Thaumatology 04 - Dragon's Blood

by Teasdale, Niall

  Donovan smiled. ‘I am a geneticist,’ he said. ‘I’m working on the mitochondrial DNA of werewolves.’

  Ceri grinned at him. ‘Let me know how that works out. I know quite a few werewolves who would be interested in the outcome.’ She looked around for more raised hands and pointed at a woman in the second row.

  ‘Christie Munroe, Kilburn Technologies. You said the research stemmed from a device you created for Carter Fleming for his clubs. Has that worked out?’

  ‘Well, Carter had the gadgets built, I came up with the idea and helped confirm it would work,’ Ceri replied. ‘He trialled it in the Collar Club in London. If you don’t know it, it’s a strip club which specialises in mostly werefox dancers, so it gets quite a few were-creatures as customers and sometimes they get a little… over-excited.’ There was a rumble of laughter at that. ‘The devices have been rolled out to all his other clubs and reports have indicated they’ve been quite effective. And sorry, if you’re interested in commercialising the idea, you’d have to speak to Carter. I believe he had it patented in my name, but he’s the one with contract lawyers, not me.’ She pointed toward a young man on the front row, mostly because he had a cute smile. ‘Time for one more.’

  ‘Iwan, Aberystwyth,’ he said. ‘You say that the magnitude of the catalysis burst is related to the relative strength of a werewolf. Does that tend to follow colour?’

  Ceri looked closer at the cute smile. ‘Which pack?’ she asked.

  He blushed a little. ‘Snowdonian.’

  ‘Hmm, your Alpha’s a black-fur isn’t he? He likely has a pretty strong pulse. The highest recorded level came from Alec, who is a black-fur, and the lowest from a brown. However, it’s too small a sample to know for sure. My experience is that browns are different from greys more in attitude than biology. It’s likely that there’s an overlap. I suspect that some greys may produce as large a pulse as some blacks. Something for someone else to study.’

  ‘You really met a were-panther?’ Iwan asked quickly before she could wrap up.

  Ceri laughed. ‘Yes, a very nice young lady named Naira who ran away from Brazil. Anyone can meet her if they wish, she works at the Collar Club. Bring plenty of cash.’ Another burst of laughter filled the room and that seemed like a very good moment to end on. ‘Thank you all for attending,’ she said. ‘I’ll just plug my boss’ presentation of her work on the null thaumiton which is at eleven tomorrow.’

  ‘Our work!’ Cheryl called out from the back of the room.

  ‘Her work which I assisted with,’ Ceri corrected. ‘Anyway, go see it.’ She turned back to the lectern, shut off her tablet, and started to unhook it from the display system as the attendees started trooping out.

  ‘You were great,’ Cheryl said, appearing beside her in a rush.

  ‘Indeed, an excellent presentation,’ Ed added.

  ‘Thanks,’ Ceri said. The next presenter was turning up with a large laptop. Ceri gave him a quick smile and stepped down off the stage, slipping her tablet into the MagiTech conference bag.

  ‘And all done on one of our NX model tablets,’ Alfred Barnes said. ‘I did say I’d be attending. Cheryl mentioned you a lot when she visited me with Carter.’

  The old man was all smiles and Ceri was not sure how to react; his son had tried to kill her and she had blasted him out of reality. Did Alfred know what his son had done? What she had done in return? ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir,’ she managed to say. Well, it was certainly more of a pleasure than meeting Matthew had been.

  His smile faded slightly. ‘I would like the opportunity to talk to you, privately, at some point this week. I understand you don’t like to travel and I don’t get to London often, so this may be my only chance.’

  ‘Certainly, sir,’ she said while her heart sank. ‘If my minders will let me be alone with you.’

  ‘Minders?’

  ‘MI5 thinks I’m a Chinese spy,’ she said, nodding toward the two men standing near the door. Except there were three men near the door. The third did not seem to be associated with the spooks, but he did seem to be watching what was going on. As she looked his way he turned and left the auditorium.

  ‘Really? They appear to be misinformed. If needs be I’ll have a word with someone.’

  Ceri was about to say something like “You can do that?” but stopped herself; he was Alfred Barnes, he could really do that. ‘Okay,’ she said instead. ‘We should leave, the next presentation is going to start.’

  ‘I’m staying, but by all means. I’ll be in touch.’

