The Queen's Flight (Emerging Queens)

by Jamie K. Schmidt

  Standing guard were high-ranking members of the Order. He could tell by their tribal tattoos.

  “That’s close enough,” the man on the left said, holding out a hand to stop the forward progression.

  This close to them, even Sergei could sense the magic coming off them. Priests or Shamans, he wasn’t sure. But dangerous. Suddenly, Sergei’s chances of escape had dwindled to zero. There was a certain comfort in the end, he found. When there was no other avenue to go down, the least he could do was enjoy his last walk.

  “Are you the Wyvern known as Sergei?” the man asked, while the Queen ignored him for the moment.

  “And you are?” Sergei crossed his arms over his chest.

  “Joachim,” he said. “Do you know why we brought you here?”

  “I’m sure you’re going to tell me.” No sense in confessing if they were fishing for information.

  “How is your Queen?” Mei Hua asked, raising her head up from her children’s antics.

  She is my world. “She is well.”

  “Have you come to kill us?” Mei Hua asked the question without emotion or expectation. Almost if she was asking him if he’d like milk in his coffee.

  The Order reacted violently to that. The weapons that had been at parade rest were now focused on him.

  “No,” Sergei said, holding his hands out while the guards surrounded him.

  “But you have killed a Queen before, haven’t you? In these very halls.”

  Sergei didn’t say anything. She already knew or he wouldn’t be here.

  “The Queen has asked you a question,” Joachim said. He carried a trident radiating a magic so powerful Sergei thought he’s get a sunburn from the white hot power that coursed through the weapon.

  “These halls have seen murder before I arrived. Will they see it after I’ve gone?” Sergei wondered if the Order of the Dragon Slayers would kill this Queen if she started requesting Inuit babies for dinner.

  Mei Hua’s expression filled with contempt. While he could see madness flicker across her features, she didn’t seem completely lost.

  “I remember you,” she said, but she spoke in Kira’s voice.

  “Was he one of the studs that raped you?” Joachim closed in with the trident.

  “No,” they both said at the same time.

  Joachim faltered and glanced back at her in confusion. “What’s going on?”

  “He will be executed. But not by you, dear Joachim. He’s a Queen Killer. He’s going to be put down by the Queens at the Conclave as an example. Those bitches wanted me dead. I’ll show them what happens to their assassin.”

  “He tried to kill you?” Joachim said. “When?”

  Sergei could understand the man’s confusion. He had never met Kira. Was he speaking with her ghost or had the weave driven Mei Hua over the edge? Would Viola be at risk from her time in the weave?

  “Tell him,” Mei Hua spat at Sergei, raging to her feet.

  The little blue dragon mewled in terror and, slung off her mother, and ran to Joachim, who picked her up and cuddled her in his arms.

  “Four hundred years ago,” Sergei said. “I was sent here to kill the Queen of Greenland.”

  The Order of the Dragon Slayers took the news better than he had expected. What would have been an instant death strike if he made that announcement in Cassandra’s keep merely raised a few eyebrows here.

  “Why?” Joachim said. “If you were found out, you would have been executed.”

  “I was ordered to.” Sergei also noticed that they didn’t relax their guard around him, either.

  “You could have gotten around the Queen’s order by going to another Queen.”

  “Yes, Sergei, why didn’t you go to another Queen?” Mei Hua, still speaking like Kira, hissed.

  “Because they were all in agreement that Kira had to die.” He met her crazy eyes and clenched his teeth at the madness he saw in them.

  “Thank you,” Mei Hua said, and her essence shrunk and she seemed the slight girl once more. She scooped up her two sons. “Put him in the dungeon. We’ll revisit this again next year at the Conclave.”

  Joachim stared at both of them. “You want to keep him prisoner for that long?”

  “Why not execute me now?” Sergei asked. He hadn’t expected to be alive minutes after his confession.

  “Are you in a hurry to die, stud?” She cocked her head at him and the impish grin she threw at him was startling.

