“Will it be alright?” she asked as they pulled the skiff up onto the shore. “Soromo, I mean.”
The city had suffered greatly at the hands of the strut shift, that much had become clear as they gained some distance and perspective. Many districts were affected and not all were leaning the same way. Chaos, as the pirate captain had called it, would only begin to describe what was happening. The screaming and the panicking and the scale of the destruction had followed them long after they left the city limits and made for dry land. They were still on the outskirts of the storm then and for the first time Jez witnessed a glimpse of the true danger of the Emerald Sea.
The water was a churning mass of black waves and cold spray. Some of the waves were easily twice the size of the tallest man she’d ever seen and it was only by Drake’s confident orders and Princess’ expert steering that they made it ashore without capsizing. More than once Jez caught a fleeting sight of something unfathomably large swimming beneath the surface but she refused to let her mind linger on the danger.
“It won’t sink,” Drake said. “But that city is in for a rough time of it.” The pirate captain looked tired. His hair was plastered to his face in the rain and his eyes had a weary look to them but he still smiled. “You look like hell, Jezzet.”
“How did you shift the struts?” she accused.
Careful, Jez. You’re surrounded and in no condition to fight five armed men.
But Drake showed no sign of offence. He laughed, loud and full of unfeigned mirth. “I’m just a man, Jezzet Vel’urn. How could I possibly have managed such a feat as moving an entire city?”
There was a strange light in his eye but Jez ignored it. “But you knew. You knew about the shift before it happened.” She realised she was shouting over the rising sound of the rain as it began to drive down harder around them.
Drake laughed and nodded before turning to the two men who had been waiting for them ashore, two men with eight horses. “Princess, Jez, you’re with me,” Drake announced, shouting against the wind as it tried to tear his words away. “The rest of you ride hard and fast and every one of you who makes it back to the
Fortune
gets a bag full of coins the colour of your choice.”
The gathered pirates whooped and ran for the horses before riding them off in a variety of directions. Jezzet shot Drake a questioning look.
“To throw the dragons off our trail,” he shouted. “They’ll be coming for us soon as this storm lets up an inch.”
“Pretty generous giving them gold to lead the dragons away,” Jez shouted back.
Drake laughed though Jezzet couldn’t hear it over the wind. He leaned in and shouted so close she could feel his breath hot and heavy against her ear. “None of them are gonna make it back. Dragons’ll see to that.”
“And what about us?” she screamed over the wind as Drake led them to the three panicking horses that waited for them.
“Don’t worry,” he shouted back as he swung up onto a horse. “This ain’t the first time I’ve given that crazy bitch’s dragons the slip. Now stop fucking talking and ride!”
The pirate captain put his heels to the horse and the beast needed no more encouragement, it trotted away into the waiting darkness. Princess gave her a grin, pulled his hood up and followed. Jez turned in her saddle to look back at Soromo but the city was too far away and hidden by the dark and the storm and Thanquil was hidden with it. With a heavy sigh she put her own heels to the horse and followed Drake Morrass into the night.
There was a certain poetic irony to Thanquil’s current situation. That the storm he had unleashed back at Fort Tallon had decided to follow him all the way to Soromo before finally venting its full force directly overhead might have made him laugh had the whole incident not been preceded by the worst strut shift the city had ever experienced. To compound the issue Thanquil found himself right in the very worst of it.
He’d been in one of more colourful parts of the city and he’d gone there angry and confused, unsure of what he felt and even more unsure of what he should do about it. He had felt his will lock onto Drake’s and force the truth to bubble up out of the man. He had felt the thrill of pleasure, so much like a drug, as he dominated the other man. Drake Morrass hadn’t lied and that meant Jezzet had. They had coupled, rutted, slept together, fucked, made love. Hundreds of thoughts and images floated around in Thanquil’s head all vying for attention and he wanted to think none of them, see none of them. So he had gone there, looking for a drink, looking for companionship but most of all he had gone there looking for a fight. Instead he got chaos, panic and more than a little good will.
