Tethiel lifted a coin from the chest. He held it between two fingers in a way that caught Hiresha’s eye. He said, “Only a man lost at sea can appreciate the true value of gold.”
The enchantress checked her smile. She should be upset with the Feaster in this dream facet, not pleased. How bizarre to remember that.
“Should we trust a Murderfish bearing gifts?” Tethiel asked.
Hiresha kept her voice chill. “Think of the kraken as a warrior maiden.”
“Always have,” Emesea said.
She lifted rope braided with gold thread. Enchantment keeps it strong, Hiresha realized. Its dye had faded from years underwater, but traces enough remained for the enchantress to tell that it had once been colored to look like a king snake.
The warrior looped the rope. “Now this gold I like. The kind that lifts sails and ties down men.”
Skyheart plucked a shell from the chest. Suckers attached to both sides and opened it like a book. The kraken’s eyespots formed into meaning. “This is a gem of the sea. For you.”
The shell outsized a clam’s, and no gemstone waited inside. Only a pad of yellow flesh wriggling with black feelers.
“An abalone,” Emesea said. “Delicious.”
“I’m aware what it is.” Hiresha ran a finger within. The outside of the shell had been drab. Hues of green, pink, and blue shimmered over the insides of the shell. Ripples of opal, texture of pearl. She could tell at a touch that it could not hold enchantments. Even so, she was impressed. “What I did not know was how strong these are. This shell could deflect an axe.”
Hiresha thanked the kraken. It urged her to extract the wild magic from the abalone. Color bubbled out of the mollusk. Hiresha tossed the glob of magic to Skyheart. The kraken tried to bounce it between the tips of its arms, but the sphere sank into its hide and was absorbed.
Three people attempted to make a meal out of the abalone. With a consistency of thick jam, it tasted of sea froth. Hiresha thought it refreshing and shared a bite with the small octopus. Tethiel stumbled away to gasp and gag. Neither was Emesea satisfied.
“You took out the best part,” she said to the enchantress.
The small octopus abandoned Hiresha, but she did not mind. It writhed its way off Pharaoh’s Wisdom. She signed a goodbye, though it did not seem to know the eyespot language.
Hiresha found herself noticing Tethiel flexing his hands on the railing. “Your fingers,” she said, “they’re healing.”
He bent two to wipe the corners of his mouth. “The dream storm washed the ache out of them.”
The barge sailed toward a less magical variety of storm. The clouds formed white tabletops with rolling bases of grey. Hiresha had an unsettling suspicion that she had seen these same clouds while wearing the red dress, now closer and swollen with moisture. If so, she had to think that meant she now lived a dream, and a twisting sensation made her wish to vomit out the abalone.
Skyheart did not startle her when it launched itself over the boat. In an arc of spotted tentacles, the kraken flew downward into the sea. Its head wobbled on impact, its arms flaring. Water blasted between its tentacles. The boat tilted, and all aboard were drenched and smiling.
Tethiel said, “Any man of meat can kill a dragon. But to befriend it? That is true greatness.”
“On that topic,” she said, “We are headed to find storm dragons.”
Emesea ran up the side of the mast and kicked off it in glee. She yammered on about how dragons were the love children of gods.
The enchantress thought the warrior would not be so eager if she knew those dragons would create a sea wall between her nation and the Oasis Empire. Worried of Emesea’s influence over the legendary sea serpents, Hiresha asked, “Do you suppose we might encounter your dragon?”
“Bet your enchanted butt we could.” Despite her words, Emesea’s tone softened, and she scratched her nose.
“You don’t believe that.” Hiresha had seen the lie for what it was. “Tell me why we couldn’t possibly meet your dragon.”
Emesea traced the coils of her tattoo between her breasts. “In a way, you already have.”
Hiresha said, “I don’t believe there’s anything equivocal about a dragon.”
“Sometimes our friends travel ahead of us into the underworld’s trials.” Emesea’s voice sounded quite like the murmuring surf of a distant ocean. “Their souls are gone, but their spirit can live on with us.”
