Dragon Raider (Sea Dragons Trilogy Book 1)

by Ava Richardson

  “Lila!” It was my father, storming onto the deck in his high boots, gauntlets and armor. He looked serious as he called to us. “We have no time for any more of your adventures!”

  He’s angry at me choosing the dragon over him, he thinks I am just that same girl I was, dreaming of dragon adventures. But I wasn’t.

  “You’re right, you don’t!” I said angrily as Crux swept his wings back and forth in an uneven hovering motion. “Havick is coming – and he has the biggest fleet with him that the Western Isles have ever seen!”

  My father was, if anything, a pragmatist. He immediately waved his guards off from the decks, and ordered them to make space for us to land.

  “Skreych!” Crux barked his annoyance as he had to fit his large body onto the smaller ship, making it bob up and down on the water. Several of my father’s sailors gasped, hurriedly jumping out of the way as the large Phoenix dragon settled himself.

  “Your dragon is hurt,” my father said, and the exhaustion that had distracted my mind vanished in an instant as I slid from the saddle.

  “Crux? Why didn’t you say?”

  “No point,” Crux admitted practically. “We couldn’t stop. Nothing good can be done for it.”

  “Of course, there is something good to be done!” I burst out. “Where does it hurt?” I started stalking back and forth up the length of the dragon.

  “There.” My father pointed to where one of Crux’s front legs was dripping with green ichor. I could make out the shapes of the stubby bolts that still sat there, having found their way on either side of the hardened scales.

  “We have to get them out!” I gasped, reaching for my knife as my father put a restraining hand on my shoulder.

  “I’ll get Kemper here. He is better at this kind of thing,” he grunted, before bellowing for the ship’s medic to bring his work equipment to the deck.

  “Okay. Thank you.” I nodded, feeling relieved but also worried as I set a hand against Crux’s side. “Kemper is a good man. A skilled healer,” I said to Crux, who had already turned his head to start sniffing at the barrels of salted fish.

  Danu thumped to the deck beside me, washing his hands before offering to assist the old, white haired man in the procedure, saying, “I have some skill with herbs and healing and the like.” Kemper grumbled and clicked his teeth as he always did, but he worked methodically and with great care on this, his largest of patients. I tried to keep an eye on what was going on, but my father was drawing me away from the scene as Crux hissed painfully, and casually crunched open one of the fish barrels and helped himself to its contents instead.

  “Lila… I still find it strange how you share minds with that creature,” my father muttered. I glared at him sharply, but I could see that he meant it when he raised his large hands defensively and said, “No harm is meant by it. I just find it…odd, that is all.” He frowned, before clearing his throat noisily. “Your mother talked to me last night. When she was sure that you were already many leagues away…”

  “Uh-huh,” I said noncommittally. I was half expecting him to say that the trouble that we had run into was something that he would have expected when I had ‘run off after a dragon’ but instead he shrugged his large shoulders and sighed deeply.

  “I am sorry, Lila. I have tried to make you into something you are not, which is very poor of me. That is not the Raider way,” he said through a strained voice.

  “Oh, Father.” All of my feelings of resentment towards him melted away in an instant as I saw the effort it was for him to admit his mistake. I threw my arms around his big form. I couldn’t keep on calling him Kasian anymore. It had always been awkward on my tongue; and now I wouldn’t say it. He was the only father I knew, anyway.

  “Shush, you…” he said gruffly, hugging me in a bear hug before gently pushing himself back from me. “Lila, I need to tell you this. After we lost our firstborn babe… I think that both I and your mother both went a little mad. Sad, and angry at the world. That is why I agreed to go on those raids to Roskilde. It was a very deep hurt.”

  “I know, Father,” I said grimly, seeking to spare his feelings.

  “No. Let me say this out loud,” he continued. “The Raiders are meant to be free. That is what we love most in life – not bowing to any tyrant or king, and I see now that I was trying to mold you into what I wanted. But you are Lila Roskilde, and Lila Malata. You should find out for yourself what your freedom holds.” He breathed out once again, patting his belly, with a look of relief.

