I thought of those of Joseph’s companions I’d confronted. I hadn’t given them much thought considering he’d been the driving force, but after a moment I remembered a darker-skinned young man who’d followed Joseph’s every word as if Barnaby’s son were a saint and not a madman.
“I think I remember him.”
She did not ask how. I suspected she knew more about the Wing-foot Express crash than she let on.
I noticed Laertes looking pensive. “What’s eating you?”
In reply, he snapped his fingers. The guards dutifully started to leave. Only Louise Crying Wolf remained.
Laertes gave her a look. “I made a promise to you . . . and you made one to me.”
She looked frustrated, but nodded. “All right.”
He waited until she’d left, then leaned forward. “Did you see her?”
I didn’t play any games. “Her Lady? Not by choice.”
“I thought as much,” Claryce interjected. “Did she try anything?”
“Nothing more than usual. It evidently wasn’t entirely her choice, either. Apparently we came crashing into Feirie.”
That was evidently not enough for Laertes. “And did she mention me?”
“No.”
“Are you absolutely certain?”
I thought of the item Her Lady’d given me. “No. Nothing about you.”
He leaned back. “So you know, when you apparently entered Feirie, there was another surge of Wyld.”
I didn’t like the sound of that, nor did I like how Fetch’s ears straightened when he heard the news. “How do you know that?”
Laertes almost looked offended. “I have my sources.”
I let that pass for a moment. “How bad?”
“Enough to bother both of us and to set her Feir’hr Sein on a continuous hunt.”
So Lon was on the prowl, seeking any Wyld who’d slipped through. I should’ve been happy he was going to save me some work, but instead I found myself concerned for some of his potential victims.
Fetch wasn’t doing any better at hiding his own emotions. Now his ears flattened and ever so briefly he bared his teeth.
“I’ll deal with that as I can.” I jabbed a thumb at the door. Fetch caught the signal and retreated to the exit. Claryce stayed near me. “Thanks for helping out. Maybe keep Louise Crying Wolf from being my shadow from now on, though. Okay?”
He chuckled. “Ask me to fight Her Lady face-to-face with my arms bound and my magic stolen. What you desire is about just as likely. Crying Wolf is not mine to command. Not really.”
“See what you can do.”
A slight smile playing over his face, Laertes spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness.
As the three of us left, “Squeeze Me” started up again. Laertes’s guards slipped past us on the way back up. Meanwhile, Louise Crying Wolf—as I’d settled on calling her for the time being—was waiting for us downstairs.
“I wish to speak with you,” she said to me.
“Not now.”
“But Saint George—” Her fingers fiddled with the small medallion.
“Nick,” Claryce corrected her. “We’ll find a time. I promise you.”
Louise Crying Wolf frowned, but finally nodded. She stepped aside.
We drove off in the Packard, no one saying a word for the first few minutes. I debated with myself, then made a turn.
“This isn’t the way back to the safe house,” Claryce noted.
“No. It’s the way to Dunning.”
Fetch let out a growl at the name. “Ye’ll be wanting to talk with that odd bird . . .”
Claryce did not seem surprised. “Are you going to contact Barnaby?”
“Not about this.”
“But won’t the staff tell him?”
I made another turn, then shook my head. “Not if I go in alone.”
“Aah . . .” She understood now.
It took some time, but at last we turned off Irving Park Road and past the eight-foot-high iron fence surrounding Dunning. The facility was a Gothic-style building whose dour nature the more recently added trees and foliage could not mask. I parked, but left the car running for Claryce’s sake.
“Keep an eye out. It shouldn’t take long to find out if Joseph can tell me anything.”
“Be careful in there.”
As I headed into the entrance, I touched thoughts with the dragon.
Eye understand. . .
I said nothing as I entered. The nurse at the front desk looked up, but a glance from me made her look down again. She’d not recall me either now or when I left.
I made my way to Joseph’s room without any other encounter. His door was always locked, but a simple touch made it open.
