Dragon Emperor 9, page 23
part #9 of Dragon Emperor Series
“I was hoping she would kick it,” Trina snickered and kicked out her foot.
“Then the nasty lizard-man could have ended up back on the porch with us!” Marina squealed and scrunched up her face.
“That would be less than ideal,” Nike agreed with a grimace.
Everyone laughed at his serious expression as Aggie approached the table with a tray piled high with slices of grilled kudu and cubed orange fruit. She set the tray down, and my mouth watered at the scent of her cooking. She hurried back into the kitchen and returned with a basket of sliced buttered bread and a pitcher of wine. Then she placed them on the table and stepped back to survey the table.
I motioned to Alyona to make her plate and the rest of the ladies to follow. Nike and I waited until they were done before we loaded our plates with heaping piles of the bread, meat, and fruit, and then I closed my eyes and savored each bite of the delicious breakfast.
“How is it?” Aggie asked as we shoveled bites into our mouths.
“Grmrmm,” I mumbled, and my eyes practically rolled into the back of my head as the buttery bread and succulent meat melted on my tongue.
“I’ll take that as a good thing,” the pig chuckled as she leaned over, picked up a piece of fruit, and popped it into her mouth. “I love these little gremlings the king sends us. Can’t grow anything worth a hoot, but if I could, I’d want to grow these.”
“They are delicious,” Alyona agreed, and her amethyst eyes twinkled as she smiled. “And your bread is amazing, Aggie.”
“Thank you, princess!” the Demi-Human replied as a grin stretched across her pink face. “It’s an old family recipe. I was just telling Lord Evan that my father owned the tavern and passed it down to me. We’ve always been more of the food type than the flower type.”
“I bet we could teach you how to grow things!” Polina offered, and her emerald eyes went wide with delight.
“Oh, yes, we know what each plant needs,” Marina agreed as she clapped her hands together.
“And we can show you what to look for when they need something,” Trina pointed out.
“You’d do that for me?” Aggie pressed a hand to her chest with surprise.
“Of course!” Marina chirped.
“We’re always happy to help,” Polina said with a smile.
“And the more nature there is, the happier we are,” Trina added as she threw her arms out wide.
“Wow, thank you!” Aggie snorted and then blushed. “Sorry, it’s a pig thing when I get excited.”
“I think it’s sweet,” Alyona replied with a beatific smile. “You are one of a kind.”
The pig’s blush deepened as she clasped her hands over her chest.
“So, what do you know about the water district?” I asked her after I gulped down another bite. These girls would get way too mushy if I let them.
“It houses the main water supply to the city,” Aggie answered after a moment. “I think a few people work over there regularly and make sure the aqueducts are working and whatnot, plus most of the water-based Demi-Humans live over there. I don’t see too much of them since the district is on the edge of town.”
“I see,” I mumbled, and the cogs in my head were already turning.
Was the Sect trying to poison Colaruma’s water supply like they’d done in Tikal?
“Why do you ask?” Aggie questioned, and her face creased with a sharp frown.
“Don’t worry about it.” I waved a hand dismissively. “Just something one of the kids wanted us to check out while we’re here.”
“Okay,” she said, but she was clearly unconvinced. “Well, if you need anything, you know where to find me. And I look forward to my nature lesson!”
Aggie breezed into the kitchen as the dryads grinned, and I could hear dishes clanging around as she cleaned up.
“Well, I’d say we better get going, then,” Aaliyah suggested as the door clanged shut behind the pig woman.
“Ah, where are we going?” Trina asked with a finger in the air.
“And what kid asked us to go?” Polina wondered as she tilted her head.
“And why?” Marina added and furrowed her brow.
“Oh, shit, sorry,” I laughed. “A little mole boy told us he’s seen some strange faces over in the water district, which just happens to be near the wellhouse portal.”
“Of course,” Ravi murmured, and the phoenix dragged her fingers through her unbound, smoking hair. “The main water source seems to be one of the Sect’s favorite targets.”
“I realized the same thing,” I agreed. “So, we need to go check it out as soon as we’re all finished.”
