Chapter 11 #2
Saxu looked at him in surprise, his face relaxing as he considered the problem. It was further proof that Tallu had taken his advice. I didn’t know Emperor Millu personally, but I couldn’t see the man listening to all opinions before making a decision.
“I recommend slowing. In all likelihood, the canisters we left in the water will destroy Kacha’s boats.
If they do make it through, they will go slowly, assuming we have left further traps.
” Saxu considered the map for a moment longer before looking up and meeting Tallu’s eyes.
“Kacha himself will not be on the boats. Which means we have a slim hope that the men on them are smart enough to value their own safety over the heroics Kacha would demand.”
“A very slim hope,” I muttered. I thought of the lion I had once seen at Kacha’s party in the Mountainside Palace, held fast between two servants because Kacha demanded his men hand over their lives to him without the promise that he cared for them more than he enjoyed bloodshed.
Tallu looked at me. “What do you think?”
“How did we know the boats belong to General Kacha?” I asked Saxu.
“They were flying his flag—the same one he used as general,” Saxu said.
I blinked. “They were flying his flag?”
“One of our lookouts spotted it,” Commander Rede said. “On the last ship. Although it was confirmed by others.”
“We need to slow down,” I said to Tallu. “As soon as we can.”
“Why?” Tallu asked.
“Kacha sent boats flying his own flag to try and catch up with us. When hunting in the wild, it’s common to send wolves into a patch of forest and scare your prey straight into a hunter’s trap.
” I looked at Irad?o, feeling my lip quirk up.
“My father’s wolf, Spoiled Brat, was particularly good at it.
We feasted on many a buck because he startled it into running to its doom. ”
“Slow the ships,” Tallu ordered. “Send scouts ahead.”
General Saxu and Commander Rede stood, both bowing before they hurried out of the room to give the orders.
“You think Kacha will use the same techniques as your father on a hunt?” Tallu asked.
“He may be looking for different prey, but he is after you.” I glanced around the room, letting my eyes linger on Lerolian.
The blood mages had been quiet on the journey. There was little to report on a boat so much smaller than the palace they were used to.
With the exception of a few soldiers who had made intimate friends with some of the sailors, there wasn’t even gossip to report back.
“Nothing,” Lerolian said. “Empress Koque has had her servants barricade her doors. She understands the position they are in and has asked her servants to prepare a poison draught for the prince should Kacha take the ship.”
Tallu went pale and looked away. He couldn’t argue.
The ship slowed, going a fraction of the pace we had been keeping. Through Tallu’s window, we could see the scouting boats were little more than canoes run by motors. They skipped down the river, speeding toward the delta.
When there was no sign of general Kacha’s ships, Sagam finally let us aboveboard. We traveled for nearly half a day before the last ship caught sight of Kacha’s men.
“So they are faster than us,” Saxu said. “More mobile, too, if they were able to avoid the canisters.”
“We will have to prepare for an attack,” Sagam said. “Your Imperial Majesty, please.”
The Kennelmaster hadn’t been seen once since we boarded the boat, although anytime I passed his cabin, I heard a racking cough. I wondered if he still advised Sagam on how to handle His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Tallu.
Tallu hesitated, and Asahi stepped forward. Nonthreatening, but putting himself in Tallu’s line of sight. The boat swayed under our feet, and I leaned against Tallu.
He relented, and Sagam and Asahi ushered him below. Hopefully Tallu could comfort Koque and prevent her from making any impossibly bad decisions.
The boats came closer, and I was reminded again of wolves in the wild, circling their prey. They slowed, clearly readying their weapons.
“Let us take care of these nuisances,” Na? said. Her voice was directly in my head, but I saw Irad?o whip her head around, her eyes going wide.
I couldn’t reveal my magic, but I could support Na?. I glanced at the dragon, thinking about our options before a thought occurred to me.
Leaning down, I whispered into her ear. “Grow bigger. Fly above the ships. Everyone will be so distracted, they won’t notice me.”
Even in her dragon form, Na? seemed to smile, her mouth opening to reveal razor-sharp fangs.
“Dramatic. I like it.”
