Moroda (World of Linaria)

by L. L. McNeil

  ‘Why would they chase you? It isn’t against the law to have your own airship, surely?’ Moroda questioned.

  ‘No…but in owning one and flying one you have to pay for the thing, you have to get it maintained, especially if you take on passengers. You have to pay air tax. The Imperial Guard take it pretty seriously. A few petty thefts on your record and they shoot at you as soon as they spot you in the sky.’

  Moroda had nothing to say in response, but her stomach turned at the thought of the ship coming under fire from the Imperial fleet.

  ‘But, Khanna’s plenty fast enough to get out of trouble. So don’t you feel bad about me.’ Amarah grinned.

  ‘Dragons,’ Palom called out from further along the deck.

  Moroda got to her feet and hurried over to him, looking skywards all the while. Raising one hand to shield her eyes from the sun, Moroda soon spotted several dark shapes circling several leagues above them.

  The sight brought a smile to her face, not the grimace found upon her companions. It was nostalgia more than anything—the sight of dragons circling high above, lazily drifting on the wind was a common sight to Niversai, or at least it used to be when she was a child. Bar the dragon that had attacked Niversai, she’d not seen one for a few years. From everything Palom and Anahrik had said, they were still common in the Ittallan homeland.

  These dragons were too far away to make out their features, but when the sun caught their scales, Moroda caught glimpses of rusty red-orange, pale yellowish-gold and mottled brown. As her gaze broadened, trying to count them, more and more seemed to appear: their wings spread wide, catching the warm thermals to keep their vast forms aloft. She had counted twenty seven before the wind gently pushed them away, towards the east.

  ‘Probably going to Val Sharis,’ Palom said, his arms folded and eyes narrowed as he scowled up at the sky. ‘Better there than on us. This ship struggled with one dragon, what in Rhea’s name would we do against whole tribe?’

  ‘Khanna would be fine, stop complaining.’ Amarah said, watching as the dragons allowed the wind to carry them away from the ship.

  ‘I don’t think all dragons are like that young drake,’ Moroda said, still trying to keep the dragons in sight as they drifted farther and farther away. ‘I’ve seen hundreds of dragons over the years— that was the only one to have behaved in that way. Even Topeko said he was under compulsion. The Arillians must not have crossed the sea yet. We’re safe.’

  Palom did not respond, and instead kept his gaze fixed on the sky above. Clouds were beginning to drift closer together and thicken. ‘Best get under cover,’ he said, eyeing the rolling clouds as the wind picked up.

  Moroda made her way back to the covered area by Amarah. They had encountered rains and wind on their journey so far, but thanks to the scouting eyes of Anahrik and Kohl, along with Amarah’s knowledge of the skies, they had never been caught in a storm.

  Moroda picked up her book again, and continued to read.

  Perhaps there was something in understanding compulsion that could be used to fight against it, or free those trapped within it. There was little else she could do of use during their flight other than read and practice, and practicing sapped her strength and left her exhausted after only a few minutes.

  “If you escape the Heart-Eater, he will be angry. He will call you names. He will lash out at you. He will attempt to hurt you overtly, now his cover is blown.

  In the same breath, he will seduce his next victim with lies, with deceit, with pretend pain. He will not speak of the terrors he inflicted on you. He will not tell anyone of the ugly truth of what he is because his reputation is built on portraying himself as the victim, drawing in his quarry closer, until they cannot escape, and he can feast.”

  Moroda sighed, shivering a little in the cool air, heart heavy at the words on the page. ‘You’ve lost your light-step,” Palom commented. “Not the right word, I think… but... you look now like you carry the pain of the world in your heart. This should not be the case, Moroda.’

  Moroda laughed at his jest. She knew he was concerned, and felt embarrassed. ‘Don’t be silly, Palom,’ she brushed it off. ‘I’m tired studying Topeko’s books, that’s all. They’re quite draining!’

  ‘I know. You have spent whole flight reading and practicing. You should rest—even I cannot spend more than a few hours in my true form, and that is most natural of all things to me.’

  ‘You’re right, I’ve been working too hard, I’ll—’

  ‘Moroda?’

