The dragon’s spine ridges stood straight up, and his eyes got as wide as dragons’ eyes could. “But, lady, I do not kill people.”
“There are no people aboard now.” Eulalia said.
“They’ve all gone up to Aunt Erotica’s house,” Verity said. “I hope they don’t turn ugly. The Belle’s crew are actually cabaret performers—you’d like them, drag—Devent. The only swashbuckling they’ve done is onstage, I fear. And the new lot seems to be getting along with them now, but how long the potion will hold them before they turn ugly again I couldn’t say.”
Eulalia laughed. It wasn’t a nice laugh and showed all of her pointed green teeth. “Don’t worry about that, sweetie. Erotica has her little ways of dealing with men like that. All Devent will be doing is teaching them a lesson they need about sailing onto other peoples’ seas and throwing nets over people and letting them dry out while they make rude remarks. Actually, one little ship isn’t enough to make up for that but—”
“You must leave the Belle’s Shell alone,” Verity said quickly. “My friends could not easily replace her.”
“Excuse me, ladies,” the dragon said, took a leap and landed in the water, then breached like a whale, except he kept soaring upward instead of turning to splash back down into the sea.
Moments later the night grew brighter with the lurid blossom of flame halfway to the horizon. Loud booms shattered the air and offshoots of fire flashed through the night sky like comets in reverse. Huge waves washed up and around their rock, further soaking Verity’s skin and clothing.
Aunt Eulalia clapped her webbed hands in delight. “That will show them to go around netting people!” she said.
But shouts and cries of dismay were coming from the shore, where several of the men had returned to watch their ship burn.
Eulalia grew nervous. “Sorry, Minnow, time for me to go. Tell the dragon I can’t teach him my song after all. It’s a siren’s song, and I’d be betraying a trade secret to teach it to a dragon. I can’t even teach it to you, and you’re kin!” She was blathering, totally forgetting that she’d earlier said teaching another song to the dragon wouldn’t present a problem. “Tell Sister sorry not to be able to visit but I must swim! Tata!” She leaped into the water and disappeared into a wave.
Verity was cold, wet and rather frightened of the men on shore, but wondered if she shouldn’t be more afraid of a disappointed dragon.
He swam, jumped, dived and flew to the rocks, slithering smoothly up them to sit facing her. He looked quite pleased with himself, then looked around at rock and the surrounding water for the mermaid. Verity told him, “Some of the men came down to watch you burn their ship and they scared her away. She said to tell you she was sorry, but she decided she couldn’t teach you her song after all. It’s some sort of siren’s secret, I take it.”
He huffed water from his nostrils and mouth and shook his head as if to clear his ears. Tentatively, he trilled a note in an undragon-like fashion. His voice broke when he tried to sing a bit higher. “Hmm. Beyond my range, I think. It sounded so lovely when she sang it, but I don’t think it would be suitable for me anyway. But look, there’s still some seaweed! Pass me a piece?”
“That’s very reasonable of you,” Verity said through chattering teeth. She didn’t really mind the cold, but freezing and wet with no way to get dry was another matter.
“I’m a down to earth sort of dragon,” he replied. “Allow me.” He blew a soft steady flame and she grew warmer.
“That’s better,” she said. “Thanks.”
“I think we should get you back to the shore and you should go into your house with the other people.” He sighed, and the warming flame fluttered. “Shame about the song though.”
“What will you do now?” she asked, as he very carefully closed his talons around her, a terrifying process for most people, but she found she trusted his good intentions and thanks to her curse, her trust was seldom misplaced.
“Find Casimir,” he said. “He’s probably in the valley where I left him, working on new material. I can give you a lift if you like. I’m plenty strong enough now!”
“That would be very kind of you,” she said, climbing up behind his ears. “Thanks for helping my aunt, even if she didn’t keep her end of the bargain.”
