In their youth, they might have come to blows. Civilized rules about fighting women didn’t apply to the dragon-blooded, and brawling was of less account when broken bones would heal within a day or two. In front of the men, Toinette wouldn’t call him out, as much as it would relieve her feelings.
“It doesn’t matter whether it worked or not,” she settled for saying, clipping her speech to sound as remote and adult as she could, as she did when haggling with employers or disciplining her crew. “It matters that you tried. Or that you didn’t thinknotto try.”
Erik sighed. “Men live with danger every day. Mortal men die every day. These men signed on for it willingly.”
“They didn’t know it would come to this,” Toinette said, biting back more angry words about the other things he’d said. She got to her feet and shook sand sharply from her dress, not caring where it went. “You have a week. I’ll help. But when the week’s over, we leave. If we meet with anything worse than the plants, we leave. I’m not sacrificing another man to Artair’s pride.”
“It’s—” Erik started to object hotly.
“It’sallpride, as far as I’m concerned. Kings and crowns and banners—it’s all pride, it’s all stupid, and none of it’s worth a drop of my men’s blood.”
She stalked off toward the end of the beach, away from Erik and the fire both. Itwastrue that nothing on the island so far could really harm her, and she didn’t think she could be around anyone for a few hours. Not safely.
Sixteen
Two silver coins glinted up from the dark stump where the old mast had been. One came from Spain, the other from England, but Erik suspected they’d both serve their purpose just as well, even if his MacAlasdair side scoffed at the notion of good luck coming from anything with Edward Longshanks’s crowned head on it. Silver was silver for magical purposes. Surely it would be so for more abstract luck as well.
God knew they needed it. The week wasn’t half over, but he’d seen no other signs of the Templars, much less their treasure. Flying over the island revealed little, as the trees were too thick to see through, and he could only hack his way through the forest for so long before coming to the end of his strength. Duty required him not to exhaust himself completely, lest another storm or an unexpected attack require him to defend the men, or theHawk’s repairs require more might.
He knew Toinette would expect as much too, although she didn’t say it to him. As strained as affairs might be between the two of them, she trusted him to know his work, much as Erik had faith that she looked diligently for the Templars on her days in the forest and put her back into clearing a path. They might not talk often, but they were both old enough to recognize the need for cooperation despite that, and to manage it.
Erik did miss her joking, her sidelong smiles, and the occasional glance that recognized their mutual heritage and background, the things that set them a little apart from the others. Since the argument, she’d been a woman purely of business with him, reporting the day’s tasks and results, asking necessary questions, and otherwise keeping her silence. He couldn’t have called itsulking, as she was cordial enough when they did need to speak, but he felt the difference and was himself inclined to resent it.
He tried to be understanding: if she didn’t understand a man’s duty to his lord and kin, well, she’d never had either, nor a country and a people to guard against conquerors. Still, when she stood on theHawk’s deck and cast her eyes quickly over him, just as she might have done one of her men—or a part of her ship—Erik nodded once in reply and thoughtI can be as distant as you, my lady.
God would doubtless hold him to account for such petty spite someday, but God would hold him to account for any number of other sins first.
Erik shifted easily, like swirling a cloak around his shoulders. The mast lay in front of him, now as well-shaped and worked as the crew’s efforts and tools could make it. None were experts in shipbuilding, yet most had learned enough through the years. He took hold of it gently, for one in his form, held it in his foreclaws, and made the necessary adjustments so that the weight balanced.
Strength wasn’t everything. He’d learned that in his youth. Misjudging weight could break rather than transport, and could leave even a dragon injured.
He was just as careful when he took flight, making certain that the wind from his wings would harm neither the assembled sailors nor theHawk. Even at their fiercest, dragons weren’t as strong as a storm, but they were much more focused. Artair had explained many ways to use flight itself as a weapon; in time, Erik had employed a few of them and seen the results. They didn’t stand out in his memory with quite the grisly detail as others, especially those of flame, but he would much prefer to avoid creating them again, particularly on men who were his allies.
Slowly he circled around theHawk’s deck, righting the mast and bringing it closer until it fit into the top of the stump, covering the silver coins there. Then Erik hovered in midair above the ship, holding both himself and the mast steady. He did have to beat his wings rapidly to manage that. On the deck, Toinette’s hair escaped its bindings and streamed copper into the blue sky, while the shorter crops of the men only ruffled, as did the water below.
Marcus put a hand on the mast and felt the joining, then stepped back and assessed the angle. “Good,” he said to Toinette and Erik alike.
Toinette nodded, then turned to the men. “Ropes and pegs now. Quick as we can. He can’t hold that for very long.”
The man’s pride in Erik bridled. Yet the dragon was foremost: it was a creature of instinct and fact, with no thought for pride or shame in human eyes. What Toinette said was true. Already his muscles were aching from the effort of hovering in the air, so that his weight might not break or swamp the ship. The sooner he could stop, the happier he’d be, and so he was more grateful to Toinette than annoyed with her for mentioning it.
She was in action alongside her men too, catching and tossing coils of rope, tying huge, firm knots in the complicated configurations of line that would bind the new mast to the deck, and not hesitating for a heartbeat about any of it. The remnants of her blue skirt danced around her slim legs in the wind, as if they wished to become part of the sky they so resembled.
Within the dragon, Erik the man watched and, despite his irritation, couldn’t help but admire her. Her legs surely caught the eye, but her unhesitating competence drew the mind and the heart to attention.
Despite the physical relief, it was almost a pity when Marcus stepped back, eyed the rigging, and declared the process done—for now. “Let go,” he added to Erik, “but make ready to catch the thing in case we’ve fouled up somewhere.”
“Your faith is inspiring,” said Toinette, flashing the grin of a woman who knew she had nothing to fear from the results of her work.
And indeed, when Erik gingerly loosed his hold and backwinged a little, the mast stayed well in place. The ropes rippled a little, adjusting to the new weight, but held firm.
“Good!” Toinette said, and clapped her hands once together. “Get the crew aboard. The tide’s with us. We’ll go once ’round the island, and see how she does with the open air and the current. Stay in your shape, if you would,” she added to Erik, with a more friendly countenance than she’d shown for a while. As he remembered, joy at success made her forget her resentments. “We may need your aid yet.”
As the crew climbed onto theHawkand made ready to cast off, Erik took the chance to rest on the beach, catching his breath and stretching out the muscles of his back and wings. The sand was warm and pleasantly rough against his scales; the sun beat on his shoulders while a fresh breeze blew from the east. If not for the possible task near at hand, he could have easily fallen asleep.
He did close his eyes, intending only to rest them for a short time, while the noises of the men casting off went on around him. They fell into a rhythm, irregular but there and soothing after its own fashion. It was pleasant to hear work when his was complete for the time being.
The splashing of the boat in the water and the snap of the sail came next, then an unexpected groan from many throats. Distant, but audible to one in dragon’s form, he heard Toinette’s voice: “Wind’s shifted. Bad luck, but we’ve had worse. Shift sail, and we’ll tack into it.”
