The Lost Plot

by Genevieve Cogman

  Irene raised her hand in assent, and with a single leap Kai swept up into the night sky, ignoring gravity and mass, moving like a calligraphic streak of ink across a scroll.

  Captain Venner was staring in shock at where Kai had been. “Don’t tell me he’s one of them too.”

  “What did you think he was?” Irene demanded. “Given what we’d said he was going to do?”

  “I didn’t know,” Captain Venner muttered. “I am not used to people in my city here who can turn off the lights by talking, or who can turn into giant flying lizards!”

  “Are there more of you?” George asked. His tone was casual, but Irene didn’t need warning signs to imagine the sort of thing he might be planning. “Are you all over the place?”

  “Dragons exist,” Lily said. Her voice cut through the mutters of panic that were spreading around the area. “So do dragon-slayers. That’s what people like me do. Isn’t that right, Jeanette?” Her smirk said Contradict me if you dare. She snapped her rifle closed again, moving to brace herself against the side of a truck. “Jeanette here’s not a dragon. And the one that’s just gone up there to distract the others—well, he’s under her control. So as long as they behave themselves, they’ve got nothing to worry about.”

  Irene could feel how shaky the metaphorical ground under her feet had grown. Out of the corner of her eye, she noted that Hu was getting a light for his new cigarette from one of the guards. Now that was really impressive. It set a whole new standard of blending into the crowd for her to work towards in the future.

  Thunder rolled above them, and all of them looked up to see the three dragons descending.

  CHAPTER 26

  Kai was doing a good job of acting as if he were fleeing in panic. At least, Irene hoped it was acting. Both the other dragons were bigger than he was—twice his size, at a rough estimate, possibly three times—and there was nothing playful about the way that they were harassing him. While Irene had no expertise in interpreting dragon-attack flight patterns, Jin Zhi and Qing Song were moving with authority, clearly setting the pace for the confrontation, and Kai was having to dart and ripple through the air to avoid them, like a dolphin dodging sharks. They moved like the after-flare of fireworks, and all three of them glowed with power.

  “Everyone clear!” Irene shouted as they winged closer. “Evariste, over here with me!”

  She wasn’t the only one who’d been staring. She didn’t take her eyes off the dragons, but she heard the sound of running feet as people stampeded in all directions. Behind her, Evariste said, “What’s the wording?”

  Hu was a safe distance away. “‘Glass bottles, shatter,’” Irene said, her voice low. “Then ‘Alcohol, rise to form a mass above the gold and green dragons, and ignite’?”

  “It’s a bit wordy,” Evariste said. Then the actual meaning of the words sank in, and he gaped at her. “Did you say what I think you just said?”

  “I was looking for practical criticism, not artistic commentary.” Irene watched Kai barely avoid a body-blow from Qing Song. Jin Zhi moved in while Kai was distracted, stooping from a higher plane. Irene coiled her fingers into fists, feeling the old scars on her palms, willing self-control into her voice. “Any better suggestions?”

  “Nah, it’ll do. I like this. I like it a lot.” The nervousness in his voice was being rapidly overlaid by vengeful pleasure. “Say when.”

  “In just a minute. Lily, are you ready too?”

  “Sure I am.” Lily sighted through her rifle’s scope. “So, if I’ve got this right, you hit them with the fire and I shoot them with the drugs. And at some point your pet there drops the river on top of them?”

  “Or drops them in the river. Whatever. I’ll leave the timing of the shot to you, just don’t hit Kai.”

  Lily didn’t bother replying. Her finger caressed the trigger.

  Kai had to drop from his current height to avoid Jin Zhi’s claws. He fell towards the river like a trailing ribbon, the other two following him down at the same speed.

  “Now!” Irene turned to face Evariste and raised her hand like a conductor, then brought it down, and they spoke in unison. “Glass bottles, shatter!”

  Gin poured out of the trucks, gushing from the broken bottles and running through the cracks in the floor. The fragments of broken glass had been contained by the trucks, but the raw smell of the alcohol was so thick it was hard to breathe.

