“Nothing,” I growled.
Unfazed, Fallon’s eagerness caused his magic to fail, and a fog of shadowy mist spilled all around him. “I’ll give you the weight of your dragon form in rubies.”
“Bah,” I scoffed. “I wouldn’t give it up even if you gave me enough rubies to drown a whale. Besides, the trident is useless to you without—”
“The shield and crown?” he cut in. Fallon leaned closer into the mirror. “What if I told you I had them?”
My jaw fell open. “You have King Mokas’ shield?”
“Yes.”
“And his crown?”
He nodded. The rest of the room was obscured by a rising black mist. “You possess his trident. If we put the three pieces together… ” He trailed off.
“We could open his tomb,” I finished. King Mokas the Blight was a legendary woodland dragon with a lifespan of nearly 3,000 years. He had used magic to create an oasis with streets made of pure gold and abundant fruit hanging from every vine in the middle of a barren desert, and from there he had created the nation of Mokyr. He had a reputation for bestowing enormous wealth on any wizard who could increase the force of his magic, out of his insatiable need for more power. It was rumored that, in his final years, his magic was so potent that even his shadow would bring ruin to any kingdom that stood in his way. According to legend, when he passed away, his trove and all the magical objects contained inside were locked up in a tomb somewhere in the desert.
I had no intention of releasing the tomb’s key. Not when there was so much treasure at stake. Fallon and I stood in silence for a moment, assessing one another. “You know, King Mokas was a notoriously paranoid man. The traps he put in place will be far too daunting for a young dragon.”
His eyes narrowed. “Yes, and the curses he undoubtedly placed on his treasure would be impossible for anyone to remove, unless they’d absorbed the magic of a powerful lich.”
Dammit. He was right. Even if I was successful in stealing the other two keys from him, venturing out on my own would be a recipe for disaster. If we worked together, though, we might just have a shot at winning. Not to mention, there were so few dragons left it was highly unlikely that we would ever have to contend with one another for territory. We could split the treasure evenly and go our separate ways. Or even form a united kingdom fierce enough to rival King Mokas himself.
I straightened my shoulders and held his gaze. “Fallon Ozul, will you join me on a quest to retrieve King Mokas’ treasure?”
Fallon grinned. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Just then, Madam Shadow opened the door to the room. She waved away the black smoke around her and coughed. “Honey, could you tone it down on the smoke? It’s wafting into the next room and we’re in the middle of book club.”
“We?” Fallon asked, turning to his wife. “Who is we? Did you let other people into my hoard?”
She set a hand on her hip and waved more smoke away. “Well yeah, you spent weeks digging a hole in the yard like a dog with a bone. People got curious. Low and behold, Brie and I find an entire library under the farm. What else was there to do but start a book club?” Her eyes widened when she took notice of the mirror. “Oh, is that Dante? Hi Dante!” She waved, then rushed forward and lifted the mirror and turned it around to inspect it. “How are you in a mirror?”
“Hello Cin,” I called, waving back.
“Give that back,” Fallon growled, reaching for her.
She ducked out of his reach. “No way, you didn’t even tell me you two would be chatting today. Besides, I’m sure the gang would love to say hello too.” With that, she darted off to another room, Fallon hot on her trail. She nudged open a door and held the mirror above her head. “Everybody, say hi to Dante!”
A chorus of greetings sounded off from a group of women sitting on a sunken oval sofa in the center of the room. I recognized Brie, Holly and Usha, but drew a blank on the other two. Fallon’s library was decorated in a similar fashion to mine, though the shadow dragon seemed to greatly prefer darker tones. A little too Gothic for my taste, but to each his own.
“Hey Dante!” Felix called from the bar.
“What the hell is he doing in here?” Fallon snapped, pointing to the werewolf.
“Felix joined the book club, obviously. He also makes the best cocktails,” Cin replied.
As if to prove her point, Felix leapt over the bar, shaking a silver canister. Usha held up her drink to him and Felix topped it off with a grin. “So,” he began, turning to look into the mirror. “Did you piss off your woman already?”
“No,” I snapped.
“Oh, but you found her?” Usha asked excitedly.
Felix laughed and shook his head. “And so the time has come for you to ask your good buddy Felix to help you out.” He sighed and waved a hand at me. “Not to worry, Dante, we’ll fix that attitude problem of yours in no time.”
Before I could respond, Fallon snatched the mirror from his wife. “He called me, not you lot. Now if you excuse us, we are right in the middle of a conversation.” Fallon turned and made his way out of the room, then paused at the door to glare daggers at Felix. “And if you scuff my silver, I will gut you like a fish.”
He returned to his study and locked the door behind him. “What were we talking about? Oh right, selecting a gift for your wife and then joining forces to find King Mokas’ treasure.”
