Hard Times in Dragon City

by Matt Forbeck

  I slipped off the griffin the moment we landed on the Sanguignos’ front porch. Yabair gazed down at me with an odd look of pity on his face. Maybe he knew why I was there. Maybe he thought wrong. Either way, he didn’t look like he’d want to be in my boots.

  “Should I wait for you?” he asked.

  “I can find my own way home,” I said. “I’ll see you soon.”

  He reached down with his hand out. I stared at it for a moment, then shook it. “Thanks,” I said.

  “You might not feel so grateful to me later,” he said. “Good luck in there.”

  With that, he dug his heels into the griffin’s sides, and they flapped away. I turned toward the entrance to the estate and found Ford waiting for me in the open doorway.

  “To what do we owe the rare pleasure of your company twice in a single day, Mr. Gibson?”

  “I have business with Bellezza,” I said as I shouldered my way past the man and into the foyer.

  He followed straight after me. “Lady Fiera gave strict orders that you were not to be allowed into this household again.”

  I grunted at that. “And what do you think Bellezza would say about that?”

  “I wouldn’t wish to hazard a guess, sir.”

  “And whose word matters more around here?”

  He grimaced. “You’re putting me in a rather uncomfortable position, sir.”

  I leaned in to speak with him in a confidential tone. “If you don’t go get Bellezza for me right now, I’m going to stroll through this place bellowing for her at the top of my lungs until she comes out to see me. Then we’ll see how uncomfortable it gets for you.”

  He gave me a look like I’d dropped a rotten fish in his drink. “Very well, sir.” He gestured toward the balcony again. “If you’ll just wait here, I’ll go alert Lady Bellezza to your presence.”

  He trotted into the house, and I went for the bottle of sunwine out on the balcony again. Someone had replenished the table with a full bottle since I’d been there earlier. I chose to believe that it hadn’t been because that someone had been disgusted at the idea of a human touching it, but if that was the case, I suspected it would make the next glass of wine taste that much sweeter.

  I half expected Fiera to come blazing out at me again before Ford could find Bellezza, but I was happy to be proven wrong. Bellezza rushed out onto the balcony to see me as I contemplated refilling my glass. She seemed surprised to see me again so soon.

  “Were you just passing through the neighborhood?” she asked with a hopeful, hesitant smile.

  “Something like that, actually,” I said. “Where have you been all day?”

  She sensed that I wasn’t making small talk. “Right here. Why?”

  “Didn’t take any trips into town, maybe down to the Big Burrow?”

  She narrowed her eyes at me. “I don’t normally get down that way. If I had, I would have stopped by your place to check in.”

  I sucked at my teeth. “I wish it could be that easy.”

  “What’s wrong?” she said, concerned.

  “Someone blew up my place,” I said. “Nearly killed Nit Erdini in the process.” I studied her face, hunting for some kind of false reaction. I read nothing but concern. “You didn’t hear?”

  “Will he be all right?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Last I saw of him, he was still breathing, so there’s a chance.”

  “Poor Nora. First Moira lands in the hospital and now Nit.”

  “You thinking about paying them a visit?”

  She paused. “Do you think I’d be welcome?”

  “Friends usually are.”

  “Am I their friend?”

  I walked the few steps to the balcony’s railing and took in the dying rays of the sun. To the east, the moon had risen early, its brilliance blotting out the early evening stars.

  “I suppose that’s between you and them,” I said.

  She came to stand next to me. “I’d like to be your friend again, Max.”

  I let a wry grin play across my face. “Does that mean we stopped?”

  She reached up and touched my cheek with her long, graceful hand, then turned my head to face her. She gazed deep into my eyes. “Do you think we could try again?”

  There was nothing I wanted more than that. I’d been morose over it for years, and even once I started piecing my life back together without her in it, I could still feel the lack of her every damn day. But I had to know one thing, and that trumped whatever I might have wanted at the moment.

