I had been young when I saw my first dragon. It was almost my first memory, I think. Curled up against my mother’s chest as we walked the coast, to see a glorious flight of sea-greens and blues diving down the cliffs, straight into the water like thrown spears. My mother had frozen, terrified, but I had heard their voices in my head as they chirruped and talked to each other.
“There, Vasjol! That fish!”
“No, Tiliban, that one is mine!”
“Well, Danu?” Lila pressed me for an answer, her eyes clear and yearning as she bit her lip. She looked so vulnerable right now, so desperate for this plan of hers to go right. She has set herself against everything her people hold dear for this, I thought.
“No,” I found myself saying. “Only I can speak to the dragons, that I know of.”
Chapter 11
Lila, taunting dragons
The boat scraped up the golden sands, and once again I found myself on the dragon atoll where this had all started. But I didn’t feel the same, somehow. There was more riding on this now. I had the blessing of my father. I had asked the crew for their permission. They were expecting me to get this right.
“Help me with this, will you?” I said to Danu, seizing one end of the wooden cask as he seized the other. It was heavy, but most of that I feared was the heavy oak, the iron binding, and the large lock. If my father hasn’t given me enough to make friends with a dragon, I’ll brain him, I thought. Before or after I was eaten, I wasn’t quite sure…
We thumped the cask and our small amount of provisions up by the rocks at the edge of the beach, and I set out my cloak to dry in the warm sun. “I want to look my best to approach the dragons,” I said.
“They won’t care how you look. Maybe how you smell,” Danu said in a considering tone, and I couldn’t tell if he was making fun of me or not. He had changed, too, over the course of the last week and the two nights it had taken to get here. He was, if anything, quieter and more thoughtful. No longer so urgent and desperate to force me to become the ‘Sea-Queen of Roskilde’ or whatever it was he believed. For that, at least, I was glad, but I also found him looking at me at odd times, as if he were judging me.
Well, Lila of the Raiders will not be judged by anyone! Let alone Danu, the wannabe mage! I thought haughtily. “I still want to look good,” I said, teasing out my braid and using the small metal comb that my mother had given me to brush it through, before retying it back. It didn’t take long for my cloak to dry on the warm sands, and I shook it out to fasten it with the gold pin that my father had given me. “So, how do I look?”
“Like a queen,” Danu said with a crooked smile, bowing.
“Ugh.” I shook my head at his theatrics. “Well, if you want me so desperately to be the queen, you can carry the cask then,” I said, turning to head towards the spire of rock where the brood dragon would surely be.
We picked our way through the upland of rocks and scrubby bushes, eventually taking turns to carry the cask of treasures after I had taken pity on the struggling Danu behind me. The sun was heading toward setting when a low, haunting call pierced the air.
“Skreeee….” Instantly, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and a shiver went down my spine.
“Okay, we should stop,” Danu said. “She’s warning us,” he said, heaving the cask onto the floor and stepping back.
“She can’t even see us!” I pointed out to the spire of rock, and the dark cave that was already shadowed.
“Don’t think she can’t. Dragons have senses far better than our own. Eyes like hawks, noses that can smell fish under the waves, ears that can hear the rumbling of frost storms leagues before they come down into the western oceans…” Danu whispered. “She’s known all about us ever since we started heading into her territory, I shouldn’t wonder.”
My mouth went dry. This mother dragon could have killed us at any time she chose then. She could have attacked us when we were out at sea, with no chance of running away. “What do we do?” I whispered.
Danu behind me looked wide-eyed and as nervous as I was. Did he really know as much about dragons as he pretended to? I thought in alarm.
“Ears so good they can hear frost storms?” I checked, to Danu’s worried nod. “Fine. It means she can already hear us then.” I turned back to the spire ahead of us, clearing my throat, and began.
“Great dragon! We two have come bearing gifts for you. We want to make a peace offering, and have a, uh…” How do I tell it that I want to take its babies away with me? How would my mother, Pela, feel if someone told her that they wanted to buy me? “And we want to discuss matters of great importance with you!” I finished with a flourish.
