Rage of the Dragon

CHAPTER 25

Farinn Grimshaw had seen sixteen summers-barely. He had just passed his sixteenth on this voyage. He was an orphan and had moved to Luda to live with his mother’s sister’s family after his parents were killed in a forest fire. Caused by lightning, sweeping through tinder-dry underbrush, the fire had roared through the woods, consuming the house and his parents, trapping them inside before they could escape.

Farinn had not been home or he would have met the same fate. Unable to sleep, he had left his bed and gone out to roam the hills and listen to the song of the stars, the song of the night.

* * *

Farinn had been a disappointment to his parents. He was termed lazy, for instead of planting or weeding or minding the cattle, he was often caught staring dreamily at nothing. His father had taught him to wield a battle-axe and to hold his shield and to stand with other warriors in the shield wall because every man must know these things.

Farinn had joined the Torgun in the shield wall when they fought the ogres. He had taken his place, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with his fellow warriors, their shields overlapping, gripping his axe, waiting for the foe to attack. He had done the same, gripping his axe, when they faced the giants on the Dragon Isles. He had gripped his axe, but he had yet to strike his first blow.

He wasn’t a coward. He had been terrified, but he had not run away. He had waited with a grim and desperate courage for some enemy to attack him, but strangely, though the battle swirled all around him, the fighting never touched him.

It was then that he realized the gods were saving him for something larger. And when he began to hesitantly and tentatively string words together to describe the battle with the giants or to compose the lay for the death of Garn or sing of Skylan’s battle with the fury in the Para Dix, Farinn had thought at first the gods had spared him to tell the tale of Skylan Ivorson, the Chief of Chiefs of the Vindrasi. Later Farinn would come to realize the gods wanted him to tell their own tale, how the wyrds of men and gods are bound together. That knowledge would only come long after he had sung the final verse.

Skylan and the other men did not know what to make of Farinn. Because he was so quiet, they tended to forget he was around. Farinn liked it that way. When the men thought no one could hear them, he listened. When they thought no one was looking, he saw. Farinn did not judge. That was not his place. He crafted the song in his mind and repeated it to himself again and again and again, so that he would not forget. But this meant that if he died, the song would be lost, never to be heard. That was why he was learning to write down the song, so that others would remember, even if he was not there to sing it.

Caught up in his dreams and songs, Farinn did not pay much heed to girls, mainly because girls did not pay much attention to him. He had soft brown hair and mild brown eyes and once he’d overheard two giggling girls saying he looked like a cow. He was slender without much muscle, for when other boys his age were practicing their fighting skills, he would sit beneath a tree, his eyes closed, humming to himself. Girls thought him odd, as did boys.

The young Aquin guard did not consider him odd. She could not think he looked like a cow, since it was unlikely she had ever seen a cow. She walked up the stairs by his side, regarding him with an interest that even he, in his naïveté, could see was admiring.

“My name is Kailani,” she said. “What are you called?”

Farinn mumbled his name and was then forced to repeat it when she said she hadn’t heard.

Kailani was lovely. Her beauty was strange and exotic and she found him attractive, too, though he could not imagine why. Of all the marvelous and wonderful things in this amazing place, fish and flora and fauna and oceanaids and breathing air under water, the fact that this beautiful young woman had taken a liking to him seemed the most marvelous, the most wonderful.

Farinn had first seen Kailani when she had slipped into the palace to join the other guards. She was flushed from running and avoided the commander’s eye, leading him to believe she was late for duty. Kailani had been fortunate. The delegation from the City of the Fourth Daughter had arrived at that moment, distracting Commander Neda.

Farinn had felt Kailani’s eyes on him all during the meeting in the throne room. He was trying to pay attention to what was being said and done, trying to commit it to memory for the song. But Kailani’s gaze was distracting.

