Home > Tangled Truths (Death Before Dragons #3)(14)

Tangled Truths (Death Before Dragons #3)(14)
Author: Lindsay Buroker

Yes. The roc had a nest and was feeding its young, but it was feeding them young humans plucked up from nearby farms. Before it fled to your world, it did the same thing with elves. It has a taste for the flesh of sentient beings.

I grimaced, surprised Willard hadn’t heard about it and sent me up to deal with it. If it was eating humans, thank you for capturing it. What will happen to its young?

I have already delivered the mother and young to the Dragon Justice Court. The female will be punished and rehabilitated. A suitable non-murderous surrogate will be found for the young.

Someday, I would ask him what exactly punishment and rehabilitation involved. But the fact that the dragons would consider me a candidate for it if they found out the truth about Dob made me not want to know.

Good, I told Zav. Are you able to speak with me all the way from Seattle then?

Yes. I am near your domicile waiting for it to get dark.

I eyed the sky. It had been a long day, but that was how summer was at a northern latitude. The sun wouldn’t set for a few more hours. Maybe that was why Zav was checking on me. He was bored crouching on my rooftop, flattening the deck chairs that had been replaced after the last time he flattened them.

You think my domicile is likely to be ravaged by dark elves again?

Has it not happened before?

Unfortunately, yes.

There will be no moon tonight. They may be active.

I don’t suppose you’d like to scare away any dark elf that comes to ransack the place? I just got it cleaned up after the last time. Oh, and if you go inside, don’t ask about your poster. I didn’t do that.

Why would I go inside your domicile?

To catch the dark elf? Or to rummage through my panties drawer like a creeper? I don’t know what motivates you.

Catching criminals motivates me. He sounded affronted. Maybe he knew about panties drawers. Has Shaygorthian returned to search for you?

I hesitated. Zav was on a mission to help his standing with his people, and that mission would also help my people. If the two dark-elf scientists were taken from Earth, maybe the rest of the dark elves would go back to being only a minor problem instead of plotting to take over the world or whatever they intended to do with those orbs.

And all that aside, I didn’t want to ask Zav to come back and help me. Maybe it would be the death of me, but I didn’t think my pride would allow me to beg for assistance from a dragon—from anyone. If I died because of that stubbornness, so be it.

He has been searching for you, Zav responded to my silence, his words like a growl in my mind. When I am done here, I will come protect you.

Thank you for wanting to do that, Zav, but you should worry about your own mission. I’m used to taking care of myself.

You cannot take care of yourself against a dragon. He will pluck the truth from your mind and either kill you outright or take you for punishment and rehabilitation.

What exactly does that involve?

Seven-hundred and thirty-four days of physical and mental pain inflicted by a magical device that keeps you alive while restraining you, followed by a mind wipe that steals your personality and inserts a new one.

Seven-hundred and thirty-four days. Was that a randomly chosen number? So basically, it’s like death. With a lot of pain beforehand.

It is for the good of the societies of the Cosmic Realms. It is our duty as dragons to create order and vanquish criminals, one way or another. But I do not wish this to happen to you. When I first met you, I did, but I believe now that you are ignorant and misguided, not willfully criminal.

Wow, with words of praise like that, women must be eager to jump into bed with you.

That must not have been the response he expected because there was a pause before he replied. All females of lesser species will jump into the nest of a male dragon if he wishes it. As will all males seek to satisfy the desires of female dragons.

Voluntarily or because they’re compelled to do so?

Most will voluntarily do it. Only foolishly stubborn ones need to be compelled.

I almost told him I didn’t believe him, but that wasn’t true. He was damn magnificent when he was a dragon, and he was hot as a human—even Dob and Shaygor had been hunks in their elven forms. A lot of people probably would ignore their haughty, arrogant insults for a chance to ride a dragon.

“People with low standards,” I muttered.

I do not know why we are discussing this. Zav sounded exasperated. Shaygor seeks you, so in the morning, I will fly back there to ensure he cannot put his talons in your mind again. Wear your charm and do not do anything foolish tonight.

I sensed his presence fading from my mind and felt a sadness. For a moment, I’d forgotten my other problems.

Val. Sindari came around to the front of the house to sit in front of me. Your charm is not activated.

I know. I was talking to Zav.

He is here and will help us?

Not until tomorrow.

That is unfortunate because I sense the silver dragon is in the area.

I dropped my forehead into my hand.

