Riding My Dragons (The Dragons Of Tellus #1)

CHAPTER 15

Byron

Cade had only touched the thing with his dragon hands since he took it.After getting it here to his room at the Lacerta, he’d only handled it with his human fingers in handkerchiefs.I was using my own dragon hands to examine it now.Neither Cade nor Elliot nor I wanted to put any human fingerprints on it.I had seen pictures of things like this; and seen them on display in museums.The little box, small enough to hold in my palm, was an obsolete technology that Cade had taken from a case of weapon artifacts from the Old Wars.And that was our only clue to what this thing might be and what it might contain.

“It stands to reason,” I said, “that whatever is on here belonged to some soldier, or maybe to his commanding officer or someone higher up in command.There must be some information on it, either about whoever had it, or whoever gave it to them, or maybe wherever it was supposed to be given to.”Turning it around in my claws, I noticed an engraving on it, the picture of Tellus in a dragon’s taloned hand.“Whoever this belonged to, they were on the Scalers’ side of the war.This is a Scaler carving:old Scaler military.”

”Yeah,” said Cade, sitting on his unmade bed, wearing only his leather pants and boots.“I didn’t even notice that until I got it back here and started taking a closer look at it.This thing is one of ‘ours’.Or not ‘ours,’ but…”

”I know what you mean,” said Elliot, standing near me.“It was Scaler Legion property.There’s Scaler Legion data on there.”

”Which we don’t have a way to get at,” I said, rubbing the knuckle of my still-human hand on my chin while fixing my eyes on this object that our friend had gotten into so much trouble for.

“Don’t you know anyone, like a tech expert, who can get into that thing and find out what’s in there?” Elliot asked.

”If this were a modern data slide,” I said, “or even someone’s encoded mirror, I could call on family contacts to get into it and read what’s on it faster than you could flick your tail.But this, as you can see, guys—this thing is just plain old.The tech is so out of date, I don’t know where anyone could get their hands on it, or if it would still be workable even if someone were able to find it.This is like a fossil.”

”People can read fossils,” said Elliot, insistently.“People can…what’s the word…reconstruct things from fossils.”

Cade seized onto the idea, needing something to hope for.“Yeah, like he said.Reconstruct.”

I scratched my head at the thought.“The data on this could be corrupted from being so old.It depends on what this thing went through in the war before it was sealed away.We may be talking about finding someone who can reconstruct corrupted data and reconstruct the technology to make it work; and make that tech usable.That kind of project could be a real challenge.”

Frustrated and scared, Cade slapped his hands on the mattress.“Byron, I don’t want to hear about challenges!What do you think my damn future is right now?I can’t stay in here forever!The damn challenge is staying out from behind bars!”

Seeing how much Cade needed to stay calm, I asked him, “Look, you talked to your cousin Ross, right?He’s the one who got you into this mess.He’s the one you’re supposed to give this thing to, right?What about your family’s lawyers?They’ve got to have ways to work around situations like this, or half your relatives would probably be in cages, right?So, what does Ross say?”

Cade ruffled his hair and made a rumbling noise.“Ross says I’ve got to get the damn thing to him, and he’s got to get it to the elders and they’ve got to get it to the client before anything else happens.The damn client, whoever that is, has to be satisfied first.Meanwhile, I’ve either got to stay in human shape indefinitely, or if I want to use my other body, I’ve got to get out of Pendrake City and hope nobody ever spots me.And my wing patterns are all over the damn media.Somebody, somewhere is bound to spot me.”

“Well, that’s great,” said Elliot, scowling.“They want you to ‘prove yourself’ to them, so they give you this job that’s put your whole life in free-fall.Your cousin Ross and the rest of them could prove a thing or two to you by doing something to make sure this damn thing won’t leave you skinned and hung up by your tail.What kind of ‘family’ is that?”

Slumping his shoulders and looking down, Cade said, “The kind where you show them what kind of spines you’ve got by finishing the job before they do anything else for you.”

”So to get back to Elliot’s question,” I cut in, “have you been in touch with Ross at all since you got here to the hotel?”

”I talked to him last night,” said Cade, looking up at me again.“Ross says I’ve got twenty-four hours to get him the thing before the client sends someone after me.And if they don’t get it, they lose the client’s fee and I’m out of luck with the family.I’m out of the nest; no help from them ever again.”

“So,” I concluded, “what’s left for you is to turn this thing over to your uncle.Though, if I can be honest, I think if it comes to that, you’d be in better hands with some of my family’s legal contacts than with the ones your elders have.I mean, no offense, but the lawyers my family uses don’t always keep their claws clean.Lawyers with political clients never do.But they’re mostly used to dealing with, um, a better class of dragons, you know?”

Cade held up his hands, not offended.“Yeah, I know what you’re saying.And you’re right.You see what kind of nest it is I come from and what kind of dragons we fly with.”

