Dragon's Bluff

16

“Don’t move,” Kethril whispered to Ulin. “Don’t draw its attention.”

“I think we already have it,” Ulin replied. He obeyed, though, and remained motionless on the wet rock, staring at the sea lion. “Look at it! The poor creature is half dead.”

“We’re going to be dead if it decides to eat us.”

Ulin barely listened. He realized, looking at the sea creature, that it was as much a prisoner as they. Sea lions were ferocious and difficult to deal with, and from the old wounds and puncture marks on the animal’s face and sides, it had put up quite a fight before it was captured and dragged to this cave. The lion half of its body looked matted and thin; the mane was tangled and streaked with dried blood. The fish half of its body had dried from exposure to the air and had lost its golden gleam. The skin was cracked, oozing, and probably very painful. It snarled at them again, revealing a set of powerful fangs.

“I wonder why it doesn’t move,” Kethril said, his eyes still on the beast.

Ulin craned his head a little higher and saw a metal fetter around the sea lion’s tail. “It’s chained to the rock.”

A sudden startled exclamation burst from Kethril, and he yanked his bare feet away from the water. Ignoring his own order to remain still, he scrambled higher up the rocks.

“Those brutes!” he cursed. He cradled his foot and examined the bloody gash on his heel where one of the ghagglers had stabbed him with a spear. The sea-slig swam away, sneering at him.

On the opposite side, the sea lion bellowed in similar pain and pulled away from the water. It raised its heavy head and roared in defiance.

“They seem to be provoking a fight between us and the sea lion,” Ulin said.

“Winner to eat the loser and then be fed to those sharks,” Kethril commented bitterly. “I don’t like those odds.”

Ulin made no reply. He could see the sharks cruising through the water around the rocky island. Ghagglers often kept sharks in their lairs as guardians, scrap disposals, and deterrents for would-be escapees. He knew with a certainty no one would win a confrontation on this island. Sea lions hated sharks with a passion and often went out of their way to kill one, but this poor creature would not stand a chance in this grotto, and neither would he or Lucy’s father.

He was given no more time to ponder the situation. A large ghaggler reared out of the water near the sea lion and gave it a vicious jab in the tail with its trident. The wounded sea lion roared. Maddened with pain and fury, it turned on the first and easiest creatures it could see. It charged toward Kethril and Ulin, its claws unsheathed and the chain flapping behind it. It was only then that Ulin saw that the chain was actually fastened to a rock in the middle of the island, not near the water as he guessed. There was nothing to stop the sea lion’s attack, nothing to slow it down. His hand went instinctively to his waist where his sword usually hung and found nothing but a scrap of a loincloth.

“Kethril, move!” Ulin shouted. “Move! Split up!”

The older man scrambled to his feet. He and Ulin stood side by side for a heartbeat while the huge beast lumbered toward them, its small ears flattened on its head, its teeth bared. Around them, the sea-sligs hissed and whistled and threw rocks at the stranded men. At the last moment, when the sea lion’s claws reached for their bodies, the two men fled in opposite directions, leaving the sea lion to leap on empty air.

Confused, it roared and swung its head to the left and right, trying to catch their scent, then it lunged after the warm, metallic smell of blood.

Kethril bellowed in fear and tried to run to the far edge of the island over the rough rock, but pain lanced up his leg from his lacerated foot, and he stumbled and fell.

Turning around, Ulin saw the sea lion go after Lucy’s father. Quick as thought, he scrambled after the lion, grabbed the loose chain attached to its tail, wrapped it around a boulder, then he dug in his heels and braced himself for the impact.

The sea lion hit the end of the chain like a charging bull. The force of its sudden stop nearly ripped the chain from Ulin’s hands. It dragged him and the boulder a short distance before the sea lion collapsed on the ground only a few inches from Kethril’s bleeding foot. The force of its fall knocked the air from its lungs and for a few minutes it lay still, trying to breathe.

Kethril wasted no time getting to his feet and out of the lion’s reach. He crawled around the gasping beast and made his way back to Ulin. “Our odds are not improving,” he commented dryly as he fought to stand upright. “I’d start a book on this fight and cover all bets made on us.”

