by James Duvall
The improvement to the evening victuals had not gone unnoticed by the crew. Sapphire found quiet satisfaction in hearing their pleased comments rise up from the galley and into her own little hideaway in the rafters. How would they react, she wondered, if she came down and announced herself. She could show them that the benevolent guiding hand of their journey was the claw of one of the countless luminarian dragons that lived forgotten in their alleyways and lofts, haunting them like stray cats and cobwebs. It was her intention that they should never discover a dragon was aboard. People did not like the dragons aboard their ships, even given the small size of her race. Sapphire fit easily in the narrow crawl space and she was fully grown. For the first two weeks she had succeeded in this endeavor, but had awoken on a rainy morning to find that one of her feathers had been found in the pantry. It was definitely hers, brilliant white and tipped in the same vibrant blue that marked her mane, claws, and softly shining eyes.
"Found it behind the potatoes," the cook said to the second mate. The second mate was a medium-sized man, and Sapphire could tell him apart from the others by his neatly pressed uniform and overzealous sense of duty and discipline on a ship that did little more than run routes hauling ore between Pendric Shard and Cahen.
"Let me see if I understand your complaint," the second mate said, his voice quivering with barely restrained anger. "It is your job to see to it that the food remains unspoiled and you have left the pantry in such disarray that you have attracted animals and you wish to complain of the animal's presence?"
"Uhm, well, yes sir," the chef answered with crumbling resolve. The second mate took his hat off and began beating the man about the head with it, backing the chef into a corner as he reminded him of his duties in no uncertain terms. Sapphire sighed a little as the drama unfolded and frowned at her treasonous wings for having given her away.
After the chef had gone, Sapphire followed the second mate deeper into the ship's belly, being careful to move only in the gloom of the rafters and to keep her claws from clicking against the wood. Eventually the second mate found the first mate and told him of the chef's findings.
The first mate held up Sapphire's feather and turned it slowly in the light coming through the porthole. "I saw her two nights ago in the cargo hold. She's got a mortar set up to collect the rain water. Resourceful thing, isn't she?" he asked, grinning.
Torn between frustration and pride, Sapphire thrummed satisfaction. A clever thing? Yes, yes she was. However, the mortar would have to be moved now, and whatever she might find in it tonight would be suspect. That meant a midnight visit to the water barrels.
Unimpressed, the second mate remained in a stiff and upright posture. "Your orders?" he asked.
"Orders? What? About the luminarian?" the first mate answered quizzically.
"Yes, sir," the second mate replied.
"Oh come off it Frank," the first mate said, audibly weary of the man's presence. "What are you going to do, set a trap for her? Sic the crew on her? No, I'd rather you just let her be. Better have a few bits of the citrus go missing than the entire crew up in a drunken frenzy off to hunt the dragon."
"Sir," the second mate began, but the first mate cut him off.
"Let it go," he said, sternly. "And if you're thinking of getting after her yourself, ask yourself why she might have a mortar and pestle in the first place. She's probably been fixing up Cookie's dishes. So if it's all the same, why don't you just enjoy the grub not tasting like heavily salted rubber for as long as our stowaway sees fit to spare us from it."
"She is a thief, sir. And a stowaway,” he added, apparently forgetting that his superior had just mentioned that without concern.
The first-mate's face turned beet-red. "Frank, I swear to God above and the Seven among us if you chase that thing away and the food goes back to hard tack and swill..."
Sapphire grinned with pleasure, slinking away before the second mate spotted her. Yes, she would have to move the mortar, lest the water turn up poisoned. Of course, visiting the crew's water barrels was always an option, if no one saw fit to set a watch over it.
Late in the evening, with the mortar safely moved, Sapphire took an evening above deck, sitting atop the roof of the forecastle where her vague silhouette was unlikely to be distinguished from the ship's guns and the heavy pyramid of shot at her back. The cool evening air was clean and crisp, a refreshing change from the warm, mildewy confines of the hold for the past three weeks. She let it brush through her unruly mane and took the opportunity to stretch her wings out to their full span when she was certain no one would see. Undesirous of another sighting, she thoroughly preened both wings and gathered up the loose feathers. She caressed the amulet resting against her chest and held it up to her muzzle.
