Dragon Raider

by Ava Richardson

  “Up you get, you swabs!” Kal shouted, doling out bowls of porridge rich with oats, and a hunk of bread on top. I grunted my thanks as I took my breakfast, and retired to a spot under the foredeck with a few of the other hands.

  “Huh! What’s the old dog got planned for us then, hey?” said one of the Raiders, a small, stocky man with about one whole tooth in his head. He was grinning at me as he said it, clanging his spoon on the side of his bowl. “Because now I know he’s up to something!”

  “It’s only porridge, Sam.” I shook my head at his theatrics, digging into my own bowl to suddenly realize what he meant. This porridge wasn’t the usual watered-down affair that we had to put up with aboard the ship. This had real rich milk, and, I was sure, a small dollop of precious honey in there, too.

  Why was the captain waking us up super-early, and being VERY nice to us? I thought, as a shape shuffled over to join us with a sigh.

  “Budge up, Sam. It’s the fish-whisperer,” said one of the other hands, earning a playful groan from Danu as he sat down next to one-tooth Sam. Really? I grimaced. Did I have to wake up to him now as well? It’s not that he had been following me around the ship, or that you could ever avoid anyone on a sailing boat, but I had been very aware that Danu had been about a lot over the last few days. Even when we were on different shifts, I would find him taking his rest on deck, or else working near me, as if he was trying to keep an eye on me.

  “Danu.” I nodded, keeping my tone civil at least. A slight from the first mate could be taken as a sign that I was displeased, or that the captain was, by the rest of the crew. I couldn’t afford to give the view that there was any friction, if I wanted the crew to come with me to get the dragons.

  “Morning Lila, what’s going on?” Danu yawned before starting his breakfast. “Wow, delicious!” he said, earning agreement from the other Raiders.

  Ugh. He even fits in with them as well, I thought despairingly.

  “We’re going to be raiding,” I said to Danu, trying to keep the ice from my voice.

  “Raiding…” Uncertainty flickered in his green eyes, then suddenly his expression shifted as he forced a tight smile on his face. “Well, that’s what I’m here for, isn’t it?” he said cautiously.

  “That is what we do,” I said. Did he look down upon what we do, our way of life? Before I could think more on that, my father’s strong voice bellowed through the predawn dark.

  “Right, my crew! There’s a reason I got you up and early today – I wouldn’t pull you from your bunks without good reason now, would I?” he teased, earning a few wry chuckles from the older hands. Of course he would, but this game of tease and reward, along with rough jokes was a part of what the captain did to win the rest of the crew over. They liked him, and they expected him to be cunning and daring, perhaps even a bit cruel. Could I do the same? I wondered. I had always relied on myself to get things done. It was going to be hard to learn how to encourage and cajole – and trust – others.

  “I’ve had word, my hearties, that there is going to be a very important ship running the archipelago today. A nice, fat merchant ship straight out of Torvald itself!”

  “Hurrah!” The shout went up, and my ears pricked. The Kingdom of Torvald of course traded with the Western Archipelago. Ever since the civil war was won by King Bower, there had been renewed trading links with the place of Queen Saffron’s birth. Not that the archipelago had much to trade, but they had rare woods and spices, and of course, Bonerock, if you could find a ship large enough to transport it. But Queen Saffron seemed eager to restore trading links to this part of the world. She hasn’t forgotten us, I thought, feeling a flash of something like embarrassment.

  Guilt? The Queen Saffron was my hero. A lowly island girl who had risen to become the queen, and more so than that – a dragon friend and rider of the greatest nation in the world. The thought that she was working to make the lives of the islanders out here better made me proud, in an odd way. And now we are going to steal that trade from them. I felt nervous at the prospect. It was what we did. What we had always done. Our way of life, I reminded myself, setting my qualms aside. And I knew that we badly were in need of the coin and supplies and food a raid would bring.

  “We don’t know where she is, but I reckon she can’t have crossed the straits yet. The only sensible route is around the Tumult Seas and straight up the line of the archipelago, which means she has to cross this way before long,” Father was saying, as the eastern skies started to crisp with pink and russet clouds.

