by Bianca D’Arc
She wasn’t sure exactly what she could do, but she wasn’t going to sit meekly at home without at least trying to do something. She just had to move carefully and avoid letting her father know what she was doing at all costs.
“Hrardorr? Can you hear me?”
“Yes, Livia. Is something wrong?” He sounded closer than she’d expected.
“What do you know of the gryphon that was seen flying into the Lair yesterday?”
“It’s all anyone can talk of, though you know I do my best to avoid speaking with anyone. Still, I’ve heard the news from Gryphon Isle is not good. The remainder of the fleet we faced turned toward the island, and they’ve been using those cursed diamond-bladed weapons on the gryphons. Many have fallen, and it is all the wizard can do to keep the enemy at bay.”
The news was worse than she’d thought.
“Are you in the boathouse again?” she asked the dragon.
“As a matter of fact, I am. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Mind? Never. You are welcome anytime. You know that. If it were up to me and there was a way to manage it, I’d give you a bed in the house.”
A dragonish chuckle sounded in her mind. “I would like to see that, but I think it might require a major redesign of your father’s home.”
“It would be worth it to make you more comfortable and have you near.” She hadn’t really realized how true her words were until they were spoken. She would do anything for Hrardorr.
“I am very comfortable here in the boathouse, Livia,” Hrardorr said quietly. “But thank you for the thought.”
While Livia spoke to the dragon, the house settled for the night. She’d heard her father’s door open and close. His room was farther down the hallway, and she couldn’t hear much once his door was shut. Likewise, he couldn’t hear her tiptoeing around her room, packing a bag.
She was sick of being imprisoned in her room and was going on a little excursion. The only thing she had to be careful of was not to get caught.
If her father saw her climbing the trellis outside her window, either on the way out or the way back tomorrow morning before dawn, she would be in even bigger trouble than she already was. But it would be worth it for a few hours of freedom to spend as she wished. She’d decided to not go into the office tomorrow, and was prepared to claim illness. If she hinted at a female complaint, her father wouldn’t ask too many questions.
She smiled to herself as she put on black clothing—a tight-fitting shirt, tapered pants and a jacket over it all. They were boy’s clothing that she used from time to time when she wanted to walk about freely without gathering any unwanted attention.
Mostly, she used this outfit when her father was home. This wasn’t the first time he’d grounded her and she’d snuck out. It had been a little easier when she was smaller, but she was still petite and agile enough to make her way down the trellis.
“Would you mind some company?” she asked Hrardorr, throwing her leg over the windowsill. “I can’t stay under house arrest one moment longer. I’m breaking out.”
Again, that dragonish chuckle sounded in her mind. Good. She had feared he might protest, but she should have known better. Hrardorr wasn’t one for following the rules either.
“It’s about time,” was his only comment.
She was already climbing down the trellis, careful to not make any betraying sounds, but Hrardorr’s words made her smile.
Seth heard light footsteps coming down the wooden stairs from above and tensed. Was someone approaching intent on doing harm? He scanned the area from his hiding place and waited, his sword by his side. He was hidden in the shadows between the steep stairs that went up to Livia’s house, the jagged rock wall on which it was perched, and the wide wooden deck that started over land and spread out over the water. It branched into several docks, fingers of walkways leading out into the harbor.
Directly opposite the stairs, several yards away lay the door to the large wooden house that spanned two of the fingers of dock, enclosing them almost entirely. The open slip of water between them was enclosed by the boathouse, intended for Livia’s sailboat. Only, right now, the sailboat bobbed out in the open at the end of one of the docks, while a very large, very blind dragon with sea dragon heritage occupied the boathouse.
Seth knew Hrardorr was in there. He checked on the dragon every night and knew every time the dragon wasn’t in residence in his Lair chamber. Seth had decided to keep watch without Hrardorr’s knowledge, spending more than one cold night huddled under the stairs, wrapped in his darkest cloak.
