Tag Archives: The Drache Girl

The Drache Girl: Mother Linton

Posted on by
Reply

Everyone loves to hate Mother Linton.  I don’t find her evil.  She just has a different set of objectives than our heroes.

All four men stood up as the severe looking woman approached in a black dress.  Her graying hair was pulled tightly back into a long pony tail and her lips were so thin, it seemed as though the pony tail was pulling most of the skin of her face with it.  Her black dress was not a robe, not quite, and as was almost all feminine attire, it was endowed with a prominent bustle, but had no brocade or lace, just a priestly collar at her neck, and a thin strip of white running from each shoulder to the floor.  She had a large and ornate golden cross on a chain around her neck.

“Mother Linton,” said Dechantagne.  “May I introduce Misters Staff, Merchant, and Shannon.”

Mother Linton nodded to each.  “May I speak to you, Mr. Dechantagne?”

He shrugged and stepped away with the priest.

“So what do you say about this weather, Staff?” marveled Shannon.  “Whenever I think of Mallon, I think of the jungle.  I never expected snow.”

“I suppose there is a great deal of Mallon that’s tropical,” replied Staff, “but Birmisia is cool, dry, lots of pine trees.  Even the summers are not too bad.  That’s good from a business perspective, too.  Nobody wants to muck around in swamps.  That’s probably why Enclep isn’t better developed.”

“Good man,” said Merchant.  “Always keeping business in mind.”

Dechantagne returned to the table and sat down.

“What was that all about?” asked Staff.

“It seems Mother Linton has been pegged by the Bishop of Brech as the High Priest of Birmisia.”

“And?”

“And priests are no different than anyone else.  They all want something.”  He waved to the waiter for another drink.

“And what does she want?”

“Oh, it’s all Mother Church this and Mother Church that.”  Dechantagne picked up the cigar that he had left smoldering in the ashtray when he had stepped outside with Mother Linton, and he stubbed it out.  Then he got up and walked out the door, intercepting the waiter for his drink along the way.

The Drache Girl: The Buttermores

Posted on by
Reply

 

Mrs. Melody Lanier was Mrs. Harper’s daughter and looked just as she must have looked in her younger days, with dark hair and a voluptuous figure that would turn any man’s head.  Likewise, her teen-aged daughter Wenda was a young, thin, and happy version of her, before adulthood had put the lines around her eyes or had put the grey in her mother’s hair.  Mrs. Lanier had lost her husband and Miss Lanier her father, when he was killed in a boiler explosion, while working on the Greater Brechalon and Northern Railroad.  Mrs. Harper had encouraged her daughter to come along with her and try to start a new life in Birmisia.

“You’ve heard me speak of them, and here they are,” said Buttermore.

 

The Drache Girl: Cady Gertz

Posted on by
Reply

Cady Gertz is one of those characters who just show up in the background all the time.  In a way, those are my favorites, because I have their back stories that only I know completely.  If you read all the books though, you might find yourself starting to know them too.

The temporary City Hall was right next door, and with the exception of the lack of hen mesh over the windows, it looked exactly like the police station.  Saba stepped up two very short steps and into the front office, which was only half the size of his own.  Miss Cadence Gertz sat at the receptionist desk.  Her black hair was pulled back into a severe bun, she had on horn-rimmed glasses, and she wore a plain brown gingham dress.  Saba still thought she was very pretty.

“Good morning, Constable,” she said, smiling shyly.

“Good morning, Miss Gertz.”

“What can I do for you?”

“I’m here to see the mayor, if he’s not too busy.”

“Police business?” she asked.

“Of course.”

“I’ll see if he can see you now.”  She got up and walked to the door separating the twenty by twenty five foot reception office from the mayor’s office, knocked on the door, and then went in, leaving Saba for a moment, to stand and contemplate brown gingham in a way that he never had before.  She was gone no more than two minutes.  When she came back out again, she ushered him into the presence of the mayor, closing the door behind him.

“Good morning, Mr. Mayor.”

Zeah Korlann rolled his eyes, and then stood up to shake hands with the young constable.

“If I had known being the mayor meant I was doing essentially all of the Colonial Council’s work, I wouldn’t have accepted the position.”  He waved for Saba to take a chair.

“Somebody has to be the big man in charge,” said Saba, sitting down, crossing his legs, and setting his helmet on his knee.

“How is your mother?  I missed her yesterday, when I was visiting my grandson.”

“She’s fine.  And how is Miss Lusk?”

“The same.  I mean, fine.  Miss Gertz said that you were here on police business?”

“Yes, I need to requisition an item.”

“A revolver or a shotgun?”

“A typewriter.”

