The Dragon and the Mage, page 1
First published by Geetha Krishnan 2022
Copyright © 2022 by Niranjan K
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This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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C
edric’s lips were warm and so was his whole damn body. That should have clued me in, but I wasn’t exactly thinking with my brain. I hadn’t been with anyone since I broke up with Bryce and Cedric was an attractive bloke. That I had met him less than four hours ago hadn’t stopped me from dragging him to my apartment and trying to climb him like a tree.
Cedric was the one who broke the kiss.
“Are you sure about this, Nathaniel?”
Even his voice and the way he spoke my name caused all my blood to go south. My lust addled brain couldn’t even come up with an answer and I tried to kiss him again, but his hand was holding me at arm’s length and he was stronger than I would have expected. That was the second clue that I missed completely.
“It’s just that humans are never too comfortable with my kind,” he explained, his grey eyes looking at me expectantly as if waiting for some kind of intelligent response.
“Huh?” I asked, not the most intelligent of responses.
Cedric sighed. “You do know I’m a dragon, don’t you?”
My brain started working just then, and some of my horror must have shown on my face because Cedric released my arm and stepped back.
“I thought you knew,” he said. “Considering where you picked me up.”
Where I picked him up? And then it struck me.
Oh.
Oh.
I could curse myself seven ways for being an absolute idiot, but there was no undoing what was done. I knew that the Dragon’s Age was a place where you were likely to run into more dragons than humans. I had seen dragons there, most of them in their true form, large and scaly and magnificent. But Cedric had been in human form.
Damn shifter magic!
I should have asked. I’m old enough to know that in the Dragon Age not everyone who looks like a human wasn’t one. But I hadn’t asked and instead I had flirted with him and brought him to my apartment like an oblivious fool. It was the kind of thing that could get me killed in my line of work. It was as if my brain just shut down the moment I saw Cedric and I didn’t even have the excuse of being drunk. It was quite decent of Cedric to stop me even though he thought I knew.
“I think I’ll leave,” Cedric said as he took his coat.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
It was really inadequate. I would have liked to explain but I had a feeling I would only make things worse. It wasn’t like I was xenophobic, but I wasn’t sure at the moment if I wanted to have sex with a dragon.
Does it still count as sex with a dragon if he’s in human form?
I quickly suppressed the thought. I didn’t want to go down that road. I was still figuring out my sexuality and I didn’t want to add dragons to the mix.
“It’s all right,” Cedric gave me a small smile. “Most humans don’t react even this well.”
It must really be bad usually if my reaction seemed well to him. I wished I could talk to my fellow humans, tell them to stop being stupid and accept that dragons were here to stay. But you know how people are sometimes. They needed someone to blame for the misery of their existence. Other religious groups, illegal aliens, minorities, dragons. It was always someone or the other.
“I’m really sorry about the mix up,” I said again.
It had been my fault, after all. I should have at least asked considering where we met.
“No harm done,” his smile still caused my knees to go weak. “And it’s not fully on you. If I was in my real form, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“Can I see it?” I blurted out.
Great brain to mouth filter there, Nate!
Cedric’s eyes regarded me gravely. “Are you sure?*
I tried to remember everything I knew of dragons. There was nothing offensive about wanting to see a dragon’s real form, was there? I’m pretty sure there wasn’t anything wrong with my request and I was intensely curious. I nodded.
“Come outside,” he said. “I can’t change back inside here. The damages are more than I can afford, even on my pay.”
Oh right. He did mention he was a doctor of some kind.
I followed Cedric out of the apartment and into the street. He looked for traffic before shifting. But the street was deserted, reminding me of the lateness of the hour. It wasn’t a gradual transition. It was so sudden it left me giddy. One moment he was there, deep grey eyes, thick black hair and dark brown skin and the next there stood before me a dragon as big as the apartment complex behind me. His head must have been as large as my entire apartment.
He was golden in colour, scales shining, and his wings were kept folded to his side. Everything was pure gold from his clawed feet to his horned head. I’d seen plenty of dragons, but never one so large or so beautiful. He was magnificent, majestic.
“Wow!” I exhaled, tears forming in my eyes. It hurt to look at something so awe inspiring. It made me feel things that I could not even identify.
He shrank to a slightly larger than human size, the size of most dragons I had seen.
“I didn’t know dragons are so large,” was the first thing that came out of my mouth. He was still magnificent, still beautiful, but with his size reduced, he looked more - ordinary.
“We shrink our sizes so the humans around wouldn’t feel too overwhelmed,” he said. “Everything in the world here is adapted to your sizes, so it’s practical as well. But when we change to our real form after assuming human form, we can only shift to our real size.”
