Jev rose to his feet, glad the game was over. “I’m going to see if they need any help.”
“What’re you going to do, Zyndar?” Borti asked. “Volunteer to hold the sponge for them?”
“I’ll hold whatever they like.”
Horti looked a touch wistful.
“The rewards of zyndardom,” Borti said.
“If you two are interested in ladies, you have to make them gifts,” Cutter said.
Jev strode away as Cutter brought up spice racks. He smiled at Zenia and lifted a hand when she looked at him, but movement on the roof of the cabin caught his attention.
Hydal stood up there, facing the river behind the boat, but he had turned enough to wave at Jev. It was a come-up-here wave rather than a good-morning-my-friend wave. Reluctantly, Jev turned from the ladies and pulled himself up onto the flat roof. There wasn’t any protection from the rain up there, and Hydal’s short hair was plastered to his head, and beads of water ran down his spectacles. At least he’d found his second pair, so he didn’t have to see the world through cracked lenses.
“Are you standing watch or admiring the view?” Jev noticed he could still see Zenia and Rhi from this vantage point.
“I’m a zyndar gentleman,” Hydal said. “I would not ogle a woman while she’s bathing.”
“No? Rhi’s bending over to pull up another bucket.”
Hydal leaned over, his lips parting in an intrigued expression, but he pulled back and shook his head, then squinted at Jev, as if accusing him of leading him astray of his values.
Jev lifted his hands apologetically, though he couldn’t keep from smiling.
“Someone is behind us.” Hydal turned back to the river, waving downriver.
Jev didn’t see anything except trees, rain pattering on the water, and large birds squawking as they flew to and from branches stretching out over the wide river. “Another boat or someone on foot?”
The waterway frequently curved around bends and had few long, straight passages, so Jev didn’t doubt that someone could be back there. There had been places where someone could get quite close to them without being visible.
“A green boat,” Hydal said. “Similar to ours in size and also with a paddlewheel, I believe. I’ve only glimpsed it through the trees so far, but I’ve seen it three times this morning. I just saw it again back there, but it slowed down and hasn’t come around the bend yet. I believe it’s following us.”
“This is the only route up the river. I’m sure other people have reason to travel this direction.”
“Possibly, but there are few settlements and outposts, especially this far inland.”
“I understand there are some nice volcanos eventually,” Jev said. “Perhaps vulcanologists come this way frequently to study them.”
“I know you are not an unintelligent man, so I will assume you are being facetious rather than dense.”
“You honor me.”
“It’s clear to me that the other boat is attempting to avoid our notice,” Hydal said. “They’re staying close enough to keep an eye on us and make sure we don’t head up one of these side rivers, but they’re not showing themselves fully.”
“Did you see what race the crew is?”
“No. As I said, I’ve only had glimpses.”
“Zenia, will you come up here for a moment, please?” Jev walked to the edge and lowered a hand.
Zenia headed toward him without comment, but Rhi propped a fist on her hip.
“We’re in the middle of giving you boys a show,” Rhi said. “You want to interrupt that?”
“You’re almost fully clothed,” Jev pointed out.
“Don’t pretend you weren’t ogling our bare bits.”
“Maybe Zenia’s.”
“You wound me, Zyndar.” Rhi noticed Hydal looking at her, smiled at him, then bent to fill her bucket again even though it still had water in it.
Jev had a feeling it was too late for Horti to attract her attention. Jev wondered if Hydal and Rhi had slipped away from the main cabin to use the splintery railings in the middle of the night. Probably not. Hydal would want a bed and a private, romantic spot too.
“What is it?” Zenia stepped up close to the wall and clasped his extended hand.
Jev pulled her up. “Hydal says someone is following us. Can you tell if they’re a threat or just people heading the same way?” He nodded toward her dragon tear.
She was wearing it outside her blouse today. Other than the captain and his six crewmen, there weren’t any strangers around, so she didn’t have to worry about hiding it.
“I’ll check.” She closed her eyes.