As I entered, I saw Barnaby’s son sitting on the edge of his simple frame bed as he often did. For all I knew, he’d sat like that all night and through the day.
“Hello, Joseph.”
In contrast to his father’s bulldog appearance, Joseph’s oval face likely resembled his mother’s. The Wingfoot Express crash had left his Valentino looks awry, with his nose clearly broken and a wicked pair of scars crisscrossing his face. There’d been some broken bones, too, but Joseph had ended up a lot better than his comrades, who’d all died . . . including David Bowman.
I tried once more. “Joseph . . .”
He continued to stare ahead. As usual, his interest seemed to be in the shadows in the corner.
Coming around, I sat next to him. For a brief time during our encounter with Holmes, he’d almost seemed half-sane. Barnaby had even hoped for a recovery. Me, I still regretted having saved his life during the crash, although I had to admit he’d helped against Holmes.
I decided to try a different tack. “I met someone recently. A friend of David Bowman. Remember David?”
Joseph pursed his lips. After a moment, he murmured, “David, Bertha, Ludwig, Cal, Sebastian, Myrna, Quinn. David, Bertha, Ludwig, Cal, Sebastian, Myrna, Quinn. David, Bertha, Ludwig, Cal, Sebastian, Myrna, Quinn . . .”
He went on like that for a full minute or more, then returned to the way he’d been before. I knew some of those names; they’d belonged to the group that had tried to use the airship. There was something wrong, though. I did as best I could a mental count of those I’d known about, even if I hadn’t known their identities, and came up with a smaller number than the names he’d repeated. I didn’t like that. I liked everything and everyone accounted for.
“Joseph. Can you tell me who was on the Wingfoot with you and David?”
“David, Bertha, Ludwig, Cal, Sebastian, Myrna, Quinn. David, Bertha, Ludwig, Cal, Sebastian, Myrna, Quinn . . .” he went on a half a dozen times more. Then, without warning, “One man, two man, three. One man, two man, three. Each a part, never whole. One man, two man, three . . .”
The dragon tensed. I couldn’t blame him. For more than one reason, the trio from the theater came to mind. I’d not considered any link between Joseph and them. “What about the three? Tell me?”
He looked at me. “It’s all in the cards. It’s all in the cards, St. George.”
For just a breath, Joseph looked like his old self. Then, “One man, two man, three. It’s all in the cards. We knew that. They knew that. He knew that.”
He went silent again. His gaze returned to the shadows.
I swore like a tribune I’d known from Gaul. I was about to leave, but then thought of one more thing to try. Digging out the coin from its favored place, I held it in front of Joseph’s eyes. Flipping it so that he’d see both sides, I asked, “Do you know this, Joseph? Do you know this?”
He sat silent, but I noticed his gaze focused somewhat. I turned it to show Galerius’s profile.
“All hail the emperor,” Joseph whispered. “We who are about to die spit in your face . . .”
While I could appreciate the sentiments those words implied, I had no idea what they had to do with the situation. “Joseph—”
“Fire, fire, so great a pyre, now to be
drowned by the sea . . .” Barnaby’s son abruptly looked directly into my eyes. At that moment, there was nothing but sanity there. “The magic is burning me up, St. George. This is what’s left. I meant well for her once, before I got greedy. He got greedy, too, and they want their number back, be it from you or him. Three is the magic number . . . three—”
He broke off as he apparently sensed what I did, the presence of something or someone very nearby. Something or someone of power. Joseph’s eyes widened, then returned to their normal detached look, the shadows once more taking his attention.
And it was a good thing I instinctively followed that detached gaze, because one of the shadows abruptly separated from the rest. It coalesced into the now-familiar figure of one of the three identical men.
“A turn of an unfriendly card,” Joseph murmured. To my surprise, there was a hint of fear in his tone.
The figure reached a hand toward him. I didn’t bother to wait and see what he had planned for Joseph; as much as I’d despised Barnaby’s son when he’d been whole, the remnant of the man had proven helpful in the past. I also owed Barnaby.
