“Yes, König Alric,” she continued.
The dragon king smiled at her, and Ravi nearly cackled. Usually, Alric would invite a person to use his given name, but not this time.
“You’re welcome. Like I said, I appreciate the diligence with which the police have investigated this matter, but I’m not sure that you will be much help. As I have explained to Chief Maier, this is a dragon matter, and we handle our own problems. It has been in the best interest of humans, mages, and dragons for us to take care of things in such a way.” Alric paused and his smile took on an edge. “I’m sure you would prefer it if dragons remained out of human affairs.”
Kristopher Maier actually shuddered. Ada managed to conceal her emotions a little better, but there was no missing the way she paled at the thought of ancient dragons suddenly meddling in human affairs.
Ravi nearly rolled his eyes at the thought. Like dragons wanted that kind of nightmare. They had enough on their plates and certainly didn’t need the chaotic mess that came with humans and their politics.
“Yes,” Ada started and then cleared her throat. “This is new territory for all of us, and I can understand your desire to have complete control over this situation, but you must also understand that the German government is now concerned. This incident could have easily injured humans, considering how many human reporters are now camped outside your walls.”
Not like any of them really wanted all those reporters hanging around.
“In addition, the people of Germany are very proud to discover the Burkhard Dragon Clan calls our country home. We all wish to make sure that you remain safe and happy here.”
“Hmmm…nicely done,” Gunter murmured softly, and Alric snorted.
“Yes, very nicely,” the king agreed. “Let’s see how much we can help each other without stepping on each other’s toes.”
“I’m sorry to say that it won’t be as much as you’d likely hoped,” Ada admitted. She sighed and shoved one hand through her dark hair, pushing it back from her face. “We’ve managed to track the deceased woman that you identified as the suicide bomber back to the German-Czech border. She left a pretty clear trail, coming in. We are still working our way through all the red tape required to allow us to pursue the information into the Czech Republic. Once we can, we are confident we will be able to track down exactly where she came from and her group’s current hiding place.”
“How long?”
Ada didn’t even flinch at Alric’s harsh tone. She shrugged. “A few more days at least.”
Ravi clenched his teeth. Another few days before they could locate where the Jaeggi might be hiding? Or even where they had been hiding? There was a damn good chance that group of Jaeggi had moved on already.
“Is there anything else that could be of help?” Alric demanded.
“Not at this time, Eure Majestät. We are working as quickly as we can to coordinate with Czechia and INTERPOL. Considering this was a bombing and the subject has clearly crossed international borders, we are viewing this as a potential terrorist plot.”
Alric’s frown deepened, and Ravi could easily imagine that his king was ready to have the two humans ejected from the castle so the dragons could handle this matter themselves. Ravi couldn’t agree more. They certainly had a lot less red tape and fewer silly hoops to jump through.
“I understand,” Alric said softly. “Is there anything else?”
“It’s actually about the bomb, Eure Majestät,” Kristopher began, his voice containing a nervous tremor. “We’ve analyzed the residue along with other data that we’ve collected. It’s not like any bomb we’ve run across before.”
“Likely because the bomb was part magic,” Ravi muttered.
“That’s the exact problem,” Ada practically growled at him. “The bomb was different enough that our normal detection devices and procedures won’t work. We need to be sure that we can identify such a bomb, to keep humans as well as mages and dragons safe in the future.”
Ravi watched Alric out of the corner of his eyes, noticing some of the angry tension drain out of his stiff shoulders and clenched jaw. Ada had a good point. While the Jaeggi were focused entirely on dragons and mages, there was nothing to indicate that they cared whether an innocent human got caught up in their schemes. The dragons would do what they could to keep the humans safe, but they couldn’t be everywhere.
Alric looked over at Dieter, his head tilted slightly. “Lisette?”
Dieter immediately nodded. “Yes, she could have some interesting insight into this predicament. I’ll reach out to her.”
The advisor pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and immediately started tapping out a message while Alric turned his attention back to the humans.
“He is informing our head mage about this problem. She may have some insight that will help you, or at least have a solution for potentially detecting these bombs.”
“A mage?” Ada asked skeptically.
“Of course. How else would you detect magic?” Gunter shot back.
Alric spoke for a few more minutes with Chief Maier about the influx of reporters and visitors to Sonthofen. The head of the local police was happy to say that things were relatively quiet in town from a crime perspective, but every hotel, hostel, and inn was fully booked. The local shops were buzzing with activity, and every resident of Sonthofen was proud to say they lived near dragons.
It was some small relief that at least the locals weren’t pulling out the torches and pitchforks. Ravi loved the little town of Sonthofen and didn’t want to think it wasn’t going to be safe for him to visit. At least for more reasons than just the Jaeggi.
But it wasn’t surprising to hear the residents were excited. Jana had said that all the shops that sold Burkhard’s health and beauty goods were completely sold out. Their online shop was also getting deluged with orders. The mages were working nearly around the clock to keep up with orders and pulling in any dragon they could lay their hands on to help. People wanted anything they could grab that was related to dragons and mages.
A brisk knock on the door was their only warning before Lisette breezed in with a swirl of long skirts. The pleasant smile on her face was nearly overshadowed by the determined look in her eyes. Her husband Dieter quickly made introductions before she was herding Kristopher and Ada back toward the door. They were going to explore the problem with a couple of other mages.
Ada stopped as she neared the door and looked back toward Alric. Her eyes moved slowly over each and every one of them, causing Ravi to raise one eyebrow at her.
“You’re all dragons?” she finally asked.
“Lisette is a mage, but yes, we’re all dragons,” Alric replied.
“And you’ve always been here?”
“Yep,” Ravi answered, flashing her a wide grin.
Inwardly, he tensed, waiting for some dark comment. She’d been the most standoffish since entering the room. He fully expected her to say something about dragons needing to bow to the human laws and how they weren’t welcome in her world, but she surprised him.
One corner of her mouth tilted up, and she nodded. “You’ve been missed.”
She turned and followed Lisette out of Alric’s office, closing the door behind her.