by Bianca D’Arc
“I ran into a set of dragon knights that Prince Trent had sent out from the capital. I gave the prisoners to them. Apparently, Prince Trent caught up to his group of cutthroats and easily captured them, then went directly to the capital, where the king and the Prince of Spies are questioning them,” Skelaroth reported. “He sent out sets of knights and dragons to meet up with the rest of us, to help, if possible. Looks like you took care of things while I was gone.” Skelaroth looked around, nodding approval at what he saw. “I assume that is Fisk. Where is the mage’s body?”
“See that smear of ash back there?” Rivka’s dragon side made her want to grin in triumph, but her human sensibilities warred with those killer instincts.
“Oh, well done, Lady Rivka. Well done,” Skelaroth enthused. “That almost makes me wish we sea dragons could flame like you land cousins. I bet it comes in handy for getting rid of trash.”
“You could say that,” Rivka agreed with a chuckle.
“And you took care of the pirate captain?” Skelaroth asked Liam directly.
Rivka thought Liam still looked a bit stunned. He hadn’t said anything since Fisk died. He’d just sat there beside the body, holding the sheaf of parchment and staring out over the cliff. She thought she understood at least part of his response. He’d spent so many years chasing this one goal, and now that it was complete, he probably felt a little rudderless.
“Is he all right?” Skelaroth asked Rivka privately as his gaze narrowed in concern on Liam.
“He will be,” Rivka answered back silently, speaking only to the sea dragon. “He just needs a little time.”
“I help Leem,” Ella put in, surprising Rivka.
She’d thought she was only talking to Skelaroth, but perhaps, this was another bit of the virkin’s magic, to be able to hear whenever someone spoke mind-to-mind. She’d have to ask Ella about it later. For now, she was concerned enough about Liam to let it slide.
Ella’s tail wrapped loosely around Liam’s neck as her head burrowed into his damp hair. She seemed to stroke his head a bit with her own as faint crooning sounds issued from her throat. She was healing him, Rivka realized. Even as he sat there, in the middle of the dusty road.
Liam felt…hollow.
He had won the battle. He’d finally killed Fisk and had his revenge, but it didn’t feel like he’d thought it would. He’d had his justice, but nothing would ever bring Olivia back. So much had changed. So much had been lost. Time. So much time had been lost to this quest. Time when he should have been enjoying the childhood of his daughter. That time was forever gone, now.
So much had changed. Livia had essentially grown up without him. Liam had a lot of regrets about the choice he’d made so long ago to seek vengeance to the exclusion of almost everything else. Fisk was dead, but what did Liam have to show for it?
“Got page,” Ella reminded him, making him wonder vaguely if she was listening to all his thoughts. “Important to all.”
Yes, he’d retrieved what looked like the page from the wizard’s book. That was important. But it had been secondary, in his mind, to getting Fisk. He’d done the right thing…possibly for the wrong reason. That didn’t sit well.
In fact, looking back now, nothing he’d done in the past decades sat well with him. Sure, he’d amassed a fighting fleet never before seen in the waters of Draconia. They’d come in handy recently when Fisk’s fleet attacked, but Liam hadn’t done it to protect his homeland. He’d done it to hunt Fisk.
That bastard—dead bastard, now—had been the driving force behind all of Liam’s work these past many years. Now that Fisk was dead, what would guide Liam’s actions? He didn’t know. He didn’t know himself, anymore, either.
“Liam?” Rivka’s voice came to him as if from a distance, though she was standing close by. He looked up at her, unable to speak. “Liam, I’m going to go through Fisk’s possessions and put them aside. Then, Skelaroth advises turning him to ash so all possibility of magical intervention is put to an end.”
Burn him? Liam blinked. “A wise precaution,” he said, his voice sounding strange to his own ears. “Let’s search him thoroughly, first.”
And, in the blink of an eye, he was able to function again. Heavy thoughts followed him, of course, but they didn’t incapacitate him any longer. He would think about everything later. At length, he was sure. One didn’t just have his life’s work come to fruition and think nothing more of it. For one thing, Liam had to figure out where to go from this point.