  “Thank you again, Father,” I said to him, tears starting in my eyes, even when I knew that we had no time for such emotions.

  “Now, Lila whatever-we’re-going-to-call-you,” my father and Chief of the Sea Raiders said, straightening himself up. “What are you talking about – this fleet of yours?”

  I retold our experiences to my father, and watched as his face turned from shock to horror at the enormity of what we were facing. I explained the burned-out villages we had seen, and then the total devastation of the nearby Free Island ports and harbors. He nodded at that, as if he had been waiting for this to happen.

  “It has only been a matter of time before that Lord Havick tried to choke off our supplies and provisions…” my father growled.

  “Yes.” I nodded, before launching into the rest—a description of the fleet that faced us, their weapons and their numbers.

  “By the sacred waters and the stars,” my father said, as reality hit him. “They mean to destroy us totally.”

  “I fear so – but there is more.” I didn’t go into exact detail, but I explained a little of the dark magical fog that had hovered over them, and how Danu believed that some of the renegade witches had swept to Havick’s side. As sailors and Raiders are ever a superstitious bunch, I was expecting my father to pale or quail under this strangeness – but instead I saw his jaw clench in determination and in anger.

  “Then I see that we have no choice but to fight, and to fight well at that!” He snarled defiantly. “Lord Havick has allied himself with the worst and darkest of magics, and it would be an honor to free the Western Isles of his menace!”

  I might have whooped for joy, were it not such a patently foolish emotion. “I agree, Father – but we have only three large ships. Three against what, twelve? Fifteen galleons?”

  “We have the fishing fleet, and the smaller yachts. They can sail rings around any larger boat, and you know that!” my father said fiercely.

  “I know – but I still fear whether it will truly be enough,” I said, biting my lip with worry.

  “We make our attack here.” My father prodded a section of the parchment map spread before us. Danu and I stood at the edge of the table with the others clustered around his ‘war office’ – actually the largest room in the mansion, with Captain Lasarn of the Fang, Captain Helda of the Storm, and a dozen other Raiders of the smaller yachts. All in all, I thought that there must be twenty or so able-bodied men and women representing their crews here.

  “They don’t look happy,” Danu whispered at my side.

  “I’m not surprised,” I muttered back. They had just been told of the fleet that was coming for them, and although we had spared them the details of the magical fog that surrounded the galleons, the threat of so many cannons and crossbows alone was enough to frighten any heart.

  “Not at the mouth of the reef?” Lasarn countered, his old grizzled face frowning with determination.

  They were scared, I thought – but I also felt a swirl of pride for each man and woman who had risen to the challenge. They knew what was at stake: everything.

  “No.” The Captain shook his head savagely. “The inlet is for the Ariel alone. She’s the fastest, and she is the only boat that can do this.”

  “Aye, you have a point.” One by one, the other captains and ship’s officers agreed. Not that they didn’t have a choice. My father had asked for all opinions, and whether they were outlandish or farfetched, all knew he would listen to their ideas if it m
eant a chance to save Malata.

  “Then are we agreed?” he said, looking primarily at Lasarn and Helda. “You know what you have to do?”

  “I don’t like it,” Helda grumbled, but she thumped a gauntleted fist on the table with the others. “But it’s the best we can do.” She finished with a reckless grin. “We’ll send ‘em to the ocean floor. Chief – don’t you worry!”

  “I know you will,” my father agreed, straightening up as he sighed heavily. “And may the stars and waters help us, is all I can add.”

  A moment of dark reflection settled over the crowd, before my father clapped his hands together. “Right! You have your orders – jump to it!”

  The room emptied, leaving me, Danu, and the captains in it as the others ran down to their docks, shouting orders to their crews as they did so.

  “Lila – are you sure about this?” my father turned to say to me. “You’ll be taking the brunt of it…”

  “We can do it,” I said, nodding.

