She clambered up the steps and out onto the upper deck. It might have been safer inside the stairwell, but she had to warn the crew what was coming.
“Tidal wave,” she yelled before she had a chance to look around.
Crewmen were down everywhere, bleeding and broken. The sea monster’s numerous heads writhed in the air on python-like necks. She searched around for Jev, terrified he lay among those collapsed on the deck.
The roar of the approaching wave filled Zenia’s ears, and she doubted anyone had heard her warning cry. The deck tilted downward.
“Where’s Jev?” she asked as she dropped to her knees and gripped the hatchway.
The dragon tear shared a vision of him in the choppy ocean water, hanging onto one of the creature’s necks, the head sawn off it. As the sea monster chased after the steamer, it dragged that limp neck behind its body and Jev along with it.
Afraid he would drown in the rough water or draw the ire of the beast, Zenia implored the dragon tear to float him into the air and to the deck of the ship. Only after she made the request did she realize he might have been safer where he was. The steamer picked up speed as the wave carried it faster and faster toward shore.
But the dragon tear surged with magic and carried out her wish. Jev appeared in the air beside the ship, his eyes bulging as he flew as fast as the wave, and then was floated down to land on the deck at Zenia’s feet.
Then they hit land.
It was what Zenia had wanted, but she hadn’t imagined the sheer terror of the moment. It felt like a giant steam hammer slamming into the ship, and she was ripped from her spot in the hatchway. She flew head over heels and glimpsed Jev in a similar state scant feet away. Blood smeared his face, and they were tumbling through the air at breakneck speed, but incredibly, he gave her a giant smile.
Stop us, please, Zenia silently urged the dragon tear, realizing they’d flown over the railing and were going to smash into thick trees lining a beach.
As she flew closer and closer to a giant green tree, she curled into a ball and lifted her arms to protect her head. The dragon tear erected an invisible barrier around her in time, and it struck first. She bounced away like a ball. Or a bubble. It hit the ground, and she bounced twice before rolling down a rocky beach that made the ride a rough one. Finally, she came to a stop, and the barrier faded so that she lay among seaweed-draped rocks. Rain spattered against her chilled skin, and wind raked through the fronds of the nearby trees.
Shouts and groans emanated from one side, and she gaped at the beached steamship. It lay tipped on its side with water running out of giant holes in the hull. Had those holes been caused by the creature? Or by her attempt to save everyone? If she’d caused the very destruction she’d hoped to save everyone from…
People lay all around the wreck, some moving and some not, and she spotted Jev sprawled among the rocks halfway between her and the ship. She pushed herself to her feet, marveling that she wasn’t injured, and started toward him. But an earsplitting keening came from the water, and she paused.
The sea monster swam a few dozen feet out from the beach, its many necks and heads in the air waving as all those sets of eyes focused on the wreck. On the prize it had lost. At least, Zenia hoped it had lost them. The creature seemed to be swimming with fins to stay afloat rather than kicking with legs, though she was only guessing what that body looked like, since she could only see the top of it. From what she could see, there wasn’t any damage to it, despite the copious amounts of rifle fire and cannon fire that she’d heard.
She looked for the headless neck the dragon tear had shown her earlier, but she didn’t see it. The creature had eight heads and eight necks, and all of them appeared to be in good shape. Magic emanated from the beast; maybe it had the ability to heal itself.
Only now that she looked upon it with her own eyes did she realize this was a hydra. Such creatures never appeared in Korvann’s harbor, and she’d only heard legends of their existence in the deep seas. What had brought this one so close to land? And why had it deliberately attacked their ship?
“Zenia?” Jev called.
He’d risen to his knees and squinted through the rain at her. Zenia picked her way to him as quickly as she could. This beach was far different from the smooth sandy shorelines back home. Jagged barnacle-coated rocks stuck up everywhere like daggers. She dropped something she’d forgotten she was holding and almost laughed. The book on animal life. She would make sure to look up hydras later.
“Are you all right?” Jev asked as she drew closer.
