Here There be Dragons: Testing the Waters

Aella watched, worry knotting in her stomach, as Epelda left the safety of the ship to fly over to the Brick to pass on their knowledge and plan. They had bickered for almost an hour about the best way to handle the blockade. Epelda had counted over a dozen warships and several smaller ones. They were out-gunned, out-manned but at least they were not yet out-maneuvered. They had the run of the waters, as long as they didn’t need to make port.

They had food and water enough to skirt the gnomish island entirely. But if they left, there was no telling how long until this impacted not only the Salamanders, but the Sylphs too. The gnomes were some of the best farmers in the world, and cutting off this island may lead to shortages everywhere on this side of the Cursed Sea.

“Should we go back and get the Salamander’s navy?” Gregors had asked. But it was Caleb who snorted at this.

“And leave us with no ocean-side defenses? No, this blockade has as many ships as our whole armada.” His tone was bitter. “The line has always been about refusing to let a demon on our shores. Burn the ships from the ground. But…. it means we don’t have any to spare.” Aella grumbled under her breath, muttering about stupid kings with no foresight. Caleb only chuckled, the sound almost the same as her grumbling complaints.

In the end, they decided they would skirt the blockade and get help from the Sylphs and the Peri. Assuming they had help to give. And if they did not, they would recruit the sirens. But that would only work if the Brick had enough stores to either follow them or seek refuge with the Salamanders. They could only take one or two gnomes if they needed to tighten their crew, any more than that and they’d have to strictly ration, even with Dymion’s gardens.

Waiting for Epelda to return was akin to torture. The young woman had gone below deck on the gnomish ship nearly half an hour ago, and had yet to resurface. Matthias had taken her spyglass, promising to keep watch. She had a ship to run, after all. So Aella threw herself into the minutia of the ship, checking on crew as they secured the riggings, making one unfortunate young man go scrub the deck because he had a loose knot. Life or death hung by the riggings. Nothing could be left to chance.

Chance, after all, was a fickle mistress.

Aella was about to steal a moment to go below and check on Nereida and the children, when Matthias whistled sharply.

“Captain’s coming back!” he called out. The officers hustled to the helm so she could give her report, everyone but Evander, who dipped below deck. The Grand Admiral was about to dress him down sharply, but when he came back, arriving moments before Epelda landed, he had brought food and water. Epelda, instead of giving her report right away, slumped against the rails and drank the water. She was shaking.

“Not hurt,” she signed quickly at Aella. “Tired. Far.” Aella let out a breath.

After she finished her apple, Epelda stood. Her wings were trembling, but the rest of her seemed fine.

“Took time,” Epelda signed. “Had to write to them. They don’t have stores enough to press on, but might make it to the Salamanders. They want to go home, and are afraid.”

“I can’t blame them for that,” Aella said with a sigh. “But they must know that it would be suicide to try.”

“They might be able to fix the poison,” Caleb mused. “We cannot let them attempt such foolishness. Fixing the poison is more important than returning home!”

“Oh, darling princelet, do you think that they care?” Matthias asked, glancing back at the ship that followed in their wake. “Family makes us all do stupid, wonderful, reckless things.”

“Slow the ship,” Aella ordered. “Get their captain aboard. We will make our position plain, and, I hope, convince them to not throw their lives away.”

“And how, pray tell, will you manage that, Admiral Aella. Darling, you could not convince a starving man to eat.”

“But Nerieda could sell water to a siren,” Aella replied with a cheeky smile. “I’ll go get her. I’m sure she’ll be happy to help.”

Nereida was below in the kitchens, watching their sons peel potatoes with steady hands. Damara was feeding, pulling a soft blue glow from Nereida’s hand. Nereida’s voice rose and fell in a soft lullaby that seemed to match the rhythm of the waves that rocked the ship. Damara chomped on her mother’s hand with her gummy mouth, babbling and yawning.

“Love?” Aella called. Nereida looked up. She had a tiredness about her, as if she were ready to return to bed.

“Yes?” Her song stopped, the flow of magic trickled to a stop as well. Damara made a grumpy little sound, pulling on Nereida’s hand and gumming her harder. Nereida chuckled and began to hum, but lifted her eyes to Aella.

“Are you up to some diplomacy? We need the gnomes to not do anything foolish.” Aella explained their plan as the little boys slowed their peeling. The two children never looked their way, keeping to their tasks, not asking questions that she was sure they had. They had learned, in their time at court. Aella wasn’t sure she liked what they had learned. But it would keep them out of trouble. Probably.

Two hours later, the Gnomes were finally on board. Captain Tinkerpot had brought aboard two other gnomes. Nereida, with Dymion’s help, had set up a lovely lunch for them, on a blanket on deck, as if it were a dragon-blasted picnic by the seaside. Without explanation, she even had Alejo and Egaz attending. Both boys were dressed in smart little vests, their hair slicked down and they were even wearing their finest boots. Damara was tucked beneath, napping with her uncle in a crew cabin.

To his credit, Captain Tinkerpot actually stumbled when he saw the two children. Alejo offered him tea, pouring it with his very best “courtly” smile.

“My two oldest children,” Nereida introduced. “Alejo and Egaz D’Igna.”

“Oh my stars and shadows,” the captain breathed out, looking flummoxed. “Children on a ship?”

“Sirens on a ship,” Alejo returned with a grin. His mother shot him a withering expression, but the boy ignored her. “Do you take sugar in your tea?”

“I-erm-I do. Two cubes please.”

“I welcome you to my home,” Nereida said, smiling. “We do not have much to offer, but our hospitality, smiles and company.”

“That is quite an offer,” the captain said as he sat cross-legged on the edge of the blanket. Aella sat next to her wife, reaching out to make her tea. Nereida smiled at her, a soft, true smile.

