Dragon Tide Omnibus 1

by Sarah K. L. Wilson

  Just breathe Seleska. You’re okay. You will be fine. Just breathe.

  I’d had to say that so much to myself in the early days without him. I could say that again. And it would be true. My eyes snapped open and I saw Nasataa hopping along the side of the boat doing little summersaults. I had to be strong for him. I couldn’t panic or back out because I was afraid. I had to be strong.

  I didn’t realize that I was still shaking from the feeling whipsawing through me, until Heron wrapped an arm around me. He pulled me in, drawing me against his strong, immovable body. There was something about how solid he was that made me feel safe – like all the world around us could fall apart, but Heron would still be there. I let out a long breath.

  “How can we help you?” Heron asked Vyvera.

  Her smile was wry. “By hurrying so that I don’t waste my last days in failure.”

  Well, that was direct!

  I was surprised by a cough from behind Vyvera. I hadn’t even realized that Octon was awake until he sat up, rubbing red eyes.

  “If you need to go upriver and you need to hurry, and if Heron still has those patches we stole, then I can help you.”

  “Oh?” Vyvera asked.

  “I know a safehouse not far from here. We can walk. But we should hurry. We are easy targets here. They will be searching the river surface.”

  “Only the surface?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “It’s easiest. And the patches don’t last forever. Everyone has to come up for air eventually.”

  “How long do they last?” I asked.

  “Twenty-four hours or as long as you are submerged.” He pointed to where the three patches lay in the bottom of the boat, shriveled and dry as dead leaves. “But if you surface, the patch is done, and you’ll need a new one.”

  “And how many do you have?” I asked Heron, biting my lip. We would have enough, right? We had to have enough.

  “Seven,” he said, after counting them.

  That was three trips underwater for him and Vyvera and one left.

  I swallowed, feeling the pressure of our low supplies. Would they be enough?

  Of course, they would be. No point on worrying about what couldn’t be helped. We’d find a way somehow. I always found a way to do what I needed to do.

  “Come on, Nasataa!”

  He ran to me as I followed the others onto shore, leaping into my outstretched arms and licking my face.

  “Yeah, I love you, too.”

  Selesa! Ride!

  I opened the bag for him, and he climbed in, keeping his head out so he could watch as we slipped onto a narrow path between high leafy fronds. The trail was packed dirt, but small plants sprang up along it as if it was not often used. My feet squelched unpleasantly in the soft leather boots Octon had given me and my sprained ankle ached painfully. I missed my sandals. I would need to replace them as soon as I could. If I was going to spend this much time in the water, none of the boots were going to be a good fit.

  The path wound along the river until it finally emerged at a tall, narrow house with a huge wheel on the side of it. A long shaft ran from the narrow house to a larger house beyond.

  “It’s a watermill,” Octon said, as if that made any sense.

  “A way to use water to grind grain,” Vyvera explained.

  I watched the wheel move, fascinated by the paddles that caught the water of the river as it tumbled past and spun the wheel. How strange. This land was full of wonders. If only they didn’t want to kill me so badly, I would really enjoy seeing all these new things.

  There were a few different boats moored by the wheel – some of them large enough to carry cargo in sacks and bales.

  “Wait here for me. I will make sure it’s safe for you,” Octon said, slipping down the dirt path where the foliage cleared into a wide grassy space, edged with bright flowers.

  Vyvera launched into a coughing fit but she stopped herself, struggling for a moment and then breathing out a long breath.

  “While we have a moment, let me tell you about the staff,” she said looking at it wistfully. I hadn’t even realized that we’d lost her staff until that moment. What other important things had we lost with her dragon? I shouldn’t be thinking like that. The dragon was a person and enough of a loss without counting the other things we’d never see again. But I couldn’t help but wonder what battles we might face and lose because we’d lost Vyvera’s staff.

  “Your staff,” she said, taking it gently from my hands, “can be fought with. You can use it to slash and hack and stab. But it also serves more purposes than that. With this staff, you can access magic.”

