Dragon War

by Shay Roberts

  “I do not understand the motivation of the Romans. They are a cruel people. Their weapon is a kind of stone thrower. It roars like thunder, casting iron balls that can punch through a body, killing instantly from a long distance. Even the dragons cannot survive such a weapon. Today, we saw one killed over the Minch.”

  His face darkens. “That had to be a dracoform. They protect the sleeping dragons. Still, it is a great loss.”

  He looks past me to study Tyler. “I see you have a dracoform of your own. Who is he?”

  My father is not a stupid man.

  Suddenly, a young girl runs into the room and throws her arms around my mother’s waist.

  “Mama, is it true? Do I have an aunt?”

  My blood freezes as I recall a childhood memory of meeting my aunt. This young girl is me! And she must be around twelve years old.

  I turn to Tyler, my voice dry. “The codex was wrong about the year. That girl is me. This is the year of the attack.”

  Tyler breaks his silence. “You can’t touch each other!”

  Final Days

  TYLER BUCK

  Before a temporal rupture can occur, I grab Rosemarie and jump for the Academy anchor. But I haven’t rested enough for such a big jump, and the anchor is locked.

  I should have thought this through a little more.

  The jump seems to last forever, and it’s sucking the life out of me. I catch glimpses of the stone anchor in my mind, but it keeps slipping away like a half-remembered dream.

  Somehow, we manage to emerge in the Academy’s mango grove, and my lifeless legs collapse beneath me.

  The world goes dark. I hear Rose’s voice in my ear, and I struggle to cling to consciousness.

  She’s carrying me now, no doubt using the strength of her tattoos. I can smell her sweat, and her fear, and the unique, indescribable scent that is Rosemarie.

  She fills me with wonder. I’ve never met anyone who would so casually risk everything for her beliefs. She’s a little crazy, I think, but crazy in my favorite way.

  As a relic hunter, I’ve lived a life centered on theft and profit. I’m not a bad guy. I don’t like hurting people. But growing up poor, looking out for myself was always my first priority. Other than sending money home to my mother, I’ve never really had a cause to support. I’ve never really had a belief system.

  On the surface, Rose and I are both reckless troublemakers, but deep down, we’re total opposites. She’s made me see something about myself that I don’t like, something I want to change.

  When my head finally clears, I find myself in an infirmary bed. A woman stands beside my bed, studying my vital signs on a 3D monitor that shows a realistic simulation of my body.

  She turns to me, shaking her head. “I’ve never seen such exotic data. Your dracoform physiology is quite unique.”

  I recognize her as Dr. Sadana, the physician who treated Rosemarie.

  “Hey, Doc, got any condoms around here?”

  “That’s the first thing you want to ask? How about am I going to live? You’re lucky you didn’t end up in your crash cube after that jump.”

  I forgot about the silver cube in my pouch.

  “Hey, where is my pouch?”

  She points to a narrow closet beside the bed.

  I nod. “Good, drop ’em off in there, will you?”

  She shakes her head, confused. “What?”

  “The condoms. Be a lamb and put them in my pouch.”

  She nods. “As you wish. But first, you have a visitor.”

  “Rosemarie?”

  “I’m afraid not.”

  The doctor leaves. Now I’m worried. Why isn’t Rosemarie here? And who else would want to see me? Southam?

  My body tenses as Zulien sweeps in, wearing his long black robe. He looks like a legless apparition. A monastery choir should be here, singing something in a minor key.

  His face is rigid, his lips curled with disgust. He hovers beside my bed, hands hidden in the sleeves of his robe.

  “Rosemarie showed us the recording of the Roman soldier with the firearm. The footage was … compelling. I’ve already dispatched investigators to that era. They will make an assessment of the damage to the timeline. Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.”

  Wow, this wasn’t the reaction I expected.

  “Uh, glad to help out. But Rosemarie deserves all the credit.”

  He nods. “I couldn’t agree more. That’s why she’s being expelled.”