He knew his next few moves, but beyond that, all was a mystery…for the first time in many, many long years. He would clean up here then return the page to the wizard, but after that, Liam was free to choose his next steps as he hadn’t been free since his wife’s death. If he thought about that too hard, it made him apprehensive, so he pushed thoughts of the uncertain future away for the time being while he and Rivka went through Fisk’s pockets.
Rivka removed Fisk’s outer clothes, putting them in a pile to one side. When Liam sent her a questioning glance, she shrugged. “Men have been known to secret items in the hems of their clothing. I’d rather not burn everything, so we can go through it—or better yet, have an expert look at these things—down the road.”
Liam nodded. “Good thought,” he agreed, and helped her take off the dead man’s boots. A quick glance at the heels told Liam there was probably some kind of small stash in them. That was a common place to hide valuables. He’d take a closer look later.
“It might have been useful to go through the mage’s robes like this,” Rivka observed as they finished removing all they would remove of Fisk’s garments. “But there was just no way.”
“Not good man,” Ella said, fluttering over the pile of Fisk’s clothes. “Better mage burn secrets with him.”
“If you say so,” Rivka said, giving the virkin a sidelong glance. “You know, you sounded a lot more verbal right before you helped me take out the mage. Where did those words come from?”
“Mama,” Ella replied, blinking her big eyes. “Made me remember when sent with Leem.”
“Your mother sent you to travel with me, sweetheart?” Liam asked, his interest piqued by the virkin’s revelations.
Ella nodded, her long neck exaggerating the motion of her small head. “Watched you. Saw I liked you. Said I could go but had to remember things. Mama knew this day would come.”
“Do you miss your mama, Ella?” Rivka asked gently.
Ella shrugged her small shoulders. “Sometimes,” she admitted, breaking his heart. “But Leem best friend. Soul friend.”
The words staggered him. They felt right. Like Ella had just put in words the way he’d felt whenever he was with her. Like their souls belonged together. They just…fit. Best friends, forever.
Liam held out his arms and hugged Ella close to his chest when she came to him. “I love you, too, sweetheart. You are my family. My best friend.”
“Of course,” was Ella’s only reply as she snuggled into Liam’s embrace.
And, from those simple words, Liam knew that some things in life were just meant to be.
“Maybe, after we give the wizard back his paper, we can sail to Elderland and visit your mama,” he said, hoping things would work out so that he could give that gift to his small companion.
“That’s nice,” Ella replied, flitting away as if it didn’t really matter.
Perhaps it didn’t. Perhaps the virkin had made her choice, and that was the way of her kind. He didn’t know, but he had time. He’d ask her about her family, now that he knew he could, and he’d learn all she would tell him about virkin, so he could help her live the best life possible. He could do no less for her…his soul friend, as she put it.
“We can pack this for later examination,” Rivka said, rolling Fisk’s coat into a tight ball. She was about to say more when she caught sight of something in the sky over Liam’s shoulder. Skelaroth looked up, as well, craning his neck around to examine what had to be a pair of dragons making their way close
r to the hilltop. “Looks like the Prince may have sent more help out after us,” she observed, pointing to the sky.
Liam turned to gaze at the pair of dragons who were closer with each passing moment. They were flying fast, knights stuck to their backs, just becoming visible as they appeared to grow larger in the sky.
“I guess we should wait to see what they have to say before we do anything else,” Rivka said, her human side a little queasy at the idea of deliberately burning Fisk’s body with her flame. The dragon side had no problem with the concept, but she wasn’t just a dragon. She was a woman, too. With human sensibilities.
With any luck, the new dragons would take care of the task. Yes, that would be ideal. Rivka backed off, bundling Fisk’s clothing into an empty pack. They would have to track down the horses and see what could be discovered in their saddlebags, as well, she reminded herself.
The new dragons landed partway down the hill and walked up to the battle site. Once there, their knights slid off their backs and strode forward while the dragons backed them up.
