Page 10 of The Last Slayer
I didn’t voice the thought. Valerie would have had a heart attack, and Jack would disapprove if his only child died. So I concentrated on satisfying my hunger.
Valerie answered him coolly. Ms. In-Charge. “You said you wanted the best. You won’t find anyone as qualified as she is on dragons. Furthermore—” Valerie glanced at the demon head, “—she’s obviously much better than your supernatural.”
Andersen grunted and turned his body fractionally toward me. “I don’t like to outsource security, but in this case we have no choice.”
“You need to outsource, so you sent me a demon?” I glanced at Valerie. “Is there something I’m not getting?”
“We needed to know if you were good,” Andersen said.
“Then you should’ve sent a dragon instead of a demon. Oh, but wait. Regular mortals can’t command dragons.” I looked at him steadily. “Or demons.”
The gray eyes didn’t even flicker. “It owed me a favor.”
I don’t like being lied to, but I kept my expression blank. Demons don’t owe favors to mortals. Either Andersen knew the demon’s true name, which was highly unlikely, or he was a summoner who didn’t want to reveal his magical gift. The latter would have been understandable. Some people still stuck to the archaic belief that anyone dabbling in magic was a heathen at best, a demon’s servant at worst.
I took a bite of chicken. “So what do you want me to do?”
“Work with us to ensure security for TriMedica. You’ve heard the rumors of the Triumvirate of Madainsair’s visit, I suppose?”
“Might’ve caught something on cable a couple weeks back.”
He scowled. “They’re coming. At least Semangelaf is. To TriMedica.”
Another chunk of chicken disappeared into my mouth. “And?”
“We want you to confiscate his weapons.”
The chicken almost came back up, which I did not appreciate. Valerie patted my back.
I took a quick swallow of Coke Zero. “You want me to do what?”
“You heard me.”
“Not possible.”
“We’ll be giving you full support.”
Was this guy really in charge? He couldn’t be as dumb as he sounded. “Do you have any idea what you’re dealing with? Dragonlords have enough magic to blast this entire building to dust in a nanosecond. They’re accustomed to absolute rule, instant obedience. And they couldn’t care less about mortals. What makes you think I can make one of them do something he doesn’t want to do?”
“Rumor. Nobody knows any of that for sure.” Despite his confident tone, a deep furrow appeared between his eyebrows.
“Even a wyrm, the lowest and least powerful type of military dragon, can destroy a group of mortals without much difficulty.” I put the half-empty carton on the coffee table between us. “And you want me to just walk up and ‘disarm’ a guy who controls thousands of wyrms, controls them by virtue of his power.” I stood up, looking Andersen in the eye. “Let me spell it out for you. The only way to survive Semangelaf’s visit is by being smart, being humble and not offending him.”
“We intend to be polite, of course.”
“Well, that’s nice.” But even if they meant well, they wouldn’t know how to act around the dragonlord. Nobody understood the demigods who commanded dragons. It wasn’t as if we hung out with them or anything, and the ancient texts—there were so few of them left—said very little on the matter. “So when is he coming?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
My head swiveled to Valerie and then back to Andersen again. My mouth was probably hanging open a little. “And you waited until now to find someone to help you?” And here I thought I had a problem with procrastination.
“We just learned about the schedule change this afternoon.”
“You don’t give me much time.”
His eyes cooled and challenged. “I thought you were the best.”
I am the best, but I’m not crazy. I rose from my seat and looked at Valerie. “Can we talk?” I glanced toward her office.
