Ailey's Dragon

by Lisa Daniels

  “The clean-up is the real problem.” Zandra looked at the dish with disgust on her face.

  “No, the real problem is what has stirred up the remains. What has caused them to leak into the water system. That doesn’t just happen after a few thousand years. Something is forcing whatever is left of the Sluagh to move up.” She gave Zandra a look, waiting for the realization to kick in. The healer just shook her head. “The real problem is that there is something even worse living under the city.”

  “Shit.”

  “Indeed,” Ailey sighed, then gave the healer a little smile. “But clean-up is a very close second for the real problem.”

  “Any idea what it could be?”

  “First things first. We need to clean out the water and start to treat the problem. I’ve got something I mixed from research about strange toxins and how to dispel them.”

  Zandra held up her hands. “There’s no way I can treat so many people. I'm not skilled enough.”

  Ailey couldn’t help but laugh. Immediately she regretted it as her body began to shake with another violent fit. Zandra calmed her lungs after the first minute. “Not that kind of treatment,” she gasped. Wiping the blood from her mouth, Ailey waved a hand toward her cabinets. “There’s a purplish liquid in there. Please bring it here. May as well be the first test subject. All of my notes are in here.” She patted a large book as Zandra set the bottle with the liquid on the desk. “If this kills me, then you guys will be a lot further along.”

  “But-” Zandra watched in horror as Ailey tilted the entire bottle into her mouth.

  “See? It isn’t so-” That was the last thing Ailey remembered before passing out.

  A warm hand pushed her hair back as Ailey tried to regain consciousness. A warm pair of lips warmed her icy forehead. “You don’t get out of it that easily.” The familiar voice was beside her ear, and for a moment Ailey smiled as she thought she felt Ash stroke her face.

  Suddenly, her memories came back in full, and Ailey sat bolt upright, sweat pouring down her face.

  “Thank gods! You are alive!” A female body pressed up against hers and Ailey blinked for a few moments. When Zandra appeared in front of her, the medic rubbed her forehead.

  “Where is he? I know he is here.”

  “Thelon just left. He said you were going to wake soon, and he was needed elsewhere.”

  “No, I mean...” Suddenly her head began to throb. “Oh gods, that hurts.”

  “Here.” A cold delicate hand rested on her forehead. Zandra muttered a few words and the pain subsided. She looked down at Ailey. “Better?”

  Moving her neck, Ailey heard some popping. “Yes, thank you. That’s much better.”

  “It looked like you were on the brink of death.”

  “How long was I out?”

  “Just a few hours. You developed a dangerously high fever, but after an hour and a half, that broke and you began to sweat profusely. There was some pretty gross black stuff mixed in, so I kept a steady charm on you to wash any new residue off you as soon as it surfaced.”

  “Thanks again.”

  “Yeah, well, unfortunately, no one knows about that. I’m worried that it could be a problem when they start to use the cure on more people.”

  “Well, let’s go see how many witches and wizards we can dredge up.” Ailey swung her legs over the bed and tried to stand. Immediately her legs gave way.

  “You aren’t going anywhere.” Zandra wrapped the medic in her blankets and tried to tuck her in.

  “I am not here to convalesce, I am here to cure. You keep me locked up in a little place like this, you are condemning others to die.”

  “But-”

  “If I can’t walk, then you will help. Now, please dress me.” She pushed the covers off, exposing her naked body to the colder air. Zandra mumbled the words and moved her hands. A light flash, and Ailey was fully clothed. “Thank you. Let’s go.”

  “I still think this is a bad idea.”

  “That’s fine. As long as you do what I request, you are welcome to voice your disagreement.”

  “You didn’t exactly ask.”

  “I didn’t say ask, I said request. You could have chosen not to help.”

  “Then you would have expended energy doing it yourself. Not much of a choice.”

  “I never said it was, but it was still a choice.”

  “Anyone who falls for you is going to have a lot more than they bargained for.”

