Dragon Gifts: Chapter Thirteen
“And you’re sure they’re holding her here?” Gina asked. She pointed at a spot marked on the map. It was apparently the location of a warehouse in a neighboring city not far from where they were now. At least, they’d told her it was a city. Oversized town seemed more accurate.
“Seeing as how they didn’t specify a place for a meet, this is my best guess,” her uncle explained. “It’s the only location that they know we know about. Our last visit was rather, ah, unforgettable. There are other locations here and here,” he gestured, “that we think they occupy, but we can’t know for certain without investigating further. Of course, we don’t know that they’re actually keeping her at any of these. She could be anywhere at the moment.”
“Any luck with building plans? Blueprints? That sort of thing?”
“A little. We have the original blueprints that the developer submitted, but who knows how they’ve partitioned the space since then?”
Gina eyed the map with care and tapped one of the other places her uncle had pointed out. “Tell me about this one. This one’s close, right?”
“It’s a detached house that went up for auction a few years back. Old money fallen on hard times, that sort of thing. Anyway, a known dragon couple purchased it and renovated it. Judging by the low traffic in and out of the grounds, I think they really did intend it to be their new family home. They live there with a few others, possibly cousins or whatever passes for close family ties in dragon circles, and a small household staff. It doesn’t look like they’re very high up in dragon social circles. I suppose it’s possible they were sent here to spy on us, but we’ve seen no sign of it.”
“How likely is it that we could oust them and take over?”
“I don’t understand,” her uncle said. “What does this have to do with freeing your mother?”
“I’m not an idiot,” Gina explained. “If I walk into that warehouse, alone and unarmed, my mother and I are both as good as dead. So I’m not going to do that. Instead, we’ll draw them out.”
“There are only five of us, you realize,” her uncle said. “That’s not much of an army.”
Gina looked straight at her aunt. “Last time I checked, there were seven able bodies, if I include myself. My Aunt Claudia failed to remind me that she’s a crack shot with a bow, but I remember her participating in our archery practice sessions when I was a girl. And dear old grandfather used to entertain us with homemade fireworks. It’s a small step from that frivolity to bomb making, unless I miss my guess.”
There were some startled looks from the adults in the room, but before they could say anything, Daniel pushed his way into the group. Tristan was right behind him, looking appropriately apologetic and hurrying to grab his brother before he made a scene. He wasn’t fast enough. “What about me?” Daniel cried. His mother tried to soothe him, but he was adamant that he be heard.
“I haven’t forgotten you,” Gina reassured him, “but don’t you think someone should stay behind and guard the house in case the dragons take the opportunity to attack here while we’re gone? Nanna and grandfather would be here all alone if we let you came along.”
Daniel scrunched up his face, and for a moment it looked like he was going to protest again, but he muttered something that sounded like an agreement. He wasn’t an idiot and he knew what Gina was up to, but the pride of place of defending his home was not something that he would readily pass up. Gina was satisfied with what she saw. A little guilt, when properly applied, could work magic, and Daniel was not the sort to put anyone in danger if he could help it. He might not like it, but he’d do his duty.
“Maybe another time, all right?”
“All right,” Daniel agreed. He glanced up at his older brother and the two of them backed up to let their father through.
“I’ll need to know all the details before I commit to anything,” her uncle cautioned.
“Then I’ll need blueprints, building permits for the renovations, anything you can come up with,” Gina told him and her uncle nodded. He disappeared into the storeroom to find the papers she needed while she sipped at her tea and tried to work out all the eventualities. Most of her success would depend on doing the unexpected, annoying the dragons until they did something foolish that would leave them open to a proper attack. Thinking outside the box made her head hurt.
“I don’t suppose anyone can tell me more about this ‘Mother’ that all the dragons keep talking about,” she suggested aloud.
“The dragons operate as a series of clans and each clan is headed by a matriarch,” her aunt explained. “Dragon politics isn’t something that we know much about, but I can tell you that the dragon they refer to as Mother currently goes by the name Rosalyn Chase.”
