Chapter 16
Not long into the flight, Wreylith banked to lead Igliana on a new trajectory.
Busy reading from The Secret Life of Queen Erasbella, Syla almost missed noticing.
At first, she assumed Wreylith was changing her route because of the wind or to fly more directly, but then she spotted other dragons to the north.
More than a dozen of them were heading west, toward the Kingdom.
Toward Harvest Island, Syla feared, when she picked out riders on their backs.
She shifted uneasily, spotting a blue dragon. Captain Lesva had ridden a blue dragon.
Though they were too far away for Syla to identify any of the riders, Vorik’s warning came to mind, and she imagined the flinty woman gazing across the distance, debating an attack. If Lesva was with those dragons, was she leading them? Would she be able to detour from her mission?
“Are you communicating with those dragons, Wreylith?”
I informed them that if they pestered me, I would bite their heads off.
“Did that work? There are a lot of them.”
More than half the wing is male.
“So… they’re in love with you and won’t fight you?”
Not all seek to mate with me, but one has already made flirtatious remarks. The others are aware of what happened during my last battle with stormer dragons, and they do not seek to endure a repeat of the event.
“Like the flirtatious male turning on one of his own kind?”
To impress or defend me, yes. That was deemed chaotic by many.
“I liked it.”
Yes. Wreylith sounded smug.
Syla couldn’t blame her and was relieved when the dragons didn’t change course to try to intercept them.
Her relief was short-lived though as she remembered they were heading toward the Kingdom.
Syla needed to find the components as soon as possible so Aunt Tibby could repair the shielder and return it to Harvest Island.
She couldn’t do anything until she reached the mainland, however, and returned to reading.
“The other books all said my great-great grandmother knew from an early age that she would rule the Kingdom and trained and studied hard, learning to use her gods-gift to become a talented diplomat and leader. Supposedly, she was always a responsible girl, prepared to do her duty. But this says she ran away three times because the pressure was onerous and she wanted to have adventures. Once, she bribed a merchant captain to take her away from the Garden Kingdom to see the world. Out there, she was chased by wyverns, almost lost at sea, and kidnapped by stormers. Once, she was kidnapped by pirates. She escaped from her predicaments and, in the process, met a dragon—a red dragon—and somehow talked her into taking her by air to see the world. Wreylith, is that right? Was that you?”
You are skimming. The story was much more involved.
“I’m only in the introduction so far. Did she pull a venomous fang out of your foot?”
She was not a healer. That is not how she proved herself worthy of a dragon’s consideration.
“This doesn’t say anything about enticing a powerful mate to satisfy her sexual needs.”
We all prove ourselves in different ways, came Wreylith’s dry reply.
Doubting she would get the story from the dragon, Syla turned to the first chapter.
As she read and hours passed, the air grew warmer and more humid, with Wreylith and Igliana flying south as much as east. The magic inherent in dragons gave them the power to soar faster than ships could have sailed, and they were able to skirt roiling gray clouds, a storm that covered miles, if not hundreds of miles, and return again to clear weather as the sun sank toward the horizon.
Though they had flown all day, it was far sooner than Syla could have imagined that the continent of Droha came into view.
At this point along its coastline, a dense tangle of lush green foliage stretched. Faintly visible many miles inland, the snowy peaks of mountains rose above the verdant rainforest.
Syla was glad they would reach land soon.
Many hours had passed since the dragons had stopped on an island to drink water from a pond—and the humans had attended to their own biological needs—and she needed another opportunity to relieve herself.
She also looked forward to seeing one of the continents for the first time in her life.
Since the islands of the Garden Kingdom provided all the food that its subjects needed, few ever left them.
The only ones who did were intrepid explorers, brave archaeologists, and capitalistic foragers, fishers, and hunters who risked their lives to find and sell rare plants, sea life, and animals that had value.
Where in this land do you need to go? Wreylith asked as they flew lower and closer, the outlines of trees more distinct. From those trees came the sounds of animals hooting to welcome the sunset, the varied calls audible over the roar of waves crashing to the shore.
