“Drosselmeyer. I was foolish enough to trust him, and he stole my egg and ran.” Jax froze as cold realization flooded his veins. He looked down, his hands patting and searching the mattress around him for his satchel. “Where is it?”
“Where’s what?”
“My satchel.” He kicked off the blanket and stood, then nearly doubled over as his vision blurred and he suddenly felt light-headed.
“Woah.” Dmitri gripped his shoulder and eased him back down to the mattress. “Let’s slow down a bit.”
Jax shook his head. “I need to find it. You didn’t happen to remove it, did you?”
“Whatever you have on you now is what Odessa brought you with. My physician looked you over, but he didn’t touch your clothes.”
Jax closed his eyes as he tried again to focus his magical senses, listening closely for the dragon’s song. When he once more heard nothing but the out-of-tune, stringent music, he grimaced and returned his attention to Dmitri. “Odessa?”
“The friend of mine who pulled you from the lake. She’s the Assistant Keeper of the Royal Menagerie.”
“Can you take me to her?”
Dmitri eyed him suspiciously. “Why?”
“I need to find my satchel.”
“Because of the wizard?”
He could hear the wary skepticism in Dmitri’s voice, and Jax chose to combat it with honesty. “The wizard is a problem for later. Right now, I just want to get my egg.”
“I thought you were looking for a satchel.”
“The egg was in the satchel. I was wearing it when I fell.”
“And you think there’s a chance it’s still intact?”
Jax nodded and pushed to his feet, slower and more cautiously than before. “It would take a lot more than a little swim to damage this egg. Can you take me to her?”
“I’m not letting you anywhere near Odessa.” Dmitri crossed his arms. “Other than some ridiculous nonsense about wizards and eggs, you haven’t given a compelling reason for your presence in my country or explained what you were doing when you fell into my lake.”
His choice of words made Jax pause, and he looked at Dmitri with fresh curiosity. “Your lake?Yourcountry? Is there perhaps a fancy title that goes with your name, Dmitri?”
“Perhaps,” Dmitri hedged.
“A man of secrets, I see.” Jax nodded slowly. “Alright then, what do I need to do in order to convince you to take me to see this Odessa person?”
“You’re going to answer some questions.”
“Marvelous! I love knowing ahead of time what I’m going to do. It helps me plan.” Jax pasted a disarming grin on his face. “What’s the first question?”
Dmitri raised an unimpressed brow. “Don’t you want to sit?”
“Aha—an easy one! We’re off to an excellent start. No, thank you. I would rather stand if you don’t mind. What’s next?”
“Who are you?”
“I already told you: my name is Jax.”
“Surname?”
“Papageno.”
“Occupation?”
