Chapter Twenty-Three
Comfort. Warmth.
These were good feelings.
Peace.
No, silence.
What was wrong with that?
Peace is boring, and you don’t like silence.
“Thanks, Salvadora.”
You’re welcome, now open your eyes, you’ve been asleep long enough.
And you owe me your life.
That was Lord Aurexian’s voice, channelled through Dora. You’ll need to wake up to pay.
Moving my eyelids was like shifting a granite block from one of the walls of this fortress. It wasn’t something I wanted to do. But I had to. Several efforts to blink finally brought the room into focus.
I was home. In my own bed. The space beside me was empty. No Ang.
Don’t worry, he’s just fallen asleep by the fire in the other room.
Salvadora’s words were a relief.
He’s barely left your side. Boutros made him move a little while ago to eat, and he dropped off immediately after.
It took time and effort, but I swung my feet over the side of the bed.
I had to sit like that until my head stopped swimming and I registered the fact that I was stark rodding naked.
A pair of blue linen trousers lay folded on the side.
I didn’t know if they were mine or Ang’s, but I was guessing he wouldn’t be that worried.
How I pulled them on without losing my balance was anyone’s guess.
Feeling the usual nip in the air that reminded me how far north Unkea was, I shuffled to the bathroom to find my bathrobe and my slippers. A thought that made me feel old.
Only then did I go to the bedroom door.
It wasn’t entirely shut and I stood there a moment, looking out through the crack to see Ang sitting in his usual chair by the fire. He looked so peaceful like that. So …
“By the Gods, I love that man.”
“Glad to hear you acknowledge it.”
Boutros’s voice made me jump. I finally opened the door fully and stepped up to the threshold.
My head jerked back, posture stiffening to discover that there were more than three of us in the apartment.
Gahunia, Jimny and Fenwick were all there too.
At some point, the four chairs around my table had become six.
“Who’s manning the fortress?” I asked.
“This is our irregular dragon shit team meeting,” Gahunia announced with a smile as he pushed out the chair at the foot of the table. The chair nearest me. I wasn’t sure how to move to it. But I knew this wasn’t a single team or a regular meeting.
“And now, I think the Flight Captain should join us.” Jimny moved over and shook him.
Ang grunted awake and frowned at the younger man.
“Sir, look who woke up.”
Still fumbling for sense, Ang followed the route of Jimny’s hand, and his eyes fell on me. He stood so fast, the chair scraped back and he pushed Jimny out of the way, Then I was being crushed by a hug so fierce I wasn’t sure if I wanted to cry from an overwhelm of emotion or pain.
“Don’t you ever rodding scare me like that again!” Ang ordered fiercely.
“Won’t be able to if you suffocate me.” I was almost laughing.
The pressure eased and Ang moved away, his hands still on my shoulders. “Are you well enough to be up?”
“Apparently,” I said. “Besides—” I wasn’t going to let him have everything his way. “—what’s all this about me scaring you? You flew your dragon underneath mine, a manoeuvre that is strictly barred by every Riders code there is, and got yourself crushed, which is the very reason it’s barred.”
As I spoke, I shifted the short distance to the chair Gahunia had offered because my legs were starting to quake. I didn’t know if the burning in my chest was anger or relief.
“I wasn’t letting you ditch,” Ang said as he moved to take the seat at the head of the table. Far too far away. “And if you think Lord Aurexian was going to allow Salvadora to pitch beneath the waves, you haven’t been paying attention, Flight Sergeant.”
I was back to Flight Sergeant. All was right with the world.
“Now,” Ang said, looking directly at me. “Flight Sergeant Segast. Can you advise what happened yesterday?”
A glance around the table showed me men I had known for years. Men I trusted. Could I trust them with this? I knew where their loyalties lay, but this was going to test those loyalties. For once, this was not the time to start at the beginning, they would need to be eased into this.
“When I went to collect Dora this morn — yesterday morning, she seemed … not herself. All the enthusiasm she’d had for coming home was gone.
I asked the stable master there if he had anything that could counteract the effects of dragonbalm, because that was what it looked like to me, but he got angry, told me she hadn’t been given dragonbalm, that no one in his stable …
all the usual bluster. I didn’t like it, didn’t believe it, but I figured it was only an hour back here, so it was worth the risk.
