by Multiple
“Very well then. Everything’s ready. After tonight I should have all the data I need.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out two small cylinders strung on nylon rope. “If you could have Iriyana and Callvyn wear these for me.”
Zyllven accepted the cylinders. “Excellent.” A trumpet sounded and Zyllven turned to look out on to the field. “They’re about to start. I have to go change or I’ll be late.”
I couldn’t help but smile at his choice of words. Only in Fairy could changing mean assuming a whole new shape and not putting on a different outfit.
Zyllven ran off toward the field, his purple robe billowing out behind him enough that I suspected it actually slowed him down. Randall turned his attention back to his laptop and largely ignored us. So much for explanations.
I shifted a few chairs over so as to be next to Randall and did my best to peer over his shoulder at his computer screen. I needed to find a casual way to touch him and read what he knew of Zyllven’s activities. Jacob changed seats as well, sitting on the other side of Randall, flanking him. We both watched Randall fiddle with a large spreadsheet full of numbers as if he was unaware of our presence.
When it became clear Randall would never acknowledge us, I cleared my throat and said, “So Zyllven told me you’re trying to help him find out why the dragons can’t have children.” I brushed my fingers across his shoulder, an innocent social gesture used to get his attention and provide the contact I needed to read him. He knew nothing. His mind was full of numbers and calculations, but no theft.
“Dragonlets.”
“Excuse me?” I had been too focused on sifting through Randall’s thoughts to pay attention to his answer.
“Their children are called dragonlets,” Randall said, a tone of superiority in his voice.
“Oh.” When he didn’t elaborate, I said, “Why can’t the dragons have dragonlets?”
He sighed and looked up at the sky. From our brief contact, I knew he found our presence an annoyance. “It’s the atmosphere. There’s not enough oxygen here in Fairy. At least that’s what we think.”
I blinked, surprised. I knew Fairy was different from the human plane, but I hadn’t realized those differences extended to the amount of oxygen in the air. Even so, I didn’t understand what that had to do with dragon fertility.
“Isn’t air just…well, air?” I asked with a wave of my hand.
“Not to a dragon. Are you familiar with the fire triangle?”
I shook my head, but Jacob nodded, saying, “For a fire to burn there has to be oxygen, heat, and fuel, right?” At my surprised look, he shrugged. “The fire marshal explained it to me after my brother’s house blew up.”
“Correct. Dragons are like living incarnations of flame. They’re used to earth’s atmosphere and their biology is dependent on certain oxygen levels in order to reproduce.”
I whistled. “That’s amazing. I had no idea it was so complex.”
“Nor did we,” said a female dragon stepping up onto the dais. She towered over us, but her slender frame gave her a frail air. Lavender scales traced over her translucent skin, outlining delicate features and magnifying her violet eyes.
Randall stood and bowed, an expression of longing on his face. “Princess Vieranna.”
The princess gave a regal nod. “Randall. How are you?”
“Very well, thank you and ready to conduct our last experiment.”
She smiled and moved to look at the computer screen. “Your work comes to an end then.”
“I believe so.”
She patted him on the shoulder and turned to us, missing the smile that blossomed on Randall’s face at her touch. But I didn’t. Apparently, the scientist had a bit of a crush on the Princess. Could humans and dragons even…no, I didn’t want to contemplate it.
“You must be Sofia and Jacob. I am Vieranna, Zyllven’s wife.”
“Hello, nice to meet you.” I held out a hand and she placed hers in mine, pressing with light pressure for just a second before moving on to greet Jacob. Even though the touch was fleeting, I was still able to determine she knew nothing of her husband’s double life as a thief. How had Zyllven managed to avoid detection? All the people closest to him didn’t seem to have a clue as to what he’d done.
Jacob nodded toward the field where a sea of dragons flowed on the green grass. “Aren’t you going to join your husband?”
Vieranna shook her head and fingered a large pearl hanging around her neck. “No, I can’t fly tonight.”