Nothing for a moment, and then a low, answering hiss – but it didn’t come from the atoll spire, it seemed to come from the gathering darks. Had the dragon slid out of the cave while I was talking to Danu? Or did it have another secret exit?
“Great dragon?” I tried again, thinking of a different tactic. I would try to impress her. “I am Lila of Malata, successor to the mighty Chief Kasian of the Sea Raiders. First Mate of the Ariel, winner of battles, I can…”
“SKREYCH!” The evening was suddenly illuminated by a gout of scarlet flame, and, in that light I could see the sudden shape of a long, blue-scaled body with a pale underbelly. A long, sinuous neck that arched up into the air, atop which was a narrow, pointed head – still able to swallow me whole. Her claws were as long as short swords, and her body as large as the Ariel, if not larger.
“Sweet waters!” I swore, stumbling back.
“She says that she doesn’t care what you call yourself,” Danu stuttered beside me. He fell silent, his head bowed as the dragon’s head bobbed at him. “She’s asking me why I have brought back to her island the egg thief…” Danu was pale and shaking.
We’re both going to die tonight, I thought, but what I said was, “I didn’t mean any harm!”
“Lady Blue,” Danu beside me said. “Strong and wise Lady of this island, you who have seen much in your years, and have seen more than any human could ever hope to – I know that you can see the truth of what my friend Lila here says. She meant you no insult, she merely sought to bond with your newts.”
“Schreeeech?” A short, sharper note came this time from the Sinuous Blue dragon.
“Of course!” Danu said, his voice getting firmer as he continued to talk. “Who couldn’t want to be a dragon friend? To be a dragon friend is truly the greatest accolade that any human can have! No wonder my friend Lila here sought you out, of all the other dragons.”
The Blue set her front paws down on the ground with a thump that I could feel through my feet, stalking forward towards us, the tip of her tail lishing and lashing like a disgruntled cat. But I thought that she wasn’t going to eat us just yet.
“Offer her the stones, Lila,” Danu hissed at me. “Be nice to her!”
He didn’t have to ask me twice. I took a hesitant step forward, unlocked the cask, and opened wide the lid. The treasure was pathetically small even to my eyes, but it was also treasure that I knew that the Raiders could ill afford to lose. I had to make this count. “Beautiful Lady Blue,” I copied Danu’s example. “No gem or gold could ever compare to just the gleam of one of your scales, but I would be honored if these found a home with you…”
The dragon’s head darted forward to sniff at the treasure, before slowly raising her head back again. I felt a slight pressure behind my eyes, and I thought that I could almost hear something, like a soft susurrus of wind in my ears, until Danu spoke.
“She doesn’t think much of them.”
“I could get more?” I offered.
“No, Sym just doesn’t like jewels and gold,” Danu said hesitantly.
“Sym?” I asked, and as soon as I said the word, the dragon hissed, and her head darted forward once more to hang over us.
“Uh, I probably shouldn’t have told you the dragon’s name. She told me because,” Danu flickered a finger to his temples, “because I
have a touch of the dragon gift, but…”
“Oh.” Great. There was no way this dragon was going to like me, because I wasn’t a mage, or a witch. My dreams started to crumble before my very eyes, to be replaced by a slow, burning despair.
Again, came that pressure between the dragon Sym and the Adept Danu, but I had my head hung, glaring at my boots. How could I have gotten this so wrong? After everything I have given to this?
“But Lady Blue, a bond between our peoples would be beneficial to us both! And your children – how strong and brave they are sure to be – they will be known and loved by humans all across the Western Archipelago! Everyone will sing of their exploits!” Danu said, and was answered by the sharp whistles and chirrups of the mother dragon above us. After every exchange, I could tell that the negotiations must be going badly.
