The Dragon Keeper (32 page)

B
y the time they reached the main dock at Cassarick it was almost too dark to see. Even the mosquitoes had given up for the night. The lanterns hung on each corner of the barge illuminated little more than the preoccupied faces of the polers as they endlessly plodded past her. There was a hypnotic quality to watching their circling dance on the deck. Alise still found it amazing how easy it was for them to propel the barge upstream. When she had spoken of it to Captain Leftrin, he had grinned and said something about a very sophisticated hull design.

Alise had stayed out on the deck, well bundled against both the night chill and the insects that descended with darkness. The stars overhead had been distant and yet brilliant. Her first sight of the lights of the town had made her gasp in awe. Like Trehaug, the newer settlement of Cassarick was strung and strewn through the treetops above the river. The yellow lamplight shone from windows through a lacy network of branches. At first they looked like a scattering of stars caught in a net, but as the barge moved steadily closer, the lights grew larger and brighter.

“Won’t be long now,” Captain Leftrin told her on one of his frequent visits to her perch. “Ordinarily, we’d have stopped for the night an hour ago. But I know how anxious you are to get here and meet your dragons, so I’ve pushed my crew a bit today. I’d hoped we would dock while it was still light, but no such luck for us. So I suggest that you spend another night with us here, and make an early start of it tomorrow.”

Sedric had come out on deck and joined them. In the dark, neither of them had noticed his soundless approach, and they both jumped when he spoke. “I do not think we are that tired. I think a bit of extra effort to find an inn that offers hot baths, soft beds, and a gentle wine with a warm meal would be worth it.”

“You won’t find any of that here,” Captain Leftrin warned him. “Cassarick’s a young settlement yet; most of the folk who work here live here, and visitors are few. There’s little call for an inn. Oh, if we’d arrived while the sun was in the sky, we might have found a family that would give you a room for the night. But after dark, well, chances are you’d just go from door to door and find nothing. You’d have to climb a lot of steps in the dark. Or use a basket hoist, if you could find one that was manned and you were willing to pay the fee.”

Alise nodded at his reasoning. “There’s no sense in packing up all our luggage and setting out in the dark in the hope of finding a hospitable family. One more night aboard the
Tarman
won’t hurt us, Sedric. In the morning, you can look for lodgings for us while I speak to the local council about the dragons.” It seemed a solid arrangement to her. The boat was not palatial, but it was comfortable enough. The food was plain but nourishing. Captain Leftrin might be a bit rough around the edges, but his efforts at gallantry were flattering in their sincerity. She enjoyed his company even if Sedric obviously found him provincial. Several times that day Sedric had given her long-suffering glances at the captain’s extravagant compliments to her, and once he had smothered a laugh over the man’s efforts to be charming. She’d been surprised that it offended her when Sedric found the captain a cause for amusement. It seemed unkind and petty of him.

And flattering.

She tried not to dwell on that thought but could not help herself. Leftrin’s attentions to her had taken her completely by surprise. They had made her uncomfortable at first, and even suspicious. But in the last day, she had become convinced his admiration of her was sincere. She could not deny the thrill of pleasure that went through her at the thought of this rough, masculine river captain finding her attractive. He was so unlike any other man she had ever met. His company made her feel that she was truly adventurous, even reckless in undertaking this trip. At the same time, his evident strength and competence made her feel safe. She had indulged herself in his company, telling herself that it was only for a short time and that she had no intention of being unfaithful to Hest. She only wished to enjoy, for a time, that a man found her pretty.

Then Sedric had reacted to him in a way that she could only construe as protective. It had shocked her. And stirred to new life her ancient childhood infatuation with him. Even before he had blossomed into such a gloriously handsome man, he had fascinated her. He’d paid attention to her when no other boy would have looked at her, with her wild red hair and thick freckles and flat bosom. He’d been kind. Oh, how she had dreamed of him, her best friend’s big brother, being more than kind to her. She’d twined their initials on her lesson papers, and stolen one of his riding gloves. It had smelled like him, and she both blushed and laughed to recall how she had kept it under her pillow and smelled it every evening before she went to sleep. She could not recall now what had become of it, or when she had given up her dream that someday he would turn to her and admit that he loved her, too. Was it possible that he had once cared for her? Was it remotely possible that in some corner of his heart, he still did?

