dragons breath 02 - dancing with flames (28 page)

Finally reaching the castle, he hurried through the great hall and down the corridors until he reached Throm’s office. The door stood open, as if the pendragon expected him. His father looked up as Aidan entered.

“Come in,” Throm said, his eyes lighting up. “And shut the door behind you.”

Aidan closed it and moved to stand in front of his father’s desk. Though he wanted to tell him the news right then, he had to wait for the pendragon to ask. It was the way of things and always had been. When he was a child, he would rush to say things without so much as a greeting, and he would be punished for it every time with a sound thwacking to the head. It had taken until his sixteenth year before he learned his lesson.

“I trust you had a safe journey, and the Faegud treated you well?” Throm asked.

Aidan nodded. “They did.”

The pendragon held out his hand. “You may give me the treaty.”

“Father?” Aidan gave him a confused look. He hadn’t even had the opportunity to say he’d succeeded in securing one.

“Son, if you had failed the guilt would be in your eyes—never mind the excuses you would have no doubt contrived for me.” Throm gestured with his fingers. “Now give me the treaty.”

Aidan pulled it from shiggara and handed it to the pendragon. Perhaps it was a silly thing, but he had looked forward to announcing the news. He should have known it would be all business with his father.

Long minutes ticked by as the pendragon read over the long document, unfurling it as he went. The entire time, Aidan thought about every stipulation and agreement, worrying over what faults his father might find. He had done the best he could and fought for every advantage he could possibly gain, but he had never even read a treaty document before. His father had refused to let him peruse them, saying it was best to see how Aidan did without relying on precedent. The only thing the pendragon had done was give him the details of what he could or could not give as concessions. It was barely enough to get him started.

Throm grunted. “They asked for interbreeding?”

“Yes.” Aidan held his hands behind his back. “Hildegard insisted there could be no treaty without it.”

The pendragon narrowed his eyes. “And you went ahead with the negotiations anyway?”

“You did not tell me it was something that could not be included…and to send word to ask you would have been seen as a sign of weakness,” Aidan said, standing behind his decision even if it meant losing his father’s regard.

Throm looked over that section of the document again, his expression unreadable. Aidan mentally prepared himself to be exiled from the toriq at any moment. His father had said that was a possibility if he failed on this task.

“Did Hildegard attempt to demand a certain amount of the children stay with her clan?” Throm asked.

“She did.”

The pendragon rubbed at his chin. “Yet the treaty says that every child has the right to choose their allegiance when they come of age.”

“They do,” Aidan said, a glimmer of hope rising that perhaps his father was not too disappointed.

“You have also outlined a neutral territory between the clans and designated it as a place for where couples may live if they cannot or will not live within either jakhal.” He gazed closer at the document. “I am surprised you thought this far ahead, though I shouldn’t be.”

Aidan slowly let out the breath he’d been holding and replied, “Hildegard would have kept most of the offspring from our alliance if she had gotten her way. I pointed out that her clan is far larger than ours, and we need shape-shifter children as much as she does.”

“That female always was a greedy one, but I am pleased to hear she is the new Faegud leader. Hildegard has always honored her promises—unlike Severne. This treaty will keep her in line with all that you have put into it. I see that you have even ensured they must come to our defense, but we are not required to come to theirs with the exception of one battle planned for the spring. That is most impressive to get such a concession.”

Aidan bowed his head, grateful he had fought for that point. “I am pleased to hear it, father.”

“Will you be the one to mate with one of their clan?” Throm asked, perusing back up the scroll. “That part is not clear. It only says one of my children must do so.”

“I thought to give Zoran, Phoebe, and Ruari that option first,” Aidan answered.

Throm grimaced. “I’m not surprised Hildegard forced that concession out of you, but I hope it is one of your siblings instead. This clan needs you here, son. Whether you succeed me or not, I know you will look out for our people.”

Aidan refrained from checking his ears to be certain they operated properly. “Thank you, father. I am pleased you think so.”

