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Chapter 15

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Xerxes was staring at her again. Zinariya was suddenly very glad Lothinar’s father was here with her. Although Xerxes had been reasonably pleasant, something about how he kept looking at her caused her to feel uncomfortably inspected. It had become much more of an issue after Xerxes had seen her take dragon form. After her talk with Michelle and Ardwynn about the possibility of over-passionate males or either species, That more or less confirmed her suspicions that Xerxes wasn't an elf at all but a shifted dragon. Her female dragon form had been more appealing to him than her elven one. Zinariya had begun to wonder if the old Elf craved more than mung beans.

Suddenly, the room began to spin. It was disorienting. Zinariya swayed on her feet and reached out to stabilize herself on the nearby wall.

‘I know this isn’t the best time to mention this, but I don’t feel well.” said Zinariya, her head spinning. “I'm dizzy and have a headache. I may need to lie down!"

Albarad stepped over to help stabilize her.

Xerxes gave him a piercing look. He pulled out a black box. Attached to it was a string, and at the end of it was a small stick-like rod.

“Show me your hands,” he said to Zinariya.

She displayed them. Xerxes waved the wand around. A clicking noise came out of the box when he reached her right hand.”

“Uh oh,” he said. “Your dragon claw somehow must have pierced the fuel bag. We probably should have considered trimming them before going over. I didn’t realize you would need dragon strength to throw it in. I assumed your elf body would be stronger. Marg certainly is strong enough. I should have taken into account how young you are.”

” I’ll be okay if I rest a bit.” Zinariya said.

“We need to cut off the contamination,” Xerxes said suddenly.

Zinariya jerked back her hand. “Yeeks!” she exclaimed. "You are not cutting off my hand!"

“We must!” Xerxes insisted. “I might be able to remove just the tip if we hurry!”

“You want to ruin my manicure? Michelle just did these for me. Ardwynn’s mother had several different colors of nail polish. Michelle gave me a little nail polish lesson. Apparently, it's one of the things every elf girl has to know! I had to let it dry before trying on the clothes." Zinariya paused. "Now that I think about it, she might have been trying to ensure the first pick of the dresses in the closet with that ploy,"

"If you want to live, give me your fingernail!" said Xerxes.

Zinariya held out her elven hand.

"Not that one! Turn yourself back into a dragon." he almost snarled.

Zinariya took a deep breath and prepared to transform.

"Not here, foolish girl! You'll break something! Go over to the middle of the room." He pointed. "Over there. Just look out for my equipment."

Once in the middle of the open space, Zinariya called forth the transformation. Her dragon form appeared in the center of the room. She looked down at her claw.

"It must be this splitting headache." she thought. "My eyes are blurry." Immediately after turning back into a dragon, her claw had appeared normal, but now, one of the nails looked black and murky instead of its regular lustrous gold. She heard a buzzing sound and jumped.

"What's that?" she yelped.

"This!" said Xerxes. "Is a reciprocating saw with a diamond-edged blade. " He approached her strangely colored talon. He looked at it with concern.

"Just as I feared," he said thoughtfully. "It's got to come off."

"Will it hurt?" Zinariya asked.

"Excruciatingly," said Xerxes. "But it's the only way." He made the saw buzz ominously.

The old Elf pressed the “saw” against her nail. It began to vibrate, and a screeching noise ensued. It then began to smoke.

“Whoops! Xerxes said, stopping his assault on her nail. “We shouldn’t breathe this dust. It's likely quite toxic."

The old Elf produced breathing masks for Albarad and himself.

"What about Zinariya?" Albarad asked. "She will be breathing this too!"

"We obviously don't have her size," Xerxes said dismissively. "Hold your breath!" he commanded Zinariya before starting in again. The air soon began to fill with acrid smoke as the Elf sawed on her nail. Just about when Zinariya thought she could no longer hold her air, he was through. The tip of her claw dropped to the floor with a heavy clunk.

"Shift back!" he commanded, setting down the saw and holding out a third mask.