  Ailey smiled, “I don’t know, I think I’m pretty predictable. You just have to be able to anticipate.”

  Zandra gave a derisive laugh. “It would be exhausting. High maintenance doesn’t even begin to cover what you are.”

  A little later, the medics and healers sat around a table listening to Ailey detail what the problem was and what they needed to do. Several of them balked at the idea of using magic.

  “It’s fine if you want to condemn your patients to death, but you may not endanger mine with your superstitious nonsense. Two hundred years ago, they refused to use elf’s root. If you want to live in the past, you will go do it elsewhere. If you want to stay here and save lives, you will do it my way because we do not know the risks of ignoring the benefits of magic.”

  “What if a patient objects to magic?”

  Ailey turned to look at the speaker, a young woman who had been a medic for less than four years. “They will be unconscious when it happens. If you tell them beforehand that magic will be used in their healing, I will hold you personally responsible if they die. The Association does not back your archaic bullshit, and you will not undermine me without consequence.”

  The young woman glared at her, but kept her mouth shut.

  Ailey looked around at the rest of the team. “Do any of you know any witches or wizards still in the city?”

  “There is a shop that caters to them in the middle of the shopping district.” Thelon rose. “I will go there now and see who is available.”

  “Thank you, Thelon, but I need you here. Zandra, will you go?”

  The healer cast a look at her, then nodded. Rising from the table, she left.

  “First, we need to start working on the medicine, then we will start to disperse it. There isn’t enough room for all of us in the lab, so I want those of you who are adept at potions to stay. Everyone else, I want you to try to bring all of the sick here. It will be easier to treat this in one place than to disperse such a small team across a large area. Oh, and all of you will need to drink it at some point as well. The odds that you have been contaminated are nearly 100%. We are going to err on the side of caution.”

  The next 24 hours saw a flurry of activity around the ward. Ailey’s health improved, but because she refused to rest, the process was much slower than for their patients. Not everyone survived the treatment – the ones who were on the verge of death were too far gone to save, but the vast majority of patients began to recover during the first day.

  As the second day showed that the cure was working, Ailey’s thoughts turned to the real problem. If the creature lurking under the city continued, no amount of cleaning would rid the city of the problem. She didn’t know much about monsters, and she certainly wasn’t a fighter, but Ailey figured that it was still part of the cure. As the city began to show signs of life being restored, Ailey began to plan for a trip under the city.

  Zandra brought it up when she and Ailey talked just before Zandra’s departure. “Didn’t you say at some point that there was a more serious problem that we needed to worry about? All of this celebration may be a bit premature.”

  Ailey waved a hand at her. “It’s nothing for you to worry about. We’ll bring in some professionals to deal with it.”

  Zandra gave her a skeptical look. “If you are sure.” She knocked back her drink and slammed the glass on the table. “That was some alcoholic beverage.”

  Ailey smiled at her but kept writing, her own drink untouched.

  “Do you mind?” Zandra reached over and picked up
Ailey’s drink.

  “It’s all yours if you will do me one favor.”

  “Another one?” Zandra gave her a lopsided grin.

  Rolling her eyes, Ailey slipped the notes into a small satchel, then held that out to Zandra. “I need these delivered to the major cities and Association outposts. If you can deliver two or three of them to the closest places, the Association can manage the rest.”

  “Of course.” Zandra took the satchel and put it over her shoulder. Lifting the glass up, she threw it back in one gulp. With a little sigh of pleasure, she stood up. “I’ve been meaning to ask.” Ailey looked up at her from a clean sheet of paper. “Why didn’t you tell anyone what you were doing?”

  “At which point?”

  Zandra gave a little chuckle, “When you were drinking that stuff on purpose. Why didn’t you say something?”

  “If anyone had known, they would have tried to stop me. It would have taken longer and more people would have died.”

  “You could have died.”

  “That’s part of the profession. Sometimes, the cost of saving others is your own life. I made peace with that a long time ago.”

