Cold Hearted Son of a Witch (Dragoneers Saga) Read online

  “Look,” Zahrellion pointed. Rikky saw the flash, flash, flash of a mirrored lantern shuttering open and closed.

  “The birds made it, then,” he observed the obvious. Had the message-bearing swifter hawks not arrived, there would be no welcome for the dragons. If the seamen followed the king’s commands the Dragoneers would be able to land, rest, and resupply completely unmolested. If not, Zahrellion warned that it could get messy.

  It had gotten messy on Gull’s Reach. The overpopulated islanders all wanted to see the dragons and Dragoneers who had saved Mainsted from the Goblin King. To them it was a story told about another place. The Mainland, to most of them, was mysterious, fraught with terror and wonders. About half the people they saw on the islands had dark kaffee-colored skin, reminding Rikky of Stick, who hadn’t been seen since they all fled Three Forks in the middle of a troll attack.

  Rikky had never been off of the Mainland until now, but Zahrellion had delivered a few messages to Gull’s Reach for the Crown. She kept Rikky from wondering too much by answering his myriad questions as best she could. He didn’t understand why there were so few of the darker-skinned people on the Mainland.

  They adjusted well to the island life, she told him. They didn’t want to move on. They say that very few people in the realm are true ebon, but the ones that are live on Gull’s Reach and Freeman’s Reach. A lot of the Outlanders are ebon, as were most of the folk we saw. True ebons are as dark as pitch and as fit as stallions.

  Ranger Bushlong might have been a real ebon, Rikky said, remembering meeting the man once in Crag. He was as dark as coal and could run with the deer.

  Herald had told them that the Kingsman who supervised the Fisherman’s Island Settlement was a timid, unfavorite cousin of King Blanchard’s. He said that Commander De Flean might try to lick their boots, but doubted he or his men would interfere with them otherwise.

  Rikky decided that he wouldn’t mind some intrusion into their business. The thought of eating a fresh, hot meal was almost enough to take his mind off his discomfort. Thankfully, Silva shot forth on a burst of reserved energy and was soon back-flapping them down on a stretch of beach near a stack of crates and a water keg. Rikky slid off of his dragon and nearly broke his wooden peg-leg when it jammed into the sand. He struggled for a moment, but then unlaced his britches and answered nature’s dire urging, leaning over sideways, with his leg still stuck.

  The relief allowed him to relax enough to pull his peg loose, but didn’t make moving around on the soft surface any easier. “Did you see any people?” he asked his dragon. He spoke out loud, even though he didn’t have to.

  Silva responded into his mind, Yesss, they are watching us from the ridge. Shall I scare them away?

  Rikky scanned the dusky hillside, but saw nothing.

  Do not pay them any mind, Zahrellion commanded into the ethereal. There should be good, fresh food in those crates, and fresh water in the keg. We sleep on the beach tonight and tomorrow, but that’s it. We have to beat the moon cycle.

  I want to wash this film of itchy salt from my skin, Rikky said. Crystal came thumping down then, her huge wings blowing gusts of frigid sand across the beach.

  Zahrellion slid from her dragon and hit the sand smoothly in mid stride. After we fill our skins we can take turns washing in the barrel.

  This satisfied Rikky and he quickly found some fruit and bread in the crates that made him feel even better about things. He felt so good that it didn’t bother him at all when Zahrellion buried her face in her hands and confessed keeping information from him. After hearing about the leaping unicorn-serpent and its venomous spike, he was more curious than anything. If it attacked them, he decided he would, at the very least, put an arrow in its eye.

  You could have told me, Zah, Rikky said. I can keep a secret.

  Not from Jenka you can’t, she retorted.

  He didn’t bother to argue.

  They and the dragons slept soundly. Rikky woke once, to Silva’s mental urging, early in the morning. He found a filthy young woman with a basket fidgeting nervously at the edge of the windblown trees that lined the backside of the beach. He had to use his bow case to get standing, but once he was up he hobbled over to her, hoping beyond hope that there was meat in the basket.

  “So you’re a Dragoneer?” she asked. She sounded disappointed. She tipped her toes and looked over him at the dark mounds of scale-covered wyrm behind.