We were fifteen, maybe twenty minutes into the flight, out over open water, when out of nowhere a fireball flashed past us. ”
Not past.
“No, all right.” I refocused on those in the room. “Dora is reminding me it didn’t pass us, it hit her left wing. Burned the feathers and the skin beneath.” I looked at Fenwick. “How is that injury?”
“That injury is minimal,” he confirmed. “Did you heal her?”
“It was a surface wound,” I said.
“You’ve never healed a dragon to that extent before,” Fenwick pointed out.
“And,” Boutros added, “you’d only ever dealt with minor injuries until you healed Flight Captain Shi.”
“That was some dragon shit work you did out there,” Gahunia said. I think that was praise.
“No wonder you needed a day-long nap.” Jimny grinned.
“Yeah, well.” My eyes met Ang’s over the length of the table. “It’s amazing what you can do when someone you love is in danger.”
“Hmm,” he grunted back.
“Salvadora,” Fenwick went on, “says that you did more healing than her wing as the attack went on.”
A much easier topic. “It all came thanks to the training you helped with.”
“I never taught you to do the things Dora tells me you did.” Fenwick shook his head.
“I wouldn’t have known how to. But be assured you did a good job, she’s recovering well.
She’s missing some feathers, which will grow back.
But aside from some gut rot, because I don’t care what that idiot stable master in Ashland said, she was fed something to dope her up, she’ll be fine in a few days.
Just don’t ask her to stand. Her paws are singed and I’ve told her to keep off them.
I told her in mind-speak to do as she was told, then grinned. “She just blew a raspberry at me.”
“And Lord Aurexian chastised her for it.”
I bet that went down well.
He’s a stick in the mud at times, but he’s fun to play with when he’s worried about me.
Lord Aurexian was probably watching over her like a bodyguard or a mother hen. Perhaps a bit of both.
I looked over at Ang. “If you hadn’t come to our aid, we’d have been easy pickings.”
“I don’t know about that,” Ang said. “That manoeuvre where Dora blocked the red’s throat with her ice was rather spectacular.”
“It was lucky, and didn’t help us with the other two,” I stated. “How did you know to come to our aid?”
“Lord Aurexian.”
I nodded. “Of course. Thank you. I’d — we’d be dead without your help.”
“It’s what family is for,” Boutros said.
“Now, Stable Master Fenwick,” Ang said. “You had news for us?”
“Yes, sir.” Fenwick shifted in his chair, and his voice shook a little. “The body that washed up this morning, Boutros identified as one of the attacking Riders. He was dressed in seafarer garb.”
“Dragon shit,” Gahunia swore. “Seafarers don’t ride dragons.”
“There’s nothing to say they couldn’t, though,” Jimny said.
“We know Gultima is the only continent on the world, but there could be islands in the seas that we haven’t charted, don’t know about.
The purples are from islands in the middle of Ocean Vast. Maybe they learned to catch and domesticate dragons there. ”
“It’s more than that,” I said. “One of the things I saw in Rhastac was uncensored newssheets. They were reporting attacks that I know never happened. There was even a report of a seafarer base on Seven Rise Island.”
“But we know there isn’t one,” Jimny stated.
“Doesn’t matter,” Gahunia said. “It only matters that people believe that dragon shit.”
“Why though?” Jimny asked
Fenwick reached out and took his hand. “I love how you’re still so innocent.”
“Propaganda,” Boutros stated. “As long as the masses think we’re winning a war against the seafarers, or at least holding the line, they’ll support the administration, the Church.”
“And it gets worse.” Fenwick swallowed hard, unable to look at us, so he stared at the tabletop.
“The body…” He shook his head, then pushed back his hair.
“By the Gods, I can’t believe I’m going to say this.
I know him. He’s a Tidemaster. A fully trained and appointed officer.
He was a Harbour Sergeant last I knew him. ”
“No.” Gahunia said. “No. That’s dragon shit. No Tidemaster would defect to the seafarers. No. It wouldn’t happen.”
“What makes you sure it’s defection?”
