Chasing the Dragon

by Jason Halstead

  "Karthor, take Mordrim's spot," Alto said.

  The priest shifted past Carson and Alto and waited for the dwarf to rise and then move past him. He began to remove his armor, muttering all the while about the loss of good dwarf armor. In a few minutes, he stood in his doublet and pants.

  "I think we're close enough to swim," Patrina said after a few more minutes passed.

  "Drown a dwarf and you'll be cursed to never mine a single ingot of gold again," Mordrim growled as he judged the distance.

  Alto twisted in his seat and studied the distance. He nodded. "Kar, do it."

  "Never so much as a, 'if you please,'" the wizard muttered before he closed his eyes and raised his hands.

  "Trina, there's a lantern near your feet. Is there any spare oil?"

  Patrina moved the lantern aside and looked through a small box with ropes, some pins and other hardware, and a spare flask of lamp oil. "Found it!"

  "Spread it around up there, then pass it back."

  Patrina did as he bade and then sprinkled the tankard near Garrick before she gave it to Karthor. The priest did the same and then handed it to Mordrim for him to finish emptying the flask at the stern of the boat.

  Kar's chanting came to an abrupt end and a flash of light lit the morning sky. They looked to the south and saw a massive beast that looked a lot like a dragon rising into the sky. It stood still in mid-air, flapping its mighty wings, and then dove forward and came towards them. "Be ready!" Alto warned. He dug some flint and steel from his pouch and waited as the illusory dragon approached.

  "Damn, you sure that's not real?" Garrick asked.

  Kar grinned at the barbarian's unintentional praise. "Stand ready," he warned. "Five. Four. Three. Two. One! Jump!"

  Flames that looked real blasted from the dragon's maw. They raked across the surface of the water and then found the longboat. For three full seconds, the magical dragon circled and immolated the boat. It was time enough for everyone save Alto to leap free of the boat and then for Alto to strike sparks to the oil. As soon as it lit, he jumped off the boat and began the three hundred-foot swim towards the Kraken.

  The dragon flew on, circling around once and blasting the water with another fiery strike between the pursuing boats and the Kraken, and then it took off to the south whence it had come. Alto kept trying to see it with every stroke he did until it was little more than a speck, and then it disappeared. He smirked and then coughed as some of the sea water slipped into his mouth.

  By the time Alto reached the Kraken and was hauled out of the water by the hands of the crew, only Mordrim, Kar, and Karthor remained in the water. As Alto looked for Taldar, he saw the smuggler who he'd let go near the bow of the long ship. He nodded to him and spied Taldar. Before he could go to the captain, he heard a commotion behind him and saw Kar being pulled out of the water. Karthor was behind him and a small shape bobbed in the water behind them a couple dozen feet. Mordrim was dog-paddling his way to them.

  "Taldar," Alto greeted the captain. "That was quite a swim."

  Taldar nodded and glanced around. "You told me to set sail if there were troubles."

  "Were there?"

  Taldar looked at Alto and then out at the water. "Haven't we seen trouble enough? First the guards storm the docks and now this, a dragon burns your boat out from under you? How did you escape?"

  "Magic," Kar sputtered as he tried ringing the water out of his shirt while he still wore it.

  "You've got magic more powerful than a dragon?" he gasped.

  "No," Kar grumbled. "I made the dragon with my magic. It wasn't real!"

  "But your boat?"

  "Oil, flint, and steel," Alto explained.

  Taldar shook his head. "Amazing."

  "It is, and we need to head south now. I'm told there's a port south of here?"

  Taldar frowned. "I've never been that far south, but I've heard the same."

  Alto turned and glanced at the smuggler. "Any problems with the new recruit?"

  "Sailor," Captain Taldar corrected. Alto shrugged. "No, no problems. Seems to know more than I expected, too. For a southlander."

  Alto nodded and checked to see Mordrim being pulled out of the water. Garrick offered his hand to the dwarf, a cocky grin on his face. Mordrim reached up and grabbed it, and then set his feet against the side of the ship and yanked on the barbarian. Garrick roared as he splashed into the water behind the dwarf and came up coughing and sputtering.

