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a trivial thing,’ he warned her. Her quarters shared a wall with Sedric’s, and once the walls had been raised, he entered his room and shut the door immediately.
And there he had stayed until the ship had departed the wharf at Cassarick only to put in at the muddy banks of the dragon beach less than an hour later. Sedric looked much better now than he had earlier. Access to his wardrobe for fresh clothes, privacy, a nap and a solitary meal seemed to have restored his energy if not his charm. He had not said anything directly to Alise about her high-handed ways, but the edge to his tongue let her know that he had not forgiven her. She shook her head to herself and turned away from him. She’d deal with Sedric later. Right now, she wasn’t going to let anything ruin her first glimpse of the young dragons.
‘They’re huge!’ Sedric sounded daunted. ‘You don’t intend to go down there and walk among them!’
‘Of course I do. Eventually.’ She didn’t want to admit that she felt much safer looking at them from the Tarman’s deck.
Down the beach, the golden dragon suddenly lifted his head. The small figure beside him stirred. The dragon looked toward them, flaring his nostrils and audibly blowing. He rolled to his feet and began to lumber toward them.
‘Now what does he want?’ Leftrin muttered uneasily. He watched the dragon approach the barge. The animal turned his head on his long neck, regarding Tarman curiously with shining black eyes. He came several steps closer, and then stretched out his head to snuff at the barge. Sedric stepped back from the railing. ‘Alise,’ he warned her, but the captain had not moved. She chose to stay where she was. A moment later, the dragon gently butted his head against the vessel’s planked side. Tarman did not budge, but in an instant, both Swarge and Hennesey were at Leftrin’s side. Big Eider hulked up behind them, staring balefully at the dragon. Grigsby, the ship’s orange cat, joined them. He leaped to the railing and glared at the dragon, lashing his striped tail and muttering cat curses in his throat. ‘There’s no harm done,’ Leftrin warned them softly. He set a restraining hand on the angry cat’s back.
‘Not yet,’ Hennesey replied sourly.
‘Is there danger?’ Alise asked.
‘I don’t know,’ Leftrin said. Then, as the dragon’s girl-keeper caught up with the creature, he added quietly, ‘I don’t think so.’
Moments later, the immense creature was following the girl placidly down the beach, back to their sunning spot. Alise let her pent breath out in a sigh. ‘Look how the sun reflects off him. His markings are so delicate. Such amazing creatures. Even flawed, they’re incredibly beautiful. Of course, the queen at the end of the beach is the most glorious, but this is to be expected. The females of this species were always the most flamboyantly coloured. My studies suggest that they could be assertive, even arrogant perhaps, but given the level of their intelligence, such “arrogance” was perhaps the natural attitude that such a superior mind might take. Look at her. The sun soaks right into her and shines back out of her.’
The blue dragon and her tender were a good distance away, at least a hundred feet. Alise was sure her voice had not carried that far, and yet the blue female suddenly lifted her head from where she had been stretched out on the hard mud and regarded Alise with whirling copper eyes for a long moment. Then she said, quite clearly, ‘Were you speaking of me, Bingtown woman?’
Day the 5th of the Grain Moon
Year the 6th the Independent Alliance of Traders
From Detozi, Keeper of the Birds, Trehaug, to Kim, Cassarick
Has it escaped your tiny little brain that the message you received from Erek contained information about a special feed that may enhance the health and longevity of the pigeon stocks? Did it never occur to you that by attaching this information on an official matter to a bird already carrying a message, he was merely being more efficient? The idea that he and I share a personal correspondence is rather laughable, considering that we have never even met one another. If you wish to draw that missive to the attention of the Councils, oh, please do! It will give us all a chance to discuss the sorry state of the coops at Cassarick, the death of over twenty promising squabs because a snake was able to enter your coops, and the rumours that squab has been on your family’s menu with a peculiar frequency since you assumed your post.
Detozi
He couldn’t believe she had done it. Just couldn’t believe it. This woman was not the Alise Kincarron he had grown up with! She wasn’t even the Alise Finbok he’d frequently dined with for the last five years. He wasn’t sure where this domineering vixen had come from, but he’d be glad to see her depart. If it hadn’t been so important for him to accompany her when she visited the dragons, he never would have allowed her to go this far.
He leaned on the railing beside her. To her left, the disgusting Captain Leftrin matched her posture, so close that he was practically touching her, while she spouted her infatuated nonsense about the dragons. Well, let her have a day or two of it. Angry as he felt toward her right now, he still dreaded the tasks that were before him. He’d go ashore with her and act as her secretary while she ‘interviewed’ the lumbering beasts down there. Soon enough, she’d realize what they were, and that would be the end of it. He thought of her inevitable disillusionment and almost felt sympathy for her. He’d been foolish even to argue with her earlier when she’d proposed her wild dream of accompanying the captain and the dragons on their trek upriver. He just should have nodded and agreed. He’d listened to what Trell and his wife had to say about the dragons. This adventure wasn’t going to materialize as Alise had always imagined it. And when she came to him, a night or two hence, crestfallen and disappointed, he’d be ready to comfort her and find passage for the two of them back home. All he had to do was maintain his patience and wait. And not vomit as Leftrin slimed along after her.
He glanced across at them again. She was looking up at Leftrin and smiling. Was she infatuated with that grizzled water rat? It didn’t seem possible. Perhaps she construed the man’s braying laugh and extravagant compliments as the epitome of rustic charm. After all, Alise had had few opportunities to sample social interchange with a wide variety of men. Maybe his very coarseness appealed to her. He knew her well enough to know that Hest was in no danger of losing her to anyone. Even if she was not happy with her husband, she was far too tightly laced even to consider betraying him. So let her flirt a bit, let her think she was being a woman of the world on this dismal journey. Though why she could possibly want to dally with an old walrus like Leftrin eluded him. How could he compare to the elegant Hest?
At the thought of Hest, his spirits sank again. Where was he now, what was he doing? Who was sharing his table and witty observations? What exotic port had attracted him, what extravagant and unusual cargo had he already purchased? He closed his eyes for a moment and could clearly imagine Hest loading his pipe after a fine meal in excellent accommodations. Would Hest even wonder what Sedric was enduring on his swamp boat journey up a mosquito-infested river? He probably did, and probably chortled with joy each time Sedric came to his mind. It stung even worse to imagine Hest sharing his amusement with Wollom and Jaff and the insidious Redding Cope. He imagined Cope doing one of his infuriating imitations. ‘This is Sedric, enjoying the mosquitoes.’ And then that pudgy little excuse for a man would slap himself and leap about and be rewarded with Hest’s laughter. Even to imagine it was intolerable. He realized he was grinding his teeth and with an effort calmed his face. This whole misadventure was Hest’s doing, and an entirely unreasonable punishment for the sin of simply speaking his mind. All he had wanted was for Hest to be a bit kinder to Alise. And for his troubles, he had not only been exiled by Hest but now was hijacked by Alise to accompany her even deeper into this uncivilized wasteland.
Unmindful of Sedric’s displeasure, Alise was chattering away