The Dragon Knight and the Future by D. C. Clemens

Author:D. C. Clemens [Clemens, D. C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-01-11T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

“Can we trust her not to expose us? asked Kaithka.

“To a point. We will have to establish stricter watches once in our rooms, but I don’t believe her to be the gossiping type. Regort, do you understand her directions?”

“Assuming this is an actual physical address this time, yes. Hmm, if this is right, then this is in the city’s largest whore den.”

A rasping chuckle from Balgog. “Maybe this woman is sending Saber a message!”

“A good mate should be blunter.”

“I doubt she put any thought into it,” I said. “Besides-”

“Speck is coming,” said Alex, waving over Terut from our corner.

Presuming the young beastman’s quick pace implied encouraging news, I asked him, “We have a meeting?”

“Yeah. We have to wait for him in this restaurant near Pioneer before sundown. Wanted a public place. He’ll give us a code phrase about dinner. And we can’t be carrying weapons. He’s out if he sees weapons.”

“Pioneer?”

“It’s a big, um, school thing. Mostly for humans and krewen.”

“It’s in the richest part of Qualcun,” said Regort. “Enforcer eyes will always be on us.”

“Doesn’t sound like a place we’ll encounter another exploding building,” I said. “Still, I’m guessing an armed group with beastmen in it might-”

“Draw attention,” finished Balgog. “Yes, yes, how you so dread the idea.”

“Yet he gets himself into a stranger’s gunfight,” said Alex.

I exhaled a defeated sigh. “All right, you made your point. Tell you what, I won’t punish anyone for getting us into unexpected trouble, but that doesn’t mean we should stop taking precautions. Balgog, Regort, one of you write down Nix’s directions for Terut, then go and secure rooms for us in case she contacts us early. A young beastman surrounded by two humans and krewen shouldn’t prove too sensational.”

With the older beastmen soon on their way, the rest of us headed for Qualcun’s most opulent district, or what a few called “Little Eshren.” Many more referred to it as “Eshren’s Bitch.” Being that it lied near the southernmost section of the elongated city, we needed to take a train to get to the meeting place with time to spare. Overall, trains here did not seem too different from those in Grenhath, though the red one we went into had another level above us. Its wheels rolled on tracks in a shallow trench.

To prevent large groups of the rabble from entering the district, the train did not enter the district itself, so we still needed to walk through a handful of streets to get to the better guarded area. While not clustered, the tall towers that were around looked sleeker and gleamed brighter with their whiter walls and cleaner glass. As for the roomier streets, they experienced a higher number of cars speeding on them, and with less unpredictability in their movements. Despite the mechanical carriages, the lack of train stations and sparser crowds made for a quieter city.

Alex, Terut, and I handed our weapons to the krewen when we found our way near the restaurant. I removed my cloak so it could be wrapped around the scabbard.

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