Chapter 5

The following characters appear in this chapter and the next:

John

Minor Demon, 4’-6’’ tall or so, red skin with short horns on his head, gray hair and goatee, dressed in rather expensive 17th century clothes

Bob

Minor Demon, short at 4’-6’’ tall, red skin and horns on his head, gray sideburns and hair, fancy 17th century clothing, silver buckles on his shoes

The following character appears in this chapter and the next from previous stories:

Madailein Kavanagh (Maddy)

Former Earth Witch, Dragon Queen, Irish, 5’-6’’ tall, 135 pounds, 38DD-25-37, 57 years old, alabaster skin, long, lustrous black hair, violet eyes, some freckles, beautiful, Magic user

The following morning, we were up early and ready to leave by 9:00 AM. Out in the backyard where we wouldn’t be seen, I took Viv’s hand and cast the Transfer spell. A second later, we appeared in the small grove of trees that hid the cabin on the south side of Big Frog Mountain. Viv was surprised by what she saw.

“I was expecting it to be more like what you showed me in the pictures of the mountain trails with trees crowded together and only a small passage between them,” she told me before turning to look at the cabin.

“You were correct, it is a bit small, but should be comfortable for two,” she said on first seeing it.

“It’s longer than it looks, as it goes back into the side of the mountain. George, the Wizard, spent a lot of time working on the back part of the cabin, the part in the mountain. He poured a concrete floor in sections and brought in concrete blocks a few at a time for the sides and back wall. It took him a long time to do all of that after he had dug out part of the mountain by hand, and to make sure that it was water tight. Fortunately, I know a spell that will keep water out of that area and renew it every quarter. I’m the one who did the roof for that area and finished the remainder of the cabin,” I told her.

“Let me show you the interior,” I told her following that and dropped the ward around the cabin so we could enter.

“This is very cozy,” Viv said after looking around at the interior of the cabin.

“I don’t see a stove or a microwave, or even any lights though,” she told me before noticing something else.

“There is no heater or fireplace either. How are we to keep warm in the winter?” she asked.

“We can heat our food with a spell, and clean the dishes with a spell also. I can also call water to me from the East Fork of Rough Creek which runs in the valley between the ridges. As for heat, there is a heating spell and an air transfer spell to bring hot summer air here in the winter and cool winter air here in the summer,” I told her to a smile from her.

“And just where do we get all of the Magic for this?” she asked.

“There is a Ley Line that runs through the mountain. Apparently, a number of Dragons gathered here in the distant past,” I told her to a shocked look from her.

“Dragons?” she asked.

“Yes, they are the ones who created the Ley Lines. The Spirits of Magic are the ones who supply the Magic to the Lines, or that is the way that I understand how it works,” I told her.

“Well, you seem to have thought of everything. You even have a bed large enough for two here in the cabin, but what about the supplies that you told me about?” she asked.

“They are in the back part of the cabin. That’s why it’s important to keep the Waterproof spell up to date all of the time,” I told her to a puzzled look from her.

“You aren’t keeping them in the Timeless Zone?” she asked, in a puzzled voice.

“Timeless Zone?” I asked before thinking back to when I was studying the books.

“I remember it being mentioned in the books, but I wasn’t interested in it at the time and skipped over it to read more about the spells that I would need in my work as the ‘Fixer’. That work has paid off very well,” I told her with a grin.

“But the Timeless Zone could be a big help in your work as the ‘Fixer’. You can hide a lot of things there. Things that you don’t want to carry with you, or things you don’t want others to see, or even people who you want to keep out of the way for a time.

“Instead of a Preservation spell on your supplies, you could just send them to the Timeless Zone, and you would be able to access them or other things wherever you are. They would be just as fresh as when you deposited them there, as there is no time in the Timeless Zone,” she told me.

I realized then that it had been a big mistake to skip over that part of the books, as it could obviously be a big help in my work. It could have saved me a lot of trouble moving things and people around and allowed me to keep things handy. That wasn’t even to mention having my supplies where no one else could find them.

“You’ve read all of that in the books already?” I asked.

“Yes, it’s mentioned in several places in books two and three. I can teach you the spell if you wish,” she told me with a smile. Who is the teacher now, I wondered.

“Yes, give me the spell. I’ll need to go over the books again to see what else I may have skipped over that could be important. I should never have been in a hurry to learn other things,” I told her with a smile. Viv said something and drew a small glyph in the air, and one of the books appeared in her hand.

“Here,” she said handing it to me. “The page with the spell for the Timeless Zone is marked,” she told me. It was a fairly simple spell, and I had it down in no time. Viv sent the book back where she kept it in the Timeless Zone when I handed it back to her.

“You’re sure that no one else can retrieve the book from where you have it in the Timeless Zone?” I asked.