“Optimistic, aren’t you?” Ulin grunted. He wrapped the chain around the boulder again and kept a sharp eye on the lion. It could attack again at any moment.

The older man tried to smile. “I live by the numbers, not philosophies, boy.”

A sudden commotion in the middle of the lake distracted the ghagglers from their sport. Streams of bubbles erupted all around the island until the water appeared to be boiling, and the sharks vanished. Screeching and jabbing their weapons, all but the youngest sea-sligs dived into the seething water.

“What is it?” Ulin asked, but Kethril had no answer.

The sea lion lay quietly and stared at the water as if mesmerized. Perhaps its stunning crash to the rocks had knocked the fight out of it.

Slowly and silently, Ulin dropped the chain and motioned Kethril to follow him. They made their way to the edge of the rocks farthest from the sea lion and stood back to back to await their fate. Without warning, the bubbles stopped and the waters gradually stilled. A tense silence filled the dimly lit cavern while, one by one, the ghagglers slid back into the depths of the cave and disappeared. Before long Ulin, Kethril, and the sea lion were alone in the dim cavern.

Ulin rubbed his aching temples and was about to sit down when the bubbles burst out again. This time they were stained red and were swiftly followed by a seething, struggling force of ghagglers. The sea-sligs fought ferociously against an enemy that followed the sea-creatures up from the depths and into the waters of the lake with equal ferocity and determination.

Kethril stiffened. “I may have to change those bets. We have a new player in the game.”

“What?” Ulin demanded.

The gambler winked and pointed. “Sea elves,” he said.

Great day in the morning! Ulin thought. Sea elves—the ghagglers worst enemy, a race of sea people sworn to the total destruction of the merciless, bloodthirsty sea-sligs.

The thought had barely registered in his mind when he saw a familiar shapely figure climb out of the water and come toward them at a nimble run. Her lovely face shone with relief, and her sea-green eyes glowed with joy. She threw her arms out with the obvious intent of hugging someone, and Ulin steadied himself for her embrace. She raced right past him and into Kethril’s arms.

“Oh, Father, you’re safe!” the sirine squealed.

Ulin’s eyes bulged. “Father?” he repeated, astounded down to his toes. Lucy was going to love this.

Kethril looked over her graceful blue-green shoulder at Ulin and gave a small shrug. “Her mother is a stunner.”

“But, but …” Ulin protested. “She looks older than twenty.” This just didn’t seem right.

“Sirines mature quickly. She’s only ten in human years.”

The ten-year-old sirine turned her attentions to Ulin. “I am so happy to see you again!” she squealed, hugging him to her ample front. Her skin felt cool and damp against his bare chest, and to his dismay, his face turned red.

This time it was Kethril’s turn to be amazed. “You know her?” he demanded. Ulin gently pushed her away and glared at Kethril. Playing the irate father hardly fit the gambler’s image. “She helped Notwen and me a few days ago.”

Kethril looked visibly relieved. He hopped to a rock ledge and sat, grinning at his aquatic daughter. “That’s my girl. Did you bring the elves, too?”

She nodded vigorously. “This clan lives near here. They are my friends. They’ve been looking for this marauding band of sea-sligs for some time, so after I found the entrance to this cavern, I went to see them.”

The chaos in the cavern was slowly subsiding as the sea elves killed the ghagglers and pursued those few that fought their way free. A few corpses floated in the water. All the sharks had vanished.

Ulin sat down on a rock near Kethril and tried not to shiver. He pointed to the prostrate sea lion and asked, “Is there some way to help him?”

The sight of the pitiable sea lion clouded the sirine’s face with sadness. She approached the beast slowly, singing a song in some strange language that sounded to Ulin like a whale’s song. The sea lion lifted its head and glared at her, but it made no move toward her as she unlocked the metal fetter around its tail and tossed it aside.