  Zandra shook her head. “And they say humans are weak and selfish.”

  “I’ve known plenty who prove them right.”

  “But then there are people like you and Ester. You put your lives on the line, and all you ask for in return-” She lifted up the bag.

  Ailey laughed, ending with a couple of coughs. She shook her head as Zandra looked like she was about to use magic. “Just residuals. And before you go thinking that I’m being entirely altruistic, you delivering that will save me so much time and trouble later.”

  “Fair enough.” Zandra smiled. “I suppose I should get moving so that you can rest easier.”

  Ailey gave a faint smile, her mind not really on the conversation. Zandra knew better than to try to keep the medic talking. With a chuckle, she exited the little abode and headed to say her farewells to the rest of the group.

  Chapter 10

  The Meaning of Sacrifice

  After Zandra’s departure, Ailey spent two days ensuring the patients continued to improve. It had been almost a week since they had lost anyone from the illness. Now it was time to see about cleansing the people who appeared healthy and starting the process of cleaning up the real problem.

  Of course, she didn’t tell anyone about the actual cause, that Sluagh cells had contaminated the water, and she certainly did not mention the probability of something worse causing the problem. She used simpler terms that were less frightening and that would keep the populace form panicking, or worse, rioting over the discovery. Her findings would be recorded for medics to study, but many similar findings were never revealed to larger audiences.

  Over those couple of days, Ailey pondered how to proceed. The immediate danger appeared to be over, but how long would it take to get an expert to Melzi? How long would it take to find the creature? Could the city, finally beginning to recover, afford another setback if it took too long?

  Ailey tried to find a solution other than her going into the undercity, but there was nothing that presented itself. She had heard that the closest professionals were in Tepe Sialk dealing with something. The next closest were across the ocean. She frowned at the report as she read it again, and she wondered how much of a coincidence it was that all of this happened at the same time. There were always bad things going on, but usually they were less mysterious. War was horrible, but it wasn’t the same as the strange and inexplicable events that seemed to be cropping up in the seven kingdoms. With a sigh, Ailey knew that it wasn’t something she would be able to solve; her plate was already quite full.

  Deciding that there was nothing for it but to try to figure out at least what they were facing, Ailey began to tell people that she was going to go away for a short break to convalesce somewhere more remote. She received no pushback.

  Packing up her bag, Ailey looked around the little place that had been her residence for such a short period of time. A lot had happened, but that was now in the past. There was no need to return after her trek to the undercity because she had had plenty of time to look for clues about what had happened to Ester while she had been hiding her illness. She had talked to the guards, and none of them had noticed anything unusual that night. There had to be someone somewhere who knew, but that was not the task before her. Right now, she needed to see what could be done about the undercity.

  As the door closed behind her, the paper on the table fluttered and slid onto the floor. A figure stepped out of the shadow and picked it up. The paper was placed back on top of the table, a quick note hastily scrawled along the bottom, then a weight was placed on the corner to keep the paper from moving. When the door stirred the air again, the paper rustled but remained in one place.

  Ailey waved at the guards at the gate, and moved up the road a ways. When she was out of sight of the city, she moved into the woods and backtracked to the city. The entrance to the undercity was beneath a forgotten grate at the base of the southern wall. The thing was rusted shut, but Ailey had plenty of concoctions to force it open. After removing the rust, she greased the hinges, and the lid swung open without a sound. She bit her lip as she looked into the darkness. Naturally, she had packed a lot of candles, but it was possible that the walls would be too damp, putting out her light and trapping her underground.

  “Don’t.”

  Startled, Ailey dropped the lid and quickly turned around. She knew the voice, but there was no one there. “Ash?” There was a note of hope in her voice as she looked around at the long, open stretch of land. There was nowhere for Ash to hide if he had been there.

