by Bianca D’Arc
That only proved, in his mind, that he’d been right to keep dragons out of his life. Dreaming about them could only have interfered with everything he had accomplished, so far. He wondered how teaming up with them now, would affect his future, but there was just no way to know. Perhaps the Jinn had a prophecy about that, too, he mused. Maybe Rivka would tell him, if he asked.
“Ready,” came her voice in his mind. He had stood facing the doors so as to give her privacy in which to shift shape. Not that she needed it. She went from human to mist to dragon pretty quickly, but he wanted to show respect and not gawk at her changing form, again. He wasn’t sure why. It just seemed like the right thing to do.
He threw open the double doors and strode out of his cabin, the black dragon that was Rivka following behind. Someone would close the doors for him, he was sure of that. His crew knew not to leave any hatches unsecured. They were good men of the sea.
Liam went straight to the rail to see how close they were to Fisk’s ship. Very close, indeed, he discovered almost immediately. He started issuing orders for the approach and checked over the men Benyon had collected to crew the empty ship. He was busy for a while and, when he looked up again, Rivka was no longer on his ship but waiting for him—or so it seemed—on the empty deck of Fisk’s ship.
He ordered the boarding, and it went off easily on relatively calm seas. He went over with the first of his crew and tasked them to make a thorough search of every crevice. He had more than just the crew that would take the ship in the initial boarding, just in case. They were a platoon of seasoned fighters, as well as the technical experts who had been chosen to take the ship to Dragonscove. A young officer named Keen would captain the ghost ship. It would be his first command, but Liam had been watching him and had every confidence in the young man.
Liam took his own tour of his enemy’s flag ship, paying special attention to anything that might have been left behind in the captain’s quarters, but there was nothing. Not even a speck of dust marked the living space of the former captain of this vessel. Very odd, indeed.
“It had to have been magic, right, milady?” he asked Rivka as he joined her on deck. “No way could someone clean out a ship this spotless otherwise.”
Her dragonish head bobbed in agreement. “I believe there are spells that could accomplish something like this, though, of course, I am no mage. Jinn traditions note many cases in which magic has obscured evidence of someone’s existence, or passage, in the days of old.”
“In the days of magic, you mean,” Liam said gently, though his jaw clenched. He didn’t like magic or wizards or anything to do with the evil that have been kept secretly, all these many centuries, locked away in the impenetrable ice of the far, far North.
The dragon nodded, once again.
“Sir!” Captain Keen’s baritone voice came from behind Liam. He turned to meet the young officer’s gaze. “All hands report the ship is clean as a whistle. Nothing left behind.”
Liam could see the confusion in Keen’s eyes and decided to take pity on the young man. After all, Keen would be the one sailing her back to Dragonscove. He should rightfully know what he might be up against.
“Lady Rivka and I have been discussing this,” Liam told Keen. “It is her considered opinion that Fisk may have, once again, used magic to cover his tracks. There’s just no other way a working sailing vessel could have been made this clean or empty. It’s like it just came out of the shipyard, except for the aged color of the wood.” Liam put his hand on the rail. “It’s the damnedest thing.”
Keen frowned. “Do you think the magic he used might cause us problems on the voyage, sir?”
Liam looked up at Rivka.
“I can’t see how,” she told him. “Whatever happened here, it was done as they left the ship. I don’t sense any curses lingering, or anything that could make this vessel dangerous to a new crew. Still, I advise caution, and a fast passage to their destination. After which, the ship should be checked over very carefully by more expert folk than I.”
Liam nodded respectfully to the dragon. “As you wish, milady.”
He relayed her words to Keen and, only then, realized that the secret of his ability to hear the silent speech of dragonkind was well and truly out, now. Not that it was that big a secret. Liam didn’t see how such knowledge could be used against him, so he tried not to think about it too much. His men would believe what they would believe, and he had little to say about it. It was known now, that his daughter could converse with dragons, so it wasn’t too much of a stretch to think that she had inherited her ability from Liam.