“I know you miss your home, that you would do anything to reach it,” Nereida said softly. “I, too, was ready to move mountains to return to my family’s lands.” She put a thinly sliced apple on Egaz’s plate as she spoke. The younger child was sitting so very still that Aella felt like he was planning something. She did not appreciate the way her stomach turned at that idea. “We sailed across the Cursed Sea to reach my home,” Nereida continued, as if announcing that the sky was blue. The three Gnomes stared at her, two with open admiration, the captain with calculation.

“But?” he prompted.

“Oh, no “buts” about it,” she replied with a charming grin. “I did move the heavens and the seas to make my way back to my parents and siblings. I understand the desire to do and not just to let others take you where you may want to be.” Aella had to work hard at keeping her Admiral mask firmly in place as she felt the sting of Nereida’s words. Even as her wife was being soft-spoken, Aella realized her error. Nereida had been sidelined, except when they needed the dragon, and she was bitter about it. She had never said… or had Aella just not wanted to hear it?

“So you will help us break the blockade?” the captain asked, his eyes large and bright with hope.

“I will,” she replied. “Not in the way you think, however. And you are not going to like it. But hope and prayer are only worth the breath you put into them.” She handed food to the captain, some cheese on an apple slice. “Georgie, you cannot just push through that line. At best, you’d lose your Brick, and at worst you’d end up their slaves.” Her voice hitched just a moment, enough that little Alejo looked up. He put his head on his mother’s shoulder, a small gesture of comfort. She smiled sadly at him. “You do not want that. I can promise you that much.”

Nereida paused, looking out over the ocean. Aella wasn’t sure if her wife was pausing for effect, or to regain her composure. On the bright blue blanket, Captain Tinkerpot shifted uncomfortably, glancing at his crewmates as if they could rescue him from the silence.

“Princess….”

“Nereida,” she interrupted, turning back to him with a soft expression.

“Nereida,” Captain Tinkerpot began again. “I am not sure what you are saying.”

“That sometimes, doing ‘whatever it takes to get home’ means taking a route that is long, and sometimes it means taking a route that is dangerous. Sometimes, it is both. If you go now, Georgie, we cannot be sure you get home. The route is dangerous, fraught with enemies that will kill or enslave you.” She gathered Alejo into her arms at that, as if he were a toddler, not a young man of nearly nine. He did not protest, but instead put his arm around her shoulders as if he could protect her. Aella shifted toward her wife as well, placing her hand on her lap in a rare show of public affection. Let the Gnomes think she was going soft.

Nereida waited another moment. She was being strangely vulnerable before the Gnomes, given that they didn’t really know them. Aella wanted to ask, but she refused to speak when Nereida was running this diplomacy. She couldn’t risk ruining whatever game Nereida was playing.

“I don’t want to see you lose your home, or yourselves,” Nereida continued softly, her voice soft and motherly. “We can give you a few supplies if you are short, primarily water, but you would be safest in Lagrias. I can give you a token, and you can seek an audience with King Basiano. He will get you supplies so you can start figuring out the black ichor, and if it can be reversed… or if they have defiled that oasis permanently. Trust that we can find allies and free your people. We can, and will, look for allies above and below the water. But if you die here and now in a vain attempt to breach defenses that even the Tooth cannot breach alone, you will not return home. The oasis will stay poisoned and defiled.”

Aella stared at her wife, a smile breaking her mask for just a moment. Nereida was brilliant with her words, and so heartfelt. She was beautiful, perfect in a way that Aella was certain a poet could articulate but she never could. Nereida met her stare with a small, almost mischievous smile that made Aella’s heart flutter. She wondered if she could convince Epelda or Dymion to take the children overnight. The Gnomes glanced back and forth between themselves and Nereida, who had, after her speech, started to hand food to her children and was ignoring the Gnomes. Aeljo settled beside her, while Egaz got up and sat in Aella’s lap like a toddler. She looked down at him in surprise and he gave her a cheeky smile.

“Can I have an extra cookie, Stepmiral?” he asked her. She nodded and handed him one, which triggered an audible “awwww” from one of the Gnomes. She glared at the offender, lifting her eyebrow as if to offer a challenge, and the older Gnome looked down at his biscuit, suddenly fascinated with counting the seeds around its edges.

“Well, I suppose, if we could count on new allies…” Captain Tinkerpot mused aloud. “Very well. We will turn around, head to Lagrias.” Nereida’s smile bloomed into something true, and Aella’s heart fluttered at the sight.

They quibbled for a while over specifics, which Aella mostly tuned out. Alejo and Egaz headed off to play, bored with the proceedings. Nereida promised to refill their water herself, and even offered to let them see how she sang to the water. The Gnomes were thrilled by the idea, and invited her aboard to get things settled with haste. The longer they lingered, the more likely it was they were discovered. Their plans only worked if they were undiscovered, or at least were moving too fast to catch.

It still took nearly another hour and a half to get their allies settled. They returned in their own rowboat, and Nereida swam beside them. Aella used the time to settle things for the children. Epelda offered to take them, though she drove a high bargain: that she and her husband would get to have the cabin to themselves for a whole day. Aella knew better than to ask questions she did not want the answer to. She agreed to her daughter’s terms.

And when Nereida returned, soaked like a drowned rat, her hair hanging limply and her cheeks flushed with exertion, Aella brought her back to the empty cabin. Before Nereida could use her songs to dry her hair, Aella captured her lips in a demanding kiss. Nereida melted into her, holding her tightly.

“You were marvelous, love,” Aella whispered softly, working at the wet ties to free her wife from her clothing. “Soft when you needed to be, then steel.” She kissed up Nereida’s jaw, and her wife trembled in anticipation in her arms. “Now, you’ve shown me how you use your tongue, let me show you how I use mine.”