  Chapter Five

  “Magic?” I asked.

  “No time for questions. If we’re traveling underwater, we won’t be able to talk, and my time is limited. So, listen. Watch the physical moves first.” She whirled, demonstrating each one as she spoke. “Block. Jab. Feint. Parry. Slash. Backhand. Pivot. Show me.”

  I took the staff carefully and tried to copy her moves. They were more halted than hers had been, more of trying to remember what they were than actually executing them well, but I did remember.

  “Okay. Good start. Every time we stop for a break or rest, run through those. Do it every day and you might even begin to get good enough to spar with someone. And now, the magic. It’s not your own magic. Rather, the staff can suck up any magic thrown against you. Maybe you’ve seen that happen already?”

  I nodded. I had seen that, hadn’t I? I’d seen that bubbler with her hands curled trying to do something while I was lecturing her about how to become a better person. Had that been my staff picking up magic?

  “I thought so,” Vyvera said. “Because I can feel the power in this staff. Using it, that will take more time. These are tuned to their owners. How you access that magic and how you make it work for you varies from person to person. Just keep using it to deflect magic attacks and absorb them and in time, as you practice the physical moves, you will learn to harness the magic, too. Oh, and if you ever start to get good at those moves, you should find a good sparring partner.”

  I nodded seriously, trying not to look too excited. A magic staff? I had no idea this was so valuable! It had been great when it was a weapon and a support to me. Now, it was even better!

  I whirled the staff the way she’d shown me, testing out the moves. Could I feel the power in it like she had? Or was that all in my mind.

  “And don’t take off your friend’s head by accident,” Vyvera said wryly.

  My eyes went big when I looked behind me to see Heron ducking with an unimpressed look on his face.

  “I’m going to go see what’s keeping Octon,” Vyvera said, slipping down the path.

  I was about to follow her when Heron laid a hand on my shoulder. “Seleska?”

  “Yes?” I paused as he swallowed. What was so hard for him to say?

  “Maybe we shouldn’t be going upriver. Maybe we should be going downriver.”

  “But they’ll expect us there,” I said, confused.

  He licked his lips nervously, his dark brows drawing downward. “We expected to be going with Vyvera and to have her dragon to help us if things went poorly. But Seleska, the Havenwind Isles are a long way from here. If you can really go through portals under the sea, well that might be the only way to get back. And if Vyvera is dying, she might die before we find a safe place here. Maybe it’s a better idea to go home right now and to bring Nasataa with us. Where better to keep him safe than where we have friends and family?”

  I shook my head. “We’d be endangering them.”

  “No one will know where we are. Right now, lots of people know.” He looked around at the bushes as if he could see enemies creeping in from every side.

  “Vyvera is giving her life for this,” I said, torn.

  If I didn’t agree to go, it wasn’t like he could go without me. He’d be trapped here surrounded by enemies. But if I stopped and turned back with him, then the Troglodyte would die before we coul
d arrive to meet him and everything Vyvera had worked for would be useless. Her dragon would have died for nothing. She looked calm on the outside, but I knew what it was like to lose a dragon friend. And Ramariri and I had only been friends for days, not years like Vyvera and her dragon.

  Besides, if evil forces were really after Nasataa – and me, too – then there was nowhere we could go to flee and be safe. Our only hope was to fight back.

  “I’m sorry, Heron,” I said. “But I can’t just run away. If I run, I’ll always be running. If I stay and fight, I could win.”

  He nodded, but there was tension in his jaw and face that hadn’t been there before. He was as worried as I was.

  I wanted to comfort him, but at that moment, Octon and Vyvera returned.

  “We’re in luck,” Octon said with a beaming smile. “A fellow Lightbringer is headed upriver in that supply barge and he’s agreed to let you ride on the hull.”

  “On the hull?” I asked. He couldn’t really mean what he said, could he?

  “Sure. Underwater and free from prying eyes! It’s a perfect setup!”