Zinariya complied and grabbed the mask, putting it on over her mouth and nose as she had seen Albarad do. She also stepped away from the slowly settling golden dust cloud created by the saw. She looked around for the large tip of her nail, just in time to see Xerxes picking it up with tongs. Then he grabbed a small broom and a dustpan and swept up the dust. He dropped the dust and the nail into a small bag. It looked like a much smaller version of the red fuel bag she had dropped into the fuel chute. He sealed it and stood up.

"There we are," he said, starting to put the red bag into a cupboard. "Nobody should open this for..." He looked at a band on his wrist. "About eighty-seven years."

"That hurt a lot less than you led me to believe," Zinariya said. "Wait!" Zinariya said. That's mine! Give that back to me."

"But why? It's far too dangerous for you to keep, even in this little bag."

"I guess I just want to talk to Lothinar first. I'm just suspicious about my body parts, even if it's only a nail. It wouldn't be the first time someone appropriated something biologically mine. My father ate my eggshell."

"Really?" asked Xerxes with apparent interest. "What happened?"

"He grew really big and strong," said Albarad. "And if you don't give her that bag, I promise you will get to meet him."

Xerxes seemed annoyed at that but, after another severe stare from Albarad, reluctantly handed the bag back to Zinariya.

"I'll give you a little time to say goodbye to your fingernail, but I will need that back."

Then he laughed the awkward moment off. Do you feel any better?"

"As a matter of fact, my headache is gone!" said Zinariya.

"Good. That means we got it all, and in time." the old Elf said, smirking at her. "You should begin thinking of ways to thank me. That could have been quite serious!"

"So could the moon falling to earth." Zinariya retorted. "I hate to disappoint you, but I think we're even." She didn't like the look of expectation on Xerxes's face.

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While flying away from the Capitol, Vanador had asked himself, more than once, why he had let a brief conversation with an elf he had just met affect him so much. He didn't usually pay that much attention to the advice of elves. Perhaps it was that, at least visually, she reminded him a great deal of Siophra. To compound the similarities, Daisy also had been trapped in a terrible situation over which she had no control. That sounded far too familiar. Daisy had been somewhat appalled at Vanador's assertion that he might be able to do something about his broken relationships and hadn’t even tried. Her kind but candid criticism had given Vanador something to think about. Now, he wanted to talk with the human that somehow bore the personality and memories of Vanquish. . It was impossible now for them to live together as mated dragons, but some fraction of their relationship might still be saved. It seemed that whatever her form was now, he missed her. The longing to see her made his wings flap faster.

‘Michelle’s last known whereabouts had been the cabin in the mountains owned by Ronniflass, so he flew first there. But when he looked around the place, it was deserted. Next, he checked for Michelle in Delora. She wasn't there, but he did find clues. They were named Ronniflass and Cenderick. After landing in the dairy's main field, he spotted them and asked them about Michelle.

"I have no idea where Michelle is at the moment," Ronniflass admitted. She raised her eyebrows. "Are you having second thoughts? Because of the way you treated her when she tried to talk with you, it might be too late. I think you made her sad and angry."

Vanador suddenly realized that although Ronni seemed friendly, how he panicked and ran away when Michelle tried to speak with him had consequences among those he considered his friends. Ronni, at least, seemed to have a great deal of sympathy for Michelle.

"Michelle was staying at my place in the mountains, as you know, but I believe all of them have moved into Ardwynn's parent's old house over to Tasumakoji. It's the Elven outpost at the other end of the lake. It has more rooms, and Mo-Rung wrecked my place.

“I saw the back wall,” Vanador said. “I’m sure it can be fixed.”

”Yes, and I talked about that with Mavis yesterday. She didn’t have a problem paying for the repairs. She has financial connections in the capital.” Then Ronni winked.

“You do realize that she’s the functional Empress right now.” Vanador deadpanned.

”Yes, but I heard Mandel is improving rapidly. He might try to ignore financial claims he didn’t personally approve of.”

