The Four Queens
Copyright© 2026 by Uncle Jim
Chapter 3
The following characters appear in this chapter:
Kiry
Student, Cambodian, 4’-0’’ tall (1.22 meters), 50 pounds (22.9 kg), eight years old, black hair, brown eyes, huge Talent, near-Dragon
Nicolae
Head of the Dragon Security office in Charles, South Carolina, 5’-10’’ (1.78 meters) tall, 170 pounds (77 kg), appears to be 32 years old, dark brown hair, violet eyes, a very strong Talent, he is a Brown Dragon
Ms. Skinner
Principal of Kiry’s school, an older woman in her late 40s, about 5’-7’’ (1.70 meters) tall, a bit thin, hair going gray
Mr. Greer
Tobias’s Father, 5’-6’’ tall (1.67 meters), early 40s, heavy set
Deirdre has the Narrative
When you are the Dragon Queen there are always problems. Some of them turn out better or are more interesting than others. Some take more time to correct.
Botum, Daeva, and Maly, Jorani’s Daughters and my Cousins, had gone to New York on vacation to see the ‘big city’, a couple of days after Morgan MacFarland had left. I was supposed to go with them, but Mother insisted that she had a few things that needed taking care of, and she was too busy with other important business to attend to them. She said that it would only take a few days to assist her with them. The first two things weren’t anything that my Sisters Dallas or Doreen couldn’t have easily handled, and I had no trouble with them. It was problem number three that turned out to be more difficult.
This story is about a boy named Kiry. Kiry is Cambodian. His Mother had married an American and moved to Charleston, S.C. with him. He was in the Navy and some time later, he had died in a fire on his ship. She had met a charming Oriental man some time after her husband’s death and had a baby by him. He disappeared soon after the child was born, but left her with a good bit of money and a house.
Kiry had always been small for his age and was picked on because he was Oriental and different. He was always well behaved and good mannered, but he was unhappy that he was not accepted by many of the other students at his school.
There was one boy in particular in his third grade class who always picked on him. This boy’s father hated Orientals, and the boy knew this and was a bully. He had been picking on Kiry for some time before this incident happened.
On the day in question, it was rather chilly in the Charleston area, and the bully threw a bucket of urine and feces that he had collected on Kiry. This was something that Kiry could not forgive or forget, and he lost his temper and in a major way. He was so mad that he changed into a Dragon, an eight foot-tall Dragon, and breathed Dragon Fire on the bully. Being only eight years old and eight feet tall, he couldn’t breathe a lot of Dragon Fire, but it was enough to set the bully’s clothes and hair on fire, and to give him second and third degree burns over much of his body.
This startled and frightened everyone on the playground including the teachers and the school police. Kiry soon returned to his Human form on seeing what he had done and his anger had receded, but it was already too late. The school authorities immediately called the police, and the police called the Dragon Queen in Atlanta, and not Nicolae at the Dragon Security offices there in North Charleston, as they were still afraid of him.
Mother was preparing to leave for an important meeting when her phone rang. When she got off the phone, I could see that she was less than pleased with what she had learned.
“Why do things always seem to happen at the same time?” she asked in an exasperated voice. I knew that she wasn’t expecting an answer.
“You are going to have to handle this new problem, Deirdre. I have a meeting with a couple of Clan Leaders in the Dragon Lands. It isn’t something that can be put off, or that someone else could handle,” she told me.
“This new problem involves an eight year old boy who turned into his Dragon and breathed Dragon Fire on some other boy on a school playground. It happened in Charleston, and he is apparently at least part Cambodian. The police should have called Nick, but they called me instead,” she told me in an exasperated voice.
“I need you to go to Charleston. Go to our office there. I’ll call Nick, and he’ll have someone take you to the police station where they are holding the boy. Find out what happened and see if you can extract him from this problem. I would send one of Jorani’s Daughters, if they weren’t all up in New York on vacation,” Mother told me.
“I’ll need to change first, and then I’ll transfer up there. It shouldn’t be a problem,” I told her.
Appearing in the lobby of the Dragon Security offices in North Charleston a short time later, I was immediately approached by what I could tell was a young near-Dragon.
“How did you get in here? This building is protected by a powerful ward. Why are you here?” he demanded.
“I’m Deirdre. I’m here to see Nicolae,” I told him.
“But how could you get in here?” he asked confused.
“I passed through the ward and opened the front door. Just like everyone else,” I told him with a smile. This was when Nick appeared in the lobby.
“Deirdre, we weren’t expecting you so soon. I take it that you have met Perry,” he said. Perry appeared to be quite shocked that Nick not only knew who I was, but that he was expecting me.
