Dragon-Ridden (4 page)

“Isn’t that too bad, Tate?” Trent’s
innocent question cut off Tate’s inner lecture.

“What is?” she asked blankly. She’d
lost track of the conversation while she’d been talking to herself.

“Ryu is leaving the crew here.”

Tate coughed as the beer she’d just
taken a sip of went down the wrong pipe. “What?” she croaked.

Ryu thumped her on the back. She
shoved his arm away once she’d started breathing normally again.

“Are you going to miss me?”

“I thought you were remaining with
the crew until Brilady,” she blurted, ignoring his comment.

“Now what would give you that
idea,” he asked, propping his head on his hand.

To give herself time to think, she
took a long sip of beer. She’d overheard him and the captain talking about it.
She hadn’t set out to eavesdrop; it just kind of happened. She wasn’t sorry for
it either.

She took a deep breath and found
herself on the verge of panicking. This wasn’t good. Aurelia was where she was
supposed to cut ties. It’d be much more difficult if there was another person
here who could exercise Jost’s will once he was gone.

No. Maybe this wasn’t that bad. The
city was huge after all. Chances were she’d never see him once she made the
break. She’d just have to make sure she got away from Aurelia and further
inland quicker than she’d originally planned.

She avoided his eyes and looked
down into her beer. What had spurred his change of heart?

“Just thought that was what you
said,” she said nonchalantly.

“Hmm.” His regard pinned her in
place a moment before he picked up his beer. It felt like she could breathe
again. “As it turns out, I have business in the city. Don’t worry, I’ll be
seeing you guys sooner than you think.”

Tate stared down into her beer. She
doubted that. As soon as she left she had no plans to meet any of the
Marauder’s crew ever again. Doubly so for Ryu. 

“What does everyone want to do
while we’re here?” Trent asked in the ensuing silence.

Tate shrugged more than willing to
move away from talk of Ryu. “I’ve never been here before. I wouldn’t know where
to even begin.”

“We should probably start with walking
around the city a little. There’s a lot of things to see during the day,” Danny
said. At night, everybody knew they’d find themselves in drinking in some bar
and having fun. It was such a given that Tate didn’t even try to beg off
anymore. Those nights had led to more than one man finding himself detained
until he sobered up. “I can show you some of my favorite spots in the city. I’d
stick to the lower city for today. We won’t really have time to walk all the
way to the Upper and look around before night fall.”

“Upper?” Tate asked.

Danny was the quietest of the
group. Mostly he let Riply and Trent do the talking for him, but when he spoke,
others listened. Tate had come to like the big guy over the last few months.
He’d grown up in the city before putting out to sea and still remembered how to
find his way in it.

“The city’s divided into two
parts.” He smiled shyly at her. “The Upper is considered anything above the
cliff line and the Lower everything below it. We can try for the Upper later in
the week, but it’s considerably more expensive.”

“I can’t wait to see everything,”
Trent said with wide eyes. His thin face was alight with curiosity. Like Tate,
he’d never been to Aurelia, but he had heard stories of its splendor and
opulence.

Tate frowned thoughtfully but
didn’t comment, instead stealing a piece of bread from Trent’s plate.

“Hey, I’m a growing boy. Get you
own food.”

“Why? Yours is so tasty,” she said
stealing a vegetable.

He scooted the plate closer to him
and guarded it with one arm while he shoveled food in his mouth.

“Stop teasing the pipsqueak,” Ryu
said, flagging down one of the waitresses milling around the room. It had grown
crowded in the short time since Tate and Ryu had joined them. “If you’re
hungry, I’ll get you some food.”

“I can order my own food.”

Before she could say more the
waitress arrived. Her voice was chipper as she gave Ryu her undivided
attention, ignoring Tate. “You boys in for the festival?” She didn’t wait for
an answer. “What can I get you? The Nest has some of the best food in the
Lower.” She smiled flirtatiously and bent so her prominent breasts were
displayed to their full advantage.

“I’d like a plate of whatever they
had,” Tate said loudly, jerking her head towards the others at the table.

It was a moment before the woman
transferred her attention to Tate. It was apparent she didn’t think much of
Tate when her mouth quirked in satisfaction. “And how ‘bout you love?” she said
dismissing Tate entirely. She rested one hand against Ryu’s shoulder and stood
close enough that her skirt brushed his leg.