Na? considered me for a long glittering moment, her opal eyes shifting as though they were made of liquid. “You know what it will mean if I do this? The last time I allied myself with Tallu, he became Dragon Chosen Emperor. Are you ready to find out what I can do a second time?”
I frowned down at her, even as Saxu ordered more explosive charges to be set in the river.
It was dangerous doing it now. They would go off too close to our own boats, and even if we survived in one of the middle ships, Saxu’s men in the last one were in danger.
We were traveling too slow to leave the detonation behind.
There was too much a chance that they would be caught in it.
Na? nodded. Then, she leapt off the boat, flinging herself into the air.
Her wings beat and, in the sunlight, they glistened like fresh ice.
She opened her mouth in a roar, drawing every eye from the boat as her body grew in size until she was nearly the same length as the ship we were on.
The soldiers and sailors shouted, their voices drawing even more attention.
I was so used to her, so used to her whining and begging for food, her fits of temper, her form as a small child, that I forgot what she really was.
Now, even a fraction of the size she had been when she had first appeared at the Heron Lake estate, she was a creature from legend, something mystical that had been killed long before we had been born.
She roared again, flying over the ships.
She left a trail of snow in her wake, the small frozen flakes floating down and melting immediately on the faces and hands of the sailors.
I walked to the very edge of the boat, away from the crowd.
Then I closed my eyes and let myself feel the magic she was wielding.
It called to me, the friend I couldn’t quite trust. Her deepest desire was safety, her true call was for our safety.
Not everyone’s, but hers and mine. I could feel blinks of light in her desire, other people she wanted safe.
Irad?o. Nohe. Homisu, who occasionally snuck her the tastiest part of the dessert.
With that, she blew ice down onto the water, chunks of it encircling Kacha’s boats, and I lent my strength, my own desire.
I didn’t want safety as much as she did.
Instead, I wanted something more selfish.
I wanted to reach Spider. I wanted to reach Spider and convince her that she needed to let Tallu and Hallu go.
Na? roared, the sound shaking the enormous pine trees that bordered the river, and I could see her between our last ship and General Kacha’s.
I could see the ice dragging in the water behind her like a net, carefully cradling the explosive charges, bringing them with her as she swept toward Kacha’s men.
Then, she began blowing ice in the water, as though creating a wall just porous enough to let water through while maintaining its shape. As I watched her, I had a better idea.
During the last war, my mother had ordered her people to drill metal spikes at the base of the ice walls that guarded the Silver City bay.
It cost five men and women their lives, but it had been done.
If a boat should come too close while the walls were closed, the metal spikes would pierce the hull and the ship would sink into the freezing waters.
As Na? built a net of ice, I focused on the spikes. The rivers here were too warm to kill a man, but between crashing into Na?’s trap and the spikes piercing their hulls, these ships would be lucky to limp to shore. They wouldn’t be following us.
Across the boats, I heard men calling in joy, yelling out about the dragon that had chosen Emperor Tallu, praising both of them.
I was so focused on the spikes, on making sure they were invisible and would last long enough to pierce the hulls of Kacha’s boats, that I didn’t notice when the Kennelmaster leaned against the railing next to me.
I lost focus immediately, my eyes going wide. Ice had formed under my palms, my lack of focus spreading it out in a visible line. Frost edged my hair, ice glistening on my cheek.
Ahead, Na? roared. She had felt my absence and didn’t appreciate it.
“So, our little dragon has decided to declare her loyalty again,” the Kennelmaster observed. He raised his hand, brushing it over my shoulder. Chunks of ice fell to the deck, melting nearly instantly in the sunlight. “Our emperor is once again rewarded for having such powerful allies.”
It was impossible for either of us to pretend that he didn’t know I had gained Na?’s power over ice. But when he watched me, it was with some satisfaction.
I couldn’t help but wonder what plan he had put in play. Or was he truly happy that I had gained this ability?
“Have you told Sagam?” I asked.
Because the Kennelmaster had not come here on a whim; he had to have known before this moment what my abilities were, just as he had known how lethal my skills were when I married Tallu.
“No,” the Kennelmaster said. “I leave that to you.”
“How kind,” I said.
Na?’s irritation growled in the back of my mind, and the dragon herself spun in a low circle, continuing to breathe ice and cold down on the water.