Legions of Bone: Dragon Rider Book 3

Chapter 21: Detective Holland

Thank you to @Ashjin10for giving me this meme, I love it!

Holland

Holland sighed, shutting the door to his hotel room. He dragged a hand through his hair, stretched his neck and tight shoulders. The muscles between his shoulder blades pinched like push-pins pressing into his spine.

Sunlight fluttered through the wide window overlooking the colorful city with its pale, red stone streets. Cream, brown, and red buildings with round roofs lined the streets. He took a seat at the table, ankle on a knee, and watched the river winding through the city with a rushing current of broken branches and debris. Newward was a dry city. They never got more than two inches of rain a year--their only water source was usually from trading and the river--but they had gotten almost a foot of rain two days ago and now the city and several around it were flooding.

A dull, pounding headache beat against the back of his skull. He had spent five hours in a meeting with Cedric and Newward's council and their best doctors. He couldn't actually tell them that Norah had an evil god inside her, but they could give symptoms, say it was a curse or disease. Still, it got them the same answer.

I don't know.

I can ask around.

Give me time to think.

And while they thought and went about their day, Norah was dying. She had already died and Holland hadn't been there. And if Dagen hadn't been there, Norah would still be dead.

Holland's anxiety went up just thinking about it. 

He scrubbed his face, sighing. Nothing was working.

He even found the doctor Farren had told them about. The doctor knew more than most, was willing to come back and help for a hefty price. But Holland couldn't bring himself to let the doctor anywhere near Norah. All of the doctor's patients had parts of their brains cut out or ended up brain-dead after his experiments.

No, he would never let that man near his kid.

Rage, depthless, world-ending hatred and anger brushed against the inside of his chest, caressed his ribcage. Holland knew exactly who held that kind of rage. He reached for his phone to check in on Norah but the rage faded.

A knock sounded at his door.

Holland answered it to find Cedric with a cup of coffee in each hand. His friend's lips twitched back at the sight of him.

"It must have been a while since you've worked with bureaucrats--you didn't bring coffee to this meeting," Cedric said. "Never fear, I've got your back."

Holland trudged into the hallway, taking the coffee with a grumbled, "thanks."

He knew the routine. Every night when the meetings were done, there was an hour break before he went to Cedrics room to work. He would call Norah in a moment, she might be training.

Cedric tossed him the key card to his room and Holland held it open for his friend.

The map of the continent was still as they left it last night. Random cups weighed the corners, but they weren't stupid enough to have left all their planning and city pieces on the map. They reset the map, putting fleets of dragon riders and hordes of Thrawlers where they were present and created the multi-faction walls of soldiers at the front.

Cedric braced his hands on the table, his face drawn. "If I were a god, how would I end a planet? And what would I get out of destroying it?"

"Etin's not exactly sane," Holland muttered, arms crossed and a hand propped on his chin.