkler was waiting for them.

  “Mr. Finkler, I didn’t expect to see you here,” said Augie.

  “I wanted to make sure everything was to your liking, Your Lordship. Allow me to show you to your table.”

  He turned on his heel and started into the dining area, which was empty of any other customers, and led them to a table in the middle of the room. Two settings of the establishment’s usual fine dinnerware were arranged on either side of a floral bouquet with a lit candle in the center. Aalwijn pulled out a chair for Zoey, and once she was seated, stepped around to pull out the chair for Augie.

  “I will have your appetizers here in two shakes,” he said, and with a curt nod, was gone.

  “You bought out the restaurant,” Zoey observed, straight-faced.

  “I did.”

  “I don’t think that was necessary.”

  “It wasn’t, but I thought it would be nice to have some privacy.”

  “It makes me feel lonely,” she said.

  “My dear,” said Augie, leaning toward her so far that the candle cast strange images on his face. “I never want you to be alone again.”

  “Here we are,” said Aalwijn, returning with two waiters. “For our first course, we have tiny lobster pies with celery and wild mushrooms, cucumber pieces filled with my mother’s own curried egg, and toasted herb bread slices with sharp cheese, walnuts, and the last of the summer berries. Please enjoy.”

  “There’s enough food here for ten men,” said Zoey.

  “Or one man and one dragon.”

  “You make it sound like I eat all the time.”

  “Your healthy appetite is among my favorite of your little idiosyncrasies,” he said.

  “You’re making me sound like some kind of weirdo.”

  “No, I’m not. Are you trying to pick a fight with me?”

  “No,” she said, sullenly taking a bite of lobster pie.

  “Eat up, Dearest. You’ll not make me cross tonight, no matter how much you may try.”