  Alto shook his head. "Dragon or not, we need to be out of here right away. Take us south."

  "What about Namitus?"

  Alto frowned. "That's the same question we're all asking."

  Alto stepped away and let Taldar get his crew working the ship and turned to head south. He went to his spare clothing and changed. He smirked when he saw his armor and shield waiting for him. Mordrim's was at the bottom of the ocean now.

  Patrina left her armor on and let the sun dry her. She rubbed the salt crystals from the ocean off her skin and occasionally smiled at Alto. The others wound down and settled in while Alto continued to watch off the back of the ship for pursuit. He saw several ships but he couldn't be certain if any were following, especially as some of them grew small and smaller as the day wore on.

  Alto stirred when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He jerked awake, realizing he'd fallen asleep. Patrina smiled down at him and bent over to give him a kiss on his cheek. "Relax, we're fine and you needed it."

  Alto felt the heat in his cheeks. He glanced up at the sky and felt his eyes widen when he saw how low the sun was in the sky. He'd slept for hours. "How much longer?"

  "Taldar has no idea where it is," she said.

  Alto frowned. "How are we to find it?"

  "It's a coastal city," she said. "We sail within view of the coast. Kelgryn ships have a shallow draft. We can pass over shoals and closer to shore than most ships can."

  "I wish I knew what that meant."

  Patrina laughed and ran her hand through Alto's hair. "It means anyone trying to follow us will have a difficult time. Slow at best, impossible if they try to follow our exact route."

  Alto grinned. "Oh, that's good then." He looked past her and saw the smuggler glance at Taldar a few times as he made his way across the deck of the ship. He stopped once and worked to retie a knot that secured the sail when the captain turned to look across the ship.

  "I wonder what he wants?" Alto mused.

  Patrina turned but saw nothing out of the ordinary. "What? Who?"

  "That smuggler I let go. He's over there near the sail. He keeps looking at me and checking to make sure the captain's not looking."

  "You think he's an assassin after all?"

  Alto shook his head. "No, I don't think so. He knows I've seen him and he keeps looking. I'm not sure why he's afraid of the captain, though."

  Patrina's brows drew close together. "That's not good."

  Alto agreed with her.

  "I'll go talk to Captain Taldar," she said.

  "Wait! What?"

  Patrina rolled her eyes. "I'll talk to the captain; you talk to that guy. Find out what's going on. I'll keep Taldar busy."

  "How are you going to do that?"

  "Maybe I'll loosen up the straps on my armor."

  Alto stared at her with his mouth hanging open. Patrina turned away and took a few steps, and then look back at him over her shoulder. She laughed and shook her head. "I'm teasing you," she whispered.

  Alto clamped his mouth shut and swallowed. He nodded. "I knew that."

  She laughed again and moved across the deck of the long ship towards the captain. Alto waited until she'd gotten far enough away he could shake the icy feeling out of his stomach. She was going to be the death of him!

  "Women are a dangerous lot," Carson offered from where he sat nearby, inspecting some arrows.

  Alto turned to him. "How's that? You've barely seen any for eight years now?"

  Carson nodded. "True, but I've always suspected that when my time comes, it'l
l come at the hands of a woman."

  "That's grim."

  "Oh, I don't mean to say it'll be a woman holding a knife that found my throat," he amended. "Although it could be. I just mean that there'll be a woman involved. Like you said, I've not spent much time around them in a long time. I tend to like what I see more than I should."

  Alto stiffened. "I hope you're not talking about Patrina."

  Carson laughed. "No, not at all! Patrina's beautiful, don't get me wrong. But she's the kind of beauty a simple man like me admires from afar."

  "I wouldn't say you're all that simple either," Alto said.

  Carson smiled. "Thanks, um, I think."

  Alto smirked and rose up. "If you'll pardon me, I have to try to put some sense to this madness."

  The ranger nodded and went back to inspecting the arrow he'd taken from the ship's stores. Alto walked past him and over to the new sailor. "How's your new life treating you?"

  Rather than answering, the gray-eyed man glanced around and asked, "I don't see your friend. Didn't you find him?"

  "No, not exactly. We're still looking for him," Alto said.

  "Shouldn't you be in the city then?"