“Are you Lord Skelaroth, Lady Rivka and Captain O’Dare?” the elder of the two men asked politely, but in a firm, rough voice.
“We are,” Rivka answered, stepping forward to meet the knights. Liam was still in shock, and Skelaroth was hanging back, observing the newly arrived dragons.
“I am Arkady, and this is Lewison,” he said, introducing himself and the other knight first. “Our dragon partners are Githrunal and Beyowir,” he indicated each dragon in turn. One was a shiny burnished dark gold and the other a deep emerald green. “We are from the Castle Lair, sent to help in whatever way we can. It looks like we have arrived too late to be of help in the battle.”
“Perhaps,” Rivka allowed, “but you can definitely help with the cleanup.” She smiled to soften her words. “As you can see, Captain Fisk died of his injuries. As a known user of magic, we believe it would be best to burn his remains, but we have taken the precaution of searching his body and retaining some of his clothing for further study.”
“Do you have the artifact that started your quest?” Lewison asked, speaking for the first time. He was younger than his fellow knight. Perhaps he was newly chosen and had been partnered with an older knight to show him the ropes, as it were.
“I believe we do,” Rivka answered, steadfastly not looking at Liam. She would not give these knights the page from Gryffid’s book. It was not their quest to return it. This was something Rivka and Liam—Skelaroth, too—had to do. No one else.
“Thanks be to the Mother of All,” Lewison replied, sounding relieved. “The king and his brothers will be relieved to hear that news.”
Sir Arkady spoke again. “King Roland wanted us to provide whatever assistance you might need to help you get on your way to return the artifact to its owner as soon as possible. What can we do to help?”
“Perhaps, if your dragon partners don’t mind, they could flame the remains?” Rivka asked, looking not at the knights, but at their dragon partners.
“We would be honored to assist, milady,” Lord Githrunal, who was Sir Arkady’s partner, spoke into Rivka’s mind.
“Thank you,” she replied the same way, speaking only to the dragons. She thought they could probably hear the tone of relief in her words, but at this point, she didn’t mind.
“Something else has been burned here, though,” Beyowir put in, cocking her head in a puzzled tilt as she looked at the smear of ash on the road that had once been the Elderland mage.
“I did that,” Rivka confessed. “But my human side, I’ve just learned, is a bit squeamish about such things when not in the heat of battle.”
Both dragons seemed amused by her admission, sending a couple of smoke rings skyward as they chuckled in their dragonish way. “Your secret is safe with us,” Githrunal replied after a moment.
“We’ll just get out of your way,” Rivka said, already moving toward Liam and studiously avoiding the questioning looks from both knights who had not been privy to the words she’d just exchanged with their dragons.
She took Liam by the arm and moved him off to one side of the road, allowing plenty of room for the dragons to do their work. Rivka stood solemnly for a moment, at Liam’s side, while Fisk’s body burned. She said a prayer for his departed soul, that he would find the right path in the afterlife and forsake his evil and greedy ways.
At one point, Liam reached for her hand, holding tight while his most hated enemy was wiped from existence, once and for all. She was glad to be there for him and even happier that he had reached out to her, even in this small way.
When the dragons had finished and Fisk was no more than ash, Rivka and Liam moved back onto the road to speak with the two knights. They quickly arranged to help them track down the horses and get the saddlebags. Rivka wanted to bring everything with them to Gryphon Isle for the wizard Gryffid to examine.
Catching the horses wasn’t as easy as it seemed, but with Ella’s surprising help and Liam and the other men on the ground, the dragons were able to herd the scared creatures toward the men. All four horses were corralled within a short while, and their saddles and tack had been searched and found to contain no hidden compartments. Their saddlebags went to Skelaroth to carry as they left the horses for the knights to take care of and headed south again.
“We’ll have to stop for the night somewhere,” Rivka said to Liam when they paused a few hours later to eat something.
“We could try a town, but I’d prefer to stay out in the open, if you don’t mind,” he replied.