Vanador blinked. “Look, I’ll admit, I’m not ‘Mandel’s biggest fan, but I don’t think even he would…”

”It was a joke, Vanador. You’re always so serious!” She chuckled. “Michelle was staying with Ardwynn and Lothinar. You do remember where Tasumakoji is, don’t you?”

"I remember," he said. "That's where Siophra's childhood home is located. It's also where I brought her when we escaped from Argent's prison. Mavis lent Siophra some clothes. It was a pretty traumatic time."

"Yes, Ardwynn's parent's house is on the other side of town from there. It's the biggest house in the area. I'm sure you will be able to find it from the air." Ronni added.

"Ok. Thanks!" said Vanador.

Cenderick finally spoke. "I hope you find her Vanador. I think she wanted to talk to you." Cenderick said sadly.

"I'm trying to make that right." The white dragon acknowledged. "Sometimes we spend our adult lives trying to get over the scars of a too-short youth," he said. "I just hope it's not too late."

Vanador had quickly excused himself, but not before insisting on signing an IOU for a quick snack. One cow would have to tide him over for now. Ronni seemed to realize he had no immediate way to pay but insisted he take the cow anyway. Vanador suspected that she never intended to collect.

Stolen story; please report.

"I'll put it on Siophra's tab for old time's sake." The beautiful half-elf had said as she laughed. "I'm sure she won't mind."

Siophra. That was another relationship he had mistakenly let go. Now, Siophra was bonded to another. It was too late to change that. Tundor was a lucky dragon.

Heirwynn greeted Vanador as he landed in the yard of the deceased Duke's house. It was actually more of a mansion. Heirwynn had been in the barn tending the horses but heard him arrive and ran out.

"Oh! It's you, Vanador. I thought it might be Tundor returning. He and Esmarilla took Lothinar and several others to the Capital this morning. They were trying to find a way to rescue Zinariya from her latest mess. She seems to have accidentally teleported herself to some place called Chelseben. They are trying to get her back."

Vanador's blood ran cold. Chelseben was on the moon! His mother's involvement with it was well known. It was also where she kept her servant, Xerxes. The silver dragon maintained the place and was more or less her prisoner there. He and his mind magic were trouble. Some of Vanador’s concerns must have been evident from his expression because Heirwynn regarded him cautiously.

"This might seem presumptuous of me, Vanador, but why are you here, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I was looking for Michelle," he said. "I think I might owe her an apology."

"You don't know, do you?" Heirwynn asked the dragon apprehensively.

"What are you talking about?" asked Vanador.

"Marg was here," said Heirwynn. "She argued with Lothinar."

"It must have been a small one, or Lothinar probably wouldn't be alive," Vanador said. "My mother can be somewhat difficult. Do you know where she is? I'm looking for her as well."

"See, that's a problem," said Heirwynn. "The argument was serious. It was regarding turning Zinariya over to her. Lothinar refused, and neither of them backed down. I regret to have to tell you that your mother is dead. Your sister Esmarilla buried her near Aleena's grave in the forest near here. "

"Lothinar's strong, but that's just not possible," Vanador said with alarm. "An ancient gold dragon, like my mother, has too much magic to be killable."

"I'm afraid it's true," said Heirwynn. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize too soon," said Firestorm, dropping to the ground in the yard. "I just came from the grove. Marg's body is missing! I don't think she's as dead as we thought!"

"I could have told you that," said Vanador. "What was Esmarilla thinking? Now you've probably just gone and made her good and mad."

"Terrific!" said Firestorm. "Cause I'm the one that stuck a knife in her eye. I did it twice to make sure!"

"Well, that will probably slow her down," said Vanador. "But not for long. I'll look for her, but if I don't find her first, you all had better hide. I would recommend the southern continent, but that's probably not far enough."

“I’ve got a feeling.” Said Firestorm, “That you didn’t drop by to talk about your mother.”

”No,” he answered. “I came to speak with Vanquish.”

”She’s going by Michelle more often these days. And you’re a little late. She’s on her way back to Silvantra.”