“We commend you for your part in helping Soromo through this, Arbiter Darkheart,” the Dragon Empress said with a distinctly imperial air. Despite all that had happened; the strut shift, the storm, the fact that her entire meeting hall was currently sitting at a pronounced slant; the empress had not a hair out of place. The city might have been hit by its worst disaster in living, or dead, memory but its ruler carried on as though all were normal.
Thanquil, on the other hand, looked anything but normal. His hair hung in lank, greasy strands framing a soot smudged, weary face. He had not rested in days now and the only thing keeping him upright was the sleepless charm affixed to his left arm. He could feel the hazy fog of sleep at the edge of his mind but the charm kept it at bay.
His colourful district had been one of the worst hit by the strut shift. Buildings were wrecked, fires burst to life from the devastation despite the heavy rain and everywhere the injured and the dying cried for attention. Far from the murderous, human-sacrificing zealot most people seemed to believe he was Thanquil had proven to the people of the district that having a man who can increase his strength two-fold or dull someone’s senses to take away the pain was entirely useful. He had spent most of a day, even during the very worst of the storm, clearing wreckage, putting out fires, dragging survivors to safety and tending to wounded. The people had rallied around him, helped him and he had found himself wrapped up in the appreciation. It had done wonders to keep his mind occupied and now sheer exhaustion was doing much the same job.
“I only wish I had better news to share with you,” the Dragon Empress continued. Though the throne of bones had survived the catastrophe she did not sit it but preferred to stand, her dragon resting behind her as always, a giant reptilian mound of teeth, wings and bad temperament. Dragon Knights still crowded into the meeting room despite the fact that they could be of more use out there in the city, helping the helpless and a few of the surviving magistrates were in attendance. The district most of the magistrates called home and been the worst hit in the city; its strut had snapped and the entire section had sunk into the watery depths. In one monumental tragedy the Dragon Empire’s government had been crippled leaving the empress with more power than ever before.
“The pirate Drake Morrass and the Blademaster Jezzet Vel’urn are dead,” the empress announced.
Thanquil felt as though someone had punched him in the gut. He found it hard to breathe, hard to think. His limbs were heavy all of a sudden and his words caught in his throat. The Dragon Empress did not spare him even a moment to come to terms with the news.
“The dungeon was flooded during the storm. They both drowned.”
“But… I don’t…”
The empress frowned at him and kept talking, clearly she was not used to being interrupted. “The people of Soromo need never know of her crimes. Perhaps the whore can restore in death some of the honour she threw away in life.”
It was all too much for Thanquil. He looked up, his eyes meeting the empress’ cool green gaze. “How dare you?”
The words were out of his mouth before he realised what he was doing and by then it was too late to take back. The empress stumbled, reeling as Thanquil’s will smothered her own but he never heard her answer. The empress’ dragon was the first to react. Launching up from its dormant spot and lumbering forwards, covering the empress from view with a wing and then letting loose a roar of pure fury and malevolence that echoed around the meeting hall. The Dragon Knights responded a moment later, unsure of what exactly had happened they still knew it was his fault and they came towards him weapons drawn.
Thanquil stumbled backwards himself, still shocked at what he had just done and what it would mean. The Dragon Empress was royalty and beyond the suspicion of the likes of him, even if he had believed she was guilty of heresy. For him to use his compulsion on the empress was a crime punishable by death and not even his status as an Arbiter would be able to protect him.
Panic clear on his face Thanquil stopped backing away and drew his sword into his right hand and his pistol into his left; the little gun had no black powder in it and would not fire but he hoped the Dragon Knights didn’t know that, it might buy him an extra second or two. Not that he knew what he might do with those extra seconds. If they wanted to kill him there was little to nothing he could do about it. Even so, the Dragon Knights stopped their advance, all fourteen of them staring at him with apprehension. Maybe it was his weapons or his status as an Arbiter or maybe even the wild look in his eyes but the Dragon Empress’ elite guard did not look keen at the idea of coming any closer.
“WAIT!” the empress’ voice was raised and shaky. “Do not kill him.”
