The Angel and the Dragon

by Pearl Goodfellow

  Millie bit her laughter back, and I smiled myself. “What are you working on, follicle-of-flame?”

  She cracked a sunny smile finally and pointed to the page she had been studying earlier. “I’m not really working on anything right now. I don’t even honestly know what I’m looking for. I’m just … well, I’m just following and cross-referencing any and every dragon lead I come across.”

  “Hmm.” I pulled a small notepad filled with Millie’s chicken-scratch toward me and read off the first of her jotted words. “Eye of newt? Seriously?”

  “Hey, I’m just taking notes … and, right now, any lead is viable.”

  I grunted and continued to read through Millie’s list of strange words. “Let’s see, blood-rubies? Seafoam?”

  Millie laughed. “Give me that,” she said, swiping the notebook from my hand. “If you’re just gonna tease me, you evil … witch.”

  I held up my hands and giggled myself. “No, no, I swear I’m not making fun of you, Millie,” I said. “But you may want to add tongue of toad, and wing of bat to your list.”

  Onyx nudged his head into my assistant’s arm. “I believe we need to explore every avenue possible to help us ward off a firestorm of a disaster, Hattie. Millie’s work here may well look … ah, ludicrously ridiculous, but one never knows … something here could prove to be invaluable.”

  “At least someone is speaking sense here,” my friend scoffed, scratching O behind the ears.

  “And, he’s right,” I said, this time with honesty. “We need all hands on deck right now, and who knows how we’re going to combat this threat. Keep up the good work, Millie. And I’ll be damned if your Futhark isn’t one-thousand percent better than mine. You missed your calling, girl.”

  “Friend of the Custodians is more my speed, Hattie. I have zero desire to be a part of your magical community, much less your underground rebel forces. Waaay too much danger for my liking.”

  “I totally get it.” I swiveled my head around the shop. “So none of the guys are back then?” The shop felt strangely empty without the rest of my furry crew.

  “No,’Clipsy, Midnight and Shade are still with the Faeries. I’m not sure if they’re still on Mag Mell or not, but they said they’d go back to Portia’s with Hinrika and Vee, and see you there later for the meet-up. Fraidy and Carbon are still with David. But Chief Trew Love himself called about fifteen minutes before you guys showed up. He has some news, and you’re to meet him at Maude’s at five.”

  “He found something?”

  “Sounds like it. He didn’t want to get into it over the phone, so best you go and meet him.” Millie glanced at the clock. “You still have twenty minutes, so tell me what you and Portia found out. I guess you didn’t see our cowardly governor?”

  I filled my assistant in on everything that happened while we were on Cathedral Isle, including our meeting with Shields and his cowering act behind his magical barrier. I also relayed the strange encounter with Dilwyn Werelamb, and his stories of Black Diamond smuggling, renegade grumlins, and the possible alternate entry into Burning Peak.

  Millie stood silently, arms folded, chewing on her lip, while I retold Dilwyn’s account.

  “Hmm, so you think it’s a rumor, then?” She said.

  I dragged a hand through my hair. “Well, based on his conversation with one of the grumlins that’s what Dilwyn thinks. So, no, I don’t think we’re getting into the Peak anytime soon. Which will put us at a disadvantage when Shields does give life to his dragon. We need to be in the heart of the chamber in the heart of the action if you know what I mean?” My head fell forward in defeat, and I took the opportunity to roll out a couple of neck stretches. It felt as if my spine were made of cervical granite, which, in turn, made my muscles contract in a series of painful bunches. I stretched left and looked at my assistant. “I’m serious, Millie, It’s really gotta be a case of ‘What happens in the chamber stays in the chamber.’ We have to keep the chaos contained.”

  Millie’s mouth formed a perfect ‘O,’ and she breathed out a controlled plume of air through the circle of her lips. “Wow, that all sounds rather adventurous. Rather you than me, my friend.”

  “Well, as I said, we’re not getting in soon, so your point is … moot.” I paused and arched a villainous eyebrow, and finished with: “My friend.”

  Millie snorted laughter, which made me laugh too. When Millie’s free of worry, it’s like being buffeted by a playful breeze. The vibrations this fiery-haired beauty gives off … from her ease, good humor and expansive heart can be viscerally felt in your whole being. Millie Midge is the consummate evaporator of bad moods and hinky juju.

