Chapter 13 #2
Radmarik’s squint deepened. Yes, arguing that Vorik had been anything but an enemy to them during that battle would be hard for anyone to believe.
“His dragon ripped the roof off my wheelhouse,” Radmarik said.
“He was trying to get to me.”
Radmarik gazed at her as if she were an idiot. She thought about changing get to me to rescue me, but it was probably more kidnapping than rescuing when one stole a princess off her own ship. While one’s allies were attacking it.
“Captain Vorik shouldn’t know that I’m going anywhere,” was what Syla decided to say. “It’s actually the red dragon, Wreylith, that I hope to, uhm, connect with.”
For the first time, Radmarik’s face brightened. “The dragon who saved us? With her glorious crimson scales gleaming in the morning light as she drove away the stormer dragons?”
“That’s Wreylith, yes.”
“Will she help us again if we run into trouble?” Radmarik looked toward a couple of guard ships adjacent to the closest military vessel. The crewmen were readying cannons while continuing to glance at the Striking Falcon.
That was concerning.
“I’m not sure,” Syla said, compelled to honesty, though it might have been better to assure Radmarik that Wreylith was on their side and would be available in a bind.
If he thought military vessels were going to follow them out of the harbor, he would be less inclined to help, especially if his wife was hedging bets and waiting to see who ended up in charge of the Kingdom. “I may have to prove myself first.”
“Set sail now,” Fel told Radmarik, nodding toward the preparations on the military vessels.
“Yes. That may be wise.” Radmarik glanced at Syla but didn’t give the order she’d feared, for her to get off his ship.
Instead, Radmarik trotted around the deck, quietly instructing his men to take his vessel out of dock—and out of the harbor—as quickly as possible.
“You two ladies had better go belowdecks,” one of the officers said as he strode past. “There are a few empty cabins down there.”
“Thank you,” Syla told him but didn’t move.
If they were followed out of the harbor, she wanted to know about it. What she could do about it, she didn’t know, but she wouldn’t hide in a cabin.
“Delaying at the brothel may not have been a good idea,” Fel said when he was alone with Syla and Teyla.
“I thought you approved of me fostering a spy for future intelligence-gathering purposes,” Syla said though they both knew she hadn’t been doing anything so premeditated.
“I’d approve of us not being killed before we escape the harbor.” Fel scowled, not at Syla but at the two military vessels also making ready to set sail.
Teyla lowered her pack from her shoulders and untied her sword scabbard.
“I’m going to have a hard time keeping you two in a cabin, aren’t I?” Fel asked.
“Sorry, Sergeant. Maybe we should have brought another bodyguard.” Syla didn’t mention that she hadn’t yet figured out how she would bring him along if Wreylith agreed to fly her about.
“You should have brought an army.”
“I suppose I should do my best to convince everyone that I should be queen so that I’ll be able to acquire one.” Syla said it as a joke.
But Fel nodded firmly. “Yes.”
If only that were an easy task…
“This isn’t the way down the coast to the rainforests,” Vorik said dryly as Agrevlari flew across the sea. “We’re to start our search on Droha, not one of the Kingdom islands.”
I heard Wreylith is still spending time on the Island of Eliok and pines for companionship, Agrevlari said. It’s on the way to the rainforest.
“It’s not remotely on the way, and I don’t think Wreylith is capable of pining.”
I’ll be a better dragon ally if I can hunt and eat my fill of elioks before we start this search.
And share the poem you’ve composed with Wreylith?
If she’ll allow me to, yes. Though I’m still refining it. Lieutenant Wise informed me that mangrove doesn’t rhyme with love.
No, it does not. Vorik looked to the side at Wise flying astraddle Tonasketal. He was studying a scroll as the wind tugged at his short prematurely white hair. No doubt, his ability to read the modern and ancient tongues made him a likely human with whom to discuss poetry—and rhyming.
Perhaps I’ll just screech a dragon song at her, Agrevlari said.