“It's beautiful here,” she whispered into the glimmering topaz. “I can see the lights of Nothnor. We will be there tomorrow. I miss you.”
The gem glowed softly back to her as though in answer. She pressed her nose to it gently, closing her eyes and imagining a life where she did not have to wander so far across the world. Gradually the moment passed and she wiped the corners of her eyes dry before collecting up her feathers. She dropped them over the rail before slipping below deck.
Sapphire collected her things before the ship made port. By the time the human passengers were disembarking she was already perched atop the sloping roof of an inn with a map stretched out between her forelegs. She studied the streets, filled with horse-drawn carriages and carts, comparing them to the map until she found her position on the page. The steady rumble of wagon wheels upon the cobblestone way provided a persistent backdrop to the noise of nearly every corner. They passed the migratory dragon without concern, though a few of the drivers clicked their tongues at her to urge her along if they thought she might be too close. Among the humans Sapphire occasionally spotted a dwarf. They were easy to mark. Each would be leading a donkey into the market with a low-built cart as heavy and sturdy as its master.
Luminarians were also present, but the first sign of them did not appear until Sapphire came to the front of a bakery. Beneath an advertisement promising fresh bread baked daily, the baker had posted a sign with tall black letters reading “Do Not Feed Dragons Near Store.”
The air beside Sapphire wavered a little and Dawn materialized. He sat on his flanks and looked up at the sign with her. Dawn was a head taller than Sapphire. A fiery medley of oranges and yellows mingled along the tips of his rarely-used flight feathers and made his mane stand out in sharp relief against the faint orange, almost peach tint of his white pelt. The sign would be the first thing he would see. The second would be Sapphire herself.
“Sapphire...” Dawn cautioned. “You've got that look in your eye... I know what you're thinking and before you do anything rash... Sapphire, wait!”
But it was too late, Sapphire nudged the door open and strode confidently inside.
“Good morning!” Sapphire called out, singsong.
“Good day, miss,” the baker answered cheerfully to the feminine voice at his back. He was busy lifting sacks of flour onto a high shelf when Sapphire had come in. When he turned to face his customer he had a little sparkle in his eye. It faded to a dull brown as he realized it was not a human woman or even a dwarvish woman that come into his shop. His line of sight gradually dropped to the intruder that stood barely half his height.
Studiously ignoring the baker's abrupt change in demeanor, Sapphire scraped a coin out of her satchel and held it up for the baker to see. She spoke in clear, crisp Pendrian. “I am here to buy a loaf of--”
“Out!” the baker barked, pointing toward the door. “Get out before I knock you senseless! Miranda, get the broom! One of them came right in the bloody front door!”
Sapphire retreated to the sidewalk before things could escalate further. Her sour mood lifted only a little when Dawn grinned at her sheepishly. Through the door he could hear the old married couple arguing about where the broom was.
“I told you i
t would be just the same,” Sapphire grumbled. Dawn smiled at her all the same.
“I thought things might be different, so close to the Bright Haven,” he said, shrugging his shoulders and wings.
“It isn't,” Sapphire said, bitterly. “It's the same everywhere.”
Dawn's unflappable smile remained. “Do you think you'll get to see it while you're there?”
Sapphire shrugged her wings at him and started down the sidewalk. Dawn hurried to catch up and fell in step beside her.
“I hear it's very pretty. They have crystals tall as trees! And they glow all day and night! I read a tintori artisan found a way to make instruments out of them. There's no place else like it in all the known world. It would be a shame to pass up the opportunity while you're so close by.”