“Perry, this is Deirdre Kavanagh. She is the younger Daughter of the Dragon Queen of the West, our employer,” Nick told a very surprised young near-Dragon, before he turned back to me.
“Maddy told me what happened. I have one of my people checking just on where this young man is being held. Dwayne will take you there, as he knows where all of the precinct stations are,” Nick told me, as he showed me up to his office. Shortly, another near-Dragon arrived. He was frowning.
“What’s wrong?” both Nick and I asked
“They have him down at police headquarters. Apparently this is more than some playground hijinks. The parent involved appears to have some political connections also,” he told us.
“Then we should get there as fast as possible. This may be more complicated than I believed,” I told both of them.
“This is Dwayne. He will transport you to police headquarters. Do you need him to wait for you?” Nick asked.
“No, I can find my way back here or home by myself,” I told them. Dwayne and I went outside before he transferred us to the front of a building that had a sign identifying it as the North Charleston Police Headquarters.
“Thank you, Dwayne,” I told him, but he appeared to be hesitant to leave me.
“I’ll be fine,” I assured him, and after several seconds he vanished.
Entering the building, I walked up to the officer at the desk near the entrance.
“I’m Deirdre Kavanagh. I’m here to represent the young boy that you have in custody,” I told him.
“Sorry, but I have no idea what you are talking about, ma ‘an,” he told me. I looked at him accusingly.
“Really! You know nothing about an altercation at one of the local schools?” I asked in a questioning voice.
“Oh that,” he said calmly. “No one is allowed to see or talk to anyone involved in that until the DA has a chance to sort things out,” he told me.
“Really!” I said again before casting a Truth spell on him.
“What rooms are they in?” I demanded after the spell took effect. He blinked several times before telling me what rooms they were in, and then telling me how to reach them when I asked. Following that, I canceled the Truth spell. He blinked again several times and looked confused.
“Thank you,” I said before casting a short term Freeze spell on him, so he couldn’t interfere with my movements. Following his directions, I walked toward the rooms like I had every right to be there. Several men and a woman looked in my direction, but none of them said anything.
Arriving at the first room, I found the door locked. I just smiled and transferred to the other side, startling the several people in there.
“How did you get in here? The door is locked...,” an older woman asked in a concerned voice. “From the outside,” she added.
“I came through the door,” I told her. “Just who are you people, and why are you here?” I demanded in a stern voice in return.
“I’m Principal Skinner and these others are the administrative staff of our school. You police are treating us like we are the criminals,” Principal Skinner told me in an upset voice, while taking a good look at me. I was also looking at her. She was an older woman in her late forties. She was maybe 5’-7’’ tall (170 cm) and a bit thin with hair going gray. “Just who are you?” she added.
“I’m Deirdre, and I’m here to investigate what happened at your school. Where is the young boy?” I asked.
“They locked him up in a different room,” one of the staff, a man, told me. I had already sensed the young near-Dragon in a room just down the hall.
“What do you know about what happened?” I asked next.
“Kiry turned into some kind of monster and breathed fire on one of the other students because he threw something on or at him,” the Principal told me.
“And this other boy, what can you tell me about him?” I asked.
“They took Tobias to the hospital to be treated for the burns he received,” the same man told me.
“I see, and this Tobias, is he larger than Kiry?” I asked. Nothing was said for a short time, and I wondered if I would need to use some Magic to get the answers to my questions.
“Yes,” the Principal finally answered. “He is one of the largest students in the third grade,” she added with a sniff.
“And do they have a history of antagonism?” I demanded. This was followed by another long silence, as they looked around at each other. Finally, one of the other women spoke up. She was a short, thin, mousy looking young woman.
“Oh, go ahead and tell her. It will be better coming from us than from some of the students,” the woman told the others. Still, no one said anything for a time. Finally, the woman lost her temper.
“Alright, if you won’t tell her, I will,” she said. “Tobias is a bully. Most of the children are afraid of him, even many of the older children. His father hates Orientals, and he picked up on that. He has been picking on Kiry for a long time now. He got some of the other children to pee and defecate in a bucket the other day and then threw the contents of the bucket on Kiry today,” she told me. The others appeared stricken when she revealed that.
“So, you knew that this was happening, and you, all of you, did nothing about it, or tried to stop it. There was no counseling or letters to his parents, I take it,” I told them. Ms. Skinner appeared very upset by what I had said, and what the other woman had revealed but said nothing.
“So, nothing was done about it. He was just a nobody Oriental child. He wasn’t an Anglo like your precious Tobias, and his mother didn’t have any political ‘pull’,” I told them before getting to the facts.
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