Yes, her mother.
“What are you in the mood for?” Varis asked, stopping at a street vendor’s table.
She looked at the steaming noodles, vegetables in broth, and glazed pork hocks. “Everything,” she said with a laugh.
He nodded agreement and spoke to the young boy working with his mother. They were given plates with a little bit of everything heaped high and two smooth long sticks.
“You can speak Azzarrian?” she said, following Varis through the crowd.
“Enough to order food and drink.” He led her to an area by a beautiful rock garden, where tables and chairs were set about for anyone to sit and take in the day.
They ate in silence. She loved the exotic food, which was nothing like her people’s fare. Everything was overly sweet or salty, and she enjoyed how slippery and fun to eat the noodles were. The first minutes of hungry eating passed, and she drank water from her pouch, then settled into conversation and slower dining.
“That will never do,” said Varis, seeing her drinking from her pouch again. He wiped his mouth, got up, and disappeared. He returned with two small cups made of dark, carved wood.
“What is this?”
“Sezu,” he said with a local accent. “It’s like rum, but, well, you’ll see.” They tapped cups. “To grand adventure.”
“To grand adventure.” She tossed back the drink, and when her tongue and mouth finally registered the heat of the alcohol, she sucked in a quick breath. When the vapors hit her throat and spiked into her lungs, she coughed like a wretch. Bits of food went flying, some hitting Varis as he leaned in and slapped her back.
He was laughing by the time she caught her breath and greedily sucked down a gulp from her water skin.
“You didn’t tell me it would be hot!” she struggled to say.
“I should have warned you,” he said with a guilty grin.
“Unbound son!” she cursed. “That stuff is terrible.”
“It’s best to sip Sezu. Sorry, that was my fault.”
She had nearly lost her lunch over the Sezu, and she pushed her plate away, unable to eat any more.
“Probably a good idea,” said Varis. “I’m stuffed like a pig in the fall.”
“You know,” she said, choosing her words carefully and wondering if she should even say them at all, “these people, this place, it’s so peaceful and beautiful.”
“And we’re going to crash the party. You feel bad about that?”
“A little.”
“And how about your share of the loot? A dragon of that size, once it is harvested….” He let out a long whistle. “None of us will ever have to work again.”
“I like work.”
“Then you’ll be able to do it at your leisure and for your pleasure. Listen, I’m not a bad guy, and I don’t intend for anyone to get hurt. But I’m not about to let an opportunity like this pass me by.”
“Won’t there be others with plans like yours?”
“Of course, and we’ll deal with a few of them tonight.” He gave a small laugh and glanced at her. “We have something that they do not.”
“What’s that?” she asked, but she knew the answer as soon as she uttered the question.
“You.”
Chapter 12
When night fell on Xenning, the city came alive. Multi-colored rope lights were strung across the streets and from every abode. Lanterns burned in every window and lined the walkways and gardens. Even the ponds with their elegant orange and white fish glowed like starlight.
Min would have liked to enjoy the festivities, but Varis was on a mission. He led her and two of the crewmen into a massage parlor, and she was surprised to see it was full of naked women around her age. The most surprising thing of all was their lack of body hair. Their faces were painted in thick white makeup, colorful dots and intricate designs adorning their faces. Some had paper fans draped over their shoulders, while others played softly stringed instruments. The music, paired with the incense that filled the room like a fog, made her head light and her mood mellow.
She couldn’t stop looking at the women, some of whom were only girls. They were beautiful, and the ugly men coming down a long hallway full of urgent sounds didn’t deserve them. The men who were leaving seemed to know it. They had the look of shame on their faces, but the one just arriving looked hungry and possessed by lust.
A shiver ran down her spine.
A scream came from a back room. She gravitated in that direction, but a hand grabbed her arm.
“What are you doing?” Varis asked.
She didn’t answer. A man’s angry voice rose over that of the screaming girl, then there was a loud smacking sound, followed by silence.
“Keep your head in the game. Don’t breathe too deeply of the opium smoke.”
He led her through a beaded curtain and into a room with more smoke than light. She made out five figures as she drew closer. A bald black man sat with two naked Azzarrian girls on a long sofa. Two goons stood on either side of the room, just beyond the door.
“Varisss, da fisherman thief!” the man on the sofa sang.
“Jules Barren,” said Varis. “The rich black-skin with the poor name.”
“Nah, man. You got it wrong. Not barren. I change da E to O and lose da R, now I be a baron.”
Varis sat in the chair across from Jules. Min stood behind him.
“Notta pleasha lady?” said Jules, nodding at Min.
“Not unless your pleasure is pain,” she said.
“I like dis one,” said Jules. He looked at Varis and suddenly cursed. “Blood clot! You I dohn like. You stillaw me a crown o’ gold an’ a vase o’ silva.”
“Will coins do?” Varis asked and tossed him a heavy sack.