  I forced myself to return her warm gaze with steel and asked her the question I’d come here to ask. “Did you blow up my place?”

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  “What?” Bellezza had been reaching for my hands, but now she jerked them back as if she’d stepped too close to a hot stove. “You think I tried to kill you?”

  I shrugged. “I found your wand at the scene of the crime. The assassin — who was dressed just like the guy who attacked Moira and me at the hideout — dropped it.”

  Her jaw dropped wide open as she stared at me. It was rare to see an elf so unguarded, but I’ll be damned if she wasn’t just as beautiful as ever. “You’re not serious.”

  “I know your wand, Belle. I know it as well as my own.”

  “My wand is right —“ Her voice caught in her throat as she reached for the pocket sewn inside her blouse’s sleeve, a far more elegant place for it than a shoulder holster, I’m sure.

  “It’s gone,” she said in a hollow voice. Her porcelain skin turned an ashen gray.

  I shrugged. She knew just as well as I did how convenient that sounded.

  “Someone must have taken it,” she said, the offended bluster drained out of her.

  “I’m sure.”

  She grabbed me by the arm. “You have to believe me.”

  “It doesn’t matter what I believe. I took care of it already.”

  She shot me through with a suspicious gaze. “What do you mean?”

  “I returned the egg to its rightful owner, and in return, I had all charges related to it dropped. As far as the Guard’s concerned, it’s no longer an issue.”

  “That — that’s good news, right?”

  “I like to think so.”

  “But I didn’t try to kill you, Max.”

  I looked at her, taking her all in. She hadn’t aged a single day since the first time I’d met her. She was just as beautiful and warm and tender and wonderful as she’d ever been. Age wouldn’t touch her in even a fraction of the way it had already taken such a toll on me.

  Try as I might, I couldn’t believe she’d tried to murder me. I know what the evidence suggested, but when I peered into her eyes, I knew one thing for sure. The evidence was wrong.

  Was it love for her that turned my head around on that? I don’t know. I didn’t care.

  “I know,” I said.

  She fell into my embrace then, and I wrapped my arms around her. She shuddered against me in relief. I kissed her on the top of her head. She smelled like sunshine.

  I heard wings flapping overhead. I wondered if it might be the sound of doves.

  My mind raced ahead of me then, contemplating the life we might have from then on out, the love we might rebuild together. Coming up the mountain to see the dragonet didn’t seem like so much of a burden any longer, especially if it gave me an excuse to drop by here as often as I liked.

  Bellezza kicked her neck back and stared up into my eyes. Her lips parted and reached for mine, and I met them halfway.

  It had been so long.

  A low, menacing voice interrupted us from the parlor. It said, “Step away from my sister you filthy beast.”

  I broke away from Bellezza’s kiss to see Fiera standing at the threshold to the balcony, a wand in her hand. She had it pointed straight at my head.

  “Fiera!” Bellezza said. “What are you doing?”

  “Keeping you from making yet another horrible mistake.” Fiera crept closer, the tip of her wand sh
aking with her fury.

  I pulled myself out of Bellezza’s arms and put myself between her and her sister. As angry as Fiera was, her wand might go off at any provocation, and I didn’t want Belle to have to pay that price.

  “Don’t you dare,” Belle said. It took me a moment to realize she was speaking to me. She shoved her way in front of me, glaring at me the whole way. “I’m not some hothouse flower to be protected. This is my younger sister, and I can deal with her just fine.”

  “You really think that don’t you?” Fiera’s face twisted into an ugly laugh. “You think you’ve been handling everything perfectly well. Taking up with scum like him to rob tombs. Selling drugs to the dwarves.”

  Her voice grew louder and shriller with every phrase. “Just look at yourself! Look at what you’ve done to yourself and to our family!”

  Belle let her own anger flare in response to her sister’s. “How dare you speak to me that way. I kept the house. I kept you fed. I kept clothes on your back, shoes on your feet, and sunwine on your table. All of this I did for you, for us, for our entire family!”

