Path of Dragons

Mercer Mesa loomed above Elijah, soaring to a height of almost a thousand feet. From afar, he’d estimated that it only reached an elevation of a few hundred feet – which was huge, considering that the surrounding land was almost perfectly flat – but the closer they came to the enormous edifice, the more he realized how mistaken he had been.

“This used to be Mercer Island, right?” Elijah asked his guide.

The man grinned broadly, asking, “Ah – a local, I see? Do you have family on the island?”

Elijah shook his head. “No. I grew up a little northeast of the city. Near Mt. Baker,” he admitted. “Though I was living in Hawaii when the world changed.”

“Are the islands near here, then?”

“I don’t think so. I was actually visiting family when it all happened,” Elijah stated, not wanting to give too much away. “Or I was headed that way, at least. You wouldn’t happen to know where Easton ended up, do you?”

“Easton? I’ve actually heard stories about it,” the man stated. “Supposed to be far to the east. A bastion of civility, from all accounts. They’ve managed to preserve a proper society. Some of our people considered setting out in that direction, but, alas, there are too many among us who would never survive the journey. The wilds are not safe.”

Elijah nodded. Then, as they circled the giant plateau, he realized that he hadn’t even introduced himself to his guide. “My name’s Eli, by the way,” he said. Then, looking at the state of the man, he added, “If anyone in your community needs healing, I have a few spells that might help.”

“A good Samaritan, then?”

“I was once quite the philanthropist myself. Contributed to a host of charities designed to uplift the less fortunate,” the older man explained. “Of course, do they remember that when the tables are turned? No. Of course not. Bunch of savages. Oh – I’m Barry. Barry Brockerton.”

“Good to meet you, Barry,” Elijah said, seeing all the red flags the man was waving. Clearly, he’d been quite wealthy before Earth was touched by the World Tree, but just as obviously, his wealth had counted for very little since everything had changed. Even so, seeing the man’s age, Elijah was surprised at how nimbly he picked his way among the rubble. He was likely healthier than he’d been in decades, though his face still bore the weight of his years.

Slowly, they circled the mesa until they came to a stop in a seemingly innocuous area. It looked no different from anywhere else, with a wide, empty space that Elijah suspected had once been covered by water. Now, it was just parched earth. A couple hundred feet distant was a berm, atop which were crumbling buildings.

Barry pulled a mirror from his pocket, then tilted it so that it would catch the sun. Then, he waved his hand before the reflective surface. It took Elijah a moment to recognize what he was doing, but when he did, he couldn’t help but smile. “Morse code,” he remarked.

“Yes,” Barry said with another wide smile, displaying blisteringly white teeth that were far too straight to be real. When he grinned like that, the combination of his tan skin and aristocratic demeanor made Elijah think of country clubs and yachts. “Do you understand it?”

That elicited a shake of Elijah’s head. “No. My dad taught me and my sister some when we were kids, but the lessons never really stuck,” he lied. He remembered it all well enough to know that Barry’s message was simply a means of identification combined with a code word. Broccoli. Elijah vowed to remember it in case he needed it for some reason.

Once Barry had completed the signal, a few seconds passed before a thick rope descended from above. Initially, Elijah was surprised that they’d found so much cordage, but then he remembered that Seattle had been a port town. That meant there had likely been quite a lot of rope lying around.

“That’s a long way up.”

“George will take care of it. Strong as an ox,” said Barry, grabbing the rope. It was as big around as his wrist, but there were a couple of harnesses braided onto the end. He stepped into one, then offered another to Elijah. For his part, Elijah had no interest in leashing himself to anyone, so he declined.

“I can make my own way up,” he said.

“Are you certain?” Barry asked, clipping himself into place with a series of metal carabiners.

Elijah nodded, then slipped his staff into his Ghoul-Hide Satchel. That elicited a wide-eyed glance that Barry tried to hide a second later, but Elijah wasn’t worried about the man’s greed. He expected it. If Barry thought he could take Elijah’s stuff, then he’d discover the error of his assumptions shortly. Besides, just because the man admired Elijah’s satchel, that didn’t mean he was going to try to take it.

In either case, Elijah slapped his hands together, then did a couple of stretches before saying, “I’ll see you up there.”

Then, he set off, using the mesa’s many handholds to easily propel himself forward. With his Strength and Constitution, not to mention his Dexterity, Elijah was capable of a far faster pace than he showed. However, he made sure to keep pace with Barry, who, after hooking himself into the harness, allowed himself to simply be dragged up the face of the cliff.

That struck Elijah as a bit humiliating, but he vowed to keep those thoughts to himself. He needed to remember that everyone wasn’t blessed with the attributes he took for granted.

Either way, the trip only took about thirty minutes, and by the time he crested the lip of the mesa, Elijah could recognize why Barry had said that the top of the plateau was the safest place in Seattle. The trip was trivial with his attributes, but it was easy to see how the steep cliff would prove a sturdy defense against normal people.

Stolen story; please report.

When he pulled himself over the edge, Elijah was surprised find a large, dark-skinned man in a pair of overalls waiting for him. The man was at least six-and-a-half feet tall, bald, and built like an NFL lineman. And he was busy turning a crank, which was attached to a pulley system meant to haul the rope to the top. It reminded Elijah of the old-fashioned systems that had once been used to load ships before mechanized cranes had become widespread.

“Hey,” Elijah said. “Need some help?”

“Nah, boss. I got this,” the man said in a deep voice as he continued to turn the crank.

Soon enough, Barry was dragged over the lip of the cliff, and as he unfastened the harness, he said, “Thank you, George. Keep an eye out, will you? I was accosted in the city, and those thugs might have followed me.”

“Aight, boss.”