  Perfect? That’s not what I would have called it. Heron and Vyvera wouldn’t be able to put their heads above water without ruining their patches, and a journey like that couldn’t be short.

  “How many days upriver is this meeting of yours?” I asked Vyvera.

  “At least five,” she said.

  “And Yvon can get you as far as Tinlin City, three days upriver,” Octon said proudly.

  “That will do,” Vyvera said seriously. The expression on her face was of pure concentration, as if she were counting out her last coins. In a way, she was. After all, those three days would be some of the last few days of her life.

  I felt a knot forming in my throat at the thought of her sacrifice. I really couldn’t back out. Not now. I reached for Heron’s hand, surprised when I didn’t find it. He stood a few steps away, looking down the river toward the sea. He didn’t like the choice I’d made.

  I swallowed hard, trying to get rid of the lump forming in my throat. I had to do what was right, even if my friend didn’t like it.

  “Thank you, Octon,” I said, trying to keep worry out of my voice. Three days was not far enough, and we didn’t have enough patches to go farther than that underwater. My hands were sweating as he led us to the boat, a reluctant Heron following a few paces behind.

  Why did I feel so guilty for saying yes?

  Chapter Six

  This had been a mistake. I was trying not to think of that. Instead, I was trying to think about how it was also an adventure and all my life I had wanted adventures. When I went back home and told my parents about it, none of the discomfort or difficulty would matter, only the amazing adventure and the people I’d gone on it with. Right?

  I thought about that as we put patches over Heron and Vyvera’s mouths and noses and slipped into the water with a last wave to Octon. I thought about what a grand adventure it was as I tried to convince Nasataa to stay in his carrier and as I jammed the supplies Octon had given me into the carrier – a canteen of clean water, a pair of sandals, a package of dried meat wrapped in oilcloth and a few coins.

  “All my friend can spare,” he’d said quietly as he’d handed them to me.

  I thought about what a grand adventure it was as the barge captain wrapped ropes around the hull of his ship and we scooted down the side of the hull, under the dark waves, and clung to the ropes like barnacles.

  Heron was trying to be positive, too, with a squeeze of my hand as I secured my staff to the rope and got a good grip on it.

  We were off on a grand adventure into unknown places!

  But I still felt too ill to be upset about the lack of food. My nervous belly did not seem to understand how adventures worked.

  Neither did my heart, still aching over the injuries Vyvera was enduring – we’d bandaged her wounds as we could, but they were bad. Anyone who planned to live more than a few more days would be concerned about them.

  Even my muscles couldn’t understand how adventures worked. They were aching and protesting after the first hour. It was all I could do to keep holding the rope during the second hour. I adjusted constantly, squirming to find a good place. I didn’t dare fall off. At the back of the barge, a huge paddle turned, carrying the boat upstream against the river. I didn’t understand how that worked, but Heron had been incredibly interested, peering at the wheel and a tall stack at the center of the boat as if he could make out how it operated. Maybe he could. He saw the world differently than I did.

  I was beginning to think that my arms were going to give out and I’d be sucked downstream and battered by the paddles when the boat began to slow. It stopped and then an anchor fell through the water, plunging to the floor of the river.

  Heron gave me a confused look. But I didn’t know any more than he did what was going on. He pointed up. Oh yeah, I was the only one who could afford to go check.

  With aching, stiff arms, I pulled myself along the rope and up to the surface, careful to hug the boat tightly when my head surfaced. It was all I could do not to cough. Instead, I choked quietly on the water coming up as I sucked in air.

  Voices rang out from the boat above.

  “...patrol coming. Stand ready!”

  There was the sound of a boat bumping against our barge. Good thing I hadn’t surfaced on the other side! And then there were more voices.

  “This is the Saaasallla’s River Guard, accompanied by Bubbler Atura Feliciano. We are looking for three fugitives. Do you have any passengers on your boat?”

  I didn’t need to hear more than that. I scrambled down into the water again. Bubblers could breathe underwater, too. They could send someone down to check for us. We needed to hide right now before they did.