  “Ha!” Fiera turned her wand on her sister now. “You did it for yourself! You did it to avoid the shame of being removed from your position. You couldn’t bear the thought of your responsibilities being passed down to me, and you did everything you possibly could — no matter how unethical, illegal, or disgusting — to make sure that never happened.”

  “That’s insane,” Belle said. “I sacrificed everything for the family. I even gave up on my love.” She swept her hand back at me, and I have to admit that for a moment I forgot all about the crazed elf threatening me and her sister and basked in the idea that Belle still loved me. Maybe she always had.

  Of course, none of that mattered much if Fiera killed us here and now.

  That’s when I realized what had happened. “It was you, wasn’t it?” I said to Fiera. “You were the one in the Black Hand suit on the rooftop across from my office.”

  Fiera stepped back in horror, and the shock on her face told me beyond any other evidence that I was right. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, her voice little more than a whisper.

  “After I saw you here this morning, you stole Belle’s wand and set out to kill me. You figured if something went wrong, the evidence would lead to her instead of you. That way you’d have me murdered and eliminate your sister from the equation at the same time.”

  “Why would I do something like that?”

  I gave her a rueful shake of my head. “The person who did that is the same person who hired the other assassin, who had him slaughter the Gütmanns and who sent him after Moira as well. You were tired of Belle taking risks with the family’s reputation, and you decided to put a stop to it by eliminating anyone outside the Sanguignos who might be able to use Belle’s decisions against her.”

  “I was here the whole day,” Fiera said in a hoarse voice. “Ford can verify that.”

  “Sure,” I said. “Let’s go on down to the Guard precinct house and test that out. I’ll bet the truthsayers can corroborate your story in nothing flat.”

  “We’re not going anywhere.” Fiera jabbed her wand in my direction. “Not with a lowlife like you. Step away from my sister.”

  I tried, but Belle matched my moves. “You are not killing him,” she said, her voice as hard and sharp as cut diamonds.

  “We tell the Guard it was self-defense,” she said. “He entered our house without permission, and we were forced to stop him.”

  “I won’t permit this.” Belle reached out her hand to her sister. “Give me your wand.”

  “If you won’t step away, then you can die with him as well,” Fiera said, snarling. “‘Tragically caught in the line of fire,’ I’ll tell them. How sad I’ll be.”

  I wanted to go for my holster, but I knew if I tried, Fiera would drop me before I could even clear leather. Still, if I didn’t do something soon, she’d kill me anyhow. I was damned either way.

  “I’ll give you one last chance, Bellezza,” Fiera said. “Leave him, or die with him instead. The time to decide is now.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  Bellezza clung to me. “Then you’ll have to kill me, Fiera,” she said. “There’s no way I’m letting you remove him from my life. Not again.”

  Fiera’s face flushed a bright pink, and tears flowed down her cheeks. “You wicked idiot,” she said. “You didn’t give me any choice.”

  Belle gasped in horror. I think until that moment she’d held on to some thin scrap of belief that someone else had been behind all the horrors of the past two days. She loved her sister, though, and that affection had blinded her to the truth.

  “You let those dwarves extort the egg out of you,” Fiera said. “And you trusted the halfling to deliver it for you. Do you really think it would have stopped there? That they wouldn’t have blackmailed you and milked every last copper out of our family coffers?”

  Belle’s eyes widened all the way around. “Fiera,” she said in horror. “What did you do?”

  “What you were never strong enough to manage.” Fiera stabbed her wand at her sister. “And it’s all your fault!”

  I could see that Fiera was about to break down into a berserk rage. Once that happened, I’d be lucky if I could throw myself between her and Belle to give Belle a chance. Of course, without a wand of her own, Belle was defenseless. It was up to me stop her.

  I decided it was now or never and went for my shotgun. Using my wand to cast a spell to counter Fiera’s efforts would take too long. My only hope was that I could squeeze the trigger before she zapped me dead.