  Ceri nodded and left the room with Cheryl and Ed. ‘Does he know what happened with his son?’ she asked when they were outside.

  ‘Yes,’ Cheryl said, ‘he knows. You’re doing the enhanced processor lecture next, aren’t you? Better hurry, it’s the other side of the building.’

  Frowning, Ceri hurried off through the corridors.

  ~~~

  ‘Brenin?’ Ed said thoughfully. ‘Well, it’s the Welsh word for…’

  ‘King,’ Ceri said. ‘Born in Bala, remember?’

  The professor grinned. ‘Indeed. Not that we’ve had a king in a while. Although we have the Brenin Llwyd.’

  Ceri frowned. ‘I know this one, I think. Isn’t he supposed to be a giant or a monster or something? He lives up on Cader Idris? The Grey King.’

  ‘That’s right. A few mystics claim there is something up there, though they say it’s a spirit of some sort, malign and prone to bringing down mists and taking walkers lost in them.’ Ed grinned. ‘I’m not sure I believe in ancient spirits with malign purposes doing ill to travellers. It sounds too… mythic.’

  Ceri chuckled. ‘You’d be amazed what ancient spirits get up to.’

  ‘Hmm… Well the other word, Athro, means teacher, which I’m sure you know. And you’re quite convinced that these dreams are referring to dragons?’

  ‘I’m convinced,’ Ceri said, ‘but I’m guessing. I could be totally wrong.’

  ‘You have an unnerving ability to guess right, dear,’ Cheryl put in.

  ‘Maybe, but it’s still a guess.’ Alexandra had commented upon Ceri’s ability to put things together without sufficient information and be right. Maybe that was some manifestation of the dreams she got; as Michael had said, it made you wonder who was sending her the dreams, and the information.

  ‘Well then,’ Ed said, his tone musing, ‘it stands to reason that your tall, raven-haired woman is Brenhines.’

  ‘Queen,’ Ceri translated. ‘She seemed pretty regal. And not particularly nice though… I’m not sure whether she was threatening me or warning me, or…’

  ‘If she said this Athro wouldn’t tell you everything,’ Cheryl said, ‘surely that’s a warning?’

  ‘I guess, but her attitude was…’ Ceri shrugged. ‘I don’t know, it was a dream, they don’t always make sense.’

  ‘Perhaps,’ Ed said, ‘you should just go with them however. If this is some form of intuitive sense, you need to listen to it, accept it. If you have an idea, an intuition, regarding your work, do you go around second guessing it?

  ‘Well… no, not really.’

  ‘Then why do it with this?’

  Ceri opened her mouth and then closed it again. He was right, why should she?

  ~~~

  Ceri’s mind filled with Lily’s thoughts. Lily was excited. Lily was almost too excited to be horny. Lily was so glad to be with Ceri again. Lily was lying on the chaise longue in the study, absently stroking at her side. ‘God I love this,’ Lily’s voice cut through the clamour. ‘It’s like I’m in the room with you. Oh, cool, you’re thinking the same thing. No, I hadn’t noticed I was stroking my side. Wow! So cool!’

  ‘Okay, calm down and tell me what Carter found out,’ Ceri thought.

  ‘Right well…’ It came less as words and more as a flurry of thoughts. Lily had been surprised to discover that Carter had a part share in a club in Shanghai. They were both surprised by that. The man really gets around. ‘Mei is kind of a myste
ry.’ Mei had just appeared in the records about ten years earlier. Like Athena, fully formed from her father’s forehead. Except for the father bit. Her parents were dead, according to what Carter had dug up. They had been farmers and there was practically no information about them. Or Mei before she turned up in Beijing and was almost immediately made Ambassador to Australia. Then she had been moved to Britain a couple of years ago. It had been an undistinguished career, but without any problems. She was good at smoothing things over, but largely worked quietly. ‘Seems like suddenly she was just there.’

  ‘Sounds like a fake identity,’ Ceri suggested.

  ‘Carter was hedgy about it, but yeah, it’s possible.’

  Ceri felt a hand straying over her left breast. Lily giggled. ‘You’re a naughty succubus,’ Ceri thought. Lily pinched her nipple, Ceri gasped. ‘Stop that! I need you to do something tomorrow.’

  Lily sulked. ‘Okay, what?’

