“I am your family, Lila,” the warm voice of Crux against my mind, and with a fierce rush of belonging. My steps followed that warmth out, parallel to the harbor where I heard the rising sound of voices, and smelled fire.
Above the harbor, a small path rose to the low hill that served as a lookout across the reef beyond. To my surprise, I saw that it was busy, and that a bonfire had been lit. There was a crowd of Raiders – mostly the younger ones, but also some older, sea-grizzled sailors standing to the edges of the firelight.
And then there was Crux. He sat on hunched legs with wings folded, regarding the humans around the fire. Every now and again, one of the younger ones would dare to approach him, throwing a hank of mutton or fish at the dragon, for him to catch in the air with a quick dart of his head.
“What’s going on here?” I found myself smiling at the sight, despite my difficult emotions.
“It was Danu’s idea, Lila.” It was fierce Senga who said it, her hair braided into knots as she passed me a flagon of watered-down ale. “He said that the Raiders should welcome the dragon, get to know him a little.”
“Oh, he did, did he?” I felt a flash of annoyance. Why did the fish-boy think that he had a right to tell me what to do with my own dragon?
“Not yours, Lila. A dragon isn’t anyone’s but himself’s,” the dragon croaked in my mind. “But the boy was right.”
Oh, was he now? I thought a little glumly. It seemed that I have even managed to get being a dragon-friend wrong. I narrowed my gaze at Danu near the bonfire, trying to encourage some of the younger Raiders to approach Crux.
“No, I don’t think so,” one of the Raider mothers said, calling the little black-haired child closer and away from the adept.
“Danu?” I strode up to him. “Care to explain what you are doing?”
He looked at me with a nervous grin. “Lila! Thank goodness you are here. Maybe the others will see that Crux isn’t a threat now. You can show them how you ride him?”
“Excuse me?” I said in alarm. Who viewed Crux as a threat?
“I AM a threat, Lila wave-rider.” Crux yawned behind me, stretching out his head to lay on the grass at my side, his dark and bright scales shining in the firelight.
“You are great and powerful,” I said, leaning over to sit with my back against his neck. There was an appreciative gasp of wonder from the crowd at the sight, although to me, it just felt like a natural thing to do. Danu joined me, sitting facing me rather than against the dragon itself. Maybe he was the one who was scared of the dragon, I thought wryly.
“While you were gone,” the young-looking adept said in a hushed tone, “I was at the docks. Your father has been re-provisioning the ships, and I had a chance to walk around. Some of the older sailors say that they were unhappy about having a dragon make a home on their island.” Danu kept his voice low, and between the crackle of the fire at his back, and the soft murmuring breath of the dragon behind me, I don’t think anyone could hear.
“Who said that?” I asked quickly. “Couldn’t they see that Crux wasn’t a danger to us?”
“I am always a danger. To everyone,” Crux said in his lazy snooze, sending a slight tremor down my spine. Even to me? I wondered for a moment, before discarding that thought.
“I don’t know. But it was the older Raiders. They said it was unnatural. And that Raiders weren’t meant to be friends with dragons,” Danu explained, his eyes wide and serious. “So, I tried my best. I remembered from the scrolls that they used to use bonfires to call dragons in the ancient times. I thought that perhaps we could have a celebration of the dragon rather than fearing it.”
Damn. It was a good idea, I had to concede to him. “Thank you,” I said, even though Danu’s words had only made me feel even more at odds with the rest of the Raiders than before. How could they not look on Crux with the same wonder and admiration that I did?
“The younger ones get it. They’re still scared, but they’re not”—Danu scrunched his features as he tried to find a kind way to say what he had to say.
“Spit it out, Danu,” I said.
“The older ones are mean to Crux. They call him monster, brute, terror,” Danu said in an even lower voice, but one of Crux’s ears twitched all the same. Given what the Phoenix dragon had been telling me, I rather thought that he might have enjoyed being called those things!
“Okay. I thank you again, Danu,” I said, suddenly aware of how much work we still had to do. I thought ‘we’ but then I realized I hadn’t actually intended to include Danu in this Dragon Mercenary scheme at all. And yet he had used what he had learnt on the Haunted Isle anyway, to try and bring the people and the dragon together. Pela was right. I owed him, and more than that, I needed his expertise.
“Okay, fish-boy,” I said heavily, not altogether happy with what I had to ask him. “You seem to know more about dragons than anyone else. Did you find all of this out on the Haunted Isle?”
“Sebol. It’s called Sebol,” Danu frowned momentarily, but he nodded. “Yes. They have the biggest collection of scrolls outside of the Dragon Academy itself. It is said that they were a part of a chain once, of Dragon Monks fleeing the time of the Dark King, spreading out across the islands. They reached the Dragon Isle where—”
“Where Queen Saffron was born,” I said. As if I didn’t know the tale by heart.
“No, not born there. She was born of a Torvald family, but was smuggled there,” Danu said, his face suddenly lighting up. “Hey, in fact, her story is a bit like yours, don’t you think? A missing girl, hidden in the islands, growing up to recover her birthright…”
Not like mine! I was about to say angrily, but I couldn’t. Because it was like my story, a little. I was a baby who had been left for dead, and raised by those who weren’t her parents. So was Saffron, kind of. Maybe I had more in common with her than I thought. She was still an islands’ girl, just as I was, and she still raised the Western Dragons to her side…
Just like Crux had rallied to mine.