Watching Vieranna’s slim fingers caress the pearl, I said, “That’s a beautiful necklace. I didn’t know pearls could get that big.”
She wrapped her hand around it, concealing it. “It’s not a pearl.”
“Is it some kind of Fairy jewel?” I asked, curious. I’d heard Fairy had some unusual gems, but hadn’t ever seen any.
Vieranna frowned and dropped the necklace inside her robe looking to Randall who nodded in what I took to be encouragement. “No. It’s my egg.”
“The one you hatched from?” It looked kind of small to me—not much bigger than a robin’s egg—to hatch an animal as large as a dragon. Then again, what did I know about dragon reproduction?
“No, the one I laid just a few weeks ago. One that failed to thrive and grow.” She closed her eyes, her hand over where the necklace rested under her robe. “It’s the reason I’m here instead of out there, I’m considered bad luck.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said with genuine regret. I wouldn’t wish that kind of loss on anyone.
Her eyes flickered open to look at me, so full of despair, I wanted to cry and then closed them again. “Thank you.”
Randall cleared his throat in the silence that stretched between us. “That egg was the first dragon’s egg ever laid in Fairy.”
“Wow.” Jacob said.
Randall continued as if he hadn’t heard, “But it never had a chance because of the low oxygen levels here.”
“How low is low? We,” I gestured to Jacob and myself, “can breathe just fine. Surely there can’t be that much of a difference?”
“Yes, there is. Not so much on the ground, but the higher up you go the composition of air changes quite a bit. Oxygen thins much faster with altitude here than in our plane. Dragons need a certain level of oxygen and altitude in order for their eggs to fertilize.”
Jacob looked at Randall, his eyes wide. “You mean they have sex in the air?”
Randall shook his head. “No, that would be physically impossible. The atmosphere affects their hormone levels, which is the final step in the dragon’s reproductive process.”
“We believe our flame must reach a certain temperature and intensity that we cannot achieve in Fairy,” Vieranna said.
“So you have a solution to this?” I asked Randall.
“No. I’ve just helped to identify the problem. Although, I suspect the answer is for the dragons to come to our plane where oxygen levels are higher. After all, they reproduced just fine on earth in the past.”
“But that is not an option under current human law. We are not allowed to cross over into your plane and the Sidhe have crafted magic to prevent us from leaving.” Vieranna said. “We have to find another solution.”
Jacob and I exchanged looks. Current human law would mean little if the Sidhe evicted the dragons from Fairy. A loud burst of trumpets accompanied with the heavy throb of a bass drum cut off further conversation and we all turned our attention to where both the turquoise and crimson dragons advanced to the center of the field.
The rest of the dragons circled around them, swaying in time with the drums, their dark wings fluttering as they sang in a baritone harmony. I scanned the crowd searching for Zyllven, but didn’t recognize him in his dragon form. Leaning over to Vieranna, I asked, “Where is your husband?”
She pointed with a long finger to a pale sage dragon. “There, that’s him.”
“And the dragons next to him?”
“The silver one, that’s the King,
Wyllven. The indigo dragon on the other side is Jocyllen. He’s a good friend of Zyllven’s.”
Jacob raised his eyebrows at Vieranna’s response and I nodded in answer to his unasked question. Jocyllen was going to be first on the interview list. I remembered how he didn’t shake my hand when we first met, something I chalked up to dragon customs, but now I knew better. He’d been avoiding me.
“Why are you all such different colors?” Jacob asked.
Vieranna laughed. “The ancient humans believed we came from rainbows because of our colors, but the truth is not as interesting. Our colors reflect our age.”
“So how old is Wyllven?” I knew from the way he carried himself, he wasn’t young, but I couldn’t tell if he was old by dragon standards or not.
“We don’t really think about age the way you do. We stop counting the years after a while and actually go more by color. The older dragons are silver. The younger dragons are the primary colors, like Jocyllen or the couple joining tonight.” She gestured to herself, “Pale colors are similar to a human’s middle years. Zyllven and I are in the middle of our life span.”
