Chapter 17
Agrevlari continued flying up the river, not slowing down until they’d gone around a bend and Wreylith’s roars had faded. Wise’s dragon barely kept up.
“I don’t think your wooing song, or whatever you would call it, worked on Wreylith.
” Vorik looked back as they flew, wondering if Syla’s group had found something or if they’d stopped for biological necessities.
As he well knew, even though dragons flew fast, their magic and raw power making them speedier than any bird, flights across the sea were long.
My wooing song was magnificent, but she has, for strange reasons, aligned herself with the enemy. Were she not conflicted, she would have likely succumbed to my mating call, and we would even now be engaged in amorous activities.
“When she roared, she didn’t come across as conflicted to me. And Syla isn’t the enemy. She’s…”
I understand you enjoy sexual encounters with her, but she is indeed a part of the nation that we seek to overthrow, and have not Garden Kingdom humans and your stormer tribes been antagonistic with each other for many centuries?
I’ve flown you down to attack their cargo ships and abscond with their food.
“Yes, yes, but she’s…” Vorik groped in the air. “Garden Kingdom troops attacked her. She can’t feel that kindly toward them right now.”
They attacked her because rule of the Kingdom is being contested, and she’s one of the contestants, not because she does not still consider herself one of them.
“Will you stop being so logical?”
I am not incorrect, am I?
“No, and it’s very annoying. Do you know that other dragon that’s with them? I didn’t recognize her. She looks young.”
I do not know her. It is possible Wreylith summoned wild dragon allies from the far side of the world. There are many of our kind who live and hunt on the continent of Froha whom I’ve never met.
“They don’t attend the dragon tribal meetings, huh?”
Dragons, as you know, are usually solitary outside of mating season. We who work with your people make exceptions to band together into wings for military purposes. Being forced to work and serve together can create tensions, however.
Vorik remembered Agrevlari barreling into Ozlemar to protect Wreylith, who probably hadn’t needed protecting.
That was not a tension. That was a typical way for a dragon to begin the courting flight.
“By getting rid of the competition?”
By ensuring other males do not harm the female one desires.
“Sir?” Wise called, lifting one of the parchment scrolls, the breeze tugging at the corners. He swatted away an insect large enough that it was visible from ten yards away. “I’ve figured something out, and I think… We may need to discuss it.”
Vorik waved an acknowledgment. “Can you find a place to land, Agrevlari?”
There are few in the area. The rainforest lacks clearings, the water is unsafe, and the tops of these trees would not support our combined weight.
“Well, look for something, please. We don’t want to get that far from Syla. We’re keeping an eye on them.”
As one does with one’s enemies.
Vorik sighed. “We need to make sure to get that moss thing first. I’d prefer that to trying to take the components from Syla later.”
It was bad enough that his orders pitted him against her. He didn’t want to be a bully too.
Vorik swatted an insect pestering him, well aware of the diseases they carried and that their travel first-aid kits weren’t the most complete. It would be distressing if he had to go to his adversary for healing because he’d developed the Shriveling Sickness or Fatal Fengulu.
I see a perch. Agrevlari flew away from the river to a rare rocky outcropping that rose above the canopy.
Several wyverns that probably called it—or maybe a cave in its side—home squawked a warning at him. Agrevlari roared, and Tonasketal flew after him, ready to lend his might.
The roar, perhaps conveying extra irritation due to Agrevlari’s failures with Wreylith, convinced the wyverns of his threat, and they took flight, flapping off at top speed in the other direction.
There was barely room for two dragons atop the rocky perch, so Vorik didn’t dismount. It was a long fall to the ground. Tonasketal landed beside Agrevlari, their wings folded in to make room for each other.
If only the beauteous Wreylith were the one perched so close to me.
Trust me, Vorik replied. I’d rather be shoulder to shoulder with someone sexier than Wise too.
Despite the comment, which he made only for Agrevlari, Vorik waved for his lieutenant to show him what he’d learned.
“You’ve figured out where we get the moss thing?” Vorik asked.
“Oh, no. Nothing about that. But I was considering earlier, when we first got here, that in this humidity, finding a desiccated specimen would be difficult. Things must decompose quickly here rather than drying out.”
“Well, Syla’s team is looking for something they expect to find here.”
