Daniel didn't even dare to breathe.
"Oh, come now," the dragon said. "You don't really believe that I won't see you if you don't move, do you?" It laughed, a sound that boomed through the air and rattled Daniel's bones.
"I... I don't know," Daniel said weakly.
The eye narrowed. "Well, now, that's quite interesting, isn't it? When we're mere hatchlings, you have no compunctions about killing us. But put an adult in front of you..." Its face was split by something that must have been a grin, and that showed its teeth to quite good effect. "And it's rather a different story, eh?"
Eh? What is this, a Canadian dragon? Daniel thought wildly.
"Hatchlings?" he repeated, trying desperately to find a mental connection.
The head rose and turned to look at him full on. Daniel found himself staring right down the line of spines on the dragon's snout, with both yellow eyes fixed full on him.
"Don't play the fool," the dragon said softly. "You have killed many, many of our hatchlings. The stink of their deaths hangs on you still."
A mental image of a raptor flashed through Daniel's mind. "Wh -- those things are dragon larvae?" he cried, backing away a step.
The dragon hissed softly. "Hatchlings," it said, its tone threatening. Then it chuckled. "Foolish man. You thought they were a race unto themselves? Did you never realize that a hatchling barely taller than you could not possibly lay an egg of that size?"
Daniel remembered the eggs he had smashed -- over two feet long. "Jesus," he whispered. How the hell could he have missed realizing that?
The dragon regarded him curiously. "Tell me," it said. "How did you discover our weakness for iron?"
"I..." Daniel was taken aback by the question. "I read about it in a book of folk tales," he said. "It was about faeries in general, though, not specifically dragons. I didn't know dragons had a weakness for iron."
The dragon nodded warily. "I see. And who are your companions?" It nodded toward the street. Daniel turned, and saw Kelly and Taylor cautiously making their way toward him, Taylor holding her head. "One is a Guardian, I see. What of the other?"
"She's..." Daniel's voice trailed off. He wasn't sure himself, much less knowing how to explain to a dragon. "Kelly is my mate," he said finally.
The dragon's eyes dilated suddenly, but its face otherwise remained immobile. "Indeed," it said.
Daniel stepped forward, frowning. "What?" he said. "You know something. What?"
The dragon looked coldly down at him. "I know a great number of things, mortal," it said in a chilling voice. "I have read more books than you have ever seen. I have lived for uncounted centuries, studying the ways of the universe."
"But you know something about Kelly," he said angrily. "You're a faerie. Does that mean you can tell fortunes or something?"
The dragon stared down at him. "I can," it said at last. "For a price. There must always be a price."
Daniel frowned. "What kind of price?"
"That is not my place to say. It is your place to name the price."
Kelly stepped forward. "How many books have you read?" she asked.
The dragon blinked. "One thousand, two hundred and eighty-two," it said.
Kelly smiled. "What if I told you where you could find ten or a hundred times that many?"
Silence.
Her smile broadened. "Deal?"
The dragon lowered its head, ever so slowly, until its enormous face was directly in front of Kelly's. She stood perfectly still, though her eyes grew a tiny bit wider with each foot the enormous head grew closer to hers. It stopped five feet away from her forehead, its eyes staring directly into hers.
"I shall know if you are lying," it whispered, in a sort of sing-song chant that suggested it had said the same thing many, many times before. "Now. Tell me."
Kelly smiled. "I don't think you've ever seen a modern bookstore. I work in one, and we keep somewhere in the neighborhood of [RESEARCH] different titles in stock. And there are dozens of different bookstores in this city alone."
There was a long pause.
The dragon withdrew its head. It was shaking.
"Very well," it said. "You may each ask me one question."
The three of them looked at each other. Daniel raised his eyebrows at Kelly. "Do you want to do the honors?"
"You obviously know something about me," Kelly said. "What is it?"
Smoke puffed out of the dragon's nostrils. "Your fate," it said. "Your fate is so strong about you that I can smell it."
"And...?" she prompted.
