Chapter 9
Syla sat with Fel and Teyla in the dining hall, keenly aware of how few allies she had and also wishing she’d chosen a place to eat that hadn’t hosted so many family gatherings.
The empty chairs, along with the stress of the day, threatened to bring tears.
Syla thought of Vorik, wishing for the dozenth time that he could somehow be an ally.
She had Fel, at least. And Aunt Tibby. And maybe Teyla.
None of them would be a match for the entire military if General Dolok followed through on his threat to stage a coup, but…
Syla had to be grateful for the help she had.
“This is delicious,” Teyla said, carving off tender pieces of the meat that the kitchen staff had prepared. “What did you say it is?”
Apparently, some of the gift had been reserved, along with the bone, for a stew for the next day, but there’d been enough to fry for a late dinner. The chaos of the stormer incursion had delayed meal preparations, and it was creeping toward midnight.
“Eliok, I’m told,” Syla said.
“I had no idea they’re so tasty. They’re elusive though, aren’t they? And found in only a few spots in the world?”
“Only on Harvest Island, I’m told. In the rest of the world, they were hunted to extinction, no doubt because of their great deliciousness.”
“Who’s been doing all this telling?” Fel, who’d deigned to join them around the table instead of looming by the door, gave her a squint eye.
“It wasn’t Vorik, if that’s who your eye-skewer of disapproval is for.”
“My…” He touched the side of his left eye.
“Wreylith was the one who shared the information. A couple of weeks ago. Today, she just brought that.” Syla pointed to the slices of meat resting on a tray in a wine-based gravy.
“Wreylith?” Teyla asked.
“A red dragon who’s linked to a little magical figurine that my father left me. I haven’t quite figured out how that came to be, as in why he had it and who linked it to the dragon or why she bothered to come, but she helped us get the Harvest Island shielder.”
Teyla stared at her. “I thought the kitchen boy was joking when he said a dragon dropped the meat from the sky.”
Fel forked a piece of eliok and chewed it thoughtfully. “The information given by a wild dragon may or may not be more reliable than that offered by a stormer.”
“I think when the topic is hunting, it’s probably reliable.
” Syla looked out a window toward the night sky, wishing she could call the dragon down to flambé General Dolok.
And Relvin while she was in the neighborhood.
As a healer, it wasn’t appropriate to wish all her enemies to be horribly killed in dragon-crafted infernos, but only the gods could condemn her for her fantasies.
“Maybe I should have waited a few more days before activating the borrowed shielder,” she murmured.
“What?” Teyla asked.
“I hope Aunt Tibby gets here soon. I regret that she’s barely gotten any rest, but… I need her.”
“I’ll brace myself for her incendiary wit,” Fel said.
“I’ll give her some eliok meat,” Syla said. “That’ll make her happy.”
“Unlikely.”
As the meal neared its end, Syla started to worry that Aunt Tibby had not returned to the farm but gone off somewhere else in the city and couldn’t be found.
It was also possible the military was keeping her from entering the castle.
But even if Dolok had decided to fight Syla, he would want the shielder repaired as much as she did.
And Tibby, agricultural engineer or not, had been the one studying it and the scrolls.
Finally, Tibby walked in, rumpled and looking like she’d been woken from a deep sleep. The exasperated frown she slanted toward Syla also suggested it.
“What is this about stormers getting into the tunnels and threatening the shielders again?” Tibby asked her without preamble, though she lifted a hand toward Teyla and gave her a warmer I-need-to-consult-you look.
“We got a chance to use both the medical antique—” Syla touched the summoner still looped over her ear, “—and the explosives.”
“I’d hoped that neither would be necessary. What happened? Did the explosives blow without damaging the shielder?”
“Yes.” Syla described the evening’s events, resisting the urge to leave out all mention of Vorik.
He’d been too integral at too many points not to bring up, but she did gloss over his contribution—and hindrance.
The scrolls were the important part. “Please tell me you made copies of them,” she said after admitting they’d been taken.
“Of course I made copies. In triplicate. I’ve got a set at the farm and put the other set in the basement library here.”
“Eyes of the moon, bless you,” Syla said.
“Don’t thank me yet. It could be disastrous that the stormers have that information.”
Syla grimaced. “How so?”
