“Food? Oh, yes, the captain’s biscuit hoard is particularly edible.” He looked back at the crowd. “Sam! He’s getting some of your biscuits!”
Sam, a robust man in a blue coat and unkempt beard, yelled, “The dragon?!”
“No! The one who summoned him!”
“Oh, all right! But only one!”
The mood shifted into one found in a typical sailing vessel, if one could still call it “sailing.” Many mellowed and chattered in enthused inflections amongst themselves as we made our way down to a long room with two lengthy tables, their wooden tops connected to metal legs melded into the floor. It was as if I had cast a spell which pacified the nerves, not a summoning one. I felt guilty that my exposed status was probably putting overly optimistic ideas in their heads. They might start expecting me to help beyond the reasonable.
A little while after my brother joined us, so did the food. The meal consisted of hard, sourish biscuits, which one needed to dip in a bowl of a white gravy thing to soften up, and a heavily salted brown meat from a land animal they called a murtug. Including portions of the gravy, it was all quite chewy. Due to the presence of Vanguard and frequently freezing weather, storing ice and unsalted water for the long-term wasn’t too difficult, so nothing tasted abnormal about the water I drank. Ships which lacked casters apparently relied on machines to preserve their fresh drinking supply.
In the process of explaining part of my history, they explained part of their own. From what I understood, Grenhath was a metaphorically fractured continent. Humans managed to gain a foothold in the western half, but the krewen held the lusher eastern side. Each had their kingdoms, but the true power lied with two breeds of families—those who passed down the capacity for magic, and those who owned the resources that built and powered their apparatuses. Neither type sounded painless to deal with, particularly when the top families often included both.
Halfway into getting the food down my throat, I did a double take when I saw two Isabels down the table. Twins. On a second scrutiny, I noted that one of the Isabel’s raven hair hung shy of her armored shoulders, and her skin had perhaps been touched by the sun a few hours longer than the first Isabel I saw while being questioned. I knew I gawked too long when a sidelong glance from the woman I knew to be Isabel turned into a half-smiling gaze. I nodded with a slow blink before randomly turning my attention to my brother, who they kept separated from me for precautionary reasons.
After we ate, Holson ordered for Alex and I be put back in our respective rooms, though without restraints this time.
Entering the chamber a few minutes later, the Vanguard leader said, “You understand why I must continue treating you with caution, dragon knight.”
“I’d do the same, major.”
“Would you? Your brother has no dragon vouching for him, and his curse runs deeper than yours.”
“That’s why keeping him close is acting cautiously. As far as I can tell, the alternatives come with steeper prices and fewer rewards. The boy only needs to see that he’s useful without having to side with ne’er-do-wells. Once that happens, I believe he’ll come around.”
“Well, he’s your brother. Speaking of families, I fear you’re soon to be pulled in a dozen different directions by the affluent ones. I wish I could simply order your presence to be kept a secret, but that would be in vain.”
“I’d say you’re worried about me inciting violence between them, but from what I’ve heard, they do that well on their own already.”
“They fight for the right to be the last ones remaining at the end of the world. They do not defend those who are not fighting for them. Act too friendly with one family and you will make an enemies of three others. There’s not many situations where you don’t stir up trouble. I’m not even sure you care if you do stir it.”
“These type of concerns can only be allayed with actions, not words. All I can do is take it one situation at a time. That’s all any of us can do.”
“A diplomatic way to speak for someone your age.”
“Making friends with royalty helps.”
Like before, a pair of Vanguard watched me from inside the room. This time, however, their mouths produced language. I obliged them for a little while, but a digesting stomach and enervated concerns pushed me to get some sleep. They brought me blankets to use how I wished. I put them on the floor to soften it, sat on them, and leaned back against a corner of the room. My waking self knocked out pretty quick.
