All The Skills

A few hours later, fully dressed in his own clothes and feeling completely whole again, Arthur approached the sheriff's office. It was easy to spot, being one of the newest, largest buildings in the city capped with a gleaming dome of glass panels.

After a quick scan at the door to determine that yes, he and Brixaby still didn't have extra cards that they shouldn't, they were allowed to see over-sheriff Walker.

She sat at a desk, and judging by the dark circles under her eyes, she had not gotten any sleep last night. She glared as Arthur approached. "Don't tell me you rescued any more kids between here and the hospital.”

"Would it be so bad if I had?" he asked, sitting down, though she hadn't gestured him to.

She gave him a baleful look, then admitted, "No… No… What you did was a good thing. A heroic thing. But it's a hell of a lot of paperwork for me."

Better doing paperwork on alive kids than dead kids, Arthur thought, but knew when someone was sleep-deprived, they weren't thinking rationally. So he took a small measure of pity on her. "I understand you want Brixaby and me to lead the adventurers to the Rares."

"Yes," she said with a heavy sigh, "it seems that whatever you two did yesterday did not scare the blasted scourgelings off for long. We've had reports of another wagon train completely decimated. At this point, we’ve sent word down the line to hold incoming wagons at the last oasis before the final push."

"Oasis?" he asked.

"There are a few spots along every interstate where we've been able to keep the dead lands back. They’re small but people can usually stay there for a few days without getting sick. That way they can rest and refuel, but the clock is ticking. We need to make that road safe again."

Arthur nodded and then leaned forward. "In that case, I want a favor."

She gave him another sour look. "Other than your usual pay for killing Rares?"

"You just got finished telling me that this was an urgent situation," he said.

She considered him for a moment with narrowed eyes. "Well?"

Walker, he sensed, wasn’t a woman who played poker. She wanted all her cards face up on the table. He decided to be blunt. "The reshuffling," he said. "I’ve already secured two spots among the first to enter the Dark Heart, thanks to the deal I made with Dannell the merchant."

"Yes, I heard of that," she said with such distaste that it made Arthur think she had looked into that possibility, as a juicy carrot to dangle in front of him.

"Well, I want to secure more spots. One for an assistant who was incredibly helpful to me at the hospital, and a secondary spot for someone I chose later.” Though he intended it to be for Soledad. He just didn't want extra eyes on her before she had a card to defend herself. Marion was sneaky enough to take care of himself, card or no card.

He paused, then added, "As well as two secondary spots for people I choose in my future retinue."

Another lie. Those spots were for Cressida and Horatio.

"That's a lot of spots in the front," she said.

He shrugged. "You're about to receive a lot of Rare cards for our city."

She tapped her fingers on the table in a wave pattern. "So you need five spots in total?"

Actually, it was more like eight, but he didn't think she counted dragons as people, and he wasn't going out of his way to point that out to her. "That's correct."

"Done," she said, so quickly that clearly, she thought she was getting the best part of the deal. It worried Arthur a little, but there was nothing else other than the payment that he needed. "You lead us to the Rares so we’re not stuck on a wild snipe-hunt through the deadlands, you'll get your reward, and your spots."

Arthur smiled. There were some odd things about the Texans, but as long as he wanted something they could sell to him… It wasn't too hard to get along with these people.

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****

Brixaby had been remarkably quiet during the meeting and managed to keep his peace until he and Arthur were back in the air. Then he turned to his rider and asked, “How do you expect to find the scourgelings?”

"What do you mean?" Arthur asked innocently.

His top lip ticked up in unconscious distaste. "They are very fast, mobile, and cunning. They are Rares, not idiots, and may have buried themselves again. Or set other traps.”

All very good points. But Arthur smiled and patted his dragon's neck. "I have a couple of plans in mind. And, if worst comes to worst, I suppose we could always level up tracking skills."

Brixaby snorted at that, but knew by now when Arthur was teasing him. Showing unusual restraint, he changed the subject. "Fighting scourgelings is all well and good, but after this, we should focus on the reshuffling to come."

