by Rachel Aaron
“You answered,” Chelsie said, obviously shocked.
“I told you I always pick up when it’s important,” Bob replied. “Put me on speaker. This is a group discussion.”
Chelsie did as he asked, turning the phone so everyone could hear. “I take it you know why we’re calling, then?”
“Yes, but only through Julius,” Bob said. “Can you show him the video again? I want to double check something.”
“How about I just send it to you and you can watch it yourself?” Chelsie said, hitting a button.
“Or that,” Bob replied, falling silent as he watched the short clip. “Please tell me that’s not what I think it is.”
“No can do,” Amelia said, taking the phone from her sister. “That’s a chain all right, which explains our memory loss nicely. Though I still don’t understand how Estella got one, let alone multiples.”
“Never underestimate what Estella is willing to put herself through for victory,” Bob said darkly. “Why else do you think she almost killed her sister trying to get a Kosmolabe last month?”
Amelia gasped like this was the vital piece of new information that solved the puzzle, and Marci rolled her eyes. “Okay stop,” she said, putting up her hands. “Can we please get some context for those of us who don’t know what’s going on?”
“I can try,” Amelia said. “You know that dragons didn’t originate on this plane, right?”
Marci nodded. “Vann Jeger said something about that. He also said dragons originally came here because they destroyed their own home, but he’s not exactly a reliable source.”
“Unfortunately for us, he was telling the truth,” Amelia said grimly. “We’re what Algonquin would call a ‘non-native invasive species.’ The first dragons came to this world as refugees roughly ten thousand years ago. No one knows anymore if we picked this place for a reason, or if it was just the first one we found, but either way, we’ve never gone back.”
“Wait,” Julius said. “I thought we came as conquerors? That’s how I always heard it.”
“That’s just the spin,” Bob said. “Surely you don’t expect any proper dragon to admit we were forced to flee to this world after cataclysmically failing to manage our own?”
That explanation rang too true to be a lie. “So what happened?”
“Exactly what you’d expect from a place where dragons were the dominant species,” Amelia said bitterly. “We fought amongst ourselves until there was nothing left to fight over, and then we jumped ship.”
Again, that made a horrible sort of sense, but Chelsie looked fed up. “I’ve never heard any of this,” she growled. “How is it that you two know it all?”
“Because we knew grandfather,” Amelia said sadly. “He was one of the last living dragons who actually came through the original portal.”
“Wait,” Julius said, breathless. “You’ve met the Quetzalcoatl?”
“Of course,” Amelia said. “A-melia, remember? The Quetzalcoatl used to dote on his grandchildren, especially Bob.”
“I’m innately lovable,” Bob said. “But this story has a point other than horrifically dating ourselves. With the exception of trusting Bethesda, our grandfather was a very wise dragon. He was young when he was forced to flee to this world, but he never forgot what happened to his home, and he was determined that his clan would not make the same mistakes as our ancestors. But while Amelia’s version of the story makes for a nice moral tale, the situation that destroyed our original home plane wasn’t entirely due to the natural draconic urge to conquer. What really ruined things for everyone were the seers.”
“Seers?” Julius said. “As in more than the usual three?”
“Exponentially,” his brother replied. “Dragon seers used to be as common as human mages. They were literally everywhere, meddling atrociously, tangling the future into knots.” He shuddered. “I don’t even want to think about it.”
Julius didn’t, either. Two seers fighting was bad enough, but thousands? “I can see why our ancestors had problems.”
“I still haven’t gotten to the bad part,” Bob said. “With so many seers fighting each other for control of the future, some started pursuing new, more inventive strategies to get a leg up on their enemies. This kicked off an arms race which eventually culminated in the creation of a new weapon unique to seer magic. A tool that, when applied to your enemies, would enforce your single vision of the future over all others, no matter how unlikely.”
Julius’s eyes went wide, but Marci beat him to it. “The chains!”
“Bingo,” Bob said. “Give the girl a prize.”
“Let me get this straight,” Julius said slowly. “You’re saying Estella went to the old home of the dragons and brought back a weapon that will make her version of the future come true over yours?”
