I let the ladies have the run of the workshop inside and out while, from their perspective, I spent the day in meditation. In reality, protected by the solid walls and strong glyphs of my own room there, I was traveling the planes to get advice and muster resources for dealing with the Dragon.
In the morning, I sent an ethereal messenger to Niko, my chancellor, tasking him to find out what was bothering the villages so much, for it was certainly within the Dragon’s ability to cause them grief. Was she taking an interest in local affairs?
That afternoon, the Xorn finally returned, to report that the cave complex was large, labyrinthine, and well defended—so well that if there were eggs, the Xorn couldn’t find them. So a simple “eggnapping” by an earth elemental was not viable. However, the Xorn reported that the cave entrance was not the only way into the lair. There was also an underground river and about half the cave complex was water-filled. That fact, with the convolution of the cave system, made it rather difficult for an earth elemental to get in, the Xorn complained. And the Dragon did spot it, and she chased it away.
By the end of this first day of this dedicated week, I was nearly groggy with all the traveling, conferring, and study I had done. In the workshop’s main room I found my ladies waiting patiently.
“We have cleaned the place again, cleaned ourselves, and begun to prepare a meal. But before you eat,” ordered Marija, “you must be cleaned as well.”
She and Ana removed my work clothes and led me bare out to the pool in the stream. There they rubbed and scrubbed me, and brought me back to the big bed for a fine massage with scented oils. From somewhere in the closets they found a simple but elegant linen robe for me to wear at dinner.
Meanwhile Adrijana had been busy with pots and pans and fire in the workshop’s kitchen. The dinner was a delicious beef repast. After the dinner we lounged around the fireplace. I talked about my day while Adrijana and Ana wrote glyphs on my arms and back. Or they might have been vulgar comments about me. But I chose to think of them as glyphs of soothing.
The girls seemed unusually interested in my efforts … for girls, that is. I was getting to like these women more every day.
“Have you sought a champion?” asked Adrijana.
“I have not, as yet. Any champion willing to go into her lair will be a foolhardy one. He will just cause trouble, not solve the problem.”
“What will a Dragon leave its lair for?” asked Ana, cuddling more closely.
“Food and treasure, mostly. I think you ladies fall in the food category.”
“Are you sure?” Ana asked as her fingers brushed the nape of my neck.
“You know … I’m not. That’s worth investigating further. Make a note of that for me, will you, Adrijana?” She rose to find pen, ink, and paper. “Maybe cutting off the Dragon’s maiden supply means more than just the loss of some tasty dessert.”
“If you don’t want to invade her lair, could you leave treasure outside with a champion guarding it?” asks Marija.
She was now writing on my wrist. I was fairly sure her glyphs were meaningless, but the delicate touching involved was a most delicate form of massage.
“She would notice, but Dragons are very crafty creatures. If she detected the champion was weak she would finish him in a heartbeat, and take the treasure in. If she concluded he was strong, she would bide her time. If she didn’t know, she would wait until she could find out.”
“What of the treasure itself?” asked Adrijana. “An old soldier in our village used to tell us the tale of the Trojan Horse.”
“She will examine the treasure carefully, many times. Dragons enjoy being greedy. … But the idea has merit.”
The discussion did not go on much longer. Between arriving dead tired and being capably soothed, I grew delightfully heavy-eyed, and we slept as a foursome again that night. But about four hours later I was up again for over an hour, making plans and scribbling notes. These women fired me. I had extraordinary energy, and it felt very good. Then I returned to sleep and we all woke at dawn to do some more cuddling.
The next day, while I continued my researches, the women kept busy. With everything but the dishes freshly cleaned, they worked again with the Elves, Nymphs, and Dryads in the garden, where they learned a lot and made a few suggestions. When my magical friends mentioned that behavior to me, I realized afresh that these girls were not whining drones or parasites, and I wanted even more to help them.
That day Niko reported that the villages in question had, indeed, been having hard times over the past several years. Crops were poor and they’d had more than their share of natural disaster. The land “looked bad” according to various peasant leaders, but there’d been no sign of overt Dragon activity.
I briefly considered mounting a champion on a Pegasus to chase the Dragon down while it hunted, but Dragons are as fearsome in the air as they are in a lair. Moreover, Pegasi are even more difficult to find these days than good champions.
I decided it was time to talk to the Dragon herself. She was a Red Dragon. Her kind are intelligent, greedy, evil by many measures. They can be well versed in magic aligned with Fire. I wanted an intermediary, an Ifrit.