Draft of Dragons

by T S Paul

  Reaching in, I gave the short older woman a big hug. “Thanks,” I whispered in her ear.

  Waving to Cat and Chuck, I jogged up the porch stairs into the house. Several Coven members and helpers dodged out of my way.

  As I passed through the kitchen and into the main hall I could hear Cappy’s voice over all the commotion.

  “...insane! What was the city thinking, Marcella? I said it before and I’ll say it again, you shouldn’t have allowed them to replace me. This young guy is going to get people killed needlessly!” Cappy shouted.

  Grams sat behind her desk with her arms crossed. Looking past the former police chief she noticed my presence. I could see in her eyes that she wasn’t very happy. There was just that look. It was hard to explain.

  “The city council hired him. We had this discussion more than six months ago when it happened. He’s new. If he failed to understand the job, then that’s on him and the council. Most of them don’t understand what is coming, and that is on them as well. If my daughter…If Camilla hadn’t screwed with them so much, turning them away from the Coven things might’ve been different, but it isn’t. When this is over, good or bad, we’ll deal with it. I need the tactician in you now, Cappy, not the angry old man. Can you be him for me? If not, I’m turning Minerva loose on the Militia and you know exactly what she’ll do with it. Do you really want that on your conscience?”

  Cappy bowed his head. “No. I’ll do my job. But this is going to be bad, Marcella. If the state police get involved, well, you know what could happen.”

  “If we have to close off the valley, we will. We did it before in the 1960s when the Governor didn’t like us being here. Forget about the politics and get your people organized, please,” Grandmother replied.

  Cappy turned, nodded to me, and left the room.

  “Sorry about that. He’s an old man,” she explained.

  Crossing to her desk I crouched down next to her chair. “Where do you want us?”

  “With the Coven and me. No matter what comes through, we have to be prepared to force it back, whatever the cost. According to Butch, the Legion threw everything they had at the Dragons and still had to evacuate. The army they sent is bigger than anything seen in Otherworld in a thousand years. At least one full sized Dragon was in the mix as well. This is a major push by the Empire,” she explained.

  “Butch is here? Did he bring Sundance with him?” I asked her.

  “Those two are like you and Catherine, inseparable. They arrived with just shy of two hundred men, all that Owl could spare. It’s bad, child. Of the ten cohorts, they lost at least six to enemy action. All the walking wounded were transferred to the bunkers under the library to attempt to ride out the invasion. Legatus Payne and all the surviving centurions planned to hold the line at the fortress until the last man to give us whatever time we need. Butch said they could hear lots of gunfire and explosions as they transited the Gate. The others were supposed to lock themselves in. Owl and Mack are in the hands of the Goddess now.”

  I winced. During my summer vacation last year, I’d met a great many of the legionnaires and had liked them. They were the last bastion of hope for humanity, and humanity didn’t even know they existed. “Will the compact hold? I mean, the library is sacrosanct as long as the two sides are equal.”

  Grams waggled her hand. “Sort of. If we win and prevent them from spreading the war to Earth then yes, they will abandon Otherworld for now. The Gods of Light will insist upon it. But if the battle goes the other way, the library and all within it will be destroyed. We have to win or at least drive them back.”

  “So it’s us, the Coven, the militia, and who?” I asked her.

  “I’ve sent word ahead to some of my allies. If they are able, they will come. No promises, though. Our Coven is the most powerful on this side of the world. When we put all of our power to use at once we can literally move mountains. We just have to focus. I’m depending on you, Agatha. This will prove your place among us at long last,” Grams explained.

  “It’s not about proving a place, Grams. It’s about surviving to see another sunset. Fight a Dragon, sure. It’s what we do. My team is the best, and we will do our jobs whether sanctioned by the FBI or not. We’ll teach the Draconic Empire that no one, and I do mean no one, touches the Witches.”

  Chapter 16

  “Fergus, come out right this minute!” I demanded. He was hiding somewhere in the bedroom we’d shared as kids.

  “NO!”