Nanna nodded agreement and added, “The dragons that attacked us are part of one of the largest of these clans, encompassing most of the UK. Supposedly there are other clans on the continent, but we know even less about them. I suspect they keep to themselves and run their own affairs. Any authority Rosalyn has probably ends at the English channel.”
“We have no way of knowing if that’s her real name, of course, not that it matters,” her aunt said. “It’s probably only the last in a long line of names. Since dragons live so long, they frequently try to pass themselves off as descendants of themselves from time to time. They have enough clout these days that it’s easier to do that then to remember to change their appearances every so often. Easy enough to forge a birth certificate, anyway.”
“How easy would it be to get to Rosalyn?”
The two women exchanged glances and shrugged.
“I don’t think that’s ever been suggested before,” her uncle said. He walked in, carrying a large box full of papers for them to sort through. “She’s going to be under very close watch. She’ll be too valuable for them to lose.” He dropped it on the table with a thump and leaned back against the wall where he could face her.
“Then we’ll just have to find a way to lure her out into the open. My idea is that we’ll create a scenario too tempting for her to resist, something so innocuous that she’d feel safe leaving her home in order to crush me. Of course, the problem is that I’d have to be the bait. She’s already got one hostage. She’s unlikely to want to collect many more when one will do just as well.”
“An operation on that scale could take forever,” her uncle protested. “Not to mention it would be nearly impossible. You can’t project that level of incompetence and still succeed in your goals.”
“True, but I suspect she already thinks all my successes come from pure dumb luck. It wouldn’t be hard to convince her that all the fault lies in her own choice of henchmen. After all, the dragon that came after me the other night was the same one that came after my mother and me in New York, and I don’t think he was following orders when he tried to kill me either time. I think he was supposed to run in and get me out again in one piece. The second group of dragons was meant to be the backup plan, but it succeeded where the first kidnapping attempt fell apart. You must have noticed that they weren’t seriously trying to harm anyone, just distract us all long enough for them to get a man inside, to kidnap my mother and hold her hostage. Both failures can be attributed to one dragon, and he’s dead. In her mind, those failures couldn’t possibly be due to the limited amount of experience I do have. Rosalyn has every reason to expect her next ploy will succeed, and that I’ll try to come after her to rescue my mother. I’m just not a threat.”
“Do you realize what you’re saying? That she sent all those dragons to die just to get at you?” The look her grandfather was giving her now said it all. He thought she was nuts, and judging by the expression on the others’ faces, he wasn’t alone in that belief.
Gina rolled her eyes. “If Rosalyn really wanted you dead, she would have done something about it by now. Instead, she lets you run around killing off clan members and only puts up the barest of defenses against you. Why?”
“How should we know?” her grandfather barked. “Maybe our defenses are better than you give us credit for. We’ve been doing this for quite some time you know. I’ve been doing it since long before you were born.”
“And what defenses would those be? Oh, that’s right, you don’t have any. If you did, you could have stopped them from coming in and slaughtering everyone in sight all those years ago.”
She regretted her choice of words immediately, but there was nothing to do but freeze and hope that no one took a lunge at her. Every able body in the room was armed, she realized, and there was a tense moment as a few of them pushed their chairs back from the table, but the room lapsed back into silence and she let out her breath. It seemed she was going to survive that one. They were apparently willing to make allowances for their idiot cousin from the States.
“I hope you realize that you sound like a cold-hearted bitch right now,” Tristan muttered. “And I’m not just talking about that particularly tactless remark.”
“Watch your language, young man,” his mother snapped. Just about everyone turned to glare at him, but Gina held up a hand for silence.
“Explain,” she said.
Tristan only shrugged. “Well, you do. How long do you think Rosalyn will keep your mother alive if she thinks your mother’s no good as bait anymore?”