  The air seemed to hum with significance—something to do with the Language’s nature, gaining so much more power as their voices harmonized. Irene and Evariste looked at each other in surprise for a moment.

  Kai curved just above the surface of the river, and it rose to meet and flow past him. The water glowed like molten metal in the burning light that emanated from Jin Zhi, and it reached for Jin Zhi and Qing Song as if it were alive. The two larger dragons beat against it, thrashing their wings as it grappled with them. Where the water touched Jin Zhi, it hissed wildly and boiled off as steam, draping veils of mist around her.

  Lily’s rifle cracked once, then a second time.

  Then Irene gave the signal to Evariste again and they spoke together: “Alcohol, rise to form a mass above the gold and green dragons, and ignite!”

  The spilt gin burst heavenwards in thousands of drops, rushing towards a space just above Jin Zhi and Qing Song. It didn’t have the elegance of Kai’s element. But the gush of alcohol surged in a straight line through the air to a point above its targets, cleaving through the surrounding waters without being diluted.

  Hu’s face was a mask of horror. He thrust aside the man he’d been talking to, shouldering towards Irene and Evariste. “No, you can’t—”

  His voice was lost in the boom of the detonation.

  The explosion threw everyone at the waterside to the ground. It was eye-searingly bright, painting Irene’s vision with after-effects. The remains of the gin came pattering down in burning droplets.

  It certainly distracted Qing Song and Jin Zhi. They went crashing down towards the river, as much from the shock of the igniting alcohol as from the force of the blast. Rivers of blue flame poured over them, briefly outlining their thrashing forms.

  Then the waters rose to swallow them.

  Irene pulled herself to her feet against the side of the truck, rubbing her eyes. The river heaved and rippled, as if about to flood its banks, with gouts of bubbles swelling up from beneath the surface. The wide expanse of water shuddered from side to side, shaking the anchored boats until they ground against the piers. Huge shapes moved beneath the surface, only their outlines perceptible. The smell of decaying waterweed mingled with the reek of alcohol as the river was churned up by the struggle taking place beneath its surface.

  As they all watched, it began to subside.

  The gangsters, drawn by the irresistible human urge to risk danger just to get a better view, began to move closer. Hu was in the forefront. Irene stayed back, and gestured for Evariste to remain beside her.

  Then Kai rose from the depths of the river, his wings spread as he circled above it. The bodies of Jin Zhi and Qing Song drifted to the surface, still in dragon form, but unmoving, barely breathing.

  “Holy shit,” Evariste said. “It worked.”

  “Of course it did,” Irene said. It would be a bad idea to admit to uncertainty in front of her current audience. She urgently hoped the attack hadn’t gone too far: if they’d killed or severely injured Qing Song or Jin Zhi, they’d just exchanged one catastrophe for another. “Now we get to the difficult bit.”

  Evariste looked at the rising circle of gangsters and police, all of whom were armed, and most of whom were now openly holding their guns. “I think—” he started.

  “You do it by talking, don’t you?” George interrupted. Lily, next to him, had discarded her rifle and had a revolver in each hand. Irene knew it would be a waste of time to bring up her agreement with the Fae: it
hadn’t covered what would happen after they subdued the dragons. “So right now you don’t say anything, either of you. Or you’re going down as well. Me and my boys, we’re just about to do some dragon-slaying. Or do you want to read them their rights, Venner?”

  “Under the circumstances, I’ll skip it,” Captain Venner said. “Can’t see them asking for a lawyer anyhow.”

  Irene shrugged. Then she glanced behind her at Kai and raised her right hand in the air, palm upwards, as though she were lifting something.

  George, Lily, and the gunmen had seen Kai use the river to take down Jin Zhi and Qing Song, but they hadn’t appreciated the full implications of his power.

  Now the Hudson River surged and broke its banks in a wave several yards high. It rushed across the street, bowling over gangsters and policemen alike.

  A narrow channel of dry ground still lay between Irene and Evariste and the water’s edge. Irene ran down it to the railing that bordered the river. It would be impossible to get Jin Zhi and Qing Song off this world in their current form. “Jin Zhi, Qing Song,” she shouted, “change to your human form!”

