Dragon Conjurer 6, page 26
“Uh…” I hesitated. “Do I…?”
“Just a moment, Mr. Cooper, if you please.” A woman’s voice echoed down the hall to me.
I turned around to see a pleasant-looking woman of about sixty walking toward me. The woman was plump around the middle and had a general Mrs. Claus vibe about her with little wire-rimmed glasses on the end of her nose, and white hair pulled back into a low bun at the nape of her neck. She wore a simple gray dress and carried a metal clipboard tight to her ample chest. An official ID with her picture hung on her white lab coat below a black pin with five gold stars on it, and this drew most of my attention as her sensible shoes clacked across the floor.
“Hello,” I said politely, and I couldn’t help but glance at her five-star rank. I hadn’t noticed ranks on any of the other administrative staff, and I wondered what the doctor’s powers were.
“Hello, Mr. Cooper,” Mrs. Claus said, and I picked up a soft South African accent. “I am Dr. Etiename, but you may call me Dr. E., I find many people have a difficult time with my name.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Dr. E.” I liked this woman, she was sweet, and I immediately felt like I could trust her.
“It is very nice to meet you as well.” Dr. E. smiled at me. “I am the lead scientist for sentient monster affairs here at MIA, and I must tell you, it was a lovely surprise to hear that you and your team had captured the Aigamuxa alive and uninjured.”
“We’re glad we could help,” I said.
“And I hear you may be able to offer more help,” Dr. E. continued. “Is it really true? You can speak with monsters?”
“Yes.” I nodded. “Dr. Hastings thinks it’s linked with my connection to my dragons.”
“Oh, Emma,” the white-haired woman mused. “She and I spent some time together at university many years ago, how is she doing?”
“Uh, she’s good, I guess,” I laughed a little nervously. “She’s really good at her job.”
I didn’t know what else to say. Any time I thought about the sexy cougar, my brain got a little muddled with the memories of her hand lingering on my thigh or those little winks she’d throw at me.
“Excellent.” Mrs. Claus seemed satisfied with my answer and nodded curtly at the two Guys in Gray beside the door. Then she smiled at me and opened the door. “If you please?”
“Right.” I walked into the dimly-lit room.
The huge room had to be at least a hundred square feet with a thirty-foot ceiling, and it was divided into two sections with a thick wall of glass. The space on our side was pretty large, even though it was only about one third of the entire space, and it had only two simple metal chairs and a wide metal desk like a police interrogation room.
On the other side of the glass divide, there was a plain room lined with steel walls. Flat LED lights dotted around the space, and against the far wall there was a huge pile of what looked like foam padding.
On top of the pile laid the Aigamuxa.
It’s feet were pointed directly at the door Dr. E., and I had just entered, and it’s humanoid eyes popped open as the doctor closed the heavy metal door.
“Lizard Man.” The Aigamuxa sat up slightly on the bed of foam padding and frowned at me.
The room brightened some as Dr. E. adjusted a small lever beside the huge room’s only door.
“Go on, Mr. Cooper,” the white-haired woman encouraged. “Do not be shy.”
I nodded at the jovial woman and stepped closer to the glass wall that divided the monster containment room.
“Tell me what you know,” I said to the Aigamuxa.
The humanoid monster laughed in that raspy voice and laid back on the foam padding.
“You said there was a war,” I tried again. “A war with whom?”
“Advance, retreat, human meat.” The Aigamuxa waggled its huge hands in the air to the beat of its singsong voice.
“What do you know?” I asked again more firmly.
“Little creatures with ugly features,” the monster’s yellow teeth flashed in the bright LED lights of the room. “Tiny brain, war will rain.”
The Aigamuxa laughed maddeningly and stared straight at me with the oddly normal eyes on the bottom of its feet.
“What does that mean?” I demanded through gritted teeth.
“You will lose everything,” the Aigamuxa practically whispered the words and then roared with laughter. “You cannot win!”
“Asshole,” I muttered under my breath.
“What is it saying?” Dr. E. asked quietly as she stepped up beside me.