Tate blinked. It wasn’t that she
expected to attract attention or even wanted it but to be totally dismissed?
That was just insulting.

Perhaps it was her clothing.

Her worn brown pants and the top
hanging loose on her slim frame, as it had originally been a man’s shirt,
usually deflected unwanted attention. She was fine with that. It meant she had
to do a lot less fighting. She’d had to roll the cuffs up twice on her tunic
just so her hands could peek out from the long sleeves. Her hair, damp from her
bath, was pulled back in a sloppy ponytail. When dry, it tended to frizz in the
humidity.

The dragon hissed at the woman
Mine.
Don’t touch.

Tate found the table in front of
her suddenly fascinating as she wrestled with a strong urge to strangle the
waitress. Mine? Oh no, definitely not. Uh-uh. Tate wouldn’t know what to do
with a male nor did she want to figure it out.

As to the woman’s clear disdain of
Tate, it wasn’t the first time she’d been dismissed. The woman had a point and
Tate was happy that she didn’t stand out. It made slipping about unnoticed a
lot easier. Tate contented herself with stealing another vegetable from Trent’s
plate as he gawked at the waitress’s cleavage.

Ryu shrugged the woman’s hand off
and then shot a charming smile at her. “I’ll have the same as her.”

The woman pouted, disappointed to
be dismissed, but took their orders and headed to the kitchen. Riply and Trent
burst out laughing as soon as she was out of earshot.

“What is it about your ugly mug
that makes you so appealing?” Riply asked, slapping him on the back.

“You must be crazy to turn down
such a fine woman,” Trent stared longingly at the woman’s shapely rear as she
sashayed her way around the room.

“Lad, you’ll find as you get older
there are more qualities to a ‘fine woman’ than merely her breast size,” Ryu
said.

“Don’t lie to the boy like that,”
Riply said with a scandalized expression.

Tate took another sip of her beer
and fought not to grin. The woman was pretty and it was surprising Ryu hadn’t
been the least interested in her. In Tate’s limited experience while on ship,
she had learned that women with nice figures were highly sought after.

Riply’s view was pretty normal for
him. He made a point of bedding every willing woman in any port they stopped
in.

Tate’s stomach growled at the scent
of Trent’s stew. She hadn’t eaten breakfast that morning, and it was past time
for lunch.

“Hungry?” Ryu asked.

Tate’s face turned red, but there
wasn’t much she could say in response. This was why she didn’t like to talk
much to Ryu. He had a habit of throwing her off balance and making her feel
like a fool.

The food arrived before she could
come up with anything witty to say. She dug in without another word. The first
mouthful burned her tongue, and she had to suck in air around the piece of meat
to cool it enough to swallow. She took a deep drink of the beer to sooth the
sting.

“A pretty thing like you must get a
lot of compliments from all the riff raff who float through here.”

Tate rolled her eyes as she listened
to Riply’s opening line. Predictably, having struck out with Ryu, the woman was
eager to have her ego soothed by Riply’s smooth tongue.

“I don’t know about riff raff, but
the gents is mighty free with a kind word if it’ll get them their drinks quicker,”
she cooed running her fingers through Riply’s hair.

“Ah, lovey, you’re a mighty fine
woman deserving to have songs written to your beauty.”

The woman smiled and sidled closer
to Riply. She ran a hand down his arm and lowered her eyelashes flirtatiously.
“I’m supposin’ you’re the one to give me those pretty words are you.”

Tate dipped a piece of her bread in
the stew’s sauce, eyeing the couple raptly. Maybe she could learn something.
Riply was near legendary when it came to persuading members of the opposite
sex. 

She’d put the talent to a slightly
different use, though.

“If you and I were to spend a bit
more time together I could convince you of that,” he said with a roguish smile.

A commotion at the Inn’s front door
interrupted the flirting between Riply and the waitress. Tate peered around Ryu
to see what all the fuss was about.

A group of three, dressed in fine
silks, watched the room behind inscrutable eyes. These were the kind of patrons
that normally bypassed places like the Crow’s Nest and headed straight for the
Upper City. They stood out rather starkly.

