by Apryl Baker
“There’s always a chance.” Ileana shrugged, leaning back in her chair as if taking chances were as common a thing as breathing. “If Valeria is fully invested, I know she can topple Kronos, but only if she is fully invested.”
“I understand.” Tobias turned to leave. “Thank you for your time.”
“I’ve already begun setting up meetings with influential town leaders and city officials.” Ileana lifted a report from her desk once more. This time she stood from her seat and offered it to Tobias. There was a hard edge in her eyes. “I know it seems there is a unified Atlantis behind Kronos, but looks can be deceiving. Not so many of the inhabitants are ready to run into another war. You are free to use my men as messengers. They understand the meaning of discretion.”
Tobias turned to accept the paper. The parchment was simple, with a long list of names, offices held, and even a rating of how important it was to secure their assistance. It was comprehensive, to say the least. Tobias felt grateful and at the same time wary to have such a clever ally.
“You’ve been busy.” Tobias glanced over the list, raising a brow. “I recognize a few of these names. Some will be harder than others to persuade.”
“Like I said.” Ileana turned her eyes back to her work, signaling the end to their conversation. “It all depends on how motivated Valeria is to ascend the throne.”
Tobias scratched the scruff of his beard as he exited Ileana’s office. Valeria was beginning to understand the role she needed to play. Not that she desired fame or glory, but the mantle she was destined to bear if for no other reason than to save the Atlantian people.
The politicians and city leaders on the list would need to be presented with a strong, capable leader if they were to be expected to throw in their lot with Valeria and Tobias.
“You look worried.” Lukas’s voice interrupted Tobias. “That makes me worried.”
Lukas was leaning against a window, arms crossed, looking out into the city. Ileana had assured them many times that they were safe at her hideout, but it seemed the first mate would rather keep a lookout of his own.
“Not worried.” Tobias shook his head. He joined Lukas at the window, handing the man the list. “Mentally preparing for a campaign.”
Chapter Seven
“Drink.”
Ryder coughed when someone poured a vile concoction down her throat. She did her best to spit it up, but the rough hands holding her head refused to let her. They even pinched her nose, forcing her to swallow or strangle. Was she not dying fast enough for them? Did they need to hurry the process by making her drink whatever rot this was?
“Here, you’ll need to put these clothes on.”
“They stink.” That voice, she knew. Stephen. What was going on?
“You’re supposed to be beggars, and they don’t wear clean clothes.”
“Talen, your clothes aren’t this nasty.”
She almost laughed at the disgust in Stephen’s voice. Talen’s next statement brought her fully awake.
“Just put them on. I’ll dress your Dragon.”
“No.” The steel in Stephen’s voice was unmistakable. “You won’t touch her.”
“Just trying to help.”
Ryder desperately wanted to see what was going on. It had been days since she’d been able to open her eyes, but she tried again. To her amazement, they not only opened, but she also felt the pain beginning to lessen in her limbs. Had they given her Ya-You’s liquid miracle?
“She’s awake.” The young man she assumed was Talen spoke quietly. “The drugs are starting to work.”
Before she could blink, Stephen was on his knees beside her. “Ryder? How are you feeling?”
“I…” A fit of coughing hit. It was only a moment before Stephen pushed a chipped cup at her dry lips. The warm water coated her parched tongue, and she drank greedily. How long had she been out?
“Easy, Dragon.” Stephen pulled the cup away, and she wanted to snatch it back. “You’ll get sick if you drink too much too fast.”
As much as she wanted to protest, he was right. She tried to sit up, but the pain that assaulted her muscles forced a cry out of her.
“Stay still.” Now the man sounded irritated. He could seesaw back and forth between emotions so fast it made her head spin. “You’re not better. Give the drugs time to work.”
Drugs? What kind of drugs? He hadn’t said medicine, so whatever they’d given her had nothing to do with healing. “What did you give me?”
He pulled on the grimy tunic before answering her. His nose wrinkled in distaste. She could see why. The smell drifted down to her, and she turned her head away, trying to escape it.
“You aren’t going to be able to heal unless you shift, as you well know. We’re sneaking you out of the city, but you need to be up and walking. Ileana provided us a cocktail of drugs that will numb your pain. It’ll let you move around pain-free, at least long enough to get you out of the city and back to Tobias’s cove.”
She had to admit, her pain was going away. Whatever the stuff was, it rivaled Ya-You’s foul miracle goop.
“We only have two doses left.” The young man came into her field of vision. He was going to be a heartbreaker when he filled out and grew up a bit. “Each dose only lasts four hours, so we have to hurry. With the one we’ve already given you, that gives us exactly twelve hours to get back to this cove.”
It could take several days to heal her wounds. Now that she saw them, Ryder understood how extensive they were. There would be no quick fix here. This would be a long and painful process. One she did not wish upon anyone, especially herself.
Stephen squatted in front of her, and Ryder gagged at the odor coming from him. “I know it’s foul, but we need to get you dressed.” He helped her to sit up, and then demanded she raise her arms. When he dragged something that stank even worse than his own clothes over her, she gagged. She took great, gulping breaths of air when her head cleared the top of the dress.
