It was still dark when Azriyqam woke. Aside from the surf, all was still.
Why hadn’t Avnai woken her?
The night was nearly pitch-black. To lightward, the clouds above glowed faintly as the aurora fought to penetrate the few cracks. Azriyqam picked out the seated shape of her brother, a dark blob against the white sand. He was so still she wondered if he had fallen asleep, but he turned his head at her approach.
“Hello, Azriy,” he said, his voice tight. It had an odd sound to it.
“It’s my watch,” she said. “Why didn’t you wake me?”
“I lost track of time, I suppose.” He sniffed.
Azriyqam blinked. “Avnai. Are you—have you been crying?”
He barked a ragged laugh. “So much for my image as the stoic crown prince. Yes. Yes, I have. And why not? Even if I manage to get us all out of here and back home, I’ve lost my commission. The one thing father asked me not to endanger, and I didn’t even manage to save Threlya doing it.” He let out a sigh of despair. “She’s going to die now, and I probably won’t even see her again before that happens.”
Fear and exultation shot through Azriyqam in a chaotic jumble. Frantically, she scrabbled at her pouch. She felt the hard, cylindrical shape. “No, Avnai, she’s not. You never asked what my sorcery found.”
“What are you talking about? You mean you actually did commit sorcery?” His voice rose in outrage. “I thought they were lying!”
“Of course I did, and it worked. Here.” She passed him the object her spell had found.
“What is it?” he asked, turning it over in his hands.
“I don’t know,” said Azriyqam. “I commanded the Theurge to find me something that would save Threlya. It led me to that. It feels like it might plug into that hole in the back of her head.”
Avnai felt it in the darkness. “You stole a converter,” he whispered. “It can get electricity to her.”
“But the kingdom doesn’t have electricity,” Azriyqam said. That had been a shock, when she had first arrived, to discover something she’d taken for granted aboard Ekkaia was unknown to the kingdom.
“I suppose it would be too much to expect you to have solved that problem, too, but we’ve been working on that for years. If we can get home, you’ve done more than I could to save her.”
“But Avnai, will the Consortium still do business with us? Won’t we be at war with them?”
“I’m almost as worried about Father declaring war on them,” Avnai said with a grim chuckle. “If we get away, the Consortium will sink the captain’s commission even deeper than mine for antagonizing an Allied State over a matter of harmless sorcery. Well, and petty theft, I suppose.”
“Why would you lose your commission?” asked Azriyqam. “You just said that the captain exceeded his authority by imprisoning us.”
He snorted. “That’s not the way the military works, sister mine. The captain may have exceeded his authority, but that doesn’t mean that a lowly lieutenant like myself gets to defy him. I abandoned my own ship while plainly assisting prisoners to escape custody. The diplomatic immunity the captain violated is the only thing that will keep me from being extradited and thrown in prison.” He sighed. “I told you sorcery was illegal in the Consortium, but you did it anyway. Why?”
“Because Threlya is my friend, too.” She hesitated. “I asked Senaatha. She thought that if I were caught it would just be considered a case of youthful stupidity, and I’d be sent home.”
“Even Senaatha can be wrong, I suppose,” Avnai said with a bitter chuckle.
“How did they find out I’d done it, anyway?”
“I’m not sure. It’s apparently some secret piece of equipment. That’s why the captain was so hot to examine you and have you confess. It can tell sorcery is being used and approximately where, but I guess it can’t pinpoint it or tell what the sorcery did. I don’t understand why he overreacted like that, though. What could be so important that he’d want to alienate one of the Consortium’s model Allied States over something so minor?”
“Avnai,” Azriyqam said, slowly. “When I asked the Theurge to show me something that would save Threlya, it showed me something else, too.”
“Let me have it.”
“It wasn’t something I could take. It wasn’t something Threlya could possibly need.”
“What was it?”
“Pictures.”
“What sort of pictures?”
“Pictures taken from the air. I found them in a room marked with a word I’ve never seen before. A long word. Recan—Renoc—”
“Reconnaissance?” Avnai asked sharply.
