Drake

by D M Gilmore

  “I can’t believe you still want to give her away!” Ruth growled angrily, crossing his arms in frustration.

  “I don’t!!” Asher growled right back, pausing his typing for a moment to whip his chair around and glare at his brother. “Believe me, the last thing I want right now is to give Duncan Smog something with as much mana as this dragon. I didn’t think this job through the first time and got us involved, and now we’re going to suffer the consequences if we don’t deliver. That’s the reality of this situation, Ruth, that if this comes down to her life or ours, I’m going to choose ours. Do you understand?”

  Ruth sighed, but nodded. Asher wasn’t wrong; Ruth was getting worked up over a single creature, when their own lives were at stake. They couldn’t afford to risk themselves if they could simply hand over the dragon and walk away unscathed.

  “You’re still going through with the mana orb trick, though, right?” Ruth asked, hopefully.

  “Plan A is to give him the repaired orb, plan B is to give him Esther,” Asher nodded. “Hopefully, it won’t come to that.”

  Chapter 15

  Asher was taking every precaution he could to make sure they made it out of Club Erebor alive. He wore his pair of, now fully charged, watches on each wrist, and had loaded a fresh suite of spells onto each one. They were plugged in at the sides with wires that ran up the sleeves of his synthetic jacket and into the battery pack in his back pocket. His phone, which was running the modified Fixit for the orb, was also linked to the same battery pack, and was stored in his breast pocket for easy access. He hoped by using one large battery for all his devices, he could give himself a larger pool of mana to draw from. Simple watch batteries wouldn’t last very long in a serious fight, and coupled with Fixit running off his phone, he wasn’t sure he could risk going in unplugged. Like he had on the night he had foolishly accepted the job, he had his hood pulled up and threaded over his horns, and hadn’t bothered to straighten his crest.

  He carried a black backpack over his shoulder, in which he could feel Esther shuffling around uncomfortably. He had tried to get Ruth to carry her, but she refused to remain quiet if she wasn’t near Asher at all times, and so he had finally given in to her angry squawking and agreed to carry her. He was constantly reminding her to remain quiet, and was often surprised to find that she listened to his command. He wondered if maybe she was intelligent, but couldn’t devote more than a few seconds to the thought.

  Ruth had changed into a clean jumpsuit, which was done up this time, to conceal the pistol holstered beneath his shoulder. He carried a black canvas bag in one hand, which contained the enchanted shards of the egg that were being held together by Asher’s magic. Ruth’s own phone was running a subtle shield spell that would hopefully protect him from bullets, but would most likely be useless against anything else. Asher had offered to supply him with a few combative spells, but Ruth had turned them down. He was a bad enough shot with his point-and-click pistol, aiming spells was beyond him.

  It was raining out, the streets around Club Erebor were dark, with most of the shops and establishments having yet to turn on their hologram signs, leaving the streets shrouded in the shadows of the storm clouds overhead. A rolling thunder rumbled through the sky as Asher and Ruth walked up to the entrance of the club, passing through the threshold uninhibited. The front entryway was just as dark as the streets outside, without even a light on to greet them.

  Asher could feel Esther recoiling uncomfortably inside his backpack, which he adjusted on his shoulder and shushed at quietly. The last thing he needed was Esther squawking nervously at him and tipping off her position. So far she’d been cooperative, but who knew how long that would last, or if she’d give herself away before the exchange was done. Their survival hinged on Esther being able to stay quiet enough for them to hand over the egg and leave.

  As the pair stepped out of the darkened lobby and into the main body of the club, they were suddenly blinded by a series of bright spotlights aimed directly at them. There was a clapping sound coming from the back of the club, by the stage, but Asher was too busy covering his eyes with his hands to bother checking to see who it was.

  “There they are, the men of the hour,” a familiar, albeit sinister, voice rang out through the club. “What did I tell you, Sangita? They were the best drakes for the job.”

