Here There be Dragons: Testing the Waters

The deck was going to be worn thin by her pacing. Aella had been counting the seconds since the dragons-damned Grey Death had flipped belly up. There were no survivors, that much was obvious from this distance. But when the dragon went under and did not come up, Aella had felt rising dread. Caleb came up beside her, the salamander stoic and still.

“Is it always like this with you two?” he asked after she had passed by him four times. Aella pursed her lips.

“Yes,” Gregors answered from the helm, his voice lazy and relaxed. Aella turned to curse the helmsman out but he kept speaking. “But they have the luck of the gods’ themselves, so it’s always fine.” Caleb nearly choked on his own tongue at that, coughing and sputtering as he tried to form a response to that.

“We do not,” Aella muttered. But she turned away from both men to stare at the sea, to see if the waters would break, and reveal where Nereida was.

“I could fetch that lad Jules?” Caleb suggested. “See what he knows?”

But just as she was about to give the order, there was movement in the water. Aella peered through her spyglass, but in the darkness she could not make out more than the shape of the thing breaking water. It was definitely a siren. That was something.

“Send a boat down so she doesn’t have to climb. Nereida’s not in the shape she was, and probably won’t even realize it until she gets here.” Aella did not turn to see who responded to her orders. Instead she lifted the spyglass to her eye again and tried to see more details.

Eventually, the boat was pulled up. Nereida was sitting in the boat, her hair half-covering her eyes, her clothing stuck to her body in a way that showed off her shapely form. Aella pushed that thought away, and instead rushed to hand her soaked wife a blanket. Wordlessly, Nereida passed her a small, wax-sealed box.

“I suspect you’ll want to read that,” she said, her voice not quite right. Aella took the box without comment, searching her wife’s face for clues. Her eyes were a silvery blue, like the water in the moonlight.

“Many thanks, Ocean,” she whispered.

“I’d like to see my daughter, and I will leave when I am through.” She stood, her motions graceful, as if she was not the least bit tired from her long swim.

No one stopped her, as she headed down below deck. Most of them likely did not see the difference. Her gait was wrong, but still very graceful. She did not limp or favour the human leg. Aella felt the tension in her teeth and jaw, and took a deep breath. The Ocean is not the enemy, she repeated to herself, until the words became as rhythmic as the waves. The tension melted away, and she reached to open the cursed box that the dragon had given her.

Aella’s hand froze as she felt the familiar, cloying, sucking sensation trickling up her arms. The box was cursed, by the thrice damned demon. She could feel its power, but didn’t know what the curse did.

“Dragons’ sweaty tits.” She slammed the box down, but it did not open. Nor did the violence of the throw trigger the magic. She supposed that was something.

“Admiral?” Caleb asked, his eyebrow raised.

“Damn thing is cursed. I don’t know how to unweave it.”

“Oh.” He looked down at the box, then back at her. “I don’t imagine you have any Elvin curse breakers or anything. Maybe someone who can identify magic?”

“We aren’t a ship of finger wigglers,” she grumbled, but Gregors forced a cough. She looked up at the helmsman and grimaced. “Who?”

“Baden’s moon-touched…er, blessed, Admiral. He don’t see the future but he says he can feel “flavours” and he always knows who cast what. Maybe he can do the thing?”

Aella let her shoulders drop. She looked at Caleb, asked him if he knew Baden. When the prince shook his head no, she turned to Gregors. “Hand off the wheel. Caleb’s a former captain, he knows what he’s doing and can hold us steady with no wind. Find Baden, bring him here and do it on the double.”

“Aye!”

The Grand Admiral went back to pacing until the man could be brought to her. She was ashamed to admit she had not remembered the man’s name except as a mark on the duty roster. She was losing her touch with her people. She was losing their faces. Months on land had meant she had nearly lost her sea legs. She could feel it, now, that she had taken a break from the sea. The way her bones ached in the damp, the way the bed felt hard now. She was getting old.

Her moping did not survive contact with Baden, who was grinning ear to ear, eager to help. He was a strapping young man, probably in his early twenties. He had a scar down his left cheek that puckered when he grinned. She remembered the fight that he’d gotten it in, one of their last before Nereida had come aboard. A lifetime ago. Months ago.

Baden spoke, unaware that his Admiral was caught in her own mind’s nonsense.

“Can I touch it?” he asked, bouncing onto the balls of his feet. “Or will it hurt me?”

“You can touch it.” She waved imperiously at the box, and the young man scooped it up. He lifted the box right close to his face and smelled the thrice-damned thing. It was a wooden box, what could he hope to gain from that? He ran his fingers along the edges that were carved intricately. Someone had spent time building this box, making it look pleasing to the eye.

“The magic’s carved into the wood,” he said softly, awe in his tone. “It’s so… so tangled into the wood that if anyone tries to open it without magic, it’ll explode, destroying the thing inside.” Aella snorted.

“I have magic.”

“Beggin’ your pardon, Admiral, but not the right kind.” The young man made a face. “Or should I say the wrong kind?”

“Shadows?”

“Yes ma’am. It can only be opened by one with Shadow magic.”

The curses that bubbled forth from her mouth made the younger man blush, but Caleb burst out with a laugh. She turned toward him, equal parts startled and angry at his audacity.

