Steel Dragon

by Kevin McLaughlin

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  Kristen awoke and stared in bemusement at a beautiful ceiling. It was an odd sensation because prior to this moment, she hadn’t ever thought that ceilings could be beautiful. In her experience, they either came in white with little popcorn-like things on them or maybe dingy tiles like in an elementary school. The roof above her bed was auburn with gold lace painted in a delicate pattern. She rubbed her eyes and assumed she was having a beautiful but boring dream, but the ceiling persisted.

  A little more awake, she pushed up and favored her left arm but quickly discovered she didn’t need to. She seemed to be fully healed. The room itself was as beautiful as the ceiling above it. Two antique chairs and a roll-top desk could only ever be described as presidential.

  She got out of bed and discovered a pile of neatly folded clothes on one of the chairs. It appeared to be some kind of training outfit much like something used for martial arts.

  Fresh clothes made her think of a shower. The thought had no sooner manifested than a knock came at the door. She answered it.

  “Would you like a hot bath, ma’am?” asked a short-statured woman wearing black and white and a headscarf that completely eclipsed her hair.

  “Uh, yes, please? But…um, where is Stonequest, and—not to be rude—but who the hell are you?”

  “Stonequest is meeting some of his allies. He told me to send you to him when you were clean and fed.” There seemed to be something more that the woman wanted to say, though. She wondered if it was something Stonequest had said about a stinky human riding his dragon form. Before she could ask, the woman cleared her throat. “My name is Farah. I am a housekeeper at the Dragon Retreat. I can take you to the baths and help you wash your hair.”

  Struggling to take it all in, she simply nodded and followed the woman to the most elaborate bathroom she had ever seen. Truly, after seeing the space, she didn’t think she’d ever actually been in a bathroom before. Her dad’s preference for the word ‘shitter’ seemed a better description for all the tiny rooms with toilets that she had previously thought of as bathrooms.

  This room was something else.

  Every inch of it boasted tile the shade of eggshell with little blue, pink, and green flowers painted into the tiles. Sinks and showers were positioned around the room, but what held her attention most was the massive pool in the center.

  It was a circle perhaps ten feet in diameter with three gargoyles spaced around it. Steaming water bubbled from the throat of one and two of the most beautiful women she had ever seen were seated in the water.

  One of them lounged against the wall, her breasts above the water and her eyes closed as another woman in a headscarf massaged shampoo into her scalp.

  The other woman’s hair was wrapped in a towel, and her eyes shot daggers at the newcomer.

  “Your clothes, Lady Steel?” Farah said.

  She hesitated for only a moment before she stripped down. While she might be the new kid in town, she wouldn’t let this woman—a dragon, no doubt—intimidate her.

  Farah led her to a shower where she washed off the grime that came from being an officer for SWAT. Once her skin was a well-scrubbed pink, she returned to the bath.

  As she settled into the steaming water, knots of tension that had been in muscles for months melted away.

  While her helper washed her hair—a truly decadent experience—one of the dragon women continued to stare at her. The moment might have been perfect if not for her constant sneer. She was about to say something to her, but the woman spoke first.

  “So, you’re the steel bitch, huh?”

  “Excuse me?” she said, shocked at the imperiousness of this other woman.

  “We all know who you are. You’ve plastered your pretty red hair all over the television, haven’t you?”

  “That wasn’t my idea—”

  “You haven’t shied away from the camera either. Know this, steel bitch. You’re not a dragon. You may do the little trick with your metal skin, but for all we know, you’re merely a dragonling whose egg should have been cracked. Until you can transform, you won’t be anything more than a curiosity.”

  Before she could respond, the woman stood and the water wicked away from her body. It wrung itself from her hair, pushed itself down her naked body, and formed in waves where it held and waited to crest against her legs.

  “How did you—” Kristen began.

  “You’re not the only one of us with unusual abilities. There are mages who can do little parlor tricks like yours. Do yourself a favor and walk home before you waste more of Stonequest’s time.”

