Five Kingdoms: Book 05 - Fierce Loyalty

by Toby Neighbors

  “Aye, sir,” the sailor on the boat shouted back, knuckling his forehead. “Alright, you dandies, you heard the man. Get your gear and get aboard. This isn’t a pleasure cruise.”

  Zollin watched in surprise as Mansel jumped up and grabbed a rope that hung from the side of the ship. He climbed hand over hand to get on board. He had his belongs in a simple sack that was the size of his sword. The sack was slung across his back on a leather strap, and when he got on board he hurried with the other sailors down into the bowels of the ship.

  The deck was busy and most of the passengers had retired down to their cabins, but Zollin waited by the ship rail. He wanted to see what his friend had gotten himself into. It was a brilliant plan. If he couldn’t book passage on the ship, he had gotten hired as one of the many hands that worked the ship. Mansel had never been the kind of person to shy away from hard labor, but Zollin had to wonder if his friend knew what he was in for.

  It only took a few minutes before Mansel came jogging back up on deck. The sailor who had rowed them across the harbor pointed to a short, leathery skinned sailor not far from where Zollin was watching. Mansel hurried over to the man and presented himself.

  “Carpenter’s helper Mansel, reporting for duty,” the warrior said.

  The sailor looked him up and down for a minute, his eyes mere slits in the bright morning sunlight.

  “So you think you want to be a sailor, eh? I think maybe you wooed the wrong woman and now you’re looking for a quick way out of town.”

  Mansel shifted on his feet but didn’t say anything.

  “Well, you’re certainly a big lad. Have you got any skills?”

  “I was apprenticed to a carpenter for three years,” Mansel said, darting a glance at Zollin. “I’ve never worked on a ship, but I learn fast and work hard.”

  “You’ll have to,” the sailor said. “My name’s Ern, and we’re the only carpenters on board at the moment. You’ll have plenty to keep you busy. Get started by stowing all those supplies below.” Ern pointed to a pallet full of freshly milled wood. There were stacks of thick planking as well as oak staves and iron hoops for making barrels.”

  “You want these…” Mansel obviously wasn’t sure where the supplies went.

  “Down in the workshop,” Ern growled. “And make sure they’re stored away neat. I don’t want to find my shop littered with broken wood once we’re underway.”

  Zollin decided he’d seen enough. Mansel was on board and they would soon be sailing south. The ship would make several stops, but its ultimate destination was Brimington Bay, the closest point to the Grand City in Osla. Zollin descended the steps that led to his cabin and found Eustice resting leisurely inside.

  “He made it,” Zollin told his companion. “He had to come on board as one of the hands.”

  Eustice made a gesture.

  “There wasn’t enough space on board for more passengers, at least I think that’s why. The ship is full of people.”

  They ate some fruit and then headed back up on deck as the anchored was lifted and the sails unfurled. Zollin had never sailed on a ship before. His first experience at sea had been on the little fishing boat, and it had not been an enjoyable journey. He was amazed at the sheer number of men it took to sail the ship.

  The Northern Star was a simple vessel, with two large masts. It had three decks. One was elevated over the others and was only as long as the last third of the ship. The ship’s captain called all his passengers up onto the elevated platform as they headed out to sea.

  “You’ll find no better crew anywhere,” he explained, “so there’s nothing to worry about. We’ve got favorable winds and should make good time. I’ll ask that you remain in your cabins or here, on the command deck. I don’t want anyone wandering the main deck—it can be dangerous. Supper’s at six bells. If you need anything, Lieutenant Yagger will see to your needs,” he said, gesturing at the man who had been shouting orders all morning. “Any questions? No?” the captain continued. “We’ll be leaving the harbor soon. If you are prone to seasickness, I suggest keeping a bucket in your cabin.”

  Everyone filed back into their rooms. Zollin noticed that the haughty woman he’d seen in the passageway wasn’t present for the speech by the captain. He found that curious, but not entirely surprising. She was a beautiful woman, in Zollin’s opinion, although just admitting that made him feel ashamed. The people he loved most in the world had died with him, and it felt as if guilt was his constant companion. Not that he had any reason to feel guilty—the woman was certainly not interested in him. It was the way his mind worked though, puzzling out problems and imagining what might happen.