Jev clasped her hand. She opened an eye.
“To make sure you don’t fall while you’re calling upon magic.” He gestured at the roof, which was admittedly flat and broad and in little danger of tilting since the river was smooth here.
“Considerate.”
“Always.” He bowed his head, then waited as she closed her eyes again.
A faint blue glow came from her dragon tear.
“There is a boat back there,” Zenia murmured, “and three more farther downriver behind it, mostly alligator hunters and fishermen it looks like.”
“So, nothing to be worried about?” Jev kept hoping that the troll spy from the other night had been interested in Targyon’s fine steamer, not anything to do with their expedition.
Zenia hesitated. “There’s magic on the nearest boat. I’m not sure what, exactly. It’s obscured and unfamiliar.” A couple of minutes passed as she attempted to get more information.
Jev looked at Hydal, who had stopped peering at Rhi’s bucket dunking, and waited quietly.
“It’s a steamboat, like this one,” Zenia said. “There are two trolls on the deck keeping an eye toward the river ahead of them.”
“Toward us,” Hydal muttered.
“Neither of them is the source of the magic. It’s inside a cabin that appears similar to ours from the outside.” She tapped her foot on the rooftop under them. “I can’t see anything inside it, which is strange. I can usually see through walls with the dragon tear’s power. I…” She tilted her head, then shook it. “No, it’s just all gray inside. The magic is coming from in there, but I can’t—”
“Look out!” Rhi yelled from the deck.
A flapping sound reached Jev’s ears, and he grabbed Zenia and pulled her down to the rooftop. Hydal yelled in surprise.
More shouts came from the deck of the boat. Someone fired a rifle.
A roar came from the sky, and Jev spotted a furred creature with wings but a lion’s body. A manticore? It flew toward the trees, seeming to flee from the riflemen’s fire, but then it banked and angled toward the boat. Right toward him. Or toward Zenia?
Jev leaped to his feet and reached for his hip, but he’d left his unwieldy sword scabbard down below. He snatched his pistol off the other hip and aimed as the creature dove at them, completely fearless.
More rifles fired from below. A puff of fur flew into the air as the creature was hit, and Jev expected it to screech in pain and veer off, but its wings barely hitched. If anything, it picked up speed. Its yellow eyes stared straight at Jev, but they weren’t the intelligent, keen eyes of a predator. They were glazed and vacant, as if it didn’t even see him.
As the creature dove closer, Jev fired. The bullet took it between the eyes, and he grunted in satisfaction.
Impossibly, the manticore kept flying at him.
“Down,” Jev barked and dropped right on top of Zenia, wrapping his arms protectively around her.
Wings battered his back, and talons flashed, trying to get around him, trying to claw at her.
“No, you don’t!” he roared and elbowed the thing.
Jev connected again and again, but it seemed to feel no pain. Its wings kept battering him.
Gold glinted—Zenia’s necklace. A talon almost hooked it.
“Jev,” Cutter called from below. “Here!”
With wings
slamming into his face, Jev couldn’t see a thing. A boot came in from the side, connecting solidly with the creature. For a moment, it tumbled off Jev’s back and he could see. His sword lay only a foot away. He snatched it up and turned as the creature flew back in.
Hydal stabbed it with a dagger. Blood flowed from the manticore’s many wounds, but it tried again to get at Zenia.
This time, Jev had a weapon to slow it down. He lunged at the creature, blocking it from Zenia again, and drove the elven blade deep into its chest.
Finally, the wingbeats faltered. Jev twisted the sword and planted a boot on its chest, pushing it back. It tumbled away, but he sprang after it, plunging the blade straight into it again. The tip rammed all the way through and even cut into the rooftop to the cabin below.
Jev stepped back, leaving the creature pinned. The wings flapped weakly, and its talons twitched in its dying throes. The manticore never cried out in pain, and those eyes remained glazed and vacant.
A moan came from behind him. Zenia.
Jev spun and dropped to his knees beside her. “Zenia, did it get you?”
