"Dragon Haven" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hobb Robin)

CHAPTER SIX Decision Point

Water splashed against his face, startling him awake from his nightmare. He coughed and spat. ‘Stop it!’ he choked and tried to put a threat in his voice. ‘Get out of my room. I’m getting up. I won’t be late.’

Despite his plea, water slopped against his face again. His stupid sister was going to get it now!

He opened his eyes to a new nightmare. He dangled facedown from the jaws of a dragon. The dragon was swimming in a white river. The sky had the uncertain light of dawn. Sedric’s head was barely above the water. He could feel the dragon’s teeth pressed lightly against the skin of his back and chest. His arms and legs were outside the dragon’s mouth, dragging though the water. The water pushed against the swimming dragon, shoving them steadily downstream. And the dragon was tired. She swam with a dogged one-two, one-two stroke of her front legs. He turned his head and saw that only the dragon’s shoulders and head were still above water. The copper was sinking. And when her strength gave out and she went down, Sedric would go with her.

‘What happened?’ he asked, his voice a croak.

Big water. She gurgled her response but the words formed in his mind. She pressed an image at him, a crashing wave of white filled with rocks and logs and dead animals. Even now, the moving face of the river was littered with flotsam. She swam downstream beside a tangled mat of creepers and small bits of driftwood. A dead animal’s hoofed feet were partially visible in it. The river caught the tangle, spun it, and it dispersed.

‘What happened to everyone else?’ The dragon gave him no response. He was so close to the water’s surface that he had no perspective. Nothing but water everywhere. Could that be so? He turned his head slowly from side to side. No Tarman. No boat. No keepers, no other dragons. Just himself, the copper dragon, the wide white river and the forest in the distance.

He tried to recall what had come before. He’d left the boat. He’d spoken to Thymara. He’d gone looking for the dragon. He’d intended to resolve his situation. Somehow. And there his recall of events ended. He shifted in the dragon’s mouth. That woke points of pain where the dragon’s teeth pressed against him. His dangling legs were cold and nearly numb. The skin of his face stung. He tried to move his arms and found he could, but even that small shift made the dragon’s head wobble. She caught herself and swam on, but now he was barely out of the water. The river threatened to start sloshing into her gullet.

He looked to see how far away the shore was, but could not find any shore. To one side of them, he saw a line of trees sticking out of the water. When he turned his eyes the other way, he saw only more river. When had it become so wide? He blinked, trying to make his eyes focus. Day was growing stronger around them and light bounced off the white surface of the river. There was no shore under the trees; the river was in a flood stage.

And the dragon was swimming downriver with the current.

‘Copper,’ he said, trying to get her attention. She paddled doggedly onward.

He searched his mind and came up with her name. ‘Relpda. Swim towards the shore. Not down the river. Swim towards the trees. Over there.’ He started to lift an arm to point, but moving hurt and when he shifted, the dragon turned her head, nearly putting his face in the water. She kept paddling steadily downstream.

‘Curse you, listen to me! Turn towards the shore! It’s our only hope. Carry me over there, by the trees, and then you can do what you wish. I don’t want to die in this river.’

If she even noticed he was speaking to her, he could not tell. One-two, one-two. He rocked with the dogged rhythm of her paddling.

He wondered if he could swim to the trees on his own. He’d never been a strong swimmer, but the fear of drowning might lend him a bit of strength. He flexed his legs experimentally, earning himself another dunk in the river and the knowledge that he was chilled to the bone. If the dragon didn’t carry him to shore, he wasn’t going to get there. And the way she was swimming now made him doubt that even she could make it. But she was his only chance, if he could get her to listen to him.

He thought of Alise and Sintara. He lifted a hand to touch her jaw, flesh to scale. His hands were tender, the skin deeply wrinkled from immersion in the river. They were red, too, and he suspected that if he warmed them up, they’d burn. He couldn’t think about that now.

‘Beauteous one,’ he began, feeling foolish. Almost immediately, he felt a warm spark of attention in his mind. ‘Lovely copper queen, gleaming like a freshly-minted coin. You of the swirling eyes and glistening scales, please hear me.’

Hear you.

‘Yes, hear me. Turn your head. Do you see the trees there, sticking up from the water? Lovely one, if you carried me there, we could both rest. I could groom you and perhaps find you some food. I know you are hungry. I feel it.’ That, he realized, was disconcertingly true. And if he let his mind wander there, he felt her increasing weariness, too. Back away from that! ‘Let us go there so you can take the rest you so richly deserve, and I can have the pleasure of cleaning your face of mud.’

He was not very good at it. Other than telling her she was pretty, he had no idea of what compliments would please a dragon. After he had spoken, he waited for a response from her. She turned her head, looked at the trees and kept paddling. They were not headed straight for the shore, but at least now, at some point, they’d connect with it.

‘You are so wise, lovely copper one. So pretty and beautiful and shining and copper. Swim towards the trees, clever, pretty dragon.’