Jules caught it, took a pull from the hooka hose that trailed down beside the sofa, then spilled the contents into the open hands of the girl to his right. Silver coins filled them and spilled over.
Jules offered Varis an arched eyebrow. “Dis be double whatcha owe me,” he said suspiciously.
“The extra is for you to enjoy all that Azzarria has to offer. Take tomorrow off, treat your crew, relax a little.”
“Tamarraw?” said Jules and wiped his hands as though the silver was dirty. His expression became cross, then it lifted and he smiled. “You plan to take da dragon?” he said with a laugh.
“Like I said, take tomorrow off. I know why you’re here, but you’ll never pull it off.”
“And you will?”
Varis nodded.
Jules glanced at Min. “What she? Some kinda witch?”
“You could say that,” she said before Varis could answer.
“Dis,” said Jules, indicating the silver. “Dis be insultin’.”
“It’s a down payment,” said Varis. “Stay the hell out of my way tomorrow, and I’ll give you 10 percent of the take and your choice of dragon horn.”
Jules stroked his hairless chin, his squinting, glossy eyes studying Min and Varis.
She heard another scream down the hall, and Jules watched her closely. Again was heard the commanding male voice, then a barrage of slapping sounds, followed by the pleading voice of a girl.
“Please excuse me for a moment,” said Min.
Varis snapped his head around and gave her a questioning look. She ignored him and walked through the beaded curtain and past a fat man telling her to stop as she went down the hall. The man let her go, and naked girls with streaks of makeup on their face watched her pass. The screaming and crying was coming from a door on the right.
Min opened the door. A frail girl no older than twelve cowered in the corner, and standing over her was a fat man with a long ponytail sprouting from his wrinkled, shaved head. He slapped the girl, unaware that Min had entered. When the girl’s eyes moved to Min, the man turned around drunkenly.
“Tsu ya?” he demanded when he saw her.
She punched him in the nose, and his head snapped back. He stared at her, a bead of blood falling out of his nose
.
“Xi pheng!” he screamed. He swung at Min, which was just what she wanted.
She Burst against the blow, bringing up her arm to block. His wrist hit hers, and it was repelled by their combined force. The man cried out and grabbed his wrist, and she Burst upward and kicked him square in the chin. He stumbled back into the wall, and she waited with a grin on her face.
The young girl in the corner was now clapping and laughing, and her joy caused the man’s rage to overflow. He charged Min like a bull.
She braced herself.
He growled and put his head down, intent on ending her. She Burst at the moment of contact, pushing two fists into his chest. His force was added to hers, and he flew away from her like it was he who had been hit by a bull. He plowed through the thin back wall and into another room inhabited by a skinny white sailor in bed with two Azzarrian women.
“Hey!” the white man yelled.
“Shut up,” Min warned. She grabbed the fat man by the scruff of his neck and hoisted him to his feet, then shoved him out the door. Once in the hall, she kicked him in the backside until he was face down in the lobby.
Captain Varis and Jules stood outside the beaded curtain, gawking at her like everyone else in the establishment.
“Didn’t your father ever teach you not to hit little girls?” she asked.
He was shaking, and at first she thought it was from rage, but when he wiped his eyes, she realized he was crying.
“That’s someone’s daughter, someone’s little girl,” she berated him. She spit on him and pointed. “Empty your pockets!”
He reached a shaking hand into his trousers and withdrew a coin purse.
“Give it to her,” she told him, pointing at the girl from the room, who was standing nearby, wrapped in a sheet and grinning ear to ear despite the tears that had streaked her white makeup.
The man tossed her the money, got up, and ran out.
Min smiled at the girl, and she bowed.
She returned to Varis and Jules. “I’m sorry, where were we?”
“That was impressive,” said Varis, strolling with her through the streets a few minutes later.
“Thanks.” She couldn’t help smiling. Being around someone who didn’t see her power as a curse was refreshing, and using it out in the open was liberating.
“With Jules out of the way, everything should go smoothly tomorrow night.”
“Do you think he’ll keep his word?”
“After what you did to that fat man, yes, he’ll keep his word.”
Chapter 13
She had a hard time falling asleep that night. She kept replaying the incident in the brothel over and over in her head. The look on his face had been priceless, and the power she’d felt in dealing out justice made her giddy with excitement.
When she finally fell asleep, her dreams were filled with strange creatures in a murky landscape.
A voice came to her in her dreams. It was female, and when she spoke, light glowed on the dreary hillside. She climbed the hill, afraid yet enticed by the melodic voice.
“Daughter of the blacksmith, I know your secret.”
“Who are you?” she asked, stopping before cresting the hill.
“I am a kindred spirit, and I too am feared by man.” The voice vibrated in the ground and in Min’s chest, quickening her heart.
“Are you a goddess?” she asked.
The creature laughed, and the sound filled her heart with joy. “Some have called me that. I have many names in many languages, but few know my true name.”
“What is your true name?”
“Climb a little higher, and you shall see.”