Thanquil was somewhat glad of the order, he didn’t really fancy fighting fourteen men at once… or even one at a time.
The empress emerged from behind the dragon’s scaled wing and she no longer looked to be immaculate. A large collection of strands of dark hair had come free and spilled across her face, her cheeks were bright red in colour and her brow heavily furrowed. Her dragon stared at Thanquil with its dark, beady eyes, its mouth open a little and a low rumble emitting from deep within its throat. The empress stepped forward, compensating for the slope of the floor and placed a tiny hand on the dragon’s massive head. Thanquil wagered the beast was big enough to eat three of her whole but it quieted a little at her touch.
“You overstep your bounds, Arbiter Darkheart,” the empress said her voice now hard and full of malice. “And I would be well within my right to kill you.”
Thanquil knew this was one of those times when he should keep his mouth shut but the damned thing had a habit of not listening to him. “You mean
have me killed
. Folk in your position so rarely get their own hands dirty.”
She didn’t rise to his baiting and for that he counted himself lucky. “There are no people in my position.
“Because of your service last night and for the betrayal that we both share I will not kill you, Arbiter. But you are banished from my city and from my empire. Leave. Now. And do not ever think of returning.” Thanquil heard the door behind him slide open. “My Herald will escort you.”
Thanquil craned his head around to find the Dragon Herald standing by the open door, his usual blank, impassive stare fixed firmly to his face. He put his sword and pistol away and turned back to the empress, determined to have the last word he snorted. “I’ve had more than enough of your damned empire.”
With that he turned on his heel and strode from the meeting hall, the low rumbling of the dragon still echoing around the cavernous space behind him.
Thanquil didn’t stop until he was out of the palace. The sun was just starting its daily decline and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, the storm had quite literally expended itself. Yet the world seemed a dull, dim, lifeless place and Thanquil felt a cold hand squeezing the heart within his chest.
“She’s not dead,” said the herald. He had followed Thanquil all the way outside the palace into the slanting, ruined garden leading up to the main entrance.
Thanquil turned to look at the man but no words would form on his lips so he let out a strangled sound of curiosity instead.
“We don’t think she’s dead,” the herald clarified. “The cells were flooded but we found the guards. They didn’t drown, their throats were slit. We’ve not managed to drain the water to investigate further but I believe your woman and the pirate escaped.”
“The empress said…”
“She doesn’t want you going after them. She’s sending the dragons. All of them. She wants Jezzet dead and Drake back here for good.”
“But you don’t.”
The Dragon Herald took a deep breath and sighed it out. Regardless of any misgivings Thanquil might have about the man he seemed the honourable sort.
“Drake Morrass is poison,” the herald continued and the venom in his voice was enough to convince Thanquil he spoke true. “He twists the empress, pulls her in directions she ought not go in and clouds her mind to her advisers, to those who want what’s best for the empire. I do not like him and I do not want him coming back. Ever.”
“And you want me to make certain of that,” Thanquil finished.
“What you do when you catch the pirate is your business. They will go to Larkos; it is the only place they will be safe from the dragons and the only place the
Fortune
can make port once the empress’ orders get out.
“I have a boat waiting to take you out of Soromo and a horse waiting for you when you leave the Emerald Sea. From there you can make your own way to Larkos.”
Thanquil nodded. He couldn’t really tell what he was currently feeling, his emotions seemed a jumble tied in a knot wrapped around a mess but he had a strange inkling that killing Drake Morrass would help.
“Thank you,” he said to the herald. “I’ll make certain Drake doesn’t come back here.”
Two hours later Thanquil found himself astride a horse heading towards Larkos in the most direct route he knew. Heading towards Drake Morrass. Heading towards Jezzet.
True to his word Drake led them to Larkos without being eaten by any of the empress’ dragons. His inside knowledge of how to give the flying beasts the slip turned out to be the cunning plan of staying under the tree cover. It was a plan Jez wagered she could have figured out on her own but then at least the pirate was pleasant enough company that she could cope with his wild boast.