Dragons Wild

by Robert Asprin

  Mose leaned back in his seat and looked at them both.

  “It’s no laughing matter,” he said. “Now, I want both you young dragons to listen to me real close. I’m answering your questions about primary and secondary powers as best I can because you’ve asked and I don’t want you to think I’m holding back on you. The truth of the matter is that, for the most part, the various powers don’t mean squat. It’s how you handle yourself that counts. People should do what you want them to because they’re convinced you’re right, not because they’re afraid of what you’ll do to them if they don’t go along. Sure, dragons have powers to some extent or other, but mostly it’s frame of mind.”

  Griffen frowned.

  “Please excuse me, sir. I didn’t mean to act like I’m taking all this lightly. It’s just that it’s all so new to me that I automatically drop back to old defense patterns…like laughing…to keep from showing how confused I am. Some of this stuff you’re telling me I just don’t understand.”

  “Like what, for example.”

  “Well, like what you were just saying. I understand that one doesn’t use these powers without a good reason, and even then only use them very carefully. It’s just…well, I keep being told I’m getting this generous offer because of my power potential, but then you say it’s a frame of mind, not the powers. If it isn’t the powers, or potential powers, and just a state of mind, then what do you need me for? What is it exactly that you expect me to do?”

  Mose heaved a sigh and ran his hand through his hair.

  “That’s a fair question,” he said. “It’s the answer that’s not so easy. Let me try to cover this in pieces. First of all, as you say, you’re new to all this. Part of why I wanted you down here is because I’ve got some things I can teach you.”

  He held up a restraining hand.

  “Let me get through this. I know what you’re thinking. How is that different from what Mal offered when he asked you to sign up with him. Well, the big difference is that you don’t have to be subservient to me to learn. This is going to be your operation. We’re joining you, not the other way around.

  “As to what you’ll be doing, first of all we have to teach you the operation. I understand from Jerome you’re no stranger to betting or bookies, but I don’t think your real familiar with the ins and outs of how it all works. It’s going to take you a while to learn what we do and to meet the people who do the day-to-day work.”

  “Once you get the feel of things, though, you probably won’t be that involved in the actual work. You’ll be management, and most of what you do will be setting policy and making decisions.”

  “If I can interrupt for a moment,” Griffen said, “could you elaborate a bit on what it is I’ll be deciding?”

  “I’ll give you an example,” Mose said. “Something that’s just come up that I’m trying to decide how to handle. There are some poker games around town that aren’t really a part of our group, but that pay us a percentage to operate. Now one of them that’s run by a young kid named Gris-gris has decided to stop paying us that percentage. It’s up to me to decide how to react. If it were you in my seat right now, Young Dragon, what would you do?”

  “Me?” Griffen blinked, taken aback. “I…I don’t know. I guess you’d have to arrange for some kind of punishment to make an example of him.”

  Mose threw back his head and laughed.

  “I can see what Jerome means that you truly love your movies. Well, in part you’re right. But if you’re thinking of roughing him up or shooting up his game, you couldn’t be more wrong. We just don’t do that kind of thing. The kind of punishment we deal in would be to cut him off from the network.”

  “The network?” Griffen said.

  “That’s right.” Mose nodded. “You see, we have a whole network of people all through town who operate cabs or work at the hotels. When tourists or conventioneers are looking for a game, these folks check them out to be sure they aren’t the law, then send them along to one of our games with an initialed business card to show they’re clean. That’s where we get a lot of our business and most of our new regulars. If Gris-gris wants to operate independently, his game gets dropped from the spotters’ list and he has to make do with locals. That’s the kind of punishment we usually deal in.”

  “That’s all?” Griffen said. “I guess it makes sense. I was just expecting something a little more dramatic.”