  He stood on the command deck, well behind the captain, who stood next to the helmsman giving quiet orders to his lieutenant, who then barked out the orders to the men working the main deck or climbing through the rigging like spiders. Zollin looked for Mansel but he was nowhere to be seen. Neither was the ship’s carpenter, Ern.

  The Northern Star sailed smoothly through the harbor with just one large sail unfurled. There was strong wind at their back and they made good time through the narrow pass between the Twin Cities. Once they reached the open waters, the motion of the ship became much more pronounced. Zollin felt his stomach trembling and his head began to hurt, so he let his magic sooth the pressure in his inner ear. Then he let his magic flow through the ship. It was a small space that was teeming with life. There were sailors in the galley, carefully preparing meals, some for the captain and his officers, others for the crew, and still others for the passengers. There were men sleeping in hammocks slung so closely together they lay shoulder to shoulder. There were men in the rigging and along ropes near the crossbeams where the sails were tied. Zollin watched as the lieutenant shouted for more sails to be released. Some of the sailors untied the carefully bunched canvas. As it fell from the crossbeams, unfolding as it went, other sailors caught the ropes and carefully tied the bottom sides of the sails with long ropes. The canvas whipped and popped as the sails filled with wind, and soon there were three sails on each mast, each one bulging full of wind and pushing the ship faster and faster through the gentle swells.

  Zollin also found men working below decks. Some were checking the cargo, others doing routine maintenance. Zollin discovered Mansel, already feeling very sick. He wasn’t the only sailor made ill by the ship’s rocking motion, and many of the passengers were too, but Zollin was only interested in his friend. If Mansel had to work, Zollin didn’t want him feeling sick too. He used his magic to help his friend adjust. It took several minutes. The magic was warm, like standing next to a fire on a cold day. It felt good to exercise his power. It was tempting to let the magic fall into the water, but he was still afraid he might attract another magical creature like the kraken.

  Once Zollin had helped Mansel, he went back down to his cabin. There was nothing more to do but wait, as difficult as that seemed. He found Eustice asleep in his bunk and decided to follow the mute servant’s example. As he lay down, he couldn’t help but think of Brianna. His heart ached at the thought of her. He couldn’t believe that she was gone. He missed her so badly he would have given anything to see her, even for just one more moment. He wanted to tell her so many things and to hold her in his arms one last time, to savor the way she made him feel and the smell of her skin. He fell asleep and dreamed of Brianna.

  Chapter 5

  Brianna stirred slowly. She was surrounded by warm, sleek bodies. Sun was shining into the mouth of cave, but it didn’t reach back to the recesses where Brianna was resting. She had slept for days after her work. The desire to create had been so strong it had held her in a feverish state for days without rest. Now, after leaving the dark cavern she had carved deep under the mountain, she was content to rest and watch her dragons fly.

  They had needed time in the sun, time to hunt and feed, but most of all, time to adapt to their world. Many had chosen a life of solitude over the last several days, bidding her and the dragons that remained with her
goodbye. It was hard to watch them go. Brianna wanted to keep them close to her and protect them, but she was not their mother. She had given them life, but they were dragons and, although she was dragon-kind, she could not protect them or insist on their loyalty. She didn’t feel betrayed by those that left her—in fact, she was happy for them in a way. Her desire had been to bring dragons into the world, to share their strength and wisdom with others. It was a task she had been part of, but they would have to complete it.

  She had flown with them, racing high into the sky where the air was thin and cold. She loved letting flames cover her body in the icy wind, to feel the freedom of flight and to see the world from high above. She could not fly like her dragons, but she was at home in the air. Her bones had grown light and she could flip and turn, catch thermal updrafts and glide for miles and miles. Her dragons would carry her up into the air where she would leap away and fly down on her own, circling and looping with the dragons before landing softly. The dragons brought her food, and during their short time together their personalities had begun to shine.

