Bad Times in Dragon City

by Matt Forbeck

  “You’re still not helping.” I shoved through the tower’s front doors and emerged into the high-walled courtyard that surrounded Danto’s tower. I needed to exit through the front gate to be able to hail a ride. No hack would be crazy enough to try to land inside a wizard’s courtyard, no matter how much money I waved at him. If Schaef was waiting there for me, all the better.

  “I thought you’d want to read the original text. It’s illuminating.”

  I frowned. “I don’t have the time for a side trip to some dusty library at the moment. Can you sum it up for me?”

  Johan swallowed hard and took out a handkerchief to mop the sweat from his brow as we made it to the front gate. Danto’s niece — a slim but bitter human named Emily — was watching over it at the moment, and she scowled as she opened the gate for me, releasing the spells on it that would have otherwise kept us all trapped inside. I’d never gotten along with her or her mother, but at least I could count on her to be happy to be rid of me for the day.

  “I would, but I don’t know if you’d believe me.”

  I stopped in the dead-end outside of the wall around Danto’s place, and I looked down at him and Margrit. “I need to go. Belle’s life is on the line. So you either tell me what you know now and risk me not believing you, or I leave and you don’t get to tell me at all.”

  “All right.” Johan steeled himself and then spit it out. “The Dragon Emperor? He eats the bodies.”

  “What?” The dragonet landed on my shoulder and curled his tail around my neck as I looked down at the dwarf who’d just said the most insane thing to me that I’d ever heard.

  “The Dragon — the one that rules over us as our Emperor? He devours the city’s dead.”

  My head felt wobbly. I shook it to put it back on straight, and the dragonet nuzzled up against my ear. A part of me wondered if he wanted to take a bite out of it.

  I looked to Margrit, and she gave me a knowing shrug. “I told you that you’d want to talk with him.”

  “How do you know this?” I said to Johan. “Is this some rumor you heard in a bar? Some kind of secret society bullshit the Brichts let you in on? What?”

  I couldn’t believe what he was saying. More to the point, I didn’t want to believe it. It was too awful to contemplate.

  “It’s actually engraved on stone tablets held in the Great Vault.”

  “The what?”

  “You know that massive door you saw when we you met the Brichts down in the Core?”

  I nodded. I don’t think I’d ever forget it.

  “Behind that’s the Great Vault. It contains the terms of the Imperial Pact, the agreement upon which Dragon City was founded. They’re engraved in the walls there and protected so that no one can get to them, not even the Dragon himself.”

  “But you did?”

  Johan allowed himself a moment of pride and puffed up as he spoke. “After I arranged for you to meet with them, they decided to induct me into their inner circle. As part of that, they brought me into the Great Vault. You should really visit it someday. It’s filled with the most amazing things you’ve ever seen: ancient weapons, powerful artifacts, devices I couldn’t even understand.”

  “Including the Imperial Pact carved into the walls?”

  “Yes.”

  I was stunned. “Who else knows about this?”

  “Outside of us three, of course, not many. The inner circle of the Brichts. And anyone who was alive at the time of the city’s founding, of course.”

  “That was hundreds of years ago,” Margrit said. “Not even dwarves live that long.”

  “No,” I said, finally understanding. “But elves do. Lots of them were here back when the city was founded. There have been ones who have been born since, like Belle.”

  Margit nodded. “But her parents?”

  I grunted. “They’ve been around the whole time.”

  “Their names are among those on the list of those who signed the Imperial Pact,” Johan said. “They’re engraved along the bottom of the wall.”

  I put my head in my hands. I could hear the sounds of the city racing, spinning around me. “They know what they’re doing. They know what they’re sending Belle into. Either one of them could take her place, but they’re sacrificing their daughter instead.”

  “But that just means they’re rotten parents,” John said. “That still doesn’t mean they had anything to do with their other daughter going missing.”