Oh, it was a silly fancy, as silly as her timid flirtation with the captain. Silly and absolutely delicious. And what harm could it be for her to imagine, just for a day or so, that two such different men could find her attractive? Hest had, for years now, made her feel so dowdy and stupid and boring. In the light and warmth of the captain’s regard and Sedric’s protectiveness, she felt like a flower stirring back to life.

In her brief time on the
Tarman,
Alise felt her adventure had approached what she had imagined it would be. The big scow sat so low in the water that it seemed but a breath above the river; it made the trees tower all the higher above them. The birds and the strange river creatures, both dangerous and mild, were closer to her here. From the barge’s deck, she’d had glimpses of what Leftrin called marsh elk and riverpig. One large, toothy gallator had slid from his sunbathing on the mudbank to come and keep pace with the barge for a time until Skelly had given him a good rap with her pole that sent him slashing back to shore. She had seen several varieties of very large water birds; Leftrin had caught her sketching them into her journal and been completely amazed at her great artistic talent. He’d persuaded her to leaf back through her days on the river so that he could exclaim over some of her other efforts. She had blushed with pleasure when he’d recognized Captain Trell from one of her sketches, and when he’d told her the Rain Wild names for some of the exotic plants she’d drawn, she’d pleased him immensely by lettering their names in under her sketches. “So pleased to have been of ser vice to such a scholar, ma’am!” he had told her, with such sincerity that she had blushed.

One insight he had given her had dismayed her. He’d sought her out as she sat in her chair on top of the deckhouse, bundled against the evening chill, with the netting of her hat pinned down against the insects. “Would you mind if I joined you briefly?” His careful formality was at odds with his rough demeanor. “It comes to me that I’ve a bit of information that you might want to know.”

“Of course you may join me! This is your ship, isn’t it?” she replied, at once intrigued by his conspiratorial tone.

Without more ado, he’d taken a seat on the deck next to her chair, folding up with an ease that surprised her. “Well, it’s like this,” he began immediately. “The Council at Cassarick has made a plan about the dragons. The dragons have agreed to it, but for a number of reasons, the word hasn’t been spread about much. But seeing as how it’s important to you that the dragons be there for you to talk to, I’ve decided to take you in, confidential-like. The fact is, the Council is getting ready to move the dragons out of there. And the word I’ve received is that it’s to happen soon. Within the month for certain.”

“Move them? But how? And to where? Why would they do this?” She was shocked.

“Well, as to how, the only way they can go is under their own power. By foot. And to where? That’s something I haven’t been fully told yet. Only that it’s upriver a way. The why is pretty easy; everyone in the Rain Wilds knows that the dragons have become more than nuisances at Cassarick. They’re a real danger to the workers in the buried city, and to the inhabitants. Hungry, bad tempered, and some of them aren’t too bright. Not bright enough to know they shouldn’t bite off the hand that feeds them, if you take my meaning. I don’t know how they’ve persuaded the dragons to leave, but they have. If they can get a crew together to sort of herd them along, they’ll move them out of there as soon as they can.”

She’d felt faint. What if she arrived only to find that the dragons had already been sent away? What then? She’d found the voice to put her fear into words. To her surprise, the captain had grinned up at her recklessly. “Well, ma’am, that’s what I come to tell you. See, I’m part of that crew they’re trying to put together. And near as I can tell, if I say no, well then it’s not going to happen. That Council may not know it, but there’s no other barge on the river that can go as shallow as my old Tarman. No other barge will take on that contract. Up to now, I’ve just been talking to myself, figuring out how much money to hold out for. But if it comes down to it, I may put another condition on it, and that’s that you’ll have a chance to talk to the dragons before they depart. So. What do you think of that?”

She was dumbfounded. “I’m surprised that you’d trust me with such a confidential matter. And I’m even more astonished that you’d do such a thing for a relative stranger.” She leaned on the arm of her chair and lifted the netting from her face to look down into his. “Why?” she asked, genuinely puzzled.

