by Resa Nelson
He didn’t believe in love at first sight, and he’d wanted to stop Peppa from leaving with a man he didn’t sense worthy of trust.
At the same time, Trep knew his sister to be her own woman. Although every fiber in his being screamed the need to protect her, forbidding her marriage would have been treating her like a child.
Trep believed love meant respecting another’s wishes, even when he disagreed with those wishes. He believed every adult must take responsibility for themselves, and that such a thing is possible only if everyone makes their own decisions, good or bad, right or wrong.
Trep knew he couldn’t force his opinion on his sister in the past and he couldn’t force his opinion on her now. She had to make up her own mind about whether to stay in the Land of Ice or travel with him and the dragon to the Land of Vines. He’d have to respect whatever decision she made.
For now, he chose to enjoy her company and whatever time he might have left with her.
Peppa glanced at him. “I know that look on your face. You looked the same the day I left to get married.”
Trep pressed his lips together lightly enough to remind himself to keep his mouth shut.
“I know you didn’t trust him,” Peppa continued, “and you were right not to.”
Not knowing what to say, Trep stayed silent. He’d seen her only briefly after she ran away from her husband and before she made her way to the Boglands. They never discussed what happened to her, only how she could find a way to keep herself hidden and safe.
Peppa laughed. “I suppose life plays tricks on us all. Once upon a time I thought my life would be perfect by marrying a man who turned out to be a monster.” She shook her head in disbelief. “And now I’m about to join my brother and his dragon on a voyage to a land that most people think doesn’t exist.”
Trep looked at her face in search of signs she might be jesting but saw none. “You’ll do it?” he said. “You’ll come with me?”
“We’re family.” Peppa grinned. “Better to go adventuring with you than settle for living with brigands in a land of ice.” Peppa’s grin faded. “But I’d feel much better if we could convince some of the others to come with us.”
“Leave it to me.” Trep winked. “I been told I can be quite convincing.”
For the first time since Kikita laid out his destiny for him, Trep’s heart blossomed with hope. His bitterness over losing Astrid began to melt away. Dreams of the adventure of a new life began to emerge like crocuses making their way through snow-covered ground, striving to find the sun.
CHAPTER 41
Drageen stared first at the bright night sky and then at the low but steady swells of the brackish sea.
Good sailing conditions.
He took it to be a sign from the new family of dragons he had oddly and unexpectedly come to embrace.
They claim they won’t help, but perhaps they’re willing to show me that I am on the right path.
Drageen supervised the preparation of the ship on which the Krystr soldiers had sailed to the Western Island. His own Northlander ship creaked and groaned while it bobbed by the simple wooden dock where it stayed tethered. The Western Islander men carried simple torches, examined the Krystr ship, and deemed it fit to sail. Unlike Drageen’s ship, a long and narrow vessel that rested so deeply in the water that anyone could touch the waves by reaching a hand over the railing, the Krystr’s ship looked stout and heavy with a hull that reached deep into the water and high above it. Instead of a single, enormous, square sail, the Krystr’s ship sported several smaller ones clustered together.
Incompetent. Nothing comes close to the building skills of the Northlanders.
The Midlander man Hevrick walked down the wooden plank from the Krystr ship to the dock, his boots clomping and the plank shaking from the weight of each step. “I’ve spent enough time on this kind of ship to captain it, if you like. It’s more of a Southlander style than Midlander, but they’re similar enough.”
Drageen nodded. “And the Krystr soldiers?”
Hevrick grinned. “Safely shackled in irons. I’m certain the women who grace this island will feed them.” His grin widened. “If they feel like it.”
While the islander men examined the ship, Drageen stood on the beach, facing the direction of the Northlands. He breathed in the cool, sharp air and took in his surroundings.
“Shall I split the boys and men between the two ships?” Hevrick asked.
Drageen shook his head. “You take them.”
The Midlander stared at him in disbelief. “You can’t row out from port by yourself.”
“The alchemists will come with me. With them, I sailed here and the four of us are enough of a crew to row from the port.”