  Five dragons had chosen to stay with Brianna. Selix was her firstborn and the biggest of all the dragons she had made. Selix had bright golden scales and a broad back with small bony plates that ran from just behind its head all the way down to the end of the tail. Brianna often rode on Selix’s back, perched lightly between the massive, leathery wings and holding onto the plates.

  Tig and Torc were the smallest of her dragons. Their scales were dark blue and they had short tails that were forked on the end. They were much faster than the other dragons, often flying far ahead and scouting out game when the pride went out to hunt.

  Ferno was green and, although smaller than Selix, the most ferocious dragon of the pride. Ferno’s body was thick with muscles, and there short spikes on its tail, as well as two long, spiral horns on it’s head. Ferno was very protective of the pride, and especially of Brianna.

  Gyia was purple with a long, thin body and two sets of wings that gave it the most maneuverability of any of the dragons in flight. Gyia had a long, tapering head and seemed to be the most reserved of the group.

  Brianna loved each of the dragons and thought of them as her brothers and sisters more than her children, even though the dragons were neither male nor female. The pride had bonded, and even though they understood that Brianna wasn’t a dragon, she was the leader of their pride. She loved being with the dragons, loved the freedom of flight and the ferocious playfulness of the dragons with one another, but now that her urge to create was sated, she longed to return south and find Zollin. She wasn’t exactly sure how long she had been in the heart of the mountains, but now that the other dragons were gone and she had regained her strength, she knew it was time to move on.

  Communicating with her pride was much more intuitive than talking, although the dragons were capable of human speech. The dragons used mental images to communicate with each other, and with Brianna more often than not. Brianna was teaching them to speak, often voicing her thoughts out loud so that the dragons grew more familiar with language.

  “It is time for me to go,” she told the pride late one evening as the sun set and their cave grew dark.

  She kindled a dancing flame and sent it up toward the roof of the cave so that it cast a soft, warm light all around. The dragons were watching her with bright, inquisitive eyes that were very different from Bartoom’s. Brianna had spent many days with the black dragon. It had angry, distrustful eyes, although it had come to trust Brianna. Time spent among men and wizards greedy for power who had forced Bartoom to do their bidding by harnessing the power of gold had made the beast angry and cynical. Her pride had not yet felt the sting of disappointment, and for that matter, neither had Brianna, but she understood that there were people in the world who would not trust her or the pride. They would see only fear and danger when they saw her dragons. Even though she longed to see Zollin, to hold him and tell him all the wonderful things she had discovered, she knew that she had to be careful to protect the pride.

  In her mind she saw pictures of the hunt, and of dragons playing games high in the air over the mountain peaks.

  “No,” she said, imagining the forest and cities in the south. “I need to go in search of my friend.” She thought of Zollin and sent the mental image to the pride. “He is my partner, my soul mate. It is a human trait, a need I have, and I will not force you to come with me. Humans may fear you, or even try to harm you.”

  Ferno growled menacingly.

  “But you must not harm them. We must learn to live in harmony with man,” she said, imagining the dragons being warmly greeted by humans.

  She received another image of Selix flying among the clouds with Brianna on its back. One by one the other dragons joined the image. Brianna knew they were all seeing it, all sharing their desire to stay together.

  “I will do my best to keep us safe,” she said. “But we must be cautious.”

  The dragons growled and settled in around Brianna. She let the dancing flame go out. Her vision had improved the longer she had stayed with the dragons and she could see quite well at night. She lay staring out of the cave opening at the stars that shone in the distance as the dragons slept around her. She wondered where Zollin was. She regretted that she had not been able to tell him what she was doing, but at the time she had left with Bartoom, she hadn’t known herself. So much had changed. She had followed Zollin from Tranaugh Shire when the Torr had come to take him away. She had stayed with him for nearly a year, even though she often felt more like a hindrance than a help. Zollin had power that was both amazing and frightening. He could do so much it made Brianna feel small and weak.

