The Lost Dragon Princess

Chapter 15

We had to wait until morning to head off on Mom’s “short walk in the woods,” since, as she’d informed me, we didn’t want to be caught out in the national forest after dark. New residents had moved into the area, which made nocturnal travels a bit dicey. I asked what kind of residents were allowed to move onto government land but didn’t get much of an answer. By then, she’d had her head buried in her language books, flipping through old yellowed pages full of symbols. To my untrained eye, they were similar to the one on my vial, but I reluctantly admitted that none of them were identical. Also, there were two angry slashes on the top and bottom of mine that didn’t look anything like the flowing symbols in the books.

Now, we were on the highway in my borrowed government car, heading south toward Paulina Lake. Diavan had the day off and had volunteered to watch Maggie while we were gone. She’d been set free to roam the log cabin after Diavan had returned from the pet store with a litter box, an obvious thing that I, a non-pet-owner, hadn’t thought to buy. No wonder the cat had been crabby on her trip.

“There’s the turn.” Mom pointed.

I took a left onto Paulina Lake Road, a paved route that meandered up to an extinct volcano. Paulina Lake, along with a smaller one to the east, was in the crater. From a previous trip, I remembered a couple of old stores up there to service the campers, kayakers, and hikers but not much else. Boogie, who was riding in the back seat, thumped his tail and milled about, as if turning off the highway meant a fabulous adventure was imminent.

“Does your friend work in one of the stores?” I glanced at Mom, her bare feet up on the dash.

She had brought socks and hiking boots, perhaps a testament to the length of the short walk waiting for us. “No, and she’s not so much a friend as an acquaintance I met while on a mission.”

“An acquaintance who will want to see you or one who might shoot us on sight?”

Her eyebrows rose. “I’d ask if that’s typical of your acquaintances, but you showed me your Jeep, so I’ll assume so.”

“The dragon is not an acquaintance.” I glanced skyward, though I hadn’t seen him again since that rest stop, and it was silly to believe he would be loitering in the area.

He had criminals to collect, or so he said, and I hadn’t heard of any magical beings wreaking havoc around Bend. Of course, my number-one resource for letting me know about such things was in the hospital. That lieutenant probably wouldn’t tell me if he’d successfully found his own a*s in the shower.

We drove on in silence, except for the occasional thump of Boogie’s tail on the seat. Lieutenant Mood’s car was getting nicely fur covered. I wondered if we would find any mud up by the lake that I could drive through to ensure the exterior needed a wash and wax when I returned it. He deserved it for doubting Willard. Doubting me was irritating, too, but it was a more understandable affront. I was used to skepticism from people who hadn’t had run-ins with the magical themselves. Half the world still seemed to think they were like UFOs, something only nuts believed in. If only they knew how many magical beings camouflaged themselves to blend into our society. Ninety percent of them weren’t any trouble and never came onto my radar. It was the other ten that kept me employed.

“Ahina and Theo came up this past winter,” Mom said as we rounded a bend, ponderosa pines stretching up to the blue sky on either side.

“Oh?” I asked neutrally. Carefully. Mom had lectured me on my relationship with my younger sister before, and I couldn’t imagine anything but judgment coming out. “To ski?”

“Yes. They were going to stay in some overpriced vacation rental, but I gave them the loft and the spare bedroom.”

“Who got the spare bedroom?” I’d always thought that was an ambitious label for the little office with the twin-sized Murphy bed that flopped out of the only drywalled wall in her cabin—the bathroom was on the other side, and I was convinced the builders had only made that wall flat because they hadn’t been able to figure out how to install a toilet-paper holder on a log.

“Theo. Ahina always claims the loft.”

“Always? I didn’t realize they came that often.”

“Almost every winter over the school holidays.” She slid me the judgy look I’d been expecting. “Don’t you talk to them?”

“No.”

My mother and my father, my adoptive parents I mean had broken up because of this issue. Because my mom had given birth to a daughter after adopting me and my dad had considered it to be the betrayal of worst kind.

I’d been at more of Ahina’s swim meets and softball games than anybody knew, but I watched from a distance. Like a stalker, not an elder sister. It bothered me, but I wasn’t going to admit it. Mom wouldn’t understand. Oh, she probably grasped that my job was dangerous and would put anyone close to me in danger—I was worried that even coming here had been a mistake—but she’d told me more than once to get a new job. A normal job.

“It’s that bad here? Didn’t you like the cookies that Diavan made? I thought they were good.”

“He made those? I assumed it was you.”

What kind of six-foot-six, yard-art-crafting landscaper had pastry chef ambitions? Diavan looked like the kind of guy you hired to bounce people out of your strip club.

“When have you known me to bake anything using sugar?”

“You use dates and honey and maple syrup. It’s all sweet. I can’t tell the difference.”

“You’ve got a refined palette. Maybe you can go to culinary school when you get tired of being shot at for a living.”

“Sometimes, I do the shooting.”

“That’ll come in handy if you specialize in desserts and wield a frosting gun.”

“I’m sure that’s very similar to Fezzik, yes.”

“Fez-what?”

“Fezzik. From The Princess Bride. That’s the name of my g*n. Min said my weapons would have more power if I named them. My sword is Nightshade.” I reminded myself that Mom hadn’t met Nin—and probably hadn’t seen more than ten movies in her life. “I don’t know what the sword’s real name is. The zombie lord I killed to get it neglected to give me its pedigree.”

