Chapter Thirty-Six
Rip
Three long days later, I finally dragged myself back into the Bay of Summoning, exhausted, hurting, and more than a little worried.
Suh was waiting for me on the Bastion walls as I passed between the tips and into the bay itself, the sight of the birthing barges lifting my spirits. It was good to see that life continued as normal. For now.
“Sir,” Suh said, gliding into a gentle landing on the surface as I floated in full dragon form, tail slowly sculling behind me for propulsion. “It’s good to have you back.”
“I wish I could say it’s good to be back, Suh,” I said tiredly as I searched the windows of the fortress, looking for a familiar figure.
I didn’t find it.
“Why’s that?” Suh asked, taken aback by my blunt tone.
“The enemy are moving,” I said. “Massing. It’s like they can tell that the Trident of the Sea is missing in action—I could almost swear it. They’ve been probing everywhere. All coasts.”
“We got the reports,” Suh said.
“Damn the reports,” I growled. “I was there for most of them. All over. Probing in force, but unlike before, they didn’t continue once we got organized and their progress stopped. They just … melted away, back into the sea. Without taking the high losses that we’re used to them incurring.”
“What does it mean?”
“It means they’re conserving their strength,” I said quietly. “The bigger question is for what?”
Suh pondered that. “Could they be under attack? From elsewhere in their realm?”
I considered his suggestion. “We’ll never know, but I suspect the answer to that is no,” I said at last, still scanning the windows.
Where was she?
“Why do you say that?”
“If they were under attack, why bother attacking us? There are two scenarios there. One, they’re fighting a losing battle or a stalemate.
If that’s the case, why are they wasting bodies on us?
They should stop attacking us and focus fully on that.
If they’re under attack and winning, then it’s not a threat, and they still feel confident enough to attack us, which means they’re much stronger than we ever thought. ”
“So, what is it, then?” Suh asked. “They’re massing for an attack on us?”
“I fear that’s the case,” I said tiredly. “But I just don’t know where.”
“Probably here, don’t you think?” Suh said with a wave at the Bastion and the bustling town beyond it.
“And if it’s not? And we pull bodies to reinforce here, and they hit us elsewhere? We’d never be able to reinforce before they reached land.”
Suh was quiet. “What do we do?”
I swung my head around on the long dragon neck to smile at him as wryly as a dragon snout could. “When I figure it out, I’ll tell you, how’s that?”
“Sounds good, sir,” Suh said, formality returning.
It unnerved me to note the utter trust in his voice. Suh didn’t doubt that I would not only figure out what to do but that I would do it right. That sort of blind faith wasn’t something I was prepared for, and I stopped swimming for a moment to process it.
When had I gone from a comrade of Suh, as I had been for years growing up, to his leader?
“Everything okay, sir?” Suh asked, floating to a stop next to me.
I shook myself out of the daze, spraying water everywhere. “Where is she, Suh?” I asked, changing the topic entirely. “Where’s Laurie?”
“That’s what I came out here to tell you,” Suh said awkwardly.
My head snapped around, pinning him to the spot with a twin-eyed dragon-orbed stare. “You should have said this first. Where is she, and what happened?”
“I … don’t know what happened,” Suh said. “I wasn’t there. But Gisele was.”
“And where is she?” I thundered, flat out of patience.
“She’s back on Earth,” Suh said unhappily. “Gisele took her. She was sick. Violently.”
“Sick? How?”
“Her stomach,” Suh said. “I don’t know any more, sir. I’m sorry.”
“Man the forts, double the guard until I return,” I said, easing away from Suh. “Do whatever you have to do.”
“You’re going to Earth now?” Suh asked as I spread my wings.
“Absolutely! I must.”
And not just for Laurie, though I wish I could say it were so.
Whatever else Suh said, it was lost in the flap of my wings as I surged forward across the bay, gaining speed before lifting into the air and winging away toward Mount Drakonus and Earth.
Where I had to find Laurie and bring her back as soon as I could.
I was crazy for her, and there was no doubt in my mind that she was the one for me. Nobody else could replace her. But I had to bring her back and hope she saw the same in me.
We would have to go before the God-King and gain his blessing as a mated couple, soon.
Because time was running out for me to take up the Trident of the Seas and protect my people.