I raised my eyebrows, impressed. “How young is young?”
“Our youngest were a little over five hundred when we came to Fairy a thousand centuries ago.”
More trumpets sounded and the drums beat a faster, more staccato rhythm. “This is amazing,” Jacob said watching the dragons flap their wings in unison.
Vieranna gave a sad sigh. “This is the last one.”
“The last joining?” I asked.
“Yes. There are no more left to join.”
“And no more excuses either,” Randall said.
“What do you mean by that?” I looked from Vieranna to Randall.
Randall started to answer, but Vieranna held up a hand cutting him off. “He means, we can no longer treat our lack of children as an isolated problem. If this last couple cannot make an egg, we must accept that, if something isn’t done, we will die out.” She pulled her necklace out again. “This was the first sign of hope we had that maybe we could adjust to this climate, but it failed. In a thousand centuries, the first egg failed. We do not have the time for our physiology to adjust. Our life spans are long, but not long enough.”
“She’s right. They need a solution now or they will become extinct.” Randall put a comforting hand on Vieranna’s shoulder as she bowed her head, wiping a hand across her eyes.
“What about the Sidhe, surely they can help?” I asked. There had to be something they could do.
Vieranna, her head still down answered, “They can only offer magic and magic can’t command life outside of forcing the occasional flower into blossom. Science, human science is our only hope.”
“Science is about to do its job,” Randall said typing furiously on his laptop. “They’re taking off.”
We fell silent and, one by one, again turned to look out to the field where the two dragons fanned their large wings, preparing for flight. The crimson one took off first, followed by its mate and they soared into the sky, flying in a long arc over the field.
Higher and higher they went, flying shoulder to shoulder, their tails sometimes intertwining. When they were all but specks in the sky, they began to blow fire. Red flame tinged with blue shot through the night, a cross between fireworks and flamethrowers.
“That’s amazing. Like the fourth of July,” I said, eyes wide with wonder.
“I know,” Vieranna said. “Before gunpowder, we provided fireworks for the Chinese New Year.” At my look of surprise, she laughed. ”Why did you think dragons figured so prominently in their New Year festival?”
“But I thought humans hunted dragons.” From the way Wyllven had described it, humans were the mortal enemies of dragons.
Vieranna frowned. “Yes and no. There were moments in history where we worked together. The Chinese, in particular, seemed to appreciate our talents. I even miss them sometimes. I had friends there once.”
“Look, they’re all taking off now.” Jacob pointed to the field. We watched as the dragons soared, en masse into the sky. They quickly rose above the tree line and spiraled higher and higher until, they too were specks in the sky. In unison, they blew fire, lining up until each flame joined the one before it, making one continuous line of orange in the sky.
I had never seen anything like it and I couldn’t keep from gasping in awe as the dragons went through a series of formations, like flaming sky-diving teams. A kaleidoscope of fire burned above me, taking the form of pinwheels, spirals, and other geometric shapes. Every few seconds, a new pattern of flame glowed hot against the dark night.
The dragons flew for maybe an hour and then drifted, almost gently considering their bulk, to the ground. They transformed back to their human form, the air shimmering with the magic of their shape change, and donned their discarded robes. I began to see the attraction of the muumuu robes, they were easy on, easy off.
Moments later, Zyllven joined us, the smile on his face revealing overly large canine teeth. In his hands, he carried the cylinders Randall had given him, which he put on the chair next to the scientist. “How long do you need?”
Eyes on the computer screen, Randall reached for a cylinder, and pried it open, removing some small electronic bits. I didn’t know much about computers, but they looked like computer processor chips. “I should have everything ready tomorrow.”
Zyllven clapped him on the back. “Excellent. Come and see me as soon as you’re done.” Turning to us he said, “What did you think of the joining?”
“It was beautiful,” I said.
“Amazing,” Jacob added.
“I thought you would enjoy it. Now that the festivities are over, we should be getting back to the castle.” Zyllven held out a hand, “Vieranna, my love, are you ready?”
