Dragonsblood

FIVE

The wind was gusting as they weighed anchor. When they cleared the harbor, Wind Rider heeled so much that Baror called for them to reduce sail.

With the sail reset, Wind Rider still heeled over at a fierce angle, her bow breaking through the waves as she sped into the moonlit night.

Within an hour the offshore breeze had been supplanted by gusting winds, and the moons were lost in a haze of clouds. Five minutes after that the first of the rain fell upon them.

An hour later the ship was in a full gale, heeling hard over with two men fighting the helm and four men struggling to furl sail.

Colfet found Baror at the wheel with another man he’d never seen before. He shouted over the roar of the wind, “Where’s the captain? This sail’s all wrong for this weather, we’re heeling too hard. We need to alter course, too-see how she’s digging into the waves? We’ll broach to if we don’t.”

“The captain’s not here,” Baror replied, teeth wide in a grin.

“I can see that,” Colfet responded irritably. “Where is he?” He looked forward. “Is he forward with the sails?”

“No, you git, he’s not here,” Baror responded, his grin disappearing in a frown. “Left me in charge, seeing as you’ve got that bum wing.”

Another gust spun the ship and Baror gripped the wheel, calling to the other man to help out.

Colfet gestured at the new man. “Who’s he?”

Baror grinned. “New man I signed on at Half-Circle.” He waved at the new man. “Vilo’s his name.”

Another gust heeled the ship over as Wind Rider plowed into a wave.

“We’ve got to let her have her head!” Colfet called. “Get the sails off, put out a storm anchor, and ride it out!”

Baror shook his head. “No, we’ll keep our course. I’ll show that pansy Istan how real men sail.”

Colfet started to argue, but at that moment two men climbed up the hatchway. Both looked green and unseamanly. He started to make a rude comment to Baror but stopped as he got a good sight of the second man.

“Who’s on the pumps?” he asked.

“You might want to check on that,” Baror replied, keeping his eyes on the two landlubbers as they made their way toward him.

“All right,” Colfet said, heading for the hatchway. He nodded grimly at the two greenies as they passed him by. “Gentle night, isn’t it?” he asked with wry humor. The two made no attempt to respond.

Once they were out of sight, Colfet’s expression hardened. He paused at the top of the hatch, looking back at Baror and his cronies. “Baror!” he shouted. He had to repeat himself twice before he was heard. “We should trail the launch-in case anyone goes overboard.”

Baror grinned evilly. “Anyone overboard in this’ll stay overboard.”

“All the same.”

Baror squinted at him and then nodded. “All right. I’ll get some men to it.”

Colfet nodded and, watching his bandaged arm, plunged into the darkness belowdeck. Quickly and carefully he made his way down to the depths of the ship and sounded the well. He could hear the pumps in the distance and grunted with surprise as he discovered that Wind Rider had made less than a foot of water. Still, it wasn’t all good news-he’d never seen more than an inch before.

Having satisfied himself that the ship wasn’t going to sink any time soon, unless that fool Baror ran her under the waves, he made his way aft to the surgeon’s quarters.

A cry, loud and inarticulate, pierced through the noise of the storm.

Colfet raced back to the surgeon’s quarters. Inside he found Lorana, sprawled across her desk. Two fire-lizards chittered inside, their tone changing to anger as he entered.

“There’s trouble!” Colfet said. Lorana looked up at him: Her eyes were full of tears. “Lass, what’s wrong?”

“He’s gone,” she replied. “J’trel and Talith have gone between forever.”

Wind Rider bucked abruptly as it plowed into a wave and rolled sharply as it paid off, throwing Lorana across the table and Colfet out of the cabin.

Colfet let out a curse as his full weight crashed against his broken arm.

“You’re hurt!” Lorana exclaimed, trying to reach him.

“No time for that,” Colfet said. “We’ve got to get to the captain’s cabin.”

“Why?”

“We’ve got to get you off this ship,” Colfet said. “Baror’s left Captain Tanner behind, and I can’t think he means you well.” He made a face. “Baror’s got a nasty way with women. If you don’t leave now, while he’s distracted, you may not leave at all.” He looked at the fire-lizards. “Can you make them wait by the launch?”

“What’s that?” Lorana asked.

“That’s the boat we used today to get to shore,” Colfet explained. “Baror’s going to lower it astern.”

“Why would he do that?”

