“She did,” Justin said, still scowling. “She just doesn’t consider swords to be ‘good stuff.’ Why else do you think she let us play with them? Jewelry’s another matter. Remember the time Jessica tried to touch one of her diamond tiaras?”
Julius remembered it fondly. “I thought her hair would never grow back.”
They both snickered. Marci, however, was still staring at the sword in Julius’s hands like he’d threatened to kill her with it.
“What I want to know is how a relic like that ended up with you guys at all,” she said, pointing at Tyrfing. “That’s an honest-to-God ancient artifact! A girl in my History of Lore class gave a freaking presentation about how the Tyrfing legend was a prototypical example of a cursed weapon cycle.” Then, like she’d just realized what she’d said, Marci took a quick step away from the naked blade. “Wait, isn’t Tyrfing cursed to kill a man every time it’s drawn?”
“Oh, that was broken ages ago,” Julius said, sheathing the sword again to prove it. “Mother would never let something as valuable as a still-functional cursed weapon out of her private hoard. I’m pretty sure she took it from another dragon during the centuries she spent in Europe preparing to kill her father the Quetzalcoatl and take his lands. Considering how plain it looks, though, I’m pretty sure the only reason she bothered to keep it is because it’s famous.”
“I don’t care if it’s a sharpened stick, so long as you actually use it,” Justin grumped. “Youaregoing to use it, right? Because I’m not risking Mother’s stuff if you’re just going to stand around talking to everyone again.”
“I don’t think talking’s going to be an option this time,” Julius said sadly, undoing his belt and sliding it through the loop on the sword’s red scabbard. “But this should be good enough. Tyrfing might not be as powerful as it used to be, but it still never misses. So long as I know what I’m aiming at, all I have to do is swing and the sword will do the rest.” He grinned. “Sounds about right for my skill level.”
Justin made a disgusted sound and walked out of the small treasury, locking the door behind him, to Marci’s evident dismay. “So,” he said when they were all out in the living room again. “What’s the plan?”
“We haven’t gotten the location yet,” Julius said. “But we know it’s a trap. One for Marci specifically, set by a seer.”
“You pissed off a seer?” Justin gave Marci a scathing look. “That was dumb.”
“I didn’t do it on purpose!” she cried. “And she’s not pissed atme. She wants the Kosmo—”
“Well, if a seer’s pissed, I don’t know if there’s anything we can do,” Justin said over her, walking across the room to grab his shirt off the back of the couch. “They command the future. We might as well try to beat back the ocean.”
Julius frowned, thinking back to what Bob had told them in the car. “I don’t think that’s right. They don’t command the future any more than we do. They’re just able to see what’s coming.”
“And push you in front of it,” Marci added, crossing her arms over her chest. “You know, as much as I hate to say this, I think I might actually have to agree with Captain Bring Down. If seers really do work like Brohomir says, I can’t see how we’re going to win. If this Estella lady can see all our decisions before we make them, then it doesn’t matter how great a plan we come up with—she’s already seen it and thought up a counter.”
“Unless she knew we’d know she knew,” his brother added, pulling on his shirt. “Then she’ll have counters for both our best plan and the one we’re going to come up after that because we know that she knows the first one.” He stopped, frowning like he’d just confused himself. “This is too complicated. It’s probably best to just assume she has a counter for every contingency and leave it at that.”
“I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves,” Julius said gently. “First, even a seer can’t plan foreveryoutcome. There are millions of variables, it’s just not physically possible. Second, Bob said specifically that Estella was rushed, and therefore being sloppy.” And the more he thought about that, the more he realized that Bob’s seemingly random seer crash course in the car wasn’t random at all. He’d been feeding Julius the information he needed to make a decision, a decision a seer could see. And then he’d promptlyleft, probably so Julius could make his decision where Bob wasn’t blocking him, which meant whatever Julius decided, Bob had wanted Estella to see it, and…and…
And this was where seer plotting got to be too much for him. “Give me a second,” he muttered, pulling out his phone. When the AR flashed on, he pulled up the last message he’d received from Bob and began typing.Can Estella see us right now?
The reply was immediate.No. My brothers = my turf. This decision is purely for my own edification. Just try to forget I’m watching your every move while silently judging you and make the decision as you normally would based on the information provided. Thank You! <3 <3
Julius didn’t think the hearts were strictly necessary. Of course, he didn’t think any of this was necessary. This situation was hard enough without his brother getting all cryptic on him. Doing nothing wasn’t an option, though, and he turned back to Justin and Marci with a heavy sigh.
They’d been bickering about something he hadn’t been listening to while he’d been on the phone. When they saw him looking, though, they both went quiet, turning to him expectantly. That threw Julius for a moment. Marci he could understand—unless the subject was magic, she was generally happy to listen to his ideas—but Justinneverlooked to him for orders. Then again, the parts of being a dragon that required skills other than smashing had never been Justin’s forte. He was probably just letting Julius do all the work of planning before he tried to take over. Whatever the reason, though, Justin was listening, and that made Julius more determined than ever not to mess this up.
“Estella’s moving quickly,” he said. “And no one, not even dragons, not evenseers, can move fast without sacrificing something. She simply does not have the time to cover every contingency, and if we want to break her trap, our best bet is to take advantage of that. We need to do something she won’t have bothered to prepare for, something completely unexpected.”
His brother frowned. “You mean like crashing in through the roof?”
“Crashing in from any direction isexactlythe sort of thing she’ll expect,” Julius said. “So is just going along and giving up Marci for Katya.”
“Does that mean we’re not doing that?” Justin asked, eying Marci, who’d gone very still. “Because trading a human for a dragon sounds like a pretty good—”
“No,” Julius snapped. “We’re absolutelynotgoing to sacrifice Marci. In fact, I don’t plan to sacrifice anything. We’re just going tolooklike we have.” The first wisps of a plan were already taking shape in his head, and he turned to his mage. “Do you think you can make yourself a full body illusion and a strong ward in”—he checked the time—“twenty minutes?”
“The illusion shouldn’t be a problem if it’s just me and I can find a good source to pull off,” she said. “But what kind of ward are you talking about?”
Julius smiled. “One against bullets.”
Marci pursed her lips in an O and began digging through her bag for her casting chalk, dislodging Ghost in the process.
Justin jumped back with a curse as the see-through cat landed on his feet. “What is going on?” he cried. “Why does she need a ward against bullets? And why does your human have adead catin her purse?”
“I’ll explain everything in a second,” Julius said, clapping a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “But Justin, you’re a strong dragon, right?”
