“I know,” my god said, pushing back to her feet. “And I didn’t say I wasn’t going to do anything. Just because I refuse to drop a building on him doesn’t mean I’m going to stand around twiddling my thumbs while the Gameskeeper steals my city. Being the DFZ is my dream too. I’m not just going to roll over and let him take that away.”
“Great,” I said, hopes rising. “So how are we going to stop him?”
The garden fell silent.
“Could you close off Rentfree for that day?” my father asked. “The Gameskeeper draws his magic from the crowd. If Kos fights, but no one’s there to see it, he gets nothing.”
“I could try,” the city said. “But Rentfree’s got a million ways in, and the Gameskeeper controls enough of them that there’s a good chance he could get around any barriers I put up. Also, there’s still the TV audience to think about. There’s more viewers at home than he could ever fit in that arena, and I can’t do anything about a satellite feed.”
“And Nik would still get eaten by a dragon,” I added angrily.
Neither my father nor the DFZ looked as if they particularly minded that part. I was fuming about that when a new idea popped into my head. “What about the Peacemaker?”
My father made a disgusted face. “What about him?”
“Spirits aren’t the only power in this city,” I said, turning to face the DFZ since Yong was clearly a lost cause. “The Gameskeeper might not be breaking your laws, but there’s no way the Dragon of Detroit will tolerate a dragon being caged and forced to duel a mortal in his territory. This fight spits in the face of everything he stands for. Once he knows what’s going on, he’ll have to do something, so let’s go tell him! I bet we can get him to trash the entire arena for us.”
“He and his followers certainly excel at trashing things,” my father said. “But I don’t think bringing in the Peacemaker is a good idea.”
“Of course you don’t. You’ve never liked him. But we can’t let your prejudice—”
“It’s not prejudice,” Yong said stiffly. “It’s fact. The Peacemaker is a terrible excuse for a dragon, but even he has limits. He might not like what’s been done to White Snake, but she’s never been part of his alliance, so he has no obligation to fly to her rescue. Also, if the Gameskeeper is to be believed, then White Snake signed a contract to fight in that arena just like everyone else, which means her battle is perfectly legal according to the laws of the DFZ. I’m sure the Peacemaker would still try something because that idiot’s never met a situation he wouldn’t meddle in, but if he rolls in there fire blazing, the Gameskeeper will be able to—quite rightly—call foul. If things go wrong enough, we could end up in a situation where the DFZ is forced to defend her enemy against her ally, which is the opposite of what we want.”
“Oh yeah,” the DFZ agreed glumly. “Major suck.”
I threw my head back with a groan, hating that they were right. The Peacemaker might call himself the Dragon of Detroit, but he and every other dragon in this city were only here because the DFZ allowed it. If he broke her laws, even for a good cause, she’d have no choice but to come down on him same as anyone else. A situation I’m sure the Gameskeeper would love.
“Okay,” I said, rubbing my aching temples. “So calling in the dragon cavalry is a no-go. What else have we got?”
Silence fell again, which only made me angrier. We were a god, a dragon, and a mage. There had to be something we could do, but I couldn’t think of what. The Gameskeeper had us blocked at every turn. I couldn’t even bribe White Snake to throw the fight because a) her pride would never allow her to be defeated by a human on international television, and b) the curse would probably count that as cheating and cut Nik’s head off. Even if I smuggled Nik an anti-dragon gun, that would only give the Gameskeeper a better fight and make him even more powerful. I was struggling to imagine an outcome where that hateful arena spirit didn’t come out on top when my father’s eyes lit up.
“We could free White Snake.”
I stared at him in wonder, feeling like an idiot for not thinking of that myself. All this time, I’d been worried about how to stop the fight without killing Nik, but the Gameskeeper had already admitted that Mad Dog wasn’t the star. All of those people were coming to see a dragon fight, not him. Remove the dragon, and you killed the whole act.
The DFZ was clearly thinking along the same lines, because her face lit up. “That is a fantastic idea! How do we do it?”
“The first step is to find her,” my father said, looking at me. “I was bound up at the time, but the Gameskeeper showed you where she was being held, correct?”
I nodded rapidly, then shook my head. “He showed me a video, but I don’t know where the camera was. From the picture on the screen, it looked like she was underground, but there’s a lot of that in this city.”
“Not where I can’t see,” the DFZ said, turning to my dad. “He must be holding her under the arena itself. It goes down deep, and it’s the only place he could put her that I wouldn’t be able to get her out.”
“Then that’s where she has to be,” Yong said. “I can pass through walls and don’t show up on cameras, so I’ll go and sniff her out. If I can locate her tonight, we can set her free tomorrow. Moving quickly is key. No one expects a fresh attack so soon on the heels of a
