David Wells - Linkershim

“You don’t have to protect me. I can protect myself.”

“Please go home,” Alexander whispered. “You don’t know what you’re getting into.”

She shook her head slowly, defiantly. “I’m not leaving you.”

He closed his eyes and turned away from her, striding purposefully toward his stateroom.

“Where are you going?” Anja asked, trailing behind him.

“Keep an eye on her, Jack,” Alexander said, ignoring Anja’s question.

She caught up to him and grabbed his arm, turning him toward her.

“Wait, where are you going? What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to talk with your mother. I’m going to ask her to come get you and take you home whether you like it or not.”

He twisted his arm free of her grip and left her standing there pouting.

***

“Hello Bragador,” Alexander said, a moment after appearing before her. She had been sleeping in her magnificent true form atop a pile of gold and silver coins.

“I had hoped it would be some time before we spoke again.”

“Anja has stowed away on my ship,” Alexander said. “I just discovered her a few minutes ago. I told her to go home, but she refused.”

“I see,” Bragador whispered.

“We’re under attack. I’ve ordered the captain to make for the coast of Andalia. We have to abandon ship. If I could turn the ship around and bring her home to you, I would.”

“I know that you would, Alexander. I do not doubt your feelings for my daughter.”

“Please, come get her,” Alexander said. “I can’t keep her safe.”

“She hasn’t listened to my counsel on this matter before. What makes you think she will now?”

“Bragador, I don’t care if she listens, just come and get her.”

Bragador cocked her head and looked at Alexander quizzically. “Would not such a thing violate the very Old Law that you have argued so forcefully for?”

“Anja is a child. She isn’t old enough to know what’s good for her yet.”

“And yet, she is a sovereign being with free will granted to her by the Maker. Who am I to force her to act according to my will?”

“You’re her mother! A child needs limitations and guidance or they could get hurt.”

“Perhaps, but I fear nothing short of imprisoning her would keep her here … and I can assure you that imprisoning a dragon is no easy task.”

“So what are you saying?”

“I’m saying that my daughter has made her decision and I must honor it because I have no better choice. She will not hear reason and I will not use force against her, even to protect her.”

“I don’t know if I can keep her safe.”

“Nor do I. She was almost murdered before she was even born, and all while under my care and protection. She lives because you risked your life to save her. If I must entrust my child to a human, I could do far worse than you. Please tell her that I love her and that I will miss her every day that she is absent from my home.”

Alexander closed his eyes and nodded in resignation.

Bragador settled in to her mound of treasure and closed her eyes, a single tear slipping down the side of her face as Alexander vanished.

***

He stumbled and fell as he came back on deck, the ship lurching violently, a sickening grinding noise reverberating through the hull moments before the keel buckled against a reef several thousand feet from shore.

Anja picked him up and stood him on his feet. “What did she say?”

Alexander regarded her sternly but found his anger evaporating in the face of her childlike naiveté.

“She said she loves you and she misses you,” Alexander said, turning away from her, looking for Captain Kalderson.

Alexander found him organizing the loading of the longboats. Alexander grabbed hold of some rigging to steady himself when the ship shifted, listing to one side, water flowing freely into the hold.

Kalderson pointed toward the aft deck and the captain’s launch. Alexander nodded, motioning for Jack and Anja to follow him. Several men were already there, waiting for the captain before casting off.

“Shove off,” Alexander commanded.

“What about the captain?” one of the sailors asked.

“We’ll pick him up at the front of the ship.”

Another shredder slammed into the aft deck just above the launch. All hesitation on the part of the crew vanished. Within a few minutes, the sailors had maneuvered the boat around to the front of the ship, using the hull as cover from the increasing barrage of enemy fire.

Kalderson was the last man off his ship, sliding down a rope to one of the longboats and waving for Alexander to make for shore. The rowers rhythmically pulled the launch toward the inhospitable coastline, periodically aided by the waves washing toward the rocky beach. Unwilling to risk their ships, the pirates dropped anchor far enough from shore to avoid the hidden danger of the reef and started putting longboats into the water.

Their caution provided Alexander and his friends a brief reprieve as they quickly moved out of ballista range. Alexander felt an odd sense of calm settle over him, but he knew that it would be shattered all too soon.

“Why did they attack us?” Anja asked.

“Because I’m at war with them,” Alexander said. “On board one of those ships are the men who stole you from your mother before you were even born. They used your life as leverage against your mother. And they did all of that to get to me. These people are serious, Anja. They’ll hurt you if they can.”

The rowers tried to focus on the task at hand, but Alexander could see a mixture of curiosity and intrigue mingle with the fear already staining their colors.

Anja looked out at the enemy ships with a fierceness and intensity that even Alexander found a bit unsettling.

“Not if I kill them first,” she said. “If only I could change form without the Temple of Fire, I’d go kill them all right now.”

“Anja, you can change into your true form right now and you know it,” Alexander said.

“But then I wouldn’t be able to change back into a girl. If I take my true form, I’ll have to go home.”

“Exactly,” Alexander said.

She frowned deeply, her brow furrowing under her coppery-red hair, but she said nothing.

“I count seventeen longboats headed our way,” Jack said. “Do we run or fight?”

“We run,” Alexander said.

“But they tried to kill me,” Anja said.

“I don’t kill for vengeance, Anja, as much as I might want to. I kill to defend the Old Law. Even if we could kill every one of them without losing a single man, and we can’t, it would do nothing to win this war.”

“I wouldn’t mind seeing Tyr bleed,” Jack said.

“I’ve thought about that too,” Alexander said. “But I don’t want to kill him until I’m sure he’s not the last of his line.”

“Why not?” Anja said.

“I don’t want to extinguish the Tyr bloodline,” Alexander said, patting the hilt of the Thinblade. “This sword is one of only three remaining in the world. In the right hands, it could reunite the Isle of Tyr under the Old Law.”

Jack chuckled, taking out his little pad and scribbling notes, nodding to himself.

“You would give away your magic sword?” Anja asked.

“To the right person, yes,” Alexander said.

“Why?” Anja asked.

“If I could give the people of Tyr protection under the Old Law for the price of a sword, I’d count that as a bargain.”

“But your sword makes you powerful.”

“Yes, and I can’t think of a better way to use that power.”

The beach came into range of Alexander’s all around sight. He scanned for danger but found only craggy cliffs populated by gnarled and windblown trees clinging for dear life to the rocky bluffs.