“Well, we could ‘try our luck’ at Torvald, as you so wittily put it, but we would rather make friends with our own wild and free island dragons!” Danu said desperately.
Everything I had dreamed about, I thought miserably. All of the faith and the hope that my father, my mother, and my crew had placed in me to get this right. We Raiders wouldn’t last another season if we didn’t have a dragon.
“Coward,” I spat.
“Lila, no!” Danu gasped.
“Sssssss….!” The Blue dragon–Sym–made a low, threatening hiss like a boiling kettle.
“Lady Blue.” I raised my head. If we Raiders are dead anyway, then we might as well go out in a way worthy of a song. “I have come here, far, far from my homeport, especially to make friends with you. I did that because I need your strength. I need your fire, your bravery. Why do the Island Dragons live all the way out here, far from the others? Are you all so tired of the world that you would rather be forgotten by it?” I said angrily.
“No…no…” Danu had fallen to his knees, aghast.
But I was angry, and nothing was going to stop me now. “I grew up wishing that I was someone else. That I was Saffron Zenema, not when she was Queen Saffron, but Saffron Zenema, the simple island girl.” As soon as I said her name, the dragon hissed and reared her head. “You know why? Because of dragons. Because Saffron Zenema lived a life full of great adventure, full of bravery, and full of dragons. She did things that no woman has ever done before! She was brave, and so were her dragon friends.” I challenged the Blue.
“I thought that all dragons would be as brave as those dragons of the past. You might not like humans much, Lady Blue – and I don’t blame you, half the time – but together, I promise, humans and dragons can weave the most powerful stories that will shake the entire world!” I ended fiercely.
“Sckreyar!” The Blue dragon roared, rearing up and pounding her front claws back down again once more on the ground. But I stood, defiant, and I stared at her. If you’re going to kill me, then do it now, while I’ve still got the courage to stand and take it… I glared at her.
But, amazingly, she didn’t kill me. She didn’t pour her dragon flame over us. Instead, she very gradually lowered her head to my level, to sniff at me. Her large, scaled nostrils flared once, twice, before she huffed heavily, blowing sooty air all around us. And then, wondrously, she withdrew, stepping back into the darkness until all I could see were her glowing eyes, growing smaller and smaller, until they too winked out.
“You idiot.” Danu breathed. “You amazing, incredible, idiot.”
“What?” Suddenly I had to sit down as my knees started to shake and I gasped for air as I realized that I had challenged a dragon with nothing more than my words, and won.
“It seems that as well as shiny things and praise, dragons like a challenge.” Danu was grinning at me wildly. “She says that she likes you. You have guts. She said you have some of the same fire that Saffron of Zenema had, and that is why she will let you stay on her island until the hatching, tomorrow night. The newts will choose for themselves if they want to bond with you, and she will not interfere.” I watched the mage gulp in amazement. “This… This is astonishing. I’ve read some of the histories of Torvald, they talk about a Choosing Ceremony, a Testing, nothing like this…” He was tapping his lips, deep in thought. “Don’t you see? This could be the first dragon-initiated bonding!”
I didn’t know what that meant, but, right now, all I cared about was the fact that I had done it. I had dared the dragon into helping me, and it seemed to have worked.
Kinda.
Chapter 12
Danu, and the hatching
To be honest, I half expected to see the blue dragon charging down at our camp when I awoke the next morning, certain that what had happened last night had been a dream.
It wasn’t, though, of course. Somehow, miraculously, that crazy girl had managed to convince a dragon into allowing her hatchlings to bond with her. It still made my stomach turn over when I thought of the sight of it: the brave Lila standing with her chin struck out, defiant, as the Sinuous Blue had lowered her snout and snuffed her. Her front fangs had been clearly visible, almost as big as the girl’s chest. It was like something from the old books.