“Of course.” Crux thumped his heavy tail in the darkness, as if this was something that I should have realized already, and shouldn’t question.
“Thank you,” I said in a quieter tone to the dragon and Danu both. I felt a very tentative sort of hope. Even though my previous life had been shattered, and my mother – Pela now – had told me the truth of my birth. There was still hope for me. I could walk the path that Saffron had walked.
“You walk your own path, Lila wave-rider, air-rider. Never anyone else’s!” Crux raised his snout to look at me with his great gold-green eyes, and I nodded.
“Yes, Crux. You are right.” I patted his scales, finding them radiating warmth. I wondered for a moment what all of this must look like to the other raiders beyond us, whether they would think that I was bewitched, or whether they would take this as a sign that the Raiders had friends in draconian form.
“Well, anyway, the fleeing monks reached out to the mystics and witches that already lived here. The Witches’ School of Sebol has been around for centuries you see, and Chabon agreed to guard what knowledge she could of theirs, as the Dark King destroyed all that was left in the Empire of Torvald. That is how come I know so much about dragons,” he said, although his eyes slid aside as he said that last part.
“And the prophecy?” I swallowed nervously. A Raider keeps her word.
“A girl will rise from the waters, with the Sea Crown on her head…” Danu intoned, as if he had memorized it by heart. “That’s you, Lila.”
I didn’t doubt it anymore. Pela had told me that I had come from the sacked ship, and I had the scrap of royal cloth to prove it. “So, does that mean I have to get the Sea Crown? That I will get the Sea Crown? That I should?” I asked.
Danu opened and closed his mouth, and his eyes did that thing where they slid away once again, before returning to mine. Is he hiding something? I thought.
“The heir to the throne of Roskilde was lost, presumed killed at sea by a group of Raiders so
me seventeen years ago, and Havick rose to power,” he said, placing his words carefully.
“My father,” I said. “He was paid to perform many raids at that time.”
Danu frowned. “Really? By who?”
I shrugged uselessly. “Pela doesn’t know, exactly, and I don’t think Kasian does either. Money is money, as they say.” I thought about my father’s often harsh humor about the Roskildeans. “The Sea Raiders have always been on the receiving end of Roskilde ‘justice’ even though we don’t recognize their sovereignty. I’m not sure that, back then anyway, they cared where the money to capture and raid Roskilde ships came from.”
“But it makes sense. If Havick sent someone with money to give to Kasian for raids, Havick could pretend that it was the Raiders who had killed you and your real mother and father.” Danu nodded. “But what matters to us is that somehow, despite the fact that Havick told everyone that Raiders killed your real parents – he still emerged with the Sea Crown on his head! Why did he have it, after their deaths? Why didn’t Chief Kasian take it if he was supposed to have killed the king of Roskilde?”
“You’re right,” I said. “And I think that even Father would’ve remembered killing a king. It would be a story worthy to sing for generations, don’t you think?” I smiled sadly.
Danu nodded as I carried on.
“So Havick has the Sea Crown, but the prophecy says that I rise from the waters with it?” I said, cautious. “Is that it?”
“Well, there is more as well…” Danu said, a touch indignantly.
“Go on.”
“We need to tread carefully, Lila. Prophecies are dangerous things. If I tell you a bit that you’re not supposed to know, it might not come true, or the wrong part might come true, or something else might happen altogether!” Danu said with wide eyes.
“How do you know you haven’t already told me a bit I’m not supposed to know? And besides, forewarned is forearmed, as my foster-father says.” Why was he hiding the rest of the prophecy from me? What good would that do?
“Not in the case of prophecies. You’ll just have to trust me, Lila, I am the adept here,” he said.
“Uh-huh,” I grumbled. He had been right about trying to get the rest of the Raiders to like Crux, I reminded myself. Maybe he was right about this as well. “Well, for now I think I am going to bed,” I said to Danu, gathering my cloak around me. “Have you got somewhere to sleep?”
“Oh, I uh… No.” Danu looked suddenly small and self-conscious. “I was thinking of staying out here, with Crux. Aren’t you heading back to your house?” he asked.
“No.” I tried to keep the resentment from my voice. I knew that I would still be welcome there, obviously, but I didn’t feel like sleeping in my old bed again. “I will stay here with Crux too. After all, I am the one who is bonded with him!” I added in a proud tone, hiding the hurt that I still felt at what my mother had said.
“Oh. Okay. Most of the other Raiders have gone now, anyway,” Danu said, and, when I raised my head over Crux’s neck I saw what he said was true. The lights of the harbor still glittered, and the sounds of the Raiders still singing or telling loud stories rippled over the water. Just like any other night in the Free Isles.
“Well, good night, Danu Geidt.” I inclined my head, curling up in my cloak under the crook of Crux’s chin.
“Good night, princess,” I heard him say in a softer tone, as I fell into a warm and deep sleep.
