Chapter 16 #2
“That’s useful.” Syla pointed at the tray, then dared take another cookie, wondering if Celena would swat her if she got too greedy.
“I didn’t want to leave home with the kids and lose a day’s pay or— how many days do you think this will take?
But your Captain Vonla was insistent. I think she saw someone lurking outside of the brothel and was worried they’d seen us talking.
I’m not sure. Do you think my children will be all right? ”
“Nobody should want to harm them. And I’ll make sure you’re paid for what you lost.”
“Oh, you don’t need to do that, Your Majesty. I’m not doing anything except eating the food and trying to stay out of the way. I didn’t mean to whine.”
“Maybe you can help the cook if you feel you need to do more.” Syla chomped on the second dragon dropping, then joined Teyla at the railing.
Her cousin was alternately looking pensively toward the volcano and running her finger down a page of a book. It looked like one of the titles that Aunt Tibby had been dragging along with information on artifacts made by the gods.
“I have a bad feeling about that.” Teyla pointed toward the clouds.
But Syla spotted a dinghy rowing toward them from one of the original ships from Bogberry Island.
Was that Lord Ravoran standing among the rowers?
She groaned. She didn’t want to interact with him until after they’d successfully activated the shielder for his island.
Even then, he probably wouldn’t be a delightful conversationalist—not with her.
Not after his island had endured so much destruction with winter storehouses raided and the lands over-hunted, as Wreylith had said.
People had died there too. Far too many people.
“I have bad feelings too,” Syla said. “Trust me.”
“I would think you’d have an especially bad feeling after that.” Teyla shifted her pointing finger toward the weapons platform.
After being hurled away from it by the lightning strike, Syla was surprised the marble wasn’t cracked and charred black.
“I’m trying to maintain an optimistic outlook to counter the lack of optimism in those around me.
” Syla remembered Fel and Tibby discussing her naiveté as they’d walked away, but when Ravoran climbed aboard, already glowering at her, she decided the words applied to almost everyone around her.
Vorik hadn’t been gone even a day, and she already missed his support.
“I’ve found a few passages about strange weather phenomena in this book.” Teyla tapped the pages.
“A book on magical artifacts discusses the weather?”
“There’s a chapter on objects where the power of dragons was funneled into the making.
There’s also a chapter discussing the power of the gods.
” Teyla looked at her with significance, then flipped to a section in the back.
“This page has a snippet about how, when the Kingdom was first being established and the gods still walked among men, the storm god, who had, until that point, been busy in his laboratories, realized that the other gods were a threat to his beloved creations. He sometimes hindered his fellow deities in their efforts to protect mankind from them. He wanted to protect his creations.”
Syla eyed the dark clouds and the shadows they cast. Out over the sea, the sun was sinking below the horizon, the blue of the sky deepening everywhere but around Harvest Island.
“Do you think that’s a hindrance?” Syla waved toward the cloud-shrouded volcano.
“I think that’s a big hindrance.”
“What exactly do you believe the dragons did?” Syla pointed at the text. “I know they’re powerful, and in the early days, they reputedly changed the courses of rivers and struck down the tops of mountains, but I always assumed most of their magic involved pure force. This is… weird.”
“It feels more like the work of a god than a dragon, doesn’t it? Dragons can’t hurl lightning bolts.”
“You think… a god is present in the world?” A few times along the way, Syla had wondered if the moon god or another benevolent deity was watching over her, but it had seemed arrogant and self-centered to believe they would concern themselves with her, even if they had returned to the world in some manner.
“If one is, we both know which one would create something like that.” Teyla glanced at the clouds. “Maybe the storm god was irked with us for tearing up his laboratory.”
“All we did was take that orb. The dragons and those giant security bugs were what did most of the damage.”
“You did use the weapons platform to blow up the magical cannon-things shooting from the walls.”
“That was self-defense.”
“Yes, but you can’t claim you didn’t do any damage. Maybe the storm god saw it and is holding a grudge.”
That was an alarming thought. Syla rested a hand over her heart, feeling more grateful than ever that the lightning bolt hadn’t struck her directly. It could have slain her instantly.
“It might just be that the dragons got together on the volcano,” Teyla said, “and collectively had the ability to call out to their maker, not that the storm god was hovering about, watching his centuries-abandoned laboratory. One would think gods have more important things to do with their time.”
