I felt a touch on my shoulder and froze. They’d found me!
“Next time, wait!” Heron hissed in my ear.
The breath gusted out of me like a cloud of steam. I’d thought I’d been caught! Maybe this was more dangerous than I’d thought. Maybe I should have been more careful.
But Heron was already pointing to a hatch where a man was climbing up onto the deck. He carried a tray and strode to where the man at the stern was standing watch. Heron shot me a significant look. This was our chance.
I bit my lip, but I couldn’t back out now. Not when we were so close and not when I’d gotten Heron into this with me.
Gripping my satchel and holding tightly to my courage, I slipped across the deck, my light sandals not making a sound. I reached the hatch and ducked inside, descending the ladder quickly to make way for Heron.
I slipped into the shadows, waiting, waiting.
There he was! I stepped out to show my relief.
But the figure descending the ladder was not Heron.
Chapter Fifteen
I leapt back into the shadows, tucking myself behind a barrel shoved in behind the ladder. We were in a long passage, poorly lit. Doors lined the long passage, heavy-framed and ominous. I hoped the figure would slip into one of the doors, but instead, he paused at the bottom of the ladder, a frown on his face. He looked up the ladder and then back down, as if he had forgotten something but couldn’t remember what.
Sweat beaded across my brow. My mouth felt dry. He was going to see me back here. If I even moved an inch, he’d notice me. I stayed as still as possible, but that didn’t stop the rustling at my side. Nasataa peeked his little head out of my bag.
Please, don’t hear him!
I shot an image to him of him lying down in the bag and waiting patiently.
He ignored it, climbing slowly from the bag and crawling down my leg. His little claws dug through the fabric and into my leg as he scurried down.
No! This wasn’t good! I needed him to stay safe and being safe meant staying where I could keep him from trouble!
I stayed frozen as the sailor looked up the ladder again and shook his head.
Nasataa, creeping along the edge of the wall, scurried over one of the sailor’s feet.
“Skies and stars! The rats in this place!” the sailor cursed, stomping just inches from where Nasataa scurried along the passage.
My heart was in my throat. That had been so close!
Come back! I thought toward him. Please!
I tried to think an image of him returning to me, but it was garbled. My strong emotions made my thoughts tug at him, not just to scurry back along the passage to me, but to come from wherever he went, to pull toward me from far out at sea, from through portals and over islands.
I must really be starting to love that little guy, because I felt like if he were any of those places I would go and find him and keep him safe. He couldn’t be trusted on his own yet. He’d only get himself killed.
The sailor shuffled down the passage, not even noticing that Nasataa was huddled in one of the doorways. As soon as I lost sight of the sailor, I crept out, following where my little dragon had gone.
“Seleska?” a hoarse whisper sounded from behind me.
I turned to see Heron, color drained from his face, clearing the last rung of the ladder.
“I thought you were going to be caught,” he whispered.
“I lost Nasataa,” I whispered back, worry filling my voice. What if he found something dangerous? There were probably fires on board, or even food laced with poison to kill mice and rats. If he got into it ... I couldn’t think like that. I needed to find him first.
“The dragon? Forget him! We have more important things to do here.”
My mouth firmed and my brows lowered. How would he feel if he was an orphaned baby dragon who was lost on an enemy ship? Would he want to be forgotten? No? Then why did he think it was okay to forget Nasataa?
With a huff, I hurried down the corridor, not turning to look at Heron when he whispered my name again. If he didn’t care about baby dragons, how heartless was he?
The passage plunged deep into the ship, but now I was getting worried. I had lost track of Nasataa, and no matter how often I called to him, reaching as far as I could mentally with the plea that he come to me, I couldn’t get a reply. Where had he gone?
The ship was quiet, snores coming from some of the doors and the creak of timbers and ropes moving and rubbing against each other in the waves of the ocean swell cloaked the noises we were making.
At the other end of the passage, there was a ladder leading downward again. We needed to go down there to complete our task. But where was Nasataa? Had he thought the same thing and hurried down the ladder? I could only hope so.
I was about to go down it, too, when Heron grabbed my arm, spinning me around.
“Seleska,” he whispered into my ear, his mouth so close that I could feel his lips brushing my ear as he whispered. “Don’t be like that. I came with you, didn’t I? I care.”
He was right. I was being unreasonable. And we needed to work together. But I couldn’t help myself.
“Nasataa matters, too,” I whispered back.
He looked like he was trying to hold in his temper, but he nodded tightly. Poor guy. He was trying really hard, even if his thick head couldn’t seem to grasp that a baby was a baby no matter what species it was, and it needed protecting.
“Sorry,” I whispered. “Friends?”
He smiled. “Friends.”
He ducked down into the hatch and with a sigh of relief, I scrambled after him.
Time to sink this ship!
Chapter Sixteen
There was a dull thunk below me, but from my place on the ladder, I couldn’t see what had happened.
“Heron?” I whispered, worried, but there was no reply.
I scrambled down the rest of the way and spun, looking for him.
