Chapter 26 #2
“It should, especially if we invest a bunch of the funds and grow your wealth in the meantime. If not, we’ll help with our personal wealth.
Between us, we can secure their future. We’ll also have to pay significant fees to get the children their European citizenship; that’s a legal problem the schools are currently contending with.
The children weren’t properly registered in Europe, and the schools had no idea they’d been given falsified documents.
We’ve already indicated we’ll be covering any legal fees, and we made a point of reminding the powers that be that the children were victims and should not be victimized further.
That we’re willing to pay their legal fees, get them attorneys to handle the paperwork, and legalize them is making a difference. It’ll just be a headache for a while.”
We could suffer through a few headaches for the children, even if the headaches lasted for months. When I thought about it, the headaches would last for years, but I’d shoulder the burden with minimal regrets.
I would never approve of Madam Merorie’s methods, and while I would dismantle most of her legacy, I would leave the children she had rescued to their bright futures without getting in the way.
If they wanted answers about what had happened to their families, I would give it to them in the kindest ways possible.
If they didn’t, I would allow the truth to be swept away, available if wanted but ignored if not.
I couldn’t see what else I could do without ruining the lives they knew.
Overhead, a dragon roared. My father tensed beneath me, his wings spread in case he needed to take flight. My mother followed his lead, and once she settled, she answered with a roar of her own.
A moment later, the ground rocked beneath us, and a cloud of sand and dirt erupted from the barren land nearby. Small stones and fragments rained down, thumping when it hit the desert. As none of the debris came near us, my father stayed in place, relaxing his wings.
“That was the closest and largest of the mines,” he informed me in a solemn tone before he issued a longer, deeper roar than my mother’s.
“As we were not hit, they can begin the real work while we observe. They have already herded away what life there was here to a safe place; the land is so dry that there was little here. The girl’s loss meant the land perished many years ago. ”
A few moments later, the ground detonated in a series of bangs, sending cloud after cloud of sand and stone into the air. Knowing little lived in the area helped, although I flinched at some of the larger explosions. “We can repopulate the plants and animals, right?”
My father’s chuckle rumbled. “That will be an easy enough matter to address. Once water is restored to the region, life will return. Some of the life will have help returning, but we will catch species from nearby sections of Iraq, hire zoos to breed appropriate species in their programs, and otherwise restore the ecosystem to what it should be. We will begin the work in the resort, and we will set loose wild animals outside the resort’s walls to handle the rest. Try not to fret. ”
Another series of mines detonating rattled my teeth, and I grumbled my irritation over the sound. “How is it that these mines lasted so long?”
“The soil is dry, so there’s no moisture to rust the landmines.
The only way to get rid of them is to disarm or detonate them.
They did a flyover, discovering that there were thousands of mines planted here and even more at the other site.
Some are just beneath the surface and may have just been laid as vehicles drove by with little care of who tripped them.
Detonating them at a distance is the safest way for everyone—and they’re far enough from residential areas that there will only be some noise and faint tremors.
The initial process will take an hour to complete, as the idea is to keep the tremors manageable and do as little damage to the few structures in the area as possible. ”
Clouds of dust rose from the land, and I struggled to comprehend the sheer number of explosives planted in the ground, destroying an entire region. “But what were they fighting over here?”
“Religion, mostly. That’s why the resort will be segregated from the local areas; there will be opportunities for people to learn about the local cultures and religion, but the goal is to keep clashes as infrequent as possible.
The presence of numerous dragons will help with that.
Even the religious fanatics tend to think twice about pitching a fit when an angry dragon is showing their teeth and growling.
There will be problems, but Uruk is worth the problems. People will be able to practice their religions of choice within the resort, but conflicts based on their religions will be banned, and any who violate the rule will be removed, the remainder of their stay refunded, and that will be that.
I’m sure we’ll be targeted by terrorists, but realistically, most terrorists steer clear of dragons. ”
“They are crunchy and taste good with ketchup?” I guessed.
“Personally, I prefer mustard and hot sauce, but yes. We strive to leave that impression. It’s effective.”
That I could believe. “Have you terrorized terrorists, too?”
“Generally, if I catch someone engaging in terrorism, I leave nothing more than smears and memories in my wake. Then I recruit several clans of black dragons to confirm the smear had been engaging in terrorism. Sometimes, I’m even paid for reducing a terrorist to a smear.
When that happens, I buy your mother a new piece of jewelry for her hoard. ”
My mother heaved a sigh. “And he expects me to be grateful for the new jewelry rather than upset I was not invited to turn a terrorist into a smear.”
I regretted my curiosity. “If you feel any needs to turn terrorists into smears, drag them away from the kittens, the bird, and the horses, please. Let’s leave the trauma to those capable of speaking English.”
“But what if I want to train the horses to turn terrorists into smears?” my father asked.
I growled, regretting his hard head was out of my reach. “You may teach the horses to be bodyguards, but you will leave the deliberate hunting of terrorists to dragons and people appropriately trained to handle such things.”
“Accept it,” my mother ordered.
My father took a turn at heaving a sigh. “I suppose, if I must.”
My parents would drive me crazy sooner than later at the rate they were going. “Yes, you must. I’m sure you’ll get over it. Please, for the first time in your lives, try to behave. I’d rather not be turned into shrapnel today or any other day for that matter.”
“Just this once,” my father grumbled before settling down to observe the dragons overhead lay waste so that life might one day return to the barren land.
* * *
Wednesday, June 10, 2167
Uruk
Al Muthanna Governorate, Iraq
While it took the entire afternoon, dragons of all colors cleared the landmines, beginning the next stage of recovery for the land.
As there were no roads and wouldn’t be any for months to come, the dragons took turns hauling out shipping containers filled with scrap metal, which the iron dragons retrieved with their magic.
The other colors helped as well, and those who couldn’t manipulate metals went in search of plastic scraps by hand and claw.
The process would take a few weeks, but we could move on with the real work: returning the girl to Uruk so her Waters of Life might once again flow.
My father flew me to where the Euphrates had once skirted Uruk, and he carried the girl’s dripping casket with him, standing a careful guard over her. The water’s volume had increased to a steady trickle, which the sunbaked sand consumed the instant it fell.
A Child of the Christ, who’d flown in from Europe, joined us.
The black dragoness breathed deep of the desert air, and she checked on the girl’s casket, nudging it with her nose.
“My name is Delilah. It will be nice to see a river here once again. I was but a little hatchling when only the oasis remained, the sun having scorched the life out of most of it. I did not know it was an oasis due to the Waters of Life. Where will you put her?”
The vision of the city beyond the river, perched on its hill, remained fixed into my memory.
I got off my father’s back, heading along the dead river shore, staring at the hill until I located the spot that seemed closest to where she’d sacrificed her life holding back the river’s raging flow.
“Father, will it be possible to guard her here?”
“There will be an entire clan of dragons defending her resting place after we bury her, and we will entomb her in a layer of metals and stones with numerous pipes draining from the vault so her waters can flow until we can make her a proper crypt—if we need to. We have enough dragons here we might be able to construct the final vault today. The precautions we take will be significant. She will be safe, and there will be someone maintaining the site daily. The magic securing her crypt will see frequent maintenance, and the pipes allowing her water to flow will be cleared every dawn and dusk. We will turn this into a proper oasis, and we will have the river flow to the former oasis so it might one day live again.” My father considered the Child of the Christ with interest. “Will the flow be strong enough for that?”