  “I am,” he took the basket and was pleased by the weight of it. A peek under the napkin revealed a savory-smelling sausage loaf.

  “Go on,” she urged him. “Eat it up.”

  Rikky shouldered the handle and tore into the food.

  The girl waited until he swallowed. “What are you after way out here?”

  “We’re on a quest of great importance,” Rikky said.

  “You be getting back to where you came from,” Zahrellion told the girl sharply.

  The sight of Zah’s sleep-wild white hair, lavender eyes, and tattoo-covered scowl sent the young woman scrambling back into the trees. “Save me some of that, and don’t bother with the islanders anymore, Rikky. I’m going back to sleep.”

  “Yes, mother,” Rikky smarted back. He wondered how his mother was doing. Unlike many people, she’d made it to the keep from Crag.

  “If I was your mother I would scrub behind your ears with grit,” Zah replied slowly, her words dying into a long yawn. Within minutes she was back in her roll, asleep again. Rikky satisfied his hunger from the well-cooked fare in the basket and curled up next to Silva.

  It was later that evening when they woke and took turns washing in the barrel. Then they loaded all they could from the crates and started east toward the serpent’s island.

  They flew for two days and nights.

  ***

  Zahrellion was pleased to see that they were almost two days to the fore of the coming full moon. The island they were seeking was ahead and below, looking just like Linux had drawn it on the map she’d studied. Her one-time mentor might be a buffoon for soul-stepping the king, but he was meticulous down to the shoreline details he’d made. According to the explorers, there were caves along the outer rim. Linux had marked them. The problem was, a storm was brewing, and it was coming slowly toward them. Zah hoped to examine the caves before darkness or the weather overtook them. They had time, she decided, a long evening at least, to try to find shelter.

  They searched for a good while, finding that most of the caves were full of fat, chirping sea monkeys or large, long-beaked dactyls. They finally noticed a low-opening cave, just as the storm hit. They learned that it wasn’t empty either. When lightning exploded outside the cave mouth it illuminated the score of black-eyed, saber-fanged wallowers that were crowded on the rocks. Luckily, the man-sized blubbery beasts were terrified of the dragons and kept huddled together.

  Can I eats one of them? Crystal asked Zahrellion.

  Not now, Zah answered. I don’t want to watch you feed.

  The cavern was formed of dark, pocked stone and was perpetually wet from all the mist and spray that came in when the waves crashed outside. It wasn’t an apartment at the castle in Mainsted, but they made the most of it.

  “What if it doesn’t stop raining?” Rikky asked. Zah helped him down from Silva’s back and then started a hot, sizzling blue fire with her druidic magic. The dragons curled into separate resting positions, both with a hungry eye on the frightened wallowers.

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “I mean, what if it’s raining the night the moon is full. What if the moon’s light doesn’t reach the mushrooms?” He shrugged. “How will we know if they are potent enough?”

  “The rain will stop, Rikky,” Zah said, hoping she was right. “Quit worrying about what we can’t control. What we have to do is clear. If the moonlight doesn’t touch the mushrooms, we have to wait for the next full moon.” She tossed him a thick, rectangular envelope wrapped neatly in waxy paper. “It’s fudge. You can have it all.” She
held up an identical package. “I have my own.”

  “Thank you,” Rikky wasted no time savoring the sweet, chocolaty taste of the candy. It was delicious.

  “Rest, Rikky,” Zah told him. “I’ll watch.” She had slept well on Crystal’s back and was now feeling anxious. The dragons were exhausted after so many days of continuous flight with only minimal rest in between. Rikky looked tired too, and filthy, even though he had just bathed two days before.

  Zahrellion chided herself for not making sure he had everything he needed for the journey. He’d brought it all, save for a change of clothes. Boys never think of that kind of thing.

  Surprisingly, the equipment harness Linux had made and fitted to Silva worked well enough. Rikky did have an extra peg-leg, and a narrow version of his wheeled chair, and even a few books, in case they had to stay an extra month, but no extra clothes, save for a wool cloak.

  After seeing the lay of the land they both knew the only place the chair could be used was on the wet, packed sand that created a wide beach inside the sheltering island’s bay -- the beach where the mushrooms would be. Rikky said he wasn’t going to use it.