  She hadn’t expected it to be easy, and it wasn’t.

  It was a good thing there was a railing. It stopped her going head-first into the river. She’d managed to change werewolves back to their human shape previously: that had been tiring, but manageable. She’d never tried to affect dragons by using the Language. Dragons were metaphysical heavy-weights when compared to werewolves. She gasped for air, and her Library brand seemed to press down on her as if it would crush her to the ground.

  But when she raised her head to look at the scene in front of her, she saw that it had worked. Qing Song and Jin Zhi were in their human shapes now, though still—thank goodness—unconscious. The rising water had carried them onto the riverbank, and they lay there, soaked and crumpled like jetsam.

  There was a bright flare of light along the bank to her left, and she turned to look. It was Hu: he had taken his own dragon form, and his scales shone like hammered copper as he prepared to launch into the air.

  Urgency energized Irene. “Grab Qing Song!” she called to Evariste. “You’re both travelling on Kai! Kai, pass me Jin Zhi—Hu must carry us!”

  “But my daughter—” Evariste protested desperately.

  “We’ll get Qing Song to give her back, but we have to get out of here first! Come on!” She grabbed his shoulder and pushed him towards Qing Song.

  The waters thrashed across the street again, knocking down those gangsters who’d managed to get to their feet. Hu reached for Qing Song, but Kai swung between him and the two unconscious dragons, forcing him back.

  Lily had dragged the half-drowned George behind one of the trucks and was standing over him, her guns drawn, but she didn’t seem inclined to fire. Perhaps she didn’t want to start a war either. Or perhaps without George to give her the order, she was less eager to pull the trigger. “Are you leaving?” she called to Irene.

  “Getting the hell out of here, and glad to do it,” Irene called back. “All of us are going. We won’t be coming back.”

  Kai backed against the roadside, dipping the arch of his back to allow Evariste to drag Qing Song aboard. Hu hissed furiously but didn’t try to stop them.

  About time I made my own exit. Ankle-deep in water, Irene stood over Jin Zhi on the riverbank and beckoned to Hu. “We can discuss the details later,” she called, “but let’s get out of here!”

  Lily lowered her guns. “I hope you realize I could have shot you.” Her voice carried over the noise of the water.

  “I’ll remember it!” Irene hooked one arm across Jin Zhi’s chest and turned to see that Hu was directly behind her, his back curved so that she could clamber on with her own dragon cargo. Once aboard, she turned to raise her free hand in a wave.

  “Just one question!” Lily shouted. “What’s your name? Who are you?”

  Irene weighed the possible consequences of giving her name against the fact that Lily might well be able to find out anyhow, with a bit of research. She mentally shrugged. “Irene Winters!” she called.

  And as she spoke, Kai rose, followed by Hu, climbing into the night sky.

  Irene lowered her head and clung on, pinning Jin Zhi face-down against Hu’s back. She hoped the other woman would stay unconscious. It was much easier to handle her like that.

  New York spread out beneath them, marked out in patterns of light and darkness, with the windows of skyscrapers gleaming in impossibly complicated grids, and the gleams of car headlamps moving jerkily along the streets. The oppressive heat had eased with Jin Zhi’s unconsciousness, and Irene breathed in the cooler air with relief.

  Ahead of Hu, Kai mantled his wings and roared, and Irene hoped he had a safe destination in mind. A rip tore in the night sky, glowing with a light that seemed to shine from the other side, in a shade that Irene couldn’t name. This was how dragons travelled between alternate worlds: they somehow passed outside the regular flow of worlds, to where the air was like water and where only dragons could find their way. As Hu’s passenger, Irene keenly felt her own lack of control. But as long as Kai had Qing Song, then they had a metaphorical leash around Hu’s neck.

  Kai angled his wings and swooped through the rift, and Hu followed.

  Irene had expected the shadowy sky beyond, the endless currents of blue and green—she’d been there before with Kai. But she hadn’t expected to find other dragons waiting.