He sensed again that warm touch, and felt oddly moved by it. The aches in his body seemed to lessen as well. It didn’t seem to matter that his words were simple and ungraceful. He fed her praise and she responded by turning more sharply towards the river’s edge and swimming more strongly. For an instant, he felt what that extra effort cost her. He felt almost shamed that he asked it of her. ‘But if I do not, neither of us will survive,’ he muttered, and felt a shadow of agreement from her.

As they got closer to the trees, his heart sank. The river had expanded its flow; there was no shore under the eaves of the forest, not even a muddy one. There was only the impenetrable line of trees, their trunks like the bars of a cage that would hold Relpda out in the river. In the shadow of the canopy, the pale water was a quiet lake without shores that spread off into the darkness.

Only one section of shore offered him hope. In an alcove of the surrounding trees, limbs and logs and branches had been packed together by a back-current. All sorts of broken tree limbs and bits of driftwood and even substantial timbers had piled up there in a floating logjam. It didn’t look promising. But once he was there, he could climb out of the water and perhaps dry off before nightfall.

That was as much as he could offer himself. No hot food and comforting drink, no dry, clean change of clothing, not even a rude pallet on which to lie down; nothing awaited him there but the bare edge of survival.

And even less for the dragon, he suspected. Whereas the wedged logs and matted driftwood might offer him a place to stand, she had no such hope. She swam with all her energy now, but it would avail her nothing. No hope for her and very little for him.

Not save me?

‘We’ll try. I don’t know how, but we’ll try.’

For an extended moment, he felt her absence from his mind. He became aware of how his skin stung, how her teeth dug into him. His aching muscles shrieked at him and cold both numbed and burned him. Then she came back, bringing her warmth and pushing his misery aside.

Can save you, she announced. Affection he could feel enfolded him. Why? he wondered to himself. Why did she care about him?

Less lonely. You make sense of world. Talk to me. Her warmth wrapped him.

Sedric drew breath. All his life, he’d been aware that people loved him. His parents loved him. Hest had loved him, he thought. Alise did. He’d known of love and accepted it existed for him. But never before had he actually felt love as a physical sensation that emanated from another creature and warmed and comforted him. It was incredible. A slow thought came to him.

Can you feel it when I care about you?

Sometimes. Her reply was guarded. I know it’s not real, sometimes. But kind words, pretty words, feel good even if not real. Like remembering food when hungry.

Sudden shame flooded him. He took a slow breath and opened his gratitude to her. He let his thanks flow out of him, that she forgave him for taking her blood, that she had saved him, that she would continue to struggle on his behalf when he could not offer her definite hope of sanctuary.

As if he had poured oil on a fire, her warmth and regard for him grew. He actually felt his body physically warm, and suddenly her dogged one-two, one-two paddling grew stronger. Together they just might survive. Both of them.

For the first time in many years, he closed his eyes and breathed a heartfelt prayer to Sa.

‘Take your food and get up there. Keep looking,’ Leftrin told Davvie. ‘I want you up on top of the deckhouse, scanning in all directions. Look on the water, look for anyone clinging to debris, look at the trees and up in the trees. Keep looking. And keep blowing that horn. Three long blasts and then stop and listen. Then three long blasts again.’ ‘Yessir,’ Davvie said faintly.

‘You can do it,’ Carson said behind him. He gave the exhausted boy a pat on the shoulder that was half a push. The boy snatched up two rounds of ship’s bread and his mug of tea and left the deckhouse.

‘He’s a good lad. I know he’s tired,’ Leftrin said. It was half apology for treating the boy so gruffly and half thanks for being able to use him.

‘He wants to find them as much as anyone else here. He’ll keep going as long as he can.’ Carson hesitated, then plunged on with, ‘What about the Tarman? Can he help us with the search?’

He meant well, Leftrin reminded himself. Nonetheless. He was an old friend, not part of the crew. Some things weren’t spoken of outside that family, not even to old friends. ‘We’re using the barge in every possible way, Carson, short of having it sprout wings and fly over the river. What can you expect of a ship?’

‘Of course.’ Carson bobbed a nod that he understood and would ask no more. His deference bothered Leftrin almost as much as his question had. He knew he was short-tempered; grief tore at his heart even as he clutched at hope and kept desperately searching. Alise. Alise, my darling. Why did we hold back, if only to lose each other this way?

It wasn’t just the woman, though Sa knew that tore his heart and ruined his brain for cold logic. All the youngsters, every one of them was missing. Every dragon, gone. And Sedric. If he found Alise but had to tell her he had lost Sedric, what would she think of him? And all the dragons gone, and her dreams gone with them. He knew how she felt about the dragons and the keepers. He had failed her, utterly failed her. There could be no good end to this search. None at all.

‘Leftrin!’

He started at his name and saw by Carson’s face that he’d been trying to talk to him. ‘Sorry. Too long with no sleep,’ he said gruffly.