Everyone nodded and began to eat with vigor. Once our plates were sparkling clean, we thanked Aggie, stood from the table, walked outside, and headed toward the water district.
As we weaved our way through the stores and low-class neighborhoods, I noticed more people out on the street talking to each other and smiling. The marketplace was buzzing with more people buying and selling their wares, and I noticed a handful of banner families distributing their extras, like I’d instructed at the council meeting. Several people browsed the items in search of a way to earn their living, and a few even waved at us as we passed by.
So, we’d shifted from the strangers they avoided to the saviors they loved.
Another point for the dragon lord.
We arrived at a squatty stone building with its door wide open and several similar buildings off to the right. I shrugged and walked into the first one to find a turtle Demi-Human seated at a table writing on a piece of parchment.
The turtle’s skin glowed with a light green tint, and her short black hair was buzzed on the sides almost into a mohawk. I could see a dark jade shell peeking over her shoulders, and her brown eyes narrowed when she looked up to see us walking into what seemed to be her office.
“Lord… Evan… I… presume?” the Demi-Human asked slowly, and she seemed to take a breath after every word.
My women started to giggle, and even Alyona tried to stifle a smile.
This would be a long conversation.
“Uh, yes,” I hesitated.
“I’m teasing!” she exclaimed with a grin, and her brown eyes twinkled with amusement. “Get it? I’m a turtle?”
“Thank the gods,” I chuckled as the women laughed out loud. “Do you run this place?”
“Yes, my lord,” the turtle replied and nodded. “My name is Dala. I manage the water distribution facility for Colaruma.”
“Nice to meet you, Dala,” I said with a dip of my head. “We were told there have been a few extra people in the area lately. Do you know anything about that?”
“Not really.” Dala shrugged. “But I stay in here most of the time until I go home. I handle paperwork and any issues the citizens bring to my attention.”
She pointed to a box by the front door with a sign that read “Complaints” and rolled her eyes. The box was full to the point of overflowing.
“You get a lot of them?” Ravi giggled.
“Usually the banner families complaining about a ‘weird taste,’” Dala replied with finger quotes before she perked up. “But now that should stop, right? No more banner families and their stupid needs!”
“I’d say so.” I grinned. “So, do you mind if we poke around a bit, then? We’d rather be safe than sorry.”
“Oh, no, go ahead!” she replied and gestured toward the matching buildings. “I have three people working on the main pump today, so anyone besides them would be out of place.”
“Okay, we’ll check it all out.” I smiled and turned to the door. “Thanks, Dala.”
“You’re so welcome!” she called out as we walked outside and turned left.
As we approached the next building, I could hear two people arguing and the banging of tools on metal. We walked inside, and then we could see the source of the arguing voices.
Two fairies stood next to a pump that was submerged in a wide, shallow pool of water, and the pair fluttered around and waved their arms wildly as they discussed their task. The male fairy’s pointed ears were red with frustration, and his black hair fell around his shoulders in waves. He wore a bright yellow jumpsuit-style outfit with holes in the back for his black, transparent wings, and he brandished about a foot-long stick.
No way, did he use a wand?
His counterpart, a female fairy, was a quirky little character with her black horn-rimmed glasses and long, stark white hair that was twisted back into a ponytail to her waist. She wore a similar yellow jumpsuit, though hers fit tight enough to see the curves of her narrow body, and her wings were white and nearly opaque.
“I’m telling you, that won’t work!” the male fairy said as he floated to the ground and stomped his foot.
“You never know until you try, Frankie,” the female fairy chirped and twirled in the air. “Let’s just give it a shot!”
“And risk blowing the whole pump?” Frankie grumbled. “You need to see the reality here, Nadia.”
“Excuse me,” I interjected. “What are you doing?”
“Working,” Frankie snapped as he whirled to glare at me. “Why are you here? Who are you?”
“Frankie!” Nadia gasped and fluttered to the ground with a curtsy. “It’s the dragon.”
“Oh,” he exhaled as his eyes nearly bugged out of his face, and he dropped his head. “My humblest apologies, Lord Evan. We don’t get many visitors over here.”