“Do you know how to type?”

“I’ll learn.”

“I’ll bet we could get Mr. Collit to find one for us.  Are there any funds in the police budget?”

“No.”

“Alright,” Mayor Korlann sighed.  “We’ll find the money somewhere.”

“Thank you, sir,” said Saba getting up.  “Would you happen to know if Miss Gertz has gone to lunch yet?”

Saba escorted Miss Gertz to lunch at Mrs. Finkler’s Bakery as he had done on six previous occasions.  But just like those other six times, this could not be considered a date, because Miss Gertz insisted upon paying for her own meal.  Mrs. Gertz was of the opinion that her daughter, at nineteen, was too young to be courted, and ought not to be receiving gentlemen who were Kafirites in any case.  Still, the two young people had a lovely lunch and did not mention Miss Gertz’s mother, or religion, or police work.  In fact, later, Saba could not remember what the topic of conversation had been at all.  All he could remember was thick barley soup with onions and large brown eyes.

The Drache Girl: Tabby Malloy

Posted on by
Reply

Tabby Malloy is the local prostitute in Port Dechantagne and appears as a minor character in The Drache Girl.  An older, married Tabby also makes an appearance in The Two Dragons.

Walking north on the gravel road, which was officially Bainbridge Clark Street, Saba passed a road crew of five lizardmen and their human foreman.  They were moving very slowly in the cool morning air.  Within a month, most would stop showing up for work at all, and the repair of roads, building of sewers, and installation of gas lines would be suspended for the winter as the few Lizzies who did show up would be put to work on the docks.  Saba thought it fitting that the reptiles were repairing Bainbridge Clark Street, as Bainbridge Clark the man had been instrumental in stopping the lizardman army of King Ssithtsutsu, when it had attacked the colony.  He had later been Saba’s sergeant in the militia, and a friend.  Sadly, Saba’s first call as a constable had been to find Clark’s dead body, in bed, at the home of Miss Tabby Malloy; better than taking a lizardman spear or being eaten by dinosaurs.

Bainbridge Clark Street didn’t actually end at the Emergency Wall, because there was a road on the other side of the wall, and it too was called Bainbridge Clark Street, but the two were separated by the thirty foot tall structure.  Thirty feet to the left though was a small unobtrusive door that had been cut into the wall about two years before, after a particularly nasty problem with tyrannosaurs.  The door had been placed there specifically to allow emergency workers to move from one side of the wall to the other, without having to go all the way to the town square and through the big gate.  Relatively few had keys to the locked door, but Saba was one of those who did.  He unlocked the door, passed through, and then locked it once again with the key.

On this side of the wall, the road sloped down a hill toward the dock area.  A few small buildings, offices mostly separated it from the shoreline, while on the right were numerous warehouses and supply buildings.  At the top of the hill, Saba stopped to take in the view.  The Mirsannan freighter S.S. Meninia Impertinenta was docked and two large cranes were lifting freight from its cargo hold and setting it down onto the ground.  Half a dozen lizardman work crews were ferrying the freight from there to two different warehouses.

Walking down the hill a little way, the young constable turned from the bay and walked between a large warehouse on the left and a long row of small apartments on the right.  This area was the lowest rent district in Port Dechantagne.  The little two-story, four apartment buildings were constructed all of wood with dimensions of twelve by thirty six feet.  Each of the apartments had one room, either with a wood-burning stove, or a fireplace, and the entire block of apartments—one hundred buildings, four hundred apartments—were serviced by a block of twenty water closets.  When the apartments had originally been built, they had been built with outhouses.  Two years ago, these had been replaced by small block houses, each of which had six WCs and all of which had the latest running water facilities.  Saba stepped inside one of the WCs to relieve himself.  He luxuriously washed his hands and face, and then stepped outside to find a woman waiting.  She was slightly older than he was, about twenty, with bright red hair and a brightly painted face.  Under her pink dress, he could see she clearly wore no bustle.

“Miss Tabby Malloy,” said Saba.  “I was just thinking of you this morning.”

“Oh?  What were you thinking about me?”  She put her hand on her hip and struck a pose.  She really was attractive, considering—clean, nice, and as far as Saba knew, not a thief.

“I was just thinking about… well, about how pretty you are.”

“You know I would do a pretty young lad like you, a virgin and all, for free.”

“And you know I’m saving myself for marriage.  But it’s good to see you’re doing well.  Have a lovely day.”

“You have a lovely day yourself, lad,” she said.  “I expect to be seeing you soon, whether it’s before marriage or after.”

The Drache Girl: Saba Colbshallow

Posted on by
Reply

Saba is an important character in Senta and the Steel Dragon and in The Drache Girl, he has perhaps his bigget part.

