Dragon Raider

by Ava Richardson

  I felt shocked at her fierceness, and my hesitation must have been written clear across my face, as Lila frowned at me. “Havick is plotting to find me and kill me, Danu. Havick killed my real parents, and he is just a few tides away from killing my foster parents as well. I haven’t got time or the eggs to create a Dragon Mercenary army – and so it seems that I have to do what you wanted all along. I have to fight Havick if I want to survive, and if I want the Sea Raiders to survive.”

  “Oh.” I nodded, wondering why I didn’t feel happier. Wasn’t this what I had wanted? What Afar had wanted? For Lila to reach for the Sea Crown, her birth-right?

  But she hadn’t mentioned the Sea Crown at all, I realized. She hadn’t said anything about taking her place as a Princess of the Western Isles. All she had said she wanted to do was to save the Sea Raiders.

  “Lila, after we have defeated Havick,” I began cautiously.

  “If we defeat Havick,” Lila said stubbornly. “There are still an awful lot of ships and soldiers between here and there.” She turned away from me to congratulate Crux as he dropped himself onto the rocks, his breakfast having been eaten. “You still didn’t answer my question, Danu. Is there a way to get to your Sebol by air without being spotted?”

  Yes. There was.

  Chapter 24

  Lila and Afar

  The Haunted Isle – Sebol, Danu kept calling it – was the farthest island to the west of the archipelago. The Sea Raiders told tales of the ghosts that surrounded it, and even now, seeing the mists that swamped it in the afternoon light gave me a creepy feeling.

  “Hot springs.” Danu had confided in me, revealing the island’s secret. Obvious, really, I thought – and I wondered why no one had tried to raid the island before. There were plenty of islands along the Spice Coast that also had hot springs on them, meaning that they grew abundant with vegetation and were permanently surrounded by their own strange sea fogs and river mists.

  Because the Sea Raiders are a superstitious bunch, I answered myself. There were generations of tales about the various ships that had gone missing past the Haunted Isle, and so naturally the island itself had gained a bit of an evil reputation.

  We swooped low over the waters, keeping the dark shape ahead of us as we flew first south, and then back up towards the north to approach the island well away from its huts and villages, as Danu had suggested.

  “They rarely keep watch over the south-western approach,” the adept had told me. “As so few boats ever come from that direction…”

  This was our plan: fly in low over the water into the mists and find some abandoned part of the wilder coast on which to land, and then sneak in on foot. Danu said that he might have a few of his ‘magical tricks’ to aid with that – but seeing as I had only ever seen him summon a spot of rain and wind, I didn’t know how much help that would be.

  Even the mid-afternoon light seemed to drain from the sky as we slid into the sea mists. The sound of Crux’s wings suddenly became muted, and if anything felt like it was haunted – then this was it.

  “I can’t see anything!” I hissed at the dragon and person behind me.

  “You don’t have to. I can smell the island up ahead,” Crux told me, slowing his wings, dropping closer to the waters. He flew as silent as a hunting hawk.

  A dark shadow in the mists swung towards us. “What is that?” I hissed quickly, as Crux expertly flared his wings out of the way, and the shape was revealed as a spire of rock. As we flashed past, I thought for a moment that it had been shaped and carved into the likeness of a person.

  “On the other side!” Danu said, as Crux once again avoided the rock-stack colossuses. This one definitely was carved: a man with a maw open in a shout or a scream. Then came smaller rocks, heads that had only just broken the water, a stack of rocks that looked like reaching arms…

  “So these are the ghosts of Sebol, then?” I muttered as the mists darkened.

  “We’re here,” Crux whispered into my mind, even the great Phoenix dragon subdued by the creepy surroundings. The shadows up ahead solidified into a line of broken rocks, a shattered tree-covered cliff.

  “Danu?” I whispered back at him, to see his pale face nodding, and pointing a little farther to our right.