“No, I agree,” she told him. “Less chance of pilfering when it’s just us and the trees. Towns are always a risk.” She tossed the bag containing their provisions back his way. “I think, now that we don’t have to track anyone, we can make straight for the coast. We might even be able to make Dragonscove by tomorrow night.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Rivka helped set up the tent and make camp just before nightfall. They had left the knights to deal with everything else and headed south again, as quickly as possible. The world wouldn’t be truly safe until the page was back with Gryffid and the wizard had examined it to be certain all was well.
None of them had spoken much since turning around to head south. Rivka thought Liam was probably still in shock. He’d seemed stunned by the completion of his quest and the death of Fisk. She’d been on the pirate’s trail of her since the Jinn had gotten involved, back when Livia and her two knights had been chasing the entire book in a coastal city. They’d retrieved the book, but that one page had gone missing.
By comparison, Liam had been hunting Fisk for over a decade. Rivka could only imagine what Liam was feeling at the moment. In addition to the fatigue plaguing them all after a long, hard chase, he was also experiencing the letdown of having achieved his goal. While a certain amount of triumph was involved, she knew from her own past experience that such events often left one feeling restless and unsure of their future path.
When so much concentration and effort had gone toward a specific goal for so long, it was sometimes difficult to realign your priorities and figure out what came next. Liam would have to adjust. It would take time for him to plan out a new direction for his life.
She was so tired—exhausted, really—that she hadn’t said much to any of the beings she traveled with all afternoon. The others seemed to feel the same. They’d all been traveling hard for several days, but their journey was not yet complete. They had to reach the island, and the wizard. Only Gryffid could tell them if they had truly completed their mission.
All indications were that the page in Liam’s possession was the one they had been seeking. Of course, none of them were all that well versed in magic. It would take the wizard’s examination to be positive.
They made camp quietly, no one really speaking much, except as needed to set things up. Everybody was tired. Skelaroth curled up across from the tent and promptly fell asleep. Rivka helped Liam gather wood and make a fire pit. He refilled the
ir water skins from the nearby stream and started heating some after Rivka used her inner flame to start the small campfire. He made tea to share with her while Ella went out hunting on her own.
The virkin came back with a distended belly and sleepy eyes. She joined Skelaroth in slumber not long after. It would be up to the two-legged members of the party to keep watch for the first part of the night. They dare not take chances with the page now in their possession. Someone would have to stay awake and be on guard.
“I’ll take first watch,” Liam offered as they sat by the fire, sipping their tea and nibbling on food from the provision sack. Neither of them was very hungry, but they ate, nonetheless.
“I’m just tired enough to take you up on that offer,” Rivka replied. “I guess you have a lot of thinking to do.” She wouldn’t push, but if he wanted to talk about his situation, she wanted him to know she would listen.
He sighed heavily and stared into the fire. “The past years have been a constant struggle. A constant chase. I’m not sure what to do now that the search for Fisk is over.”
“I figured as much. You know, my people have a saying. What’s meant to be will always find a way. You don’t have to figure it all out tonight. I’m willing to bet, in the days to come, a new path will present itself to you.” She sipped her tea. “You’re too resourceful a man to sit idle for long.”
“I guess I’m just used to having a plan that reaches far into the future. Right now, I have no plans beyond getting the page to the wizard. After that, I really have no idea what comes next,” he admitted.
“And maybe, that’s all right,” she assured him. “Maybe you don’t have to have a long-range goal right this minute. You deserve a few minutes to rest after your long labor, Liam. Don’t you? I’m certain a man of your ability will not be idle long. If the crown can’t find something for you to do, I’m sure the Jinn can.” She grinned at him and felt vindicated when he offered a small smile back.
She climbed into the tent not long after that and slept a few hours before taking her turn at watch. The night was peaceful, and when everyone was ready to go the next morning, the sun was just starting to peer over the horizon. They set out again, in the dawn light, heading straight for Dragonscove, which was the closest point in Draconia to Gryphon Isle.
