Dragon Wish (21 page)

Unable to resist, Seren laughed while she tapped her foot

in time with the music. When the song ended, Eilan started a

softer melody.

Paladin appeared at her side. Without a word, he held out

a hand. She stared into the blueness of his eyes a moment

before she placed her palm in his.

He tugged gently and she came into his arms. She

positioned her other hand on his shoulder, allowing him to

lead her into a dance similar to a waltz. He moved with lean

grace, whirling around the deck. Ropes and casks

disappeared from their path with the help of the men. The

sailors laughed and cheered as they passed close to them.

Heaven had granted Seren another chance to live happily.

In that moment, she decided to do her best to fill the years

ahead with simple pleasures like dancing aboard a ship, or

even just laughing out loud. Right now, she had reached her

goal.

A shout from the lookout jarred her daydreams. Paladin

stopped and squinted up to where the sailor called.

“Pirates.”

Chills swept across Seren’s back. She stiffened, her hand

squeezing Paladin’s. Repeating the word in surprise, she

glanced at Paladin. His mouth straightened into a line.

“Go below. Stay there until I come for you.” He gave her a

little push in the direction of the door leading below.

Leo appeared at her side and took her arm. Every sailor

aboard scurried across the deck, preparing in case the

thieves attacked.

She shook her head, tugging her arm free. She turned in

time to see Paladin grab a sail line that was tied off on the

center mast below the lookout. He drew his shorter blade

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and cut the rope. The sand bag on the top dropped. With the

sides of his coat flapping, he rode the other side up to the

yardarm. Once there, he leapt onto the narrow piece of wood

and walked to the center lookout post.

It felt as if her heart had stopped beating until he reached

the round tub supposedly the lookout. Oh, God, what was he

thinking? He was so high up. What if he fell? What would

she do without him? She wrapped her arms about her waist,

sending up a silent plea to whatever powers might hear to

keep him safe. She’d given up on her belief in God with her

child’s death but if her request was granted, she might

rediscover her faith.

Several grappling hooks flew out from a nearby misty

cloud bank on the right. Metal thudded into wood as they

hooked onto the ship’s railing. Two lines wrapped around the

yardarm where Paladin stood. More shouts rang out from

the ship’s crew. The ropes joining the two ships stretched

taut. At the sudden jarring, Seren grabbed hold of a nearby

barrel. The pirates winched their ship closer until wood

scraped against wood with another teeth shaking jerk.

“Come on, the captain and the crew will take care of

them,” Leo muttered near her ear. He took her arm. Lost in a

dazed shock, not believing this was happening, she allowed

him to lead her to the door leading below. Just before they

reached the hatch, three pirates, swords drawn, blades

glinting in the sunlight, jumped on board not far from them.

One charged Leo, who in turn, pulled Seren behind him.

Her feet tangled with each other. She fell with a whoosh, the

breath knocked out of her. The ship tilted. She slid backward

a few feet. Fighting to inhale, she looked at where she’d last

seen Paladin. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a

glimpse of Leo ducking to avoid a downward sword swipe.

He punched out with two quick jabs. Knuckles met the

attacker’s jaw with a dull thud. Blood trickled from the

corner of the pirate’s mouth.

Unable to find Paladin, she searched the deck, worried

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he’d fallen or worse, been knocked off the yardarm when the

grapples caught hold of their ship. She glanced back to see

the other two pirates avoid their unconscious shipmate’s

tumble and swerved past Leo, each angled at her. Trembling,

she slid her legs beneath her, prepared to fight for her and

her baby’s life. She refused to let the attackers harm her

child.

Someone shouted from above. She shot a glance up in

time to see Paladin step off the yardarm. Seren froze, terror

piercing her heart.

He fell, not twisting and fighting for a hold to stop his

sudden drop, but more graceful, as if he dove on purpose.

His right hand held the handle of his sheathed sword. When

he reached a point of several feet above the deck, he slipped

the blade free. The silvered length blurred with the speed of

his movement. The two pirates faced him. His sword slashed

out, slicing through stained, dingy white shirts to cut deep

into their chests. Both men, their eyes wide, breaths

gurgling, staggered back. They crumpled to the deck. Blood

pooled on the wood beneath their bodies.

Paladin landed, feet first, but his knees gave way so he

knelt with one knee touching the deck and the other bent, his

foot flat. His head remained lowered for a second then he

stood in the same slow manner she’d grown to love.

Unable to stop it, her mouth dropped open as her gaze

bounced from the yardarm to him and back. How had he not

crashed into the deck? Her vision wobbled a moment then

cleared. The heavy scent of blood in the air turned her

stomach. She tried to figure out how he’d fallen without

being dead weight with the strength of the gravity on this

planet, but she had nothing to compare this to on Earth. For

the first time in several days, she experienced the familiar

lost feeling—that of being alone with her confusion in this

new world.

More scarred, armed pirates, howling, their weapons

waving in the air, poured over the side of the ship. Many

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attacked the sailors, but the majority of them formed small

packs. Their focus appeared aimed at Paladin.

