The Dragon Chase: A Tale of the Everburning City

Chapter 33: Lucille

An attack on an evaluator called for immediate termination. Those who could Craft were far too dangerous to attempt to restrain.

Mathias had already taken down Tabitha, so fast that even though she was watching, she didn't see how he did it.

Now, Gerald was charging at him, screaming as if he had been the one to take the knife.

But when she struck, it was with the pommel of her knife, disorienting him in mid-stride. She followed it with a slight kick to the shin, knocking him off balance, and sent him tumbling to the ground.

She dropped after him, setting her knee on his shoulder, and pressing her cold-stone dagger into the back of his neck, almost hard enough to draw blood.

Three quick breaths later, and Gerald didn't try to rise from his prone position on the ground. She sighed in relief and glanced up at Mathias.

The tall shadow was cleaning the blood off his dagger, but looked directly at her. He nodded once, almost imperceptibly, and said, "Let him up. Even a Crafter is allowed to be angry."

He glanced back at Crafter a'Loria's body, and added, "And to grieve."

She stood up quickly, stepping away from Gerald as he stood up and stumbled over to where his master lay. Tracking Gerald's progress, she didn't notice Mathias move until he was right beside her.

"Engagement protocol for responding to an attack on an evaluator is 'immediate lethal'. The protocol for any engagement with a Combat Crafter is the same," Mathias said, calmly.

He was serene! Hellfire of the abyss, this man was frightening.

"Yet you engaged to incapacitate an experienced and angry Combat Crafter. Why?"

"He didn't attack you," Lucille replied, carefully. "We both know what an assault would look like."

"We'd be hot ash in the wind. Solid judgement," he said, before stepping to Gerald and hauling him up by his coat.

"But you, boy!" Mathias hissed, the placid expression vanishing as he glared at Gerald. "Her last words were her hopes for you. Her last act was hesitating when you put yourself between her and your shadow. Don't you dare waste her work on you by lashing out at-"

Gerald cut him off in the most surprising way. He hit him.

Hard. Mathias' head spun sideways, and his hands were set reflexively on his daggers.

Lucille smirked a little, impressed.

"I need a few minutes," Gerald replied, before turning away and crouching down next to his master's body. "Burn your ash-strangled conceit and choke on it."

Mathias spat blood, but he showed his empty hands and turned away. She followed his gaze, to see a small group of people approaching.

Mathias instantly straightened, and oddly enough, his hands were resting on his weapons again.

Fire and ash, what next?

The crowd that approached had at least six Crafters, easily picked out by the uniform colour of the immaculately tailored, heavy coats they wore regardless of the weather. With them were roughly two dozen shadows, and a man in a simple black coat wearing a sword.

"The Lord Captain of the Wall, and our own Deputy Bureau Chief," Mathias said, beside her. "We may only be in slightly less danger than we were an hour ago."

Burn me!

"Worst case scenario," Mathias began to explain. His speech was calm, measured, but there was a note of urgency that made them impossible to ignore. Oddly, it reminded her of Sergeant Redgrave. "They could decide to take Gerald into custody, and he disagrees. There are six other Crafters here, all of them trained for war. However, only one of them is more dangerous than your charge, and I just killed her master."