Harbinger: Fate's Forsaken: Book One (44 page)

Kael needed
little encouragement. After weeks of nothing but fish, he was prepared to eat
his weight in game. Shamus served him a generous slab of venison, and he
stuffed the first bite in his mouth — nearly swallowing it without
chewing.

“There you are,
lad. You eat, and I’ll talk. The one good thing about the curse is that I
haven’t aged a day — my arms are still strong.” Shamus poured him a
tankard, and he was glad it was only water. “I know you probably think it’s odd
that we aren’t serving ocean fare at our tables. We’re proud children of the
seas, I’ll have you know. But when you’ve been a fish for so long, it just
don’t feel right to be eating them.”

“No, I imagine
it doesn’t,” Lysander agreed.

Kael nearly
choked when Shamus clapped him on the back. “But we’re fish no more, and it’s
all thanks to you,” he said, smiling. “You kept your word — you told me
you were going to kill the Witch and lo, she lies dead. The good people of
Copperdock owe you their freedom.”

So he’d been
right: the fish he accidentally kicked over on the way to Wendelgrimm was
Shamus. He didn’t know where the villagers were getting their information, but
he thought he should set the tale straight. “I didn’t fight alone — I
couldn’t have done it without my friends.”

“And they all
said they couldn’t have done it without
you
.
Now I know it’s hard for you great men to take the credit,” Shamus said,
placing a firm hand on his shoulder, “but the villagers are already calling you
their champion. There’s naught you can do now but bow to the cheers, Sir
Wright.”

He leaned back,
as if that settled it, and Kael leaned around him to glare at Lysander —
who’d suddenly become very occupied with sharpening his dagger on the side of
his boot. “You told?” he said angrily.

Lysander was the
picture of innocence. “My dear boy, a whole village witnessed you flying
through the air with a dragon. What could I tell them?”

“It wasn’t your
secret,” Kael snapped back. He was livid. His next bite of venison stuck to his
tongue like sand.

“Don’t worry
about Copperdock — we’re friends of the whisperers,” Shamus said quickly.
“And after Miss Kyleigh helped us catch dinner, we’ve become friends of
halfdragons as well.”

Kael slammed his
tankard on the ground. “And you told about Kyleigh? I thought you were supposed
to be her friend —”

“Ah, actually we
figured that one out on our own,” Shamus said. He pointed to a dark corner of
the street, where Kyleigh was sleeping soundly — in full dragon form.

She had her tail
curled up to her nose and her chin propped on her forearms. Kael was surprised
to see that a small mob of children had taken up residence in the crook of her
legs, using her tail for a giant pillow. Their faces were pink and smooth with
sleep.

“The young ones
don’t know fear like the rest of us,” Shamus said quietly. “Nor prejudice.
They’ve never seen a dragon before, so what do they do? Walk up and make
friends with her. I tell you — if all men had a child’s courage, the
Kingdom would be a better place.”

“Speaking of that,”
Lysander cut in, “what do you plan to do, now that you’ve got your legs back?”

Shamus smiled
and spread his arms wide. “What all shipbuilders do — rebuild. I’ll
imagine the Duke’s fleet has gotten a little worn down over the past decades,
and we’ll be happy to take the gold off him.”

“Aren’t you
afraid he’ll swindle you?” Kael asked.

He shook his
head. “You can’t pilfer skill, lad. We work when we’re paid. And speaking of
coin,” he leaned forward, “the Witch had a fair bit of treasure stored up in
her dungeons. You can have whatever you want in payment.”

Kael shook his
head. “I don’t want anything, thanks. It’d just be something else to lug
around.”

Shamus raised
his brows. Then he laughed outright.

Lysander looked
appalled. “Well that’s not very pirate-like at all. Everyone chose something.”

Shamus pursed
his lips. “Yeah, but I’m still not sure why you wanted that old broken sword.”

“Broken?” Kael said.
            Lysander
nodded. “Jake explained it all. Because the Witch was using the L — ah,
the sword — for an impetus, it was tied to her soul. So it shattered when
she died. It’s all right, though. I happen to know an excellent blacksmith.”

Shamus raised
his eyebrows. “I didn’t know it was her impetus. That
would
be a prize, if you could stomach having it around.”

