Chapter 5

There were other meetings underway that evening in Atlanta. The Mayor was in a meeting with the City Council. The Police Chief and the Fire Chief were present. There were also representatives from the business community in attendance as well as those from the several Insurance Companies affected by the attack.

All of them had no idea of what the Dragon was or what it had used during the chase and attack. They were sure, however, that Magic was involved, but had no way to prove it, as neither the police or the fire department had Magic users on their staff or in their units. The insurance companies did have a few, very few, working for them. However, they were in other parts of the country in the larger and more important cities, at least, cities more important to the insurance companies.

Atlanta, while a large city, hadn’t been considered that important by them. It wasn’t in an active earthquake zone, or a forest fire area. It didn’t suffer from heavy snow storms or much in the way of tornadoes. It was too far inland for major damage from hurricanes also. Plus it was in the South and had a lot of Magic users. Other than for traffic accidents, it just wasn’t considered important. An attack by a Dragon was not something that had been on the companies’ radars.

The business community’s’ representatives just wanted to be assured that their people would be protected, and that this would not happen again. Everyone had been talking and shouting since being admitted to the Council chamber.

Finally, the Mayor and the President of the City Council managed to shout everyone down and get a little quiet.

“What is your best guess of what that thing was?” the Mayor asked the Police Chief to start the meeting.

“We have to presume that the reporter was correct, and that it was a Dragon, however improbable that is,” the Police Chief replied.

“What about the helicopter and the two officers who were lost?” the President of the Council asked.

“After reviewing the video, we have come to the conclusion that the fire from the creature either killed or disabled the pilot and his passenger. When the creature hit it with the explosives that it was using, it blew up, and the wreckage crashed and continued to burn. There was nothing recognizable left,” the Chief finished in a choked up voice.

“What about the fire that the creature used?” the Mayor asked the Fire Chief.

“We have no idea what it was using. It left no residue. It was extremely hot and burned concrete, masonry, and steel. It melted glass and the tougher plastics which also burned,” the Fire Chief told them. “My people have no idea what was used, as it didn’t fit anything that they were familiar with. There was also no residue from the explosives that it used,” the Chief told them.

“What can we do to avoid similar incidents in the future?” the Council President asked. No one had a suggestion until one of the businessmen in the back of the chamber rose to speak.

“Get a hold of those Ley Line Wizards. See what they can do,” he suggested. Another man rose then to add to his thoughts.

“Don’t count on the Magic users. Three men came looking for the Red Dragon a couple of days ago at our security firm. They wrecked my business and our building. They canceled all of the wards that we had on the businesses that we were protecting as well as the ones around our building. We haven’t restored all of our building’s wards, nor all of the wards for the businesses that we were protecting. A number of them have contacted Ley Line Wizards for protection,” he finished before slumping back into his seat.

There was shock and amazement at this admission. It required several minutes to restore calm to the meeting before the Council President closed the public meeting to go into a closed door session with the Mayor, the Police Chief, and the Fire Chief.

The next morning, representatives of the Mayor and the City Council arrived at the Ley Line Wizards building to talk to those in charge. All that they found there were a couple of low level staff people. The Wizards didn’t have much in the way of an office staff yet.

“We need to confer with those in charge of the Ley Line Wizards. The city administration has serious issues to discuss with them,” the chief representative told the staff.

“None of them are here now. They had a late meeting last night and won’t be back for several days. They aren’t here all of the time,” the staff person they talked to told them.

“You need to get a hold of those in charge and inform them that the Mayor and the City Council need to confer with them,” the staffer was told.

“We’ll try to contact them, but they aren’t always available. They’re Wizards, you know, and often disappear for a time. We’ll try to contact Master De Tocqueville. He is the present Head of the Executive Committee,” the staffer told them before the representatives left after leaving a card.

At his apartment that morning, David had troubles of his own.

“How the hell did I ever get into this predicament?” he wondered for at least the tenth time that morning.

“I need to report to her what goes on at the meetings, and then I let those fools persuade me to chair the damned meetings. Now we need to go out there and seek her help. I don’t believe any of us ever thought something like that would ever happen.

“On top of that, I haven’t apologized yet for impugning her reputation. I’ll have to do that before we can go out there, or she’ll never help us. How in the hell am I going to do that?” he wondered.