She breasted the top of the hill, where the deep golden glow emanated and shimmered like light off water. When she saw the speaker, tears filled her eyes.
Before her stood a magnificent golden dragon. The beast was translucent, taller than a two-story building, and had an impressive wingspan. The dragon glowed, ghostlike, the source of the beautiful light at the center of the dragon’s chest.
“You’re so beautiful,” she said breathlessly.
“I have seen your dreams.” The dragon craned her neck and moved closer. When they were a few feet apart, the dragon cocked her head and regarded Min with a one sparkling golden eye. “You wish to go north, and I can take you there.”
“Who are you?” she asked again.
“My name is—”
The dragon suddenly reared back and cried out, and an angry male voice screamed in Azzarrian. A spear emerged from the darkness and pierced the dragon’s eye.
“Stop it! You’re hurting her!” she screamed at the phantom menace.
“Sister!” the dragon urgently called.
She reached out to the dragon, but she faded and soon was gone.
“Dragon? Dragon!”
“Min!”
Her eyes snapped open. Varis was bent over her, looking concerned.
“What is it? What happened?” She sat up and tried to get her bearings.
“You were having a nightmare.” He offered her a glass of water, which she took and greedily emptied.
“It was so real,” she said, more to herself than to him.
The captain frowned. “You said something about a dragon.”
“I did?” She remembered every bit of the dream, but she didn’t want to tell him about it. She had a feeling it was more than a dream, and the idea was unsettling. “I’m sorry. I think I was dreaming of the wyvern attack on my village.”
“Would you like to talk about it?”
“I’d rather not.”
He studied her for a moment. “Breakfast is ready. I suggest you eat your fill. You’ll need your strength tonight.”
“I will.”
After he left, she got up and washed at the water basin. She thought of the golden dragon as she dressed and strapped on her daggers, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that somehow the dream had been real.
Is this how it happens for the Unbound? she wondered. Do we share some sort of mental connection with dragons?
She had never read anything that suggested such a thing, and to her knowledge dragons didn’t talk, but the dragon in her dream had spoken to her. It had known her name. Well of course it knew my name. It was my dream, after all.
But what if the dragon that is to be sacrificed is the dragon from my dream?
The thought was absurd and she knew it, but there was a dragon somewhere on the island, awaiting her death. She had heard someone speak in Azzarrian too.
“I have seen your dreams. You wish to go north, and I can take you there.” The dragon’s words echoed in her mind. “I can take you there….”
“You’re being silly,” Min told herself and rubbed her face. She needed to focus on the task at hand. She had to be ready for the grand heist tonight. Varis was going to take her north. She wasn’t getting there on the back of a dragon from her dreams.
She went to the mess and loaded a plate with a hefty amount of food. She had a feeling that she was going to have to use her power more than she ever had, and she would need as much stored energy as possible.
“You’ve an appetite I see.” The voice came from behind her, and she jerked and nearly choked on her food. It was Faerek, and he was glaring at her over the top of a long, crooked nose.
“And you like to creep up on people,” she said.
He moved around the table on soundless feet and took the seat opposite her, staring at her as though he was trying to read her mind.
She kept eating, staring right back at him while she shoveled food in her mouth.
“I don’t trust you,” he said bluntly.
“The captain does.”
“Varis has a weakness for pretty things.” Faerek spit out the last two words with disdain.
“Aw, you think I’m pretty. That’s so nice.”
He scowled. “Know this: if you betray my captain in any way, I will slit your throat and add your tongue to my collection.”
She stopped chewing mid-bite and froze. After a moment, she swallowed. “You have a collection of tongues?”
“This is not a joke.”
“You have nothing to be afraid of, Faerek. I need to get north, and the captain has promised me passage.”
“Afraid?” he said. “I do not fear you.”
“Maybe you should.”
Varis entered the galley. When Faerek saw him, he got up, shot Min one last withering glance, and left.
Varis approached, glancing back at his first mate, then regarded Min quizzically. “Did he threaten to take your tongue?”
“Something like that.”
“He’s a bit overprotective.” He sat in Faerek’s spot.
“He’s creepy.”
“I suppose, but he’s good at what he does, and he always has my best interests in mind. He’ll warm up to you. Give it a year or two.”
“A year or two? You want me to rejoin you after I go north?”
“If it pleases you.”
She considered that. He wanted her because she was an Unbound, but he had a look in his eye that told her he wanted her for more than that. She had seen the look before many times, but never from someone she had feelings for. “I’ll have to think it over.”
He smiled, and it warmed her heart and made her tingle in places that surprised her. He was a handsome man, and when he smiled he was beautiful. And those eyes!
“Fair enough.” He took his leave after telling her to be ready to go to the coliseum in one hour.
The time dragged, and she spent it near the figurehead, watching the boats come and go from the harbor. The crew was hard at work preparing the ship for the dragon. Min couldn’t imagine how they were going to pull this off. There were so many things that could go wrong.
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