“Dragons may be gods, Admiral, but I’d be hard pressed to imagine they could manage that.”

Shaken from her anger, Aella took a long, slow breath.

“Caleb, you know who to fetch. Send him to my quarters.” She left no room in her tone for argument, but she saw his brow rise, as if he were readying himself to defy her. She turned toward him and scowled, giving him a look that would have frightened most other men.

“You can deal with Nerry,” was all he said, giving her a crisp salute before he headed below deck to fetch the young boy. Baden and Gregors exchanged confused glances, but she blustered past them. She had no desire to answer their questions.

Though she supposed, eventually, she would have to. Three can only keep a secret if one of them is dead. Too many people knew about Egaz. Too many places where he could miss-step. His magic was growing, since he had started using it. She suspected the boy had been practicing while they had been landlocked. She stormed across the deck as her thoughts thundered in her head, drowning out everything as she clutched the cursed box in her hands.

The dragon in Nereida’s body looked up at her in surprise as she slammed the door open. Damara, clutching her mother, gave a startled cry. Her body was that of a little dragon, her scales glimmering in the light from the window.

“I am not done, child.”

“Egaz must open the box. I’ll not put my son in danger.” Aella crossed her arms and glowered at the dragon, who met her fire with a cool, almost detached expression. “I won’t interfere with your time.” She reigned in her anger and fury, and buried it to use another day. “Pull the curtain, if you please, so he does not see you and Damara. He’ll want his mom.” The dragon’s expression softened. She looked down at the little one in her arms, then back up again at Aella. She scooted back on the bed, a strangely mundane, graceless movement for a dragon, before she pulled the curtain across. The metal rings screeched, making Damara cry out, her voice like a kitten’s mewling.

Caleb arrived, bringing Egaz. The little boy was muddy up to his elbows.

“It was gardening time,” he pouted, knocking some of the mud to the cabin floor. He pouted up at her. “I didn’t do it, whatever it was!”

“You aren’t in trouble,” Aella promised, kneeling to be at his level. She motioned for Caleb to leave and shut the door. He did one of those things, leaning on the door frame, watching over Egaz like a protective mother hen. Part of her wanted to snap at the man, that she wouldn’t hurt her son, but the other part of her understood. The boy was family to him. “I need your help.”

“With what?” The young boy’s face lit up in a way that made Aella ache. He wanted, so badly, to be helpful.

“There is something here I need opened, little crewman, and you are the only one on the whole ship who can.” She kept her voice low, even. “If you don’t want to, I won’t make you.”

“Only I…. demon magic?” His earnestness faded into fear, and he clutched her sleeve.

“You aren’t a demon, just shadow touched,” Aella replied, the phrase almost rote by now. He nodded, but the way his face puckered at her words made her think he did not believe it.

Hard for him to believe it, when the world wouldn’t.

She shook the thought away, and put her hand on his shoulder.

“Your mom and I know your heart, Egaz. You aren’t a demon. You are my son.” She noticed that the curtain had parted ever so slightly, and saw silver-blue eyes watching her. Aella chose not to acknowledge the busy-body body thief. Instead, she ruffled the boy’s hair. “Moms never stop loving their sons.”

Egaz held open his arms, and she placed the box into them. He ran his fingers over the carvings, smiling a little.

“It’s kinda pretty.” He began to sing, his tone soft and wavering with uncertainty. The carvings began to change in response, as if they were drawing all the light in the room into them. Egaz’s magic, which was cool and soothing, met the magic of the box that felt like leeches pulling on her arms. Aella ground her teeth together, hoping the boy did not notice her discomfort. And with a quiet pop, the lid flew open. Egaz was shivering, and had grown pale.

The curtain was pushed aside, and the Dragon of the Ocean came out, holding Damara in one arm. She swept across the small room and pulled Egaz into her free arm, holding him tightly.

“You tell your friend, little one, that his mothers miss him terribly. That we will find a way to be together again. Yes?” Egaz stared up at her, his little eyes widening almost comically as he put together who he spoke with.

“Yes ma’am,” he squeaked.

“Rest, small one, and be at ease. I mean you and your family no harm.” She placed little Damara into Egaz’s arms. The baby-sized dragon licked her brother’s face, earning her a giggle from the small boy. The smile on the Ocean’s face was filled with emotions that Aella could not hope to parse, though there was grief chief among them.

The Dragon stood, and placed her clawed hand on Aella’s shoulder.

“It was mercy, you must understand, but she will still grieve. Those of my blood feel deeply. I’ll go now, Scion, take care of them all.” She lay herself down on Egaz’s cot, and went limp, not bothering to explain anything she had just said. Aella sighed, not even frustrated any more. She carefully scooped her wife up and carried her to their bed while dodging toys on the floor.

It was only after Nereida was abed, sleeping soundly and filling their bedroom with her snores, that Aella remembered the box. She rushed back to Egaz and Damara. Her daughter was human once again, sitting on the floor and chewing on her feet. Egaz was rubbing her back, cooing to her. Aella snatched the box and the thin, leather-bound journal that it had contained. She opened the first page, and her blood ran cold.

This was a book of experiments.