Chapter 12 #2
Syla reacted, ducking low with speed that startled her, almost making her tumble off the platform, but she managed to pull Tibby down with her.
Another arrow zipped between the posts, another projectile that had been meant to slay Syla.
Tibby stumbled against her, and this time Syla couldn’t keep her balance.
She fell off the platform and hit the deck, glimpsing the black dragon flying low overhead as she did.
Jhiton looked down at her without expression.
That bastard wanted her dead, not kidnapped. As clangs and booms and roars filled the air all around, Syla pushed herself to her feet, almost as afraid of being trampled as shot.
“Get under the platform!” Tibby yelled to her. Wisely, she’d already done so.
Syla shook her head, intending to climb back on to keep launching weapons, but she hesitated. Vorik had fought aside several men and faced Fel now.
She yelled an inarticulate garble, half-warning, half threat. If Vorik killed her bodyguard…
But he was forced to spin and duck as an archer standing on top of the wheelhouse almost took him out. The arrow sped over his head, and Fel jerked his mace up as he had to dodge. The projectile grazed his shoulder, then clipped a marble post and sped away.
Brace yourself, Wreylith warned as Syla started to climb back onto the platform.
Guilt blasted her because she’d forgotten that her dragon ally had been under attack. A shadow crossed the sun, and Syla looked up. With blood dripping from gouges in her flank and teeth marks in her tail, Wreylith plucked up Syla, sweeping her from the ship and into the air.
“Wait, I have to—” Syla started, but fire blasted the spot where she’d been.
Two dragons had dived down from the opposite side of the ship, and one poured flames onto the weapons platform.
“Aunt Tibby!” Syla cried as Wreylith carried her away from the ship.
Vorik and the men defending the platform scattered. One Royal Protector dropped to the deck, rolling to put out fire burning the back of his uniform. Vorik gaped at Syla being carried away.
The pair of dragons wheeled to attack again—though fire burned on the ship, the marble weapons platform stood unscathed—but they pulled up abruptly. Sparks lit the air all around one of them as it bounced off something. The barrier. The Stormslicer had sailed through it.
“Get him!” Hixun called.
Vorik was still fighting, defending himself from the men all about him, but he’d lost the determined set of his jaw.
The weapons platform still stood. In the air, dangling from Wreylith’s talons, Syla could see the top of it and didn’t think the explosion had damaged it. Further, she was out of Vorik’s reach.
Probably seeing no reason to stay, Vorik parried a few more attacks as he backed toward the railing, then spun and leaped over it and into the sea.
“What happened to Agrevlari and the other dragons after you? And where are you taking me?” Syla saw Jhiton’s black dragon still flying, dodging cannonballs as its rider tracked her.
I do not have a destination in mind. I sought only to retrieve you from incineration.
“That’s always appreciated. Thank you.”
Because he had many allies, I did not get a chance to de-horn Agrevlari. I did bite him on the back of the neck.
I can’t believe he attacked you.
He was faster and stronger than I expected based on his singing and overall goofiness. I evaded two of his allies, but he was the one who raked my side with his talons.
Was her telepathic tone the slightest bit admiring?
Maybe that was Syla’s imagination, but Wreylith didn’t sound as angry as Syla would have expected after having a dragon she’d mated with turn on her.
Admittedly, that had been magical-cactus-flower-induced mating, but still. Agrevlari sang to her regularly.
His superiors must have given him orders to attack you, Syla said.
Possibly. I believe he felt the pressure of his peers. Also, I did bite him on the neck first.
I suppose that’ll get a rise out of even a goofy dragon.
Quite.
On the ship, Tibby crawled out from underneath the weapons platform and climbed onto it again. The fire hadn’t gotten her; thank the moon god. She peered toward the dragons, but Fel shouted something and pointed toward the water.
Vorik was swimming toward one of the stormer ships.
None of them appeared seaworthy, and the one that had lost its mast listed so far sideways that the crew struggled to keep from sliding off the deck, but the tenacious stormers kept loosing arrows at the Kingdom crewmen, and more than one of their cannons continued to fire.