Talen tossed something to Stephen, and he frowned. “What’s this?” He held up what looked like a small dagger.
“Your weapon.”
“This is not a weapon. A sword is a weapon. This is a toothpick.”
Talen smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I can kill you at least half a dozen ways with that toothpick. Besides, a sword would call too much attention. You’re a beggar, not a soldier. If we end up in a fight, you can always take one from whomever you put down.”
Ryder worked to settle the ugly dress around her while the two of them argued. Her pain was almost completely gone. Whatever they gave her worked fast and well.
It took her a moment, but she was able to stand. Stephen heard her and was immediately by her side, fussing that she should have asked him for help. Who was this man, and where was the real Royal Navy captain?
“I’m fine as long as I don’t breathe too deeply.”
“Good, because we need to hurry. Once we hit the streets, it’s going to be dicey. There is a big ceremony going on. We’ll have to navigate through that and find our way to the same spot you lot came through. It is heavily guarded. Chances are, you’ll get your opportunity to find a sword between here and there.”
Stephen reached under his filthy shirt and pulled out a cloth that held some bread and cheese, which she greedily ate while the two of them conferred about their best route between here and the boat. She stretched and almost giggled at the ability to do it without mind-searing pain.
“Can you walk yet?” Talen asked, and she took several steps. No pain. She smiled and nodded.
“Good, we need to get going.” Without another word, the young man opened the door and walked out. Stephen frowned at his retreating back, but shrugged.
“Let’s go, Dragon.”
Well, maybe there was a bit of the old Stephen still in there. He still sounded as arrogant and all but sneered the word “Dragon.” He may never get past his hatred of her people. Sighing, she followed him out the door and found herself in an un
derground hallway. She could smell the raw dirt, dirt that hadn’t been trampled on by the feet of man. There was also the stench of waste, so perhaps they were in some kind of underground sewer system?
Wall mounted lamps lit their way along the tunnel Talen led them through. Ryder found herself sandwiched between the two of them. Several times, she’d slowed because her vision blurred. Perhaps an effect of the drugs or something the drugs couldn’t heal. She didn’t know. Stephen kept running into her back. Twice she’d almost fallen when he’d done that, but he always caught her, muttering. Which only angered her. It wasn’t her fault she was having challenges.
Talen opened a door before Ryder could say anything, and he climbed the stairs. She followed, Stephen so close her, she could smell him under all that stench. As a Dragon, she had an exceptional sense of smell. The man always smelled good, a mixture of sea salt and something Ryder couldn’t place, but she loved it.
The steps winded her, more than she thought. While her body may not feel the pain she was causing it, the physical effects were still there, like getting tired. She stopped for a moment at the top to catch her breath. Neither man pushed her. They gave her the time she needed. When she nodded, Talen opened the door, momentarily blinding her.
The door led to a small opening in a wall. Not the same area they’d come through. She could hear the bustling city center not too far off. No, not bustling, more like a crowd of people cheering.
“What’s going on over there?” Her voice came out louder than she’d intended, and Talen shot her an aggravated look.
“Kronos’s speech.”
“Speech?”
“They are going to declare war on DeCadia and take back the continent.” His whispered words shocked her. The Atlantians had created the Dendali Curse so they could keep DeCadians out of Atlantis, and now they wanted to defeat the very people they scoffed at? What was Kronos playing at?
They crept along the outer wall, and the closer they got to the city center, the more cautious Talen’s movements became. His gaze roved over every inch of the city in front of them as they scurried along, keeping to the shadows.
He pointed to the dock ahead. Ryder saw the big boats gently swaying on the clear blue ocean waves. Several air ships were also docked in the sky. How in the world did Talen expect them to escape with so many boats around?
When they reached the wharf, Talen motioned them to one of the smaller vessels alongside what looked to be a gigantic monster of a boat.
“There are so many boats.”
“Ships,” both Stephen and Talen corrected her. She rolled her eyes. Boat, ship, same thing to her.
“We are going to hide on the small freighter, and once we hit the open ocean away from the city, we’ve arranged for a boat to be lowered for us to escape in.”
“Escape?”
They all froze at the sound of the unfamiliar voice. Ryder glanced over her shoulder and saw a large group of soldiers staring them down.
Well, at least now Stephen might get the sword he wanted.
Chapter Eight
“You, there,” a thick, raspy voice called to their left. “I’m going to need to see some identification.”
“I can draw most of them away,” Talen whispered. “The ship you need is The Drake. They’ll be expecting you.”
Before either Ryder or Stephen could protest, Talen had pulled down his pants, showing his bare rear end to the soldiers.
“Hey, you ugly bunch of mother lovers,” Talen yelled, adding a crude gesture from each of his hands before he pulled up his pants to run. “Down with the imposter king, and long live the Dendali line!”
That did it. The main bulk of the soldier contingent yelled and gave chase. Spurred on by their leader, an overweight man with a large beard, all but a few soldiers charged toward Talen.
Street vendors’ carts were thrown to the side without care. Yells permeated the air.