  “I don’t see a point in waiting,” he said slowly. The Order would make his death quick. The other dragons, not so much. And if Viola found out he was imprisoned, she might come here. He didn’t want her anywhere near this crazy Queen.

  “Well, I do,” she said, “I waited four hundred years for my revenge, and I’ll have it.”

  “Mei Hua?” Joachim said. “You were born in 1990.”

  “It’s not nice to share a lady’s age, Joachim. Now secure our prisoner and bring Kiana back to the nursery.”

  The Order seemed a bit confused by Mei Hua’s actions, but that didn’t stop them from carrying out her command. The jail was a heavy iron cage like the one The Cult of Humanity had put him in. This one was reinforced with ice. Even Viola wouldn’t be able to budge this. Surveying the room the cage encased, he found a slab of ice for a bed and a deep pit that was probably the bathroom.

  Joachim locked him in, while the baby dragon stared at Sergei in fascination. He found himself smiling at her. Joachim caught him at it and scowled at him.

  “Peace,” Sergei said. “She’s the first female hatchling I’ve seen in more than a millennium. I would not harm the baby.”

  “You wouldn’t get a step toward her,” Joachim warned, and Sergei had no reason to doubt him.

  Sergei held his hands up in surrender and sat on the icy bench. “Do I get any amenities? Like a blanket or a pillow?”

  “Depends on how much trouble you give me.”

  “We’re going to be dealing with each other for a while. There’s no reason to be difficult.”

  “Why did they choose you to kill Kira?”

  “I wanted to,” he said.

  Joachim’s lips pressed down in a disapproving line. “Why?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Sergei said. “I have always known what my sentence would be if I was caught.”

  “So why did you surrender without a fight? You must have known you were flying to your death. We would have chased you down and eventually brought you here. Why did you make it easy on us?”

  “It’s not always about you.” Sergei said. Sometimes it was about protecting the one you loved.

  “Were you afraid that we would hurt your Queen?”

  “I no longer have a Queen,” Sergei said, feeling the emptiness in his chest.

  “Did you kill her?”

  “No,” Sergei spat.

  “You’re a strange one, even for a dragon.” Joachim turned to walk away. Kiana moved so she could stare avidly at Sergei.

  “You’re asking the wrong questions,” Sergei said.

  Joachim paused.

  “How did Mei Hua know?”

  Joachim frowned and turned back. “If you know something, you must tell me.”

  “Pillow, wool blanket. A decent meal and fresh water.”

  “You don’t want to get in a pissing match with me, lizard.” Joachim pointed his finger at him.

  Sergei shrugged. “It’s a small price to pay.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Viola wanted to make a good impression on the two thugs Reed had assigned to be her Protectors. Ichiru and Jiro were twin brothers and her goat head hummed the “Doublemint Gum” theme song whenever they were close by. They were handsome enough, if aloof. Carolyn had said they were special black ops, which made Viola wonder if they were a little bored and resentful about babysitting her. Part of her wanted them to talk to her and hang out like they were all friends, but they didn’t make any attempts to get to know her. A few of her other guards offered to keep her bed warm, bu
t Viola didn’t feel strong enough to attempt to erase the heartache Sergei’s asshattery caused by jumping into the sack with the first dragon to be nice to her.

  Viola entered the weave to check on the nine Queens she’d met at Cassandra’s castle. They were as shell-shocked as she felt, but they were safe and adapting to their surroundings. Their patterns in the weave were stable. Poking around the blue ocean of tendrils, Viola sensed Carolyn’s essence. She seemed concerned about something and worried. Viola probed deeper, but tasted blood in the back of her throat. Carolyn had promised to come by and see her, but she’d been running around ragged helping Reed with an investigation.

  Pulling out of the weave, she grabbed some tissues and ice-cold lemonade. Flinging herself into a deck chair, she made sure there wasn’t any blood on her hands when she grabbed for her knitting. She was making soft little blankets and so far no one realized what type of blankets they were. Sooner or later, she’d drop a big clue by knitting some booties, but for right now, Viola wanted to figure out how this whole pregnancy thing was going to work. And her only choice was to talk to a Queen who had gone through it. Unfortunately, Cassandra was the only one who came to mind, and she was still angry.