Just then a dolphin popped its head out of the water close by, its bottlenose sleek and gray. The sirine said something to it in her own language, and the dolphin replied in a laughing, low-pitched chitter. It swam back and forth near the sea lion as if assessing the situation, then it ducked under, emerged again, and squirted the lion in the face with a mouthful of water. The lion made an attempt to snarl, but it still did not move. Its mouth curved in a perpetual smile, the dolphin tried again. It had to repeat its squirts three times before the lion rallied enough strength to lumber toward the water. Growling at the persistent dolphin, it slid below the surface. For a minute or two, Ulin and Kethril could see the animal luxuriating in the healing comfort of its natural environment before it gave a deft twist of its massive tail and vanished into the black depths of the grotto.

The sirine waved her thanks to the dolphin and came back. “The lion is weak, but it is free now. It should heal.”

Two sea elves climbed onto the island at that moment and bowed to the two humans. The elves were both male, over five feet tall, elegantly built, with skin of greenish silver. Their blue hair was short-cropped against their heads, and their faces bore no trace of a beard.

Ulin pushed himself to his feet and bowed. He greeted them in Elvish and offered his heartfelt gratitude.

They studied him curiously from bare feet to matted, wet hair with no sign of arrogance or condescension, then they struck the butts of their tridents on the stone. “It is our pleasure to kill ghagglers,” one replied in heavily accented Common.

“Is there some way out of this damp hole?” Kethril grumbled. “I have things to attend to.”

“Yes, like meeting your other daughter,” Ulin snapped.

A grimace passed over Kethril’s face. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, not after the, ah, incident in Flotsam. The city council will not be happy to see me. I’m going back to Dead Pirate’s Cove to see if anyone is alive.”

“On the contrary,” Ulin said, his voice like a steel blade. “The council will be delighted to see you.” Although he never considered himself to be much like his grandfather Caramon, in that instant his anger kindled the fire in his eyes and tempered the curves of his face into hard planes and angles set with adamant. It was the look many foes had seen on Caramon’s face before they died. Kethril read that look and inched back on his seat, but Ulin would not let him back away unscathed. “You took the taxes from Flotsam. You are the reason we traveled halfway across Ansalon. You put Flotsam in danger of being destroyed, and you are the reason your daughter is in a dangerous situation. Now you will go to Flotsam to help fix this mess, even if I have to tie you to my back and swim there!” Ulin’s voice sharpened with each word until his anger reverberated through the grotto.

The elves watched him with interest. This was none of their affair, but they enjoyed the curious interaction of humans.

The sirine looked worriedly from one man to the other. She sidled close to Kethril and put a hand on his shoulder.

Kethril studied the younger man as if searching for some crack in Ulin’s fierce armor. There was none. At last he glanced at the sirine and the grotto beyond, then he said, “Ulin of Solace, if you give me your word that you will grant me safe conduct in Flotsam, I will go with you.”

“What makes you think you can accept my word?”

“You have something I have never had, but it is a quality I respect nonetheless. I will accept your word of honor.”

The young Majere knew he had little choice. Stuck as he was in an underwater cavern surrounded by disinterested elves, he needed Kethril’s cooperation to get back to dry land. There was also the irritating consideration that Kethril Torkay was Flotsam’s last hope. “You have it. I will take you to Flotsam and try to convince them not to hang you. But if you try to escape or flee or hide, I will hunt you down and kill you myself.”

The gambler sighed and heaved himself to one foot. “I believe you would, young man. I guess we’d better go to Flotsam.” In a swift, mercurial change of mood, he slapped Ulin on the back and grinned. “Daughter, my lovely green girl,” he called to the sirine, “see if you can find my clothes in the ghagglers’ spoils. I’m going to need them if I am to see my oldest.”

Notwen hammered away at the spikes holding the new mast to its framework. A few more nails here and there, and the thing just might stay upright-even if the wind blew. He’d been trying for several hours now to find the right configuration of rigging, spars, mast, and sail that would move his flat-bottomed boat. Unfortunately, all his books on sailing ships were on the shelves of his library in Flotsam, so he had to rig this sail from experimentation. He made a mental note to read those books when he returned home and make notes to bring on his next voyage. It was obvious he could not rely solely on his steam engine. It still needed a great deal more work to make it reliable.