I gasped when I saw his body laid out on the wooden beams of the ship’s hold. There was blood on his temple and his huge form was slumped over like a dead whale on the beach.
A tiny cry ripped from my lips before I could prevent it. I raced to his side. He was still alive. His breath was shallow, but he was breathing.
“If he lives, he’ll wake up with quite the headache,” a voice said from above.
With my teeth gritted, I looked up.
All I’d noticed when I turned at the bottom of the ladder, was Heron – his situation so grim that it blocked out everything else, but now that I knew he was alive, other details began to filter in.
The hold was open here, with a trickle of water down the center and barrels stacked along the sides of the hold with coiled ropes and tools hanging on the sides. I couldn’t really call them walls, since the floor and walls were all just hold. A bobbing lantern hung from the ceiling, swaying with every roll of the ship and a big pump sat in the center of the floor. It was currently unmanned.
It would have been the perfect opportunity to enact Heron’s plan and fill the ship with water while the crew slept and the pump was easy to access.
Would have been.
Instead, the man in the flowing white shirt – the very one who had dunked my head under water – stood over Heron’s slumped form. He held a cutlass in one hand. Fortunately, he’d settled for hitting Heron with the hilt, rather than slashing him with the wicked blade. My enemy’s light-colored hair – so like mine – glinted in the lantern light, reminding me that there was a reason they had come to our shores and that reason was me.
“What do you want?” I asked, my voice tight.
“You’re the one who came to my ship, Princess. I think I should be asking that question,” he said with a look that could almost be called a grin if it wasn’t so cruel.
“I want you all to go away and leave my village alone!” I said boldly.
“Done,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t need any villagers.”
“Then you’ll just go ?”
I asked, even though I knew that if he left, he would want to take me with him. He wanted me. But I needed to buy time so I could think of a way out of here.
I called to Nasataa, desperately begging him to return to me. I didn’t want to flee without him. Although, I couldn’t really flee anyway, could I? Not with Heron knocked on the head. I wouldn’t even be able to carry him. He was three times my size.
I swallowed, my mouth dry as my situation finally registered.
I’d come here for adventure.
I’d found disaster.
I couldn’t see a way out of this mess now.
“Ah. It’s beginning to become clear to you,” the man said with a smile. “I think I should introduce myself Princess Seleska. I am Branson Kendark. Does that ring a bell?”
Kendark? The name did sound familiar. My brow furrowed as I tried to remember where I’d heard it before.
“Your mother’s people were Kendarks. From the lands of the Rock Eaters to the east. I am your mother’s half-brother’s son. Your cousin. Which is how I recognized you immediately. Not that it’s very hard. After all, there aren’t many girls with light colored hair so far to the south. And there are even fewer who can breathe water.”
He seemed to want to talk. I let him keep talking while my mind reached out to Nasataa, trying to find him. Where was that little fellow?
“It’s an abnormal gift – even among our people. So abnormal, that we need it now. We need you.”
“I thought you were mercenaries,” I said.
What if I managed to catch him off guard and then I flooded the ship and just kept Heron’s head above water as we followed the passages to the surface? He’d be much lighter if he was floating. Maybe we still had a chance here if I was careful. I stood up, thinking hard about what to do to get my cousin – if that was really who he was – off guard.
“You can be more than one thing at a time, Seleska. I thought you’d realize that. After all, you are a princess and island trash at the same time.”
Trash? He was an awful person to be calling all my friends and family ‘trash.’
“Which is why you should come with me of your own will. Why fight it? You’re valuable to the Rock Eaters – and to me. And you can ask the price you want for your services.”
“Services?”
“Haven’t you heard? Magic is leaving our world. The dragons are all that is left of Dominion magic. Baojang has lost theirs almost entirely. Even faraway Ko’Torenth is rumored to be stripped of all magic but a few strange objects. That leaves only us – the Rock Eaters – to salvage the magic of this world.”
“I thought Rock Eaters were painted with bones and wore ceremonial clothing,” I said. That was what the island tales told.
“I’m not your typical Rock Eater. I have to present myself in a way that doesn’t threaten people at our ports of call, or I can’t trade,” he said dismissively. “But I’m, as committed to the cause as anyone. We must find a way to bring back the world’s magic or face the consequences. And just because we dress in a way you find laughable, doesn’t mean we aren’t incredibly powerful people.”
“What does that have to do with me?” I asked.
I was edging forward, trying to get close. If I was close enough to him, maybe I could surprise him and take that cutlass.
“Well, sweet cousin, the old stories say that magic first came to the world from volcanoes under the sea.”
“That’s nice,” I said, smiling and stepping a little closer. His sword tip dropped a little, taken off guard by my friendly response.
“And the only person who can reach so far into the sea would be someone who can breathe under water.”
“And then what?” I said sweetly.
That sword point was lowering even more.
“And then,” he said, matching my smile with his own friendly smile, “we call your bluff.”
He reached out and grabbed me by the top, spinning me around and putting the cutlass to my throat.
