The Last Dragon: Book Two

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

W hen I managed to reach our cabin after bouncing off both sides of the passageway, because of the motion of the ship, Flier was half out of bed. One leg hung over the side, his foot on the floor, but his eyes were closed, his body limp, and he snored like a pig grunting at rutting time. The water jug had been tossed off the table despite the depression intended to keep it in place. The floor was wet, the chamber pot slid and sloshed with every tilt or twist of the ship.

After securing everything, I knocked on Kendra’s door and found the girls asleep, and everything in there in far better shape. They had braced for the storm. I timed my movements to that of the ship and staggered back to my cabin and climbed into the top bed. No sooner had I done that, when I felt the first warnings my dinner and wine were about to pass my throat—the other way.

I climbed down and groped for the chamber pot and settled for the metal water jug when my hand touched it just in time. The ship rolled to the other side and took me along with it. The jug also. The bow struck a wave, and the entire ship shuddered.

My dinner spewed into the jug. The movement of the ship told me it was not the last time I’d puke. Our cabin door flew open.

Kendra stood there, bracing herself in the doorway. She shouted over the howl of the wind, “There are four mages and two sorceresses out there.”

Questioning her powers of locating them was unthinkable—and so was most everything else in my misery. “Where?”

“Ahead of us. Clustered together in two separate places, which are probably ships.”

“We can’t do anything about it, now.” My head lolled to one side, and my eyes closed. I wanted our ship to sink to the bottom of the ocean where it couldn’t roll or tilt.

Kendra slammed the door in anger. I moaned and tried to settle my stomach. Moaning didn’t help. I cried, and that seemed to help some. I’d have screamed if it might have done anything productive. My eyes were closed, but sleep was impossible.

I tied my blanket around a corner of the bed so I couldn’t roll off in the middle of the cabin, but it did nothing to prevent me from banging into the wall—which was also the hull. The twin candles burned themselves out. I lay in darkness on the floor, wishing I had used some of the sleeping powder that Flier had taken. He managed to both sleep and stay in his bed. No doubt he was unaware of the storm.

I dozed several times, more of a dreamless sleep from exhaustion than real sleep and woke when the ship either struck a large wave head-on or rolled to either side so much it seemed in danger of turning upside down. The porthole remained dark except for the flashes of lightning. The night seemed endless. My body was tired of fighting the ship, my stomach wanted to eject more contents, but there was nothing left, and my head hurt from lack of sleep and nausea.

The porthole finally turned a few shades lighter, but the heavy storm clouds kept it dark. Adjusting to the motion, I slept in fitful snatches until the door burst open and Kendra stumbled in again as the bow raised high and crashed down again.

She took a look at Flier to see he was still sleeping from the medication, then shouted at me, “They’re still there. The mages and sorceresses.”

I moaned an unintelligible answer.

She continued, “Don’t you understand? Two groups of them ahead of us. Storms. Lightning. Rain.”

I shook my head.

“We’re not making any progress. The Gallant is at a standstill. I heard a crewman say that, but don’t know how he can tell. What I can tell is that we are no closer to the mages than we were last night.”

“The ship can’t advance against a storm like this,” I muttered. “Wait until it passes.”

“Right! Even if it is a storm made by them!”

Her accusation made me sit up and ignore my pain. No closer to the mages than last night? My tortured mind imagined three ships, two with mages aboard. They hadn’t been in Trager or the Port of Mercia. It made sense they were heading in our direction from Dagger, not from behind us. The storm should have pushed them right past us as we made no progress.

At the very least, they were waiting for us. All the mages we knew of had fled to Dagger, and possibly beyond. Now four were ahead of us. We’d encountered a similar mage-storm on the day we’d rescued the girls.

All that was true. My mind grasped at what it meant and quickly came to a single conclusion. They should have sailed right past us, helped by the storm’s winds. That was the important thing. They should have. But hadn’t. I tried to focus on that single item—as Kendra was doing.