Taking another look at the object that had put our friend in such a tailspin, I said, “I just wish we knew exactly what you’ll be putting in some mysterious party’s hands when the deal is finished—and exactly what they plan to do with it.I don’t feel good about this.”I gave my friends a kind of mixed frown and smile, cocking one eyebrow at them.“I guess that’s why it’s called crime, eh, guys?”

Shaking his head bitterly, Cade said, “I should have cut my ties with all of them as soon as I came of age.I knew who I was related to.It’s not like I didn’t know some of the stuff they did.And it’s not like I would have starved if I went on my own.Everybody gets monthly allotments from the government; it’s not a fortune, but it’s enough to start a life with.But no, I had to stay with my scales.”

”It’s part pride and part obligation, buddy,” said Elliot.“A lot of families are like that, even ones that stay inside the law.No family is perfect.You know about some of the anti-human types I’m related to.”

”But they’re all I know,” said Cade, sounding miserable.“We’ll, them and you, that is.”

Elliot assured him, “And you know you’ll always have us.”

”I’ll second that,” I said.“Since we have twenty-four hours before you have to give this to your cousin, I at least want to try to call in someone who might tell us something about it.That way we’d have some ideas of what we’re really…”

The sound of Elliot’s ring chime cut me off.Elliot took out his mirror and looked at it.“It’s a voice message from Jenna,” he announced.

For the first time since we arrived, Cade’s expression brightened as if his whole world were not coming to an end.Jenna was the best thing in all our lives just now.“Jenna?” he said.

“Yeah,” Elliot replied.“She must be back at the University by now.She probably wants an update.Let me put it on open audio.”He touched the surface of the mirror and held it up for all of us to hear the message.

From the glass in Elliot’s hand came Jenna’s voice, sounding perfectly normal—at first.“Elliot, it’s Jenna.I’m back at campus.I was just at the warehouse; something made me want to see it, I don’t know what.But I’m here and I hope you guys are with Cade and you’re figuring out some way to…”Then her voice stopped, right there in mid-sentence, which made us all curious—a very creepy sort of curiosity.

Elliot stared at the glass.“What the…?Jenna…?”

Her voice then continued in a way that made cold scales break out down my back.It was different now—ominously different.“Elliot, something is…There’s someone, I don’t know…”

Cade reacted to this for the three of us.“What’s that?What’s she saying?Why does she sound like…?”

Elliot cut him off with a wave of his free hand and we all listened intently to the droning, slurred sounds of Jenna’s voice.“Elliot, someone just…I think I’ve been…Who?Elliot, I…don’t…”

Then we heard nothing at all.Desperately—and futilely because this was just a recording—Elliot raised his voice at the glass.“Jenna?Jenna, what’s going on?JENNA!”

”It’s no good,” I said gravely.“Something’s happened.”

Lowering the glass and reflecting in his eyes the sudden dread that Cade and I both felt, Elliot said, “Yeah.Something’s happened, all right.While we’ve been here, something’s happened to Jenna.”

Cade leapt from the bed.“Jenna!Jenna!We’ve got to get over there, find out what happened!She could be…She could be…Aw, damnit, I don’t know what she could be!Come on, let’s…”

Elliot grabbed Cade by his bare shoulders and said, “No, you stay here and don’t talk to anyone and don’t leave this room.Byron and I’ll go over to the campus.We’ll try to trace her phone signal and see if we can find where she is.”In a frightened hush, he said, “Or where she was when she sent that message.We’ll let you know what we find out.”

In a pained voice, Cade protested, “But I want to go too!Whatever happened to her, I want to know…”

I touched him on one arm and said, “I promise, buddy, you’ll know when we know.Just let Elliot and me go and find out.”

Groaning, not hiding how sick with worry he was, Cade dropped back on the bed, hunched over, and held his head in his hands.“If this has anything to do with me, I might as well let the Constables have me.”

”Don’t go there,” I told him.“Just wait to hear from us.”

Cade lifted his head, showing his anguish.“Well, get out there, then.Fly, you guys, fly!”

I handed Cade back the data box, and Elliot and I were gone.

In dragon forms, with shirts tucked into the waists of our trousers, Elliot and I came flapping to a landing at a spot on the Pendrake Tech University campus near a table and chair and a big tree.From the air we had spotted something glinting in the grass, right where the traced signal on Elliot’s mirror had come from.Not even bothering to relax back to human, we dropped onto the lawn, folded our wings, and went to the little shining object:someone’s mirror, lying where they’d dropped it.

Elliot picked up the glass and checked it with his own mirror.

“It’s hers,” I guessed.

”Yeah,” he replied with a scared, angry hiss.“It’s hers.”

We looked up and around at the University grounds.Only a couple of people—students, probably, who had stayed on campus instead of going home for the holiday—walked in the distance.

Of Jenna Callaway, there was no trace.