Chapter 45
“Stay inside, Zaira.” Thane dashes after Rynthea before I can respond.
In a flash, he’s out of the cabin and on the deck, while Algar shifts past him, stumbling his way inside with Zephra flying close behind him. Something hits the boat again, and I stumble sideways until my shoulder slams into the wall.
“What’s out there?” I shriek as Algar grips a ledge.
“A fucking water dragon, that’s what! Where is their storage? The cupboards! Something!” Algar hustles across the room to reach the kitchen and immediately starts searching the cupboards.
Panicked, I ask, “What are you doing?”
He doesn’t answer me, just keeps rifling through the cupboards.
I rush to the door and take a few steps out on the deck…and what I see sends a chilling spiral of fear through my body.
Ahead of us, towering above the ship, is indeed a dragon.
Its teeth are sharp and pointed, its eyes glowing a vicious blue.
Gills bracket either side of its head, and its ridged belly is a pale gray.
The rest of it is the color of ice, as if its skin is designed to camouflage with the water. That seems the most terrifying of all.
Not the fangs.
Not its intense eyes.
The camouflage.
The thought of such a massive beast swimming close to the shores without a single person knowing…
I shudder.
“Bring out the cannons!” Solyen shouts from a distance. He stands on the other side of the deck with a machete in hand. Like a spider, Thane climbs the ladder to the crow’s nest while Rynthea stands guard next to Solyen, gripping the handle of her scythesword and preparing for attack.
When Thane makes it to the crow’s nest, he sheathes one of his swords. In the palm of that free hand, he creates a ball of gold light. The dragon notices him and snarls, opening its mouth wider and blowing a blue stream in his direction.
Thane jumps and lands on the deck with a tuck and a roll before the water can reach him. He’s damn lucky, too, because the crow’s nest now sizzles, as if the liquid is made of acid.
“Zaira, get back inside!” Thane hollers when he catches sight of me.
I run back to the door, but I hear a wild roar and turn to see the dragon launching its head forward, ready to spout another stream of venomous water. When it does, Thane throws up his hands and deflects it with a broad gold shield that sparks from the impact.
The dragon, clearly angry, sinks below the waterline and slams its body into the ship again.
Rynthea falls, Thane lurches to the side, and I spot Conred and two other members of Solyen’s crew trying to secure the rolling cannons.
This is my cue to really get my ass back into the cabin, so I dash inside.
Slamming the door behind me, I spot Algar standing in a storage closet near the galley. Various junk spills out around his feet as his hunched figure digs through it in a frenzy.
I notice a glimpse of pink, presumably the tip of Zephra’s wing, poking out from under a pillow on one of the beds. She must be even more terrified than me, considering her size.
“Algar, what the shadows are you doing?” I ask, spying the basket of fish on the counter.
“I learned about those,” he says in a hurry, dropping to his knees and searching through the lower half of the cabinets.
“Water dragons. My father studied the larger sea creatures—the rare kind—and his favorite were the water dragons. Don’t ask me why.
He was mental. That’s clearly where I get it from. ”
“Okay?” I say, puzzled, as he digs deeper into the cabinet. He curses under his breath, stands up, and rushes to the next cabinet.
“Water dragons only attack when they feel their nest is being threatened,” he goes on.
“This dragon is a mother. I can tell by the horns. Male dragons have four, females have two. Trust me, we don’t want to go up against an angry daddy dragon.
Anyway, in order for this mother to back off and to prove to her that we aren’t here to tamper with her sea dragon babies, eggs, or whatever, we have to send her a signal of peace. ”
“Okay.” I run my tongue over my lips nervously. “And how do we do that?”
“Yes!” It’s like he’s struck alvanite. Algar backs out of the cabinet with a bucket of paint in one of his hands. “Fuck yes! I knew they’d have paint around here somewhere.”
“Algar, how do we give it the signal?” I ask again, trying to remain calm.
“What’s the way to a woman’s heart?” he asks, grabbing a paint brush out of the storage closet, too.
Pearls? Gold? Unconditional love?
“Love?”
“No. Food.” He rushes to the door with the basket of fish and paint supplies.
Algar hobbles his way outside, and I stand in the frame of the open door, watching as he shouts Thane’s name.
The dragon bumps the boat again, this time sending dishes flying out of the open cupboards and crashing to the floor.