Kendra was holding on to the side of the doorway, keeping her balance while I thought. I said, “Why didn’t they sail by us?”

“Exactly. They are in the same positions as last night.”

“Point to them,” I ordered.

She furrowed her eyebrows, then obeyed despite my rude tone. Her finger pointed to the bow of our ship, to the left about twenty degrees. She shifted her arm and pointed to the right, the same distance away from the center.

I said, “We’re right in the middle, one to the left and another to the right. Both in front of us.”

She nodded, a slight smile cracking her face as she knew she’d finally made me understand. She shouted over the shriek of the wind, “If we turn away from the land, parallel to the storm, I’ll bet they remain positioned the same. If we run with the wind, the storm will cease.”

“They know you are here,” I hissed. “The mages. It is their doing.”

She said, “How can we convince the captain to do as we wish to test this?”

“I say we tell a lie so big nobody can deny its truth.”

Kendra barked a laugh. “Try me.”

I allowed my mind to wander, then seized on the lie required. “I’m a student working for the Dire King’s Navy, small as it is. My research involves storms.”

“Do they involve ships rolling over when they take waves from the side, as they certainly will if we were foolish enough to turn to our left or right?”

“What if we turn away and run with the storm?” I asked.

She nodded. “After we are clear of it, the captain could then turn east and then south. I could determine where the mages are, and you could convince the captain that you are trying to run around the end of the storm. A few coins in his palm might make him listen to your theory.”

I waited for the roll of the ship to assist me and slid from the bed without knowing how I’d managed to climb into it during the night. The last I remembered, was being on the floor. One hand remained braced, while I attempted to stand. A dry heave convulsed me. My body fell onto the bed while my feet remained on the floor.

“I can do it,” Kendra said.

“I’ve never even seen the captain,” I moaned. She wrapped her arms around my thighs and lifted me back into the bed. I crawled gratefully under the blanket and closed my eyes before she departed.

I tried to sleep but couldn’t. Finally, I fell into another dull stupor and drifted off. Later, I woke to find the motion of the ship had changed. The bow no longer plowed into the waves but seemed to lift and wallow over them. The ship rolled and twisted as if it was not fighting to advance into the storm. The change in motion allowed my stomach to settle.

After checking on Flier, I went to Kendra’s room to find Anna and Emma sitting on the edge of the lower bed, laughing and playing. I sat with them. “Where’s Kendra?”

Emma pointed to the door.

Anna said, “Hungry. Eat.”

“You want me to take you to the dining room?”

They smiled. Amazing how basics like food improved their language skills. Their infectious behavior had me laughing and playing as we walked down the passageway to the dining room. We made a game of trying to walk down the middle, no matter which way the ship rolled—an impossible task. As we entered, we found we were alone. A glance out the window revealed the wind was now at our back, the waves smaller.

Kendra entered as we began to eat a cold meal of crackers and cheese. The cooks didn’t serve other food while in a storm. She wore a smile and gave me a conspiratorial wink. After sitting, she said, “I believe the storm is diminishing quickly since the captain turned the ship around.”

Without saying, she’d been successful in speaking to him, getting him to do as she wished, and paying him became a secondary issue. Neither Emma nor Anna seemed bothered by it, and they seemed to enjoy the motion while laughing at the few adults that joined us who made faces and groaned whenever a wave struck.

They ate as if they hadn’t been fed in days. I said, “The motion of the ship told me that the captain had listened to you.”

“The captain was happy to have an excuse to turn around. He said he’d never seen a storm like that, especially at this time of the year. It came from nowhere and remained in one place. For my research, he agreed to turn to starboard, that’s to our right by the way, when we are clear. He wants to see if he can sail around it.”

“How much of that does he think is his idea?”

She bit the end off of a slice of thick cheese. “Most of it. Oh, I offered a few suggestions, but mostly, I agreed with him. I did ask a few leading questions, I’ll confess.”

I rolled my eyes. “If it had been me, he would have had me thrown off the bridge.”