  I hurried, hand over hand down the rope. I couldn’t call to them to warn them but my heart was pounding in my chest as I rushed to my friends. How could I warn them without words?

  I wasn’t sure. The second I saw Heron, I made my eyes as wide as I could, trying to signal fear. We were both wearing the Bubbler goggles – strange contraptions of glass panes, metal cases, and leather straps – that we’d had with us when we infiltrated their camp and Vyvera had been given a pair by Octon. They helped in the water making everything clearer and easier to see.

  I pointed toward the stern, beginning to swim in that direction. We could hide in the water wheel. They wouldn’t look there, right? Because you’d have to be crazy to go in there. After all, if it started moving again, that wheel could kill you.

  Fortunately, Heron was following me, helping Vyvera along. She looked ill. She probably needed to spit more of that black guck, but she couldn’t with the patch over her mouth. She pulled it off for a moment, spitting black goo into the water and then managed to pull it back over her nose and mouth before devolving into a fit of coughing again. My stomach knotted at the sight. I wished so badly that I could fix this for her.

  We worked our way to the paddle wheel, climbing between the paddles to hide inside them. The others seemed to understand somehow, though Heron looked extremely worried about it. They settled in between the paddles, bracing themselves and trying to be as small as they could be.

  In his bag, Nasataa was waking up.

  Stay inside!

  I sent him a visual image of staying quiet inside the bag. He could come out when all of this was over.

  I felt a creeping sensation come over me, as if the water was trying to tell me something. I couldn’t help myself. I leaned down, peeking out from the bottom side of the paddle at the boat hull.

  There was a flash of red as someone ducked under the hull and I pulled my head back in. They really were searching for us underwater! There were bubblers crawling along the bottom of the ship! I clenched my jaw and stole a second glance.

  There was one swimming along the rope, goggles pulled over her eyes and mask over her face. I cringed back behind the paddle.

  Please don’t look here! Please
don’t look here!

  I thought the words as hard as I could.

  Chapter Seven

  I could hear them on deck, my ears straining to listen to any bump or sound. I put my finger up over my lips to warn Heron and Vyvera, but I didn’t need to. They were both motionless, frozen in place and out of sight. They were better at this than I was!

  Nasataa squirmed in the bag on my back and I help my breath.

  Still! Be still!

  I sent him calm images of lying still and being relaxed. He sent me the image of cramped muscles and wanting to swim.

  No! Be still!

  He wasn’t listening. Instead, he squirmed against my back and a few bubbles drifted out of the pack, gliding up to the surface. Teeth gritted and one hand on my staff, I reached around my back with the other arm and hugged him tight against it. He was going to give us away!

  Long seconds passed and then I heard the crank of the anchor chain.

  Heron ducked his head down past the paddle, looking at the hull like I had and then popped back around, urgently motioning to us to follow. I swam under the paddle but Vyvera was slow, her limbs moving awkwardly and her body bucking with supressed coughs. Heron seized her clothing, tugging her hard to pull her past the paddles.

  Close to the bow, I saw the anchor lifting on its chain. It was almost completely up.

  Heron and I kicked forward in the water, swimming as fast as we could. We were barely far enough when the big paddle began to turn again, sucking the water toward it.

  I swam hard, kicking and clawing with my free hand as fast as I could while my other kept a grip on the Dragon Staff. I couldn’t afford to lose such a priceless relic.

  Heron fought hard, too, pulling Vyvera along with him.

  By the time we reached the ropes we were exhausted, wrapping our legs and arms around them and hanging from them as the current tugged all around us. The look we shared was one of mutual gratitude. We were grateful to be alive and free. Or at least, I was.

  Vyvera didn’t share our look. She was clinging to the rope desperately, head curled into her chest. Gently, Heron wrapped an arm around her so she wouldn’t have to hold on by herself. He was always like that – gentle with other people. Reliable in a crisis. I should appreciate that more.