As I stepped around the table, my sight darted to a roasted piglet on a silver tray before returning to the lanky male balancing his chair on its rear legs. He was lean, with long legs in plum breeches. He had no shoes, socks, or shirt. Ink designs dotted his hairless chest, toned arms, and sides. As I neared, the light from a hanging brass lamp illuminated him better. Gold hoops adorned his ears. A small diamond glistened in his left nostril. His beauty was hard to ignore.
“Welcome to my rooms. Please sit, eat, rest. You must have traveled far and look the worse for wear.”
“I seek Lawful Larry,” I replied cautiously, sure of my eyes obviously, but not willing to divulge anything before I had proof he was truly the man I sought.
“You’ve found him.” His smile was brilliant and white. One canine tooth was a bit longer than normal, which was trulythe only flaw I could find about him. Physically of course. He motioned to the food once more with an elegant hand bedecked with gold rings that shone in a rainbow of colors. Jaculi would gnaw off his long fingers when he saw them. “Although I am far from lawful, and if we’re being honest, and I think we have many things to discuss elf to elf, I am in actuality Larry the Tenth. But you seem to be too well-informed to fall for such nonsense. I am Coelum Cadere, son of Pontious Cadere. My grandsire many times back was the original Larry, and I a mere humble thespian playing a role created by a true master.”
“Master Pirate?” The aroma of a platter of roasted vegetables cooked in spices from the Black Sands was making my mouth water. The wyrmling in my shirt was slowly awakening. The scent of seared pig flesh reaching his sensitive nostrils, no doubt.
The pirate prince chuckled. “You say that as if being a privateer is a bad thing, Beiro Vahorn.” My eyes flared. “Please, do sit. Shall I call up your fearsome dwarven sellsword partner as well to join us?”
“I…no, that is not needed.” I sat.
“Wine?” I shook my head. “Water?”
“Yes, water,” I replied while my mind whirled about trying to sort how he knew of me. A drink would ease my suddenly dry throat.
He smiled, a most charming smile, then lifted a hand. With a swirl of his ringed fingers, the water in the pitcher rose upward and floated across the table to tumble into an empty wine glass. I gaped openly at him. He cocked a sleek brow.
“You possess elemental magic,” I whispered, the still settling water forgotten.
“Mm, born with it. Water whisperer.” He lowered his hand to the table, the glyphs disappearing. “It’s a handy trait for a man who sails the seas. So, Beiro Vahorn, you honor me withyour presence. Are you here to trade the life of a bandit and sign on to my vessel?” I wanted to ask how he knew my name badly. Yet I bit that back. “Oh, are you wondering how I know who you are?”
“The question is strong in my head,” I confessed as the wyrm in my underclothing began to writhe about, stretching like a dog after a long nap.
“As it would be in mine.” He took a sip of dark red wine, ran his tongue over his lips, and then swirled the ruby liquid about in his goblet. The two in bed snored softly unaware of the meeting taking place a few feet away. “Pay them no mind. They sniffed a bit too much ground tundra red cap and will be out for the better part of the day.”
“Ground red cap is a powerful hallucinogen.” I now worried about the two elves.
“True, and a fucking marvelous aphrodisiac.” My gaze darted to my host in time to catch a lascivious smile on that stunning face. He was almost too pretty. Very much unlike my Asdren, who possessed a rugged masculinity. “Sorry, I digressed. A missive informed me that an attractive elf with ginger root hair was met at the main gate. It was easy to add two and two and arrive at four. See, I have had you followed since you arrived at our gates. A raven flew out to meet us as we were pushing through some rough seas on our way home. The note was from Hyla Everwind, who is not only a dear family friend but served as my wet nurse for the first two years of my life. She sailed the seas with my father for many years afterwards, losing her leg to a shark that she fought off to save my life when I toddled off the side of the Cloud’s Shame as a toddler. Father gave her a home, a job, and all the free rum she could handle, which is quite a lot of rum. Oh, and he had her leg made for her by a wood elf gifted in woodworking.”
Ah. Well, that explained a great deal. The man was as clever as a fox. “I see. So my hair gave me away.”
“It did, but do not think that you need to hack it off again. According to Hyla, it was quite striking. After her note about the redheaded, freckled elf who was too attractive for this shitty town, she relayed she had seen you again with the red hair gone. That, she said, was suspicious, so she sent a raven asking for my thoughts. I told her to follow you, and she has, everywhere, even to the bathatorium, which is how I knew where to send the mat boy with my note. Finding out your lineage was easy enough. Few elves have your hair coloring and many here know of your sire. They say you resemble him strongly. Two added to two makes four, as I said earlier. You see, we all know each other quite well here in the Quay, so when an elf such as you shows up asking questions about one of our own…”
“I understand. It was much the same in the bandit camps.” He nodded silently. “I have come from Celear.” That got me a soft tip of his head, satiny black hair sliding over his bare shoulder. “At the request of the Ivory King.”
“The bounty he placed upon my father is null and void. You may tell Grimmane that when you return to his side. My father died last winter in a violent gale that nearly claimed all on board. I have been the captain of the Cloud’s Shame since he was returned to the Stormhold.”
I caught the faint glimmer of pain in his eyes before it was gone. “I am sorry for your loss.” He inclined his head with an elegant flair. “It is not the bounty on your father or you.”
“Then what would bring you and the Sable Legion all the way from Celear to Quinn’s Quay if not for blood or money?” He leaned forward seawater-colored eyes filled with questions. “I’m curious as to what brings you to my little alehouse slash bordello. I don’t think we fucked in the past. I would recall bedding a ginger root elf with such glorious green eyes. Norhave I left you quickening with my bastard offspring. Not that I do that on the regular, I’m quite careful about ensuring my spend only goes into the most willing of arses. Cuts down on by-blows and bastards.”
“I…no,” I stammered, feeling the heat rise in my cheeks. “I have a letter, sealed, hidden away to deliver to you.”
He sat back, the legs of his chair thudding to the floorboards. “Then let me see this letter from the king. And if I discover you are lying to me, I will have you tossed into the sea with an anchor for an anklet.”
I stood. The dragon in my underthings popped free of my clothing, wiggling out from under my breastplate to land on the table. Coelum shoved back so quickly that his chair toppled over. The two elves in his bed did not twitch.
“May the sea witches bless us,” Cadere whispered, his eyes wide. Jaculi hissed then did his best to either cough up a scaleball or expel frost. A short, raspy hack was all he managed, which was not at all fearsome. Coelum righted his chair, smiling now, widely, and sat back down. “Is that a dragonling?”
“It is, and it is mine, so do not offer to purchase him or take him from me,” I snarled, just like my wyrmling now making his way in an awkward sideways gait to the roasted pig.
“No, no, I would not dream of it,” he replied, his sight locked on Jaculi. “He is free to avail himself of the food. Where did you find him? Does he know Elven? Does he speak?”
“In a cave, yes, he knows Elven, and only to me via our minds.”
“I see. I have read of wyrmwardens but never imagined that I would meet one as these beasts are thought to be extinct. Does it have a name?”