  Smiling, I crouched down in front of the huge Victorian dollhouse in the corner of the room. Playing dolls with it as a child had been fun, especially with a living, breathing ‘doll’ I could dress up. Most of the time he let me do it, too. “I see you.”

  Fergus knocked over some of the furniture as he scrambled to hide. Peeking through the windows of the house, I could see him up in the attic under a bed.

  “Don’t make me drag you out of there, Fergus. You know I’ll do it,” I whispered to him. “We have work to do and you are part of it.”

  “Will there be Dragons?” Fergus asked me.

  “Maybe. We’ll all protect you,” I told him.

  “I told you the legends. Dragons are the Unicorns’ mortal enemies. They used to hunt us for food. I will not be a big lizard’s lunch,” Fergus explained. “This can be my new home.”

  “And if the house burns down? What will you do then? Pizza delivery won’t happen if the town is destroyed, as well. You’ve been in on the discussions. If they take over, it will all be gone. Not even Amazon. Do you really want that to happen?”

  “I’m scared,” Fergus replied. He’d moved out of the attic onto what grandmother called the cupola.

  “Seriously?” I asked. “Where’s the Unicorn that attacked a Demon Lord with only his horn? ‘Eat horn, Demon!’ should be your new rallying cry. We should all get t-shirts made up, if we survive this. You’re the bravest little guy I know. What’s a Dragon or two going to matter to someone like you?”

  Raising his head and puffing up his chest, Fergus looked me in the eyes. “Let’s do this thing, then.”

  Scooping him up, I dropped him into my shirt pocket where he belonged. “We have to arm up first, then join the Coven group.”

  “Just point me at the Dragons and turn me loose!” Fergus cried out.

  I could tell Chuck was impressed with my family’s armory by his silence. Most of what was here was for the Coven and the Militia. Grandmother had Cappy teach me the basics of gunplay before I left for the Academy. So I’d rarely been down here.

  Chuck stepped inside but then back out again. “It’s bigger on the inside!” he said. “That is so cool.”

  “You will have to ask Grams or Minerva about that. I do know it was Verity that created it more than a century ago. Many of the really antique weapons inside come from that time,” I explained. My bracelets murmured to me at Verity’s name. My great-great-great grandmother was the last one to own them.

  The armory was a door just off the basement. Inside, it was bigger than the basement. Way bigger. Racks of armor, along with crossbows and swords took up the front section of the room. Cases of combat gear in a variety of sizes took up one whole section of the place. Automatic weapons along with crew served were in the rear of the room. Everything from antique machine guns to what appeared to be light cannon filled the floor.

  “Redneck heaven, how did your family do this?” Chuck whispered.

  “Slowly and carefully. We’ve been expecting this ever since the Garden Gate opened the first time, back in the 1700s. There have been random incursions of the occasional monster or lost soul over the years. But we’ve hardly touched the material in here. Cappy and Minerva are the current armorers but there have been dozens. Each had their own idea of what we should stock and how to acquire it,” I explained to him. If I had my FBI hat on, I really should report all this, but this was family. My family.

  “Whoever did it is freaking awesome. Are those M27’s? How?” Chuck pointed to a ra
ck of black combat rifles. There was a constant stream of people taking both armor and guns.

  “Ask Cappy. I’m hands off on this part of the family business. At least for now I am. Grab some gear and pick your poison. We could use the gear in the bus, but I don’t want to promote the FBI right now.” I pointed to the stacks and stacks of material.

  “We understand. Charleston was a raw deal,” Chuck said, even as he searched for a set of level four body armor, sized extra-large. Chuck was a really big boy. Pulling out a set, he centered the breastplate over his chest checking for fit. Now for straps. “Can we just pick whatever?”

  I waved him toward the weapon section and turned him loose. Cat found armor right away and chose a set of quick draw pistols instead of a battle rifle. I expected she would use her combat form instead of just shooting.

  After a bit Chuck came back to us. Both Cat and I giggled at him.

  “What? I just found a couple I liked,” he said.

