Wrath of Dragons (Elderealm Book 1)

by Scott King

  "Who are you people?" Tamryn took a step back from the wheel.

  "I'm Alexendra Eos, daughter of Edgar Eos. This is Carter, apprentice to Owen the Magician, and that's Doug. He's a dragon. Stuck as a human. It's a long story."

  Tamryn opened her mouth to speak and let out a long, drawn-out burp. "How much did I drink back there? Did I try zewik? I've sworn never to touch the stuff. Please say I didn't."

  "You didn't," Carter said. "We have important business in Kale. Life-or-death type stuff. We need you to take us there."

  "You lot are either the best liars I've ever met, or you are telling me the truth." Tamryn seized the wheel. "And so you know, I've known many amazing liars."

  "I could try catching the arrows," Doug said.

  "Too fast, even with your abilities," Carter said.

  "What kind of ship is this?" Alex asked. "Is Jetsam a smuggler or something? Maybe he has some weapons or–"

  "It's a fishing ship” Tamryn said. "I was going to take his current load to Lund and sell it with the ship. I could live off it for a year. Like, really live."

  "We got company," Doug pointed to the gap between the lighthouses. In the bay, on the other side, were two cutters. They turned in place, forming a barricade.

  "Damn it to the abyss and back." Tamryn looked toward the harbor. "You think Jetsam saw me?"

  "Yes," Carter said.

  "I can't jump ship if he can identify me," Tamryn said. "But you lot are welcome to make a swim for it. No reason for all of us to lose our faces to the axe."

  A single archer raised his bow and shot up at an angle.

  The arrow splashed into the water ten parses ahead of the Saundra. In less than a minute, they would be in firing range. They needed to act fast, but Alex had no idea what to do.

  "The things they shot into the air that flashed with light, what were those?" Doug asked.

  "Fireworks," Carter said.

  "How do they work?" Doug said. "Is it magic?"

  Carter shook his head. "Not real magic. They are agyls of fire and air set to explode with special metallic shavings that burn."

  "Do we have any fireworks?" Doug glanced around the fishing vessel.

  "All ships are required to have them," Tamryn said. "Should be in the dry hold."

  "Get it for me." Without waiting for a response, Doug pulled a harpoon out of a bin. He balanced it in his palm, as if judging the weight. "If there is more than one of the fireworks, bring them all."

  Tamryn found three fireworks. Two red and one green. Doug tied one to a harpoon. "Once ignited, how long before it launches?"

  "Thirty seconds at best," Tamryn said.

  "Light it." Doug held out the harpoon.

  Tamryn drew a small agyl, which caused the bottom of the firework's tube to spark.

  Doug's lips moved as if he were talking to himself.

  "You want to be a taintson at the bottom of the sea?" Tamaryn slid away. "That will explode and if it doesn't kill us, it will light this ship on fire."

  "Quiet," Doug said, "I'm counting."

  After what seemed like too long, Doug threw the harpoon.

  It sailed through the air, too fast for Alex to track. Seconds later, an explosion shook the lighthouse on the right.

  Dazzling light reflected across the water.

  The archers in the tower screamed, jumping out windows.

  Before all could escape, the lighthouse shook and collapsed.

  "By Edimear's tit, what did you do?" Tamryn asked.

  "Light the second," Doug said.

  Tamryn did as told, and Doug threw it. A moment later, the second tower flared with light, but the explosion caused no physical damage. "Damn. Missed."

  "Missed what?" Alex asked.

  "The window," Doug said. "They have crates inside with fireworks written on the side. That's what I hit with my first throw."

  Doug wrapped the third and final firework around a harpoon. Tamryn lit it, and he threw it.

  They waited.

  "Well?" Carter asked.

  The whistling sounded across the water followed by a storm of light. Glittering sparkles and flares shone brighter than the agyl beams at the lighthouse's top.

  The tower shook, but this time didn't fall, though it was enough of a ruckus that the archers bolted, fleeing down the seawall.

  Carter cheered.