Arthur smiled. Brixaby might be a purple, but he was equally, if not more, intelligent than an average person, and he was more than capable of thinking ahead. More than that, he was growing up.

"I agree," he said. "Not to mention that Cressida and Horatio should be here soon."

"Well, I hope they don’t arrive until we’ve had the chance to clean out this nest of Rare scourgelings," Brixaby said. "It will be fun to greet them with Rare cards."

Sheriff Walker had given them the directions to where the adventurers were to gather up. Unsurprisingly, it was on the eastern side side of the city, where the interstate came to the wall.

Arthur saw several clusters gathered below, and Undersheriff Lopez walking among them.

Brixaby gave a snort of surprise, then quickly dove downward, not giving Arthur a hint of a warning.

Luckily, Arthur was getting used to it and kept his seat.

Brixaby came for a quick landing in front of one group in particular. "You!"

One man with pitch-dark skin, yellow slit pupils, and pointed ears smiled at Brixaby. "Do my eyes deceive me, or are you that itty-bitty dragon that was at Free Mesa Hive?"

He was also, Arthur saw on a second look, clad in very familiar-looking chainmail. And so were the people behind him, and if anything, they were all stranger-looking than the man in front of him. One was even covered in fur from head to foot.

"I am Brixaby," Brixaby said, "and this is my rider, Arthur."

"You know each other?" Arthur asked.

"Yes, I sold him chainmail once," Brixaby said, casting an eye over the chainmail the man wore. Then he admitted, "I suppose you are taking good care of it. I do not see too many rivets out of place."

"It has served me very well,” he agreed, then frowned, “though the Free Mesa Hive is not interested in trading for the next few weeks. Do either of you have something to do with that?"

Arthur sidestepped the question. "We’re only here for the reshuffling. You’re an adventurer, then?"

"Yes, but we’re not local here, either.” He smiled, showing lengthened canines. “My name is Jon and these are my Lightning Cats, fresh from the city-state of Evenstown." That name invoked a few jeers from the adventurers who were evesdropping.

Ignoring that, Arthur cast a quick glance over the rest of Jon’s group. Cats was indeed the theme.

There was one girl who was dressed rather... skimpily, and she smiled at Arthur when he looked at her. She clenched her fist, and catlike claws came out, as well as catlike ears that swiveled here and there. One person had a catlike tail, though he used it to help search through a pack for something. A third draped herself, bonelessly, over the top of a boulder. She had no outright cat-like features, but still looked for all the world like a cat sleeping in the sun.

Body modification cards.

"We're to be your guide," Arthur said, and at that moment, Lopez saw them and beckoned them over.

Arthur dismounted and left Brixaby to speak with Jon while he went to see the sheriff.

The cat crew was not the only ones who had chosen body modification cards. He passed a man who had turned his right hand into a scythe-like blade, another who seemed to have living metal skin, and one with such large muscles that his head looked freakishly tiny in comparison.

He always found body modification cards unsettling. Unlike body enhancement cards, modification cards generally issued permanent changes on the wielder. Most were so extreme that the modifications themselves became fatal if the card was ever removed.

It was a sub-class of card that was not often seen in the hives. In fact, body modification cards were usually not generated within dragon cores, though no one knew the reason why. Privately, Arthur thought it was a dragon pride thing. Not many would accept extreme body modifications in themselves or their riders.

That meant that buying mod cards came from individual shards, or, commonly, from scourgelings. They had no problem with different body types. It was one reason why body mod cards were considered unlucky.

And, unfortunately, since they were a permanent change to the body and not an active spell, charm, or even skill, he could get nothing from his Counterfeit Siphon card.

"So I see the oversheriff has convinced you to come," Lopez said, and presented his valuable map. "Let's sit down and talk. You can tell me where you last saw the scourgelings. We can work out a search pattern from there."

"I can tell you where they are now," Arthur said.

All he had to do was think about those kids trapped underground in the vault, and imagine all the wagon trains that had been decimated – the children orphaned and lives destroyed -- and it became the thing he wanted the most.

Holding onto that feeling, Arthur used Brixaby's Call of the Heart card.