  “Men. Can you even carry and fight with all that?” Cat asked him.

  “I plan to find a hidey hole and drop most of it,” he answered, gripping a large gun longer than his leg. “This one will be my primary.”

  Tilting my head to one side I took in the details of the weapon. It didn’t look like anything I’d seen at the Academy. “What is that?”

  “We’re going after Dragons, so I went heavy,” Chuck said. “It’s a Boys anti-tank rifle. They used them in Europe against the Demons. I could’ve used this thing in Charleston, for sure. Between the Browning Automatic Rifle I found and this one, I’m good.” Chuck patted the very large gun draped over his shoulder. He demonstrated how he could fire it off-hand without having to brace and set it up. Chuck was no Rambo, but in his other forms, he was a bigger than Stallone.

  “Whatever works for you. Let’s go find Grandmother and get this circus on the road,” I pointed toward the stairs.

  The klaxons sounding all over town finally shut down after thirty long minutes of noise. Anyone who hadn’t heard it would have to shelter in place or make a run for it. That didn’t include the city council. They were in session, arguing over the city charter and how it affected them and their political lives.

  Mayor Jessica Tiller hammered her gavel so hard it snapped off, hitting the secretary in the head. “Order, order! Sorry about that, Ann.”

  Ann nodded her thanks and continued to type.

  “Quiet down all of you!” Mayor Tiller yelled again.

  The city council was made up of six aldermen, the town treasurer, and two county commissioners. Briarwood, being centered inside a small valley, was its own county. Everyone except the secretary had been elected to the position.

  “We have a crisis to consider. Representatives of both the Coven and the Militia called me only moments ago to explain the situation,” Jessica started to say, but she was interrupted by Ricky Jenkins from District four.

  “Those bitches don’t control the town and shouldn’t be dictating to us! We’re the city council, for God’s sake. If you give them an inch they’ll take a mile,” Ricky yelled at the mayor. “To make any progress in this town we have to move them aside.”

  “Ricky…” Jessica said, trying to calm him down.

  “No! You won’t shut me up. This needs to be said on the record. Marcella Blackmore and her people are not the elected representatives of this town. We are. They can take their little games and go somewhere else,” Ricky demanded.

  Jessica made calming motions with her hands. “I’m trying to get there…”

  The entire room looked up as the doors to the council chamber burst open and a bedraggled looking Chief Jenkins stumbled into the room. He had the town operations book under his arm.

  “Nice of you to join us, slacker. I’ve been trying to call you for the last hour!” Ricky yelled.

  “Guns…guns everywhere. I had to cut across the square, didn’t want to get shot accidentally. Do you know what’s happening out there?” Chief Jenkins panted, out of breath.

  Jessica looked all around the table they were sitting at before speaking. “As I was saying, the Coven contacted me. So did the town Militia. Who knew that was actually a thing? They both had important things to say.” Holding up her hand she cut Ricky off. “Please wait until I’m finished to start screaming. Thank you.”

  Taking a deep breath, Jessica laid it all out. “We all know about the Magickal Garden in the North end of the valley. It’s what feeds the town and employs just about everyone. This is not a debate about the magickal part. I do understand your disbelief. According to what I was told, there is a Gate in the Garden that leads to other places, different universes, and such. The Blackmore family trades with them for things. Since the founding, there has been a threat to the valley. A distant enemy has sought to enter Earth from here…”

  Ricky slammed his hand down on the table, drawing everyone’s eyes to him. “Such a bunch of hogwash. Marcella Blackmore is a liar!”

  “Ricky, if you don’t shut the hell up and let me finish, I will use what’s left of my gavel and beat you senseless. Shut. Up.” Jessica waved her broken stick in the air threateningly. “Now as I was saying. This enemy is here or will be very soon. And because of that, the Witches are taking over the town so they can defend it. I did ask why they haven’t involved either the state or the national government in this.”

  “And?” Chief Jenkins asked her.