“Give me time to read the rest of this over. I am certain it is all in working order, but I may have more questions for you on the morrow.” Throm rose up from his seat and came around the desk, pulling a surprised Aidan into a tight embrace. “You have done very well. Now go enjoy what is left of the evening and give an old dragon some peace.”

Aidan’s chest was tight as he left the office. He believed his father was proud of him, but for Throm to show his feelings so easily, it must have meant he had little time remaining. There were those who said an elder dragon always knew when his death approached. It left Aidan with a cold feeling inside. Was his father’s seemingly renewed energy a last gasp before he left them for good? He certainly hoped not.

Chapter 26

Bailey

On the way back from seeing Javier, a roadblock appeared up ahead. If I had been listening to the radio while driving, I might have known it was there ahead of time, but I didn’t want Phoebe finding out about Hank. He was our only source of news, and I had no idea how she, Aidan, or their clan would react if they discovered humans had a network for communicating news to each other. Unless a good reason came up to tell the shifters, there was no reason to reveal the radio station to them.

The road bandits had parked a line of cars across Lindsey Street with armed men and women standing guard behind them. I probably should have turned around and gone some other way, but I was tired, and my shoulder was beginning to ache. Pain made me grouchy. Danae and Trish had been right that I should have given myself another day, but it had been worth going out. I had the location of the missing children, and Phoebe had confirmed her murder suspect.

“Bailey, what are you doing?” Conrad asked as I kept driving forward. I hadn’t dropped him off at Earl’s since he’d used one of the neighborhood cars to meet me at Aidan’s house earlier.

“I’m going to talk to these guys,” I said, tightening my hands on the wheel. “It’s getting old going around them every damn time they feel like harassing people who drive down this street. If they want to have a conversation, I’m going to give them one.”

From the rear view mirror, I caught sight of a semi truck moving to block the street behind us—so predictable. The road bandits never changed their tactics. To make matters worse, they had long since figured out dragons were no longer attacking humans on this side of town where the shifters roamed, so they could rob people any time of day they wanted.

“What’s this about?” Phoebe asked, narrowing her gaze on the road block ahead.

Of course, she wouldn’t know. She usually got to fly over all the problems the rest of us faced on the ground. I continued inching my truck forward as I explained the issue. “These guys like to rob people of their cars and anything they’ve got with them. At least once or twice a week they block the road, and if you don’t see it in time to turn around, they trap you.”

“Do they kill their victims as well?” she asked, a puff of steam coming out of her nostrils.

I shrugged. “Only if you fight them.”

“We’re in my territory now. We will have this conversation with them.”

Conrad let out a martyred sigh from the backseat. “Great. This is what happens when you get two tough women in the same vehicle. They get all macho and shit.”

“Quit being a baby,” I admonished. “This could be fun.”

I stopped the truck about thirty feet in front of the road block, shut the engine off, and pulled the keys from the ignition. Grabbing a pair of sunglasses, I handed them to Phoebe and instructed her to put them on. It would be dark soon, but I didn’t want the thieves getting a good look at her eyes if I could help it.

Several men and women headed toward us with their rifles trained in our direction. They were a little on the grungy side, but they looked like they knew their way around weapons—which I could confirm from a previous experience with them.

A burly guy with a long beard called out, “Get out of the truck, nice and slowly, with your hands up. Don’t try anything funny and don’t try to be a hero—it’ll get you dead.”

“He should move to Hollywood and get himself an agent,” I mumbled, pulling my door open. I paused to glance over at Phoebe and Conrad. “Just follow my lead.”

We got out of the truck and walked toward the armed road bandits.

“Is this really necessary?” I asked, keeping my hands high.

A woman with oily-blond hair who appeared to be in her mid-twenties glared at me and then at Phoebe. “What kind of crazy clothes are ya’ll wearin’? It ain’t Halloween for a few more weeks.”