"It is... intertwined with your companions'," the dragon said. "But your place is a place of grief, and yet of hope."
"That's it?" Kelly said, frowning.
The dragon hissed in amusement. "You expected better from a prophecy?"
"My turn," Daniel said. "Dragons are supposed to live hundreds of years, but there still aren't supposed to be that many of them. Aren't you guys supposed to reproduce really slowly? What's going on with this -- with the hundreds of eggs, with all these cocoons after no longer than you've been here?"
Another hiss, less friendly. "Very well," the dragon said. "That has a great deal to do with the mortality of this world. Humans define themselves, and their very world, in terms of their mortality, their pitifully short life-spans, and the immediacy that those life-spans require. In the time since the Guardians first forced the worlds apart, that immediacy has permeated your entire world. As we work to restore the natural balance by restoring magic to the world, that immediacy affects us as well." It chuckled. "There is the added benefit that this gives us a bigger foothold in your world, and more chance to reintroduce magic. It works out quite well."
Daniel frowned. "Does that mean that people's life-spans will increase as well?"
"I said each of you could ask one question," the dragon said quietly.
"Ah, right," said Daniel. He and Kelly both looked at Taylor.
Taylor rubbed her head. "Um. You guys got any good question ideas?"
"Not on the spur of the moment," Daniel admitted. Kelly shrugged, her eyes still on the dragon.
"Well, um... I don't know. Why the hell haven't you eaten us yet?"
The dragon laughed so hard that the ground shook. Taylor lost her balance and sat down hard on the ground.
"Because," the dragon said, amusement in its voice, "you are worth more to me alive than dead at the moment. Even the Guardian." It looked down its nose at Taylor. "I can smell the fate hanging over all of you. Without you, this world will become a most unpleasant place to live." It sniffed. "Some of the details even I do not know, but without the intervention of you four, few dragons and fewer humans will survive."
The three of them looked at each other nervously. Then Kelly frowned. "Four?" she said.
There was a soft clunk from behind them. Daniel and Kelly spun around, just in time to see a small head ducking back inside the barely-open front door of a utility shed.
"Who's there?" Kelly called. She walked toward the shed.
"Fare well," the dragon said, unfurling its wings. Its wingspan was immense -- it had to be at least sixty feet. Just looking at it made Daniel dizzy.
"Now wait just a cotton-picking minute," Taylor snapped. "You said each of us got a question. If there are four of us, then we've got one question left."
There was a whimper from the direction of the shed. Kelly opened the door further and peeked in. "Hello?" she said. "It's okay. The dragon's not going to hurt you. I swear."
Reluctantly, the dragon re-folded its wings. "Very well," it said irritably. "One question from the girl-child."
It took a few minutes of coaxing, but Kelly finally got the girl to come to the doorway of the shed. The girl was about seven years old. She refused to come any further, her eyes round as she stared at the dragon.
"P-please sir," she said, "Mister Dragon? You said we were going to save the world." The dragon chuckled, and the girl shied back from the doorway, then took a deep breath. "How exactly are we going to do that?"
The dragon's eyes clouded. "There is a threat that grows ever stronger," it said. "It reeks of death." It stared at Daniel, its pupils narrowing. "Its smell is strong on you. It is beyond my knowing, but if left unchecked, it will consume us." It surveyed the group. "Some of you will die," it said quietly. "But some will live, and will rebuild the world that once was. Before the Guardians sealed the faerie beyond the veil."
"Something that's getting stronger? Connected to me? Are you talking about the white raptor?" Daniel said uncertainly.
The dragon moved its head closer to him. "A white dragon, you say? Impossible!"
Daniel shook his head. "It used to be black, but over time, it... changed. Because it hasn't been feeding on energy, or magic. It's been feeding on the spirits of the dead."
The dragon's nostrils flared. "Impossible," it repeated. "You waste my time, mortal."
It spread its wings again, and with a mighty leap and a flap of its wings whose downdraft knocked them all off their feet, it soared into the air. Within minutes it was gone.
| < Chapter 28 | Chapter 30 > |