The whole table was staring at me like I’d lost my mind.
I dragged in a deep breath and let it all out.
“And anyone can ride a dragon if the dragon is willing, so the riders don’t have to be trained.
But here’s the thing. I’ve learned a lot while I was away.
And I can’t say I liked much of it. I believe I was attacked because of what I’ve learned. Because of what I’m about to tell you.”
I looked at my friends, and I could see the clouds gathering over their features. The concerns. Once they knew, there would be no going back.
I sat there and told them. I told them everything I knew and suspected. The suspicions Sky Commander Llwydadain had revealed to me. And the potential consequences if those suspicions proved true.
“No,” Fenwick reacted when I finished. “Look I can accept that the newssheets are full of propaganda instead of actual news. But to think the Seafarers are all military personnel, run by someone from our own military leadership?” He shook his head. “No. Tiernan would flay such a person alive.”
“Unless it is Tiernan,” Jimny suggested.
“I don’t believe it can be,” I said. “Llwydadain has worked closely with Tiernan for years. He’d know.” I reconsidered, just in case. “No, he’d know. I don’t know who it is, but it can’t be Tiernan.”
“I don’t want any of that to be true,” Boutros.
“Me either,” Gahunia said. “So why do I believe it so completely.”
“Because it’s so plausible,” Jimny said.
Fenwick signed, slumping down in his chair. “I don’t want it to be true, but I suspect it is. It makes sense of so many of the things we haven’t otherwise been able to make sense of.”
“Except why we all got stationed here,” Gahunia said.
“I think—” I said, “-Well, I know for me and Fin, it was because we saw something we weren’t supposed to see and we spoke about it, the same is true for you, Boutros.”
“What did you see?” Jimny asked looking between the two of us.
I glanced at Boutros. He gave a short nod. “A silver dragon.”
Gahunia, Jimny and Fenwick all sat back in their seats, staring loose jawed at me.
“Dragon shit.”
“But they don’t…”
“Wow.”
Three whispered overlapping responses.
“There’s one more thing you need to know. While I was in Ashland, I think someone tried to poison me.”
“What?” Ang sat straighter.
I explained what had happened.
“Why would Zemich poison you?”
“I don’t know for sure it was Zemich. Could have been someone in the kitchens, or someone serving.
As for why, well, if Llwydadain has suspicions, it’s likely someone has suspicions against Llwydadain.
If they thought I was part of his faction…
” I shrugged. I didn’t know. I looked at Ang.
“Have you heard from Flight Sergeant Robb since I left?”
He shook his head. “No. Should I have?”
My guts sank. “I don’t know, but that you haven’t is worrying. I didn’t see her in Ashland Harbour and most of that delivery to Llwydadain was in fact from her, not Zemich. So I’m going to want to check that she’s all right.”
“One of us will do that,” Gahunia assured me.
Boutros was nodding. “Then, to summarise, are we saying that there is a mass campaign of propaganda about seafarer activity designed to keep the masses quiet?”
“I think so,” I said.
“And further that there is a possibility of a connection between seafarers and Tidewardens?” he asked.
“Not just tidewardens,” Jimny said. “All military services.”
“Unlikely, but possible,” Ang allowed.
“So where does the silver dragon come into all this?” Jimny asked.
“By the Gods, I’d love to see that.” Fenwick being wistful was new.
“That I really don’t know,” I answered Jimny. “Llwydadain didn’t have an answer when I asked about it.”
“So what do we do now?” Gahunia said. “Should the rest of the Fortress be told?”
“No,” Ang said. “These are suspicions only. Clearly Llwydadain doesn’t have any solid proof. Yet. No, for now, we keep this between ourselves. We’ll watch and wait, and if something comes to light, we’ll know who to notify.”
“Not Zemick,” Fenwick snarled, his face red. “Never liked that rodding—”
Jimny cut him off with a hand over his. “Now, husband mine, don’t go giving yourself a heart attack over it. I want you around with me to fight the rod when necessary.”
Fenwick smiled softly at the younger man. “Yes, dear.”
“Which reminds me,” Ang said. “There’s one more question.” He looked at me. Very seriously. “Are you going to marry me?”