arboreal_priestess | The Nest, Warehouse District, Baltimore, Saturday Afternoon

After saving her from the Sleestacks--pardon, the servitors--Candy had first dragged Verity onto the Metro and then back off not far from the warehouse district. The dragon princess had informed Verity that she was being brought home with her; there were too many unanswered questions that they needed to discuss before Verity hared off and got herself killed. Verity would have liked to protest that, but considering Candy had just saved her ass from what would probably have been a very gruesome murder by Sleestack, she was willing to let it go.

Going through a maze of blind alleys and sudden turns--and even through a cramped and dirty bodega run by another dragon princess named Priscilla who'd looked at Verity like she held the last hope of the world in her hands--they ended up in front of a squat, ugly building. The building had started life as a slaughterhouse, and didn't appear to have changed much since. The alley door led into what had once been the holding pen for sheep or cattle; the floor was concrete, with spilled-wine bloodstains worked deep into the stone. A few of the low holding walls were gone, replaced by empty space. Overhead, the walkways and management offices hung in the gloom like spiderwebs, gray and sterile. The light was uniformly low, and an air of decay hung over the entire place, like no one had been there for years.

Candy caught sight of Verity's face and bit back what looked like laughter before taking hold of her wrist and tugging me after her. "Just because we can't do magic, that doesn't mean we can't pay for it," she said. "We have a good relationship with the hidebehinds. It helps."

"This is a glamour?" Verity asked, looking at the surroundings with renewed interest.

"And obviously a damn good one. I'll have to tell Betty we got our money's worth." She took one more step forward, still pulling Verity in her wake, and the gloom burst around them like a soap bubble.

Everything changed.

The basic architecture of the building only shifted slightly—it was still mostly one big open room—but the last of the slaughterhouse tools vanished, taking the animal pens and the suspicious stains with them. A well-worn carpet pieced together from scraps and sample sale rejects suddenly covered the concrete, looking like the world’s largest quilting project. Lights came on in the rooms above and over the walkways, and the sound of voices was everywhere, coming from the dozens on dozens of women who filled the building. They were all unreasonably pretty. Most were blonde, but Verity saw a few redheads, brunettes, and even one with hair so black she could have made Goths weep.

And then there was the gold. There was no furniture; instead, there was gold. Where Verity would have expected chairs, beautiful women sat or lounged on heaps of piled-up jewelry, mixed coins, and even a few gold bars. Where she would have expected couches, more women did the same on larger heaps of precious metal. At the center of the room was a mound of gold that must have been nearly eighteen feet high and fifty feet around, covered in dragon princesses. Not all of them were adults, either. Golden-haired little girls chased each other in circles or sat quietly on the piles of gold, each of them as beautiful as their...what? Mothers, sisters, aunts? There was so much they didn't know about the biology of dragon princesses--where they came from, how they reproduced, how long they lived. Verity was going where no cryptozoologist had gone before, and she didn't even have a notebook.

"Dad's gonna kill me," she muttered.