The hunter nodded sympathetically and rubbed at his own bloodshot eyes. ‘I know. We’re all tired. We’re damn lucky that tired is all we are. You’re a bit beat up, and Eider may have a few cracked ribs, but by and large, we came through it intact. And we all know that we’ll rest later. For right now, this is what I propose. My boat stayed with the Tarman; luckily I’ve the habit of bringing it aboard and lashing it down each night. I propose I take the spare ship’s horn and set out on my own. I’ll shoot down the river a ways, fast as I can, and then go right along the shore and search under the trees. You follow, but taking your time and searching carefully. Every so often, I’ll blow three long blasts, just like Davvie, to let you know where I am and that I’m still searching. If either of us finds anything, we’ll use three short blasts to call the other.’

Leftrin listened grimly. He knew what Carson was implying. Bodies. He’d be looking for bodies, and for survivors in such poor condition that they could not signal their rescuers. It made sense. Tarman had been proceeding very slowly, first moving up the river to approximately where the wave had first struck them and then back down again, searching both the river’s face and the shoreline. Carson’s little boat could catch the current and shoot swiftly down to where they had begun to search and move downriver from there, searching the shallows.

‘Do you need anyone with you?’

Carson shook his head. ‘I’d rather leave Davvie safe here with you. And I’ll go alone. If I find anyone, the boat’s small, and I’ll want to bring them on board right away.’

‘Three short blasts will mean we’ve found something. Even if it’s only a body?’

Carson thought then shook his head. ‘Neither of us can do anything for a body. No sense one of us summoning the other, and taking a chance on missing a survivor. I’ll want some oil and one of the big cook-pots. If we don’t meet up before nightfall, I’ll pull in, make a fire in the pot, and overnight there. The fire will keep me warm and serve as a beacon to anyone who might see it. And if I find someone near nightfall, I can use the horn and the fire-pot to guide you to us.’

Leftrin nodded ‘Take a good supply of rations and water. If you find anyone, they may be in bad shape. You’ll need them.’

‘I know.’

‘Good luck, then.’

‘Sa’s blessing on you.’

Such words coming from the hunter made Leftrin feel even grimmer. ‘Sa’s blessing,’ he replied, and watched the man turn and go. ‘Please, please, find her,’ he whispered, and then went back up on deck to put his own eyes on the river.

As he joined his crew on the deck, he felt their sympathy for him. Swarge, Bellin, Hennesey and hulking Eider were silent and looked aside from him, as if ashamed they could not give him what he wanted. Skelly came to his side and took his hand. He glanced down at her, seeing his niece for a moment instead of his deckhand when she met his gaze. She gave his rough hand a small squeeze; her pinched mouth and a quick nod of her head let him know that she shared his concern. With no more than that, she left him and went back to her watching post. They were a good crew, he thought with a tight throat. Without a quibble, they had followed him on this jaunt up the river into unknown territory. Part of it was because that was the type of riverfolk they were; curious, adventurous and confident of their skills. But a good part of it was that they would go where he and Tarman went. He commanded their lives. Sometimes that knowledge humbled him.

He wondered why he had bothered being evasive with Carson. The man was no fool. The crew’s charade would not have fooled him for long. He knew the boat was sentient, and if he’d had any doubts, Tarman’s rescue of him last night would have dispersed them. When he’d shouted, the barge had come straight to him, and despite the current, had held himself steady in the river until his captain was safe aboard him again.

Wrapped in a blanket but still dripping, shivering, he’d gone into the galley. ‘Is Alise all right?’ he’d demanded, and the faces of his crew had told him all.

He hadn’t slept since then. And he wouldn’t sleep until he found her.

The tangle of floating debris was both too thick and not solid enough.

Relpda had carried him to it. Once she had got close to it, she had pushed her way into it like a spoon pushing through thick soup. Driftwood and matted brambles, leafy branches and long-dead logs, freshly torn trees and wads of grasses had given way to her shoving and then closed up behind her. Chesting against the mess, she had either judged it solid or close enough, for she had dropped him. He’d fallen from her jaws athwart a couple of floating logs and started to slip between them. His stiff limbs had screamed as he frantically moved them, thrashing and crawling until he was on the larger and thicker of the logs. There he had clung, and felt how it bobbed in the current. Worse, he felt how it shifted and threatened to break away from the tangled mess along the shoreline as the frantic dragon pawed and bumped at it as she attempted to clamber on top of it.

‘It won’t hold you, Relpda. Stop. Stop tearing it apart. You can’t get on top of this, it’s just floating bits of wood and reeds.’ He moved away from her to a part of the raft that her struggles were not affecting so violently. He could feel her rising panic coupled with her weariness and despair. She was tired, and he knew guiltily that if she had abandoned him, her reserves of strength would have been much greater. He wondered again why she had saved him at obvious cost to herself.

Then he wondered why he was doing nothing to save her.

There was a quick and guilty answer to that. Once she had drowned, she’d be out of his head forever. He’d know his thoughts were completely his own again. When he went back to Bingtown, he could live just as he always had and—

He thrust his selfishness aside. He was never going back to Bingtown. He was on a raft of debris over an acidic river. He inspected his stinging arms; the exposed skin looked like cured meat. No telling what the rest of him looked like and he was too cowardly to look. A shudder of chill ran over him. He hugged himself and tried to consider the incomprehensible situation he found himself in. Everything he had depended on in this savage place was gone. No ship, no crewmen, no hunters. No supplies of any kind. Alise was probably already dead, her body floating in the river somewhere. Sorrow smote him; he tried to push it aside. He had to clear his mind, or he’d join her.

