Page 52 of Backpacking through Bedlam

Mary gave her a curious look. “You have something against candy and toilet paper?”

“When it’s being sold out of a shop that looks like it’s been collecting grime since my grandparents were in grade school? Yeah. That place isn’t filthy. Filth is too good for it.”

“I’ll tell Pris,” said Mary. “She’ll be thrilled to hear how well the camouflage is working.”

The bell over the door was as crappy as the rest of the place; it didn’t chime so much as make a dull clunking sound when Mary opened the door, stepping inside and leaving the rest of us with little choice but to follow. I stepped into the gloom, squinting at the understocked, dust-covered shelves. Only one of the overhead lights was working, and it flickered and buzzed unpleasantly. The blonde woman behind the cash register didn’t look up from her magazine.

She was the only attractive thing about this place, devastatingly gorgeous, with the sort of cheekbones a sculptor would kill to create. I blinked, raising an eyebrow. Thomas got there first.

“Are we approaching the Manhattan Nest?” he asked politely.

The woman finally glanced up, just a flicker of interest before her eyes snapped back to her magazine. She grunted.

“We are,” said Mary. “I hope you remember how to show respect and not get your face burnt off. New girl, you just follow these two’s lead. They may not know what the Internet is, but they know how dragon politics work.”

“I have an AOL account,” I said, stung.

Mary snorted. “Hey, Pris, the new girl”—she gestured to Sally—“thinks the place looks like it needs to be condemned.”

The woman—Pris—glanced up again, focusing on Sally with some interest. “You really think so?”

“Uh, yeah,” said Sally.

“That’s so sweet thank you!” She paused then, expression hardening slightly. “You human?”

“Yes,” said Sally.

“Huh.” The woman looked back to her magazine, dismissing us once more. Mary laughed as she led us to a door labeled EMPLOYEES ONLY. The sign was written on a sheet of plain cardboard in thick black marker, and held up by strips of duct tape.

“Classy,” I said.

“Yup,” Mary agreed. “We have nothing but the best accommodations here.” Opening the door required undoing three locks, one of which must have had a magical component, since whatever Mary did to open it made Thomas’s eyes widen in surprise.

On the other side of the door was a short, featureless hall lit by two bare bulbs, ending at a second door. Mary started down it, pausing and looking back at the three of us when we were halfway to the end.

“I know you wouldn’t have come here on your own,” she said. “I really do appreciate the fact that you’re willing to jump right into things, even if we didn’t give you as much of a choice as you would have liked. But I need you to promise you’re not going to freak out when you see what’s through here.”

“You have my word,” said Thomas gravely.

“You’re not the one I’m worried about.” Mary gave me a pointed look.

I sighed. “Okay, I get it, I’ve been gone for like three years,” I said. “I’m not going to freak out at whatever you have to show us.”

“More like five years, when you add it all together, and I’m still going to hold you to that,” she said, and finished walking to the second door. It wasn’t locked, and opened to reveal a tiny, boxed-in courtyard with several doors along one wall but no obvious street access. There was a stretch of sky high overhead, implying that this space had originally been more accessible. That was less immediately attention-grabbing than the small swarm of little blonde girls who were playing a complicated game with a red rubber ball and what looked a lot like a Komodo dragon the size of a large dog. All of them stopped when they saw us, going motionless. The ball bounced twice before rolling to a stop against one of the walls. That snapped the Komodo out of its stillness. It scurried in front of the girls, who clustered behind it as it opened its wings and hissed at us.

Opened its . . . wings?

“Mary,” I said, voice very low. “Is that a young male dragon?”

“Liam just turned five,” said Mary, as fondly as she would have mentioned any other child who occasionally fell under her care. More loudly, she added, “Liam, these are the friends I told you were coming. I appreciate you defending your sisters, but it’s okay, I promise.”

The dragon—Liam—furled his wings and gave us a mistrustful look before herding the girls to the other side of the courtyard, well away from the lot of us. It would have been funny, if he hadn’t been so intensely serious about it, glancing back at us almost constantly.

“Verity told me they’d found a male dragon, and that meant the dragon princesses would start having little boys again,” I said, voice still low. “I just never thought I’d get to see one.”

Thomas didn’t say anything, and his eyes were suspiciously bright as Mary turned toward one of the doors on the other side of the courtyard. I touched his shoulder, concerned, and he reached up to take my hand, offering me a weak smile.

Then Mary opened the door and the three of us followed her through, leaving the children behind.