Candy	"What was that?" Candy asked, suspiciously. Verity shook her head and Candy let it go, though not after a hard stare in the human's direction. She grabbed a first aid kid and kept walking. "Come on. Betty wants to see you as soon as possible."
Verity	"And Betty would be...?" It was a little late to be asking questions, especially with more and more of the dragon princesses taking notice of their arrival, but better late than never, Verity supposed. In the face of all the beauty that the dragon princesses represented, Verity was definitely feeling every inch of the filth, sewer slime, and blood that covered her.
Candy	"She's our Nest-mother," said Candy, like it should have been self-explanatory. "Come on." Candy led Verity past the central mound of gold to the stairs leading to the overhead catwalks. They acquired a small procession as they walked, other dragon princesses stopping whatever they'd been doing before as they came to follow them. Most of them didn't look friendly. Verity was the first non-cryptid to set foot in their Nest since it was established, and her presence represented a potential danger. Candy's face was set in an expression of resolute neutrality, fully aware of the risk she was taking in believing Verity. If she was lying about the dragon, Candy was going to be in serious trouble. A door labeled 'Manager' in old-fashioned gilt lettering stood at the head of the stairs. "Behave," hissed Candy, and knocked.
Betty	"You may enter." The voice from behind the door managed to be ancient and alluring at the same time, like an aging Mae West turning on the sex appeal one last time before shuffling off to the retirement home. Inside was yet more gold and the oldest dragon princess Verity had ever seen. She appeared to be a well-preserved seventy, the kind of seventy that had done everything—and everyone—before retiring to a comfortable villa in the country. "So," she said, in that Mae West voice. "You must be the new Healy girl."
Verity	"We're Price girls now, actually," Verity said. "Have been for a couple of generations. I'm Verity Price. Nice to meet you."
Betty	"Betty Smith." She looked Verity appraisingly up and down. "I always forget about that little intermarriage. You do look frighteningly like your grandmother, you know, especially with all of that blood in your hair. There's never been a Healy girl who didn't look fabulous in red, which is a good thing; you spend so damn much time wearing it."
Verity	Verity couldn't decide whether Betty was trying to be insulting or not. She decided to go with the interpretation that was less likely to get her attacked by the cast of America's Next Top Cryptid Model. "I'd take it off if you'd give me a little time in the bathroom. I didn't exactly have a chance to clean up after Candy hauled me out of the sewer."
Candy	"She was fighting with servitors," said Candy quickly. Verity couldn't tell if Candy was trying to help or tattle.
Betty	Betty’s eyes narrowed. "You're sure?"
Candy	"I spoke to them. They understood me, just like the stories said they would." Candy abruptly pointed at Verity, as accusing as the prosecuting attorney in a murder case. "She was there. She saw it happen."
Verity	"I saw something like that, yeah. I don't speak dragon, so I don't know exactly what Candy said, or how much of it they actually understood, but they stopped attacking me when she told them to play nice with the breakable children." Verity leaned over, plucking the first aid kit from under Candy's arm while she was distracted with pointing. "Look, I really, really want to know what's going on. I'd also really, really like to stop bleeding. Is there a place I can sit down and slap on some bandages while you explain? Please?"
Betty	"You truly are so much like your grandmother." Betty chuckled as she rose slowly from her pile of gold chains, sounding more like Mae West than ever. "She never had any patience either. Of course, most of the time she was impatient because your grandfather was watching my, ah, attributes when she wanted him to be watching her back, but no one ever claimed your family line was designed for patience. Sit down. My girls can take care of you."
Candy	"Do as you're told," hissed Candy, glaring daggers as she shoved Verity toward the spot Betty had vacated. Three of the dragon princesses who had accompanied them upstairs moved to take the first aid kit and start tending Verity's wounds.
Betty	"I'm assuming Candice has explained the basic nature of servitors to you," Betty said. "I do hope you haven't killed too many of them--the poor dears really don't have much control over themselves without the proper people to tell them what to do." Seeing Verity's expression, she clucked her tongue, giving a small shake of her head. "That's what I was afraid of. Ah, well. It's not like they're a necessity, and really, they only serve to prove that you were telling the truth when you claimed there might be a male waiting somewhere in this fair city of ours. And you, my little rumpled darling, are going to find him for us."
Verity	"Wait--what?" It was difficult to sit up straight on a mound of slippery gold jewelry with several dragon princesses aggressively cleaning and bandaging her wounds. Somehow Verity managed. Blame it on the shock. "A male?"
Betty	"Oh, my dear innocent poppet." Betty smiled, Mae West turned pure predator. "Surely you didn't think that dragons were actually extinct?"
Verity	For a moment Verity just stared at her, with dragon princesses smirking at her from all directions. This was it: the big secret that they'd been keeping all this time, probably since the conflicts between the humans and dragons first began. Dragon princesses didn't exist. There were just...dragons. Big dragons and little dragons, but still dragons, regardless of whether they had scales or supermodel-quality skin. One species. Betty smirked along with the others, clearly waiting for Verity's expression of surprise and dismay. Verity settled back on the bed of gold, letting the dragon princesses around her go back to cleaning her wounds. "So what, you're saying is this is a case of extreme sexual dimorphism combined with parthenogenetic reproduction? That's a new one." The dragon princesses--err, rather, the female dragons stared at her. Verity sighed. "Trained cryptozoologist, remember? God, it's like you put on one pair of five-inch heels and everyone forgets you have a brain. The tango is hard, people. It takes actual intelligence to do it right."
Betty	"Regardless," said Betty, recovering her equilibrium with admirable speed. She put a hand on her hip, taking a slinky step toward Verity. For a woman her age, she sure knew how to move. "You owe us, you and your family, and we don't take kindly to debts. This is your chance to pay them off. You're going to find us the male."
Verity	"That was already the goal." The dragon princesses who'd been working on bandaging Verity's various scrapes and scratches were done, or close enough that she no longer felt like she was in danger of bleeding all over everything. She pulled away from them, tugging her shirt back into a semblance of order before she stood. "If there’s a dragon in this city--sorry, a male dragon--then I need to find him before whoever's been sacrificing virgins in his name manages to wake him up. But since you've made it clear that you've got a pretty good reason to be interested in how this turns out, I'll make you a deal. Tell me everything you know that might help me find him without getting eaten."
Betty	"And what, you'll remember us in your thoughts and prayers? I'm sorry, but we prefer to work in more concrete coinage." Betty waved a hand, indicating the heaps of gold cluttering the room. "Interior décor this nice doesn't come cheap, sweetheart."
Verity	"And assuming I can find your dragon before his current keepers manage to kill him, I'll tell you where he is, sweetheart." Verity couldn't match Betty's level of poisonous sweetness--she didn't have the practice, for one--but she could be snide with the best of them. "Is that coinage concrete enough for you? I mean, sure, you can be a girl-band species forever, if that's what floats your boat, but wouldn't it be nice to shelve the parthenogenesis for a little while? I bet it's more fun when there's more than one person involved."
Betty	At Verity's last comment, something like triumph gleamed in Betty's eyes, lasting no longer than it took to blink. Then she was squaring her shoulders and glaring down her nose at Verity--easy enough to do, since she was easily five-eight and Verity wasn't wearing heels. Verity simply looked blithely back at her, and waited. "Fine," Betty said, finally. "Candy will answer all your questions." Candy gave her an alarmed look, and Betty repeated, "All your questions."
Verity	"Actually, I have a question for you, if you don’t mind," Verity said. "Did you really know my grandparents?"
Betty	Betty's smirk returned, expression going back to the languid Mae West expression she'd been wearing when they first entered the room. "That strikes me as a question you ought to be asking your grandfather. Don't you agree?" Before Verity could frame a response, she turned and sashayed out of the room, taking all the dragon princesses but Candy with her. Some people just weren't happy unless they could get the last word.