  “There should be larger rocks and clearings…” he said, his voice oddly small in the murk. Crux flashed over the overgrown wood, and I had a chance to see thick vines and moss stretching between the trees, and dense foliage everywhere. There could be entire villages of people underneath that, and I would have been none the wiser, I thought. Had Danu been entirely honest with me about who lived here? He had said they were a small, isolated community – but in fact – it could be anything down there!

  But in just a few wingbeats I saw what Danu had been pointing out. Large boulders as big as houses, around which the forest struggled to take purchase. Sebol must be a rocky outcrop with only a thin veneer of soil despite it lush variety of plants and life. The boulders offered as large a space as we needed, although it was difficult for Crux to swoop in and land, and instead he had to hover on quick-beating wings to lower us to the craggy surface.

  “Can you wait here, my friend?” I asked the Phoenix dragon before sliding off his back.

  “I would rather that than talking to witches!” the dragon said mischievously, blinking his large green and yellow eyes at me.

  You and me both, I thought but didn’t say aloud for Danu to hear as I followed his scramble down the side of the boulder where our dragon was now perched, and into the dense forest of Sebol.

  “Are you sure this is the right way?” I asked for the second time, when Danu had seemingly led us back to the small clearing where there had stood a small carved-wooden statue. It was hard to tell what it was in this green-lit murk. It could have been a statue of a bird or a dragon or something else entirely. It gave me the creeps.

  “Oh, don’t worry about these.” Danu leaned on the thing’s head, overgrown with moss, as he wiped the sweat from his brow. “The witches call these their ‘Last Line of Defense’ although I have never heard of anyone else trying to break onto the island before…” He shook his head. “They’re just scary carvings, meant to unnerve people.”

  “Are you sure about that?” I said. I was sure that the thing’s blind gaze had followed me around the small clearing we had stopped in.

  “Ha.” Danu shook his head. Two paths led away from this place, as well as the third that, Danu assured me, we had walked in on. “They keep the forest wild just for this purpose, but there are paths that crisscross it, meeting other paths, looping back, crossing again. One of them will take us to Afar’s hut… if I can just work out which one it is…”

  “Well, just so long as you’re sure, mage-boy,” I said, feeling more than a little useless. It would have been much easier to swoop in on Crux. Surely even a witch wouldn’t argue with a dragon?

  “This way. It’s definitely this way.” Danu nodded, pointing down one of the paths, each one looking about as likely as any other. But I still followed on behind him, stepping over the roots that threatened to trip us up and the wet moss that wanted our feet to skid.

  “You are very mean to that one,” Crux surprised me by saying suddenly into my mind. I could sense a sort of amusement from him, sparked when he added, “I am starting to think you like him.”

  “What do you mean by that?” I hissed, and Danu looked around at me owlishly.

  “Lila? Are you all right?” he said with concern in his eyes.

  “Nothing. Just a private conversation,” I muttered darkly, but when I turned my attention back to that place in my mind that connected to Crux, I found only a mirthful silence.

  What does he mean – that I am mean to my friends? The thought had never crossed my mind.

  What did cross my mind, however, a moment later, was a vague warning of a threat, a split second before there was a sudden crack of twigs and a shape stepped out onto the path ahead of me.

  “Lila!” Crux called
to me, and I fell back into a defensive crouch. I could feel the dragon in my mind uncurling himself from the boulder that he had sat on, pushing his strong legs up and reaching out with his snout in our direction. One word from me, and I was sure he would come winging this way with fire and fury in his maw.

  “Danu Geidt,” a voice said heavily. It was a woman, and behind her, other shapes were joining her.

  “Master Afar.” Danu raised an open hand to his brow, in what I guessed was some sort of traditional gesture of respect.

