Patterns in the Dark (Dragon Blood Book 4) (7 page)

One of the men in back noticed them, but he didn’t slow down or look twice. As the group moved away, Tolemek started to relax until he spotted a boy standing in the shadows of a bench on the other side of the beach. As soon as Tolemek looked at him, the boy darted away, springing for the closest alley.

Cas started to lift her rifle, but paused, probably noticing the youth of their spy. The boy jumped the sleeping form of a drunk man and disappeared into the alley.

She sighed. “I think someone recognized you.”

“Let’s hope we’ll be leaving before it matters.” Tolemek pointed to a shack standing at the side of the longest and widest dock. “I want to see if the port master is there.”

“It’s late,” Duck said. “He’s probably gone to bed. Or to drink.”

“That does seem more likely around here,” Cas said.

Tolemek headed for the shack. “If he’s not there, his records still may be.”

When he lifted a hand to knock on the door, faint snores drifted out to him. He tapped three times. The snores didn’t stop. He tried the knob, and the door opened.

Tolemek squinted into the single dim room, making out a desk by a shuttered window but not much else. “Anyone have a match?”

With a soft rasp, a flame flared to life beside him. Duck held the match aloft, revealing file cabinets in addition to the desk, as well as the source of the snores, a bearded man lying facedown on a cot, a pistol jutting from his holster. His arm hung to the wooden floor, an empty bottle next to his open fingers.

“Drinking
and
sleeping,” Duck said. “I was right.”

“I’ll wait outside while you question him,” Cas said. “Be quick. There are more people walking down the dock.”

Duck found a lamp on its side under the desk and lit it.

Tolemek stepped inside and pulled the pistol out of the man’s belt, crinkling his nose as he did so. He might not smell that fresh himself, after the fighting in the lab and the flight from the volcano, but this man had been wallowing in his own body odor for weeks without thinking to hop in the bay out there. The snores faltered when the pistol was removed, but then continued. Tolemek patted him down, making sure he didn’t have any more weapons, then jostled his shoulder.

“No taxes today,” the man slurred. “Holiday. Go way.”

“I bet there are a lot of holidays around here,” Duck said.

Tolemek pointed to the file cabinet. “See if there are any halfway decent records, anything about Cofah ships and suspicious crates.” He jostled the drunk harder. “Wake up. The dock’s on fire.”

The man’s bleary eyes opened. “Wha?”

“I need to ask you some questions.”

The man’s surprise turned to suspicion. “This isn’t the library. We don’t answer no questions. You pay your taxes?”

“The colonel’s dad will be happy to know there
is
a library.” Duck pulled a half-eaten sandwich out of the top file drawer. Judging by the greenish tint to the meat hanging out of it, it had been there a while. “Halfway decent records may be expecting too much though.”

“I see that.” Tolemek grabbed the drunk’s shirt. “You
will
answer questions. If you want to return to your nap and be left in peace. Just a few. Do the Cofah ever come through here?”

“Get off me.” The man grabbed Tolemek’s wrist. “Who do you think you are?”

Tolemek almost didn’t respond with his name—Zirkander hadn’t lied; there were pirates who would happily see him dead, just because he had been a prominent member of the Roaming Curse, an outfit a lot of rivals detested. But if his reputation had made its way down here, it might be of some use. The main reason he had cultivated it was so people would fear him and leave him alone. It sometimes meant less force was required to deal with enemies as well.

“Deathmaker.” With his free hand, Tolemek pulled a small vial out of a vest pocket. He tipped it upside-down and right-side-up in front of the drunk’s eyes, letting them focus on the viscous blue liquid inside.

Muffled voices came through the door. Those men talking to Cas? He almost turned his shirt grip into a chokehold, so he could hurry the questioning along, but he reminded himself that Cas could take care of herself. Her five-foot height and hundred pounds in size might make it tough for her to beat thugs into the ground, but she could keep them from getting into beating range with that rifle.

“What is it?” the drunk port master whispered, his eyes locked on the vial.

A lubricant for thwarting rusty locks and hinges, Tolemek thought. “A horrible poison that eats through your skin, through your muscles, and all the way down to your organs, where it turns them to mush and disintegrates your bones.”

The drunk gulped.

Tolemek nudged the cap with his thumb. “If I dribble a single drop onto you…”

“Cofah been here,” the man blurted. “Beginning of every month. Real regular like.”

Tolemek didn’t lower the vial, but he let his grip on the man’s shirt loosen slightly. “Doing what?”

