Chapter 18 #2
“Carefully and with some remorse,” my mother replied, and she raised a brow.
“The world was not ready for us to have a hatchling, and it’s not uncommon for dragons from our era to wait a few thousand years before having a clutch.
Clutches are more the norm, thus I’m unusual for having a singlet.
My branch of the Scaretti dragons tends to have clutches of three to seven eggs, with the average being four.
All right. If you’ve done enough research to have learned we’re older than we let on, and you’ve hunted for information on Krikolios, then you’re ready to hear the answers.
I saw him a few months before his death. ”
“When he returned to the ice.”
While my mother’s expression turned rather pained, she nodded. “Yes, old dragons like him went to the ice fields and entombed themselves in ice at their deaths. I see you’ve been taking great care with your research—and that you saw his death true. How many of his bones did that wicked beast have?”
I got up, headed to the bedroom, and retrieved the bones and claws, and after a few moments of thought, I retrieved the sickle and the obsidian dagger as well. I took them to the table before heading to the sitting room and inviting them to behold my ancient inheritance.
They came into the kitchen at my call, and both of my parents stared at the obsidian dagger with wide eyes.
I picked it up, showing it to them. “I’m guessing I used a mix of chrome and purple magics when I touched his bones initially.
We had a talk before his death, and I kept him company until the ice claimed him.
He taught me how to take the dagger from the past to the present.
I’m guessing I didn’t screw anything up, as the world still exists and we’re still part of it.
At least, I think so.” I turned the weapon over in my hands, marveling at its glossy facets and primitive beauty.
“Also, you’re how old and just got around to having me?
” I stomped my foot. “I could have experienced history in person, and you waited until now to get around to reproducing?”
Erik snickered. “They were waiting until I existed so you could marry me, Kinsley. My parents haven’t been together all that long, especially compared to your parents. It was deliberate and careful timing to make certain we have our happily ever after.”
My father jabbed my mother with his elbow and false whispered, “We owe that yellow hatchling for an easy out of this one, love.”
My mother heaved the sort of sigh promising she’d find some way to get her revenge at a later date.
“It took ten thousand years to decide this thing I mated with was worth reproducing with. But we’ll take pity on you and have another clutch sooner than later so you have some siblings to dote on and throw at the rest of your relatives.
That’s why nobody had any problems giving you a chance to hatch properly and establish yourself in the world, Kinsley.
My parents are over thirty thousand years old.
Their parents are closer to a hundred thousand years old.
There weren’t many other pairs between them and Krikolios, one born every hundred or so thousand years.
Most of them returned to ice or flame. Your great grandparents still live, but they’re reclusive and will likely hunt peace until it’s their turn to return to ice or flame. ”
“Scarettis return to the flame, then? They go to die in a volcano?” The thought of a dragon burning to death repulsed me.
Krikolios had passed in relative peace.
“It’s not like that at all,” my mother promised.
“My clan will go to volcanoes to rest, but once we die, we self-combust. That’s just the way of it.
You’ll likely return to the ice when you go, making a pilgrimage to the glaciers much like Krikolios did.
Erik might even pick that trait up from you, but yellows are more removed from the ancestral dragons. No offense, Erik.”
“Yellows breed early and often, so it makes sense we’ve lost some of the magic that made us,” my husband replied, and he took a seat at the table, stretched out, and gestured to the bones. “Scaretti dragons wouldn’t leave bones like this, then?”
“Correct. At most, we may leave a claw behind, but typically we do not. If we wish for a claw to be turned into a weapon, we sever it before our deaths, temper it with our breath, and gift it to the inheritor before our deaths.” My mother stared at the sickle. “May I pick that up?”
I nodded. “I plan to reunite it with the girl who had it, should I find her body. They were giving life to an oasis.”
“Like calls to like, and her claw would have recognized you as a proper custodian,” my mother said, and she handled the sickle with care.
“Yes, this was definitely Marmariatta’s claw, refined in shape and given runes.
I don’t know what the runes mean. But she was viewed as the first bringer of life, and such things have power. How did the girl die?”
Well aware I might earn a scolding, I told them of what I had seen in the warehouse, spoke of the girl’s death in Sumeria, her sale in London, and my acquisition of the sickle, abandoned in storage.
My parents growled, and I held no doubt they would destroy anyone foolish enough to get in their way. Once I finished, my mother paced around the kitchen, flexing her hands. “Traffickers first, mercenaries second?”
My father made a thoughtful sound. “Allowing trafficking to exist in Dragon Heights wouldn’t be charitable of us.
I swear, leave for a hundred years to establish a nest and raise a hatchling, and these pitiful scaled lizards think they can get away with that on our turf?
Kinsley, keep your mouth shut about this.
Erik, you as well. We’ll look into the trafficking side of things on our own, and should we find anything, we’ll let you know.
But I can suggest something to look into.
Check out the brothels that didn’t have any women attacked.
Those are probably the ones benefiting from trafficking operations.
Madam Merorie and her crew wouldn’t risk having their trafficking situation exposed, and if they’re receiving sex workers from elsewhere, that’s where they’ll be.
It’s a case of drawing attention away from the brothels that have the illegal workers. ”
The fact I hadn’t thought of that astounded me to the point I stared at my father with my mouth hanging open.
Erik made a soft sound of dismay.
My father chuckled at us. “It’s a matter of perspective, children.
You’re in the forest looking at the leaves while trying to figure out which tree gave you the exact leaf you’re interested in.
We’re outside of the forest looking in for specific trees.
If I want to hide a tree in a forest, I would attract attention to other trees. It’s that simple.”
