Crossroads 04 - The Dragon Isles (31 page)

 
          
The
two reached over the table and shook hands.

 
          
The
privateer captain stood and stretched. “I think that calls for another drink,”
he said, whistling for the cabin boy once more. He went to his sea chest,
cleared away the junk on top of it, and fetched out the fee that Trip had paid
him.

 
          
He
handed the purse to the kender and said to all of them, “I’ll let you know how
much the expenses are.”

 
          
Mik
nodded. “When do we leave?”

 
          
Jerick
smiled. “We sail with the morning tide.”

Tbe Chase

 
          
Trip
leaned on
Red Wake’s
rail and gazed out
over the clear blue sea. To the south, the wooded hills of Alarl rose from the
gently surging waves. Trip imagined the thriving settlement of kender on the
other side of the pastoral isle. He pictured meeting old friends, some of whom
he hadn’t seen for years. Of course, there was no evidence that any kender he
knew lived there. Nevertheless, he couldn’t help sighing wistfully.

 
          
“Anything the matter, Trip?”
Mik asked.

 
          
“Just
wishing I could go to Perch
and
find
the treasure,” Trip said.

 
          
“I’m
sure you’ll have a chance to visit the island some day,” Mik said, “after we
find the diamond.” He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples and saw the
blue-white gem once more.

 
          
Shimmer,
working on the deck nearby, looked up. “Anything wrong?” the bronze knight
asked.

 
          
“Just
a headache,” Mik replied. “Nothing to worry about”

 
          
“Fast flee the isle of thieves,
if I
remember right,” Ula said, appearing from behind him.

 
          
“Fast
quit
the isle of thieves, actually,”
Mik corrected her.
“Past furthest spits
of sand,
As
soul, not mind, believes, Forsake at last
the land.
And here, we quit the main archipelago and sail into the outer
reaches.”

 
          
“To the island of the temple and the treasure?”
Ula asked.

 
          
“Hopefully,”
Mik replied.

 
          
“Do
you trust Red not to double-cross us?” Ula asked.

 
          
“I
trust him as much as I trust any former pirate who’s an old friend. I should
check with him on our progress, I suppose.”

 
          
“I’ll
go with you,” Ula said. Then, with a devilish smile, she added, “Your friend
seems easy prey for my charms.”

 
          
“What
man isn’t?” replied Mik.
“Trip, Shimmer . . . coming?”

 
          
The
bronze knight shook his head.

 
          
“I’m
having too much fun sightseeing,” Trip replied.

 
          
The
sailor and the sea elf turned and headed for the bridge.

 
          
Shimmer
went forward and stood in the bow. The sea breeze tugging at his brazen hair
made him look like a young god returning to his kingdom. His eyes, though,
remained cool and distant.

 
          
Trip
joined the knight, and leaned over the rail to snatch at the tiny rainbows in
the spray kicked up by the ship’s passing.

 
          
*****

 
          
Mog
clung to
Red Wake's
keel, his muscles
aching from the tedium of the journey. Occasionally, he transformed into a
shark and prowled the nearby seas for food. The effort of catching the ship
again, though, almost wasn’t worth it Mog might have given up this tedious
chore were it not for the presence of Tempest in the back of his mind. The tiny
Turbidus leech attached to his spine wriggled at the thought of its dark mistress.
Mog felt a tingling in his body and knew that the sea dragon sensed his
thoughts as well. He muttered obeisance to her obscene majesty and turned his
thoughts back to his task.

 
          
Tempest
had other spies inside the Veil, handfuls of minion fish who had broken through
the rupture when she assaulted the harrier, as well as others. Mog, though,
remained her most faithful, reliable servant. None of the rest, not even the
ravenous sharks, shared the dark mistress’ soul.

 
          
Bridle
as he might upon occasion, Tempest had created the spawn with her own scales
and blood. She imbued him with the power to change his shape. She gave him free
rein to murder and feast as he chose, so long as he obeyed her.

 
          
If
he failed her, though, she would destroy him utterly.

 
          
Mog
clambered from the keel to the side of the ship, lurking just below the
waterline. His steely claws bit deep into the wood, securing him against the
rushing water.

 
          
Peering
up out of the churning sea, he saw the kender leaning over the side.

 
          
“How simple,” Mog thought, “to snatch the little pest and drag him
under.”
Images of the kender’s warm blood running down his throat
flashed through his reptilian mind.

 
          
Then
he mastered himself once more. His job was to watch, and wait for the proper
moment to strike. Wait for the orders from his mistress. Tempest burned in the
hack of his mind like a hot coal.

