It was as pleasant to look at Louie as it was a hairless anorexic cat, almost as bad as looking at a Dragon, and he had an equally appealing sense of humor. But the man paid on time, never backed out, and never wavered on the terms of the job. It made everyone’s lives easier when Ari didn’t have to go on any collection trips. The woman could hold a grudge.
Florence rested her hand on the pistol in her arm holster as she passed by some shady characters—and shady by Mercury Town’s standards was saying a lot. The regular patrons gave her no cause to worry. They knew her, and they wouldn’t risk the White Wraith’s ire by harming Florence. It was the new lot that would set up shop in the dark overhangs and grimy alleys she needed to be wary of, those beneath King Louie who had yet to ingrain themselves in Old Dortam’s illegal economy.
She made her way toward her favorite shop, the one that always had the things that made the biggest boom. This time, Ari had given her free permission to use the dunca as Florence saw fit to prepare for their trip, and she planned to see fit for quite a few things she’d been drooling over.
She was halfway to the shop when she heard the first Dragon Rider’s glider scream through the sky.
4. Arianna
“I’m sure she’s fine,” the Dragon said again.
In less than twelve hours he had managed to find Ari’s last nerve, rip it out, step on it, throw it from the window, light it on fire, and bring it back to life, only to repeat the process twice over. She was half a breath away from telling the Dragon that his boon be damned, he had the choice of lying quietly while she tore out his heart…or struggling while she tore out his heart. And oh, how she hoped he picked the struggling if it came to that.
“Three Riders. There are three Riders now. There were two this morning—other than you. Now there are three, here, in Old Dortam.” Ari peered out at the sky. The rainbow trails that tore through the clouds behind their gliders were still etched in her memory. The foreboding colors had long since vanished, glittering on the wind, but they remained burned into her eyes.
She’d cracked the window and stretched her Dragon sight, but the Riders were too far to be seen, even with her augmented goggles. And Ari couldn’t make out their smell over the heavy aroma of oil, welders’ tools, explosives, and the Dragon she had let into her home.
“Again, I’m sure she’s—”
“Cva,” Ari interrupted him with the grace of a gear falling off its axle. His eyes narrowed at her insistence on using a shortened version of his name. “Tell me something.” She turned her gaze inward from the direction of Mercury Town, pulling off her goggles. The Dragon met her stare; he seemed more disturbed when she smiled than when she addressed him with outright malice. “These Riders, they wouldn’t be looking for you, would they?”
“Why would you think that?” He sat back in his chair.
“Don’t play me for a fool,” Ari spat. “We can go a year without having Riders descend once, even in New Dortam. Now, suddenly, we have two descents in one day? Or perhaps the same descent, and they haven’t left yet? And that just so happens to be on the same day you seek passage to the Alchemists’ Guild for some inexplicable reason.”
Ari didn’t remember crossing the room, but she now loomed over the Dragon. He looked up at her and she could almost smell his fearlessness. The man was confident in his ability to beat her, nearly to the point of arrogance. It was almost enough to make her scream. Almost enough to make her throw him down onto the floor and rip off an ear just to show him she could. Just to show him why he should be afraid.
“You didn’t seem interested in asking me these questions before you accepted my offer of a boon.” The blacks of his eyes narrowed to slits, his body responding to the challenge just as hers did.
“That was before Florence was gone for far too long.”
“If you wish to relinquish the boon, perhaps you should get on with it so we can both move on.” Where Ari’s voice grew louder when faced with a confrontation, his lowered. It was the auditory equivalent of the velvet of his shirt. It was a contradiction that Ari couldn’t explain. One that shouldn’t be but was—something gentle and dangerous.
“No.” She spoke the word like a curse. “No, I am not letting you go. You are going to be mine, Dragon. You are going to hang on the fact that I can call you at any time, on my whim, until I see fit to give you whatever command pleases me.”
A low growl rumbled in the back of his throat. His magic spiked and brought Ari’s up with it. The terms of the boon were only that she had to get him to the Alchemists’ Guild. He’d said nothing about doing so without causing bodily harm in the process.
Magic cracked, strong enough to nearly be heard, and the rumble of an implosion followed. Ari raced to the window, her heart in her throat. Dust plumed up from Mercury Town, marring the horizon.