After a long moment, Kadka said, “Quiet still. They don’t see us.”
Ander gave a short nod. “Sea guard would be bearing down on us by now.” With a flip of a lever, he released the anchoring spells and then started up the engines once more. Tane flinched at the sound of the propellers stirring the water, even though he knew the muffling artifacts would keep it from travelling.
There were no more close calls, but Tane didn’t feel secure until they reached their destination a short time later—a small inlet up the coast on the outskirts of Porthaven. Hidden by a high outcropping and surrounded in jagged rocks, it was the sort of landing that only a smuggler would use. Ander skillfully eased them in, though, and somehow managed to avoid tearing the hull open.
Three figures were waiting for them to disembark. Two Tane didn’t recognize: a surprisingly bulky goblin man and a broad-shouldered dwarven woman, both wearing light armor and carrying shortswords. But he knew the sprite in the green waistcoat and trousers hovering between the two bodyguards—or rather, between ‘his friends’, as the little man would surely call them. The emerald mask across his eyes was a dead giveaway.
“Welcome home, my friends!” Bastian Dewglen greeted them, fluttering nearer as they vaulted over the side of the boat into ankle-deep water. “Dire circumstances aside, it does my heart good to see you returned to Audland!”
Tane was the first off the boat, and he slogged the last few steps to shore through cold surf. “The dire circumstances are hard to put aside just now, but thanks for bringing us in, Bastian. People aren’t exactly knocking down the door to help us right now. We’d never have gotten through the blockade without Ander. I’m not what you’d call a seasoned smuggler.” He gestured at his water-logged shoes and trousers. “I didn’t even think to wear boots.”
Kadka surged up to shore in a few strides, with Indree and Tinga just behind. A wide, tooth-baring grin threatened to split her face in half. “Is good to see you, little man!”
“Ah, my dear Kadka!” Bastian exclaimed with a beaming smile. “It broke my heart to be parted from you for so long!”
The two of them might as well have been trying to one-up each other in an enthusiasm contest. Which Tane didn’t have the energy or patience for just then. “I hate to ruin the mood,” he said, “but we can all be happy to see each other once we’re some place out of sight.”
“Yes, yes, of course.” Bastian bobbed his head, not particularly phased by the rebuke. “Now, about that. Of course my friends and I can help you sneak about to some degree, but…” He spread his little hands and sighed mournfully. “There are a great many people looking for you. It will be difficult to avoid attention if you mean to go out and about investigating. And I’m afraid I have no access to the honorable Lady Abena, if you mean to attempt contact with her. I suppose what I am asking is where precisely you wish to be taken.”
A question Tane had asked himself a hundred times already. They’d discussed it on the trip, but they had only vague ideas of where to begin. Endo hadn’t left much in the way of a trail. For the moment, a safe place to make further plans would have to suffice.
And they did know someone who could provide that.
But before Tane could say it, Kadka did.
“Iskar,” she said firmly. “Take me to my dragons.”
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The Spirit Siphon (Magebreakers Book 4) Page 24