Cloak of Dragons

by Moeller, Jonathan

  “Stop!” snapped Edina, taking a hasty step behind Neil. “Stop, stop!”

  I held my Shield in place, keeping a careful eye on Neil and the wraithwolves.

  “You are the treacherous dog who betrayed my uncle,” said Della, her melodic voice quivering with rage. “You are the one who…”

  “Who are you?” said Edina, glaring at me. “You’re just a girl. How do you have magic like that? I’ve never seen anyone but an Elven noble or a dragon cast spells like that.”

  “Yeah, well, until yesterday I’d never seen a blaster before, so I that makes us even,” I said.

  “You aren’t part of the Wizard’s Legion,” said Edina, “and you’re too young to use a spell that powerful.”

  I grinned my humorless grin at him. “I’m a lot older than I look. If you want to keep a youthful look, it’s important to get a solid eight hours of sleep every night. Oh, and to moisturize regularly. But it’s probably too late for you, buddy.”

  Nora snickered at that, and Edina glared at her for a half second. A ripple went through the wraithwolves as his rage was communicated to them.

  “Whoever you are,” Edina said, “you, that man, and that tall woman, this is none of your concern. Why have you involved yourself in this?”

  Nora started to speak, but I shot her a quick look. Edina was wound up. I could see it on his face. He hated Della, and he had been holding back his real feelings for so long that they were about to come bubbling out. All it would take was a little pressure, a little annoyance…

  And I was good at being annoying.

  “Why don’t you and Blaster Boy here tell me what this is all about?” I said.

  Neil blinked. “Blaster…boy?”

  “That’s you,” I said. “You’re a boy, you’ve got a blaster. Sort of suggests itself, doesn’t it?”

  Neil blinked again, and his face twitched in something that might have been the beginnings of a smile. “That’s funny.”

  “Shut up,” snarled Edina, and he jabbed a button on that fat smartphone of his. Neil flinched, grimaced, and remained silent. “When I want you to speak, I’ll tell you.”

  “That’s messed up,” I said. “What, you’ve got a grown man on remote control? Suppose you have to. A guy like you couldn’t do his own killing, so…”

  “You understand nothing about this,” said Edina, “whoever you are.”

  “Then what’s all this crap about?” I said.

  He drew himself up. “The liberation of the human race.”

  I let out a long, derisive laugh. “Said the art gallery manager. Uh huh. Sure. Whatever. You’re gonna liberate the human race by hiding in a warehouse basement with a bunch of wraithwolves and a cyborg with a computer wired into his brain.”

  “You know nothing,” spat Edina.

  “Oh, I know a lot more than nothing,” I said. I waved my free hand at the cryonic cylinders. “I know that all this came from a Catalyst Corporation base in the Russian Imperium. I know that Neil Freeman here is some sort of cybernetic super soldier, and I know you used him to murder Malthraxivorn.” Edina smirked at that. “But I want to know why.” He started to answer but I talked right over him. “I mean, all this stuff could make you a billionaire if you played your cards right and exercised a little self-control. Instead, you used it to murder your boss. Ooh, so ambitious. A guy who lives in his mother’s basement, I can see him snapping and murdering his boss over petty jealousy.” I paused. “But what the hell? We’re in a basement, right? Do you live in your mom’s basement, Charlie?”

  Della gave me a bewildered look. I think she expected me to go at Edina with spells blazing, not to run my mouth off and insult him.

  “You think this is about personal gain?” said Edina. “How like a woman. Incapable of seeing past your own petty wants for the greater good.”

  “I bet you’re not married,” I said. “But you understand us women so well. So long as I’ve got diamonds and a closet full of fancy shoes, I’m happy to…”

  “Do you ever stop talking?” said Edina.

  “See, I like to think out loud,” I said. “Right now, I think that you murdered your boss, and you’re about to use your enslaved cyborg to murder his niece. And then while everything’s in chaos from the investigation, you’re going to take a big old chunk of money and start a new life somewhere. Probably someplace with a lot of prostitutes. Of course, I hope you budgeted for erectile dysfunction pills, because I look at you, and something about you makes me think of wet noodles, and…”

  “For God’s sake!” snarled Edina. “Do you ever shut up? You can learn the truth before you die. You and that lizard bitch next to you.” Della bared her white teeth at him, and a crafty look went over Edina’s face. “Wait. You must be an agent for the Inquisition, right? I’ve heard the Inquisition has human agents able to access otherwise illegal magic. Perhaps you will see the noble purpose of what I am doing here and will aid me in my work.”