He touched her shoulder, half expecting to see gouges all over her. There were a few small cuts in her bare arms, but she was grabbing her head with both hands. Her eyes were squinted shut.
“Stop,” she growled. “Stop it!”
Jev’s skin tingled as power exploded from her dragon tear. It wasn’t directed at him, or he would have been hurled from the rooftop, but he knew there had to be a lot of magic in use for him to sense it.
A crack-crunch echoed up the river from behind them.
Abruptly, Zenia opened her eyes and dropped her hands. She was panting from the effort of whatever battle she’d been involved in. Something other than defending herself against the manticore, Jev realized. If she’d been able to focus on that, she would have been able to knock it away without his help.
“Zenia?” Jev gently pulled hair away from her face. “What happened? Did someone attack you?” He realized how stupid that sounded when one of their assailants was pinned to the roof five feet away and added, “Mentally, I mean. With magic.”
“Yes.” She took a deep shaky breath and put her hands down to push herself into a sitting position.
Jev pulled her up and gathered her in his arms. Cutter had climbed up onto the roof and was scowling down at the dead manticore. Hydal peered back down the river, and Jev followed his gaze, but they couldn’t see the other boat. Had that noise indicated it had crashed? Or at least been damaged and slowed down?
“Cutter, Hydal, keep an eye out, please,” Jev said. “I’m going to take Zenia down below.”
“Where she’s sure to find comfort in one of those hammocks that dumps you out sideways if you scratch your nose too vigorously?” Rhi asked from the deck. She was peeking over the low roof and looking at Zenia with concern.
Jev shook his head, not sure the riverboat offered comfort anywhere. He mostly wanted Zenia where she couldn’t be targeted by crazy flying wildlife.
“You can take her to my cabin,” the captain said, making one of his rare appearances. He was a gray-haired dwarf with a beard down to his toes who had—according to Cutter—lost the smell of the tunnels. A grave insult, apparently. Thus far, Jev had observed the captain’s duties to be drinking and playing phonograph music in his cabin. “Can’t have pretty ladies getting mauled on my boat.”
“Does that mean you wouldn’t have offered your cabin if Jev had been mauled?” Rhi asked him.
“Men are hearty and made of rocks. Ladies are fragile and made of malleable clay. They must be protected.”
Zenia sat straighter and frowned, looking like she wanted to protest her fragility.
“Don’t disagree,” Rhi said, catching Zenia’s expression. “He just said Jev’s head is full of rocks.”
“I’m not sure that’s quite what he said,” Jev murmured, though the dwarf captain didn’t offer to clarify the statement.
Zenia tried to stand. Since there wasn’t a ladder leading off the low roof, Jev worried she would climb down on her own. She was pale and looked like her legs might buckle if she tried to walk. He swept her up into his arms and jumped off the roof, carefully cushioning his landing so she wouldn’t be jarred. She let out a startled squawk and gripped his shoulders tightly.
“Just making sure you don’t try to wander off instead of taking a rest,” he said, striding for the low door leading inside.
“Where would I go when we’re surrounded by water?” Zenia smiled, but she also eyed the sky warily behind his head.
“There’s a card game on the forward deck where they swindle zyndar. You might find it appealing.”
Jev glanced back as he descended the stairs, making sure there wasn’t anything in the drizzly gray sky.
“What was that thing that attacked us?” she asked.
“Attacked you. A manticore, I think. It’s the first one I’ve seen.” Jev strode past the hammocks, a couple of crewmen from the nightshift snoring as they swayed gently in them. He headed for the small mess and the captain’s cabin across from it. Beyond those two rooms, a door led to the compact boiler room and the paddlewheel machinery.
“A manticore?” Zenia asked. “Oh, there was an entry in the book. It mentioned manticores being portrayed with human heads in all the mythological tales, but I don’t think that was ever true. They’re only slightly magical creatures and are believed to be eagles mixed with lions.”
Jev had to set Zenia down to open the door to the captain’s cabin.