Hevrick leaned close to Drageen and whispered. “But the alchemists are women. And they’re old!”
“And yet they have the hearing of a youngster such as yourself,” Bee said, giving Hevrick’s bottom a sharp pat when she walked past him. She’d taken the time to comb out her white hair and fasten it in a tight bun, decorated once more with the small tools that impaled it.
Amused, Drageen smiled at Hevrick’s surprise. Fee and Glee giggled, following in Bee’s footsteps.
Flustered by their sudden presence, Hevrick stammered. “I meant no insult. It’s just that Mandulane is a dangerous man.”
“And so are we!” Fee exclaimed.
“Except we’re not men,” Glee said.
“You have my bloodstone?” Drageen asked of Bee.
Her eyes seemed to twinkle. “Of course. Always prepared.”
Hevrick still scrambled to explain himself. “But you ladies don’t know the special danger to yourselves. You don’t know what Mandulane and his clerks do to good gentlewomen.”
In unison, the three alchemists turned to look at Hevrick, their faces still and quiet. “We know,” Glee said. “While Bee remained with the Scalding, they came after us. They destroyed our home, and they would have destroyed us, too.”
Drageen found himself equally interested as Hevrick in what the alchemists had to say for themselves.
“How did you escape?” Hevrick asked in a hushed voice.
Fee and Glee burst into laughter, and Bee squinted at them in suspicion. “I dare say,” Bee said, “it had something to do with misdirection.”
“Trickery!” Glee shouted, delighted with herself.
“We’re slippery!” Fee added, still giggling. “Like fish filled with mightiful joy!”
Drageen stared toward the night sky and then met Hevrick’s startled gaze. “Alchemists,” Drageen said in mock weariness. “You can now thank me for taking them with me instead of allowing them to breathe down your neck for the journey ahead of us.”
Bee gave Drageen a sharp look. “Are we ready to set sail, then?”
“We are ready,” Drageen said, “to turn the tides against Mandulane.”
* * *
“Alchemist!” Drageen shouted an hour later.
“Be still,” Bee commanded, yanking on Drageen’s arm to pull him down to the surface of the deck. She held an empty wooden bowl.
After rowing away from the port, the alchemists stored the oars back on the pile at the center of the deck, while Drageen raised and tied off the sail. Trailing behind their Northlander ship, Hevrick guided the Krystr ship to follow Drageen’s course toward the Southern coast of the Northlands.
Still angry, Drageen said, “How could you have forgotten the onions?”
They’d already discussed the details. The alchemists would use onions to coax tears from Drageen’s eyes. They would then use those tears to draw forth the protective properties of the bloodstone, crush it, and mix it into an elixir Drageen could smear across his skin to protect it from being cut or pierced.
“We didn’t forget the onions,” Glee said brightly. She pointed at the Krystr ship Hevrick commanded, sailing behind. “They’re on the other ship.”
“And what good does that do me?” Drageen shouted. Instead of getting up on
his feet, he sat cross-legged on the deck. The only good option remaining was to do what Bee told him.
“Hey!” Glee shouted at the other ship. She waved her arms wildly. “Can you toss us an onion?”
Fee joined her sister’s side, shouting and waving her arms.
Someone from the other ship hurled an onion high in the air. It landed a ship’s length short of Glee’s outstretched hands, plunking into the sea and then bobbing back to float on the surface.
“That does it,” Fee said with a heavy sigh. “We’ll have to break his fingers to make him cry. But do them one at a time to get the most tears.”
“You will not!” Drageen shouted, his face strained with shock and disbelief. He rested his hand on the pommel of the Magenta, sheathed at his side.
Fee pointed at him. “Look. How can he use the sword if we break his fingers? I would feel safer if he can use his sword.”
Bee paced in a circle around him, her steps unsteady while the ship rolled through the waves. “That is a good point.”
Drageen tried to stand, but Bee slammed a hand on his shoulder and forced him down with unexpected strength. “Of course she has a point!” Drageen said.