  With that, she stepped from her side of the pool and the water surged to fill the void she had created with her abilities. A servant brought her a garment much like a karate gi and similar to the one Kristen had found in her room.

  “I apologize for Lady Aqua,” Farah said and rinsed her hair. “She has not been kind to a new dragon for centuries, but she will come around when she sees what you are capable of.”

  “There’s no point in delaying the training, then.”

  “Yes, my lady.”

  She stepped from the bath and Farah fetched her a towel. Once dry, she put on the gi and was relieved that it fit well but was still loose enough to allow her a full range of motion. It made a perfect training outfit, really.

  From there, she was led to a dining room with the largest spread of breakfast she had ever seen. Every kind of fruit she knew was on offer, plus a few others that had to have been imported from well south of Michigan’s border. There were breads of every kind, bacon, sausage, and ham, and a chef would cook eggs to order, omelets or otherwise.

  Kristen noticed with growing delight that everyone in the dining room ate with the gusto of a Hall. Despite the men having chiseled arms devoid of body fat and the women all being narrow-waisted, they ate like the buffet might run out of food at any moment. This was a piece of dragon culture that she could participate in.

  Her enthusiasm returned and she attacked the breakfast buffet without delay. She ate six pieces of avocado toast, a four-egg omelet crammed with sausage and olives and topped with an absurd amount of crème fraiche and more bacon than she could count. Between it all, she tried the various fruits and savored the perfect texture of each one. All in all, it was the best breakfast she could remember eating. Better even than the platter of breakfast tacos she had once had when she’d visited Austin, Texas, with her family.

  While she ate, the dragons ignored her and she did the same. She hoped that outside of the bathroom, there would be some sense of decorum and the dragons seemed to respect this.

  Finally sated, she pushed her chair back and belched. That drew a look of disfavor from the other dragons, but she didn’t care.

  “Lady Steel, if you’re ready?” Farah said and startled her as she hadn’t seen her return. “Stonequest is waiting for you.”

  “Oh, right, sorry! I thought with the bath and the meal that I’d have more time.”

  “His orders were to see that you were bathed and fed. If you’re satisfied on both counts, I am to bring you to him.” There was a tinge of fear in the woman’s voice. Kristen didn’t like it but wondered if that was the price of working for beings who could eat a human as easily as they could a pile of bacon.

  “Let’s not keep him waiting.” She pushed herself from the table. While she didn’t think that Stonequest would punish Farah—he seemed more interested in the welfare of human beings than most dragons—he didn’t run this place either. She would feel horrible if the woman were punished because she had taken her time to nurse a cup of coffee.

  They moved quickly through the hallways of the manor and past oil paintings and marble sculptures. Many of them were of humans—or at least dragons in human form—but a few of the paintings were of dragons in front of castles or on fields of battle. Like everything else there, the collection was beyond impressive.

  Her guide led her to a huge hallway. This one had marble floors instead of carpe
t and seemed to be the entryway for the residence. Honestly, she didn’t have the vocabulary to describe it. The room was as large as a ballroom, with curved staircases that led to the upper floors. A grand entryway? A dancing hall? Whatever it was, it was beautiful, but she didn’t have much time to appreciate it as Farah led her between the staircases and out the back door.

  Outside, the grounds were as beautiful and well-maintained as the palace itself. Perfectly trimmed grass was interrupted only by beds of flowers in bloom despite the cold weather. Gazebos dotted the landscape to provide shade for quiet conversations. On a hill toward the back of the grounds stood a pillared structure that looked like it belonged in ancient Greece, not outside Detroit. Between the mini-Parthenon and the palace lay a huge rectangle of sand.

  Within it, dragons sparred in both dragon and human form with weapons both ancient and modern. She saw swords, crossbows, and guns. They used all of it on each other, seemingly without fear. It made SWAT’s gym and shooting range look like it was made for preschoolers.