  I spring up in my bed. “What? Why? You just thanked me for bringing it to your attention.”

  “Your actions were laughably out of bounds. Fortunately, you managed not to create a temporal rupture. Rosemarie was the instigator, so you will not be punished. However, in the future, I recommend you keep your nose in your books and your dragon dick in your pants.”

  “Hold on, where’s Rose? She couldn’t be gone already. She wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye.”

  “She’s downstairs. She’ll remain a student, pending her appeal. Professor Villalobos has agreed to stand for her. He will present her case, and thirty days from now, the agency will rule on the appeal. When the appeal is rejected, she will be jumped off Academy grounds and dropped in the time period in which she was recruited.”

  “Wait. You said when the appeal is rejected. Don’t you mean if?”

  He ignores my question. “Consider yourself on probation, Mr. Buck. Another such violation and you too will be expelled, or worse.”

  “What’s worse than being expelled?”

  An odd look creeps over Zulien’s face. He turns and exits the room.

  Dr. Sadana enters. Without a word, she opens the closet beside my bed and slips something into my pouch. The condoms. Now that’s service!

  “Thank you, Doctor.”

  She nods as Rosemarie bursts into the room.

  Rose’s eyes are red. She’s been crying. She embraces me in my bed, her head resting on my chest.

  Her voice is ragged. “I am so sorry. I never wanted you to get hurt.”

  “It’s my fault, Rose. It would have been smarter to jump a hundred years into the past, rather than make the whole trip back here. I just acted on impulse.”

  With Rose’s arm around me, I slide out of bed and test my feet.

  “See, no worries. I’m fine now. Hey, is the dining hall open?”

  Rose and I are late for lunch, but we manage to grab a few things before they take the food away.

  I sit across from her in the dining hall, speaking between bites of a tuna macaroni salad.

  “They can’t expel you, Rose. And if they do, I’m leaving with you.”

  She rests her hand on the back of mine. “Thank you, Tyler. But I can’t let you sacrifice your future.”

  “What does Villalobos say? Can he get you off?”

  Rosemarie grows quiet, then looks around to make sure no one is watching. She pulls down the collar of her green tunic, revealing a dark stone pendant on a thin silver chain.

  “He gave me this.”

  Alarms go off in my head. Why would a professor give jewelry to a student?

  Rosemarie reads my face. “It’s not what you think. It’s a binding pendant. He’s wearing its match. It connects us in two ways. First, either of us can jump to the other. And second, if the timeline changes, we will retain our original memories of each other.”

  I respond flatly, “That’s very romantic.”

  Rose frowns. “Stop that. He is trying to be my mentor, the way Professor Southam is for you. He does not expect to win the appeal, but he still wants me to maintain a connection to the Academy. This means I can slip in to visit you, and he can tutor me in secret.”

  I shake my head. “This whole thing is bullshit. You were right about the Romans. They should be apologizing to you, not expelling you.”

  “I do not care about being right. I just want them to save the dragons, and my people.”

  “Zulien said he sent agents.”

  “That
does not mean they will take action. I have an idea, a way to see if they have corrected the timeline. We should sneak into the archives tonight and check the codex. Let us see if history has been changed.”

  I nod, impressed. “Good idea. Let’s hope my pad can still open the doors.”

  A short time later, Rosemarie and I sit at a dusty reading table deep inside the Academy archives. Fortunately, we’ve had no encounters with the librarian or the gargoyles.

  As Rose’s nervous hands open the codex, I peer into the gloom around us, expecting to be interrupted at any moment. I can’t believe the glasspad is still giving me access to this place. It kinda worries me.

  Rosemarie moves her glowing lamp to give us a better look at the pages. She flips through the codex, increasingly frustrated, until she spots a single change.

  Her voice is hard with anger. “Look, the date has changed. It used to say my people were destroyed in 402 CE. Now it says 385. That is perhaps more accurate, but it still means my people die, and the dragons with them. SA has done nothing to help us. This is the proof of it.”

