“Then who?”
“It is why I brought you here, Detective Roan. Or, should I say, one of the reasons.”
“I don’t understand.”
“There is a great army amassing in the north. Bigger than, I’m afraid, we can defend against.”
We were silent. Princess Rose made a small sound in her sleep. She stirred slightly. She would be, I suspected, awakening soon. “You need the Dragon King,” I said after a while.
“Now more than ever.”
Chapter Fourteen
Princess Rose opened her eyes and found herself in disarray. Her hair was messed up, her full bodice was slightly askew, and her pleated skirt was flopped up over her lovely knees. She spied me watching. “Do you see anything interesting, Sir Roan?” she inquired archly.
“Absolutely fascinating, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it,” I said candidly. “But at the moment I am more concerned with the state of your outlook. You fainted when you learned that your father survives. Can you accept it now?”
“I can,” she said. “Beneath this frilly exterior there lies a moderately smart realist. But it was a shock.”
I looked at Dubi. I knew him now for the king, but I still thought of him as the wizard. “One thing bothers me. Your secret has now been exposed. It seems that everyone in this castle knows about the latest gossip almost before it happens. You are surely in danger again.”
“I surely am,” Dubi agreed. “But that army to the north is virtually ready to strike, so my guiding hand is needed here. Rose is not versed in military defense. I had hoped to cause the assassin to reveal himself, but now perforce I must govern.”
“And there is still an assassin,” I said. “Even if you’re not dead. So my job continues.”
“I’m an absolute mess, and confused by recent revelations,” Rose said. “So if you worthy men will get out of my room, I will put myself in order.” She lifted her legs and swung them off the bed, providing me with a near-paralyzing flash, as she surely realized.
“Even as a confused mess, you remain prettier than any other woman I know,” I said honestly.
“You don’t count. I kissed you.”
“Touche,” I agreed.
“Perhaps we should adjourn to the balcony,” Dubi said.
I stifled a double-take. He wanted to go out where his fear of heights would constrict him? There had to be excellent reason. “As you wish.”
Dubi reverted to his familiar Wizard form as we departed the bedroom.
“There is something on your mind?” I asked when we reached the balcony.
“It’s about the castle network. You have noted how news gets rapidly about, but you don’t seem to understand precisely how.”
“That’s true.” I realized now that this was a bad gap in my information.
“It is a telepathic ambiance that can develop in well-used castles. They seem to tune in on their inhabitants, sharing their thoughts as it were, or at least their voices. Anything you say can be overheard by other parties who are interested enough to pay close attention. It is especially acute when the listener is the subject of a dialogue.”
That explained a lot. “So when I talked to Mave, Rose overheard. And when I talked to Rose, Mave heard.”
“Exactly. Both are quite taken with you, so tend to listen in on your dialogues with the other. But they are not the only ones interested in you. As a newcomer, and an investigator, and perhaps royal, and possibly even the Dragon King, you are the current main person of interest.”
“But that means that this conversation is being heard,” I said. “We have no secrets.”
“Not so. Did it occur to you to wonder why I chose to have my death out here, despite my nervousness about the exposure?”
Then I caught on. “Because you needed privacy! Otherwise everyone would know it was fake.”
“Exactly.”
“And that is why we are talking here now. So that we can’t be overheard by the castle. You must have something really important to tell me.”
“Not so,” he repeated.
For a moment I was baffled. “Not?”
“It is to prevent you from saying anything that might prejudice your mission.”
I assimilated that. “Sir, I wish I could tell you I had a lead on the assassin, but I don’t.”
“But you will find that lead. I have observed you at work. You have the mind for it.”
“I hope you’re right. But it seems I can’t investigate anyone here without everyone knowing. That crimps my style.”
“Not necessarily. You can make the network work for you.”
“I can?”
“Allow me to demonstrate. We shall reenter the castle. Focus on listening for references to yourself. Do not speak aloud.”
