A Dragon’s Tale

Hailey decided that Ethan was the most confusing man she had ever met. Alana and Rachel didn't make much sense either. Those three had just spent most of yesterday strategizing on how they could kill a dragon in order to free Taloni.

Kill a dragon!

The dragon was at least twice Ethan's size -- which was bad enough -- but they actually seemed to think they could do it. Hailey found herself shaking her head so much she might've resembled a bobblehead from back on Earth.

It was sheer lunacy.

Yet, that hadn't stopped them from meeting outside the captain's cabin and resuming the conversation before dawn. The sun was just cresting the horizon and they showed no signs of letting up. It just didn't make sense to her. I mean, Taloni had saved Ethan's life and all, but to risk your life with a slim chance of success for someone you'd just met?

Hailey shook her head again and leaned her willowy frame against the rail as she listened anyway because there wasn't much else to do.

"You're sure your fireballs won't do much?" Ethan asked Rachel.

Rachel sighed. "Like I said the last dozen times you asked; dragon scales are naturally resistant to heat. They're virtually immune to it."

He opened his mouth, but Rachel cut him off. "And no, my ice attacks aren't very effective because he can just pull heat from his breath to offset the cold."

Ethan turned to Alana. "And your arrows won't do much because he's enchanted his scales to be stronger, according to Thaltien."

The wood elf nodded. "And if he's the size everyone says, they won't penetrate deeply enough to cause a mortal wound anyway."

"There's got to be something else we can do that'll help." Ethan mused.

Raklan scoffed. "Just leave the Fey bitch behind; problem solved."

Ethan growled at him. Hailey had noticed he'd become very protective of Taloni, almost as protective as he was of Alana.

"Raklan." Serif said, then shook his head slightly. Raklan scurried off like a bolt of greased lightning.

Lightning...

"Hey." Hailey said. "What about magical lighting attacks?"

Rachel snorted. "Yeah, and I'll pull an army out of my back pocket too."

"Wait, you're telling me there aren't any magical attacks using electricity?" Ethan asked.

Rachel cocked her head to one side. "What's electricity?"

It was Hailey's turn to snort.

"It's what lightning is made of." Ethan explained. "We actually use it to power machines where I come from."

Alana and Rachel gaped at him.

"You can't be serious." The wood elf said.

"That's impossible." Rachel said at the same time.

"Not impossible." Ethan shook his head and smiled. "We may not have magic, but we can still do some pretty cool stuff."

"But harnessing lightning?" Rachel raised her eyebrow. "That's the idle dream of the world's master magicians. That would be like finding the Holy Grave."

"The Holy Grave?" Hailey said. "Don't you mean the Holy Grail?"

Rachel looked confused. "What's a Holy Grail?"

"A religious artifact on our world that's been missing for centuries." Ethan explained. "And yes, we figured out how to harness electricity, which is what lightning is made of."

"But, how could people without magic harness Illuminar's own weapon?" Alana asked.

"Come again?" Ethan wore an amusing look of confusion.

"Illuminar is the God of light; everyone knows that lightning is his weapon." Alana replied as if she was explaining that water was wet.

"Oh, yeah. God of light, lightning. That actually makes sense." He said.

Rachel was still picking her jaw up off the weather deck. "You harnessed electricity without magic? How is that even possible?"

"Science." Hailey replied.

"Science?" Rachel looked like someone had just said water wasn't wet. "You mean that field of 'study' where they try to figure out how stuff works by cutting it up? Seriously? Those dullards figured it out?"

Ethan and Hailey both nodded while suppressing laughter.

Rachel shook her head. "Scientists can't even figure out how a Golem operates; mages can, so pardon my skepticism."

Hailey looked at Ethan and saw her disbelief mirrored on his face.

"Culture shock." He said.

"Yeah." She nodded.

"How do you harness lightning?" Alana asked.

"You... Uh... I'm not sure." Ethan said scratching his head. "It wasn't something I studied."

"Uh-huh, sure." Rachel said, her voice dripping with skepticism.

"I'm serious." Ethan said, then looked at Alana. They were both silent for several moments, then the wood elf spoke up.