  She should have rested more before going back into the weave, but it called to her. Cassandra was easy to locate. All the five Queens burned in a bright blue light. Viola attempted to contact Margery, but her pattern was dimmer, sometimes fading completely, but Viola was positive she wasn’t dead. Unfortunately, Reed’s commandos hadn’t found the sky dragon.

  The other Queens were somewhat muted as well, now that she had time to think about it. She wasn’t sure if it was because she’d abused and pushed herself for two weeks searching for Margery’s location, or if the missing Queens had given up anyone rescuing them.

  Either prospect depressed her enough to drown her sorrows in vats of ice cream. And when she wasn’t knitting or searching for Margery, Viola practiced her flying and shifting, and even dialed her mother’s number.

  All in an effort not to think about Sergei.

  “I think I’m going to fly around. See if I can get a ping on Margery again,” she said to Reed’s thugs. Stepping off the roof, she rippled into her dragon form in one easy movement. Ichiru and Jiro were instantly beside her.

  They made for a strange threesome.

  Sleek, muscled death flanked her on each side, their elongated feathered faces remote and awe inspiring. They flew in perfect harmony with each other, twin black missiles streaking next to her while she clumsily mimicked their efficiency.

  Special forces black ops, huh? Let’s see how they deal with my mother.

  She winged toward the shore so she could skim the waves and dip her feet in the sand. There was an unraveled string in the weave pulling her in that direction.

  The salt air felt good and it soothed her soul a little bit. There was something about the ocean that connected and grounded her. And she loved Atlantic City. Maybe she would take some of the salary she was still pulling from Talon Industries because Smythe never stopped payroll, and try her luck on the slot machines.

  But as she swooped lower toward the boardwalk, she saw a group of people surrounding something as several police cars drove up. When she noticed Reed and Carolyn at the center, Viola decided to practice her landing skills.

  Coming in low and slow, she transformed into a human. But instead of transitioning smoothly from flight to walking, she wound up dropping a few feet above the ground, losing her balance and nearly toppling into the ocean. Luckily, Ichiru and Jiro were used to this and, having executed the move perfectly, were able to steer her back on the boardwalk.

  “Thanks,” Viola said, wincing at the amount of people with their cell phones videotaping her stunning entrance. There wasn’t anything she loved as much as seeing herself on YouTube, except for maybe the scathing comments that made her all stabby.

  Not wanting to shove her way through the crowd, she waited until the police dispersed the gawkers, leaving only Reed, Carolyn and a few humans she assumed were detectives. When Carolyn noticed her standing there, she excused herself to come over and give her a hug.

  “How are you?”

  Viola shrugged. “Better than her,” she said, indicating the dead woman the men were examining.

  “We were on our way to talk to you when we got sidetracked. This is the tenth death like this in the past two weeks.” Carolyn looked tired and harried. Viola bet Reed was running her ragged.

  “Like what? Why is Reed involved? She’s human, right?” Viola craned her neck to see.

  “The one thing all the women had in common was they were harem girls to different studs.”

  “Wait, some studs keep human women in harems?” Viola glared at Ichiru and Jiro. “Did you guys know about this?”

  As expected, they didn’t answer.

  “What happened to them? There doesn’t seem to be any blood. I can’t smell anything.”

  Carolyn sighed. “They were poisoned.”

  “Like a dragon sting or breath?” Viola peered into the weave, but saw only the tiny dangling string attached to the dead woman.

  She shook her head. “Some type of drug overdose. It’s a new street drug. Reed’s group is helping on the dragon side of things. But so far, we’re coming up empty.”

  Viola pointed. “She’s appearing in the weave.”

  Carolyn whirled. “That’s not possible. She’s human. I can’t see her.”

  Viola approached the body.

  “Reed,” Carolyn said. “Viola says she’s a Queen.”

  “What?”

  Viola flinched back at the tone. “I didn’t say that. I said there is a slight trickle of essence in the weave.”

