Chapter 13

The following new characters appear in this chapter:

Ollipheist

Vivian’s Dragon Name, she is a Dark Blue Dragon

Dawn

Vivian’s Familiar, a large yellow female cat with white stripes and spots, she has a long tail

Dave

Myles’ Familiar, a medium size yellow male cat with brown stripes, he has a shorter tail than Dawn

Myles still has the Narrative

Maddy and I were ready to leave well before eleven o’clock that night but waited until five minutes before to leave. We appeared on the concourse of the minor Demons area a second later. We were in our Dragon forms but only at the twelve-foot-tall level. John, Bob, and the other two were there waiting for us. I noticed that the concourse was very quiet with few Demons in sight.

“Are you going to go like that!?” Bob asked in a startled voice.

“We’ll change just before we leave,” the Queen told him.

“We’re ready to leave now,” John insisted, and we both changed to our Human forms.

“They won’t fit,” the shorter of the two worker Demons said immediately.

“Won’t fit?” I asked, confused.

“Where we appear. It isn’t much higher than we are. You won’t fit. You’re too tall,” the heavier of the worker Demons told us.

“And you have known this all along!” the Queen demanded in a sarcastic voice.

“NO! Everyone else is as tall as we are,” they both exclaimed in horror.

“Is there another location where we can appear?” she demanded in an annoyed voice.

“Maybe, but it’s not as secure,” the fatter one protested.

“We’ll secure it as soon as we arrive,” she assured them.

“Everyone move close together,” John reminded us. The two workers looked at all of us once we were close together and panicked.

“We can’t transfer that much weight. It’s a long way, and we aren’t powerful enough,” they protested. The Queen was steamed by now and was breathing smoke from her Human nostrils. She looked over at me.

“Do you know a location in Chicago that we can transfer to?” she asked. It required several seconds of thought before I answered her.

“Maybe, there is a warehouse that I used several times. The police found the final two remains there. It may still be under surveillance. I’ll transfer there by myself and check on its availability,” I told her before returning to my Dragon form, marking our location here, and then transferred to the warehouse.

There was still crime scene tape around the area where the chairs had been, but the warehouse appeared to still be empty, and there were no cameras, microphones or other forms of surveillance that I could detect. Transferring back to the Demon’s concourse, I informed the Queen of what I had found after returning to my Human form.

“Everybody join hands, and we’ll transfer to the warehouse in Chicago that the ‘Fixer’ has used,” the Queen told them. With the two of us touching, there was plenty of Magic to transfer all of us to the warehouse. We appeared there a second later. The Demons seemed shocked by this.

“How could you do that so easily?” the two workers asked in amazement. “You didn’t even exert yourselves to bring all of us all of the way here. We can just barely move the two of us here,” the shorter one continued. The Queen just smiled, but in her Human form it didn’t have the effect that a Dragon’s smile would.

“That’s because we aren’t the old Dragons. We are the new Human based Dragons. We combine the Magic of the Humans with that of the Dragons. All of the NEW Female Dragons are Dragon Wytches, and all of the new males are Dragon Wizards. We are all more powerful than the old Dragons were. Even the remaining Old Dragons are now more powerful, as they have had four thousand years to improve their Magic.

“In that time, you Tricksters have been content to just use the Magic that the old Dragons taught you. You had no Magic of your own before that like the Humans did. You have been content to take advantage of people for your own gain rather than increase your knowledge of Magic. That is probably a good thing for those you prey on,” she told them before turning serious.

“Now, where is the money that you obtained?” she demanded in a commanding voice.

“We put it in metal boxes and hid the boxes. It’s ours. We worked for it,” the shorter one claimed.

“Really!” the Queen demanded and cast a spell in Gaelic that finished with the word ’a lorg’ and threw it at them. I realized that she had cast a finding spell on them.

“Where are the boxes hidden?” she then demanded.

“My box is under a bridge between the metal beams on a pier over the river,” the shorter Demon said before realizing that he had spoken. He clamped his hands over his mouth in horror then, but the damage was already done.

“My box is hidden in a small space between two parts of a wall on top of a tall building. Only someone very small could get in there,” the second Demon said, also in horror at what he had revealed.

“Go to those places and retrieve the boxes and bring them back here unopened. Go now,” the Queen told them, and the two workers instantly vanished still under the spell. They were gone for several minutes while John and Bob just stared at the Queen in shock.

“How ... how did you learn that spell? It’s one of our deepest, darkest secrets. Not even most Demons know about it,” a shocked Bob finally managed to ask in a squeaky voice.

“The Queens of Old know many things that have been forgotten by others over time,” she told him with another smile.

“Will they bring the boxes back here and unopened?” I asked her.

“Yes, the spell will be in force until they have delivered the boxes. It would be very painful for them, if they even considered doing otherwise,” she told me.

The two worker Demons soon reappeared. Each was carrying a metal safe deposit box. A table appeared in front of us as they approached us.

“Place the boxes on the table and then open them,” the Queen directed. Each Demon placed his box on the table before producing a key by Magic and prepared to open his box. Even as the boxes were unlocked, my Dragon sense of smell detected a noxious odor coming from them. As the tops were raised, they revealed not bundles of money, but a dark evil smelling semisolid material that filled the entire box. The stink rising from the boxes was terrible, and everyone hurriedly backed away from them. The two worker Demons stared at the boxes and their contents in horror for several seconds before screaming.

“We’ve been robbed!” They screamed in shock. “But who could have known where we hid them?” They whined in misery following that.