Syla closed the book and pulled out her copy of Aunt Tibby’s translations.
“The component that comes from the rainforest is a cylindrical bulb shape that forms out of a kind of moss that carpets the side of a certain species of tree that grows in this climate.” Too bad the scroll hadn’t said which species.
“The bulbs eventually wither, detach, and fall to the ground. Usually, they decompose quickly, but if they are taken somewhere to dry for preservation, they eventually become magical. That takes years and years though. The indigenous peoples only discovered it because they found some that had landed in such a way that they eventually became petrified. Once magical, the moss-bulb powder apparently had a lot of uses.”
You will trade with these indigenous people for powder?
“I wish, since that would make things easy. While it’s possible there are still people living in the area, Teyla said archaeologists have looked for the ancient mainland tribes before and found nothing but ruins left behind from their abandoned settlements.
Back when the storm god was unleashing his creations on the world, the humans who didn’t obey the other gods and come to the Garden Kingdom for protection didn’t have a high rate of survival.
” As far as Syla knew from the history books she’d read, it had mostly been those who’d allied with dragons and become known as the stormers who’d managed to survive in the changed world.
You have spoken much but did not tell me where you wish to be taken.
“Can you fly around and look for evidence of past human settlements?” Perhaps it was a vain hope, but Syla thought they might find preserved specimens in those ancient ruins. If nothing else, maybe clues left by early man could lead them in the right direction.
Look for evidence through all the trees? They are very dense with their canopies impenetrable to even keen dragon sight. Also, in this area, the closeness of the growth would make it difficult for us to fly through the branches to land.
“If you can detect magic from afar, maybe that could guide us? The preserved moss bulbs, as I said, would have power that you might be able to sense, though I admit it wouldn’t be nearly as noticeable as the shielders created from them.
” Even the shielders weren’t that noticeable when they weren’t activated, so Syla might have been making an impossible request.
Where will we take our humans? Igliana asked, flying closer so that she was almost wingtip to wingtip with Wreylith.
Fel sat behind Teyla on the orange dragon’s back, his face less green now, but he looked wistfully toward land. Even if it was filled with deadly predators, he would probably prefer standing and dealing with them to flying.
The human astride me has no idea, Wreylith replied.
They do not know where they desire to go?
“We’re looking for something.” Cheeks warm, Syla pointed toward her cousin’s pack, which balanced between her legs. She’d brought even more books along than Syla. “Teyla, do you know of any old human settlements in the area?”
“I don’t even know what area we’re in.”
“That should be the Lokdoran Rainforest.”
“The rainforest sprawls a thousand miles along the Yanasazi Coast.”
“Well, pick a likely spot, and we’ll ask these wonderfully patient and magnificent dragons to fly us there.
” Normally, Syla wouldn’t have opted for flattery, especially since the dragons didn’t seem to think much of obsequiousness, but she wanted them to know she appreciated their willingness to fly a few humans around.
And they were magnificent. To have arrived here in hours when it would have taken many days aboard ship…
It was brilliant. She almost envied the stormers.
“I think the moss grows throughout the area, and it sounds like it’s useful enough that any humans living in the rainforest would have collected and preserved it. ”
“There weren’t that many civilizations here,” Teyla said.
“Even before the storm god unleashed his killer insects, sea monsters, and animals, this wasn’t that hospitable of an area.
The vegetation grows so densely and quickly that trails you try to carve out are overgrown within days.
People navigated somewhat via waterways, where they existed, but the snow that melted from the mountains tended to flood the rivers.
” She leaned forward peering left and right as the dragons banked and flew along the shoreline. “I can’t wait to explore it.”
“Let’s hope it’s not the flood season.”
“If we can find the Ingris River, I know there were settlements along there. Oh, look.” Teyla pointed toward treetops as green-and-blue furred flying creatures the size of wyverns flew into view, long whips of tails swishing as their leathery wings carried them away from the dragons.
The creatures had thick manes that whipped about in the wind, and maws that revealed fangs when they parted.
Long fangs. Beady eyes looked toward the approaching group.
“Those are cloud strikers, right?” Teyla asked.