30. The Search
Mani and Ro work against the clock to find Agadart
The Queen’s Aerie is a MMF fantasy romance (romantic fantasy?) in 57 parts that I serialized throughout 2023/2024! If you are just now joining the story, you can catch up by starting here. Full story ToC here.
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Previously: Mani finally convinced Ro that something had gone terribly wrong...
Mani was not a man prone to panic. He had watched his younger brother’s first flight off the edge of Mount Nafmunkii without even blinking. He had traveled straight into a war zone with his mate without pause.
But now, his heart was beating out of his chest.
Agadart was missing. Agadart was, very likely, in trouble. He had, almost since he met her, tried to push his desire and interest into the background. Even a flirt like him knew that there were times and people to not engage with, but in the end he had been unable to keep those boundaries with her. He thought, often, of Ro’s confused attraction towards her. Ro, in general, did not find humans attractive at all. Like most dragons, he thought humans were stubby and clumsy, and creatures to be tolerated and occasionally humored (in this, he was not too different from Mani’s father, something he chose not to think about too often). Mani was, apparently, his first human lover. That, despite the fact that Ro had been stationed in Kaaltendt for several years before Mani got there himself.
And yet.
Both of them were almost unreasonably attracted to a person who theoretically should have been completely out of their line of sight, either as a fallen noblewoman or as a dragon maid.
Who was now missing under suspicious circumstances.
Ro was already striding away, back to his duties, when Wildt dashed off to talk to another officer on the field. Mani assumed he was going to secure him a few soldiers to assist in the search.
He grilled Worthan about what he had seen when Agadart left him at the station platform. Despite his own personal opinion that Doctor Worthan was correct about the futility of starting their investigation at the platform where Agadart had last been seen, it was still the logical place to start.
He had a small office in the training grounds compound, due to his status as the Matrica of Endestern. He personally thought it had been set aside for him because no one else wanted to be in charge of the Kaaltendt dragons, however small their number, and so giving him an office on-site would keep him close to his subjects. Effective, if slightly underhanded, and he wished he knew who had made the decision so he could let them know how much he admired them for it.
Two confused sergeants showed up to meet him there after only a few minutes, and introduced themselves as Sergeant Moularre, who was the older and higher ranking one, and Sergeant Eirshau, who kept glancing at Moularre for guidance. He had been making a list of places to check, including the train station, the dragon maid barracks, and Agadart’s assigned dorm room at the hospital (which he assumed she would be sharing with some nurses or other hospital staff who might have seen if she had shown up there at any point).
After explaining the situation, he had them bring a carriage around to take them to where the dragon maids were stationed. He suspected that the maid Worthan had seen was the headmistress’s assistant, whose name he could not remember. He had to start somewhere, after all.
The headmistress greeted them in her office, which was shockingly even smaller than Mani’s. The maid in question was there, one Maid Pyrite, but she claimed that the ensign had presented himself to her at the train station, looking for Maid Aegirine. The headmistress was unsettled that Maid Pyrite had not asked the boy for any identification, and as Mani left them he suspected there was going to be some punishment meted out. He was pretty sure it didn’t matter, because if the ensign was involved, he either would not have any identification at all, or a very good set of fake papers.
They had no choice but to head to the train station.
Aurelia Bettita, the station master, was an old woman with a shocking amount of hair that was, in Mani’s opinion, completely wild and unkempt (such was the fashion for elders in Watt, it seemed). She had apparently been warned of his visit via a message sent from Ro’s office, and Mani sent up a quiet “thank you” to his mate for clearing the way for him. She didn’t even ask about the soldiers behind him, just waved at them to follow her through the station toward the platforms around the side.
“Can’t say we’ll be of any help. We’ve never been a gated station, and with the volume of people arriving these days it would be fool’s errand to start. Frankly I don’t have the staff to even try.” She looked apologetic, at least, but Mani had known that trying to track down the so-called ensign that lured Agadart away was a long shot to start with, so Mani just nodded politely at her.
The station they walked through was quiet.
“No trains in right now?” he asked, catching up to her brisk pace.
