Tall and ruggedly attractive, Hoffman had a not quite military haircut and a dark blue suit which fitted very tightly over solid muscle. He was in his mid-thirties, Ceri guessed. His black hair had no grey in it and there were just a few worry lines on his brow. His nose had been broken and then reset well, but there was a slight twist in it. He was trying to look casual, but Ceri saw his blue-green eyes taking in everyone at the table as he pulled out the last chair. ‘Evening,’ he said, ‘I’m Ed Hoffman.’ He had a soft American accent, Ceri was just not good enough on accents from across the Atlantic to identify it more specifically.
‘I’ll handle the introductions then,’ Malcolm said. ‘I’m Malcolm Charles, Minister for Supernatural Affairs, and this is my daughter, Petra. Then we have Alexandra and Anita, Lee, Miss Jenny Li, who is Ambassador Long’s translator and Lee’s partner, Doctor Ceridwyn Brent, and the lovely young lady beside you is Lily Carpenter, Miss Brent’s partner.’
Hoffman’s smile was slightly lopsided, but genuine. ‘Thank you, sir. I’m here as part of President Wilson’s protection detail.’
‘That explains it then,’ Lily said.
‘I’m sorry?’ Hoffman looked bemusedly at her.
‘You’re a practitioner, yes?’
His eyes narrowed slightly as he sank into his seat with the kind of grace you expected in a man trained in unarmed combat. ‘How did you know?’
Lily smiled wide enough to show her fangs. ‘Half-demon,’ she said. ‘I can sense the magic on you.’
‘Half-demon?’ Hoffman’s surprise was not quite overcome by the hint of suspicion. ‘Seriously?’
Malcolm’s voice cut across the table, carrying a hint of authority. ‘Miss Carpenter and Doctor Brent work with the Metropolitan Police on supernatural cases. Their respective talents have cracked cases our detectives could not have solved on their own. And they both have security clearances higher than most of my staff.’
Ceri turned and looked at him. ‘We do?’
The minister nodded smoothly. ‘Avery sends his regards.’ Avery Sachs was an MI5 officer they had come across twice now. Apparently he had done a more thorough job of investigating them than Ceri had imagined.
Hoffman relaxed almost imperceptibly. ‘I don’t believe I’ve ever met a half-demon before. You’ll have to pardon my reaction.’
‘Most people haven’t,’ Lily replied. ‘There used to be more about, but they usually end up going bad somehow and have to be put down.’
‘Lily’s the only one we know of, in London at least,’ Ceri added.
‘She’s the only one known in the country,’ Malcolm said. ‘The last one to go rogue was taken down in ninety-four and none have been born since, to our knowledge.’
The discussion came to a sudden stop as the hosts and guests of honour suddenly arrived at their table. Along with Mei and Huanglong there were two couples. Ceri recognised the Prime Minister, and even his wife. Geoffrey Haldane had been PM for about six years. Early middle aged, his wife Audrey was a little older and supposedly exerted quite a stabilising influence on her husband. They were both attractive, charming people, a characteristic which had proved very useful in Haldane’s rise to power. They were every bit the confident, political couple as they sauntered across the dance floor which the dinner tables circled. The American President and his wife were a different matter. What Ceri knew about them she had learned from the TV over the past week or so. He was George Wilson and his wife was named Eleanor; fairly conservative names for a fairly conservative President. She had been a model and actress, and her popularity had helped her older, rather less attractive husband win over the public. It was not that he was ugly, but he was relatively ordinary, a little over average height with sandy coloured hair and hazel eyes. He did have a very good smile and he was using it as he walked to their table. Compared to him, however, his wife was a goddess; long legs, wide hips, narrow waist, full breasts, the kind of face cameras loved, and lovely, bobbed, platinum-blonde hair. Ceri would have almost suspected something supernatural about her, but she doubted a conservative American would have married someone like that.
Five of the six sat down at their table while Mei remained standing. She turned and accepted a microphone from the Master of Ceremonies. ‘Ladies and Gentlemen,’ Mei’s voice rang out from speakers around the room. ‘Good evening and welcome to our little event. Tonight we celebrate the beginning of a new year in the Chinese calendar. As some of you will be aware, this is the year of the Dragon and so it is especially auspicious that we have with us Huanglong, the Yellow Dragon, who long ago taught writing to Fu Xi.’