  The outer-facing terrain was rocky and inhospitable, even before the storm came. It was all steep black crags, with random clumps of stark green vegetation clinging desperately to them. They hadn’t had time to search all of it yet. That left enough room for Zahrellion to hope that they would be able to find a suitable place to hole up if they had to stay a while.

  She woke to find Rikky’s peg-leg tapping on her shoulder. Bright sunlight streamed around him. “The dragons have gone hunting. We slept for a whole night and day.” He was excited and speaking quickly. He’d strung his bow and thrown a quiver over his shoulder. “Tonight is the full moon, Zah. We need to eat and prepare our things.”

  “Put the bow up, Rikky,” Zah sighed. She didn’t remember falling asleep, but a sticky dream of Jenka lingered in the back of her mind, leaving her irritated. “We don’t need to hunt. We have food. You can’t get around in the rocks.”

  “We have meat that I already hunted, if you’d wipe the sleep from your stupid eyes,” Rikky growled. When she looked at what was lumped on a fresh skin by the fire she understood her mistake.

  There on the cavern floor was the fully dressed carcass of some mid-sized goatish-looking creature Rikky had already killed and cleaned while she slept.

  She decided she’d better quit underestimating him. It was hard to think that he lost his leg to hungry goblins and lived to tell about it. She reached into her magical place and retrieved two gourd nuts from the tree that grew there. She tapped a hole in the top of one with her dagger and gave it to Rikky. Then she used her blade to cut a chunk of the meat and roasted it in the hissing blue flames.

  When they were finished eating, they unpacked the lanterns and other items Rikky removed from Silva’s pack. A bundle of arrows with poisoned tips was carefully undone. Rikky looked pleased to see that all of the shafts were the well-crafted ones from Three Forks. He was deadly with them on the ground, but even in flight he was getting good at hitting his intended target.

  “We should fly high over the bay a few times while the sun is in the sky,” said Zahrellion. “I want to get a good look. When I get off of Crystal down there, to get what we came for, I want to have some sense of my surroundings.

  “Good idea,” Rikky agreed.

  The eventless afternoon ended up dragging by. The dragons returned with bellies full of fish. They, too, were eager to explore, but they had to nap away their gluttony first. It ended up being late afternoon before the wyrms carried them over the ridge to look.

  What they saw was as amazing as it was confusing.

  The bay that had been full of water when they approached was now just a flat expanse of barren sand with the decaying remains of an old ship resting in its middle.

  Chapter 5

  “We should go down there and look,” Rikky called out. “Mysterian and the historians would want anything we can get.”

  What if it’s swallowing sand? Zahrellion knew the value of anything they could retrieve from the ship. The ever curious druids of Dou would want to study anything they salvaged as well. Her restrained nature, though, wouldn’t allow her to just rush in.

  Have Crystal freeze the footing before we land, Rikky suggested. If we hurry we can search the ship before the tide comes back in.

  Zah couldn’t argue with the idea, and once again she chided herself for looking down on Rikky. She remembered Jenka telling her that Rikky was the best of Master Kember’s hunters. She urged Crystal lower and the dragon made a slow pass by the ship. The huge white wyrm let loose a spraying jet of glacial breath as she went.

  ***

  In a flash, Silva landed on the frozen sand. Rikky had his dragon ease up close to the ship. It was all rotted and caked in barnacles and moss. He decided that whatever was inside was probably as rotten as the rest of it. What amazed him was the height at which the mast was sticking up into the air. The old iron crow’s nest basket was still in place. It was at least thirty feet above the sand his dragon was standing on, though. It hadn’t been visible at all when they’d flown over that first day. Or maybe they just hadn’t been able to see it amid the rolling waves. The tides were a thing he didn’t comprehend, but a tide that rose thirty feet, he knew, wasn’t normal.

  Rikky noticed a tattered leather satchel hanging from the rail of the crow’s nest, but just then the sand shifted beneath Silva. Rikky was nearly tossed.

  The tide’s coming in fast, Rikky, Zahrellion called to him across the ether.