“Yes, that was it. There were pictures of Ekkaia. I guess they must have been taken from one of your airplanes. Was the Theurge telling me that we needed to steal something from Ekkaia to help Threlya? A way of getting electricity, maybe?”
“Azriyqam, you are very certain of this: You saw aerial reconnaissance photos of your own Century Ship—Ekkaia—in that room? How did you get there?”
“The Theurge led me,” she said. She recounted her walk with him and her unauthorized entry into the room.
“It wasn’t even locked,” Avnai muttered. “Someone ought to be flayed for that.” He came back to the present. “The Ekkaia. You’re sure.”
“Yes, but what does it mean?”
“What it means to the Theurge or Threlya I have no idea, but there’s only one thing it could mean to have those photos in the reconnaissance room.” He took a deep breath. “The Consortium is planning to attack Ekkaia.”
“Attack Ekkaia? But why?”
“I haven’t any idea, and that’s what frightens me.”
Azriyqam felt numb. Attack Ekkaia. The officers of the Century Ship had been so frightened of a single dragon they had raised her and imprisoned her rather than risk its anger, even after eighteen years. If the Consortium, with all its might, attacked Ekkaia, the Century Ship’s life expectancy would be measured in minutes.
“Could it be because of the way they treated you?” asked Azriyqam. Locking a Consortium officer in a cage to slowly die of thirst was the sort of thing that would tend to give offense.
“I’d have been told if they were planning a punitive expedition to retaliate for that.” He yawned.
“You need sleep,” said Azriyqam. “I have the watch.”
“Azriyqam,” said Avnai, “I’m sorry for what I had to do to you. I know it was frightening, but I couldn’t see another way out. I hope you’ll forgive me.”
“I know,” she said. “I will.”
He nodded shortly and walked off.
Azriyqam watched the sky. Stars were slowly peeking through the thinning overcast, each one a point of white fire. She imagined them uniting in a blaze, eating Ekkaia’s deck, just like she had dreamed, only now she watched from outside, watched Haraad and the rest of them burn while their home, her prison, sank into the vast waters of the Endless Ocean.
* * *
Azriyqam woke to a gray dawn, and she could smell something that made her stomach growl. Skewered on one of Elazar’s airswords were chunks of whitish meat turning brown over a low fire. Avnai tended it with an air of concentration.
“It’s not as bad as it might be,” he said. “The tide pools here are full of shellfish and I managed to spear a decent flatfish of some sort.”
“What about Senaatha?”
“There’s not a lot we can do about that. We’ve stitched the holes in her wings shut. We’re just going to have to trust that she can heal herself enough to survive. At the moment, she’s in a healing trance. She’ll wake around noon, and we’ll feed her what we can. Which means we all need to eat. See if you can find something that will serve us as plates.”
It didn’t take long for Azriyqam to discover that the trees on the island had a loose bark that she could pull off in flat sections. They sat down to eat, and Elazar addressed them.
“His Highness the crown prince has asked me to take charge of our survival. To say
that we could be in better shape would be a grave understatement. As we could carry nothing with us, we have no food. Fortunately, we do have water. We have only our personal weapons: that is, six airswords, Avnai’s omnisword, and his Consortium service pistol. Only the pistol is at all adapted for hunting.
“Given that the Consortium is in the area and likely actively searching for us, attempting to signal a passing ship would be suicidal. Our best chance then, is to concentrate our efforts on keeping the Lady Senaatha alive until she can heal herself enough to once again fly us homeward, but even that will be difficult. She has sustained grave injuries which will take weeks to heal. Two of her limbs are bent to the point she will not be able to heal them herself at all. Fortunately, her wings are structurally undamaged. Ideally, we will find enough food to enable her to risk transforming again into her human form, in which she’ll be both easier to care for and able to be moved.
“Our first priority, then, is hunting and gathering. The second is finding a refuge. The crown prince will spend the morning making a close survey of the surrounding area. He will not use his pistol unless he sees substantial game. He only has sixteen rounds, and they all have to count.