  Shaking her head, Ailey looked around. There was a large piece of wood nearby, likely thrown over the ramparts. She picked it up, tore a part of her dress, and wrapped it around the wood. Next she pulled open the lid. Without allowing any time to hesitate, she struck a match and lit the makeshift torch. She descended into the undercity, all consideration for safety left behind.

  Several hours passed with only a few signs of anything more sinister underground. There were a few human corpses, something that she realized she should have expected, given human nature. These were usually near sewer openings in the streets. Still, it was jarring to see them, and she passed by them as quickly as possible.

  At one point she stopped under one of the openings and looked up. The sun was well underway to setting, yet she had nothing, not a sign or hint of what had started the plague.

  Suddenly a loud noise echoed from a far passage. Holding up her torch, Ailey tried to see the source of the noise. With only more passages shown back at her, she moved toward the source. The closer she got, the more Ailey could hear a low whimpering. Quickening her pace, she fully expected to find an abandoned pet dropped into the sewer. It was such a long drop, it was amazing that anything could survive.

  The passage sloped down, and Ailey knew that she was reaching the really old portion of the undercity. If there really was something under the city, this was likely where it would be. Of course, it wouldn’t be easy to find it. The old Melzi was smaller than the current one, but it was still bigger than Derbe, which meant it would be easy to get lost. The further she went, the more city there was above her. She was several levels down by the time she reached the end of the slope. There were no sewer lids down here, no sources of light besides her torch.

  A hand stretched out of the darkness and pulled the torch from her hands. “You wanted to ditch me so badly that you drugged me.”

  At first Ailey had no words. She had come down here expecting to find the unexpected, but this was probably the only thing she had never anticipated. As soon as she looked into Ash’s eyes, a smile spread across her face. Without a word, she wrapped her arms around him. “Thank gods, you are alright.”

  He pushed her away. “Did you mean to give me enough to hurt me? Is that surprise on your face?”

  Ailey grinned from ear to ear. “I kept you a
way long enough that you shouldn't be in danger anymore. I hoped you would be furious and just forget about me. You are too young to think clearly. I wasn’t about to let you get killed because of me.”

  Her smile faltered as she realized Ash hadn’t smiled once yet. He took a step toward her, but it was menacing. “I'm too young? Coming from you, that’s rich. I’m over twice your age.”

  “Yes, but Anani said-”

  “Oh, of course, Anani said, so there’s no reason to talk to me about it. Let’s ignore my thoughts on the matter and pretend that what I feel is nothing more than the error of youth.” He stepped toward her, the torch casting a sinister light across his face. Ailey stepped back, her foot hitting a part of the ground that stuck out. She lost her balance and landed hard on the ground.

  As she looked up at Ash, she saw a strange shadow on the wall behind him. The light from the torch flickered, making it difficult to tell what was moving just out of the light. She scrambled to her feet, her eyes searching the darkness.

  Ash watched her without a word.

  A strange shape formed on the wall, and too late, she realized that it was about to strike. Pushing Ash to the side, Ailey felt something push through her stomach, knocking her backward. She slammed into the wall and for a moment she stayed pressed up against it with something pushing on her from the front. Ailey tried to get her eyes to see through the near-complete darkness, but the torch had gone out when it had hit the ground. There was an excruciating pain in her abdomen.

  An ear-splitting roar soon distracted her from the pain in her stomach. As she covered her ears, the thing pressing her against the wall pulled away, and she dropped like a rag doll to the ground. Clutching at her side, Ailey could feel the blood flowing through a gash in her side. Pulling herself to the side, Ailey propped herself up against the wall and opened her bag. She didn’t need the light to know what to do. Another roar startled Ailey, but she remained focused on her work. Pushing in on the wound, she began to call out, “Ash.” There was no response, but her voice was weak, and she had used all of her strength to get him out of the way. She coughed as she called his name a few more times. Ailey felt some small sense of success that she did not taste blood. Pulling the bag onto her shoulders, she tried to pull herself to her feet. “Ash, please answer me.”