  “No.” I spotted Schaef’s carpet angling down toward us and waved him in. “It doesn’t. But there’s only one way to find out.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  We had a chilly ride up to the Elven Reaches on Schaef’s carpet, Johan and I. The sun still hunkered low in the east, its rays shining off the distant waves of the ocean there that separated Dragon City from just about every other bit of civilization I knew about but had never seen. It got colder as we moved higher up the mountain, and I wrapped my jacket tighter about me and jammed my hat down tight on my head.

  “I don’t understand why you need me to come along with you,” Johan said as he shivered in the cold too.

  I understood how he felt. He’d taken enough of a risk coming to tell me about the Imperial Pact. Getting hauled around town because of that probably didn’t fit with his idea of a reward for that bravery.

  “Did you write any of it down?”

  “What?” he shouted at me over the wind.

  “The Pact. Did you write it down?”

  “No,” he said with a shudder that came from more than the cold. “It’s forbidden. If I got caught with that, well, let’s just say I know who the Dragon’s next meal would be.”

  “That’s why you’re coming with me.”

  Understanding dawned on his face, followed fast by a grimace of regret.

  “So the Dragon eats all of the city’s dead?” I said.

  “Kind of,” Schaefer said. “The longer the person has lived, the more magic they’ve stored up in their body, right? That’s why old dwarves are so powerful and why the eldest of the elves are almost untouchable.”

  “But with short-timers like humans and halflings and orcs?”

  “They’ll take your bodies at the morgue, but the Dragon doesn’t care too much if you go missing. You’re just appetizers to him, not the main course.”

  “What in the world are you two talking about?” Schaef called back over his shoulder.

  “You don’t want to know.” I had to shout over the wind for him to be able to hear me. He shrugged and concentrated on squeezing every bit of speed he could out of his old carpet.

  I reached up and petted the dragonet, who’d curled around me as tightly as ever. As I did, I craned back my neck and stared up at the Dragon’s Spire. I was sure that if the Emperor knew what we were talking about, he’d eat every last one of us. It’s a fine way to keep your enemies in line, I suppose. Kill off the ones who might cause trouble.

  And I wanted to cause trouble in the worst way.

  Still, it was hard to believe that the little creature I’d gotten so attached to over the past several days would one day grow up to be the kind of voracious beast that dined on the people of my hometown. Could I let that happen? Could I even try to stop it?

  “That’s why he’s so particular about the elves,” Johan said. “One elf can take the place of a hundred humans, for instance. He needs their energy. Dragons are magical creatures. If they don’t dine on other creatures who can do magic, their own magic starts to fade.”

  “And a dragon without magic is just a big, fat lizard,” I said. “He takes the magic from those bodies and metabolizes it, right? Oh, wow.”

  I reached into the breast pocket of my jacket and pulled out a flask I kept filled with dragonfire. “This is it,” I said. “Don’t you get it? We do the same damn thing.”

  Johan squinted at me. “What?”

  “We make dragonfire — dragon essence, actually, from which we also make dragonfire — out of the Dragon Emperor�
�s old scales and such, bits and pieces of him that he’s willing to give up. Things he won’t miss. Parts he can grow back.”

  Johan clapped his hands to his face in surprise. “The magic we give him, he gives back to us.”

  “Either one of you idiots starts going on about the circle of life, I’m pulling over this carpet and slapping some sense into you,” Schaef said.

  Johan and I both turned to goggle at the halfling. “You heard all that?” I said.

  “It’s a small carpet,” the hack said. “And as far as keeping secrets, you two suck at it.”

  I barked a bitter laugh. “All right. Fair enough.”

  He scowled at us both. “It seems to me the two of you are missing the bigger picture here.”

  “How’s that?” I said, certain he couldn’t have stopped himself from telling me at this point, even if he’d wanted to.

  Schaef pointed a stubby finger all the way up toward the top of the mountain. “That tubby jackass up there has eaten nearly everyone in this entire city who’s ever died. Everyone.” He gave me a hard look. “You know anyone around here who’s died?”