“Don’t mention it,” he said politely, though he still sounded disappointed. “Hold tight,” he added, and she felt the muscles of his haunches bunch as he made one long leap for the shore, after which his wings helped them soar over the darkened sea to a hidden place, away from the docks, somewhat behind Erotica’s house, keeping out of sight from the crew of the burning ship, who had begun trudging up to the house.
“Ta again,” she told the dragon in a whisper as he set her down. “I can make it from here.”
He inclined his head slightly before taking another long flying leap and disappearing into the night. She hurried through the back door of the house, and through the kitchen and into the back of Erotica’s office.
Only the beaded curtain separated it from the parlor, where a heated but friendly discussion was taking place. Amazingly, Captain Lewis was saying, “Captain Marquette, we could give you passage back to Queenston. Only if you give up claim to our ship and to Madame Erotica’s establishment. And relinquish our personal property, such as that old props chest your men took from my cabin.”
“Of course,” the other captain said in a rich, melodious voice. Verity hoped Captain Lewis wasn’t falling for it. She couldn’t imagine what had made him offer until, peeking through the curtains, she saw Erotica offering more no-doubt love potion-laced drinks to the crews, who appeared to be still extremely chummy. The sailors were sharing stories and trying to impress each other while the employees acted as barmaids.
The pirates were still in charge, but at least the vials of love potion had stopped the fighting. The stuff could be more useful than Verity had imagined, so while the ladies entertained the newcomers, Verity put a pot on to boil and with the dubious assistance of the ghost cats, followed her aunt’s recipe, concocting another batch of the brew, adding it to the liquor with which the pirates were plied during the primrose ceremony.
When they had all been sated and were sleeping, tied to the posts of the beds “So they’ll think they had fun they can’t even recall,” Fiona said, the staff relieved them of their weapons. Captain Fontaine was more resistant to the love potion, but even he was mellowed by it, and quite fatigued after his exertions, so his brace of pistols, cutlass and the deeds were removed from his clothing as well, as soon as he slept.
Erotica kept the pistols, but sold the other weapons and the chest back to Captain Lewis, after subtracting a commission from the chest.
So much for returning to Queenston on the Belle. Erotica hadn’t mentioned it, but apparently the love potion made for loose lips. Verity had no desire to finish her voyage on the Belle with a crew of pirates as passengers. She grabbed her pack and slipped up the back stairs. She didn’t have a suitable men’s ensemble to change into, but she had an idea. Poking around the rooms where the women plied their trade, she found one with a still-sleeping customer in the bed, his clothing laid out on a chair. It wasn’t terribly clean, and it stank a bit, but it was dry, and the double-breasted jacket would help her stay warm. Her borrowed oilskins were still on the Belle. Snatching the clothing, she slipped into an empty room and exchanged her wet clothes for his smelly ones.
Then it was back into the night and up the hill to the trail where she’d last seen Clodagh. She saw no sign of the mud witch or Kiln, but she did see the silhouette of a larger dragon.
Devent grinned a somewhat alarming grin and said, “Hello! I was hoping you’d change your mind and decide to join me. Do you want to hear a song?”
Chapter 14: Verity and Devent Off-Road Trip
They walked along companionably enough, considering that the dragon was multiple tail lengths ahead of her. This disparity in strides made talking difficult for her since even with her longer
-than-average-for-a-girl legs, she couldn’t keep up with his hops.
“I don’t suppose you brought a map or a compass or anything like that?” she asked, and immediately felt silly since she knew dragons didn’t bother with such items, even if they knew what they were.
“No, but a friend of mine and I stopped at a ruined castle on a high prominence, where I heard the siren’s song. If we keep walking the ridges, we’re sure to come upon it again.”
Verity thought it a splendid idea. The stormy night had given way to a day calm and bright, the sun warm, and the view clear. After the freezing wet perch on the rocks in a storm in the dark, it felt wonderful to walk on the high mountain ridges and see so much land before her, instead of only the sea.
When a mountain sheep appeared on the opposite ridge, Devent decisively flapped his wings and hopped, flew. and pounced like a cat on the hapless animal.