I also found some footprints to match that fur.

Oh? Do you have time to show me?

I believe so, but activate your charm.

I did, then stood, expecting him to lead me around to the back yard or into the trees to the side of the house. Instead, he crouched and sprang twenty-odd feet into the air to land on the roof.

The footprints are up there?

It is easiest to see the story they tell from above.

If I had to climb onto a roof, the story had better be a scintillating drama with romantic elements.

Grumbling, I found a drainpipe to scurry up. My grumbles turned to curses as my weight caused it to pull away from the house. My agility let me compensate, and I ended up twisting in the air like a high-jumper and vaulting onto the rooftop, barely making it over the edge and landing on my feet.

“Thieves have a much easier time of this in fantasy novels,” I muttered.

It probably helped that they were usually lightweight starved orphan children.

Over here. Sindari was on the far side, looking down at the back yard.

When I crouched beside him, I didn’t see anything at first—unlike the house, the grassy yard was well kept, trimmed and green. But he was looking past it toward a bed of soft dirt and rose bushes that edged the back before the yard sloped down into trees and eventually the main street through town. We could see the tops of many of the buildings from here, along with people walking on sidewalks to the restaurants and shops, but it was the footprints in the rose beds that riveted my attention.

They were giant. The plantigrade prints had five toes, but each deep print was well over a foot long. Some were closer to two feet. Whoever had made them had been heavy enough that the prints were deep in the soft dirt. A few significantly smaller prints were also scattered about.

“Goblin?” I asked.

Yes. It looks like they were here around the same time.

“Could you tell if the sasquatch were real or maybe some mechanical contraptions the goblins made?”

Their scent seems authentic.

“True. So are they working together? Are the goblins somehow convincing them to tear up the town? And to what end?”

I do not know. Sindari shifted on the roof, his gaze turned to the south.

“Let me guess.”

The silver dragon is coming here.

“You didn’t let me guess.”

It wasn’t necessary. You knew.

At least I wasn’t riding something that would stand out to a dragon this time. With my charm activated, he shouldn’t see me up here on the roof. And if Zav did come back in the morning, maybe he could keep Shaygor away while Sindari and I clue-hunted.

As the dragon neared, coming into my range, I eyed the pedestrians on the streets below. If Shaygor soared over the park, anyone with a recent magical ancestor should be able to see him. A lot of people were out, enjoying the summer evening.

Including Amber and her friend. I swore, gaped at them, and swore some more.

They were walking up from the bike trail toward the ice cream shop. Why hadn’t Thad told her to stay away from town?

Maybe nothing would happen. Maybe Shaygor would fly past without glancing down. He was looking for me, not random human tourists. Right?

The great silver dragon came into view, soaring over the road leading into town. Amber and her friend had turned onto that same road, heading down the sidewalk toward the shop. Maybe they would go inside and the dragon wouldn’t notice them. There were dozens of people wandering the sidewalks, eating at outdoor tables, and picnicking in the park.

Amber glanced up as Shaygor flew toward them. An instant before she shrieked, I realized that her quarter-elven blood would allow her to see the dragon.

I heard her scream from the rooftop up the hill. She threw a hand over her mouth and clamped it off immediately, but Shaygor looked down, looked right at her. Maybe people screamed all the time when they saw him. Maybe he wouldn’t care…

I couldn’t take that chance. Drawing Chopper, I ran off the edge of the roof and landed with a roll in the grass below. I came up running, charging down the steep slope instead of going the long way down the curving road.

What are you doing? Sindari asked.

Helping my daughter.

10

More shrieks echoed up from the main street as I charged off the slope and through a side yard between two houses. They didn’t sound like Amber, but other people could have seen the dragon by now. I’d lost sight of him through the evergreens, but I could sense him. He’d stopped moving. Had he landed in the street?

No. He was on the rooftop of the building with the ice cream shop. Amber was running back the way she’d come, but her friend was still on the sidewalk, gaping in confusion. No magical blood there. Like most of the bewildered people looking around, she couldn’t see the dragon. But a few could. They were either pointing and shouting or sprinting away.

With Chopper in hand, I raced after Amber. I was camouflaged, so Shaygor didn’t glance in my direction. He was focused on… Damn it, he was looking at Amber.

So far, he wasn’t chasing her, but his nostrils twitched, and I thought of Zav’s warning that Shaygor would be able to identify my daughter by scent.

   
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