“How is Flier?”

“Sleeping, as far as I know.”

She used a dull table knife to shave a dozen slivers of yellow cheese, gathered a handful of crackers, and said, “Don’t let him get up or eat too much. Do you have more of the sleeping powder?”

“If I did, I’d have used it on me during the night.”

“Let me track down Spike. Us girls will bring it to you, later.” Her head drew back, and her eyes went wide with surprise as she peered out the single window.

Outside, the waves churned, the wind blew, but not as hard as earlier. What had caught her attention and now caught mine, was the sky. Ahead of the ship, it was blue, almost cloudless, and a faint rainbow had formed.

“Oohs and ahs came from Anna and little Emma. Their fingers pointed to it. “Pretty,” Anna said.

“Yes,” I agreed, my attention focused more on the water in the distance than the rainbow. The churned surface of the sea calmed, the massive waves dissipated, and not too far away the sea looked flat and placid. I grabbed the cheese and crackers while standing.

Kendra said, “Going outside? Of course, you are. We’ll bring the sleeping powder later.”

Her words were to my back. Instead of remaining on the main deck where passengers were restricted, I climbed a short ladder and stood one deck above, where I made a full revolution to see all. The storm was to the south behind us, almost a solid straight line where the rain began. The clouds hung above, paralleling the line of rain.

To the north lay blue sky and calm seas as far as I could see. Off to my left, lay a smudge of land at the horizon, part of Trager I assumed. The Gallant sailed due north, away from the storm. As we requested, the Gallant began a wide swing east, away from Trager. The new course kept us the same distance from the hard rain and winds that now waited on our right if we cared to challenge the storm again.

The crew reacted to shouted orders, but there seemed a lag between the orders and the men’s reactions, as if they too, were confused and unsure with what they saw. Sailors hate unexplained things. The face of an officer, probably the captain, turned in the wheelhouse and watched me through the row of windows that allowed him to observe his entire ship from that one location.

I expected him to send someone to order me back down to the main deck where passengers belonged, but instead, he turned away and watched to his right as intently as I. Kendra would have told him about me, so he knew who I was—but that didn’t warrant allowing me, a passenger, being above the main deck.

Other passengers emerged and watched the phenomenon with as much interest as us. Several of those passengers were regulars on the vessel or others. Before a crewman was dispatched in my direction to order me back to where I should be, I climbed down the narrow ladder and entered the passageway to my cabin.

Flier’s eyes opened as the door slammed shut behind me harder than intended. He reached down to his knee and probed. Then smiled. “The only pain comes from the cut.”

“That arrowhead was poisoning you.”

“And causing daily pain. I lived with it so long, it seems strange to not have it.” His legs swung over the side of the bed.

“You can’t stand. You’ll hurt yourself.”

He paused and then nodded. “I’ve stood on one leg for years to ease the pain from the other. I’ll keep weight off it, but I have to pee.”

“Oh.” I reached for the chamber pot and placed it on the edge of the bed near him and turned away. When he lifted the lid, the sour smell of vomit filled the cabin. After he finished, I used it too. Then, it went into the passageway with those of other passengers. It was probably no worse than most. I hadn’t been the only one seasick, I was sure.

Turning back into the room, Flier was still on his feet—both of them. He swayed with the motion of the ship, testing his bad leg in a way that allowed him to fall onto his bed if the sudden pain struck. His eyes lifted to mine. “Who knew?”

“You could have had that fixed a long time ago.”

He sadly shook his head and balanced on his good leg. “No money. I can’t tell you how hard it was to fight for enough scraps to eat. There are no jobs in Trager. Anyone with good sense has left. The city has no police, no firefighters, no laws, and the gangs grow worse as the food gets scarcer, which means there is almost no food except in High Trager.”

“And the king does nothing about it?”

He gave me another sad look as if I had trouble comprehending the simplest facts. “They tell us there is a king. They tell us what he says or laws he passed. To argue or question if he lives is a death warrant.”