  She closes the codex, and I see the gears turning in her head.

  “Rose? You want to go back there, don’t you?”

  She turns to me, her face unreadable. “I made the decision to warn my people about the Romans, nearly causing a temporal rupture. And for what? Clearly, my warning did not save them. I should have discussed it with you first. That was wrong of me, and I am sorry. To answer your question, yes, I want to go back there. But the question is, do you want to go back there? You have no obligation to do so.”

  I nod, feeling more relaxed. “Let’s see if we still have that option. The date in the codex changed. Let’s make sure the anchors haven’t changed.”

  I open my glasspad and pull up a map of the British anchors during the Roman period. The anchor in Cait is still there, and it’s still dated 385 CE. However, it’s colored in red.

  I tap my finger on the anchor and a note pops up.

  Removed from service.

  I show the display to Rose. “Look, they burned our bridge. Bastards.”

  She grabs the pad, scrutinizing it with dismay. “Is there no other way?”

  I take the pad, checking the other British anchors.

  “The next closest anchor was placed in 400 CE, two hundred miles south of your people, and on the wrong side of Hadrian’s Wall. Have you heard of that wall?”

  She nods. “I have not seen it. But everyone in my clan knows of it. They built it to contain our people.”

  I check the map again. “Okay, so to get to the Draig, we’d have to cross that wall, travel about sixty miles. Then we’d have to cross the second wall the Romans built, the Antonine Wall. Then it’s another hundred to hundred and fifty miles into Draig territory. Unless, of course, we could travel by sea. You know how to sail?”

  Grim-faced, she shakes her head. “Even if I did, the Romans control the sea. It’s the fastest and safest way to move their supplies.”

  “Then that leaves the land route.”

  She sighs, her shoulders slumping. “Even if we could evade the Romans and cross Hadrian’s Wall, it only gets worse from there. Between the two walls live many enemies who hate both the Picts and the Romans. That would be the most perilous portion of such a journey. Once north of the Antonine Wall, we would encounter the southern Picts. Their ways are somewhat different from ours, and though we share a High King, they dislike Northerners and may try to kill us.”

  “Hmm, maybe we should hit the anchor at a later time period, after things have calmed down a little. Once we’re there, we could jump back to 385.”

  Consulting the pad, I click on the anchor to get additional details.

  “It says that anchor was decommissioned in 470 CE. Were the Romans gone by then?”

  She nods. “But according to the codex, they were replaced by Germanic invaders, and Britain became an even more dangerous place. Is there no way to restore the anchor we used in Cait?”

  I shake my head. “I might be able to rebuild it. But I’d have to get there first.”

  “It seems our options are limited. I should speak to Professor Villalobos. Perhaps he could help us.”

  “Whoa, you trust him with that? He’s the freakin’ ethics prof.”

  “And he is my friend. Even if he can’t help, he will not betray me.”

  I manage to keep my mouth closed, but I’m not happy about this Villalobos dude. He seems fishy to me.

  The weeks pass all too quickly. Rose and I are calling them our final days at the Academy. If her appeal fails, I will leave with her.

  Rosemarie continues to meet with Villalobos, though it soon becomes clear that he can’t help us with the anchor.

  I try to get everything I can out of the Academy before the thirty days pass. I attend some interesting classes on cosmology and paranormals. The world is much different than I imagined. There are separate planes of existence, such as Som and Velox, inhabited by paranormal creatures like Fae and vampires. I learn about werewolves and witches, ghosts and godlings. However, I learn nothing that gives me any insight into Philip.

  Fortunately, Philip has started chasing another woman, so he’s leaving Rosemarie alone. But every now and then, he gives me the evil eye. Philip is one thing I won’t miss about this place.

