Dragon Lost

by Lisa Manifold

  What are you, some kind of family?

  I am your grandfather.

  I leaned back, my eyes closed. I couldn’t take it all in. What? You’re my what?

  Your grandfather.

  That would have been great to know when I was running away from the latest crappy foster family.

  What are foster families?

  It’s where they put you when there’s nowhere else. Where the fuck have you been all my life?

  In a cage.

  I stopped. I’d seen the bars. Was that you? With the bars in front of you?

  You saw that?

  I saw a lot of shit.

  I’m sorry. Waking to your dragon mind is difficult under the best of circumstances. You haven’t grown up with it.

  “Wait, wait,” I said getting up.

  “What?” Margrite asked.

  I shook my head at her, mouthing the words, “Hang on,” and continued the conversation in my head. What are you talking about?

  I’m guessing you saw parts of the rest of us.

  The rest of you? How many are there?

  There are eleven full dragons, and one half-dragon. Well, a bit less than half, but I think that can be—

  Wait. There’s more like me? Why only eleven?

  That is a long story, Aodan. I would like you to come to the Dragon Realm, and we will talk.

  No.

  Why?

  I have my life planned out, thank you. You weren’t there for me growing up, when I was getting my face rubbed in the dirt, or cigarettes put out next to my arm. No, I don’t want you, I don’t need you.

  I was angry, and there was no stopping it. I could feel the anger well up inside me like a huge wave, the kind you saw in movies right before the wave destroyed a city. That’s where I was right now. Ready to destroy a city.

  I am sorry, came the voice.

  Yeah, well, sorry isn’t cutting it right now. Just go away. I have shit to do. I pictured myself shutting a door, and while I could hear talking behind the door, it wasn’t up front in my head.

  “Let’s go see her,” Margrite said.

  “What?” I hadn’t been paying attention. It was a sign of how out of whack things were that she hadn’t punched me for ignoring her.

  “Nala. Let’s go see her.”

  “You’re still on about that?”

  Margrite crossed her arms and said, “You turned into a dragon. I think being all judgey about mumbo jumbo shit is pretty much out the window right now.”

  I opened my mouth to shut her down, shut her up when I realized that she was right. I’d lost the battle to be all superior. Because some pretty mumbo jumbo shit was going on with me.

  “Fine,” I sighed. “Let me get cleaned up and we’ll go. But we’re leaving tonight.”

  “Absolutely.”

  “No matter what she says, right?” I knew I needed to make this point. Margrite really believed a lot of what Nala said.

  At the moment, I couldn’t recall the chick’s success rate with anything, and I sure as hell wasn’t getting into that discussion with Margrite.

  She was like a shark. She’d sense my weakness, and I’d have to live with blessings on the room along with other oddball rituals forever and ever. No way.

  “All right. You can probably go back to sleep for a while. I’ll get you up in time to get there when she opens.” She left the room.

  I sat back down on my ruined bed.

  What the hell was going on? Why did the voice in my head say it—he—was my grandfather? The thought gave me a pang. I’d never had any family other than Margrite. Anything more felt… weird.

  And fake.

  I shook my head, forcing myself to look forward, see what had to be done today. We needed to hit up the psychic chick, do a check around the building and make sure that nothing that could lead to us was left, and get out.

  There wasn’t much I could do to save my bed, but I lay down on the mattress and closed my eyes.

  As my heart calmed, and my brain stopped racing, Margrite came back in.

  “A,” she whispered. “There’s someone out in front.”

  I sat up, instantly alert.

  “You see anything?”

  “I heard them. I turned off my light and came in here.”

  I moved out of bed, taking care not to step on the remains. I felt in the dark for her hand and pulled her close to me.

  “We’ll go out and see if we can see or hear anything from the hallway. If they come in, we’re going across the hall.”

  The apartment across the way was beat to hell, but we’d made a hiding place in one of the closets in a room.

  Carefully, we moved through our apartment and out the front door. There was a window that was broken at the end of the hall. It was a good lookout point.

  I crouched down and closed my eyes. I focused on listening.

  There they were. They were walking.

  “Did you hear a car?” I whispered against Margrite’s head.

  She moved her head back and forth.

  Okay. That meant they were parked on the next street over. If they’d driven right up to the building, we would have heard them. The road was always covered in trash.

  I could tell they were talking. They weren’t really bothering to lower their voices, or be discreet, or anything that would suggest they were supposed to be doing this on the quiet.

  “… you think he’s here?” One said.

  “He’s been seen here,” Two answered.

  “That doesn’t mean anything. He’s a crafty little shit.”

  “Whatever.”

  I could nearly see Two shrugging.

  “Well, let’s leave a message,” One sighed. “And then let’s finally get back, so I can get some sleep. He’s got to lay off, or I’m going to die.”

  One was kind of whiny.

  But if this guy worked for Caleb, I felt a stab of satisfaction that Caleb was freaking out. I hoped his big bad boss kicked his arrogant mouthy ass.

  The wall next to me shuddered, then shuddered again.

  “What the hell?” Margrite whispered.

  “I don’t know.”

  A few more shudders, and then I heard them talking again.