“So the dragon in question is dead?”
Tethiel asked, “And you see yourself as a dragon of a woman?”
“I try to be.” The grin Emesea cast him did have more than its fair share of tooth.
Hiresha thought back to how Emesea had dove in after sea monsters and decided not to argue the point.
The warrior jumped as high as her own head and cried out. “And now we might meet her hatchlings. There were two eggs, each big enough to crush a terror bird.”
With the clouds towering higher and higher, Hiresha advanced to the barge’s prow. Barnacles crusted around peeling gold leaf. A mussel spit water at Hiresha, but she willed the liquid away.
Tethiel staggered to her side of the boat. He pressed his hand to his mouth and swallowed. “All know the constitutional benefits of a sea breeze, but men ruin themselves pursuing good health.”
Hiresha reminded herself that she was cross with him. His nearness sent sensations across her chest and legs of warm needle pricks, but they were of no consequence.
When he started to speak again, she jumped overboard. She had spotted the dragons.
Ribbons of scales, the dragons rippled up and down across the water’s surface. They twirled into the air, flying without wings, around and around and halfway up to the clouds. Energy crackled along their backs as they dove. The pair fell like waterfalls of mercury. Waves reached up and folded around them without a splash.
Hiresha would not have been so quick to run over the sea toward the dragons, if not for the brightness of Skyheart below. She signaled, “Do they already know your plan?”
“We’ve talked of floods and hurricanes.” The kraken spun underwater so Hiresha could see the meaning on all its tentacles. “I’ll tell them how it can gather a dream storm.”
Being referred to as an “it” upset Hiresha more each time. Humans should not be inanimate playthings in the kraken's mind. Or a dragon's.
The dragons had a youthfulness to their movements. They formed slender arches over each other. They bit tails in mid leap like kittens in play. The enchantress could well believe these dragons had belonged to Emesea’s hatch.
The enchantress asked, “Are they old enough to control a hurricane?”
“Is a human spawn ever too young to breathe? A dragon’s vow can be trusted. Even if a dragon can’t be trusted not to nip your tentacles.”
The enchantress met the dragons underwater. The kraken did the polite thing and introduced her as the Lady of Gems. Hiresha used the same eyespot language to offer each dragon a blue diamond. They ignored her. The enchantress decided to attribute it to shyness.
The dragons flew through the water, twining between the kraken’s arms. Frills lined their backs and their tails, membranes with the opalescent sheen of seaweed. Their scales reminded Hiresha much of the abalone shell, and light of different colors shimmered down them in bands.
When Skyheart explained the plan to give them the power of a dream storm, their frills sparked. Two sets of turquoise eyes turned to the enchantress, and she asked them to promise not to use the magic to harm Oasis City, with flood or with storm.
The dragons circled the enchantress. Fans of azure and teal skin surrounded their heads. The two never spoke, and they gave no sign. A knowingness still spread into the enchantress that the promise would be kept. And that the storm would be beautiful. The sea serpents sped away, and she had the sense of laughter like the fading echoes of thunder.
“They’ll meet us at the sea mountain,” Skyheart said. Two of its tentacles drifted below her. She
rested a foot on each, which seemed to amuse the kraken given the magenta pigmentation that spread from her soles. “They also wanted me to warn it.”
Hiresha waited, drawing in a breath from the water. It tasted of salt.
“It mustn’t try to take the dream storm’s power for itself.”
“I hardly need more power. Only more jewels.”
“Even a sea snail would leap at the chance for a dream storm's magic. But if the Lady of Gems tried it’d be changed. It would be the Creature of Wild Magic.”
“You’re a most convincing kraken. After we discuss a few more details I believe we can seal an arrangement.”
The sea ahead of them was shadowed by whales. The behemoths hung vertical, sleeping. She and the kraken passed between a gateway of bobbing giants. Bubbles leaked from the whales’ mouths. Their aura of peace warmed the water.
