Chapter 2: An Unlikely Alliance
Simon Paige peered out of the frosted window of the dingy café yet again. He scowled, he hated many things, but none so much as he hated the White Rose. He should have suspected they would be late. He looked over at Bruce Hays, who was seated next to him in the ripped up
plastic booth. The two were an odd pair but they were bound together; they were some of the few surviving members of the Red Rose. The rest had scattered after the Siege of Trinity. As Paige absentmindedly rolled his coffee mug between his hands, he thought grimly over the events that had haunted him for months now.
Wylie and Longbranch had been fools to go after the Dragonheart, and they payed dearly for it. Bruce and Paige had watched from afar as the girl, Madison, had absorbed the Dragonheart and morphed into the glittering dragon. They had watched as Geoffrey and Jessamine had their weirstones ripped from their bodies, and became anaweir, they had seen the grief on their faces. Paige now had one agenda, and one agenda only, to control the dragon, to wield her powers for himself, and to rule over the guilds. Bruce's goal was slightly different, but similar enough, Hays wanted revenge. Revenge on McCauley and the others for making a fool of him during the Siege. He'd almost been killed during one of McCauley's assaults. He wore the scars proudly now, the only evidence of the flames that had engulfed his entire body.
"Hello Simon." The two words were enough to snap him out of his thoughts, and back to reality.
"Good afternoon, Thelma " Paige replied, "we were beginning to wonder if you were going to show up at all."
"Of course we were, seeing as we are the ones who engineered this meeting." Thelma Longbranch was the spitting image of her older sister Jessamine; she had the same mass of black hair, and the same cold expression, the only difference were Thelma's piercing blue eyes.
"Allow me to introduce my partner," she motioned to a tall blond boy behind her, "this is Warren Barber."
Paige realized with a start that he'd forgotten to introduce Hays. "This is my partner-"
"Hays," Barber interrupted, stepping forward and grinning, "Bruce Hays."
"Warren, what are you doing here?" Hays gestured to their disgusting surroundings, "get lost, or what?"
"You two know each other?" asked Paige, not trying to hide his surprise. He glanced over at Thelma who looked just as confused as he felt. The boys ignored them.
"Jeez, man, what happened?" Barber asked, taking in Bruce's marred face. "Run into a fireplace or something?"
Hays grimaced, suddenly serious "McCauley," he growled, as if that explained it all.
"Then we may be able to help you," said Thelma, her thin lips stretching across her face in a predatory smile, "the reason we're having this meeting is because I found them; Swift, McCauley, Hastings; they're all holed up together in Raven's Ghyll, and I think we need to pay them a visit."
"Yes," breathed Paige, happy for the first time that day, "is the Dragon there with them?"
Thelma faltered, "we're umm..., we're not exactly sure yet, we thought we would send in some spies later today."
"We don't need to," said Barber suddenly, "if we kidnap one of the others, we can ask for her surrender as a ransom."
"So which one of them should we take?" asked Paige, purposefully not commenting on the ingenuity of Barber's plan, "we need someone that's close to the dragon, someone she'll trade herself for. I think we can rule out McCauley and Hastings, they're too juiced to take easily."
"And the enchanter," added Thelma, "she's dangerous too."
"No, I want McCauley," Hays said, determinedly.
"Are you sure about that?" Said Paige, already knowing his answer, "shouldn't we take someone a little easier to handle, like Swift or Stephenson?"
"I agree with Bruce," Barber spoke up, "McCauley may be one of, if not the strongest, but he's also closer to the dragon then anyone else. There are wards around the castle preventing most types of attack magic, so taking him shouldn't be too hard, since he can't fight back. Besides, Bruce and I are old friends with him." He looked over at Bruce, grinning cruelly.
Who is this guy, thought Paige, a little creeped out despite himself. He was glad they were on the same side. "Well it's decided then," said Thelma briskly, "I'll send in some men tomorrow, under strict orders to bring him back alive."
"Unless he puts up too much of a fight," Paige added, "if they don't think they can bring him back easily, just tell them to kill him. It'll send the same message, and we can threaten to kill another one unless they hand over the Dragon."
Thelma nodded coldly, "if we succeed, the Dragon will hand herself over more than willingly."