The rope trembled again. Fala was doing something.
With a sigh, he said, “I’m not going to argue with someone who doesn’t have a leg to stand on.” He turned to Kwatoko. “Pull her up.”
With a troubled look, Kwatoko nodded. Slowly, hand over gloved hand, he started to pull the woman up.
“Stop! Kwatoko! Aargh!” Fala sounded angry, frustrated.
The rope began to tremble rhythmically. What was she doing?
Stoltz’s eyes grew large. He spun. “Ikan! Pull her up, quickly!”
The big dragon reached over and grabbed the rope. With a mighty heave, he pulled.
Laughter came from the hole as the rope snapped upwards. Ikan almost fell backward when all resistance vanished. The end of the rope flew up and over them and fell on the rocky soil.
Stoltz stared down into the darkness.
The laughter ended with a thump.
“Fala!”
There was no response.
+ + + + +
When she finally reached the stairwell, Polandra only nodded in passing to the guards as she ran in and started sprinting up the stairs.
The woman cut the rope and fell into the hole. Once he has tied the rope to himself, we will lower Stoltz down.
Did she injure herself in the fall?
I cannot see down the hole. There is no light. She has not spoken since, but I can hear labored breathing and movement. She lives.
Shit! Polandra increased her pace.
It took a great deal less time to reach the top when one wasn’t on a leisurely walk.
As soon as Polandra stepped out into the room, she pressed the stud that opened the light shields on sconces. Once enough light was in the room, she eyed the pool and cast a spell.
She then jumped the short fence, grabbed onto the rungs, and started climbing.
At the top of the ladder, she looked over and saw the woman. “Fala! Stop. There’s no point.”
An arm and a leg dragging limply, Fala awkwardly pulled herself to the edge of the stone walkway. “Too late, manis!” She grabbed the skin, and using her teeth, tugged on the stopper.
“No,” Polandra yelled as she climbed onto the narrow walkway. “Stop! You’ll poison yourself!”
What had to be Yrdra’s Blood, a dark red liquid, splashed out and onto the woman’s face. She spit out the stopper and glared at Polandra. “Do you think I care? I have nothing left!”
Fala struggled at the edge, shifting her body sideways. “My parents abandoned me, gave me to the Order. But there, for the first time, I felt needed. I felt . . . like I belonged.” She rested a moment along the walkway edge. “Your kind and the dragons took that from me. Yiska left me, too, then the man from the north, and then my followers.”
A coughing fit left foam dribbling from her mouth. Pain twisted her features. “Gods but this hurts even worse than my arm and leg.”
“You stupid, stupid woman.” Tears forming in her eyes, Polandra stared at Fala.
“I didn’t—” Fala twitched and groaned. “I didn’t intend for this to be my last act for Daelon, but—” Another spasm shook her body and foam poured from her mouth. “So . . . be it.”
Clutching the open wine skin, Fala rolled off the walkway with a serene expression. Her robes fluttered as she fell the thirty or so feet toward the water. About five feet above the darkly reflecting pool, her fall ended abruptly. A flash of sorcerous light lit up the invisible barrier that covered the entire cistern, and brief shimmers flickered where she lay upon it.
Fala’s eyes stared upward blankly.
“No!” Stoltz emerged from the passage.
“Watch the ground there.” Polandra pointed. “There are splashes of Yrdra’s Blood.”
Avoiding the poison, he stepped to the edge of the walkway and stared down. “A barrier?”
Polandra nodded. Wiping her eyes she said, “I placed it as soon as I arrived, hoping she hadn’t yet poisoned the water. I was lucky.”
“What do we do now? As soon as you drop the barrier she and the poison pooled around her will fall into the water.”
“We burn her in-place with an enchantment. That should take care of any Yrdra’s Blood on and around her. Afterward, just to be sure, we pour bleaching water all over and let it sit for a time. We can then safely clean up everything before dropping the barrier.”