“Yes, that’s the
difficult part,” Lysander said carefully.

He didn’t know
why Lysander was keeping the Lass a secret, but after all the telling he’d
done, Kael had a good mind to give Shamus the complete history of it.

Lysander must
have seen the storm brewing on his face because he quickly changed the subject.
“And what’ll you do, Master Kael, now that you’ve paid in full for your
training?”

That question
caught him off guard. He had no idea what his next step ought to be. “I suppose
I’ll just continue on,” he said with a shrug.

Lysander leaned
slightly forward, careful not to jostle Aerilyn — though he had to raise
his voice to be heard over her snores. “Really? Well I only asked because
Morris mentioned something about a quest for vengeance. A certain, ah,
rebellion
against Earl Titus.”

“Did he?” For
such a highly secretive lot, pirates were proving to be horrible confidants.
But Kael had been around Lysander long enough to know what that tilt in his
chin meant, what his overly casual airs were sure to carry with them: a
bargain. And this time, he was ready for it. “Maybe that’s true. But I don’t
see why it ought to matter to you.”

Lysander’s mask
slipped, and he grinned. He was obviously very pleased that Kael was playing
his game. “It doesn’t
matter
, per
say. And I know you aren’t a fellow who’s interested in gold, but it seems to
me that you’re nevertheless a man in need of an army.”

Kael broke a
twig and tossed it into the fire. “Oh? And I suppose you think you can find me
one?”

“Perhaps. But
even if I do help you raise a force, we’ll have no way to transport it. We
can’t move men and horses across the Kingdom if the seas are crawling with the
Duke’s managers.”

He tried to play
the game, he really did. But Amos was right: he simply had no patience. “Fine,
what do you want? Out with it.”

His barking
startled Aerilyn, briefly interrupting her string of noises. Lysander waited
like a man before a snake until she went back to snoring. “The solution is
simple,” he continued at a whisper. “I know a couple of fellows who might be
able to help us — men on the inside. With their knowledge and your skill,
we just might be able to make the ocean a little … freer.”

Shamus whistled.
“You aren’t planning to sack the Duke, are you?”

Lysander made a
face. “No, I’m planning to throw him
in
a sack, preferably with some rather large rocks, and toss him off the bow of my
ship.” He turned back to Kael. “It’s very dangerous, I won’t lie to you. And
even if we do succeed, we’ll have made some very dangerous enemies. But I already
sleep with a dagger under my pillow, so it makes me no difference. What I need
to know is: are you willing to trade safety for infamy?”

Kael thought
about it — or rather, he pretended to. All he had to do was think of the
children of Harborville and the ache in his gut told him exactly what must be
done. “If I help you sack the Duke, will I have
your
help, when the time comes?”

There was no
trick in the glint of his eye. “I’ll follow wherever the gales take you,
friend,” he said, and held out his hand.

Kael took it.
“Then the Duke had better start digging, because he’s as good as dead.”

“Excellent,”
Lysander said with a grin.

There was just
one other person Kael felt ought to know about the plan. He left Lysander and
Shamus to their chatting and walked over to where Kyleigh slept. Though he
swore his boots didn’t make a sound, she cracked one of her green eyes open
before he even got close to her.

“You weren’t
asleep at all, were you?” And he could tell by her smirk that he’d guessed
correctly. “So I suppose you heard about our plan, then?”

She nodded, ever
so slightly. She was being careful not to wake the children who slept next to
her.

He knelt down so
that his face was even with hers and said: “You don’t have to come along, you
know. You pulled me out of the ocean. You saved me from certain death, and I
know the debt between us is settled. But if you
were
to come with me, I certainly wouldn’t complain. I’ve never
sacked a Duke before. I might need your help.”

He didn’t know
what made him say it. He knew she could hear and understand him perfectly. But
for some reason, being honest with a dragon was much easier than being honest
with a girl.

And her answer
shone clearly in her eyes: she would follow him anywhere, he didn’t have to
ask.

*******

They rose with
the first wink of sunlight and headed straight for the docks. Jake begged to
come along and after Lysander made him swear not to cast any spells, he agreed.
“You’re a useful fellow and we’re happy to have you,” he said. “Just don’t burn
my ship!”