  “It’ll be a miracle if that holds,” One said.

  I could hear his admiring tone.

  “Well, boss said to make it hurt. One wrong move, and this is going to hurt.” Two chuckled. “Come on. Let’s go.”

  Their footsteps moved away.

  “What did they do?”

  “I think they knocked down something. Maybe a wall, or structural support? I don’t know,” I said.

  “We need to check,” she said.

  “Not tonight. We need to stay here, and move carefully, and make no noise.”

  We took our time making our way back, not only because we didn’t know if someone had stayed to watch over the place, but because we had no idea what kind of damage had been done.

  Anger burned in me hot and fiery.

  Whoever did this would pay.

  6

  I lay down for about an hour before the sun came up, making further sleep impossible.

  I kept seeing things that I knew weren’t my life every time I closed my eyes.

  A woman holding a baby, and then a dragon leaning over her.

  A different man taking the baby away. The woman crying.

  The dragon that had leaned over the woman lying on the ground. It wasn’t moving, and the sadness that overtook me as I saw that was strong I felt tears slide down my cheeks.

  Finally, I’d had enough. Reluctantly, I rolled out of bed. Once I’d gotten dressed, and spent a little time getting myself back together, I felt more normal. I wasn’t sure that normal would ever be a thing again, but for the time being, I’d take it.

  “Let’s go,” I said, coming out of my room.

  Margrite jumped up, and we silently walked out of our place, and then down the stairs. Years of caution and practice made us quiet. You could
be standing outside the building and you wouldn’t hear us coming down the stairs.

  I peered outside out of habit and didn’t see anyone. Although it was clear that some sort of shit had gone down. The front of the building where I’d banged around with the bike looked like hell. But the guys who’d come along before sunrise made it worse.

  They were right, too. Damn it. We would be lucky if this side of the building didn’t collapse.

  “We’d have to leave if we were staying,” Margrite remarked, casting a glance over at the wreckage.

  “Good thing we’re leaving,” I said.

  She nodded, and we continued on in silence. Heads down, but aware of one another. We’d always been this way. It was why I liked being around her. There wasn’t a lot of need for words, for all that extra talk that people liked to indulge in.

  Margrite led the way. I didn’t go to her magic shoppe, or as I called it, the woo woo joint. After fifteen minutes, she turned into a doorway of an older building.

  “I called her. She has time to see us right now,” Margrite said.

  “What?”

  “Nothing. Come on,” she made a sighing noise.

  As we entered, I remembered why I didn’t care for these places. Too much scent, heavy incense burners. It made my nose tickle.

  And it bothers your dragon.

  Wait. What? I stopped, waiting to see if the thought would come to me again. It wasn’t the voice I’d heard earlier, but it was… something.

  “Are you coming? You promised,” Margrite said from about ten feet in front of me.

  “Yeah, I’m coming,” I said.

  She turned and walked through a curtain, and I followed her. It was a darkened room, a bunch of candles around. The incense wasn’t as strong in here, thank god. If I sneezed too hard in here, I’d set the place on fire.

  “Hey, Nala, thanks for seeing us,” Margrite said.

  I’d been so busy looking around I hadn’t seen the small woman who sat at a round table in front of us.

  Stereotypical, I thought. She’s just missing the crystal ball.

  “I am glad to. I need to make sure that you’re all right,” Nala said, eyeing first Margrite and then me. “You sounded out of sorts when we spoke.”

  She was young. She had curly dark hair that wound out from her head in every direction. I heard a light tinkling sound, and I could see that Nala wore stacks of bracelets on each wrist that made a noise as she moved. She was holding a deck of cards, idly shuffling them. Her eyes were on us, so I thought it might be habit more than anything else.

  Nala was pretty and didn’t give off the woo woo vibe. I met her gaze, and I could feel power in hers.

  Wow.

  Not what I expected at all. As I thought that, her mouth lifted into a smile.

  “Sit, and we’ll see if there are any answers for you.”

  “You mean you can’t guarantee the answers?” I asked.

  Margrite elbowed me. I thought I’d kept the sarcasm down but I guess not.

  “Never any guarantees,” Nala said with a shrug. “But you get nothing if you don’t even bother to look.”

  “Yeah,” Margrite said, elbowing me again.

  “Hey,” I said in warning.

  She ignored me. “We’re… well, we’re okay. But some things have come up that I really want some clarity for.”

  “For yourself, or the both of you?”

  “Both,” Margrite said. “I need it for me, and Aodan sure as hell needs it, even if he’ll die before admitting it.”

  I glared at Margrite and then turned back to Nala. “I would like some answers, if there are any.”

  “Which you doubt?” Nala’s smile widened.

  “Yep,” I said.

  She laughed. “I prefer honest skepticism. I can’t guarantee anything, Aodan. But we’ll try.”

  That was good. Making this a ‘we’ thing, rather than just her. I nodded.

  “What I want to know is what does—what do the new developments mean?” Margrite asked.

  That surprised me. I didn’t think she’d be all out in the open.

  “And you? What questions do you have?”