Stoltz nodded. He glanced at the walkway. A few dark drops and smears marred the stone there.
Polandra used Safisha’s Flame on the area with the poison. As the sorcerous flames danced their strange dance, the red spots and smears blackened then faded to gray. “I feel sorry for her.”
“You do?”
She looked up at him. “Fala thought she was abandoned by everyone. I felt something like that when Renata left the Corpus Order, and even more so when I learned the truth of the Order.” She drew her brows together. “I completely disagree with what she became in response, with what she did and what she tried to do,” Polandra looked over the edge to Fala’s body below, “but I understand what she went through.”
Not really seeing what she stared at, Polandra said, “If Renata hadn’t directed me to Isandath, if I hadn’t bonded with Ikan, if I hadn’t met Liara and everyone else at the guild . . . would I have become like Fala?”
+ + + + +
Millinith nodded after Polandra’s recap. “I see. When you lose someone or something you care about, no matter the cause, it can affect you in profound ways.”
“It is unfortunate and tragic that Fala took this path.” Yiska, sitting across Cirtis’s low table from her, shook his head. “Since learning she was behind the recent troubles, I often wondered if there was anything I could have done differently after my own realization. Could I have done more to help others see the truth of dragons? Lives might have been saved.”
“You did what you could,” Millinith said. “Your words and efforts continue to be of great help.”
“Your work brought many to the weekly public meetings that we held for a month,” Polandra said. “Those gatherings opened many eyes.”
“Precisely.” Millinith nodded. “Once people have been around dragons for a time, seen what they’re really like, perhaps even heard them, most people eventually understand that dragons aren’t very different from us.”
“The problem in this region,” Polandra said, “is the twisting of the creation story by the Corpus Order. Older folks had that ingrained into their being back while there were still dragons to hunt and kill.”
“That’s true,” Liara said. “Outside this region, acceptance of dragons by everyone, young, and old, is nigh immediate.”
“Just so,” Cirtis said. “I am beyond pleased that acceptance here has proceeded as well as it has. We have more work to do, to be sure, but let’s not forget how far we’ve come.”
Millinith nodded. “And speaking of work left to do, we’ve come up with some preliminary ideas about selling off the agave portions of the guild.” She slid a folder across the table to Cirtis. “I’d like all of you to look over this and speak with the former umeri who run those sections. If you find anything we overlooked, or if you have ideas on any of that, please let me know.”
He took the folder and nodded. “We will.”
“Thank you.” She looked at the people seated around the table.
Though it had brought an end to the interfering accidents and deaths, Fala’s own death and the manner of it seemed to have had an effect on everyone. Though relief was also evident, they were all subdued.
Millinith clasped her hands before her on the table. “Now that these terrible events are behind us,” she said, “we can move forward with more confidence. The first new business we need to address has to do with why I was unable to be here this morning. We had an unusual visitor at the Guildhall, and that prompted a change of my plans.”
“A visitor?”
She looked at Polandra and nodded. “An unknown dragon. One of the Departed.”
“What?” Liara sa
t forward.
“Departed?” Yiska looked from one to the other.
“In general,” Millinith said, “dragons live in groups called Houses. A House is a matriarchal community consisting of a few dozen dragon families. Anaya’s mother was of House Yaot in the Northern Wilds, while my own Itzel and Polandra’s Ikan were of House Peku, which lies a few hundred miles north of here.”
She looked from Yiska to Cirtis. “For one reason or another, a dragon could be exiled from their House or may even choose to leave it of their own accord. Such dragons are called the Departed and are generally shunned by dragons from the Houses.”
“Unbonded dragons are by nature nervous, anxious beings,” Liara said. “The Departed are supposedly even more so. That is why I’m surprised one had the courage to approach the Guildhall.”
“Yes,” Millinith said, “well, it turns out that many of those dragons have joined together as a group and they’ve been watching us at the Guildhall with keen interest for some time.”