Suddenly he heard gunfire erupting from directly in front of him.  One, two shots.  Then a pause.  Then one, two, three, four, five, six, pause.  He looked up above the trees and saw a flash of steel shoot across the sky.

“Oh, bloody hell!” he shouted and ran at top speed in the direction of the gunfire.  That he carried no other weapon than a heavy truncheon, worried him not a bit.  Two men with military issue service rifles, but wearing expensive hunting clothes stood in the middle of the gravel road.

“Guns down!” yelled Saba, as he skidded to a stop in front of them.  “Drop your guns now!”

“See here chap,” said the first man, his accent labeling him as plainly as if he had worn a placard that he was from Old Town Brech.  He must have been very new to the colony, because Saba made it a custom to get to know everyone, and neither of these men he recognized.

“We’re doing nothing illegal,” said the second man.  “Just shooting some pests.”

“What exactly were you shooting?”

“We heard from some of the neighbors that these velocipedes….”

“Velociraptors,” Saba corrected.

“Yes, them.  They’ve been a menace lately, to the point of endangering the local children.”

“Quite,” said the first man.  “We went out to put a few down and found a small group digging right into those garbage bins.  We shot a few and killed two, I think, but one took off and flew into the trees.”

“If you listen to me very, and I do mean very, carefully,” said Saba.  “I just might be able to save your lives.  Lay your rifles down on the ground.”

“But I don’t under…..”

“Do it!”

The men leaned over and carefully placed their weapons on the white gravel road.

“Nobody told you velociraptors don’t fly?”

A loud whomp made all three men jump, and they found themselves standing next to a pony-sized reptile with twenty foot wings, and more importantly a mouth open large enough to swallow a human head.  Steel scales reflected the light from the winter morning sky like shields and swords on a forgotten battlefield.  The steel dragon let out a huge roar, rending the air with a noise that must have been heard all over Port Dechantagne.  Little puffs of smoke flew out of his mouth at the two men as well as bits of saliva which burst into little sparks in the air.

“They bloody shot me!”  The dragon’s four word sentence disintegrated into another roar of rage.

One of the hunters started to bend over for his rifle.  Saba stepped on the gun and put his hand on the man’s shoulder.

“Let me see your injury, Bessemer,” he said.  The dragon folded its left wing, and held out the right wing showing an ugly lead mark on a shiny steel scale about midway between the first joint and the shoulder.

“It doesn’t look that bad,” said Saba.  “And you know this was an accident.  They were trying to knock off some velociraptors.”

“So was I,” said Bessemer.  “I didn’t expect it would get me shot!”

“It was an accident, honest and truly,” said the first hunter, shaking a little.  “Maybe we can make it up to you.”

“There was a time,” said Bessemer.  “When the only acceptable payment for this type of transgression was a virgin given at midnight on the full moon.”  Then he burst out laughing.  “Of course I didn’t mean you, Saba.”

The two hunters laughed, a bit nervously, along with the dragon, happy that the anger he had arrived with seemed to be going away.

“Well, no harm then,” said one.

“You daft fools,” said Saba, looking down the road.  “He’s the least one of your problems.”

The Drache Girl – Amadea Jindra and the Marchonds

Posted on by
2

Though Amadea Jindra makes a small appearance in Book 0: Brechalon, her only real part of the story is here in The Drache Girl.  If however, I ever get around to writing a sequel series, she will play a part in it.

The Marchonds are just a couple that happen to fall into the story at the right point.  Both make an impression in Radley Staff’s life.

The waiter brought steaming bowls of chicken soup and a large plate with thickly sliced dark bread and thinly sliced gingerbread.  As soon as they were finished with their soup, the bowls were taken away and large bowls of salad in light vinaigrette and topped with orange slices were distributed.  The three had almost finished with the salads when a fourth diner arrived.  It was the raven haired woman who had been playing the piano in the lounge.  Both Marchond and Staff stood as she was seated.

“Miss Jindra,” said Marchond.  “I was afraid we weren’t going to see you this evening.  Allow me to introduce Mr. Staff.”

“Call me Amadea,” said Miss Jindra.

“Miss Jindra is a sorceress of some renown,” said Mrs. Marchond, smiling at the reaction she received, as the young man’s face went unaccountably blank.

Rare prime rib was served for supper with baked potato and Staff gave over talking to tuck in.  He hadn’t had a meal this fine in years.  He certainly never managed prime rib in the officer’s mess.  Dessert was trifle, and also ranked highly among all the food that Staff had eaten in some time.  It reminded him though of his days spent ferrying a group of colonists across the ocean on the battleship H.M.S. Minotaur, and of the nights he spent dining with a strangely commanding woman with almost hypnotic aquamarine eyes.  His mind wandered from there to the evenings spent strolling along a distant shore and a few stolen moments of frantic lovemaking.

