Alvia shrugged.
“There’ve been a string of murders in the city,” Tony said. “Ever since Old Dark awakened.”
Alvia spit out her tea. “What?”
“Yeah,” Tony said. “It’s the story no one’s telling.”
She grabbed him by the shirt. “What do you mean Old Dark is awake? He’s alive?”
Tony nodded quickly, afraid. “Hey, what’s your—”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know. I—”
“Where is he?”
“I told you I don’t know!”
Alvia let him go, and he fell back onto the couch panting. “God, what’s the matter with you?”
Alvia ran her hands through her hair and paced around the apartment. Pepper barked at her. “It can’t be true.”
Tony grabbed the remote. His eyes drifted to the television and widened. “Well, if you think I’m lying, look at the TV.”
On the screen was footage of the downtown district. People were gathered on the streets and pointing up at several large screens. A dragon emblem was embedded all over the screens, with a headline underneath: Mysterious dragon insignia spotted on Balm Street.
It was the emblem that burned every night in her dreams. Every day she trained in fear of it, the dragon’s head flying through her mind’s eye, mocking her.
She heard the clarions in her head and put her hands to her ears. “No!” she cried.
Tony grabbed her by the shoulders. “Alvia, it’s okay!”
She pushed him away. She faced the screen, her hands on her grimoires. Pepper growled at her feet.
“I’ve got to get to the city.”
XXIV
“I’ve told ya how I felt about all this killin’,” Frog said.
Dark, Frog and Norwyn stood in the Abstraction Chamber. Ennius left them to attend to government business.
Frog croaked and said “My lord, you’re blindin’ yourself with revenge. Why don’t we talk about what we’re actually gonna do with all this equipment here?”
Norwyn held up a claw. “Shut up, Frog.”
“Shut up!” Frog boomed. He ran for Norwyn but the white dragon slashed him with his tail, knocking him backward. “You don’t understand politics.”
Frog grasped his face. “When we were at the aquifer, you chastised Lord Dark for wanting revenge. Now you’re enablin’ him!”
“There’s nothing wrong with a little blood, my boy,” Dark said. “Don’t worry yourself. I haven’t regressed in my understanding of this new world. But this score with Lucan—it’s personal.” He turned to Norwyn. “Tell your governor I accept his peace offering. Why should I be loyal to him?”
“It’s a mistake, I’m telling you!” Frog said. “My lord—”
Dark ignored him.
“Lend your support to him whenever he needs it, and he’ll restore you to power.”
“Oh ho!” Dark said, laughing. “I do not believe for one moment that an elven man such as him would relinquish his power. Is this a joke, Norwyn?”
“Yeah, it is,” Frog said. “I thought you were more prudent than this, Norwyn. It’s a risk.”
“It’s not a joke,” Norwyn said. “Frog doesn’t understand how this city works. And no, my lord, it won’t be supreme power that you’re used to, though I hope you realize by now that those days are gone. What I’m offering you is a new chapter in your life. One where we both might able to undo the untold damage that has been done to this world, so that we might not see this existence break apart. A world of order, strength, and justice.”
“I share your vision,” Dark said. “Why can’t you, Frog?”
“Because it ain’t worth it,” Frog said. “It ain’t worth bloodshed.”
Norwyn growled at him. “If you don’t agree, get out.”
“Bloodshed is what got us into this,” Frog said sullenly. “Can’t you see it? If it weren’t for your penchant for bloodshed, you wouldn’t’ve been cursed, my lord. If it weren’t for bloodshed, my father would still be alive. If it weren’t for dragons’ love of violence, we wouldn’t have this magic shortage. We wouldn’t have tensions between the three races. And we wouldn’t be here arguing about what’s best for the planet. You say you want a future, but you can’t get it with crimson-stained hands.”
Norwyn barreled across the room and slammed into Frog, knocking him through the stained-glass window.
“Norwyn!” Dark cried.
