What’s the status of our forces?Vorik lay on the floor of a cell, his ankles and wrists shackled. The occasional bump against the door and a loud sneeze earlier suggested he had at least one guard.
Outside, wind railed against the hull of the ship, and creaks and groans came from within, but the craft wasn’t rocking as much as he would have expected if it were in the open sea. The Kingdom fleet must have sailed into the harbor for protection from the storm—and to ensure his people and dragon allies didn’t return to the city around it.
The storm rages, so we are hunkering in caves in the volcano on the far end of the Island of Eliok while the human leaders decide what to do next. The dragons are discussing that weapons platform. We believe it has a limited range.
How limited?
Perhaps five miles.
That’s not very limited.
No cannonball had ever sailed that far. With the unerring accuracy of the magical projectiles, and their ability to twist and turn to chase a target, Vorik wouldn’t want to test them at even the edge of that range.
No,Agrevlari agreed,but the ship carrying it would have to sail in this direction to reach us here. We may still hunt on this end of the island.
Does that mean the dragons aren’t that concerned?
As I said, we lost kin to that contraption,Agrevlari said with atypical grim seriousness.Weareconcerned. We are joining with the general in contemplating how it might be destroyed or sunk and rendered inoperable.
I understand. I’m sorry you lost kin.Vorik closed his eyes, questioning his decision to volunteer to capture Syla. If he hadn’t argued to take her alive, and his people hadn’t been worried about hitting him, might they have succeeded in sinking the ship?
Maybe, maybe not. The arrival of Wreylith and the Freeborn Faction dragons had made everything more difficult.
If it makes you feel better,Vorik added,I’m shackled in a cell. When I was thinking of trying to leap overboard, Wreylith blocked me, knocked me to the deck, and planted a taloned foot on my back while the gardeners disarmed me. It was humiliating.
“To think, I claimed to like challenges,” he said aloud to himself.
I would have enjoyed having Wreylith touch me in any manner,Agrevlari said.
Her talons aren’t as appealing as you might think. In the next ballad you compose to screech at her, I would not suggest highlighting their magnificence.
All of her is magnificent. I’d hoped that our romantic time together would have left her pining for me and eager to join again, but when, after your queen fell unconscious and no longer manned the weapons platform, I flew close… Wreylith snarled at me.
Didn’t she do that while you were joining too? I remember a lot of activity up there.For the most part, Vorik had been distracted by his ownjoining with Syla, but having the dragons overhead with rocks falling off the platform they’d used as a bed—anest—had distracted him a couple of times.
Yes, but, in that context, I believed they were affectionate snarls of arousal. She wasnotaffectionate when she was keeping me from reaching you.
Wasn’t she fighting with Ozlemar earlier? That probably made her crabby.
That is a good point. Encounters with Ozlemar makeeveryonecrabby.
My brother doesn’t mind him.
Your brother is a rare human and not easily perturbed.
Vorik wagered Jhiton was perturbed now and didn’t look forward to meeting up with him again. Heespeciallydidn’t look forward to seeing Lesva again and grimaced as he imagined the two of them standing shoulder to shoulder and facing him.
Perhaps Wreylith isnotdispleased with me and was only expressing her ire which was naturally roused after her encounter with Ozlemar. Now that you mention it, that does seem likely. While I wait for you to extricate yourself from your predicament, I may see if I can hunt down an eliok or other tasty morsel that I might offer to share with Wreylith. After her battle, she is undoubtedly hungry.
Undoubtedly.
Do you know what her favorite meals are? Perhaps I should have asked. An offering is always welcomed by a dragon.Perhaps a delicacy would win her regard more effectively than a ballad.
I think that’s likely. Syla mentioned that Wreylith likes tongue but did not say which creature’s tongue she was consuming.
Hm. Tongues are quite ubiquitous among herbivores. I should not think that slinging one toward her from a less favored prey would be effective.
Probably not. From what I’ve observed, women don’t care to have tongues slung at them, regardless. Now, if the tongue was attached to an appealing mate and used in an evocative way, that might be different.