After that, Barry led Elijah away from the edge. As he did, Elijah looked back at George, who had assumed a position at the edge of the plateau, where he stood watch. Nearby was a large cudgel that was clearly intended as a weapon.

“I know what you’re thinking,” said Barry, pulling Elijah’s attention away. “But George is one of the good ones. His family’s been with mine for decades. He knows where his bread’s buttered, let me assure you.”

Elijah remained silent, disliking the vibes he’d gotten from the exchange. Still, he wasn’t going to pass judgment based on a single interaction. For all he knew, George was perfectly happy and well-compensated for his role, but Barry’s demeanor certainly didn’t suggest as much.

In any case, Elijah wasn’t there to right the wrongs of oppression and prejudice. So, he pushed that out of mind, instead focusing on the environment. And he had to admit, he was impressed – not by the massive mansions, which he’d expected, but rather by the sheer amount of greenery in evidence. There wasn’t a single lawn that wasn’t covered in thick grass, and there were large oak trees all around. It was such a departure from the surrounding desert that Elijah was temporarily struck speechless.

As he followed Barry, eventually stepping onto a paved road that showed only a few signs of wear and tear, Elijah saw that every garden seemed to be in bloom, and some of the houses even hosted fountains and pools in their back yards. The denizens were all clean, wearing lightweight linens, khaki pants, and colorful polo-style shirts.

It all struck Elijah as so wrong that he initially didn’t know what to say. Finally, though, his mind caught up to the situation, and he asked, “Where’s all the water coming from?”

“Ah – I knew you were observant,” Barry said, walking toward a golf cart. “We have the only permanent source of water in the entire city. It’s why everyone attacks us when we go down below.”

He slipped into the driver’s seat, gesturing for Elijah to mount the passenger’s seat of the golf cart. He did, and Barry took off, accompanied by the hum of an electric engine. Over the next few minutes, Elijah saw more of the same until, at last, they reached a massive mansion that could have accommodated dozens of people.

It was built in the style of an English manor house, complete with ivy covering the brick walls and an expansive estate that looked like it had never missed a watering session. Like everywhere else on the plateau, every flower was in bloom, filling the air with sweet smells and attracting fat honeybees.

“We have a deal with the Gardener. We give her water, and she provides one of her acolytes to help us with our horticultural pursuits,” Barry explained over the crunch of gravel as they progressed up the long driveway. “We’ve repeatedly tried to get the other so-called factions onboard, but they seem incredibly resistant. They’re all plotting against us, you see. Trying to take what’s rightfully ours. Even the government – or what’s left of it – thinks they’re entitled to steal from us. Well, we won’t have it. If they want our water, then they need to come to the table with something of value. Like the Gardener. She understands.”

Elijah let the man rant, but he’d already begun to form his opinion of the people atop Mercer Mesa. Perhaps that was colored by Barry’s attitude of obvious superiority, or maybe it came from having dealt with people like him back in Hawaii. After all, the islands played host to plenty of wealthy and entitled assholes. Because of those past experiences, Elijah wasn’t really willing to give Barry and his people the benefit of the doubt.

Still, just because he likely wasn’t going to associate with them anymore didn’t mean he couldn’t take advantage of their hospitality. After all, he’d paid two silver ethereum to save Barry. It was only right that he get something to show for his expenditure.

“It was that damned, jumped-up community manager that ruined everything,” Barry went on to say as he pulled the golf cart around behind the mansion. “Isaiah Roberts. Guess he saw a chance to take advantage of the situation. Organized a militia and tried to municipalize necessities. He already took over the electrical grid. Now he wants to take our water.”

“Was he going to pay you for it?” Elijah asked.

“A pittance! Not even enough to consider it a real payment, I say. So, we shut everything down. See how they like paying three times what we were charging to get water from those inefficient water accumulators,” Barry answered as he guided the golf cart to a bay next to a half-dozen others just like it. Inside, there were three Hispanic men wearing coveralls. Barry didn’t even acknowledge them before hopping out of the cart and saying, “Enough about that. Let me introduce you to the family. I’m sure they’ll love to meet a fine, upstanding young man like yourself.”

“Sure,” Elijah said, disembarking from the golf cart and following Barry. As he did, he glanced back to see one of the men in coveralls hooking a cord into the cart’s battery, obviously recharging it. There was a subtle sense of ethera wafting about the area, though Elijah assumed that was simply part of the technology that blended electricity and ethera.

The pair circled the house until they reached a wide, open area containing a pool that looked like it belonged in an upscale resort. Not only were there tiers to it, each one connected by a waterfall that flowed into the next, but there were a bevy of women lounging around wearing bikinis.

A few minutes later, Elijah was introduced to all four women, and he learned that the eldest – who was only a few years older than him – was Barry’s wife. She looked like she’d been on the receiving end of quite a lot of plastic surgery. The other three were beautiful women, though they were all a bit younger than Elijah. They were Barry’s daughters, though he could infer enough to recognize that they were not children of the man’s current marriage.

In any case, Elijah struggled to be polite until, at last, he was shown inside. Not by Barry, of course. By a woman in a shapeless gray dress. She didn’t even introduce herself, though she did look disapprovingly at Elijah’s feet.

Not that he cared about that sort of thing anymore. He’d grown mostly immune to people’s judgements on his habitually unshod feet. In any case, he was shown to an expansive suite with a massive bedroom that rivaled the Imperium for opulence. It was equipped with a television – that actually worked – and a stereo system with a collection of CDs. But for the moment, Elijah was more concerned with the shower.

He'd bathed only the night before, but the day’s exploits – trekking through a dusty desert town and climbing a cliff – had left him coated in grime. So, he headed into the shower, stripped down, and got to work ridding himself of reddish dirt and body odor.

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