Keen gave the signal, at Liam’s command, for those who were not staying aboard to go back over to Liam’s ship. He and Rivka were the last two to make the crossing. He left Keen with words of encouragement, and advice, confident that the young man would do well.
Liam ordered his ship to make best time for the nearby port city of Tipolir. There had been no trace left behind on Fisk’s ship as to where he and his crew might have gone, but it only made sense that they had to have made for land. For one thing, the longboats had been conspicuously absent from the ship. The men had rowed ashore. That was the simple explanation.
Of course, they could have offloaded to another ship and gone somewhere else, but there was no way to know that for sure. Plus, Liam didn’t think they’d had enough time to coordinate all that. Regardless, Liam had to make a search of Tipolir. Fisk had been too close to the port not to consider that he’d gone ashore there to either take or send the precious page of Gryffid’s book north, overland to the Citadel.
Since they were so close, Rivka stayed in dragon form, and Liam stayed on deck with her. He watched as Keen set sail behind them, heading out toward Dragonscove. He’d gotten underway without any apparent problem, so perhaps he’d have an uneventful voyage. Liam certainly hoped so.
Liam realized something at that point. “Milady, have you seen Lord Skelaroth? Do you know where he is?”
Rivka’s head cocked to the side. “I’m not sure. Let me check.” She was silent in his mind for a few minutes, then reported back. “He sent a few of his fellow sea dragons to escort Fisk’s ship back to Tipolir. He was organizing that while we were on the ship.”
“If I’d known, I would have warned Keen,” Liam said, watching the other ship grow smaller in the distance.
Rivka snorted, sending smoke rings upward through the rigging. “I think all three of us are not used to consulting others when we make decisions. Perhaps, we’d better start improving communications now, before any real action starts. If we’re working on our own plans, we could easily run afoul of someone else’s and mess everything up.”
Skelaroth surfaced next to the rail, swimming easily to keep pace with Liam’s ship. He blinked at them as his voice came into both of their minds. “Too true, milady. I apologize for not alerting you both to my plans. I have sent three young sea dragons to act as underwater escort for that ship. They will help your men get it safely to Dragonscove—and beyond, should the decision be made to sail for Gryphons Isle to seek the wizard’s counsel.”
“Thank you, my lord,” Liam said formally. “Perhaps we should discuss what we each plan to do when we reach Tipolir, since we will be there in less than an hour.”
“I will take to the land and, thence, to the sky,” Skelaroth announced. “I have been enjoying the sky swimming lessons your land dragons have been giving at the Island Lair. I will look for patterns from above and can easily watch the roads heading away from the city.”
“If you’ve got the high-guard, then I will take my human form and work with Liam on the ground. There are many Jinn in the city, and I will be able to contact them for information,” Rivka put in.
“I will set some of my men to searching the shoreline for signs of recent passage,” Liam told them. “It is possible that the longboats Fisk had could have put ashore at several different spots along the coast. I will have my people check, just in case he avoided the city, itself. As f
or me, I will head straight for the docks and my warehouse here. There are standing orders in every port where I do business that any sightings of Fisk or any of the vessels known to cooperate with him, are to be noted, and agents are to be followed and observed. If my people are on the ball, we might be able to run him to ground that way. Or, at the very least, know a bit about where he came ashore and where he went from the dock.”
Rivka nodded slowly. “Your people watch the waterfront. My people have eyes all over the city. We run several inns and taverns, and our minstrels play in almost all of the others. If you know which direction he went from the dockyards, then I can ask the right questions of my kin and find out where he went from there.”
“This sounds like a very good plan,” Skelaroth offered.
“Agreed,” Liam concurred. Heaven help him, he was about to go into partnership with not one, but two dragons. Would wonders never cease?