I thrust my hand into my coat and started to draw Her Lady’s gift.
Strong arms coming from behind me pinned my arms. I didn’t need to see my attacker; I’d bet he looked exactly like the one in front of me.
“Where?” the first figure quietly demanded of Joseph. As he asked, he clenched his hand.
Joseph let out a gasp, then, his words coming out as if he choked, rasped, “It must be three. One, two, three. St. George, it must be three.”
Yeah, I’d noticed there were only two, also, and if I read Joseph right, they all needed to be present to fully manifest whatever powers they had. I didn’t know for what reason the trio had become a duo, but I wasn’t going to shrug off any advantage.
My own captor didn’t just use his strength. However, if he thought the power he added to his grip would be sufficient, he was sorely mistaken. The dragon didn’t bother to offer his own to me; he just gave it.
I broke his grip with ease, then provided him with a well-placed elbow. He made no sound, but fell back.
The first one swung his hand toward me, clenching it again as he did. My air cut off, but my momentum enabled me to reach him despite that. I grabbed his wrist and twisted it.
The hand unclenched. My breathing returned to normal.
Up close, I discovered a few unsettling things. One was that, so near, I could see the tiny, tiny lines crisscrossing every visible inch of skin. It reminded me of some macabre puzzle or mosaic.
Another was the eyes. They actually had no true color, instead reflecting whatever was in front of them. At the moment, that meant my own.
Too late, I understood what that also meant. Suddenly, I couldn’t look away. I felt his eyes bore into me, seeking.
Before I could do anything, a hand slipped between us and covered his eyes. With a strong shove, Joseph separated the first attacker from me and drove him back into the shadows.
The pale man vanished into the darkness as if into an actual hole. As he did, though, he seized Joseph’s wrist, pulling Barnaby’s son toward those shadows.
I grabbed Joseph and dragged him to safety. Our intruder faded away.
Beware! the dragon roared.
I spun to face the other attacker, only to hear a familiar growl. That was when I discovered that someone had disobeyed orders and slipped into Dunning.
No, not someone. Two someones. As Fetch leaped at the remaining intruder, Claryce—gun drawn—took a bead on the figure.
Fetch pinned his target against a wall. On his hind legs he proved to be at least as tall as me, something I often forgot. He also stood as no hound or wolf could have; indeed, looking almost human in his stance.
“Make one little flinch, breathe heavy, and I’ll be ripping out your throat however ghastly it must taste,” he warned. Near me and with a foe clearly of magical means, Fetch wasn’t afraid to speak. I, on the other hand, wondered just what had happened with the receptionist.
“Fetch snuck in and created a distraction she went to go investigate,” Claryce calmly explained without being asked. “He smelled something wrong and we agreed that outweighed your order.”
I shrugged, not entirely displeased with their choice, but wishing for her safety they’d taken more time to consider the risks. Aware of my chances of that happening now or ever, I focused on more immediate matters. Joseph had returned to his regular seat, but I couldn’t forget his abrupt action. Part of it had been to protect himself, but he had also put himself in danger to assist me.
“Thanks, Joseph,” I called.
He stared into the shadows. Now, I began to wonder if he’d been waiting for something like this all the time. That made me think of how safe Dunning was after all.
Our pale friend had remained motionless thus far. He stared not at Fetch’s sharp teeth—so dangerously near—but at me. Not a terribly big surprise.
“It’s time we had a word,” I said to him as I joined Fetch. “Or, rather, you’ll tell us what we want to know and I’ll ask my friend here nicely if he won’t bite your face off.”
“Just a little nip to start, maybe, Master Nicholas? Something to make sure he doesn’t just beat his gums and instead actually tells us what we want.”
“We’ll give him one chance first. Then . . . we’ll see what you can take.”
Our nameless friend showed no sign of fear. I didn’t know if he had good reason or just didn’t believe I’d let Fetch at him. Truthfully, if not for Claryce’s presence, there wouldn’t have been any question. I’d had enough of this trio.