I grumbled as I got up, to find that the fire had already been stoked, and a new mat of tide-wood had been laid across it. Our camp was simple, beside the keel of our small boat on the beach, with just a blanket each to call our beds. Not like the huts of Sebol, I grimaced. The West Witches lived simply, but their long years of serving the Western Archipelago meant they had also become rich, of a sort. Not Roskilde rich, but enough to be able to afford fine bedding, rare incenses, well-made furniture.
The Raiders, on the other hand, seemed to be much more industrious, I thought as I saw Lila already returning with a brace of silver sea fish on the end of a thread-line.
“We’ll roast them over the fire, and have a decent meal before the hatching tonight, at least,” she said with a grin.
Gone was the surly, annoyed chief’s daughter of the last few days, and instead of her fierce braid, I saw that she had let her hair hang wild as she fished. There was a lot of it, and it softened her features.
“You should smile more often,” I said, not stopping to think about it. It was something that Chabon had said to me once, scolding me that I was always too serious. The smile on Lila’s face transformed her from a blood thirsty Raider into a young, wild princess of the sea.
“Should I now? Why?” Lila’s grin turned into a frown in an instant. “Because it pleases you?”
“I uh, no, I just mean…”
“From what I remember, it wasn’t any smiling that I did last night that made that dragon respect me.” She dumped the fish onto the just starting to smolder driftwood. “Cook that, will you? Or don’t they teach adepts how to cook fish out there on the Haunted Isle?”
The Haunted Isle. That is what the more superstitious of the Western islanders called Sebol. We witches weren’t universally respected across the islands, I had to remember.
But, I knew well how to cook fish. The West Witches might receive lots of gifts from their allies, but that didn’t mean we also didn’t support ourselves. I brushed down one of the large rocks by the side of the fire, took out my knife, and started to skin and gut the medium-sized fish, throwing the bits to the gulls that were even now gathering for the scraps.
I could almost get used to this, I thought, as I worked and Lila combed the beach around us.
“She didn’t like the jewels and gold,” Lila said distractedly. “When we offered it to her, she wouldn’t take it.”
I shook my head. “I read that dragons love riches, but not all do. She must be the odd one out.”
“Maybe we didn’t offer her enough…” Lila rehearsed out loud greeting the hatchlings. “Welcome to the world, brave little friends!” she said with a very wide, and very fake smile.
“They’ll see through that a mile off,” I pointed out. If there was anything that the scrolls and books had made clear, it was that dragons could tell when someone was lying to them or trying to trick them. They were cunning creat
ures themselves.
There was a crack like a branch snapping in half, followed by a splash and I looked up suddenly to see a high plume of water slowly falling back to the sea. It must have been a whale or a jumping fish, I thought, before suddenly another shape descended out of the heavens, and entered the water like a dart.
They were dragons. Not as large as Sym in her birthing cave, but still very large compared to us. Another, circling above us, folded its wings and shot straight down like a thrown dart, plunging into the water and disappearing. It had been a turquoise blue, with the reflected light of the sun highlighting green along it’s back.
“Sea Dragons!” I called out in joy. They were just the sort I had seen when I was young, when I had first realized that I could hear dragons.
Closing my eyes and sitting up, I tried to find that quiet place inside that connected me with all things, and then, to the three creatures that were even now diving under the waves.
“Ha! There – that one!”
“No! That one is mine!”
They were young Sea Dragons, playing as they chased and caught fish. The sheer joy and passion they had for the activity spread through my mind and I found myself grinning like a lunatic.
“Dragons! Will they harm the eggs?” Lila was saying to me urgently, kicking sand at me.
“Ah, what? No – I, uh, I don’t sense any malice from them at all, not towards us or the Sinuous Blue…” To be honest, I had no idea what the normal behaviors between dragons were. I knew they were clever, intelligent, and could be highly social animals – but these dragons didn’t live in large broods, so…?
“We will have to be ready to defend the eggs,” Lila said, as the fish started to char on one side.
With a joyful roar, the three Sea Dragons burst from the water, swooped around the atoll once, before one peeled off and swooped lower around us.
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