  That sat me back hard. I thought about all the Gütmanns. Every one of them had slid down the Dragon’s gullet, even little Gerte. All but my old pal Anders, who’d met his fate out in the wild and been devoured by creatures controlled by the Ruler of the Dead instead.

  Ames, who’d died at the hands of the Henrik Bricht. Sig, who’d been killed doing time for Ames’ murder while Kai and I had been trying to clear his name.

  My mother.

  My grandparents. My great-grandparents.

  All of them — every one of my ancestors except my father — going all the way back to the legendary Gib, from whom my family had taken its name.

  The Dragon had devoured them all. And when my father died, when my friends died, they’d wind up on the bastard’s dinner plate.

  And when I died, he’d eat me too.

  It was too much to take all at once. I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. All I knew was that I wasn’t going to let him do that to Belle. Not if I could help it.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  “You want me to drop you at the front door?” Schaef said as we soared toward the Elven Reaches. He’d brought us high up into the air, and now we were gliding down toward the Sanguigno estate. I could see the tree into which Fiera had fallen standing far below us.

  “I think we’re past that point.” I pointed down at the Sanguignos’ balcony. “Right there should be fine.”

  “Your call.”

  Schaef put us into a steep dive and pulled up in time to brush the bottom of the carpet on the balcony’s wide and open surface. The dragonet fluttered his wings in excitement as I stepped off the carpet and surveyed the estate. I didn’t see anyone home, but it was a big place.

  I looked back and saw Johan still sitting on the carpet behind Schaef. “You coming?” I asked.

  The dwarf swallowed hard enough I could see it under his neatly braided beard.

  “I need some backup here.” Belle’s parents were sure to accuse me of being a liar, and Johan was the closest thing I had to evidence.

  “I’m no good in a fight,” he said.

  “That’s all right.” I put out my hand for him. “I am.”

  He frowned, but he let me help him off the carpet. He stood there and brushed off his suit.

  “What next?” Schaef said.

  “Stay close,” I said. “If we need to go, we’ll have to leave fast.”

  He snapped me a loose salute, then brought his carpet back and up into the relative safety of the sky. I looked down at Johan, jerked my head toward the house, and entered. He kept close on my heels, always a couple steps behind. He didn’t want to be out in front of me in any way, but the chance I might leave him behind seemed to terrify him too.

  “Belle?” I called out. “Belle!”

  My shout echoed through the empty house, a place far too large for the three people who occupied it. You could have fit a city block from the Village inside the estate and still had room to avoid your neighbors. For all the time and effort that had gone into shaping the luxurious home, it felt like it had been abandoned a long time ago and that Belle and her parents were now only the live-in custodians of a elven museum.

  Belle appeared at the top of the spiral staircase that fed into the foyer. “Max!” She sounded so relieved to see me that for an instant I could forget why I was there, what had happened to drive us apart, and why we were no longer together.

  Halfway down the stairs, she spotted Johan next to me, and she put a hand over her heart and froze. “Are they here already?” she said in soft horror. “I thought I would have more time.”

  “He’s with me,” I said. “The Guard isn’t here for you. Yet.”

  Belle came the rest of the way down the stairs. “Have you found Fiera yet?” She knew that I hadn’t, I could tell, but she needed to ask anyway.

  “We need to get you out of here,” I said. “Now.”

  Confusion drifted over her face as she approached me. “But I can’t leave. If the Guard comes for a replacement for Fiera, I need to be here. Otherwise, they’ll take one of my parents instead.”

  “I don’t see the problem with that.”

  She gaped at me as if I’d slapped her. She gave the dragonet a wary eye. “What’s gotten into you, Max? I thought you wanted to help me.”

  “Do you know why the Emperor insists on taking custody of all the bodies in Dragon City? Especially the elf bodies.” I said.

  “To keep the Ruler of the Dead from taking control of them.”

  I shook my head. “No. He eats them.”

