“I just…” Dearra struggled to find the words. “I wanted to say…”
Darius took a few small steps towards the tiny beauty, until they were only inches apart. He looked down at her, while she seemed to be staring at her shoes. He was prepared for whatever she had to say. He wanted her to lash out at him, to scream and rant, even for her to strike him, and he was ready for it, whatever it might be.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice barely a whisper.
He had been wrong. He thought he had been ready for anything, but not for this. She was sorry? That made no sense. “Dearra, I don’t understand. It was all my fault. How can you be sorry? Oh, dearest! You can’t for one moment believe that you are in any way to blame!”
“Then you don’t hate me?” she asked hopefully, looking up at him.
“Hate you? Dearra, I love you! I haven’t been able to draw breath without a stab to my heart since that night. Without you, I am nothing. I owe you the apology. I can’t tell you the dishonor I feel, the self-loathing. I would crawl through ten Breken deserts if you would only say you could forgive me.”
Dearra smiled through sparkling tears. The golden halo around the blue in her eyes shone like fire, and she leaned happily into him. She felt his arms encircle her, and he pressed his cheek gently against the top of her head as he used to do. The two of them stood in silence for several minutes, just enjoying the closeness they had been denied these many weeks. Darius pulled back from Dearra and brushed away the last of her tears. “There now, no more crying. Even happy tears. It hurts me to see you so.”
“Okay, Darius,” Dearra said with a bright smile. “Whatever makes you happy. I’m just so relieved you accepted my apology.”
“Dearra, you’re so funny,” Darius said with a laugh. “There’s nothing for me to accept. You have nothing to say you’re sorry for, but as long as you forgive me I guess nothing else matters.” He smiled and chucked her gently under the chin.
Dearra’s smile slipped a bit. “Darius, I’m serious. Surely you understand I was at fault. I came to your room. I tempted and teased you, even though I had been warned. The fault was mine.”
Hey, you two—guess what? Brin said, but he was ignored.
“Dearra, I should have had more self-control. I could have stopped you, as I had many times before, but I chose not to, because of my own selfishness. I am to blame.”
Really, you want to guess. This is pretty exciting news I have! Come on, Dearra what do you say? One little guess.
“Darius how can you say that? I was in your room after you told me specifically not to go there anymore. Why was it your restraint that was to blame and not mine?”
Darius? You then! Go ahead—ask me!
But Darius ignored Brin and said, “Well, because you’re just a woman.”
Tolah save us, Brin said.
On deck, someone called out, “Land ho!”
Chapter 11
Carly bounded through the door, a flush of excitement on her cheeks. “We’re here! We’re here! Lord Hugh thinks our vessel is faster than the Breken ships, plus the storm probably pushed us along a bit! I can’t believe we’re here already! Aren’t you …both…so…excited?” She looked back and forth between Darius and Dearra. “What is it? What’s happened? A few minutes ago, when I was listening at the door, you were professing your love for one another. I go away for a couple minutes and you hate each other?”
Shocked at her friend’s behavior, Dearra said, “Carly! You were listening?”
“Of course I was. How else am I supposed to find anything out?”
Just in case I haven’t said it lately, I really do like that girl. She could definitely be part dragon.
“Shut up, Brin!” Dearra and Darius said in unison.
“First of all, Carly,” Dearra began, “I absolutely forbid you to spy on me again, but if you must know, Darius told me that I am not to blame for what happened since I am only a woman and therefore not responsible for my own actions.”
“Actually, Carly, I said just a woman, not only, but Dearra’s right: no more eavesdropping.”
“Okay, as far as me not spying? You can forget that. Last time I checked I was a free Maj and could do pretty much as I please. If you have a problem with that, I suggest you talk quieter.”
You’ve got to admit, the girl—
Do you really want to finish that sentence, Brin? Dearra thought.
No, not really.
