Трой Деннинг - The Veiled Dragon

To My Father

I would also like to thank the following people for their contributions to The Veiled Dragon: my editor, Phil, for his prompt reviews, apt suggestions, and our long discussions; my instructor, Master Lloyd Holden of the AKF Martial Arts Academy in Janesville, WI, for his remarks on Shou culture and combat; and, as always, Andria, most especially.

Far across the surging dunes of moonlit sea, the dark wyrm wheeled and, with a deftness surer than any desert falcon, struck again at the distant and battered caravel. The serpent caught the topyard in its ebony claws and snapped the thick timbers like twigs; the topsail tore free and away it flew, a gift to the wailing salt winds. From the caravel’s distant decks rose a flurry of tiny splinters, arrows and spears hurled by men who looked like insects beneath the belly of the monster. The black shafts struck its thick scales and bounced away without causing harm. The beast swooped low over the stern, spun upon its leathery wing, and returned at once to the vessel. Its talons tore into the wooden hull as the claws of a lion tear into the flanks of a camel.

A great dune of wind-driven sea rose up before Ruha, robbing her eyes of the faraway caravel and the night-black dragon. She locked her arms around the starboard taffrail of her own vessel, a forty-foot cog hired out of Cormyr, and watched the black waters gather like a mountain beside the ship. The dune crashed down, and the froth roared over the wales and swirled about her waist, sweeping her feet from beneath her hips. Ruha hugged the rail as though it were a husband. The torrent raged on, and each second seemed a minute. The angry sea dragged at her long aba like a ravisher determined to disrobe her, and churning tears of foam beat at her face, soaking her veil and her shawl with cold briny water. Her arms trembled with the strain of holding fast.

At last, the cog heeled to the wind and rose on the heaving sea. The fierce waters rolled across the deck and poured overboard, carrying with them all the torrent’s rage, and Ruha’s smooth-soled sandals found purchase on the wet planks. She stood and looked toward the distant caravel and saw neither dragon nor ship, only the splintered tip of a mainmast swaying above the crest of a faraway dune of water.

Ruha released the taffrail and clambered down the listing deck, half sliding over the wet planks to where Captain Fowler stood at the rear of the ship. He was as much orc as human, with a jutting brow, swinish snout, and tough, grayish-green skin, and he seemed a strange sort of commander to the eyes of a Bedine witch not long absent from Anauroch’s burning sands. He hugged the tiller with one burly arm, and his gray eyes never strayed from the ship’s single bulging sail.

Ruha grabbed the binnacle, the wooden compass stand before the tiller, and asked, “Captain Fowler, why do you sail in the wrong direction?” She pointed over the starboard side. “Do you not see the dragon? Over there!”

“Lady Witch, I know the beast’s bearings well enough.” Though his voice was deep and gravelly, the captain spoke with a deliberate composure that belied his feral aspect. “But even I cannot sail Storm Sprite full into the wind. We must beat our way.”

Ruha had learned a little of the strange speech used by the men who lived upon the water, enough to know Fowler meant they had to follow a zigzag course to their goal, and she did not need the captain to explain why. Even a woman who had not set eyes on a ship until three days ago could see that the Storm Sprite could not sail directly against the wind. But she could also see that Captain Fowler placed a high value on his vessel, and he was certainly shrewd enough to make a great show of rushing to the caravel’s aid while sailing at angles shallow enough to ensure he arrived after the battle was done.

Ruha glanced over the starboard side and saw the caravel topping the moonlit crest of a rolling sea dune. High upon its poop deck sat the dragon, swatting at the faraway vessel’s indiscernible crew as a man slaps at stinging flies.

“Captain Fowler, we have no time for this sailing of a snake’s path! By the time we reach the ship, we shall find nothing but dead men.”

“What would you have me do, Witch?” Fowler demanded. “I cannot change the way the wind blows!”

“And if you could turn the wind, would you have it blow straight at the caravel?”

The captain scowled, suspicious. “Aye, but first I would call Umberlee up from the great depths and have her chain her pet.”

“That I cannot do. I know nothing of this Umberlee.”

Ruha released the binnacle and cupped her hands together. She blew upon her fingers and spoke the mystical incantation of a wind enchantment. Her breath shimmered with a pale sapphire glow, then it swirled in her palms, emitting a low, keening howl such as starving jackals make at night. From Captain Fowler’s throat arose a gasp of surprise, and his gaze swung from his ship’s flaxen sail to the whistling breeze she held in her grasp.

“Lady Witch, what have you there?”

“It is the wind, Captain Fowler.” Twinkling blue streamers spilled from Ruha’s hands and spun across the gloomy deck, each adding its own piercing note to the wailing of the gale. “I am determined to reach that ship before the dragon sinks it.”

“That I can see, but it is no simple thing to bring a ship like Storm Sprite around. It takes time.”

“The dragon will give you no time!”

Ruha raised her hands toward the distant caravel, which now lay hidden behind another black and looming water dune.

“Hold your magic, Lady Witch!” commanded the captain. “You may have hired this ship, but I am the—”

The dune broke over the starboard side, and a torrent of white foam came boiling down the deck. Ruha flung her spell at the distant caravel and saw a dazzling stream of blue-sparkling wind shoot from the side of her own vessel. She threw her arms around the binnacle, and the dark waters were upon her. The raging currents swept her feet from beneath her. Had her elbows not been tightly wrapped around the slippery wood, surely she would have tumbled overboard and drowned in the angry black sea. Instead, she locked her fingers into the cloth of her aba and held fast, and when the torrent had receded, she pulled herself to her feet.

A few yards off the starboard side hung Ruha’s spell, a glittering wedge of blue air that constantly whirled back on itself, yet steadily drove forth into the fierce night wind. As this wedge moved forward, its fan-shaped tail broadened and stretched back toward the Storm Sprite , until it engulfed the whole of the small cog. A fog of cold indigo vapor spread over the decks, causing the crew to give many shouts of alarm and promise offerings of treasure to Umberlee, and eddies of sapphire wind sprang to life atop the taffrail. Azure drafts raced along the wales and undulated through the ratlines, and pale glowing breezes twined their way up the mast to spread along the yardarms.

Then a magnificent flapping arose in the sail. The night wind spilled from its belly, pouring a cascade of swirling turquoise zephyrs down upon the crew, and the small cog slowed. The sailors wailed in fear, tossing many rings and earrings overboard to win the favor of their avaricious sea goddess.

“You wretched witch!” Fowler held the tiller at the length of his arm, and his gray eyes were staring in horror at the pale breeze spiraling along the lacquered surface. If it troubled the captain to have the scintillating currents swirling over his green skin also, he showed no sign of it. “What have you done to my ship?”