“Nope. None due for twelve hours yet, and our last departures went out a few hours ago. Enough time for us to refill water tanks and check the tracks for problems. Always something to do, whether trains at station or not.”
“Especially these days,” he tacked on for her.
She chuckled, but it was a grim sound. “Never seen the likes of it; never thought I would. We’ve had more traffic through here in the last two months than in the last two years combined.” She pushed through a gate and walked them out into the open air on a long wooden deck. It looked like all the other platforms stretched out to either side, but that particular platform was eerily empty. A few other platforms down from them had people on them, but overall, the station felt nearly barren compared to the first time Mani had seen it when he disembarked nearly two days ago in the deepest dark of early morning.
She stood next to them, hands on her hips. Sergeant Moularre and Sergeant Eirshau stood by politely, waiting for orders…as all good soldiers would, Mani supposed.
Mani faced the station itself, his back to where the train would pull in. The station was an old, elegant building that emerged from the cliff in graceful curves and arches. It was obviously very old, much older than the technology that now ran through it.
“What was this before trains came here?”
“Oh!” Master Bettita lit up with pride. “She’s quite the beauty, eh? She was actually the autumn palace for Queen Esthae, don’t you know!”
The sergeants stood at attention, their interest piqued by the name of Watt’s last queen dragon.
“I think for a while it might have been a health sanitarium for sick dragons, due to all the warrens, you know? But that made it perfect for trains coming in through the mountain.” She pointed out the mountain, as if Mani or anyone could miss it. It curled around Suychet as if it was a massive, ancient dragon itself. “Anyway, it was renovated about one hundred years ago when Suychet became such a popular tourist destination. Glory days, to hear my father tell it. Still, we’ve always been someplace people want to visit. Dragons really enjoy flying the winds sweeping off the mountain range and hitting the warm ocean current, I’m told. Like a roller coaster for them!” She grinned, proud of the place.
Mani stared at the royal-palace-cum-train-station. It went up several stories and likely, given it was built for a queen dragon, also went down several stories. It was beautiful but haunting, and a chill ran down his spine. “Are there any unused sections?”
She nodded. “Of course. It’s just a train station, we don’t have enough staff to fill over two hundred rooms worth of offices, even during wartime. We’ve repurposed a few, but—”
“We need to search them.”
The station master and the sergeants stared at him for a moment.
“All of them, sir?” Sergeant Moularre asked.
“Every single damn one of them, occupied or not.” He turned back to Master Bettita. “We’re going to need the layout for every floor, if you have them.”
She was obviously used to dealing with crises, as she took the request in stride. “Of course, Matrica. Might not be labeled accurately anymore, I think the most recent ones are from a refurb we did forty years ago. But they will show the rooms. Even got writing tissue you can lay over them to start marking off.” She started walking away briskly, leaving Mani and the sergeants to scramble after her.
“You think the maid is still here, sir?” Sergeant Eirshau asked as they followed the station master.
“Honestly? No. But think of it this way: in a crowded station, wouldn’t the fastest way to disappear be to just stay here, rather than traipse about the streets being seen? Maid Aegirine was picked to assist Doctor Worthan because of her intellect and quick mind. She would not follow anyone, not even an ensign in uniform, into a dark alleyway to get mugged. But if they walk her into a room and just never walk out? No one would notice that she’s vanished and she would not realize anything was wrong until the door locked behind her.”
“Aye, that makes sense,” Sergeant Moularre agreed.
Mani nodded as the station master led them through a series of rooms to what was clearly a former library but now seemed to be the station’s own archives. She motioned for them to stop at a large table then went to root around in piles of ledgers and boxes.
He knew that it was a long shot, but it was at least a starting point. More importantly, to his mind, was the fact that news would spread fast that Admiral Leonteinparre’s consort and aide-de-camp had taken an interest in the missing dragon maid. If anyone had absconded with her, it might give them pause and cause them to release her.
Or, he thought grimly as he ordered Sergeant Moularre to go rouse up ten more soldiers to help in the search, they might at least find her body.