  Danu’s mentor was not what I had expected – although I didn’t really know what I had expected of the West Witches. More beads and mouse skulls, I think. But instead, this Western Witch had skin the color of dark, almost black mahogany, and her hair hung straight down her back in thick braids. She wore a loose green cloak that stretched almost to her calves, and a simple robed dress of red that hung just a little shorter than the heavy, sensible work boots that she had on. The only obvious sign of her “witchy-ness” was a staff that looked like it was carved from bone. No beads. No feathers. No magical amulets.

  I watched as the older woman’s eyes slid from her charge to me, saw them widen, and a small frown appear instead. “And you must be Lila, I take it?” How does she know, I wondered.

  “Lila? Do you want me to come and eat them?” Crux sounded almost eager about that prospect.

  Not yet, not until I know what is going on here… I tried to comfort my friend, before raising my chin defiantly at the woman. “I am.”

  “Afar…” One of the women hissed behind her, a younger woman with tawny hair. Danu tensed beside me, but he didn’t shout or accuse this one, and I thought that perhaps this witch wasn’t the one he called Ohotto who was plotting against me.

  “I know, Cala, I know…” Afar said, making a placating gesture with her hands. When she turned back to speak to us, her voice had taken on a more serious tone.

  “Adept Danu, I cannot express how pleased I am to see you safe on Sebol again.” She shared a small smile, but it was tinged with worry. “But you have broken the Conventions of the West Witches by bringing another person here. You understand that, don’t you?”

  “But Afar – the prophesy! This is more important than conventions!”

  “Danu, please!” Afar said through gritted teeth as behind her, the other West Witches looked appalled at what my friend had said; like it was a great insult or heresy. “Times are strained here at the moment, Danu,” she said quickly. “And we need to see that the letter of the law is obeyed.” She seemed to pick her words very carefully and exactly, as she stared hard at Danu.

  She was trying to send him a message, I could tell. But what?

  “Master Afar, I would speak with you privately,” Danu said in a loud and clear voice.

  “Not now, Danu.” His master’s tone was quick, making a small, cutting motion with her hand. “You will both come with us to the Council Hut, where there will be a meeting…”

  “A meeting to decide what?” Danu said angrily. If this was any other situation, I would almost have found this amusing. Just an hour ago I had been the one advocating anger and fury, and now, upon seeing the strange way that Afar was trying to send a message to her student, I wanted Danu to keep his wits about him.

  “Danu,” I said gently, keeping my eyes on Afar. “Perhaps we will learn what we need to know if we agree to go with your master.”

  The adept in training looked at me stubbornly, but he nodded all the same.

  “Very wise, Lila,” Afar gave me a perfunctory nod. Was there a slight smile from her as well? “Now, if you will follow me both.”

  “I would still like to know what the meeting will be about…” Danu said, unable to resist a last, desperate jab at his old tutor. But it wasn’t Afar who answered him. Instead it was the one she had called Cala.

  “What it will be about? You have brought another person to our shores, Danu! You have been running around the Western Isles casting your cantrips, endangering us at a time when, already, there are terrible events happening in the islands!” Cala burst out, before muttering at Afar. “We haven’t got time for your apprentice’s foibles, Afar. You know what is at stake: the future of Sebol itself!”

  Danu looked stunned and about to shout, but I reached forward and put a hand on his shoulder. It was clear that there was more going on here than he had ever expected.

  “Cala, calm yourself.” Afar’s tone was stern. “Danu? Lila? It is true that Sebol is in danger. We will discuss your actions Danu, after the meeting.” With a nod, she turned to lead us to their sanctuary.

  “The future of Sebol…?” Danu whispered to me. “What is wrong? Do they blame me?”

  “They can’t!” I said in a low voice back at him. “I won’t let them.”

  Chapter 25

  Danu and the Council

  We were led to the Council Hut, the largest hut on Sebol, right next to the library. Strange, but this place looked almost small now that I had returned. It was a struggle to think how I could have been so happy here, with its cramped and overhanging trees, its narrow wooden walkways, and the shadowy, whispering forms of the witches who could be seen clustered on the balconies outside the village’s huts.