  “Maybe they hadn’t shifted yet?” Carolyn asked.

  “This changes everything,” Reed said to them, and then got on the phone and started barking orders in Draconic.

  “You should take a look at the other women and see if they have a weave trickle, too.”

  As Carolyn spoke, the string faded.

  Viola shook her head. “It’s gone.”

  “Do you mind coming in and consulting if we get another victim?” Reed asked.

  “Sure. I’m not having much luck finding Margery. Any other leads on your end?”

  Carolyn shook her head. “No. Not yet.”

  A sad silence fell between them. Viola ignored the crowd that had gathered and listened to the crash of the waves. Reed had gone back to the body and the human detectives. He was pointing at the crowd and giving orders. Carolyn kept giving her looks out of the corner of her eye, like she had something to say.

  “Do you know where Sergei is?” Viola blurted out the question she’d been trying not to ask for two weeks. It didn’t matter if he didn’t want to see her again, she had to tell him something important and then maybe he could help her through the next steps. Even if he didn’t want to see her.

  He got what he wanted after all.

  Carolyn glanced over at Reed. “There’s been some trouble.” She placed her hand on Viola’s arm.

  “Cult of Humanity?” It would be just like them to seek revenge.

  “Actually, it’s Mei Hua in Greenland. She’s got Sergei.”

  Pain flared through Viola. Isn’t that just my luck? She got dumped for another woman. “Is she pretty?”

  “What?” Carolyn said.

  “Mei Hua. I bet she’s got huge tits and can suck the chrome off a trailer hitch.”

  “Uh…” Carolyn searched for words. “She’s Chinese. She’s got a lot of tattoos. But I’m not sure how that’s relevant.”

  “Tattoos. Figures. I should get a tattoo. Maybe a doormat on my ass.” Why does shit like this always happen to me?

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m pissed. So how does this work? Because if he thinks I’m going to let him raise my eggs with some hot-to-trot dragon in Greenland, he can kiss my fat ass. You know, I could use a little help here. I’m not a biologist or even a gynecolog
ist, but I’m pretty sure a human is going to need different parts to lay dragon eggs. Although, I have to admit no one has explained the particulars to me.” Viola rubbed her hand over her stomach. “I can’t even get my mother to call me back and, quite frankly, I didn’t bond too well with Cassandra—even though I’ve been desperate enough to try to contact her so that someone can maybe tell me what to expect while I’m expecting.”

  “Reed!” Carolyn shouted.

  Reed excused himself and walked back over. Annoyance was in every stride. “What is it?”

  “Viola’s pregnant.”

  He glared first at Ichiru and then at Jiro.

  “No, you idiot. Sergei’s the father.” Carolyn rolled her eyes.

  “And if he thinks he’s going to take my kids from me because I want to find the missing Queens, I will fight him tooth and nail,” Viola ranted. “I don’t care if I have to bang every stud in the contiguous United States to build an army to protect my interests, I will.”

  Reed held out his hands in a placating manner. “I think there’s been some misunderstanding.”

  “It’s possible. Except, when I peer into the weave, I sense a female presence here.” Viola pointed to her lower abdomen.

  Reed actually paled. “And you’re carrying a Queen. I need to call in back-up. She can’t go to Greenland.” He turned to Carolyn for support.

  “Why would I want to go to Greenland? If he’s happy with her, I wish him the best.”

  “She has to, Reed.” Carolyn laid her hand on his sleeve. “Mei Hua will only listen to another Queen. Viola, you have to fight for Sergei.”

  “Fight with him, you mean,” Viola snorted.

  “Mei Hua has thrown Sergei in jail and plans to have the Queens execute him next year at Conclave,” Carolyn spoke fast, as if she was afraid of being interrupted.

  “What?” Viola’s world narrowed to a tight focus. Sergei was in trouble.

  “We received an order to surrender him about the same time he disappeared from Vermont,” Reed said.

  “Was he captured?” Viola couldn’t imagine that would have gone down without a lot of bloodshed. “Is he all right?”