Fluff Dragon

by Platte F. Clark

  “Then by your own admission, and before I pronounce judgment, I want to hear why,” the king said harshly. “I want to understand why a dwarf could dishonor his people not once, but twice! I want to understand why a dwarf finds his king’s commands something to simply disobey on a whim! I want to know why you stand before me now, so I can make an example of you so extreme—not only through my reign but the reign of a thousand of my descendants—that no dwarf would ever even think of doing what you have done!” The dwarf king suddenly stood. “Why? I demand you tell me, WHY?”

  “So how do you think it’s going so far?” Dirk said, leaning over to Max and Sarah. Max would have swatted him on the back of the head, but not knowing dwarf law, he didn’t want to do anything that might get him into trouble. Not with that king.

  “I don’t think we’ll be leaving with your friend any time soon,” Loki offered. “Fortunately I know the way to the Tower, and will be happy to serve as your guide.”

  “Loki knows all his directions really good,” Moki added, trying to be helpful. “All three of them.”

  They turned their attention back to Dwight as he cleared his throat.

  “I know what I’ve done feels like I’ve dishonored you,” Dwight said. “But my actions take place in the shadow of the greatest dishonor the dwarfs have ever known—losing the Codex of Infinite Knowability.” Gasps and murmurs broke out all around the room. “In the beginning the Codex was given to us by Maximilian Sporazo, and we were charged with its safekeeping. But we failed in that duty. And still to this very day, no king completely trusts the Dwarven vaults. Our honor and reputation have never recovered.”

  The king sat back down on his throne, glaring at Dwight. “You had better make a point and make it quick. You are treading on dangerous rock here.”

  “My point, my liege,” Dwight said with a slight bow, “is that I have done small dishonors in order to bring the greatest honor back to us. For I have brought the Codex of Infinite Knowability with me, carried by the last descendant of its author and ready to be returned to its place of safekeeping!” Dwight lifted his arm and pointed to Max, and suddenly every eye in the chamber was on him.

  “I think he’s talking about you,” Dirk whispered. Max scrunched down in his seat, wishing he could disappear. It never worked, however.

  “Bring them to me,” the king commanded, his diamond-like eyes locked on Max.

  They had all been taken to the king’s private chambers (including Moki and Loki, who had insisted they had nothing to do with any of it), and now they stood before the king and his guards. Dwight was led in, and if there was a hint of him being sorry for what he’d done, he didn’t show it.

  “Show me,” the dwarf king ordered them.

  “Do it, Max,” Dwight said. “It’s for the best.”

  “How dare you!” Sarah shot back, barely containing her rage. “You sold us out!”

  Max reached into his satchel and drew out the Codex. He didn’t see any other choice.

  The king gave it a hard look, leaning forward in his chair. “Is that it?”

  An intense-looking dwarf wearing an armored, rune-covered battle dress stepped forward. Max could feel the aura of magic around her as she approached. Whoever she was, she was powerful.

  “Well, high mage, is it the book or isn’t it?” the king asked again.

  High mage, Max thought to himself. What had he read in the Codex about mages? They were different from wizards, although both were trained in magic. Mages were fighters, as likely to swing a sword as cast a spell. And their magic was almost always destructive in nature. It was something they used when they challenged one another for position, and any mage strong enough to serve a king was very dangerous.

  “Don’t be afraid,” she told Max. The mage slowly reached for the book, and Max watched the sparks begin to dance around the cover, moving precariously close to her fingers. The mage hesitated, withdrawing her hand. “It can be none other,” she announced.

  “Release that dwarf at once!” the king bellowed, motioning to Dwight. “Our honor has been restored!” A sense of excitement began building in the room, but the mage kept her eyes locked on Max.

  “What’s your name?” she asked.

  “I, uh . . . Max Spencer.”

  “Max Spencer,” she repeated, “who holds the book from Maximilian Sporazo. You are his blood.” It was a statement, not a question, and Max simply nodded.

  “Hey, guys, I don’t want to rain on your parade,” Dirk announced, “but that book isn’t yours.”

  The king frowned as startled gasps sounded out.