“You believe him dead?”

“If he was alive, and the worst king in memory, he would show himself and have some concern for the people he rules. In Trager, I would never say it, not even a whisper, but the king is dead. A mage-council sits at his place.”

“I’ve heard of a council of nine, or some such number, rules in Dagger.”

The comment brought a look of surprise, anger, and disbelief. Flier set his jaw and furrowed his eyebrows. Without talking any more, he turned and placed his hip on the bed. “I need rest.”

“Kendra is bringing more of the sleeping powder.”

He nodded. “I’ll try without it.”

“I didn’t get any sleep last night during the storm, so I’ll be sleeping too.”

“Storm?”

It was my turn to laugh. Flier had been so sedated he hadn’t realized the terrible night that had passed. Again, the idea occurred that we might have shared the powder. I went to sleep with that thought and a smile on my lips.

Kendra threw the door open and entered the one full step she was able to move. She handed me a small packet of powder and a small vial. “Two drops in water. Half the powder today, the rest tomorrow.”

Through sleepy eyes, I peered at her as if she was a wild woman from the Brownlands. “The mages?”

“The storm moves east with us. The two ships with the mages remain in the same relative places.”

“Meaning them, and the storm is playing a game of Can’t Cross the Bridge with us.”

“Yes. Just like that. The mages match our moves, so they can tell where the ship is at. Or one of the wyvern overhead is telling them, I think. There has been one circling all morning.” She pounded a fist into her palm with a smack of sound.

I hesitated to mention my thoughts but holding back possibilities was not for us. Too dangerous. “It might not be you they sense.”

She squinted like just before blasting me when I said something stupid. Then, she relaxed as the thought took hold. “Okay . . . it might be you they are tracking, in which case it might as well be me. But it could be someone else. Not Flier or one of the crew, I’d guess. But a passenger?”

“Not Princess Elizabeth, I added. But someone traveling with her? We know some mages communicate over distances.”

Kendra said, “True. Or they are following her and reporting, but I sense no mage on our ship.”

“Can you sense where I am?” the question came naturally, and it was one we hadn’t discussed, even as it was so obvious.

“No.”

“It could be another passenger, but I doubt it. It is you, me, or someone in Elizabeth’s company. I think we can rule out the rest.” I glanced at Flier and found him awake and confused at our conversation. From the corner of my eye, the chamber pot and a fresh pitcher of water sat beside Kendra’s feet.

He said, “Sorry. You’re discussing private subjects. I should leave.”

Kendra said, “It concerns you, too. Just understand that you can never talk about what we say.”

Flier said, “You rescued me from the life of a beggar. Had an arrow pulled from my knee. Gave me back my walk and are returning me home, and all you ask in return is silence? I can never repay the two of you.”

She didn’t back down. “We appreciate all that, but you have to understand there is danger in what we are doing. Great danger, to us and anyone with us. We have placed you in danger, too.”

“You work for Princess Elizabeth of Dire?” he asked.

“No,” Kendra said, then relented. “Well, yes, technically we do. But we are also friends and more.”

He nodded. There was no trace of a smile on his face as he peered into her eyes. His voice grew soft and intense. “Your friends are mine. My fist is yours.”

“Your sword is mine,” Kendra completed the old oath. They were simple words every child seemed to know, but few said aloud. Legend made the words of the oath ring with solemnity and meaning. The old ways said the two of them were now closer than family. They were sworn to each other. Forever. They would give their lives to protect the other.

How and why Kendra had taken the oath on the spur of the moment surprised me as much as if she had pulled a rotten peach from her pocket and smashed it in my face. She was not the sort of doing either lightly, nor without consideration. It was a lifelong commitment with Flier.

How and why she placed such trust in a beggar we barely knew was beyond the scope of my understanding. However, I had known her my entire life and trusted her decisions more than my own. She wouldn’t have taken that oath ten or twenty days ago. However, she was a different woman back then, one without powers yet to be revealed.