  All at once, the spotlights went dark, and the club was filled with white light. Asher and Ruth blinked a few times blearily, as their eyes rapidly adjusted to the change of light in the room, and both did a double take in surprise as they took in their surroundings. The club had been cleared of all tables and chairs, which were pushed to the wall opposite the bar. The stage had been draped over by a large, red curtain, and the dance floor was crawling with drakes, each of them in a cleanly pressed suit and with a golden ring slipped over their right horn. One drake had no horns to speak of, and instead had the ring pierced into its ear-like headfins. A few of the drakes held scaly, dog-like creatures by chain leashes, as the animals bared their massive teeth and barked angrily at the newcomers.

  “I count twelve drakes, armed, and three drakhunds,” Ruth whispered to his brother, as they took a step towards the crowd, which slowly began to part and make way for them.

  “Smog?” Asher called, looking around for the crimson drake, vaguely aware that the gang of drakes was forming a semicircle just behind him.

  Suddenly, the curtain on the stage parted, revealing Duncan Smog and another drake that Asher didn’t recognize. It was a female with black scales and bright pink trims, dressed in a tight black suit that hugged her body, disrupting her silhouette only with a few pockets and tools hanging off her belt. Between them was a table, decorated with an assortment of tools that Asher couldn’t quite see from his position on the dance floor. The female was grinning mischievously down at the pair of brothers, her neon pink eyes scanning them for danger, while Smog was slowly clapping his hands together, his own face split into a sinister smile.

  “Gentlemen,” he laughed, taking a few steps towards the edge of the stage, “I told you all that our boys would come through for us, didn’t I?”

  There was a collective muttering from the gathered drakes, but none of them seemed to denote confidence or agreement.

  “We have the orb,” Asher said, trying to move this ordeal along. The faster they gave him the orb, the sooner they could make their escape and get on with their lives.

  On his cue, Ruth held up the bag he’d been carrying, the fabric making a fairly obvious egg shape around its contents. There was a collective gasp from the gathered crowd. Everyone looked on in surprise as Ruth reached a hand into the bag, and pulled out an immaculate, ovoid sapphire only slightly smaller than his head.

  “Well done, gentlemen.” Smog clapped a few times, and was quickly joined by the surrounding drakes. Within seconds of starting, however, he ceased, and the clapping died down. “Bring it up here, I want to see it.”

  Ruth slowly took a few steps towards the stage, then looked to Asher for support. His older brother nodded slightly, and Ruth took a few more steps towards Smog, keeping his pace slow as he held out the orb for the crimson drake.

  “Come on, Ruth, don’t be shy,” Smog encouraged, waving him forward another few steps, putting him within arm’s reach of the stage. “You have nothing to be afraid of, you guys did it, you got an orb!” With excited fingers, he lifted the orb out of Ruth’s hands. The hollow egg made a delicate ringing sound as he clasped it in both hands, staring deeply into his own reflection in the immaculate, crystalline surface. “I finally have one,” he whispered, running the tips of his fingers carefully over the egg’s surface. “All these years of work will finally start to pay off.”

  Ruth looked over his shoulder at Asher, who simply shrugged in confusion and shook his head.

  “You know, Asher, we have a lot in common, you and I,” Smog continued, never taking his eyes off the egg even for a second, “we’ll both do just about anything for money. The only differ
ence is where we started. I started my quest for cash on the streets of Toronto, slowly amassing money and followers until I gained the notice of the police. Imagine my surprise when they raided our hideout, a group of small-time gangbangers worth the trouble of a police raid. They seized all our product, our meth, our guns, even the stash of cash we had hidden away. I lost everything that night, everything but the clothes on my back and the freedom to run,” he chuckled slightly, before clouding up the surface of the orb with his breath and shining it with his sleeve. “I had to move my operation into the broodtown, rebrand it to something more… drake-friendly. It was years before I was back to where I started, and by then my operation was growing faster than ever. Weapons, drugs, spells, protection, you know as well as anyone that there is nothing I won’t deal in. I don’t hate where I am, but I miss being able to walk down the streets in shoes, wearing clothes without worrying about my talons and tail. The little things, I’m sure you understand, no?”