“Nice try, little cousin,” he said as the razor-sharp edge nicked my skin.
Chapter Seventeen
I’d been wrong to call Nasataa to me. Now I begged him to stay away, sending pictures in my mind to him of diving overboard and fleeing.
Almost the moment that I sent them, I saw a glimmer of his shining blue scales as he darted behind a barrel. Oh no! We were all trapped now! He was stuck in here with us.
“Don’t move and this will all be over quickly,” Branson Kendark said. “I have a cabin ready for you. You won’t even have to travel in the brig.”
Ice lanced through my belly but I couldn’t think of a way to squirm out of his grasp without that razor-sharp cutlass slicing through my throat. I blinked back tears of frustration as my mind raced. What to do? What to do?
I couldn’t save myself. I couldn’t save Heron. But there was still hope for Nasataa. With all my mental might, I tried to project to him that this ship was evil and dangerous. That he must flee it at all costs. I tried to show him that he would be captured and forced to stay. That he must leave no matter what.
A groan of timber on timber filled the air and then suddenly Nasataa was leaping through the air, his small wings fluttering as he landed on Branson’s shoulder and flamed his ear.
“Ugh! Get off of me!” The mercenary twisted against the surprise attack, a scream ripping from his throat as the blue flames stuck to his ear. His arm holding me never faltered, his sword blade stayed poised at my throat even as his other hand beat the fire out.
“Run, Nasataa!” I called.
The sides of the ship moaned again and there was a crash from above.
“What the – ” the mercenary began but a loud snap from above cut him off, followed by a scream. His sword arm sagged slightly as his gaze turned upward.
I didn’t hesitate. I ducked under the sword blade, spinning to slip free. Nasataa sailed through the air and landed on my shoulder, wrapping protectively around my neck.
“It’s okay, little buddy. It’s okay,” I said. He wasn’t lost. He wasn’t hurt. Yet.
It was up to me to keep the little dragon safe. But I also had brought Heron here and I had to help him, too.
I’d only run one step toward him when the ship bucked, the sides bulging.
Everything seemed to move in slow motion. Behind me, Kendark cursed.
The timbers beside me creaked, and then one snapped like a dry stick. Followed by another and another. Water plunged into the hull through the open holes, surging forward. Barrels knocked loose from where they were tied bobbed along the surface. The water was knee deep by my second stride, waist deep by my third.
Heron!
He was going to drown!
I reached him as the water suddenly lowered, pouring away. I had the sensation of soaring upward, even though my feet were still braced against the hull.
I reached Heron as the water level lowered to ankle deep, pulling him up from the water. He gasped, his eyelids flickering open a little as he choked on water, coughing and sputtering to bring it up.
I could hear Branson Kendark’s loud calls for an explanation. Screams rippled from far above us. I wrapped my arms around Heron, trying to pull him to his feet as he fought for breath. He was dazed and choking on water. We couldn’t stay here. The ship was going to go down – or something – I was a little confused about why the water was running out.
And then the floor beneath us fell out and we were falling through the air.
Chapter Eighteen
I was seeing things that my mind couldn’t make sense of. Above me, fluffy white clouds tinged with pink announced that dawn had arrived. Between me and the clouds was what was left of the ship we’d been on – a splintered wreck of shredded wood. One mast and sail dangled from the wreckage by a long rope, swinging back and forth. Bodies of sailors, barrels, and tackle tumbled down, falling like crumbs from the ship.
Around the ship, a long sinuous body – or maybe a tail? – was wrapped. Gleaming blue scale
s and semi-translucent, wispy fins lined it. It was squeezing the ship like a constrictor snake squeezed its island prey.
And suddenly, the warnings in my village about Blue Dragons made a lot of sense. Suddenly, it didn’t seem so crazy to fear them or to lock up all the paddles and demand to know if anyone had heard or seen one.
Suddenly, the songs I’d been hearing all this time made sense, too. Because I was hearing the song right now, and it was coming from this Blue Dragon.
I saw all of that in the blink of an eye.
My next thought was that we were falling. I was still holding Heron and Nasataa was wrapped around my neck and we were falling through the air like a piece of wreckage toward the boiling sea below. How far could you drop before hitting the water and still live? And what about Heron who was still struggling to pull in a breath?
I tried to twist in the air to look under me, but the sea was coming up too quickly. I’d failed Nasataa and I’d failed Heron and now they were both going to die because of me.
Please, don’t let them die!
An image filled my mind – the same image that I’d sent Nasataa of how the ship was evil and dangerous. But this image was amplified and bigger, larger, rougher. I blinked from the intensity of it as it tore through my mind, leaving me aching from the pain of it. That wasn’t my dragon.
My heart was in my throat. My mind was swirling with confusion and fear. I felt spray on my face. We must be close to the surface.
Please, just don’t let them die!
I didn’t even know who I was pleading with as we broke through the surface, smashing painfully against the waves. Heron slipped through my hands as we plunged into the water. And then my descent slowed, and I was kicking up to the surface, spinning in the water as I searched for Heron.
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