  She had been hit by a wave of something not unlike water, but not quite as tangible. Goosebumps rose on her arms and legs as she faced the source, peering out into the cloudy sky and the sea which raged below. Thunder rolled out low and slow in the distance. ‘A storm?’

  ‘Something more than that,’ Morgen said, joining the two of them. Eryn trailed behind him, her eyes wide. ‘It’s too much too quick. Arillians again, I’ll wager.’

  Moroda shivered as she felt the wave of energy pulse again, the air thick around her as it touched her skin. ‘Better tell Amarah,’ she murmured, staring into the distance. ‘Is it him…?’

  It did not take long for the rain to fall, and when it came, it was relentless. The wind, which had been nothing more than a calm, cool breeze for most of the day, turned vicious, picking up and buffeting those on deck. It caught the rain and threw it into their faces like a thousand tiny needles as thunder echoed off the waves in the distance.

  ‘What the hell is going on,’ Amarah said, angrily wiping rainwater off her face and trying to peer into the darkening sky. ‘Whoever heard of rain rolling round that fast and that heavy?’

  Khanna trembled in the wind, and the low lighting in the cabin and out on deck was snuffed out in an instant, plunging the airship and her crew into darkness.

  Moroda wrapped her thick cloak around herself, trying to keep the biting wind out as she stood up. ‘It’s daytime. Why is it so dark? Are Arillian storms that strong? Is this what Anahrik meant when he spoke of them before?’

  ‘This ain’t right. This definitely ain’t right,’ Amarah said, opening her sails and wings fully, her right hand hovering over Khanna’s weapons. Her eyes darted all around, looking for the hidden enemy.

  Morgen drew his sword and stared at the skies above, his grip tight despite his sweaty palms. ‘Palom, what do you think?’

  ‘Arillians,’ the Ittallan muttered, all warmth gone from his tone. ‘Kohl is coming in, look above.’

  Rain continued to fall as Kohl landed, and another roll of thunder echoed from afar, louder than before. ‘It’s another scouting party, on an airship,’ he said, holding his hat down in the wind as it picked up around him. ‘Amarah, if we change course, they won’t see us. It’s too dark and the storms they’ve brought with them have reduced visibility. No need to get involved.’

  ‘But they’re crossing the sea, too, aren’t they?’ Moroda asked. ‘We’ll just run into them again when we reach Val Sharis…even if we get there before them, it won’t be long before they start attacking the cities! Doing what they did in Niversai?’

  ‘Amarah, this ship has weapons, does it not?’ Palom turned to their captain.

  ‘How many Arillians are there? If it’s one or two, maybe we can pick them off in a sneak attack,’ Amarah replied, raising the altitude of Khanna.

  ‘I’m not afraid to fight them,’ Palom replied.

  ‘Good, go and fight them, then. I’m not risking my ship a second time. Kohl, is it a warship they’re on?’

  ‘It… may be.’

  ‘There you are. Khanna has no chance. I’d rather fly away and avoid any chance of a fight, to be honest.’

  ‘Kohl, what do you know about this?’ Palom rounded on the Arillian.

  Kohl walked away, further out onto the deck, where the full assault of wind and water besieged him. ‘Flight may be preferable to fighting in this instance. Everyone should get below deck while Amarah steers the ship away.’

  The words cause
d Palom to growl. Moroda knew he had been distrustful of the Arillian as Morgen had told her and Eryn. It seemed Palom he did not approve of the knowledge Kohl held of the enemy—knowledge he seldom shared with the group.

  ‘I’m not going below,’ Palom replied, defiant. ‘I do not run from a threat, not these damned Arillians. I want to see what I’m up against.’

  ‘The weather will only get worse as we get closer. Visibility, whatever we have of it, will be reduced to almost nothing.’

  ‘Amarah can’t go below deck. I can be her eyes at the front. And I want to see what your colleagues are up to.’

  ‘Colleagues?’

  ‘You’re all family aren’t you? You know a great deal about them. I need to see for myself what you’re up to—you’re not going below, are you?’

  ‘What exactly are you accusing me of? If it weren’t for me, you’d all have been captured by those scouts back in Corhaven!’