Shortly after that, the phone rang. It was one of the headquarters staffer.

“You need to meet with the Mayor and the City Council, Master De Tocqueville” he informed him.

“I’ll need to see who I can get to go with me. When do they want to see us?” he asked.

“They didn’t mention a time, sir, but the City Council usually meets in the evening,” the staffer told him.

“Call them and find out when they want to meet. I’ll try to round up a couple of others to go with me,” he told the staffer again before disconnecting.

“Damn, as if I didn’t have enough to worry about, now I have these damn politicians to worry about also,” he groused before considering who to call, and who might actually be available. he finally settled on two names. After a lengthy discussion, they both agreed to go with him.

The staffer called back that afternoon with the information he had requested.

“They would like to see you tonight at 8:00, Master De Tocqueville, if that is possible,” the staffer told me.

“I have two other Masters to go with me. I’ll see if they are free tonight, and we’ll go to their meeting,” he told the staffer before hanging up and calling the other two. They arranged where to meet before going to meet with the Mayor and the City Council.

David and his two colleagues arrived at the room in City Hall where the City Council met just after 8:00 that evening to find the doors already closed and locked. They transferred inside creating quite a disturbance.

“How dare you do that!” the Mayor shouted at them when they appeared.

“If you don’t wish to see us, we’ll leave. I was told that you wanted to discuss something with us,” David told her and the others in a testy voice.

“Yes, we do wish to speak with you,” the President of the City Council said, “but we were expecting you to arrive like normal individuals,”

“What is the use of being a Wizard, if you must do things like one with no Magic?” one of his colleagues asked. There was no answer to that question.

“We need to discuss with you how to prevent a re-occurrence of what happened yesterday,” the Mayor said, taking up the reason for them being there and control of the meeting.

“Just what do you expect us to do?” he asked.

“Use your Magic. Can’t you do something to keep that ... that... !” and the Mayor stumbled to a halt.

“Dragon,” he suggested.

“Yes, Dragon. Can’t you do something to keep it from returning?” the Mayor finished. The three of them laughed when the Mayor stopped.

“Keep It from returning?” David asked when they had recovered. “We can’t even keep the two local Dragons from crashing our strongest wards when they want to,” he finished in a disgusted voice.

“What?” came the reply from those on the Council.

“What wards and what local Dragons? There are local Dragons?” the Council President asked in a disbelieving voice.

“Oh yes, at least two of them. There is a Light Blue Female and a Red male. The Green Dragon is from elsewhere,” one of the other Masters told them.

“But ... but, why didn’t we know about them?” the Mayor demanded.

“We, that is the Ley Line Wizards, only recently learned about them when they came seeking retribution against two of our members for attacking them,” David told the Council.

“Just who are these Dragons?” the Council President demanded.

“One of them is Madailein Kavanagh. She lives out east of the city. We aren’t sure who the Red Dragon is yet,” he told them.

“Kavanagh! ... isn’t she the one who created all of that excitement when she took down the Wizards Guild?” a member of the City Council asked.

“Yes, she is the one who did that,” he agreed, before changing the direction of the meeting.

“I have something that I want you to see. Do you have a computer or a DVD player here for this video screen?” he asked pointing to a large video screen on one side of the room.

“Yes, we have both,” a Council member acknowledged.

“This video was shot just a few days ago when she returned from the Demon-lands where she rescued her Familiar,” he told them, before handing the DVD to the individual who had turned on the video equipment.

Everyone was quiet while the short video scene played. The Council members were shocked by what was revealed.

“She didn’t appear to be very large in your video,” the Council President said on recovering.

“Trust me, she can be, at least, as large as that Green Dragon was. I went out there to confront her with the video, and she turned into her Dragon form and was, at least, forty feet tall,” he told them, before adding, “never look into the eyes of a Dragon.” It was said in a very quiet voice though.

“There is another piece of video that you need to see also. It is more important,” David told them before handing over the second DVD and receiving the first one back.

This DVD showed the trio arriving at Maddy’s property and passing through her outer wards, only to be stopped by the appearance of another ward. It also showed Maddy’s confronting them and revealing her Dragon name, as this DVD included audio. Lastly, it showed the demise of the trio’s leader. The Council was again shocked into silence both by what they had seen and by the sound of her Dragon name, even from the video.