When I stumbled out of meeting the drakes, my face was numb, my leg sore, and my taste buds obliterated. Voltar waited in the front room, talking calmly but insistently with some guards.
“Ms. Harrow,” Mr. Voltar said, a bit of a shock in his voice. “Are you alright?”
Oh, right, that sensation on my face wasn’t just the crispness of the air. Hopefully, these bruises would heal quickly.
“Doing well, Mr. Voltar,” I said. “I’m guessing you weren’t at home when the coach arrived?”
I’d sent it back after arriving at the drake’s estate. For him to only be here now, he’d either not been there or taken his time to get here.
“I was, and I have been kept waiting out here for the last hour,” Voltar said. “The entire time being told I couldn’t meet with you or the master of the house as you were both ‘busy’. I’d assumed you were being tortured. It doesn’t look like I was wrong. I ask you again, are you alright?”
It gave me a small thrill he had been kept outside and forestalled. The concern was a little touching as well. Tagashin would have made some remark about the outside matching the inside if she was still impersonating him.
“I’m fine,” I repeated. “This was the cost of admission, a little payment for my role in his sister’s misfortunes. More importantly, it meant that by the time you got here, we were talking. Is there a place we can talk? Preferably with very high-quality tea?”
***
To my disappointment, the little restaurant we went to did not have tea equal to whatever marvel the drakes had kept in their teapot. Worse, I knew this blend. I liked this blend. If I could afford it, I would drink it with every meal.
Not the delightfulness of the brew had been reduced to a mundane feeling of the drink being just alright. Curse those drakes if they’d ruined my taste buds forever!
The servers and other patrons were a little cautious, probably because of how my face looked. The further away from the miracle tea the drakes had served, the more I could feel the incoming aches, pains, and stiffness of that beating coming back with a vengeance.
It at least hadn’t interfered with my retelling of my plan to Voltar. With that out of the way, I could dig into the food we’d ordered. Unfortunately, this little cafe specializes in pastries. Delicious, fattening pastries.
I eyed them nervously, the temptation to take a bite forming. We had pastries in the Quarter, of course. We weren’t barbarians. They just tended not to have sugar. Or frosting. They tended to resemble plain bread with a few slices or patterns to make them look fancier.
You couldn’t really get this down in the Quarter. Or into places like this out of it, which was the other reason for all the looks I was getting from the servers and patrons.
I gave the gawkers a little jaunty wave as I contemplated the desert. I’d pay for it later, in exercise, but surely just one wouldn’t be too much effort?
“This is insanity,” Voltar noted numbly, staring at me, his tea ignored. He seemed to have finally processed what I’d explained.
“Oh nonsense,” I said. “Unconventional maybe, but hardly insanity. Besides, it beats your idea of provoking them. They’ll want Kalasyp dead anyway, and I doubt either will care about Skall too much. Am I Skall? Is Skall someone else? It’s ultimately irrelevant to them. Skall was a patsy who they were using. She doesn’t know enough to be a threat. Kalasyp might because he knew where the alchemical lab was, but all they needed to do was move it. If they haven’t already.”
They probably had. The Shapechangers had time to herd a basilisk through the underground to ambush us. They’d had plenty of time to move their lab.
“It will whip the both of them to a frenzy,” Voltar said.
“Good,” I replied. “If they aren’t, one can disappear forever, the other can end it and claim to have been coerced or impersonated. They lose nothing if they call it here, Mr. Voltar. The thing keeping them in is thinking they can win. If not for that, they’d call their partnership to an end, and one would consider debts settled while the other would wait for another chance to get those notes.”
Voltar chewed on my words while I enjoyed another mediocre cup of tea. Please let this be as temporary as the pain relief. I could not tolerate a life of at best bland tasting tea.
“You are correct,” he admitted. “Thought it pains me to do so.”
“Because I am right?” I asked as I decided to try some of that sinful cake instead. That at least tasted absolutely delightful. Okay, some of my taste buds had survived that tea. How much did an entire cake cost again?
No, bad Malvia. Wait till you can exercise regularly, then splurge.
He frowned. “No. Why would that bother me? No, because I dislike bending the law in such a way.”
“Have you never encountered a case where morality and justice in the lawbooks clash?” I said, as I finished another bite. “Dr. Dawes’ accounts beg to differ.”
“There is a difference between doing something because you know it is right, and doing something that is wrong,” Voltar said. “This is wrong, and it chafes at my soul to be a part of it.”
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
“Then don’t,” I offered. “I can handle it, and my soul is already headed to one place, regardless of whatever I do. If it ends up doing some good but damns me to the Hells, no difference from before.”
“Very fatalistic,” Voltar noted. “Did you pick that up from what your brother told members of the Black Flame so they’d not question what they did?”
“Maybe,” I said. “Still, I think it’s the better option of what we have available. Can I have your help with it, or do I have to go it alone?”
Voltar considered the question while I finished the cake, enjoying the last delicious bites while he pondered.
“Fine. If we must break the law, let us at least do it effectively. What do you need?”
I didn’t really need anything. I just didn’t want to get into trouble for this.
***
It was seemingly an average day for Lord Montague’s estate, swiftly approaching mid-day as the sun climbed up the sky.
It wouldn’t remain that way for long as two long Draconic forms flew across the sky, gliding only a few dozen feet above the city below.
No one questioned what the two drakes were doing in this part of the city. Perhaps visiting some noble acquaintances. Maybe deciding to hell with the wealthy’s opinions on their skies being clear, the opinions of ground walkers didn’t matter at all.