  And then everything had changed. Hammert the dwarf had given her a ruby, and the magical gem had kindled something deep inside Brianna. No one had known the ruby’s power, and perhaps, Brianna wondered, it was her own power that connected with the gemstone. Zollin often talked about objects having magical powers, but she now understood that there was powerful magic in many of the minerals found deep in the earth. When she had delved deep into the mountain, her molten fire melting through rock, she had sensed the power of the minerals she had passed, most specifically gold. It drew her dragon nature like a magnet. If given free reign, gold could mesmerize her, and she guessed any other dragon as well.

  Gold had also played a pivotal role in creating her dragons. She had molded each dragon from the earth, shaping the beasts with fire, with her hands, and with her mind, but each of the dragons she had created started with gold. It was part of the dragons, lending them a magical power that was both potent and mysterious.

  She thought about how Zollin had tempted Bartoom with gold, luring the dragon into a trap set by Zollin and the Felson legion. Then she realized that Felson was the perfect place to begin her search for Zollin. The city was big enough to have news from all over the kingdom, and there were people there that Zollin knew and cared about. She decided then, watching the stars twinkle in the autumn sky, that she would leave in the morning.

  The next day dawned bright and Brianna’s first order of business was to feed her pride. She had lost her clothes when she’d used fire on her body—the clothes, obviously not impervious to flame like she was, had simply burned away. But she had saved the skins of many of the animals her pride brought to her as food. She had worked carefully to make clothes for herself, although she knew that she couldn’t wear them when she flew high above the clouds where the air was so cold it could freeze her breath. So she had fashioned a satchel of sorts and stored the makeshift clothes there. Gyia could carry the satchel, but first her pride needed to hunt, and so did Brianna.

  “Go, hunt and eat well,” she told them. “We have a long journey ahead of us.”

  The dragons took to the air, all except Ferno, who stayed at the entrance to the cave, watching for any signs of danger. Brianna slipped back down the long shaft that led to the cavern in the heart of the mountain. At first the tunnel was pitch-black, but Brian
na let blue flames erupt from her skin as she slowed her decent. Flying for Brianna was a dance of the body and the mind. She could do many things simply by thinking them, but she used her body to help shape the flight path she wanted. She extended her arms and let her fingers glide over the sides of the tunnel as she fell. The shaft was straight and the tunnel walls smooth to the touch. She had let her fire burn hotter than molten rock when she made her way down the shaft. The heat she produced was so intense it had melted the stone beneath her feet. She had slipped down into the molten rock, diving deeper and deeper until she found the place she needed, far from the eyes of the world, deeper even than the dwarf kingdoms. And along the way she had found veins of gold. She could sense the precious metal as she drew close to it and she slowed her descent even more.

  When she reached the gold vein she spread her legs, letting her feet settle onto the smooth tunnel walls and locking her legs in place so that the pressure of her weight, light though it was, held her in place. The gold vein was rich. She had used many such veins in making her dragons, but this gold would be useful to help her get the supplies she needed to walk among the villages of men again. The gold looked like lightning streaking across the night sky.

  She put her hands on the tunnel wall and funneled her heat into the stone. It only took a few moments for the gold to begin to melt and seep out of the stone. It ran down the wall of the tunnel in a golden stream. Brianna moved one hand to cup the molten metal. It pooled into her hand and began to cool. It was heavy and hot, although the heat did not bother Brianna. Still, she needed it to solidify so that she could carry it to a village and trade it for clothes and supplies.

  She relaxed her legs and began to fall again. This time she held her arms against her body and pointed her toes until she was speeding through the tunnel at the highest speed possible. When she shot out of the tunnel into the cavern she looped around and used her own momentum to shoot back up. She couldn’t explain how she flew, in fact she didn’t understand it herself, and didn’t bother trying. She couldn’t launch herself off the ground, but she had often stood on Selix’s tail and been launched into the air. Once she was off the ground, she could do almost anything, and the freedom of flying was more intoxicating than any drink.