Females do enjoy being screeched at.
Dragon females prefer it as a vocalization method. The reverberations we can feel against our eardrums please our senses.
You’re a quirky kind, aren’t you?
Silence, Vorik. I have called to the beauteous Wreylith, and she has answered me.
Telepathically, I assume. You didn’t screech.
Further, they were miles yet from the closest of the Kingdom islands.
Interesting, Agrevlari said after a time, the gray sky starting to spit rain as they flew high above the sea, waves undulating below. She is not hunting but waiting to take your princess somewhere.
Vorik leaned forward, flattening his hands to Agrevlari’s scales. Was it as he’d considered? That Syla herself was undertaking a mission to find the components for the shielder?
Assuming she proves herself worthy of riding on a dragon again, Agrevlari added.
How does Wreylith want her to do that? It hadn’t occurred to Vorik that he might gain information about Syla through dragon gossip. She’s not a combatant.
As soon as the words came out, Vorik remembered Devron’s assertions. He wished he’d stepped into the chamber in time to see and sense exactly what Syla had done to him.
Wreylith wants her to demonstrate her potential and also that she can ride on a dragon’s back rather than cling ignobly to her tail.
Vorik bit his lip, remembering that. At some point during that battle, Syla had gotten ahold of Wreylith’s tail and hung on. Since he’d been having a dragon disaster of his own at the time, he hadn’t seen all of it, but it had been an amusing sight.
Wreylith is, however, currently wondering if the princess will arrive on the Island of Eliok since her sailing vessel is being set upon.
Set upon? Vorik straightened, thinking of Captain Lesva and her threats.
When he and Wise had left, she hadn’t yet departed, but she had implied she might attempt to eliminate Syla while she was engaged in her mission on Harvest Island. Was it possible her dragon had flown at top speed and gotten to the area before Agrevlari?
Vorik looked over at Wise again, but he continued to examine the scrolls that Jhiton had sent along. If he even realized they were flying over the sea instead of down the coast, Vorik would be surprised.
Yes, Agrevlari said after a pause—he’d probably been waiting for clarification from Wreylith. By other humans.
Not dragons?
Wreylith did not mention dragons, only that she is waiting to see if the princess can handle her predicament herself without intervention. Also, Wreylith is enjoying a freshly caught eliok, so she understandably does not wish to leave her meal prematurely.
Well, we’ll be premature. Vorik patted Agrevlari’s back. Pick up the pace, will you? Let’s find Syla’s ship.
Vorik hoped they wouldn’t be too late.
A moment ago, you did not approve of me flying in this direction, Agrevlari said.
That was before I knew Syla was in this direction. Go, go. I know you can flap those wings faster when you’re properly motivated.
Do you believe if you rescue the princess, she will engage in coitus with you again?
No, I just want to make sure she doesn’t die. Vorik hesitated. After that’s assured, I wouldn’t turn down the other thing.
I thought not.
Don’t sound smug. You’re hoping for coitus with Wreylith too.
Agrevlari picked up his pace, probably more at that thought than because Syla was in danger. Indeed, I am. Perhaps we shall both employ poetry to woo our females.
I’m not screeching at Syla about mangroves.
Perhaps you can sing a ballad. You’ve a decent knack for that.
Despite my lack of screeching?
Quite. It is because you appropriately note a dragon’s majesty in the lyrics you compose.
Something that’s sure to get a human woman in the mood.
I would think so.
Wise looked up, startled by Agrevlari surging ahead of his dragon. Maybe he was paying attention, after all.
Vorik waved for him to keep up. If only human enemies were attacking Syla, Vorik and Agrevlari might be able to deter them without much trouble, but if Lesva and her squadron were also in the area… Vorik would need help.
On the horizon, the dark green-and-brown outlines of two of the Kingdom islands came into view. Castle and Harvest. Far in the distance, a shadow on the horizon, lay the third island in the area—Bogberry Island. The others in the chain were much farther apart and to the south.