“Yes, each person that uses the Timeless Zone has a place of their own. It’s set when you first cast the spell. Others would have a very difficult time locating your particular place in the Zone,” she assured me.

“So, you can study no matter where you are?” I asked.

“Yes, here or elsewhere. Why?”

“I was going to return home quickly, so you could study. Now, I’ve changed my mind. You can study here, while I work on sending most of my supplies to the Timeless Zone, and we can relax here for the remainder of the day,” I told her to a smile from her. While I worked on moving my supplies, Viv studied outside under the trees. Later, I heated some food for us and drew water from the creek to drink. We had a very restful day at the cabin and returned home that evening.

Meanwhile, things in Chicago were a lot more intense. O’Brien and Hernandez had been correct. The news of the possible involvement of a Dragon in the disappearances of the nine cops and the nine incinerated remains had gone over like a lead balloon with the Superintendent and the others in charge of the Department. The immediate reaction was doubt followed by demands of where they had ever gotten such an impossible idea.

The name of the Chief Agent at the local FBI office brought even more doubt and speculation as to what he and they were up to. The Chief Agent appeared at a meeting of the senior officials of the department the following day and repeated what he had told the detectives, much to the consternation of those officials.

“What the hell would a Dragon be doing here?” the Super demanded after hearing him out.

“What were they doing in Charleston?” the Chief Agent fired back. “Apparently, he had been living there for some twenty-five years. We believed that he was a retired CIA agent,” he added. He hadn’t actually told the two detectives this, and it set off even more confusion at the meeting.

“The CIA has Dragons working for them?” the Super demanded after restoring quiet at the meeting.

“Apparently, they had one working for them, but they believed that he was only a Wizard,” the Chief Agent told them. “We didn’t think they would have gone after him if they had know that he was a Dragon,” he added.

“Still, what could he want in Chicago?” several others at the meeting asked.

“And how does this relate to the ‘Fixer’?” the Super demanded loudly, opening another can of worms.

“The Fixer?” the Chief Agent demanded in a startled voice. “What does he have to do with this?”

“Apparently, he was in town when this happened. We don’t know if he was involved in this or not,” the Commander of the Internal Affairs Branch told him.

“This throws an entirely different light on things. We, meaning the Bureau, have had a lot of reports about him or her and their activities, but we have never been able to develop a case on him or her. It’s always a local problem, and they don’t seem related. But and it’s a big but, if the ‘Fixer’ is a Dragon, that could place the investigation in OUR hands,” the Chief Agent told them much to their displeasure.

“However, there is still no direct connection between the ‘Fixer’, a Dragon, and what happened,” the Super was quick to point out to the Chief Agent. All of this new information was very interesting to him, and he was determined to follow up the lead despite or maybe because of their insistence that there was no proven connection.

All of this information was just too juicy to remain a secret for long, and the word was soon leaked to those on the street and those in the Syndicate plus the drug dealers. It was also picked up by several reporters who had their ears to the ground and was soon front page news and the lead story on a number of news casts. It even made it to the national news for a short time, where it came to the attention of those in Atlanta, Cleveland, and a certain individual in Northeastern Chicago near the lake.

In Chicago, the Mayor and the Superintendent of Police quickly held a news conference to deny the rumors and to try to reassure the Public that there was no REAL evidence of there being a Dragon in the Windy City, and that it had only been one of several theories that had been advanced to try to explain the case of the missing officers. The conference was played many times on Chicago radio and television, but it wasn’t well received or widely believed.

On the south side of the city, Tony Tuminelli was already aware of the presence of the ‘Fixer’ during the time that his two brothers had disappeared. Those from the Syndicate had learned of his presence from those they had ’Questioned’, as they hadn’t been gentle in learning what they wanted to know. The rumor on the news of the ‘Fixer’ being a Dragon had set Tony off again.

“Dammit, Lew, find out about this Dragon shit. I need to know if there really was a Dragon here. Where the hell would a Dragon have come from anyway?” he demanded in a loud drunken voice of his chief assistant. Lew had no idea, but did know where most of the Dragons were located.

“Maybe Atlanta, Tony,” he told him. “The Queen of the Dragons lives there, but it can be dangerous to upset them. They are very powerful,” he added in a worried voice. “And it is only a rumor,” he added hoping to move Tony away from the idea of a Dragon being involved.

The reactions of those in the other locations were as varied as their locations were.

The individual in northeastern Chicago was upset with themselves for what they had done.

“I should never have allowed that damned Gremlin that the Witch recommended convince me to hire that damned Wizard, who now it turns out could possibly be a Dragon,” the individual chastised themselves as they paced the floor in their den. “What’s done is done,” they finally consoled themselves with before going to bed for a fitful night of interrupted sleep.