Tipolir was a grungy city at its heart. Rivka had never liked it. She’d come here on Jinn business, a time or two, and knew several of the other Jinn working in this city, but it wasn’t a place where she felt comfortable. There were many factories, for one thing. Smoke from the forge fires shrouded the city both day and night. Nearby iron mines meant that smelters worked round the clock, refining the ore and creating iron bars and bricks for transport to other parts of the world where the iron wasn’t so plentiful.
The brisk trade in iron meant there was a lot of money among the merchant classes, and many, many workers to man the forges and smelters. A few haves and many have nots. This occasionally erupted in violence or work stoppages as workers sought to gain fairer wages or more protections against injury.
Rivka had been in the city, several years ago, when a team of workers had been killed by faulty equipment. The riots after that terrible tragedy had lasted for a week. But the demand for more safety measures had been met, in that instance, and there had not been a repeat of that particular problem ever since.
That seemed to be the pattern here. A tragedy, followed by a protest, followed by a remedy and continued work. Rivka had often thought that it was also unnecessary. If only they would design the equipment with more safety in mind, from the beginning, a lot of death and unrest could be avoided. But the people here seemed to thrive on conflict, and so, the pattern repeated, over and over.
Rivka had left Liam at the docks, after night had fallen. She’d flown away to an inn she knew, where she could shift into her human form in the privacy of the barn. Nobody had seen her in the dark of the night, and she was able to talk to the innkeeper, who was also a member of the Black Dragon Clan. What she learned there made her frown.
Nevertheless, she went on to her next source of information and learned what she could. She had of arranged to meet with Liam at her next destination, a tavern of Jinn ownership that had excellent food. They were going to meet for dinner, if at all possible. Of course, plans could change quickly if either of them learned something that needed immediate action.
So far, though, everything she’d gleaned had been days old. She needed something more current before she would know her next move. Perhaps Liam or Skelaroth had fresher information, she thought as she made her way to The Smiling Dragon. The sign above the door had a fanciful purple-winged serpent carved into it, the mouth of the strange-looking beast curved upward in a toothy grin. She just shook her head as she opened the door and went in.
CHAPTER FIVE
Liam spotted Rivka the moment she entered the tavern. His heart gave an unexpected flutter, which made him frown. Why should he react so strongly to a woman he’d only just met? A warrior woman, so totally unlike the fragile flower of womanhood that had held his heart for so many, many years. It didn’t make sense. Rivka was not the kind of woman he usually found attractive. She didn’t need protecting or cosseting in any way. She was a fighter—an actual dragon, for goodness sake—who could well take care of herself.
Yet, he was undeniably attracted to her. The sudden tightness of his breeches was proof enough of that. Perhaps that’s all it was. A physical attraction to a stunning woman. He could almost forgive himself for that, even though he had not been so powerfully attracted to a female since his wife had died. His hardness abated. Even this base physical attraction felt like a betrayal of his beloved Olivia’s memory. He cursed himself under his breath as he watched Rivka scan the room.
She caught his eye and nodded coolly, indicating with a slight jerk of her head that she was going to talk to the barman and would be right over. He acknowledged her message with what he hoped was similar coolness and drained the last of his ale, suspecting she would bring a refill as part of her pretense for talking with the barman.
The tavern was crowded, and Rivka’s entrance had been noticed by many of the men. She was a handsome woman, after all. But, when she’d subtly indicated she was here to meet Liam, most of the room had gone back to their own pursuits. This beautiful female would likely not be interested in anything the single men in the room had to offer. Not if her attention had already been captured elsewhere.
Liam had to admire her actions. She’d just subtly let all the men who’d been watching her down easy, without saying a word. He stared at the fire in the massive fireplace a few yards away from his table and thought through all he had learned. He hoped she would have further information to clarify some points, but even if she didn’t, his next steps were becoming clearer as he thought through his options.
A short while later, a new flagon of ale was placed on the table before Liam. He looked up to find Rivka, holding her own flagon and smiling in greeting.