Shamus and a few
of the village men came to see them off. He leaned heavily on a homemade crutch
and when they stopped, he had to hold onto a dock post for balance. Or at least
Kael thought it was for balance. But by the look on his face, Shamus could have
been fighting to stay conscious. Because when he saw
Anchorgloam
he very nearly fainted.

“Tide take me.
Is that who I think it is?”

Lysander
smirked. “The one and only — the terror of the High Seas.”

Shamus hobbled
to the gangplank and craned his neck up. “That’s her, all right. The good ship
Avarice
!”

Aerilyn gasped
so loudly that everyone turned to look at her. Her eyes went to Lysander and
got dangerously teary. Then she fled up the ramp and onto the ship —
where they heard her burst into sobs.

“I said you
should’ve mentioned it,” Kyleigh growled as she followed her.

“How was I to
know that a ship she’d only just heard of would drive her to tears?” Lysander
called after her. She made a frustrated sound and batted her hand at him, but
didn’t turn around. “She’s the daughter of Garron the Shrewd,” he explained to
Shamus, who nodded.

“I thought I
recognized the stubborn set of her mouth. Poor lass. Garron was a blasted good
merchant and an even better sailor. It broke my heart when you told me he’d
passed.” Shamus cleared his throat and turned his head to the bow. “You’ve
renamed her.”

“
Anchorgloam
is a better pirate name,
don’t you think?” Lysander said with a wry smile. “I’ve kept her in order.
Would you like to come aboard and have a look around?”

Shamus took a
step back. “I think not. It’s bad luck to board a ship you had a hand in
building. And I’ve only just got out from under the last curse. Good journey to
you, Captain.” He clasped hands with Lysander, and then Kael. “You’re welcome
back here anytime,” he said with a smile. “There’s a home for you in Copperdock
— whenever you should want it.”

Kael didn’t know
what to say to that, and anything he might have said got caught up in his
chest. So he nodded once and then walked very quickly up the ramp. He went
straight for the wheel — where Morris was waiting for him.

“You done it,
lad! You done it!” he croaked, grinning through the wiry tangles of his beard.
He pulled his arms out from between the knobs and used them to smack Kael on
either shoulder. “The sun was real close to setting, but when we saw the clouds
break and the tempest get sucked back into the sea, we knew you’d done it. Now
steer us home!”

Kael was only
too glad to take the wheel. Pretending like he was concentrating on something
would keep him from having to wave goodbye to the villagers. “Which direction
are we headed?”

Morris grinned.
“South.”

As they pulled
away from the docks, Shamus got smaller and smaller. He waved cheerily and
shouted his thanks until they could no longer hear him. Kael was sorry to leave
Copperdock, but he was even sorrier to leave land. He didn’t realize what a
breath of fresh air their adventure had been until he found himself surrounded
by ocean once again.

“Cheer up, lad,”
Morris said. “We’ll sail into Gravy Bay at noon tomorrow.”

“Is that your
home?”

Morris nodded.
“My home, and the home of every proper hooligan of the High Seas. Pirates have
always lived there. But its location is an absolute secret, understand? Not
even the Duke knows where it is.”

Kael had a hard
time believing that. He figured there must’ve been someone, some disgruntled
mutineer, who would have sold the location to the crown. But when he said as
much, Morris’s face got serious.

“Sure, there’ve
been a few who tried to give it away,” he said quietly. “But if you even think
about telling, Gravy’s curse will strike you dead.”

Kael believed in
the curse even less than he believed in the secret location. But he was too
tired to argue with Morris about it. Besides, he had other things on his mind.
“So … Kyleigh’s a dragon.”

“Halfdragon,”
Morris corrected him, and Kael felt like punching something. Had
everyone
known about her powers but him?
“I figured you must have seen when she dove in after you. She prefers to keep
it a secret, but sometimes it can’t be helped. That’s how Lysander and Thelred
found out about her.”

Now he was
interested. “Did she have to save them, too?”

Morris nodded.
“When they were young lads, they used to go sailing on their own little boat.
Matteo ordered them to stay inside the Bay, but of course Lysander didn’t
listen. One day, they got caught up in a riptide and swept out to sea. We
searched for hours, but then the sun fell …”