Cursed Bones: Sovereign of the Seven Isles: Book Five (28 page)

The man riding the smaller creature pulled hard on his reins, trying to avoid the dragon coming for him, but he was too late—already committed to his attack, he was unable to change course quickly enough. The true dragon flared its wings, bringing its hind legs up and raking the belly of the other creature, flipping it over and casting it into the ocean with a roar that seemed to still the air and freeze in place the men fighting for their lives—alerting everyone that the situation had just changed in a very fundamental way.

The dragon banked hard, breathing fire onto the ship holding anchor at the port side, setting man and timber alike aflame in a whoosh.

The ships holding aft and starboard raised anchors and turned away from the engagement while the boarding ship sounded horns, signaling a retreat … but it was too late. The green dragon circled, calmly and gracefully breathing fire on the aft ship, setting it ablaze in an instant. Men leapt into the ocean to avoid the conflagration, but too few and some too late, dousing their flaming clothes in the ocean.

As Lacy stood mesmerized by the unimaginable battle taking place, two men from the Reishi Protectorate approached with weapons drawn.

“Princess Lacy, please … come with us,” the first said.

“There isn’t much time,” the other said.

Drogan threw a knife, burying it to the hilt in the throat of the first man.

The second man raised his sword and engaged, stabbing into Drogan quickly, but not quickly enough. Drogan shifted his weight, turning his body sideways, just barely avoiding the blade, then grabbed the man by the back of the neck and threw him overboard with one powerful heave.

The dragon set the third of the retreating ships alight as the boarding party scrambled to return to their ship.

Lacy was thrown to the deck when the entire ship rocked violently and then righted itself again. She scrambled to her feet and saw that one of the two Regency Navy ships had rammed them, crushing in the side of Zuhl’s ship and allowing soldiers to pour aboard.

The dragon roared again, drawing her attention away from the new flood of soldiers. She looked up to see another dragon, this one silver and regal, crash into the green dragon and drive him underwater before he could attack the last remaining vessel of the four that had first initiated the attack against Zuhl’s ship.

The barbarians that had strutted about with such overstated confidence were now fighting with desperation against men from the Regency. Drogan guided Lacy toward the soldiers as he shouted at them. A man with the insignia of an officer saw them and directed his troops toward them. A few moments later they were being escorted aboard the ramming ship and then from there to the other vessel that had drawn up alongside.

Lacy watched the entangled ships still fighting while the Regency ship she’d boarded turned away. In the distance, she almost thought she saw the Ithilian flag flying over the ship that had started the fight.

“I’m Commander Arnd of the Regency Navy. Welcome aboard, Princess Lacy.”

“I don’t understand what just happened.”

“We rescued you from Zuhl,” Commander Arnd said.

“But who were those other ships?” Lacy asked.

“Reishi Protectorate,” Drogan said, before Commander Arnd could answer.

“And what about the dragons?” Lacy asked.

Drogan shrugged.

“We have no knowledge of them.” Commander Arnd said. “Might I suggest a meal and a hot bath while we put some distance between us and our enemies?”

“I am hungry, but I still don’t understand what’s going on.” Lacy said.

“I could eat,” Drogan said.

“It’s settled then,” Commander Arnd said. “These men will show you to your quarters.”

“But …” Lacy said.

“Princess,” Drogan said. “Please just let it go for now. We’ll have plenty of time to wonder about the events of this morning after we eat. I would also like the ship’s healer to look at your hand.”

Lacy nodded reluctantly.

***

“There’s another,” shouted a deckhand.

Wyatt and his crew had been fishing men out of the ocean for the better part of an hour. Most were dead, but there were a few survivors. Three of the four ships he’d commandeered were burned and already claimed by the ocean. The other two enemy ships had abruptly stopped fighting and fled once the princess had boarded the Regency ship. Wyatt had the sinking feeling that he’d just made matters worse.

He’d lost most of his company of Rangers, as well as most of Captain Riggs’s sailors. Knight Kinley had reported clear skies, but now he was dead too, along with his wyvern. Wyatt had always been impressed by the capabilities of the Sky Knights, but the dragon that had come out of nowhere had bested Knight Kinley with virtually no effort.

Alexander appeared on the deck of the ship and sighed. “I’m sorry, Captain Wyatt,” he said. “I should have seen this coming.”

“You can’t see everything, Lord Reishi,” Wyatt said. “I just don’t understand where the dragon came from.”

“He was aboard the ship in human form,” Alexander said. “If I had just looked closer, I would have seen it.”

“Captain,” called out a deckhand, “this one’s a woman.”

Alexander flickered out of sight, appearing next to the woman they’d just pulled from the water. She was wounded and unconscious.

“Her name is Tasia and she’s a dragon,” he said, as Wyatt approached.

The deckhand backed away, his colors flaring with fear.

“She won’t hurt you,” Alexander said. “Do everything in your power to care for her. I’ll let Bragador know.”

“But she just burned my flotilla,” Captain Riggs said, his face smeared with soot and grime.

“No, she didn’t,” Alexander said. “She’s the silver dragon who stopped the green dragon from finishing you off.”

Riggs frowned skeptically. “I didn’t see that happen, what with so much going on at the time, but I did wonder where that fiery beast went all of a sudden.”

“I saw her, Captain,” a deckhand said, “bright and silver, shining in the sun she was, just before she crashed into that terrible green dragon and drove it under the waves. They was both gone after that.”

“Care for her,” Alexander said.

“What about the princess?” Wyatt asked.

“Follow at a safe distance,” Alexander said. “I’ll scout the enemy ships and determine if you have any chance against them.”

“Where are they headed?” Captain Riggs asked.

“Karth.”