He was both surprised and pleased to learn on his first night on watch that Captain O’Dare had instituted a patrol on his dock. Every hour or so, at irregular intervals, two strong-looking seamen walked past, checking on things. They were deckhands from Captain O’Dare’s own flagship, if Seth wasn’t mistaken, and they took watch in turns. The same pair would work for a few hours, then a new pair would replace them.
The captain was taking no chances with safety while he was in port, it seemed. Seth watched the patrolmen walk up and down the docks belonging to Captain O’Dare’s company, starting with his flagship, the Olivia, which was tied up at the deepest mooring, closer to the office, and ending with the boathouse below Captain O’Dare’s home. The patrol would walk from one end of the large network of floating platforms to the other and back again, using different routes each time so as to be less predictable in their movements.
Seth wondered where the captain had learned to be so cautious. He also wondered why Livia’s father believed such precautions were warranted in his home port. But Seth wasn’t likely to get answers to those questions, so he kept them to himself.
As the black-clad figure scampered quietly down the stairs closer to Seth’s hiding place, he realized it was either a boy or, more likely, a woman. Then he recognized the flash of her blue eyes, and his heart froze for a moment.
“Livia?” he whispered aloud.
She paused on the stairs, her black garb blending in well with the night, but not well enough to hide her from the approaching patrolmen. Seth’s heart picked up its pace. She was about to get caught and dressed as she was, he was pretty certain she didn’t have her father’s permission to be skulking about the docks at this hour.
“Livia, it’s me, Seth.” He used their shared talent to talk silently with her. “I’m below the stairs. Come down now, or you’ll be seen. Your father has a patrol checking his dock, and they’re about to arrive.”
“He does?” Even while she spoke silently into his mind, she was moving expertly down the stairs, ducking under and into his arms.
He opened his dark mottled cloak and wrapped her within, turning to face the rock, blending in with it as he had every other time the patrol had come past. So far, nobody had been able to see him in the dark. Seth prayed his luck would continue to hold.
“He does,” Seth answered her hasty question. “Quiet now. They’re almost upon us.”
She pressed her face into his chest, and Seth almost forgot to breathe. He had missed her so much. Het simplest touch was heaven to him, but he couldn’t let himself be distracted now.
“Why does my father have men patrolling the dock?” she asked in his mind as the men walked past. “The last of the diamonds were moved to the workshop days ago.”
“He’s a cautious man,” was all Seth could come up with. “Maybe he doesn’t want his crew to grow lax sitting in their home port.”
“Most of his crew are not from here, actually,” she said, surprising him. “He picks them up from all over, along his route. Father is a stickler, in case you haven’t noticed, and if someone doesn’t measure up, he’s put off the ship at the next port and summarily replaced. Or so I’ve heard.”
“Did you sneak out?” All the while he kept up the conversation with her, he also kept track of the movements of the patrol. They were turning at the end of the pier and would soon be heading back past them again. So far, so good.
“Of course I sn
uck out. I couldn’t stand to be a prisoner one second longer.” She paused, and he imagined she was inwardly fuming. “I’ll have to go back before dawn though. I don’t want him to know I can get out whenever I want to, or he’ll take the trellis down and put bars on my window.”
Seth had to stifle a chuckle as the patrol returned, walking right past them once again. It looked like they’d be in the clear in a few more moments, once the patrol passed out of sight.
“Were you going to visit Hrardorr?”
“Yes. But why are you hiding out here? Why aren’t you in there with him?” She pulled her face away from his chest and looked up at him in the darkness, her eyes gleaming in the uncertain light.
“He doesn’t know I’m here,” Seth admitted. “I just wanted to be nearby in case he needs me.”
“Oh, Seth…” She patted his chest with one hand over his heart, her smile soft and filled with wonder. “That’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Hrardorr won’t think so. He doesn’t like it when I mother him, as he calls it.”