Norwyn flew out of the broken window onto the roof, where Frog lay.
Dark followed and jumped between them.
“You owe me!” Norwyn cried. “If it weren’t for me, you would have been dead a long time ago.”
“I don’t owe ya,” Frog said. “I owe my father what for puttin’ up with ya. Does my opinion mean nothin’ anymore?”
“Both of you, stand down!” Dark ordered.
“You’re no longer welcome here, Frog,” Norwyn said.
“Norwyn!” Dark cried. “All of my dragons are welcome. I need all the loyalty I can get.”
Frog glanced between Dark and Norwyn. “No, he’s right, my lord. I ain’t welcome. I ain’t never been welcome anywhere I been.”
“Go back to your tower and broadcast the weather,” Norwyn said. “Our partnership is done. And the next time you say something stupid, you’re on your own.”
“I’ve always been on my own!” Frog said. Tears were pooling in his eyes but he fought them back.
“Frog, we’ll talk later,” Dark said.
Frog roared at him. He flapped his wings and lifted into the air. “There’s nothin’ to talk about, my lord. If the world’s still standin’ by the time you realize this ain’t the way, you know where to find me.” He about-faced and flew toward the sun, eclipsing it momentarily before rising high, high into the sky.
“Frog!” Dark cried. “Frog, come back!”
But Frog did not come back.
Dark turned to Norwyn. “That was entirely unnecessary.”
Norwyn walked away. “He’s a good-natured dragon. Maybe one of the last. But he’s not what you need around you right now, my lord.”
Norwyn jumped through the broken window.
Dark looked at Frog, who was a small speck in the sky flying toward a row of skyscrapers. He thought about the river dragon’s words.
Frog was wrong. Dark knew in his heart that he was on the right path. If Frog couldn’t see that, then maybe he shouldn’t have been in the entourage. His father, Toad, would have understood; he would have followed Dark unquestioning.
All that work, lost. Such great potential!
Dark shrugged and followed Norwyn deeper into the Hall of Governance.
XXV
Frog drifted over the skies of the downtown district, Old Dark heavy on his mind. The dragon lord just wouldn’t bend. No flexibility. He let the silver sky envelop him as he wondered if he had wasted his time. For years he’d dreamt about the dragon lord and how kind he’d been to him. If it hadn’t been for Dark, Frog wouldn’t have had the childhood that he did. He never would have met Lord Dark I.
He thought about the old dragon lord, how he’d taught Frog lessons next to a pond on the palace grounds. Underneath a bright moon, he taught Frog history.
And Lady Smirnagond—his quiet but compassionate wife. They treated Frog like he was their own grandchild. And Lord Dark II! He’d treated Frog like he was his own son. Dark always had a smile on his face when he was around Frog. As a boy, Frog had heard rumors of Dark’s viciousness, but the black dragon was always warm, kind, and friendly.
But now…He wasn’t warm. He wasn’t kind. He wasn’t friendly. He was consumed with a need for revenge because of an insult on his honor. Frog could understand that. If he had been almost killed and woke up a thousand years into the future, he’d have trouble letting go, too. But it was as Lord Dark I always said—“My boy, there’s no point living in the past when the present will do.” Frog understood that.
But no one else understood that wisd
om. No one appreciated Frog. Society mocked him.
Couldn’t he—no—shouldn’t he—have gone through life bitter and angry and always wanting to settle the score? How many people could he have sought revenge on for the way they made fun of his slow drawl, his funny looks, or his meandering broadcasts? Half the city, he estimated. He could’ve made them all pay. He could’ve made a name for himself as a notorious dragon that people would have feared. And he might’ve enjoyed it.
But what was the point?
“No point living in the past when the present will do,” he said out loud as he turned and steered for the familiar row that led to his skyscraper. He fell in line with dragon traffic, flying over the streets. A family of Keeper dragons flew next to him, with proud looks on their faces.