Verity hadn’t realized quite how hungry she was until she smelled the cooking meat. She would have preferred not to smell the innards roasting. She knew that proper hunters removed some of the organs, but she wasn’t sure which ones, so she took slices that still had singed hair attached and ate around it.
Water was no problem. Melted snow pools were plentiful. Animals sloshed out of them and bounded away.
At night they sang. Verity felt an unaccustomed freedom traveling with Devent, because who was going to attack them? Devent was quite a well-grown dragon, with a strong voice and strengthening wings. Though Verity’s feet were tired, her spirits were high going into their fourth night on the road.
Devent made a fire and they sat by it singing, their bellies full of another mountain sheep he had dispatched before the stars came out.
They sang together, and she felt they were becoming very good friends, better friends than she had ever been with a dragon—perhaps better friends than she had been with anyone. Dragons didn’t judge. They seemed to demonstrate their estimation of your value by not eating you.
The ghost cats flickered in and out, sleeping on Devent’s back or in the curl of his quite warm belly. Sometimes they disappeared altogether, and she wondered if they were visiting their fellows who now traveled with Clodagh, wherever she might be.
Verity tried teaching Devent some songs she knew that she thought might be suitable for his voice.
They talked as if they were two human friends or, as it probably seemed to Devent, two dragon friends. Devent had never known a human female before, much less a queen, as it turned out Verity was.
She was much more interested than he expected anyone to be in the life of a mine dragon, in his work and Auld Smelt’s.
For Verity’s part, she found Devent’s stories fascinating. The contrast between his life before freedom and the lives of the Dragon Vitia and her young, as well as that Auld Smelt had described to the younger dragon of life as a warrior dragon, were compelling. With Devent’s enthusiastic approval, she recorded the conversation in a shell.
The young dragon listened particularly closely when Verity described what it had been like living with the wild dragons. “That must have been wonderful!” Devent said, his eyes almost whirling in their sockets with awe.
“It was frightening at first,” she said. “But once I figured out I was a nursemaid rather than a menu item, it was better.”
“You were frightened?” Devent asked skeptically. “Of dragons?”
“I don’t suppose you’ve ever looked in a mirror?” she asked.
“Am I scary-looking? Really?” He sounded thrilled. “The miners never seemed afraid of me. Nor the other dragons. Nor—anyone, really.”
“Yes, but your actions were very limited then, weren’t they? They were in control and now they’re not. Nobody knows what to expect from you now, and you are very large and breathe fire in addition to having rather large fangs and claws. You can see how people might be wary.”
“I suppose so. But you needn’t be afraid of me, Miss—or is it Milady? I’ll protect you, since I am apparently so fierce. Ferocity should be used to protect others, don’t you think?”
“I think you have a very good attitude about the whole thing. And ‘Verity’ will do nicely, thanks.”
“I get the impression from Smelt’s songs that dragons used to be guardians before the war.”
“Your friend sounds like a very fine dragon. I recall meeting a dragon who fired a smelter when I visited the mines with my father. He was highly thought of back then, I seem to recall.”
“Yes, he was.”
Devent thought, It’s a shame he’s sleeping now. He still remembers a lot from the olden days and might be able to help you with your magic-restoration work.
Devent imagined Smelt dreaming of old times as he snuggled his scales into his hoard of old armor. The thought made him lonely for his old friend. Diverting as his human companion could be, she was no dragon and he did not know her nearly as well or for as long as he had known Smelt, who was the closest he had to family.
The mountaintops and sea cliffs they traversed were often smothered with fog. Ghost cats threaded in and out of it in a constant game of hide-and-seek. Along the sea cliffs Verity had to constantly watch her footing for fear of tumbling off onto the rocks, but Devent periodically flamed a little to cut through the murk and that helped. The trip was long and wet and cold. but Verity, having been so recently at sea, considered it a minor nuisance.