Chapter 19
Danu, lessons
Over the next few days, Malata was a hive of activity. It was different from my time at Sebol. Never before had I seen half sozzled men leap into a harbor with joyous whoops first thing to drive the sleep from their minds. Never had I experienced so many voices rising in shouts and arguments as when the night catch was brought up onto the harbor and divvied out between the various Raider families.
But all island life–whether on a pirates’ island or a witches’—had some similarities, it seemed. There was the business of fishing, the cleaning and beating of linens, the rekindling of cook fires. These were tasks that everyone knew and turned to as a matter of course – although the Raiders often did it with louder voices and laughter, whereas the witches usually regarded every task in solemn silence.
I found that, just like Sebol as well, there was no such thing as a useless body. After having a breakfast of rolls, cheese, and cured goat, I was quickly commandeered by one or another loud Raider to help haul in a net, hold a line, or lift boxes. On Sebol, most of the time everyone was busy studying or meditating, and so those of us who might be younger or more able bodied were often sent to perform the necessary tasks that kept the community running: cleaning, cooking, minor repairs.
I found a pleasing sort of numbness to this physical work. I didn’t have to worry about the prophecy all the time, but instead could laugh with the other Raiders at their workmanlike jokes, or groan when a line snapped, or a catch was poor.
I had discovered that the chief’s plan was to get the Ariel back in a shipshape state, and to send her out to scout for the three Havick galleons, and to tow the other Raider warships to just inside the reef, ready to move if danger was announced. There was an argument between he and Lila, right on the docks, when he also announced that he would be captaining the Ariel, and that she had to stay behind here on Malata – and not even serve as his first mate. I watched as the chief and his foster-daughter argued, feeling frozen. Should I say anything? Intervene in some way – and if I did – would that help or harm the prophecy? Would it set Lila on her rightful path, or encourage her against it?
I wondered why her father had made this sudden move. Was it because he feared what damage Crux might do to his beloved boat? Or that he just wanted her to be safe? I could tell from the way that Lila heard the news, that she had taken it as a personal rebuke as her father sailed off without her.
But we had our own problems, I reminded myself. The more time that we had to get the Raiders used to the dragon – perhaps to even learn how to ride a dragon – was better, in my opinion. And the longer I had to convince Lila to abandon her Dragon Raider schemes and take up the quest for the Sea Crown, the better, I thought. I was already pleased that she had started at least asking about it – and she had made the connection with Queen Saffron and her own story. Maybe I really could convince her that this was a nobler path than being a mercenary and dragon-born Raider!
With no ship to sail or mission to command, however, Lila threw herself into dragon lessons. We started in the late afternoon, as a lull in the work of the harbor gave both Lila and me some time to return up the path to the lookout hill, where Crux was making his home. “If we get enough people interested in Crux – and they can prove themselves not too stupid or careless around him,” Lila told me on the first morning, as we waited for the potential Dragon Mercenaries to arrive, “then we have a real shot at going back to the atoll and requesting that Sym allow her newts to train with us. I won’t just be asking her to trust me, a lone human, but the Sea Raiders.”
I could see how Lila wanted to impress the dragons with her dedication to their bond, but I wasn’t sure that the dragons would care what group or nation we called ourselves.
“Is this it?” I saw Lila’s crestfallen consideration of the others who had joined with us to learn the ways of dragons. There was Senga and Adair, and one other – a chubby boy named Tung. They were the only ones of the Sea Raiders who had taken any interest at all in learning more about dragons.
“But at least there are three, huh?” I saw Lila square her shoulders. “Three potential mercenaries, and three eggs…”
Above us rose a little cloud, thin and high, meaning strong winds but no threat of rain – yet. Below us was the harbor village of Malata, the tall governor’s house of Pela and Kasian, and the small speck of the Ariel as it headed north and west beyond the reefs. As I turned, I saw that Lila’s eyes lingered aboard the ship that she had been promised, with a look of fierce concentration.
&nbs
p; “Anyway,” she shook her head to herself, fixing her face into a tight smile. “From small beginnings, mighty things grow,” she said to the three youths there, and Senga and Adair whooped. “If the Phoenix agrees, then you will all take turns riding on his shoulders for a short turn around the island, to come back here and report to the rest of us how it was. Remember that this is something we have never done before, so we are all learning here. Anything you think helps – tell the rest!”
As I saw her take the other Raiders into her confidence, I was again reminded how naturally good she could be at leading, and at being a princess. Just like back on the boat – it wasn’t when she was commanding or thought that she should be leading, but rather when she was engaged, body, mind, and heart in something, that others warmed to her enthusiasm.
Not like Havick, I thought, watching as Lila approached Crux with the stack of blankets and rope that she wanted to fashion into some sort of saddle. Crux turned and sniffed at the material, one scaled lip curling a little, but he still laid his long neck low on the ground to accept her offering. He only growled once, when the rope that slipped around and under his forelegs to loop back to the blanket ties were tight.
“I’m sorry, my friend!” Lila immediately rushed to loosen where a rope had caught between muscle and shoulder blade, re-tightening over a slab of the dragon’s thick muscle.
Dragon Raider Page 13