  “We’ll find a nice little cove and stay out the way until we spot her – and then…” He clapped his hands together, and the roar of enthusiasm from the crowd was hard to ignore. Even I whooped at the prospect of a successful raid.

  The Ariel cut through the waters now grown blue and clear the closer that we drew to the shores. Beyond our sails I could make out the white and jagged cliffs of the Western Archipelago, most of the heights crowned with dripping foliage, and the occasional beach of golden sand hidden in coves.

  “It’s a fine day!” complimented Adair, one of the younger Raiders, who wore his dark hair held up into a topknot, as was the fashion. He was of an age with me, and, with his sister Senga, were probably my closest friends on board.

  “It is.” I nodded, keeping an eye on the coasts and the rocks. Adair and I were out by the bowsprit at the front of the vessel, where we could call out warnings of sudden reefs or hidden rocks.

  But Kal the Sailing Master and my father had been navigating and raiding these waters all their lives. We passed a large collection of boulders called Giant’s Rock and skirted the narrow channel of Eel’s Pike, lined with sharp rocks a small ship like the Ariel could navigate, if such a risk became necessary. Giant fish leapt and skipped across the water further out to sea, and the cliffs echoed with the sound of nesting birds.

  “But still no sign of that Torvald ship.” Adair sighed regretfully. Senga was up in the crow’s nest with one of the rare spyglasses, likely scanning the distant horizons for sign of our prey.

  “Let’s hope she’s heavy with gold,” I said with a worried grin, trying to imitate what my father would say. And let’s hope she hasn’t got a Dragon Rider escort, either. I tapped the railing.

  “Sails!” Senga’s voice cut through the tension.

  “Where? Where?” Father called back. Senga was pointing due east, down the line of the islands, and straight for the edge of the Tumult Seas. “Got an eye on her? What flag is she waving?”

  Roskilde, I found myself praying, startling myself that I hadn’t prayed for the dragon of Torvald.

  “The Red and Purple, captain! She’s a Torvald ship all right!” Senga punched the air, and I heard a holler of joy.

  “Right! Get that Roskilde flag up, now!” Father ordered as I moved to the kit boxes on the sides of the desk. As first mate, I was expected to be the first to get things done under the captain and the sailing master. If they wanted something tied down, I would be there to do it, or else to organize a crew to get on it. If they wanted us to board an enemy vessel, then I would have to be in the front ranks along with the captain. I motioned Adair to keep an eye on the rocks as I signaled two more hands to join me.

  The flag box had a variety of large cloth flags that we could run up on ropes to sit over the sails. Not as big as the entire canvas of course, but would give a picture to a far-away vessel who was in their near waters. We had a city of Vala flag, a whole host of islands local colors, and, then we had the Roskilde flags.

  “War or trade, captain?” I shouted back, referring to the two styles of Roskilde flags that we used. One was the sea-crown rising with crossed swords, and the other was just the sea-crown of Roskilde.

  “War, first mate!” My father beamed. “Let ‘em feel safe that they have one of Havick’s very own escorts come to protect ‘em!”

  I grabbed one edge of the flag and ran to the mainmast, as at my side the crew members took another end, and started threading with ropes. We had
to get this flag up quickly, or else the Torvald ship might smell a rat.

  Which meant climbing the mast, my stomach lurched. But I would have to become good at heights if I want to be a Dragon Mercenary. In fact, and as much as the thought filled me with dread, I would have to become pretty damn amazing at heights.

  “Sweet seas, give me courage…” I fixed one edge of the sail to my belt hooks, and started climbing, hand over hand, my feet finding the metal stepping rods as I moved. I got about ten feet up when the boat swayed and wobbled as Kal turned us around. The movement made the horizon rise and dip and I clung to the mast fiercely.

  “Come on, come on…” I reached out a hand, grabbed the next stepping rod and pulled myself up, looking to see the miles of mast above me. Another ten feet when my knees started to shake, and my legs wanted to cramp.

  Just keep climbing. Don’t look up. Don’t look down! I was sweating now, breathing hard. I would do this for my father, and for my crew. I would make them see how great a first mate I was. They would want to follow me on the backs of dragons.