Mom shook her head. “When you told me that you were thinking of joining the army, I thought you were going to be a pilot. I didn’t think I’d get a hitman for a daughter. And that too before your training. You are already working for them, aren’t you?”

“I’m a hitwoman, thank you.”

The first of the parking lots came into view. Thank God. I’d forgotten that keeping Mom safe from my dangerous life wasn’t the only reason I didn’t visit often.

“Go ahead and park in that one.”

As I turned off the road, Boogie barked, startling me.

“He wants the window rolled down,” Mom informed me.

“Damas figured out how to do that on his own.” I fiddled with the controls—better to have the dog barking out the window than in my ear.

“Which of your weapons is that?” Mom eyed Nightshade and Fezzik in the seat well behind me.

“I’ll introduce you to him later. He’s a new acquisition.” And he would be offended if I called him that. “A new ally,” I corrected.

A new friend, I added to myself, thinking of the therapist’s suggestion that I should make more friends. Did magical jaguars count?

We parked, and I strapped on my weapons, having an inkling that I might need them. Mom slung a pack on her shoulders and fastened a special dog one on Boogie, who sat patiently instead of tearing off after the ducks loitering near the boat launch. She pointed toward a trail that headed through some reeds and tall grasses along the lake.

“Do you have water?” She touched her backpack, which appeared to have everything, including emergency flares and a hatchet strapped to the outside.

I took the bottle of carbonated lemon water I’d been drinking in the car and stuffed it in my vest pocket.

“You said it was a short walk,” I pointed out to her disapproving look.

“You shouldn’t go into the woods without supplies.”

“Can we do this without lectures, please? I’m having a rough week.”

She pressed her lips together, grabbed Boogie’s leash, and headed down the trail. I followed the brisk pace she set and tried not to think about how much time I might be wasting. If this acquaintance of hers couldn’t shed any light on that sigil, this whole trip would have been for nothing. Already, I wished I’d hunted down a forensics person to try scraping residue out of the vial to identify. But I still had that niggling feeling that whatever had been in there wasn’t listed in Wikipedia.

A familiar tingle went up my spine, a warning that someone—or something—magical was nearby. I paused to look out over the lake, its tree-filled slopes rising up on all sides. The sky was blue and clear, which made it easy to pick out the huge black dragon soaring over the ridge on the opposite side.

“s**t,” I breathed, almost calling Damas for help.

But I caught myself. Since there was a limit to how many hours he could stay in our world each day, I had to save him for when I needed him.

“Mom?” I trotted to catch up and started to point out the dragon to her, but he’d dipped behind the ridge and out of sight. “Where does this trail go?”

“Around the lake. We’ll take a detour on the other side.” She pointed toward the forest the dragon had been flying over.

Wonderful.

We’d gone three miles and were almost halfway around the lake when Mom walked off the path to head inland. We’d passed several groups of hikers along the way, but I doubted we would see any more. There wasn’t any hint of a trail now, and if anyone else had been leading, I would have asked if she knew where she was going. But Boogie bounded ahead of us, apparently knowing where we were going. And Mom had warned me we were taking a detour.

My fingers strayed to my necklace and the cat figurine again. I could still sense the dragon. Now that we’d turned, he was dead ahead of us. He seemed to be staying in one position. Maybe he’d caught a raccoon and was enjoying a nice appetizer before the main course arrived. Did dragons eat humans? Or dogs?

“You might want to have Boogie stay close,” I warned. “The dragon who wrecked my Jeep is a couple of miles ahead of us.”

Mom frowned over her shoulder. “What’s he doing here?”

“He neglected to file his itinerary with me.”

“Is he hunting you?”

“I hope not.” I wasn’t cocky enough to believe I could have bested him if he’d truly wanted to kill me. My charm might keep me safe from fire, but he had all kinds of alternative magic he could hurl my way. Not to mention those fangs and talons. “Honestly, I don’t know why he would be. I’m not here to ki— deal with anyone. Just ask some questions of your mysterious acquaintance. How far away are we now?”

I tried to make that question casual and not let on that I was nervous about going deeper into the woods with the dragon out here. Not that we’d be safe if we made it back to the parking lot and the car. As I well knew.

“Not far. There’s a tunnel up ahead.”

“A tunnel? Like a lava tube?”

“Originally, I’m sure it was. Now it’s being used as a passageway.”

“By your acquaintance?”

“Among others.”

Before I could comment on Mom’s deliberate vagueness, Boogie zipped past us, planted his paws on a tree, and barked at a squirrel. The squirrel chittered back at him from the safety of a branch thirty feet up. Boogie waved his tail vigorously, barked again, and looked over at us.

“I think he wants you to do your part and get that squirrel for him,” I said.

“Squirrels are a lot of work to skin and debone for not much meat.”

“Gross. I was joking.”

“You’ve eaten squirrel before. Remember that stew we used to have when you were a kid and we went camping?”

“The one you used to make on a campfire made in a sawn-off oil drum? Yes, and now I wish I didn’t.”

“Those were tight times. Sometimes, squirrels and asparagus scrounged along the roadside were all we had.” Mom kept talking, wandering off into some weird nostalgia territory, which had to be for her lost youth because she couldn’t possibly miss being broke and living in a bus, but something twanged my senses, distracting me.

The dragon?

No, I sensed more than one magical aura this time, spread out across the woods ahead of us. None of them were as significant as the dragon’s, but the number of them was disturbing. Ten? Twelve?