I hadn’t known this, but it turns out dragons can fly really fast.
Especially considering how big Della was.
Not that I want to make disparaging comments about a woman’s weight, but her true form had to weigh at least five or six tons, maybe more. She had a wingspan as wide as her serpentine body was long, but that couldn’t be enough to keep her in the air, and her wings were flapping swiftly, but not enough to explain how fast we were moving.
But dragons were innately magical, so no doubt magic was involved. I would have taken out my aetherometer and checked, but that would have meant taking my hands off the spine in front of me, which wasn’t happening. Flying two hundred feet over the ground with no seat belt is not an experience I recommend. I had a good position between Della’s shoulders, and I don’t have any particular fear of heights…but I was still two hundred feet above the ground without any straps.
But her speed meant we were gaining on the helicopter.
It had dwindled to a speck on the horizon by the time Della got airborne, but her wings drove us forward, and the helicopter drew nearer. Della loosed her hunting cry again, and I winced. Neil might be able to hear it over the roar of his craft’s rotors.
Then again, he might happen to look over his shoulder and see the giant dragon gaining on the helicopter.
I wasn’t exactly sure where we were – over Crown Heights, maybe. I saw the green of Prospect Park behind us when I glanced over my shoulder. I thought Neil was piloting the helicopter towards JFK Airport in Queens. Likely Malthraxivorn had a private jet stashed there, a jet which Edina would use to make his escape and disappear with a big chunk of Malthraxivorn’s cash.
Well, he wasn’t going to make it. Della was catching up to the helicopter. God only knew how many people had seen a dragon flying overhead. The High Queen had told me to investigate quietly. The Inquisition was going to have a hell of a time covering up sightings of a dragon flying over Brooklyn. But that was a problem for another day. Della was hellbent on catching her uncle’s murderer, and there was no way I could have stopped her from chasing Edina and Neil. I figured that Tarlia would prefer that Della survived and Malthraxivorn’s killers get captured instead of Della getting murdered and Edina escaping with a bunch of spooky old technology.
The helicopter banked, heading to the north.
“Della!” I screamed. “Watch out!”
No human ear could have heard me over the rush of the wind, but dragons had keener senses. Della twisted to the side just as Neil started shooting out the helicopter’s window. I don’t know how he managed to fly the helicopter and aim that cumbersome rifle at the same time, but he did it. A volley of three blaster bolts hurtled towards us, and I cast the Shield spell, trying to create the biggest Shield I could. The first bolt sizzled past us, and the remaining two hammered into my Shield. A wave of fatigue and pain went through my skull, but I gritted my teeth and held on, forcing power into the Shield spell. I also summoned more power, calling elemental fire, and I hurled a sphere of flame at the helicopter. Neil saw it coming, and he jerked the chopper out of the way, the fireball shooting past.
Della and Neil began a mad dance, the dragon chasing the helicopter. Della was just as quick as the helicopter, and in a straight line, she was faster and had better acceleration. But the little helicopter was far more nimble, and Neil was a hell of a pilot. He made that thing dance like a hummingbird, and both Della’s fire and my magic kept missing. I wondered if Neil had been a good pilot before Catalyst Corporation had scooped out half his guts and replaced them with machinery, or if it was something he had learned after his transformation.
A flash of green caught my eye. I risked a glance down and saw that we were flying over a wide park-like space. We had flown far enough east that we were over Highland Park. The park had a lot of old cemeteries, some of them dating from before the Conquest, and that was likely the best place to force down the helicopter. It would be better for Neil to crash into a cemetery than onto a busy road or a grocery store or something.
“Della!” I screamed, pulling together power for a spell. “See if you can force the helicopter to go left! Left!”
She roared in answer and lunged forward, breathing fire at the helicopter’s tail. The lance of brilliant flame shot across the sky, and Neil jerked the helicopter to the left. But I had already cast my spell, and I hurled a fireball, aiming at empty space.
I timed it just right, and the helicopter’s rear rotor clipped the fireball.
The explosion engulfed the helicopter, and the gale of hot air spun it around. Smoke billowed from the main rotor. At the same time, luck went against us. Neil fired, and two blaster bolts burned into the base of Della’s left wing. She screamed in agony, and began to wobble as her flight decayed.
I grabbed at the spine for support.
The helicopter wove back and forth like a drunkard, spiraling towards the ground below. Neil seemed to have control of the thing, but it was clear the helicopter was going to go down hard. He would have to make an emergency landing immediately.
Della wasn’t in much better shape. Her right wing beat three times as fast as her damaged left wing, and she spiraled towards the ground. My inner ear screamed in protest as we began to turn in faster and tighter circles towards the ground.
“You had better jump!” shouted Della. “I’m going to land hard.”
