Page 7 of The Dragon With A Girl Tattoo
“Thank you,” I said, my hopes sinking as I scribbled my answer on Elle’s note.No, we tried that earlier.The medicos running the Asile don’t allow others in to consult unless it’s their request for help.
“I’m afraid I don’t have any ideas other than trying to use the Beyond,” May said with a little shake of her head.
“Jim?”Aisling asked, nudging her demon.“Does anything occur to you that would help Yrian?
Jim’s face scrunched up as it clearly thought on the subject.“It’s a question of which you want more ...getting into the cuckoo’s nest, or getting the first Firstborn out.Which is more important?Because getting in is easy....It’s the getting him out that might be a bit tricky.”
“If it was easy to get in, Charity wouldn’t be asking us for help,” Aisling told it.
“Meh,” it said, giving a shrug of its shoulders.“That’s nothing a good glamour couldn’t handle.Actually ...the same could be said for getting Yrian out, too.But it would have to be something special.”
“I just told you that the annoying Dr.Kostich saw through the First Dragon’s glamour,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, but the First Daddy himself admitted that he wasn’t very good at glamours,” Jim answered, pulling back its doggy lips to smile at the camera.“Right, May?He said that when you guys were in the Duat, right?”
“He did say that, yes,” May said slowly, her gaze flickering off to the distance.“But no one other than Bael recognized him, so I don’t know how valid his point was.Certainly Gabriel and I didn’t see through the glamour.”
“He mentioned something about seeking an artificer,” I said slowly, biting my lower lip (a bad habit of which I’ve tried hard to break myself, but it tends to come back in times of stress).
“That would work, except there aren’t any around.At least not any that you can find.They hide a lot, what with people torturing their families in order to get them to make the super-duper glamours,” Jim said, leaning on Aisling’s leg.Automatically, she patted it and gave its ears a fondle.
“You mean if the First Dragon had a stronger glamour, he could get inside the Asile?How would that help Yrian escape?”I asked.
Elle wrote quickly on her notepad and slid it toward me again.Glamour for your stepson, too!
That had me raising my eyebrows, but before I could comment, Aisling said, “Wait ...can we glamour Yrian?Could the First Dragon take a glamour in for him?Can you take something magical like that inside?I imagine the wards would prohibit that entering the building.”
“Hmm,” Ysolde said, scooting down the couch when her son, now dual wielding both swords, attacked the stuffed dragon.“That’s a really good question.”
“And also a good suggestion by Jim,” May said, nodding as she made a note.“So far, I have on my list locate an artificer, determine whether or not someone could smuggle a powerful glamour into the Asile, and ...what else?”
“Ways to get Yrian out if the glamours are a moot point,” I said after a few seconds’ thought.
“I think we’ll have to research glamours a bit more,” Aisling said, her brow furrowed as she looked at nothing in particular.“In order to understand their scope.Hmm.I’ll definitely pick Drake’s brain on the flight to Paris.”
“I’ll do the same with Baltic, although I assume if he had any good ideas, he would have talked to the First Dragon about them.Oh!That reminds me—did everyone get an invitation from Allie to visit her and Christian at their castle?Baltic is prone to refusing such an offer, but I pointed out to him that the reciprocal visit is coming up, and if we were there, the kids would be off dancing at the music festival.”
“Reciprocal visit?”I asked, confused.
“Karma’s foster daughter, Pixie, is coming to stay with us for ten days while Karma and Adam go to Hungary for the trial of a spirit who attacked Karma,” Ysolde answered, shooing her son off the couch when he started jumping up and down on it while waving his swords.“Lovey, why don’t you go out to the garden and beat up the imps.”
Elle looked horrified as the child yelled with happiness and dashed off with a thundering noise more appropriate to a small herd of water buffalo.They let their kids kill imps?she wrote.
“Do you have imps?”I asked, equally startled by Ysolde’s suggestion.
“Not in the least, no,” she said complacently, smiling at us.“But Anduin doesn’t know that.Will you be attending the gathering at Christian’s, Charity?”
“I don’t think so,” I said, glancing at my phone, quickly finding the texted invitation.“Much as it pains me as a siren to miss a musical event—it’s practically against the Siren’s Code to forgo such things—the First Dragon is very focused on the problem with Yrian, as well as something going on with one of his brother’s grandkids, so I doubt if we’ll have time.But I will mention it to him and see what he thinks.What about you two?”I asked May and Aisling.
“Oh, we’re going,” Aisling said firmly, her nostrils flaring slightly as she shot a pointed look at the door that I assumed was meant for her wyvern.“Drake doesn’t think it’s important we mingle with vampires, but our kids and Allie’s are close enough in age that it will be good for them to play together.”
“Drake’s a bit gaga when it comes to the spawn having contact with non-dragon kids,” Jim said before rolling over onto its back.“He wouldn’t even let Ash put them into a school with other immortal kids because he said they could be bad influences.Ha!Like the spawn could be worse than they are?”
“I am sitting right here,” Aisling said, glaring at the demon.“And if you don’t want to find yourself confined to the Akasha for the three days we are at Allie and Christian’s home, then I’d advise you to rethink your criticism of my children.”
Jim pursed its lips.
“Fine,” Aisling allowed, and gave in to its obvious demands for belly scratches.“They are hellions, but they’reourhellions, and we choose to admire their many good qualities and ignore the ones that sent their own grandmother running after just half an hour’s visit.”