“For starters, the schematics will give them a much better idea of how to quickly destroy the shielders if they gain access to more of them.”
“They managed that fine without instructions,” Fel said. “Destroying things is easier than creating them.”
“So you acknowledge that you easily committed a heinous crime when you tore the engine of my tractor to pieces.”
Fel clenched his jaw.
“Eliok meat, Aunt Tibby?” Syla lifted the tray in offering, a few pieces lingering in the gravy.
Tibby started to lift a hand but paused to look curiously at the meat. “Did you say eliok?”
“Yes, it’s a dragon favorite.”
“It’s my new favorite too,” Teyla said, still chewing heartily.
“Hm.” Tibby selected a piece to sample. “You’re correct that none of the scrolls held maps or information describing where the other shielders are located, but with the schematics and that list of components, including roughly where in the world they can be found—Teyla, I’d like to consult you on my translation of that—one might figure out how to make a shielder from scratch.
It takes magic in addition to know-how.” Tibby showed them the moon-mark on the back of her hand.
“But if their dragons helped the stormers, it might be enough. Or more than enough. Reputedly, dragons have power that can rival that of the gods themselves.”
“I don’t know if there’s historical evidence to support that hypothesis,” Teyla said. “There was only a very short window of time where the gods and dragons existed in the world at the same time.”
Tibby adjusted her spectacles, then lowered a bag slung over her shoulder to delve inside. “I concede that we don’t have any way in the modern era to compare the magic that current-day dragons have and the gods had. Even when both existed, there wasn’t a scale by which to measure their power.”
“That’s true,” Teyla said. “The texts do offer accountings that may be helpful but certainly aren’t scientific and might have been hyperbole. Did the gods truly, as legend suggests, render volcanos extinct, alter the air and water currents, and travel from this world to another when they departed?”
“A thousand years and more after the fact, it’s difficult to say. We do have recent accountings of dragons altering land masses and shifting the flow of rivers by making changes near the sources.”
Syla lifted a finger, intending to steer the increasingly academic conversation back to the important matter at hand, but a voice sounded in her mind.
You’ve found the meat of the eliok sufficiently succulent, I presume, Wreylith said.
Less booming, her voice came from farther away than before. Maybe she was flying out at sea now instead of over the castle.
It’s extremely tasty. Thank you for sharing it with me.
Perhaps belatedly, it occurred to Syla that Wreylith might want something.
After all, dragons weren’t known for giving gifts or displaying gratitude toward humans.
From what she’d learned of the stormers and their relationship with dragons, both parties found it mutually beneficial.
Dragons certainly didn’t serve humans. You must be a mighty hunter to have found enough eliok to satisfy your needs and have some left over.
Of course I’m a mighty hunter, Wreylith said as if it were the most obvious statement in the universe.
Were I able to fly down to your island, I could show you by hunting the horn hogs that amble through the valleys in the core of that land.
Or I could fish for venomous sword iglets in your eastern lagoons.
Like the eliok, those species are difficult to find in the rest of the world.
Only here where they’ve been protected by the sky shields do they remain abundant.
Unfortunately, due to the distraction that you inflicted upon me, I was not able to hunt on your island before you returned the shielder to duty.
I apologize for inconveniencing you.
As you should. Are you aware that dragons have bonded with your kind in the past?
Uhm, my kind? Syla heard Teyla and Tibby continuing to debate on whether dragon magic could rival the magic of the gods, citing sources to back up their beliefs, but she barely registered the conversation.
A new idea was percolating in her mind. Might she convince Wreylith to help her again?
It almost seemed like the dragon, in returning to the area, wanted to do so.
Wreylith wanted something anyway. Venomous sword iglets, perhaps.
You mean stormers who train to become riders?
No.
Tibby lay papers filled with notes on the table, and her discussion with Teyla turned to her translations.
Those humans with a moon-mark on their hand, Wreylith added. The lingering power of the gods.
Someone with a moon-mark bonded with a dragon? In the way that the stormer riders do? Receiving magical power from the dragons in addition to that gifted to them by the gods?
It has happened, but only when humans from your kingdom were wise enough to realize the greatness of having a dragon ally.
I’d think a lot of humans from any nation could see the benefit of that. But why would a dragon—