What was he going to do? He had no tools, no fire, no shelter, no food and no knowledge of how to get any of that for himself. He looked at the copper. He’d told her the truth. He had no idea of how he could save her. If the dragon died, the river would wash her away, and then he would die, too. Probably slowly. And alone. With no way to move up or down the river.

Right now, the dragon represented his only chance of getting out of here. She was his only ally. She’d risked her life for him. And asked so little of him in return.

Relpda gave a short trumpet, and he looked back at her. She’d pushed her way deeper into the floating wreckage. She’d hooked one of her forelegs over the end of a substantial log and was struggling to lift her other front leg over, but she was at the narrow end of the long, dead tree. As she put her weight on it, the log bobbed under. The log was threatening to slip out from under her and shoot up into the air. And the danger was great that she would sink beneath the floating debris.

‘Relpda, wait. You need to centre yourself on the log. Wait. I’m coming.’ He stared at her situation, trying to think how to remedy it. Sinking dragon, floating wood. He wondered if his weight on the high end of the log would be enough to hold it down while she put the other leg over.

She didn’t listen to him, of course. She kept giving small hoots of effort while trying to hook her other front leg over it. Her struggles were tearing at the matted debris. Pieces of it were breaking free from the outer edge and whirling back out into the river’s current.

He tried again, focused himself at her. ‘Beauteous one, you must allow me to help you. Be still for a moment. Be still. Let me weight the log down for you. I’m coming now, lovely creature, queen of queens. I am here to serve you. You must not tear the packed wood apart. It might carry you away from me, down the river. Be as still as you can while I think what to do.’

He felt a touch of warmth and then a tiny message. Serve me? He felt her relaxing her struggles. It was pitiful, how quickly she put her belief in him. His wet clothes clung and chafed his red skin as he awkwardly moved from log to wedged driftwood to log. None of it was stable, and often he had but a moment to find his next step as his perch sank under him. But he reached the tangled roots of her log and seized hold of them. The log was long enough and he was far enough away from her that he thought his small weight might balance her greater one. He started to climb up on the root mass, to see if her end would rise. Then he realized his error. He needed to lower her end of the log to get it under her, not raise it. He suddenly wished he had more experience with this sort of thing. He’d never been a man who worked with his hands and back, and he’d taken pride in that. His mind and his manners had earned him his keep. But if he didn’t learn, right now, how to help then his dragon was going to die.

‘Relpda, my glorious copper queen. Be very still. I am going to try to lift my end and shove the log under your chest. When it comes up, it may lift you a bit.’

His scheme worked poorly. Whenever he tried to lift the floating end of the log, whatever he was standing on sank. Once he nearly lost his balance and fell under the floating tangle. He succeeded in moving the log slightly more under her chest, but when he gave up the task, her position was only marginally better than it had been. When she stopped kicking, she sank, but her back and head remained above the water. She fixed her eyes on him. He looked into them. Spinning pools, dark blue against copper. The colours in them were liquid. It reminded him of the shifting colours of her blood in the glass vial. Guilt stabbed him. How had he ever done such a monstrous thing?

Tired, she moved at him. The sound beat against his ears and the sensation of her exhaustion flooded his mind, weakening his knees. He braced himself against it, and tried to send warmth and encouragement back to her.

‘I know, my queen, my lovely one. But you must not give up. I’m doing my best, and I will help you.’ His weary mind weighed and discarded options. Push smaller pieces of wood under her. No. They’d simply dislodge. Or he’d fall in.

She shifted her front feet, seeking a better purchase. The end of the log lifted, splashed down again, and she nearly lost it. More debris broke from the edge of the mat and floated away in the river’s hungry current. ‘Don’t struggle, lovely one. The log you are on might break free of the others. Stay as still as you can while I think.’

The wave of warmth that flowed through him stilled his worrying. For a moment, he was flushed with pleasure and he felt a stirring of emotion, like infatuation. As quickly as it had come, it faded. He clenched his hands. What had Alise called it? The dragon glamour. It felt good. Intoxicating and alive. Nearly, he reached after it and willed himself into it. Then she thrashed again, and once more he nearly fell into the water. No. He had to keep his distance and his own mind if he was to help her. A darker reason to stay separate came to him. If he let her join her thoughts too deeply with his thoughts and then she drowned— He shuddered to think of sharing that experience.

He looked at the dragon, at the sky to estimate the time, and around at the trees. The trees, he decided, would represent their best chance. It would be hard work, but if he could rearrange the debris so that the current braced the heavier logs tight to the trees, and then get her to move herself there, she might find a sturdier position. He looked at her, waited until she was looking at him, and then tried to push his mental image into her mind. ‘Lovely queen, I will move wood and make a safer place for you. Until I am finished, do not struggle. Hang there and trust me. Can you do that?’