“The Island of Glory is in the Glory Shard. Isla Merindi is not,” Sapphire answered, more interested in the hunger gnawing at her chest than Dawn's desire to sight-see. She turned a corner, following the scent of bread until she came to a row of garbage bins behind the bakery. The cans were nearly full, but the baker had gone to the trouble to douse the stale bread in lantern oil, ensuring the bins remained undisturbed and tempting Sapphire to provide a little spark to end the practice. Darkly, Sapphire considered what a small, singular spark could do to it.
“It is one shardwall away,” Dawn continued, undeterred.
Sapphire sighed, wishing she had taken a few more bits of salted pork from the ship's galley before making her escape. Her belly grumbled quietly. “If I can find a ship that's safe for passage, I'll go,” she promised, placating Dawn's desires. His ears perked up and he beamed at her.
“Oh I cannot wait!” he cheered, grinning ear to ear. His image bounced around her in a way she knew he could not.
Sapphire, feeling grumpy from her growing discomfort, could not share in his enthusiasm and instead began back up the road. “You'll have to,” she said sourly. “I'm not going anywhere until I've finished my work.”
When Dawn became quiet she felt a little bad for throwing a wet towel over his cheerful mood. She had not seen him in nearly two weeks and had missed his warmth. She smiled tiredly at him and was happy to see him smile back. “We'll get there,” she promised.
“Are you hungry?” a female voice asked. Sapphire's ears perked and she turned to look up into the empty window panes over a cobbler's store. A little red and white luminarian looked back down at her and then hopped through the open window. She landed gracefully on the sidewalk in front of the pair of travelers and introduced herself.
"I am Ruby!" she said, with a sparkle in her eye to match the name, then repeated her first question. “Hungry?”
“I am,” Sapphire answered and explained about the bakery. Ruby did not seem at all surprised and cast a wary eye at the garbage bins behind them.
“You didn't eat anything out of them, did you? It can make you sick...” she asked with a voice of genuine concern.
Sapphire's temper flared at the very notion that she might do something so foolish. Immediately she thought to scold Ruby, but realized that the dragoness was not even fully grown yet and probably passed this advice on to anyone she encountered out of respect of her own fear.
“I didn't,” Sapphire said, calmly. Inwardly she chided herself for being so moody.
“Good,” Ruby said. She sighed in relief. “I can take you to some food!”
She led the travelers out of the center of town and brought them to a small stand of trees, heavy with apples. There were several human boys climbing in the branches and so the dragons did not climb up themselves. Ruby rose onto her hindlegs, propping herself up on the trunk of the tree. She made a playful chattering noise into the boughs and the children rewarded her by tossing down a few apples.
While Sapphire ate, Dawn cast a concerned eye over Ruby. She was very young to be out on her own.
“Ruby?” he asked. “Do you have someone to take care of you?”
Ruby looked up at him with a mouthful of apple. She swallowed it down before speaking. “I live with Rusty,” she said. “How come you're not eating? Are you sick?”
“No,” Sapphire answered for him. “Dawn isn't actually here.”
Ruby stared at Dawn with interest while she chewed on an apple core. Try as she might, Dawn did not simply disappear or become see-through or anything. “Okay...?” she said, bewildered.
Sapphire lifted her amulet up, clicking a claw against the topaz gem set into it. The topaz orb glowed a little while Dawn was present, so at the moment it glowed like a coal plucked from an evening campfire.
“Dawn's an illusion,” Sapphire explained. She stepped through Dawn's body and came out the other side. For a moment he was partly obliterated, his form giving way to a smokey bit of white and orange before the magic coalesced back to solid shapes.
Ruby stopped chewing for a moment and waved her paw in front of Dawn's nose as though checking to see if he were blind. “You're not real?”
An indignant Dawn stepped back and snorted at her. “Of course I am real!”
“He's very real,” Sapphire assured, bemused. “He's just not very near here. He's watching us from a tower far away."
A prod of Ruby's claw turned Dawn's nose to mist for a few seconds as she giggled in delight. "Like on the other side of the island?" she asked.
"I am in Havek Shard," Dawn answered, seeming not to notice the disruption.
