Cloak of Dragons

by Moeller, Jonathan

  They reached the Sanctuary’s building. Riordan steered into the underground parking, and he and Nadia got into the elevator. His keycard and passcode unlocked the elevator, and they rode up to the Sanctuary.

  They passed through the receptionists’ office, and Nora greeted them in the lounge. She had changed to the stark black suit she had worn when the Firstborn had sent them to find the source of Ricci’s Summoning Codex.

  “Right on time, boss,” said Nora. “The High Queen’s helicopter landed on the roof five minutes ago.”

  “Don’t want to keep them waiting,” said Nadia.

  They crossed the lounge, went to the second floor, and to the office of a nervous-looking Natalie. She smiled and waved them through, and Riordan, Nadia, and Nora entered the Firstborn’s office.

  Jonah Robb stood near his desk, clad in his usual loose suit. Four Elven Royal Guards stood along the walls, clad in silver armor, their eyes watchful. The High Queen stood next to Robb, wearing armor similar to that of her Royal Guards, her flame-colored hair bound back from her head with a simple golden circlet. Her eyes were the ghostly blue of flames dancing beneath a pan, and her face was a calm mask.

  A memory flashed through Riordan. He had stood in this room over a year ago with the High Queen and the Firstborn, accepting the writ of execution to find and kill Nicholas Connor. That had been the purpose of the writ, but he had undertaken the mission to find and help Nadia.

  It was a familiar situation, but a different one.

  Nadia was his wife now, for one.

  And another difference was the man standing near the window, watching Riordan with weary eyes.

  Neil Freeman cleaned up well. He had shaved, and the suit fit him well. He wore a glove over his right hand to conceal his cybernetic fingers, and he had the same wary watchfulness as the Royal Guards.

  And still another difference was the dragon standing next to the High Queen.

  Delaxsicoria was in her human form again. While Riordan was no expert on women’s fashion, he suspected the skirt, jacket, and shoes that Della wore probably cost ten thousand dollars at a minimum. She was stunningly, impossibly beautiful. The High Queen was beautiful, but she had the cold, alien beauty of the Elves. Della looked both beautiful and human.

  But Riordan knew that she wasn’t, which made it easy to keep from staring.

  “Nadia MacCormac, Riordan MacCormac, and Nora Chandler,” said the High Queen, those cold eyes moving over them. Riordan bowed, and Nadia and Nora followed suit. “I seem to keep coming across the three of you at the same time.” Nora had been there when Nadia and Riordan had gone to threaten Morvilind, the day that Tarlia had punished Morvilind by poaching his shadow agent. “Though, thankfully, there seem to be fewer nuclear weapons this time.”

  “A trend that I hope continues, your Majesty,” said Nora.

  Tarlia laughed, once, and looked at Robb.

  “I sent Riordan and Nora to track down the source of a copy of the Summoning Codex, your Majesty,” said the Firstborn. “It seems that intersected with the task you set Nadia MacCormac.”

  “So it did,” said Tarlia. “Wheels within wheels with wheels. Lies are as common as grass, and the truth is so difficult to discover. Yet you found the truth, darling girl. Who killed Malthraxivorn?”

  “Charles Edina,” said Nadia, her voice quiet. “Using Neil Freeman as his unwilling weapon.”

  Tarlia inclined his head. “Edina told me everything he knew, before the end, and he has been executed.”

  Nadia hesitated. “Then…you will not take any action against Neil Freeman?”

  “Whatever for?” said Tarlia. “Lady Delaxsicoria?”

  “Your Majesty,” said Della in her clear voice, “when I fully understood the changes that had been made to Mr. Freeman, the…cybernetics, I realized he had had no choice. He could no more have disobeyed the bearer of his control unit than he could have willed his heart to stop beating within his chest. My uncle wished to present him to you and have him enter your service, and Edina ruined that plan.” She offered a bow to the High Queen. “I am satisfied that justice has been done.”

  “It has,” said Tarlia. “You are confirmed as the heir for all of Malthraxivorn’s properties and accounts.”

