DANTAR
Dantar towed the boat right up onto the beach, then released the rope. By the time a squad of Dravinian marines arrived to investigate, the boat was empty.
‘First some bleedin’ great dragon drops a boat on a tavern roof, then another dragon tows one ashore,’ said the sergeant of the squad. ‘What is it about dragons?’
‘Sometimes I think they just does things to keep us guessing,’ said a marine.
‘Like, there’s no real reason, they just does it to make us scratch our heads?’
‘Reckon so.’
‘Where’s that shepherd who saw it arrive?’ Another marine came forward, holding an old, bearded shepherd by the arm. The shepherd was wearing a stained, ragged smock that smelled as if it had not been washed in the man’s lifetime.
‘Was anyone on the boat when the dragon pulled it ashore?’ asked the sergeant.
‘Dunno, sir,’ replied the shepherd. ‘When I sees that bleeding great dragon towin’ that boat, I just gets up and runs screamin’.’
They looked into the boat, but it contained only oars. It was a small gigboat, the sort that could carry half a dozen men comfortably – or a dozen if one wanted to risk sinking. It was undamaged.
‘Well, it’s not a landin’ party of Savarian marines, is it?’ declared the sergeant.
‘Reckon not.’
‘Then there’s nothin’ to be done except drag the boat back into the water and row it around to Havenport. Captain Parvian will be pleased that even one extra rowboat has been collected. Come along, let’s get it back to the harbour. You, shepherd, come with us and tell your story again. Parvian will think I’ve been drinking if I try to tell it.’
‘What about me sheep?’
‘What about them?’
‘The dragon might eat ’em.’
‘Do you think you can stop it?’
‘No.’
‘Then your sheep are no worse off. Come along.’
An object that resembled an oddly shaped rock watched them drag the gigboat back into the water and row away. Once they were out of sight, it unfolded, stretched out two very impressive wings, then shimmered, lost definition and shrank. Soon Dantar was standing there in human form, holding his trews in his teeth. He was very, very tired.
Moon was new, just a thin crescent near the horizon with Moonlet in eclipse, but there was enough light for Dantar to see what he was doing as he set out after Marko and Arrissa. There was a stand of windbreak trees not far away, beneath which the sheep sheltered during storms. Because there was nowhere else to hide, Dantar guessed that this was where his friends had gone. As it turned out, he guessed correctly.
‘The dragon, there was a dragon,’ called Arrissa as he approached the trees.
‘I noticed,’ said Dantar.
‘It said you were on its back.’
‘I was.’
‘You could have waved or called out,’ said Marko, sounding just a little sceptical.
‘Marko, when even a small dragon tells you to lie flat on its back, keep quiet and stay out of sight, it’s a good idea to do it,’ said Dantar defensively.
‘Where is it now?’
‘I don’t know, it just let me down and flew off.’
‘What did it say to the other dragon, the really big one?’
This is going to be hard, thought Dantar. He was meant to have been on his own back, and close enough to hear the dragons talking in mindspeak.
‘The big dragon said it was patrolling, like, around Morticas. It asked the little one what it was doing, and it said –’
‘We were miles from Morticas!’
‘Well that’s what I heard!’ snapped Dantar. ‘If you don’t like what she said, go argue with her.’
‘It was female? How do you know that?’
‘She introduced herself, dragons are polite – unlike some humans I could name.’
Arrissa stepped between them, holding out her hands.
‘That’s enough, Marko,’ she said. ‘You’re starting to sound like that magistrate in Merk. Come on now, we should find a town where we can steal food, and clothes for Dantar.’
‘Why steal?’ called Merikus from her bag.
‘There’s coins in here with me. You stole them back in Merk.’
‘Can we start walking instead of just standing here arguing?’ pleaded Dantar. ‘I’m starting to get cold. You may have noticed that I’m only wearing trews.’
They set out across the fields, avoiding the roads because there was no way they could explain what they were doing on the island if any marines stopped them. After only half an hour they came within sight of Havenport’s lights, and in the harbour was a fleet of hundreds of ships. Out at sea were the sidelights of another fleet. They stopped and tried to make sense of what they were seeing.
‘So, the fleet’s here, that makes sense,’ said Marko. ‘The Battle of Teliz was less than six weeks ago and our ships got mauled pretty badly. They were probably lucky to even make it here, and I’d say they have been doing repairs ever since.’