Slipping.

‘I’ll hurry. Don’t give up.’

‘I’ll be damned,’ someone exclaimed in amused astonishment.

Sedric spun, his heart leaping with joy at the sound of a human voice. He slipped, caught his balance, and then squinted into the dimness under the trees.

‘Up here.’ The man’s voice was a hoarse croak.

He moved his eyes up and saw a man clambering down a tree trunk. His hands gripped the ridges of bark and he stuck the toes of his boots in the cracks as he came quickly down. It wasn’t until he turned to face him that Sedric recognized him. It was the hunter, the older one. Jess. That was his name. They’d never spoken much. Jess plainly had no use for him, and he’d never explained his one visit to Sedric’s chamber. The man looked terrible, bruised and battered in the face, but he was alive and human and company.

And, Sedric quickly realized, he was someone who knew how to get food and water, someone that could help him survive. Sa had answered his prayers after all.

‘How did you get here?’ he greeted him. ‘I thought I was the only one left alive.’ He began immediately to make his way towards the man.

‘By water,’ Jess said and laughed sourly. His voice was harsh and raspy. ‘And I shared your cheery thought about survival. Looks like that little quake we had a few days ago saved a second surprise for us.’

‘Does something like this happen often?’ Sedric asked, already feeling his anger rise that no one had warned him.

‘Slipping.’ Distress was plain in the dragon’s rumbled call and in the thought she pushed at him.

‘A change in the water, yes. A flood like this, no. This is a new one on me, but not entirely ill fortune for either of us.’

‘What do you mean?’

Jess grinned. ‘Just that fate seems to have not only saved us, but thrown us together with everything we need for a most profitable partnership. For one thing, when I finally kicked my way to the surface, I found a boat caught in the same current that I was. Not my boat, unfortunately, but one that belonged to someone sensible enough to stow their gear tightly.’ He coughed harshly and then tried to clear his throat. It didn’t help his rough voice. ‘It has a couple of blankets, some fishing gear, even a fire-making kit and a pot. Greft’s, probably, but I’ll wager that he’ll never have need of it again. That wave hit so hard and so suddenly that it’s hard to believe any of us survived. It almost makes me believe in fate. Maybe the gods threw us together to see how smart we were. Because if you’re a clever fellow, we have everything we need for a very comfortable new life.’

As Jess had croaked out his words, he’d dismounted from the tree’s trunk and stepped onto a log. It bobbed beneath him as it took his weight. For a large man, he was graceful enough as he trod swiftly along its length. In the crook of one arm, he carried several round red fruit. Sedric wasn’t familiar with what they were, but at the sight of them, both his hunger and thirst roared.

‘Do you have water?’ he asked the man, advancing cautiously across the packed debris towards him. Jess ignored him. It looked as if he reached the end of the large log and then clambered down into the water. Then Sedric realized that the boat was moored out of sight behind the big driftwood snag. Jess disappeared for a moment and when he stood up, he no longer held the fruit. Obviously he had stowed it in the boat he was standing in. A curl of uneasiness moved in Sedric’s belly. The situation seemed plain to him. The hunter had climbed the tree, eaten fruit, and what he had brought down was his surplus that he intended to save. For himself. He must see how serious Sedric’s situation was. Yet he stood there, in his boat, in his dried clothes, with his food, and made no offer of aid to him.

Jess leaned his elbows on the log that floated between him and Sedric and looked over him at him. Sedric halted where he was, trying to make sense of the situation. When Sedric just returned his gaze, Jess cocked his head and wheezed, ‘I notice you aren’t saying what you’ll bring to our new partnership.’

Sedric goggled at him. They were alone on a raft of ever-shifting flotsam in the middle of the forest, weeks from anywhere, and the man was trying to wring money out of him? It made no sense. Behind him, he heard the dragon thrash, felt a wave of anxiety from her, and then felt her calm as she realized the log was still partially under her. Hungry. His own thoughts about food had stimulated hers. Or perhaps it was her hunger he was feeling. He didn’t know. He couldn’t completely sort himself out from her any more. Afraid. The thought came to him without a sound from her. Careful. Did she sense something he didn’t?

He tried to focus his thoughts on the man’s ridiculous statement. ‘What do you want from me? Look at me, man. I don’t have anything to offer you. Not here. I suppose if somehow we got back to Bingtown . . .’ He let the words trail off. It wouldn’t be constructive to let him know that if they got back to Bingtown, he’d still have nothing. He tried to imagine facing Hest and admitting that he’d somehow lost Alise and with her Hest’s hope of creating an heir that would assure his inheritance. He dared not think what his own family would think of him, let alone what Alise’s might say. He’d been sent as her protector. What sort of a protector survived when his ward did not? If he went back to Bingtown alone, he’d have no career and no support from his family. He had nothing to offer this pirate.

‘Nothing here, hey? Looks to me like you’ve got plenty here. Do I have to spell it out for you? Or are you still thinking that perhaps you can keep it all for yourself?’