Seren shook her head, scooting out of the way until the

wooden side of the railing stopped her. She counted at least

ten armed men advancing, their stances intimidating and

heading for him. He couldn’t fight all those men alone. Each

of them held a hateful glimmer in their eyes. Her fear

threatened to blow up into a full-blown panic.

A moment before the mass of sweating, reeking pirates

reached Paladin, loud caws streamed from the sky above.

White dracs, countless numbers of the small dragons,

swooped down on the attackers. Sudden, wild fear flared in

their attacker’s eyes. All the pirates retreated. The dracs

started to land, their mouths open to release gusts of heated

air at the pirates still aboard. The entire band of bandits

broke away, scrambling to return to their ship. All the lines

were severed. The other ship sank into the white cottony

cloud bank and disappeared from sight.

Hands trembling, Seren released a sigh of relief. She

closed her eyes, resting her head against the wood behind

her. When she opened them, several dracs landed. The small

dragons stood facing her. Paladin, balanced on the balls of

his feet, held his swords in a guarded position before his

body.

“My thanks, but now you may leave,” he ordered the

white-scaled creatures. Small frills at the base of their heads

fluttered with each call they made to him.

Six scurried closer, their throats working up and down.

Once they stood within a few feet of him, they opened their

mouths. Shining gems gushed from them to fall to the deck

at his feet. He took a step back and shook his head.

Gasps and quiet whispers came from where the crew

stood further along the deck. The gemstones caught the

sunlight, sparkling with internal flames.

Leo tried to shift around the dracs. The ones closer to him

twirled with a vicious cry, fangs bared. His eyes widened, and

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he held out his hands, shaking his head.

Paladin’s voice boomed out above the cawing dracs. “Be

gone, I say.”

She jerked at the sudden volume of his tone. Honed

sharpness added force to his words. He’d never reacted like

this before. Even when the sea dragons had come the other

day, he had been calm. All that was absent now. The dracs

had to leave now that the danger from the pirates had

disappeared, but instead the miniature dragons refused to

budge even with his order.

A disembodied voice, musical in tone, floated in the air

around Paladin. “Be gone? Come now, how dare you speak to

your brothers in such a fashion. They wish only to save and

serve you, my king.”

Glimmering lights swirled around Paladin. These strange

lights settled behind where the dracs had formed a semi-

circle before Paladin. Caws changed to excited squeals.

The brightness from the lights increased until the form of

a man appeared. Long tattered white robes fluttered in the

breeze over a pale shirt and pants. Bare feet floated several

inches above the deck. Slender to the point of thinness, the

strange man stared at her.

A slow smile curved his mouth to reveal white teeth. Like

a warrior’s helmet, a silvered skull cap covered his head. His

blue-gray stare sent uneasiness through her. Recognition

flared in her. The man from her vision of the other day. She

glanced at Paladin.

“For shame, my boy, you have insulted your kin,” the

man murmured. He shook his arms out from his sides to

spread them wide, encompassing all the glittering stones on

the deck. “These valiant children have gifted you with great

wealth.”

Paladin’s jaw tightened. “Bask.”

The smile widened. “Lior sent me. She yearns to see the

mother. The time draws near. This blessed woman’s blood

must be purified.”

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“I will bring her.”

“I think not. We will take her this day. You will not

interfere.”

“You dare defy me?”

Bask threw his head back, guffing out a laugh. Paladin’s

shoulders, already taut with tension, tightened more.

“You are the one who gave up his rights to rule. You are

the one who rides the skies searching for what? Even you do

not know what that something is. Yes, I dare. This and even

more.” Bask, hovering above the deck by several inches,

glided to the right. His gaze met Seren’s again.

She froze, hypnotized by the fires of strength burning in

his eyes. He smiled, gentle yet knowing, and then nodded.

A muffled flap came from behind her. Five dracs, hidden

from view by the railing and much larger than the ones on

deck, rose from the side of the ship. Each grasped her limbs,

and the fifth one caught hold of the waistband at the back of

her pants. Lifted up, face down, Seren screamed, jerking,

trying to escape. Strong and agile, they twirled around and

returned the way they had come, her body mere inches from

striking the rail.

Paladin whipped toward her and leapt the distance

between them. His foot landed on the rail, his hand reaching.

She struggled to stretch her arm to him. Time slowed, each

second branded into her mind. She met his eyes, their gazes

held, their fingers brushed then separated.

The moment froze in time. His forward motion

continued. He tilted too far out. With nothing to stop him, he

fell over the side of the airship. Several hundred feet

separated him from the sea below.

Seren’s scream trailed after him.

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Nauseated at the horror of him falling off the ship, Seren

struggled against the clawed talons that clutched her wrists

and ankles. Tears blinded her. Sharp pains cut across her

chest, pressing in on her. She screamed Paladin’s name. No,

he couldn’t die, not now, not when she had just found him.

Her son’s words echoed in her mind.

He is expendable.

“No, not here. It’s not supposed to happen here. I won’t

lose him,” she cried.

The dracs still aboard the ship dove over the sides

whirling around him. Hope that they would help him

brought her struggles to a brief halt. She cried out for them

to help him, but they snapped and slashed their claws at him.

His body jerked once. A glow started to emanate from his