“Meanwhile, Merav, Azriyqam, and myself will survey the island from the air. If we are fortunate, we’ll find some large game. If we are less fortunate, we may still attempt a swordhunt. We’ll meet here at noon and feed Senaatha what we can. Remember, however, we must also gather food for ourselves. We will do the Lady Senaatha no good if we starve ourselves or are too weak to hunt for her.”
“What is a swordhunt?” asked Azriyqam.
“We hunt birds with our airswords. It’s a test of flying skill.”
“It’s supposed to be fun,” Merav said, glumly. “You’re not supposed to live on it.”
All too soon, the meal was gone. It reminded Azriyqam of her meals on Ekkaia. Not quite enough, but there was nothing for it. She checked her harness and detached everything but her airswords.
“When we dive,” said Elazar, “I’ll want you two ahead of me, one to each side. We’ll skim the treetops and, with luck, flush some prey. Remember, it doesn’t take much to bring down a bird in flight, Azriyqam, just glide. You won’t be ready to take prey yourself the first time.” Then, following Elazar, she and Merav ran into the wind, and launched.
Locking her wing spars, Azriyqam let the wind lift her into the air. Below her, the gray whitecaps of the sea dropped away, and she climbed skyward with slow, steady wingbeats. Soon they were high enough to see their place of exile.
The island was thickly forested. Azriyqam wasn’t sure how to estimate distance from this high up, but she could see that it was much smaller than home, which stretched farther than the eye could take in at once. It was roughly oval shaped and she thought it was probably three to five miles across. On the darkward side there was a substantial lagoon, but no clearing she could see. Elazar banked, and she and Merav followed. She didn’t know what he was looking for and the rush of the wind made conversation difficult.
Then Elazar drew his airswords, dropping as he folded his wings. Azriyqam and Merav dropped. Azriyqam’s airswords slid out of their scabbards.
She tried to keep on a level with Merav, but it was more difficult than she had imagined and it required all her concentration. She was picking up speed fast, but not nearly as fast as when she had hit the Consortium fighter plane. She pulled in her wings and fell faster. She could pick out individual trees, now. Now branches. Leaves.
She spread her wings and the wind filled her tough membranes, sliding her into a glide over the green surface. Birds exploded out of the treetops in more colors and varieties than Azriyqam had ever seen. One nearly impaled itself on her right airsword but veered at the last minute. Tempted by the near-success, Azriyqam went after it, but the small, red and green bird shot off faster than she could follow. To her left, a larger bird burst from the trees and accelerated, and Azriyqam went after it, determined to show Elazar he’d been wrong.
No matter how she approached it, however, the big bird effortlessly dodged her. Twice, she came into arm’s reach of it, but whenever she aimed a thrust or a slash at the pheasant-sized bird, she wavered in the air and her prey rolled to the side. Behind her, she heard Merav cry out in triumph as she spitted a bird and smoothly pirouetted in the air, sliding it into her pouch. Azriyqam looked back, but her prey was gone.
She picked another bird, stabbing out, but she dropped below it and her prey was gone. She seethed in frustration, for the hundredth time wishing that she had hands, real hands, and not just fingers, on the leading edges of her wings. She veered right and tried a wild slash at a small bird but ended up almost sending herself sprawling into a treetop. Angrily, she beat the air with her wings, soaring upward. Below her, Elazar and Merav were gliding gently. She knew it was foolish to be angry at their greater skill, but she was anyway. She continued to climb, hoping the cooler air would soothe her frustration.
Would she ever learn what every other halfdragon in the world could do effortlessly?
High above the island, she looked at the calm sea. There were no other islands that she could see. To darkward, the sea faded to the almost black of a bottomless gulf. The sparkle of a storm front showed far off to antispinward, but it might miss them entirely. A star tugged at the corner of her vision to lightward.
To lightward?
Azriyqam wheeled and stared.
Stars were always visible in the sky to darkward, but it was only at night, when the sun dimmed to the silvery aurora centralis, that one could see stars to lightward. So, what was that bright, silver point she could see near the dimming spike of sun? It was tiny, but it moved as she watched, from antispinward to spinward.