Liara lifted her brows. “Watching us?”
“To what end?” Cirtis said.
“It seems at least ten of them wish to join Highest Mother Anaya, Queen Anaya, in her House.”
Everyone spoke at once.
“What?” “Wait, Highest Mother?” “Queen?” “Ten dragons?” “Do they all wish to bond?”
Millinith had to raise her hands at all the questions. “One at a time, please.” She pointed to the left. “Liara.”
The young woman blinked and her gaze went flat for a moment. After a moment, she said, “I knew that our dragons all looked up to her, but it seems that now they all pretty much consider her Highest Mother, their queen. And now other dragons consider her our queen, too?”
I told you we all feel that way.
You did. Millinith smiled. She’d been a little surprised by Itzel’s mention of that fact earlier. She nodded at Liara. “Yes, and the Departed assume she is queen of a House.”
Liara grunted. “Okay. Then, do we know anything of these dragons? I’m a little nervous having that many dragons join at one time.”
“As am I,” Polandra agreed. “They left or were exiled for some reason, after all.”
“That concern was brought up at the Guildhall,” Millinith said. “As to your question, we don’t know much about them at all. In light of that, it was suggested that we agree to only meet with those interested for now, so that we can all get to know each other.”
“That’s a reasonable precaution,” Cirtis said.
“And,” Yiska added, “as those dragons are very eager to join, I can’t imagine they’d protest such a request.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Millinith said. She pointed to Polandra. “Your question?”
“It’s been answered, but I do have a suggestion.”
“Yes?”
“During those meetings, could we have our dragons review the interested Departed similarly to how they do so with accepted for candidate qualification? If the Departed are dragon-approved, so to speak, then I’d be much less concerned about letting them join. I trust our bond-mates to know good from bad.”
“That’s a great idea.” Liara smiled at her girlfriend.
“Indeed it is,” Millinith said, “and I think we will do that.” She looked at Yiska. “Did you have a question?”
He shook his head. “Not really. I was just surprised, though happy, that the guild’s dragon numbers would be rising so quickly. I know there are more than a few individuals here who are interested in becoming dragonlinked.”
Millinith nodded. “As there are at the Guildhall.” She turned to the leader of the former Order. “Cirtis? Your question?”
“As it seems that dragon numbers will be rising soon, and progress is being made here, should we be thinking about hiring instructors for the branch? We may need them sooner than anticipated.”
“That, too, is a good point,” Millinith replied, “and I suppose I should begin looking into that. But as we know so little about the Departed, I think I’ll wait until we learn more about them, and especially, how many will actually join us.”
“The coming meetings will reveal much.” Yiska smiled.
“There have been some good suggestions here,” Millinith said. “I’ll have to ask Fillion and Coatl their thoughts about all this when they get back. Perhaps they’ll have some good ideas as well.”
+ + + + +
The closeness of the small reading room seemed to get worse with Fillion’s upset. He shut the folder. “Barbs and pissing blades. The company declared bankruptcy two weeks ago and defaulted on the building loan, so it won’t get us anywhere.”
Master Gella glanced up from her own stack of documents. “Most of the false companies involved with our investigations seem to have declared bankruptcy.”
He let out a disgusted breath. “So it was a false company, too?”
She looked back down. “It certainly looks that way. And while the current economic environment here isn’t as good as it could be, the fact that the company bought the building only one month prior to going bankrupt does seem a little odd. If you’re in such dire straights, why buy a building, even with a loan?”
Fillion shook his head. “No idea. Unless—Do you suppose it’s a kind of disguise? A fake company would appear more real with an actual office. Like that pest control company Elizabeth mentioned.”
“Possibly. But why would you need a fake storefront for only a month?”
