Riding My Dragons (The Dragons Of Tellus #1)

CHAPTER 19

Byron

Outside of Pendrake City there was a forest, and in the forest a large entrance to a cave.Elliot, Cade, and I flew Elliot’s car to a place at the edge of the forest where vehicles could be left.We turned the car off and let it settle to the ground in a parking space.Then we started down a forest trail on foot.The foot led to the cave opening and, on instructions from Neal Callaway, we took our dragon shapes and walked into the entrance.Cade was nervous about this part.As a wanted man, he was scared to be seen in the form that the University warehouse guard had recorded.But we agreed that we’d go in on foot, not flying, which would minimize the risk of someone picking up his wing patterns.

Once through the entrance, we went through a long passage that would have been pitch dark if not for the strips of Ambience lighting set into the walls.We made our way down that deep tunnel of stone, and as we went, we started to hear music playing.The farther we went, the stronger the music grew, and we began to hear voices subtly under it and the less subtle sound of dragon calls.Up ahead of us, the end of the tunnel came into view, and the music, voices, and dragon noises became more distinct.

We passed through the other end of the tunnel, an outlet just as large as where we had come in; and stepped out onto the streets of a village built into the most immense underground cavern that either of us had ever seen.It was bustling with activity and ringing with sound, its buildings reaching up to the top of the cavern and many of them built into the cavern walls.Scalers flew everywhere amidst glowing balloons and light drones.Huge light emitters floated like a collection of suns, casting their golden glow over everything.Bands played; dragon folks flew in formation like parades, trailing glowing streamers behind them; food and drink vendors served delicious things everywhere we looked.

The place was like a big dragon party.It all looked and sounded like a celebration of Reconciliation—except there were no humans, nor anyone in human shape, anywhere.And on some of the buildings hung happy-looking banners that said things like HAPPY REAFFIRMATION and PROUD TO REAFFIRM.

Now I had heard of this place before, this city of Reptos.But I had never had any personal business here and never visited here.My travels had never brought me this way, but I knew there was an underground city where only Scalers were permitted as permanent residents and kept to their reptilian shapes, while humans were only a small minority and allowed only as guests.It occurred to me that that was the reason I’d never bothered to visit Reptos.I had always found life more interesting, more fun—and yes, I admit, more sexy—in mixed human and Scaler company.I’d always thought, without human females to sleep with, what was the point of anything?Thinking of Jenna now and the kind of trouble she was in, I felt a bit guilty about that.Guilt, I admit further, was a rare feeling for me.

But, if my friends and I had been able to hear each other over all the jubilations, when we traded curious looks, we would have heard each other wonder aloud, Reaffirmation?What’s that?

But we didn’t have time to wonder.We had someplace to be.Jenna’s uncle had given us directions and told us that this place was for dragons only.Out in public, we were to stay strictly in our present bodies.

Not wanting to get tangled up in the flying traffic overhead, we went quickly through the streets of Reptos on the path that Neal Callaway had set for us.Passing among the celebrating dragons, we came to a side street off one of the main thoroughfares, which was a little more dimly lit and a little quieter, still with taverns and cafes and dragons enjoying themselves in them.Off this side street was another, smaller one, with just a few apartment dwellings and shops—including one little cafe containing a coffee and wine bar and a gift and trinket shop, with an inviting-looking little fireplace on one side.We went to the bar, where one male Scaler looked up at us from wiping down the counter.

“Tarragon?” I said softly to the bar dragon.

“Fenne,” he said, giving me his countersign to the password that I’d just spoken.Then he pointed to a door behind the counter, tacitly giving us permission to go there.

We stepped to the other side of the counter and went to that door, which I opened.We went through there and entered another, inner room of the cafe.There sat a human at a long table with a collection of handheld monitors and dataplexes.Near him were two Scalers in dragon shapes, a male and a female.They all looked up and acknowledged us.The human was familiar for his resemblance to someone we knew.Except that he was a man, and he was older than we were, with creases of age on his face and grey threaded through his hair, he had a distinct resemblance to Jenna Callaway.

”You boys must be Byron, Elliot, and Cade,” said her Uncle Neal.“While we’re back here, you can show me the way my niece knows you.”

At Neal’s suggestion, the three of us shrugged into our human shapes and put on our shirts while the human at the table and his two dragon friends continued to look us over.

“How do you do, Sir?” I said.

“Hello, Mr. Callaway,” said Elliot.

”Sir,” Cade simply said.

Neal motioned to the male Scaler standing on his right.“These are some of my associates.This is Fergus.”He indicated the female on his left.“This is Jade.They’re both members of the Intercross.”

Fergus and Jade greeted us, and now we looked them over with great interest.None of us had ever knowingly met any members of the Intercross.They always kept a low profile.