Glaring at him, I asked, “What does Galerius want with Joseph? What’s he up to?”
Silence, followed by Fetch’s growl.
“He’s not going to tell us anything,” Claryce declared. “Just let Fetch finish him so we can get on with matters.”
She said it with such conviction I almost looked at her in concern. I didn’t want Claryce to become like me. I hoped that she was just trying to back me up and didn’t mean it.
Whatever the case, none of it seemed to matter to the prisoner. He simply stared back at me as if Fetch didn’t exist.
Allow me . . . Eye can help with this stubborn refuse . . .
The dragon had been silent until now. He’d also been very cooperative. I wasn’t sure if either of those were good things, but I understood what he had in mind.
Go ahead, I answered.
Let us get a closer . . .
“Move aside, Fetch. I’ve decided you’re too easy a fate for him.”
Fetch’s ears flattened, but he obeyed without a word. The pale figure didn’t move an inch as I confronted him.
“He makes one move at you and he gets a bullet,” Claryce commented.
“She’s a very good shot, too,” I told him. “But that’d also be too easy. No, we’ve got something better in mind for you.”
Now, I suggested to the dragon.
Oh, yes . . . definitely now . . .
He granted me his vision . . . which meant that he also literally gave me his eyes.
Now our friend flinched.
“Turn of the card,” he whispered with more than a hint of anx-iousness. “Turn of the card.”
Suddenly, he began rippling as if made of mist caught in a breeze.
“No you don’t!” I snarled, with more than a little of the dragon escaping into my voice. I grabbed with what became more of a paw with sharp claws than a human hand.
Even though I could now see through him, the paw caught hold of some substance. The pale man squirmed.
Then, my fingers went through him. I ended up with nothing in my grasp. Worse, he faded away completely.
“One, two, three,” Joseph muttered.
“Yeah,” I replied as I reverted to myself. Still, I’d learned something. The trio wasn’t so strong that they didn’t fear a power like what the dragon and I’d revealed.
That was amusing . . .
>
“Glad you’re happy,” I murmured.
Fetch sniffed around the shadows into which the first intruder had faded away. “Nothing to see here, Master Nicholas.”
“Figured that.”
Claryce came to my side. “Who are they? What do they have to do with—with Galerius?”
“I still don’t know . . . but I can’t help feeling that there’s more to them than being servants of his. In fact, I’d almost swear that they’re not aligned with Galerius at all.”
“But if not, then who are they?”
“More like ‘what.’ He probably knows.” I gestured at Joseph. “Maybe we can still peel something out of him on the way.”
“‘On the way’?” Both she and Fetch stared at me as if my face remained half dragon.
“Dunning’s no longer safe. I’m afraid if Barnaby wants his son secure—and we may need him for more info ourselves—” The last came out cold but I didn’t care. “—then Joseph’s got to go home.”
CHAPTER 11
It wasn’t difficult to check Joseph out of Dunning, just disturbing. I was forced to use that element of the dragon’s power I tended to avoid. It was one thing to make the receptionist not notice me walking by. It was another to freeze her in place while I made a quick call to Barnaby.
He answered on the first ring, evidently having already tried to call me.
“Something’s come up,” I told him right after identifying myself. “I’m at Dunning. We’re taking Joseph out of here. He’ll be safer with you.”
He didn’t argue, especially when I gave him a quick rundown of what had happened. Despite all Joseph had been, Barnaby still loved his son. “I appreciate that, Nick. We’ll be fine here. His room’s always been ready for this moment.”
“We’ll drive straight to see you.”
“All right . . . oh, speaking of Joseph, I found a few papers. It’s all that remains. There’s a pattern I can’t quite understand, but it has something to do with the layout of what he and the others planned.”
That brought something else to mind. “Barnaby. I’m going to give you a list of names. Tell me if you recognize all of them.”
As he listened, I repeated each of those Joseph had told me. When I was done, there was a pause as I gather he digested the information.
Black City Dragon Page 12