  “Thank you, your Majesty,” said Della. She produced a document. “I wish to offer a gift to express my gratitude. The deed and title to a house my uncle owned in Milwaukee. Since your Majesty will spend a great deal of time in Milwaukee now that the Great Gate to your homeworld has been opened, no doubt you will find a use for it.”

  “A thoughtful gift, Lady Delaxsicoria,” said Tarlia, accepting the document. “And I have an immediate use for it. Nadia, come here.”

  Nadia blinked. Della winked at her.

  “I am very pleased with your performance,” said Tarlia, and she handed the document to Nadia. “Consequently, I hereby gift this house to you. As Lady Delaxsicoria said, more of my attention will turn to Milwaukee and the Great Gate in the future. I will have many tasks for you in the city, Nadia.” She glanced at Riordan. “And no doubt the Firstborn shall have work for your husband there as well.”

  “Thank you, your Majesty,” said Nadia, and she took the document. “I’ve…uh, I’ve never owned a house before.”

  “The infatuation of homeownership will last until the first time you have to pay property taxes,” said Tarlia, her voice dry. “Come, Nadia. I wish a word with you alone.”

  “The terrace, your Majesty,” said Robb, gesturing towards a door in the corner of the office. “You can speak there.”

  Nadia swallowed, nodded, and followed Tarlia across the office to the terrace door. Riordan watched them disappear through it, and wondered what the High Queen intended to discuss with her shadow agent. No doubt he would find out soon enough.

  “You’ve done well, both of you,” said the Firstborn, and he strode over and clapped Riordan and Nora on the shoulder. “If Edina had kept selling those copies of the Summoning Codex, a lot of people would have been killed. The High Queen has arranged for each of you to receive payments of fifteen thousand dollars with her thanks.”

  “Riordan got a house,” said Nora with a smile. “Do I get a house?”

  The Firstborn snorted. “You’re welcome to ask the High Queen, but I don’t think you’ll like the answer.” He sobered. “We have a new task from the High Queen as well. We are to continue our search for the Forerunner…but we are to begin searching for the Singularity as well.”

  “The Singularity,” said Riordan. Edina had mentioned it during his rant at Della. “Is it an individual or a group or some sort of cult?”

  “We don’t know,” said the Firstborn, “and that’s one of the things we need to find out.”

  ###

  I followed Tarlia onto the terrace. It had a concrete railing with a steel bar, but we were still very high up, and the view of Manhattan was breathtaking. I kept away from the railing. My shoes made my ankles hurt, and I was afraid of losing my balance. I should have gone with shorter heels, but I liked the feeling of height they gave me.

  There was enough wind that it tugged at my hair and jacket, that Tarlia’s cloak danced behind her like a crimson banner.

  “You did well, darling girl,” murmured Tarlia. “And if I had known what was behind Malthraxivorn’s death, I would have sent more help with you. I suspected that Delaxsicoria or one of the other dragons had done it. I never thought that one of Catalyst Corporation’s augmented soldiers had survived my purge.”

  I hesitated. “Then you’re not going to kill Neil?”

  “Of course not,” said Tarlia. “The Catalyst scientists lied to him. They said they would turn him into a super soldier of unequaled skill. Instead, they turned him into a cybernetic puppet. If Edina had ordered him to cut off his remaining hand of flesh, he would have done so without hesitation.”

  “What will you do with him?” I said.

  Tarlia smiled. “The same thing I did with you. He’s going to work for me.
And there is a great deal of work to be done. The world is always teetering on the edge of ruin…and now I have two worlds to govern.”

  “Can I ask you a question?” I said.

  “Since curiosity is a useful quality in a shadow agent, it seems unwise to stop you.”

  “Why did you destroy Catalyst Corporation?”

  She did not answer for so long I thought she had decided to ignore me.

  “I made a mistake,” murmured Tarlia, “trusting the leaders of Catalyst Corporation, and many people paid for it. You see, darling girl, they committed the crime of trying to change the nature of humanity.”

  “Why is that bad?” I said.