It made sense.
“How come none of us have ever seen one of you so large then?” I asked.
“We usually spell ourselves so humans around us won’t see us shift,” he said.
It did make me feel honoured.
“Is it uncomfortable,” I asked, “to go around in that size all day?”
He shrugged. “It was in the beginning, but we’re used to it now.”
I felt sad and angry at the same time. These magnificent creatures were bending over backwards to accommodate to our insecurities and yet here we were, having demonstrations and rallies to exclude them. What exactly these protesters intended the Union government to do was still unclear though.
“Good night then,” Cedric said. “Hope to see you around again sometime, Nathaniel.”
I blushed and was glad he had already turned away. I hoped I could see him again too, though I had zero intention of sleeping with him. My sexuality wasn’t as fluid as that.
Not yet.
I once again ignored the voice in my head.
“Y
ou don’t look too good,” Bryce slid me a mug of coffee as she sat down on the chair opposite me.
I tapped my head on my desk, not ready to deal with her questions so early. Having your ex as your partner at work was awkward, especially when they were determined to hold you to the “we can still be friends” spiel. I wasn’t sure if the fact that we had been best friends before we started dating was helpful or not now that we had broken up.
Thing was we should never have dated. We were always going to be better as friends with occasional benefits. I couldn’t remember whose idea it was to date, but we both spent two years trying to make it work and it affected our friendship and our work as well. As much as I loved playing the victim, I knew Bryce breaking up with me was the best thing for both of us.
“I thought you were planning to get laid yesterday,” she said, ignoring my reaction to her arrival. “You don’t look like a man who got any.”
I shot her a baleful glare, lifting my head from the desk. Or at least I intended it to be baleful. From the way she was looking at me, it might have been a soulful gaze. I picked up the coffee, inhaling the scent.
“Thanks,” I grumbled.
“So, what happened yesterday?” Gods! She was as persistent as a dog with a bone.
“Don’t even ask,” I said, taking a sip of the hot beverage and savouring the taste of it. If there’s a heaven, coffee must have been invented there.
“You know you’re only piquing my curiosity, right?” She asked.
“Donovan! McReilly!” Captain Dalton’s strident tones had us both jump to our feet a bit guiltily though we hadn’t done anyth
“Yes, captain?” I asked.
“Into my cabin, now!” She barked.
“Must be the new undercover assignment,” Bryce said under her breath as she led the way.
Gods! I hoped she was right. I was bored out of my ass with paperwork. What was the point in being a covert operative if there were no more undercover missions?
Captain Constance Dalton, Head of Covert Ops glanced at us sternly from behind her glasses, her dark hair curling around her head like a cap. The glasses did a good job of masking her expression and I fidgeted nervously, feeling like a school boy called before the headmaster, a feeling I was all too familiar with
“Sit down, you two,” she said.
We sat down hastily.
“Now, I need you both to go undercover,” she said, and I suppressed the urge to cheer. “But this time is a bit different. You’ll be both getting separate assignments and will be partnered with a rep already in place in the group you’re infiltrating.”
“If there’s already someone in place, then why do you need us, captain?” Bryce asked. That girl had guts.
“Because Donovan, the person they have is from the Covert Ops wing of the Union Govt and as such their jurisdiction is pretty limited within our State.”
She huffed in annoyance as she mentioned the govt which made me feel as if they had not asked her before planting their mole. Now they probably realised they got in over their heads and needed us to go and pull their asses out of danger.
“So, to details,” she said. “Donovan, you’ll be working with Sgt Renwick Bailey, who’s trying to infiltrate one of those Humans Against Aliens organisations. It’s not public knowledge yet, and the Union Covert Ops didn’t see fit to inform us either, but this particular organisation is responsible for more than half the atrocities against aliens on the planet. Vandalism, abductions for illegal experimentation, sex trafficking, bombing, not to speak of whipping up people into frenzy over their alien neighbours. They’re spread all over the planet, but just our luck that their headquarters are in our city. The union ops man got some valuable intel, but he must have tipped his hand somehow, because now he’s under surveillance. Nothing too obvious, but he has managed to get through a request for assistance.”
“So I’m to what? Get him out?” Bryce asked, a frown on her face. “Since when do we do extractions?”
“We don’t,” the Captain’s voice was hard. “As I already informed the union ops captain. Your job, Donovan is to infiltrate the organisation, gather intel that we can act on, proof of their illegal activities, and try to get out alive without blowing your cover. “
“And what about Bailey?” she asked, still frowning.
