Garret
I woke up at dawn. The day I was to dominate Knight and the Order once and for all was near. A day closer to when I have firepower necessary to go after Ember... My chest tightened at the thought of the deaths she's caused. Small voice inside my head whispered, that it cannot all be explained nor forgiven… ever. I suppressed it and got up.
When I entered kitchen after training and shower to get breakfast I was surprised to find Mist and Nettle sitting at the table with mugs of steaming tea I their hands.
"Finally man, I thought you never get up, and then you run out before I could catch you" Nettle sounded annoyed and I lifted my brows at her tone.
"I have researched HQ. Apparently it holds a potent artefact, that destroys dragon magic. The symptoms you experience is this. The artefact's proximity burning Riley's magic from your body."
I was shocked at her revelation, I was feeling weaker and weaker ever since we got to London…
"It gets worse. I have it on good authority, that the artefact is used in new Patriarch's anointment ceremony. New patriarch must touch the thing. See it will burn all the remaining magic off at once if you even get that far." Nettle said sending me a deeply concerned look.
"What do you mean if I even get that far?" I asked.
"This, evil artefact is made to hurt dragons. It causes the magical creature horrible suffering. It will hurt Garret. You will probably lose consciousness before you even touch it. We don't know if it gives any alarm if you touch it, but it will hurt you. And then the others will know, that something is… off." Mist said wincing.
Just what I needed, when Knight finally seemed sorted out. I suppressed an annoyed groan.
"What is the artefact?" I asked.
"That we don't know, you'll need to find out on your own and fast." Nettle said.
"Where's Madison?" I changed topic, I needed to stay focused on today's task. She could figure that out for me, she was a sweetheart those old farts at HQ would love to talk to about the Order's proud traditions.
"She is planning out tightening security of this house." Mist said. "She's ready to go anytime"
"Great, then let's go." I said curtly, but then checked myself.
"Thank you for warning me" I said to Nettle.
Even though I couldn't bring myself to feel gratitude, for another pressing problem to solve ASAP, I knew better than to not show it, to them. Dragons who had my back. Even if Ember betrayed me and them.
Madison looked incredulous.
"Please, it's a big favour. Just find out, all you can about the ceremony of anointing a new Patriarch and especially any items used there, okay?" I said.
I couldn't send anyone from outside of my inner circle on that mission without raising suspicion, and I really needed Tristan at my back today. We decided to confront Knight before the pre-election meeting with remaining officers. Trying to blackmail him was risky, he could try things. But exposing him meant death penalty and I really wanted to spare Madison, soldiers and myself that. So I really hoped, that Commander Knight for once wouldn't be his usual pain in the ass.
"I'll try. But I thought I was to be your IT security specialist, not an errand girl." Madison pouted and I almost laughed.
"This is actually a spy job, do it discretely, without drawing attention, get all the details, and then you can drive home with Mist and start making the mansion into an ironclad fort. Huh? How about that?" I answered remembering how important Madison was for Tristan, and how I myself wanted to treat her with respect. I would rather convince her to do this than order her to do this. She wasn't a soldier.
"Oh okay." Madison said. "But will anybody tell me what it is about?"
"Yes." This came from Mist who was driving and surprised all of us.
"You will know all of it soon enough, but now we just need your help today." Mist's calm voice drifted from driver's seat and Madison seemed to calm down, she even smiled a bit.
I only hoped that she could pull it off and that whatever she'd find out would be useful…
"How dare you?! You think I don't know that you're corrupted to the core by those monsters?! That you'll be this Order's destruction if no one stops you?!"
"That's enough!" Tristan interrupted, and Knight's face turned dangerous shade of red, from anger, that a lieutenant interrupted him.
But it was my job to check my Lieutenant if he was out of line and I wasn't going to.
"I am corrupt?! You've sent three soldiers of the sacred Order to assault a compound of some drug lord's competitor." I looked him up and down.
"But there are lives of good people, that are bound to yours. And I'll give you a chance to live only because of them. You will leave the Order and never try to meddle with it's business again. You will help me get elected Patriarch by telling your people, that you yourself gladly will follow my lead. And once I'm anointed you will request to be retired and I will comply. Is that understood?" I talked slowly and held his stare.
"Or what pup?" He asked showing way to many teeth.
"Or you'll be court martialed and very likely executed." I said bored, he knew that, so added something he didn't know.
"I've deposited these documents with a couple of trusted people, with instructions to make them public, when I die."
And in his eyes I saw, that he didn't have anything. He wasn't prepared for this situation. The strategist pondering every possible course of action have not pondered the eventuality, that his crime could be discovered. Did he know, that Madison kept all the evidence? Good thing, she was going to be busy at the mansion for the next couple of days...
"Fine! I'll let you get the Order and my daughter, not that you care about her. I'll leave."
There was no submission in his demeanour though, he started at me with hatred emanating from every fibre of his body. Tristan noticed that and was clearly displeased. But I didn't want to risk him clashing with Madison's father.
"Excellent! You're dismissed." I said and turned to sit back down behind Patriarch's desk.
Knight opened his mouth and then closed it and left leaving the door open.