“Bringing in men and taking some crates. I seen ’em.”

There was the proof Zirkander needed. As to what Tolemek needed… “They ever have a girl with them?” Without taking his eyes from the man, Tolemek withdrew a picture he had drawn of Tylie and held it up. “About seventeen—dark hair. Sweet, innocent face. Cofah.”

The drunk shook his head. “Never seen a girl. Just men. Soldiers. Oh, and in the beginning, there were some men who weren’t in uniform but were carrying lots of equipment. They had to hire a bunch of porters just to get it off the dock. Not many horses here. Livestock draws out the predators, you know.”

“You’re
certain
there was never a girl?” Tolemek found his hand tightening on the man’s shirt again.

“Certain.”

“Nobody else works this position who might have been on shift when she came?”

“No.” The drunk lifted a hand toward Tolemek’s wrist, but paused, eyeing the vial again. “Listen, nobody would bring a girl here. Can’t hardly get any women to come stay for the pubs and brothels even. The jungle’s dangerous. Wicked predators. Cannibals. Ain’t none of those porters that went with the Cofah ever come back.”

“Maybe they sneaked her in.” Duck closed the cabinets. “Oh, ask him if he ever saw a dragon. Nobody could miss that.”

“Dragon?” The drunk’s eyebrows drew together, and he glanced at the empty bottle on the floor. “One of them ’kandian dragon fliers?”

“No.” Tolemek released the man, frustrated with his answers, but believing the words.

A shot fired outside.

Tolemek lunged for the door, visions of Cas taking a bullet in the chest flooding his mind. Duck was sprinting for the exit, too, and they crashed into each other. Growling, Tolemek shoved him aside and jumped through the doorway first, his fist raised. He had put away the vial and clenched a small metal ball now, this more of a bomb than a lubricant.

Cas was standing where they had left her, as calm as a swan on a lake. The two men who had been walking down the dock earlier were on the beach now, hustling away, one hunched over and the other gripping his shoulder. Helping him walk?

“What happened, Raptor?” Duck asked.

“They realized I was a woman,” Cas said. “Apparently, there aren’t a lot of them here.”

“Are you all right?” Tolemek could see she was, but bristled at the idea of some thugs propositioning her—or worse. He was tempted to throw his bomb after the retreating pair, but forced himself to lower his arm. Cas had taken care of it.

“Fine. First, they thought I was some boy spying on them. They weren’t that bright. They…” She stepped out from under the eave of the shack and frowned at the sky out over the ocean. “That’s not a pirate vessel.”

Tolemek followed her gaze. A dirigible floated above the horizon, its oblong balloon large enough to blot out a large group of stars and part of the moon. “It’s not Cofah, either,” he said, noting the lack of a ship’s wooden frame beneath it. Instead, a metal cabin hugged the underside of the envelope.

“Looks Iskandian.” Duck glanced at Cas. “Someone coming to check up on us? On the colonel?”

“That’s a civilian model, not a military one,” she said, “but we better tell Zirkander. It’s a long way from home.”

Tolemek walked toward town with them, but his thoughts were on the drunk’s words rather than the dirigible. No women had come with the Cofah. Maybe Zirkander’s father had been wrong. Dragon or not, maybe this wasn’t the right place. If Tylie had never been here, then where was she?

Chapter 4

Cas sagged with relief when she and Tolemek walked into the small second-story room above the drinking and disk-sliding establishment below. They had privacy. Of a sort. Laughter and shouts rose up through the thin bamboo floor every time someone’s clay disk slammed into an appropriately large number of pins at the end of the lane. Every sound was audible in the room.

“At least it’s more private than a tent,” Tolemek said. “Slightly.”

He walked over to a door on a side wall and rapped a knuckle against it. Given that it appeared to be made from sturdy paper rather than wood, Cas was surprised his knuckle didn’t go through. If either Sardelle and Zirkander or Duck and Moe had a good time that night, the former being more likely than the latter, she and Tolemek would hear about it, especially if the noise from the gaming room died down later. The same went for her and Tolemek, she supposed, though he was still wearing his grim, determined face, the one that suggested he was thinking of his mission rather than sex. It was just as well. Cas was thinking of that dirigible. The fact that it wasn’t a military craft relieved her somewhat, but it was possible that a squad of soldiers, along with an officer who outranked Colonel Zirkander, had been sent on a civilian transport to come find them. Kaika and Apex would have made it home by now, and they would have reported to the general, if not the king. Neither person was likely to be happy with Zirkander at the moment. Still, how could they have known where the squadron would go? Zirkander hadn’t even known until he had spoken with his father.