“Get back here!”
“I’ll show you a mother lover!”
“Halt! In the name of King Kronos, halt!”
Ryder and Stephen stood stunned for a moment. Events had transpired so quickly it was difficult to process what happened and regain momentum.
“What do we do?” Ryder eyed two approaching guards who had stayed behind. She counted another four looking over from their own harassment session of a local vendor.
“How weak are you?” Stephen asked as the two kept walking. “Can you run or fight?”
“I’ll find the strength to do what needs to be done,” Ryder told herself as much as Stephen.
The truth was she was exhausted and weak. More than anything, she wanted to spread her wings to recover. But now was not the time to dwell on impossible desires. She needed to be focused for what came next.
“Are you deaf?” The lead soldier grabbed Ryder by her right arm and swung her around.
Pure shock spread across his face, due first to the fact that Ryder’s hood fell off when he grabbed her, and he recognized the wanted girl from the many pictures being posted in and around Atlantis.
Second, the shock continued as the hand still clutching her cloak separated from the soldier’s wrist. Blood spluttered from the severed hand, both from the disembodied hand still hanging on to Ryder as well as from the soldier’s arm. Ryder felt a spray of hot liquid on her face. Blood drenched her clothes.
“We should run now.” Stephen still held the sword he had unsheathed from the soldier’s belt and used to sever the hand.
As if everyone was woken from a dream at the same moment, all hell broke loose. The soldier began screaming, clutching at the stump where his hand had once been, his counterpart began yelling for help, and the other four soldiers in the crowded street charged toward them.
Stephen took off at a run, sidestepping the remaining soldier in front of them, who was still in the process of unsheathing his sword.
Ryder was beyond furious at being covered in blood. With her enhanced strength, she battered into the soldier, sending him flying through the air and landing in the gutter amongst a pile of dead fish.
The already pungent odor of life near the ocean intensified and made Ryder gag as the fish scattered in a dozen different directions.
“Stop!”
“Halt!”
The other four Atlantian soldiers were nearly on top of her now, each one wearing their gold and silver armor, brandishing swords. Pedestrians ran from the encounter, jostling one another to be free of the incident.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, Ryder knew the smart thing to do would be run. She just didn’t want to.
They fell on her at once. With each strike from her hands and legs, they flew yards into the air before crumbling in bright, shiny heaps when they finally collided with the cobblestone street.
“Are you crazy?” Stephen appeared at her side a moment later. “Let’s go. More will be coming.”
As if to punctuate his words, heavy footfalls and shouts could be heard no more than a few blocks away.
Ryder turned to run beside Stephen. The look on his face made her stop in her tracks. “What?”
“That soldier’s severed hand is still holding onto your cloak.”
Chapter Nine
The rest of the journey to The Drake was uneventful. Stephen found the ship’s captain a shifty woman with a pack of tobacco in her lip. She was named Curly, despite her completely bald head.
“And where’s Talen?” Curly asked, eyeing the two as if they were spies sent by Kronos himself. “He said he would be here.”
“We ran into a bit of trouble,” Stephen offered. “Talen volunteered to act as a diversion so we could escape.”
“Threw down his pants again, did he?” Curly broke into a wide grin. “Ever since that boy was a wee thing, always wanted to be running around naked. Okay, that’s enough for me. You two get on board. We’re about to set sail.”
Stephen and Ryder exchanged shrugs and followed Curly on board The Drake.
Unlike the air boats
Ryder was accustomed to, this one rested in the water, undulating on soft ocean waves. The vessel itself was smaller than The Emerald Queen, but what it lacked in size, it made up for in character.
A crew of all women eyed the passengers with curious glances.
“We’re off,” Curly shouted to her crew. “Haven’t you seen passengers before? I swear, you girls need to get out more. Let’s catch the wind. Daylight is burning.”
Immediately, the crew jumped into action. Even with Ryder’s limited understanding of how a boat operated, she knew this crew would rank among the very best.
Sailors worked together to get the ship ready. Sails were raised, mooring ropes removed, and more than a few curses exchanged. Within minutes, they were underway.
Ryder found herself at the boat’s railing, enjoying the feeling of not having to hide or be chased. All around her, Atlantis’s port teemed with life as ships entered and exited the harbor.
She lost track of time as she counted the number of sea creatures jumping clear of the crystal ocean water. Water like this was foreign to Ryder. Ever since she could remember, the Dendali Curse had inhibited any ocean life and was the reason boats had been forced to the air instead of over the waves.
Before Ryder realized it, they were out of the port and into open water.
“We’ll be letting you off here.” Curly’s voice ripped Ryder from her own thoughts. “Take care of yourself and your man, there.”
Ryder looked at Curly, shocked. Over the captain’s shoulder, she saw Stephen assisting in lowering a small rowboat into the water.
“He’s not my man. He hates me, actually.” Ryder turned to Curly with a single eyebrow raised. “Why would you tell me to take care of him?”
“He’s working through some things. When you get to be my age, you can read it in a man’s eyes.” Curly shrugged as she turned to walk away. “He might not hate you as much as you think. Talk to him.”