“I asked him,” Colfet said, grinning. “In case anyone fell overboard in this blow.” His grin widened. “We’ll just ‘fall overboard’ right now.”

“Oh.”

“Can you make them wait?” Colfet asked again.

“I can try.” Lorana said, turning to the two fire-lizards. Garth and Grenn both chittered obstinately before Lorana overcame their disagreement and they disappeared between.

“Good, now let’s get to the captain’s cabin before Baror has a chance to send some men after you.”

Lorana paused at the doorway. “What about you? Why are you doing this for me?”

Colfet gave her a measuring look. “You might say that I owe you, for fixing this arm. Or you might say that I won’t let anyone be taken against their will. But mostly I’m thinking of my daughters.”

Lorana didn’t know what to say.

Colfet shrugged. “Come on, then, off with you.”

The captain’s cabin was the next cabin aft. The door was unlocked and they made their way through the fore cabin and into the after cabin. Colfet opened the shutters quickly and peered out. Seeing what he wanted, he grunted affirmatively and then looked around the cabin.

“We’ve got to find something to grab the line,” he said.

“Grab the line?” Lorana echoed, looking at the opening. All she could see was rain and pitch-darkness. “What line?”

“The one for the launch,” Colfet answered, upending the captain’s chair. He reached out through the opening and hooked the rope with the seat of the chair, carefully angling to keep the rope from slipping off. Dragging it into the cabin he turned to Lorana.

“Now all you’ve got to do is climb down this rope into the launch.”

Lorana eyed the bucking rope. “All?”

Colfet nodded. “It’s that or wait until Baror and his mates have time to deal with you. You can’t stay on this ship, they’ll turn it upside down looking for you.” He saw her blanch and added, “Look, all you have to do is grab it with your feet and your arms and scale on down. Don’t let go until you’re in the launch. The wind’s fierce enough that it won’t drop you in the water, I hope.”

“And if it does?”

“Keep hold of the rope and climb aboard the launch,” Colfet said. “But don’t capsize it.”

“All right, and then what?” Lorana demanded. “What about you?”

Colfet thought about that. “It’ll be too tricky with my bad arm.”

Lorana shook her head. “I don’t know where we are, how to get back-anything.” She looked frantically around the cabin, finally coming back to him. “Your belt! How about you tie on with that and come on down after me! It’d help when you have trouble with your arm.”

Colfet smiled. “It would at that. You’re right, it could work. Very well then, you first.”

Lorana swallowed and reached for the rope. She climbed out the opening and jumped up, looping her feet desperately around the rope. For one sick moment she hung there, suspended by hands and feet on a wildly swinging rope, and then she gripped it tighter and started climbing down into the darkening sea.

It seemed to take forever. Suddenly a wave swept up at her, dowsing her backside with frigid water. She clenched the rope tightly, for fear of being pulled off. Then the wave was gone and she started down again.

Beyond her legs she caught sight of a blob in the distance. The launch. It seemed dragonlengths away.

Another gust came and a wave crashed around her, burying her in water. She held her breath, frantically hoping that she could hold on. Finally the water parted around her.

Her feet felt the hard wood of the launch.

Colfet’s glib description of how she would get in the launch turned out to be completely inaccurate. Lorana had to pull her feet over the gunnels and into the cockpit of the launch, and then she had to grapple with the prow with her hands and turn herself over before she could kneel into the launch. It was a hideous maneuver and she nearly lost her last meal as her stomach roiled from the exertion and her fear.

Two encouraging chirps told her that she’d made it, and that the fire-lizards were nearby.

She waited for what seemed forever before she realized that she and Colfet had not agreed on any way to let him know that she was safely aboard. Hastily she grabbed the rope and gave it two sharp tugs. She waited and felt two answering tugs-Colfet must have got the signal.

Or was Colfet still there? What if Baror had gone searching for her and had found out their plan? What if it wasn’t Colfet but someone else coming down the rope?

Lorana eyed the rope and studied how it was tied to the launch. She looked around and found a knife in the stores locker. If she had to, she could cut the rope in a moment.

Looking across the bucking sea to the high stern of Wind Rider, she saw the outline of a form climbing down toward her. Was it Colfet? She thought she saw his bandage, now hopelessly soaked. She peered forward, squinting. With a sigh of relief, she realized it was Colfet.