The enchantress translated for Skyheart as best she could the concept that Oasis City had a religious tradition revolving around salt. People would need to take it from the shores of the new channel. Hiresha said she and her Spellsword Fos would likely be held responsible to keep the workers safe and uneaten from sea creatures.
“Kill and devour the terror crocs if it must.” Skyheart lifted two more tentacles. Their tips uncoiled like the stems of growing plants. “Just throw their wild magic back to the sea.”
Hiresha circled a whale. She sympathized with the awkwardness of sleeping in the open sea. The dozing giants reminded her of floating monoliths, of pillars holding up the water’s bright surface. She returned to face Skyheart.
“The final detail is of pronouns.” Hiresha used the signs for “little names.” “As octopuses have genders, so do humans. It isn’t done to refer to us as “its.” As the Lady of Gems, I’m a ‘she.’”
The kraken was looking at the enchantress with its left eye. With a puff of water it turned, and its other eye swiveled to regard her. Hiresha could not help but note that no matter how the kraken flipped or dove, its pupil remained horizontal. Its eyes revolved in their sockets.
“Thinking of humans as female.” The kraken’s skin changed to spotted pink. “Or male. So strange, but if whales and starfish can be female, so can you.”
“Gender is a matter of most pressing importance to humans. Of course, I would extend the same courtesy to you.”
“I’m the Skyheart. That’s what’s important.”
“Very well, Skyheart. I believe we can make our alliance official.”
The usual ways of binding promises would not do, so Hiresha clasped the nearest two tentacles to signify her trust. The thought of the kraken pulling the enchantress into halves sent trails of gooseflesh across her skin. Not that I’m at so great a disadvantage with my diamonds. If it came to a contest, Skyheart might find a piece of her arm torn off. Hiresha disliked the idea of hurting this vast champion of the sea, which struck her as passing curious. When wearing a red dress I vowed to kill her.
One tentacle wrapped around Hiresha’s arm. A suction cup puckered the skin of her palm. Skyheart said, “You taste of dolphins and stormy seas.”
“Setting the relative politeness of that statement aside, I’m curious. You can taste through your arms?”
“Can’t you?” Her tentacles turned orange with concern.
“Above water, we can taste without touching. We call that smelling.”
“I know about smells. Eels scent octopus burrows. You mustn’t do it well. No human has tasted me coming.”
“Your smell is subtle.” The enchantress could tell the kraken wanted to know more by her skin shifting to a bluish green. Her scent reminded Hiresha of burning mint, and the closest concept she could offer was “green lightning.”
“That must be a taste of my venom.” The kraken’s beak clicked.
“Likely so. Now if I’m to have time to collect a dream storm today….” Hiresha tried to disengage her arms.
Skyheart held on. Her tentacles darkened to green, with spots almost of black. “I wish it had happened differently.”
This, Hiresha realized, was as close as the kraken’s language could come to an expression of regret. Every nerve twitched into readiness, and the enchantress’s paragon diamond spun closer, ready to impale a suckered arm.
“I wouldn’t like to be played with then killed. I shouldn’t have done it to the humans.”
An apology. The enchantress relaxed. “As a rule, we also dislike having our limbs sprinkled on the shore for our friends to see. That causes mental pain, anguish.”
“You are such funny little creatures.” Skyheart tugged the enchantress’s arms in multiple directions. “I could snap the humans then play with them.”
“Release me.”
Skyheart did so. Her tentacles curled together in a vase shape. “I shouldn’t have done that. You are the Lady of Gems.”
“Yes, do mind yourself. We could have been great enemies, you realize.”
“I think it’s good to have one human friend. I’d hate to lose you.”
“And you are a remarkable specimen.” Hiresha glided away from the sleeping whales and toward the boat. “I have a request. A few of our land ships were famously blown to sea and lost. Might you guide me to their wrecks?”
“I can’t lose my entire boat collection.”
“I only want the gold and gems in the chests. The one you brought today was a fine example. Even if the tales were exaggerated four fold, the resource would establish my new and better life.”