“The landlord was most accommodating,” she told him. “We can have a private dining room for the next hour. Our meal is already being prepared and the table laid. Shall we?” The veiled invitation in her eyes made his toes curl. He had to remind himself this was a show she was putting on for the benefit of anyone watching them too closely. “They have shepherd’s pie tonight,” she added, grinning.
The quirk of her chin invited him to mischief, and he wondered what it would be like if the coy act she was putting on for the men in the common room was real. Then, he caught himself. He wasn’t here to flirt with a pretty girl. He was here to catch a pirate, recover a wizard’s dangerous stolen artifact, and finally get his revenge. That thought settled him as he stood, taking his flagon with him and following where she led.
The private dining room was at the back of the tavern, well away from the hubub of the common room. Liam realized there were several private rooms back here, and most were in use. He caught a flash of other diners as the doors opened and closed to admit servers.
“The Smiling Dragon is known for their private accommodations,” Rivka told him as they walked. “Many a deal has been brokered in these rooms over their excellent food.”
She didn’t say anything further, and she opened the door to the farthest private room. She led the way in, seeming unsurprised to find someone already inside as Liam paused only briefly in the doorway before stepping in and closing the door behind him. This tavern had to contain one of her contacts, and for whatever reason, she was allowing Liam to sit in on their meeting. He liked that. It indicated a certain level of trust.
“This is Min,” Rivka said quietly, introducing the girl who was standing by the table. She was dressed as a server and had likely just brought in the meal that was already laid out for them.
Liam greeted the child in a subdued tone, offering her a smile. She responded shyly but looked to Rivka for her lead.
“It’s okay, Min. This is Captain O’Dare. He’s my partner in this quest. You can speak freely in front of him,” Rivka told the girl, who seemed to sag a bit in what Liam thought was relief.
“It’s like this,” Min said. “Two days ago, I was serving a party in the largest of our rooms. They were a rough sort. Sailors. Fighters. I dare not go into the room on my own, in fact, lest one of them try something I’d have to shout over.” She made a face, loosening up as she told her
tale. “I was helping Jem, the kitchen boy, clear up the mess when one of the men mentioned the name Fisk.”
Liam tried to control his instinctive reaction. It wouldn’t do to scare this poor girl, but he knew from the way her eyes widened that she could probably see his clenched jaw and fists.
“Go on, Min,” Rivka encouraged the girl. “You’re doing great.”
“Well, I knew to listen. Papa told us all to keep our ears open for that name or anything to do with a book or a paper. We watch everything, anyway,” the girl rolled her eyes, “but what we’re told to look out for changes from time to time. We’re used to that. It all depends on what’s going on, and what the Clan most wants to know.”
Clan? Liam realized this girl must be Jinn. So, the secretive brotherhood had even their children spying on people. It was appalling, in one way, and brilliant, in another.
“Min and her family are part of the Wind Dancer Clan,” Rivka told him as the girl paused. “They are closely related to my own Clan but live mostly in Elderland, though Min and her immediate family have been here in Tipolir for three generations, now.”
Liam reached into his pocket and withdrew a coin, flipping it toward the girl. Min caught it with quick little fingers. “That’s from Elderland,” he told her kindly. “See the image?”
The girl peered down at the coin with wide eyes. “It’s a virkin!” She looked up at him, again. “You’ve been to Elderland, sir?”
“Many times,” Liam replied, warming to the girl, who had to be only about ten summers old. She reminded him a little of Livia, though he’d seen his daughter very little over the years as she grew.
“Have you ever seen a real one, sir? A virkin?” Min asked, still wide-eyed.
Liam nodded. “Yes. As a matter of fact, there’s one on my ship, but she’s very young and very shy. Her name is Ella. Best mouser I’ve ever had. Not a speck of vermin survives long on my ship, and when she’s eaten them all, she dines in my cabin, with me.”