He shrugged and his grin became bashful. He looked away from her. “Guess I just like you, ma’am. And I’d like to see you get what you come so far to get. What can it hurt to make them wait a day or three?”

“I don’t think it could hurt them at all,” she said. Gratitude and relief welled up in her. “Captain Leftrin, I’d be pleased if you’d call me Alise.”

He glanced back at her then, a boyish flush of pleasure on his weathered face. “Well, I’d be more than pleased to do that!” Then he’d looked away from her and almost visibly shifted the topic. “Fine night, isn’t it?” he’d observed.

She’d let the insect netting fall to shield her own blush. “The finest night I’ve experienced in a long time,” she replied.

When he’d excused himself and left the deckhouse roof, she’d found herself giddy as a girl. He liked her. Liked her so much that he’d put a major contract at risk. She tried to think when any other man had actually said to her, “I like you.” She couldn’t recall any instances. Had Hest ever said that in his early “courtship” of her? She couldn’t recall that he had. And even if he had, from him it would only have meant that she suited his purposes. When Leftrin said it, it meant that, for no other reason, he’d put himself at risk for her. Astonishing.

And when he returned, but a few moments later, with thick sweetened coffee in heavy earthenware mugs, she had thought it the most delicious brew she’d ever shared with anyone.

The rustic conditions of life on the barge had not lost their charm for her. It seemed exotic and a bit dangerous to sleep in the captain’s bed with its thick wool blankets and gaily pieced patchwork cover. The room smelled of his tobacco and was littered with the implements of his profession. She woke to sunlight on the cunning fish chimes that hung at his window. And it secretly thrilled her that, at any hour, he might tap on the door and ask permission to enter to retrieve his pipe or a notebook or a fresh shirt.

The barge moved slowly but steadily against the current. It stayed to the shallows at the edge of the river where the flow was less strong. Sometimes the crew manned sweeps and sometimes they used long poles to push it along. It seemed like magic to her as the wide heavy ship prevailed against the river’s steady push. On the first morning, the captain had placed a chair on the roof of the deckhouse for her so that she could take in all the sights and sounds of their journey. Sometimes Sedric joined her there, and she took keen pleasure in his company when he did, but Captain Leftrin had actually been more constantly at her side than he was.

Captain Leftrin was full of tales of the river and the ships that traded on it. Rain Wild history had changed in his telling of it, and she fancied that she now better understood how the Rain Wild Traders thought of themselves. She had come to enjoy the picturesque members of the crew, right down to the affectionate Grigsby. She’d never had a cat as a pet, but she was rapidly becoming fond of the beast. She’d wondered what Hest might say to such a request, then suddenly resolved not to make it. She’d simply get herself a cat. That was all. It was strange, she thought, how a little rough living made her feel so much more in control of her life. So capable of making her own decisions.

So Leftrin’s suggestion of one more night aboard the
Tarman
pleased her. Sedric had sighed and rolled his eyes. She’d laughed aloud at his doleful expression. “Let me have my adventure while I can, Sedric. Soon enough, too soon for me, it will all be over. We’ll both be back in Bingtown, and I don’t doubt that I’ll have a soft bed, hot meals, and warm baths the rest of my life. And little else in the way of excitement.”

“Surely a grand lady like yourself doesn’t lead as boring and sedate a life as all that,” Captain Leftrin had exclaimed.

“Oh, I fear that I do, sir. I’m a scholar, Captain Leftrin. Most of my days are spent at my desk, reading and translating old scrolls and trying to make sense of what they tell me. This chance to speak to real dragons was to be my one real adventure in life. After what Captain Trell and his wife told me about them, I’m afraid it will be far less rewarding than I thought it would be. But, what is so funny? Are you mocking me?”

For Captain Leftrin had broken into a hearty boom of laughter at her words. “Oh, not at you, my dear, I assure you. It’s the idea of Althea Vestrit dismissed as ‘Captain Trell’s wife’ that is a rich jest for me. She’s every bit as much a captain as Trell is, not that Paragon needs a captain at all these days. There’s a liveship that has decided to be in charge of himself !”