When the Queen abruptly left them and the guards were ordered to escort them to their quarters, Kailani latched on to him. Skylan and Aylaen were in the lead. Skylan always took the lead. He could no more have walked in the rear than he could have flown through the air. Aylaen, with her long strides, easily kept up with him. Wulfe joined them, the fae child, a constant marvel to Farinn, who wasn’t sure if he liked him or not, keeping close to Skylan, talking about his oceanaids. Farinn and his guard walked behind the three of them, while Legate Acronis lagged after all the rest, asking, observing, listening, taking it all in to, as the Legate would have said, “tell Chloe.” Farinn felt a wistful envy at the father’s love for his daughter, a love that not even death could conquer. A love he had never known.

Sometimes Skylan would glance back at Farinn to see if he was all right and give him a reassuring smile. Skylan had been touched when Farinn had chosen to stay with him instead of returning home with the others. Farinn had seen, with the keen eyes of the poet, that Skylan thought Farinn had stayed out of loyalty. Farinn loved and admired Skylan and he was glad to think that he’d pleased Skylan and that was why Farinn would never divulge the truth. He had stayed for the song.

Unfortunately, Farinn was finding it hard to think of the song right now. The staircase narrowed as it spiraled upward and Kailani moved close by his side, so close that they would bump into each other. When that happened, Farinn was keenly aware of the firmness of her hip, the touch of her fingers brushing his arm. The way she smiled at him, a secret, knowing smile, told him she knew what he was feeling.

When they reached the top of the stairs, a guard unlocked the door with the brass lock and then separated the “guests.” Each was given a room in the tower wing. His room was small, and contained a bed, a chair, and a table. Each room had its own door leading into a central area. The individual doors could not be locked. Once Farinn and the others were inside, the guard told them she would lock the outer door and she and her comrade would take up their posts outside it. She implied that this was for their protection, but there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that they were prisoners.

Skylan offered to keep Wulfe with him. He and Aylaen parted with loving looks. Farinn was too busy with his own love song to notice. When Kailani escorted Farinn to his room, which was next to Skylan’s, Farinn was startled to feel Kailani’s fingers twine around his.

“I want to be with you tonight,” Kailani whispered. “If you want me, that is.”

Her hand squeezed his. Her eyes smiled into his. Farinn felt his heart swell with love. He longed to say something clever, something intelligent, but he couldn’t think of a single word. He was as giddy as the night he’d rashly joined in a drinking game with Sigurd and Bjorn.

Farinn must have made his meaning known, for Kailani smiled with pleasure. The guard yelled at her impatiently to come away. Kailani squeezed his hand again and then turned and ran.

Farinn sat down on the bed, but he did not see it. He was floating somewhere far above it in a dream of desire.

For once in his life, the song had gone clean out of his head.

* * *

Farinn watched impatiently for night. Darkness filled his room. He sat waiting eagerly, yet when the knock came on his door, he was paralyzed. He could not move until the second, impatient rapping. Farinn sprang from the bed and flung open the door.

Skylan stood there.

Farinn blinked at him.

“I came to see if you were all right,” said Skylan.

“Oh, uh, yes, I am … um … fine…” Farinn stammered to a halt.

“Are you sure?” said Skylan, regarding Farinn with a slight frown.

Farinn tried to look as though nothing was the matter and apparently failed, for Skylan suddenly laughed and clapped him on the shoulder.

“You sly dog! You were expecting someone else to knock at your door, weren’t you? Someone a lot better looking than I am. What is her name?”

Farinn flushed more deeply and thought he should deny this, but he’d never been good at telling lies.

“Kailani,” he mumbled.

Skylan said with a wink, “I saw her. She is a beauty. Have your fun, lad.”

Skylan left, still laughing. Farinn closed the door. He had never been so humiliated. Desire drained out of him and he thought he would simply crawl into bed and pull the blanket over his head and die of shame. When the knock came again, he almost couldn’t bring himself to answer it. Then he feared that would be rude. He opened the door.

Kailani stood there. She was not wearing her armor. She was not wearing much of anything, just the loincloth twisted around her slender thighs. Her skin was wet and so was the cloth. Her body glistened in the light. She reached out and took hold of his hand. “Come with me! Quickly, before anyone sees us.”

Farinn could not take his eyes off her. Yet he hesitated. “Where are we going?”

“Somewhere secret,” Kailani breathed. “Somewhere we can be alone. Just the two of us.”