“I accept your apology,” I replied. “Now, what are you doing?”
“Nadia noticed a dark aura in the water.” Frankie smirked and rolled his eyes. “And now she wants to blow up the main pump to fix the aura.”
“I’m a Seelie!” Nadia squeaked and pushed her glasses up her nose. “We notice any darkness that tints reality. And I don’t want to blow it up.”
“What darkness?” I peered over the edge of the water and noticed the reservoir was actually deeper than I’d thought at first glance. The pool extended a few more feet under the surface of the land, and I caught a flicker of movement before Frankie spoke again.
“Who knows!” he said and threw an arm out to his side. “Last week, she felt a dark form had entered our city. Obviously, that was wrong since it’s just Lord Evan!”
“No, it was before Lord Evan arrived,” Nadia insisted with a frown. “The darkness in the water isn’t all the way there yet. Do you understand what I mean?”
The fairy peered at Alyona with eyes the color of opals, and she gazed earnestly at the princess as though begging for her to agree. Her irises were almost as white as her hair, but they reflected multiple colors around the room and gave them the illusion of a rainbow kaleidoscope moving on the surface.
“I think I do,” Alyona replied with a degree of uncertainty. “May I touch it?”
“Of course, milady!” Frankie said. “We’ve run several tests, and all have come back negative for anything out of the ordinary, magical or non-magical. I think Nadia is overreacting.”
“Well, Leilani hasn’t finished her test yet,” Nadia chided and pointed her small nose up into the air. “We shouldn’t allow the Divine Maiden to possibly be tarnished.”
“I’ll try it out,” Ravi volunteered as she stepped forward. “I can sense darkness as well. It doesn’t sit well with my purity.”
“Oh, a phoenix!” the Seelie fairy cheered, and a broad grin stretched across her face. “Your purity is rare, indeed. Though, I thought your tribe was killed when the Breach first opened.”
“Everyone did.” Ravi shrugged, and her long orange hair shifted over her shoulders. “We have only recently returned to civilization to help fight against the Breach demons.”
“Marvelous!” Nadia replied, and her pale eyes were wide with fascination.
“Yeah, marvelous.” Frankie scowled.
“And what kind of fairy are you?” I asked him.
“An Unseelie,” he replied with a scoff. “Of course.”
“Of course,” I chuckled. He was clearly Nadia’s complete opposite, so that made sense.
“Can I go ahead and try it out?” Ravi asked me.
“If you’re sure it won’t hurt you,” I grumbled, though I knew good and damn well she wouldn’t tell me if it did hurt her.
“I’ll be fine,” the phoenix said with a grin. “Let’s see what we’ve got here.”
Ravi strode over to the water’s edge and looked down. Then she poked the surface with a finger. Suddenly, ripples of a dark liquid dribbled across the water and spread out until they disappeared into the pool.
I raised a brow as we awaited Ravi’s response.
“There is definitely dark magic forming in the water.” She scowled as she stepped back from the pool. “It just hasn’t been fully activated yet. It seems someone may be working on a spell as we speak.”
“I knew it!” Nadia squeaked. “My protection spell is probably slowing them down.”
“I’m sure,” Frankie scoffed and crossed his arms over his chest.
“You heard the phoenix,” the Seelie fairy argued. “She said it’s there, too. It wasn’t just me.”
“Well, then, why isn’t--”
Suddenly, the argument was interrupted as a figure burst forth from beneath the surface of the water.
Droplets exploded into the air, and we jumped away from the edge and drew our weapons as the creature’s hands gripped the side of the pool. Then I could see a long mane of dark turquoise hair and milk chocolate-colored skin framing bright green eyes. The creature’s beautiful face was stretched into a purely joyful smile, and somehow, I could tell there wasn’t an ounce of evil in her.
“Wait!” I ordered and put my arm out.
“It’s Leilani!” Nadia cried out as she hurried over to the edge of the pool. “What did you find?”
We lowered our weapons as Leilani pulled herself up onto the ledge, and I blinked a few times to make sure I was seeing straight.
