The urgency of their mission must have made them forget the circumstances under which they’d parted ways. Neither had asked how she’d come to be with Vorik.
“I’ll explain later.” Syla grimaced, spotting another dragon on the horizon. “But they’re not a threat, no. Not that particular group anyway.”
Grim, she remembered the ambitious sergeant and all the other men that Captain Lesva had slain. It worried her that Vorik had implied his colleague had survived that fall and that she might return to be a problem for Syla. She had enough problems to worry about.
“All right.” Fel pointed. “That’s where I lit the flare.”
“I’ll check.” Tibby ran ahead, reaching the cove first.
As Syla and Fel pushed, sweat dribbling down her spine, she kept an eye on the new dragon. It was green, but she didn’t think it was Agrevlari. Still, Vorik’s dragon had to be around somewhere. And once Vorik woke up and communicated with him, theywould reunite and come after the shielder. It was his mission. He had to.
“They’re here!” Tibby blurted with relief, waving at someone in the cove below.
Thanks to gravity, the orb rolled more easily the last hundred yards. Fel ran around it, shoving his back against it to stop it a few feet from the edge of a cliff. It was, as he’d said, not as high as the others they’d encountered on the island, but Syla still wouldn’t want to fall off it.
She dragged her sleeve over her sweaty forehead and joined her aunt on a precipice overlooking the cove. Tibby gripped her shoulder and pointed downward.
There were not one but five ships down there. The largest wasn’t the cargo vessel that Syla had imagined, with a hold that might have contained the shielder and hidden it from view, but a whaling ship with harpoon launchers on each end. The four smaller craft accompanying it were armored guard ships, their rails lined with cannons. Such vessels usually accompanied cargo ships on journeys between the islands. They would have holds, but they would be filled with ammunition.
“A whaling ship isn’t what I imagined,” Tibby said, “but that we got anything at all is a wonder. I’m going to give Sherrik a kiss when I see him next.”
“Will you be able to keep from looking at your scroll long enough to manage that?” Fel asked.
“By employing suitable self-restraint, yes.” Tibby gestured to a gray-haired man who came out of the wheelhouse of the whaling ship and waved to her.
“Is that your engineering friend?” Syla asked.
“No. I doubt Sherrik came along. I presume that’s the captain of the whaling ship, the one we’ll have to pay for transporting us.” Tibby pointed for the man to bring the vessel closer to the cliff. “I don’t see anything like a crane for lifting. We may have to push theorb over the edge and into the water. It should be sturdy enough to survive that, though the thought of treating it so makes me ill. I fear we don’t have time for a more elaborate solution.”
“I agree.” Syla spotted a gray dragon joining the green one flying over the sea. And did they have riders? Her vision was too blurry at that distance to be certain, but she feared so. “But it can’t go on the big ship.”
“What?” Tibby looked at her.
Syla pointed at the whaling vessel. “That’s going to have to be the decoy ship.” She shifted her finger to one of the guard vessels. “That’sgoing to take the shielder home in its hold.”
“The hold will be full of cannonballs and powder,” Fel said.
“They can move the ammunition out or over to make room. The shielder can’t sit out on the deck where every dragon and rider in the sky can see it.”
“I don’t think?—”
“This is our only chance,” Syla said firmly. “You and I will go on the decoy ship and try to lure all the stormer dragons after us while Aunt Tibby and the shielder go the long way around Castle Island and slip into the harbor, hopefully unnoticed by our enemies. She’ll get it installed and restore protection to our homeland. And we… We’ll keep the dragons busy so they don’t think to check out that ship.”
Fel looked at her. “That’s a suicide mission.”
“I know. I’m sure you’re again regretting that you feel urges to obey my wishes.” Syla thought about telling Fel to go with her aunt again, but Vorik would be suspicious if her bodyguard wasn’t by her side. Besides, they would need every fighter who was capable of defending the whaling ship. They had to survive long enough for the real transport vessel to escape.
Fel waved away the comment with a chopping motion. “I’llgo on that ship if it’s to face off against dragons. You should stick with your aunt. Get yourself and the shielder back home.”
“I can’t,” Syla said. “Vorik will be looking for me. If I’m not on the whaling ship, he’ll know it’s a decoy.”
“He’s not out there among those men.” Fel pointed toward the horizon, his less myopic eyes identifying for certain that the dragons carried riders.
“Not yet, but he will be. He’s their commander.”
“Vorik.” Fel spat the name like a curse. “You should have let me cut his throat last night.”
“I know,” Syla said sadly but couldn’t regret the choice.