“You have a point,” Gina admitted. “And it’s killing me that I simply can’t go running after her to save her. Dead if I do, dead if I don’t.” Well, that could apply to either of them. “Look, if anyone here has the answers, don’t hold back,” she exclaimed. No one seemed to want to meet her eyes. Typical. Well, if no one had anything better in mind, she might as well keep on with her original plan. She looked down at the box of papers in front of her and paged through the contents. “Let’s move on to something easier then, shall we? Earth magic. That means alarm spells, traps on the grounds, and strong defensive magic with a lot of power behind it. That’s the bad news. But since you seem to feel that they’re not ranked especially high, we know their magic won’t be on par with what the higher ups might deal in. That means that any shields they put up will probably be easy enough to break. We’ll just need to find the weak spots and apply a little pressure.” She found the blueprints she wanted and laid them out where everyone could see them. A few quick pencil marks were enough to show where the power centers were probably rooted. “I suggest we do a little reconnaissance and see if we can find the holes in their perimeter. I think we can all agree that a full frontal assault would be suicide for us right now, unless we can get one of the other clans to help.”
She looked up to see how everyone was taking it, but all she got were blank stares. Her aunt was sheet white, a neat trick considering how pale she happened to be on a good day. She hoped they weren’t still angry with her. “What is it? If you think this won’t work, go ahead and tell me now.”
“You’d actually ask one of the other dragon clans for help?” Daniel asked, wide eyed in shock. “Why?”
“Well, yeah. I mean, if the other clans aren’t attacking us and since they don’t seem to particularly like Terra clan, it shouldn’t be that hard to convince them to help us out a little.” Gina looked around the room, trying to find a little support, but all she got were blank stares. In a quieter voice, she mumbled, “Well excuse me for not knowing any better.”
“That’s not precisely the problem,” her uncle tried to explain. “Look, you’re certainly more knowledgeable about dragons than I would have believed possible, considering that just a few days ago you claimed not to know a thing. So no, I wouldn’t say that it was because you ‘didn’t know any better.’”
“What? What’d I say?” Gina blurted out. “If this isn’t about asking the other dragons for help, then what is it? Just tell me. I don’t think I can take any more faux pas tonight.”
“Tell me a little more about earth magic,” her aunt suggested kindly. “Terra clan, did you say? Perhaps you can share some insight into the Aeris and Ignis clans as well.”
“Earth, air, and fire,” Gina murmured. “Of course.” She launched out of her seat and started pacing back and forth in the narrow space between the table and the kitchen.
Her aunt and uncle exchanged worried looks and leaned in to speak some quiet words with her grandparents. When they’d finished, her uncle said, “Georgina, who told you about earth magic? About any kind of magic? Because I was under the impression that you hadn’t heard about any of this before you came here. Is there something else you aren’t telling me? About life in New York?”
“Well, Nanna must have brought it up,” Gina said. “Or Aunt Claudia.” What did it matter who told it to her? She didn’t remember, herself, but she didn’t see the big deal about it.
Aunt Claudia and Nanna shook their heads. If anything, they seemed even more worried. “Why does it even matter?” Gina complained. “You know I’m right. Isn’t that the point?”
“Actually, we don’t.” Gina spun to find the source of the voice. It was her grandfather. She stared him down straight in the face, daring him to explain himself. To her great surprise, he actually flinched.
“When we said we didn’t know anything about dragon magic, that wasn’t to mislead you or to stop you from asking questions about it. We really don’t know. Now you’re telling us that the fairy tales about the three clans are actually true? That they’re divided by the type of magic they use? That this earth magic has specific strengths and weaknesses?”
“Yes, as I said, earth, air, and fire. You’re telling me that none of you knew this?” Silence. “Then who told me about it? It’s not like I could just pull this stuff from thin air.”
Everyone in the room turned as one to look at her aunt. The woman glanced around and shrugged. “She’s not lying,” her aunt said. Gina glared at the room. Of course she wasn’t lying. Some tiny corner of her mind was starting to worry that something had gone horribly wrong.
