Dancing with Dragons

by Lorenda Christensen

  Daniel’s expression was excited. “That’s what I’m here to find out. For the past few months, Lady Savitri has been expanding the training program for her personal guard, as well as increased the number of dragons she’s assigned to military duty. At first, I’d dismissed the changes as a natural reaction to Hian-puo’s recent behavior, since most of the growth has occurred along the border with China.” Daniel pulled out another, cleaner, sheet of paper filled with incomprehensible graphs and maps detailing troop movement.

  “Okay...” I wasn’t following his train of thought. “So she beefed up her army when Hian-puo started acting weirder than normal. I can totally see why. That dragon is crazy. If I was his next-door neighbor, I would have done the same.”

  “That’s what I thought. But look at this.” He pointed to a couple of squiggles. “These are the dragons she’s moved to northern Pakistan since the dragon council.”

  I stared at Daniel’s map. He was right. If I understood Daniel’s scribbles, Lady Savitri had been steadily adding to her army along the China-Pakistan border for at least six months before our trip to China, and the numbers hadn’t stopped growing since Hian-puo’s arrest and removal from power. Along the side of the map, he’d added names, along with lists of numbers, some crossed through, some circled.

  “What are these?”

  “The names of Savitri’s generals, along with troop counts by squadron.”

  “So, okay.” I struggled to get the facts straight in my mind. “Savitri beefs up her army in response to Hian-puo’s erratic behavior. We’re sent to China, plans of a bioweapon are discovered, and Hian-puo is caught in the act of transporting the thing. He’s captured, convicted at trial, but the bomb still makes its way to U.S. soil, and Lady Savitri is still growing her army.”

  Daniel nodded.

  “So what are you thinking?”

  Daniel took a large drink from his glass before setting the wine on the table.

  “I think she’s planning on invading China.”

  His words made my thoughts stutter inside my head.

  “You think she’s been biding her time, waiting until Hian-puo did something really stupid and the council came after him so she could take over his territory under the guise of being helpful?”

  “I do.” Daniel’s answer was firm. He was convinced.

  And I had to admit I was more than halfway there myself.

  Wow. This was huge news. Since the seven dragon lords had announced their presence to the humans and installed themselves in their respective territories, there had never been even a whisper of dominance games between the lords, at least to human knowledge. Which was why Hian-puo’s trial had been such a tabloid hit. It was the first time the dragon lords had presented themselves as anything less than a united front.

  One out-of-control dragon lord had been enough to cause panic throughout the world. I’d had a little time to catch up on my reading during the flight to Bangalore. Since the details of Hian-puo’s bombing plan hit the media, newspapers had printed editorials discussing our own lack of preparation should war break out between the dragon territories.

  After the bomb went off in Tulsa, demonstrations had popped up in several cities worldwide calling for renewed focus on our military defenses, despite the fact that the dragons had almost wiped us out the first time we’d attempted to push them out of our countries. If word got out there was instability in another territory, mass panic was a real possibility. Despite our bluster, most humans recognized the fact that we were alive because the dragons chose to keep us that way. If war broke out between the members of the council, humans would end up as the biggest losers, no matter which side emerged the victor.

  “Let’s assume you’re right. The Indian dragon lord has her eye on China. Won’t the rest of the dragon council try to stop her before she has an army big enough to make her move?”

  “Probably. But they won’t be able to. They’d never admit it, but the recent problems with Hian-puo have severely stretched their resources. Lord Relobu and Lady Adelaida put up most of the dragon-power leading to Hian-puo’s capture, but they can’t afford to spare any many more, or they open their territories to attack from the dragon lords who weren’t as vested in the proceedings.”

  Daniel leaned back into the couch, and I did the same.

  “I believe Lord Sandul of Rio de Janeiro is aware of Savitri’s actions, because we’ve tracked an increase in the number of dragons he’s training for military service. Right now it’s still in the realm of possibility that he’s simply being cautious, but it’s not going to be pretty if he decides to try for North America while Relobu is distracted with Asia.”