  “Lila, here…” I heard a voice say, to find that Danu had already climbed on the other side of the main trunk-like mast to reach out and grab one edge of the false flag. He appeared completely unbothered by the height, even holding on with one hand as he reached out to steady me against the mast.

  “Get down! I got this!” I hissed at him, even though my heart was hammering hard in my chest.

  “Don’t be silly. I’m here to help, not beat you!” he snapped, leaning out to draw up the rope and start to climb up with it, pulling the flag behind him.

  “Idiot!” I hissed, angered at his apparent skill at climbing, and at the fact that, unless I wanted the false flag to bunch up awkwardly behind me, I had to climb at pace with him. My anger with the boy broke the fear in my legs and I climbed alongside him. “This is dangerous, what you’re doing!” I snapped at him as we both climbed.

  “Got you moving, though.” Danu smiled, full of self-satisfaction. I swear, if it hadn’t meant only holding on with one hand and then plummeting to my certain death, I would have hit him. As it was, I settled for growling at him as we raced together to the yard arm that crossed the sail horizontally, to shuffle our way out, fixing the ropes to the beams. He even knew how to make a double-hitch, it seemed, as he tied his rope off and shuffled back to the main mast.

  With a ripple, the flag now displayed the rising sea-crown over the crossed swords. We were a Roskilde navy boat, and we didn’t even have to swear those silly oaths of allegiance, or spend years in a naval academy!

  “I should tell the captain and have you punished,” I said between my teeth as I joined him on the other side of the mainmast. We would have a little bit of time before our boats met, and the climbing had exhausted me as I clutched to the wood and gasped for breath. “What you did was dangerous.”

  “Lila? You know what that is, right?” Danu was saying, pointing to the Roskilde flag underneath our feet, and underneath that (I thought a little giddily) I could see the tops of the heads of the sailors rushing to their places about the boat, surreptitiously putting daggers into belts, and trying to appear nonchalant, lest the other boat could see them.

  “Duh, it’s a flag.” I shook my head, and then immediately regretted it as the world spun.

  “It’s the ‘rising crown’ or, more accurately, the Sea Crown of Roskilde. The witches have known about it for years,” Danu stated. “It’s one of the relics of the old times, or so my Master Afar thinks. A powerful magical object that has kept the island kingdom of Roskilde safe for generations,” he stated.

  “Great. Good for it.” I held onto the mast, wishing that the fish-boy would stop talking now. Down below Adair was again at the prow, but he was fiddling with the grab-lines, I noted. He should only be on lookout duty, I thought, he should know to call up another hand if he spots something else that needs doing!

  “Lila, that crown should be on your head. It’s right now sitting on the head of a usurper. This is a great, great evil in the world, and one which will only create more evil for everyone…” Danu said.

  Really? He was going to try to give me a lecture right now? I thought. “I’ve already agreed with you that I will help you look into this prophecy of yours, adept,” I stated. “You don’t have to bore me with the details…”

  “Lila!” His tone was suddenly hurt, like I had personally insulted him. “It’s not just the prophecy I’m trying to tell you about – although that is the whole reason why I am here, and why I found you…” He looked appalled and hurt. “It’s the fact that a great evil has been done to the islands by Lord Havick. An evil which needs a good person to right it.”

  “And you think I’m that person, right?” I forced my eyes open again to glare at him. “Do I look like your amazingly heroic queen?” I muttered, feeling angry at him seeing me like this, scared and clutching the mast. I didn’t feel very heroic right now. Maybe I was never going to learn how ride a dragon. I accused myself. Maybe Father is right. Maybe these are all just useless, fanciful dreams.

  “Yes,” Danu said, his almond-green eyes wide with an earnest hope that made me feel ashamed. “But there are many types of queens, or so the histories tell us. There was the Old Queen Delia; some say she was good, others say she was terrible. There is Saffron…”

  “Queen Saffron,” I corrected defensively. “The only woman to rise from island girl to queen, and a dragon friend!” I felt fiercely proud of her.