“Nothing useful,” I said. “It’s talking in riddles. It keeps saying something about a war, and how we can’t win. Out in the desert it said something about how we’d defeated it, but we would not win the war.”
“That is rather ominous.” Dr. E. scribbled notes on her metal clipboard.
“Yeah.” I frowned at the man-beast as it continued to cackle like a mad-hatter at me.
I could feel my temper starting to rise at the sheer insanity of the beast’s laughter.
A subtle wriggle from my right thigh pulled me back from my anger, though, and I took a deep breath. Then Zofia wriggled again like an impatient puppy, and I felt her nudge at my mind like she had just after I’d summoned her.
I figured calling out my mind-control dragon was worth trying.
“Dr. E., would it be alright if I summoned one of my dragons?” I asked politely.
“Oh!” The white-haired woman’s kind blue eyes went wide. “Um, yes, if you think this space is big enough?”
“If I move these to the side there should be plenty of room,” I said and gestured at the metal table and chairs. “If that’s okay?”
“Certainly,” Dr. E. said and gestured at the metal furniture with her hand, and they slid swiftly across the room and out of the way.
“Woah,” I breathed. I hadn’t expected to find out what Dr. E.’s powers were, let alone get to see them first-hand. “Telekinetic?”
“Electromagnetic, actually.” The older woman smiled and readjusted her wire-rimmed glasses on her nose.
“That’s really cool.” I grinned, and I promised myself to tell Nick about this real-life Magneto later.
“Oh, it is nothing, really.” Dr. E. smiled, and a light pink blush spread across her plump cheeks, which only added to her Mrs. Claus appearance. “Certainly not as impressive as being able to conjure a dragon.”
I chuckled at the sweet older woman as she stepped back and watched me with expectant eyes.
“Sárkány,” I said softly.
A resounding fwoomp bounced off the walls and into my ears, and Zofia appeared before us in all her gloomy darkness. Thankfully, the room was large enough that my new dragon didn’t have to duck her head at all.
Zofia gazed down at me with patient red eyes, and I walked up to stroke her scaly neck.
“Hey there, beautiful,” I murmured.
“Oh, my,” Dr. E. breathed and stepped cautiously forward. “What a magnificent creature.”
“This is Zofia,” I said. “She’s my newest dragon, and she has the ability to confuse minds.”
“My goodness,” the doctor gasped and scribbled notes on her clipboard quickly. “Fascinating. How do you know this dragon is female? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“I don’t mind, and I’m not sure,” I admitted. “I just kind of get a feeling with them.”
“Brilliant.” Dr. E.’s pen raced across her clipboard again. “It seems as though it may be a part of these connections you have with your dragons. I wonder if you have a natural connection with the entire dragon species.”
“Huh,” I mused. “Maybe…”
I thought back to when I’d met Lia’s desert dragon, and how I’d gotten the same feeling about his sex. I shrugged and logged the information away to explore later, and then I turned to look at the Aigamuxa and found that the beast’s eyes were trained hard on my new dragon.
The beast’s obnoxious laughter had died away, and it had leaned up onto its elbows. It rotated one foot to gaze at me, and I could tell I had the monster’s attention now.
“Are you listening to me?” I asked as I pointedly stroked a hand down Zofia’s shoulder. “Do I have your attention now?”
“Tiny humans cannot defeat him,” The Aigamuxa growled.
A small flicker of success sparked in my chest at those words.
Maybe I could get something useful out of this ugly bastard.
“Defeat who?” I demanded.,
“Retreat. Defeat. Repeat,” the Aigamuxa said, and then a harsh shudder of fear shook across his twenty foot tall body as a low snarl rippled out from Zofia’s throat.
I looked up at Zofia and gave her the tiniest nod, and a split second later, her red eyes began to glow, and her body started to vibrate.
“Nooo,” the Aigamuxa moaned as its eyes rolled back in its feet.
“Tell me,” I demanded again. “What war?”
The Aigamuxa groaned and shook its head.
I patted Zofia on the shoulder, and the glow from her eyes faded away before the minute was up. Then I glanced back at the giant humanoid monster.