As Agrevlari continued closer and Vorik scanned the surface of the sea with his keen eyes, he spotted numerous ships navigating the waters between Castle and Harvest Islands. Several were military craft, and was that the boom of a cannon that floated to him over the whistling wind?
At first, Vorik thought the military fleet was escorting the ship slightly in the lead, but that was a whaling vessel rather than a transport ship.
With a start, he recognized it. It was the same whaling vessel that had carried Syla weeks earlier, with what, at the time, he’d believed was a shielder on board. And was it carrying her again now?
Those ships harry the vessel with your princess aboard, Agrevlari said, perhaps plucking the question out of Vorik’s thoughts.
Another cannon boomed. Vorik was close enough now to see the puff of gray smoke as the weapon fired.
“They’re doing more than harrying it. Why are her own people firing upon her?” The answer came to him as soon as he spoke the words. “It’s a coup. Or at least, that fleet was sent by the people who intend a coup. The bastards.” Vorik drew his sword.
A few weeks ago, he never would have believed he could have cared one way or another about who sat on the throne of the Garden Kingdom, but now he knew Princess Syla, and he’d met the stiff-necked General Dolok.
He didn’t know who else might be involved in trying to kill Syla, but he had no trouble labeling them as bastards as well.
“Are we going to attack those ships, sir?” came Lieutenant Wise’s call on the wind, his dragon flying behind and to the side of Agrevlari.
“Yes!”
“That’s a whaling ship, not a cargo ship.” Wise sounded confused.
Of course. With the exception of a couple of tribes, who acted more like pirates preying upon Kingdom ships, the stormers and especially the Sixteen Talons didn’t wantonly attack vessels unless there was a logical reason.
Food to be acquired or a notorious enemy to be vanquished.
They didn’t harass fishing or whaling vessels.
“Princess Syla is aboard,” Vorik called, though, as Wise’s superior officer, he didn’t need to explain his actions.
“Are we… kidnapping her, sir?”
Vorik almost said they were rescuing her, but Wise gathered intelligence, and Jhiton might very well have chosen him as much for his ability to read scrolls and advise Vorik as his willingness to spy upon him.
Jhiton might want to make sure Vorik didn’t make any foolish decisions when it came to the Kingdom and especially Syla.
And since Vorik wasn’t even supposed to be coming to these islands right now…
“I want to question her again about the shielders, especially these components.”
Wise shook his head, but it might have been because he hadn’t caught all the words on the wind. He wasn’t the type to argue with his superior officers. Spy upon, maybe. Argue, no.
The dragons drew closer to the battle, more cannons firing and a boarding party readying itself to leap from one of the military vessels to the whaling ship. Vorik shook his head, at that moment not caring what his lieutenant thought. As he had once before, he spotted Syla.
She had her back to the wheelhouse—the roof Agrevlari had ripped off had been replaced—and she was staying out of the way, but not far enough out of the way. Why didn’t that oversized limping bodyguard of hers hoist her over his shoulder and carry her belowdecks?
The harpoons on the whaling ship launched, and crewmen with bows and crossbows loosed their weapons at the surrounding vessels, but they were outnumbered. Greatly outnumbered.
Though the military vessels took hits, two soldiers appeared for every one that fell. A harpoon crunched into the hull of the ship with the boarding party, but it didn’t start taking on water quickly enough to keep it from drawing even with the whaling vessel.
Once close enough, the boarding party leaped over the railing.
Swords clanged as the attackers crushed into defenders that swarmed forward, attempting to stop them.
As the boarders surged forward, cannons from their ship fired to assist them.
The projectiles blasted into the whaling ship’s defenders.
A ball striking one man in the chest killed him immediately.
The boarders succeeded in spreading out across the deck, ten men clad in black instead of wearing uniforms, with masks pulled down to hide their faces. Several angled toward the wheelhouse.
Grim, Vorik urged Agrevlari to descend rapidly. Those men could only mean to assassinate Princess Syla.