The hunter stooped out of sight again and then brought up a gear bag from the boat. ‘Because from where I’m standing, man, if you decide to be greedy, I think you just die.’ He opened the gear bag, dug through it, and smiled, immensely pleased. ‘I’m sure this was Greft’s boat now. Look at this.

Knife and whetstone, all bundled nicely together. Could be a bigger tool, but it will still get the job done.’ As he spoke, he took out both items and began to lay the knife against the stone in slow, leisurely licks, as if they both had all the time in the world.

Sedric stood very still. What was the man asking of him? Was the gleaming blade a threat? What did he mean, ‘you’ve got plenty’? Was he making a sexual proposition? He’d shown nothing but disdain for Sedric before this. But Jess would not be the first man he’d encountered who publicly despised him and privately desired him. He took a breath. He was hungry and thirsty and the dragon’s nagging anxiety scraped at his nerves and begged his attention. What was he willing to give Jess to ensure his survival? What would he give him to get him to help with Relpda?

Anything he wanted.

The thought chilled him but he accepted it. ‘Just say what you want,’ he said brusquely, the words tumbling out more abruptly than he intended.

Jess stopped whetting the knife and stared at him. Sedric drew himself up tall and crossed his arms on his chest. He met his gaze levelly. Jess cocked his head at him, and then brayed out a coarse laugh. ‘Not that. No. Not interested one bit in that. Are you stupid or stubborn?’

He waited for Sedric to respond. When he didn’t, Jess shook his head, his smile growing colder. He reached into his shirt, drew out a pouch and opened it. As he tugged at the strings, he said, ‘Leftrin was stupid to think I was a fool. I know what happened. He saw a chance for money, and he thought that if he brought in his own people, he could make his deal direct and keep more of the split for himself. Well, I don’t work that way. No one cuts out Jess Torkef.’ From the pouch, he took something the size of his palm. It was scarlet and ruby. He held it up between his thumb and forefinger and turned it to catch the light. It flashed in the sunlight. ‘Look familiar?’ he asked Sedric mockingly and then laughed as first disbelief and then fury flushed Sedric’s face.

It was the scarlet dragon scale that Rapskal had given Alise. Alise had entrusted it to Sedric, asking him to make a detailed drawing of it. Then she’d forgotten he had it, and he’d added it to his trove. ‘That’s mine,’ he said flatly. ‘You stole it out of my room.’

Jess smiled. ‘It’s an interesting question. Is it possible to steal from a thief?’ He turned the scale again, flashing it in the sun. ‘I’ve had it for days. If you missed it, you covered your anxiety well. I suspect you didn’t even know it was gone. You’re not quite as good at hiding things as you think you are. Most of what I found was disgusting trash, but not this bit. So, I took it. Just for safekeeping, of course, to be sure I’d have something to show for this wild-goose chase. Looks like it was a good thing I did. Everything else you had is probably at the bottom now.’

Sedric had still not said a word. The hunter took his time putting the red dragon’s scale back in the pouch, closing it, and slipping it back inside his shirt. ‘So,’ he said. ‘Looks like we each know what the other is about. And it’s time to consider a new alliance. Leftrin was supposed to be a part of my deal with Sinad Arich. He was supposed to smooth the way and make it easy. But he didn’t. Doesn’t matter. He’s gone now. And it’s down to us. So, you have two choices. You can step up and take his place in the deal, and we’ll share. Or don’t.’

‘Leftrin had a deal with you?’ Sedric’s mind was scrambling to put all the pieces together. What sort of a deal? To rob his passengers?

Tired, the dragon pleaded in the back of his mind. Not safe.

Hush. Let me think. Her heavy head was drooping on her weary neck. He appraised her and knew that if he didn’t act, soon her muzzle would be touching the water. Take care of the most pressing issue first. Then puzzle out the rest. To Jess, he said, ‘Set all this aside for a moment. Can you help me with the dragon? She’s tired and she’s going to sink and drown if I can’t help her float and rest somehow.’

A slow smile spread across the hunter’s face. ‘Now we’re coming to terms, boy. Of course I’ll help you with the dragon.’ He lifted the knife and turned it, making the blade flash in the sunlight.

‘I don’t understand you,’ Sedric said in a shaking voice. But abruptly he did.

The hunter jerked a thumb towards the copper. ‘I’m talking about the dragon. There’s plenty there, for both of us. You help me kill it, and butcher it fast before the river claims the carcass. Then we load as much as we can in the boat, and we head back for Trehaug. I know people there, people willing to make a quick profit and not be curious about the source. I can go in during the dark of night and get everything we need for us to make a very comfortable trip down the river on a boat with a crew who won’t ask us any questions. Think about it. Everyone else is dead. Everyone will assume you are dead, which means you don’t have to share with anyone. There will be no pursuit and no questions. Just two very wealthy newcomers living a life of ease in Chalced.’

It was instinctive. He blocked the thought from the dragon’s mind as he would shield the eyes of a child from violence. He tried to. He wasn’t completely successful. He felt her anxiety rise as she sensed his agitation without comprehending the reason for it. She looked at the hunter, recognized him. Food? she queried hopefully.