The beast’s chest rose and fell heavily as the Aigamuxa dragged in ragged breaths. Then its eyes flicked open, and it watched me with weariness as I stroked Zofia’s shoulder.
“Tell me what you know,” I said with quiet menace.
“You will never defeat the Great Scaled One,” the Aigamuxa whispered. “He is a thousand steps ahead of you, Lizard Man.”
“Scaled One…” The words knocked around my head with a heaviness that grated on my nerves. “Who’s the Great Scaled One?”
“He will defeat you tiny humans.” The humanoid giant’s low laughter rumbled deep in its chest. “For centuries, the Great Scaled One has planned.”
“Centuries?” I gasped. “Tell me more.”
“Another commander will take over this territory,” the Aigamuxa murmured menacingly. “The Great Scaled One has thousands of soldiers. I have failed, He will not!”
“What territory?” I demanded. “You were in charge of Africa?”
“The Uneven Desert was mine!” The Aigamuxa cried, and it sat up from the foam padding and hissed its next words. “You have taken it from me, Lizard Man, but the Great Scaled One will take it back!”
“I’d like to see him try.” I glared right back at the beast, but under my facade, I realized I was probably going to regret saying that.
“You will see nothing,” the Aigamuxa laughed, and I could tell the cloud of confusion from Zofia had completely worn off at this point. “You will not see, not for thee, it is destiny.”
“Great, more riddles.” I rolled my eyes and patted Zofia on the shoulder. “Give it one more, let’s see what else is in that twisted mind.”
My dark purple dragon’s red eyes glowed with intensity, and her body began to shudder once more.
The Aigamuxa groaned in pain a moment and then started to claw its jagged fingernails across its arms and chest. The humanoid beast tore at its own skin as it laughed with utter madness.
“Too late!” The Aigamuxa cackled in a singsong voice. “It’s fate! Too late, it’s fate! Toooo laaaate!”
“Where is the Great Scaled One?” I demanded, and I could hear the desperation clear in my voice.
The giant’s laughter died away, and it blinked its human eyes at me once before it burst into a fresh wave of cackling and began to mumble nonsense sounds mixed with an occasional “too late.”
I watched with disgusted horror as the twenty foot tall monster leaned its back on the wall and started to knock its skull hard against the cinder blocks. My gut wrenched as I came to the conclusion that Zofia’s mind attacks may have pushed the Aigamuxa a step too far. It looked like the beast’s mind was entirely shattered as the monster muttered complete nonsense and continued to slam its head against the wall until a small smudge of dark blood appeared on the stones behind it.
This guy had officially cracked, and I could tell it wouldn’t be any more help. I could only hope that most of what he’d said wasn’t complete bullshit. For all I knew, the Aigamuxa could have been with it enough to give me false information.
I replayed the interaction in my head and analyzed the monster’s tone and body language, and I wasn’t so sure it had been playing with me.
There had been a tinge of fearful reverence every time the Aigamuxa mentioned the Great Scaled One, and I didn’t think even an Oscar-winning actor could have faked it that well after one of Zofia’s attacks.
“Shit,” I muttered, and I turned back to Dr. E.
The Mrs. Claus look-alike was standing at the back of the room with her mouth open and her eyes wide.
“What did it tell you?” The white-haired woman regained her composure.
“Not much,” I admitted. “He kept talking about a ‘Great Scaled One’ like he was some kind of king… or god.”
“Perhaps even monsters have legends and religion,” Dr. E. mused with a touch of horror.
“It felt more like a tangible creature.” I shook my head. “Like someone this asshole was taking orders from. It mentioned territories…”
I thought back to what Zahra had told us about monster attacks recurring in specific areas, and things began to click together in my mind like puzzle pieces.
What if this Scaled One was the leader of the monsters, and he was organizing attacks on a continental scale?
Fuck.
If there was some kind of omniscient monster out there pulling the strings of these lower level monsters, we could all be in huge fucking trouble.
And if what the Aigamuxa had said about centuries of planning was true, it could already be too late.
End of Book 6
End Notes
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2021 by Eric Vall
Eric Vall, Dragon Conjurer 6
