Dragon-Ridden

by White, T. A.

  An hour later Ryu had gone through every object in the room. He would have been done sooner, but Tempest suggested the key might have moved again. This required an inspection of every item she might have come in contact with. Again, they turned up nothing.

  Ryu put his hands on his hips and observed the disaster area he’d created. Process of elimination said the key had to be with Tate, but so far they hadn’t been able to find even a hint of it. Ryu’s intensity when searching had gotten Tate thinking again. He’d been too focused on the problem at hand. There was something he wasn’t telling her, hidden motivations that had yet to be revealed.

  It made her trust him even less than before and she found herself holding back several of her thoughts.

  “If we don’t find that key, Lucius will kill you,” Dewdrop said conversationally, throwing the shirt he was holding onto the already inspected pile.

  “I had a feeling.”

  “Is there anything we’re forgetting?” Ryu asked. “Anything. Anything at all.”

  There was one thing.

  “Nope,” she chirped. “I can’t think of anything.”

  Tate disregarded her theory almost as soon as it occurred to her. The only other thing that had touched the key but hadn’t been inspected was Tate herself. She was sure, though, that if it had transferred to her, she’d have felt something. She’d felt the magic of the barrier stones and the Red Lady’s tentacles when she had tried to invade Tate’s brain. Furthermore, Ryu would have considered her first if it had been a possibility. Since he hadn’t, she assumed transferring to a person wasn’t possible.

  He eyed her suspiciously, as if he knew she was keeping something back. She quickly rearranged her features to reflect innocence and honesty. Nothing hidden here. No lie has touched these lips.

  He looked away and Tate fought to keep the sigh of relief in at her bluff. Dewdrop didn’t look quite convinced, and Night eyed her knowingly. She shrugged at them and shook her head.

  She was in this too deep to put all her cards on the table yet.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Night’s children began to get antsy as the morning deepened. They weren’t the only ones, either. So Ryu decided they needed a break to regroup and consider before deciding on a course of action. Tate took the opportunity to find clothes and get dressed.

  Sitting on the bed fully dressed, she pulled up her sleeve to look at her tattoo. It had gone back to its original sleeping position. She could still feel the intense heat her skin had given off and see the Red Lady’s pain and fury as the tiny dragon spat fire at her. Coupled with the voice that made itself heard in her head, it was clear this was no ordinary tattoo.

  Dragon-ridden. She tested the word. For her the term was incomprehensible. She only recently learned that such a being existed, and to find that she may actually be one seemed a little too coincidental.

  Every answer she uncovered about herself and her past only seemed to lead to more questions. It was like an itch she could never quite scratch. She constantly questioned if the choices she made were right. If this was how the person she was before would have reacted. So far she’d relied in large part on instinct and immediate concerns to form her decisions, but recent events had made it clear that that wasn’t going to cut it for much longer. Lately, everything she did only seemed to lead her deeper and deeper into the muck. A part of her was beginning to think it was normal.

  She closed her eyes. Now was not the time to be focused on the past. There would be time for that later, when she wasn’t facing multiple crises at once. With a pang of regret she created a box in her mind and sealed the anxiety and need for answers inside.

  There was a knock at the door. Tate answered, mildly surprised to find Dewdrop standing outside.

  “Come with me.”

  “I thought everybody was going to meet back here,” Tate said a little confused.

  He turned towards the stairs and said over his shoulder, “There’s something you need to see.”

  Tate debated following him. It was possible he was leading her into a trap. He’d never told her why he was in the Red Lady’s territory. There was a chance he could still be working for Lucius.

  Once again curiosity took hold, and she found herself responding to his urgency and ended up following him for several blocks. Dewdrop plunked a hat on her head and wrapped a scarf around his.

  “What are we doing?” Tate asked in exasperation. She needed to get back to the apartment. Perhaps if she told Ryu she wouldn’t cooperate with him unless he told her what he was hiding, he would let her in on the secret.

  “Sh,” Dewdrop hissed, steering her around a clump of people. “Act natural.”

  She rolled her eyes. There was nothing natural about this hat and his scarf.

  “Look,” he whispered, nodding across the street toward an outdoor café.

  She humored him, thinking that if she did she could go back to the room.

  “I still don’t know why you dragged me out here,” she said.

  “Third table from the left. Be casual. What do you see?”

  She squinted at the table he suggested. Her eyes kept wanting to slide away. The first time she looked she didn’t see the table. The second and third time she was able to briefly train her eyes on it before she found herself looking at the couple at the next table over.

  “What is this?” she exclaimed, frustrated.

  “It’s a ‘look away’ spell,” Dewdrop explained. “My crew trained me in spotting them. Rich people like to use them to hide their money. It takes a little getting used to, but if you look at the table from the corner of your eye first, you should be able to see through it.”

  Tate tried that, looking at the next table and using her peripheral vision to see the one beside it.

  “That’s Ryu!”

  “Yup,” Dewdrop said with pride. “I never would have noticed him if not for the look-away.”

  “Who’s that beside him?”

  “Don’t know. But whoever he is, they don’t want anybody to know about this meeting.”

  More proof that Ryu was up to something. The waters were getting deep.

