Chapter Six
I left two more messages on Qindra’s service. If I didn’t hear from the witch soon, I was going to drive out to Nidhogg’s and see what was going on. I didn’t like the way things up north were starting to find connections, and I wanted some professional advice. Maybe it was time to visit Mimi’s boarding house as well.
We waited until the next afternoon to call the Harpers. Even though they had probably been up at three in the morning when we got home—they had likely been out partying at some club or other.
The Harpers were a band right up Katie’s alley—part Led Zeppelin, part Jethro Tull, and part The Chieftains. The band leader—Cassidy Aloysius Stone—had heard Katie sing, heard her play guitar, and said she had talent. He’d also said to call anytime she wanted to jam. I had my suspicions about Mr. Stone. My gut told me he had dragon ties, but that wasn’t something you discussed in polite company.
With the prospect of creating the soundtrack for Cheerleaders of the Apocalypse, Katie and I both agreed it would be a great opportunity to investigate them further. I never wanted to be surprised again.
Katie paced the kitchen, fretting that it may be too early to call, by band standards. I assured her that it was nearly one in the afternoon, and that we could buy them drinks to apologize if we woke them. This seemed to mollify her. We put the phone on speaker and sat at the counter, drinking coffee and listening to the phone ring.
Cassidy answered on the seventh ring.
“Well, if it isn’t young Katie,” he purred into the phone. “Hey, Maggie,” he called to someone with him. “It’s Katie Cornett. What can we do for you this fine day?”
Katie explained about the movie and asked if they wanted to be part of the soundtrack. “It’s a labor of love,” she said. “But they’ll provide the studio time and if the soundtrack takes off, we can make some real money.”
“Meaning we don’t get paid?” he asked, dubiously.
“No, they’ll pay us standard studio wages with royalties on sales. Just nothing spectacular.”
There was a brief pause. We could hear whispered conversation in the background. “Let me ask the rest of the crew and get back to you,” he finally said. “But I think that sounds interesting enough. How ya been, lass?”
“It’s been a rough year,” she said. “Would take too long to go into details. We lost my brother, but we’ve got our health.”
I looked at her discreetly. Did she have her health? I was dubious.
“I’m sorry,” Cassidy said, his voice suddenly solemn. “That’s gotta be hard.”
“Sucks like you’d expect,” she said. “We do what we can.”
“Aye,” he said growing quiet. “We followed a bit about your troubles on the news,” he admitted. “Bad business there before the holidays.”
“Yeah,” she sighed. “Dark times. But we survived.” She sounded suddenly cold and hollow. “We do seem to draw the crazies.”
“Crazies indeed,” he said. “And how is your young Sarah these days?”
Katie smiled.
“Sarah’s fine,” I said into the phone. “Still juggling as fast as I can. But that’s nothing new.”
“Ah, Sarah Beauhall. Prettiest smith this side o’ Dublin. You do burn brighter than most I’ve met.”
That was an understatement. If I burned any hotter, I’d explode.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” Katie jumped in, a gleam in her eye.
“Fire away.”
She looked at me, grinning. “I couldn’t help but notice that armband you wore when we saw you perform up in Vancouver.”
“Oh? Now why would that be of interest to ya?”
I wasn’t sure if he was being defensive or coy.
“Reminds me of something I saw in a book once,” Katie said. “Something about a lost dwarf treasure. Curious if you thought it had any specific meaning, or was it just a pretty?”
“Vanity, I must admit,” he said, with a lilt in his voice. “It snared your pretty eye, after all.”
“Oh,” Katie said with a sigh. “It was worth asking about.”
He chuckled. “You disappointed, love?”
“Thought it may be part of the act, you know. Go with the mighty warrior translation for your middle name.”
“We’re in New Mexico at the moment, but we can be in Seattle in a few days. Why don’t we revisit this when we’re in town?” he asked. “Every story has more than one side. Mayhap you’ll care for a different take on it all.”
Was that an opening? I could swear the armband was part of a dragon treasure. I just knew Cassidy had to have ties to dragons somehow. Especially with that drawing Jai Li had done, I was positive there was a connection.
Katie winked at me. “Sounds excellent. Call me when you decide on the soundtrack gig.”
“Aye, darling. We’ll be in touch.”
We listened to the line go dead. Was he teasing? I didn’t get a bad feeling from him or any of the other Harpers.
Whether or not they knew about the dragons, they were good people.
And sometimes, that had to be enough.