Carly continued, unaware of Brin and Dearra’s exchange. “And as for Darius’s comment: are you kidding me? I’ll grant you it was a stupid thing to say, but he’s…well, sorry, Darius, but you’re a man, and stupid pretty much goes with the territory sometimes. Dearra, you can’t tell me you don’t love him anymore, just because of one thoughtless comment.”
“Of course not! I love him, all right.”
Darius flashed a triumphant grin.
“But he’s going to take back the comment, and he’s going to accept my apology. I’m quite firm on this.”
Darius gave Dearra a stern look and said, “Dearest, sometimes a man has to stick to his word. Now, I will admit that my phrasing was…unfortunate, but I am the man, and I was responsible for controlling the situation as a result. Look at the size of me! You were practically at my mercy.”
“And yet, you were the one who was burned, my love,” Dearra almost purred.
“That, Dearra, was Brin’s doing, not yours. Had you been alone—” Darius shuddered at the thought, and he let his sentence end there. “No, I will not take back what I said, and you will have to accept my apology. I won’t bend on this one, Dearra. You’ve had your way long enough.”
“So, it seems neither of us will yield.”
“So it would seem,” Darius responded.
“Well,” Dearra said, grinning wickedly. “This should be interesting.” Dearra swept from the stuffy cabin and made her way back on deck.
“Cyrus save us,” Carly said. Darius had to suppress his smile when he heard Brin say “Tolah save us” in his mind, at almost the exact same moment. He thanked both of them mentally; Darius knew Dearra well enough to know that he could use all the help he could get.
***
On deck, all hands worked as one. Sails were lowered and anchors dropped as the caravel came to rest off-shore. Before them lay the port of Bandar, a mixture of every race of people imaginable, thrown together to form one teaming mass of humanity.
Dearra stood on the foredeck, braced her hands against the rail, and gaped at the city before her.
“It’s something, isn’t it?” Darius said, coming to stand beside Dearra. “I’ve been here a couple dozen times, and I’m in awe every single time I see it.”
“I don’t think ‘awe’ is the word for it. Terrifying or overwhelming is more like it. How in the name of Cyrus are we to find our way? The noise alone will be crippling. I can hear them from here as if they were standing right beside me.”
“It’s not so bad. You get used to it fast enough. Unless…”
“What?”
“Unless you would rather stay on the ship and leave this to the men.”
“I’ll have you know I am more than capable of handling myself in any situation. I hardly think you are the best person to—” Dearra’s ranting was cut off by Darius’s bray of laughter. His intention had been to tease her, and she had leapt at the bait. She would have started in on him again, but he had already turned and was on his way to join the group getting ready to head to shore.
“A little help would have been nice, Brin. Why did you let me fall for that? Brin? Is everything okay?”
It’s too many people in my head, Dearra. I’ve been on Maj so long I can’t sort it all out. It’s like this terrible hum that I can’t silence that just keeps getting louder. I…I don’t think I can do it.
Dearra paused for a moment before saying, “Oh, my poor Brin. What was I thinking? I’m so sorry my friend, of course you can’t do it.”
Thank you, Dearra. I a
m so glad you understand.
“I do. I should never have asked this of a dragon. Now, if you were human, we could work through this, but a dragon? Well, everyone has their limits, right?”
Now wait, I didn’t mean that I couldn’t do it, exactly. It’s, just that it’s so difficult and—
“Don’t you worry about a thing, Brin! I’ll just have Father lend me a useful sword—I mean another sword—and you can wait here where it’s safe.”
Now see here! I am made of tougher stuff than that! What kind of friend would I be to abandon you when you needed me most? No, I suppose I will just have to brave it through. I handled it a thousand years ago, and I will again!
“I don’t know; are you sure, Brin? You’re so delicate; I don’t want to risk harming you.” Dearra worried she might be laying it on a bit too thick, but it seemed to be just the thing Brin needed to find his confidence.