  “Uh-huh,” Mose said. “Well, it can be a bit more tricky once you really get into it. Like in this case, Gris-gris has been shooting his mouth off about how he’s going independent and there isn’t anything we can do about it. Now, whether he stays with us or not I figure is his business, but talking that kind of trash is disrespectful. That’s a whole different issue to be settled.”

  “So what are you going to do?” Griffen said.

  Mose looked at him and smiled.

  “Tell you what,” he said. “Why don’t you think about it for a day or two, then we’ll sit down and talk it out together.”

  “Um…excuse me?” Valerie said. “But before Big Brother here got you sidetracked on the Gris-gris business, you were about to explain how the powers factor in at all.”

  “That’s right.” Mose nodded. “Now, realize that not everyone in our organization is a dragon. In fact, most of them know even less about dragons than you do. Those people you should be able to lead and control with nothing but your attitude and presence. There are some folks you’ll run into who will stand out as having dragon blood in them, but are totally unaware of it. They’re a little more tricky to deal with, because they’ll be drawn to you without knowing why…some will want to ally with you, some will feel the need for a confrontation. Again, you should be able to handle them without using any kind of powers.”

  “The problem is the dragons who know what they are and what you are. Most will be willing to leave you alone if you don’t pose a threat to them. There are others, though, who will want to test you or simply eliminate you. That’s when it will be a good thing if your secondary power potential proves to be true.”

  “Would this guy Stoner be one of those?” Griffen said.

  “Definitely,” Mose said. “Jerome told me about your little set-to on the expressway. He would have the contacts to try something like that, but it just doesn’t seem like his style. Don’t focus all your attention on him. There are others out there that can be just as nasty.”

  “Speaking of that,” Griffen said, “do you happen to know a guy who goes by the name of Maestro?”

  Mose and Jerome exchanged glances.

  “We’ve crossed paths a couple of times,” Mose said carefully. “Why do you ask?”

  “I ran into him at the Irish pub the other night, and he recognized my name,” Griffen said. “He even specifically asked if I knew you.”

  Again Mose and Jerome looked at each other.

  “Don’t worry about him,” Mose said at last. “He’s got his own thing going that doesn’t affect us one way or the other. Not a bad man to have for a friend, though.”

  “Is he a dragon?”

  “I figure him for one of those I was telling you about,” Mose said. “The ones with dragon blood who don’t know it.”

  “Does he have any secondary powers?” Griffen pressed. “Does he use them?”

  Mose shook his head.

  “No,” he said. “He uses a knife.”

  Fifteen

  Mose studied the tarot card Griffen had passed him, then glanced at Jerome.

  “Is that what I think it is?” Jerome said.

  “Depends on what you think it is,” Mose said with a sigh, “but probably yes. My only question is why you didn’t tell me about this before?”

  “If you mean before today, I wanted Griffen to show it to you himself.” Jerome shrugged. “Besides, I figured we had a bit of time, what with him just having hit town and all. I wasn’t even sure it was the real thing. If you mean why not earlier, I wanted to wait until Valerie wasn’t around.”<
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  Valerie had finally gotten bored with the details of even a preliminary briefing on Mose’s gambling operation and had excused herself to run some errands.

  “Uh-huh.” Mose nodded. “I can see why you’d want to keep her out of this until we sort out what’s goin’ on.”

  “Excuse me,” Griffen said, “but would someone please tell me what it is we’re talking about?”

  “Could be nothin’ but someone pulling your chain,” Mose said. “On the other hand, it could be real trouble. Truth is, I’ve never actually seen one of these before. Only heard about them.”

  “Since you’re the one I heard about it from, Mose, I thought you should be the one to fill him in,” Jerome said.

  Mose nodded, tapping the card with his finger.

  “Sorry to keep walking around this, Griffen,” he said, “but I’m having a bit of trouble getting my mind around this. It may be that you’ve got George on your trail.”

  “Who’s George?” Griffen asked quickly.

  “No one knows who he is,” Mose said. “But there are rumors about what he is.”

  He pursed his lips, then continued.