While he worked, the Second Thoughts drifted placidly westward on the current, warmed by the afternoon sun. The great bay seemed too empty to Notwen. There were no ships or boats in sight, no sign of anyone other than a few birds, a school of passing flying fish, and a curious dolphin who poked its head out of the water, chirped at him a few times, and ducked out of sight. He was so involved in his work that he paid no attention to the progress of the Second Thoughts or the time of day or the pod of dolphins that approached the boat toward late afternoon.

The first sound that alerted him to boarders was the pleased greeting of a familiar voice. Things bumped against the side of the boat and the Second Thoughts rocked as people climbed over the railings. Notwen cried out in alarm and jumped to his feet, his hammer clutched in his hand. He saw a wet, nearly naked ghost come striding toward him, and terror overwhelmed his stunned mind. His eyes rolled up in his head, and his small body slumped to the deck.

“He fainted?” Kethril said incredulously.

Ulin gathered up the gnome and moved him into the shade of the cabin. “He probably thought we were dead.”

The sirine and a group of sea elves climbed onboard and wandered around the small boat touching everything. They examined Notwen’s tools, stared at the motionless paddlewheel, and admired the strange little engine, but when they saw the mast and the sail, they gathered in a cluster and laughed uproariously.

It was the sound of their hilarity that brought Notwen to his senses. He lifted his head, saw Ulin first, and grinned from ear to ear. “I‌am‌so‌pleased‌to‌see‌you‌Ulin‌how‌did‌you‌escape‌from‌the‌sea‌sligs‌and‌what‌are‌those‌creatures‌on‌my‌boat?”

“One word at a time, Notwen,” Ulin reminded him.

The gnome didn’t answer. He bounced to his feet, his fear forgotten, and crowded in among the tall sea elves jabbering and laughing by his mast. “What’s so funny?” he demanded. “Hey! Leave that rope alone!”

The elves were laughing too hard to respond. The sirine pointed to the mess of rigging and sail and cobbled-together mast. “They think your sail is a bit overdone.” She shook her green hair. “It is a nice try, but it won’t work.”

He crossed his arms and scowled at the elves. “Why not?”

“I don’t know,” she replied with a giggle. “I don’t sail boats. That’s just what they are saying.”

Ulin looked up at Notwen’s attempts and frowned. “Is something wrong with your engine?”

The gnome gave up trying to reason with the elves and came to join the young mage. “It’s broken,” he said glumly. “The cogs are cracked, the shaft is bent, and there’s a hole in the boiler. I can’t fix it without my forge and tools at home.”

Two of the sea elves, the same two who had met them in the cavern, detached themselves from the noisy group and walked over to Ulin and Kethril. The elves looked so much alike that Ulin wondered if they were brothers. In the bright light of day, their skin and hair gleamed with the brilliance of sunlight on water, and their eyes shone a dazzling blue.

“The sirine tells us you are in a hurry to return to the place you call Flotsam,” one said.

Ulin nodded. Kethril shrugged.

“You will not get there with this sail,” the second commented.

Ulin elbowed Notwen before the gnome could sputter a retort.

“If you are willing to trade, we could provide you with dolphins to pull you there,” said the first elf.

“Trade what?” asked Ulin.

“Metal. Weapons. Tools.” The elf held up Notwen’s hammer and winked at the small gnome. “Master Tinker, your work is commendable, but ill-informed. Perhaps we could discuss sails and boats in the time it takes to get you back.”

The offer of knowledge evaporated all of Notwen’s resentment and won his immediate approval. “I have lots of tools at the laboratory,” he whispered to Ulin. “Let them have what they want.”