I snarled a curse. We were about fifty or sixty feet above the ground by now. I sucked in a deep breath, started casting the levitation spell, and jumped off Delaxsicoria’s back. The wind ripped at my hair and coat, and I hurtled at the ground. I finished the spell, and my plummet towards the ground instead turned into a rapid descent at a thirty-degree angle or so. I had been falling too fast for the levitation spell to arrest my momentum fully. I forced more magical power through my tired mind and worked the telekinesis spell. There was a big tree just below me – oak or something – and I caught it in a telekinetic grip, using it as a pivot to slow my descent.
It just barely worked. I managed to hit the grass at a velocity that didn’t break any bones. I tucked my shoulder and rolled, and I bounced and tumbled for a dozen painful feet before I came to a halt. I let out a groan of pain and flopped onto my back. Everything ached, and I was going to have some nasty bruises.
But I hadn’t broken any bones, and I was alive…though if Neil had survived the helicopter crash, I wasn’t going to stay that way unless I got moving.
I scrambled to my feet and looked around. I had landed in a grassy park area, with trees dotting the landscape. A thick layer of fallen leaves covered the ground. Neil had brought the helicopter to a mostly stable landing about thirty yards away, and I saw him scrambling out of the pilot’s seat.
I took a step towards him, and Della hit the ground.
The earth shook as the dragon plowed into it with enough force to dig a shallow furrow. She slid into a tree, which fell over with a snap, and went motionless. For a moment I wasn’t sure if she had survived the impact, but I saw her sides still expand with her breath, so maybe she was just knocked out.
I looked back at the helicopter just in time to see Neil raise his rifle and start shooting at me.
I cursed and cast the Shield spell, and my defense caught his blaster bolts, their strength hammering against my will. I answered with a volley of lightning globes, but Neil twisted and clenched his right arm, catching my attack on his force shield. Behind him I saw Edina stagger from the helicopter, still clutching that thick smartphone in his right hand.
That phone. It wasn’t a smartphone. It was the control device for Neil. Edina had been jabbing commands into it frequently. In fact, after that first argument I had seen him have with Della, he had entered a command into that device. Probably he had used it to send Neil after Della.
Which meant if I could get that device away from Edina…
Still holding the Shield spell, I summoned more power and worked a Splinter Mask. Silver light shivered, and the spell created a dozen illusionary duplicates of me. As an added bonus, each illusionary image also projected an illusionary Shield. Neil would not be able to tell which one of us was the real me by the Shield alone.
The cyborg hesitated, and I stepped behind my duplicates. I released both my Shield spell and my Splinter Mask, and I worked a Cloak. I vanished in a pulse of silver light, threw myself to the side, and started running. And just in time, too. I don’t think Neil had ever encountered a Cloak spell before, but he must have realized I had turned invisible, because he started shooting in a pattern, aiming for the direction I might have gone in. Fortunately, it was a big park and a lot of space to cover, so his blaster fire didn’t do anything more than rip up the grass.
I sprinted in an arc, turned, and headed right for Edina. He still slumped against the helicopter’s canopy, wheezing as he tried to catch his breath. The peculiar gauntlet on his right hand had been smashed in the crash, so no more summoning wraithwolves for him. He held his right arm clutched against his stomach, and I suspected it had been broken. His face had gone a soggy cheese-white beneath a glittering coat of sweat.
“Freeman,” croaked Edina as I approached. “Freeman, get me out of here, get…”
I stepped up, still Cloaked, and drove my right fist into Edina’s stomach as hard as I could. A sucker punch, I know, but I was in a hurry. Edina let out a croak and collapsed to his knees, his eyes bulging, and I grabbed the control device from his hand.
Neil turned and looked at him, confusion going over his face.
I dropped the control device to the grass, released my Cloak, and cast a spell.
“Stop her!” croaked Edina, still wheezing. “Stop…”
A thumb-sized sphere of flame leaped from my hand and drilled into the control device. The machine tore apart in a small explosion, a few pieces of twisted metal and broken glass bouncing off my knees. I stumbled as the hot air washed over me.
“Kill her!” shrieked Edina.
Neil groaned, the blaster rifle dangling from his cybernetic hand. His left hand came up to press his temple, his eyes bulging, sweat pouring down his face. I wondered if the control device had some sort of self-destruct mechanism, or if it was going to compel Neil to commit suicide.
“Kill her!” said Edina, staggering to his feet. “Kill…”
“Shut up!” snarled Neil, and he swung the blaster rifle like a club.
The weapon’s heavy metal barrel hit Edina in the face with a loud crack. Blood and a broken tooth flew from his mouth, and Edina went down in a limp pile to the grass. He was still alive, but he was going to have a nasty headache and need a lot of dental work when he woke up.
Neil stumbled to the side and dropped the blaster rifle, still breathing hard.
“Okay,” I said. “Okay.”