I yelp as I hold on to the rail by the door.
Algar says something to Thane, then repeats it to Rynthea and Solyen.
“Are you mad?” Solyen yells.
“Trust me, it will work!” Algar yells back. “Just don’t fire the cannons! You’ll only piss her off more!”
Solyen isn’t pleased. Regardless, he throws up a hand to halt his crew members, who obediently stop loading the cannons. Algar hustles to the center of the deck with the items he’s taken from the cupboards.
He removes the lid from the paint can and sloshes the brush into it. Thick silver paint drips from the bristles. He goes to work immediately, stumbling a few times as the boat rocks.
He creates a circle with a hastily drawn wave inside it. It’s sloppy work, but Algar apparently deems it acceptable because he stands and mutters to himself while nodding in approval.
The dragon breaches the water again, and her massive head hovers above the ship. Water drips in streams from her chin. Her mouth opens wide, ready to spew more acid-venom.
“Algar, hurry up!” Rynthea shouts.
The dragon’s nostrils flare, liquid accumulating in the back of her throat. Thane raises his gold-lit hands, ready to deflect it with another shield, while Rynthea stares up in a defensive stance, scythesword still locked in hand.
“Hey!” Algar calls, waving his hands in the air.
The dragon snarls and brings her head down so that she’s eye-to-eye with Algar. Her glowing blue eyes swirl like the tidal pools on Ember Coast, water trickling through her shimmering scales.
“That’s right! Right here!” Algar tries to make himself as large as possible.
“We don’t want to hurt you!” He gestures to the symbol he painted on the deck.
“We aren’t here to hurt you or your family!
This is our signal of peace! We yield to you!
All we want is to pass!” He kicks the basket of fish forward.
The dragon finally clamps her mouth shut. She looks from Algar to the painting to the fish and then back to Algar. Her head tips to the right as a low croak sounds in her throat. Blood rushes to my ears as I hold my breath, waiting to see what the water dragon does next.
She blinks at Algar, observing the painting that is smearing around the edges, and the full basket of fish. Then she stretches her mouth open and aims directly for him.
I scream, but he just stands there. That’s when I realize she’s not going for him. She’s aiming for the fish. She takes the entire basket into her mouth, swallows without chewing, then chuffs as she glares at him, expecting more.
Algar puffs out a breath as he approaches her. He drops to his knees before he presses his hands to her muzzle.
I hold my breath.
“Passage…please?” he requests in a trembling voice.
A satisfied rumble sounds in the dragon’s throat as she blinks, eyes swiveling to look at everyone on board. Then she pulls her head away with another chuff and backs away from the ship. With one last glimpse at us, she slinks away and disappears beneath the waves.
We all collectively release a breath, standing in disbelief as we stare at the patch of ocean where she descended, waiting to see if she’ll return.
After another calm moment, Thane turns to Algar and says, “What just happened? Where did it go?”
“Probably back to her nest,” Algar says, panting. “Fuck, that was scary,” he wheezes. “Almost pissed on myself.”
“Is it coming back?” Thane asks.
“I doubt it. Back in the day, mortals used to share symbols of peace with water dragons when they voyaged,” Algar explains.
“These symbols helped them get past the water dragons if they encountered them. So she recognized my horribly painted symbol of peace, ate the fish as an offering, and she let me place my hands on her.” He smiles, seeming proud of that.
“They are exceptionally smart, but when it comes to their territory, they attack first and assess later. She thought we were intruding, and that’s why she was about to destroy the ship.
We had to prove to her that we weren’t bringing any trouble. ”
“So let me get this straight.” Solyen steps forward with a hand raised. “Had she not watched you make a fool of yourself, and if she hadn’t eaten half of our supply of fish, my sweet Emellie would be sinking to the bottom of the ocean right now?”
“That’s correct,” he replies. “Better for us to be a little hungry than drowning or getting hit with her venom, right?”
Solyen presses a palm to his head. “Orvena, send love. I need another drink,” he grumbles. “Find this man a shirt that doesn’t stink like fish and scrub that paint off my deck! We’ll be passing The Void soon, and everyone needs to get their asses in the cabin.”
“For once, Algar saves the day,” Rynthea says when she meets up with him. She claps him on the shoulder and smiles. “Proud of you.”
Algar winks at her. “See? A charmer thief comes in handy every once in a while.”