“Our great plan has turned into nothing but shit,” the heavier one observed looking at the boxes.

“Yes, you have been robbed. What other Magic users have you managed to piss off because only someone with strong Magic could have discovered where you hid those boxes and refilled them?” John demanded in contempt before continuing.

“You incompetent idiots will be shoveling shit for the next twenty-five years at least. You can start with those boxes,” he growled at them, much to their horror.

“But ... but!” they protested in dejected voices.

“Get back to our area and get started,” he screamed at them, and they both vanished taking the now closed boxes with them. John and Bob both turned then to look at us.

“Shoveling shit?” the Queen asked with a raised eyebrow.

“You’ve been to our apartments and seen the setup. All of that trash and other stuff goes somewhere. It goes to a cave some distance from our area. A lot of it accumulates each day. Someone has to shovel it into the hole that takes it away to an extremely large underground pit to decompose. It’s a terrible job, and only those who have really screwed up are made to work there. It’s the lowest job there is. Those two will be there for a long time,” Bob told us with a shiver, as it wasn’t something he wanted to think about.

When Bob and John had both turned to look at us, they each had a resigned expression on their face.

“We ... ah, we could return half of each payment to make up for the problem those two caused,” they both said but sounded like it really hurt their pride and cost them a lot to make the offer.

“That would be acceptable,” I told them.

“Acceptable, yes, but be sure that this sort of thing never happens again,” the Queen told them in a serious voice that matched the expression on her face. It was obvious that she hadn’t taken their failure to perform satisfactorily in a good light. She even allowed a bit more smoke to drift from her Human nostrils to make her point. The two remaining Demons didn’t take that as a good sign either.

“Where can we return the gold?” Bob asked still in a squeaky voice.

“The ‘Fixer’ is currently staying at my house. Appear outside of the Defensive Shell, and we will admit you,” she told them. Those two looked even less well on hearing this and soon vanished.

“It’s getting so you can’t trust anyone to do something right, and need to do what is needed yourself,” she said in a tired voice. “Shall we return home? It’s past time for bed,” she continued and transferred both of us to her front lawn. I looked around at where we had appeared and was surprised by what I found.

“I ... ah, didn’t know that you could do that,” I said on recovering.

“The Queen can do many things that normal Dragons can’t,” she told me with a smile, before we turned and walked to the front door of the house which opened by itself for her to enter.

“It’s late. Good night, Myles,” she said and headed for the room that she shared with Ken. I was still recovering from how we had arrived here, and it took me a few minutes to follow her upstairs. Viv was already asleep when I reached our room. I joined her several minutes later after taking care of my teeth and washing up.

It was rather late when I arose the next morning. I wasn’t surprised to find that Viv was already up ahead of me. She had gone to bed earlier than both Maddy and I had.

On reaching the kitchen after my morning preparations, I was surprised to find no one there.

“Wonder where everyone is?” I said, but there was no one there to hear me but some of the Familiars, who didn’t say anything. They were still asleep, as everyone else appeared to be.

I had started on some breakfast a short time later when I was joined by Maddy and Deirdre.

“Good morning, Myles,” they both said, as they looked around.

“Where’s Viv?” Maddy asked.

“I have no idea. She was up before me,” I told her. That was when Deidre got a funny look on her face.

“There is a strange Dragon in the front yard. A ... a Female Dragon!” she said in surprise, but she was no more surprised than Maddy and I were.

“A Female Dragon? You’re sure?” Maddy asked her Daughter.

“Yes,” Deirdre answered as we all turned to head for the front door. The door opened automatically for Maddy and remained open for the rest of us.

In the front yard stood a Dark Blue Dragon at the twenty-five-foot-tall level. She, as it was definitely a Female, was spreading her wings and moving them around to see how they worked. She turned when she sensed us behind her.

“Who are you and how did you access my property?” Maddy asked in a strained voice, as she was a bit upset.

“I am Ollipheist, and I only transformed into my Dragon form a short time ago,” she replied before transforming back to her Human form. It was Vivian!

“I finished book 6 last night but waited until this morning before trying out my Dragon form,” she told us.

“And you already know your Dragon name?” Maddy asked.

“Yes, it came to me last night,” Viv told her.

“And you didn’t wake anyone to let us know that you had finished the books?” Maddy asked somewhat surprised.

“Everyone was asleep. You must have returned rather late, as I waited up for a time but eventually went to sleep,” she told us.

“But this is momentous!” Deirdre shouted. “You finished the Books and have transformed into your Dragon form all by yourself. You should have alerted everyone to this. We should have a party!” she exclaimed in excitement.

“I would hardly think a party is necessary,” Viv told the young woman. “But perhaps, we should let the others know,” she agreed.

“I’ll inform the others,” Maddy told her, before asking, “Have you eaten yet? Transforming takes energy, and you have two others to worry about.”

“Yes, I’ve eaten, but I could eat again,” Viv agreed after a few seconds. We all returned to the house, and Deirdre and I made breakfast while Maddy alerted the others, and Viv sat in a chair when we told her to sit down. It was while breakfast was being prepared that Chu arrived.

“Chu Hua just arrived,” Deirdre told us nonchalantly, as she set out the plates on the table while I was frying the eggs. She had already made the toast.

“How can you do that?” Viv asked.

“I can just tell when people or Dragons arrive near me. I’m not sure how it works, but I just know,” Deirdre told her with a shrug of her shoulders.