A wave crashed over him and he lost his grip on the rope. Lorana stifled a cry as he hung by his feet and his belt. In an instant Garth and Grenn launched themselves toward him, each grabbing an arm and flapping frantically to help him reach the rope again. A wave engulfed them.

For a long, terrible instant Lorana was afraid all three had been swept away. She imagined countless days adrift in the small launch with only that horrid memory to dwell upon. And then the wave broke and Colfet had his good hand back on the rope, and the two fire-lizards were circling above him, chirping encouragingly.

Lorana bit her lip as Colfet’s legs came within reach. Belatedly she found some rope and tied herself to the launch. Then she moved forward and did all she could to help Colfet clamber aboard.

“There, that wasn’t hard, was it?” Colfet said through gasps as he finally righted himself in the bow of the launch. “Have you got a knife?” When Lorana nodded, he said, “Then cut that line and let’s be out of here.”

C’rion turned at the sound of feet entering the meeting room. The dragons had only finished their keening. J’lantir, ashen-faced, stood in the entranceway. Silently, C’rion gestured him in.

“C’rion, I’m sorry-”

C’rion shook his head. “He was old,” he said. “I’m sure he wanted the rest.”

J’lantir pursed his lips, still shaken. “If I’d kept a better eye on him-”

“You did the right thing,” C’rion said. “J’trel made his choice.”

J’lantir shook his head sadly. “I’m surprised, though,” the Wingleader said after a moment. “He was quite enamored of his current project.”

C’rion looked puzzled and made a “go on” gesture.

“Apparently he’d met some young lady-rescued her, in fact-and had taken a great interest in her drawing abilities.”

C’rion raised an eyebrow.

“J’trel always appreciated women,” J’lantir explained, “even if he didn’t appreciate women.”

“Just as Talith was the best on Search,” C’rion agreed.

“Just so,” J’lantir said, nodding. “Apparently he took this one under his wing and set her aboard that new ship, Wind Rider.”

“Why?”

“From what I’ve gathered at the sea hold, the girl was planning on drawing all the plant and animal life she could find from Nerat Tip to Tillek Head,” J’lantir replied.

The Istan Weyrleader pursed his lips in a silent whistle. “That would be quite something,” he said appreciatively.

“And she’s good, too,” J’lantir continued. “One of her drawings is on display at Ista Hold.”

“Someone should find her and give her the news,” C’rion said.

J’lantir nodded. “I’ll take care of that.”

“Good,” C’rion replied. “And-I’m sorry. He was a good man.”

J’lantir sighed. “He was old,” he responded. “I don’t think he’d want to be old when Thread falls again.”

“Some of us have no choice,” C’rion said softly.

Colfet’s cry of pain startled Lorana from her half-rest. She pulled away from him, the cold fog digging deeper into her bones, and realized ruefully that she had been the cause of his discomfort. In her sleepy desire to get warmer, she’d wrapped her arm over his chest and had disturbed his broken limb.

The cold dug deeper into her, but Lorana forced herself to search out the fire-lizards before she settled, carefully, once more against Colfet. Garth and Grenn huddled miserably on the floorboards beneath them.

They looked only a little less wet and bedraggled than they had been in the worst of the storm. Lorana had pleaded, scolded, cursed, and shoved at them in a vain effort to get them to seek safety, but they had remained steadfast. They made her aware of their fear that if they left, they would not be able to find her again in the storm-and they would not abandon her.

Colfet’s eyes fluttered open and he bent his head toward her, looking for a question.

“I nudged your arm,” Lorana said softly. “Sorry.”

He made a wordless sound through his shivers. He tried again: “C-c-cold.”

Lorana snuggled against him, placing as much of her body as she dared on top of him, careful of the roll of the little launch and of his broken arm.

His cast had disintegrated before the first hour of the storm had passed. He had banged the break painfully as he’d wrestled a storm anchor over the stern. When the storm anchor had torn loose hours later, he had insisted upon bailing with both arms, as he and Lorana had fought to keep the launch from foundering.

He had so injured and worn himself out that by the time they had bailed out the worst of the water, he was incapable of setting another storm anchor and had to shout instructions to Lorana until he lost his voice.

Lorana had made two mistakes in setting the new storm anchor: She’d used their oars; and she’d tied them to the tiller. When a particularly violent gust had nearly scuppered the launch, the resulting drag had torn not only the oars but also the tiller off of the stern.