Meanwhile, Neal gave my friends and me a good looking-over in these bodies.I had clashing feelings about this.Callaway had been here on Tellus for a while and must have learned all kinds of things about the way we live and the things we do.He had to know that Scaler males love sex with human females and are very good at getting it.He had to have learned that much from his dragon friends in the Intercross.Did he also know how much we enjoy taking human females to bed in pairs or trios, two or three Scalers to a woman?What did he think about that?And what was he thinking about the three of us now?Under his gaze, part of me wished I had telepathic powers and part of me was grateful I didn’t.Did Callaway suspect what my two friends and I were doing with his niece?Was he judging us?He didn’t seem to be upset.He seemed to be looking at us more clinically, like the scientist that he was.

Finally, he spoke up.“So, you boys are friends with my niece?”

”Yes, Sir,” we all said.I suspected the same thing that was on my mind was going through the heads of my friends.

“And how exactly do you know Jenna?”

Elliot said, “I saw some guys bothering Jenna during the opening ceremonies for Reconciliation.I went to help her.My friends went with me.I invited her to one of my wrestling matches.We all got to be friends with her.We like her, Mr. Callaway.Jenna is a really nice girl.And she’s really smart.”

”Very smart,” I felt compelled to say, though none of us knew Jenna in anything like an intellectual way.

Still inscrutable while scrutinizing us, Neal said, “I see.I can imagine my niece has learned a few things from being with you.”

The way he said it didn’t sound judging or even accusing.But it still made me feel as if the spines would start to break out on my neck again.There was no question that Jenna had learned a few things from us.Whether her uncle guessed just what we’d been teaching her, I couldn’t tell.We had better make sure he knew how much we respected her, if we expected him to let us help him.

His next question veered to a different subject entirely.“Which one of you,” he asked, “has the thing from the University warehouse?”

”That’d be me, Sir,” said Cade.

”May I have a look at it, please?”

Cade looked questioningly at the two of us.Elliot gave him a nudge and I gave him a nod, both of us saying without words, go on, we have to trust him.Accepting that we needed him as much as he needed us, Cade took the little box from the pocket of his leather trousers and handed it to the human at the table.

Mr. Callaway examined the object closely, practically drilling his eyes into it.He held it up to Fergus, who leaned over and scanned it as minutely as Callaway did.He held it up to Jade, who took it from his fingers and held it up to her eyes before nodding and handing it back to the human.“This is definitely Scaler Legion vintage,” she said.

”And positively dating back to the Old Wars,” said Fergus.“Probably the last couple of years of that period.”

”I agree,” Neal said.

“But what’s stored in there?” I asked.“Do you have any idea?”

Keeping the thing in his hand but lowering his hand to the table, Neal replied, “Not for sure.Not without putting it in a working dataplex from the same period—which is hard to come by, as you can guess—and opening up its files.All we have to go on is an old story from those times.A story of a soldier on a secret mission to get something developed by Scaler scientists and engineers through a battle zone to the commanding officers of the Scaler Legion and the Scalers’ Ruling Dragon.The story has it that the soldier fell in battle.What he was carrying was a top secret that only the ones who’d sent him and the ones he was trying to reach knew about.He lost his life, and what he was taking to his leaders was simply lost.

“Some of our scholars have managed to learn what the scientists and engineers might have given that soldier.”He held up the data box again.“If what they learned about is actually in here, this is potentially the most dangerous object on Tellus.”

The room went quiet then as the import of Neal Callaway’s words sank in.A cold feeling went through me, and, I expected, through my friends as well.

“Mr. Callaway,” I asked, my voice catching nervously, “what could be in that little box that’s as dangerous as that?”

Neal said, “Being native to this world, you understand how the Ambience is used.The network of power nodes collects energy and feeds it into the grid, which directs it into your utilities and devices.That’s the cycle:collect energy, process energy, distribute energy.The Ambience isn’t the same as the electricity of the power grids of my own world.Electrical energy can be stored in batteries or capacitors to be used later.But the Ambience can only be processed and directed.

“Now the Ambience is a source of vast, immense power.Its upper limit isn’t known.It isn’t even known whether it has an upper limit.What if there were a way to tap into that power and not just channel it, but accumulate it?And what if accumulated Ambience energy could be weaponized?Think of it:such unlimited power, used as a weapon.”

There was a moment of chilled silence as we all took in what the scientist from the other world was suggesting, before he went on.“Weapons technology like that could tap the power of the Ambience, use it with devastating results, and continue to replenish themselves over and over again.It could devastate whole cities, wipe out whole armies.The user of such weapons could capture the world.Now, think of that kind of power in the hands of religious extremists like the Gorgonites.”

Hearing that name in this context, I felt something like a spike of alarm in my chest.“I’m from a political family,” I said.“Lawmakers, government administrators.I’ve heard about the Gorgonites.Some of our lawmakers are members of that sect.”

”Yes,” said Neal.“We have people like them in our public life on Earth—people who’d like to see religion control the government, and control everyone’s life through the government.It’s something our two worlds have in common.”

