Rysha didn’t hear the click of the lock over the rumble of waves crashing below, but she did detect the faint thump of a bar being set aside. This time, she succeeded at pulling open the heavy door.
She stepped into a grand foyer with stone walls, a stone floor, and a timber ceiling high above. All manner of portraits of deceased Lockvales were on display.
Shulina Arya came in and stood beside her. She had switched to her human form with two pigtails sticking out to either side of her head and a mischievous ready-for-action gleam in her violet eyes.
“Ah.” Rysha didn’t want to be fussy when the dragon was helping her for no reason other than friendship, but… “Could you perhaps choose a more intimidating form?”
Shulina Arya looked down at herself, her pigtails flopping forward as she did so.
“How about a tiger?” Rysha suggested.
That is a feline, yes? I do not believe I’ve seen a tiger before. We must take a trip all around this new world, so I can observe all the mighty predators.
“I’ll take you to the zoo in the capital as soon as there’s time.” Rysha liked traveling as much as the next person, but her superiors might object to her taking months off to show the dragon the animals of the world.
Shulina Arya looked at her, perhaps getting an image of a tiger out of her mind. Then the dragon blurred and shifted before Rysha’s eyes, turning into an orange-and-black-striped cat with a long tail. A small cat.
“Larger, please.” Rysha re-formed her tiger image in her mind—it probably didn’t help that she’d only seen them at the zoo as a child—and placed it next to a human for comparison.
Oh, yes. A truly magnificent predator! Shulina Arya shifted again, then stood on all fours beside Rysha, their heads at the same height.
That was larger than Rysha had imagined, but she didn’t complain. An oversized tiger should be even more intimidating. The fangs were certainly long and visible.
“Good, let’s find him.” Rysha nodded for Shulina Arya, with her magical senses, to lead her to the man with the newspapers.
The dragon padded toward one of multiple halls that opened off the foyer, soundless on those cat’s feet. She soon stopped in front of an open door.
Rysha peered into a large sitting room with multiple fireplaces and a stone floor decorated with bearskin rugs. Antique swords, axes, and firearms hung on the walls, along with dozens of stuffed animal heads. Several old suits of armor towered about the room on pedestals.
She spotted Lockvale sitting at a table near one fireplace with a bowl of soup and a wine glass, papers strewn around him as Shulina Arya had described. The man was still dressed for the day, which Rysha was thankful for. She would have felt like a bully threatening someone in pajamas. She felt like a bully, as it was, and reminded herself this was for Trip, Trip who had only come into this man’s sights because he’d been helping her.
Chin firm, Rysha strode into the room with Shulina Arya. She was halfway to Lockvale before he noticed them.
He leaped up, knocking his chair over. “What is this? You dare intrude in Lockvale Manor?”
He gaped at the tiger in disbelief.
“I dare, yes.” Rysha stopped a few feet away from him. He’d moved around the table to put it between himself and them. “Because you dare make up ridiculous charges to slander someone honorable and with a great deal of integrity. More than that, you’re trying to have him hanged.”
“Because he’s a witch, you fool of a girl. All those people should be hanged.”
“All those people who have been helping defend the country from dragons, Cofah, and pirates?”
“So they tell us. But it’s only a matter of time before they take over again, as they once tried to do. That—that man used his evil power to read my mind. I was completely incapable of fighting back. When I tried to defend myself, he didn’t even have to lift a finger to send me hurling backward.”
“As I understand it, he was defending himself from you.”
“I didn’t try to read his mind.”
“You just tried to shoot him.”
“Because he’s a witch.”
Rysha wished she had a way to record his words like music on a phonograph so they could be played back at the inquest in the morning.
“Just like that one who’s been manipulating Angulus for the last three years,” Lockvale snarled.
“Sardelle?” Rysha couldn’t imagine who else he might mean. It had to either be she or Dr. Targoson.
“She controls him, and she controls the pilot Zirkander. Why more people don’t see that, I can’t imagine. She’s got them all under her thumb. Angulus used to be different. It used to be that if I or one of the other nobles went to him with a problem, he promptly did something to help. Now, he’s siding with witches.”
Lockvale eyed the tiger warily. “That’s not a real animal. It’s some illusion. Some witch magic.” He squinted at Rysha. “Are you experimenting with magic? I never would have thought a Ravenwood would turn to sorcerous ways.” He glanced toward the fireplace mantle. Both a sword and a rifle hung above it.
Rysha dropped a hand to Dorfindral. “I’m not a witch, and neither is the tiger. This is the gold dragon Shulina Arya, shape-shifted into a form suitable for walking into your castle. And eating you if need be.”
Shulina Arya put in a timely roar, and Lockvale's eyes bulged as he stumbled back from the table.
“That had better be a joke, girl,” he said, edging closer to the fireplace.
“Lord Lockvale.” Rysha stalked down the table opposite him, intending to head him off if he went for a weapon. “I am here because you falsely accused Captain Yert of attempted murder, and his efforts to build a weapon to defend the city from dragons are being interrupted because of your ridiculous inquest. I insist that you drop the charges, that you say you were mistaken and have realized the truth, that Trip was only defending himself.”
“Ridiculous. He attacked me.”
He actually seems to believe that, Storyteller. However, I can see into his thoughts and see that events unfolded as Captain Trip described. This man believes mind-reading is a heinous crime and that when your mate created a protective barrier around himself, it was the same as attacking. This man is most foolish.
“You weren’t there,” Lockvale added. “You don’t know what happened.”
“Actually, the dragon here is reading your mind and knows exactly what happened. It’s a shame you don’t. Perhaps you should learn about magic instead of insisting it’s pure evil and wetting yourself whenever it’s mentioned.”
Lockvale’s eyes flared with indignation. Aunt Tadelay possibly wouldn’t have approved of Rysha bringing latrine talk into the discussion.
“He’s manipulating you.” Lockvale thrust a finger toward Rysha. “The same way that witch manipulates the king. Get out of my home now, or I’ll add your name to my official complaint against your captain. I have friends in the city.” He waved toward the newspapers with his other hand. “Don’t think I can’t make this happen.”