Blood of the Earth (45 page)

“Hector, Horace, what can you tell me about Lorraine?”

“It’s the second largest of the subislands of Tyr,” Hector said. “Rich in minerals and stone with some timber, used mostly to build ships. It’s ruled by five warlords that seem to be in a constant state of conflict. They almost routinely make and break alliances with one another to gain some advantage or other. They trade primarily with Andalia and Karth, but only sail in well-protected flotillas to defend against piracy, which is rampant in the waters of Tyr.”

“Any idea who the ships chasing us belong to?”

“Most are flying the flag of Tuva, the subisland across the strait, “ Horace said, “but a few are sailing under the flag of the warlord who controls the southwest coast of Lorraine. We’re headed right for his territory.”

Alexander sighed.

“At least we’ll have solid ground under our feet,” Jack said.

“And it’ll probably take some time for them to get organized,” Isabel said. “We can probably make it out of this territory before they can send enough men to be a threat.”

“Let’s hope so,” Alexander said. “I’d like to move north and find another boat as soon as we can. Going to ground might throw off the ships chasing us enough for us to get to the dragon isle.”

They ran aground in shallow water and took longboats to shore. Alexander had twenty-three frightened sailors left. As they set foot on dry ground, the enemy ships began putting longboats into the water.

The coast rose rapidly into a small range of lightly forested, rocky hills. Alexander led the way directly inland over the rugged and wild terrain. This part of the island didn’t appear to be inhabited but he was wary nonetheless. They reached a vantage point with a good view of the coast and Alexander turned to see how close his pursuers were, but they were well beyond the range of his all around sight.

“Lend me your eyes, Little One?”

“Of course, My Love.”

Through Chloe’s eyes, Alexander saw a dozen or more longboats lined up along the shore, each capable of carrying ten to twenty men. The flotilla of enemy vessels was holding station off the coast in a long line stretching north and south.

“We’ll head north along this ridgeline,” Alexander said.

“And then what?” one of the sailors asked.

His colors were bright with fear and dismay. Alexander understood how he felt but he didn’t have time to argue the necessity of his objective, so he ignored the man and started out. At first, the sailor was reluctant to follow, but Hector spoke quietly in his ear. The sailor stiffened for a moment before he nodded quickly and fell in line with the rest of the crew.

They traveled through the sparse forest for the rest of the day. Isabel reported that nearly two hundred enemy soldiers were following their trail about an hour behind. Worse, she saw at least one wizard with the small army, and Alexander suspected that there were probably a few more wraithkin among the soldiers.

“There’s a village on the coast about a league ahead,” Isabel said.

“Are there any ships big enough for all of us?” Alexander asked.

“Three. And they’re all flying the same flag as the ships we fought this morning.”

Alexander led them as close to the village as he dared before they stopped to wait for dark. He used the time to do some reconnaissance. When he opened the door to his Wizard’s Den, the sailors that had been reluctantly following him fell silent to a man, staring in awe at the magical portal. Alexander sat down in his magic circle and quieted his mind. Horace stood guard at the doorway while Alexander slipped free of his body and sent his mind to explore the village he intended to raid.

It was primarily a fishing village with a number of docks extending like fingers into a deep lagoon protected from ocean turbulence by a jetty made of large stones. The villagers didn’t seem to know or care about the battle that had taken place just south of their little community but they did openly fly the flag of the warlord who ruled over the area, the same warlord who had sent ships to kill Alexander.

He scouted the three larger ships in port and found his target, the only warship of the bunch, the only vessel armed with heavy weapons, the only vessel loaded for combat, the one vessel that was most likely preparing to join the enemy flotilla that was hunting him. The other two ships were cargo transports. While either was large enough to carry Alexander and his crew, neither was armed and both were heavily laden with freight, either waiting to be unloaded or just recently loaded for transport to another port.

Alexander surveyed the security of the small village and found it lacking. They were not prepared for an attack. The few men aboard the warship were playing dice and drinking rum. He floated through the village and found the rest of the crew in three taverns that lined the main street running through town.

Once he was satisfied with his plan, he sent his mind up the coastline in search of other enemy vessels that might be waiting for him farther north, but found none. Next he moved in a blur to the dragon isle. He understood in a glance why the people of Tyr called it the Spires. There was a ring of black stone spires surrounding the central volcanic island, each spire reaching up out of the ocean a thousand feet or more. The orange-red glow emanating from the top of the volcano beyond painted an ominous picture.

He moved closer, searching for a place to hide his ship. He was counting on Bragador being reasonable, but he wasn’t foolish enough to approach a dragon’s lair unprepared. He had no intention of revealing the presence of his ship until he had his prize … maybe not even then.

The entire island was the product of an all-too-active volcano, the cauldron sputtering and smoking, rivulets of bright red lava flowing down the sides of the mountain from a number of cracks and fissures. As he delved deeper into the mountain, he discovered a labyrinth of caves, caverns, and passageways. While many of the areas in the center of the mountain were occupied by molten rock, steam, and smoke, the periphery was far less dangerous.

All throughout the mountain were dragons of many different colors and sizes, which was surprising to him. He assumed that dragons were all the same as Tanis, but these were far different, smaller, though still larger than a wyvern, scaled in a variety of colors from bright reds to dark greens to black and displaying a wide variety of horns, spikes, and bone ridges along their backs, necks, and heads.

After some searching, he found a cave that met his needs. It was large enough to sail a warship into, far enough away from the main entrances to the network of caves inhabited by the majority of the dragons, yet linked to the labyrinth of passageways permeating the mountain.