"Well that went... smoothly" Tristan concluded closing the doors. "Ready to speak to the Order about your candidature?"
I thought about it. Speeches of the former Patriarch used to be pompous and full of fight geist. We shall kill our enemies, every single one of them and for that we'll let as many of you get killed as is necessary. But you know that. You've been preparing for that since you were out of diapers, so that you won't question this. Now go and die!
I winced at the prospect of delivering something like that. But I needed to rally their spirits too. We've been decimated and then betrayed by our allies. Our numbers were few and our enemy was on a prowl. I really hoped I could give my men enough hope to follow me without feeding them lies.
"... so once more the Order must unite, not to slaughter all dragons but to free them from tyranny of a small bloodthirsty group, that wishes to control them in order to use them against humanity."
I paused my first ever speech and looked at the assembled soldiers. We were forty seven men and Mrs Knight. Quite a task I was placing on their shoulders.
"But we are not alone. Talon has fractured and while some of the fractions are fighting between themselves for power, the dragons that we've fought side by side with, the dragonells we've freed from the breeding facility wish to end Talon's supremacy. We will aid them in that fight."
I finished. Couple of heads nodded. Knight was killing me with his eyes. Not bad.
"Are there any questions? This is the time to ask them." Tristan added and so it started.
With Tristan's strategic management of the order in which the questions were answered I presented to the remaining soldiers, what I wanted them to know.
That there's financial support underway to be obtained, that they will not be sent into battle unless we're really well set to win. That Stealth have wiped out the vessels, that attacked us in the desert.
In other words our supplies were to continue, our allies were powerful and we were to take time to regroup and find the right strategy to aid free dragons without wasting lives on our side.
Nothing about what then.
And that I had a hard time thinking about myself. What then? What about Ember? Would I be able to kill her? Or more importantly, since anybody could kill her, would I be able to live, when she died?
Headache from having Riley's life-force burned out of my body intensified and I longed to leave this place at the same time knowing, that I needed as much of it gone as possible, if I didn't want to start thrashing and screaming under the anointment ceremony.
I really hoped Madison would come through here too.
"That's easy, isn't it?" Madison finished her story.
Tristan looked straight ahead.
So the artefact was most likely the shield of St George that was displayed in the tiny Chapel in the basement of a HQ, that was what remained of the older building, that used to stand in place of the unassuming office building that housed the Order's HQ for the last one hundred years or so... The Order excavated the cavernous underground and arranged a Chapel, where a white shield with red cross was displayed over a simple altar of grey granite.
The Chapel was open for any soldier to visit anytime, but it was constantly guarded by three of them. This duty was often left to disabled or retired soldiers as one had to ge through the HQ to get to the Chapel, but it was never neglected...
Madison was thorough if anything. She's got the tale from St Christopher, who was apparently looking forward to having a new Patriarch anointed and felt important, since he's seen two former Patriarch's ceremonies. Probably enjoying attention of a pretty girl Madison was, he told her about the ceremonies in smallest detail and she didn't have to show special interest by asking additional questions. So far so good.
"I'm not sure" I answered finally. "If this is the source of this place's protection, then it's dangerous to underestimate its powers." Stealth told Tristan that "it grabbed her" and then tore her apart piece by piece, she said she'd be dead if Tristan didn't carry her away...
"Would you mind going down there, saying some prayers and checking the shield and the room out?" I asked Madison, mostly to keep her out of the way. I got creeps at the thought of Commander Knight finding out about my predicament.
"No word about it to anyone." I said just in case Madison was distracted, when I said how sensitive current situation was.
"Of course not. I'll go to the Chapel after lunch and see if it provides any inspiration." Madison said and went to eat lunch with her mother.
I was thinking hard and the headache didn't help. Trying to tamper with the shift schedule of Chapel duty would raise red flags, I could get Tristan to find out the next few shifts and hope three of my men would be there all at once in the next twenty four hours, but this would be almost too much luck...
Or I could just go there, faint or whatever and hope the next time it goes better. I could fake some legitimate reason to faint there too...
"Check who's on duty there today." I said to Tristan and rose to eat lunch with Riley. I needed to get out of this cursed, or blessed depending on how one looked at it place.
And I missed him. Him and Wes were all I had left of the happiest time of my life. Or at least the time, when hope of impending happiness was ever present.
"How's take-over going?" Riley said as a manner of greeting.
"Forward." I answered smugly. "How do you and your people find London?"
"Expensive." He grimaced. "Noisy, crowded, annoying. Traffic makes no sense."
"Okay, so I'm going to be elected Patriarch tomorrow, but apparently your blood has infused me with your life force and how the magic protecting the Order's HQ is slowly cooking it away with considerable dose of discomfort. Anointment ceremony requires to touch the object that destroys any dragon magic within five hundred feet. It might knock me out and discredit me forever, it might kill me. I dunno." I cut to the case as soon as waiter brought our food.
"I'd say if it kills you, you've still lived year and a half longer than without my blood." Riley said and bit into his burger.
"Ha ha." I said. "So Madison and Tristan are plotting for me to touch it before the ceremony so that I get immune. But it's going to remove all of your magic from me, I'll be mortal again..."