  I sneaked a look at Lila, to see what she might think of this place. I felt a little embarrassed – this was nothing like her free and wild home of Malata! It was gloomy, for a start, and everyone moved in near silence as they contemplated their important tasks. The only light came from the filtered, watery sunlight that speared through the leaves of the giant trees. It was a very far cry from flying high above the world, I thought dismally.

  “In here,” Afar said, for Lila’s benefit rather than mine, I assumed.

  The Council Hut had white plaster walls over stout wooden beams, and the familiar cloying scent of incense hung heavy in the air. Twin rows of benches extended around the outside of the grand hut, with a further gallery reached by steps above. High upon us, the beams of the roof met at the chimney, and the center was a wide circle of dried rushes.

  Cala, the brown-haired witch, led the way to the central circle, and we followed, first me, then Lila, and then Afar. Behind us, the room was already filling up with witches. I was shocked to see that this was to be a full council meeting – almost all of the witches I had ever seen were arriving; with some from the southern hotlands, some from the far north, and farther eastward. Most of the women wore the simple long gowns of the Sebol witches (like Afar and Cala did) but there were also some from stranger locales who wore colorful print dresses and robes, or had their hair bedecked with feathers, and still others who wore pelts and furs of strange ice creatures.

  I wracked my mind for anything I might know about Cala, but all that came to me was that she was an acolyte of Ohotto’s.

  “Why are there so many witches here?” I whispered to my mentor Afar, who stood beside me silently. If the meeting was to be about me, how had they known I was coming, and when?

  “You mean, you cannot guess?” Afar was, as ever, inscrutable. I felt mad at her, before suddenly wondering why. This was the way of the witches, to surround themselves with mysteries, and to favor caution over action.

  But it made me even angrier thinking about it, now. I had been on board an actual Sea Raider ship, about to scream into combat. I had to call upon my magic to avert a slaughter. I had ridden a dragon! This life of secrecy and hesitancy seemed silly; silly when compared to the fighting and dying that was happening out there in the Western Isles every day.

  “Chabon is ill,” Afar said quietly to me as the room filled. “And, during her illness, there has been a change in the opinion of the West Witches. Wait… You must be patient, Danu, and then we will talk.” She looked up as the outer door banged shut, and the shuffling and murmuring died down.

  “Sisters!” Cala called out. “You have been summoned here today, some of you coming from many leagues far away because strange tidings have reached us!”

  “Strange tidings have r
eached us as well!” one of the witches called out angrily. Witches love a good argument.

  “You will have heard, ladies,” Cala called even louder, with a bit of ice in her voice, “no doubt, that strange things have been happening in the north. There is talk of hauntings and spirit-walkers abroad once more…”

  “The Darkening has returned?” someone shouted in alarm.

  “No!” Afar said abruptly, striking her staff against the matted floor. “Please, do not speak such evil on this holy isle. The Darkening is a long time banished, but the reports that we have heard have enough similarity that we have called you here. Those who have been selected, speak your story!”

  Cala shot a venomous look at Afar, but my mentor ignored her.

  One older woman stood up, dressed in heavy white furs with hair that was almost snow-white itself. “I am a Matriarch from the Stone-Biter Clan, of what you call the Dragon Spine Mountains. Our people were the first to be attacked.”

  “How do you know it wasn’t those wild dragons you have up there?” another witch heckled.

  “Do wild dragons vanish people without a trace? Are wild dragons able to enchant entire homesteads?” the mountain witch snapped back. “No. First it came as people disappearing from their trails – which is not so strange, given where we live. Bear or lynx often venture across our paths. But the people were plagued with nightmares, entire villages dreamed of ghostly figures that strode through the night towards the west…”

  “Bad dreams are the hallmark of bad magic!”

  “And the Darkening!”

  The witches were upset. I glanced at Lila. She looked uncomfortable, though surely, she was no stranger to heated council meetings.