  “And besides,” Dirk continued, “we’re, like, totally in the middle of a quest right now, so we should probably get going.”

  “I don’t remember asking your opinion on the matter,” the king rumbled. “I’ll have the rest of you escorted from this chamber—and be glad I don’t charge you with the book’s theft!”

  One of the guards stepped forward, throwing his arm over Sarah’s neck and putting her into a kind of headlock. But Sarah was fast and well trained. The dwarf guard wasn’t tall, but he was wide and heavy in his armor. And heavy was exactly the kind of opponent Sarah liked.

  She threw her left arm in front of the dwarf, wrapping it around his leg and stepping behind his foot—thrusting her arm under the guard’s knee. Then she moved, pivoting her hips and using her leverage to trip the dwarf over her leg. The guard, surprised and off-balance, let go of Sarah as he tried to keep from toppling over. But Sarah kept twisting, the dwarf’s heavy armor and momentum doing most of the work as she lifted his leg high into the air and brought him down.

  The dwarf landed on his back with a metallic smack, the air blasted from his lungs. Sarah spun away from the startled guard and faced the king. “Please don’t treat us like criminals,” she said. “And don’t threaten to take what isn’t yours.”

  All turned to the king, whose eyes were locked on Sarah. He held her in his hard gaze for a long time, then without warning he began to laugh. It was the bellowing kind of laugh that started deep inside a person before erupting and filling the room with its sound. The king clutched at his side as tears welled up in his eyes.

  “One of the king’s own dropped by a little girl!” he bellowed. “I haven’t seen someone look so shocked in years!” He continued laughing, and the others joined in with him.

  “That was pretty great,” Moki said with a smile. He was having a good time too.

  After a minute or so the laughing settled down and the king regained his senses. He cleared his throat and waved the guards back. “I’ve obviously underestimated your companions, Dwight. Best we leave them be before they topple my kingdom!” A few more laughs broke out as the red-faced guard got back to his feet. The king reached for a goblet and drank heavily before he spoke again.

  “Tell us, girl,” he said to Sarah, “where did you learn to fight like that?”

  “My parents taught me,” Sarah replied. She was still trying to understand what was so funny.

  “Sarah is, like, a kung fu master,” Dirk said.

  “Judo,” Sarah corrected.

  “And what you did to my guard just now?” the king continued. “That was judo?”

  “Just a simple scoop throw—a sukui nage.”

  “Ah . . . ,” the dwarf king continued. “So you are a band of fighters on a quest, and you carry the Codex of Infinite Knowability with you. What is the nature of this quest?”

  Max looked at the mage and then said, “It’s not something we can really talk about. I don’t mean to be rude; it’s just complicated.”

  “It is, is it?” the king replied. “Then until you convince me otherwise, I have little choice.” The king rose in his seat. “The charge to protect the book has not been lifted from the Dwarven Nation. The World Sunderer himself secured it in our vaults, and that is where it shall go.”

  The king turned to address Max. “I appreciate your zeal. You and your friends are welcome to stay as our guests. Should
you decide to make a plea for why the Codex should be returned to you, I’ll hear it. But it is our duty and our honor to keep it here.”

  The king rose motioned at his high mage. “Secure the Codex of Infinite Knowability within our deepest vault.”

  The high mage nodded as two dwarfs wheeled in a heavy black chest. They opened it and stepped aside. “Place the Codex within,” the high mage said to Max. Max swallowed and looked inside—cut within a thick layer of velvet lining was a spot the exact size of the book.

  “It must be this way,” Dwight said. His voice wavered, and he looked exhausted. The place was quickly getting the best of him.

  Max sighed and gently laid the Codex down. There was nothing else he could do, and his gut told him to keep quiet about their mission. His only chance in defeating Rezormoor Dreadbringer was to catch the sorcerer by surprise. He didn’t need the high mage knowing what they were up to. Chances were she was connected to the Tower. Max stepped back as the dwarfs closed the lid and wheeled the chest out of sight.

  The king moved to Dwight, throwing his arm around him and addressing Bart.

  “Your son is a hero—a true hero of the dwarfs! His shame is forgiven and forgotten. His name and likeness will be carved into the stone of this city, and for generations dwarfs will know that it was Dwight who returned the Codex after it was lost. It was Dwight who gave us back our honor!”