Well, tomorrow at work would be interesting, especially once I told Pascal what they said. “I’m prepared to hurt a black dragon’s feelings with that insight. All right. We focused on the wrong place, probably.”
My mother came over to me and kissed my cheek.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself, baby girl.
Your father and I have been talking about the brothel situation a lot, and unlike you, we haven’t had twenty other things distracting us at the same time.
Learn from the mistake, and tomorrow, reevaluate your evidence with a new perspective.
But let us look into the brothel situation.
That’s something your father and I can do without drawing suspicion. ”
I realized my parents meant to go to the brothels as patrons, and I stared at them in horror. “You’re going to go to the strip shows, aren’t you?”
My father shrugged. My mother smirked.
I did the mental math: dragons were perverts, and I had the misfortune of being descended directly from a pair of them. “Please tell me I didn’t start life through a visit to a strip club.”
“You started life as the result of some begging, pleading, and your mother’s excellent choice of lingerie,” my father informed me in a solemn tone.
“After seeing your mother in her lingerie, I may have been the one guilty of the begging and pleading. I assure you, your mother does not need to sit me down in front of scantily clad women to secure my attention. However, going to the strip clubs adds spice to life, gives us a good opportunity to get a look at the operations, and lets us check for the telltale signs of trafficking. If we can point you in the direction of a trafficking brothel, you might be able to rescue many of the victims eventually.” After a moment, my father winced.
“It’s been long enough that if Madam Merorie sold any women, they’re already elsewhere, and getting them out may be close to impossible.
But you might be able to rescue the women imported into Dragon Heights if that is what is going on. ”
I could believe that. “And if we identify the rings here, we can at least disrupt operations.”
My mother nodded. “Some crimes are never solved, but at least you will have the story of what happened and why—and one day, that story might lead to the rescue of her victims.”
“But the ghosts in Death Mile said there were living people,” I muttered.
My mother gave me another kiss on my cheek.
“Darling, I know this is going to be hard for you to hear, but it’s a brutal reality you need to accept: at the time that person died, there were live bodies at the end of the road.
That could have been a month ago, that could have been a hundred years ago.
What matters now is that you’re trying, even if you can’t wrap everything up nice and neat with a bow.
If the FBI, with its far greater resources, struggles to recover victims, you need to accept that it is almost an impossibility for you to do what they can’t. ”
I hated how right she was, and I accepted her words with a nod. “What would you do in my shoes, Mom?”
“Raze this wretched little city to the ground with the claw of my grandmother in one hand and the claw of my grandfather in the other. And yes, for all there were numerous generations between us, they were our grandparents. I recommend you turn one of his claws into a sickle the match of hers and keep them together.”
“But the girl...”
“Our grandmother’s claw is not what made her give life to the oasis, my darling.
She is. All Marmariatta’s claw did was make her power have permanence.
Allow Krikolios and Marmariatta to be reunited for however long you live.
And yes, when the time comes, we will help the girl return to her oasis.
It would just be for the better if that sickle stayed safe with you—and with what remains of her beloved mate. ”
While I didn’t like it, I understood her point. “Perhaps I can talk to the girl and ask her if she would be all right with that.”
“It wasn’t the sickle that did all that work, Kinsley.
It was her. All the sickle, Marmariatta’s claw, would have done was take her beautiful sacrifice, made with her own hand and magic, and given it longevity and life beyond death.
The claw’s work is done. Her body is as it is because she used our grandmother’s claw to give her necromancy strength and permanency. ”
I spluttered. “Necromancy? That was necromancy?”
My mother regarded me with a raised brow.
“What did you think it was? Yes, that was necromancy in its purest, brightest form. She offered her life, her death, her very existence, for all eternity, to provide life to the desert. All the claw did was ensure her death and give that last wish of her life an ancient dragon’s strength backing it.
She was not the first to use a dragon’s claw in such a fashion, nor will she be the last—but she will be, in my opinion, one of the more beautiful and pure versions of it.
For her to do as she did, she had no doubt, no hesitation, and no regrets.
She wanted to give her life for the home she loved, and she wished for that life to extend to the end of time.
” After giving my shoulder a pat and sitting down, she added, “Had Madam Merorie, in the instant that her son had died, done the same, then it’s entirely possible she might have accomplished something more than breaking homes and ending lives.
But that’s the nature of necromancy and those who wish to bring back the dead.
It is always, and I do mean always, for purely selfish gain.
What that girl did was as selfless an act as it gets, and the only life she wished to claim in that working was her own.
And for that reason alone, her necromancy became life—and to this day, she offers life to the desert she lived in and loved. ”
“How do you know this?” I demanded.
My mother offered a sad smile. “She is not the only one like her lingering in the world, making use of powers too great for her to control, contain, or survive. And one day, we will protect her like we protect the others; they’re carefully guarded secrets hidden in the unknown places of the world, places where only dragons dare to tread.
But I promise you this, my daughter. You will see her returned to her oasis, and you will witness the true power of dragon bones.
And when you do, you will understand the gift you have been given.
I simply hope it will not be a curse later down the road. ”
I took a few minutes to think about her words, and then I nodded. “Thank you, Mom.”
“Hey, what about me?” my father complained.
“I’ll thank you once you tell me something worth thanking you for,” I countered, forcing a grin.
He clutched his chest and feigned death, sprawling on my kitchen floor. “I have been struck a cruel blow.”
“If you bring me the identities of the traffickers in Dragon Heights, not only will I thank you, I’ll agree to go on one of those family vacations you keep wistfully sighing about,” I promised.
My father hopped to his feet, sought out his carbunclo, who slept near our kittens, and headed for the door. “Come along, darling. We have a city to clean of filth.”