“Well, you can’t stay out here all night. Come inside with me. We’ll tell him I asked you to meet up with me. He knows we like each other.”
Seth pulled her tight against his aroused body. “I more than like you, Livia.”
She reached up and kissed him quickly. Just a peck on the lips that made his entire body stand up and take notice.
“Good. Because I more than like you too, Seth.”
She smiled, ducking out from under the staircase, looking both ways and taking Seth by the hand. He had no choice but to follow her, straight to the boathouse door.
They entered without raising any alarms, and he closed and locked the door behind them. The interior of the boathouse was dark, but it was actually a little easier to see in here with Hrardorr sitting on the wide deck at the front of the house, and his gleaming scales reflecting off the water.
Hrardorr didn’t seem at all surprised to see Seth.
“It’s about time you came in from the cold,” was the dragon’s comment when Seth greeted him. “I wouldn’t have minded having someone to talk to the past few nights.”
“I wasn’t sure of my welcome,” Seth told the dragon quietly. “And I wasn’t sure if you wanted company or not.”
“Next time—if there is one—you should probably just ask,” came Hrardorr’s dry reply. “Now, what’s going on?”
“We have to help the gryphons,” Livia blurted out, taking Seth by surprise. Hrardorr, too, if Seth was any judge of the dragon’s expression and head movements.
Seth turned to look at her. “You’ve been under virtual house arrest for days. How do you know about the gryphons? And what in the world do you think the three of us can do about it that the rest of the Lair isn’t already doing?”
But Livia didn’t get a chance to answer. Hrardorr cut her off.
“The rest of the Lair isn’t going to do diddly.” Smoke rose from the dragon’s nostrils toward the rafters of the boathouse.
“What have you heard?” Seth asked Hrardorr.
“Genlitha has been rather vocal in her disdain for the leadership of the Lair. That’s why she and Gowan have been assigned all the far patrols recently. It was they who intercepted the gryphon, and she has told me all that the child told her.”
“Child?” Livia prompted.
“The gryphon who escaped with the message was a juvenile,” Seth told her. “He has massive wings for his age, but he’s still quite young. Only about ten years old, I believe.”
“Flurrthith is his name,” Hrardorr added. “If they had to send a child, they are in even worse straits than the message indicates. Genlitha wants to fly out at first light, but I’ve counseled her to patience. She cannot directly defy the leadership until they have made their decision. If, as she thinks, they’re not going to do anything, then I’ve already promised her I will help.”
“Help how, exactly?” Seth asked, tilting his head toward the dragon, suspicious of what he was contemplating.
Hrardorr ducked his head in something like embarrassment. “I thought I’d fly out, then duck under the waves before the enemy fleet could see me and surprise them from below, the way I did before, while Genlitha acts as high guard. She can tell me what she sees from above.”
“You two have already planned this all out, have you?” Livia accused, but there was no anger in her voice. Instead, Seth thought he heard approval.
“It seemed wisest to prepare, in case we had to act.”
“If you go,” Seth declared, “I’m going with you.”
“Alas, I can carry you only so far, and you cannot swim from where I plan to go under the waves.” Hrardorr sounded genuinely sorry about that, which mollified Seth somewhat.
“We could take my boat and approach from the far side of the island. It’ll take a little longer, but we could beach the boat and meet you on land.”
“Absolutely not,” was Seth’s initial reaction, though he wanted some way to get to the island. He regretted his lack of knowledge about how to sail. If he could manage a boat himself, he’d have been all for the plan. “Besides, what could we do from land?”
“We could help treat the injured. And you can fight. You organized our harbor defense. You could do that there, as well. Or at least help those who are doing it with the benefit of your experience.”
Her words had merit. If only there was some way to make it to the island without her help. Seth couldn’t ask anyone else to put themselves in danger—especially since, if he did this, it would be without the Lair’s blessing.