  ‘I need you to go and see Mei. I need you to ask her if she’s a dragon.’

  ‘Seriously?!’

  ‘I need to know, Lil. I know it could be, well, dangerous, but I really need to know. Tell her everything I know. The dreams, the weird feelings, everything.’

  ‘Okay. I’ll do it for you.’ Ceri gasped at the sudden wash of love that hit her across the telepathic link and the more subtle one which resulted from the binding between them.

  ‘I love you too, Lil,’ Ceri thought.

  July 6th

  Ceri handed an envelope to Cheryl with a bright grin. ‘Happy birthday,’ she said. ‘We hadn’t a clue what to get you, so you get a card.’

  Ed laughed and Cheryl took the envelope with a smile, pulling the flap free and taking out a happy looking birthday card with balloons on the front. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘I mean, I wasn’t making a big deal out of it. Thirty-four is hardly an interesting age. I’m just getting old and…’ She looked at the inscription inside the card and her cheeks flushed.

  ‘Is something wrong?’ Ed asked.

  ‘Ah, no,’ Cheryl replied. She closed the card and tucked it inside her bag. ‘Just a rather sweet comment in the card.’ Ed nodded and turned toward the auditorium where Cheryl would be giving her lecture in a few moments. Cheryl leaned toward Ceri and whispered, ‘Anything?!’

  ‘Absolutely,’ Ceri replied.

  ‘I’ll get back to you on that.’

  ‘Try not to think about it while you’re giving your presentation,’ Ceri said, smirking.

  ‘Did you have to say that?’ Cheryl whined.

  ‘Oh yes.’

  ~~~

  Cheryl wrapped up her lecture to a round of applause from the audience. A couple of the people sitting around Ceri even congratulated her on her part in the discovery of the null thaumiton. Proving the particle’s existence had been one of the great milestones in thaumatology, and Ceri had been proud to be part of it. Maybe a bit of congratulation was in order.

  As she filed down toward the stage, Alfred Barnes fell into step beside her. ‘I assume you have plans for lunch, Miss Brent,’ he said, ‘but I would be very grateful if you could break them to have lunch with me?’

  Well, there was no real point in putting it off, no matter how much she might want to, and Cheryl and Ed could manage without her… ‘I’ll tell Cheryl,’ she said.

  The spooks did not look best pleased as Alfred took Ceri into an office on the top floor of the building. ‘It’s one of our corporate entertainment rooms,’ he said. ‘We hold various industry conferences here regularly so we have the room permanently booked. Coffee?’

  ‘I’d love some,’ Ceri replied, nervously sitting down at a low table filled with sandwiches.

  There was silence as he poured coffee from a real coffee machine and placed a cup of it down in front of Ceri. She expected him to sit down, but he stood there, looking nervous instead. He was nervous! Ceri was about to say something when he spoke. ‘I want to apologise, Miss Brent.’

  ‘I’m sorry?’ Ceri said, bemused.

  ‘My son did absolutely terrible things to you and Doctor Tennant, to many people. I’ve been paying for the treatment of the two vampires he enthralled. I’m afraid they still haven’t recovered from their experience. His attempts to sabotage your work, and then to kill you were…’ He trailed off, shaking his head.

  ‘Yes,’ Ceri said, ‘but that was him, sir. You’ve nothing to apologise for.’

  He looked directly at her, his face pale and a little angry. ‘Oh, but I have,’ he said. The anger was self-directed. ‘I indulged him, you see. He was my only son. His mother died when he was young and I was too busy with my work. I made all the classic mistakes. Hindsight is so wonderfully clear, isn’t it? I gave him everything he wanted in place of a father and he came to expect everything to be that easy.’ He swallowed; Ceri did not feel like interrupting the outpouring of guilt. ‘I knew he was getting into trouble, but I did not realise how bad that trouble was. We hardly saw each other, even when he was older. But I protected him. I made problems go away with money, or lawyers. That is what I need to apologise for, Miss Brent. Perhaps if I had been a better father, perhaps if I had let him face more of the consequences of his actions, he would not have gone so far.’

  What do you say to something like that? Ceri looked up at the man, one of the most powerful men in the country, and saw that he needed her to say something. ‘Well… I don’t feel any animosity toward you, sir. Really. What happened wasn’t your fault. Second guessing and might-have-beens are great, but we’ll never know what might have happened if things were different.’

  He nodded, his posture relaxing a little. ‘I have to ask this,’ he said. ‘Do you know what happened to Matthew?’

  The image of the circle erupting outward in front of her filled her mind. The field had been opaque and when it had cleared there had been no sign of Matthew Barnes. The cameras in the room had blown out at the point of the containment breach. No one really knew what had happened to him and Ceri was not going to repeat her theory to his father. ‘No, sir,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t see through the containment field. When it collapsed, he was gone.’

  He nodded and moved to sit down. ‘Thank you. Now that that’s done with, would you please call me Alfred? I hate all that “sir” business. Makes me feel like an old man.’

  Ceri grinned at the sudden humour. ‘Only if you call me Ceri,’ she said.