  Loki scrambled to come up with his next move. As far as he knew the Tower needed only the boy, not the book. And if they did need the book, they’d know exactly where to find it. Vaults had doors for a reason—things were not meant to stay in them forever.

  “Dwarfs are fun,” Moki said, looking around the room.

  “I don’t suppose you’ve met anyone you haven’t liked?” Loki said with a sigh.

  “Not yet.”

  The king gave Dwight and Bart a last hug, and then turned his attention to the rest of the group. “You are my guests,” the king announced. “Rest, relax, bathe, and then join us for the grand celebration.” Max didn’t feel like celebrating.

  “We need to find Conall,” Sarah said to Max. “His father’s a king—maybe he can get the dwarfs to give us the Codex back?”

  “Maybe.” Max sighed. But the last thing he wanted was help from him.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  A MATTER OF CHARACTER

  “DWIGHT! HOW COULD YOU?” SARAH shouted once the large double doors to their suite had been closed.

  “My son, a true hero!” Bart said before Dwight could respond. “And did you hear, a celebration! I have to go and get ready. I want all the world to see my son returned to his home.” Bart smiled at Max and his friends and then slipped out the door. “Tonight!” he called out from the other side. As soon as he was gone, Dwight stumbled to a chair and practically fell into it.

  “Ah, the ravages of guilt,” Dirk announced.

  “It’s not guilt, you moron, it’s being here again,” Dwight moaned. “There’s no sky—I feel like the walls are closing in on me.”

  Sarah hesitated, feeling sorry for him, but then pressed on. “I’m sorry you’re sick, but how could you do that to us?”

  “I didn’t have a choice,” Dwight answered. “You saw the king—do you know what he would have done to me? Cast me in the mines for the rest of my life. I can’t do it . . . not that. Anything but that.”

  Sarah wanted to respond about how selfish he was and how he’d jeopardized everything, but she held her tongue. She looked around and saw several doors surrounding the antechamber. “Why don’t you find a bed and lie down.”

  “Yeah, okay,” Dwight grumbled, pushing himself out of the chair and to the nearest door. He opened it to find a large bedroom. “Some sleep will do me good,” he said as he disappeared into the room, closing the door behind him.

  “So now what?” Max asked.

  Loki cleared his throat. “You were headed to the Tower, right? We should go there as soon as possible. Find this Rezormoor and tell him he can retrieve his book from the dwarfs.”

  “Hey, whiskers,” Dirk said, “we can’t just walk up and talk to Rezormoor RedSinger—”

  “Dreadbringer,” practically everyone said.

  “Yeah, him,” Dirk continued. “He’s the one who sent the evil unicorn after us and is hunting all the dragons.”

  “If Obsikar was telling us the truth,” Sarah said, but her words sounded hollow.

  Dirk frowned. “Of course he was telling us the truth.”

  “And besides,” Max said to Loki, “the whole reason for going to the Tower was to get the Codex fixed. Without it the Tower’s the last place we should be headed.”

  Loki realized that so long as Max and the Codex weren’t together, he’d never get him to the Tower. And Loki needed Max to get close enough to put his own plan in motion. “Then I guess we just have to get your book back,” he announced.

  “I think we should talk to Prince Conall,” Sarah said. “What we need here is a diplomatic solution.”

  “No king is going to get the dwarfs to give up their charge,” Loki replied. The last thing he wanted was for royals to get involved.

  “I wish Ratticus were here,” Dirk said. “He’s my seventieth-level online character, and is like this totally awesome thief.”

  “Unfortunately for us, this is real and not one of your computer games,” Sarah said. Then Max felt it—a wind that seemed to blow right through him, threatening to knock him off his feet. It was a surge of magical power, and it seemed to have come from their very room!

  There was a knock at the door.

  “Be careful,” Max started to say, unsure of what was going on. Sarah opened the door to find a small man in brown leathers and a black hood standing there. He had reinforced pads on his elbows and knees, and when he raised his head, they saw that he had a long black mustache and a patch over his left eye.