  “Uh,” I said. I didn’t realize we’d have to do anything other than sit here. “I guess along the same lines as Margrite. What does it mean, all this new… info we’ve gotten? And what does it mean for our plans?” I added.

  Nala held up a hand, stopping me from adding on. “Don’t ask anything else. I like to have a general question in mind and then see what the cards say. Who will choose?”

  “Aodan,” Margrite said. “He needs to be the one doing all of this. I think, and I’m not trying to presume,” she smiled at Nala, “That a Majors only would be the best thing for him.”

  Nala stilled and looked from Margrite to me. “You do? Why?”

  Margrite looked like her cheeks were red, but it was hard to tell in this light. She ducked her head down a little. “He’s not really into this, and I think a smaller group of cards to work with, cards where the meaning can be seen more clearly, makes it a little easier.”

  I was astounded. I hadn’t seen Margrite this uncomfortable in… ages. Like, I couldn’t remember the last time.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  Margrite didn’t look at me. What the hell?

  Nala nodded, a slight smile on her face as she looked at Margrite. But she didn’t answer one way or the other. She pulled several decks of cards from under the table and set them between us. “Choose your deck, Aodan.”

  “Why?”

  “The deck is part of this. Choose the one that speaks to you.”

  I looked them. They had different patterns on the backs of the cards. Nothing really stood out—then I saw the last deck, the one that was closest to where I sat on the right side of the table.

  “That one,” I said. It had a gold medallion, or something on the back. There was a red dot in the center. I couldn’t see exactly what it was, but I found the pattern pleasing. As though it called to—no. Those kinds of thoughts had no place with me. They opened you up for suggestion. Which is what this place specialized in, right?

  Nala smiled as though I’d given her the right answer.

  “Let me separate them, and then,” she moved her hands quickly, so that I couldn’t see the images on the front of the cards. “Don’t look. Just shuffle.” Then she handed me the smaller pile she’d pulled out of the larger one. “In whatever manner you would like, for as long as you want. When you are satisfied, hand them back to me.”

  I took them, and the room felt heavy and quiet as I shuffled. I could hear the snick of the cards against one another, and hiss of the candles, along with a light floral scent. Every one of my senses seemed heightened, more aware.

  When I handed the cards back, she took them in both hands, and closed her eyes. Then she opened them, and began turning cards over on the table. There was some sort of pattern, but it made no sense to me.

  I heard Margrite make a small gasping noise. I choked.

  The deck was full of dragons. Every card had a dragon on it. Large, beautiful in the intensity of color on each card, and powerful. The images themselves radiated power. That was something I understood. You didn’t survive without projecting power.

  Was that what I looked like? I’d been so knocked back, I hadn’t really had time to look at myself.

  Nala glanced at us quickly and then went back to studying the cards.

  After what seemed like an age, she leaned back, and regarded both of us.

  “This is interesting. Are you ready?”

  “Sure,” I said. “But before we get started, why do they all have dragons on them?”

  “It’s the Dragon deck,” Nala answered. She held up a card from the part of the deck she hadn’t given me to shuffle. “See? The dragon on the back?”

  I hadn’t realized the gold medallion was actually a dragon.

  Nala continued, “That means all the cards will be shown via the artist’s int
erpretation of how dragons look.”

  Here comes the drama, I thought. We gave something away with our response to the images on the cards.

  “This is the spread called the Celtic Cross. It tells me a little about what has happened in the past, and what’s coming for you in the future. This is more about you, isn’t it?” She peered at me.

  “Yes,” Margrite said before I could answer.

  I was still stuck on Margrite’s reaction when the cards were shown.

  “Do you want the overview, the high level, or do you want me to get into it?” Nala asked.

  “How about somewhere in the middle?”

  She smiled. “Okay. These first two cards,” Nala indicated the ones in a cross in the middle of the pattern, “Are you,” she tapped the one on the bottom, “And your current situation.” Another tap, this time on the card on top.

  “So. You. You’re this one, the Emperor. It’s interesting. The Emperor is the boss, the man in charge, the dad in the house. But you didn’t grow up with your dad, did you?”

  I glared at Margrite.

  She held up her hands. “I didn’t say anything. Nala is just good!”

  “Uh, huh,” I grumbled.

  “Your life doesn’t follow the typical idea of this card—you aren’t conventional, or a believer in doing what’s expected. That’s the no dad figure,” she said, almost to herself. “But because of that, because of the chaos you have lived, now, when you make your own choices, you do follow your routines. You have rules. Schedules. Patterns. These are very important to you. And you are the boss in your world. Also very important.”

  “No kidding,” Margrite muttered.

  “Now your situation,” Nala continued. “This is the Death card. Before you start looking over your shoulder, stop your ideas of what death means. This says, to me, with what I see in the rest of this,” she waved her hand over the other cards, “That your life is about to change. Think of this more as a closing of life as you know it. You’re not going to die,” she looked up at me, “Although you might, because no one ever knows when Death will appear, but in general, you will experience an entirely new life, a new path, something that is so foreign from what you know now, it can seem a death. That’s not a bad thing, and I think that this is saying you should give the new a chance. Which is not something you normally do, is it?”