  “Ahem,” Gloom interrupted. She cast a paw to the clock. “Hadn’t we better get a move on and meet your lover boy at the Coroner’s?” Jet let out a high pitched squeal and bounced like a deranged spring around the shop. “Yep, yep, better be quick about it too, yep. Carbon’ll munch through all the salmon treats, yep.” Maude Dulgrey kept high-grade nibbles on hand for my cats. The Infiniti adored the loveable ghoul … I mean, in the eyes of a cat, what wasn’t to like about our coroner friend? She was affectionate, but she also knew when to give my kittie’s space. She handed out belly rubs, cheek scratches, and crunchy treats with her trademark altruistic grace and uncanny intuition. She also let Carbon sleep next to the boiler in the below floor caverns of Maude’s facility. Maude Dulgrey’s boiler room was probably Carbons’ favorite place in the world.

  I sighed and picked up my bag from the counter and looked at my assistant. “You going to be okay closing up?”

  “You know it,” she said. “I’m going to prepare a few orders for delivery tomorrow before I leave. I’ve ordered some comfrey, a new vat of witch hazel and a batch of dried rosehips. Other than that we’re pretty stocked up on everything else.”

  “You’re the best.”

  “That much is true,” Millie said, poking her tongue out at me.

  With my three cats in tow, I left through the front door of the Angel. Maude’s was only a short distance from the Angel, and I thought the walk might do us some good.

  “I wonder what Chief Para Inspector Trew might have found, Hattie?” Onyx said, trotting by my ankles with his usual precise gait.

  “I hope it’s something that puts Shields behind bars, O.”

  “We already have enough on him to dump him in Steeltrap,” Gloom posited. “But what good has that done us so far? How can we catch a killer when he hides behind magic and technology?” I knew it was best not to engage my kitty when she was so irritable. I stared at my feet instead, and walked in silence the rest of the way to Maude’s.

  David and Maude had found something, I was sure of it. I just hoped that whatever it was , it wouldn’t feel like a violent punch to the stomach. I grabbed my bag and my broom anyway and headed out the door.

  “Would you believe I found it in his hair?” Maude said, raising her mangey brows. Using a pair of specialist tweezers, she held the evidence under a full-spectrum light magnifying glass. I squinted at the artifact. “What do you mean you found it in his hair?” I asked, leaning in for a better look. “It is his hair, isn’t it?”

  Maude twirled the delicate filament under the light. It glittered under the illumination.

  “There!” Maude exclaimed, demonstrating the sparkling quality to the thread-like item.

  A tiny glint of light bounced off the surface of the strand and pierced my vision. I leaned back in reflex. “Wow, it’s so….fine. It looks just like hair,” I said, leaning in again to peer at the near enough non-existent matter.

  “Indeed,” Maude said, smiling brilliantly. “Warlock tech, no less. We’re seeing a sizeable chunk of it these days, wouldn’t you agree?” Maude returned her fond gaze to the tiny article. “I have to say, I’m impressed. I mean these specks of Black Diamond contain so much information.” She looked at me over the rim of her glasses, her milky eyes large and dancing with barely concealed excitement. “Do you know that there are over two we
eks of young Orville’s movements recorded in these tiny grains?” Maude shook her head and clucked her tongue behind her teeth. “Incredible. This thing tracked Nugget’s movements over the space of fourteen days, and yet there’s enough space in its core to track a person’s every move for a lifetime.”

  I shrugged. Maybe I should have been as blown away by this device’s advanced tech as Maude clearly was, but I just felt irritated. All this scientific claptrap was getting pretty tiring if I’m to be honest. It was all completely above my head. “That’s progress, I guess,” I said.

  David, who had been standing on the other side of Maude’s desk, watching us discuss the wonders of technology, ran a hand through his white-streaked hair. “Makes you wonder though, right?” He said. “Just how many applications this Black Diamond has. I mean, we’ve now seen it as an explosive device, a super-amped electrical conductor, a … green-glowing-killing-thing, and now a tracker?”