That ship’s appearance was likely a coincidence and nothing more. Maybe Cas would go out later and see who came off when it docked.
If
it docked. She hadn’t seen any elevated platforms or other landing accoutrements for aircraft—their bumpy touchdown among the pineapples attested to the lack—but the dirigible had definitely been heading toward the bay when last she had seen it.

Cas strode past the room’s small bed and opened double doors that looked like they led to a balcony, thinking it might have a view of the bay. They did have a view, but there was no balcony. The opening simply fell away into the alley below, an alley that smelled of urine and mold. Lovely. Higher buildings blocked much of the view of the water, but she made out the tip of the dirigible balloon around the end of one. Yes, it had definitely come in.

“Cas?” Tolemek was sitting on the edge of the bed. “Can we talk for a moment?”

She was reluctant to close the door, but the odor wafting up from below encouraged it. Besides, looking at the balloon wouldn’t tell her anything. She would need to be closer to see if the craft sent people down.

“What is it?” Cas joined him on the side of the bed, wondering if he might have sex in mind, after all. She had been tense all day and wouldn’t mind a release. Or a massage. Or a bath. Perhaps all three. Their room lacked washing facilities, but there might be something off the hallway. Maybe. Her previous time spent as a prisoner on a pirate ship had not suggested that such luxuries were important to them.

“The port master hadn’t seen Tylie.” Tolemek gripped the edge of the narrow mattress with both hands, fingers curling around it.

“So? From the glimpse I saw of that man, he would be lucky to find his prick with both hands.”

“Yes, but—” Tolemek blinked and looked at her. “Did you call it his prick? I haven’t heard you use… uhm, call it that.”

As if she wasn’t in the army and hadn’t used much worse language. Granted, she usually did her cursing in her mind, but still. Had she truly not spoken of genitals with him before? Maybe she had been on good behavior, subconsciously trying to convince him she was a lady worth wooing. She snorted. Or maybe her agitation was showing. She should definitely bring up massages.

“It was on my mind,” she said.

“The port master’s prick?”

“No, yours. Though I thought we might wash it first.”

“Ah.” A hint of a smile touched his lips, one of the first he had shared in a while. Good. “Hold that thought, please. I wanted to ask…” The smile faded, replaced by a frown. “Maybe I shouldn’t bring it up.”

“The prick?”

“
No
.” He looked like he might elbow her in the ribs, but he wrapped an arm around her shoulders instead. “Listen, Cas. I appreciate having you here. I’ve kept my quest to help Tylie a secret for so long, afraid nobody would understand, that nobody else would care.” His tone turned bitter. “My father certainly didn’t.”

“I know. I understand. I’ll be glad when you find her, and I hope Sardelle can help her.”

“Yes.” Tolemek dropped his hands into his lap and stared at them. “Cas, have I… been too focused on finding my sister? I’m glad that you understand how much finding her and fixing the wrongs I’ve done, at least
this
wrong, means to me. But I don’t want you to feel neglected. I care for you very much. I think…” He looked at her face, his dark eyes like pools of uncertainty, almost vulnerability, their expression at odds with his rugged visage. “I
know
. And I want
you
to know. I love you.”

The naked statement caught Cas off guard, especially after they had been joking. She hadn’t expected such a serious conversation, such a serious subject. “I… was just looking for a massage tonight.”

Tolemek’s mouth twisted, and he looked away.

“No, sorry,” she blurted, grabbing his hand, even as she winced. Women were supposed to know how to handle the sharing of feelings, weren’t they? But she had no idea.

Cas might have felt a childish adoration for Zirkander when she had been younger, but she had never professed her love for anyone, and she didn’t know if she was ready to do so now. She cared about Tolemek, certainly. When she had thought that pit trap in the Cofahre lab had killed him, an intense feeling of loss had swept over her. Was that love? She tended to equate love with wanting to marry a man, birth his children, and spend all of eternity with him. So many female soldiers she had known had left the service soon after they had gone starry-eyed and proclaimed love for this or that man. Those women had traded their careers for staying at home and being mothers, and Cas couldn’t
imagine
wanting that, not at this point in her life and maybe not ever. Was that something Tolemek wanted? Was he thinking they should marry eventually? And have children? And that she should quit the squadron? No, he had never hinted of such a thing. She should not make assumptions. Even though she had the distinct impression he would be happier if she didn’t work for Zirkander.