"Terrific!" Vanador said. "Now I've got to decide between pursuing my lost love or attempting to prevent the death of most of my friends."

"Tough choice," said Firestorm. "What if one of your friends was the recipient of your lost love's most recent attention?"

"You must be talking about Lothinar." I assume." Vanador said, sighing. "It wouldn't surprise me if that pretty human girl Michelle turned to him after I behaved so poorly towards her."

"Yes, but I, for one, don't need any more competition for Lothinar's affection," said Firestorm. "I'm prepared to work out a deal. You help us deal with your mother, and I'll convince Zinariya to teach you how to shift into an elf. That should improve your chances considerably. How do you feel about teaching children?

"Vanquish and I always wanted children," Vanador said.

"Well, if you can work it out with her, then you're going to have a bunch of them," Firestorm said happily. "You will, however, have to move to Silvantra."

-------------------

"INCOMING TRANSPORT!" A mechanical voice spoke from some unknown place.

Xerxes jumped in surprise.

Zinariya knew this moment was coming from her bond with Lothinar but wry relieved when he teleported onto the station. He didn't arrive where she had, in one of the small side rooms, but on a large elevated pad off to one side. It was the same place Daisy and Albarad had materialized. Lothinar seemed momentarily disoriented but almost immediately found her. He smiled, his handsome face lighting up with true joy.

"I told you I would figure it out!" he said happily.

"Fascinating," said Xerxes, although he didn't seem happy.

With Lothinar's arrival, Zinariya began to feel a steady flow of magic moving into her once again. Before the bond, it had been powerful, like listening to someone playing music much too loud. Raucous energy. Now, it felt warm and welcoming. It was her favorite song. She soaked it in. Lothinar must have noticed. He smiled at her again.

"I'm glad I got here in time. I was worried about you," Lothinar said. She believed him. She could feel his concern for her so much more strongly now that he was present. She had barely finished bonding with him before accidentally teleporting away to come up here. She would have never wanted to leave him if she had felt his overwhelming love and acceptance for even a few more seconds. Her complicated relationship with her mother had caused her to panic.

Lothinar suddenly frowned.

“What happened to your nail?” He asked.

She held out the little red bag to him. “It’s inside here. Xerxes cut it off for me. He said it was making me feel sick.”

Lothinar paused and seemed to be thinking about something. Zinariya felt a strange, not unpleasant, tickle in her mind and realized that Lothinar was replaying her memories of the blackened nail being removed and the conversation with Xerxes afterward. He reached out and took the red bag. It looked very much like he intended to open it.

”what are you doing?!” Xerxes shouted. “You’ll kill us all! The shielding of that bag….” When Lothinar had arrived, the old Elf had retreated and stepped back a few yards. He seemed to be evaluating Lothinar somehow. The expression on his face when Lothinar took the bag switched from puzzlement to outright alarm.

The thick bag had been closed with some sort of sticky residue on the end flap, leaving no obvious and easy way to open it. However, Lothinar managed to tear it open almost effortlessly. He turned it over and dumped out her nail. It was beautiful, golden, and pristine. Zinariya blinked in surprise.

”Shit!” Xerxes roared.

“Letta,” Lothinar replied, freezing the old Elf in place just as he raised some device and started to point it at them.

”You sure went to a lot of work trying to sell that deception." Lothinar's words were directed at the immobilized Elf. "You tried to convince them both that a poison contaminated the nail.” He walked over and plucked what had to be some weapon from the immobilized Xerxes' outstretched hand. The ‘Letta” spell had stopped Xerxes body, but obviously not his consciousness. His eyes followed Lothinar as he moved. He looked afraid.

“That nail was black when he put it in the bag, son,” Albarad said. “I saw it myself.”

”It was an Illusion.” Lothinar replied. “He is a silver dragon. That's one of their powers. He's not as strong as a Platinum, who can actually force you to do things, but Silver dragons can trick your senses, allowing them to deceive. Esmarilla warned me about him just before I came up.”

