Page 29 of The Dragon With A Girl Tattoo
“Why?”he asked, facing forward again.
“Because we’re going to break a whole hell of a lot of speeding laws,” I answered, following a windy bit of the road with reckless speed.Ahead of us a few miles away, the town sat on the edge of a river.
Unfortunately, the two cars that had been going to the Asile were hot on our tail, and evidently, their cars had more power than ours, since they were creeping closer with each passing minute.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Paris.”I tightened my fingers on the steering wheel as we came to a straight stretch of the road, pushing the car to speeds I would never even think of approaching under normal circumstances.“Your family said that if the worst happened, there’s a portal shop in the town ahead of us.It’s going to be tight, but we should make it before Dr.Kostich and his friends realize where we’re going.”
“Paris?”Yrian sat back, and to my surprise smiled.“Excellent.I will wreak my revenge there.”
I swore to myself, wondering if getting Candy and Andy off my case would be worth getting tangled up with dragons.
SEVEN
YRIAN
“Effrijim, I summonthee.”
Yrian emerged from the toilet to find the woman named Becket standing in the waiting room of the small and dingy portal shop to which she’d driven him, obviously summoning the demon who had accompanied her into the Asile.He had no idea why she thought a demon could be of assistance, but was willing to let that point pass, assuming she gave him answers to the questions that were even now plaguing him.
“Woman,” he said in preparation for unburdening his curiosity.
“Dude,” she said in a drawling tone that prickled along his skin like several small burrs.“I have a name.It’s Becket.”
He gave her his loftiest look, one that used to leave youngling dragons cowering in terror.No, he corrected himself the second the thought flitted across his mind.Not cowering.Dragons did not cower.Stepped back deferentially, that was more like it.“Your name is odd.Is it even a woman’s name?”
“Oh, you do not want to pull the weird-ass name card,Yrian,” she snapped back, giving him an insolent look in return.Not even the oldest of his kin had ever done so.Only the First Dragon subjected him to such things, and this woman, this artificer who bore the First Dragon’s mark, certainly was not qualified to treat him thusly.“And if you really want to get into a discussion about the patriarchy’s view on feminine names, and why it’s misogynistic, I will, but it’s going to have to wait until this demon is summoned.Effrijim, I summon thee.Again.”
“Why are you summoning it?And how does this portal work?”Yrian had moved across the room to stare into a dimly lit smaller room dominated by a mass of twisting black and purple that seemed to float in midair.“We did not have such things in my time, although I understand much has changed since then.”
Becket gave him a considering look as she moved over next to him to peer into the room.“It’ll take us wherever there’s another portal shop.The green dragons say you are welcome to stay with them in Paris, so that’s where you’re going.Dammit, where is that portal operator?The assistant said he was just around the corner, but it’s been three minutes, and Dr.Kostich is sure to guess we’re going here.Gah!It’s already almost two.I have to get back to Brno in the next hour, or we’ll miss our rehearsal spot.”
As she spoke, she glanced at a small phone device similar to one Yrian’s youngest brother had given him, but it had been destroyed when he exploded the room in which he’d been held captive.He regretted the loss of the device, having enjoyed it greatly—especially the many videos of cats dancing—although he didn’t quite understand the type of magic that fueled it.
“I wish to have another phone device,” he told Becket, ignoring her question, since he had no knowledge of the portal operator.“You will help me find a purveyor of the Internet magic so that he can create a new one for me.”