Of course I’m sure. There hasn’t been a human born that was better than a dragon when we set our minds to it. I’m here to help you, after all. We’re a team. You need me.
“You’re right, Brin. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Well, don’t be too hard on yourself. You’re only a human after all, and that’s why I’m here: to help you reason through these things.
Now, let’s get over by the others before they decide to leave without us.
“Good thinking, Brin.” Dearra made her way to small boat being prepared, a huge grin plastered on her face.
***
Hugh addressed the group. “Okay, the crew will stay here. They are well trained and will be able to keep the ship safe. They have orders to run if anyone tries to approach. The caravel is fast enough that she should be able to dance out of reach of most other ships, so the heavy, Breken vessels will certainly be no match for her. Darius, what should be our first step? How will we contact the Breken?”
“Trust me: they already know we’re here. I considered trying to disguise myself in some way to keep them from knowing I was with you for as long as possible, but I’m afraid my height makes that pretty much useless. Hiding is out of the question as well, since you will need me as a guide. We’ll just have to go about as we normally would and leave them to wonder. If we’re lucky, they’ll think me a hostage, or perhaps that I pretended friendship in order to spy on you. They think you’re all stupid enough to fall for such a ploy—no offense.”
“None taken,” Daniel said, firmly cuffing Darius on the back of the head.
Darius ignored the reproof, and continued speaking. “The first thing we need to do is find a place to stay. It would be too dangerous to go back and forth to the ship at night, as the crew would never know for sure who was approaching until it was too late. Even if we worked out some kind of signal, they couldn’t be positive someone hadn’t gotten ahold of the information, so it’s best if we stay ashore.
“Next, we will need to secure horses. Breken territory is quite a ways inland, and it will take a good day and a half by horse to get there.”
“Horse! Surely we could run? I mean, are the horses really necessary?” Dearra asked, her voice betraying her anxiety.
“Yes, Dearra, we need the horses. Walking is nowhere near fast enough in the Breken desert, and I think you would find running on sand drains your strength more quickly than you can imagine.”
Dearra didn’t comment further, but Darius could see her mind racing, trying to figure out a way around the use of horses, though he couldn’t figure out the cause of her distress.
“Where do we get the horses? Do they have some sturdy ponies we could rent?” Hugh asked.
“The Etrafarians raise the only horses in this area.”
“Etrafarians! You speak of fairies from children’s bedtime stories! Captain Koukai used to try and tell me such tales until I finally laughed myself silly, and he gave up. What nonsense.” Hugh’s eyes twinkled with mirth.
The others chuckled as well, amused to be in on the joke, but Darius didn’t so much as smile. His look, instead, was one of total confusion. “I don’t understand. I’m not talking about fairies. Etrafarians have lived in this area for ages, and were visitors here long before that. They are the only ones to breed horses large enough to carry Breken riders.”
“Boy!” Hugh said, sounding irritated. “Etrafarians are a myth!”
“Whatever you say, Lord Hugh, but it’s getting late and we need to make our way to shore to find accommodations, and then, in the morning, we’ll buy some horses from a bunch of myths.” Darius stepped away from a flustered Hugh, and swung a leg over the side of the ship to lower himself into the boat waiting below.
Chapter 12
Dearra trotted to keep up with Darius’s longer strides, as they made their way through the streets of Bandar, people stopping to stare at the strange procession all the while. Breken were common enough, but a Breken leading a group of Maj, two of them women, and both of them armed? Well, that was something else entirely. Had Darius not left the giant wolf behind with Royce, the whole place might have turned out to watch them.
“Darius, you can’t be serious. Etrafarians? Here? Fairies? I mean, real, live fairies? Admit it, you’re having a laugh at our expense, right? Answer me!” She stopped directly in front of him, placing one hand on her hip and the other on the hilt of her sword.