I recalled, “The Gorgonites think the ancient dragon spirit god, Gorgonos, created dragons and humans, then created beings who were both dragon and human—my people.And Gorgonos, or so they say, ordained his two-bodied people as the natural rulers of the world, superior to every other creature except, of course, their maker.That’s what the Gorgonite faith is based on, this belief that Scalers are meant to dominate the world—including humans.They think…Well, Sir, you understand what it is they think.”

”To the Gorgonites,” Callaway said, “single-bodied humans are lesser beings and Scalers are our rightful lords, the rightful lords of everything.Yes, I know all about that.This is what their Reaffirmation is about:the Gorgonites reaffirming that they are the chosen people of their spirit god, reaffirming their divine claim on the world.”He smiled bitterly, ironically.“The Gorgonites are very human.They need someone to be ‘better than’.”

“Yes, Sir,” I said, seeing how well he understood the way certain Scalers saw the world.It was obviously all very familiar to him.

“So,” Neal said, “what we’re talking about, if what we suspect may be in this box is true, is the possibility of reigniting the Old Wars between humans and Scalers.Stored in here may be plans for a weapon that can not only channel, process, and transmit the Ambience, but collect it and store it to use in weapons of mass destruction.The order that has existed on Tellus since Reconciliation could be disturbed, even completely toppled.Millions could die.And as the sole users of this technology, the Gorgonites could seize the world.”

Cade looked ready to fall over and die.He grabbed his head and raked his fingers through his hair, with scales breaking out randomly on his skin.“No!No, no, no, no, NO!” he babbled, starting to sound frantic.“I don’t believe it!I don’t believe my family could get mixed up in something like this!A lot of our business is crooked, low-down, illegal.We cheat and blackmail, even hurt people.But I can’t believe we’d be any part of…of…this!”He faced Elliot and me with a sick look of shock and despair.“The Gorgonites paid my elders to send me out to steal something that could destroy the world!”

Elliot took Cade by the shoulders, lending him strength.“Take it easy, buddy.Now we know what this is and who we’re dealing with.”He looked gravely at me, then at Neal.“What scares me is that this bunch of wanna-be terrorist war makers have got Jenna.We can’t let them have that box—and we’ve got to get her away from them.”

”Yes,” Neal agreed.“Our sources say the Gorgonites are holding Jenna hostage to ensure that Cade will complete the Taisce’s contract with them.Once they have the box, they’ll release her, or that’s the assumption.But to the Gorgonites, Jenna is ‘only human.’And they may consider my niece…expendable.”

An edge of anger was in Elliot’s voice when he snapped, “She is not expendable!She’s not a tool they can just use and throw away!I want her back, out of their hands—now!”

”So do I, lad,” said Callaway.“And that’s what we’re all doing here.This village has become the hub of operations for Gorgonite activity.Their leader is here, a Scaler who calls himself Nidaag, after a legendary figure in their religious texts.He’s here to stir up sentiment for their cause during this time of Reaffirmation, rallying people to his side.The Gorgonites are holding Jenna somewhere in this village.If we could only find some way to determine her exact location, the Intercross could rescue her and keep the data box out of Nidaag’s claws.”

There was a tense beat of silence before I spoke up again.

”Mr. Callaway,” I said, “there might be a way—depending on what kind of equipment you and the Intercross could get hold of.”

”What do you mean?” asked the human.

I hesitated just for another moment because of his possible reaction, what he might think.Then I said, “I gave Jenna a gift.It’s something we might use to find her.”

”A gift?” Callaway said.“What kind of gift?”

Elliot realized what I was talking about.“Byron—the jewel!The sensor jewel…!”He stopped himself as quickly as he started.Glancing over at Jenna’s uncle, he suddenly knew what he was telling Neal, and what Neal might guess from what Elliot was saying.

The human’s eyes widened, then narrowed, and his brows tightened, with understanding.“A sensor jewel—for showing physical responses to stimuli.”

Neal fixed those narrowed eyes on the three of us, and I could sense what must be going on in his head.Jenna’s uncle had obviously learned enough about our world to know the kinds of things that sensor jewels were used for.Without using exact words, Elliot had just admitted something.Scales blossomed on my back as I anxiously awaited Neal’s reaction.Anticipating, I spoke before he did.“Every sensor jewel emits Ambience on its own frequency.It’s a small output, but with the right kind of equipment, it’s traceable.And if you could get a receiving device, I could give you the frequency of the jewel that I gave Jenna.I stored it on my mirror because I had to initialize it first.”

Jenna’s uncle asked his two associates, “Fergus, Jade, do you think our contacts here in Reptos could find us a sensor jewel receiver?”

Fergus said, “There has to be someone who can lend us one.”

”Contact them immediately, please.Make sure they understand we need it now.Time’s running out.”

Fergus and Jade left the room through a rear exit, leaving my friends and me alone with Neal Callaway.His eyes moved either knowingly or at least suspiciously from one of us to the other.

“As Jenna’s uncle,” he said, “there are things I can infer from this situation.But…,” and he paused meaningfully, “what’s most important to me right now is that she’s returned to us safely.”

”Yes, Sir,” I said for all of us.