“But I thought Esmarilla left for the stables. Cantrell followed her.” Said Albarad.

“You may have forgotten that even though Esmarilla and I are not bonded, I have a close connection to her. She can talk to me telepathically, especially when we’re in the same city. Esmarilla shared her suspicions about Xerxes with me. For over nine months, she poured almost all of her considerable black dragon energy into me while my mother was carrying me. Esmarilla has considerable power. She’s Marg’s daughter, after all. Mom contributed, too. They gave me the foundation on which to expand these powers I now employ.”

”Sometimes I wonder why Ardwella even needed me at all!” Murmured Albarad.

“What I got from you, father, is probably what keeps me sane. Thank you for that.” Lothinar said.

“Your powers are even stronger than before!” Said Zinariya. “I can tell!”

Lothinar shook his head.

“Perhaps a little.” He said. “The rate of increase is pretty slow. You might be getting more efficient absorption since we are now bonded.”

“You are definitely tastier,” Zinariya replied.

Lothinar gave her a strange look.

Lothinar took the golden claw in one hand and, with the other, grabbed Zinariya’s elven hand. He placed her dragon toenail in her palm and curled his hand around both, closing her hand around it. The nail felt big and hard, like a piece of wood from the end of a tree branch.

“Heil.” He said. The claw disappeared, and her finger throbbed angrily.

"Ouch!" She complained. "That hurt worse than when he cut it off!"

"I reconnected it physically, but the talon was separated for a time. It might take a while for it to reconnect magically,"

Lothinar turned to address Xerxes. "I don't appreciate what you tried to do to my bond. You were trying to handicap her abilities and probably wanted to eat her magic."

The old Elf looked awkward, but he didn't try to deny it.

"Marg will eventually return." Xerxes sent mind to mind. "You have no idea what you're dealing with!"

"There are two different ways this could go," Lothinar told the ancient Elf. "You can drop the act and come clean with us..."

"Marg will kill me!" he interrupted.

"I'm partial to dragons, but I... will do the same if need be." Said Lothinar. "The way you treated Zinariya was pretty despicable."

"I was desperate. The station was almost out of power," Xerxes said. "Marg is forever leaving things until the last minute. I really did need Zinariya to get over to the fuel chute and do something about that. The refueling chute and reactor are far enough away to provide a measure of safety. It's an airless void out there!"

"But then you used your illusion powers to lie!" Lothinar said accusingly. "You made her feel dizzy and sick, and then you cut off the tip of her finger to inhibit her ability to teleport. I suspect that was s of precursor to a future rape attempt. Somehow, from your dealings with Marg, you knew that a golden must be physically unharmed to teleport. There can be no missing pieces. If not, some biological safety mechanism kicks in."

"That's preposterous!" shouted Xerxes through mind-to-mind. "I'll admit she is pretty, especially as a dragon, but a biological safety mechanism? Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?"

"My recent experiences tell me otherwise," said Lothinar. "Just this morning, my bond, Candasar, Zinariya's mother, tried to shift back into a dragon. She wasn't able to do that because she was pregnant. A biological safety mechanism kicked in to protect the unborn child. Dragon physiology is not as random as you want me to believe."

Xerxes did not respond. Instead, his eyes looked away. It seemed he didn't want to discuss the subject further.

"Zinariya?" Lothinar called. "How's your finger?"

Zinariya had been distracted by listening in, through the bond to Lothinar's conversation with Xerxes. She hadn't at all been considering or augmenting her healing. Lothinar had already put it back, but something still wasn't quite right. It still tingled quite a bit. Suddenly, she considered the dust masks lying on the nearby table. Part of her was trapped in the dust in those masks, and even more of her gold dragon dust had fallen on the floor. There were little pieces of her magic trapped in that dust! She tried a short teleport just across the room. Nothing happened!

Zinariya began to panic.

"What did he do to me, Lothnar?" she squeaked.

His confidence and calm washed over her once more. He took her hand. "It's just the dust you're missing now, Zinariya. You could probably do this yourself."