  Alex gave him a cold stare. Those were innocent men and women doing their jobs. Lots were hurt. Some might be dead. It was nothing to cheer about.

  "Don't be celebrating yet, boyo." Tamryn once again lined up the bow of the ship with the gap between the lighthouses. "There is the royal navy to deal with."

  "Can we get past them?" Carter asked.

  "Getting past them is easy," Tamryn said. "The fun will begin once we hit open water. It will be a test to see whose ship is faster."

  38

  Open Sea

  Ornsday, 21st of Winewen, 1162.111

  As much as Doug didn't like Tamryn, she had been right. Slipping their fishing ship past the navy cutters was simple. The two ships had been trying to make a barricade and were relying more on intimidation than anything else. So, when the Saundra squeezed between them, it took their crew time to lower the sails and pull up anchors.

  The excitement quickly wore off, though, because once they were out to sea... they were out to sea. There was nothing to see but an endless blue that stretched to the stars.

  Sure, there were two armed ships in pursuit, but they all were slaves to the wind, and although they constantly shrunk the gap between them and the Saundra, the shrinking was minimal. Three hours later, the Saundra was still ahead by more than a nautical league.

  "How long before they catch up?" Alex stood at the stern of the ship. Carter was at the bow. It was as if the two of them were keeping as much distance from each other as they could.

  "Way I see it?" Tamryn bit her lip. "They should catch up about the time we get to Kale. If they follow that long."

  "We wrecked the lighthouses and stole a ship, you really think they'll give up like that?" Doug said.

  "Kale is a creepy place." Tamryn rummaged through the compartments on the side of the ship. "Those that go there tend to not return."

  "No chance to outrun them?" Alex said. "What if we ditch the cargo?"

  "Not going to happen." Tamryn swung open a cabinet and grinned. Inside were jugs of water secured with netting. She popped one open, took a long sip, and smacked her lips. "Those fish in our hold are my easy ticket."

  "What if I re-offer my ring?" Alex caressed the pouch tied to her belt.

  Doug suspected that Alex didn't want to let the ring go, but was willing to do what she must.

  "No," Tamryn lay down on the deck, crossing her legs and looking up at the stars. "Now that I know who you folk are, I want no one to know. Could hurt my reputation, and that's all a girl has."

  Doug kept quiet. He knew nothing of sailing or swimming, and thought the matter was best left to those who at least appeared to know what they were talking about.

  The conversation lulled, and the night ticked by. When the sun rose the next morning, the clouds were a deep periwinkle with streaks of pink that rose from the water to fluffy cloud banks. By midmorning, the sky went fully grey, and they faced a constant drizzle. The winds picked up, which increased their speed, but it also meant they had to deal with choppy waters.

  Carter, who had been keeping away from the others, perked up and knocked on the deck to get their attention. "What's that?"

  At first, Doug thought Carter was pointing at the navy ships, which were now so close that Doug could count the number of women and men on the deck. Then he looked up and saw what had caught Carter's attention.

  Dragons.

  Hundreds of dragons dropped from the grey clouds.

  The dragons moved in an unnatural pattern, banking and rising together. It was eerie, like ghosts from his past returning to haunt him.

  Dragons from all the clans were present, including e
lders and fledglings. They came in all shapes and sizes, and the vibrance of their scales outshone the sunrise.

  "Toothless bark-chewing twit!" Tamryn turned the wheel, pointing the sloop to face southwest. "I can't outrun that."

  "Kale," Alex said. "They are going to Kale!"

  The dragons reached the navy ships, and still they moved not like a flock with a shared goal, but as a single body. No dragon should move in such a way. It was disturbing, against the nature of what it meant to be a dragon.

  "Those taintson idiots." Tamryn swore.

  Sailors on the navy vessels scrambled. A moment later, a wave of arrows launched from the deck.

  Aided with agyls, there was a chance the long bows could provide the force needed for the arrows to penetrate a dragon's underscales. It would take dozens of wounds to cause any real damage.

  Arrows tinked against dragon bellies and fell back to the sea. The act of violence drew the attention of the dragons.