 
          
Mog
waited, confident his time drew near.

 
          
* * * * *

 
          
A
day later, Jerick paced the bridge, his big boots making a clomping sound like
the drums of distant giants. “I don’t mind telling you,” he said to Mik and
Ula. “I’m beginning to think this is a fool’s venture. If I turn hack now, I
might be able to recover me costs from what little cash you have on you.” He
glanced at the jewelry entwined around Ula’s slender body.

           
“Turn back for what?” Mik asked.
“Another day searching for wandering pirates?
Or were you thinking of sailing beyond the Veil?
Better
booty out there, I hear.”

 
          
The
red-bearded privateer scowled at his old friend.
“With that
dragon lurking about?
Not likely.”

 
          
“Perhaps
you should petition the Order of Brass to take care of Tempest,” Ula suggested.

 
          
“I’ve
no love for
them,
either,” Jerick
growled. “You think I haven’t seen their patrols overflying us, high up in the
sky? They’re looking for something. I
hope
it’s not you lot they’re looking for.” He clomped around the deck again.

 
          
“We’ve
sailed according to the Prophecy,” Mik said, reassuringly.
“Where light anew is bom,
To
battle divine
hound, Before the second mom, Know the last torch is found.
We’ve sailed
east past the main archipelago, as it says, and sighted the War Hound
constellation.”

 
          
“So,
we’ve got to find this
torch,
whatever that is, within two days,” Jerick said.

 
          
“The
torch is an isolated isle near the edge of the Veil, Ula thinks—the Isle of
Fire,” Mik replied.

 
          
“Ula
thinks, you think!” Jerick fumed.
“The trouble is
I
haven’t been doing
enough thinking. If I had, I’d never have taken this errand with you misfits.
If we find that isle, and this supposed temple, how do I even know there’s
treasure there?”

 
          
“When
the keys were split,” Mik said, “the high temple vanished from the eyes of
mortals. No one has seen it since the founding of the Veil. The fourth key will
open it to us.
From fire, wind, sea and
earth,
At
land beyond the end, Of passage keys give
birth, To treasure now ascend
—The keys are the elements, and using them
will lead us to the treasure.” “Which you’re sure is a monster diamond amid a
pile of treasure.”

 
          
“Aye.”

 
          
“Which you’ve seen in visions.”

 
          
“Aye.
Many times, both with the keys, and
in Aurialastican.
Trip saw it once as well.”

 
          
“And
the visions of a kender are supposed to make me feel better?”

 
          
“I’ve
seen it, too,” Ula said. “Just once, after I wove the second key into my
jewelry. I’m
sure
it exists.”

 
          
“And
I’m half sure you’re all mad,” Jerick said. “Following some absurd rhyme, doled
out to me a piece at a time by a shipwrecked mariner ... I must be mad, too!”

 
          
He
went to the blue-painted rail and leaned on it, gazing back past Alarl toward
Misty Isle—now a tiny blur in the distance. Mik walked up beside the captain
and clapped him on the shoulder. “If you turnback now, old friend,” the sailor
said jovially, “you’ll never know if I’m right.”

 
          
“Aye,”
Jerick replied. “I suppose I won’t. Though I’m not sure that would be a bad
thing. Show me those keys again.” Mik fished into his waistband and whistled
for Trip. The kender slid down from the mast top. “Give me the black key, would
you?”

 
          
Trip
nodded, dug it out of his vest pocket, and handed it to Mik. He and Ula
chuckled as Trip scrambled up the mast once more. The sea elf carefully
extricated the blue key from her costume and handed it to the sailor.

 
          
“Aye,”
Jerick said, gazing at the collection in Mik’s hands. “They’re impressive all
right.
Old, too.
Maybe there is something in all your
talk.”

 
          
“You
know,” Mik said, “It hadn’t occurred to me before, but...” He defdy wove the
three artifact pieces together into a larger whole. Diamond, opal, and emerald
became part of a larger, key-like shape. The conjoined artifact began to glow
with a faint blue-white aura.

 
          
“Still,
one piece
missing,
” Ula said, her green eyes flashing.
With a sigh, Mik went to disassemble the artifact, but the pieces would not
come free.

 
          
“Is
it stuck?” Ula asked.

 
          
“More
than stuck,” Mik replied. “I can’t even find the places where the joints were.”

 
          
“So which one of us keeps it?”
Ula asked. Her green eyes
darted from Mik to Jerick.

 
          
“I’ve
just the place in my sea chest,” Jerick said.

 
          
“I’m
sure you have,” Mik replied. “But the place I have in mind is just as secure
... and vastly more visible.”