Golden Braids and Dragon Blades: Steampunk Rapunzel

Chapter 12: Headquarters

I stared at the assembly. Suddenly, I was overcome with a sense of anxiety. Were all these people just like Ewan? Would there be others here who would see I was…different? I gripped my bag tighter. What if they learned what I carried?

“You’re safe here, Rapunzel. These people… We will help you,” Ewan said then took my arm gently as we made our way down the row.

As we went, we got a few stray glances.

“Ewan,” another agent greeted him. The man sat on the corner of the table absently munching an apple as he read a yellowed paper. I couldn’t help but look at the small clockwork spider sitting on the man’s shoulder. “What happened? Here for reinforcements? Which one of the dirty dozen got away this time?” the man asked with a chuckle.

I cast a glance up at Ewan, whose cheeks flushed red.

“Dozen?” the agent sitting across from the man replied. “Now, is that a baker’s dozen or only twelve? Might need another agent in the division if you’re up to thirteen now.”

Both men laughed.

Ewan didn’t answer but simply moved toward the other end of the room.

“Look, Ewan caught one! By God, she looks ferocious,” another agent called, causing a few others to look up. They chuckled.

Ewan clenched his jaw but didn’t say anything.

I glared at the man who had spoken. Ewan had just saved my life. Why was everyone teasing him?

When we were out of earshot of the agents and headed down a narrow hall away from the larger room, I asked, “What’s the dirty dozen they keep talking about?”

Ewan frowned. “There are twelve known dragon bloods in the realm. My division keeps tabs on them,” he said then coughed uneasily. “Some of my colleagues think we Pellinores have an easy job.”

“Oh,” I said, then looked back at the other agents who were working busily. “But then, what do those other people watch over?”

“Werewolves, goblins, vampires, selkies, witches, and other creepy buggers. The realm is full of peculiarities. Don’t see many faeries though—unless the druids are hiding them, which is probably the case. The people here are charged with keeping the realm and all her secrets safe.”

Ewan led me down a series of hallways until we reached a closed office door. He pressed a button on the wall, and from behind the door, a bell chimed. A moment later, a second chime emitted from a bell on our side of the wall. Ewan lifted a cone-shaped receiver and set it on his ear. He leaned toward a slotted device attached to a pipe, which led to some copper tubes on the wall.

“Ewan Goodwin and guest. There was an incident at the towers.”

Ewan listened.

“An airship pilot and a tower guard. Dragon blood took them out,” he replied into the device.

He listened again.

“Yes, sir. I will. Sir…I have someone here you need to meet.”

Ewan listened once more.

“Thank you.”

Ewan hung up the receiver then turned and looked at me. “Well, I’m not fired. Yet.”

“Yet?”

He chuckled then rubbed his hand on the back of his head. The expression on his face told me it was still a distinct possibility.

A moment later, the door opened, and a strikingly beautiful woman with long black hair wearing a red cape emerged. She eyed both of us. I noticed then that she had a scratch along the left side of her face, her left eye turned moon white.

“Agent Louvel,” Ewan said, inclining his head to her.

She grinned. “Agent Goodwin…and guest,” she said, eyeing me carefully. She raised her eyebrows then moved along.

“Ewan, come in,” someone called from inside.

Tepidly, I followed behind Ewan after snagging the wicker case containing my dragons from his hand. I clutched it protectively.

The man behind the desk rose. He had blond hair, a well-trimmed beard, and a smattering of freckles across his nose and cheeks. His manner and dress were very formal. But there was a softness in his eyes that reassured me that he was probably not going to murder me and take my dragons straight away.

“Agent Hunter,” Ewan said, giving the man a short bow. “This is Rapunzel. She is in need of sanctuary. The dragon bloods are hunting her. I was hoping the Society could arrange for safe passage for her somewhere out of the way.”

“Hunting her? Why?” Agent Hunter quickly assessed me, from the crate in my hand to the bag I was clutching against my chest. His gaze stopped when he met my eyes. They lingered there.

“Well—” Ewan said, then nervously rubbed the back of his neck. “She is also a dragon blood.”

Agent Hunter’s brows arched. “But… That’s not possible.”

“The female heirs of Mordred do not manifest their dragon blood, that is true. I believe… I believe Rapunzel is a Pendragon from the line of Anna.”

Agent Hunter looked at me then at the cases I carried once more. He fixed his eyes on mine, his gaze narrowing when he looked into my eyes. After a moment, his expression softened. “Rapunzel, right?” he asked.

“Yes,” I nodded.

“Where was she?” Agent Hunter asked as he went to his bookshelf and pulled down a large ledger.