  ‘Palom! Kohl! Please!’ Moroda cried, rushing over to them, one arm pressed against her cheeks to keep the wind and rain out of her eyes.

  Palom’s hands had balled into fists at the prospect of the fight, and Kohl Kohl responded by flexing the lower feathers on his wings.

  ‘We may have a very real fight on our hands, please don’t fight one other,’ Moroda tried, pulling at Palom’s arm, but she had no chance to say anything else to quell the fighting; a flash of lightning ripped through the darkening sky, bringing with it a shockwave that shook Khanna and brought everyone on deck to their knees.

  The wind picked up again and slammed into Khanna, dropping the ship’s altitude and throwing it towards the sea.

  ‘Good thing we can fly! I would not want to be a sea vessel in those waters,’ Morgen said, holding onto the side of the ship tightly as he peered over the edge. Moroda knew he did not wish to break up a scuffle between Palom and Kohl, and silently thanked him for his distraction.

  Amarah scoffed. She knew better than to fly too low and risk her lower propellers or sails getting waterlogged. But if she flew any higher, she risked losing all her sails to the vicious winds.

  The wind continued to buffet Khanna, the sea writhed under its influence, and Kohl watched as maelstrom began to form off the port side. ‘Amarah—get a little higher! We might be pulled in!’

  Palom, too, had seen the developing vortex, and watched as it grew larger, its downdraft strong. ‘Another one!’ he said, as a second vortex began to form on the ship’s other side.

  ‘It’s Jato,’ Kohl spat, watching the first maelstrom grow in both size and power. ‘She’s the only one able to create a storm like this.’

  ‘Jato?’ Palom asked.

  ‘One of Aciel’s generals. His second-in-command, in fact,’ Kohl said, stepping away from the sides of Khanna and shaking his head. ‘It means Aciel himself is likely to be with her.’

  Palom followed the Arillian’s movements, but it did not detract from the anger he felt. ‘When this is over, you’re going to tell us everything you know about Aciel and his followers. If we had known he had this person to create this storm, we’d not have come this way!’ Fangs began to grow in his mouth as Palom’s fury took over, his body transforming involuntarily.

  ‘Don’t you dare attack me, Ittallan,’ Kohl retorted, trying to keep one eye on the sky and one eye on the tiger beginning to appear in front of him.

  Palom’s response was inaudible as he completed his transformation, fur bristling and fangs bared towards Kohl.

  ‘Kohl, do they even know we’re here? Or are they just creating this weather for a damned laugh?’ Amarah called to the Arillian, ignoring the tiger taking up most of her deck.

  ‘It… is not completely foolhardy to suggest Jato is causing this for the pleasure of it. I suspect a storm as large as this would be seen from the coast of Val Sharis—it would be just like her to announce her arrival on the new continent with such a display of strength. Or perhaps there are other trading ships crossing the sea, and they’re her intended target; Khanna is simply caught up in the size of her attack. It seems a lot of trouble to go to for just one, lone ship, especially one as small as Khanna,’ Kohl said. ‘Whether it’s a direct attack on us or not, Jato’s storm is not something to be caught in. I can’t say for certain whether Khanna will come out completely unscathed, but there’s a good chance she will, if we are not her target.’

  Thunder continued to rumble, drowning out Palom’s roars, and yet Kohl had not seen anything in the sky since the pack of dragons from earlier. Still, he was on edge, kept in an anxious state of fight or flight.

  ‘Well? Kohl?’ Amarah asked again, forcing Khanna to stay under her control as she was buffeted about by the winds.

  Kohl relaxed his stance, and to his delight, Palom relaxed also. ‘You may be right, Amarah. We should lie low. Wait it out.’

  ‘Hah. Stealth is my specialty,’ she replied. ‘Palom snap out of it. Need you alert without Anahrik’s eyes. Dragons above, where has that falcon gone?’

  Though Palom was unable to speak in his true form, Moroda knew he could understand others well enough. He prowled the deck of the ship, peering intensely over the side into the darkness with his more sensitive vision. He remained there for a long moment before relenting.