  “And Queen Saffron.” Danu nodded, his face quirking into a smile for some reason. Did he find my loyalty funny? “There are good queens and bad ones, and I know that a good queen doesn’t take money from the poor to fill her coffers.”

  “What?” I frowned, my anger once again making me forget my fear of heights. Was he seriously trying to rebuke me for being a Raider, and doing what Raiders do? “What about if someone takes from the poor to give to other poor people who need it just as much?” I demanded of him. “Because, remember that is what is happening here, Danu – the Raiders need that gold if we are to survive another year. We need the food it can buy, we need the repairs it can pay for, we need the medicine it can bring, just as much as these islanders do!” I snapped, swinging myself to climb down with anger fueling my limbs. I didn’t even think of falling at all, until I was jumping down to the deck and shouting for the crew.

  “Weapons ready! Stay out of sight until captain’s orders!”

  Chapter 8

  Danu, mutineer

  The Torvald ship cut through the waves towards us, and the Sailing Master Kal kept us to a fast course that would pull us right alongside her. It was just past midday, and it was fine and clear with a brisk wind. An excellent day for raiding.

  What under the stars am I doing? I thought in alarm as Lila thumped the leather cuirass jacket into my hands and told me to stay out of the way.

  “Lila…” I tried to catch her eye, to impress upon her the importance of what I had been trying to tell her, but she just ignored me, grabbing the next leather jacket to hand to the next Sea Raider. We all were expected to pick up a short-bladed scimitar or a bow, and ready ourselves by the gunwales, out of sight.

  So, this is what raiding is, I thought as I crouched beside the others. Hiding out of sight, and then murdering innocent people? The thought of what Afar might say or think if she could see me now filled me with a deep shame.

  But the prophecy had led me here, to that girl! I pleaded with her memory, or with fate itself. How could the prophecy be wrong? Lila was the un-crowned Queen of Roskilde, rising from the waves, I was certain of it – but why would fate want the rightful Queen of the Western Islands to be a bloodthirsty pirate?

  I feared not only for my safety, but more than that – I feared what would happen to Lila herself if she carried out her plan to turn her Raiders into Dragon Mercenaries. Would a dragon even agree to such a plan? I thought. The accounts in the library of Sebol had talked about the dragons as a very proud, ancient
, and noble species but one that could just as easily be arrogant and cruel. If a dragon went too long without the company of its fellows and brood mates, then they could become wild and evil beings, thinking themselves to be gods.

  And the idea of cruel dragons with cruel Riders atop them was something that I couldn’t let happen.

  “If you don’t have to use magic, then you shouldn’t,” I whispered Chabon’s old advice to me. I wondered if that counted for prophecies and the fate of nations as well. If, by my aid, I was just going to introduce a great evil to the world, then maybe I shouldn’t. Maybe I should give up this ridiculous prophecy right now, and be content to avert a much greater evil–to stop Lila from managing to create an army of Dragon Mercenaries to harass, murder and steal with impunity.

  “What’s that, friend?” said one of the Raiders beside me, one of the younger ones called Adair. He looked nervous too, but he also had the gleam of white teeth in his savage, almost manic grin. “You scared? This your first raid?”

  I nodded. Both were true, but they weren’t the only things that I was scared of.

  “Look. Most people give up as soon as they see that we’re Raiders. Don’t worry. I’ll look out for ya.” Adair gave me a clap on the shoulder.

  “You don’t even know me,” I said, confused.

  Adair looked at me with equal bafflement, as if I had asked if the moon was made of blue or white cheese. “Maybe not well, but I’ve sailed with you, Danu.” He locked eyes with me. “That’s something you never hear about us Raiders. We’re loyal. If you sail with us, then you’re our family, see? We look after our family. It’s not just us Raider’s among the crew, look…” He nodded to the fair-haired brothers. “Their mother and father were from Torvald. Came out here before I was born, took to the seas to escape the Dark King. We took them in, and the brothers were born on this very ship. Look over there.” He nodded to the dark-skinned Raider with the shaved head. “He’s from the southern lands. Made his way up here escaping the seas-know-what, and we took him in. Half of the hands here are islanders, not from Malata, but from the archipelago.”