Blazing Serious by Viola Grace Read Free Book Online Page A

need a dress?”
    “A gown. One that suits your colouring and dignity.”
    Tremor sat up and flapped his wings.
    Jimra laughed. “He wants to dress up, too.”
    Yoris was wary. “You are bringing him?”
    “Of course. Consider him your grandson until an actual one comes along.” She smiled brightly.
    Her father looked a little unwell.
    Huros put his arm around her, and he eased her to her feet. “I think we should leave Master Yoris to his processing of your comment.”
    Yoris snapped out of his stupor. “You will call your family?”
    “As soon as I am back in Jimra’s quarters.”
    They were nearly to the door when Dispatcher Rodwey skidded into the office. She gasped, “Specialist Artu, there is a fire in the capitol, and it is spreading quickly. Can you help?”
    She looked down and wrote off another outfit. “Master Yoris, do you have a spare robe?”
    He tossed her one from a hook in the hallway. “It is fire proof.”
    “I hope I don’t need that.” She passed Tremor to Huros and ran for the window.
    She stood on the edge of the pane and turned to Huros. “Meet me in the city?”
    He nodded. “On my way.”
    Huros and Tremor ran for the door, and it was enough for Jimra. She fell out of the window and propelled herself to the column of smoke in the centre of the city.
    She landed on the roof and pulled the heat into her. It wasn’t easy; the small rooms of the shops made it hard to get to all the pockets of fire. She hauled on the flames until there was nothing left in the building aside from two life signs that she had carefully worked around.
    She looked up and news skimmers were all around her. She had to send the fire somewhere, so she flew up until she had cleared the followers, and she let the flames go.
    Her clothing wasn’t quite destroyed, but she kept the flames around her while she wrapped herself in the long, wide robes while she landed next to Huros and Tremor.
    Huros hugged her, rubbing his hands over her in a familiar way that made her raise her eyebrows until she realised he was patting out the flames on her body. Tremor stayed to one side and chirped in encouragement.
    The peace officer came up to her. “Thank you...”
    “Specialist Artu. This is Master Analyst—”
    “Huros. Master Analyst, would you take a look inside and tell us what happened?”
    Huros looked at her. “Do you mind?”
    “No, please. It has the taste of arson with a touch of unfortunately stored chemical.” She scooped up Tremor, pulled up the robes and followed her mind mate into the burned building.
    The peace officer stopped her. “Specialist, while I am thankful for your assistance, please leave this to the analyst. He was the best in the field when he left our people, and I am sure that he has only improved in his skills over time.”
    She blinked and left the building. She tried something new and sent Huros an image of herself in the skimmer. He sent her an image of a clock and worked forward three minutes.
    Jimra laughed; he would not be long.
    She sat, and the remote vid cameras came toward her to get a closer look. She flipped up the hood of the robes and tucked Tremor inside the folds.
    Huros came out, gave a report to the peace officer and joined her in the skimmer. He started the vehicle up and the vid cameras scattered.
    “Thank you for not making a fuss.”
    “You didn’t stop me from doing my job, so I will not stop you from doing yours. If you can analyze what happened, you can do better than I can. All I can determine is where the fire began or if it was started on purpose. Aside from that, I am pretty much useless.”
    “You are not. You can also pull the fire from everywhere and render the building charred but stable. You also managed to put out a fire that could have killed thousands and rendered their homes uninhabitable.”
    She made a face as they skimmed over the lake. “I am sure they would have been fine.”
    “I do not think so. I have read about that kind of fire. It would