He’d climbed to his feet, and he still gripped his sword, but he was wobbly, and blood dripped down the side of his face from the top of his head.
She didn’t know if the dragon tear had been able to protect him or anyone else from the wave. The ship looked like it had taken the full brunt of being smashed against the beach.
“Yes, I’m sorry.” Zenia reached him and hugged him as she peered toward the wreck and others stirring on the beach. She hoped to spot Rhi and the rest of their team.
“You’re sorry for being all right?” Jev hugged her back, pressing his head to the side of hers.
“For…” Zenia hesitated, reluctant to admit that hurling the ship up on the beach had been her idea. Technically, she’d only hoped to get it into water too shallow for the hydra, but she realized from how close to shore it was swimming that such a goal might not have been possible. Still, she should have contemplated the potential consequences more fully before asking the dragon tear to send them to shore. “I wrecked the ship,” she admitted quietly.
He grunted. “Judging by all the holes I saw that thing rip into the hull, the ship was wrecked before the wave came. It was well on its way to sinking.”
The keening floated across the water to them again. Jev shifted to look at the hydra, though he didn’t let go of Zenia.
“I cut off one of its heads, and it grew back,” he said. “I vaguely remember that from the legends, but I thought it was just that, a legend. A myth. I knew actual hydras existed, or had at some point, but I figured accounts of their abilities had been embellished in the generations since they’d been more common.”
“It’s a creature with innate magic,” Zenia said, though she only knew that because she sensed it through her dragon tear. “Like a dragon or a unicorn or even an elf.”
“It doesn’t seem fair that humans don’t have any innate magic, does it?”
“Would you like to be able to grow back a head if yours was cut off?”
“It would be handy.” Jev squinted at the hydra. “One does wonder what brought it to the surface to impede our progress. Was it just looking for an ironclad to snack on?”
“I was wondering that myself,” Zenia said. “Are you thinking that someone with magic convinced it to come attack us?”
He hesitated. “I hadn’t been thinking that, but I did think it suspicious that a creature I’d thought long extinct popped up as if it were the local guard dog.”
“It’s possible it is. I’ll see if there’s an entry on hydras in here.” She held up the book.
Jev looked dubiously at it, perhaps because water was dripping from the corner.
“Once it dries,” she added.
“Zyndar Dharrow?” came a call from the ship. The captain.
Jev sighed and released Zenia. She glimpsed the bloody side of his face again as he turned toward the remains of the steamer.
“You’re bleeding a lot.” She reached toward the side of his head but didn’t touch him, afraid she would brush his wound and hurt him.
“I suspect many of us are.” He touched her back and headed toward the wreck.
Zenia followed and was relieved to spot Rhi standing over one of the twins. The bald one, Borti. He appeared to be unconscious. Hopefully not worse than unconscious. His brother appeared among the trees, picking a route toward them. Had people been flung all the way into the forest?
“Trouble,” Jev murmured.
As t
hey came around the wreck, Zenia saw what he meant. Captain Yug stood between the beached steamer and a harbor she’d barely glimpsed earlier. They had wrecked just up the beach from the breakwater protecting the natural alcove, and several figures were walking toward Yug, muskets, swords, and clubs in hand. The group consisted of a mix of towering yellow-skinned orcs with tusks, blue-skinned trolls in kilts, and a hulking human who looked like he had some blood of both of those races in his veins.
Any magic? she silently asked her dragon tear.
If firearms and blades were all they had to worry about, at least from this group, her gem ought to be able to protect them. Through the rain and the darkening gloom, Zenia could see dozens of structures built in cleared areas along the harbor beach. Was this Tika, the city they’d intended to reach? Or some other village along the way? She had expected something larger and more populated.
“Fees,” the big human said in an accented voice.
“What?” Yug looked to his sides where two of his crewmen had taken up positions, openly holding their pistols and cutlasses.
Jev picked up his pace, and Zenia struggled to keep up.
“You dock in our town, you have to pay the fees.” The speaker looked blandly over the wreck.