  “People – Elves and humans both – can change their natures,” said Tarlia. “An alcoholic can stop drinking. An ignorant man can educate himself. A lazy man can become a diligent one But it requires tremendous effort and focus. The desire for change must come from within. Do you know what you create when you force people to change their natures against their will?”

  I shook my head.

  “Monsters,” said Tarlia, her voice soft. “Almost always, you create monsters. That was why you caught my attention, darling girl. You should have been a monster.”

  I shifted. “What do you mean?”

  But I thought I knew.

  “Arvalaeon changed your nature against your will,” said Tarlia. “It should have twisted you. Instead, you became the sort of woman who flung herself atop a nuclear bomb to save New York City.”

  I sighed. “Maybe I am a monster. I’ve killed millions of people.”

  “Morvilind did that, not you.”

  “But I helped,” I said. “I knew what Morvilind was asking me to do when he told me to kill him. He hadn’t traveled to Mars and Tarsidhar and Kalvarion just to look at the scenery. I knew something like the Mage Fall would happen when I stabbed him…and I did it anyway. I’m as much responsible as he is.”

  “Very noble of you,” said Tarlia, her voice dry again, “but as I’ve told you before, that was not murder, but justice. Every one of those Archons you killed had murdered an innocent victim to merge with a Dark One. And justice is not pretty. Justice is covered in blood and tears…”

  “And so are newborns,” I said, remembering when she had given me this speech before.

  “And justice and newborns are both important to the future,” said Tarlia. “Which is why I killed Charles Edina with my own magic when I was done with him.”

  I blinked. “You killed him yourself?”

  I remembered Riordan’s story about Harun al-Rashid. Guess Tarlia didn’t need to wander the streets accompanied by an executioner.

  She did it herself.

  “I had already ripped apart his mind,” said Tarlia. “He knew too much about Catalyst Corporation, and I wanted to discover how he knew. He told me, in the end. He was in contact with a group or an individual that called itself the Singularity, and Singularity had told him more about Catalyst technology and how to use it.”

  “So is Singularity a person?” I said. “A cult? Or another terrorist group?”

  “I don’t know,” said Tarlia. “I am, however, going to find out. You might help me at some point. Do you know why Edina decided to murder Malthraxivorn?”

  “I don’t know,” I said, thrown by the change in topic. “Greed?”

  “Envy,” said Tarlia. “I saw it in his mind. Simple envy, which grew and festered and turned ever more malignant over the decades. Everything else – the greed, the murder, the stealing of the Catalyst technology – all of that was simple rationalization for the envy.”

  “That’s sort of disturbing,” I said. “It’s so…petty.”

  “Your medieval philosophers were right,” said Tarlia, “to list envy among one of the deadly sins. Why do you think I have the Elven commoners live in their own cities away from humans? Else you would quickly become jealous of each other. The humans, jealous of Elven longevity. The Elves, jealous of human dynamism.” She shook her head. “But enough of such talk for now. I am pleased with how you dealt with Malthraxivorn’s murderer. The situation could easily have escalated out of control without your intervention.”

  “Thank you,” I said. “I want to ask another question.” Tarlia nodded. “Did Neil know anything about Catalyst?”

  “Less than I would hope,” said Tarlia. “The cybernetics damaged the memory centers of his brain. He has no difficulty forming new memories, but his recollections of life before the implants are fractured and hazy at best. But I shall make use of his skills. I will have much work for him.”

  “Why did you recruit him?” I said.

  “Because he is a soldier,” said Tarlia, “and he understands duty, just as you do.”

  “Duty?” I said.

  “As you did on the day of the Sky Hammer,” said the High Queen.

  “I just wanted to keep the city from burning.”

  “You understand,” murmured Tarlia. She gestured at the vista of New York before us. “Ashes and bones. All these millions of people, billions on Earth. You’ll help me to keep them from burning themselves to ashes and bones.”

  I didn’t have anything to say to that, so I only bowed and followed Tarlia back into the Firstborn’s office. She bade her farewells and departed, the Royal Guards and Neil following her.

  Neil lingered just long enough to say farewell.