  “I need to tell Trian about this.” If Relobu’s security force was about to have trouble with another dragon lord, he needed to know. Even if Lord Sandul had no plans to invade North America, the problem of Savitri remained. With Savitri in control of both India and China’s territories, her armies would be unstoppable. If Savitri wanted, she could mount a full-scale attack on any territory she so chose. I remembered Myrna’s contemplations during the worst days on the China project, when she said a war between the dragons could quite possibly be the end of humanity because we’d all be caught in the crossfire. Suddenly her worst-case scenario looked all too real.

  “Tell Trian what? That the Indian dragon lord has more guards in the air than usual? That you magically found a napkin scribbled with plans for world domination? His dragon lord wants you arrested as a terrorist. Why would they even believe you?”

  I let my shoulders slump. “They wouldn’t.” He was right. Even if I called Myrna instead, we simply didn’t have enough solid information to make our case.

  “So what did you need me to do?”

  “For starters, I need you to go shopping.”

  I sighed. “Funny, shopping for Myrna was how all my current problems got started.”

  Chapter Ten

  At nine the next morning—far too early for my jet-lagged body—Daniel knocked on the door to my bedroom.

  “Are you ready?”

  I groaned. “I think this is the first time in my life I’ve been depressed about shopping.” I’d been up for an hour already, and had done my best to straighten the wrinkles from my shirt with the steam from my shower.

  I swung open the door. “Look at me. Is this really what we want these people to think of Americans?”

  Daniel ran his eyes over my rumpled blouse and pants—the same outfit I’d worn for almost two days straight. Without the help of even a comb, I’d been forced to leave my hacked-off hair poking up around my head like tufts of weeds. The only good thing I could say about my appearance was that my bruises had finally reached the point where they only made me look jaundiced instead of beat-up.

  He, on the other hand, looked clean, alert and well pressed. “Look on the bright side, the faster we get to the taxi, the faster I can buy you something less wrinkled.”

  Scowling, I took the cup of coffee he offered and blew on the surface. “Will I also get a hairbrush?”

  “I’m sure we can manage it.”

  Feeling somewhat better about our shopping excursion, I slipped my feet into my shoes and moved to follow him out the door. A young woman, dressed in a pair of loose pants and tunic top with a long scarf thrown over each shoulder, was stepping from her apartment at the same time. She caught sight of Daniel first and let out an excited shout.

  “Daniel! You are in the country! Did you get in last night?” I watched wistfully as she tossed a braid of thick dark hair over her shoulder to lay against her spine. I couldn’t help but raise a hand to my own head of hair, wishing now more than ever that I’d had just a drop of gel to keep it in place.

  He nodded. “Around one in the morning.”

  She made a scoffing noise and playfully slapped at his shoulder. “You should have called me. I could have brought you some warm chapati and chicken to welcome you back.”

  Whoa. At one in the morning? A very friendly neighbor Dan
iel had.

  I cleared my throat to remind him of my presence. With an expression of delight that went a long way toward soothing my ruffled feathers at being momentarily forgotten, Daniel captured my arm and pulled me forward. “Girija, may I present my wife, Julie Wallent.”

  The girl’s eyes widened comically at his announcement. “You’ve been married! When did this happen?”

  “Just last week. We’re here for our honeymoon.”

  “That is wonderful news. Very good news.” The woman’s near constant level of excitement was making me tired, especially since it was clear, at least to me, that she did not feel like this was very good news at all.

  We said our goodbyes and stepped into the lift.

  Daniel and I both raised our heads to stare at the floor numbers as we slowly descended. I gave him a sideways glance. “Nice lady.”

  He quirked a lip. “Yes. She is.”

  “She regularly brings you food? Even when it’s the middle of the night?”

  “Not when I can stop her. I think she’s just a little lonely. She moved to Bangalore for her job and about a year ago, her roommate left town. She’s been by herself since, and I think the job isn’t what she was expecting.”