‘If you believe that sort of thing,’ the tall man shouted out from his seat and the room rumbled with laughter. Ceri looked across at him and found him looking back, as though he expected his remark to draw her attention. He was probably over thirty thousand years old; most of the dragons she knew dated back to that time. Perhaps he really had taught some ancient ancestor of the Chinese to write.
Mei was smiling. ‘As you can tell, he does have a sense of humour, so don’t be afraid to talk to him later. For those who want to entertain us with their dancing, there will be music, assuming any of you can move after the food. We have a full banquet for you to get through, and a full evening to consume it in. Please enjoy yourselves, that’s what we’re all here for.’
Someone was using a lot of magic. Ceri’s scalp tightened as huge trays of food glided out from one of the side doors and began to arrange themselves on the tables. It certainly was a banquet, but Ceri was going to have to wait until everything had settled before she tried anything because the skin at the back of her neck was trying to crawl over to sit on her forehead. Lily and Jenny were digging in before everything was on the table.
‘Try the Dim Sum,’ Jenny said enthusiastically. ‘Seriously, it’s to die for.’
As the spell finally died away Ceri rubbed the back of her head and picked up some chopsticks. ‘I knew I should’ve worn a looser dress.’
~~~
‘I’m not as old as you believe me to be,’ Huanglong said as he swept Ceri around the dance floor. He was, clearly, a skilled dancer and somehow, in his arms, Ceri felt far more capable than she usually did.
Ceri raised an eyebrow. The statement had come out of nowhere, as though he knew what she had been thinking during Mei’s speech. For all she knew, he did. ‘The dragons I’ve met so far were all around during the Toba Flare,’ she said.
He nodded. ‘I was born around a thousand years before I came to Earth. I am about six thousand years old, by your counting.’
‘Almost a youth,’ Ceri said, smiling.
‘Compared to Mei Long or Athro, I suppose I am. Compared to your ancestors, I am a mere babe in arms.’ He watched her face, his lips twitching. ‘You did not know. Your Brenin had over eighty thousand years when he died. Brenhines is over a hundred thousand now. You come from long-lived, powerful stock.’ He smiled. ‘Your human line is a strong one. My condolences.’ He was obviously referring to her parents.
Ceri dipped her head in acknowledgement. ‘I still miss them, but it’s been long enough and I have enough friends around me that I’m over it, mostly.’
He was silent for a few seconds, sweeping her around in swirling arcs. She became aware that a space had opened up around them as people moved aside to watch. ‘You feel responsible for their death,’ he said.
‘Not exactly,’ Ceri replied.
‘You feel that they might still be alive if you had been with them then. I have been trying to work out why you put yourself in danger so readily. You have done things to help others which were far outside your tolerance zone.’
‘Overactive sense of guilt,’ Ceri said. ‘Dragons do things which don’t appear to benefit them. You taught a bunch of uncivilised tribesmen to read and write.’
He shrugged slightly. ‘We are dragons,’ he said as though that explained everything.
Ceri laughed. ‘Well, I’m me. Why the interest in my motivations?’
Upright and being escorted to her seat while the couple were applauded, much to Ceri’s embarrassment, she observed that, ‘I’m not that good a dancer.’
‘I may have… lent you some of my skill,’ he said.
‘Interesting, and thank you. I’ll have to get Athro to teach me that one.’
He stopped , catching her hand to turn her around. ‘It has been my pleasure to accompany you, Ceridwyn Brent,’ he said, bowing again and raised her hand to his lips. ‘We will meet again, I have no doubt.’
Ceri dropped a courtesy. ‘The pleasure was mine, sir.’
He smiled and backed away a few steps before turning to leave. Ceri grinned and went back to her seat where Lily and Jenny were watching her, wide-eyed. Lee was there, but not looking quite so shocked. ‘What?’ she asked.
‘Where did you learn to dance like that?’ Lily asked. ‘Have you been taking sneaky lessons?’
‘When you dance with a dragon…’ Ceri replied, grinning. ‘He used magic, bumped my skill up with his own.’
‘Neat, can you do that?’
Ceri’s grin turned into a smirk. ‘Not yet.’