“This hardly qualifies as docking,” Yug said.
“You are on our beach,” the troll said, curling his lip. “You have not asked permission. You will pay the fee.”
“Might want to pay for bruncosars too,” the human added.
“For what?” Yug asked. He had to be an experienced traveler, but Zenia got the impression he’d avoided this continent and didn’t know what to make of this welcome.
“Bruncosars.” The human looked at his comrades. “Mercenaries?”
“Protectors,” the troll said, then spat. “A wreck is free to salvage, and people will be out as soon as the rain lets up.”
“Salvage!” Yug clenched a fist. “This is Ki—”
Jev had reached the group, and he lunged to clasp Yug’s arm before the captain revealed that this was Targyon’s ship.
“How much is the fee?” Jev asked.
The human tapped a finger to his chin. “You’re taking up three berths, so three times the norm. Forty-five silver pieces. A night.”
Yug rocked back on his heels. “Berth? This barren rocky beach?”
“We can give you twenty-five a night,” Jev said, “and once we see if our wares have survived the trip, we may be able to trade with your people and earn more coin. Is it true that you all enjoy a good curry?”
Zenia almost laughed at the abrupt shift in topic, but the orc’s bushy eyebrows rose.
“Twenty-five a night. One week paid in advance.” The human held out his hand.
Yug glared.
“I’ll get it,” Jev said. “If I can find my stateroom. And it still exists.”
Zenia walked back toward the wreck with him, though she wanted to find first-aid supplies for his head rather than his coin purse.
As it became apparent its meal had escaped, the hydra lowered its heads and slowly swam into deeper water. Zenia paused, letting Jev clamber up onto the wreck with its deck tilted almost sideways, and opened her book. With the pages so soggy, she had to be careful turning them, but she did find a section on hydras. The picture on the entry showed a lake with a four-headed hydra out in the middle of it.
“Great,” she murmured, “they can be fresh-water creatures too.”
She hoped they didn’t have to cross any large rivers to get to the dragon. But just in case, she skimmed through the entry to where a bold label read: How to kill a hydra.
A single word was under the heading. Fire.
A sense of curiosity came from her dragon tear, followed by a triumphant feeling. An image came to mind of a dragon soaring over the ocean and swooping down to breathe fire at a hydra. The hydra wilted under the assault and disappeared beneath the surface.
Zenia suspected most living things—plant, animal, or sea life—would wilt under a dragon’s assault. But could that kind of fire power come through her gem? She tried to ask by envisioning a stream of flames flowing out of it. She’d flung fire before at trolls and other enemies, but they had not possessed the magic of the hydra.
The gem’s triumphant feeling faded and was replaced by one of uncertainty. Maybe, it seemed to share. And maybe not.
Jev hopped off the wreck, landing beside her. “Are you communing with your dragon tear or keeping watch in case the hydra comes back?”
Zenia realized she’d been staring out to sea and shook her head. “The book mentioned hydras and that fire was the way to destroy them.”
“Oh? I thought you had to cut off their heads.” Jev touched his own head and winced. “But I’ll admit that didn’t work out well for me. The head I sawed off grew back.”
“The dragon showed me a vision of her swooping down from the sky and breathing fire and defeating a hydra.”
“That’ll be handy as soon as we have a dragon with dragon fire on our side. In the meantime, I suggest we avoid hydras.”
“Don’t we have to sail back to Kor?”
Jev looked at the wreck. “Sailing—or steaming—is the only way back, yes, but I have no idea if this ship will ever be seaworthy again, especially since I don’t see a shipyard in that harbor. And who knows if we could afford to buy materials for repair here?” He shook the purse in his hand and grimaced. “I should have asked Lornysh for more curry.”
Zenia looked out toward the gray water, the rain still hammering down on the waves. The hydra had disappeared, but if some practitioner of magic had called it up to harass them, they might very well have to deal with it again.
5
Jev shivered, wondering if his clothing would ever dry. The air itself wasn’t that cold, but thanks to the rain, he was still soaked and waterlogged from his earlier dunk in the ocean. He shifted from a walk to a jog as he made his thirtieth lap around the wreck.