"I believe him." She said with absolute conviction.

"Wow, you just went from skeptic to true believer in five seconds flat." Hailey said. "What are you smoking and can I have some?"

Alana looked very confused, opened her mouth to respond, then closed it and looked at Ethan. After another few seconds, she nodded at him like she understood something, and then turned back to Hailey.

"I'm not smoking anything and I'm certainly not a 'pot-head'." She said. "He just made a really good case."

Rachel shook her head and looked at Ethan. "Okay, it sounds preposterous to me but I don't think you're a liar. How would we use lightning against the dragon?"

"I have no idea." Ethan replied. "Like I said before, I'm not really sure how to generate enough to be useful."

"You could always throw bat shit at the dragon." Raklan called from across the deck.

"Yeah, that was part of the plan." Ethan rolled his eyes. "We're just trying to stack the odds as far as possible in our favor."

"You're going to fight a dragon with bat shit?" Hailey scoffed. "Like, that's actually part of your plan?"

"No, not bat shit; gunpowder." He replied. "We already have sulfur and charcoal on the Argo. We collected some guano a while ago so we can make saltpeter so we can finish making the gunpowder."

"Saltpeter... isn't that potassium nitrate?" Hailey repeated trying to remember where she had heard of that before. "I think I used some of that in high school. It's a white powder, right?"

He nodded.

Hailey bit her lip.

The cooks at her former owner's estate had used it to preserve food and you could buy it in the marketplace cheap. If she told them, they'd go back to Arcanum and she'd have a chance to see that bastard again. All she'd need was a few hours at night and a knife...

Subconsciously, she put a hand over the long scar on her stomach. Her other hand clenched into a fist so tight her knuckles turned white. It was everything she could do to keep her face neutral.

"Are you okay?" Alana asked her.

Hailey nodded. "Bad memories."

She couldn't tell them about the saltpeter. If she did, they'd go after that dragon and probably get themselves killed.

"Anthiel." Ethan called up to the quarter-deck. "Did you get that second pot so we can boil the guano water down?"

"I did." She poked her head over the railing and glanced in Raklan's direction. "However, someone threw your barrels overboard after you left."

There was quite a commotion as Ethan, Alana, and Rachel all turned to chew out Raklan. Hailey tuned them out as she waged war within herself.

On the one hand, the proverbial devil on her shoulder was making a very compelling case. If they wanted to rescue Taloni -- and get killed in the process -- why should she care? They would do it anyway and she would just be helping them do what they wanted. Shouldn't friends do that? Besides, she did owe them a favor, and this might count...

On the other hand, she'd be giving them the tools they needed to commit suicide. It was like giving a loaded gun to someone who was suicidal. It was like giving a bomb vest to a known terrorist.

She shouldn't do it.

Then she thought about her former owner...

Her hand once again moved to rest over her stomach where the scar lingered. If anyone deserved to die, it was that bastard. She hoped to God that hell was real because she wanted him to burn for all eternity. He deserved that, and much worse.

The proverbial angel on her other shoulder countered: "But what about Ethan, Alana, and Rachel; do they deserve to die?" They were good people and she would basically be sending them to their deaths.

Round and round she went, teetered between the two choices. Eventually, the others had finished chewing Raklan out, and Ethan brought her out of her reverie.

"Hailey, do you know any caves around here where we can find bats?" he asked.

"The market in Arcanum." Hailey said without meaning to. It just slipped out without her thinking.

"Come again?"

"You can get potassium nitrate at the market in Arcanum." She explained. "They use it to preserve food."

"They use bat shit to preserve food?" Alana's eyes went wide. "That's gross."

"Not quite, but close enough." Hailey replied. She had always steered away from food preserved that way.

"Yeah, they used it for the same thing during the Middle Ages on Earth." Ethan said. "I just wish Lord Delmar didn't have his airships at Arcanum looking for us. Then we could go buy some."

"They're probably gone." Rachel said. "Standard protocol only has them looking for two days. If they haven't left yet, they will soon. It's still early, we should be able to make it back by mid-afternoon."