“Who better to have them than you? And you’ll ban sea fishing in your lands?”
“I will force the issue. Skyheart, I think this is the beginning of an exceptional friendship.” The pattern she used for “friendship” might have meant “pairing” or “hunting partner.”
Hiresha passed the barge. It had turned to follow the dragons. Beneath Pharaoh’s Wisdom, the enchantress encountered something as large and—in her estimation—as wise.
A great platehead sifted into view from the deep. Its fin curved around its tail like a tadpole’s, though there the comparison ended in a precipice. The giant fish lazed its way toward Hiresha. The enchantress knew her jewels could pull herself to safety, but seeing the plated predator bearing down on her still made the back of her neck itch with fear.
Skyheart jetted in front. Her skin flashed between white and black in a pattern similar to light on the water’s surface when seen from below. The great platehead stopped. The kraken drifted closer and closer to the mesmerized fish. Tentacles cradled it then pushed it away.
“I can’t eat this now,” the kraken said. “The dragons won’t wait for long.”
“It would not do to keep a dragon waiting.” Hiresha leaped from the sea.
Her sari brightened from ultramarine to blue as she Attracted the water from it. Droplets flowed down her legs and between her toes. Her feet landed on the barge.
“How’d you offend the dragons?” Emesea stomped up and down the planks of Pharaoh’s Wisdom. “Those ungrateful runts left before I could swim to ‘em.”
“We’re to sail and meet them. Though there may not be much time for dragon petting.” Hiresha then told Emesea and Tethiel the plan. The warrior took the news as expected.
“So you’re shitting on the world? Then setting it on fire.” Emesea’s arms shook with frustration. She reached for the enchantress, but a diamond pulled her backward and out of arm’s reach. “You should’ve helped me make war ships, but I guess you prefer your lands well done, charred black and crispy from the Winged Fire.”
“I prefer the risk of your gods to the certainty of your sacrificial knives.”
“And the dragons are in on this? Would expect more gratitude from those puddle snakes than you, and I saved all your scaly backsides.”
Tethiel could not conceal his frown from the enchantress. His and the warrior’s disapproval might have pained Hiresha, but she told herself they both had proven themselves unworthy in this facet of reality. Or of dream. When Tethiel started to speak of th
e disadvantages of splitting the trade routes, she interrupted him.
“This flood would have occurred regardless. Better to have it in a controlled fashion.”
He said, “You are courageously doing good for your people, and they’ll have no choice but to hate you for it.”
“If they can’t be sensible then perhaps they’re not my people.”
More whispery sayings from Tethiel, and more notes ringing with anger from Emesea. Hiresha felt right to ignore them, even if it also felt wrong.
“Your opinions have been most diverting,” she said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a dream storm to catch.”
She leaped over the prow. She ran between the two thunderstorms, the force of the wind thrilling from either direction. Dragons skimmed in and out of the water. The kraken beneath her was more colorful than a treasure chest full of gems.
The feathers in the sail trembled when fangs thrashed against the boat. The terror croc slewed to the side, a wall of its leathery hide rising from the waters as it pursued The Roost.
Hiresha drifted to her feet, and she caught hold of the lead mast to avoid being blown overboard. Storm winds buffeted them from a mountain of a black cloud.
A gale of disorientation also rocked the enchantress. It should be day now, but the stars are out. I was due to meet a dragon. Or perhaps I already did? An image of a bluish serpent flitted across her mind.
And now there’s the small matter of this fifty-five-foot crocodile. Hiresha had only a shard of a second to recall that in this facet she had saved Tethiel from the Murderfish, that she held the diamond he had given her.
The Feaster slashed the air in a gesture, and a decoy of The Roost branched off from the true boat. A false wave surged to conceal the true vessel, and the terror croc’s maw snapped down on an illusion. Branches of the hull dissolved into shadows.
The terror croc had opened its mouth long enough for Hiresha to notice a particular shattered tooth, the same Emesea had broken days before. That coincidence rang in Hiresha’s mind as a note of unreality.
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