Chapter 24

Isabel stopped pacing and listened. She thought she heard the sounds of battle, muffled by stone and distance. Then she heard footsteps coming toward her cell door. As the footsteps grew near, the secret passage opened behind her.

Ayela peered through from the shadows.

“We have to go, right now,” she said, motioning for Isabel to hurry.

She hoisted her pack and headed for the passage without a word. Though they’d removed all of her weapons, she’d been permitted to keep the rest of her belongings and she was glad for that. Simple things like a bedroll and a cloak might make all the difference on the run in the jungle.

She slipped into the passage, and Ayela quickly closed the hidden panel just before the soldiers reached the cell door. Isabel and Ayela froze, barely daring to breathe when Trajan and one of the Sin’Rath entered—he had a sword in hand and she was sniffing about suspiciously.

“I don’t understand, where could she have gone?” Trajan asked.

The witch began casting a spell. Isabel drank the potion Ayela had given her, the one that would nullify the effects of the malaise weed she’d been forced to consume every day since Trajan had captured her.

The witch released her spell, a cloud of darkness forming before her, then taking the shape of a disembodied dog’s head, it began sniffing around the edge of the room.

“Your sister has betrayed you,” the witch said in a raspy voice. “But we will find her.”

Isabel motioned for Ayela to lead the way down the hidden passage. It was narrow, only four feet wide and barely six feet tall. Roots hung from the ceiling at uneven intervals, dripping with cold water.

Ayela held up a small jar of greenish glowing lichen to light the way. Isabel followed without a word, silently testing her feelings for the intensity she would need to cast a spell.

Behind them they heard a thud, then another and another followed by the sound of splintering wood.

“Ayela!” Trajan shouted.

They quickened their pace. The passage branched and Ayela went to the right without hesitation. It branched again … this time Ayela took the passage to the left that led down a flight of stairs into another passage that looked more like a natural tunnel than a constructed corridor.

Then Ayela started running. “We haven’t much time before the enemy arrives,” she said.

The passage ran in a meandering course for several hundred feet until it came to an abrupt stop. A rope ladder dangled against the wall to one side, leading up into the darkness.

Isabel saw light in the distance behind them.

“Quickly, your brother is coming.”

Ayela nodded and started climbing. Once they reached the top of the ladder, they scrambled through a hole that had been broken into the stone floor of a small room and Isabel pulled the ladder up.

“Ayela!” Trajan shouted from below.

“Where to now?” Isabel asked.

“This way,” Ayela said, leading her through a door into another hidden passage. Several minutes and many turns later, Ayela stopped and motioned for silence as she peered through a tiny hole in the wall. Satisfied, she pulled a lever and a secret panel popped open.

“This is my room,” Ayela said. “I just need to get my things before we leave.” She started loading her pack.

“Why were they coming for me?” Isabel asked.

“I warned them about the attack,” Ayela said. “Your husband appeared before me and told me your plan. At first I thought I was losing my mind, but he knew things he couldn’t have known, things that only you could have told him, so I listened, though I don’t pretend to understand how he could do such a thing.

“He told me of your plan. I know the legend of the Goiri but never truly believed it existed, much less that it can help us now. When he told me of the coming attack, I went straight to Trajan to warn him. I begged him not to tell the Sin’Rath, but that was the very first thing he did.

“I came for you as quickly as I could. They’ll kill you for revealing their location to Phane.”

“Let’s not give them the chance,” Isabel said, motioning for Ayela to hurry.

She buckled her belt and cinched down the straps of her pack, then hoisted it over her shoulders. She handed Isabel a dagger and said, “The hidden passages can take us to one of the entry halls, but none leads out of the fortress. We’ll have to escape from one of the guarded entrances.”

“That could be complicated,” Isabel said.

“I have a few things that might help,” Ayela said, patting her belt pouch. “Once we’re out, then what?”

“I have friends waiting for me,” Isabel said. “We’ll meet up with them and head for the Goiri’s crypt.”

Ayela followed a confusing maze of passages until they reached a small room where she motioned for silence, pointing to a peephole in the wall. Isabel looked through into a large entry hall filled with soldiers of Karth. Among them was one of the witches, a hideous creature with clawed hands, pale white skin, and thin black hair that barely covered her scalp. She stood amid the soldiers facing the door as the first thud of a battering ram slammed home.

Phane’s forces had arrived.

Alexander appeared and motioned for Isabel to follow him back into the passage, far enough away from the soldiers so they could talk without fear of being discovered.

“Hector and Horace are in the jungle waiting for you,” he said. “Once Phane’s people breach the defenses and enter the fortress, you should face minimal resistance.”

“What about my father and brother?” Ayela asked.

“As long as they’re under the influence of the Sin’Rath, I can’t help them,” Alexander said.

“Phane’s people will kill them,” Ayela said. “They’re all that’s left of my family.”

“The Sin’Rath have a secret way out of this fortress,” Alexander said. “They’ve already begun retreating and your father’s with them.”

“How can you know this? How can I trust you?” Ayela said.

“It’s a little late now, Ayela,” Isabel said. “If the witches catch you now, they’ll kill you. Besides, your family will always be at their mercy unless we destroy them.”

“And you think the legend of the Goiri is true?” Ayela said. “What if you’re wrong? What if we go into the gloaming swamp and find nothing but death?”

“We don’t have much choice, do we? Remember, you came to me,” Isabel said. “And the truth is, we need each other. You know this jungle better than I ever will. Help me and I promise I will help you.”

Ayela seemed torn, struggling to reconcile her decision to help Isabel with her loyalty to her family, flinching with each rhythmic thud of the battering ram pounding on the heavy fortress door.