Dragon in the Dark (Kindred Tales)

“All right,” he said, trying to keep his voice level and taking a breath to try and tamp down the Fire inside him. “Let me just go get Iyanna and we’ll come to sign with you together.”

“Oh, I’m afraid we can’t take her with us,” the Minister objected. “Females cannot skip the checkpoint—it’s a well-known fact that they’re more wily than males and more prone to mischief!”

“So you think they’re stupider than males, but also more cunning?” Dra’vik raised an eyebrow at the other male.

“Yes, exactly.” Master-Doctor Ostensio nodded without a shred of irony. “So your cherished wife may not skip the checkpoint line. However, if you like, I will send a servant to wait for her and bring her right to us the moment she goes through it.”

“Well…” Dra’vik hesitated. He waved in Iyanna’s direction, hoping to give her some idea of where he was going, but she was turned away and speaking to the woman ahead of her in line, so she didn’t see him.

“Please do hurry, Sir Dra’vik,” the Minister of Botany said frowning. “I really am in a most frightful rush. I have much to do to prepare for tonight’s banquet.”

“All right,” Dra’vik said at last, frowning. “But I want the servant to go wait and bring her the minute she’s through the line. She’s the one over there with the gorgeous brown skin and long black hair,” he added, pointing. “Wearing a red outfit with gold trim.”

“Red outfit with gold trim. Got it!” The Minister nodded. “Come—I’ll send a servant to wait for her.”

And so, with misgivings, Dra’vik had allowed himself to be led away from the enormous security check room.

He had been signing papers when he suddenly got a strange tugging sensation in his gut—like someone or something was pulling at him. And then, to compound the strangeness, he thought he heard a voice whispering in his ear,

“Warrior, your female is in danger!”

“What?” he had asked, looking up, but Master-Doctor Ostensio was busy producing more documents for him to sign—they were all written in curling letters on stiff pieces of parchment and stamped with important looking seals. Clearly he hadn’t said anything. Or had he?

“Did you say something? Something about my wife being in trouble?” Dra’vik asked him.

“Excuse me? Why would I say such a thing?” the Minister of Botany frowned. “Now let me see, if I could just get you to sign this last document…”

At that moment, a servant with pale blue skin and green hair entered with a female in tow. She had on a red outfit similar to Iyanna’s—red with gold trim—but her skin was pale yellow and her eyes and hair were pink.

“I’ve brought her, your Worshipfulness,” the servant said, bowing low to Master-Doctor Ostensio. “Just as you asked—I got her as soon as she passed through the check point.”

“What are you talking about? This isn’t Iyanna!” Dra’vik had exclaimed, glaring.

The strange Lix’dorian woman ducked her head.

“Excuse me, Sirs,” she said formally, not meeting any of their eyes. “But I believe there has been some mistake. My honored husband is waiting for me at the end of the checkpoint and I do not know why I was brought here.”

“You’re damn right there’s been a fucking mistake,” Dra’vik growled. “This idiot was supposed to bring my wife, Iyanna, to meet me here. Instead, he grabbed you.”

“But, Sir,” the servant protested. “I did as his Worshipfulness, Master-Doctor Ostensio said and brought you the female wearing red clothing trimmed in gold.” He pointed at the Lix’dorian woman. “This was the only female dressed in such a fashion that I saw.”

“You must have confused me for the woman standing in line ahead of me,” the Lix’dorian female said, her eyes still modestly downcast. “The one who was dragged away to the scanning room because the Sin Sniffers didn’t like her.”

“What? Dragged away to the scanning room? Where the fuck is that?” Dra’vik’s heart had begun pounding in his ears and the feeling that something bad was happening to Iyanna was growing by the minute.

“Why, it’s at the front of the checkpoint lines—a room with a silver door,” the servant said. “But Sir, let me go get her for you.”

“Yes, do let the servant go and fetch her,” Master-Doctor Ostensio had chimed in. “It’s such a tiresome walk back and you’ll be able to finish up signing.”

“No—fuck that!” Dra’vik had already been on the move. By the time he reached the long white corridor that led back to the security checkpoint room, he was outright running as fast as he could.

“Hurry, Warrior!” he heard the voice whispering in his ear. “Hurry, it is almost too late!”

As he carried Iyanna in his arms now, Dra’vik reflected that he really had almost been too late. That bastard he’d killed had been in the act of trying to rape her—he was certain of it. If Dra’vik hadn’t gotten there just when he had…