I didn’t answer. What would he think if he knew I wasn’t normal? On my shoulder, Nasataa yawned loudly but Heron’s eyes didn’t even flick away from my face. Uh oh. If he wasn’t bothered by the Blue Dragon, then this was really serious.
“Seleska?”
“All night,” I said in a tiny voice.
He blew out a long breath. “Wow.”
I watched him, worried about what he’d say but he smiled a wry grin and pulled me in close so he could lean his forehead against mine.
“I guess you’ll be the one having adventures without me.”
“Not if you come with me,” I said, trying to be coy again, but my voice faltered. “You don’t think ... you don’t think there’s something wrong with me, do you?”
He pulled back so I could see his smile as he said, “I think there’s something right about you, Seleska, and I’ll never think otherwise.”
I grinned with him, treasuring this moment of friendship, however fleeting. I still had Heron.
My belly rumbled loudly, spoiling the moment.
“Let’s get you something to eat and some dry clothes.”
Chapter Twelve
“There are a lot of things we don’t know about your past, Seleska,” my adoptive mother was saying. “And that is okay.”
I slipped into dry clothes behind the dressing screen as she spoke. Nasataa was curled up in my leather bag, hidden from prying eyes. Heron hadn’t said anything when I hid him before we entered the village.
“You always have a place and a home with us. And who you are or where your family came from have nothing to do with that. But the sea is dangerous, daughter. It swallowed so many fishermen that we stopped using boats altogether. We stopped allowing ships to sail here. It’s just not safe. Not with Blue Dragons lurking under the surface.”
I hadn’t seen any Blue Dragons last night. Except for Nasataa. I’d already grabbed a hunk of bread off the table when my mother wasn’t looking and slipped it into the leather bag for him. Would he eat bread? That didn’t seem very dragony. I’d have to get him a fish as soon as I could.
“But I can breathe underwater,” I protested. “Maybe that’s for a reason.”
“There are a lot of things people can do,” my mother objected. “But that doesn’t mean that they should do them. It’s not safe out there right now, Seleska. You need to stay here with us.”
I carefully laid my boots to the side. I liked them, but if I was going to walk under the water again – and I was definitely planning something like that – then sandals made more sense right now. I shuffled into my usual pair of sandals as I spoke.
“Is the village in danger because of me?”
My mother didn’t answer, but the door creaked as it opened.
“Mama? Is the village in danger because of me?”
The sigh I heard as I came out from behind the screen was my father’s. I ran to him, forgetting my question in the relief of seeing him okay.
“I was so worried about you,” I said as I hugged him. “How did you get away?”
“It wasn’t me that they came for and they thought they knew where their quarry was.” His smile was gentle, but there was something about the way he was looking at me – like how he looked at his nets just before he did something to them to improve how they worked. “You surprised me.”
“I surprised myself!” I said, stepping back a bit and looking nervously at them both.
“Don’t worry,” my father said. His face was grim and determined but I didn’t think he realized that his hands shook a little while he spoke. “The men of our village are preparing to defend it. We will not let them take you from us.”
“Heron said they have a ship with cannons. He said they could flatten our village with it,” I said nervously. “I love you and mama. I love our home here. I don’t want to ruin everything.”
“Seleska,” my father said sternly. “Don’t surrender to these mercenaries. You might think you would be saving us, but you would only be breaking our hearts.”
A tear ran down my mother’s face as she nodded her agreement. Our cottage was in disarray, the beds unmade and the dishes sitting beside the bowl my mother usually washed them in. Halana was such a tidy woman that our home spoke volumes – she was worried.
I couldn’t believe that Renny had guessed what I was thinking the second I started thinking it. Of course my gut response was that I needed to turn myself in. How could I live with myself if anything happened to my family because of me?
“Yes, father,” I said, but my mind was racing. I couldn’t let my tiny village fight a ship full of cannons and soldiers with weapons just to protect me. And I couldn’t give myself up to them or it would break my parents’ hearts. There had to be some other way.
I thought about it for the rest of the day while we prepared the village, gathering anything that could be used as a weapon, constructing a wall of sharpened stakes – there was only one side to the wall by the end of the day. I’d barely done any work at all. It seemed every member of the village wanted to tell me personally that nothing had changed – that I was one of them, a valued part of the village – and that they were happy to fight for me. I was touched and so grateful. But between their well-wishes, I barely had time to tend to Nasataa, never mind get anything else done and before I knew it, it was dark.
Fortunately, there was no attack as the village ate the evening meal and began to turn in to their own houses. Everyone in the village hugged me or gave me a strong smile as they passed and with each encouraging nod and determined look, I grew more and more certain that I had to keep these people safe. They were willing to risk everything for me – an outsider who had been adopted into their village ten years ago. They were willing to risk their homes and families and lives. That wasn’t right. And I had to do something about it.
Fortunately, Nasataa had slept most of the day without causing any kind of trouble, though he’d gobbled down the fish I’d slipped into the bag for him. As I settled into my cot, the leather bag clutched close, my mind raced with my plan.