  Rose and I decide to go wild in these final days. Whenever we’re not in class, we go on dates together, into other time periods. We cruise down the Egyptian Nile, attend the first opening of the Eiffel Tower, ride on a wagon train into the Old West, and visit Tudor-era England. And all the while, we’re stealing costumes and props from the school and using the supposedly locked anchor to return to the Academy. I’m not sure how I cracked the lock, and Rose gets frustrated when I can’t explain it. I don’t think it’s the permissions on the glasspad. It feels like I’m pushing through the lock by force of will, and every time it gets easier.

  These days have been the best of my life. I’ve had a ton of sex with Rose. Twice a day, on most days. But we’ve never gone all the way. Intercourse used to be my only definition of sex, but being with Rosemarie changed me. I can’t treat her like all the other women in my past. She’s special, and I want to save her virginity for an important occasion, some milestone that is meaningful to her.

  I won’t have long to wait. On our last night at the Academy, Rose and I plan to go all the way. Although we could travel to any place in the world for this, Rose wants to do it after hours, in the school’s SA field office, right on Zulien’s desk. That’s insane, of course. But how can I resist? Might as well go out with a bang, so to speak.

  My school uniform has been keeping me fairly clean, but I decide to shower at the dorm before meeting Rose for our big night. I always shower with cold water. It’s soothing against my warm skin.

  As I shampoo my hair, I think about how to break into Zulien’s office. Will my glasspad give me access? Are there security cameras in there? This is like planning a heist. A sex heist.

  Suddenly, I realize the showers are empty and the dorm is quiet. That’s odd for this time of the evening. Something’s wrong.

  I quickly rinse the shampoo from my hair and step out of the shower.

  Philip and a group of royals are waiting for me. I can’t believe I let them get the drop on me. I’ve been too distracted by Rosemarie.

  Philip has dumped the contents of my pouch on the slick tile floor and holds my glasspad in his hand, smiling at me with his teeth showing.

  “Hello, dragon-boy. Couldn’t let you leave without a special send-off.”

  I examine my options. No one is armed. That’s interesting. They must have complete faith in Philip’s ability to explode my head.

  My claws lie at Philip’s feet, as if he’s daring me to make a move for them.

  What’s his strategy? Why hasn’t he already exploded my head? After all, if he doesn’t, I could escape using time travel.

  He holds up the glasspad. “Found something interesting in here
. For some reason, you have Southam’s permissions. That actually explains a lot.”

  Shit. I’d rather fight him than go down this road.

  Philip licks his lips, relishing the moment. “What I don’t understand is how Southam didn’t know about it. He can see all your activity on his own pad. To me, this looks like a conspiracy, one that goes all the way to the top.”

  I can’t let Professor Southam go down for this.

  I make a leap for the pad.

  I’m fast, but Philip’s mind is faster.

  An invisible sledgehammer smashes my head. The room shatters into shards of bright light.

  Then, there is nothing.

  I wake up on the shower room floor. I’m covered with a towel, and Rosemarie sits with my head in her lap, stroking my forehead.

  I sit up, my head pounding like a hammer on an anvil. “Where are my claws?”

  She hands me my pouch. “I put everything back inside. It’s all there, except your glasspad.”

  She draws me back into her lap. “Lie down and rest. Dr. Sadana is on her way.”

  She kisses me on the forehead, her eyes filled with tears.

  “Don’t cry, Rose, I’m fine.”

  “Philip did this?”

  I nod, making my head pound.

  Her eyes grow cold. “I will kill him.”

  I start to shake my head, but think better of it. “He got my glasspad. I think we need to leave.”

  “Not until the doctor checks you out.”

  I hear footsteps out in the dorm room.

  Rosemarie sounds relieved. “Here she comes.”

  But it isn’t Dr. Sadana who enters the shower room. It’s Zulien, flanked by a couple of SA goons in gray-and-black uniforms.

  Zulien frowns when he sees Rosemarie. “You won’t be surprised to hear that your appeal has been denied. We’re here to transport you back to the early twenty-first century.”