  Smog finally lowered the egg, and looked Asher straight in the eye. There seemed to be a hint of sadness in Duncan’s expression, a melancholic gaze, like he didn’t see Asher at all, but was rather looking through the grey drake, to see a version of his past self that he could no longer be.

  “No,” Asher finally said, “I’m afraid I don’t understand the appeal of being human.”

  Smog shrugged and shook his head. “No, I suppose you wouldn’t, what with your fuldrake brother and all. But human, drake, none of it matters in comparison to this,” he said, raising the egg into the air, for all the drakes to see. The crystal orb caught the light and reflected it across the club

  “I finally have one,” he chuckled turning to the dark drake by the table. “I finally have a dragon egg, Sangita.”

  All at once, Ruth and Asher’s eyes widened in fear. Asher could feel Esther tensing up inside her bag, the mana she radiated now buzzing with emotion. He could feel her fear, her concern. Smog knew about dragons?

  Smog set the egg down on a clear patch in the table, and the drake, Sangita they assumed, picked up a rubber mallet and iron chisel.

  “You have what you want, Smog, so we’ll just be going now!” Asher called, taking a step back, stopping just before he bumped into the crowding drakes, who had taken a step forward to get closer to the stage.

  Sangita smiled down at him and placed the tip of her chisel on the egg’s shimmering blue surface. “You will want to see what comes of this, Asher. As I understand it, you have an insatiable curiosity for all things magical, no?” She had a slight English accent, tinged with a bit of something South Asian.

  “I bet you didn’t know that when you took the job, did you?” Smog asked, smiling down at Asher and Ruth. “According to Sangita here, the government has been lying about the origin of mana orbs from the very beginning, some sort of conspiracy circulated by COMA to keep everybody placated. Sangita here says that what you and I call mana orbs are actually the eggs of mythical creatures that not only generate more mana than you can possibly ever need, Asher, but are capable of things you could only ever dream of doing! Of course I didn’t believe her at first…”

  “But you did come to your senses, eventually,” Sangita interrupted, nodding a little.

  “You showed me things I couldn’t possibly think were real,” Smog said, in an almost wistful tone.

  Esther’s claws suddenly dug into Asher’s back through the pack, and he tensed up. Without a word, he called up a holodisplay in his palm, and selected his shield spell for his left watch. This was going to get very ugly, very quickly.

  “What about my money?” Asher growled, nodding as Ruth took a few more steps away from the stage, putting himself cleanly outside the Smog’s arm range. “Ten grand, Smog, that was the deal!”

  “You’ll get all that, and more, Asher,” Smog assured him. “Today, you have supplied me with the first dragon. Sangita will supply the mate.”

  “It takes five years for dragons to reach sexual maturity, but in that time they produce enough mana to power your spells a thousand times over,” Sangita added, setting the tip of the chisel onto the egg’s shimmering surface.

  “Just think, Asher, in five year’s time, we’ll be able to produce an entire generation of dragon eggs, our own mana orbs.” Smog’s eyes lost focus, as though he were staring out at the unseen future. “Think how rich we’ll be. I’ll be the only known vendor of mana orbs other than COMA. I can set the price. I can control the supply. I’ll be the richest drake the world has ever seen.”

  “And what then?!” Asher shouted, clenching his fists. “Once you have all that money by breeding dragons, what do you plan to do?”

  “I plan to use them, Asher, like any animal that produces something of value,” Duncan explained, casually dusting off his suit. “I told you when I commissioned your invisibility spell that mana wouldn’t be an issue, and I wasn’t kidding. With the amount of mana generated by one dragon, I’ll be able to power any spell I want to meet any goal I see fit. Any rival gangs,” Smog snapped his fingers, “I’ll be able to destroy them so fast they won’t even know what hit them.”

  “So what, you’re planning to treat dragons like chickens? Power generating chickens?!” Ruth accused, tilting his head as he tried to process everything.

  “Like I said,” Duncan hissed, glaring down at the larger brother, “that is the purpose of keeping a useful animal. You make use of them.”