  Silva leapt into flight just as the first swell came washing over the softening sand. Suddenly the bay was two feet deep with water. Rikky’s dragon powered them clear of the next wave, and by the time they were circling overhead with Zahrellion, the bay was almost over the hull of the ship again. The sun was getting low and already the moon could be seen peeking its gray-green, pocked face above the distant horizon.

  Come on, Zahrellion urged. Let’s explore the shoreline. Maybe we can spot an area where... where... you know.

  An area where there’s moonlit serpent shit, Rikky laughed. That’s what we’re after.

  ***

  It’s awful, Zahrellion confessed. The idea of it disturbed her.

  It all washes off, save for the memory, Rikky said in a fairly good ‘mental voice’ imitation of Master Kember. Zahrellion had only known the man briefly, but she knew that was who Rikky was imitating. She didn’t comment. Seeing the ocean rush in on Rikky and Silva unsettled her. His flippancy only made it worse.

  I’ll go along the shore this way, Rikky pointed and Silva banked them away from Crystal. You take the other.

  I’d rather us not get too far apart, Rikky, she said, but it was too late. Rikky and the quick pewter-colored dragon were already speeding away.

  Zahrellion searched the area between the high tide line and the stunted vegetation that grew on the sloping face that rose up and away from the beach, but she found nothing resembling a refuse-laden area. She saw a few pocks on the sand that she thought might be mushrooms, but turned out to be mossy boulders, and in one instance a slow-crawling turtle. It started getting dark then, the sun sinking faster than the moon was rising. She urged Crystal up into the sky to circle over the island.

  After they had slain Gravelbone, Mysterian and the Crown gave each of the three Royal Dragoneers a gift. Zahrellion’s was a thin staff with a small witch’s crystal affixed as its head. She had considerable knowledge and ability working with druidic magic, but witch magic was another thing altogether. The staff worked by commands. With Mysterian’s help she’d mastered the ones that they agreed might come in handy on this quest. ‘Owl sight’ was what she was after at the moment, but the spoken word needed to apply the effect wouldn’t find her tongue. It was just as well. Rikky was coming in close and talking out loud, breathlessly fast. Soon the moon would be fully above the horizon.

  Talk in the ethereal, Zahrellion ord
ered Rikky. I haven’t heard a word you just said.

  I found it. I found the serpent’s dung field. Even Rikky’s mental voice sounded out of breath. There’s a whole stretch of beach covered with shit piles, and they’re all covered in rotting mushrooms.

  They heard a splash then—a large one. It sounded like a wagon-sized boulder being hurled into the bay.

  They decided to find a place to land on the ridge, where they could look down at the beach. Zahrellion explained earlier that they really wanted mushrooms from fresh dung piles, but any moonlit caps would be retrieved, even if they sprouted out of the old refuse.

  I saw something hanging in the lookout basket on the ship, Rikky told her after they landed. It looked like someone went to the top and tied it there, hoping the water wasn’t that deep.

  It will be there in the daylight tomorrow, when the tide is out, Zah started, but her train of thought was interrupted. She was drawn to the long, sinuous form of the serpent snaking across the surface of the moonlit bay. It was so big that its wake displaced the natural roll and flow of the ocean’s surface. She guessed it to be a hundred feet long.

  “Wow, it’s a huge bastard,” Rikky said aloud. They were still mounted, and their dragons were sitting on their haunches very near each other. Zahrellion had no trouble hearing him. Whether it was the rush of excited energy that was suddenly filling her veins, or the fact that he had spoken aloud to her, Zahrellion answered in her physical voice.

  “It is.”

  “She speaks,” Rikky teased. “I was beginning to wonder if you remembered how to use your cords.”

  “Not funny,” she smirked. “The moon is getting up.”

  “The serpent is moving toward the beach,” Rikky redirected her attention.

  “It is,” she answered again, and laughed at herself. She was a little afraid. She found she wished Jenka was there. He wouldn’t hesitate to go down there and get the mushrooms. She glanced at Rikky. His eager expression showed he wouldn’t hesitate either. She steeled herself then. She couldn’t let him do it, and not because she didn’t think him capable. She had to do it because it was her duty.