Dragons & Demigods: A Montague & Strong Detective Novel (Montague & Strong Case Files Book 6) Read online

  “We’re here.” Monty reached back and drew the Sorrows, handing them to the Wordweaver. “Keep your eyes open and your creature in check.”

  “No weapons?”

  “This is a Reckoning of mages. No conventional weapons are permitted.”

  “This door looks familiar…this is the—”

  “Danger Room,” said a voice from behind us. “Welcome back, gentlemen and guest.”

  It was LD. He held a black cat in his arms as he approached. The cat’s coat shone with latent energy and its eyes glowed with a subtle yellow light.

  “LD, it’s good to see you.” I looked down. The cat’s eyes glowed brighter. “I don’t remember you having a…I want to say cat?”

  “Hello, Tristan, Simon,” he replied, stroking the cat on his arm, his voice serious, matching his expression. I noticed he was dressed in a black suit, and I got a distinct Bond-villain vibe. “This is Dinger, short for Chaos T. Schrodinger.”

  “Dinger? Really?” The cat-creature was giving me the ‘clearly I’m superior to you’ look with glowing eyes so I kept my distance.

  “If you look around here, you’ll see his partner in crime, Diz, short for Discord. Just don’t try and pet her.”

  “Another feline?”

  “No, that one looks like a beagle, but don’t be fooled. She’s really a singularity disguised as a dog. If you see her, walk away. And whatever you do, don’t feed her.”

  “What? She transforms? Should I avoid getting her wet, too?”

  “Simon, does it look like I’m joking? Do not feed her. She’ll make your hellhound look like he’s on a hunger strike. The last time someone did, we lost part of the boutique.”

  “Fine, I won’t feed your black-hole beagle. What’s this look?” I pointed at the cat. “Blofeld lite?”

  “Hilarious as a heart attack, hombre.” LD placed the cat on the floor. It purred by his feet, staring at me.

  “When did you get a—is it a cat? The glowing eyes make me want to say no.”

  “He’s an interstitial feline. Pretty rare.”

  “An intestinal what?

  “Interstitial, not intestinal.”

  “An interstitial feline? It’s between—?”

  “Planes.” The cat disappeared a second later and he brushed off his suit. “They travel between planes. Sort of like what your hellhound does in short bursts, except Dinger is what’s known as a Planewalker.”

  I looked around but didn’t see the cat anywhere. “Where’d he go?”

  “Don’t know.” LD shrugged. “Wherever he wants. He’s never really gone for long. He’s TK’s, so he usually stays with her when he’s here, but because of the Reckoning, I get to watch him.”

  Monty gave LD a short nod. “My Triad?”

  “Inside and ready.” LD gestured and gray runes formed in the air. “We’re waiting for the last member of TK’s to arrive. In the meantime, I’ll take your guest to the neutralizer. Hekla is it?”

  Monty nodded and stepped to the side, allowing Hekla to join LD.

  “She would like to ascertain the security of the neutralizer. If she’s not satisfied, I told her she’s free to take it back to her home.”

  “I understand.” LD gestured again and opened a rift. “She’s welcome to test the security as much as she can bear. I’m sure she’ll find it satisfactory.”

  Hekla raised an eyebrow and sniffed. “I will determine the state of the neutralizer, not you.” She stepped into the rift, disappearing. LD looked back and gave me a nod.

  “This is going to be a short test. Be right back.” He followed her in and the rift closed behind him.

  “Do we wait here?” I turned to Monty, who had his eyes closed.

  “Yes. LD is TK’s shieldbearer. He will escort us in, and then after the formalities, we’ll begin.”

  Ten minutes later, I felt a shift in the energy around us. Another rift opened, and a smiling LD stepped through, followed by a disheveled Hekla. Her hair was all over the place. It looked like she had been standing in a wind tunnel for the last ten minutes. Her expression of arrogance and superiority had been transformed to one of shock and surprise. I almost felt sorry for her.

  She gave Monty a tight nod and a bow.

  “Is the security adequate?” Monty looked at her with a raised eyebrow, channeling his inner Vulcan. “Does it meet with your approval?”