“Yes.” At her name, Wise looked pensively at him.
“What?”
“There are what I’ve been thinking of as hieroglyphs along the bottom of this scroll, sir, under the passage about the storm god’s laboratory and all the dangers waiting inside of it.
I realized… Well, I immediately thought that the quarter-moon symbol might refer to the moon-marked humans of the Garden Kingdom, and now I’m thinking…
For this third component, it may only be accessible by someone with a moon-mark.
It’s some kind of magical crystal the storm god long ago propagated in his laboratory, and only one grows at a time, so it’s rare.
Very rare. If the gods who created the shielders wanted to make sure humans from the Garden Kingdom could get a replacement crystal if they needed one, it makes sense that they would have locked it up somehow so only one of their chosen could reach it. ”
“I guess we’ll have to arrive at the same time as Syla and sneak in after her.”
“And steal the component from her afterward?”
“I suppose we’ll have to. Or try to slip past and get to it first.” Vorik looked back over the canopy, wondering if Syla was even now acquiring the first component. The dragons and humans had disappeared for too long to account for biological needs.
“Or…” Wise hesitated, considering him.
“Or?”
“Well, if we kidnap her, sir, or another moon-marked person, and get there first, we can ensure things go our way.”
“Or another moon-marked person? I think Syla is the only option unless that other girl is a relative.” Vorik tried to remember if the woman had been marked, but he’d barely glanced at her.
When they’d torn their way into the wheelhouse, he’d been focused on saving Syla—not that she’d needed saving. He smiled at the memory.
“The other woman had a moon-mark, sir.” Wise looked in puzzlement at him.
Because Vorik usually noticed everything around him? Yes, but he’d been concerned about Syla. The other woman might have had eight boobs and he would have missed it.
Agreed, Agrevlari stated. She had the power of one of the gods-gifted humans.
I also sensed it, Tonasketal added.
Of course. None of Vorik’s allies had been distracted by romantic feelings.
She is not as powerful as Princess Syla, Agrevlari added, but more akin to the aunt who rode with the princess to Harvest Island. She can likely open doors attuned to the moon-mark though.
“I’m not kidnapping Syla or anyone in her party,” Vorik said.
Wise tilted his head. “You don’t think it would make sense, sir? To ensure we fulfill our mission? Before I left, General Jhiton said…”
“What?” Vorik remembered his earlier thought that Wise, despite being an easygoing and affable fellow, was dedicated to his duty and might partially have been sent to keep an eye on Vorik.
“I’m to report in to him along the way if anything is going to prove difficult.” That didn’t sound like a full truth.
“Who are you going to report to down here? Nobody but the Freeborn Faction have a headquarters within hundreds of miles, and we don’t even know more than the general area that they might be in.
” Vorik waved toward the peaks that rose so high that they had snow and glaciers on them year around, even this far south, but, as far as he knew, there were only rumors suggesting the faction was camped in the mountains this summer.
Their leaders always worried, somewhat amusingly so, that the tribes would raid them, so they moved frequently.
Vorik’s leaders, however, didn’t care to annihilate their own people, deserters or not.
Of course, that might change if the faction did more than occasional spying and truly declared the stormers enemies.
“You don’t think they would enjoy my reports, sir?” Wise smiled, though there was a troubled look in his eyes. Maybe he’d figured out that his captain’s feelings were conflicted on this matter.
“They’d probably love to hear about everything we’re doing.”
“I expect that’s true. Did you know they’ve a link to that whaling ship the princess has been traveling on?”
“I didn’t, no.”
“The captain is allied with them.”
“So, they want Syla to end up in charge of the Kingdom? Is that why he’s been helping her?”
“I don’t know, sir. We just know of the link.”
Vorik scratched his jaw. He believed that Syla could take her rightful spot as queen of the Garden Kingdom if she wished, but he didn’t know if he should hope for her to do that or not.
When he’d implored her to come with him, he’d mostly been thinking about protecting her from Lesva, but Jhiton’s offer might have been in the back of his mind too.
If Syla were forced into exile, or had to flee because she had assassins after her, she might more seriously consider an invitation to join the stormers.
He couldn’t wish for her to be endangered, but…
He sighed again and murmured, “Conflicted.”
The Swordhawk Tribe wing is flying up the coast, Agrevlari said.