Leilani sat on the ledge with her bare torso exposed. Her round chocolate breasts were gleaming with water from the pool, and her nipples were hard and perky as the cool air hit them. Her long, cocoa-colored arms were lean and muscular, and a glittery smattering of scales rose up from her tail and ended at her toned abs. The blue-green scales led down to a long fish tail that flopped up and down in the water with small splashes, and my jaw fell slack.
Holy shit.
“She’s beautiful,” Alyona breathed next to me. “How rare to see a mermaid in Rahma, so far from the ocean.”
As I was coming to grips with the reality of a mermaid sitting before me, she pulled a towel from the cabinet next to the pool and started to dry herself off. As she worked her way down her scaly lower half, her form shifted until human legs remained. It seemed her transformation was affected by the water on her skin. She toweled off her hair and then wrapped the towel around her body as she dropped her feet to the cold, dirt floor.
“What did you find?” Nadia asked as she fluttered into the air on her pale wings.
“The bottom of the tank is fine,” Leilani replied in a husky voice and pulled a set of clothes from the towel cabinet before she gestured toward us. “Who’s this?”
“Lord Evan of Hatra,” I introduced myself.
“Okay?” Leilani looked confused as she slipped into one of the yellow jumpsuits like she wasn’t just standing in front of us completely naked a few moments ago. “And what are you doing in here? You don’t work here.”
“You don’t know who I am?” I frowned at both her confusion and her covering up her beautiful cocoa body. “I’m here to fix another problem.”
“Another?” the mermaid asked and pulled her turquoise hair back into a bun behind her head. “I must be missing something here.”
“Yeah, I already handled your lizard problem.” I smirked as I fondly remembered Whitaker’s head tumbling down the slope toward the crowd.
“He slayed Whitaker,” Frankie filled in, and his expression showed a modicum of amusement.
Ah, the Unseelie fairy had a bit of a sense of humor.
“Beheaded!” Nadia added with a twinkle in her eyes. “At the council tower!”
“Nice job.” Leilani’s low voice sounded impressed. “I never liked that guy. Always had something to whine about.”
“That seemed to be a pretty common opinion,” I chuckled. “So, I handled it. Now, I need to handle this one. Have you noticed anything odd?”
“Well, the switch building has had some lights on inside the past few days,” the mermaid replied. “It was strange because we really only use that building when we need to do a reroute, but we never know what the council is up to. I figured they sent someone in there for one of their dumb reasons like making sure one of their fancy friends gets more hot water than someone else.”
“You won’t have that problem anymore,” I said. “Mateo is the Head Magistrate now, but we need to figure out who’s in there. You haven’t had to do any reroutes lately?”
“No, we hardly ever have to,” Leilani answered as she shook her head. “It’s only if we need to do a repair and reroute an aqueduct. Sometimes we don’t go in there for months.”
“Sounds like the perfect place to hide,” I murmured. “That’s where we need to go.”
“Wait, should we come with you?” Nadia asked in a timid voice.
“No way!” Frankie shook his head vehemently. “I’m not going!”
“It’s okay,” Alyona assured the fairies. “We only need to know which building it is. You all can stay here.”
“Good,” Leilani replied with a stoic nod. “With all due respect, we are mechanics, not warriors.”
“I understand,” I said. “Just point us in the right direction.”
“The second building east of here,” the mermaid indicated. “You can follow the aqueducts. Inside the building, there’s a bunch of large switches on the wall and access to the water supply. You can’t miss it.”
“Got it.” I nodded to the others. “Let’s go.”
As we walked out and followed along the buildings, I could see the half-pipes connecting them like Leilani said. So, if the Sect mages poisoned the water in one building, it would easily affect all of the others and lead straight into the city’s whole supply. We found the switch building, and I could make out the movements of flames burning inside like someone had lit a torch. We circled the building, but the only way in was the front door. The windowless structure was made of the same gray stone as most of the buildings in Colaruma, though it had been painted blue in an attempt to cover its rundown visage. The stones were barely hanging on, and the gaps gave us a small glimpse into an open room. The building stood two stories high, and the tall wooden door was the only thing that marred its bare face.