  “Yes,” she managed, after taking a few seconds to compose herself and smooth out her hair. “The security is adequate. We will leave the neutralizer under your responsibility in Fordey Boutique.”

  “Thank you for entrusting me with such a delicate artifact,” Monty said, returning the bow. “I will make sure it is kept safe.”

  “It…it is very safe.” She gestured with a shaking hand, forming a teleportation circle, which collapsed a few seconds later.

  It reminded me of my adventures with the Incantation of Light. My magic-missile orbs suffered from the same condition, premature energy expulsion. In my case, it was a matter of inexperience. For Hekla, an ice mage, the loss of concentration required for her to miss a basic teleportation spell meant she was mentally out of it.

  Monty stepped closer to her. “Do you need assistance with your circle?”

  She tried to gesture again, failed, and gave him one distinct, slight nod. I can only imagine the difficulty and humility it took for her to execute that nod.

  Monty returned her nod and bowed. “Thank you for allowing me the honor of assisting you in this task.” He gestured and formed a teleportation circle. “This will return you to my home and remain long enough to transport you and your sisters to your home.”

  “You have my gratitude, Tristan Montague.” She stepped into the circle. “I can see now why my sister held you in such high regard. I am ready.”

  Tristan nodded again and gestured, and Hekla, elder sister of the Jotnar, disappeared.

  “What happened to her?” I looked at LD, who was smiling and shaking his head. “What did you do?”

  “Me? I didn’t do anything.” LD held his hands up in surrender. “She tried to remove the neutralizer from the artifact room.”

  Monty shook his head. “How far did she get?”

  “We used the neutralizer to reset the Black Heart. It took both TK and I to calibrate it correctly. I even had to consult Ziller to make sure we didn’t shift this plane out of existence. It now keeps the room and Fordey in a paradoxed juxtaposition across every plane.”

  “Did it give her a headache? Wait, how did you consult Ziller? I thought he was in the Repository back at the Sanctuary?”

  “He is, but he’s keeping it untethered. Said it was safer this way. He mentioned something about keeping it at the Sanctuary for certain hours and then moving it.”

  “Like the Moving Market?”

  “On steroids,” LD added. “He can make the Repository appear anywhere or anywhen. This is Professor Ziller we’re talking about.”

  “So the Black Heart stopped her?”

  “You could say that,” LD said with a chuckle. “She took a few steps in and suddenly found herself face to face with all of the Heklas across a thousand parallel universes.”

  “How did that stop her? She’s an ice mage.”

  “The moment she stepped into the temporal wave of the Black Heart, she was scattered across the planes. Doesn’t matter what kind of magic you wield, that experience can shatter your mind. If I hadn’t pulled her out, she’d be lost and insane.”

  “No wonder she looked like a wreck. I wonder what she saw.”

  “She experienced hundreds of lifetimes in the span of a few seconds. That sort of thing can undo a mind. I don’t think she’ll be back to ‘test’ the security of the neutralizer again.”

  The vault door opened, and another Wordweaver stepped into the corridor. “The Triads are now complete. We may commence.”

  LD put a hand on Monty’s shoulder. “TK is going to make this hurt like hell.” He looked away for a second. “Understand the so
urce and realize it’ll be over…eventually. Even if it doesn’t feel like it.”

  Monty nodded. “I understand the source.”

  LD looked at me and then down at Peaches. “Let’s go. Shieldbearers go in first.”

  “First? What do you mean we go in first? What are we supposed to do?”

  “Just follow my lead.”

  THREE

  THE VAULT DOOR was covered in black runes and gave off a ‘run away now while you can’ vibe. LD gestured and the runes covering the door disappeared as we crossed the threshold. We stepped inside, and I noticed not much had changed since my last visit.

  The far wall still held a few craters in an odd sequence, and the ceiling was covered in jagged valleys. On the wall closest to me, I saw what appeared to be blast residue. Peaches’ eye-beam trench was a fresh addition to the destruction.