  I’d assumed that this was another of Daniel’s girlfriends, but his explanation made sense. Myrna and I had been lucky enough to find each other pretty early in our college years, and both of us found jobs in the same town upon graduation, so there’d really been no question about whether we’d continue the arrangement.

  Maybe I’d be the type of girl to bring food to a man at one in the morning if I didn’t have Myrna. Loneliness can make people do pretty crazy things. I felt like Girija’s actions signaled something a little different than a simple need for some company, but it was clear Daniel wasn’t interested in that type of relationship. I’d already had plenty of laughs at his expense over the wonderful leg-humping girlfriend and didn’t see the point in piling on the humiliation by bringing this to his attention.

  In fact, it was almost reassuring that he was well liked by his neighbor. With the exception of his behavior at the hospital, Daniel had been curiously even-tempered, and I’d started to think maybe we’d simply gotten off on the wrong foot.

  The night before, Daniel had asked our airport driver if he was available to pick us up this morning, and I was pleased to see the man waving from just outside the security gate. Daniel and I settled into the back seat of the tiny box of a car before he gave instructions for the driver to take us to the shopping district near Mahatma Gandhi Road. The man nodded his understanding and gave the horn a single toot before whipping the vehicle onto the busy street, missing a passing motorcycle by inches.

  My hands immediately clenched the handle on the door.

  I leaned over to whisper to Daniel. “Is it always like this? The traffic.”

  He laughed. “For the most part, yeah. You’d be surprised at how rarely there are vehicle accidents. There aren’t many traffic laws here, but the worst I’ve seen wreck-wise is a couple of fender-benders.”

  “Pretty amazing.”

  “Yep.”

  “So tell me about how I’m supposed to help you get enough dirt on Lady Savitri’s border movements to write your story.”

  “With this.” He handed me this morning’s newspaper and pointed at a small square he’d circled in the classifieds section.

  The ad stated that Savitri Enterprises was in the market for someone with experience in dragonscript. My head jerked up. “But Savitri Enterprises is the dragon lord’s company!”

  “Yeah. They’ve had this ad running for weeks. I called this morning and the position was still open. The hiring manager confirmed it.”

  “No. You don’t actually expect me to apply?”

  “Except for the interview, I doubt you’ll even see Lady Savitri. The position requires someone with dragonscript skills, but from the job description, it sounds as if you’ll be working in an office with other human servants, not directly with the dragon lord. She has a personal secretary for those sorts of things. The hiring manager is human, and he’ll be the one with whom you’ll spend the majority of your time.”

  “I can’t do it.”

  Daniel regarded me calmly. “You read dragonscript, don’t you? And Hindi.”

  “Yes, but that doesn’t mean I’m looking to place myself near another possibly crazy dragon lord.”

  “With access to her offices, we can find all the records supporting her recent troop movements. And maybe, if we’re lucky, you’ll run across something that details her future plans. I’m pretty sure she plans to hit China next, but what’s after that? Is she happy with just a continent, or is China just the first step before she ends up killing the other dragon lords and achieving total world domination?”

  “No way. I won’t do it.” I’d been so relieved when Daniel said all he’d needed was a translator. It had honestly never occurred to me that we were heading straight for the business owned and operated by the dragon lord he suspected was trying to start a war. “If I wanted to work with dragons, I’d have joined DRACIM.” I pointed to the stitches on the side of my head. “This is what happened the last time I took a job opening for a dragonscript expert in a dragon’s home territory. That time I did it for a friend I’ve had for over ten years. And sorry, buddy, but you’re not that special to me.”

  Daniel’s eyes narrowed, and then he leaned up to speak with the driver. “Sir? Can we stop here please?”

  The driver looked slightly confused, but obligingly pulled into a narrow alley near a small store selling “fresh chicken.” The poor creatures clucked and shifted in their stacked cages as Daniel leaned across my lap and opened the door. The shop’s walla saw us pull up, and, wiping his hands on his apron, stepped from the booth to greet us.

  The driver frowned and pointed to the chickens. “Only in the trunk.”