  ~~~

  The MI5 watchers glowered at her as she emerged from the entertainment room, but Ceri ignored them, walking toward and past them without even acknowledging their existence. The man at the end of the corridor, however, drew her attention. He turned and walked away as soon as she saw him, but it was the same man she had seen at her lecture, and the look on his face was murderous.

  Frowning, she hurried forward, hoping to catch him. As the corridor broke out in a T-junction she looked right, the way he had gone. There was no obvious place he could have gone, but there was no sign of him. The only door on the short length of hallway was locked. She was considering unlocking it when her phone buzzed.

  The message was from Lily. There was only one word. Yes.

  ~~~

  The Wizard’s Head did something like food. Ceri had gone with the pie and chips, because it was the best of several fairly dubious options, but there was no way she was drinking the beer. It seemed as though, taken to a pub, Cheryl felt she had to fit in with the image. The Head did have several vaguely interesting sounding local brews, so Ceri could give her boss the benefit of the doubt, especially since this was her birthday bash.

  ‘I do wish Carter and Alec and Lily could be here,’ Cheryl said. ‘Carter and Alec both called me this morning before the lecture, but it would be nice to have them here.’

  ‘All three are working tonight,’ Ceri pointed out. ‘We’d have ended up at the Dragon watching them do that.’

  ‘True.’

  ‘And then you’d have to pick one to go home with,’ Ed added. Ceri hid her smirk in her wine glass.


  ‘Yes,’ Cheryl rallied quickly from her embarrassment, ‘and they’re so hard to pick between. Perhaps it’s best I don’t have to.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Ceri said, ‘you don’t want to have to make tough decisions on your birthday.’ She tried really hard to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

  ‘Well, you’ll have to make do with Ceri and me,’ Ed said. Then he appeared to consider what he had just said and went bright red. ‘Err… here… at the pub… not choosing between us…’

  Ceri and Cheryl giggled enthusiastically. ‘Maybe if I get drunk enough,’ Cheryl said. Ed got redder.

  And Ceri felt the same thing she had felt before, the sensation she was now associating with dragons. She glanced around, but no one had come in recently. She looked back at Cheryl and Ed, and for just a fraction of a second he seemed to be looking at her as though he knew. Then the expression was gone in a bright grin.

  ‘Would anyone like more drinks?’ Ed asked.

  ~~~

  Cheryl giggled as Ceri half-carried her along the corridor to their rooms. ‘I guesh I pick you then,’ the tipsy doctor said. Actually, tipsy was being nice, she was drunk. Ceri had eased off after the first two glasses of wine, but she did have something of a buzz on.

  ‘I’m not sure I’m drunk enough to claim it was all the alcohol this time,’ Ceri said. She balanced Cheryl against the wall. ‘Do you have your key?’

  ‘Of course I have my key,’ Cheryl giggled. ‘It’s in my bag, wish is on my shoulder.’

  ‘Yeah, boss, I know where your bag is.’ Ceri opened the flap on Cheryl’s bag and began searching through it for the key. Why a woman at a conference needed make-up, and all the other random rubbish that was in there was beyond her.

  ‘Oh don’ call me bosh… boss. It’s Cherie… Cheryl… that’sh it. Cherie’s French for “love.” I’m not your love, that’d be Lilily.’

  ‘Lily, uh-huh,’ Ceri said. She found the keys. ‘She’s my love all right.’ Turning, she opened the door to Cheryl’s room and turned on the light before picking Cheryl up again and manoeuvring her in through the door. ‘I think we’ll go straight for the bed.’