“I will do that,” I agreed dubiously.
We went back inside. I stood there beside Dubi, listening. And I started to hear voices, first whisper-faint, then as it attuned, louder and clearer.
‘Don’t touch that sweetbread. It is reserved for Sir Roan.’
‘Ellie, you will clean Sir Roan’s room today.’ ‘Yes ma’am.’ ‘Say, Ellie, wouldn’t it be funny if you ripped off the sheets with your usual carelessness, and he was still in the bed! He sleeps naked, you know.’ ‘I’d be so embarrassed!’ ‘You’d have to take off your own clothes and jump in with him!’ ‘No!’ ‘You’re blushing, Ellie.’
There was more, but I’d had enough. I could indeed do some research this way, without ever leaving my room. Unless shy Ellie came. I wondered what she looked like. I also wondered how they knew I slept naked. Maybe the last cleanup maid had not found any pajamas with the sheets.
We returned to the balcony. “This is amazing. Thank you, sir, for acquainting me with it. I will be very careful about anything I say within the castle.”
“Much of interest can be overheard,” Dubi said. “It is a prime pastime among the servants, and perhaps the royals too. Needless to say, illicit sexual liaisons are performed in utter silence, unless the participants don’t mind advertising. Any maid who got in bed with you would want to advertise.”
“Thanks for the warning.”
“You are free to do what you wish at night, but Rose will know.”
I appreciated that warning too. “She told me I could have any dancer for the night. She did not seem jealous.”
“Yes, of course. Rose knows better than to try to restrict a man’s pleasures. But do not say anything private during such a liaison.”
“Such as my thoughts about the identity of the assassin?”
“Exactly. Some men can become careless at such times.”
Right on. “Thank you again, sir. I will not be careless.”
“I did not mean to suggest that you would be.” He was the soul of diplomacy. The more I got to know the king, the better I liked him. “Are there any other private matters you wish to mention before we go public again?” He glanced nervously at the ledge, and I realized that he was making a sacrifice to educate me privately.
“Um, how soon do you think that army to the north will attack?” I asked.
“It can occur at any moment. It has been massing for the past month.”
“Exactly how could the Dragon King deal with it?”
“That we do not know. Only that it will be effective.”
“Assuming, of course, that I am that Dragon. I have no certainty of that.”
“We sincerely hope that you are the Dragon, because otherwise we are lost.”
“I hope so too,” I said humbly.
“One more caution: a dragon, when first evoked, is not fully functional at the outset. Like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon, it requires time to consolidate its various powers. The Dragon King has been quiescent for a considerable period. So you will want to do it in as much privacy as you can manage.”
“And the assassin will be watching,” I added. “In or outside the castle. Ready to strike the moment he is sure of the Dragon’s identity. Because he ca
n’t afford to let the Dragon achieve those powers.”
Dubi nodded soberly. “You have a marvelous grasp of the situation.”
And that’s when I told him my plan. Dubi listened quietly, occasionally raising his eyebrows and nodding. When I was finished, he said, “A marvelous plan, Sir Roan. I will need only a little time on my end. See me an hour before noon tomorrow, and we shall put your plan into motion. Now I will leave you to your own devices. I have a kingdom to run.”
He certainly did, and I sincerely appreciated the time he had taken with me.
What was I to do now? Assuming I was the Dragon King—which I feared was an uncomfortably long shot—I could not be safely invoked without considerably more privacy than this castle offered. I would not be safe away from the castle either, unless I could spirit Mave away to Lord Mephisto’s castle to do the deed. That threatened to be more complicated than I could manage. What I really needed to do was locate and eliminate the anonymous assassin. Then the rest should fall into place reasonably readily.
I went to my room and lay down to think. And wouldn’t you know it, that was when the chamber maid came to clean it up. I sat up as she entered, and she really was pretty. “Ellie, I presume?”
“Oh!” she said, and wavered on her feet as if about to faint.