“Cornwall. I was tracking Dormad. I believe he was tracking Rapunzel’s faerie guardian. I found Rapunzel in a cave along the shore. Dormad was not far behind.”

“Faerie guardian?” Agent Hunter asked as he set the book down on the table. He looked from Ewan to me.

“Yes. The Pellinore archives speak of a faerie guardian, Seelie Court, who watched over Anna. Her name was Gothel,” Ewan said then looked at me.

Agent Hunter turned to me as well.

“Yes, that’s her,” I said.

Agent Hunter nodded. “And where is Gothel now?”

“I don’t know, sir. Gothel was transporting Rapunzel somewhere by airship. Dormad and Owyr were on the platforms waiting. I didn’t see Morad or any of the others. It’s possible they picked Gothel up. Or she may have escaped to the Otherworld.”

“Or they killed her,” Agent Hunter said with a frown.

“No,” I interjected.

Both of them looked at me.

“She’s alive.”

“How do you know?” Ewan asked.

I looked down at my clothes. “Her illusions are still in place.”

Ewan looked back at the crate. From inside, Estrid meowed.

Agent Hunter’s eyes went to the crate.

Unconsciously, I swung the crate behind me. “My cats,” I said, casting a quick but pleading glance at Ewan.

To my surprise, he didn’t interject.

Agent Hunter nodded then turned back to his book and began turning pages. As he did so, I glanced at the tome. Within were lineage charts. Pages upon and pages of lineage charts. Agent Hunter followed along lines which stopped. He flipped pages again, following lines that ended once more. He shook his head. “I do not pretend to be an expert on the work of your division, Agent Goodwin, but I was told that the line of Anna was extinguished.”

“So we thought it was. Somewhere along the way, we missed someone. But Gothel didn’t, and it has been nine generations.”

“Nine generations,” Agent Hunter repeated then stared off into the distance. “The Scrolls of Merlin.”

Ewan nodded.

Agent Hunter looked at me. “Do you know where Gothel was taking you?”

I shook my head.

“We need to get her off the map. Some place they won’t think to look for her,” Ewan said.

“And then?” Agent Hunter asked.

Ewan exhaled deeply. “It is the duty of the Pellinores to watch over the line of Pendragon. But we’re only three agents. I know the rest of the agency thinks what we do is a joke. Between Lucy, William, and me, we have been keeping the dragon bloods in check. But we have never had a situation like this. I am a Pellinore—in name and in blood—and I will protect Arthur’s line as is my sworn duty,” he said with more earnestness than I had ever heard from him before.

“Send word to Lucy and William. Your division must be proactive in this matter. Her presence changes everything.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I will need to inform Her Majesty. It’s not every day that someone who could literally draw the sword from the stone walks into my office,” Agent Hunter said with a soft smile.

“Of course, sir.”

Agent Hunter pulled a piece of paper out of his desk drawer and quickly dashed a note on it. He handed it to Ewan.

“This is the address and directions to my country estate, Willowbrook Park. Take her there. I have a small but trustworthy staff. They will look after you.” He opened yet another drawer, from which he pulled a small box. He took out a key and handed it to Ewan. “The key to the grandfather clock in the library.”

Ewan raised an eyebrow then nodded. “Very well, sir. Thank you.”

Agent Hunter looked pensive. “We must discover what happened to Gothel. There are very few of the golden court in the mortal realm.”

“She was planning to talk to someone on another airship. I don’t know who, but the airship had a hammer with a wolf’s head on its balloon.”

Agent Hunter stared at me, chuckled lightly, then nodded. Raising a finger, he picked up a receiver like the one in the hall and pressed some buttons. A moment later, I heard the voice of the upstairs maid. “Yes, sir?”

“Has Agent Louvel left yet?”

“No, sir.”

“Please ask her to come back. I have a surprise for her.”

“Of course, sir.”

Agent Hunter clicked off the device and nodded to Ewan. “We’ll find Gothel,” he told me reassuringly then turned to Ewan. “I’ll be in touch soon. For now, go to Willowbrook, and we’ll go from there.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Ewan turned and motioned to me that it was time to go.

“Miss Pendragon, I wish you all the best. Agent Goodwin will look after you and your cats,” Agent Hunter said.

Did he know? “Thank you.”

Ewan and I turned then and headed out of Agent Hunter’s office.

So, we were headed to Willowbrook Park. I liked the sound of it. I smiled, imagining Missus Bennet, Elizabeth Bennet’s mother, clasping her hands in excited glee for the turnabout in circumstance. Somehow in my series of unfortunate events, I would go from cave dweller to resident of an exquisite estate. Now, if only I could find my Mister Darcy.

No. Not Darcy.

I smiled at Ewan as I followed along behind him.

Someone just like Ewan.