“I’m afraid there are no wealthy men with treasuries to loot of their own beating down the door, asking for your hand. Fortunately, we do have a surfeit of hungry dragons.”
“I never realized what a horrid man you really are, Uncle.”
“I never realized until recently what a whiny, insufferable, spoiled little bitch you are, Niece.”
“Durance told me you said that sort of thing, but I thought you meant it affectionately.” Durance hadn’t put the uncles’ poor opinions of her in such blunt words and cruel tones. She knew from the tone of his voice that there was nothing affectionate about Marquette’s opinion. “At least I found the treasury, which is more than you lot were able to do.”
“And that would be, where?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“Oh yes, and I will find out,” her formerly favorite uncle said, his expression hardening and darkening into one she had seen before, just not directed at her.
Malady realized she might have been a bit premature in her assumption that personal dragon, plus knowledge of treasure location, equaled power. Her head had been turned. She had always known how to get what she wanted, but her tactics had been subtler, more indirect, and when all else failed, sneaky.
“But of course, I could help you get it if I wanted to. He likes me. He’ll probably be glad to show you where the treasure is if you release me.” She kept herself from smiling at the thought that while Durance was showing the uncles where the treasure was, he might dispatch them. That would be good. Obviously though they were family, the uncles had never been that fond of her and after the little incident with the dungeon, she would have no regrets about their deaths either. She might actually look quite lovely in black. She wondered briefly where her therapist had gone. Malady was, after all, experiencing considerable trauma and alienation and lots of other things therapists were concerned about.
Dear Uncle Marq had to cut through her thoughts. “I wonder if he’d like you better with sugar and spice and everything nice, or barbecue sauce?”
Chapter 19: Carnival Hall (Devent)
Devent’s singing, sad to say, had thus far been more appreciated by his fellow dragons and true musicians like Casimir than by the average Fairgoer. Or so he began to think as the night wore on and his audience dwindled, until no more dragons were listening, and only a few of the ladies from the ‘hotel’ tent next to the stage remained.
His spirits picked up a bit as two men wearing the special dragon-emblazoned waistcoats joined the three ladies lounging lasciviously (had Devent realized that’s what their poses suggested) nearby. But as his tale of dragon derring-do drew to a close, the men approached Casimir and said something to him that made the bard’s face light with joy.
“Devent, I told you your chance would come!” the dragon’s mentor cried. “You’ve been discovered! These gentlemen are here to offer you a gig at Carnival Hall. Most prestigious, my friend. Most prestigious indeed! Besides, of course, there’s real pay involved, not just tips.” Tips had been proffered during the evening, but they consisted mostly of rodents, which were tasty enough, but not very filling.
“Er, where is Carnival Hall, exactly?” Devent asked.
“You’ll see. It’s not far,” one of the vested men replied.
“I must practice then,” he said and began running up and down his scales. In his case he had actual scales to remind him of the notes. Casimir was pleased for him, though baffled about how the dragon, who had performed in public for the first time only that night, had spread his fame so quickly as to receive such an invitation.
Their guides led them to the back of the Fairgrounds, beyond the walls, to what appeared to be a maintenance area. Devent sang so joyously that from his hidden place lurking among the brush and boulders beyond the wall, Auld Smelt heard and followed the guides, Casimir and Devent into a hole in the hillside.
Smelt wondered how far this particular cave went, for he knew better than the men or even the younger dragons how interconnected the labyrinthine system of tunnels, caves, caverns, and mineshafts were.
More and more of Argonia’s inner geography was coming back to him since his brief slumber in the bowels of the castle that once harbored his hoard. Forgotten passages invaded his dreams and with the dreams came the lore of the land he had learned long before the Great War. Songs returned to him, songs whose choruses he had once imparted to a frightened fledgling who now sang them full-throated, accompanied by instruments played by a human!
The song penetrated the interwoven underworld realm, under streams and through hills, startling captives both dragon and human and amazing one particular ancient wyrm a long way from the dungeon he guarded.
The Lady in the Knowe
The song resonated through the subterranean corridors until it reached the ears of the Lady in the Knowe.
From the Knowes, the portals to all that had happened, was currently happening or would happen in Argonia, the renegade princess, Romany, also known as the Rani, the Lady of the Knowe, sought to correct the course of events. She had the aid of the Argonian Gypsies among whom she’d been raised. Survivors, they were strong enough and wily enough to escape notice as they came and went from one mission to the next.
Time was extremely slippery and the history ahead of where and when she happened to be at any moment was written in invisible ink, the whens she had occupied at other times clouded and dream like. It was just as well. It kept her from being omnipotent and she really didn’t want any more responsibility than she already had.
Such reluctance seemed to run in the family since her daughter had buggered off from being a queen before her bottom ever had warmed a throne.
The young dragon Devent actually held more promise as a leader than her daughter. He had a beautiful voice, if one liked dragon voices, as she did, and thanks to her glamor, he had the power to persuade others of his kind.
She knew where to find him, not because she knew everything, but because advertising for the Dragon Hiring Fair had been extensive, even pervasive. Devent’s song told her the time had come to investigate.