Syla thought Tibby might aim at one of the ships since, with the dragons beyond the barrier, they were no longer a threat to the fleet, but when she planted her palm against a post, her face resolute, Syla realized what her target was.
Since she still dangled from Wreylith’s talons, the dragon circling while waiting for a suggestion on a destination, Syla couldn’t do anything to stop her aunt.
Vorik was swimming fast, his sword sheathed so he could use both arms, but he had to navigate around wreckage from the ships, and she didn’t think his speed would be great enough.
“Look out!” Syla yelled, but with cannons still booming and dragons roaring their frustrations, he wouldn’t hear her. Trying to use telepathy, she also called, Look out! with her mind.
She feared it was fruitless, since she could only speak telepathically with dragons, and blurted a distressed, “No!” as Tibby fired a single silvery ball.
It sped straight toward Vorik, but he was already diving. He couldn’t have seen the attack coming as he swam away, but had he somehow sensed Syla’s warning? And would it even matter? Or would the magical sphere follow him through water as easily as it did through air and strike its target?
The projectile dove into the waves, and she groaned, certain it would hit him. A silvery flash came from the sea, then a strange bubble rose up, almost as if the water were boiling. Maybe it was.
Had the weapon struck Vorik? Syla worried it had, but he was so capable of avoiding death that she watched, hoping to see him surface, to keep swimming.
Long seconds passed, and she caught herself holding her breath as she searched. Though she spotted a few injured and some perhaps dead men floating on the waves, she didn’t see Vorik come up. Had her aunt succeeded where so many others had failed?
A lump formed in Syla’s throat. She told herself that between the waves, the lingering chaos of the battle, and the awkwardness of searching while dangling from a flying dragon’s talons, she might have missed Vorik. But dread settled into her as she worried he hadn’t survived.
It is not safe out here, Wreylith said. Now that your fleet is out of dragon reach, they will turn all their attention on us.
Do you wish me to take you to your vessel or the city?
Since we are now bonded, I should be able to travel through the barriers with you to your various islands, not just Castle Island.
Oh, yes. We need to check on the palace and see if we can find Lord Oyenar for an update. We may need to drive stormers out of the city, as well.
I do enjoy driving out enemies. Almost as much as I enjoy hunting. Also, I seem to recall that bog bears proliferate on this island. Wreylith flew toward the river mouth. Succulent and delicious bog bears that are nearly extinct on the mainlands.
Did you rescue me to save me from certain death or because you wouldn’t be able to get through the barrier to hunt those bears without me?
Your death would be inconvenient since it would leave nobody capable enough to heal me when I’m wounded.
So, you’d miss me as much as your belly would miss being filled with bog-bear meat? Syla sensed the barrier as they flew toward it, though it was as invisible as the one around Castle Island.
Equally so, I’d think. I—
Wreylith struck the invisible barrier instead of flying through, and she screeched as sparks flew and light flashed. Her back tilted, her wings flapping wildly, and her talons jerked and released Syla.
Startled, Syla barely managed to flatten her hand to her face to keep her spectacles on as she plunged twenty feet. Cold water enveloped her, and she almost swallowed a mouthful when she came up, a wave striking her in the face.
What happened? she blurted telepathically, though it had been obvious.
It seemed Wreylith misremembered the past, or something was different about her bond with Syla than it had been with Queen Erasbella., and the dragon could only fly through the shield on Castle Island.
The barrier kept me from approaching. Wreylith sounded puzzled. I flew through it in the past when I carried your ancestor.
Did Erasbella have to say or do something to allow it?
I do not recall. I will have to sort through my memories. Wreylith tried to fly down to pluck up Syla again, but the current had carried her through the barrier. I cannot retrieve you.
Guess I’m swimming. Syla grimaced, well aware that stormers remained alive on those ships. With her dragon ally unable to help her, she would have to pray that she could make it to the fleet vessels before an archer with a grudge spotted her.