  It had been my idea to use our bodies—Danu, mine, and Crux’s— as bait, but now, as we circled high above the harbor of Malata, watching as the boats scrambled to their positions, even I had a moment of worry. Crux’s right wing still had the hole in it, and that made his flying less controlled – but he was still fast.

  “I can fly faster than your boats!” Crux assured me.

  “I know you can, my friend, but still… I would not endanger you so easily, not when there might be another way.” I agonized over what we were about to do.

  “You are not endangering me!” Crux’s tone was certain in my mind. “You think you can stop me fighting? From wreaking vengeance against these fiends who have stolen our brood?”

  There was no answer to that. Of course, I couldn’t stop the feisty and hot-hearted Crux. I hoped that at least this way we might have a chance.

  “There they go,” Danu said, pointing out to where the expanding ripples of the smaller boats fanned out around the reef, and the shapes of the larger Storm and Fang started turning away in opposite directions, one to the east, and the other to the west. It left the Ariel alone in the wide inlet that led through the Bone Reef to Malata’s harbor. We didn’t have long to lay our trap, but the Raiders had grown up in and out of these waters. They knew them well.

  “Then it’s time,” I said, and, with a challenging roar, I spurred Crux into swooping forward, to find our enemy.

  Chapter 33

  Danu, Cumulus Draconis

  We flew north at breakneck speed, passing the protecting reef around the island and moving towards the north and the west, following Crux’s fine nose.

  “It smells ugly,” he informed me, and I thought for the briefest of moments I could sense a little what he did, through his strange dragon-senses. There was fear, anger, mistrust and jealousy, all curled up into a taut ball.

  “Ugh!” I shook my head. “That is what the magic smells like to you?”

  “It is the magic of the darkness. Bad feelings. Bad thoughts. Small minds.” Crux needled the thought into my mind as we beat ever forward, straight into the teeth of our enemy.

  “What is it?” Lila, blissfully unaware of what we had sensed, asked.

  “They are close,” I told her, taking a deep breath as I tried to ready my own hesitant magics.

  “Are you ready? What do you need?” she asked me, her face tight with worry. I shrugged.

  “I don’t know. But I’ll be okay.” I told her, wishing that I could believe my words. Could I really do this? I hadn’t even completed my training yet!

  “Think not of what might happen; only what must happen,” Crux told me, with words that sounded shockingly like Afar or Chabon for a moment. He was right, though. I took a deep breath, cleared my mind and reached for my magic….

  It was there, like a raging torrent. I was shocked at how strong it was, and in my mind, I could feel the heat of the dragon radiating up and out through me. It was as if just having the dragon near increased my magic. Is that why the ancients used to believe what they did about dragon blood and bones? The magic wobbled and withdrew from me as my stomach turned over at the thought, before I calmed my heart and settled once more into the trance. No more dark thoughts. I had a living, breathing, healthy dragon to lend me power.

  “Danu – they are up ahead!” Lila was saying, and I opened my eyes to see our enemy with a different vision.

  There, spreading over the northern horizon, was the vast group of Havick’s ships. They were covered with the same dark fog, and to my magical eyes the fog was made up of ghostly faces and bodies. I watched in a state of transfixed horror as I saw the suggestions of helmets and armor on some of the larger faces, as some of the spirits had grown large.

  They are the dead? Is that what the magic was telling me – that the etheric darkness made by Ohotto Zanna was made up of unquiet spirits?

  Whatever the answer– it still did not change my purpose. I reached for the river of magic inside of me and the dragon, just as the cloud convulsed ahead of us.

  “Danu? Whatever you are going to do – can you do it quickly?” Lila called out as she hunched over Crux’s neck ahead of me. The dark witch’s fog rose from the ships and scudded towards us. Left behind, in its absence, we could see the fleet in much sharper detail now. There seemed to be so many ships against the Raider’s forces. How could we ever beat so many?