I don’t know if it was my unwelcomed situation or something in this world’s air, but my vivid dreams exuded a bright hue of violets, greens, and reds. The scenes were mainly out of order memories interspersed with flashes of the personified corruption I beheld in Gremly, expect this tall, skeletal figure did not belong to my soul. My gut came to that conclusion rather than my mind. A primal intuition understood my embraced cursed should have felt close and familiar, not observe me from afar with a fuming leer. Could it have been my brother’s? Or perhaps the prevailing aura back on the island influenced the image.
I awoke from a sleep longer than a nap, but fell well short of a true slumber. The two Vanguard who watched me were a bird-man and Isabel’s identical sister. The krewen’s head feathers held many more pink ones than Svren’s, so I assumed him to be the only other krewen I noticed on board.
After a yawn and a stretch of my arms, I asked the krewen, “What’s your name?”
“Remedy Ranger Ishree Kree-Kree, sir.”
Without lips to help form words the human way, the krewen’s neck appeared to be doing extra work in making speech noises by rapidly inflating and deflating with nearly every syllable. It was only noticeable if one paid attention to it, which I did for a bit.
“Well, Remedy Ranger Kree-Kree, how many krewen were on the island we left?”
“Two. Me and Shra Tet-Tet.”
“I ask because I came across a fallen krewen before meeting your group. Many dead fiends lied before him.”
“Always a good fighter he was.” He put his fist on his chest and moved it in a tight circle twice. “I’m glad your sibling retrieved his gun. It will be something we and his clan can honor when preparing to say our blessed goodbyes.”
I nodded. To the woman, I asked, “Isabel is your twin, right? Or are there even more of you?”
With a minor tilt of her head, she asked, “How do you know I’m not Isabel?”
“Your hair is shorter. Her armor also looked cleaner. Well, the muck on it wasn’t as fresh, anyway. You were on the island, she wasn’t. And now I can tell your voice is a touch deeper.”
“Perceptive boy. I guess you aren’t all about summoning a scary lizard.”
“I’d be dead by now if I only relied on summoning a dragon to win all my fights. What’s your name?”
“We’ve met already.”
I searched my memory for the women I met so far. “Felicia?”
“Bingo. Felicia Vera.”
“Well, Felicia, Ishree, I’m still trying to get a lay of the land here. If either of you needed to gain the help from someone both influential and honorable, who comes to mind?” Felicia chuckled. Ishree sort of purred and gurgled in his throat. “I take it the honor part is the notion that amuses you.”
“No noble gains power here by acting as such,” replied Felicia. “There are families who buy gangs of outlaws to steal from their rivals, swindle protection money from actual honorable people, and kill whoever crosses them. Everyone knows they do it, but only the outlaws get hanged for it. The families will simply buy off more desperate people. You can’t play nice if you want to take power and keep it.”
“Yet I see casters here risking their lives to fight against an overwhelming enemy. Honor exists somewhere here.”
“Most of us have little choice,” said Ishree. “Unless you’re a weaver born into a mighty clan, you’re either going to be hunting outlaws or ghouls. Ghouls are merely easier on the inner self to shoot at. And they don’t shoot back.”
“Still,
sometimes they still treat us like bounty hunters they can pay off,” said Felicia. “I get most criminals are dickbags, but we didn’t sign up to clean up someone else’s bloody mess. I’d rather deal with a hallion than get involved in endless pissing contests.”
My back slid up the wall as I stood up. “Then who would you go to if you were me? There must be somebody or some organization who’s not invariably going to backstab people trying to climb a ladder.”
“You’d have better luck with my kind,” said Ishree. “We actually have mythoi of dragon knights, and our affluent clans are outright stable compared to the human ones.”
“Hold on,” said Felicia. “Krewen also prefer dragging their claws than taking real action, especially when it comes to helping humans.”
“Can you blame us? We give a dollar, you take it as permission to raid our coffers.”
“Only ‘cause it takes more than a dollar to survive.”