The storm had lessened after nightfall, but rain still plastered his hair to his head, burning the gouge in his scalp that he hadn’t let anyone treat yet. The ship had a healer, but she was going around to the more seriously injured first, and Jev agreed with the sentiment. He’d chosen to take the first watch, along with Cutter and six crewmen, because the weather wasn’t keeping curious denizens of whatever little town this was from wandering down the beach to eye the wreck.
Jev had paid the harbormaster—or whatever that group of thugs called itself—but he and Yug had decided to reject the offer of mercenaries to protect the wreck. They had enough people that they could do that themselves, even once Zenia’s party headed off into the jungle. Jev was less certain they had enough people or the resources to repair the ship, and he worried about the return trip.
“This rain makes it colder than an ice nymph’s left testicle,” Cutter grumbled, stomping his boots as Jev finished his lap and rejoined him.
“I didn’t know nymphs had testicles. Aren’t they all female?”
“How would that work? They’d have gone extinct a long time ago without males and females.”
Jev shrugged and glanced toward the tree line. Most of the crew was hunkered inside the wreck, finding what shelter they could, given the holes torn in the hull and the fang punctures in the ceilings. Not that the ceilings were overhead now, with the decks tilted so dramatically sideways. A few people had taken tarps and made shelters in the trees.
Zenia had spearheaded that, and he saw a campfire burning up there now. Jev suspected her magic had helped her make their shelter more hospitable than it otherwise would have been. The jungle was as soggy as everything else, with rivulets dripping down from the fronds overhead.
“You want me to come on this quest with you?” Cutter asked. “Or stay here with Dodger to work on the ship?”
“Dodger? Is that the engineer?”
“Yes. He’s got a dragon tear with a smith’s anvil carved in it and reckons he can fix the steamer if the natives don’t harass him
overmuch. And if he can salvage enough metal. It’s a foregone conclusion there’s not much around here.”
“That’s the most promising thing I’ve heard all day.” Jev had known the healer had a dragon tear, but he hadn’t known the ship’s engineer did. A little magic would help a great deal in making repairs possible.
“Getting the ship off the beach and back into the water will be a challenge, but we don’t need to worry about it until later,” Cutter said. “It’ll likely take some weeks to get this repaired. How long do you think Zenia’s expedition will take?”
“I don’t know. If Tarks and Hun survive their night in town,” Jev said, naming two crewmen who’d decided to spend the coin for a room at an inn, “I might go in with Zenia in the morning and see if we can gather information from the locals.”
“Information such as where Zenia’s dragon is located?”
“It would be convenient if someone could tell us.”
“Maybe she should wait for us to fix the ship, so she could use her dragon tear to lift it back into the water. I’ve seen her lift things with it, so I reckon it might raise the ship.”
“I don’t think she’ll want to delay,” Jev said. “Especially if you think it’ll be weeks. We could finish her quest and make it back before the repairs are done, and she could lift it then.”
“If it still has its powers then.”
Jev looked sharply at his friend, though he couldn’t see Cutter’s face in the dark.
“Why wouldn’t it?” he asked.
“If you free the dragon, it might unlink itself from the gem.”
“You think that’s likely?” Jev knew nothing about the dragon, except that it gave Zenia nightmares, but she hadn’t mentioned anything about it parting ways from her.
“I’ve been thinking about it, based on what you told me the elf princess said and on what I know about dragon tears. I think this particular dragon might have gotten itself captured and in trouble somehow—I’m still not sure who would have had the power to imprison a dragon—and maybe found that dragon tear out there in the world and decided to link to it. It might have been able to sense that someone had just taken it out of a vault and intended to start using it. Maybe the magic of the gem even called to it. Either way, it might have figured it could talk the new wielder of the gem into helping it and that this might be its way to escape. Which is just what’s happening. Once the dragon is freed, why would it want to keep helping some human?”
Agents of the Crown- The Complete Series Page 114