Glee failed to stifle a new round of giggles. “Just like his sword.”
All three alchemists burst into laughter, while Drageen stared at them in horror.
“You are the worst alchemists I’ve ever known!” he shouted. Scooting away from Bee, he put enough distance between himself and her to rise to his knees and pull the Magenta from its sheath. He held it with both hands, pointing the dragonslayer’s sword at the sisters, who now laughed even harder. “I am a Scalding! I am the master of my realm of the Northlands. I am your master!”
Standing between her sisters, Glee draped her arms across their shoulders. “We’re alchemists. We have no master.”
Bee crossed her arms and looked down her nose at Drageen. “Did you truly believe I worked for you and your clan? Did it never occur to you that I might be an agent of dragons?” She gestured to her sisters. “That all of us are not agents of dragons?”
Drageen studied the blithe expressions on the women’s faces and knew Bee spoke the truth. “You used me,” he said.
“They used us all,” Fee said with a bitter edge in her voice.
“But I’m a Scalding!” Drageen cried, letting go of the sword with one hand and beating his chest with it. “I protect the Northlands! I am powerful! I have might!”
Lunging forward, Bee extended her fingernails and scratched Drageen’s exposed neck.
Drageen grunted in surprise and slapped a hand over his neck. The pain surprised him so much that tears welled in his eyes.
“Quickly, quickly!” Bee said to her sisters.
The alchemists surrounded Drageen, each holding a vial to his face and collecting his tears.
Drageen realized their ruse, and his anger rose until he cried with rage. “You horrible, wretched creatures! I shouldn’t protect you. I should hand you over to Mandulane myself!”
“That’s a good boy,” Bee said sweetly. “Get it all out. You’ll feel better.”
They sailed throughout the night. Drageen dozed off once the alchemists were finished with him.
The sound of shouting from Hevrick’s ship startled Drageen out of a deep sleep. He jumped to his feet. Although the sun had yet to rise, its light spread across the horizon, casting a soft glow across the sea. Looking at Hevrick’s ship, Drageen saw boys and men at the railing, pointing at a space between his ship and theirs.
Spinning to face the direction in which his ship sailed, Drageen felt startled by the sight of a ship on the horizon before them.
Even from this distance, he recognized the Krystr ship.
CHAPTER 42
“Hurry!” Drageen shouted at the three alchemists, who huddled around a wooden bowl and spoon they’d taken from the Western Island and now used as a makeshift mortar and pestle. Throughout the night, they ground Drageen’s bloodstone and mixed it with his angry tears, collected by the alchemists.
Drageen stared at the sun, now peeking above the horizon. It would rise within minutes. He turned to look at the Krystr ship drawing near, and noticed a long strip of land behind it.
The Southern coast of the Northlands! Drageen’s heart raced. He recognized its gentle slopes. Fiera, the dragon who claimed to be his aunt, had whispered in Drageen’s ear, telling him that his day had come at last.
Fiera and Taddeo convinced Drageen that he had a place in this world and that his presence mattered.
Despite the chilly ocean breeze, sweat beaded Drageen’s forehead.
Fee, Glee, and Bee worked to create a potion to make his skin armor-tough, but a single bloodstone couldn’t produce enough of the elixir to cover his entire body.
Drageen realized he had to choose which part of his body might be most vulnerable.
“It’s ready,” Bee said breathlessly. She presented the wooden bowl, now holding a handful or two of precious red liquid.
Drageen yanked off his shirt and pointed to his bare chest. “Protect my heart.”
Bee nodded. She steadied herself and the bowl in her hands while the ship’s deck shifted with the waves. Fee and Glee dipped their hands into the bowl and smeared the bloodstone liquid across Drageen’s chest.
Once covered, the alchemists rubbed the elixir across his back, neck, and face. They used the last drops to cover his arms.
Bee dropped the wooden bowl, and it clattered and rolled across the deck. “Put your shirt back on,” she said, handing it to Drageen. “The elixir now protects you from the waist up. It’s up to you to protect yourself from the waist down.”