  When he transformed again, he remained on one knee, shaking slightly from having exerted so much energy for no good reason. ‘I could see them, in the distance,’ he said, once he had his breath back. ‘An Arillian with black wings, stood on big merchant ship. Few leagues ahead of us. She…the Arillian had raised her hands. I saw two water cyclones in the sea, moving at her will. There were others stood with her.’

  ‘It seems she wants to make an entrance to Val Sharis. If she’s focussing on that, she’ll be too busy to notice us,’ Kohl explained. ‘But we came close.’

  Moroda felt a sudden chill as Sapora slunk into view, having emerged from his cabin below deck. Eryn grabbed her hand when she noticed his arrival, and Moroda squeezed her sister’s fingers in response.

  ‘I think you are missing a most valuable opportunity, my sky thief,’ he said, joining the rest of the party. ‘An opportunity to obtain something most valuable and precious.’

  Amarah huffed.

  ‘I thought you pirates were always on the lookout for treasure?’

  ‘Sapora, what are you on about?’

  ‘The Arillians are hunting dragons, no? To steal their power for themselves? Their power has grown quickly. They have a way to track down the dragons. A way that we could use…’

  ‘An ereven sphere?’ Moroda asked, catching on. She reached into her pocket and took out the sphere Andel had given her in Berel. Everything clicked into place at once—she had been too fascinated by magic to realise he had fulfilled her exact request of finding a dragon.

  ‘Very astute,’ Sapora grinned, baring his pointed teeth.

  ‘But…this one…is an ornament?’ Moroda breathed.

  Amarah glanced up. ‘Stole a bagful of those when I left Ranski. The Goldstones in Corhaven love them. Sold them four crowns a piece.’

  Moroda glanced up as Amarah spoke, then back to the sphere. It was an ornament, true, and a valuable one. But it was an imitation of the real thing. A real way of tracking down a dragon using the tail feather of a phoenix; creatures which nested near dragon lairs and followed dragons through their territory, keen for flame and ash. Her heart raced as it sunk in.

  ‘They will be crossing the sea, looking for more powerful dragons. We’ve discovered their method of hunting them down. Stealing the real sphere from them would have two benefits—they would no longer be able to find the dragons, and we would have the means to,’ Sapora said. ‘Now. If only we knew someone who was good at stealing valuables…’

  To her side, Palom growled, but said nothing, and Moroda felt he was right to be hesitant.

  ‘I don’t steal from people who usually fight back,’ Amarah laughed, dismissing the idea at once.

  ‘Well, they won’t fight back if I come along, too,’ Sapo
ra continued, his smile broadening.

  ‘I don’t want you to kill anyone!’ Moroda said, her throat tightening that the thought. She had been halfway to thinking his plan was a good one, considering they had no other options, but his delight in causing death and destruction made her reconsider.

  Amarah narrowed her eyes and mulled over the idea for a few, long moments. ‘If they found us, they’d kill us, you know that, don’t you?’

  Moroda lowered her gaze, half-distracted by the wave of power emanating from the Arillian’s ship. The thunder did not relent, and with every roll, she felt herself getting dizzier.

  ‘Stealing the sphere will make Aciel lose his edge—he certainly won’t be able to add to his power—but it’ll turn his attention onto Khanna,’ Amarah continued, one hand on her hip. ‘But we’ve got the cover of darkness, of the brewing storm, and Khanna at full speed.’

  Moroda could tell Amarah was convinced already. Anything else she said was an act to save face in agreeing with Sapora.

  ‘I’ll ensure their attention is not on Khanna,’ Sapora pressed.

  ‘Amarah, this is not good idea. This is too much risk. There will be other ereven spheres in Val Sharis, I am sure. We can buy one there,’ Palom said.

  ‘Yes, buying… that’ll cost a few crowns though, a real one will. Or there’s this one right here,’ Amarah replied. ‘And it takes away the enemy’s eyes.’

  Sapora’s grin grew until Moroda was sure his face would split in two, and she shivered, shaking her head and looking away from him. She knew what Amarah’s decision was, and she didn’t know what game Sapora was playing, but his happiness made her uncomfortable.