  "Not if he's not in the city," Alto answered. "Seems like you're awful worried about something and I don't think it's my friend."

  The sailor looked around again before he spoke. "That name we talked about before?"

  Alto's brow furrowed as he thought back to the conversation in the warehouse. "Tal—"

  "Yes," the man interrupted.

  Alto glanced up at the captain and saw Patrina had him busy as she asked questions near the bow of the ship. "What about the name?"

  "It was the same name I thought it was."

  Alto frowned. "What are you saying? The, uh, delivery you talked about came to that, uh, name?"

  The man chuckled. "You're terrible at this."

  Alto blushed. "I'm used to speaking plainly. So is it?"

  "It is," the man said. "One and the same. The guards weren't searching ships; they were looking for your crew on the way to the ships."

  Alto nodded. "What's your name?"

  "Samuel."

  "Samuel, I suspect you're the kind of man whose loyalty is bought and sold to the highest bidder?"

  Samuel shrugged his shoulders but a smirk on his face confirmed for Alto that his guess was right.

  "Then remember that my city in the north handles all the trade in and out of the dwarven mines that are being reopened. My city. I live there and I rule there."

  Samuel's smirk changed to a smile. "Why do you think I'm telling you this?"

  Alto nodded. "Back to work. I'll sort this out shortly."

  "Wait, his things are over there." Samuel pointed towards a box near the helm where Patrina and Taldar were speaking.

  Alto nodded and picked his way across the deck towards the bow. He stepped up next to Patrina and waited for the captain to end his explanation of how he hoped to get the Kraken pulled into a drydock soon so he could put pitch on the bottom of the hull to help it slide through the water faster.

  "Captain," Alto said when he'd finished and Patrina's brows were raised in appreciation. "How'd you get lucky enough to have the crew on board when the guards stormed the docks?"

  "I hadn't paid them," he said with a chuckle. "I knew you might be finding a spot of trouble, so I held back on their wages. They'll still get them; they just didn't have any money to burn on women or ale."

  Alto nodded. "Good idea. How does pay work on a ship like this? I'd have thought they wouldn't be paid till they get back to Holgasford."

  Taldar tapped a locked chest with his foot. It was bolted to the deck, making it even harder to steal. "Every time I leave, I get paid. The way it works is I hire my crew and I pay them out of my gold, same as with repairs for the ship when we're not in kelgryn docks."

  "Seems like you'd be hiring the cheapest sailors you could get!" Alto chuckled.

  Taldar laughed with him. "Seems that way at first, but that don't get the job done. Lousy sailors make for lousy sailing. Trips take longer and the boat suffers for it. Repairs cost me and not having a top of the line ship means I get paid less for it. There's a reason the Kraken is one of the best ships in the kelgryn fleet!"

  "And you've got all that gold here." Alto looked at the locked chest. "Never had anybody try to steal it?"

  Taldar shook his head. "Not in years," he said. "I treat my crew right and keep them safe. They treat me right in return."

  "Kind of like getting them away from suspicious islands?" Alto asked.

  "What? Oh, uh, that was a misunderstanding—"

  "Or getting them away from dock at the first sign of trouble, even if the trouble's got nothing to do with you?" Alto continued.

  "You told me—"

  "Captain Taldar," Alto interrupted him again. "I've got a hunch that you and your crew are the highest paid in the kelgryn navy not because you've got the best ship and crew, but because you'll take your gold from anywhere."

  Taldar's eyes widened. He turned to Patrina. "Lady Patrina, this is madness! You heard me talk, you know I—"

  "Prove me wrong, Captain," Alto said. "Open that chest and show me there's nothing that shouldn't be in there. Do that and I'll pay you a thousand gold when we get back and speak well of you to Jarl Teorfyr himself."

  Taldar's eyes narrowed. He turned to Patrina and opened his mouth again but Patrina shook her head. "Whether you're captain or not, Alto is a noble. He doesn't have to offer you a deal."

  Taldar scowled and reached into his shirt. He pulled out a key on a chain around his neck and then stooped down to unlock the chest. He opened it and stepped back, his angry gaze biting at Alto.