  Opposite the door, on the far side of the floor, sat seven chairs on a dais obscured in shadow. I had a brief flashback to the Penumbra Consortium and shuddered. Ever since London, daises and mages made me uncomfortable.

  Wordweavers stood in every corner. Their white robes had brocades of red and gold, which meant they were Master Weavers. Their impassive faces betrayed no emotion and kicked up the creepy vibe a few notches.

  “Don’t you ever fix this room?” I looked around at the wholesale destruction. “Place still looks like a warzone.”

  “It’s a Danger Room. It’s meant to look like this, because I actually use it for dangerous items. It’s not a glorified meeting place.”

  “Like the Hall of the Ten?”

  “Don’t even get me started on that…not my idea.” He grumbled. “Who needs a room full of statues of themselves? Ego much?”

  I looked around. “Well, this place could use a renovation. At least fix the destruction so no one trips.”

  “We will in a sec,” LD said. “It was a logistical nightmare, arranging to have Fordey as the site of the Reckoning. TK refused to go overseas.”

  “Why? It would have been easy to port over or create a rift. Even a flight…”

  “Her choice, and she won’t fly. Something about her last flight being enough of an adventure to last her a few centuries.” He glanced knowingly at me. “Since she called for the Reckoning, she had the choice of location. We were just waiting for everyone to get here before casting.”

  Figures assembled on the dais and began sitting in the large chairs. The light made it hard to make out who was sitting where.

  “Is this the way it’s settled between mages?”

  “No, back in the day, when two mages fought, they would find a deserted field and battle until only one walked away. Which was fine, except it wasn’t always a deserted field, and not every mage fought honorably. The Reckonings were created to stop the power plays.”

  “And the destruction to populated areas, I’m sure.”

  “Better to contain the destruction than have to deal with authorities and cleanup. Not that you or Tristan would ever unleash unimaginable amounts of power inside a populated city or anything.”

  “Why does everyone assume I have something to do with the destructive forces of a mage?”

  “Good question. Maybe we should ask René while she waits for her new Strix?”

  “That was Dex’s fault.”

  “Funny, I don’t remember Dex forming the orb that punched through the plane. How does that saying go?” A smile briefly crossed his lips. “When it happens once, it’s an accident, when it happens as often as it does to you and Tristan, I call that a way of life. But hey, whatever lets you sleep at night.”

  I remained silent and took in the proceedings. Most of the figures were seated, and some of the Wordweavers moved around the dais and the floor.

  The room was about half the size of a typical high-school gymnasium. The wooden floors were surprisingly intact, given the state of the rest of the room. Bright sunlight cascaded in from the large, thick, barred windows high up on one of the walls. The smell of old wood and lemon wax filled my lungs, transporting me back to my teens for a moment.

  Power emanated from the room. I wondered if the addition of the neutralizer enhanced or augmented the power I felt. It had a subtle undertone of barely contained destruction. Even with all of that, the power felt in the Danger Room paled in comparison to the brain-crushing force of the artifact in the Black Heart room.

  This power was subtle and enveloped me. I turned, trying to find the source, but couldn’t pinpoint it. I noticed the pulsing of the subtle runes covering the walls and floors. The entire room was giving off waves of ambient energy.

  The last time I was here, it was a large open space with only one entrance. This time I noticed there were two additional entrances on either side of the room. I wondered how large Fordey Boutique really was.

  Once all the figures were seated, LD stepped to the center of the floor and motioned for me to join him. I stepped next to him, and he cleared his throat.

  He faced the seven people and bowed, elbowing me in the side to remind me I was supposed to bow with him.

  “The Triads are complete,” he said once we finished bowing. “We can commence the Reckoning.”

  The woman in the center stood and stepped forward, apart from the other six. She wore a golden robe with red brocade. Runes glimmered on the fabric of the robe. She must have been one of the leaders of the Wordweavers to wear that robe. She returned LD’s bow and began gesturing. She looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place her face or the voice.

  “Shieldbearers, please take your designated places while I prepare the combat area.”

  LD and I walked over to the designated area beside the dais. Two Wordweavers bookended us as we stood next to the wall. I looked up and was able to make out the faces of the seated figures.