Darius took a deep breath before answering, willing himself to be patient, and the crowd around them came to a halt as well, waiting with baited breath for them to continue. The rest of the group all acted as if their attention was diverted elsewhere, but each and every one of them was listening, shamelessly and eagerly, for Darius’s response. “Look, Dearra, I already answered you. Yes, there are indeed fairies here—well, Etrafarians anyway—but I’m not sure your idea of a fairy is going to match too well with the reality. I’ve heard some of those wild tales, and honestly, I would have thought the Maj were above such nonsense.”
They started walking again. “Tales like what?” Dearra asked.
“Well, that they have wings, for example. I mean, you can’t really believe that, can you?”
“Oh, so they can’t fly?” Dearra said, her disappointment clear.
“Of course they can fly.”
“But you said they didn’t have wings!”
“Why can’t you have one without the other? I’ve seen birds with wings that couldn’t fly an inch, why should it be so hard to believe in a race of people who can fly without wings?”
“Well, I guess I…”
“I’m just teasing, Dearra. I can understand why you might think that, but they do not have wings and they can fly, although it’s more like levitation than flying.”
Dearra thought about this for a moment, trying to recall the rest of the mythology she’d heard about the Etrafarians. “Are they really tiny, as the stories say?”
“That depends on your definition of tiny. Tiny is a subjective word, isn’t it? If you mean are they a mere few inches tall, then no. The Etrafarians average about four and a half feet tall. Some are as small as four feet, though they can grow to be upwards of about five feet tall. They have especially sensitive skin and eyes, since Etrafa is a completely wooded country, or so the legends tell us. Their eyes appear almost cat-like since they have adapted to the lower light of their forest home. They wear cloaks that cover them from head to toe to protect them from the sun in this region.”
“Where is Etrafa? I should think it would be a fascinating place to visit.”
Darius shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. “No outsider knows, as far as I can tell. They hold that secret pretty closely, and with their strong magical abilities, I imagine you could sail almost to her shores and never see a thing if the Etrafarians didn’t allow it.”
“Why come here then? If they are that private a people, why mix with others at all?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. There are never more than a dozen or so here at any one time. Some go and new ones come. They make a lot of money providing horses to the Brek
en. No one can train horses like they can, but still, up until about a thousand years ago, they just came here to trade. Then, one day they settled in and never completely went away.”
“So about the time of Cyrus,” Dearra said quietly, her words for Darius alone.
Darius stopped again, pausing to consider. “I never thought about it before, but you’re right. That is a strange coincidence.”
“Yes, isn’t it?” Dearra said, half to herself.
“For Cyrus’s sake, boy!” Daniel said. “How much further is it? It feels as though we’ve walked forever, and I’m exhausted.” Daniel stopped walking and stood with arms crossed, waiting for an answer.
Darius looked up from Dearra, surprised at Daniel’s outburst. Daniel was ordinarily a pretty rugged individual, and it was unusual for him to complain, but when he looked, the real problem was made clear to Darius almost immediately. Carly was leaning subtly against Daniel. Her breath came in little panting puffs of air as she struggled to collect herself. Darius could have kicked himself for being so inconsiderate. Dearra had a sheen of perspiration on her face from trying to keep up with Darius, how much harder must it have been for Carly who was even smaller?
“Only a short ways more,” Darius said. “We can take a slower pace from here. We need to get everyone some lighter weight clothing as well. It will keep us cooler, and we will blend in more with the locals.”
Daniel grumbled. “Well, see to it that you do take a slower pace, then. I’m not a young man anymore.”
Darius grinned to himself. Daniel was forever complaining about his age, even though he was still a very young man. The people of Maj lived to be over a hundred and Daniel was only thirty-six.
Darius didn’t miss the gentle way Daniel took Carly’s arm as they started up again. He was sure to go much slower from that point forward, mostly because he was afraid of what Daniel would do to him if anything happened to Carly. This thought caused Darius to shudder and smile at the same time as, looking down on Dearra, he understood exactly how Daniel felt.
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