‘What are all those other ships out at sea?’ asked Arrissa.
‘That’s almost certainly the Savarian fleet blockading our fleet in Havenport’s harbour.’
‘So the port is full of drunken sailors with lots of money to steal?’ asked Arrissa.
‘The port is full of nervous, sober sailors and marines who are on the lookout for Savarian spies from that fleet just offshore, but we’ll be all right. We’re still members of the Dravinian fleet, we can say that we rowed here from Teliz.’
‘We rowed two hundred and fifty miles?’ said Dantar.
‘Would you rather explain how a dragon towed us?’
‘All right, all right, we rowed here from Teliz.’
‘What about me?’ asked Arrissa.
‘Say you ran away from your parents to marry me.’
‘Not on your life!’ she cried.
‘Well that’s your story unless you can think of a better one. Come along, only a couple of miles more.’
‘If there’s no night market I’ll have to borrow a blanket from someone’s laundry line,’ said Dantar. ‘I’m really cold.’
‘Weren’t you already cold from clinging to the top of a dragon for half a day, wearing only trews?’ asked Marko.
‘Magistrate Marko, are you putting Dantar on trial again?’ asked Arrissa.
‘Sorry, sorry, it’s all starting to get to me. We just travelled three hundred miles in a few hours, thanks to the dragon. That has to be the fastest voyage in human history, and – and I’m having trouble accepting it as real.’
‘Just why did the dragon tow us here, Dantar?’ asked Arrissa. ‘I’m still not clear about that.’
‘Neither am I,’ Dantar admitted. ‘When the big dragon asked the little one what it was doing, it said it was taking us to Morticas because Gyan told it to.’
‘Gyan!’ exclaimed Marko. ‘But he died when the Invincible sank . . . or did he? Actually, he may have been helped ashore by the other survivors, and come here on one of the ships stolen from Teliz. At last, something makes sense.’
‘Anyway, the dragon passed a message to me from Gyan. He said I should seek someone called Mordock on the Isle of the Dead.’
‘Then why did it bring us here?’ asked Arrissa.
‘This is Morticas.’
‘Morticas means Isle of the Dead in some really old language called Dracondian,’ said Marko.
‘How do you know that?’
‘The Sergeant-at-Arms told us when the fleet called in here on the way to Teliz.’
‘I remember that,’ said Dantar. ‘It was a colony of Dracondas thousands of years ago, before the dragons revolted and killed the Dracondians. Then they flew here and killed the rest of their people. The next ship to arrive found everyone dead, so it was called Morticas.’
‘Why not Isle of the Dead? Weren’t all the people who spoke Dracondian dead?’ asked Arrissa.
‘Not quite. A few of their ships were at sea or in foreign ports. The survivors gathered here over the years, and the island was conquered by Dravinia a few hundred years ago. The local language still has a lot of Dracondian words.’
‘So who is Mordock?’ asked Marko. ‘Some Dracondian warlock?’
‘Don’t know. The dragon said he might be able to help me.’
‘Dantar, a bleeding night watchman can help you if you’re just lost and trying to find your way back to your ship. Who is Mordock and how can he help?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘I’m not sure how much more of this weirdness I can take,’ said Arrissa. ‘In the five days I’ve known you two I’ve been in a pirate attack, been snatched off my ship by a dragon, stolen a pirate boat, then been towed halfway around the world by a dragon guided by someone who doesn’t know why he’s going wherever we’ve just arrived, and all to see someone who he doesn’t know for a reason that he doesn’t know about. Oh, and there’s a talking rat in my bag.’
‘That’s me,’ squeaked Merikus.
‘So?’ asked Marko.
‘I’m just a thief ! I’m a girl who doesn’t even know her age but is probably sixteen. Ever since my mother died I’ve made a living by turning rich people into not-quite-so-rich people. Dragons, pirates and four-element magic are too much for me. I have some small skill with earth castings, and I use it to steal purses. I don’t want to know any more. All I want is a crowded tavern full of drinkers with bulging purses.’
‘And no cat,’ added Merikus.
‘Well, we’re not far from a town,’ said Marko.
‘The best place to hide is among people, and there’s sure to be a tavern where we can stay.’
‘I’ve counted the money in this bag, and we can afford it,’ said Merikus.