“I can see why we have no active volcanoes here,” she said. “They’d get rained to smoldering piles of ash in no time in this kind of weather.” Then she explained what a volcano was.
Devent judged they still had some distance to go before they reached Smelt’s castle ruins, However, his hops had become increasingly flight-like and Verity’s legs were long and her pace fast. And suddenly, a familiar aged face loomed before them, the rest of Smelt shrouded in fog until he flicked some of it aside with the twitch of a wing.
“What are you doing up?” Devent asked. “I thought you were napping.”
“Yes, well, I couldn’t sleep. Too quiet. And that is a very lumpy hoard I was left with. Gold and jewels are much softer. What with everything, I seem to have developed insomnia.”
Verity stepped forward and said, “Hello, Elder Smelt. I’m Verity Brown. Devent has been telling me a couple of the stories you told him. I think you might be able to help me with my quest.”
The older dragon grunted, then stopped and turned to Devent, “She speaks Dragonish?”
Verity nodded, and Devent followed suit.
“A word, Devent?”
The older dragon walked, with a slight limp, a few paces away.
“You didn’t tell her about my hoard, did you?”
“Not as such, no.”
“What does that mean?”
“I told her you’d gone to hibernate in your lair, but I don’t really recall if I specifically mentioned the hoard or not. You just did, though. It—forgive me, old friend, but the hoard didn’t look like something val—something humans would value anyway. And she doesn’t seem like the kind of girl…”
“How many human girls have you met, exactly?”
“Well, only her, but how different can they be from the men we worked beside? They’re the same species, right?”
“How many female dragons have you met?”
“There was my mother…”
Smelt hrrumphed and sizzled around the nostrils. “They are different.”
“Better? Like my mother?”
“So different I could not say if they are better or worse or if they are different from each other. But certainly they are different from males, in any species.”
Devent hung his head. “I didn’t know.”
An ashy huff blackened the air momentarily, then Smelt said. “Of course not. You’re naught but a wee lad. I can see I was shirking my duty trying to retire now. Two dragons awake are harder to feed than one, it’s true, especially with the human along. You have no way of knowing but as princesses go, that one is hardly dain
ty.”
“I heard that,” Verity said. “Technically, I’m a queen of Frost Giant heritage, and I like to think as Frost Giants go, I’m dainty indeed.”
The old dragon blew sparks of laughter. “A dainty Frost Giant! Good one, big girl!”
Verity scowled. She didn’t especially like references to her size, even from those of a different species. “I have a name, you know. I am Verity Brown.”
“Brown?” Smelt asked. “Like the famous witch Maggie Brown, friend of Grizel and Grimley? They were ancestors of mine.”
“Maggie Brown was an ancestress of mine,” she said, seizing the conversational opportunity. “I hope you will tell me more about your family and dragons before and during the Great War. You lot live to be a lot older than humans, and I’m looking for some people whose ancestors you might have known.”
“Who were these ancestors? How might I have known them?”
She explained about the cave where the wizards were murdered and showed the dragons some of the magic beads from Vitia’s hoard.
But as they talked they walked, so by sunset they had descended from the mountain ridge and were back in the valley. While Verity explained her mission to Smelt, his belly rumbled. He wouldn’t have been hungry if he’d been hibernating but with wakening came appetite. Devent hopped back up over the mountains. The ghost cats had reappeared and were shimmering in a ghost-catly moonlit way around Verity when he returned. Smelt seemed very impressed by them.
“Here’s some seaweed to eat until we find more game,” Devent said.
“To tide me over, so to speak?” the old dragon said with a fangy grin and a raised eye ridge. To Verity, he said, “Great ones for joking like that were my grandparents.”
Devent said he’d already eaten his share of the seaweed before he hopped back across the mountains and bade Smelt to eat his fill of the ruffly, salty and vaguely slimy green mass. “The mermaiden, Aunt Eulalia, assures me that sea serpents find this very sustaining.”
The Redundant Dragons Page 15