  I saw what I guessed to be Monty’s Triad. Dex sat between Michiko and Jimmy the Butcher. All of them wore formal attire, looked deadly serious, and ignored my attempt to get their attention.

  I was about to wave at them when the woman in the golden robe gave me a ‘get it together’ look, and the realization hit.

  “Oh, shit,” I said under my breath, lowering my arm slowly. “That’s Dahvina?”

  LD nodded. “This is a big deal. She requested to officiate this Reckoning. Usually it’s just one of the Master Weavers.” He glanced at a corner. “I saw at least ten of them, not counting Dahvina.”

  “She’s the leader of the Wordweavers. Why would she be here?”

  “The Montagues are well known and respected in the mage community. Except for Dex, he’s kind of infamous.”

  “That much I can believe.”

  “And TK is, well…TK. She’s one of the Ten. The Wordweavers wouldn’t exist without the Ten. We saved their asses.”

  “You what?” I said, keeping my voice low. “How did you do that?”

  “Long story for a different time.”

  “Who’s that?” I pointed with my chin over to the tall man in TK’s Triad. “I don’t recognize him.”

  “You wouldn’t. That’s Kristman Dos. He’s a weretiger. Leader of Eastern Streak and one of the Ten. He’s ferocious and deadly, keeps mostly to himself unless we have a mission.”

  “The Eastern Streak sounds like a basketball team.”

  LD stared at me for a good five seconds before speaking. “When you go out on these adventures with Tristan and Dex, do you get hit in the head a lot?”

  “No more than usual, why?”

  “Sometimes you sound brain-damaged,” LD said with a shake of his head and a sigh.

  “Monty says the same thing, just without words.”

  “I bet. Anyway a streak is a group of tigers. The Eastern Streak is a pack of weretigers that stretches along the Eastern Seaboard of the United States from Maine to Florida. He leads them.”

  “That must be a lot of weretigers.”

  “Last time we checked, it was eight hundred strong, probably close to over a thousand by now.”

  “He basical
ly leads an army of weretigers?”

  LD nodded. “An army that has declared him fit to lead. Weretigers are not democratic.”

  I looked over to where Chi sat. Her face was a stone mask. “Neither are vampires. Only the strongest, most cunning, and ruthless can lead.”

  “Well, he’s the one we were waiting for. I don’t know how they found him. He’s been missing for over a year- running with the streak, doing who knows what.”

  Kristman Dos wore an Armani slate gray suit, no tie, finished off with a pair of Hermes Rafael loafers. His salt-and-pepper hair hung to his shoulders, and his eyes gleamed orange when he looked in my direction. His expression was one of amused boredom, but his eyes held an intense ferocity. It made sense that he was part of TK’s Triad.

  “A mage, a shifter, and an immortal. He’s the shifter, who are the other two?”

  The energy in the room fluctuated, and I saw trails of white runes flow from Dahvina’s hands.

  “You’d better watch yourself and hold on to something. Wordweavers can get carried away when casting.”

  “What’s she doing?”

  “Preparing the room for combat. I told her I would do it, but she insisted, and TK agreed.” He shook his head and held on to the railing near the dais. “This is going to be over the top, just wait.”

  The destruction in the walls and ceiling repaired itself. The floor transformed from wood to gleaming white marble. The walls transformed to pink marble to coordinate with the floor. The dais rose several feet as a marble platform materialized under it and the entire floor sank about a foot. It gave the room a gladiatorial feel, if gladiators fought in the halls of a museum.

  “That’s quite a change.” I looked around at the newly redone Danger Room. The polished marble shone in the sunlight. Runes danced across the floors and walls in strange and erratic patterns. “Can they come in here and make changes like they own the place?”

  “We refused to be owned,” LD said with a grin. “But I can be rented if the price is right.”

  “You’re worse than Dex.”

  Braziers burning incense stood next to the dais, filling the room with the heady smell of lotus blossoms. For a second, I panicked, checking my mark to make sure I hadn’t accidentally pressed it and summoned Karma.