  Maude whistled through her teeth and shook her head. “It’s true, CPI Trew. It’s a multifaceted piece of hardware, that’s for sure.” The coroner scratched her fuzzy chin. “Maybe I should get a hold of this technology myself … might help things run more smoothly in the lab.”

  A pained groan came from the corner of Maude’s workshop as Hector Muerte moaned his displeasure at his boss’s statement.

  “Relax, dear,” Maude chimed. “I don’t mean to replace you, you big old oaf. I just mean maybe a piece of tech like this could catalog my paperwork a little more efficiently.” The ghoul coroner waved a bony finger across the towers of moldy paper stacks to prove her point. Hector grunted and shambled off to attend to whatever chores he had been assigned.

  “You forgot making a dragon,” I mumbled.

  David looked at me. “What?”

  “Making a dragon,” I said. The Black Diamond is also behind the creation of Shield’s tech dragon.”

  “Oh. Right. Yeah, that too.”

  My irritation grew as I cast my mind back to all the terrible ways we had seen this Black Diamond in action. First, it was celebrity eco-warrior, Millicent Ponds. That was the first time we had seen BD used for anything other than tourist paraphernalia.

  Millicent, at the time of her horrific ‘frazzling’ death, had been wearing a Black Diamond pendant. This particular piece of jewelry had been given to her by Shields, by the way. A publicity stunt to show concerned voters that he was behind Millicent’s campaign for fair treatment for the Rock Grumlins. Ms. Ponds’ Black Diamond necklace had served as some kind of supra-conductor when a bolt of lightning had hit the poor earth activist.

  Moving on to the next application we had seen ... the Warlock Weapon -- a kind of Black Diamond bomb used in an attempt to silence convicted killer, Barnabus Kramp. Kramp, however, actually died from a massive heart attack -- thanks to his bitterly estranged daughter, Eve Fernacre -- just moments before the Black Diamond device did its worst.

  Our beloved Orville was the gem’s next victim. Killed by a spinning diamond that pulsed a lethal, green light. This latest murder was only made possible because of the final piece of Warlock-made BD tech: A Black Diamond bug, as undetectable as a hair follicle, weaved into Orville’s own hair for the best part of two weeks. And as soon as the brilliant teen had joined the the Custodians for my induction into the brethren, the device that killed him had been beckoned. Inside I seethed. Taking the life of a gifted teen was bad enough, but the fact Shields had intended to kill all of us in one fell swoop, made my blood rush like a torrent of acid through my veins.

  I looked at David, and another surge of anger coursed through my body. I was pretty certain that BD was also doing a number on the man I loved. The chief’s strange behavior and general poor health of late seemed to point toward the nefarious governor of Cathedral. And wherever Gideon Shields was, so was his precious Black Diamond.

  A sharp buzz from my left pocket made us all jump, as my cell phone trilled its presence.

  “It’s Midnight Hill again,” I said, looking dumbly at the display.

  David peered at me over his glasses. “Cressida’s really in the mood for talking, it seems.”

  “I’ll get in touch with her when things have calmed down a little,” I said, tapping ‘end call.’

  As much as I didn’t feel good about ignoring her cry for attention, Cressida Dreddock’s flights of fancy would have to wait. There’d be plenty of time after the apocalypse for listening to the mad witch’s paranoid ramblings.

  “Probably a good idea,” the chief confirmed, wiping a hand over his face again. I marveled briefly how the exhaustion pummeling my friend could drag so heavily on his features. How every line around his mouth looked sharp and deep. He looked at the clock on the wall behind Maude’s head. David had stopped wearing watches -- timepieces had mysteriously stopped working around my friend at about the same time his poor health had reared its ugly head. “We should probably think about heading out to Gaunt Manor to meet the others.”

  “My broom’s outside ready,” I said, pocketing my phone. I looked around the lab. “Where are Fraidy and Carbon?”

  “I sent them on to Gaunt Manor,” David said. “They’ll be waiting for us at Portia’s.”