“Over everyone’s,” Bob said grimly. “No matter what. She’s literally bound the future in chains, and now we’re in a pickle.”
They were in a lot worse than a pickle. Julius was still trying to wrap his head around how bad this could be when Marci asked, “So where does my Kosmolabe come in? Don’t dragons know how to get back to their own plane?”
“Not any more,” Amelia said sadly. “You gotta understand, we didn’t just trash our home plane. We obliterated it. Our ancestors flew out of there one step ahead of total collapse. Things got so bad there at the end, the sphere of our reality actually disconnected completely from the other planes. Now, the only way to get back is by tunneling through the void between worlds, and the only way to do that is if you have something pointing you in the right direction.”
“Like a Kosmolabe,” Marci said.
“Exactly,” Amelia said, nodding. “Why do you think I’ve been trying for so long to get my hands on one? I’ve been working on opening a portal back to the remnants of our home plane for centuries. Can you imagine how much lost history might still be buried there?”
“History, of course,” Bob said drolly. “And the rumored mountains of treasure abandoned by the fleeing dragon kings has nothing to do with your interest.”
Amelia shrugged. “Can’t I be interested in both?”
“Be that as it may,” Chelsie said. “Let’s get back to the point. You’re saying Estella used the Kosmolabe she stole last month to go back to our ancient home plane and acquire a seer weapon that forces a specific future onto us?”
“If you want to squeeze it all into one sentence.”
“Then why hasn’t the chain kicked in yet?” she asked, ignoring his sarcasm. “If Amelia and I are already on Estella’s rails, how are we even able to have this conversation?”
“I don’t know,” Bob said, sounding uncharacteristically frustrated. “I told you already, I can’t see either of your futures anymore. For all I know, this is all part of Estella’s plan.”
“Fine,” Chelsie said, “So how do we get out of it?”
He sighed. “I don’t know.”
“That’s a lot of ‘I don’t knows’ for an all-knowing seer,” Chelsie growled.
“Well, I don’t think that’s odd considering the last time a seer weapon of this sort was used was nine thousand years before I was born,” Bob said testily. “I see the future, not the past. But if I had to make an educated guess, I’d say the only way to beat an absolute weapon is with another absolute weapon.”
“You mean go get chains of our own?” Julius asked quickly, eager to break the tension. “Can we do that?”
“If Estella can, I don’t see why we couldn’t,” Bob replied.
“But we can’t get there,” Marci pointed out. “Even if Amelia made a portal, we don’t have a Kosmolabe.”
“Don’t write us off yet,” Bob said. “I might have gotten my teeth kicked in this round, but I’m not completely without resources. It just so happens I’ve already sent help on that score.”
“The portal or the Kosmolabe?” Marci asked at the same time as Chelsie snapped, “And you didn’t tell us this earlier?”
�
�I didn’t want to interrupt the exposition,” Bob said innocently. “And ‘help’ in this case refers to the Kosmolabe. Amelia’s ability to make portals should have already come back.”
Everyone turned to stare at Amelia, who turned up her nose. “Of course. Why else did you think I was sitting around doing nothing but eating and boozing?”
“I don’t know,” Chelsie said. “Sounds like a pretty normal Amelia day to me.”
“I was recovering,” Amelia snapped. “Some of us didn’t just fall over for Estella, you know.”
Chelsie bared her teeth, and Julius jumped in before it came to blows. “So you can make portals again! That’s great. But what about the Kosmolabe? When is it coming?”
“You should already have it,” Bob said.
Everyone looked at Julius, who shook his head.
“I dare not say more,” the seer said cryptically. “Just think about it.”
“Now’s not the time, Bob,” Chelsie growled.
“Wrong,” he said. “It’s exactly the time. How often do I have to repeat that decisions make the future? They’re the forks in the stream, the intersections in the road of life, the adventures in the Choose Your Own Adventure!”
Chelsie scoffed. “And you’re letting Julius pick?”