  The dragons split into two groups. Each dove for a different cutter.

  Bands of fire swept across the water, creating scalding clouds of water vapor. The hot, damp air steamed the archers before the flames had a chance to reach them.

  Death screams carried across the still sea, and in too quick a manner, they stopped as both navy ships were eaten by dragon fire.

  The attack happened so swiftly that the humans didn't have time to react. Not a one managed to jump ship to escape the smoldering inferno. The wind shifted, and Doug caught whiffs of sulfur and burned flesh.

  Dragons were not a weapon, and it hurt to see his kin used this way. Medrayt needed to be stopped. This was wrong.

  "No!" Carter kneeled by the mast, tracing invisible things in the air. "I still don't have my magic. I can't do anything."

  The two squads of dragons merged into a single group again and continued on their path toward the Saundra.

  "Doug?" Alex's eyes pleaded with him.

  Dying by dragons as a human would be a fitting way to go. The kind of thing Carter would read in some story. A tragic thing. "They aren't acting like dragons or moving like dragons. Medrayt is in full control. The question is whether he will let us be."

  "Everyone overboard!" Tamryn swung open the same compartment she retrieved the water jug from. She reached under the netting and pulled out what looked like flattened hides. She traced an agyl on one and handed it to Doug.

  The hide expanded with air to form a ball at the base. The top looped into a hoop that was big enough for a hand. "What is it?" he asked.

  "Ollip bladder." Tamryn inflated two more and passed them to Carter and Alex. "It will keep you afloat."

  "What about you?" Alex asked.

  "I'm not leaving my easy ticket." Tamryn pointed. "Kale is two to three leagues due south. If you are lucky, the current will take you most of the way."

  "We can't leave you like this," Alex said.

  "I'll be fine." Tamryn gave Alex a hug. Then she pushed the girl backward and over the rail of the ship.

  "Alex!" Carter dove in after her.

  "Well big guy, do I need to push you too?" Tamryn winked at Doug, and he didn't like the feeling it gave him. It was the same kind of feeling that Kane gave him, and it didn't feel right.

  Holding the ollip bladder with both hands, Doug jumped overboard.

  He managed to clamp his mouth shut, but that did nothing to stop the water from surging into his nostrils.

  He coughed, taking a full mouthful of the salty brine. It was warm and strange, like being in an oversized stewpot that had cooled down. For his first experience with the sea, he was pretty sure that he didn't like it.

  The ollip bladder kept him from sinking, and by the time he stopped coughing, Carter and Alex had swam over to him. Alex took off her cloak, wound it through the bladder handles, and tied it off so they were all linked together.

  Doug kept one hand on his bladder, but with the other he held the back of Carter's shirt. He felt selfish, as if he were playing favorites, being Carter's safety net instead of Alex's, but between the two of them, he thought Alex stood a better chance of taking care of herself.

  A beating roar filled the air.

  Shadows dropped from the sky. Swift blurs, mixed with the flare of dragon fire. Something forcefully struck the Saundra and Doug heard the sound of wood breaking. The water churned and a wave rolled over their heads, dragging them further from the ship.

  White water and a humid mist protected them from the scalding vapors, and when they resurfaced, the Saundra was gone. No shrapnel from the boat or signs of wreckage remained, it was as if the entire ship had been pulled under to never to be seen again.

  Alex laughed.

  Doug gave her a cold stare.

  "I know. She's dead, but..." Alex straightened her face. "I just realized that when Tamryn hugged me, she stole my ring."

  Doug laughed. He didn't mean to. It slipped out.

  "That's not right. She saved us,” Carter said. "She's gone. You can't laugh at her. That's wrong."

  Doug and Alex laughed harder.

  The stress. The weeks of running. The constant dance with death. It all seemed to boil out and even though Doug knew it wasn’t funny, he couldn’t help but laugh. There was something to be said about dying doing what you loved, and in the short time he had known her, he suspected that Tamryn truly loved swindling people.