  “No!” Belle knew that it had all gone wrong. “No!”

  Fiera chanted the words to her spell fast and clear, her cadence textbook perfect. I yanked my gun clear of its holster and tried to level it at her. As I brought it down, I knew that I would be too late, but there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.

  That’s when the dragonet came diving in, flames gouting from its gullet. He went straight for Fiera, and his sudden appearance startled her so that her spell died on her lips. She spun about to face the creature at the last instant, but it was too late. He let loose with a roaring fire from his throat, and it engulfed her head.

  Fiera screamed in agony as her skin blistered and cracked and her hair went up like a torch. She stormed forward, blind and in excruciating pain, searching for some kind of relief, or perhaps some last-second revenge. Belle dove out of her sister’s way. I turned and drew a bead on her with my shotgun instead.

  Fiera smacked into the railing on the balcony’s edge and stopped there for a moment, then spun around to screech at us once more in her final agony and rage. She was already dead. Even if we’d been able to put the fire out then, no magic could cure burns inflicted by a dragon’s fire.

  I pulled the trigger on my scattergun. The blast caught her square in the chest and sent her tumbling over the edge of the balcony like a glowglobe being flung into the night. Her screams ended right there.

  The dragonet circled around and came diving back down toward me this time. Belle pointed at the creature entering its approach angle and screamed.

  I put up an arm they way I’d seen falconers do when training their birds of prey. The dragonet wasn’t having any of that though. He went straight for my shoulders and curled himself around my neck and head once more.

  That didn’t stop Belle from screaming at him again. I couldn’t blame her much. After all the creature had just killed her sister. I considered my shot at Fiera an act of mercy, considering the great and horrible pain she was in at the time. I could only hope that Belle might see it that way too.

  “What is that?” Belle pointed at the dragonet, which had taken to purring against my neck. Her voice cracked with fear.

  “Remember the egg you gave to Moira?” I said. “It hatched.”

  Belle’s knees gave out then, and she crumpled to the balcony’s floor. I came over to help her back to her feet, but sh
e refused.

  “The Dragon,” she said, terror singing in her eyes. “He knows?”

  I shook my head. “He cut me a deal for bringing the young prince back to him safe and sound. As part of that, I get to deal with the people who had the egg at my own discretion.”

  I reached up and stroked the dragonet’s head. The creature settled in on my shoulders as if it had found its home.

  Belle goggled at me for a long moment. When she managed to speak, she said the thing I wanted to hear least. “I think you should leave.”

  My heart flipped over in my chest. “But, Belle —“ I didn’t get far before she cut me off.

  “You just killed my sister.” She rubbed her temples. “Sanctioned by the Dragon or not, I can’t —”

  She threw up her hands in frustration. “I loved her, Max. I know she was horrible. I’ve always known that about her. But she was still my little sister, and tonight I failed her for the last time.”

  I reached out for her. “You can’t blame yourself for that.”

  She pulled away before I could touch her. “You need to go,” she said. “Now.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

  During all that commotion, the hack I’d asked to wait for me outside had left, and I couldn’t say I blamed her. I waited outside the Sanguigno estates, hoping I could flag down a passing carpet, but none came near. I didn’t have to wait long before the Guard arrived, though, in the form of Yabair on his griffin.

  “The Voice of the Dragon reported the dragonet missing,” Yabair said, not bothering to dismount. “He’ll be happy to know the prince is fine.”

  I walked over to the griffin and climbed on top of it, the dragonet still clinging to my shoulders. “Is that the only reason you’re here?”

  “We also had a report of a gunshot fired, something rare in this part of the city. And there was the matter of the corpse with the burning head and the bloody hole through its middle that crashed into a swimming pool just downslope from here.”

  I frowned.

  “No one was hurt,” Yabair said as he goaded the griffin to taking off into the night air. “With the spectacular exception of the burnt elf, of course.”