Chapter Thirty-Two
Laurie
I followed Rip to the glass wall, staring out at the bay. In the center of it, half a dozen of the floating barges could be seen at anchor, bobbing gently in the tiny waves.
“Suh!” Rip barked.
“Yes, sire?”
“Get down there. I want the bay cleared of barges, and I want it done ten minutes ago. Move!”
Suh turned to go, but Rip grabbed his aide by the shoulder and propelled him through the glass.
“No time!” he cried as Suh sprouted wings and glided down toward the beach, shouting as he went.
My shout of protest died as I realized Suh was just fine.
“Damn,” Rip said, looking at the pane. “Why have we never turned this into a doorway before? Someone mark that down. After this is over, I want doors and an observation balcony installed out here. It’ll make things much easier.”
I shook my head. “How can you think of things like that right now?”
“Because that’s my job,” he said as another nameless aide rushed up, holding a spear.
Rip took it from the other shifter, wrapping his fingers around its haft almost lovingly. The second he did, the shaft came alive with runes the color of the sea. I took a step back as it thrummed with power I couldn’t explain.
“The Spear of the Heir,” he said, holding it at arm's length. “The second most powerful weapon we possess.”
I was about to ask him what the most powerful was, but before I could, shouts went up from the guards at the edge of the bay.
They shifted into amphibian half-man, half-dragon looking things in the blink of an eye and dove into the water just as a portion of the bay at the opening became infested with moving inky blackness.
“I must go,” Rip said, turning to me. “Stay here. You’ll be safe. Okay? Don’t leave the palace. Promise me!”
“I-I promise,” I said unsteadily, worried. What had I gotten myself into? Rip seemed so calm about it all like it was a normal occurrence.
Was it? Is this the life he leads?
“Thank you,” Rip said, darting in and stealing a kiss that left me short of breath.
Then he stepped up to the broken glass and raised the butt of his spear off the ground. He slammed it down, and in an instant, the human Rip was gone, replaced by a nine-foot-tall dragon-man covered in turquoise scales that nearly matched the glittering waters of the bay beyond.
Wings curled in tight against his back, then spread wide as he flung himself from the third-story window and toward the water below, where the floating crafts were now frantically making their way toward the shore as fast as they could.
A churning whirlpool near the opening between the two arms of the fortress indicated the battle being fought by the guards, and it was toward that maelstrom that Rip flew.
“They’re our birthing barges.”
I turned to see an older dragon approach. She had the wizened look of the truly elderly, one who I was sure had seen it all. Her left leg was missing halfway above the knee, replaced with a metal prosthesis.
“The what?” I asked, keeping my eyes glued to Rip as he dove low over the water until I swore it was scraping his belly, his wings still pumping hard.
“That is where we give birth,” the woman said. “I thought you would want to know.”
I shot her a hard look.
She just smiled and tapped her nose. “Spent some time around humans, I have. Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me.”
“Thank you …”
“Gisele,” the dragon said, sticking out a wrinkled hand. “God-King, but I wish I could be out there.”
“Looks like you’ve done your part,” I observed.
“Our babies are on those barges,” Gisele said with a snarl, curling the fingers of one bony hand into a fist that, in its day, I was sure was filled with power.
“Your babies? You mean women literally give birth out there, in the middle of the ocean?”
“Yes. The Bay of Summoning, it is called, because it is where new life is brought into existence. We give birth in the waters of the Bastion harbor because a sea dragon must be bonded with the water at birth. It gives them a greater tie to, a greater understanding of it. And we need that strength if we hope to continue defending the realm.”
I stared. “You mean my child …”
“Will one day fight in the ancient fight, yes,” Gisele said. “Though they will be extra guarded. The next heir to the princedom must abide by other rules for the good of the clan as a whole.”
“I see,” I said, looking around. I needn’t have bothered. Nobody stood anywhere near us or was paying attention.
In the harbor, Rip shouted a battle cry before folding his wings around him like armor and diving into the water, his spear thrust forward in front of him, leading the way.
Near the shoreline, I saw other dragons rushing for the shallows, many of them shifting as they went, disdaining their human forms for the mer-dragon look that seemed to be most popular.