The woman, flanked by two men, had
long black hair, partially pulled back from her face by a black hairpin with a
pearl dangling from its tip. Her sapphire gown had little pink flowers
embroidered on it and just barely brushed the floor. Her features were delicate
and even from where she sat, Tate could see she’d be considered a beauty.

Her companions were dressed more
simply in full black pants and wore black-scaled armor over vibrant blue shirts.
Their hair, like the woman’s, was black but pulled entirely back from their
faces in a long tail down their backs.

A low whistle came from Ripley.
“It’s unusual to see the Kairi so far from their island’s.”

“The Kairi? Who are they?” Tate
asked.

“You weren’t with us the last time
we were in their territory,” Danny answered. “They’re a sea people, mostly
keeping to the islands down south and their stretch of sea. People say they can
breathe underwater and swim as well as any fish. I don’t know if that’s true or
not. They’re a very reserved race and don’t interact a lot with outsiders. I’m
surprised to see a female in the city because they’re guarded as if they were
one of the finest treasures.”

“Can they really breath
underwater?” the waitress asked Riply.

“Oh aye, I once saw a man slip
under water and didn’t see him again for a good hour.”

“You jest.” The waitress slapped
his arm lightly.

Riply reached over and pulled her
down into his lap. “Now love, why would I sully your ears with such a poor
jest.” She giggled and squirmed out of his arms.

Tate watched the innkeeper scurry
up to the newcomers who had still not moved from the door. One of the guards
intercepted the proprietress before she could greet the woman directly. The two
conferred briefly before the innkeeper led them upstairs.

As they left the woman looked
around the room, her attention coming to rest on Tate’s table. Tate stiffened.
The woman’s eyes were all black. Before Tate could take in any other details
about the newcomers they were gone, following the innkeeper to their rooms.

“I wonder what they’re here for,”
Trent said softly.

“Oh, didn’t you know? All sorts of
folk are coming to the city for the Donza Festival. Don’t know why they’re not
staying in the Upper City, though. They have quarters up there where their
people normally stay when in town. Wouldn’t want to mingle with us common
folk,” the woman said climbing off Ripley’s lap. “I’ve heard that even the
Silva are traveling from their forests for it. Though with the recent trouble, this
year might not see as many people from other cities.”

“Recent trouble?” Ryu asked
straightening in his chair and fixing the waitress with a sharp look.

Pleased at the sudden attention,
the woman preened a bit before answering. “They’ve been discovering all sorts
of strange creatures lately. Most of them have been dead, but last week this
bird-like thing attacked one of the markets and tried to carry a woman off.
Thank the Saviors one of the dragon-ridden was there to stop it. The creature
killed three men.”

Dragon-ridden? That sounded
interesting.

“What are the dragon-ridden?” Tate
asked puzzled. Five sets of eyes swung towards her. Tate shifted uncomfortably.
You’d think she’d just announced she’d grown a third eye instead of asking a
simple question.

“Where have you been living?” Trent
asked, disbelief in his tone. “Under a rock? Everybody knows that.”

Tate flushed and dropped her eyes
to her plate. Well, she didn’t. She didn’t know much about this world. Even all
these months after waking up in that room, every time she turned around she was
confronted with something she didn’t understand.

Her memories from before she woke
up were hazy, and what she did remember didn’t mesh with the world around her.
Sometimes it felt like she was still asleep and the world around her simply a
dream.

“The dragon-ridden are a special
part of the imperial government. They are bound to dragons and serve at the
Emperor’s behest,” Ryu explained softly.

“I don’t understand. Why are they
called dragon-ridden?” Tate asked confused. If they were bound to a dragon,
wouldn’t it be dragon-rider.

“It’s not like that, Tate.” Trent
forgot about his food for a moment and leaned forward animatedly. “The dragon
and person form a bond, and afterwards the dragon lives inside the man. He can lend
his form to the man, but otherwise he just lives as a tattoo, sharing his
thoughts. Haven’t you ever dreamed of forming a bond with one? I have, even
though no one has formed a bond with one in over a hundred years. People say
the dragons have all died off, and the only ones left are the ones who’ve
bonded to humans. I think they’re just hiding and-“