  The magic. Just think about what you have to do, I berated myself, once again plunging my mind down into that current of power, before I raised my hands once again into the sky…

  “Cumulus Draconis!” I shouted.

  Nothing happened.

  “Cumulus Draconis!” I shouted again and again. The dark fog started racing towards us, and I could see angered, ferocious faces with fingers of cloud like claws stretching across the sky…

  “Cumulus Draconis!” I begged, threatened, and entreated with the power as the dark spirit-ether was almost upon us. I could feel the rise of the ensorcelled fear against me, as the brush of terror from the cloud threatened to tear our courage away…

  And then a breath of fresh wind from the east.

  Come on, come on. I threw my hands out to the clouds as the ships grew larger underneath us, and now I could see masts and sails, and rows upon rows of gun ports.

  Hsssss! With a scream, the spirit-ether was all around us, and I felt instantly terrified.

  “Danu!” Lila shouted through chattering teeth.

  “It’s the magic. It’s not real!” I told her, although the fear threatened to turn my guts to ice and make tears fall from my eyes. Please work, by all that is holy, please work! I begged, as the breeze from the east grew a little stronger, and stronger still….

  “Hiyah!” Lila said through clenched teeth as we were diving in and amongst the racing ships.

  Pheet! Pheet! Small and dark bolts flew up towards us, but Crux’s speed was unrivalled, as he buffeted one cloud of crossbows with a violent snap of his great wings before lashing out at a sail –

  “Get them! Bring them down!” a male voice jeered from below – but the power of the fog was so strong that it was all that I could do to hold onto Crux’s tines and pray.

  THABOOM! I heard the first cannon go off, as Crux briefly touched claws on the deck of one of the ships, pushing off and out into the air again, and making the galleon beneath us shake in the murk. The fog didn’t seem to affect the sailors of Havick’s navy, I thought, until I realized that the fog was hanging around us and above the ships – Ohotto was too wily to let it settle for long on any of her own troops.

  THABOOM! Another cannonball fired, missing us by meters as Crux lashed out his tail at a smaller brigantine, rupturing a hole in its stern before swooping out low over the waters – just as the magic that I had cast finally came into effect.

  The winds from the east blew and howled over the water towards the fleet of Roskilde. Sails that had previously been limp suddenly filled as the captains and quartermasters barked orders to turn their ships acro
ss the gales. A ship can survive heavy winds, and the sailors could even use it to their advantage if they were quick enough. But the gale from the east was not intended for the ships. It was intended for another enemy entirely.

  The spirit-ether held for a long moment, as the tendrils of its outliers dissipated. But the magical winds I had summoned grew only stronger, and pummeled the ether fog, driving it back and away, lifting it from the seas and from our minds at the same time.

  “By the waters!” Lila gasped, as she must have felt what I did too… A new sense of determination and confidence as the magical frights were lifted. I didn’t know for how long my magic would last, especially against such a powerful witch as Ohotto – but we had a little time.

  “Urk…” my head suddenly pounded with a vicious headache and my body flooded with exhaustion.

  “You have given too much! Stop!” Crux forced his way into my mind, and in my imagination, it felt like he was lowering his wings over me, shielding me from the magic that I had summoned.

  “No, Crux – I need to be able to counter Ohotto,” I murmured, earning a worried glance from Lila ahead of me as we flew south and west, back towards Malata.

  “You did! Now onto the next step of the plan,” Lila cried back at me, as we flew at the head of the fleet.

  Havick and his captains, angered by our attack and our display of both flying skill, bravery, and magic, bore down on us with full speed.

  Just as we had hoped they would.

  Chapter 34

  Lila, the Battle for Malata

  I knew that Danu was flagging, but Crux told me that he had him safe, and once again I felt relieved, thankful, and worried—all in equal measures. That Crux could do all of this— flying, advising, avoiding being shot, as well as lending his strength to the adept behind me— was a wonder.

  Thank you, great friend… I reached out to him as the islands of Malata swam closer towards us.