“Nature survives fine without dollars. It’s really about-”
I sharply whistled. “Okay, okay. This is becoming an argument I don’t care about. Listen, I’m probably going to ask a lot of people about this, so each of you give me one family you’d go to for help. The ones who get mentioned the most will be where I start.”
“Very well. In your position I would beseech the Ibeeth clan. They’ve always been concerned with appearances. They will at least treat you with outward reverence.”
“And your submission, Felicia?”
“Hmm… I’m gonna be honest, I’m not too familiar with many families, but there is one everyone kinda respects. The Rathmores.”
“The… wait, what? Who?”
“The Rathmore family. They don’t own a big company like the really rich bastards, but they are famous for having friends in higher places. It’s an old weaver family, so I suppose they’ve simply become good at connecting with well-to-do people over the years… Uh, Mercer? Are you daydreaming or something?”
“Sorry… It’s… I mean, a friend of mine has the same last name. My imagination started wondering if it was coincidental or not, but I guess humans from Orda who learned to speak the shared tongue will inevitably share some names… Um, the name ‘Riskel’ doesn’t mean anything here, does it?”
“No, not that I know of. Is that your friend’s name?”
“No, his father’s. He was an infamous caster who was hunted down and killed years ago. If I remember right, no one knows exactly where he came from. People assume the kingdom he lived in destroyed all records of his life out of embarrassment, but maybe they didn’t exist in the first place. Or maybe I’m looking too hard for something that isn’t there. Either way, I’ll keep the Rathmores in mind.”
Even if the family name had not come up once more after talking with the following pairs of sentinels, it would have remained on my mind. Regardless, I learned of other names who needed to join the Rathmores for consideration. For instance, the Galan family owned something known as the “largest railroad industry” in human territory. As they were relatively new money, they possessed little in the way of magically inclined blood, so they actively accepted alliances with anyone who carried the ability. Allying with them could attract a lot of casters not yet committed to a particular family empire.
The Nores family was among the oldest and wealthiest of all human bloodlines. Their casters specialized in earth spells, making them effective miners throughout their history. When they discovered coal fueled the “engines of industry” better than wood, they successfully dug, bought, and fought for any within their reach. Combined with their iron mines, they also managed to supply steel in great quantities to shipbuilders, gun makers, and any structure requiring a fair amount of metal. Basically, this family had the most connections and, therefore, a surfeit of enemies.
The half dozen other names sounded about the same, only less impressive in scope. Still, before I worried about names I chose to meet on my own accord, this ship was bringing me to the western Vanguard headquarters without consideration to what I preferred. Without my corruption, my original prana would have recovered much too slowly for my liking. As it was, on recovering to the point I could summon Aranath again, I felt much less obligated to go anywhere I did not want to. For the time being, I thought I might as well see how some of the Vanguard leadership treated a corrupted dragon knight.
When we came within sight of a port city called Durnmere, Holson placed shackles on my wrists and ankles. Whoever I was to meet, it was to happen on board, and it would not look good for the major if he allowed two corrupted brothers free use of their limbs. In addition, I was moved into the brig and in a separate set of bars holding Alex. From there we sensed the ship leisurely come to a stop.
We waited with five Vanguards guarding us, so there was not much in the way of discussing escape plans. The best I could do was flash knowing glances at him and at all the crisscrossing shadows the glass bulbs of light created. He got the idea. I only hoped he cast his paralysis spell when it was obvious we needed to fight our way out, not because his acrimonious mood accrued a stronger layer of tartness.
Some commotion occurred on the deck above around two hours later. Holson came down with two humans and one krewen. Both men looked to be in their forties and sported bushy facial hair. One wore a dark blue overcoat with several colored bars on the chest and lots of gold buttons going down the middle. The other uniform was mostly black and gold with two rows of silver buttons keeping the coat flaps secure. They both carried a belt, which each held a thin sword and a gun. Felt hats were tucked under their armpits.