I hurried to stabilize her. “I knew you were coming,” I said. “I couldn’t resist teasing you. I’ll get out of here and let you work in peace.”
“Thank you sir,” she said faintly.
I departed the room and headed for the kitchen to pick up my sweetbread. The castle personnel had zeroed in on my tastes with telepathic speed. Too bad I couldn’t zero in similarly on the assassin.
Then I felt it coming like a storm on the horizon. It was an idea how to locate the assassin. I didn’t have it yet, but it was on the way. I opened my mind to it—and it fizzed out. All I could think of was how I had learned to play chess as a kid, and a more experienced player had got me four times in succession with the Fool’s Mate. What a humiliation! Later I spied in a magazine a counter trap to reverse the case when someone tried the Fool’s Mate, but I never got to use it. Ever thus, like the perfect retort to an insult. Now if I could just reverse the case with the assassin...
Then it hit me. That was the key! To lay myself open for the assassin, then nab him when he struck. He’d never suspect a counter-trap.
I went to Princess Rose’s room and knocked on her door. She opened it, standing there fully prettied up. I wished I could enfold her, but I had a different agenda at the moment. “I have a plan,” I said.
She let me in. “You can’t have my virginity until marriage.”
I liked her humor. “Not that plan. It’s to get Mave to evoke my dragon. I’ll need to spend the night with her. One night should do it.”
“You’re going to Stare her!” she exclaimed admiringly.
I frowned in mock distaste. “That would be unfair.”
“All’s fair in love and war, especially when they merge.”
“Obviously all I really want from her is sex. I’ll have to offer her a face-saving deal, like being First Concubine after I marry you, and siring a Royal Bastard. It’s not much, but I think it is doable.”
“I like the way your devious mind works. By morning you’ll have her eating out of your hand, or whatever.” Her gaze flicked down to my belt or thereabouts. “She’ll do anything you want.”
“And what I want is for her to evoke my dragon at noon tomorrow. In front of everyone in the castle, so that the assassin won’t dare to strike.”
She clapped her hands in girlish glee. “We’ll all be there.”
I frowned. “Aren’t you even a little bit jealous?”
“Oh, yes. I’ll envy her that night. But it’s a chore you have to do.”
Some chore. I let it pass, just as she had let my mention of marriage pass. “I’m going to get some daytime sleep. I want to be alert for the chore.”
“By all means.” She stepped forward and delivered one of her chaste kisses. “I still think torture might be a safer bet, but we’ll play it your way. We need that dragon.”
I returned to my room. Ellie was just finishing up. “That looks great,” I said.
“Thank you, sir,” she simpered.
“Tell Mave I want her with me tonight.”
She froze briefly, then recovered. “I will, sir.”
I realized that I had been needlessly cruel. “Your turn will come, Ellie. I met her before I met you, so she’s ahead in line. Protocol.”
She blushed scarlet and departed, pleased.
I lay down on the freshly made bed. I did need rest and sleep, because I suspected it was going to be a difficult night, albeit not for the reason the gossip listeners expected.
The day passed routinely, though I was conscious of the attention of the staff. They all knew that I wanted raw sex, and that Mave wanted a commitment, and were even placing bets (I did a snooping listen) on the outcome. Would I persuade her to evoke my dragon without marriage, or would her phenomenal sex appeal win me over? Or would it be a draw: no marriage, no Dragon?
Mave arrived promptly as I turned in for the night. She was breathtakingly beautiful in a harem girl outfit, and scented with what I suspected was an erotic perfume. “I know we should spend some token time getting to know each other better,” I told her. “But I can’t wait. Join me in the shower.”
She disrobed in something like half a second and joined me in the shower without protest. Evidently she had some experience with kinky male tastes. I put my arms around her in the blasting water and whispered in her ear. Her jaw dropped, then she nodded. She would play along, at least for now.