  “We aren’t purchasing a chicken. The lady wants out.” Daniel jerked a chin in the direction of the chicken walla’s counter. “I did my part. Enjoy India.”

  I stared at him in disbelief, then looked out the door. One of the chickens had become a bit too excited at our arrival, and a puddle of white liquid pooled on the ground. He planned to drop me in the middle of a foreign country. And in a pile of chicken shit, no less. I was beginning to develop an abandonment complex. “You’re joking!”

  Daniel checked his watch. “The story about the Tulsa bombing is already out in the newspapers, and Jim and Jovan have the earthquake more than covered. Right now, I don’t have anything to write about except what I think is a record of Savitri’s military maneuvering written on the back of a napkin. I got you out from under Lady Adelaida’s claws, with the understanding that you’d help me with my research.”

  “You didn’t say your research included working for dragons!”

  He shrugged his shoulders, his expression bored. “If you won’t help, you’re not much use to me. And, if you don’t mind me using a direct quote, ‘you’re not that special to me’ either.” He waved a hand toward the door.

  The taxi driver’s gaze bounced between us in the rearview mirror. So far, his English had been limited. I wondered how much of the exchange he understood.

  I tried appealing to him in Hindi. “Please, sir. Don’t let him leave me here. I have no money.”

  The man shrugged. “No Hindi. Kannada?”

  Well, crap. I’d always heard that regional languages were widespread in India, but I’d never had a chance to learn any of them.

  Daniel watched me calmly, waiting for my decision. “Listen. I’m not trying to be a dick about this. But I need you. What other option do you have right now?”

  I didn’t really have one. I had literally the clothes on my back. No money, no apartment, no freaking clue where I was in the city.

  “I really, really hate you.”

  “I know. And I’m sorry. You probably won’t believe me, but I’d love to get you back to Tulsa. I just can’t right now. You can’t.
Not without running directly into the arms of Relobu and being locked up next to your boyfriend.” Daniel grabbed my hand.

  Angry, I yanked it back.

  He sighed. “Look. I promise that we’ll call your friend as soon as we find some solid proof of Savitri’s China plans. She can help Relobu assemble a response to get Savitri under control, and you can take the credit for it. I imagine the intel would go a long way toward getting on Relobu’s good side. I’ll be able to get the story in the paper before the rest of the news cycle picks it up.”

  I chewed on my bottom lip. He was right. Without solid evidence, Myrna couldn’t take this to Relobu, not without looking like a fool. If I hadn’t seen Daniel’s research with my own two eyes, or spent enough time with him to realize he wasn’t the type to chase conspiracy theories, I’m not sure I would believe the story either. Myrna would listen to me, of that I had no doubt, but right now, Relobu already thought I was a liar. Myrna would need a lot more than a dirty napkin. She’d need incontrovertible proof.

  There was another idea that had been percolating since my talk with Daniel last night. What if Richard had already been aware of Savitri’s troop movement, and had, like Daniel, assumed she was positioning herself to invade China? What if all his secrecy, all his sneaking around at the hotel hadn’t been about the bomb at all?

  I know both Myrna and Daniel, along with the rest of the world, were convinced Richard was guilty. But I wondered whether Savitri had somehow realized she was being investigated and set Richard up to get him out of the way, knowing he had elected to stay in Budapest until I’d recovered. When he’d been accused of delivering the bomb, Richard had had to decide between telling Lord Relobu what little he knew about Savitri’s plans and the idea being dismissed as an attempt to exonerate himself, or to say nothing in his own defense and hope he would find the proof he needed to make Relobu see reason.

  Even I had to admit the idea was a long shot, but I just wasn’t ready to believe that I’d been dating a terrorist. My distance from Richard and his glamorous lifestyle—well, at least his lifestyle had been glamorous relative to mine—had made me realize that maybe we weren’t particularly suited for each other. I tended toward insecurity in relationships, and Richard’s practice of mulling problems in his head instead of putting them on the table for discussion like Daniel had done wreaked havoc on my self-esteem.