The krewen donned rippling leather armor, which was the same dull brown color as the feathers sticking out of its head. Pauldrons that looked like squat wings protected the shoulders. A thicker, heavier, and shorter style of gun and blade than the human kinds were sheathed by its hips. I stood up from my chair as these three stern-faced beings stepped in front of me and Alex.
Holson pronounced, “May I introduce you to Mercer and Alex Eberwolf, stated visitors of Orda.”
I bowed my head. “And may I ask who I’m meeting?”
“Naturally. This is Vice Admiral Nico Abellan, commander of the Vanguard’s western fleet.” The man in the dark blue overcoat tilted and bowed his head. “Lieutenant General Hugo Pomar commands Vanguard’s western ground forces, and Head Ranger Reet Eri-Eri does the same for the krewen here.”
In a smoother tenor than her male counterparts, though which still bore a mild sing-song quality to it, the krewen said, “Allow me be the first to extend an offer of fellowship between you and my kin.”
“Gods curse it, Reet!” said the lieutenant general. “At least ask him some godsdamn questions first.”
“I will not be the one to doubt the gods’ gift. You humans may do as you please.”
“You truly believe the absentminded gods would send a corrupted soul to save us?” asked Nico.
“A soul who can summon a dragon, yes.”
“Hold on,” I said. “I’m sorry, but I’m not here claiming or promising I can save anyone. I’m not even certain I can teleport myself out of here yet.”
“Perhaps not, but you are clearly our best hope in a long while. To summon anything untainted from a world so corrupted is nigh impossible, yet you have an attachment to the most fabled of righteous beasts. My human compatriots are wary of your sullied spirit. They believe you may seek to cause us great harm by purely posturing as our brother-in-arms, but I will not doubt.”
“It’s lucky he was found in human territory,” said Hugo. “Sounds like you krewen want to worship him.”
“I bet he wouldn’t mind that,” said Alex, who only stood so he could get his shadow to cover more ground.
I rolled my eyes to the ceiling. “Yes, please worship my brother instead.”
Rubbing the scruffy beard on his chin, Nico said, “We have gone a bit off the rails. Alex, correct? How do you explain your presence among the ghouls and a hallion?”
“Explain? We had to show up
somewhere, didn’t we?”
“And the good admiral is implying we showed up around suspicious circumstances,” I said. “I assure you, sir, with a dragon available to me, we would have shown ourselves around pleasanter circumstances if I knew they existed in the first place.”
“Or your intent involved earning our trust by ‘preventing’ a Vanguard squad from being overrun.”
“The first thing that happened when I met a living Vanguard was to get hit with one of those gun things, and now I’m in a cage. My plan is working brilliantly.”
“Not a time to be cheeky, boy,” said Hugo.
“But he speaks with accuracy,” said Reet. “Someone with wings and knowledge of the Vanguard would be unwise to reveal themselves to us in ghoul territory.”
“And we’d be unwise to accept him so readily.”
“Indeed,” said Nico. “However, the fact is, neither of them have done anything to deserve a death sentence. They may be corrupted, but they are obviously of sound mind and lack a hallion’s unchecked bloodlust. Yet duty and common sense say we cannot simply let them go free. The solution seems clear to me. Sir Eberwolfs, if you are truly allies, you will stay with Major Holson and aid in his missions until my superiors can determine how to better go about evaluating your commitment to friendship.”
“I see,” I said. “I imagine such a stipulation will also keep us away from as many people as possible.”
“An astute observation. As long as you agree not to quit Holson’s squad, we won’t have reason to conclude the worst.”
After a moment thinking things over, I said, “Very well, I’ll agree to your terms under one condition.”
“Which is?”
“Before this ship leaves port, you tell me everything you know about vlimphite.”
“Ah, yes, the major mentioned the mineral. You believe it necessary to power a spell that can send you back home, correct? There should be someone in Durnmere who can enlighten me on the subject. I’ll learn what I can, but depending how sensitive the information is, I can’t promise I’ll agree to share what I learn.”
The Dragon Knight and the Steam World Page 11