  Right. I’m a hundred and eighty years old, which means I wasn’t born yesterday. Edina wanted to talk me into lowering my guard, and then he would send his wraithwolves and Blaster Boy after me. But I wanted him to spill his guts, and I thought I had wound him up enough to talk.

  “Sharing’s a two-way street, Charlie,” I said. “You’ve got to give a little first.”

  “You want to know the truth? Lord Malthraxivorn was a fool,” said Edina. “The technology his men found in that Catalyst facility has the power to rule the world. All Malthraxivorn could think about doing was handing it over to the High Queen in exchange for royal favor. Maybe some trading privileges on Kalvarion.” He scoffed. “If he kept this technology to himself, if he developed it and improved it, he could have ruled the world.”

  “Neil put up a good fight, I will admit,” I said, “but it’s hard to rule the world with one soldier and a blaster.”

  “The technology can be studied and replicated,” said Edina. “And it’s not just the blaster technology and the cybernetics. There is nanotech inside Neil’s blood. How else do you think he healed so quickly?”

  “Nano-what?” I said.

  “Nanotech,” said Riordan in a quiet voice. “Self-powered machines too small for the human eye to see. I bet Neil has some in his bloodstream that helped repair his wounds.”

  “More science fiction crap?” I said.

  “It’s not fiction, it’s reality,” said Edina. “Catalyst Corporation made advancements in science that are beyond the contemporary imagination. Nanotech is just one of them. I doubt you have the vision to conceive what that could do for medicine. Or manufacturing, or materials science…or weapons technology.”

  “Oh,” I said, snapping the fingers of my free hand. Edina did seem like the kind of man who liked to talk, and talk, and talk. I bet he had bored his subordinates to tears. If I taunted him a little, I could probably get him to talk more. “I get it. This is going to be a scam.”

  He looked affronted. “A scam?”

  “Yeah, a scam,” I said. “Your boss found all this nifty technology. You kill your boss and his niece, and in the chaos, you slip off with the cybernetics and the nano-whatevers. You wait a few years and ‘pretend’ to invent all this shit, and you get to be a visionary billionaire, not a whiny little man who doesn’t have the courage to quit his job.”

  “You don’t understand!” snapped Edina. I heard the annoyance in his voice and suppressed a smile. “I’m not doing this for riches or for revenge against Malthraxivorn…”

  Della sniffed. “I fail to see how. Indeed, all your fine words and boasting are simply a mask to conceal your disdain of my uncle.”

  Edina’s face reddened. “You don’t…”

  “Indeed, Lord Malthraxivorn was a generous employer,” said Della. “Are any of his employees in want? Are any of them in need? When they fell ill, did he throw them upon the street to die? As so many humans have done to other humans during your history, I might point out. Did he not pay you a generous salary?” She made a disdainful
sniff. “I have heard humans speak a proverb about how a dog does not bite the hand that feeds it. You, Charles Edina, have fewer morals than the most loyal dog.”

  “I am doing this to free mankind from you!” roared Edina.

  Della scoffed again. “From us? The dragons do not rule mankind.”

  I almost said something more to prod Edina on, but it wasn’t necessary. Della’s contempt had cracked his self-control, and the words poured out of him in a furious rush of long-suppressed emotion.

  “From you, from the Elves, from the High Queen, from any others who would rule over mankind,” said Edina. “God, most people make me sick. The Elves rule us all, and people don’t even seem to see it. They don’t even care. They think it’s the natural order of things.”

  “Then you’re a Rebel?” said Riordan.

  “The Rebels? They’re dust. And they were fools!” snarled Edina. “They would have nuked New York. Fifteen million people dead, and millions more when the Skythrone fell to earth. What good would that have done? No. We need something better. A wiser way. A way of science. The Singularity showed me the way.”