  The four newcomers, all of them larger than Kai or Hu, swooped on them in a blaze of wings that shone like gemstone and metal. The sounds that came from them were deeper than Kai’s earlier cry as he’d opened the way. They were organ-tones that throbbed in Irene’s bones and made her shiver in near panic, flattening herself against Hu’s back. She saw Kai flinch in mid-air, coiling in on himself, trying to draw away from this display of threat and aggression. Hu jerked beneath Irene as though he would have liked to flee, but there was nowhere to go: they were in a great sea of emptiness, surrounded by four strange dragons.

  CHAPTER 27

  The desert was cold by night, and Irene was grateful for her coat. Evariste hunched his shoulders inside his battered jacket, staying behind her and Kai. The new dragons didn’t object: they were far more interested in Kai than in his human followers. Hu knelt to one side, checking the physical condition of Qing Song and Jin Zhi—who, fortunately, were both still unconscious.

  They had been forcibly escorted to a world of the strangers’ choosing. Looking around at the flat sweep of desert and tasting the bitterly dry air, Irene had to conclude that part of that choice was to ensure that Kai couldn’t call on any local water sources.

  One of their four escorts had left, the moment the rest of them had entered this world, flying off on an unknown errand. Irene had a nasty suspicion that they were reporting in to receive further orders. But all the other dragons had assumed human form, as had Kai and Hu. And now the strangers wanted answers.

  “Identify yourselves,” a woman who appeared to be their leader commanded. She was robed in deep amethyst purple with light green collar and cuffs, and her rich dark hair was coiled up in an elaborate hair-style. “Why are you bearing unconscious nobles, courtiers from the Queen of the Southern Lands’ domain?”

  “My name is Kai,” Kai answered, “son of Ao Guang, the King of the Eastern Ocean. If I have trespassed on the territory of another, then I will make my apologies. May I also know your name?”

  Irene kept her mouth shut, hoping against hope that they might somehow wriggle out of this without her and Evariste being identified as Librarians. Their interrogator was clearly fixing on Kai as the obvious one to question. Perhaps they’d blundered into a standard patrol. Perhaps these strangers would accept a plausible explanation for Qing Song and Jin Zhi’s state.

  “I am Mei Feng, of the Queen of the Southern Lands’ court,” the woman in purple said, in a noticeab
ly more courteous tone. She clearly hadn’t expected to catch such a big fish. “A violent altercation was observed, which might have caused a change to the very reality of that world. Were you involved?”

  “I observed these two dragons in dispute and intervened to stop them,” Kai said. The twitch of his shoulders suggested polite boredom. “As you say, it might have been unhealthy for that world’s stability.”

  “Ah.” Mei Feng stepped closer, inspecting the two unconscious bodies. The other pair of dragons, robed like their leader but less elegantly, were too close for comfort. “I recognize these individuals. But where did you intend to take them? And who are these humans?” Her questions were polite enough, but it was clear that her attitude could very easily change if Kai did not provide suitable answers.

  “Such questions are extremely personal and could be considered to be prying into my private affairs,” Kai objected. But it was weak. Irene knew it, and she knew that Kai knew it, and she was fairly sure Mei Feng knew it as well. They’d been caught with the evidence on them. It was, as the English would say, “a fair cop.”

  “I would not wish to interfere, Your Highness,” Mei Feng replied. “But perhaps you could provide me with some information?” Her glance fell on Hu. “Or maybe you wish to tell me what is going on?”

  “I am servant to my lord Qing Song,” Hu said quickly, “and may not speak on the matter without his permission.”

  “I see,” Mei Feng said. “Well, then, these humans—”

  “Are under my protection,” Kai broke in.

  And the other two possible witnesses are unconscious, Irene thought, and let’s hope they stay that way for the foreseeable future.

  Mei Feng paced thoughtfully, her face perfectly calm. The wind was picking up, however, and Irene wondered if that might be a more accurate representation of her feelings. “Your Highness, you must understand that your position here is rather dubious. You appear in the company of these two nobles. They appear to have been drugged, scorched, and half-drowned—and you wish me to believe that your involvement is completely innocent?”