* * *
Back at the beach, Avnai greeted them with a tight grin. “There are pigs on the island. Wild pigs. We might actually have a chance, now.” He’d shot one of them, Azriyqam could see, and it lay by Senaatha’s head, waiting for her to wake. Zhad was already butchering some of the choicer pieces for the rest of them.
Elazar nodded. “Your sister saw something you should know about.”
Azriyqam related what she had seen.
Avnai’s brows drew down. “I’m not sure what that could have been. If it had been a flying boat, it should have been faster and it should have seen you. I’m sure they don’t have flying boats left…” he trailed off, then drew in a breath. “The dirigible.”
“The what?” asked Merav.
“It’s a large balloon filled with hydrogen, controlled from a pilot’s cabin. Hydrogen is a special gas that—”
“Oh, a skyship,” said Azriyqam. “Why did you call it that strange name?”
Avnai blinked. “How do you know about hydrogen and skyships?”
“They’re the only way the Grove can maintain any contact with the Century Ships while they’re out on the Trading Circuit. They’re not common. I only ever saw two dock with Ekkaia in my lifetime. Even for skyships it’s hard to find a single ship in the Endless Ocean.”
“The Fleet has one in storage. It’s used for long-range observation. It’s very slow and very fragile, but it can stay aloft for days. They must be very desperate. I think it means Senaatha just about wrecked the flight deck. Eute will have to take Talion into dry-dock if it’s that bad.”
“Well, that’s good, right?” asked Merav.
“Not as good as I’d like. With that balloon, they can spot us from miles away. The only good news is we can see it coming from a lot further away than we could hope to see a plane, but that means you halfdragons are going to have to avoid flying if you can and stay low when you do. The higher you are, the better the chance of that thing spotting you, and if they do, we’ll have a destroyer offshore in a day.”
He sighed and looked off to the lightward sky, but it was empty now. “It’s nearly time to feed Senaatha. Let’s go greet her.”
Presently, the great dragon’s breathing quickened, and she opened her eyes, hissing in pain.
The wounds along her side were closed now, but they still oozed a shining serum and her right limbs were twisted in unnatural shapes.
“How are you feeling, Aunt Senaatha?” Avnai asked.
“Not so good as I look,” she rumbled. “I hunger, boy. Stand back.” They gave way and Senaatha sent a controlled stream of fire washing over the pig’s carcass. After letting it burn a few seconds, she struck. Azriyqam had never seen a dragon eat in its natural form before. She couldn’t believe how fast Senaatha could move.
After the crunching of bones had died away, Senaatha sighed. “The healing trance progresses, but I will need more food.”
Azriyqam drew in a breath. “Kyria, I must speak with you. About my Command.”
Avnai stepped back. The dragon fixed her with one big eye.
“Kyria, when I told the Theurge to show me what would save Threlya, it showed me two things. One was a link to recharge her power. The other was a picture—a photograph taken from a Consortium aircraft—of my Century Ship, Ekkaia.” She swallowed, her throat unaccountably dry. “Why would that have anything to do with saving Threlya?”
Senaatha’s eye closed. “I cannot say. There is no sense in this.” There was a long pause. For a moment, Azriyqam thought that Senaatha had reentered her fugue. Then the dragon said, “You have dreamed of Ekkaia burning. You have seen her wreathed in flame. And sinking. Not only while you slept.”
“Yes. Fountains of fire leaping from the sea. What does it mean?”
“I do not know. More than chance, surely, but I must rest. I am sorry, my pupil.” Her voice trailed off, and she laid her head down.
Azriyqam stepped back, looking at her brother and Elazar.
Avnai spoke first. “What does it mean?”
Elazar frowned, lines creasing his sharp features. “You asked the Theurge to show you what would cure Threlya. It led you to that device and a photo of the Century Ship. She needs both, then?”
“It led me to an electrical charger that would fit Threlya’s warframe,” said Azriyqam. “But that doesn’t do Threlya any good without a source of electrical power. The kingdom doesn’t have any, but Ekkaia does.”
Responsibility of the Crown Page 19