When the storm broke and the fog had replaced it, Lorana had made a new storm anchor out of the launch’s boom.

“Storm coming,” Colfet said drowsily. “Two, maybe three hours away.”

Lorana glanced about. Yes, there was a wisp of wind-and it was cold.

The storm engulfed the launch without warning. Lorana found herself grabbing the fire-lizards and shoving them down behind Colfet in a hectic instant, blinded by the sea spray and drenching rain. She barely had time to brace herself in the bottom of the launch before the little boat was whipped violently around by the fierce winds of the new storm.

After that, time ceased to exist. Lorana was tossed about, frozen, inundated with freezing rain and roiling sea.

When the water level got too high in the boat, she started bailing, desperately fighting the incoming rain and sea, all the while terrified that one more wave would sink them. When Garth and Grenn tried to help her, she cursed them.

“Go! Go!” She wailed at them. Garth’s mouth opened in response but her voice was lost on the wind. Lorana didn’t need to hear the fire-lizard to recognize her stubborn resolve. Grenn hadn’t even bothered to slow down in his efforts.

Nor did Lorana. Still bailing, she grieved at the thought of her fire-lizards needlessly sacrificing themselves for her. Numbly she tried to organize new arguments to convince them to leave her.

“Lorana!” Colfet’s hoarse voice barely rose above the howl of the storm, and the warning came too late for her to do anything. The launch heeled horribly, nearly capsizing as it was tossed by a sudden swell.

Lorana knew instantly that the sea anchor had torn loose. She dropped the bailer. The only thing left to use was the launch’s mast. She bent down and started untying the stays that had kept it secure, all the while tossed horribly as the launch lurched on the sea.

Finally, she got the mast secured to the stern of the launch and was ready to place it overboard.

As she kneeled to push the mast out over the stern, another wave hit the bow of the launch and Lorana tumbled overboard.

In an instant the launch was lost from her sight. A wave crashed over her, submerging her. She returned to the surface gasping for breath, frozen to the core.

“Lorana!” Colfet shouted from the distance.

“No!” Lorana shouted back, but the wind whipped her words away.

Flitters of brown and gold appeared above her, battling the wind to avoid being slammed into the sea.

“Go away!” Lorana shouted at them. “Save yourselves!”

Garth and Grenn ignored her, diving to grab at her hair and yanking painfully on it. The pain was nothing compared to Lorana’s outraged grieving that her two fire-lizards would waste themselves for her.

“Go!” she shouted again, trying to bat away their hold on her hair. Something bumped into her and she grabbed at it. It was the mast. Lorana closed her eyes against tears. Colfet must have cut the mast free, hoping it would get to her as a float. Her wail was inarticulate. He had thrown away his life for hers.

I’m not worth it, she told herself. He’ll die, Garth and Grenn will die-all for nothing. Me.

Arms wrapped around the mast for support, Lorana caught her breath. The sea rose all around her. Lightning flashed in the distance. She was doomed.

“Garth,” she said, her words a whisper echoing her thoughts as she tried to find the gold fire-lizard in the air above her. “Grenn. You must go. Leave me. Find someone else. I can’t survive this and I can’t bear the thought of you dying with me.”

She felt a wash of steadfast warmth from the two fire-lizards in response. They would not leave her. They would not abandon her.

Anger shook her. They would die if they stayed with her. And it would be such a waste.

“You must go!” Lorana’s voice carried above the roar of the storm. Feeling her heart stiffen, she hardened her will and thrust it at the two fire-lizards. Go!

Garth and Grenn shrieked in the night sky. A flash of lightning peeled across the sky. Lorana gathered all her strength, felt herself like a thunderbolt, and threw herself at the fire-lizards. Go!

Somewhere safe, Lorana thought. Somewhere where you’ll be loved. Another flash of lightning lit the sky, and again she pushed the fire-lizards away from her. Go!

And they were gone. Lorana heaved a sigh that was more like a whimper and laid her head on the mast. Safe, she thought. At least I’ve saved them.

As she lay there, she felt the last of the warmth and comfort the fire-lizards had given her fade away, like a lost dream. And then, as she drifted into a numbed sleep, at the very end, Lorana thought she felt something-an answering warmth at the end of the long tunnel that connected her to Garth and Grenn. A frozen smile played across her lips. Good, she thought dimly, someone will take care of them.