Farinn was still uneasy. “I can’t leave. The guards-”

“Silly!” Kailani giggled. “I’m your guard.”

Farinn looked back at his bed. “We could stay here-”

“The walls are thin. Everyone would hear us,” said Kailani. “The guard would come to see what was going on. If we were discovered…”

“What would happen?” Farinn asked nervously.

“Nothing would happen to you,” Kailani said.

“I don’t want to get you into trouble…” Farinn started to back away.

“I like being in trouble!” Kailani whispered.

She pressed close to him and twined her arms around him and kissed him. Taking hold of his hand, she led him out of his room and into the center area.

The night was dark. He could see nothing but Kailani seemed to know where she was going. Cautioning him to be silent, she led him through the darkness. He followed her, his heart pounding with the thrill of the adventure and the touch of her hand. She stopped and he bumped into her.

“Where are we?”

“A secret passage that leads out of the tower,” she whispered. “The door is hidden.”

She spoke words that were foreign to him and let go of his hand. Bright light flared, dazzling his eyes, and then it vanished. He heard a creaking sound, as of the door opening, and Kailani had hold of his hand once again.

“Be careful,” she cautioned. “There’s a step. Don’t fall.”

He slid his foot onto the step. Putting out his hand to steady himself, he encountered a stone wall. He heard Kailani whispering again and the creaking sound again; the door closing. He felt her fumbling about in the darkness and then a soft, glowing light flared. Kailani was holding one of the lanterns he’d seen the Aquins carry.

The two were pressed together at the top of a long staircase that plunged almost straight down through the stone walls. The staircase was so long, Farinn could not make out what lay at the end. He looked over his shoulder. The door was indeed hidden. He reached out his hand, touched what seemed to be rock, cold and slightly damp.

“What was this used for?” he asked wonderingly.

“An escape route,” Kailani answered. “In case the palace ever came under siege, which it never has in all the history of our people.” She gave his hand a squeeze. “Now it’s used only by servants or lovers.”

They walked cautiously down the uneven stairs, with Kailani taking the lead, guiding Farinn with a touch of her hand.

“You used a magic spell to open the door,” he said.

He was growing increasingly uncomfortable, perhaps because he did not know any warriors who knew magic. He had never before been in a building with a magic door.

Kailani glanced over her shoulder. Her hair clung to her bare skin. “A simple rune spell. Everyone in the palace knows it.”

She stopped on the step beneath him and looked up at him. Her eyes were wide and beautiful and yearning.

“Don’t worry, Farinn,” she added, guessing his thoughts. “You will be back before morning. You will never be missed.”

Farinn bent to kiss her, slipped, and nearly fell down the stairs. She caught him and they both laughed.

“Make haste!” she whispered, her breath hot on his face. “I cannot wait for our pleasure.”

She began to run down the stairs heedlessly. Farinn plunged recklessly after her, tripping and stumbling and hoping he would not break his neck. He had never before felt like this-wild and bold and exhilarated, as though he had burst free from himself and was soaring toward heaven. The song, his song, crashed and thundered in his head.

The staircase came to an end with an abruptness that caused Farinn to almost pitch headfirst into a stream of water, black and swift.

“Run-off from the rain that falls on the top of the island. We collect it to use for drinking and to water the groves and gardens,” Kailani explained. “From here, we will swim. Take off your caftan.”

She drew near him and her fingers tugged on the buttons. “Let me help…”

Farinn grasped her hands and kissed her. The caftan slid to the wet rock. She laughed and jumped into the water and pulled him in after her.

The current was fast and carried Farinn along. He couldn’t see and he would have been nervous if the water had been deep, but he could touch the bottom with his feet. Kailani swam beside him, twisting and rolling like an otter.

“Enjoy the ride,” she said to him. “There are streams like this throughout the city. The current will carry us through the sluice gate and out into the sea.”

Farinn tried floating on his back and finally let himself relax and revel in the moment. He found pleasure in surrendering himself to the current, letting it carry him along. Kailani set the lantern upon the water and he was amazed to see it float. The light swirled in the eddies and bumped up against them. Farinn was delighted. He would put this in a song, but only a song for himself. No one else would ever hear it. Except, perhaps, Kailani.