  "You're right," Alex said. "Besides, we better get moving. We may not be able to beat the dragons to Kale, but we shouldn't give them extra lead time."

  Doug scanned the sky. The dragons were already back in the clouds heading south. The entire sea was flat in that direction, and he could make out the outline of an island.

  39

  Kalendor

  Ulesday, 22nd of Winewen, 1162.111

  Not for the first time, Alex was grateful for Doug. His enhanced strength and powerful kicks kept them on track, making their swim to Kale twice as fast as it otherwise would have been.

  The horrible thing was watching the island burn as they approached.

  The dragons circled Kale, bathing it in fire.

  They did so for twenty minutes, and when they were done, there was nothing left.

  By the time Alex put her soggy boots on the rocky shore, all she could see were rolling hills of ash.

  What only hours ago had been forest or meadow was now blackened earth. The fire had burned so quickly only glowing embers remained. If there had been Dragon Lotuses on the island, they were now destroyed.

  "Let's check the other side of the ridge," Doug said. "They may have missed something."

  "Let's get dry first," Alex said. "It shouldn't take long, and we will regret it if we don't."

  They cleared away ash, unearthing a bed of hot stones, and laid out their boots and socks. Doug got fully naked, throwing his clothes onto the rocks, clearly not caring. She thought it must be a dragon thing.

  Carter left on his britches but removed his shirt. It was the first time she had seen him topless, and she was surprised that he had some muscles on his arms. Nothing like Gideon or the soldiers in her father's army, but when you expect soup and get bread, it does make you do a double take.

  "We can head around the beach a bit and give you some privacy," Carter said.

  "Privacy?" Doug said. "You need to use the bathroom? I gotta go too."

  "I don't need to go to the bathroom, and I'm fine here." She unbuttoned her shirt and threw both it and her pants onto the rocks. She felt no shame standing in her undergarments. To prove her point, she undid her cloak from the ollip bladders and spread it out to dry. She could have easily used it to cover up and hoped Carter saw that she chose not to, that she had nothing to hide.

  "Well I gotta go," Doug said. "Give me five minutes. No. Make that ten."

  Doug headed over a low hill and while he was gone, Alex took the time to survey the island. Kale had a bean shape with a ridge running along its outer edge. The center of the island formed a valley that was hidden from view. There was a
slight chance something remained there, but she and Doug both knew that the dragons hadn't missed a thing. But what else could they do? They had no ship. They had zero supplies. They were screwed. Might as well investigate anyway.

  When Doug returned, they got dressed, and not only were her pants and shirt dry, but they were warm and cozy, a sensation she hadn't felt in a long time.

  They hiked single file up the outer ridge of the island. The climb was gradual, but high. She estimated the zenith was at least a thousand parses above the beach. The smoke and soot were more distracting than the exercise, and by the end of it, she was sweating so bad that ash clung to her damp neck and cheeks.

  The valley on the other side sunk below sea level. There must not have been much vegetation before the dragon assault because, although burned, there weren't any ash drifts blanketing the ground. Scattered across the basin were structures that might have been a city once or some otherworldly temple. Centuries of weather had torn the place apart.

  "About time," a cold voice said. "We were getting bored."

  Alex turned and saw the Sisters. All three floated above the ground in their white dresses. The ash floated through them, and Alex chuckled at the idea of its leaving them dirty, though she knew it would never happen.

  "Do we get bored?" Clothu said.

  "No." Lachesis shook her head.

  "Then why did you say it?" Atropos asked.

  Clothu shrugged. "So we would appear more relatable."

  "I don't like it," Atropos said.

  "Neither do I." Lachesis turned to look at Alex. "We aren't bored. We knew exactly when you would get here, and we popped over the second you arrived."

  "Now we sound less mysterious," Clothu said. "Should've stuck with the bored angle."

  "What do you want?" Alex said. She hadn't meant it to sound so blunt, but the island's destruction and her failure to recover a Dragon Lotus had worn her patience thin.

  "We want what we always have wanted. To guide you, and right now you need guidance."