Maybe he could’ve had a family. There were plenty of females who were willing to put up with him. But he stayed alone. No one could truly understand him.
Dark did. Or at least he used to. Now the old dragon didn’t understand him. He didn’t understand that it was worth moving on. Frog wanted to weep at the thought.
He’d dwelled in the past. He hadn’t taken the advice that he’d lived by for all these years. He put his faith in the past—in Dark—but it just wasn’t worth it.
As he flew toward his skyscraper, he noticed a larger crowd than usual gathered on the street. They were all pointing at a nearby building across the from the skyscraper.
Frog nearly fell out of the air when he saw the fourteen-story tall emblem of Old Dark imprinted on the screens. He swooped down toward the street, and the crowd ducked. Landing on the ground with a resounding boom, he looked up at the screens. The dragon emblem flickered, burning black against the white background.
How was this possible? Was there someone else in the city who wanted to pledge their loyalty?
Frog studied the screens, trying to make sense of them when he heard a voice behind him.
“Frog.”
He turned around to see Miri Charmwell, drenched from rain. “We need to talk.”
XXVI
Miri held her breath as Frog carried her into the sky, higher than she’d ever been before. After flying through a pink plasma membrane, he landed in the simulated bog on the roof.
He let her down gently, telling her to watch her step on the grass. She looked around the bog in wonder—it felt exactly like the Ancestral Bogs, save for the pink plasma barrier with the hazy skyline of the city behind it.
She noticed the studio that she had grown so used to watching—the green screen background, the cameras, the soft box lights.
“What’s it you wanted to talk about?” Frog asked, sitting in the grass. “I’ve’ll gonna tell ya that when I saw the emblem of Old Dark, I wasn’t expectin’ it to be an elf that what displayed it.”
“I’m here because you’re the only one I can talk to,” she said. “You’re the only one who understands what I’m about to tell you.”
Frog cocked an eyebrow. “What’s that, lady?”
Miri sighed, and then she wrung her hands together. “Old Dark has awakened.”
“It can’t be,” Frog said flatly. “You ought to be mistaken.”
Miri frowned. Something in the river dragon’s tone told her he was toying with her. “I’m not kidding, and I have the facts to prove it.”
“Oh? I would be interested in seein’ these ‘facts’.”
Miri pulled out a notebook from her satchel and opened it. She approached Frog, pointing to her report. She turned to a page with photos of the bog.
She told him everything.
Frog studied the photos quietly, then he looked at Miri with his eye still cocked. “Who else knows about this?”
“Me, Lucan Grimoire, his campaign manager, and a few others,” Miri said. “That’s why we have to act fast. We have to find him, Frog.”
Frog paused. Then he laughed hysterically, slapping his webbed claws on the pond, throwing up a wall of water. Miri shielded herself as it splashed on her. Frog rolled over in the grass, laughing and beating his chest.
“I don’t think this is funny,” Miri said.
“Is that right, Charmwell?” Frog asked. “Are you sure about that?”
“I’m positive. Listen—”
“No, you listen. Of course I know Old Dark is alive. I was just with him. Your news is a few days too late.”
Miri’s jaw dropped. “You—were with—what?”
“He found me,” Frog said. “And we had a disagreement. I ain’t seen him in a few hours.”
“Where is he now?” Miri asked.
Frog turned away.
Miri tracked toward him slowly. “Frog. If you know where he is, I need to know.”
“So what? You can kill him?”
Miri shook her head. “I can save him.”
Frog laughed again. “I wish I could help ya, but I don’t know where he is.”
“You said you just saw him.”
“I ain’t gonna betray him. Not for an elven woman.”
“If we don’t do something, a lot of people will die.”
Frog puffed.
Miri’s mind reeled. She didn’t know how to get through to him. “Is there anything I can say that will change your mind, Frog?”
Frog ignored her.
Miri sighed.