“Sorry to sound so excited. I’ve never seen one before. Did it wound you?” Zenia touched his face and a gash in his sleeve.
“Nothing serious. It beat me with its wings a lot, but it was definitely focused on you.” He glanced at her dragon tear, the gold-and-silver chain dangling outside of her blouse.
“Yes. Thank you for keeping it off me.”
“Of course. I was the one who convinced you to come up on the roof in the first place.” Jev wrinkled his nose at a pungent tobacco scent that wafted out of the captain’s cabin as they entered. “It would have been low of me to dive overboard and leave you to face it alone.”
“Extremely low. Literally.”
Jev touched her lower back and guided her toward the bunk built into one side of the cabin. A desk, chair, and armoire occupied the other side. The phonograph Jev kept hearing rested on the desk, and shelves built into a wall held rows of records. There was also a reinforced and locked rack that held bottles of what appeared to be elven wine.
“I don’t really need to lie down,” Zenia said, stopping instead of sitting on the bed. “I was just shaken. I’ll be fine in a few minutes.”
Despite her reassurance, her face was still pale. Jev worried that whoever was out there and wanted her—or her dragon tear?—would target her again. This cabin seemed safer than being out on the open deck.
“My lady Captain, don’t you know that it would be rude of you to reject the captain’s offer of his cabin? And—” Jev shut the door, “—an opportunity for us to snuggle in private for a while?”
He wriggled his eyebrows at her, hoping she wouldn’t see through and resent his desire to keep her safe. Not when he was offering the adoring warmth of his arms and his wit at the same time.
Zenia snorted, and he had a feeling her dragon tear let her see everything in his head. But all she said was, “You’re right. It would be rude.”
“Exactly.”
They settled onto the bed together, which was large enough for two, despite the short stature of its owner, and Jev wrapped his arms around Zenia. He did his best to ooze adoring warmth instead of worrying about who was after them and if they would try again to get her dragon tear.
8
Zenia rested in Jev’s arms while she recovered from the attack—both attacks.
Being targeted by a manticore had been harrowing enough, but as she’d focused on it, intending to use her dragon tear to form a barrier around them, a strange a
nd ominous curtain had wrapped around her mind, cutting her off from the gem. She hadn’t been able to communicate with it, as she usually did simply by thinking, and then the foreign presence had grown tighter around her, more suffocating. It had been like a garrote around her mind. She’d had no way to fight it without access to her gem.
She believed the dragon tear had figured out what was going on and decided to act on its own, as it had when incinerating the dresses of her social enemies. The curtain had abruptly disappeared, awareness of the world rushing back into her. Through the dragon tear, she’d seen a massive tree drop across the river, a tree magically cut and pushed so that it fell across the river. The other boat had run right into it.
As that had happened, Jev had slain the manticore and she’d finally been able to catch her breath and recover. She believed someone on that riverboat had sent the creature at the same time as they had distracted her with the magical attack. If not for Jev, she would have certainly been killed. At the least, she would have lost her dragon tear.
She touched her chest and neck where the manticore’s talons had scratched her. They could have torn out her throat, but the creature had been focused on the necklace, trying to rip it off her.
“Are any of the scratches serious?” Jev asked, shifting slightly so he could touch her collarbone. He was careful not to brush any of them.
“No, I don’t think so.” Zenia hadn’t seen herself in a mirror yet but wasn’t sure she wanted to. Better to lie here against Jev’s chest with his arms around her. She’d sensed that he’d only been trying to get her to lie down and rest—and stay out of manticore flight paths—when he’d enticed her onto the bed, but it was nice to simply share this private space with him, especially since the rain had picked up again, hammering against the roof and running down the porthole in rivulets.
“It wanted your dragon tear, didn’t it?”
“Yes, I think so. Or, more precisely, the person manipulating it did.”
“I wonder if our troll spy from the night on the beach is the same person following us,” Jev said. “Maybe he was interested in the dragon tear from the beginning.”
Dragon Tear (Agents of the Crown Book 5) Page 10