“He’s done an excellent job so far,” Bob pointed out. “You’re still alive, aren’t you?”
Chelsie snapped her mouth shut. Julius didn’t know what to say, either. Personally, he was with Chelsie. “But what do I do?”
“I already told you,” Bob said, his voice growing serious. “Be yourself.”
Julius grit his teeth. This again. “But—”
“Just because I’m a seer doesn’t mean I’ve given up being a dragon,” Bob reminded him. “Estella might have stolen my pieces and turned the board sideways, but I’m not out of the game yet. Speaking of, I have to go. I’m about to be late for an appointment.”
“Bob!” Chelsie cried. “Don’t you dare hang up on—”
The phone clicked.
***
On the other side of the world, Bob switched off his phone and threw it as hard as he could into the neat rows of rice paddies that covered both sides of the fertile Yangtze River Valley in central China. Like everything over the last two days, ditching his phone was a risk, but as he’d just reminded his brother, being a seer didn’t mean he’d forgotten how to be a dragon. Estella’s greatest weakness had always been that she trusted the future over everything else, even her own common sense. She’d assumed that he, like her, would be crippled without his sight. But Brohomir was as much the son of the Heartstriker as he was a seer. For all his mother’s shortcomings, lack of audacity had never been one of them.
And Estella wasn’t the only one who could cheat.
“If you can’t change the game, change the rules,” he said to his pigeon, who’d ridden the whole way here on his shoulder. “Speaking of, you’d better make yourself scarce. My host is old fashioned. He won’t appreciate you like I do.”
The bird tilted her head at him, and then she took off, flying up into the clear sky. Bob watched her go until she was a speck in the distance before resuming his climb, vaulting up the ancient stone steps two at a time as he scaled the steep bank to the gate of an elegant country manor that looked like it had been built directly into the hillside before the invention of writing.
Despite its obvious age, the two-story residence was in excellent repair with its paper shutters thrown open to the early fall breeze. Bob was still making his way across the tree-shaded courtyard when the front door slid open, and a young-looking Chinese man with long, braided black hair wearing a silk coat older than most dragons stepped out to greet him.
“Let me guess,” Bob said in his best Mandarin. “You were expecting me?”
“Since last month,” the Black Reach replied in perfect English, looking him up and down with silver eyes that would never pass for human. “Welcome, Brohomir, Great Seer of the Heartstrikers, Consort to a Nameless End.”
It wasn’t often Bob heard that last title. Never, actually, before this moment. But it came up often in the future, which was where his host spent most of his time. “May I come in?”
The Black Reach nodded and stepped away from the door. “I’ve already poured your tea.”
Bob didn’t see the point. They both already knew why he’d come. But it was never wise to refuse an old dragon’s offer of hospitality, and the tea here was the best in the world. That was as good a reason as any, so Bob plastered a smile on his face and stepped inside the ancient seer’s den, shutting the door firmly behind him.
And down the path, unnoticed, his still ringing phone sank deeper into the muddy water of the rice paddy.
***
“I hate it when he does that!” Chelsie hissed, dialing Bob’s number for what had to be the fiftieth time.
“And I don’t see why you’re upset,” Amelia said, taking a long chug off her whiskey bottle. “You’ve lived with Bob your whole life. Surely you must be used to riddles and half-truths by now?”
“That doesn’t mean I like them,” Chelsie snapped, though she did finally put the phone down. “How can you be so calm about this?”
“Easy,” Amelia said with a grin. “I’m drunk. You should try it sometime. You clearly need a better coping mechanism.”
Chelsie glared daggers at her. “That’s the worst advice I’ve ever heard.”
“Never said I was a role model,” Amelia replied with a shrug. “Seriously, though, you need to chill. I’ve known Brohomir since he hatched. He never loses.”
“There’s a first time for everything,” Chelsie reminded her.
“I suppose,” she said. “But if you’re right, and this is Bob’s turn to fail, then we’re all doomed to be hopelessly chained to Estella’s whims. I’m not particularly fond of Brohomir’s seer-ish antics either, but I’d rather dance to his tune than resign myself to being Estella the Northern Bore’s puppet.”