“If possible, you deflect suspicion from him on to someone else, so he can act as freely as his limited skills allow,” the captain said and I suppressed a snort. It was evident she wasn’t a fan of the union covert ops. “In the meantime, I suggest you familiarise yourself with the aliens and about this particular organisation. The intel that Bailey got is already on your desk and it should help. Your new identity with papers are also on your desk. You will move in to your new address today. You shall see Sgt. Haines and get a makeover before you leave. He’s expecting you. Dismissed, Donovan.”
“Yes, sir,” Bryce rose and left.
“Now, your assignment, McReilly is much more dangerous and delicate. You were chosen for this because of your magic rather than any other ability, as formidable as they are. You are to infiltrate an organisation that’s overtly a Earth is for Humans thing, but is in actual fact trying to destabilize the union government. They have an inexperienced operative, Lt. Aiden O’Conner there. They were under the impression that it was a bunch of fanatics, but the intel that O’Conner have gathered has left them to conclude that it is a well-organised, well financed organisation. There’s some evidence that they’re recruiting people with magic and some disaffected dragons as well. If any whiff of dragons’ involvement in an organisation like this came out, you can imagine the fall out. We don’t want to go back to the dark ages when humans and dragons were at each other’s throats. We don’t want bloodshed and mayhem. Do you understand?”
I wasn’t sure. Was she saying that I should destroy evidence of the dragons’ involvement in whatever plot was being concocted?
“What am I to do about the dragons?” I asked, not being daring enough to ask the question in my mind.
“Nothing. You’re to stay away from them. The dragons are not our concern. Don’t involve yourself with them. The representative of the dragon council will take care of them.”
“There’s a representative of the dragons as well?” I asked.
“One of the dragons in the organisation is a covert operative, but they had declined to give us his identity, real or false,” the captain’s unhappiness with the mistrust implied was clear. “They will contact you if they deem it necessary. But you are not to try and find out who they are lest you give them away inadvertently. As with Donovan, the details you require are on your desk. You won’t need to change your appearance since their magic will see through the disguise. You also won’t need a new identity, again same reason. You’re going in as a disaffected cop, god knows there are plenty.”
I nodded, not very enthusiastic. I never envisaged going undercover as myself. Where was the fun in that? Yet, it would not be me either. To be me and yet not was going to be a challenge, but I would still have preferred to completely disassociate my undercover persona from myself.
Not in my hands though. The captain was not going to change her mind, and she was right about the magic. Any organisation of their ilk would have a verifier. My disaffected persona might pass muster, but a false Id and disguised appearance would not. That I was part of the covert ops was classified information. I was listed as a beat cop, patrolling a different area every week which explained why most of my colleagues were unfamiliar with me. I was reported as a loner and anti-social.
It had never occurred to me before, but we in the covert ops already had false personas to fool those we worked with. No one except Bryce and the captain knew that I was covert ops, and the same was true for every one of us. If Bryce and I weren’t partners, we wouldn’t have known what each other was either. We never went undercover without a partner. That was the first rule our instructor had drummed into us during our training.
“Any questions?” the captain turned her glare on me and I shook my head.
“No, sir.”
“Good. Dismissed.”
I went back to my desk, anticipating a flurry of questions from Bryce, though even she wouldn’t ask me about my assignment. If the captain wanted her to know, she would have discussed the mission while she was in the room. Which was not to say Bryce wouldn’t go through the materials that the captain left for me on my desk. But the captain was also probably aware of that, and hence the part that she didn’t want anyone else to know would be hidden. Captain Dalton was formidable in magic as well.
Bryce was at her desk when I returned, and she rolled her chair across to opposite mine as I took my seat. The folder on my desk had obviously been rifled through.
“Did you know the average Dragon’s IQ is far higher than the most intelligent of humans?” she asked. “No wonder people feel threatened by them.”
“Why do they feel threatened by the aliens?” I asked her. “I don’t know much about them, but the few I’ve met doesn’t impress me with their intelligence.”
“They’re idiots,” she said calmly. “But you’re right. Xenophobia doesn’t really make sense. Those poor sods are so meek and stupid, one would think no one would actually feel threatened by them. They’re like fluffy bunnies.”
The appearance of the aliens hardly lent credence to the comparison, so I assumed she was talking of their natures.
“Enough about that,” she said, “Spill. What happened yesterday?”
“How about I tell you if we survive this assignment?” I asked her.
“Nothing doing,” she said, adamant. “You never used to be coy. What happened?”
“The long and short? I was feeling adventurous, so I picked up this cute looking guy who shut down all my thinking capacity and he turned out to be a dragon.”