The Lady had no sooner vacated the Knowe near the old dragon’s lair and appeared in one interconnected with the caves and tunnels used by the Fair organizers, when someone else appeared in the Knowe she’d just left.
Scratching his red furred chin with his slender hind foot, the family lawyer wondered where Romany had taken herself off to this time.
An Affinity for Dragons
Verity dodged bursts of frustrated flame from the captive dragons as she ran a gauntlet between them and Taz. Twice she had to smack out flames that singed the invisibility cloak. The lantern clearly showed holes that from the outside would no doubt show patches of herself seemingly bobbing around in mid-air.
That presented another problem, if and when she encountered other people. A seemingly disembodied lantern floating through the air with a pair of worn boots walking beside it rather negated the effect of the invisibility cloak, although it might frighten any dragon snatchers who were afraid of ghosts.
The moment she blew out the light and set the lantern down beside the cave wall, a blur of white luminescence streaked past her and bounced ahead a few steps before returning to twine through her ankles and sit weightlessly on her shoulders. They provided enough illumination to prevent her from stumbling or running into something.
The Fair organizers were nowhere to be seen, but Taz blocked the far end of the passage, hissing and trumpeting at the top of her voice, scratching and tearing at a door, desperate to get to Toby. Verity rushed forward to offer her services.
“Calm yourself, Taz,” she whispered, gingerly stroking the top of the wing nearest the dragon’s body. “If you’ll let me pass, I’ll pick the lock. Excuse me,” she said to the distraught dragon, pushing her aside.
From within the room, someone said, “Call off your beast, boy, or I’ll shoot you.”
Verity pulled out her tools and knelt at the door, hoping that if
the villains in the room decided to shoot anything or anyone she would make a smaller target.
“Do you hear that? Your dragon has given up. Probably gone to sample the menu in the arena.”
“Taz would never eat someone,” Toby said. “Except maybe you. She might make an exception in your case.”
Taz roared, and Verity flinched. The extra movement was all it took to click the lock. Motioning Taz to stand back, she flung open the door, which swung out into the corridor. Before Toby’s guards could react, Taz snaked her long neck into the room and plucked Toby out by his shirtfront. He ducked under her body, and she ignited a firewall between them and their enemies. Toby didn’t stop to ask how the door opened or who was behind it. He vaulted himself up onto Taz’s neck and the two of them swooped away down the passage. Sulfurous wind and dim light blinked into view before Taz was silhouetted against the brighter light. A babble of voices rose and was silenced abruptly as the opening closed.
“Come on,” said one of Toby’s former captors. “The women are out there already. We don’t want to miss the fun. I’ve got a bet on how long it takes to find a dragon that will eat one of them and how long it will take him to do it.”
Warmup Act
Verity backtracked through the cavern, past the dragons, and up the winding staircase to the barn, where she retrieved her wheelbarrow and wheeled it down the path as if she were supposed to be there. Smelt slithered out of the brush to join her.
“I saw no more of my kind around here,” he said, “so I felt stand-out-ish.”
“You didn’t see any of your kind here because our enemies have most of them locked away,” she said.
The ghost cats reappeared at her ankles and riding on Smelt’s spinal ridges. The festival site was defined by torches burning a light semi-obscured by the resulting smoke, weaving ribbons through the camp. Now, though, a new area was delineated, four channels of torches along previously hidden paths leading into a sunken circular area between the dragon camp and the human camp.
Devent’s voice rose over the other sounds, including the fiddle keening through the lament he sang of the ‘Great War and the Battle of Blazing Bog.’ Smelt puffed himself up.
“That’s from the story I told him when we left the mine,” he told her. “The lad’s in good voice tonight.”
Devent was surrounded by attentive listeners. He paused to allow the fiddle to escalate into a series of short, staccato trills biting into the night.
When the fiddler danced forward and back again, Verity was surprised to see her mother, her skin dyed brown and her hair stained black as it was when she traveled with her Gypsy band.
Surrounding them and Casimir, who seemed to be sitting out on the current number, Captain Lewis and the Belle’s Shell crew all played along on instruments they used in their cabaret act at the Changelings Club.
For a few moments, the Dragon Fair seemed to be as advertised—a happy gathering of dragons and people who knew their value, despite the degradation they had undergone in recent years.
But suddenly, from ‘backstage,’ two of the festival crew took over, sweeping Verity’s mother up with Devent before Verity had the chance to apprise her of the true nature of the Fair. They herded both performers toward the back of the Fairgrounds. Deserting her wheelbarrow and breaking into a run, Verity followed the procession until she made out what her mother was saying, “Looks like your career is commencing with a bang, Devent. Carnival Hall indeed!”
Surely they realized that something was amiss and the public face of the Fair masked a more sinister purpose? Why would Mother be here otherwise? She was not the sort to take holidays, from what Verity knew of her.
Before she could decide her next step, she found herself surrounded. Captain Lewis took one arm and Mr. Grey the other and prevented her from following.
“It’s dangerous back there, dearie. We’ve been watching and have yet to see an un-uniformed soul cross over that wall and come out again.”
“Oh, so you have noticed! I thought you were too busy performing,” Verity told them. “They are plotting something quite horrible. But I can’t put a stop to it from here.”
