[stylist] Trials of an honorary Dragon. Chapter 25 (New chapter)

[helene ryles]

Chapter 25
Nadia Murat
21/12/1997

I could sense much panic after Fiona‘s arrival.
At that moment ‘Sunniva’s school teacher’ pulled off my glasses and
replaced it with a blind fold.
A moment later a tiny hand pulled me towards the ladder.  I bumped
into many panic stricken forms, on the way up.
At one point I took a peek out of my blind fold.  I saw a confused
blur of shapes, with my own form not being among them, even after I
lifted my hand right in front of my face. It was such a confusing
experience that I hastily put my blindfold back in place.
When we reached the roof I felt myself being pushed onto a woven rug.
The next minute the rug began to rise.
“Wendy is very sorry for taking your glasses like that, but she needed
them to impersonate you with.  Hopefully your mother should follow
her, not us,” Sunniva signed.
“What about the blindfold?” I asked her.
“I’ve just asked Fiona about that.  She explained that she had to make
us all invisible you see.  When you make a sighted person in visible
they usually freak out a bit, unless you explain first.  Since Fiona
doesn’t have the time for that she blindfolded you instead.  You can
take it off now though. The rest of us here are completely blind
anyway so we didn’t even notice, apart from people bumping into us,
more often then they normally do,” Sunniva explained.
“Who else is here?” I asked.  I pulled off my blindfold to find myself
in a blue and white blur.  Neither Sunniva nor Fiona was anywhere in
sight, and neither was I.
“Me,   Fiona the fader, Zaina and her friend; I forgot what her name
is.  We are taking them back to their boarding school.  I must say,
I’m glad Zaina’s twin is not with us.   She’s a right little Madam.
As a Transfigurator she could have been really useful, but she was
just kicking up a fuss. Would you believe that she actually wanted to
meet your mother, to demand an explanation from her?  She was still
shouting as I left.  One of my aunts had to pick her up and carry her
out,” Sunniva told me.
It was a long journey to Zaina and her friend’s school which was
situated in a different part of Darthrila.
It had got dark when a large pair of painfully sharp claws grabbed me.
 Lifting me off the invisible carpet and carried me away.

After a long terrifying journey I was literally dropped at Stilosarka
police station, although I didn‘t realise this until later.   I gave a
yowl of pain as a pair of hands caught me in heir grasp.  My shoulders
hurt where the dragon’s claws had penetrated.
I was led inside a brightly lit building, down several ladders, and
along a stone corridor.  I was then pushed into a small room.
"Is it true?” the police officer asked.  She had been trying to
communicate with me orally for quite some time before resorting to pen
and paper.  When that also failed because I no longer had my glasses,
she wrote in block capital letters on the palm of my hand.
“Is what true?” I asked, using speech.
“Has Talmon’s dragon ever touched your body in places where he should
not have?” the hands persisted.
“No,” I told her.  I couldn’t remember Talmon ever touching me at all.
“You are sure of that?” The hands persisted.
“Yes,” I confirmed feeling quite confused.
“Do you want to go back to live with your mother?" the hands asked me.
"No! My mother tried to kill me last time we met.  She pushed me into
Stilosarka underground railway station," I replied.
"That's a very serious allegation to make of your own mother.  You
could end up in prison making up stories like that," the hand replied.
"I don't care.   I'd rather go to jail then meet mother again."


                  ***  ***  ***

I think I must have drifted off to sleep eventually.  A very rough
pair of hands was   shaking me awake.   She handed me a speech
processor.  I wanted to push it away but was unable to move a muscle.
I found it quite impossible to understand what the harsh angry voice
was saying to me as I hadn't used my cochlear implant for several
months.  The sounds came jarringly loud.  I had problems understanding
them at all.
To make it worse the voice just kept getting louder.  At one point the
hands grabbed me by the shoulders and started to shake me.
In the end we were joined by several other police officers.
"This is P.C. Rickshaw speaking.   Beria would like to know what you
do when you go to visit the dragons?" a hand finger spelt on mine.
"I was hidden in a cupboard," I explained.
“Alone, or with a dragon?” P.C. Rickshaw asked me.
“Most definitely alone.  There would not have been enough space for a
dragon. There was just about enough space for me”, I explained.
"Beria wants to know if your aunt or any of the dragons ever asked to
sleep with you?" the hands finger spelt.
"No, Definitely not.  Why is everyone asking me such strange
questions?" I asked.
“You will have to forgive us.  It is just that Beria is making some
very serious allegations against your owner‘s dragon and the other
bronze dragon‘s too, seriously offending several police officers who
are owned by Bronze dragons, in the process.  This is her excuse for
getting the police involved.  We don’t believe her, but we did have to
ask to be sure,” the police officer explained.
I heard a lot of shouting after that.  I felt the door slam a few
times.   The arguing voices seemed to go on all night.
At one point another officer presented me with a sheet of paper.
Before anyone could explain what it was for, a hand snatched it from
me.
“Sorry about that,” P.C. Rickshaw explained, “One of the officers
wanted you to sign a form to confirm that neither Talmon nor any of
the dragons had abused you in any way.  They want to take Beria to
court over this.  If not they will probably end up mobbing her
themselves.  These officers who are owned by dragons are a really
crazy bunch of females.  Tangling with them will end up being Beria’s
downfall.”