“Yes, of course.” She slipped her arm through his with a demure smile.
“Wait, isn’t there some kind of party? A wedding reception?” I asked. I needed to meet more dragons, find a way to touch them in order to continue my investigation.
“No. Not tonight. Tomorrow there will be a banquet at the castle,” Zyllven said. “Joinings usually last a couple days. Right now, it’s late and time to sleep.”
Looking back to the field, I could see it was quickly becoming empty as dragons made their way back to the city. Dragons may be large, but they sure disappeared fast. My expectations had been too high for the joining. I sighed. At this rate, it might take weeks to figure out who was involved with the theft outside of Zyllven.
But maybe that was the point. Maybe Zyllven wasn’t as naive as I’d thought he was. He knew how my abilities worked, through touch, and had appeared to facilitate my investigation. But had he really? Or was he manipulating me, obstructing my access to his cronies and trying to woo me with pity, using his own wife as a pawn? Perhaps it was time to consider another approach.
I mulled it over as we followed Zyllven and Vieranna back to the castle. When Zyllven made to drop of us at our rooms, I laid a hand on his arm, leaning in close to whisper, “I need to speak with you.”
“Of course. Go right ahead.”
I looked at Vieranna and shook my head. “Alone.”
“All right,” He gave me a calculating look and released Vieranna with a pat on the hand. “Why don’t you go on to our suite, dear? I have some business to conduct with Sofia.”
“It was lovely to meet you both.” She extended her hand to me and then Jacob before continuing down the hall.
Zyllven opened the door to my room. “Why don’t we do this in your room instead of out here in the hall?”
“Fine by me.” I brushed past him to enter the room. A fire had been lit while we were gone, bathing the stone room in a warm, honey glow.
Jacob followed making a brief detour to drag a foot stool over to the fire so there were enough seats for the three of us. I sat in the rocking chair while Zyllven took the arm chair across from me.
Zyllven leaned back and crossed
his arms. “What is it, Miss Parker?”
“I know you have the gold.” I held my breath and watched his reaction.
Aside from a narrowing of his eyes, Zyllven didn’t even flinch. “What do you want? A cut of the gold?”
I tried to mask the horror his suggestion raised. Stolen Sidhe gold could be a death sentence for a human. “No, thanks.”
“Then what?”
“I want to know why. What do you think you’re doing?”
“Saving my people.”
“So it’s about having kids then?”
“No. It’s not just about having a family. I’m trying to save our species.”
“And the only way to do that is to steal the Sidhe’s gold and break the Safe Harbor Treaty?” I raised a skeptical eyebrow at Zyllven. “I hate to tell you this, but the human world has changed since you left, there isn’t as much space for dragons to live.”
“Sacrifices will have to be made.” The way he snapped the words, I didn’t get the feeling the dragons planned on making all that many sacrifices.
Jacob cleared his throat and said, “Have you tried to negotiate with the Interspecies Commission? I’m sure they could make some accommodation for your special circumstances.”
“They’ve denied our petition.”
Jacob rubbed his chin. “Have you filed an appeal?”
Zyllven nodded. “Yes, but they’ve ignored the motions we’ve filed. Your governments have made it quite clear we are not welcome. My father’s diplomatic patience with you humans has accomplished nothing.”
“So you’ve taken matters into your own hands.” I shook my head in disbelief.
A knock at the door interrupted us and Jacob went to answer it. Jocyllen pushed his way into the room, glaring at Jacob and then me as he went to Zyllven’s side. “My liege, is everything all right? Princess Vieranna said you had stayed behind.”
“Yes, thank you, Jocyllen. We were just discussing the Sidhe’s gold.” The two dragons exchanged glances and Jocyllen leaned down to whisper in Zyllven’s ear. Whatever he said, Zyllven wasn’t interested. “No, that won’t be necessary.” He held up his hand when Jocyllen made to protest. “I said no. You are my guard, not my advisor”