‘No food. Not yet,’ he spoke aloud to her without thinking.

The hunter barked out a hoarse laugh. ‘And that’s what you’re bringing to the table, my little friend. You can hear her thoughts. And you talk back to the damn things. I can hear them a bit but I try not to. Easier to be professional about these things if you keep a distance, I think. Though it explains how you got close enough to get as much as you did the first time. Impressed me, I’ll tell you. I’d been trying to figure out how to do it for days. And here some little Bingtown fop just goes ashore and takes what he wants.’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Sedric lied. It was a reflex. The hunter hadn’t mentioned the blood. Did he know about the blood? Did any of it matter any more? The whole conversation was insane. He needed food and water and rest. He needed to know if the man was going to help him or not. He tried to sound as if he were not desperate. ‘Look, help me with the dragon and give me some of that fruit you have. Anything. I need to eat and rest. Then we can talk about what happens next.’

Jess cocked his head at him and said coldly, ‘No point to feeding you if you don’t intend to help me. And lying to me seems to be your way of saying you intend to keep it all to yourself. Though how you plan to make it work, I can’t see. Shall I make it easier for you? I was awake that night. I saw you come aboard all bloodied. Been in a fight was my first thought, though I hadn’t heard a peep of a row, and sound carries over water. But then, as you went up the ladder, I got a glimpse of what you were carrying. Glittery red, just like I’d been told. Dragon blood. And I was, as I’ve told you, very impressed. So I followed and in a bit I saw you come out of your cabin and throw your duds overboard. And that made it sure for me. Somehow you’d gotten blood out of a dragon and not been eaten or even caught. You were pretty savvy about hiding it, too. I went through your room more than once before I found your hoard. So. Let’s just admit we’re scoundrels and be honest scoundrels with one another … or as honest as scoundrels can be. We both shipped aboard the Tarman for the same reason. And I only shipped because I was promised that Captain Leftrin was going to grease things a bit for me, but I suspect his craze for that woman soured him on our kind of profit. Maybe he was hoping to keep everything for himself, woman, dragon parts to sell in Chalced, everything. Maybe you were the one who offered him a better deal. But the agreement was that he was supposed to help me, and in return, he was going to be well paid for his trouble. Very well paid.’

His voice faded for a moment as he stooped down in the boat. When he came up again, he had a coil of line in his hand. He scowled at it, and set it out beside the knife.

‘Instead that son of a dog tried to kill me last night.’ He lifted his hand and felt about his throat gingerly. He growled and shook his head, and went back to setting out his tools. ‘Double twist of fate, I suppose. That wave that hit kept him from strangling me, and I’m hoping it made an end of him. Love-blind idiot is what he is. Well, with a bit of luck, he’s dead. And you’ve got your luck, you’re alive.’ He held up a small hatchet, frowned at it, and then with a thunk seated it in the log beside the line.

‘Bad tool for the job, but you use what you have. A bit like our captain. Leftrin got greedy and lost it all. If he’d lived up to his end of the deal, he could have had the kind of money we’re going to have. Then the ugly old goat could have had any woman he wanted. Well, his loss is our gain. We’ll have it all. Wealth, power and any sort of woman we want, once we get back to Chalced.’ He leered at Sedric nastily, baring his little brown teeth, and added, ‘Or whatever you fancy.’

He inspected his tools and they met with his satisfaction. He set them out in a careful row. ‘So, you’ll help me. Or you can be stubborn and try to keep it all for yourself. Try that, and I’ll just take what I want. Won’t be as easy without someone to handle the animal for me, keep it calm and lure it to the blade. But I can get more than enough to live the rest of my days as a very rich man.’ He thumbed the edge of the knife, nodded to himself and looked directly at Sedric. ‘Well. Time for a decision. Shall we get on with it?’

Sedric swallowed. Reality seemed to re-form around him. Leftrin had been part of this man’s plan to acquire and sell dragon parts? Then he’d probably just been using Alise, all that time. Alise had been duped. And he’d been blind to all the machinations going on all around him. He should have guessed. He should have known that he wouldn’t be the only one to see the chance for profit. He’d known all along there had to be some bizarre motive behind the captain’s apparent infatuation. So, now what? Did he take the hunter’s offer? Could he coax and calm the dragon until Jess got close enough for a kill?

The man had set it all out quite plainly. If he helped him, Jess would help him get to Chalced and sell what they had. He didn’t need to go back to Bingtown at all. From Chalced, he could send Hest a message to come and join him. With the kind of money they’d have, there’d be no need for any more pretences. They could go anywhere they wanted, and live exactly as they pleased. He could have everything he’d dreamed of. He’d paid dearly already. Would it be so wrong to take some small measure of happiness for himself?