  “Thank you for my life, Mrs. MacCormac,” he said, his voice quiet. “I’m not sure I wish to live…but I would like to find out.”

  “Well,” I said. “If I ever need someone to punch through a wall for me, I’ll know who to call.”

  He blinked several times, laughed, and then followed the High Queen to the roof and the waiting helicopter.

  “Farewell, Nadia MacCormac,” said Della, and to my surprise, she stooped and kissed me on the cheek. “You are, of course, welcome to come to any of my concerts.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “That’s very nice, but I’m really not a music person.”

  “Oh, I think you are,” said Della. “You just haven’t realized it yet.”

  “Thanks for the house,” I said.

  “You are welcome,” said Della. “I have never visited it, and I think you will get more use out of it than I will. Besides, you saved my life several times, and found justice for my uncle.” She smiled and tapped her red lips with a finger. “Yes. The right song for you. I think I know the one. Perhaps I shall see you again.”

  With that, Della left. Shawn and Helen awaited her in Natalie’s office, and they fell in behind their boss as she departed.

  I looked at Riordan, Nora, and the Firstborn.

  “So,” I said to Riordan. “Want to go to Wisconsin and see our new house?”

  ###

  It was the first week of November, snow was falling, and I was unpacking in the living room of our new house.

  I had feared it was some sort of sprawling mansion, but while it was a big place, it was tasteful. It was a four-bedroom house in outer Brookfield, one of Milwaukee’s suburbs, with an attached garage and a big basement that Riordan and I planned to turn into a gym and a workshop. The house was worth way more than I would have paid. With the Great Gate outside of Milwaukee, local land prices had risen steeply.

  I was sitting cross-legged on the floor, in the process of unpacking and assembling our security system. Given how many people Riordan and I had annoyed over the years, we were going to need an excellent security system. I had gotten out my electric drill and was preparing to mark where I would install the control panel when Riordan came into the room and turned on the TV.

  “You’ve got to see this,” he said. “But I’m not sure what you will think of it.”

  I blinked at the TV in surprise.

  “A music video?” I said.

  Della Sarkany, wearing a cheerful yellow dress, sang into a microphone, flanked by a band playing guitars and drums.

  “Her latest song,” said Riordan.

  I frowned, listening to the wo
rds, and looked at the title of the song on the chyron at the bottom of the screen…

  What the hell?

  “Mad bad wizard girl?” I said.

  She was singing about the mad bad wizard girl, and how you’d better not get in her way or she’ll set you on fire.

  Riordan smiled a little. “I think she’s singing about you.”

  “For God’s sake,” I said. “For God’s sake!”

  She didn’t mention my name, thankfully.

  Still, I had to admit that it was a catchy tune.

  THE END

  Thank you for reading CLOAK OF DRAGONS.

  Turn the page for a preview chapter from Nadia's next adventure, CLOAK OF WOLVES (https://www.jonathanmoeller.com/writer/?page_id=11141).

  If you liked the book, please consider leaving a review at your ebook site of choice. To receive immediate notification of new releases, sign up for my newsletter (http://www.jonathanmoeller.com/writer/?page_id=1854), or watch for news on my Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jonathan-Moeller/328773987230189).

  ***

  CLOAK OF WOLVES Chapter 1: It’s Just The Cost Of Doing Business

  I kicked off the holiday season by threatening the former governor of a US state.

  On the surface, this seemed like a bad idea.

  Still, I don’t think I had any better choice at the time. And in hindsight, it was the beginning of the entire mess when I met Colonel Owen Quell of the Department of Homeland Security.

  Yeah, I should probably back up and explain.

  It was November 4th, Conquest Year 316 (or 2329 AD according to the old calendar), and I had lots to do. My husband and I had just moved into our new house in Brookfield. It had been a present from a grateful dragon (long story), and we were in the process of getting it set up and a good security system installed. That by itself was quite a lot of work, though the house had already been furnished and we weren’t particularly fussy about our living space. I didn’t mind. It distracted me while my husband was out of town on “business,” which was what we called his jobs for the Family of the Shadow Hunters.