Ulin hesitated before he spoke. There was one more thing he wanted to ask the sea elves, but the thought was not a firm conviction in his mind. He’d had too many failures, too few successes. The small light in the cave had been the first spell to work for him for months, yet somehow he doubted it was the beginning of the return of his magic. The power was gone from his grasp, gone from his imagination. The spell in the cave had worked, but it had not given him the thrill of success that wielding magic once had. Maybe, he thought, his time with magic was over. He tilted his head slightly and rubbed the stubble on his chin. Perhaps if the elves were willing to trade for one or two magical artifacts with him, he could test the efficacy of his power and analyze the results without the emotions of previous failures. It was worth a try. Sea elves loved to delve through sunken ships and old ruins, and they were known for collecting artifacts, trinkets, and treasures from the sea. If nothing else, he could give the artifacts to Palin.

When he mentioned his desire to trade for a few magic artifacts, the two elves exchanged looks and talked together for several minutes.

“It has become dangerous to wield the power of the Istar relics,” one elf told Ulin. “The red dragon has hunted our people for years to force us to relinquish our collections. If she learns you have even one magic object, she will send her minions after you.”

Ulin met his direct gaze eye for eye. “I know. I am—was—a dragonmage. In the past year my ability to wield magic has disappeared for reasons I do not understand. My father is seeking to learn the truth and to test every possible door still open to us, but we have few left.”

The second elf nodded. “We have heard of the failure of magic. There may be one or two small items we could allow you to have.” He suddenly brightened and added, “We found a fine Khurish sword among the spoils of the sea-sligs. Was that yours?” At Ulin’s nod, the elf grinned. “We will keep that and see what my chieftain might be willing to part with. Meanwhile, for the use of the dolphins …”

He waved a slim hand at Notwen’s scattered tools.

While the sirine bandaged Kethril’s foot, Ulin, Notwen and the elves finalized their trade of tools for the use of a pod of dolphins willing to pull the Second Thoughts back to Flotsam. When they were finished, the sea elves happily collected their tools and called in the dolphins. They rigged half a dozen ropes with loops at the end and tied them to the bow of the boat. Chittering and squealing, the dolphins took the loops over their noses, thrust deep with their powerful tails, and turned the boat toward Flotsam. The Second Thoughts gained momentum.

All but two of the sea elves waved good-bye and dived into the sea. In a flash of shining water they were gone into the blue deep. The sirine called a farewell to the elves and made herself comfortable on the bow to watch the dolphins. Ulin watched her, wondering if she planned to go all the way to Flotsam with them. Did she intend to meet her half-sister, Lucy?

Ulin went into the cabin, hung up their wet clothes salvaged from the cavern, and rummaged through his gear until he found two reasonably clean tunics and two pairs of loose fitting pants that might fit Lucy’s father, then he took them to the gambler. Kethril was sitting on the deck, leaning back against the cabin wall. His skin was tanned a golden brown from days in the sun, and his muscles were well developed. Ulin wondered what sort of work the man did when he was not stealing from towns or playing at a gaming table.

Kethril’s eyes were closed, but he opened one as Ulin tossed a tunic and a pair of pants into his lap. He eyed the younger man for a moment, then closed his eye. “If I look like you, we’d both better get dressed so we don’t scare Lucy.”

Ulin glanced down at his arms and chest and realized what Kethril meant. Dark bruises, lacerations, and ugly scrapes covered his wrists, arms, chest, and legs. The ghagglers had not been gentle in the transportation or imprisonment of their prisoners. He pulled the clothes on and sat down on the deck beside Kethril. The older man did not move.

Ulin did not mince words or waste time with pleasantries. “What made you change your mind about going to Flotsam?” he wanted to know. “You could have convinced the sirine to help you.”

Kethril grunted. His face had relaxed and his breathing was beginning to slow. “Lucy,” he mumbled. “She shouldn’t have come.”

The sun seeped into Ulin’s sore muscles like a warm draught. A spreading lassitude wrapped itself gently around him. He thought he should be angry at Kethril’s answer, but he could not summon the energy. His own eyelids were becoming very heavy. “She came for you, you know,” he said, letting his body slump down against the wall. It had been so long since he had been able to sleep. Somewhere, faintly, he could hear Notwen deep in conversation with the sea elf, and the sirine was singing. He could hear her voice like a soothing continuous sound, as soft as rainfall, as rhythmic as the waves. His eyelids drifted closed, and he heard nothing more.