Robert Asprin - Dragons Luck

“He owed you money!?” Griffen said.

Massive shoulders shrugged like trees bending together in the wind.

“It’s New Orleans,” it said in its ponderous voice.

Slim choked back a laugh. Griffen felt more like groaning. He rubbed his palm over his eyes and his fingers against his temples. He was really going to have to think about finding some way to improve security. This could have gone much worse.

“Look, as thankful as I am that you aren’t some slaughtering monster, you can’t leave by the front door. Even on Rampart it would get talked about,” Griffen said.

The creature nodded, and again Griffen was almost sure it was smiling. He watched as it leaned over the sink, bent forward, and slowly slid into the drain. Pieces that Griffen were sure would be too large flowed together with slurping, sucking noises. Something about the process strained Griffen’s eyes till he had to look away. By the time he had blinked and looked back, the creature was gone, an industrial-strength ring around the sink and a few marks on floor and ceiling the only thing left to show that it had ever been there.

Those signs, and a shape-shifter on the floor who promptly lifted up his head, apparently not so unconscious after all.

“Is she gone?” he asked.

“She?!” Slim and Griffen exclaimed together.

This time Slim didn’t try to hold back his laughter. Griffen fought down the urge to throw up his hands as he marched out of the room. Before leaving, he instructed the young shifter to find a mop and clean up.

He could just see this bunch leaving things for the hotel’s maid staff.

Maihad been thinking. Of course, she was always thinking, but a particular train of thought had captivated her attention. She had been thinking about faces.

Faces. She presented so many different ones to different people. Lover and confidante, unnoticed power, old enemy. She was all of these and more, depending on the situation, and the people involved. That was part of the great game that she truly loved. The many different and varied roles one had to play. Some false, some second nature, some true nature.

Some more honest than others.

There was one face, one role, that she had been slacking off on lately, an unexpected role that she had slipped into without realizing, one that she found fitted her better than she would ever have guessed. As soon as she realized how little she had played it lately, she knew it was time to take it up again. Decision made, she made her plans and found herself at Valerie’s apartment door early one afternoon.

It was time to be a friend.

She flung the door open dramatically, standing straight and tall and looking as authoritative as possible. Knowing that if the door was unlocked Valerie was in, and probably doing nothing more than watching TV on her couch. Sure enough, Val looked up from the couch, startled by the entrance.

“Get up. We are going shopping,” Mai declared.

She knew that statement to Val was even more random and surprising than her sudden entrance. Sure enough, the other dragon gave her head a shake and stuck one finger in her ear as if to clear it.

“Say that again slow.”

Mai grinned, letting herself relax.

“I mean it. You are turning into a lump. All you seem to do lately is work, work out, worry about your brother, and pretend nothing is going on in your own life.”

Val smiled a bit, shock wearing off, and ticked Mai’s list off on her own fingers.

“Seems like a full docket to me,” she said.

“Shows what you know. I’m bored and thus declare a day of shopping, bonding, and associated madness. Come along nicely, and no one gets hurt.”

“So, you are bored, and I get dragged along for the ride.” Mai faked a gasp.

“You impugn my intentions? This is all for you. Suck it up, girl, and I’ll bring along Daddy’s credit card to salve your wounds.”

Val smiled more. Mai enjoyed bantering with Val; they both knew it meant both more and less than it seemed to.

“Daddy, huh?” Val said.

“Well… someone’s daddy certainly. You know I must protect my sources.”

“Spy.”

“Lump.”

Val threw her hands up in surrender and got to her feet. Mai stepped into the apartment and let the door close behind her.

“Go get dressed and off we go,” Mai said.

Val looked down at herself, and Mai could practically hear the old discussion popping up. Not that there was anything wrong with that. It was a familiar and fun one. Mai simply would never understand Val’s sense of fashion, or lack thereof. For such an attractive woman, she seemed to do her best to hide it. Even alone in her apartment, Mai would never be caught dead in sweats. Sweats that didn’t even match.

“I am dressed, Short Stack.”

“No, Gigantia, you are clothed. Not the same thing.”

Val rolled her eyes and stomped melodramatically off to her room to change. Mai had to hand it to her, when she wanted to stomp, she stomped. Mai eased into an easy chair to wait, a small smile on her face.

A friend! Who would have thought it?

Two hours and half a dozen shops later, the two and a small mountain of bags were in a small boutique on Royal looking at hats. It didn’t matter that neither one ever wore hats, or that hats in general were very much out of style for anyone who looked under forty. Practicality had little to do with a shopping day.

Usually most of the bags would have been Mai’s, but there was something infectious about Mai when she really got going. Plus, since she was mildly irritated by Val’s reluctance to spend on herself, she often snatched items that Val liked and paid for them while the other was still in the changing room. Or slipped the clerk her card, so that when Val’s pride demanded she “pay her own way” she would find it already covered. Even friends could get caught up in power games.

Mostly, though, this was giving them time to catch up and talk. Mai started on safe topics, Val’s work mainly. Then steered the conversation slowly to where she was interested. At the moment, while fingering a feathered monstrosity she couldn’t imagine anyone would actually put on her head, she was telling Val how Griffen had managed to get caught up with both her and Fox Lisa.

“Really?” Val said, laughing. “Strip pai gow?”

“Yeah, and he didn’t see it coming. Can’t believe you haven’t heard that one before,” Mai said.

“Well, you never told me, and I don’t spend much time with Lisa.”

“And Griffen?”

“Brothers!” Val rolled her eyes. “He’s all about sticking his overprotective nose in my love life. But as soon as I turn it around, he gets embarrassed and shrugs me off. Big baby.”

Mai chuckled, but her eyes narrowed a bit, and her tone went just a touch sly.

“So… about your love life.”

“What about it?” Val said, expression faltering.

“Oh, so you can shrug it off, too? Maybe it’s not a brother trait after all but a McCandles one.”

Val looked at her surroundings. Most of the shops they had visited were big on personal attention, pampering that usually wasn’t found in these mall-filled consumer days. Unfortunately, that meant there was a shopgirl pretending not to eavesdrop a few feet away. Mai watched her gather up her bags.

“Come on. If we are going to dish, I’m going to need something hot and bad for me,” Val said.

“Sounds like your love life, all right,” Mai said.

Val glared at her, a very unfriendly look, and Mai waved to the shopkeeper as they headed back out to the street. Mai followed, though she had pretty much figured they were headed to Café Du Monde and Val’s favorite sweet vices.

“I wasn’t shrugging it off,” Val said.