"Excellent." Ethan grinned. "Then we'll head back to Arcanum, pick up some saltpeter, and then we can start making some gunpowder." He finished with quite a smile on his face, showing a large array of wickedly sharp teeth.

Hailey tried to return the smile, but she didn't feel it. She had just sentenced them to death. Nobody kills a dragon that size, not unless they were in the emperor's personal guard. Even then, there weren't many of those left since that debacle a couple of years back.

Her guilt faded somewhat as she thought about meeting her former owner with a knife in her hand. Fortunately, the Argo didn't keep their weapons locked up. A quick trip to the hold would be enough. That bastard was going to pay for what he'd done.

She heard that when you go out for revenge, you should first dig two graves.

She was ready to dig.

* * *

Kendra lashed her ship to the bollards on a micro-berth in Arcanum's dock. She looked around, breathed in the putrid stench of the dock, and smiled; it was good to be back in civilization. Here, you could simply disappear amid the vast throng of humans, Elves, Fey, and the like. With the right clothes and style, you could be completely invisible while walking down the street.

She smiled wider, finished stowing her things in the ship, and then headed for the dock master.

"That'll be one silver deposit, plus two coppers per day." A very bored and overweight dock master mumbled when Kendra arrived.

She paid the fee, then pulled out a gold coin and rolled it back and forth on the tops of her fingers. The dock master's eyes lit up at the sight and he followed the coin on her fingers like a hawk watches its prey.

"You seem like a smart fellow who knows a good deal when he sees it." Kendra lied while doing her best to look cute. Men always were more willing to do favors when she looked cute. "I'm hoping to meet a friend here, I just don't know if he's arrived yet. Is there any way I could find out?"

The dock master was still following the gold coin rolling on the tops of her fingers when he replied. "I suppose I could take a look."

"Perfect." She purposely rolled the gold coin over the side of her finger and gave it a little nudge. It fell to the ground and rolled quite close to the dock master, who stopped it with his foot.

"Oh, dear me." Kendra said in mock surprise. "I suppose the law says the one who finds it can keep it."

The dock master smiled a toothy grin, revealing he didn't have many teeth. "Who's your friend?"

"His ship is The Midnight Sun."

The dock master flipped through his list for a minute or two before responding. "Yup, arrived over a week ago. Pier 24."

"You're such a dear." Kendra lied and gave him a winning smile. "I appreciate it so much."

The dock master bent down to pick up his gold coin. She turned and let the fake smile fall from her face and rolled her eyes; idiot. She grabbed a bag of gear from her airship, slung it over her shoulder, and set off.

A long walk later, Kendra was on Pier 24 looking at The Midnight Sun. It wasn't a large airship, but it was packed with boarding ballistae. Few ships in the Ten Kingdoms were faster. There wasn't a soul on deck, but her gut told her she was being watched.

"Falkaan, you old man, won't you invite a girl in?" she called.

The Elf appeared on the quarterdeck wearing his trademark blue sailor's coat and tricorn hat. His pale face was darker than she remembered, though still lighter than hers. The stump of his left arm was even more obvious now that he'd sewn the sleeve up.

His jet-black hair still made quite the contrast with his face. His almond-shaped eyes were still filled with intelligence, though they looked somehow older; more world-weary. She knew he was at least fifty, but his eyes looked older; much older.

He was laughing. "How do you always know?"

"I had a good teacher." Kendra gave him a respectful nod of the head, which he returned.

"You're too kind."

She made her way up the gangplank onto Falkaan's ship and dropped her bag of gear on the deck. Falkaan climbed down from the quarterdeck and greeted her with a huge hug.

"It's been too long old friend." Falkaan said.

'Hey, who are you calling old?" She said in mock offense.

"You have an old soul." Falkaan replied, then chuckled. "I thought that's why you left the game."

"Partially." Kendra touched the necklace that was still concealed beneath her shirt. "Sometimes the past won't let go though."

"You kept it." Falkaan observed. "Was that wise?"

"Probably not, but... I don't know; he was like my brother, I wanted something as a keepsake."