  “However, once the pair is fully matured, you are going to give them to me,” Sangita added, narrowing her eyes at Smog in suspicion.

  “Of course, of course, by then I’ll have my own little clutch of dragon eggs and won’t need the parents anymore,” Smog grinned waving her off as though she didn’t matter. “Now then, my dear, if you would kindly do the honours?”

  “Such a gentleman. It would be my pleasure!” Sangita suddenly raised the hammer in the air, and brought it down as hard as she could on the head of the chisel, burying the nail-like tip into the surface of the egg. There was a sound like thunder that filled the room as the spell holding the egg together was overpowered, the impact simply too much for a such a simple enchantment to withstand, and the egg fell apart onto the table.

  There was a silent pause as everyone held their breath. Sangita took a step back in surprise, dropping the hammer and chisel onto the stage as she looked from the shattered eggshell to Asher and then to Smog. Smog’s eyes went wide in confusion as he stared at the place where once a fully formed mana orb had been. An orb which had shattered, leaving only chunks of sapphire draquartz in its place.

  “I don’t understand, where’s the dragon?” Smog muttered, pushing everything off the table with a sweep of his hands as he felt around, desperately trying to find the creature he had expected to be there. “Where is it?” he asked again, looking up at Sangita. The female could only shake her head, equally confused as her eyes rapidly scanned the club, hoping to find the creature they had expected to be there. “Asher, you have some explaining to do,” he growled, narrowing his eyes and baring his teeth at the grey drake.

  It was then that Esther decided to make her grand entrance. Using her razor-sharp teeth, she bit a hole in the fabric near the top of the backpack, quickly tearing it until it was just large enough that she could poke her head through it. There was a collective gasp as the drakes just behind Asher raised their weapons and pointed them at her, and she meeped in fear, staring down the barrel of a pistol pointed at her nose.

  “What was that?!” Smog shouted, his eyes darting across the faces of his men.

  “Nothing, I just make that sound when I’m nervous sometimes,” Asher quickly said, doing his best imitation of Esther’s meep.

  Esther, however, had other plans. She swivelled her neck around, until she met Smog’s eyes. Once more, she meeped, and dove back into the bag in fear.

  “You have it?!” Smog hissed, jumping down from the stage and pulling a pistol out of his jacket. Without hesitation, he pulled the slider, and the exhaust ports on the si
de of the gun began to glow an electric blue as it hummed with power. “Okay, Asher, I’m going to make this very easy for you. I know you’re a smart kid, so you’ll make the right choice.” He growled and aimed the barrel of the gun at Ruth’s head. “Hand over the dragon, and I won’t shoot your brother.”

  “Alright! Alright! Calm down!” Asher said, quickly slinging the backpack off his shoulders and dropping it to the ground. Without another word, he bent down to undo the zippers, and reached in with his right hand. He wanted to make sure he could cast his shield spell if he needed to, and kept one of his hands free, just in case.

  Without hesitation, Esther slithered out of the bag and coiled around his arm. There was a collective gasp from the gathered drakes as Asher slowly pulled his arm out, revealing the dragon in all her resplendent glory. Her bright blue scales caught the light and reflected it, her sapphire shell shining as though they were diamonds and not some part of an organic creature. The eyes of every drake in the room stared transfixed as Asher held her out for all to see, and he could have sworn Smog actually became teary eyed.

  “It’s beautiful,” Duncan whispered, his gun hand faltering for a moment as he stared at Esther. “The most beautiful creature I have ever seen in my life.”

  “Asher, don’t hand her over,” Ruth insisted, his arms raised in the universal sign for don’t shoot me.

  “Sorry, Ruth,” Asher grumbled, adjusting Esther in his arms so he was holding her with both hands, “but I already told you that if it came down to our life or hers, I would pick ours.”

  Asher took a few confident steps forward, and held the dragon out for Smog. The crimson drake smiled and nodded and held out his free hand to take the dragon, smiling at Asher. “You made the right decision,” he said, reaching out slowly to pick the little dragon up.

  “Duncan, wait!” Sangita suddenly shouted, but she was too late.