Chapter 26
TWENTY-SIX
“That was ruthless even for me.”
Warka
Al Muthanna Governorate, Iraq
The days stretched while my father hammered out the final details for the resort and brought in the iron dragon clan to rid Iraq of two notable minefields.
Nobody except the iron dragons were permitted at the larger site; they opted to handle the situation directly, detonating one mine after another and monitoring the nearby structures for damage.
The clan handled the issue of potential damage as well as the removal of active ordnance, making use of their magic to reinforce the structures. It took only a few hours for the dragons to accomplish what Iraq’s government could not.
While I hadn’t been invited to observe the larger removal, my parents transformed and agreed to carry me and Erik to the girl’s oasis so we might witness the first stage of reviving her land. Unlike at the farmland site, the iron dragons would not be leaving any debris behind.
With the help of a representative from every metallic dragon color, the land would be purified so new life could begin.
I rode my father, as a condition of observing the festivities involved staying on his back so he might fly me to safety while my mother safeguarded Erik.
I patted his neck, snickering over how much he appreciated the attention.
“How did you even afford this many dragons helping, Dad?” I pointed up at the sky, which was filled with shining wings. “There are at least a hundred of them.”
“I called in a lot of favors,” he confessed.
“And the iron dragons refused to accept payment for the work despite us having previously negotiated for monetary compensation. Apparently, they called me out on redoing the terms by how we traded for the land. Of course, I wasn’t expecting your mother to negotiate for everything for a pair of pennies, but it is what it is. ”
“That was ruthless even for me,” my mother added in a rather proud tone.
I had questions involving my parents, just how many dragons they knew, and why they were both practiced at the art of taking the treasures of other dragons and transferring the wealth to me. I eyed the girl’s casket, which leaked.
We’d emptied the jar some twenty minutes prior.
The thirsting ground drank every drop, and rather than change the jar, I ignored the situation.
My father laughed. “It was. After they acquired their visas and flew in and saw the site, the state of the land broke their hearts. They don’t like cleaning up after wars, especially not pointless wars, but the only people suffering were innocents, those who had nothing to do with that old war—and the government truly couldn’t afford the bill to remove the mines.
They verified the mines had been laid by a terrorist group in the distant past, and at that point, it became a matter of doing good for many rather than punishing warmongers.
They’re handling this site because they support what you want to do with the land.
Worse, they won’t even let me act like I owe them favors now. ”
My father huffed, and he puffed, and he snorted a time or two. The dragons overhead ignored him.
My mother whipped her tail around and slapped my father’s flank.
“Maybe if you hadn’t blabbed about Uruk and the museum, you would be emptying your coffers right now.
Your wallet will be suffering soon enough.
After the mines are all detonated, we’re going to head to Uruk proper and see if we can find the ideal place for the girl’s body.
And that’s not criticizing you wanting to return her to the oasis, but she perished for the city, not for the oasis.
I am hoping if we can locate her death site, she will grow into her true role and become the region’s Waters of Life. ”
“I know where the site is,” I replied. The location would be forever etched into my heart and soul, and I wondered what would change if that section of dead river were to bloom back to life. “But will the waters reach the oasis?”
“The former riverbed runs from Uruk to the oasis site,” my father confirmed.
“The oasis was once part of the Euphrates. The ghost of the river is still present. Sure, the Euphrates changed course, but it’s a trivial matter for us to dig a channel to confirm where the water will flow.
” My father lifted his head and pointed his nose at the dragons overhead.
“It’s not that many miles between here and there. ”
It truly wasn’t; at current estimate, there was no more than twenty miles dividing the place of her death and the oasis she had sustained for thousands of years. “The land trade wasn’t sufficient to reach the oasis from Uruk, was it?”
“We got just over thirty-eight square miles in the trade. We have a mile buffer around the entirety of Uruk, and the rest of our land extends to the south in an ovular shape. The oasis is safely nestled in the lower end of the oval. We will build the resort around the banks of the new river. We’ll still fly in water, as that will be expected of us, and we’ll use dragon magics to purify it.
It is my hope that once we are finished, the resort will recreate the lands surrounding Uruk, allowing guests to step back through time.
” My father turned his nose towards the north.
“The educational portion of the site will be north of Uruk with an archaeological research site dedicated for scientists and their assistants. They will reside in a neighboring complex while they excavate the ruins. They will receive the same general accommodations as guests. They will have their own stable for horses and camels to help them get around, and they’ll be welcome to use the guest facilities.
The idea is that archaeologists around the world will be fighting for the chance to be sponsored to the site. ”
I narrowed my eyes. “Sponsored how?”
“We will allow universities to donate to the site for operations for slots in the program and credits for discoveries, but the discoveries will not leave the site. Otherwise, we will pick the archaeologists as we’re paying for the operations.
All donations will be used for lodging, equipment, and direct expenses. ”
My father’s brilliance terrified me as did his apparent knowledge on how to run complex operations. “I thought you were a broker, not a project manager.”
“I am a broker, but it happens to be that brokers doing my level of work need to have a solid idea of how good operations run. My job is to make sure projects like this get off the ground. I also happen to have lengthy experience building empires. I am a dragon, after all.”
“Mom? Is he pulling my leg again?”
My mother whistled her amusement. “He’s not.
When he’s bored, he concocts plans on how he could do things better.
The instant he heard about your girl, he started concocting ways to protect her.
Building a resort and archaeological site is the best way he could come up with to transform your wish into a living legacy.
Then there is the matter of the boarding schools. ”
I sighed at the mention of the schools. “It’s appearing more and more that Madam Merorie had a scrap of remorse left in her body and decided the children she wasn’t going to murder would be given futures, isn’t it?”
Both my parents nodded, and my father rumbled a growl.
“It is. The funds she sent overseas through the purchase of her art went towards their room, board, and education costs. The children are treated well; the boarding schools are prestigious, and the students attending them tend to become wealthy in their own right. There is zero evidence of abuse. Worse, it’s Stockholm syndrome to the extreme; the children were rescued from abusive situations, one and all.
The interviewing process has begun with the first of the children she sent to the schools.
They’re elderly now, and every last one of them has viewed Madam Merorie as their savior.
It appears that the children who were abused, and not by her, were rescued, their parents and other abusers killed as part of her necromantic studies, and her wealth distributed so those children could have bright futures. ”
The whole situation made me want to cry. “So the worst thing we can do is take them from the schools?”
My parents nodded.
I sighed. “Then we’ll continue to pay for their upkeep and education, although we won’t do so through the acquisition of art.
We will pay through public donations to the schools for the children, and we will cover the taxes, expenses, and everything they need.
I won’t like it, but I’ll step up as the Merorie clan’s heiress so they have that contact if she was doing that. ”
“Until six months ago, she had done that. It will be simple enough to tell the children the truth; she became sick and died.”
While simplified, the situation did boil down to just that. I had no problems with burying the woman’s sins if it meant making certain the children she’d sent overseas could have their happy endings. “Will we really get to meet them?”
My mother joined my father in huffing and puffing, but after she shook herself off and earned some protests from Erik, she said, “After the various law enforcement groups finish the interviews, the headmasters of the schools are prepared to meet with you and discuss the boarding fees and establish meetings with all the children. The price for their attendance is astronomical, millions of dollars a year for all of them. There are a lot more of them than we thought.”
Considering the number of children we knew about, and that we’d missed many more, I was not at all surprised. “I think I can afford it for a while. The sixty million should get all of them through school, right?”