Chapter 34
Nidhogg had the sleeping Reaper Fragment slung across her back. Lilith, the Little White Dragon, followed close. They slipped out of the chamber where the Golden Dragon had slumbered, a room drowned in molten iron and congealed into a single block. They headed toward the place where they’d dropped in.
“Before I came down, I agreed on a rendezvous with Satan,” Nidhogg said, turning to Lilith. The Black Dragon dug a key from her clothes and pressed it into Lilith’s hand. “She gave me this. Find you, then take you straight there.”
“How much do you think she guessed?” The Little White Dragon pocketed the key, small chin lifting as she looked up at Nidhogg. “A Golden Dragon showing up—an ancient beast said to have died thousands of years ago—wins its revival match and hits a city. Good thing the spot I smashed into wasn’t crowded with Demon civilians, or cleaning this up would be a mess.”
“Probably a lot,” Nidhogg replied offhand. “She knows Bosaklie better than us. She’d see the Golden Dragon’s target was the Reaper Fragment. Giving me the key is likely her way to frame the Fragment issue. As soon as I took the Golden Dragon’s soul away, she rushed off to steady order and repair the broken city. She’s likely wrapped it up by now.”
“Good. Let’s get moving then.” Lilith nodded. She stepped ahead of Nidhogg. With the Fragment on her back, the Black Dragon couldn’t lead well, so the Little White Dragon took her hand and walked point. A pale star‑glow kindled in Lilith’s palm, peeling back the dark and sketching the path ahead.
“Where’d Litt go?” She didn’t look back. The question floated to Nidhogg as they walked.
“Right after the Golden Dragon’s remnant struck, Satan alerted Abaddon,” Nidhogg said, squeezing through a narrow seam beside Lilith. She bent hard at the waist, voice muffled by the press of metal. “Litt went with that kid and hid in a pocket space.”
“Good. Let them stay tucked in a pocket realm. If the schemers behind the Golden Dragon snatched them, we’d have headaches for days.” Lilith approved with a small nod.
She led Nidhogg onto a brighter corridor. Since leaving the battlefield chamber, the pair had burrowed through a maze of pipes and shadowed cracks. Lilith managed, weaving past the occasional obstruction. Nidhogg suffered. Even hunched, the Black Dragon barely fit, and she was hauling a Reaper Fragment nearly as big as the Little White Dragon.
Thankfully, they stepped out of the cramped run. They followed the route tied to the key Satan had given Nidhogg.
The street held only a scattering of Demons. The tide of residents Lilith had met on the way to the library had ebbed away. From the houses along the road came bursts of loud talk and the thrum of machinery. The Eternal City was waking to its day’s work.
Lilith and Nidhogg walked the main drag. Curiosity shimmered in the White Dragon’s gaze as she took in the scene. Nidhogg kept pace at her side, eyes combing the way ahead.
“I think we’re here.” They were about to pass a familiar corner when the Black Dragon cut in, halting Lilith.
“This looks right. The pattern on that lock matches the one on the key.” Nidhogg pointed to a door tucked in a shadowed nook. Lilith drew the key. She matched the etched pattern to the lines on the door. They were almost identical.
“Should be it.” The Little White Dragon slid the key into the lock. She turned it with a soft click and pushed the door open.
“Ah, finally.” The narrow interior hit her like déjà vu, a dream rush of Morris’s tiny office under the ground. Seated beside the couch was Lord Satan, and the sight tugged up the memory of an old Vampire friend.
“You Necromancer Cultists and your descendants all love doing business in little boxed rooms?” Lilith ushered Nidhogg inside. With a flick of her slender tail, she closed the door behind the Black Dragon, then sat across from Satan.
“What?” Satan tilted her head, not quite catching Lilith’s jab. She let it pass and fixed on the thing across Nidhogg’s back. “You brought it. So the target of that sudden revival was the Fragment?”
“The Golden Dragon was after the Reaper Fragment. It tried to eat me mid‑way, but failed.” Lilith nodded, giving her answer. She added, “We think the Golden Dragon isn’t acting alone. There’s likely someone nudging it. Otherwise, a dragon stomped to pieces by Gaia for thousands of years wouldn’t just crawl out and stir trouble for no reason.”
“Fair point. I’ll keep an eye out.” Satan nodded. She picked up a few files from the table. “I already suspected someone besides the Golden Dragon was meddling in Bosaklie.”
“How so?” the Little White Dragon asked.
“Bosaklie’s temperature plunged. Hard.” Satan set a sheet in front of Lilith and Nidhogg. On it ran a jag of a line graph. She traced it with a finger.
“This is the internal temperature three hours before the Golden Dragon began moving.” Her finger tapped one point. Then she slid to another, where the numbers fell off a cliff. “And this is the data from thirty minutes before its appearance. A cliff‑drop. Even the furnace getting cracked and the Fragment getting yanked out doesn’t explain this. After that, the temperature kept dropping in fits. That part tracks with the furnace leak.”
“Temperature, huh. So someone with frost‑craft, someone who can pull heat out of air, joined the operation.” The Little White Dragon rested her chin on her hand. Her thoughts fanned out like breath fogging glass.
“Why are you looking at me?” In the middle of her mulling, Lilith felt Nidhogg’s stare. She lifted her small head, puzzled.
“Tell me. Could the drop in Bosaklie’s temperature be tied to this?” The Black Dragon pointed at Lilith.
No—more precisely, she pointed at Lilith’s ear.
The Little White Dragon’s hand moved on instinct to the ornament at her lobe.
A shard of ice‑crystal.
In a cold flicker, she understood.
