Dragons & Dwarves by S. Andrew Swann Page A

was just some provincial jargon from the local press.” I was having difficulty keeping my voice on an even keel. Somehow it’d never occurred to me that seeing a dragon up close would have this kind of effect on me. Blame that on the little knot of ego that got me into situations like this in the first place.
    “I have heard that you’re a journalist who does not do ‘fuzzy gnome’ stories.”
    “The death of Aloeus is more than that.”
    “We are all more than that.” The great deep voice carried something akin to Columbia’s disapproval. Just like a flamethrower carries something akin to a Zippo.
    “I didn’t mean offense.”
    The dragon laughed again in a way that made my fillings ache. “You are only human, Mr. Maxwell. Can I fault you for that?” I got the feeling that I wasn’t completely off the hook.
    I wondered again where she had heard the phrase.
    “Mr. Baldassare called on your behalf last night. I agreed to meet you, knowing your aversion to ‘fuzzy gnomes.’”
    “What do you know about that?” I asked her.
    “I make knowing things my business.” She lowered her head to be at a level with me. That was disconcerting, facing her beaklike toothy mouth. “Mr. Baldassare said you want to know about dragons.”
    “I want to know about Aloeus.”
    “Are they not the same thing?”
    There was silence for a moment before I heard a small alarm from behind her. She cocked her head. “Pardon me a moment.”
    She turned from me, the motion of her body vibrating the floor. Her tail slid by me with a soft hiss across the blood-red carpet. “I must buy some more Microsoft shares before the NASDAQ starts upward again.”
    I stood there and watched for a while, letting the past thirty seconds sink into my world view. Call me a racist, but I didn’t expect a dragon with a sense of humor. Theophane seemed to be getting a lot of enjoyment out of playing all my expectations false. Which was no difficult task, since she knew a lot more about me, and humanity in general, than the sorry bits I knew about her kind—and about her specifically, I knew nothing beyond name and address.
    And she wasn’t lying about the NASDAQ.
    When she moved aside, I could see another pillar in the vast chamber, twin to the one holding the elevator. This sole architectural feature seemed to serve as a combination office and entertainment center for Theophane. Flat screen displays covered most of the available space. Some showed CNN, C-SPAN, and other news and public affairs channels. The screens were all muted, dialogue transcriptions running across the bottom of their screens. Central to all of them was an inset display positioned at what must have been a comfortable level for her, about four feet above my head. I could catch a few glimpses of a computer display showing windowed bar graphs and columns of figures. Across the top I could clearly see a stock ticker running.
    Theophane maneuvered an oversized mouse with a few well-placed claws. I don’t know why I found it incongruous.
    “So can you answer some of my questions?”
    She shook her head as she stared at the screen. The display was twice the size of my TV, but it seemed too small for her. “Your distraction cost me fifty thousand dollars.”
    She must have sensed me backing up, because her head turned my way just as I felt the warm muscular wall of her tail along the small of my back.
    “No matter, the entertainment value should be worth as much.” Her head lowered to be just slightly above my level, and I had the uneasy sensation of being surrounded. “What is it you want to know, Mr. Maxwell?”
    “I want to understand dragons.”
    Theophane’s head drew back and tilted slightly in my direction. There was a distinctly saurian cast to her face, especially with the heart-shaped bony ridge of her forehead facing me. The nose and mouth were very like a skin-covered beak with teeth. Her voice was eerie, coming from deep inside her throat, with little help from