  “Farewell, Lady Steel,” Farah said as she scuttled back to the palace.

  “Thank you!” Kristen yelled at her retreating back, which seemed to draw the ire of a few dragons who’d strolled quietly across the immaculate grounds.

  “Kristen! It’s about time.” Stonequest jogged toward her from the sandy rectangle. A servant tossed him a towel and he dried off before he pulled a shirt on. A good thing too, she decided, as he looked like his human body was chiseled from marble by a hand as skilled as the ones that made the sculptures inside the manor. He was less distracting this way.

  “Morning, Stonequest. Sorry for being late.”

  “It’s fine. We have a long day ahead of us, so I wanted you to be fed. Are you good to skip lunch?”

  She nodded before she knew what she was doing. That possibly explained why the dragons had eaten so much. Halls didn’t skip lunch.

  “Good. Are you enjoying it here?” asked and gestured for her to walk with him.

  “Uh…mostly.”

  “Mostly? Most of us are amazed the first time we come to the Dragon Retreat. It’s hard to get the European style right in this country.”

  “The place is great, seriously, but everyone is a little…cold?”

  He grimaced. “Try not to worry about them. They’ll all change their tune once you have your wings.”

  “Do you really think you can teach me how to transform into a dragon?”

  “You already are a dragon and have all the hallmarks of a dragon in human form. We merely need that last piece. You’ve made great progress so far. I’m sure you can do it with a teacher who actually wants to unlock your abilities.”

  “I hope it doesn’t take long. That sniper is still at large. Did you hear that some thugs targeted my family as well?”

  Stonequest nodded, his grin gone. “I did, yes. Which is all the more reason to train, and train hard. I understand how…fragile human families can be.”

  Kristen didn’t really know what to say to that, so she merely nodded.

  “I did have some questions about what happened that night, though. Can you tell me your version of events? The police report said the thug who had a gun to your brother’s head surrendered. Is that true?”

  “It is.” She told him the whole story, careful to include all the details of her dragon abilities—how she could transform only parts of her body into steel if she wanted to, her increased speed and strength, and her night vision. But he was most interested in how she’d disarmed the man with the gun.

  “It sounds like you activated your aura on that guy.”

  She nodded. “I wondered if that was what happened. Shadowstorm talked often about sensing auras, so I’ve done some study there, but I’m still not really sure how to control it directly. I think there have been a few times when I’ve made people angry because I’m angry or made them agree with me, but well… It’s not always pretty.”

  “Our aura is one of our most powerful abilities, especially as it relates primarily to humans. It doesn’t take a ton of control to be able to shield yourself from other dragons, so we won’t focus on that too much, but its effects on other species can be huge.”

  “Are you saying that humans are other species?” she asked and while she tried not to sound confrontational, she failed dismally.

  Stonequest shrugged awkwardly. “We’re different but that’s not what I meant. Our aura can do far more than make an angry mob or quell one. Watch.”

  He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and raised both arms. She felt something emanate from him, but it wasn’t an emotion exactly, more like an…interest? It was hard to describe.

  She understood that she couldn’t make sense of it when a bird landed on his finger. It was a gorgeous little thing, entirely red with a thick orange beak, black mask, and a little tuft of feathers at the top of its head.

  “Wow! Is that a robin?” she asked.

  “What? No!” The look of disdain on his face was palpable. “This is a northern cardinal. Seriously? You thought this was a robin? Robins are the state bird of Michigan and have a puffy red breast, a yellow bill and—”

  “Is learning about birds an important part of my training?”

  “No. it’s only—you’re right. Never mind. This is a cardinal. A male. I’m using my aura to make him think of me as a friend. If I tweak it only a little…”

  The bird sang a song.

  “Or I can have it fly off and return.”

  It flew about twenty feet away, came back, and sang on his finger again.

  “Or make it think you’re a predator.”