“I’d love to have at you,” I whispered. “As you can see from the arousal of my body. But this is business. There is an army massing on the kingdom’s north border, and soon it will invade and wipe us out. Only the Dragon King can stop it. I need you to evoke it now, so that it has the night to consolidate and come into its proper power. Otherwise the assassin will destroy it at the outset, tomorrow at noon, and all will be lost. I appeal to your patriotism. You know the terms I proffer, and I will honor them and be truly grateful for your help. Without you I can’t do it.”
She turned her face and whispered her response in my ear. “The princess’s kisses don’t last more than a few days. Then you won’t be her love slave any more. If something happens to mess up your marriage with her, will you marry me instead?”
“Provided that nothing bad happens to the princess, so that it is her choice to void the marriage, then yes, I will marry you. But I see little likelihood of that happening.”
“Then I will be First Concubine with a Royal Bastard,” she said. “It is a fair deal, and we will save the kingdom.”
“Oh, thank you!” I said, hugely grateful. I held her and kissed her passionately.
“No sex at this time,” she said regretfully. “You will need that energy to fill out the dragon.” Then she put her hands on my head and exerted her power.
It was magnificent. Maybe our nakedness and emotion contributed, or maybe it was simply the hot water, but I felt a massive arousal in my body and mind. The Dragon was stirring, preparing to come out.
And did it ever. I swelled into a mass of flesh too big for the shower. My coils filled the bathroom, my tail extending into the bedroom. My head became a toothy giant, my arms and legs scaly, my digits clawed. Still she stayed with me, her hands on my head, keeping the evocation going. She knew what she was doing.
Then I was complete, filling all available space, coiled three layers deep. But I was weak, hardly able to support my own enormous weight.
“It will take a while for your strength to come,” she said. “But you should be able to transform back to human shape now.”
I concentrated, and it worked. I resumed my human form. But I was abysmally weak.
Mave turned off the shower and led me to the bed. She laid me down on it, then joined me, putting her hands back on my
head. I felt the healing power, and knew that the conversion was still happening, this time internally. Without her strength I would have been completely lost. She was right about skipping the sex; I needed every bit of that energy for the evocation.
Then she did something that surprised and pleased me immeasurably: she faked sex. I was too washed out to do it, but didn’t need to. “What, so soon again?” she asked with seeming surprise. “After all those times in the shower? Well, I’m game if you can do it.” She was briefly silent, then she started moaning as if in ascending pleasure, culminating in an urgent simulated climax. “Oh, you did,” she said. “What a performance!” The performance, of course, was hers; she was a born actress.
Meanwhile she kept her hands on my head, channeling the evocation, and I felt the strength rising as my inner organs fell into place. My muscles were hardening, and my belly was generating literal fire. But that was only part of it. I was discovering that the Dragon King was more mental than physical, and that alien mind had power I had never dreamed of. Telepathy, of course, but also teleportation, clairvoyance, and other abilities that were fearsome in their potential. Destroy an army? This mind could make that army lie down and die without fighting, or flee in terror from a mouse. Truly, I was the Dragon King, and this dragon was the salvation of the kingdom.
“Again?” Mave asked. “I don’t know whether I can—oooh, do that again!” And she went into another slow simulation.
Then later in the night she said something else. “And you didn’t even Stare me. You are conquering me without the Stare.” That was technically true, but she was making it sound far more significant.
Finally I spoke, partly to be sure I could do it. “It is my logic I want you to heed.”
“That, too,” she sighed ecstatically. “Sir Roan, you have won me. I have never had a night like this. I will perform the evocation at noon, as you direct.”
As morning came I knew the dragon was as yet incomplete, but so great was its potential that even this partial fulfillment was more than I had seen in Fiera, and my magic was more than I had seen in the Wizard. I was ready to take on any likely assassin. Now all I needed was for that assassin to attack me at noon, thinking me vulnerable, thus betraying his identity at last.