  “The Singularity?” I said, but Edina kept talking.

  “Don’t you understand yet?” said Edina. “Why do you think the High Queen destroyed the Catalyst Corporation? Because of the cybernetics? The nanotech? Even the blasters? No. She suborns all things to her will, even technology, and she does it so subtly that most people don’t even realize it is happening. No, Catalyst’s secret was in the name. Catalyst had found a way to transform all humanity into gods.”

  “Sure,” I said, not bothering to hide my scorn. Nicholas Connor had prepared some long-term plans like that. He wanted to possess every human with a Dark One, creating some sort of magic-using hybrid. It was a horrible plan, but it had ended when I shot him to death on the day of the Sky Hammer.

  “That was why the High Queen destroyed the corporation,” said Edina. “They had found a way to merge man with machine.” He waved the chunky smartphone at Neil, who watched the confrontation with grim wariness. “Our cyborg here was just a prototype of what they intended. Catalyst’s final plan would have fused humanity with machines, and we would have become self-made gods. Rather than face such a threat to her rule, the High Queen destroyed the company and their technology.” He smirked. “But she missed their hidden facility in Chelyabinsk Oblast. When I saw what Lord Malthraxivorn’s hunters had found, I knew I had to act.”

  “Did you figure out all this from spying on your boss?” I said. “Or did this Singularity guy tell you about it?”

  He hesitated. Guess he hadn’t meant to tell me about Singularity, whoever the hell that was.

  “This technology is going to save mankind from the tyranny of the Elves,” said Edina. “The blaster weapons can kill the Elves.” He glowered at Della. “Or any other interlopers who come to our world. The nanotech and cybernetic technology will make us as strong and as long-lived as the Elves. We can continue Catalyst’s plan, and transform mankind into gods. Earth will be ours again, and we won’t have to contend with the terroristic and nihilistic idiocy of groups like the Rebels.” His eyes burned with fanaticism as they met mine. “And you can help us.”

  “Will I?” I said. “And just why am I going to do that?”

  “You’re an Inquisition agent,” said Edina. “Aren’t you tired of working with the Elves? Aren’t you tired of having them lord it over you? You can help us overthrow the Elves. We can be free of them, of arrogant oversized lizards like Malthraxivorn and his windbag of a daughter.” Della bristled. “You can help all generations of mankind be born free.”

  “Cool speech,” I said. “One question first. Those copies of the Summoning Codex. Why did you sell them? You didn’t need the cash. I’m betting you can embezzle quite a bit from Malthraxivorn’s accounts before anyone notices.”

  Edina shrugged. “To create chaos, of course. The more chaos the High Queen has to deal with, the easier it will be for us to build the technology to overthrow her.”

  “Fourteen people died because of those copies of the book,” I said. Fifteen, if you counted Anthony Watkins, but based on Riordan’s account, it seemed like Watkins was a dumbass who did it to himself.

  Edina shrugged. “I regret that. I wished it had been necessary to avoid their deaths. But for the greater good, it is necessary.”

  “Uh huh,” I said. “The greater good. People use that to justify all kinds of nonsense.”

  “It’s not nonsense,” said Edina. He gestured at Neil. “You’ve seen what he can do, and this is just the beginning. I’m afraid I have to insist on an answer right now.”

  “All right,” I said. “I heard your piece, so shut up and listen to mine. You’re going to surrender to us, right now. You’re going to dismiss your wraithwolves – I assume that gauntlet’s controlling them – you’re going to tell Neil to stand down, and then you’re going to come with us.”

  Edina looked amused. “Or?”

  “Or we’re going to mow down your wraithwolves and kill you,” I said.

  Edina let out an incredulous laugh. “Are you, now? You might have a few spells, but I don’t think you can take on dozens of wraithwolves and a cybernetically augmented soldier.”

  “Want to bet?” I said. “I have more than a few spells. I also have the help of a dragon who’s really pissed off that you murdered her uncle.”

  “I am prepared for her,” said Edina, gesturing at his wraithwolves.

  “I’ve also got two Shadow Hunters,” I said.

  “Shadow Hunters?” said Edina. “What the hell are Shadow Hunters?”

