Мэтт Форбек - The Queen of Death

Kandler sauntered down from the bridge and made his way to the hatch. With a quick glance to the rear, he noticed that the dragon behind the airship could not see the hatchway from here. The bridge blocked its way.

“These dragons seem much friendlier than the last one we met,” Kandler said as he slipped below the deck.

Esprë rushed forward and threw herself into Kandler’s arms. He could feel her shivering there for a moment. Then she pushed herself away.

“Don’t do that again,” she said. “I can handle this myself.” She held her arms tight around her and scowled at him, her anger warring with relief.

“Good for you,” Kandler said softly. “I don’t think I can.”

“I know I can’t,” said Burch. “Two dragons flapping around us over the middle of the Dragonreach? I’m just happy to still be sucking air instead of water—or fire.

“What’s the plan now?” Esprë said.

Kandler wanted to reach out and hug her, but she clearly didn’t want that right now. Instead, he rubbed his chin and said, “I told them we were heading to Seren to set up a trade agreement, and they seemed to buy it—or not care enough about it to object. They’re escorting us there now. You two should probably stay down here until we get there, just to avoid any more trouble.”

“Sold,” Burch said. He leaped into the nearest hammock and stretched out his long, furry legs.

“But …” Esprë started.

Kandler didn’t cut her off. He waited for her to continue. When she didn’t, he prompted her. “But what?”

“But shouldn’t you have asked me first?”

“You weren’t there.”

“Because you had Burch take me down here.”

“True enough,” Kandler nodded. He put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Esprë. I’m used to treating you like a child still, and I’ll have to work to get over that. I can tell you one thing though.”

“What’s that?” she said, her lower lip poking out in a suspicious pout.

“I’m never going to stop trying to keep you safe, no matter how old you get.”

Esprë tried to snarl at this, but she ended up grinning instead. “All right,” she said, putting her arm around Kandler’s waist. “Just next time try to give me a bit of warning, eh?”

“Sure.” Kandler leaned down and kissed her on the top of the head.

“Ahoy, below!” Monja said as she stuck her head down through the hatch.

“What is it?” said Kandler. He noticed Burch slide right down out of his hammock, ready for action.

“Land ho.” The halfling grinned. Then her head disappeared.

Kandler started up the ladder. Before he crawled out the hatch, he turned and said, “I’ll be back as soon as I can. Stay put here.” He looked at Esprë. “Please.”

“All right,” she said with a wistful frown.

Up top, Kandler followed Monja out to the bow. Te’oma and Xalt stood there shading their eyes and peering out into the distance.

“Right there,” Xalt said, pointing toward the horizon straight ahead of them. “You can just see it.”

Kandler squinted, trying to ignore the red dragon flapping along ahead of the airship, and followed the direction of Xalt’s finger until he spotted it: land. They’d spend a long time out over the waves with nothing to see on any side but water, sky, and clouds. Despite the company they’d brought with them, the justicar felt like jumping with joy at the sight of the tops of the high mountains ahead, stabbing just out of the waves.

“Welcome to Seren Island,” Te’oma said. “Let’s hope it’s not the last place we ever see.”

Kandler led the others back to the bridge where Sallah stood at the wheel. He saw sweat breaking out on her brow.

“The fire elemental doesn’t want to go this way,” she said. She never took her eyes from the horizon in front of her, right where the mountains grew taller by the second.

“Can you point out that straying from the wake of that dragon in front of us will probably result in the ship’s destruction?” Xalt said.

“It wants to be destroyed,” Monja said in a far too chipper tone. “Remember?”

“Destroyed is one thing,” Te’oma said. “Being devoured by a pair of angry dragons is a whole new kind of awful.”

“Just keep the ship on course,” Kandler said, placing a hand on the lady knight’s arm. “I know you can do it.”

“Would you say you have faith in me?” Sallah said, a small smile on her lips.

Kandler grunted. “I don’t have faith in much more than my family and friends. I have faith in you.”

Sallah’s smile widened, but she didn’t say a word. She adjusted her grasp on the airship’s wheel, and her shoulders relaxed.

Kandler patted her on the back then stared out past the dragon high above their bow. There on the horizon, the mountains had grown larger and strung out wider across the edge of the sea. In the area closest to the airship, Kandler saw a strip of white sand. This wrapped around the island as far as he could see in either direction.

As they scudded through the sky, a bay appeared in the island, a sheltered natural harbor from which a clearing ran back from the beach. In the clearing stood a handful of low huts made of some kind of grass or bamboo that had turned silver in the harsh rays of the sun.

The lead dragon came in toward the huts hard and fast. Kandler looked at Sallah, who shrugged at him. With a dragon before and behind, she had little choice but to follow along.

For a moment, Kandler wondered if this might be some sort of trap. Then he realized how pointless it would be for the dragons to try to trap someone they could just as easily incinerate. The creatures might have something other than a simple death in mind for the people aboard the Phoenix, but whatever their fate was to be, he would have to be patient.

The dragon to the rear put on a burst of speed and zoomed past the airship. It flew on ahead and reached the tiny hamlet on the beach long before the airship and the dragon still escorting her would arrive.

Kandler suppressed an urge to attack the dragons. The soldier in him wanted to get the hostilities out in the open and dealt with as soon as possible. Had he not been entirely sure that this would result in instant doom for everyone else aboard the Phoenix, he might have given it a try.

Sallah urged the airship along and brought her to a halt over the beach. The dragon that had raced before them kept flying away, not even looking back. When Kandler glanced behind the Phoenix, the dragon that had been to her aft was no longer there.

“We must be here,” he said.

Kandler moved to the port rail and looked down at the land below. A trio of dragon-headed longboats sat on the shore, right in the safest part of the harbor’s gentle arc. They had been painted silver long ago, although the colors had worn badly below their waterlines. Sets of long oars lay stashed in each boat. None of them bore sails.

Beyond the huts stood a wooden palisade. A carved dragon’s head topped each of the tall poles, bristling with teeth and spikes. Each shone in a different color, some glinting metallic, others not.

Human-sized skeletons, strung together with strips of leather hung from several of the poles, especially the ones nearest the gate, which stood closed. The hot sun had long since bleached the bones as white as Te’oma’s skin. The skulls bore holes and missing teeth, and the arms and legs were broken in many places.

There were no people on the beach, and the village beyond seemed empty as well.

“Should we just drop in on them?” Burch asked.

Kandler jumped at the shifter’s voice then turned on him, mad. “I thought I told you to stay below.” As he spoke, he glared at Esprë too, who stood behind the shifter.