With dinner over, he excused himself and walked outside.  He leaned over the railing and watched as a pod of ichthyosaurs raced along beside the ship.  They were so much like the porpoises of home waters, except for the vertical tails.  After a few moments, he felt a warm body next to him and turned to see Miss Jindra in her deep purple dress.

“Mr. Staff,” she said.

“Miss Jindra.”

“I gathered earlier that you had a rather poor opinion of practitioners of the art.”

He shrugged.

“Have you known many?”

“I’ve known a few—a few sorceresses and quite a few wizards.  You run across a lot of wizards in the service.”

“And you don’t like them?”

He shrugged again.

“Why?”

“I don’t know.  I guess I find them to be self-important.”

“Is it self-important magic wielders who bother you?  Or self-important women?”

He shrugged again.

“Birmisia is not the place to go if you don’t like powerful women.”

“Don’t I know it?”

“Is it magic you are afraid of, Mr. Staff?  You know there is a sorceress in Birmisia who may be the most powerful in the world.  She is said to have destroyed an entire city with a single spell.”

“That’s probably exaggerated,” said Staff.  “She didn’t do anything particularly amazing when I knew her.”

“You know her?”

“Knew her.”

“So you really are not afraid of magic.”

“I’m not afraid of magic.  I’m also not afraid of a steam train.  That doesn’t mean I would stand in front of one.”  He tried to change the subject.  “You have an interesting accent, Miss Jindra.”

“My father was a Brech, but my mother was from Argrathia.”

The Drache Girl – Merchant and Shannon

Posted on by
Reply

Merchant and Shannon are the owners of a steam ship line and a coal company and other things in Senta and the Steel Dragon.  Hence they are at work in the background of the story, though the appear in The Drache Girl.  Their names come from Moet and Chandon Champagne (like in the Queen song).

Two men dressed in expensive evening suits entered the lounge and made their way across the room to stand next to the former naval officer.  Both were in their late fifties, the first with thinning grey hair and a thick black mustache.  The second man was clean shaven, with jowls that shook when he talked, and had a thick pile of white hair.

“Two glasses of fortified white,” the first man ordered from the bartender.  Then he turned back to his companion.  “I’m telling you now Shannon, you won’t be sorry you came and you won’t be sorry we brought our crew with us.  There’s no time to waste.”

“I know,” said the jowly man.  “I just hate traveling in Hamonth.  It’s bad luck, you know.”

“No.  It’s bad luck to start a journey in Hamonth.  We’re already at sea.  Did you ever hear that it was bad luck to start a journey in Kafirius?”

“No.”

“Well, there you go.  If anything, it’s good luck.  We’ve got to move quickly too, you know.  The latest report is that the railroad will reach Port Dechantagne by the end of Festuary.”

“That soon?”

“Yes.  Say,” the first man tapped Staff on the shoulder.  “Don’t I know you?”

“I don’t think so,” replied Staff, keeping his eyes on the piano player.

“But you’re a navy man, right?  An officer?”

“I was.”

“Did you serve in Birmisia?”

“Yes.”

“Excellent.  Allow me to make an introduction.  I’m Alastair Merchant, and this is my partner Wendell P. Shannon.”

“Merchant and Shannon,” said Staff, turning to shake hands.  “Like the shipping lines.”

“The very same.”

“Radley Staff, late a commander in His Majesty’s Royal Navy.”

“A pleasure to meet you.  We’re on our way to Birmisia to conduct a little business and we could use a man who knows the lay of the land.  Somebody who’s been there, knows how things are done.  Say, I’ll bet you even know the royal governor.”

“We’ve met.”

“Fantastic,” Merchant turned to Shannon.  “It looks like fortune has smiled on us again.”

The Drache Girl – The Lizzies

Posted on by
Reply

The lizzie characters don’t have much of a part in The Drache Girl, with the exception of Cissy.  This is because I wrote it before I wrote The Dark and Forbidding Land, and I didn’t yet realize how much I wanted them there.  Still, Cissy has a bit of a juicy part.

The reptilian hands pulled her back down the short end of the hall just in front of her bedroom.  Then they turned her around so that she faced the lizzie to whom they belonged.  It was Cissy.  Yuah had learned to recognize her, even without the ridiculous yellow skirt which she wore even now.  Cissy yanked open the door of the laundry shoot and pointed.

“In,” she said.