  “There’s supposed to be some kind of freelance enforcer or hit man that dragons hire when they want something to happen to another dragon. Like I told you, we aren’t big on direct confrontation. Now this enforcer isn’t a dragon himself, but he’s made a study of how to hurt or kill dragons so now it’s his specialty. I’ve only heard him referred to as ‘George’ or ‘Saint George.’ You know, the Dragonslayer. He’s supposed to charge an arm and a leg for his services, so things usually have to be pretty desperate or someone has to have a big hate on to call him in. That’s why all we have to go on is rumors. We’ve never been big enough or important enough to draw that kind of big league attention.”

  “That’s just great,” Griffen said with a scowl. “I’ve only known about being a dragon for a couple of weeks…less than that, actually…and I’ve already got a professional hit man on my trail.”

  “Don’t panic yet, Grifter,” Jerome said.

  “Why not?” Griffen snarled. “Right now, panicking seems like a pretty good idea to me.”

  “Because panicking never helps,” Mose said. “It only makes things worse and can maybe even get you killed. You should know that if you’re as good a gambler as Jerome says.”

  Griffen thought for a moment, then took a slow, deep breath and blew it all out.

  “You’re right.” He nodded. “So, what do we know about this George? What rumors are there?”

  “Well, realize that we may not be dealing with him at all,” Mose said. “It may just be someone imitating his style to make you run. Like I say, George is a legend. Almost a boogeyman for dragons. This may be just someone trying to cash in on that legend.”

  “Okay,” Griffen said. “But the question still stands. What do we know about him?”

  “Well, first off, he’s a bit of an artist,” Mose said.

  “I always thought he sounded like a bit of a nutcase,” Jerome muttered.

  Mose shot him a look.

  “I thought you wanted me to tell this,” he said tersely.

  Jerome spread his hands in surrender and leaned back.

  “As I was saying,” Mose continued, “the man’s a sort of an artist. He has his own way of doin’ things, and won’t change for anyone. Right off the bat, he always lets his victim know he’s hunting them. That’s what that tarot card is all about. He’s not going to just walk up on you or hit you from behind.”

  “Sounds more like a sportsman than an artist,” Griffen said. “He’s handicapping himself like a fisherman using a light test line.”

  Mose hesitated, then nodded.

  “You may be right,” he said. “Never thought of it that way. Anyways, the other thing he always does is that he’ll take a couple of dry-run passes at you before he makes his real move…just to show you how vulnerable you are.”

  “Maybe this guy is a Native American,” Griffen said. “That last bit sounds sort of like counting coup.”

  “Except in counting coup, your enemy has a chance to kill you while you’re doing it,” Jerome said drily.

  “More like a cat playing with a mouse,” Mose said. “He wants you on edge and jumping at shadows before he does anything. The way I hear it, though, when he makes his move, you’ll know it. It’ll be out in the open, face-to-face. What’s more, he’ll only make one real try. If you survive that, he’ll walk away.”

  “I don’t quite get that.” Griffen frowned.

  “The story is he gets paid to give it one big try. He’s paid for the effort, not results,” Mose explained. “He’s not going to keep coming at you. That is, of course, unless they want to pay him to try again.”

  “He must be pretty good to get hired on those terms,” Griffen said.

  “They say he’s the best.” Mose nodded.

  “So what exactly can he do to me?” Griffen said. “From what you were saying earlier, I should be pretty hard to harm, much less kill.”

  “That would be true for any human that didn’t know what they were going up against,” Mose said. “That’s not the case with George.”

  Griffen sighed.

  “Okay, give me the bad news,” he said. “What am I vulnerable to?”

  “Well, I’ve already told you your skin is pretty tough,” Mose said. “We haven’t really tested you out to see how far your blood has pushed it, but any fire or penetration shouldn’t be able to get through.”

  “I can’t help but notice the word ‘shouldn’t,’” Griffen said drily.