Riley stopped eating.
"Aren't you mortal?" He asked slowly. Shit, I quickly told him about what Ember found out from lab tests of my blood after she's taken over leadership of Talon.
"I cannot help you. I don't believe in magic. You should talk to Mist, or Nettle, she's deep into this woo-woo shit." Riley said shrugging and I almost gaped at him.
"You're an eight hundred pounds dragon packed into a form of a hundred eighty pounds man and you don't believe in magic?" I asked him.
"Oh maybe, but not all that other strange dangerous magic, healing with a swipe of a used tampon or ability to imbue a human with my immortality." He said as if this was an answer. He's seen all these things done and he still wouldn't acknowledge it!
"But you've intrigued me. I'll talk to the girls about your situation and maybe they have a solution." He added with a crooked smile.
"Thanks mate. How's Wes doing?" With securing funds for my Order's further functioning.
"He's frantic, he called in sick at work and divides his time between multiple libraries and staring at screen all night. I dare say you'll have your money in no time." Riley said and gulped down his soda.
"Great, update me ASAP if you find out of anything operational." I finished my smoothie and rose to leave.
"So I prayed for the souls of my grandma and Joseph's and there's not much to report. The Chapel is deeper underground than I'd expect, so the stairs were a bit of resolve test, but then it's just a large cellar with cross Vault ceiling a handful wooden pews thrown in the middle and an altar with a shield mounted over it. It's hanging low enough to touch, I didn't touch it though. The guards stood by the entrance and after a couple of minutes of my prayers stopped paying attention to my presence." Madison reported happily.
But I knew better than that. They were watching her very closely as they pretended not to in order to get her to reveal her hand. But she didn't. Luck was on my side today.
"Right now Ward's Alexander, Tobias from here and our Michael are taking over the Chapel duty for next four hours." Tristan added meaningfully.
"Okay, let's give them three hours to get bored." I said. Something in me reeled at the thought of losing my augmented abilities. I knew this... quest would require sacrifices but this meant that I only had one lifetime to achieve what I intended. One lifetime to deal with Ember, the Order and whatever was hiding in the bushes to jump at me, if I relaxed for a moment.
After three more hours during which the final directives about tomorrow's election have been issued and I was pleased to hear from all my 'spies' that no one was going to challenge my candidature. I hosted another meeting gave another speech and finally.
"I'll go now, but would like to pray in the Chapel before then?" I said to St Patrick who was as always on cleaning duty.
"Of course, let me escort you there." He said and we departed followed by Tristan.
On the basement floor I was led to an imposing wooden door bound in wrought iron and seemingly out of place.
St Patrick opened the doors revealing a small vestibule leading to a spiral staircase brightly lit by electrical lamps placed every half turn.
"Thank you, we can get there from here." I dismissed him as my headache became agony and started my descent.
First turn, the pain behind my eyes was crushing and pressing my eyes out of their sockets.
Second turn my vision started to blur.
Third turn my entire body shook and I started to see... things. Phantom silhouettes jumping in and out of my field of vision. I wasn't sure if I was still walking, I could only feel pain. I tried to turn around but there were only walls, surrounding me from all sides, closing in crushing me.
"Garret?" I felt cold water splashing on my face and opened my hurting eyes to behold pale Tristan and Madison bending over me in the vestibule at the top of the stairs.
"Drink this" Tristan shoved a bottle of water into my shaking hands and I obeyed but spilt it. My hands shook violently, the pain was now in my whole body.
Madison pushed a piece of chocolate straight into my mouth and I chewed and swallowed as good as I could.
"Can you walk? The shift change is in fifteen minutes and on time is late." He prompted me and I made to get up.
They both supported me from both sides and after a while I could stand.
"We must get you away from here. You'll get better, when you're not that close." Madison said and let go of me to peer through cracked doors.
"Clear, let's go!" She said and they half led half dragged me out of the small room.
It was late afternoon, and this part of the building was never very busy. Still I was covered in cold sweat and could only guess the look of my skin...
We rounded a corner and then reached the smaller of two staircases leading to floors above. I did my best to lift my legs as my body shook from uncontrollable spasms and ached oh so bad.
Finally we've reached the ground floor still not meeting anyone.
"Okay, this is our final stretch. The front doors is ten feet from here a cab is waiting for us, but for the sake of everything we have worked so hard for, you must walk there by yourself." Tristan tried to rally me, but I had nothing to give. I mostly just wanted to curl into a ball of suffering on the cold, stone floor. Then an idea hit me. I leaned heavily on Madison, who tightened her grip around my waist and set towards the doors.
As I passed St Christopher and Andrew on front doors duty, I stuck my face into Madison's neck, turning away from them and letting her hair partially obscure my face,I forced a smile as I whispered sincere thanks into her ear, trying not to stumble.
Madison giggled and hugged me with both hands so I wouldn't fall down the step outside the doors and then we reached the cab. Tristan opened the doors and I hung onto it as Madison crawled in. Then I managed to get in. Tristan smacked the doors closed and ordered the driver to drive.