Page 9 of The Dragon With A Girl Tattoo
THREE
EFFRIJIM
Heya, Amelie!Hopeyou don’t mind me sending you an audio message.Can you play it for Cecile when she wakes up from her post-breffy nap?Also, Ash wants me to tell you that she located the person who you said might have a spell to make my sweet fuzzybutt immortal, but that the dude was really snappy to her and said he wouldn’t waste the supplies on a dog.Have you ever heard of anything so ridiculous?
Aisling said that we won’t give up, though, so don’t lose hope.
OK, here’s the stuff that happened over the last couple of days.
It started with a text.
SALLY
Is it true that one of the dragon progenitor’s shards is in the hands of a demon lord?Asking for a friend ...well, all right, I’m asking for Terrin, because he’s tied up helping with a small problem involving some rogue mages who are heading for a very hard time if they don’t stop their present course, but that’s neither here nor there, now, is it?
ME
Heya, Sally.What demon lord has a shard of the dragon heart?’Cause as far as I know, only dragons have them, although the blue sept’s shard is in the hands of a baddie named Xavier, but he’s a dragon.Mostly.OK, it’s about half dragon, half demon, but you know what I mean.
SALLY
Ah, that is his name?Interesting.You would think one shard would be enough for him, but evidently he feels otherwise.Still, I’m sure your green wyvern has things well in hand.I will pass along your information to my better half, former-Sovereignly speaking.And now that I’ve warned you and your dragons, I must go.My bestie, Freya, invited me to swim with dolphins, and you just know I can’t refuse that!Plus, Odin will be there, and he’s always so fun to tease.I love it when he gets really annoyed and bursts into a cloud of attack ravens.Good times all around!
ME
Just when I think everything is copacetic, you go and drop hints about something happening to the dragons.Is Xavier after Drake and Aisling for something?Their shard?
ME
Wait, I think Drake has two, since Soldy gave him one in order to get him to steal the light blade for Baltic.Is that it?Xavier’s going after the other shards?Aisling’s gonna freak out, and I won’t even speculate how crazy Drake will go protecting his dragons and family.The word “shitshow” comes to mind, you know?
ME
Sally?Is Xavier after the green dragons?
ME
Man, I hate it when you drop tidbits and then go off and do things like hanging with gods and swimming with dolphins.
ME
Also, I have a credit card now, and can pay for a portal to go wherever the dolphin-swimming party is happening.Just sayin’.
I gave Sally a half hour to respond, but when she didn’t, I figured I’d better find Aisling to tell her what Sally said.
That’s when I got the second text.
UNKNOWN NUMBER
The blood moon must be returned.You will see to it.Desislav the Destroyer hungers for vengeance.
ME
Eh?New phone, who dis?
UNKNOWN NUMBER
I am Lattsa, daughter of Haka, head of the Jabmead Sisterhood.You will see to the return of the blood moon.Refusal will mean the destruction of the dragonkin.