“For access, I suppose. As you mentioned, the economy is tough here in Stronghold. A building will sit empty for some time waiting for a buyer. If they’d been planning the wagon robbery for a while, buying the building in advance and then defaulting on it gave them an office they could expect to be empty for some time. A place where they could interview prospective robbery crew members. After the robbery they’d have no need of the office anyway, and having defaulted on the loan and thus supposedly lost the building well before, they can disclaim all knowledge of anything that happened there afterward.”
Master Gella grunted. “That’s pretty convoluted, but it is very neat and tidy. It also throws water on an idea one of my investigators had.”
“Oh?”
“He wondered if the robbery was planned by the same people who’d previously attempted to steal Korovite. If those who robbed the payroll had been planning it for months, however, I’m not so sure that’s the case.”
Fillion chuckled. “Well, the last couple of times someone attempted to steal Korovite, they were foiled by dragons and dragonlinked. You can’t hide from us when we’re in the air.”
Master Gella blinked and stared at him. “Unless you’re underground.”
Fillion stared back. “Hang on. You’re saying they learned their lesson with dragons stopping their previous attempt and . . . adjusted their tactics?”
“In the interest of national security, the fact that there was an attempt on a Korovite shipment was suppressed, as was the fact that dragons assisted. So the only ones who could have known about the dragons were the ones actually involved, the people there at the train.”
Fillion pounded his fist on the table. “And with the ether writers, the leaders had the opportunity and plenty of time to relay what was happening to their superiors.”
“Including the fact that dragons were there.”
Fillion sat back, astonished. “Robbing the Korovite shipment from the train failed, so when they planned the armored wagon robbery, they took into account that dragons might assist.”
Master Gella shrugged. “That would certainly explain the underground tracks. If we hadn’t been there with Coatl, they could have still gotten away with the robbery, even without using those tunnels, and not even those we captured would have been detained.” She scowled. “But what do they need the money for?”
Fillion shrugged. “Why do any criminals steal money? So they can have it.”
“I suspect that these aren’t just any criminals. And besides, I sense a kind of des
peration here. They need money for something.”
“Hmm. Maybe it ties in to their efforts to make High Lady Hasana look bad.”
Master Gella scowled. “Mayhap. But how?”
+ + + + +
Tobin stood to the side, watching. Lord Koen looked a little happier recently, and even had an excited glint in his eye today. Of course, that might be due to the news Cadoc brought.
“Only three, sir. But the rest will be delivered once the other half is paid.”
“Three is fine,” Lord Koen said. Smiling, he sat back in the leather desk chair. “I just wanted to be sure they could produce the number of devices we needed within the time-frame we required. We’d only ever purchased one at a time before. This is good news.”
“Indeed it is, sir. Once these are delivered to the warehouse, the first three, ah, packages can be completed.”
“Perfect. We’ve suffered some setbacks on the way to this point, though none as harsh as yours, Tobin.” Lord Koen nodded to him.
He kept his expression blank. “True enough, sir.” He’d thought on Koen’s words from that day over and over, but only one thing made sense. If not for the nahual, Cadoc, or someone else from the organization, would have been sent to visit his brother just as the quiet man had been sent to visit Ambrus. It seemed that those who knew too much were not needed once their part in the plan was complete.
What of him? Would he be deemed useless once his part had been played? Not that it mattered. He’d not leave Elke and Preeti to fend for themselves. He’d made a promise, after all.
“But soon,” Koen continued, gaze fixed far away on something unseen, “we’ll drag this country back to greatness. In fact, people will be begging us to.” He looked at Tobin. “I am fully aware that none of this would have been possible without everyone’s assistance, and your upcoming role, Tobin, is vitally important. I think your brother would agree.”
Except that he was dead. Tobin kept his expression blank. “You might be right, sir.”
“I’m certain of it. Your brother was very excited about our purpose, and knowing that you were going to be such a big part of it made him very proud. Incidentally, have the new scripts been distributed to the criers?”
Of Gods, Trees, and a Sapling: Dragonlinked Chronicles Volume 4 Page 58