  Alto felt fresh sweat chilling his neck as he squatted down to rifle through the chest's contents. He pushed a few charts and other documents aside and then found several pouches filled with gold and silver. He studied each carefully, noting the kelgryn stamping on the majority of the coins.

  "Everything as it should be, Thane?" Taldar snipped.

  Alto frowned. Samuel had seemed so certain. He rocked back a little and settled one hand on the hilt of his sword. Alto tilted his head slightly and pulled his sword out almost two inches as he did so. The shadow cast by the port rail of the ship allowed him to see the greenish glow coming from his blade.

  Alto nodded and studied the chest again. He looked at it and then tilted his head to study it at an angle. It didn't look right, unless the bottom was extra thick with weight to keep it from being stolen.

  Alto reached back in and took the coin pouches out. He glanced at Taldar and saw the man's eyes narrow in hatred. Alto smiled and reached down to rap on the bottom of the chest. He did it twice more before he felt comfortable enough to drive his fist into it and crack the bottom.

  Alto pulled away a section of the false bottom and revealed additional documents and purses filled with coins. He tipped one over and pulled out a Shazamir coin. He looked at several more before he rose up with a handful of them.

  "Care to explain these?" Alto asked him.

  Chapter 22

  "Namitus!"

  The rogue heard his name called from a distance. Was it across a field or from another room? He tried to look for it but everything was dark around him. Dark and warm. Comfortable. If he moved too much, he'd make the shadows angry and they'd punish him again. It was better to sleep.

  "Namitus! Wake up."

  The darkness slipped away, taking the shadows with it. Namitus blinked but nothing felt right. His face felt swollen and his eyes itched. He tried to force the blurry images into focus but he was only partly successful. A figure stepped in front of him. A woman. She was wearing a pale blue dress that shimmered. Reflections off the crystals sewn into it speared into his eyes and made his head hurt. He groaned.

  "Oh Namitus, I'm so sorry," the woman whispered. "If you're here then Alto can't be far behind."

  The rogue forced his eyes open and stared up at her. She was beautifu
l, this woman in front of him. Beautiful and familiar. She knew him and she knew Alto. That meant he knew her too, or at least he should. He stared at her and blinked until the fuzzy lines began to clear.

  "Caitlyn?" he rasped.

  She let out a strangled moan. "I'm not supposed to be here," she whispered to him. "I'm not even supposed to know you're here. It's not safe for either of us."

  "Not safe? Where?" He ignored what felt like broken glass in his throat. His hands were bound in what felt like iron shackles, as were his feet. He was sitting in a chair but beyond that, he couldn't tell where he was.

  "I'm not sure. Sulim and I rode a boat for a few days and then we traveled in a wagon into a cave. When the wagon stopped we were here, in this place," Caitlyn answered. "They've been teaching us things. Telling us about their history and how things should be. How things will be. It's frightening!"

  "Who?"

  Caitlyn glanced to the left and right. "You know who," she said. "You have to try to get away. You have to! They're going to break you. They won't stop until they do."

  Namitus shook his head, wincing at the pain the movement caused him.

  "Yes, they will," she assured him. "Nothing stops them! They're evil, Namitus. They'll use anything to get what they want. They'll use you and then they'll kill you when they're done with you."

  "Won't happen," he rasped.

  Caitlyn turned her head and was silent. She frowned and looked back at him. "Promise me you'll try to escape."

  Namitus tried to laugh but it sounded more like a groan.

  "Good," she interpreted. "If you can't…Namitus, you've always been so kind to me. You helped me more than anyone, I think. I can't bear the thought of you being hurt. Hurt worse, I mean."

  Namitus raised his head on his sore neck muscles and asked, "What about you?"

  She frowned. "I have one thing to do before I can escape. I just have to fool them a little longer."

  "Careful," Namitus urged her.

  She smiled a sad smile and leaned in to place her lips on his forehead. "It's only a little while longer, then it won't matter anymore. Goodbye, Namitus, and good luck!"

  Namitus frowned as Caitlyn turned away and hurried away. She moved almost silently at first, and then a few moments later, he heard the distant sound of footsteps echoing away. He wondered why she'd paused to put shoes on. Or for that matter, why she'd taken them off in the first place.