Having learned what he needed to know about his destination, he brought his awareness back to his location and then set out in search of the enemy soldiers and sailors pursuing him. He found them easily, not two leagues away and moving slowing through the forest in his general direction.

They would reach his position before sunset.

He slipped back into the firmament and listened to the song of creation for a few minutes, simply allowing his mind to take in the totality of the present moment. He could feel the strife unfolding in the world, hear the angst of countless people struggling with the hardships of war, and feel the desperation of people everywhere trying to preserve a future worth having.

He returned to himself quietly and sat for a moment longer, collecting his thoughts and mentally preparing for the night to come. Stepping out of his Wizard’s Den, he closed the door and faced his band of wayward sailors.

“They’ll be here within an hour so we have to move now. We’ll get as far as we can with stealth, then I’ll provide a distraction for the townspeople so we can reach the ship. Once we’re aboard, we need to remove the crew and cast off as quickly as possible. Who’s the ranking officer?”

There was a palpable hesitation among the crew before one of the men raised his hand.

“I’m the weapons officer,” he said.

“Good, what’s your name?”

“Dreven Kalderson,” he said.

“All right, Dreven, you are now the captain,” Alexander said. “Assign duties to your crew so everyone knows their place once we board.

“We move in ten minutes.”

***

They moved quietly toward the road that ran down the coast from the north and then turned east in the middle of town, heading up into the rugged hillside. The people seemed to be preoccupied with their day-to-day business and didn’t take much interest in Alexander and his group, until they entered town.

He led his sailors straight down the road toward the docks, watching the townsfolk closely for any sign of a threat. Most of them eyed him curiously, a few vanished between buildings as they approached, either out of fear or, more likely, to warn what passed for authority in the little town of the arrival of a group of strangers.

They had nearly reached the docks before a small group of townsmen armed with spears approached. The lead man gestured for his men to fan out. Alexander counted sixteen.

“What’s your business here?” the lead man asked.

Alexander ignored him, gesturing for his sailors to continue toward the ship as he grasped the hilt of Mindbender and conjured the vision of a dragon. He brought his illusion into existence high in the sky so it would pass across the sun, casting a shadow over the town as it flew overhead.

The men froze at the sight of the magical beast.

When it roared, the people of the village panicked, running in every direction.

“Move!” Alexander shouted.

They reached the dock amid the confusion and chaos, racing up the gangplank in single file and taking the few sailors aboard by surprise. The crewmen started to put up a fight but stopped abruptly when they saw how badly they were outnumbered. Within a few minutes, Alexander’s men had the entire eight-man crew at sword point and the ship was pulling away from the dock.

“I have no cause to harm you men, but I need this ship,” Alexander said. “I suggest you jump overboard before we get too far away from the docks.”

One by one they stepped off the plank, splashing into the shallow water of the bay.

“Can you disable those other two ships?” Alexander asked Isabel.

She nodded with a little grin as she stepped up to the railing and started muttering the words of her light-lance spell. After she’d burned an eight-inch hole into the hull of each ship, Alexander released his illusion and turned his attention to formulating a plan for approaching Bragador.

As the sun slid past the horizon, the ship slipped past the jetty and into the deep waters of the strait running between Lorraine and Tuva. The sailors seemed to be somehow more at ease than they had been since Alexander had ordered their ship to run aground. They took to the task of manning the warship with enthusiasm.

Most of them manned the banks of oars until they reached deeper water, then they unfurled the sails and set a course north toward the Spires. They sailed through the night using the few lights from settlements onshore as a guide for their course.

Captain Kalderson was tentative about his new command at first, but stepped into the role without reservation once they were under way, issuing orders to his crewmen with confidence and surety. Alexander left him to it.

Dawn broke over a crystal clear sky. The air was cold and the wind blew steadily, propelling them with good speed toward the dragon isle. Alexander saw no sign of his pursuers, though he knew they were probably taking advantage of the wind to catch up.

They sailed for the rest of the day and into the next before they saw the spires rising up out of the ocean to their north. Beyond was the volcanic island at the heart of Tyr and the home of Bragador and her brood. The sailors became nervous as they drew closer.

“Two ships, one on either side of that spire,” Isabel said.

Alexander had been relying on Chloe’s eyes to see things at a distance but her eyes weren’t as sharp as Slyder’s.

“Captain Kalderson, come twenty degrees starboard,” Alexander said. “Prepare the ballistae.”

Captain Kalderson barked orders to his crew as if he’d been captaining a ship for years. They responded without hesitation, bringing the ship about and preparing for battle.

The two ships holding station at the spires unfurled their sails and put oars into the water.

“Those ships will have Phane’s agents aboard,” Alexander said. “Hopefully, they won’t follow us into the dragon isle, but we have to be prepared for them if they do.”

“I suspect the dragons might be unhappy to see us,” Jack said.

“That’s why they won’t see us,” Alexander said, patting the hilt of Mindbender. “I’m hoping Bragador will take care of those ships for us if they’re dumb enough to follow us in.”

The wind was with them and they reached the gap between the two spires that Alexander was aiming for well ahead of the two enemy ships. As he
Alexander
stood on the prow, holding the hilt of Mindbender, he envisioned a calm sea and obscured the wake of their passage to ensure that the dragons wouldn’t detect their position.

The two enemy ships turned north, following Alexander into the waters surrounding the dragon isle, the wind adding to their speed. Not long after they passed between the spires, a dragon roared from the rim of the volcano’s cauldron as it took to wing.