I just had to wait for my parents to fall asleep first. I didn’t want to get them involved – not when it meant doing something this risky. But I couldn’t just let them risk everything for me – again. This time, it was my turn to keep them safe and make sure that they had a home.
It was too bad that I had to bring Nasataa on such a dangerous errand, but I could hardly leave him behind. He was only a baby and he needed me.
Chapter Thirteen
I snuck out of the house and into the velvet night. Little glowbugs darted through the waving palm trees and the birds and insects of the jungle island were wide awake, singing their chorus so loudly that it masked my furtive movements as I slipped away to the edge of the water.
My plan was a simple one. I would go to the mercenaries’ ship and I would sink it. It couldn’t be that hard to do. After all, there were sunken ships all around the Havenwind Isles.
I felt a little bad about it. Destroying property was wrong. But, so was kidnapping – or attempting to kidnap – girls. And it wasn’t like I was destroying the ship completely, I was just going to move it to underneath the water instead of on top of the water. That way, the cannons couldn’t hurt my village or my people. Simple enough, right?
Or at least, that’s what I told myself. I had a feeling that enacting the plan wouldn’t be simple at all and an even worse feeling that sinking a boat wasn’t as morally neutral as I was pretending. It was probably wrong.
At least I wasn’t planning to kill anyone. They would just lose their ship and have to learn how to live on the islands with the rest of us. That seemed simple enough.
I kept telling myself that as I snuck out of the village toward the little cove on the other side of Pebble Beach that I knew contained the old, dilapidated shed that used to house Elder Yandee’s canoes back when people still used boats on the island. Heron and I had gone there once as kids and slipped inside the tumbledown building, st
epping carefully over the places where the roof had collapsed and one of the walls had caved in. More importantly, we’d found the old paddles in a heap in one corner and two rotting canoes on the floor of the shed. And one not-so rotten canoe stacked on top of them.
It was that canoe that I was aiming for. Sure, I could swim out to the ship, but that would take a lot of strength and I was still tired from all my swimming yesterday and my lack of sleep. A canoe would make everything simpler.
Or so I thought.
A twig snapped behind me and I spun in place on the beach path. Who was following me?
“Seleska?” Heron whispered from behind me.
“Heron! What are you doing here?” I was trying to be quiet. We were still too close to the village and anyone might hear us.
“Following you. You shouldn’t be sneaking out! You should be at home in bed getting ready for tomorrow when we defend ourselves.” He caught up to me on the path, his footsteps quiet on the sand and the moonlight gleaming off his worried expression. “Now is not the time for harebrained adventures!”
“Is it harebrained to save the village before it even comes to a fight?” I challenged in a whisper. But I needed to stop talking. I didn’t want to be overheard.
I spun and raced down the path, hoping he wouldn’t alert anyone, hoping he’d just let it go. I didn’t dare let word of this get back to my parents or they’d want to stop me. They’d see protecting me as the first priority, but to me, protecting them was just as important.
“Seleska!” Heron had caught up to me. He was faster than he looked despite the bulk of those blacksmith’s muscles. “Whatever you’re doing, I’m coming, too.”
I trotted down the beach path, ignoring him. We were almost out of earshot of the village. Just a little further.
When I reached the rocky point where the wind blew along the beach and carried sound away from the village on most nights, I spun again.
“You can’t come, Heron! It’s too dangerous!”
“If that’s true, then you shouldn’t be going.” He had a condescending look on his face that made me frown. I could do this! No one else needed to get involved.
“If you want to help, then watch Nasataa for me,” I said, trying to hand him the leather satchel.
“Is that what you’ve named that thing?” he asked. “Not a chance!”
“Please? It’s not safe for him to come with me!”
“Then leave him here.”
“If the village finds him, they’ll kill him.”
“Umm, yeah. He’s a Blue Dragon.”
“He’s just a baby,” I protested, turning back to stride down the path. We were almost at the old shed.
“He can still do a lot of damage. The Elders say they are poisonous.”
“He hasn’t poisoned me,” I said, not looking back as I finally reached the shed door and wrenched it open. It leaned precariously to the side, resting on a single hinge.
“The boathouse? This is not a good idea, Seleska,” Heron said with a frown. His arms were crossed over his thick chest.
“Then stay here,” I huffed, gathering a paddle out of the stack and throwing it out of the shed before diving back in to try to free the top canoe from the fallen roof pieces.
Strong arms reached past me to help me tug the boat free.
“If you’re going, then I’m going, too. Someone needs to keep an eye on you.”
I rolled my eyes, but inside I was thrilled. I could use the help. I had no idea what was involved in breaking into a ship and sinking it. Except that I’d need something to chop a hole in the bottom of the boat, which was why I was looking for the rusty axe that used to be in the shed.
“Don’t tell me that you’re looking for that axe!” Heron looked alarmed.
“How else would I chop a hole in the bottom of a boat?” I asked.
Heron looked at the canoe.
“Not that one! The one with the mercenaries,” I said.
He tried to wipe the grin away as soon as it appeared on his face, but his eyes were still dancing when he spoke, even though his face was straight.
“Do you know how thick the hull of a ship is? There are better ways to sink it. They have pumps in the bottom to push water out. We can reverse the process and pump the water back in.”