Drageen ran to the railing, reading the situation unfolding before his eyes. In the distance ahead, the enemy ship aimed itself toward the Southern coast of the Northlands. He remembered something Hevrick told him before they left the Western Island: the seas along the Southern coast were rocky and dangerous. Only one safe route existed, marked by a series of rocky reefs, also known as isle-lets.
Hevrick’s description reminded Drageen what he’d learned in childhood from his father. They’d spent many hours sitting in front of a roaring fireplace, studying maps so Drageen could memorize the one safe passage to the Southern coast from the sea.
Dragon-shaped reefs guard the west.
Round rocks atop a grassy knoll mark the seaway.
Algae-covered reefs will flank your ship.
Gold-flecked rocks guide you to the left.
Eastern reefs warn of narrow passage.
Edges like shards are safe to sail alongside.
Northern-pointing reef shows the last direction to follow.
He could never forget the puzzle of this passage because, taken in the correct order, the first letter of each instruction spelled out Drageen’s name: Dragon, Round, Algae, Gold, Eastern, Edges, Northern. Wisely, his father had created instructions his son could never forget.
Drageen saw the dragon-shaped reefs on his left when his ship sailed past them. Ahead, the enemy Krystr ship glided toward the round rocks piled like pebbles on a spit of island no larger than a cottage.
He needed to cut off the enemy ship before it entered the maze-like passage through the rocky reefs. It looked like the enemy ship already knew the only safe way to approach the coast without being cut to shreds by the rocky surface lying shallow beneath the sea all along the Southern coast.
Drageen called out to the ship sailing behind that carried Hevrick and the Western Islander boys and men. “Stay back!” Drageen shouted. He spotted Hevrick and held up the palms of both hands, signaling him. Although the distance between the ships made it difficult for Drageen to be certain, he thought he saw Hevrick nod his understanding.
* * *
“A ship approaches,” Clerk Thomas said, fiddling nervously with the edges of his brown robe.
Mandulane stood near the mast of his ship. Within the past year, a dreadful, horrible woman had flung him overboard and into the sea, wh
ere he’d come close to death. Therefore, he only set foot on a ship when absolutely necessary. Even then, he saw no reason to be anywhere other than the safest part of the ship while it sailed.
And the safest part had to be the center of the ship, far away from any railing and any opportunity to fall overboard.
He fingered the flap of his newest pouch, running his forefinger down the length of its nose. Mandulane delighted in watching everyone who looked at the pouch hanging from his belt, wondering how long it would take for each one to notice the flap had been made from the face of a man who once insulted Mandulane.
Clerk Thomas couldn’t keep his gaze off the flap. He’d noticed it the day they’d first set sail, and he looked at it constantly with glazed eyes and a slackened jaw.
But now he met Mandulane’s eyes and pointed toward the west. “It looks like a Northlander ship.”
Mandulane reached under his shirt and pulled out the bit of leather on which Clerk Thomas had drawn a map of the very specific passage they must take in order to reach the Southern coast of the Northlands, now visible and deliciously within reach. Mandulane matched the rounded rocks illustrated on the map to those they now sailed toward. Tucking the small map back inside his shirt, Mandulane said, “Then you were correct. I was wise to listen to your idea.”
For today’s adventure, Mandulane had selected the clothing that gave him the most fierce and dangerous appearance. He wore silken black breeches tucked into heavy black boots, both acquired from a merchant who roamed the vast regions of the Far East. Black leather emboldened with silver and gold chains belted his simple yellow linen shirt. Mandulane kept his hair in place with a black leather band, also bedecked with gold and silver chains. Every time Mandulane made the slightest movement, his jewelry chimed like tiny bells.
Clerk Thomas wrung his weathered hands. “But isn’t it time to alert your soldiers?” He pointed at the men making themselves busy on deck, fiddling with ropes and adjusting the sails. “Shouldn’t they make themselves ready?”