  Her mouth curled up in disgust. “You’ve lost your mind, Max. Who’s been filling your head with such conspiracies?”

  “I suppose I’m to blame for that, miss,” Johan said. “But only because it’s true. I read it in the text of the Imperial Pact itself.”

  Belle’s eyes grew wide as she took in both the claim and the dwarf who made it. “And how can you possibly back that up? Who are you to make such wild claims?”

  “He’s Johan Steinmetz.” I jabbed a thumb toward the dwarf. “He was married to Dorthë Gütmann. The Guard arrested him for the Gütmanns’ murders.”

  “All cleared up now though!” Johan said, eager to make sure that no one ever blamed him for those horrors ever again.

  I grimaced. “Her sister Fiera — the one whose body is missing — sent the assassin that killed your wife and in-laws.”

  Johan went white, and Belle’s suspicions about him melted away into contrition. “I loved the Gütmanns too,” she said. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

  Johan recovered himself the best he could and cleared his throat. “I wish I could say the same about you.” He stared at her in disbelief. “And that’s who you’re willing to die for?”

  Belle shook her head in horrified denial. “It’s not for her sake,” she said. “She was an awful, terrible person. It’s for my parents. If I don’t go, they’ll take one of them instead.”

  “We can’t let this happen,” I said. “To any of you.”

  “And just how do you propose to stop it?” Chiara said as she appeared at the top of the stairwell, her husband Nicoló at her side.

  I crossed my arms over my chest, which put my hand in contact with the holster that held my wand and my gun. I wanted to be able to reach both of them in an instant. Belle’s parents might be dragon essence addicts, but that didn’t mean they weren’t dangerous. They were still elves.

  “The Imperial Pact has been in place for centuries and has served us well,” Chiara said as she and her husband descended the stairs. “We were there when it was forged, and we all approved it.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  “You have a very loose definition of the word ‘we,’” I said.

  “You weren’t there,” Chiara said with a sneer as she and Nicoló hauled up short at the end of the stairs, keeping their distance from us. “Y
ou don’t know the horrors we faced. The dead of centuries had risen from their graves to battle against us, and all of the peoples of the land had been pushed back to the harbor in Watersmeet. The last overloaded boats had left, and those of us who remained behind had made our final preparations for our last stand when the Dragon made us his offer.”

  “You let him eat you,” I said. Belle goggled at me, but her horror grew as she realized her parents weren’t denying it.

  Chiara looked like she wanted to smack me, but instead she spoke. “He offered us sanctuary, a home here on his mountain where we could build a city that could keep us safe from the Ruler of the Dead. All he wanted in exchange was our loyalty and the bodies of our deceased.”

  “Without which he would fade away and die too,” Schaef said, his voice filled with awe.

  “It was an arrangement that worked to everyone’s benefit. What good were the dead to us? Had we not struck that deal, we would have joined them soon enough and become soldiers in the Ruler of the Dead’s army too.”

  Chiara spread her arms to take in the entirety of her home, her district, her city. “And just look what we’ve done with that. Look what we’ve built. We’ve created a beacon of hope in this sea of death, an oasis of life in this desert of doom.

  “How can this be wrong? I ask you that. How can this be wrong?”

  Belle stepped between us and her parents. “Where’s Fiera, mother? What have you done with her?”

  Chiara gave her daughter a condescending shake of her head. “Not a damn thing. I would have been happy to feed her remains to the Dragon, just as I hope mine will nourish him when my time comes.”

  “Don’t you mean ‘if’?” I asked. “It’s all very convenient for an immortal people to sign a pact that puts the rest of us in the Dragon’s stomach. How many elves have been sacrificed to the Emperor over the centuries? How many dwarves?”

  Johan shrugged. Dwarves lived could live for centuries too, but even they died eventually.

  “Now,” I said. “How many gnomes? How many halflings? How many goblins, orcs, and ogres?” I pointed at my chest. “How many humans?”