“Miles, iure iurando teneris, nomen quid?” her aunt asked.
“Mea nomen ‘Georgina Mallory’ est. Hoc scitis.” The words rolled off her tongue without hesitation, but she almost choked as she realized that her aunt hadn’t been speaking in English. Neither had she, but she’d understand it perfectly. What was it she’d said? Knight, you bound by oath, what is your name? Great, just great. We can add speaking in tongues to my resume of weird, she thought. “Was that Latin?”
“Yes, but you apparently accent yours differently. Interesting.” Her aunt seemed to have proven her point, seeing as how she flashed her husband a smug smile. He hardly could have noticed, seeing as how his eyes were glued to Gina’s face. Whatever he saw in her eyes seemed to scare him. It gave her a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach. This was a man she was beginning to really look up to and trust, a man that her father had probably turned to for advice in times of hardship. And he was looking at her as if he’d found a monster in their midst.
“Maybe what that dragon had to say wasn’t gibberish after all,” Jason said softly. Terry nodded agreement, but it was very slight and he colored when Gina’s eyes turned to meet his. His weak smile did little to cheer her sour mood. They’d been so quiet, she’d forgotten they were even in the room. Perhaps they hadn’t, and she’d somehow overlooked their entrance.
“To answer your original question, about whether or not we could ally with one of the other dragon clans, the answer is that we don’t know. Dragon politics aren’t broadcast in the mundane world for us mere mortals to follow, but I’ve come to suspect that what you call Terra clan is at war with some unknown force. Your uncle has come to share in this belief with me, and our continued survival seems to support our theory. As you said yourself, it’s strange that we’ve been alone so long. Surely they would have come back by now to clean up the mess. We’ve never met anyone from the Aeris or Ignis clans. We’ve only heard of them second hand, from stories so old that we thought they were the dragon world’s version of fairy tales and children’s stories.” Her grandfather’s steady voice was a calming one. He wasn’t going to let any of these little oddities distract him from the matter at hand. There was a lesson to be learned there.
Gina was glad of the distraction, but the news hit her hard. “From five clans to just one?” she commented. She hadn’t realized how times had changed. How times have changed? What am I even thinking? Her brain screeched to a halt. She’d caught a glimpse of something intangible, some half-forgotten memory. Was this part of what it meant to be the Knight?
“There are more than three?” her aunt asked. Her brows were furrowed, her lips taut. “How many clans are there?”
“There used to be five clans, earth, fire, air, water, and spirit,” Gina managed. She’d lost them again, she realized, as she looked out at a sea of blank faces. It was hard to remember what she was supposed to know and what she shouldn’t. It all felt as real and solid as anything she’d ever known her entire life. Perhaps that blow to her head had dislodged more than it should. Or maybe the trauma really was causing her to imagine these things. But she’d healed it, right? She wished she could be sure that her earlier headache had nothing to do with this. She wished her mother was there to reassure her. Her mother would know the right words to say.
“Then what happened to water and spirit?” Nanna asked. “Or fire and air, for that matter? The only clan we ever see, apparently, is Terra clan.”
“Well, I think we all know what happened to the water clan, but spirit’s been missing for ages. Animus, that was what they were called. I remember now. Animus might be in hiding.” Gina said absentmindedly. “If Aeris and Ignis are in that much trouble, it shouldn’t be hard to bring them to see reason. It’s long past time to remind them of promises broken and blood spilt. But Terra, that’s a different problem entirely. I don’t see how they’ll get out of it this time.” She was hardly paying attention to what she was saying at this point. She was too wrapped up in trying to solve her inner dilemmas.
More looks were exchanged and Gina was starting to lose her patience. All of this was painfully obvious. Why couldn’t they see it?
“Why? What happened to water?” Terry asked.
“Aqua, you mean,” Gina corrected him. They were stuck on that?
“Fine. What happened to the Aqua clan?”
“You’re looking at it,” Gina said.