Jess was watching him closely. His raspy voice became persuasive, the threat gone from it. ‘Animal’s going to die anyway. Look at it. It wasn’t a prime specimen to start with and now it’s going to drown. So you might as well be kind and make the end a quick one and have something to show for your trouble.’ Jess hung the knife from his belt and gripped the fish spear firmly. He slung the coil of line from his free hand. ‘Tell her not to struggle, that I’m going to help her,’ he instructed Sedric in a low voice. ‘All I need you to do right now is keep her calm. Say I’m putting the rope on her to help her stay afloat. It’s not as long as it could be; I’ll need to get her to move closer to the trees so I can tie it off. Afterwards, we’ll have to work fast, before the carcass sinks. We’ll go for the stuff that will keep and bring the most money. Teeth, claws, scales. It’s going to be messy, rough work and you won’t like it. But a little of this now will mean a lot of money later.’

The copper was watching them anxiously. Suspiciously? How much could she really understand, Sedric chided his conscience? The hunter had said she was going to die anyway. Would it be better if she died slowly and her body sank to the bottom of the river for fish to eat? What good would that do anyone? After all he had gone through, didn’t he deserve something for himself, some small bit of happiness? Didn’t he deserve to finally stop living in deceit?

He kept his eyes on the dragon as Jess edged towards her. She looked back at him. Her eyes swirled as always but darkness seemed mixed with their blue and gold now. He could feel her questioning him but not sense the fullness of her question. Did that mean she was dying? Was Jess telling the truth when he said it would be a mercy?

She hung at a slant from the log, one front leg hooked over it. Here at the edge of the river under the trees, the current was not as strong. Beyond her, deeper in the forest, standing water carried shimmers of light into the perpetual gloom. He noted in passing from the high water marks on the tree trunks that the water was starting to recede. But it was not happening quickly, and he doubted it would be soon enough to save her. As he watched, she gave a few feeble kicks of her hind legs, trying to push herself a little higher on the log. She was wearying of holding her head so unnaturally high. She was hungry and thirsty and chilled. Dragons were creatures made for fierce sun and baking sand. The cool water sapped her energy and slowed her heart. He was not imagining it. Her eyes were spinning more slowly. She had never been strong nor healthy. He looked at her and the welling of sorrow he felt ambushed him. He blinked his eyes and saw her through the opacity of tears.

You are leaving me?

Her childish interpretation of his reaction to their pending separation tore at his heart. He tried to take a breath only to have it snag on something sharp inside him. Little copper queen. I wish you could have flown.

I have wings! The weary dragon cocked her head at him. Very slowly, she lifted her wings and opened them partially. They caught the light like hammered metal. They were larger than he would have supposed them, and more delicate. The spider web framework stood out against the leathery membrane and feathery scales. The afternoon light shone through them as if they were panes of stained glass.

‘They are beautiful.’ He spoke the words aloud, sorrowfully, and felt her bask in the compliment.

‘Beautiful is right. And the leather from them will last hundreds of years, according to the tales. But they’re too big for us to harvest. They’d rot before we got down the river.’ Jess was edging towards her on a fallen tree. Branches covered in leaves were both impediments and handholds for him as he sidled along it. He halted where he was, and laughed aloud at Sedric’s scowl. ‘Don’t glare at me. You know it’s true. Keep her calm. All the debris has been loosened by her struggling, so the pack isn’t as sturdy here. I don’t want her to knock me into the water and have it close up over my head.’ He grunted as he worked his way cautiously along the floating tree.

He paused a man’s length away from her. He was watching the dragon, not Sedric. He knew Sedric had no choice but to help him. ‘When I get closer, tell her to extend her head towards me. I’ll get a rope around her neck and then I’ll try to lead her in close to one of the big trees. As long as she’s afloat and doesn’t fight me, I should be able to get her where I want her.’

He knew he couldn’t save her. She was going to die. If Jess succeeded, at least her death would be quick. And it would serve a purpose. At least one of them could go on to live a decent life. The hunter would make it quick. He’d said so.

Danger? Relpda was watching Jess make his final approach. What was she sensing from him?

The hunter had nearly reached her. He balanced at the thick end of the fallen tree, just short of the upthrust of muddy roots that ended it. He was shaking out the rope, and eying the dragon as he did so. Sedric marked that he still gripped the fish spear in one hand as he worked. His darting glance went from the dragon to Sedric and back again as he studied her neck and measured out line. ‘Keep her calm, now,’ he reminded Sedric. ‘There’s not a lot of line here. Once I get the rope around her neck, I’m going to have to snub her up pretty close to the tree. But that will keep her head above the water afterwards.’

It wasn’t something he was doing. He was here, but he couldn’t stop it from happening. If he tried to intervene, Jess was capable of killing him as well. And what good would that do the dragon? It was her inevitable end. He watched it, feeling that he owed her that much, to witness her end. I’m sorry, he thought at her, and received only confusion in response.

‘Okay, I’m ready.’ Jess was holding out a large loop of line. He had the fish spear trapped under his arm as he held the noose to one side of his body. ‘Tell her to reach her head out towards me. Slowly. Tell her I’m going to help her.’

Sedric took a deep breath. His throat kept closing up. Give in to the inevitable, he counselled himself. ‘Relpda,’ Sedric said softly. ‘Listen to me, now. Listen carefully.’