Ruby seemed to think it over for a minute, but it did not match any of Pendric's neighboring shards, nor the shards beyond those. "I've never been there," she said.
Sapphire was not surprised, luminarians in lesser-traveled shards like Pendric tended to stay near home. It was only the biggest of shards that tended to afford the necessary opportunities for a dragon wrought with wanderlust to set out to parts unknown. In her estimation, Ruby might have been to the neighboring Glory Shard in addition to her home, though if she were only living with, who was it she had said? Rusty? It seemed strange that she had not thought to stay in the Bright Haven.
"Would you like to see a trick?" Dawn asked. He was grinning ear to ear. He winked at Sapphire when she arched a brow at him.
Ruby bounced up and down. "Yes! A trick!"
With a sweep of his paw, Dawn prepared a spot on the bare rock to work his magic. An extended talon circled around the perimeter, tracing a pattern in the air. Bright red light bled from Dawn's claw and glittered in the air in its wake. Then he reached into the stone and pulled an emberstone from the very earth.
Ruby's jaw dropped open. The look in her eyes said she didn't even know what it was, but she wanted one. Before Dawn could explain, Ruby yanked on the edge of the rock. Tugging with all of her might she turned it over, unearthing little more than a mesh of dirt and roots and a few worms that had burrowed beneath the stone. Ruby's ears drooped. "That was the only one?"
Sapphire scowled at Dawn, and then produced a similar stone from her own satchel, placing it in Ruby's eager hands. Dawn grinned back, sheepishly, and placed the emberstone back outside of the scrying circle so many shards away.
"Do you need a place to stay the night?" Ruby asked. "The cobbler is an old man. He doesn't come up into the loft and he keeps the shop very warm."
"I'm afraid I can't stay," Sapphire said, graciously. "Dawn and I are here to look at some of the old ruins and we must be leaving town tonight."
"Oh..." Ruby said, crestfallen. She looked sullenly down at her forepaws, then perked up and tried again. "Rusty won't mind," she promised.
Sapphire shook her head. "I appreciate the offer, but we really must keep on the move."
Ruby nodded wistfully. "Maybe I could go with you? You need a guide, right?"
“I'm sorry, no.”
Dawn took a long, wistful look back down the road. Sapphire refrained, Ruby had faded into the distance some time ago.
“You could have brought her with us..."
Sapphire sighed softly. Leaving behind a watery-eyed Ruby had severely dampened her spirits.
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"It will not be safe," she answered, regret taking the certainty from her tone.
Dawn did not look convinced and said as much. “You are going to an abandoned alchemy lab on dwarven land to read books and make potions. An above ground alchemy lab, I might point out. Meanwhile she and her cousin are living in a cobbler's attic four doors down from a baker who has taken to poisoning his garbage. Now where do you honestly think she would be safer? Alone there? Or with Sapphire Nightsong, an alchemist of no small renown. Not many dragons can claim they've caught the attention of the mages of Bendrin University.”
Sapphire avoided his gaze. She didn't need to look to know the exact mix of admonishment and frustration that would be in his eyes if she did.
“I have their attention, yes, but not in a way that makes anyone around me any safer. Besides, my time is better spent focusing on my work than keeping an eye on a half-grown cub. You should not have told her about Havek Shard.” She scolded him lightly, eager to shift the conversation in a new direction.
"Who is she going to tell?" Dawn asked, incredulous. "You know how the mages are. Even if she did tell one, do you think they're going to risk their own lives to come into a black shard on the word of a luminarian cub?"
Sapphire cut in front of him briskly and turned to face his image directly in the eye. "When I have cured you, Dawn, I will worry about seeing pretty things and entertaining the musings of younger dragons. I have a good feeling about this place. I know you want to see the Bright Haven, and I do too. I want to see it with you, when you are well."
"But we'll go there on the way back, right?" he asked, eyes wide with worry.
Sapphire stepped toward him and pressed her forehead where his ought to be and spoke quietly into his ear. "I promise."
Chapter 4
The Bridger
Nothnor, Pendric Shard