  Tate was afraid they’d be spotted if they hung around, but she really wanted to know what he was up to. The two settled for a pass by the café before traveling around the block and changing their hat and scarf for another pass. They traveled arm-in-arm posing as a couple taking in the sights.

  As they paused in front of a street performer, Ryu and his companion got up and headed out.

  In a prearranged plan, Tate fell back, letting Dewdrop follow. After a couple of blocks they switched places. They didn’t want their quarry to get too used to seeing either one of them. As it was they were courting danger using only two people to shadow Ryu and his friend. Normally the more people you used for a tail the harder it is to spot it.

  Their quarry didn’t seem concerned about followers, secure in the power of the ‘don’t look here’ spell. They didn’t look back. Not even once. It was a pretty powerful spell. Tate was sure if it hadn’t been for Dewdrop, she could have passed within feet of them and not known they were there.

  Even following was difficult as the spell kept redirecting her attention to inconsequential things. It was only through sheer luck she was able to spot them turning a corner half a block away.

  She cursed and rushed to the corner, slowing to a normal pace right before she reached it.

  The path Ryu and his companion followed took Tate and Dewdrop into nicer and nicer neighborhoods. The streets were getting less and less crowded and the two dropped farther back to avoid being spotted.

  It was Dewdrop’s turn to take the lead again, and Tate let herself slow down until he was almost out of sight.

  Her legs were burning. Walking all over the city over the past few days was beginning to have a toll on her muscles. She knew after a week or two the exhaustion would lessen as her legs got stronger, but right now they would have enjoyed a little rest. By now they’d been followin
g the men for over an hour and the past ten minutes they’d been walking steadily uphill. Behind her, the city spread out with the ocean in the distance.

  Tate huffed up the hill. Where were these guys going? All the way to the Upper? This was a part of the city she hadn’t had an opportunity to explore. With each block they traveled uphill, they got closer to the Upper City with its white-washed stone buildings that were carefully maintained. The houses got bigger and bigger, and the land surrounding them got larger with meticulously gardened lawns leading up to stately front doors.

  By now, the only people on the street were well-groomed men and women moving gracefully about their business.

  Up ahead, Dewdrop stopped to take a look around. Tate stopped too, wondering if he’d lost the gentlemen.

  He beckoned her over. Guess so.

  “I lost the trail near here.”

  Though disappointed, Tate didn’t think they would have been able to follow Ryu for much longer anyway. At least they had an idea of where he had disappeared.

  “What’s in this area?” she asked.

  Dewdrop folded his arms and considered. “I’m not too sure. I’ve rarely been in the Upper City. They have too many patrols here to make it worth a thief’s time.”

  “Let’s walk around a little,” Tate suggested.

  They strolled along the streets looking at the houses they passed. Tate didn’t know what she was looking for, but she hoped something would stand out if they kept moving.

  “Don’t look, but I think we’re being followed,” Dewdrop said in a low voice.

  “Can you tell who it is?”

  He pulled her over to one side and pointed at a particularly interesting lawn statue, she nodded as if they were having a conversation and laughed gaily.

  They began walking again, slowly, not hurrying as if they sightseeing.

  “I think it’s a patrol.”

  She sighed inwardly. Not good then. Time was up. They didn’t need to draw attention to themselves more than they already had. Without making it too obvious, they circled the block and headed back down to the Lower City.

  Tate listened with half a mind as Dewdrop kept up an animated conversation about building structures and gardens. She nodded and made appropriate comments at the right times but inwardly she was monitoring their shadows.

  Strain was starting to show in Dewdrop’s face and eyes as they made it into the Lower City. The Marshal’s men followed them still. She really had hoped that once they left the wealthy neighborhoods their shadows would fall back to continue with their patrol. No such luck. It seemed as if she and Dewdrop had sufficiently aroused their suspicions. She frowned. That hadn’t been her intention, but this wasn’t entirely unexpected either. Although the clothes Tate and Dewdrop wore weren’t shabby, they were also not of the same quality as the resident’s in the Upper. They had stuck out like a sore thumb.

  “What should we do?”

  “Just keep moving and let’s see how this plays out.” She stopped to look in a store window and monitored their followers out of the corner of her eye.

  “Tate?”

  She was slow to respond to her name until Dewdrop began tugging frantically at her sleeve.

  “What?” she finally asked turning to him.

  “We have other problems.”

  He nodded in the opposite direction of the Marshal’s men. Tate looked and almost sat down right then and there in defeat.

  Blade and his scummy friend were walking down the street looking right at Tate and Dewdrop. Judging by the satisfied smile on his friend’s face, she was willing to bet they didn’t want to just trade greetings.

  Great. Great. Great.

  The law on one side and criminals on the other. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

  “What should we do?” Dewdrop whispered next to her shoulder. He put his back to hers keeping one eye on Blade and the other on the Marshal’s men. “Should we run?”

  They could, but that would only lead to a chase. Blade, at least, was fast, and Tate was still feeling a little weak after her time with the Red Lady. She didn’t have the confidence that she would get very far, and she didn’t know how fast Dewdrop could move either. Having five men chasing her throughout the city wasn’t something she wanted to experience either.