  “It would take too long to both be believed and for them to respond. Besides, the Demon threat is still there. That was from our former Chief Cappy, who is in charge of the Militia,” Jessica explained. “I received a similar and more detailed message from the Coven as well.”

  “They cannot do this. We have to have some kind notice or something,” Jacob Elkins said. He was the first district’s alderman.

  Chief Jenkins slammed the book in his hands on the table. “They don’t have to, not at all. Have any of you read the town charter, the original town charter?”

  Jessica, the closest to the chief, pulled the book to her and stared at the cover. “Where did this come from?”

  Chief Jenkins blushed just a bit. “Cappy gave it to me six months ago when I came onto the job. It explains everything from why we have a Militia, to what that noise was earlier.”

  “And you’re just now telling us about this,” Jessica said as she opened the book and scanned the index.

  Looking to save face, the chief threw his cousin under the proverbial bus. The Jenkins family didn’t have the strongest of values. “Rick told me Cappy was just an old nobody who should’ve been put out to pasture years ago and I believed him. When I was given that book, I ignored it and threw it into a pile of junk in my office.”

  “Unless you want me to read the thing, why don’t you summarize for me?” Jessica asked him.

  “Marcella Blackmore owns the town. All the buildings out from the town square two blocks belong to her family. The town pays a very small yearly rent for the privilege of using it. The bit about the Militia and Coven is in the wording of the charter that founded the town,” the chief explained. “If we bitch too much she can boot us all out!”

  All the members of the town council broke into conversation at that point, some yelling to be heard. Jessica jabbed Chief Jenkins with her finger and pointed at the book. He nodded and flipped to the appropriate sections.

  Jessica studied the book and came to a sudden realization. Camilla Blackmore, Witch, town alderman, and certified crazy person had been her employer once. Jessica was the only one of her aides to survive the arrests and mass firings. Her background was in real estate, originally. She’d spent all of her time in the field and wasn’t any part of the shady deals her boss was a part of. Which saved her. One obsession of Camilla’s was controlling as much of the town as possible. She’d been trying to buy up most of the central buildings, except the core ones. It was her belief that if she controlled the town she could control the Coven. Camilla must have known her family owned the town.

  B
ud Pure, the town treasurer, raised his arms and waved them to get everyone's attention. “The chief is telling the truth about the rent we pay. I’ve wondered for years what a certain line item has been. Using the records we have in the vault, I was able to trace it back at least a century. When I asked the previous mayor, he said it was a tithe.”

  “How much is it?” the mayor asked.

  “Ten dollars a year,” Bud answered.

  Jessica nodded. “That makes a certain amount of sense. Two hundred years ago, ten dollars was a lot of money. It may have started out as a tithe.”

  “This doesn’t make sense to me. Leases expire, and so do people. There’s no way the town has been paying them for centuries. No way. Haven’t you heard of eminent domain? The town is the town,” Ricky demanded.

  “Not if it’s in the charter, which it is. So what about the rest of it, Chief? What does your book say to do?” Jessica asked.

  “Lock down the town using my officers to close off both ends of the State Highway. The Militia is supposed to handle all offensive duties, but anyone who wishes may join. There are designated protection bunkers under Agnes Pickleberry’s shop and the Blackmore diner. They are open to all who knock. Or shelter in place. We can also leave. The Coven claims they can protect the entire valley if need be,” the chief replied.

  Mayor Jessica stood up from the table. Reaching down, she grabbed the book. “Gentlemen, I do believe I’m going to go down the street and get comfortable. This should provide some light reading. Do as you like. We’ll pick this back up whenever this…whenever it’s over. Ann, would you like to join me?”

  Four tour buses and a moving truck left central Kentucky less than an hour after receiving a phone call. It was all the support that Robert Moore could round up with short notice. As Consul to the Species Council, he was aware of what the Draconic Empire represented and exactly what they could do. Not every paranormal felt that way, though. Their species survived the Dragons the last time they were here and didn’t care about the humans. The fact that his daughter, Catherine Moore, was in the middle of this crisis was also a factor.