“Where are we going?” he asked, and realized suddenly he didn’t care.

“To Lover’s Cove,” said Kailani. “It is really only a cave, but it is filled with hundreds of little nooks and hideaways, perfect for those seeking privacy.” She added with a little sigh, “Privacy is something hard to come by in our city.”

“Why is that?”

“Our dwellings are small and overcrowded. We live on top of one another. Our life spans are long. The only threats we face are accidents, disease, and predators. Families may have as many as four generations living beneath one roof.”

Kailani shook her head. “But our peaceful ways may come to an end. War is inevitable, I fear. The followers of Aelon are trying to force his worship on everyone and there are those like our Queen who are faithful to the Old Gods.”

Farinn held out his arm as they floated down the swift-moving stream and showed Kailani the long, jagged, snake-shaped scar. “Back in Sinaria, the priestesses of Aelon cut our flesh and embedded us with magical crystals. If we did anything or thought anything Aelon did not like, the god punished us.”

“Truly?” Kailani’s eyes were wide, startled. “Aelon can do that?”

“The pain of disobedience was like plunging my arm into hot coals,” said Farinn, grimacing. “When we escaped, Skylan used the blessed sword of Vindrash to cut out the crystals. Our blood washed away the god’s hold over us.”

Kailani caught the lantern as it floated past. She took his arm and held the light to examine the scar. She ran her fingers along it. Farinn flinched at her touch.

“I’m sorry,” Kailani said, concerned. “Does it still hurt?”

“The memory of it,” said Farinn. “But we won’t think of such things now.”

She splashed water in his face. Playing like children, they floated together down the stream, kicking with their feet and sometimes coming together to kiss, their mouths filling with water, which only made them laugh more.

The current slowed, the stream widened. Kailani drew away from him. By the light of the lantern, he could see a gate made of the enormous teeth of some sea creature embedded in the stone wall. The teeth were set close together, leaving barely enough room for him and Kailani to slither between. Fortunately Farinn was thin for a Vindrasi or he would have been forced to dive under the teeth.

“The sluice gate will not repel invaders,” Kailani said. “But it will slow them down. A man built like your chief would never make it!”

Beyond was the sea, inky black.

“That is our destination,” said Kailani, indicating a cavern in the distance, the opening glimmering with a faint phosphorescence. “The way is not far. I have brought you a breathing mask.”

She helped Farinn put the mask over his face and attached the clamshell to his back. He felt an instant’s panic when he could not breathe through his nose, but relaxed when he drew air into his lungs. Kailani did not use a mask. She began to swim, flashing through the water as fast as a porpoise. Farinn was a strong swimmer, but slower, burdened with the clamshell, and he soon lost sight of her. He could see the lantern she was carrying, however, and he swam toward the light.

His thoughts were on Kailani and taking her into his arms and his desire building and then the sweet release. When he felt an arm wrap around his waist, he thought it was Kailani, teasing him. Farinn was about to laugh in response, but then there were more arms, strong hands clasping him.

He was not a warrior, at least by Skylan’s standards, but Farinn had been trained to fight-his father had seen to that. Farinn lashed out at his captors. He kept his wits and made his punches count and he managed to hurt one of them, for he heard a grunt of pain. Something hard, like the butt end of a spear, slammed into his gut. Farinn doubled up, groaning. When the pain eased, he raised his head and saw Kailani, treading water quite close to him, holding the lantern, lighting the way.

“Don’t fight them,” she advised him. “You will only get hurt.”

A bitter taste flooded Farrin’s mouth. Kailani’s seduction had been a ruse, a trick to lure him out of the palace and into this ambush, though why they wanted him he could not imagine. He was only a poet.

“Where should we take him, Kailani?” one of the warriors asked.

“I will guide you,” she answered. “I’m sorry, Farinn. I didn’t mean…”

He looked away, unable to stand the sight of her. The lantern light wavered and then she swam off.

Overwhelmed with shame, Farinn sagged listlessly in his captors’ arms, the fight knocked out of him. He could not hear his song and wondered if he would ever hear it again.