Neil’s gaze snapped to meet mine.
“You gonna try to kill me?” I said. “Didn’t work so well the last time.”
A ghost of a smile went over his unshaven face. “No. No, it did not. You destroyed the control unit.”
“Yup,” I said, watching him.
“It had a unique encryption key,” said Neil. “It cannot be replicated. You will not be able to control me.”
“Why the hell would I want to do that?” I said.
Neil blinked in surprise. “Edina did.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t like coercing people to work for me. I’ve been coerced into working for people,” I said. “Been there, done that, bought the goddamn T-shirt.” I hesitated. “What are you going to do now?”
“I…I don’t know,” said Neil. “I…”
“Murderer!”
I saw Della walking towards us.
She had returned to human shape, probably to remain inconspicuous, which would have worked had she not been naked. Her eyes blazed with rage, which matched the elemental fire dancing around her fingers.
“You killed my uncle!” said Della, stopping a dozen paces away. “Have you anything to say before you pay for his death?”
I hesitated. I wasn’t sure how culpable Neil was for Malthraxivorn’s death. Edina had been controlling him, and I didn’t think Neil could have disobeyed that control unit. But I couldn’t stop Della.
Neil dropped to his knees, relief spreading over his face.
“Thank you,” said Neil. “Thank you, my lady.”
Della blinked. She hadn’t been expecting that.
“Thank you?” she said. “I am going to kill you, and you are thanking me?”
“Yes,” said Neil. “I am so old now. I’ve lived far beyond my time. I didn’t ask to live this long. I didn’t ask to become this…this metal freak.” He hit his right arm with his left hand. “I volunteered for a program to become an elite soldier, not…not this.”
“Why did you kill my uncle?” said Della.
“I had to,” said Neil. “Edina had the control unit. I couldn’t disobey. The Catalyst scientists…they filled my head with wires and computers. And when the computers give a command, I have to obey.” Bitterness filled his face. “The scientists promised to make me into an elite soldier, but instead they made me a puppet. I am sorry about your uncle, my lady. He seemed like a kindly man.”
Della frowned. “You talked to my uncle before you killed him?”
“I did,” said Neil. “When he awoke me from the cryonic chamber. He told me that nearly two centuries had passed, the Catalyst Corporation had been destroyed. Lord Malthraxivorn said that he would present me and the Catalyst machinery to the High Queen, that she would decide what was to be done with me.” He shook his head. “Instead, Edina stole the control unit, and he commanded me to kill Malthraxivorn and you.”
“Would you have killed my uncle of your own will?” demanded Della. “If Edina hadn’t ordered it, would you have killed my uncle?”
“Of course not,” said Neil with a weary shake of his head. “He was kind to me. And I was a soldier, my lady. Not an assassin.” He sighed. “You should kill me. I did kill your uncle. I would have killed you if this woman had not stopped me.”
“Are you so hungry for death?” said Della. She seemed bewildered that Neil was willing to die.
“My family has been dead for centuries,” said Neil. “Everyone I ever knew has been dead for centuries.” He offered a weary smile. “You would be doing me a favor.”
Della stared at him for a long, long moment.
“Perhaps it would be far crueler to let you live,” said Della. “And you were not responsible for your actions.”
I heard a rumble of a motor and looked to the side, suspecting that Homeland Security or maybe the forces of the local Elven nobles had arrived. Instead, I saw Riordan’s SUV driving across the grass, followed closely by Shawn and Helen in Della’s.
“Responsible or not, they were still my actions,” said Neil.
“Catalyst Corporation was responsible for your actions,” said Della. “They are dust.” Her expression darkened. “But there is one other responsible for your actions, and he yet lives.”
She walked past the kneeling Neil, stooped, and grabbed a handful of Edina’s shirt. She heaved Edina off the ground and lifted him one-handed. Edina’s eyes blinked open and then went wide with panic as he realized what had happened.
“You murdered my uncle, Edina,” said Della. “I would kill you here and now.” She smiled a cold, terrible smile at him. “But the High Queen destroyed Catalyst Corporation once, and she will want to learn about you and your friends.” The cold smile sharpened. “The Inquisition will make you wish that I had killed you.”
The SUVs stopped, and Riordan, Nora, Shawn, and Helen all got out. All of them had guns, even Helen.
“It’s okay, guys!” I called. “I think we’re cool here. But we’re going to have to get out of here before Homeland Security shows up. Hey, if someone wants to tie up Edina, that would be great.”
Nora produced a set of plastic zip ties from her belt and went to bind Edina’s ankles and wrists. Helen hurried forward with a new set of clothes for Della. Whatever Della paid Helen, it wasn’t enough.
Neil looked lost.
“What…what should I do now?” he asked, blinking at me.
“Well,” I said. “I think I know someone who might want to hire you.”
***