               ***  ***  ***

I was sitting in my dark cell when I felt a tiny hand touch mine.
"This is Fiona the fader speaking," the tiny hands signed.   I could
only recognise her by a somewhat familiar scent of cheap perfume.
“How did you get here? I thought you were on the carpet flying towards
Zaina’s boarding school,” I asked.
“Yes I was, but then when you got snatched by that dragon I dropped
the blind children off, and made my way straight back here…”
"How did you know I would be here? How did you get in?” I asked in confusion.
“I made an educated guess.  As to how I got in, one of the cops let me
in.  Beria is not very popular at the moment, so it was not a
difficult thing to achieve. In fact a police officer let me out in the
first place after hearing your mother was on the prowl,” Fiona
explained.
“Do you get fed in here?"  I asked her.
"It depends what you are in for? Why are you hungry? I‘ll get you some
snacks from the vending machine if you like," Fiona offered.
"No thanks, if you are in prison for telling stories.  Would you get
fed then?" I persisted.
"You don't normally get into prison for that.  Not at your age anyway.
 I should know as one of my kids rang the fire brigade, just to see
what they would do.  A cop came round and shouted at him, but that was
as far as it went.  In your case there are no charges against you,
just your aunt and her dragon.  So you don‘t have anything to worry
about.  At this rate Beria has more to worry about as her staff are
getting really mutinous now," Fiona told me.
"They want me to go back to my mother but I don't want that as she
tried to kill me the last time I met her," I explained.
"I know all about that.  It was me who rescued you…" Fiona told me.
"Thanks so much for saving my life.”
"Don’t mention it.  I won’t stand for child abuse if I can help it.
Now I hear someone coming our way..."
I saw a flash of light as the door opened.
The lights in the prison cell flashed on at that point.  A dark blur
handed me a pair of glasses.
After I put them on I looked round for the little red haired woman who
had saved my life, but I couldn’t see her anywhere.  There was just a
black police officer.  She handed me a form and a pen.
“She wants you to sign this form to confirm that neither Talmon nor
any of the other Bronze dragons has ever had sex with you,” Fiona
explained.  She wanted you to sign it earlier today but Beria tore the
original form up so they had to print out a second one.  When you’ve
done that I’ll just have to sign it too as a witness, then I’ll make
this paper indestructible and tamper proof to stop Beria getting at
it.” Fiona explained.
After I had signed the paper I was handed a letter.

"Dear Nadia,
 I'm afraid they are going to send you back to NIRC again. At least it
will be safer then being sent back to your mother.  Please keep your
head down.  Don't cause any trouble whatever you do.  It won't be for
long this time.
Please don’t think I’m abandoning you but you probably won’t be seeing
me for a while.  The police officers here are all pushing for a court
case to put Beria on trial. She’s offended too many with her
allegations against the Bronze Dragons.  The women threaten to go on
strike If Beria isn’t prosecuted or at least replaced soon.
If they win the case, some of the officers will push to get my old
nanny to foster you instead of Madrella.  She's a really lovely woman.
 You are sure to get on. She lives in Nassoli where Katrina lives.  So
you will have Katrina to protect you too.
There is even a really good deaf school there that they will enrol you
at.   The only snag is that Nassoli is in Nazdonia, so it is very
backward.  There is no electricity and you have to fetch your water
from the village well.        You should be ok there; I'll come and
visit you as often as I can.
Please be a good girl.  Don't cause any problems at NIRC whatever you
do.  I'm sure everything will turn out for the best.  If not we have
another plan to get you away up north.
Lots and lots of love, from your extremely concerned Aunt,
Liza Bronze.
P.S. Please could you destroy this letter once you've read it in case
it falls into the wrong hands?

I was about to slip the letter in my pocket when the police officer
snatched it out of my hand.     This officer had an extremely angry
look on her face.  She tore the letter up and handed the pieces to my
other unseen companion.  A few minutes later I could smell a whiff of
smoke.  The officer then turned and left the room.  Turning the light
off as she did so.

"Sorry love, we had to do that.  If that letter fell into Beria’s
hands we'd be for the high jump.  Now I'm going to have to make you
invisible again.  Just in case anyone tries to hand you back to your
mother.  Please don't say anything when I touch you,   whatever you
do..."