David Wells - Cursed Bones

“I’m a projection, Captain,” Alexander said, waving his hand through the foredeck railing, “an illusion.”

“I don’t pretend to understand such wizardry,” Captain Riggs said, “but Lord Abel spoke to every captain in the fleet and told us that if you were to come to us in our dreams, we were to obey your orders as if they’d come from him. I suppose this is enough like a dream to count. I accept Captain Wyatt’s command, my ships are at his disposal.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Alexander said, turning back to Wyatt. “You’re about a day and a half away from the ship carrying Lacy. It’s manned by men dressed like Zuhl’s soldiers but they’re really Regency soldiers.”

Wyatt frowned in puzzlement. “What’s their game?”

“Phane wants the contents of a magical box that Lacy has in her possession and she’s the only one who can open it,” Alexander said. “And I think he’s trying to trick her into doing just that. There are two warships flying the Regency flag a few days out and they’re headed right for Lacy’s ship.”

“Sounds like this ocean is about to get very crowded,” Wyatt said.

“It gets worse,” Alexander said, holding Wyatt’s eyes for a moment. “A dragon named Aedan was sent by Lady Bragador to retrieve Lacy from the ship, but the shade possessed him and then retreated.”

Wyatt blinked a few times and shook his head. “I don’t know what we can do against a dragon,” he said. “There isn’t a single wizard aboard any of these ships and I doubt our weapons will have much effect.”

“Trust me, they won’t,” Alexander said. “If the shade wants to sink you, you’re sunk.”

“Why doesn’t he just take Princess Lacy and the box?” Wyatt asked.

“He can’t open it or he would,” Alexander said. “I think he’s waiting for Phane’s ruse to play out. Besides, Phane already has the other two keystones, so the shade will have to get them from him for his plan to succeed. For now, the shade is playing a waiting game.”

“Very well, what are my orders?” Wyatt asked.

“Use Knight Kinley to scout for the dragon,” Alexander said. “If you have clear skies, I want you to attack, board the ship and retrieve Princess Lacy with all of her personal effects. She’s traveling with one of Phane’s agents, a man named Drogan, but she isn’t aware of his true purpose. Do not trust him no matter how much the princess vouches for him.”

“Once we have her, then what?” Wyatt asked.

“Ensure she has the box and make haste for Ithilian,” Alexander said. “Abel and the Ithilian wizards will be ready to protect her the moment she makes landfall.”

“And if the dragon is present?” Wyatt asked.

“Hold back and follow at a safe distance,” Alexander said. “In any event, I’ll be keeping an eye on the situation, so I’ll be here to provide further guidance when you need it.”

“Thank you, Lord Reishi,” Wyatt said, saluting, fist to heart.

Alexander returned the salute as he faded out of sight.

Lacy woke shivering. The single thin blanket wasn’t enough to ward against the chill of the early morning ocean air. The ache of her broken hand had become a constant part of her day, throbbing, sometimes stabbing and sharp, but always hurting … and the cold didn’t help. Drogan was standing at his cell door listening intently. A moment later a crashing noise was followed by shouts and screams.

“Get ready to move,” Drogan said, retrieving a piece of wire from the hem of his blanket.

“Where did you get that?”

He ignored her, going to work on the lock to his cell door. A moment later he was out and picking the lock to her door.

“Why didn’t you do that before?” Lacy asked.

“Where would we have gone?” he asked, not waiting for an answer before he went to the footlocker containing their belongings. Within minutes, they had their weapons and equipment and were moving toward the stairs leading above decks.

Shouts of fighting and the ring of steel filtered through the deck boards. Drogan stuck his head above, then retreated quickly, cursing under his breath.

“What is it?” Lacy asked. “What’s wrong?”

He ignored her, motioning for her to follow quietly. As they hurried through the hatch, Lacy looked around almost frantically at the battle taking place on the main deck. Zuhl’s soldiers were fighting with almost reckless desperation against the well-organized unit of men that had boarded from an adjacent warship. Three more ships surrounded them, preventing escape while the boarding party worked to seize the ship.

Drogan led her to the aft deck, avoiding Zuhl’s men who were surging toward the foredeck and the boarding party. Lacy recognized their uniforms-the boarding party was from the Reishi Protectorate, the soldiers that had been chasing her on Fellenden before she and Drogan escaped aboard the refugee ship.

“There,” Drogan said, pointing off into the distance.

Two more ships were coming toward them.

“Who’s that?” Lacy asked, trying to overcome the tremor of fear rippling in her voice.

“Regency Navy,” Drogan said.

In the back of her mind, Lacy wondered at the timing. How could Drogan know to look for friendly vessels amid such chaos?

Then she saw the dragon. It flew over the ship, the man riding the beast looking down intensely, locking eyes with her for only a moment before banking hard and circling back over the attacking ship, shouting something that she couldn’t make out over the wind.

A man standing on the foredeck of the nearest attacking ship signaled to the dragon and it started to gain altitude, wheeling at the apex of its climb and diving toward her ship, clearly intent on an attack.

What happened next defied reason. A man aboard her ship ran for the railing toward the inbound dragon and leapt off the side of the boat. She stared in disbelief as he transformed into a dragon … a real dragon.

In that moment she knew that the thing headed toward her ship, the creature that she believed was a dragon-was not, could not be a true dragon because the terrible and magnificent creature rising to meet it was easily twice its size and seemed to radiate power.

The man riding the smaller creature pulled hard on his reins, trying to avoid the dragon coming for him, but he was too late-already committed to his attack, he was unable to change course quickly enough. The true dragon flared its wings, bringing its hind legs up and raking the belly of the other creature, flipping it over and casting it into the ocean with a roar that seemed to still the air and freeze in place the men fighting for their lives-alerting everyone that the situation had just changed in a very fundamental way.

The dragon banked hard, breathing fire onto the ship holding anchor at the port side, setting man and timber alike aflame in a whoosh.

The ships holding aft and starboard raised anchors and turned away from the engagement while the boarding ship sounded horns, signaling a retreat … but it was too late. The green dragon circled, calmly and gracefully breathing fire on the aft ship, setting it ablaze in an instant. Men leapt into the ocean to avoid the conflagration, but too few and some too late, dousing their flaming clothes in the ocean.

As Lacy stood mesmerized by the unimaginable battle taking place, two men from the Reishi Protectorate approached with weapons drawn.

“Princess Lacy, please … come with us,” the first said.

“There isn’t much time,” the other said.

Drogan threw a knife, burying it to the hilt in the throat of the first man.

The second man raised his sword and engaged, stabbing into Drogan quickly, but not quickly enough. Drogan shifted his weight, turning his body sideways, just barely avoiding the blade, then grabbed the man by the back of the neck and threw him overboard with one powerful heave.