  The bird flapped its wings and attacked her face, chirping angrily as it did so.

  She held up her hands to defend her face but the bird had already landed on his finger.

  “The trick with auras is that you make the subject feel a certain way. Animals have simpler emotions than we do—most animals, anyway, and don’t get me started on using an aura with a sperm whale—so they’re easier to control. The hard part is matching the emotion to an action. You can’t simply tell the bird ‘land on my finger.’ You have to make the bird want to land on your finger if that makes sense.”

  Kristen nodded. In theory, that made sense. “So, it’s not mind control but emotion control.”

  Stonequest nodded. “Yes…well, kind of. You don’t really control anything but rather simply nudge one way or the other. It’s easier if you actually try it yourself.”

  He waited while she focused on the bird. The cardinal? She tried to make it think her finger looked like a great perch. When that brought no response, she tried to make it afraid of Stonequest. Finally, she tried something that he’d already done and attempted to make it think her face looked like a monster.

  “You can try whenever you’re ready,” he said.

  “I am trying!”

  “Oh. Sorry. Normally, the bird does something. Are you sure you’re trying?”

  “Yes!” She focused harder on the bird and willed it to feel happy, sad, terrified—anything. It chirped once and cocked its stupid little red head to the side.

  “Most dragons start by simply scaring it. Nudge it to think you’re a hawk.”

  Feeling like a fraud, she tried a nudge and it simply chirped sweetly.

  “Look, this doesn’t make sense to me.” She rubbed her face. “Maybe it’s because I don’t see how it can be a good thing to control other creatures’ minds.”

  “Emotions.”

  “Whatever. Isn’t it an abuse of power to take control of what’s inside another being’s head?”

  “Using your aura can be an abuse of power. Throughout history, many have used it to subjugate the weak-willed,” Stonequest said.

  “So, it is bad.”

  “Not necessarily,” he countered. “It’s a tool, like a pen or a hammer or a handgun. All tools can be used either for horrible purposes or to elevate our existence. How it’s used determines its ethics.”

  “Okay…but
isn’t controlling someone else’s emotions inherently worse than all those things?”

  “I would argue that handguns are worse than our aura. Even in the hands of police officers, they often kill. Our auras don’t do that. But the fact is it’s an ability that dragons possess. It’s as integral to us as venom is to a spider. We’ve used it for thousands of years and will continue to use it. I understand if you’re uncomfortable with it and I think that coming at it from the human perspective might be a good thing for more dragons to think about, but it doesn’t change the fact that if you ignore it, it’s a tool you won’t have. It could even be the decisive factor against Death.”

  “So you think the sniper is a human, then?”

  He nodded. “I do. I can’t imagine a dragon mastering a gun like that. It’s a human tool, not really our speed.”

  “But you think I can learn an aura?”

  “You’re not human.”

  She raised an eyebrow at that.

  Stonequest chuckled. “This is why I want you here for periods of training. Your perspective is so interesting. Now come on, get this bird to land on your finger before the big bad dragon takes advantage of it.”

  Kristen nodded. While she still wasn’t entirely comfortable with the idea, if she mastered it, at least she could use her aura to stop other dragons from using theirs.

  Once again, she focused on the cardinal perched on his finger. He had said it worked by nudging its emotions, so she tried to nudge. Be happy, little birdy. Be so happy you want to land on my finger.

  The bird chirped.

  Perhaps it was time for a different approach. She tried to feel its emotional state. After a minute of probing with an inner awareness she hadn’t even known she’d possessed, she sensed a small mote of feeling. The tiny bubble seemed to be contentment and not much else. She tried to feel the emotion and immediately thought that Stonequest was totally trustworthy.

  Okay, so she was closer.

  She tried to extend that feeling of comfort to herself and the bird turned to her. It cocked its little head and flew off. She cursed under her breath but flexed the nudge to calm the bird and make herself feel like an ally, someone who would protect it.