Hrardorr seemed deep in thought before he finally weighed in on the idea. “Genlitha could watch from high above and help guide you to a safe spot on which to land your boat. Truthfully, I would prefer if Genlitha and Gowan were both safely away from the diamond blades we know the enemy still has.”
“You intend to take on the remainder of the enemy fleet all on your own?” Seth knew Hrardorr’s abilities were more than adequate to deal with a few ships at a time, but how would he handle the rest of that massive fleet?
“With support from land, I believe it can be done,” Hrardorr was quick to reply.
“And you could best organize that support, Seth, while I interface with the locals, like we did here.” Livia reminded him. She was all too eager to put herself in danger as far as Seth was concerned, but she did have a point.
“This is all moot unless and until the Lair leadership makes a bad decision,” Seth reminded them.
“Which is all too likely to happen,” Hrardorr muttered.
“Which is why we should prepare our plan,” Livia insisted.
Seth didn’t like it, but he remained silent while Hrardorr and Livia talked through the best ways of implementing the plan they were devising. Livia was allowed to take her sailboat out twice a week. She would begin sneaking provisions down to the boat, as would Hrardorr. He could bring things from the Lair, with Seth’s help, and deliver them to the boat when they met to go fishing. This way, when the time came, they would be ready.
If it turned out they wouldn’t need to act, the supplies could be just as easily removed the way they had been delivered. Seth grudgingly agreed to assist because he was fairly sure Livia would be sailing off to Gryphon Isle without him if he didn’t. If she was going to embark on the perilous journey, he would be right there, ready to protect and defend her should they run into problems.
“I suppose Genlitha is in league with you on all of this?” Seth asked after they’d hammered out the bones of the plan.
“The basics, yes,” Hrardorr allowed. “I will fill her in on the details when I go back tomorrow. By then, we’ll know more about what the leadership intends to do…or not do, as the case may very well be.” The dragon got to his feet and walked the few steps toward the edge of the deck on which he’d sat. “For now, I’m going for a short swim and perhaps a longer hunt. I will return in an hour or two.” His head craned backward, as if looking at them, but of
course, he couldn’t see them. “Do you plan to stay?”
“If you don’t mind the company, I need a few hours of freedom from my bedroom prison,” Livia joked softly. “I have to be back there before dawn, but the night is mine, and I intend to keep it.”
Hrardorr bowed his head as if in understanding. “Then, I welcome your company, dearest Livia. Alas, I should have eaten before I left the Lair, but I had a taste for fresh fish tonight.” His attention turned to Seth. “I suppose you will want to stay, even if I insist I am fine on my own?”
Seth walked over to Hrardorr, making sure the dragon could hear his footsteps against the wooden decking. Hrardorr’s head moved, following Seth’s progress.
“My friend,” Seth began, knowing he had to make the dragon understand his motivations. “I came here not to watch over you like a nursemaid, but to be here in case you needed a friend. I have lived a very lonely life in the Lair since I chose to follow the healer’s path, and I’m receiving the same sort of odd looks and stilted speech you’ve been getting since the battle in the harbor. I think we surprised everyone with what we did and what we are capable of doing. Even ourselves.” His voice dropped into lower tones as he made his admissions, but he knew the dragon could hear him. “We have a lot in common.”
Seth considered his next words carefully. “In fact, I think I have more in common with you than with any other being I know. I want you to know that I am here for you, Hrardorr. Always. And unlike anyone else, I think I understand at least some of what you’re going through now. I just want to be your friend. Not your crutch or helper or whatever other term you want to use for someone who thinks less of you. I know you aren’t less than you were before you were blinded. I’ve known that from the first moment I met you. I only wish you believed it too.”
Hrardorr didn’t answer in words. He merely lowered his head and stepped closer, initiating contact for a dragonish hug. Seth put his arms around Hrardorr’s warm neck, feeling the slide of his shiny scales and the healthy pulse of the fire beneath his armored skin.