That sounded like it would take a while.
“Trust me,” he said, as if he could read my thoughts. “It will take less time and draw less attention than your plan will.”
“How do you know what ships are like inside?” I asked.
This time, his knowing grin got under my skin. “I’m a blacksmith’s apprentice. We are supposed to know about all kinds of engineering. There are old plans for ships in the smithies. Just because we don’t repair ships anymore, doesn’t mean we didn’t before.”
“I wonder what this place was like before the ships stopped coming,” I said as we hauled the canoe to the water.
“Busier,” Heron said dryly.
“I bet that was exciting,” I said, as my mind danced with visions of a bustling Abergande and thriving villages.
“We’ve been lucky to be protected from the world for so long,” Heron said with a sigh. “I guess that’s over.”
“Personally, I prefer the adventure.” I ran back and grabbed the paddles before returning to him on the beach.
He had the canoe mostly in the water, but his arms were crossed over his chest.
“Promise me that you’ll be careful, Seleska. This is serious business.”
“Cross my heart,” I said with a wide smile before leaping into the canoe and climbing to the front of it with my satchel full of Nasataa and the paddle I’d chosen for myself.
Heron could be as grumpy as he liked, but he wouldn’t dull my fun. I’d been itching for adventures only days ago and now I was having them all the time! Oh. And I was also trying to save my village. That was important, too.
Chapter Fourteen
“Shhh,” Heron whispered as we drifted in toward the ship.
Despite being the dead of night, the ship was alight with lanterns and shapes moved on the deck. I’d hoped everyone would be asleep and now that it was clear that they weren’t, I was getting worried. We didn’t have weapons of any kind or even a very fast boat. The canoe bobbed in the ocean waves and with a lot of encouragement, it had floated up the coast and out to the ship. But it wasn’t a fast boat.
Out in the distance, the small ship’s boat with the lanterns and divers was still anchored near the reef where I’d disappeared into the caves. They must still be looking for me. Divers dropped from the boat to take turns in the water. Good thing I’d found that portal or I’d still be trapped in there. What the portal was and how it worked was a worry for another day – or maybe a mystery I would never solve.
In the distance, Abergande lay dark and abandoned – a shocking sight.
“Are you okay in there, little buddy?” I whispered to Nasataa.
He sent back an image of him scurrying up the ropes on the side of the ship and leaping onto the deck, flaming wildly.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
He sent an image of himself running up the leg of a screaming sailor and gnawing on his ear. It was adorable – but also dangerous.
“Just stay in the bag until I tell you its safe to come out, okay?” I whispered.
“Shh!” Heron reminded.
I should have left Nasataa somewhere safe. Somewhere that didn’t put him at risk of being caught by mercenaries. But where would that have been? Even my parents wouldn’t have welcomed a Blue Dragon to the village – not even a baby one.
We were getting close to the ship. Fortunately, they didn’t seem to be watching the waters on this side of the ship. And why would they? There were no other boats or ships around here except for theirs.
And wasn’t it interesting that theirs was still here? After all, the Havenwind Isles had given up boats because of the wrath of the Blue Dragons. Wouldn’t it make sense that those
same dragons would pull this ship into the waves? But they hadn’t. Why not? Had the dragons stopped attacking ships? Or was there some other reason for it?
“Seleska!” Heron whispered, pointing urgently toward the ship ahead.
Oh. Yes. I scooted up to the tip of the narrow canoe and caught the side of the ship before we hit it with the canoe.
We’d made it this far. Hope soared through me. Maybe we could stop these mercenaries and save our village! We just had to get into the ship without being caught and pump water into it. Easy, right?
A stab of nerves shot through me, reminding me that it was not as easy as that, but I ignored them. We had work to do and getting all wound up about it wouldn’t help the job get done any faster. Besides, adventures were meant to be nerve-wracking!
I pulled us along the side of the ship until we reached a point where a rope hung down from the side. It looked like it was meant to be used to tie up that boat the divers were using. Well, I could use it to climb up into the ship.
I glanced back at Heron. He shook his head, pointing at himself. He wanted to go first, did he? Typical. But that didn’t make any sense. He was bulkier than I was, and it would be harder for him to hide. I smiled at him, pretending that I didn’t understand what he meant and then grabbed the rope firmly in both hands, planted my feet against the side of the ship and began to climb.
Nasataa squeaked in the satchel hanging from my shoulder and I sent him a visual image of waiting quietly and patiently in the bag. If he made sounds like that on deck, I’d be sure to be discovered!
My arms were already aching by the time I was halfway up the rope. Good thing I hadn’t let Heron go first! He’d already be up on deck with arms like his and then I’d have to scramble to catch up!
My heart was in my throat when I finally reached the deck and eased myself carefully over the rail. Fortunately, despite the bright lights from the lanterns, there were only two men actually on the deck. One was standing at the stern of the ship near something shaped like a wheel and the other at the bow. I slunk to where a stack of crates was lashed down, hiding behind their bulk. What would be in those crates? Food they’d bought in Abergande, maybe? It must take a lot of food to feed a crew like this.
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