  I laughed, long and scornful. “Seriously? You’ve never heard of the Shadow Hunters? You think you’re going to overthrow the High Queen and turn Earth into your weird-ass techno-utopia, and you’ve never heard of the Shadow Hunters? Do you have any idea how the world really works?”

  “I’m going to change the world,” said Edina. “I’m going to remake the world.” He pointed with the gauntlet on his right hand. “Do you see this? This is another one of Catalyst Corporation’s machines, capable of summoning and binding dozens of wraithwolves from the Shadowlands at once. A good symbol of how technology shall destroy all the enemies of humanity and give us mastery of magic.”

  “Big words from a guy with a glove and a remote control,” I said.

  Edina smirked. I could see his control settling back into place after his outburst, and he was getting ready to kill us.

  Well, he was going to be in for a nasty surprise. I glanced at Riordan and Nora and saw them nod. Della blinked at us in surprise and drew herself up, her face hardening. She might not have much experience of violence yet, but she was a quick study.

  “I don’t make boasts I can’t back up,” said Edina. “Kill them!”

  The wraithwolves sprang forward in silence, and Neil raised his blaster rifle and squeezed the trigger.

  ***

  Chapter 17: Firestorm

  Edina had made a mistake.

  He ought to have told his wraithwolves to turn back to mist. Then they could have flowed through the chain link fence and encircled us. Instead, they came forward in a rush, and they all bunched up in the gate.

  It was so thoughtful of Edina to make that mistake, and it would have been rude of me to ignore it.

  I held my Shield spell with my left hand, deflecting the blasts from Neil’s rifle. I had been afraid it would have a fully automatic mode, able to fire dozens of blasts a second, but it seemed only able to fire as fast as he could pull the trigger. The bolts from the rifle hit a lot harder than the shots from his pistol, but I was able to maintain my Shield against the barrage.

  With my right hand, I called fire, and I thrust my arm. A fireball about the size of my fist shot forward and landed in the gate, right in the middle of the packed wraithwolves. I had woven a lot of magical force into the fireball, and it exploded in a howling bloom of flame.

  The roar of the blast echoed through the cellar, acc
ompanied shortly after that by the howl of pain from the wraithwolves. The explosion hurled them back, and when the glare cleared, I saw that the fence glowed white-hot for a dozen feet on either side of the gate. I had destroyed a dozen wraithwolves and thrown the rest back, but the creatures recovered their balance and rushed for the gate once more.

  Neil kept firing at me, and I had to keep more of my concentration on the Shield spell.

  “Keep the wraithwolves off me!” I shouted, starting another spell. “I’ll deal with Blaster Boy!”

  The wraithwolves burst through the gate and rushed towards us, and Della reacted first. She snarled and cast a spell, flames blazing around her hands, and made a sharp gesture. Three of the wraithwolves burst into flame, snarling and thrashing, their claws rasping against the concrete, and collapsed into motionless piles of smoking char.

  Riordan and Nora attacked in a blur, Shadowmorph blades in their hands. Guns wouldn’t work on wraithwolves since they came from the deep Shadowlands rather than Earth’s umbra. Fortunately, that didn’t matter to the Shadowmorphs. The immaterial blades sliced through the bony armor of the wraithwolves and bit deep into their flesh, and the creatures collapsed under the attack. Riordan started moving faster after he killed the first three wraithwolves, and he was quick to begin with. The Shadowmorph was feeding him some of the life energy it harvested from the slain creatures. Nora likewise began to move faster, and she started to look healthier and more vigorous. Her Shadowmorph had healed her from the blaster wound, but it needed a supply of fresh life energy to do the job properly.

  And the wraithwolves were a handy source of life energy.

  I barely noticed all that, though, since my full attention was on Edina and Neil.

  I hurled another volley of lightning globes at Edina, hoping to kill him, or at least fry the thick smartphone in his hand. I suspected that if I destroyed the smartphone or at least disabled it, then Neil might not follow Edina’s orders any longer. But Edina must have instructed Neil to protect him, because every time I cast a spell, Neil moved to intercept the attack, blocking it on the energy shield centered around his metal right arm.