  I nodded and turned to our coroner friend. “Maude, you’ve been fantastic as always.” I blew the ghoul coroner an air kiss, which she caught in an arthritically twisted hand. Maude beamed a smile of gums and teeth, and turned back to her work, while David and I prepared for the journey to the Gorthland Swamps to find out what our fellow Custodian’s had discovered. Hopefully, with all our combined intel, we might be able to formulate a plan on how to thwart the deadly threat that loomed over our isles; a plan that could put Gideon Shields behind bars at the same time.

  Chapter Nine

  “Silence!”

  The excited babbling in the room came to a halt as soon as Portia Fearwyn bellowed her command.

  “Goddess, I can barely hear myself think,” the old witch said, as she cupped her ears with her bony hands. “We can’t possibly share information if we’re all clamoring to be heard at once, now can we?” Keeping her fingers in her ears. I couldn’t blame her for asking for quiet. The noise in the room was nothing more than an overlapping caterwauling, with everyone speaking over everyone else. Portia’s outburst was an attempt to gain control, and thankfully it appeared to be working. The excited chatter tapered off into a gentle wave of subdued murmurs.

  “Thank you,” Portia said, letting her arms fall to her side. “Now, let’s bring some focus to this cauldron of data, shall we? Vee, Hinrika, you start. Tell us about your trip to Mag Mell.”

  Something furry brushed by my legs and Shade padded into the middle of the room and looked up at Portia. “Ahem, lady. Eclipse, Midnight and me were in on the action too, you know?”

  Portia peered down at my bold kitty. “Indeed,” she said. “And, I’ve no doubt you’ll all three have plenty to say on the matter too.”

  Shade took that as a compliment and puffed out his chest, and offered the Witch Fearwyn a slow kittie-blink. Verdantia scooped him up, and with Shade dangling like a happy noodle from her arms, the beautiful faery began. “Well, not all the Fae are backing the governor, at least. We were well received by the Seelie Court, for instance. They …”

  “It’s like this,” Midnight said, stealing the center of the floor from Verdantia and swinging one of his front paws wide. “The Seelies want Shields stopped. They’re tired of all the killin’ and terrorizin’, you know?” We, the audience, stared at my night-roaming kitty. “But our other cousins, not so much.” He continued. The Unseelies done been corrupted by the sparkly things the governor’s offered them in return for their help. And they don’t want to risk losing their bounty.”

  David nodded and pulled on his chin. “The bounty being Black Diamonds.” His eyes narrowed. “So Ankou and the Unseelie court are still on board with Shields’ plans. Whatever they may be.” Midnight bobbed his head in confirmation. “You’d think, us being Ankou’s kin and all,
that the old devil would be more agreeable about coming over to our side … but, no.”

  Shade head-bonked his brother out of the way. “Sad, but true,” he said regretfully. “Our cuz, Ankou, even knows the Warlock Chief will most likely double cross him. But he’s willing to take the risk so he can get his greasy paws on Shields’ promised treasures.”

  “Gross!” Gloom spat.

  “Tell me about it, sis,” Midnight empathized. “But you know how riches make people nutso.” Middie shook his head.

  “Well, he’s no relative of ours then,” Fraidy sniffed. “Not Ankou, not the Unseelies. And whatever bad things happen as a result of their complicity with the evil governor …. Well, they have it coming.”

  “That’s family you’re speaking of there, dear brother,” Onyx opined. “Even if Ankou and his court are misguided, they are still kin.”

  The Witch Fearwyn exhaled a hiss of air through her nostrils. “Can we please keep to one storyteller?” She suggested. “We don’t need a nonsensical kitty commentary for this, do we?” Portia turned to me and raised a pleading eyebrow.

  I appealed to my cats. “Okay, guys, can you please let Vee finish this story? I know you all have your points of view, but we have a lot to discuss this evening, so we need to keep this streamlined, deal?”

  Shade and Midnight stepped out of the circle and Eclipse nudged Verdantia’s calf with his head to prompt the faery into continuing her story.

  “Um, yes, as I was saying … Ankou, although suspicious of Shields, wants to keep quiet about his own and his court’s involvement with the governor.”

  “So, he didn’t share anything?” I said. “Nothing at all?”

  Hinrika shoved a meter of licorice into her mouth and shook her head. “Our dear cousin didn’t give us anything useful. It is true what your kittie’s say: Ankou does not want to risk losing his promised wealth.”