She felt his power again flare, and her hand suddenly became warm.

"Try again," he said.

Whatever he had done this second time worked! His healing was complete. She felt her power rise. She aimed at her target and let it burst. There was a familiar popping noise. It was the sound of a teleport.

Lothinar briefly looked confused. Then he sighed.

"Where did you send him?" he asked.

"I put him in time out," Zinariya said.

"Time out?" He asked, then he rushed to one of the windows. Outside, in the stark white light, a silver dragon was staggering around in the chalky dust. His eyes reached for Lothinar with a desperate pleading.

"That's strange," Lothinar said. "The teleport must have fractured the 'letta' spell. He's moving around.

"That, or the shift did it. Perhaps even stilled with 'letta,' he was able to transform. We will have to experiment. It might come in handy for our family to know that in an emergency." Zinariya said quite seriously. My missing toenail kept me from teleporting but didn’t stop me from changing shape. I have so many questions, Lothinar!”

”We will figure all this out together.” Lothinar said confidently. Zinariya noticed, however, that Lothinar seemed far more concerned with Xerxes' plight than she did.

"You know, now that he has shifted back into a dragon, he's too big to teleport inside," Lothinar said.

"Perhaps he felt he would survive longer outside in that form," Zinariya said. "It does, however, limit my options."

"I didn't want to kill him," said Lothinar. "Perhaps I was too optimistic about reforming him. Marg's had him under her influence for a long time." He gazed sadly out the window. I suppose some people are better off dead. Marg would probably have killed him for disappointing her anyway.”

The silver dragon was failing. He had fallen to his knees a few feet from the window. His wing flapping was futile without atmosphere.

Lothinar’s surprising compassion for the tricky old dragon must be influencing her. Zinariya felt surprising regret. “Lend me some power, Lothinar," Zinariya said. "I can't go through with it. I'm sending him back down to the planet."

"You know that if he survives, he will probably be quite angry," Lothinar said. "And worse yet, he'll be free to find and help Marg. We don't even know where she is right now. Letting him live may get us both killed.”

"Yes, but I’m suddenly feeling pretty strongly that it’s the right thing to do.” And as to finding Marg, think about it, Lothinar. She left a lot of blood and fluids on the carpet in Ardwynn's house. Her teleportation will be broken or at least vastly weakened. She won't be far.”

Lothinar gave Zinariya the power she requested. There was a sudden and definite drain on his reserves. He looked back out the window and saw that the silver dragon was gone.

"I hope he can still fly," Zinariya said sheepishly. “He’s a big dragon. I don’t think I got him all the way to the surface.”

____________________

The silver dragon materialized over the planet at a high altitude. He gasped for breath and spent the first thirty seconds just falling, end over end. He used his second and fourth breaths to scream. The first scream was terror. The second was frustration. He finally managed to unfurl his wings in the frigid air. They snapped taught, and he began to glide. His eyes were inflamed and injured from being exposed to the hostile vacuum of the moon. From this vantage point, he was still high enough to see the earth's curvature. It was a long way down. Once he was low enough, he began to make out specific landmarks. He trimmed his course accordingly.

Though it had been close, Zinariya had not left him to die outside the dome. She had probably shown him more mercy than Marg would have. Xerxes actually felt a small amount of gratitude for that. Briefly, he considered rewarding her generosity by disappearing and hoping that Marg was really dead or somehow would never find him. He gave up that foolish thought quickly. He knew Marg had to be still alive. What had delayed her was bad, but she would be back. She would want retribution. Xerxes would have to explain to her how he lost control of the station. He hoped he would survive being the bearer of bad news. He would, of course, blame Lothinar and his new statistically impossible Golden dragon. To think that he had considered trying to seduce her. He should have known better. With Lothinar as her bond, he wouldn't be able to get away with any more deceptions. It was a long way down. He had plenty of time to contemplate his next steps. First, of course, he would have to find Marg. He needed to do it before Lothinar did.