XXVIII
773 Words
XXVIII
The bookcase wall slid open and Governor Grimoire stepped out with his hands clasped behind his back.
He was sick of Miri Charmwell and hated everything about her; her perfume, her faltering voice, her liberal pro-environment, I’m-a-professor-and-therefore-a-steward-of-the-planet bullshit.
He stopped at his desk and picked up the report, thumbed through it, marveled at the photographs of the steel chests.
The chests contained gold pieces, elven bones, and a cache of magic. We can find no links between the machinery that caused the damage and the chests, and we believe that they should be treated as separate discoveries.
Ennius slammed the report on the table.
“Drivel!” he cried.
How hard was it to lead an investigation? This should have been simple. Go to the damn bog and find out who caused the mess. Surely there must have been machinery tracks or some other giveaway that led them to the suspect.
The election was too close and his campaign was running on too low a margin. His nephew was enjoying a sympathy boost in the polls since he’d been shot, and it was the absolute last thing Ennius needed.
They were within ten points of each other. Some analysts were predicting a dead heat.
Dead heat, from a drug-using, billionaire playboy nephew who couldn’t manage money or women!
The bookcase wall was still open. He squeezed behind the wall into a dark corridor. It was so dark he couldn’t even see the walls, but he walked, knowing the way.
The path brightened several paces into the corridor, and he started down a long, metal staircase whose steps were meant for a dragon. Blue fluorescent lights lined the walls, and the air had a mechanical, slightly silicon-like smell.
The hallway opened into a huge egg-like room where the walls were white and the overhead lights were blue.
Norwyn rested in the middle of the room, lying on the floor with his eyes closed. Several metal tubes were hooked into his head, and a hazy holographic screen flickered in the air above him.
The dragon looked as if he were sleeping, but the governor heard him talking.
In multiple voices. At the same time.
The screen over his head had hundreds, if not thousands of images, flashing in quick succession. Ennius could not even begin to comprehend them.
“Norwyn,” Ennius said.
But the dragon continued to speak as if he were not there.
“Norwyn!” Ennius cried.
The white dragon opened an eye, noticed the governor, and then closed it again. He said something in several voices that seemed as if he were wrapping up the conversations, and then the screen above his head went blank. The dragon opened his eyes, ripped the tubes from his head and roared at Ennius. He rose and assumed an attack stance.
“What?!”
“You’re obviously angry about something,” Ennius said.
The anger in Norwyn’s face subsided. “I’ve told you not to interrupt me when I’m surveying.”
“How many versions of you were there just now?”
“In orb form? At least thirty, maybe forty.”
“How go things in my great city?” the governor asked sarcastically.
“You’re the governor. Shouldn’t you know?”
“Enough joking.”
“The crime is getting out of control, Ennius,” Norwyn said. “Most of my consciousness is at the courthouse these days. When I became the Guardian of Justice, I expected that—to live at the delineation between right and wrong—but there is only so much I can judge.”
“What about the election?” Ennius asked.
“Your nephew is getting a sympathy boost in the polls.”
“What about the one who shot him?” Ennius asked.
“Dead.”
“Shit.”
Ennius wanted to punch something.
“One of my detectives in the MCU has been in touch with the would-be killer’s son,” he said. “Any dirt on him?”
“Sure.”
“What kind of answer is that?” Ennius asked.
“A correct answer.”
Ennius got the strange feeling that Norwyn wasn’t completely present, that his mind was still elsewhere despite the dragon looking and talking directly to him. Ennius did know better than to interrupt Norwyn right now, but he was impatient for answers.
“And the bog? What did you find out after chasing Miri Charmwell?”
“Nothing yet.”
“Then what the hell did you spend your time doing?”
“Don’t underestimate her,” Norwyn said. “She’s smarter than she looks. And she knows the way of dragons.”
“What does this have to do with dragons?”
“Governor, this has always been about dragons. Believe what you want, but all elvenhood and humanity are simply living in a dragon’s world.”
“Whatever that means,” Ennius said. “Look, I’m putting the MCU in charge of the bog investigation.”
“It won’t matter, so fine.” The dragon settled on the metal floor and closed his eyes. “Oh, and Governor—keep a low profile for a few days, will you?”
“I can do that as long as you deliver. I want my nephew’s head and I want it as soon as possible.”
Norwyn yawned. “I’ll deliver. Don’t worry.”
- Writer