“Quite,” Syla murmured. “But if that happened, now that he’s awake…
Well, he never had any love for humans. He made all those creatures that like to gleefully kill and even eat us.
” The memory of wyverns scavenging for food among the dead in the castle courtyard would haunt Syla forever.
“And he might be holding a grudge because the other gods helped humanity by making the shielders.”
“He might not be pleased we’re replacing one that was damaged.” Teyla gave her another pointed look.
Syla gripped the railing. “Maybe I shouldn’t have sent Fel and Tibby in alone.”
She hadn’t wanted more people than necessary to learn of the chamber’s location, and Wreylith couldn’t have carried more, regardless, but she shifted uneasily, again worrying that she’d made a mistake.
She should have at least sent some of the fleet soldiers in on foot afterward so they would be in the area if something happened to Fel and Tibby.
Of course, that would have meant more people in the area to be hurt or killed if something catastrophic happened, such as if lightning bolts started raining down and slaying anyone near the volcano.
“Maybe,” Syla said, “I should—”
“I will speak to Syla Moonmark,” Ravoran growled from ten or twelve feet away.
Captain Vonla had appeared to deter him, lifting a hand toward his chest, her other hand resting on her sword hilt.
Ravoran didn’t look as furious as when Syla had last spoken to him, before Tibby had made a new shielder, but his face also didn’t beam with happiness.
Further, he was armed, a mace and a long dagger belted at his waist.
“It’s Queen Syla Moonmark,” Vonla said, “And she’s in a meeting.”
Syla was starting to like that woman.
“Not untrue,” Teyla murmured.
“She’s reading a book with her cousin,” Ravoran said, “and Lord Fograth has taken over the throne, so she’s not the queen of anything anymore.”
Vonla raised her chin. “She is the rightful heir, and she will retake the throne as soon as she’s not busy defending the Kingdom.”
Syla sighed and lifted a hand, though she would have preferred to remain in a meeting, even if the subject matter was dark. “Let him come over, please, Captain.”
As Ravoran approached, Syla cast another worried look at the volcano. Fel hadn’t fired his flare yet, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d sent Tibby and Fel off into danger.
Wreylith? Syla called telepathically. Is there any trouble?
I am being rained on, the wind is gusting, and the dark clouds keep crackling with lightning.
Is there any trouble that’s a concern to Fel and Tibby?
Some time has passed since they disappeared into a cave that is too small for me to enter. I can sense your moon-marked relative. She has not moved from her position recently.
She must be affixing the shielder to its mount then. All right, thank you for the update. If there’s any trouble… come get me, please.
I could come get you now so that you could enjoy the rain and wind.
I might prefer that to speaking with the island lord who’s glaring at me.
Syla made herself smile at Ravoran. “Greetings, Lord. You came over here with urgency. Are you in need of healing?”
“I’m in need of knowing what, by all the stars in the sky, is happening to my island?” Ravoran thrust his hand toward the cloud-smothered volcano.
Syla blinked. Was that what he’d come over here about? He thought she knew?
“I’m not sure, Ravoran, but I’ve sent a team in with the new shielder. Hopefully, once that’s in place and there’s a barrier around Harvest Island, the sky will return to normal.”
“How is a barrier going to make those clouds go away? I saw one shoot lightning out and almost kill you.” Ravoran sounded more irritated that the weather phenomenon existed than that she’d almost died.
“Yes, that distressed me as well. I think—”
“What I think is that you’ve been pissing off dragons left and right with that contraption, and they decided to take revenge.
On my island. They set that… that into motion, whatever it is, and now they’ve left it to escalate into who knows what.
The volcano is probably going to erupt and kill us all. ”
“That particular volcano has been dormant for thousands of years.” Teyla held up a book, though it had nothing to do with geology. “It shouldn’t erupt.”
“I’m sure it can easily erupt,” Ravoran said, “in a world full of dragons and magic. Dragons whom our youthful would-be queen has irritated into acting.”
“They invaded your island and killed your people and decimated your crops,” Syla said. “I didn’t think irritating them—or killing them outright—would offend you.”
“If there are repercussions for that, it offends me. And my island wouldn’t have suffered all the rest if you hadn’t stolen our shielder.”