“Would you believe me if I told you they’re bulletproof?” I asked, keeping my voice light and calm.

The woman laughed. “We got us a few crazies.”

“Gimme the keys to the truck,” the burly man demanded, reaching out a hand.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” I said, giving him a tight-lipped smile. “It’s kind of hard to track down dragons and kill them if I have to walk everywhere.”

He frowned. “You can’t be the…”

“That’s the slayer!” said a young guy standing behind the cars. He lowered his pistol and started walking up to me. “She looks just like the radio guy said she would.”

The blond woman rolled her eyes at him. “That’s just whimsy talk. There ain’t no damn dragon slayer—ain’t no such thing.”

“Actually, there is.” This came from an older woman with curly gray hair. “I caught a glimpse of her a few weeks back, and she’s real.”

The younger woman gave her a skeptical look. “Are you sure?”

“Yep.” She nodded. “Same girl, same truck.”

“But she’s too little,” the blond argued.

I listened to them with amusement, waiting for them to work it out amongst themselves.

The older woman muttered an expletive under her breath. “It don’t change the truth and that young man there—” She pointed at Conrad. “He was with her, too.”

“Are you really the dragon slayer?” the burly man asked, gazing at me closely as if it would be written somewhere on my forehead.

I nodded. “Yes.”

He glanced down to my sheathed sword. “How many you killed?”

“I think seventeen or eighteen now.” I wasn’t sure if I should count the one my father finished off. “It’s getting harder to keep track.”

He rubbed at his beard. “Well, if you’re killin’ them, I reckon we gotta let you go. We already lost a few friends and family to those damn dragons, and we want to see the rest of them gone. Think you can do that?”

“I’m working on it,” I said.

Phoebe started to say something, but I shook my head at her. No way did I want to try explaining the intricacies of dragon politics to these people. At least, not until we got the green dragons out of Norman, and the shape-shifters could fully take over.

“Alright, listen up!” The man turned around and addressed his crew. “This lady here and her friends are not to be bothered. If you see ‘em comin’, you let ‘em pass. Got that?”

The men and women mumbled their agreements.

He turned back to me. “Go on, then. We’ll make room for you to pass.”

“Thank you.” I gestured at Phoebe and Conrad, and we headed back for the truck.

Once we were inside, Conrad blew out a breath. “I didn’t think that was really going to work.”

“Something must be done about them,” Phoebe said as I started up the truck. “They can’t be allowed to keep robbing people.”

I agreed, but we had bigger problems at the moment than some road bandits. If I tried stopping all the criminal activity that had risen up since D-day, I’d never actually get to kill dragons. For now, I just needed people to leave me alone so I could do what I was born to do. Someone else would have to take up the job of policing the human population of the city.

The bandits pushed one of the cars out of the way, opening the road block enough for my truck to pass. The old man gave me a salute, and I waved back. They might not be the good guys, but I needed to at least act civil with them if I wanted to move about freely. It had gotten old in the last few months trying to avoid their ambush points. The dents on my truck and my broken windows were proof enough of that.

We continued on our way toward Aidan’s house. Verena’s place didn’t appear around the area I thought it should be located, and Phoebe didn’t note it. Of course, the country house looked pretty harmless if you didn’t know who lived there. Even if she did see it, she might not have a reason to ask about it.

The sun had set by the time we got back. I tensed when my headlights flashed on Aidan, who stood in the middle of the field with his arms crossed and a dark expression on his face. How long had he been waiting there?

“Shifitt,” Phoebe said under her breath. “He is back already.”

Conrad leaned forward, poking his head between our seats. “Man, he don’t look happy.”

“He’ll get over it.” I drove past Aidan to park the truck.

When I went to open the door, he was already there. “Where have you been?”

“Running errands,” I said, getting out to stand in front of him.

He narrowed his eyes. “What errands?”

Phoebe came around to join us. “We just went to see that sorcerer your little spy told us about, brother. Nothing to worry your thick brows about.”