"Curious that you chose a tooth from the dragon that killed him, but I know what you mean." Falkaan touched the stump of his left arm. "I was lucky to stay whole for so long. You were smart to get out when you did."

"I couldn't take it anymore."

Falkaan nodded. "A decade is a long time, especially when you start so young."

"Eleven isn't that young. Didn't you start at eight?"

"And stayed way too long." He nodded. "But enough reminiscing about a dead past; what brings you here?"

"A steel gray dragon and a wood elf."

Falkaan nodded. "Let's get some drinks."

He led her into the hold where he grabbed a bottle of mead and a few glasses. A few minutes later saw them sitting on the quarterdeck chatting away like nothing had changed in the intervening years.

"Do you ever see any of the old squad?" He asked.

"No, I went solo after..." She touched the necklace again. "I just didn't want to go through that again."

"Friends are a true luxury in life." Falkaan nodded, then waved his hand toward the city. "These people don't know how lucky they are."

"Do you ever wish you could leave all this and just settle down?"

"You can take the man out of the job, but you can't take the job out of the man." Falkaan replied. "I'm too old for family. Besides how could I ever trust someone that much?"

"Still, it would be nice." She nodded. Despite all the respect she had for her old mentor, despite all the times he'd saved her life, she wouldn't ever be able to trust him completely. He had never betrayed her trust, but he had trained her never to trust an agent -- or former agent -- of the emperor.

He had never steered her wrong either.

They sat in companionable silence for a bit while they sipped their mead. It was a good vintage; the honey wine was pleasant on her tongue and soothing to the soul. As she sat there contemplating the prospect of fully trusting someone again -- of having a true friend again -- she found herself hoping against hope that it could happen again one day.

Sadly, she didn't think it could.

"So, about dragons and wood elves." Kendra finally said. "What do you know?"

"As much as I want to help, I've been on their trail too."

"Lord Delmar had someone track me down and hire me to take it and her out. He offered double my usual rate; quadruple if I took them alive. I'll split it with you."

Falkaan whistled. "Deal. I saw the dragon flying north five days ago, his airship -- with the wood elf -- left the day after."

"Are you working with any assets?"

Falkaan shook his head. "No, unless you count Mr. Damon. He's one of the best airship pilots I've ever met but couldn't fight his way out of a burlap sack."

"You and I versus a vicious dragon?"

"Just like old times."

Kendra laughed. "You'd know about old times, wouldn't you?"

Falkaan ignored her good-natured jab, "Unfortunately, it's not just the dragon and the wood elf anymore." And then he described the dragon's flame-haired companion and her parentage.

"Lord Delmar's daughter?" Kendra mused, then whistled. "How in Illuminar's name could a dragon have persuaded a Lord's daughter to follow him willingly?"

"Unknown." Falkaan shrugged. "The dragon hasn't been here long enough for a will-breaker ring either."

Kendra racked her brain for a minute trying to think of an explanation.

She couldn't.

"Did you ever think some of them were innocent?" Falkaan asked after several moments.

"The dragons no. Some of the others... Not likely, but possible? Why?"

"I talked with Mr. Damon before and something about the bounty on this dragon seems... odd. Even more so if Lord Delmar is willing to pay your rates."

"Oh?"

"It was too high from the start." Falkaan explained. "Lord Delmar seems to want this dragon very badly, but I can't figure out why."

"Probably for nothing good." She couldn't decide if she was happy or concerned about that; it was a dragon after all. "Speaking of, do you still have your dragon slayer?"

Falkaan nodded. "It's in the hold, though obviously I can't use anymore it with this arm."

"Do you mind if I borrow it?"

Falkaan hesitated, then nodded again. "So that's why you tracked me down. You only want me for my equipment."

Kendra laughed. "Partially, Dragon Slayers are hard to come by and as expensive as Saidow's lair to make. The other reason is you're the best tracker I've ever seen. I'm no slouch, but finding this dragon will go a lot faster with your help."

"No need." Falkaan replied. "I know exactly where the dragon is. I just needed someone with enough experience dragon slaying before I went after him."

Kendra grinned.