  “Ratticus . . . ?” Dirk asked, his mouth hanging open in surprise.

  “My master!” the small man exclaimed in a heavy French accent, slipping past Sarah and bowing before Dirk. “You have summoned me to your world.”

  “Uh, Dirk . . . ?” Sarah began as she closed the door.

  Max recognized him too. He’d spent long hours playing online with Dirk, and this appeared to be his actual character in the flesh. As impossible as it was, Ratticus the thief was standing before them! It was enough to give Max an instant headache.

  “Wait, you can call men from thin air?” Loki asked, looking around. He wondered if maybe the dwarf king was right—there was more to these humans than what met the eye.

  “Transdimensional summoning is pretty neat,” Moki added.

  “It’s that stupid potion Dirk drank,” Sarah said. “Turning the forest to silver, and now this.”

  “Yeah, but I feel different now,” Dirk said. “I think it’s gone. Probably took a lot of magic to bring my character to life.” Magic so big, in fact, that Max could feel it.

  “We have a mission, yes?” Ratticus asked, looking eager.

  Dirk looked around the group and nodded triumphantly. “Oh yeah, we have a mission—to steal the Codex of Infinite Knowability from the Dwarven vaults of Jiilk!”

  “Have I played this area before?” Ratticus asked as he rose to his feet. “It feels new.”

  “We’re the first,” Dirk replied.

  “Even better, then,” the thief said with a smile.

  “Why does your thief talk with an outrageous French accent?” Sarah asked Dirk. Dirk thought about it for a second.

  “I don’t know. I think it’s the mustache.”

  “So we send your thief to go and retrieve this book and bring it back to us?” Loki asked. That sounded like just the kind of plan he could support.

  “I think it best if my master is with me,” Ratticus replied.

  “We’re not sending just Dirk,” Max said. He’d been his best friend long enough to know Dirk needed watching.

  “I know the way to the vaults, but let’s be clear,” L
oki said. “These are not simple safes locked behind heavy doors. The Dwarven vaults use a lock so devious that no thief has ever been able to best them. I mean no disrespect to Ratticus, but how does a single thief do what’s never been done before?”

  All eyes turned to Ratticus. The thief shrugged.

  “Well, all I know is we have to try,” Max finally said. “But I don’t think the king is just going to let us wander around the city.”

  “Ratticus,” Dirk said, suddenly remembering something, “do you have your Cloak of Seeing Is Bee-Leaving?”

  Ratticus nodded. “Of course.”

  “Then I know how we can get to the vaults without anyone knowing it’s us,” Dirk said. “But I think this is a party quest—we should all go.”

  “Agreed,” Sarah said. “Let’s go before the celebration.”

  “A celebration, you say?” the thief asked.

  “Yeah,” Max answered. “The dwarfs are going to hold a big party because they got the Codex back.”

  “It’s a big deal.” Loki nodded. “Every dwarf in the city will want to be there. And if they can’t get in, I’m sure every tavern will be full as the entire city turns into one big party.”

  “Then that is when we strike,” Ratticus announced. “After too much food and drink lulls wits and makes eyelids heavy.”

  “I suppose that makes sense,” Sarah admitted. “Then I’ll take dibs on the first bath. Some soap and water and clean clothes sound really good right now.”

  Ratticus sniffed the air several times. “Good idea,” he agreed. “You rest and prepare yourselves for tonight, and I’ll watch the door. Never fear, Ratticus is here!”

  “What about Dwight?” Sarah asked Max.

  “Good question,” Max admitted. It felt like an awfully big secret to keep from him—especially when the whole city was going to celebrate Dwight’s returning them to honor. But on the other hand, this was their only chance to get the Codex back, and they couldn’t risk messing that up. “I think we just let him sleep and do this ourselves.”

  While the others prepared, Moki and Loki found themselves on a long, comfortable couch, biding their time before they made for the vaults. “We don’t have to take a bath, do we?” Moki asked as the two were settling in. They had already scratched the couch legs up while the humans napped and took turns getting clean. Fire kittens, like other felines, believed in a few governing rules that held the universe together. One of which was: The more costly and irreplaceable the furniture, the better it was for sharpening claws.