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The hummingbird darted back to me, and he landed on my other shoulder. “Do true creations understand English?”
“They’re capable of learning languages,” he confirmed. “They’re magical in nature, and they adapt to the needs of those around them. You’re best suited for intellection companionship, so your bird will learn to understand you. You will find him easy enough to train. While flushing a toilet is beyond his abilities, he will be able to learn to use one. Simply show him, and he’ll figure it out readily enough. The true creations tend to pick up on those sorts of things. He might already know, as I can’t help but notice you have not been covered in droppings yet.”
“I’ve been afraid to check my hair.”
“Your hair has not been despoiled.”
That was a relief. “Thank you for Garnet. She’s wonderful.”
“And you are as wonderful as she.” Phillip turned his attention to my parents. “I trust you are satisfied with Garnet’s care?”
“Oh, we’re satisfied,” my father stated, and he smiled, reaching out to pet the carbunclo. “We did want to confirm Kinsley is a suitable caretaker for Garnet, but we are pleased with what we have seen. The hummingbird was a surprise, but it did not take us long to determine that she is incapable of mistreating an animal. When we arrived at her domicile, she was hard at work gathering the conjurations. She cleaned her whole street of them quite diligently. That Garnet assisted was all the evidence we needed.”
“I paid the kitten for her contribution,” Cedrick reported before his father had a chance to say a word. “I’ll register her in the bounty logbook tonight, but she’s already been paid. Kinsley is holding the funds.”
“That will work.” Phillip leaned over to look into Garnet’s eyes, once again stroking his hand along her head and back. “You keep taking good care of Kinsley, all right? She likes convincing everyone she’s tougher than even a titanium, but she’s got a soft heart.”
The carbunclo purred and nuzzled Phillip’s hand.
My father took the role of leader, and he considered the titanium dragon with his head tilted to the side, one of his ways of expressing his curiosity. “Still, I am surprised the Chileans sent her to you—and that they did not mind you gifting her to Kinsley.”
“Garnet has been displaced several times now,” Phillip admitted, straightening and turning to face my parents. “She is of Argentinean breeding, and she was given to the Chilean ruby clan for a favor owed. Garnet did not find the Chileans to be to her liking, and she started showing signs of stress and losing weight. She then came to us, and while we were able to get her weight up, it was clear she wasn’t happy. We tried to take a freer approach with her, and she showed interest in all those good deeds young Kinsley enjoys. I’ll admit, we’re relieved that Garnet has taken to Kinsley so well. She’s already showing better color and her fur is softening.”
I hadn’t noticed anything amiss with Garnet, and to comfort myself, I stroked the kitten and praised her for being a good girl.
“It’s of no fault of yours, Phillip,” my mother soothed, and she smiled at the titanium dragon. “Carbunclo know what they need to thrive, and it’s no fault of your family that Garnet has a more adventurous nature with a drive to do good in the world. She’s a helper, and she partners best with a helper. You can assist them by making sure they moderate their helping to tolerable degrees. I am sure they will both try to help, perhaps a little more than they should.”
Busted. I assumed my father had snitched on me about the killings I investigated, although I would be picking their brains about how best to proceed with the investigation.
My morning checks of the news had come up with nothing, and Cecilia hadn’t reported any additional attacks.
Until I found more clues or something else happened, I would be grasping at straws.
“You’re truly satisfied?” Phillip asked, and he eyed my parents with wary regard.
Interesting. I would need to interrogate my parents to find out what they’d done to intimidate the titanium dragons. Once I found out why, when, and how, I’d determine how long I spent yelling at them for being, well, dragons.
My mother continued to smile. “We’re truly satisfied. We will be going to dinner with the girl to better familiarize ourselves with Garnet, that way she can locate us should there be any future problems. I doubt there will be. We are concerned about these attacks, though. We’ve read about them, but it seems the severity is worse than we thought?”
“It’s been suspiciously quiet for the past few days, but people are avoiding going to the shrine alone. Tourism is down, and those who have expressed interest in petitioning have steered clear. Kinsley has no interest in petitions or pilgrimages, so I feel she is at little risk, but it is a concern. There haven’t been any dragons attacked, but dragon-kin and humans alike are being targeted. At this point, nobody knows anything about the killer.” The titanium dragon winced. “Or killers. We don’t even know if it’s a group yet.”
My mother’s gaze turned to me. “And you know of these killings?”
“I’ve been following the news, but that’s all I know about it.” As neither Phillip nor Cedrick knew about my camera yet, I opted against informing them I’d taken photos of the entire site already. In case someone was watching, I hoped my next words would cover my tracks a little. “It seems like an interesting tourist spot, but I don’t see the point beyond that.”
“Well, we’re already here,” Phillip said, and he heaved a sigh. “We may as well introduce you to one of the glories of Dragon Heights.” With a dismayed look, he stared up the hill. “Exercise. How dreadful.”
My parents laughed, and my father thumped Phillip’s shoulder. “You’ll survive, old chap. And if you don’t, I can probably manage to carry you down.”
“My pride would not survive such an indignity. I will manage. But I question our ancestors for their decision to torment us with steep and narrow paths to reach the shrines.”
“They built it before the days of tourism,” my mother replied, shaking her head. “The point was that pilgrims should be willing to test their bodies and their spirit before undertaking the pilgrimage. Petitioning is easier. It’s safer. Parents are far more willing to put in the effort to help their children petition than they are to encourage a pilgrimage. Only the desperate, the brave, or the foolish embark on a pilgrimage nowadays.”
Once I got my parents alone, I would find out if my parents believed me to be desperate, brave, foolish, or all three. Knowing them, they would answer with all three. “It seems there are many a desperate, brave, and foolish people in Dragon Heights. There have been more than a few deaths.”
I’d read about at least twenty men having been murdered, and I suspected there were more I hadn’t found buried in the news yet.
After ditching my parents, I would review my notes, get a solid body count, and find out what connected the victims—and I would look into their records to see if somebody had decided to be a vigilante.