Chelsie didn’t seem willing to argue with that. “So what do we do now?”
Everyone turned and looked at Julius, who swallowed. “Why do you think I know?”
“Because you’re his chosen one,” Chelsie said sarcastically.
“And because you know where the Kosmolabe is,” Amelia added, eyes bright. “Is it here? Can I see it?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s not here,” Marci said, glancing at Julius. “Is it?”
“I don’t know!” he cried. “I haven’t seen the thing since right after Bixby died. For all I know, Estella grabbed it off the ground in the Pit and—”
He stopped short when he realized what he’d said. “I think I just figured out what Bob meant.”
“What?” Chelsie demanded, but Julius was already fumbling for his phone.
“Give me a second,” he said, walking over to the corner to give himself the semblance of privacy as he pressed the number near the top of his contacts. It was a long shot, but Julius was desperate enough to try anything at this point. If nothing else, at least he’d get to talk to a friend.
All of this was still swirling through his head as the phone began to ring, and then, almost immediately, the call picked up, and Katya’s voice cried, “Julius!”
“Hey,” he said, feeling suddenly awkward. “Are you okay? Did you make it safely?”
“Well, I’m not captured yet, so yes. I—” She was interrupted by harsh female voice rapidly speaking Russian in the background. Katya answered in kind, her voice tense before she came back to Julius. “Sorry, I’m kind of in the middle of something. I heard my sisters were in the DFZ. Are they still there, or have they already left for the mating flight?”
Julius winced. In all the confusion, he’d completely forgotten that the mating flight between Svena and Ian was scheduled for tomorrow evening. “I haven’t seen Svena since yesterday,” he said. “But I know Estella was here less than an hour ago. That’s why I’m calling, actually. I need to know if you’ve seen the Kosmolabe.”
“The what?”
That was right. Katya had been unconscious through the whole Kosmolabe fiasco last month. “Magical object that lets you find things in planes,” he explained. “It looks kind of like a golden ball?”
“Oh!” Katya said. “I might know where that is, yes.”
Julius’s heart began to pound. “Not with Estella, I hope?”
“No,” she said, her voice growing smug. “My sister left a golden ball on the seat when she was dealing with your brother. Since I wasn’t feeling particularly charitable toward her at the time, I took it. I thought it might be good leverage for when Estella cornered me. I’ll gladly give it to you if you need it, though. It’s the least I can do to repay your kindness.”
“That would be amazing, thank you,” he said, turning around to give the others a thumbs-up. “Where are you? Can I come get it?”
“Oh, I don’t have it on me,” Katya said. “What do you think I am, crazy? I left it in the DFZ.”
“That’s even better,” Julius said. “Where?”
There was a long, sheepish pause.
“About that…”
***
“I can’t believe she did this,” Marci growled, hovering over Julius as he carefully pried the mirror off the wall above her bathroom sink. “I thought she was your friend.”
“She is,” Julius said, giving the fixture a stubborn yank. “But she was also under a lot of pressure, and this is actually a huge stroke of luck for us. I’d have thought you’d be happy.”
“It’s the principle of the thing,” she said as the mirror finally popped free. “She hid my Kosmolabe in my bathroom, and I didn’t even know!” She crossed her arms. “Seriously, she got here naked. Where was she even hiding it?”
Julius shook his head and set the mirror aside. He didn’t know enough to explain the specifics to Marci, but it wouldn’t have been hard for a dragon as crafty at Katya to smuggle the Kosmolabe under their noses. Personally, he thought the whole thing was a pretty savvy move on her part. Hiding the Kosmolabe in their house let her put it under Bob’s protection without actually giving it to him, which would have been seen as an unforgivable betrayal of her clan. But this situation was the sort of delicate, clan politics tip-toeing that was generally lost on humans, so he let Marci’s anger slide, focusing instead on working his arm through the hole in the plaster that the mirror had hidden, groping blindly in the space between the struts until, at last, his fingers closed over something cold, round, and delicate.