Yuah stuck Augie into the shaft, and still holding on to him, dived in after, head first.  Cissy lifted Yuah’s legs and gave her a push and she slid down two stories to land in the pile of unwashed clothing in the basement.  She rolled to her feet, quickly checking to see that Augie was unharmed.  She carried him across the room to the steps leading up and out into the side yard.  Poking her head out and looking both left and right, she didn’t see any of the cold-blooded intruders.

She ran quickly across the yard and out the front gate, just as more gunfire and a scream erupted from inside the Dechantagne home.  Yuah turned and looked at the front door as a single Lizzie, carrying a rifle, stepped out into the misty air.  It saw her, and with a look of evil determination started after her.  She ran, heedless of the sharp gravel on her bare feet.  She ran for the closest nearby house—Saba Colbshallow’s small home.

The reptilian hands pulled her back down the short end of the hall just in front of her bedroom.  Then they turned her around so that she faced the lizzie to whom they belonged.  It was Cissy.  Yuah had learned to recognize her, even without the ridiculous yellow skirt which she wore even now.  Cissy yanked open the door of the laundry shoot and pointed.

“In,” she said.

Yuah stuck Augie into the shaft, and still holding on to him, dived in after, head first.  Cissy lifted Yuah’s legs and gave her a push and she slid down two stories to land in the pile of unwashed clothing in the basement.  She rolled to her feet, quickly checking to see that Augie was unharmed.  She carried him across the room to the steps leading up and out into the side yard.  Poking her head out and looking both left and right, she didn’t see any of the cold-blooded intruders.

She ran quickly across the yard and out the front gate, just as more gunfire and a scream erupted from inside the Dechantagne home.  Yuah turned and looked at the front door as a single Lizzie, carrying a rifle, stepped out into the misty air.  It saw her, and with a look of evil determination started after her.  She ran, heedless of the sharp gravel on her bare feet.  She ran for the closest nearby house—Saba Colbshallow’s small home.

The Drache Girl – Iolanthe Dechantagne Calliere

Posted on by
Reply

Iolanthe is one of my favorite characters and one of the most important in the series.  She’s so fun to write because she’s such a bitch.  She plays an important part in The Drache Girl, even though she is not one of the four main characters in this part of the story.

A second later, around the corner stepped Iolanthe Dechantagne and Yuah Korlann.  Iolanthe Calliere and Yuah Dechantagne, Staff mentally corrected himself.  Iolanthe was wearing a green velvet dress with at least seven ornately ruffled layers, and a white lace collar with a black bow.  Yuah wore a gold dress with a broad band of blue at the knees and a waterfall of lace draping from the shoulders and down over the bustle.  Both women wore hats covered in flowers that matched each of their dresses and carried matching muffs.  The two women saw Staff at the same moment and both stopped dead in their tracks.

“Radley,” gasped Iolanthe.

Then the three of them stood silently gaping at each other.  At last Yuah stepped forward.

“Mr. Staff, how lovely to see you again,” she said, removing one hand from her muff and offering it to him.

“Mrs. Dechantagne, you look more lovely that I remember.”

“Oh, pish-posh.  I’m getting to be an old lady.”

“That madam is sacrilege.”

She smiled.

Iolanthe still stood where she was.  Her face had gone from the pale of alabaster to the pale of ash.  Her mouth was agape, and she looked as though she was unable to breathe.  Staff stepped forward, taking her right wrist in his hands, pulling her hand from her muff and enfolding it in his own.

“Mrs.… It’s very nice to see you again.”

“Commander Staff,” said Iolanthe, at last, taking an audible breath.  “I didn’t realize you were in the country.”

“I had always planned to return.”

Iolanthe bit her lip.

“I’m here on business,” he said, releasing her hand and turning back to Yuah.  “I just spoke to your father and he was very helpful in offering me advice on how to get everything off the ground now that I’m here.”

“He does excel at giving advice,” conceded Yuah.  “What business will you be running.”

“Coal.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, I have some very wealthy backers and a complete staff ready to go to work.  I will need the royal governor’s office for all the permits and tax papers and what not, but I’m sure you may offer me some insight into the governor’s state of mind.”

“I… Oh, I….permits…”  Iolanthe swayed just for a moment.  Yuah took her by the shoulder and held her upright.

“I’m sure that my sister-in-law will be able to offer you all the assistance that you need.  What do you require first?”

“Your father has pointed me in the direction of an office building with apartments, though I may need somewhere to live until I secure it.”

“Well, that’s easily settled,” said Yuah.  “You simply must come and stay at the Dechantagne home.”

Iolanthe moved with what seemed like hesitation toward the front steps of the temporary city hall and sat down on the wooden planks so hard that it appeared she might fall back.