  “There are always exceptions,” Mose said. “While most edges won’t be able to cut you, I’ve heard of some people getting through with weapons with serrated edges.”

  “Serrated edges,” Griffen echoed. “Anything else?”

  “Just remember what I told you earlier,” Mose said. “Tough skin, like chain mail, only gives you one kind of protection. Even if your skin isn’t penetrated, you can still be hurt. You can suffer broken bones and bruises if you get hit hard enough…like, say, by a car.”

  “Then, too,” Jerome put in, “there are things like poisons that could kill you without going through the skin.”

  Griffen stood up and walked to the window where he stood for a moment, looking out.

  “What you’re saying overall,” he said at last, “is that I’m really not all that invulnerable.”

  “Let’s just say it would be best if you didn’t count on it too much,” Jerome said. “’Course, it’s always best to stay alert and watch out for whatever might be coming at you.”

  “Let’s back up a bit here,” Mose said, holding up a hand. “While it may be best to consider and plan for the worst, there are some other possibilities here. The most obvious one I pointed out earlier, that it was just someone running a bluff on you up in Detroit to get you running.”

  “There’s one problem with that, Mose,” Griffen said, returning to his seat. “That only works if I recognized the threat, which I didn’t.”

  “But you ran,” Jerome pointed out.

  “Only because my uncle Malcolm told me to,” Griffen said.

  “In a phone call that came in conveniently just after the card got slid under your door,” Jerome said.

  “As to your not recognizing the threat,” Mose said, “it could also be a way to make any dragon you tried to hook up with think twice before taking you in. I already told you that dragons can be a sneaky bunch.”

  Griffen started to speak again, but Mose held up his hand.

  “Le’me try a different slant on this,” he said. “Let’s assume for a moment that this is for real, and that the George is really after you. That doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s out to kill you.”

  “But you said he was a hit man,” Griffen protested.

  “I also said he was an enforcer,” Mose said. “See how this sounds. Malcolm told you that you were a bit of a wild card as far as the established dragons were
concerned. What if one or more of them decided to hire the George to test you. To put some pressure on you to see what kind of power you have and whether or not you’re a threat to them.”

  “So if I understand you right,” Griffen said, “if he tries to kill me and I’m weak, he’ll kill me. If he’s testing me and I’m strong enough to stave him off, it will alert the other dragons that I’m strong enough to be a threat to them.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t have put it quite that way, but yes,” Mose said.

  “Somehow I don’t find that reassuring,” Griffen said with a grimace.

  “Cheer up, Grifter,” Jerome said. “Mose has already pointed out there’s a good chance this is just some elaborate kind of bluff. Even if the George is after you, remember where you are. Right now, he has no way of knowing you’re in New Orleans. Even if he finds you here, what with everybody in the Quarter knowin’ each other, he’ll stick out like a sore thumb.”

  Everybody in the Quarter knows each other, Griffen thought to himself. Except for the couple of million tourists who roam the Quarter every year. Any of whom could be a killer in disguise. Great. Just great.

  Sixteen

  Griffen and Jerome were sitting at one of the small tables in the Irish pub waiting to meet with Gris-gris. It was early afternoon, so the place was nearly empty except for them, the bartender, a few people at the bar, and two guys shooting pool on the back table.

  Meeting at a public place had been Gris-gris’s idea, though he had approved their choice of the Irish pub. Despite Mose’s statement that these matters were not handled by rough stuff, apparently Gris-gris was sufficiently worried that he wanted other people around.

  The meeting itself was Griffen’s idea, just as he had proposed to handle the matter himself. Mose had agreed on the condition that Jerome went along. Everything had progressed smoothly, and now there was nothing to do but wait.

  The waiting made Griffen edgy.

  With nothing else to do, his mind was free to mull over anything he might have overlooked and everything that could go wrong. Try as he might, though, he couldn’t think of anything more to do now to improve the situation.