“Likely you alone can’t put a stop to it period, dearie,” Captain Lewis said, patting her arm. “Come along now and never you fret. Your crewmates are here to help. But we must be careful.”
She didn’t need the captain to tell her that. Dropping her voice to a whisper, she told them what she had witnessed.
“I don’t understand why these people have turned this from a Hiring Fair into something apparently much more sinister,” Verity said. “The dragons were restless, but considering the circumstances, they were very patient. Why in the world do these stupid men want them to start eating people again, if indeed they ever did before?”
“I suppose so they can make money off the show. For some blokes, making a mess of beautiful girls is not only fun, but a good business opportunity.” The feminine side of Captain Lewis was slit-eyed angry.
“That can’t be all of it,” she said.
Mr. Grey hazarded an opinion with a soft, seal-like cough discreetly concealed by his fist. “The girls at the rock say big shipments of smelly stuff have been crossing the channel to Argonia. Smells like that coal stuff they dig out of the ground in Frostingdung that makes it reek so. Perhaps they’d rather sell what they control than leave it to dragons they can’t, and this is a good opportunity to get rid of them?”
Verity groaned. It sounded likely enough to her. “Good of you lot to show up to help,” she told them. “I know it’s a grand crowd for the cabaret act, but…”
“Naught to do with that, dearie,” Captain Lewis said. “We was looking for you. Before you got here, we had a wee word with your mum. You still have that treasure cask we brought up? Did you open it?”
“Not yet,” she said. “But it doesn’t rattle like coins or jewels, so it didn’t seem valuable enough to worry about amid all the other goings-on.”
“I think the crew should be the judge of that, Brown,” Legs said. Verity liked Legs, or maybe was mostly amused by the shifter octopus/bartender/rigger, but now it seemed that Legs didn’t trust her much. Oh well, it had been weeks, so perhaps she’d have started to become impatient—or at least curious—also about a sunken treasure that someone else absconded with.
Verity unslung the pack she had carried so long it felt like part of her, pulled it open and felt toward the bottom for the cask. It was tarred wood bound with iron bands.
“You’ve not opened it yet?”
“It didn’t seem important and I knew you’d want to see, too,” she said. “I was going to wait until I saw you again in Queenston.”
“Do ’er now,” Mr. Grey said.
“But my mother…”
“There’s more to that one than meets the eye,” Grey told her. “She’ll be grand.”
“Go on,” Legs prodded.
The lock was extremely tricky, but after a quarter of an hour, she gave her picks one final wiggle and the top of the cask sprang open.
A parcel wrapped in what looked like dragon hide lay within.
She unrolled it, and it unrolled and unrolled and unrolled. It was covered with rows of drawings of tiny cattle, pigs, deer, and other creatures, overlaid on a crude map of Argonia, with lines collecting each of the drawings to what seemed to be a specific area.
“Aha!” Captain Lewis said.
“Aha what?” Verity said.
“Them’s ledger drawings is what they be,” he said, lapsing into pirate-speak. “For keeping tallies of accounts and such.”
“Accounts? But there be no numbers,” Chips the carpenter said, puzzled.
“Count the critters,” Doc told him.
“It’s worthless,” Legs said, waving three of her legs at the scroll.
Verity felt a twinge that told her that was not true.
Captain Lewis shrugged. “Sorry to trouble you, love. Wasn’t worth the bother, was it? We could have left it at the bottom of
the sea.”
“Will you help me protect the dragons and the ladies?” Verity asked. “I don’t think introducing dragons to a diet of human flesh is going to be a good thing for anyone, least of all the humans whose flesh it is.”
Smelt, who had somehow made himself inconspicuous behind a tent, poked his head in among them. “Nevertheless, Lady. These people are right about one thing. We do need to eat. The good old days of plentiful meat everywhere you look are gone forever.” He sighed a deep dragonly sigh full of sparks and ash.
Verity stood holding the scroll and felt a familiar twinge. “Are they? The days are gone but… blast. If only they hadn’t taken my mother.”
“Don’t worry,” Casimir said, squeezing her shoulder. “She’s very resourceful, your mother. I’m sure she’ll be fine.”
“No doubt,” Verity said. “But I need to ask her something and she’s inconveniently unavailable. As usual.”
“She’ll be back,” Casimir said. “I’ve never known her not to come back.”
“Being eaten by a dragon might make it a bit difficult,” Verity told him.
Auld Smelt lashed his tail. “Maybe in the heat of battle, we might have nibbled an enemy or two for strength, but…”
“I’m relieved to hear it,” Casimir said.
“For them as took your mother, lass, I might could make an exception,” Smelt said. “Even if they’re nasty.”
Casimir cleared his throat and said, “I’m more inclined to fret for Devent. He’s an innocent and the Rani Romany is a woman of resources.”
Verity’s curse agreed with him and gave her not so much as a throb at his assessment of the situation.
“You may be right,” she said.
“Come with me, lass. I’ll show you her lair,” Smelt said.
“You won’t find it alone,” Casimir said. “She keeps the entrances to the Knowes secret.”
The Redundant Dragons Page 26