‘What did you think of him?’ Jenny asked.
Ceri looked across to the other table where Huanglong was chatting to Eleanor Wilson. ‘Charming, amusing, interested in people… a good dancer.’
‘I don’t think he likes me much,’ Jenny said. ‘It’s being a half-breed, I think. Being a woman doesn’t help.’
‘Dragons tend to be kind of…’ Ceri began, and stopped, trying to think of the right words. ‘They’ve got a personality and they stick with it. He’s the Imperial Dragon, he’s all about China.’
‘Mei likes me,’ Jenny countered. Ceri raised an eyebrow. ‘Oh come on,’ Jenny said, rolling her eyes. ‘It doesn’t take a genius. She’s gorgeous, she’s almost as elegant as Lily, she’s super-confident, amazingly patient, and have you seen how he acts around her? Like you said, he’s the Imperial Dragon, he’s the patriarch of the Dragon Empire, and he acts like she’s his equal, even his superior.’ Jenny nodded emphatically. ‘She’s a dragon too.’ Then Jenny’s expression became curious. ‘Now I just need to figure out why he’s so deferential to you.’
‘Ladies, enjoying the party?’ It was Hoffman, returning to his seat beside Lily.
Ceri smiled at him, happy to have the distraction. ‘Yes, thank you. Are you?’
He grinned. ‘It’s partially work for me, but yeah, I am.’
‘Work?’ Lily asked. ‘You need to be guarding your president here?’
‘Maybe not, but that’s the job.’
‘This place is probably safer than your… what’s it called? White House?’ Ceri said.
‘You think?’
‘You can’t feel it? The wards on this place are strong.’ Ceri glanced at Jenny.
‘They’re backed off a little in here,’ Jenny said. ‘Normally they key off our ID tags, but tonight they’re working from intent. If someone came in intending harm, or suddenly decided to do something while here, the wards would trigger. And they aren’t nice. Mei can trigger them if required as well, just in case the spell doesn’t catch a threat.’
‘That’s a very attractive woman,’ Hoffman said. ‘The Chinese Ambassador to the United States is a sixty year old man with a face like a boot. Half deaf too.’
‘It does sound like we got the better deal,’ Lily agreed.
‘Sure did.’ Hoffman picked up his wine glass and took a drink. He had been nursing the same glass the whole time, alternating with water. ‘So, Doctor Brent, I’m told you’re quite the genius at thaumatology.’
‘I’m not sure I’d say genius…’ Ceri replied.
‘That’s because she’s naturally self-effacing,’ Lily put in. ‘She’s a genius.’
‘I have a very talented boss,’ Ceri said, mock-scowling at Lily, ‘and something of a natural talent for the subject. Both my parents were enchanters, two of the best in the business, and there’s a lot of theory in enchanting.’
‘She’s crazy smart,’ Jenny said. ‘She was the smartest kid in school by miles when she was six and I’m pretty sure she’s just got cleverer.’
‘I’m just a practical magician,’ Hoffman said. ‘Wizardry, mostly. Elemental spells and defence. I don’t know much about the theory behind it all. We leave that to the boffins in Cambridge. Uh, that’s Cambridge, Massachusetts. I think you’re more likely to have heard of the Cambridge over here.’
‘I’ve read a load of papers out of MIT,’ Ceri said. ‘I’ve even swapped a few emails with some of your theoreticians. They’ve done far more work on Infinite Field Theory than we have. It’s considered very impractical here. Fanciful.’
‘Then why look into it? If you don’t mind me asking?’
‘We discovered circumstances where an infinite magical field could exist, unconstrained, in the real world. I needed to prove to my government that it was a really, incredibly, bad idea to actually construct the device which would cause it.’
‘How bad?’ Hoffman asked.
‘It’d make your Trinity site look like a firecracker.’ Ceri was rather pleased with the grimace she got from the American. ‘Take all of the German bombs that kicked off the Shattering, set them off in one place…’ He was wincing now. ‘…and you still wouldn’t get the sort of bang we’re talking about with this.’
‘So, uh, not a good idea then?’
Ceri laughed. ‘No, not a good idea. I had all the data to back it up, a complete analysis of what would happen. They scrapped the project. Partially thanks to the guys in your Cambridge.’
