Zanaikeyros - Son of Dragons (Pantheon of Dragons #1)(50)
In truth, Dan could be reading the message right now:
Hi there. I know I’m breaking all the rules—the rules I insisted on you keeping. Not only did I send an email on Friday night, but now I’m sending this. The truth is, I need your help, and I don’t know anyone else I can turn to. I have jury selection in Judge Stanley’s court on Tuesday. Division B-9 at 10 AM. I will be there a half hour early, and I will leave a letter addressed to you with his clerk. Please pick it up before 10 AM, leave the courthouse, then read it—this will give you time to digest the contents and to choose a course of action. Please do NOT do anything while I’m in court. I know this makes no sense right now, but it will. I promise. Oh, and one more thing—AND IT’S VERY IMPORTANT—do not try to contact me before you read the letter. Do not try to find me, speak to me, or approach me in any way! Just pick up the letter, follow my instructions, and everything will be clear.
I know this sounds crazy, but I’m counting on you, Dan.
That’s all I can say for now.
J
Chapter Twenty
Jordan, Zane, and Axe sat outside, beneath the shade of an umbrella, in the Exploratory Medical Center’s café, sipping caffeinated drinks, discussing the world of the Dragyr, and waiting for Macy’s surgery to be over. It was 9:15 AM; the three of them had been talking for an hour; and now, as a semi-comfortable silence settled between them, Jordan replayed the earlier conversations…
So far, they had touched on three interesting subjects: telepathy, human servants, and how the Dragyr moved in and out of human society without being detected. Obviously, on the first subject—the matter of reading minds—Jordan had listened intently. She had wanted to know where she stood.
After all, during her very first encounter with Zane, when he had taken her blood at the mall, he had been able to read her thoughts…quite directly. And ever since, he’d described them as projections—if they were especially loud, he could hear them—but what about the thoughts that were slightly less…overt?
Needless to say, Jordan desired a more specific explanation—she needed to know how far the dragyri’s powers went—could Zane see right through her deception?
Unfortunately, Mr. Saphyrius had chosen to skirt all around the subject—perhaps he didn’t want her to know, to grasp everything he could do—or perhaps he was hiding a few cards of his own, playing his own careful hand…
Either way, he had only elaborated on the specific powers of ESP, the science behind how it worked, yet during that elaboration, something unrelated—yet interesting—had come up: In a nutshell, Jordan would soon possess the powers of telepathy, herself. She would possess the ability to forge a mutual connection, mind to mind, with any of the immortal Dragyr. The moment her conversion was over, the ability would simply emerge.
The revelation had been unsettling, at best, and she had shifted back and forth in her seat. In fact, every impulse in her body at the time had wanted to get up and run. Why? Well, the answer was pretty straightforward: Zane had unwittingly opened the topic of Jordan’s rebirth…
Being made immortal in the temple.
And that was a topic she’d wanted to keep closed, at least until she was forced to face it.
It was just too horrifying.
Too imminent.
Too incredible…
Too terrible to even imagine.
Not to mention, there was no way she was having that conversation in front of Axe: When and if she and Zane discussed that subject, they needed to be alone.
To Axe’s credit, the blond-haired dragyri had tried (and failed) to come to her rescue, chiming in about another omniscient power she would also receive post-conversion: the ability to speak and understand all of the world’s languages.
Yes, all of them.
He had insisted that the knowledge would just magically appear, the moment she was fully converted. Unfortunately for Axe, he hadn’t understood that the topic of conversion was off limits. Just like that, it had happened again—they’d gone back to the subject of rebirth. Like the persistent monster in a child’s dark closet, it just seemed to hover…and linger…and persist.
Thankfully, the conversation had quickly meandered to the last two original topics: the presence of human servants in Dragons Domain, and how the Dragyr moved in and out of human society without being easily detected.
Earlier, at breakfast, Jace had made a comment about human cooks and maids, and the reference had left Jordan curious. According to Zane, there was a human sect—a secret religion, of sorts—that served the Temple of Seven. On occasion, some of these servants were brought into The Pantheon and allowed to stay for a time—they served the dragyri in their various lairs; they assisted the gods in the temple; and they played various roles in sacred rites, serving the entire domain. When their time was up, they were simply sent back, escorted to earth through the portal, with the most sensitive—or revealing—memories scrubbed.
And all of it was by consent.
According to Axe, they could help Jordan now with any number of tasks: They could go shopping or banking or run various earthly errands, all on Jordan’s behalf. They could retrieve items from her condo—more shoes, more clothes, a computer—and if there was anything she wanted, needed, or simply desired, the humans could procure it for her.
Apparently, the Dragyr had many earthly holdings—houses, hotels, real-estate investments, and businesses of every kind—and the faithful humans served as employees at most of them.