Frog gestured to the other end of the studio, where a door opened magically into a stairwell that led downward.
She massaged her temples. “Can I at least ask you a question?”
Frog didn’t respond.
“He’s not with Norwyn, is he?”
Frog still would not answer her. He shifted, sliding into the water until only his eyes were visible. He swam away from her.
“So much for that,” she said. She walked toward the open door but stopped short. “The blood will be on your hands, Frog.”
Frog croaked and then submerged in the water.
Miri walked away, shaking her head.
***
The sun was setting as she exited the skyscraper. People were still gathered around the white screens. She had only paid the owner to display the emblems until midnight; after that they would disappear forever.
She pulled out her phone. She started to dial Celesse but stopped.
She was a failure.
A taxi braked in front of her and she saw her reflection in it momentarily before it pulled away. Her hair was a disheveled mess in front of her eyes. Her coat was soaked, and it would be a miracle if she didn’t walk away from all of this without pneumonia. She hadn’t showered. Her makeup was gone. Every bone in her body pulsed with tiredness.
No wonder Frog had turned her away. She would have turned herself away, too.
She couldn’t even convince the friendliest of dragons that her mission was worth fighting for. What she wanted now, more than anything, was a comfortable bed and a bottle of wine. But she didn’t know if even alcohol could wash away this feeling of failure.
She held the phone to her forehead, breathing in deeply.
She called Celesse.
“Miri? How are things going?”
“I failed.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry. I haven’t been able to find Old Dark.”
She heard Lucan’s voice in the distance. Then he phone shifted and she heard his voice.
“Miri, hey—talk to me.”
“You’re out?”
“You know they couldn’t hold me,” Lucan said. There was fatigue in his voice. “You sound as tired as I am,” he said.
“You have no idea.”
“Miri, don’t be so hard on yourself. It’s not over yet.”
“But I just don’t know what to do. I don’t know where to look.”
She told him about Frog.
“Well, that bastard dragon was never much help to the city anyway,” Lucan said. “You don’t have any more leads?”
Miri shook her head. After a few seconds she realized that Lucan couldn’t see her.
“M
aybe we should regroup?” Miri asked.
“Negative. Celesse and I have an engagement. Donor’s Ball. We released a statement to the media about an hour ago. Tonight’s pretty much my last chance to win donors over before I sink in the polls.”
“You’re an anti-establishment candidate. It may not matter that much.”
“Maybe. But it’s better that you keep a low profile for a while. Things have gotten pretty crazy around me lately, and I need you to focus on finding Dark.”
“Lucan, are we going to beat this?”
Lucan paused before answering. “Yeah. I think so. I just don’t know how, yet. I’m still thinking. You going to be okay?”
“No.”
“Geez, Miri. Cheer up, will you?”
“I hate losing,” she said, “especially when our lives are at stake.”
“We’ll beat this. Election night is just a few days away. When it’s over, and when I beat the shit out of my uncle, and when you’re sitting in some cushy government position—because I’m going to take care of you—you’re going to look back on this moment and tell me how much of a train wreck you were over this.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah. I’ve gotta go, Miri. Keep up the good work.”
He disconnected.
She stared at the phone in a stupor as it began to rain again. Sighing deeply, she thought about her next steps. Maybe she needed to retrace her steps. Maybe she needed to go back to the factory where it all began.
She raised her hand to hail a taxi. As one pulled up to the curb she started for the door when something grabbed her by the coat and pulled her up.
She screamed as she twirled through the air.
Then she noticed claws.
Webbed claws.
Frog was carrying her up into the rain. “Change’a mind,” he said.
XXVII
Lucan adjusted a black silk bow tie in front of a full-body mirror. He had done a pretty good job applying mousse to his hair despite only being able to use one arm. Celesse had helped him into his tuxedo, and now he was staring himself down in his penthouse as the stars twinkled into the sky above.
Old Wicked (The Last Dragon Lord Book 3) Page 10