‘I’m glad we could be of assistance,’ Hoffman said, smiling.
‘What’s America like?’ Lily asked. ‘We see a few news reports and such, but I’ve never really met someone from there.’
‘Uh…’ He leaned back on his chair, raised his eyebrows, and breathed in heavily through his nose. ‘Wow… what’s it like? Well, not that different to here, I guess. Bigger. We have a lot of open space outside the cities. I spend most of my time in DC, of course. That’s a nice city. It looks younger than London, but it does have a fair amount of green space in it. I was surprised to see all the parks here.’
‘We live right beside one,’ Lily said. ‘Kennington Park, south of the Thames.’
‘I guess you could say I live across the river too,’ Hoffman said. ‘A town called Alexandria. It’s across the Potomac and down a bit, outside the main metropolitan districts on the north side. Going up from the river it’s fairly heavily built up all the way to Boston. People moved up into the north east in the forties and fifties, as far as they could get from the really bad areas. There was a lot of building and rebuilding. A lot of the population still lives up in that area.’
‘You miss where you grew up,’ Lily said, her voice holding a hint of sadness. ‘Rolling hills, miles of grassland.’ Hoffman looked at her, frowning. ‘Sorry,’ Lily said, ‘it’s a succubus thing. I can see your desires. I’m usually more discreet about it. Sorry.’
‘It’s… That’s quite a talent. I can see why the police must think you’re great. You’re right, I was born in what used to be South Dakota.’
‘Used to be?’ Ceri said. ‘So that’s in the tribal territories?’
Hoffman nodded. ‘I ran away from home when I was seventeen, headed for the big city, ended up training with the Secret Service. I’ve never been back. It was far too quiet, but I do miss the hills. Walking up there was one of my favourite pastimes.’
Lily smiled. ‘I left home at fifteen, and I’ve never been back either. Of course, I ended up making a living on my back for five years, so I think you did better.’
‘Ed, this is where you got to.’ Everyone at the table looked up at the sound of the voice. Its owner was George Wilson
and Hoffman was on his feet in an instant. ‘And you’re keeping such lovely young ladies to yourself.’ Beside the President, his wife rolled her eyes, but looked happy enough and favoured Lee with a smile.
Hoffman smiled, if a bit stiffly. ‘Mr President, I’d like to introduce Ceridwyn Brent, Jenny Li, and Lily Carpenter, and that young man is Lee, Miss Li’s partner. Ladies, gentleman, this is President George Wilson and his wife Eleanor.’
‘Please don’t get up.’ Eleanor said quickly. ‘We’re just doing the rounds.’
‘Thank you,’ Jenny said. ‘You have no idea how hard it is to move in this dress.’
Eleanor laughed and her husband chuckled. ‘Honey, I know just how you feel,’ Eleanor replied. Her gaze turned to Ceri. 'I'm glad Huanglong didn’t ask me to dance. This gown doesn’t stretch like yours.’ Her slim, black evening gown had a short split to the knee at the back, but it looked like moving her thighs was an interesting exercise in applied physics. ‘Though I notice he’s only danced with the Ambassador and you. He’s a selective sort of man.’
Ceri was surprised, though she tried not to show it. ‘He’s a dragon, ma’am, they’re kind of… different. He was interested in my research and he knows Mei from their home. I suspect he doesn’t spend much time in human form.’
‘You seem to know a lot about dragons,’ the President said.
‘It’s a hobby,’ Ceri lied. ‘We know they had an influence on Chinese culture. I believe they had a much greater, beneficial, influence on Western culture than we currently acknowledge.’
‘They aren’t something that turns up in American myth,’ Wilson said. ‘The natives had other kinds of monster and bogeyman, and our own heritage comes from a time when dragons were not a staple of folklore.’
‘I’m originally Welsh,’ Ceri said. ‘We like our dragons in Wales.’
Eleanor’s expression of professional interest suddenly turned brighter. ‘Well that’s something. My father’s family came over from Wales in the nineteenth century. My maiden name is Hughes.’
‘Ah!’ Lily exclaimed. ‘Eleanor Hughes. That’s where I know the face. I’ve seen a couple of your movies. Child of Light was pretty good.’
Thaumatology 07 - Eagle's Shadow Page 2