Given the rather dismal flying from one of them, perhaps a few theorized they were drunk. It certainly would help explain what happened next as Valicent drifted further down.
Valicent’s foot smashed right into the chimney, sending bricks flying all across as the drake roared. He slammed into the roof, limbs lashing and carving furrows into the roof.
The dragon statue replied immediately, lunging forward and tackling the errant drake. They both tumbled down into Lord Montague’s front yard, grappling with each other.
The response was immediate. The second drake came down, helping Valicent out-wrestle the statue while guards streamed out from the manor itself. Within minutes, Lord Montague had appeared, the statue retreating to his side while Valicent’s companion took to the air.
Valicent transformed back into his humanoid, getting almost to Lord Montague’s face before the statue and guards moved. He settled for about ten feet away, yelling about having been assaulted.
From the front of the manor, a human started approaching the wall, looking like she was edging away from the ongoing argument. She made for the side, only for guards to emerge from a side entrance, led by the same enhanced enforcer from my initial meeting with Lord Montague.
She reached into a satchel as she turned around, tossing a flask to the floor that exploded into a flash of light and billowing smoke.
Laying on top of the servant’s quarters roof, I watched Tagashin run
Tagashin played her part well enough. The little flask of alchemical flash and smoke I’d given her would hopefully add to the deception. We’d only have one fake me. Two would have been preferable, but I’d count myself lucky to have just gotten one.
I was hidden away, waiting for my moment.
True invisibility was difficult to gain the ingredients for and was a pain to brew. Slow-adapting camouflage, though? Much cheaper and wouldn’t spew toxic fumes inside your room if you messed up the brewing. I lingered, watching my skin change colors to blend in with my surroundings as I watched my ride approach.
The Watch had experimented with flying units for a while, another angle to keep watch on the people down below. Each previous method ended up failing for one reason or another, and I honestly hoped the air balloon travelling across the sky towards us would fail for similar reasons.
Probably fragility, I thought as I watched the balloon move across the sky. The balloon itself could be popped far too easily. That and speed, as it traveled across the sky at perhaps half the speed of a leisurely stroll.
Up in the basket, Amna and Tommy both worked at directing it closer to Montague manor, disguised as Watch airborne observer officers. They weren’t very far off the usual patrol route taken, so it should look like the Watch responding to the dramatic display of the two drakes.
Down below, Watch officers on foot had already arrived and were keeping a careful distance from the confrontation. They knew better than to interfere in things involving nobles or drakes, and this involved both, and for now, they just settled for blocking off the entrance to the estate.
Meanwhile, the balloon still continued to drift towards the manor. Definitely speed. It felt like watching an airborne snail, especially compared to the two drakes. Valicent still argued furiously with Lord Montague, loud enough I could hear parts of him berating Lord Montague for having the audacity to assault him with his chimney.
Anyone else, I’d be afraid this would be too ridiculous a display to buy. Drakes? This might actually undersell it as Valicent berated Lord Montague further on his ancestor being nothing more than a jumped-up graverobber who got lucky.
From the look on Lord Montague’s face, that was not an ad-libbed insult. Had Valicent done research before coming to yell at him?
Maybe the slowness of the balloon wasn’t such an issue after all.
I tore my attention away from the argument as the balloon neared. Hanging down from it, the mooring rope was a good forty feet long, thick, and capable of holding it in a single place as it lowered. It was also the perfect size to support, say, a rather daring Infernal across the open sky for say…forty, fifty feet to the next roof.
The slow speed would help, the rope wouldn’t bend too much as I climbed it. Although, no eyes were on the balloon. Instead, all eyes were on the surrounding ground or on the potential clash between the statue and Drake.
I gripped the rope, pulling myself up onto it. I wrapped all my limbs around it as the balloon drifted, ignoring the slow burn overtaking my muscles. It was a long way to the ground. Just ignore that/ Focus on the roof getting closer.
Honestly, this was complicated. Probably too complicated. But there were only so many ways to get that dragon spirit off the roof and myself onto it. Doing it at night would have meant security even more tightened up.
Or maybe I just liked the complication.
I kept my eyes on the roof, counting the seconds as they passed till finally we passed over it.
The second drake coiled in the sky, roaring at the balloon. The rope swung as it came to a stop, my arms burning as I held on as I went over the roof towards the open air.
Valicent was only growing angrier, doing his best to keep the spirit’s focus on him as I swung back. I watched carefully, waiting till I was the closest to the ground. Needed to land on both hooves, but my one leg was still weak.
I let go, and both hooves hit the roof. Cloth covers on either muffled the noise while pain lanced up my injured leg. I bit down on a gag in my mouth as I barely kept myself upright. There was no time to stop for pain. I ran towards the same chimney Hawkins had emerged from the night of the party. Luckily, not the one Valicent had broken.
Whatever defenses Hawkins had broken through would be repaired by now, but it was likely simple physical defenses. Maybe wards. Wards would be more difficult than a physical barrier, but not impossible. I climbed the chimney, ignoring the pain in my legs as I opened my satchel.
Fitting inside was difficult, but I squeezed in after withdrawing my tools first. I hated operating in chimneys. Cramped, tight, way too easy to get stuck in and typically on when you finally broke through.
One benefit to nobility, Montague’s chimney was wide enough that scrambling down it didn’t prove too much of a challenge
Metal grate. Okay, I had acid for this. Strong acid too, which was lucky.
I had a time limit to kidnap Edward Montague in.