  She looked back and forth between the two groups. No hope for it, she was going to have to be creative.

  “Follow my lead,” she told Dewdrop. With a high scream, she pointed at Blade. He stopped in surprise. “That’s him. Those are the men who attacked me and stole all my money.”

  Dewdrop didn’t miss a beat. “What? Those thieves! Somebody call the Provost and have these men arrested.”

  Tate darted to the Provost’s men letting her voice thin in agitation. “Sir. Sir. Arrest them. They stole all my money yesterday and now they’ve come back.” Dewdrop wrung his hands behind her. “I demand protection.”

  She grabbed the arm of the man nearest to her and dragged him in front of her. The other two looked confused by the sudden turn of events.

  “Those men.” She pointed. “Those men right there. I don’t know what they’ll do if they get ahold of me.”

  Dewdrop added his input. “Please, sir. My sister and I arrived in the city only yesterday, and we’ve already been robbed. We’re begging you.”

  Blade’s accomplice sputtered indignantly. “Now see ‘ere. We done nothin’ o’ the sort.”

  Tate almost chortled in glee at the sound of his accent, which placed him as being from one of the poorest sections of the city. The guards, hearing it, fanned out. One pulled a cudgel out of his belt. Even Blade seemed a bit worried when they started herding the two together.

  Tate drew Dewdrop away and quietly fled, turning a street corner before anybody could notice. They were well on their way to disappearing before the cry was raised.

  They were both panting for breath when they finally stopped running.

  “I’ve run more in the last two days then in all my time on ship,” Tate gasped.

  “Aurelia will do that to you.” Dewdrop bent over and put his hands on his knees.

  “No kidding.”

  Dewdrop straightened and said hesitantly, “I think I know where Ryu went when he disappeared.”

  Tate looked at him in surprise. Despite her best hopes she hadn’t noticed anything and had just assumed he hadn’t either. A little buzz of excitement went through her. “Seriously?”

  “Yeah,” he said with excitement. “I wasn’t sure at first which is why I didn’t say anything earlier, but now I’m positive. I think the Kairi’s block of mansions was a few streets away from us. I’m pretty sure that’s why the Provost’s men were patrolling, and why they followed us even when we left.”

  Tate chewed on her lip, deep in thought. Everything seemed to revolve around the Kairi. Oriade’s key as well as the fulcrum everybody was searching so desperately for, not to mention Ryu’s clandestine meeting with them. She just couldn’t figure out why he was so interested. If he was in it for the money, he’d just turn the key over to the highest bidder and not meet with its owners in secret.

  There was also the little issue of Jost’s first mate. The more she reviewed that night in her head, the more she was sure it was him she’d seen right before the caning. Jost had already set sail by then. She’d watched. She also couldn’t imagine any of the crew just leaving her there in that type of situation either. She felt a twinge of guilt. Things may have changed after her desertion.

  “It doesn’t make sense,” she said aloud. “I don’t understand Ryu’s interest in this matter.”

  “Perhaps he’s working with your old crew,” Dewdrop suggested.

  She shook her head. She’d already considered that. “I saw them sail off.” She folded her arms. “I mean I thought I saw one in the Red Lady’s den, but I was in a lot of pain at the time.” She raised one hand when he opened his mouth. “I could have just imagined it. Saw what I most wanted to see at that momen
t.”

  Dewdrop was silent. After a moment, he said, “Perhaps they left to quell suspicions of their involvement but dropped anchor somewhere else. Aurelia’s on a point. Though the other side is filled with rocks and tricky tides, a talented navigator could find a place to drop anchor while some of the crew made their way back to the city.”

  “Still, I would think they’d tell me.” At his hard glance she elaborated, “I mean before I left.”

  “Why would they? You probably weren’t told because you’re not part of the planning. That’s how we did it in my crew,” Dewdrop pointed out. “Lessons the chances of someone turning the group over to the Emperor’s Justice.”

  He had a point, and it was one Tate couldn’t argue with. They wouldn’t have necessarily included her in their plans when she was just a junior member.

  “What should we do now?” Dewdrop asked.

  Still reeling from the realization that she really was on her own, Tate was slow to respond. “We can’t go back to the room. We don’t know Ryu’s plans.”

  “He seemed extremely interested in the key.”

  Tate’s face was thoughtful when she spoke. “You noticed that too? I thought so as well.”

  “There’s also the fact that he never tried to search you,” Dewdrop added.

  Tate paused. Since nobody had commented, she had thought that possibility had only occurred to her.

  “Lucius had Ricky and me magically scanned to make sure the magic hadn’t attached to us. It’s extremely difficult but not entirely impossible for the magic to attach to humans,” he said, watching her carefully. “You’re the only one in this whole mess who hasn’t been searched.”

  Tate lightly placed a hand on her hip, right next to the concealed knife. Dewdrop’s eyes flicked to her hand and back up to her face.

  “You’ve never told me why you were in the Red Lady’s keep,” she said.

  He very carefully kept his hands in full view and said, “No, I didn’t, did I?”

  “Perhaps now would be a good time?”

  “I was hoping to gain information that would get me in good with Lucius.”