On land, the look was an odd waddle thanks to the widened and webbed feet, but as soon as they dove beneath the surface, it was clear I was looking at an apex predator. Teeth, claws, even their tail could be a weapon.
Some of the ones who moved slower only went as far as the barges. Many of them had gray hair or injuries. That didn’t stop them from coming to the defense of their homes, however, and as the maelstrom at the harbor entrance grew, my worry heightened.
“I should be doing something,” I said, feeling impotent. “You’re under attack, and here I am, standing around doing nothing.”
“You are doing something,” Gisele said. “You’re protecting the next leader of our clan. That is a vital job to enable continuity. The Tidal Clan absolutely cannot afford a division in the ranks like the other clans have seen. It might be boring, but it is necessary.”
“Perhaps,” I said, shuddering in fear as the body of a mer-dragon floated to the surface, unmoving. Its scales were greener than Rip’s, so it wasn’t him, but still, someone would be missing the warrior once the battle was over.
“No!” a female voice shrieked from below, coming from one of the barges nearing the beach. “Stop. Stop. I—Ahhh. I can feel him.”
“She’s crowning!” another voice shouted.
A male strode up to the barge. “There’s no time! We must get you out of the water and to safety.”
“No!” the woman shrieked. “I’m not leaving!”
I clenched my fists, watching in horror as the maelstrom spilled into the harbor itself, the dragons being beaten back. Dark shapes glided out around the edges, heading for the barges that remained in the water still.
“We must do something!” I hissed. I was no expert on birth, but the sounds coming from the barge, versus the onrushing shapes, told me that the baby would be the slower to arrive of the two.
Gisele shook her head. “There’s nothing we can do. She has made her choice.”
Angrily, the male at the barge, an older one, set himself between the floating raft and the oncoming shapes.
“Come on!” he bellowed, disappearing into the shape of a full dragon as he challenged the nameless enemy.
One of them darted in with blinding speed, jumping from the water and splitting in two as it abruptly doubled itself, tackling the dragon from the side and rolling him over in a spray of claws and tail, the enemy a thing of shadow and darkness and lightning-quick limbs.
The other angled for the barge itself.
“Oh, no,” I whispered, clutching at my chest in horror at what I was about to witness.
Just before it struck the barge, a bolt of lightning shot across from the mouth of the bay, striking the enemy and hurling it from the sea with a mighty shout that hurt my ears as Rip burst from the seas, unfurling his wings for a moment before turning over and diving back down to save the dragon.
Even from where I stood, murder was visible in his yellow eyes.
He impaled one of them, then whipped the spear up and around, slicing it in half, before bringing the head of his weapon down on the other creature and burying it deep in the thing's head.
Wasting no time, he dove back under the water and shot out like a torpedo into the bay. Wherever he went, black corpses floated to the surface before quickly decomposing into an inky liquid that dissipated in the water.
Other dragons were arriving at the shores, shifting as they went before diving into the water and moving to aid their fellows. Slowly but surely, the attack was pushed back and eventually bottled up at the mouth of the bay.
“Wow,” I whispered. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”
The ferocity of the dragons, young and old, left me both awed and scared.
“And most of them would prefer you didn’t,” Gisele said.
“But it is a way of life with us. Our younger years are spent fighting in the trenches of the sea, a never-ending war. It brings out the worst in us. A feral beast that we only learn to tame later in life when we’re told we are no longer good enough to lead the fight out there.
It is not an easy lesson and one that many of us lose. ”
“I’m sorry,” I said, unsure what else to say as I digested her words. “It sounds … horrible.”
“It is,” she agreed. “And amazing. It brings out the best in each of us and binds us tighter than any other clan could ever be. But it comes at a cost.”
I nodded.
“Be gentle with him today,” Gisele said. “He will be hurting and will need you. It will ask a lot of you.”
“How?” I asked, but she only shook her head.
I turned to stare out at the mouth of the bay. Rip was still alive, but what would he be like when he came home?
For the first time, I wondered if I was strong enough to live that life or if it would tear us apart.