The Grieving Tree: The Dragon Below Book II (17 page)

“Has Dah’mir ever turned the herons against the Bonetree hunters?”

Ashi tilted her head. “No,” she said. “Even yesterday, they attacked Geth and Orshok, not me. They trust Bonetree hunters from the moment they’re hatched. I think that’s something else Dah’mir bred into them.”

“Good. That’s what I was hoping.” Dandra raised her chin in determination. “Geth, take care of Chain. Ashi and I are going onto the ship.”

Geth’s breath hissed between his teeth. “At least wait for Singe to get here. Or let me go.”

She shook her head. “You need to watch Chain—and my idea
works best with two people.” She looked at Ashi. “If a Bonetree hunter approached the herons with a prisoner, what would happen?”

Ashi shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe nothing. I’d be more worried that Dah’mir or Vennet may have left orders for the crew.”

“Trust to il-Yannah. Geth, if something goes wrong, we’ll call.” Dandra handed her spear to Ashi. “Let’s make it look real. Take my arm as if you’re restraining me.”

They stepped out from behind the crates and crossed the docks. As they drew close to
Lightning on Water
, a number of the herons had turned their heads to stare directly at them. Dandra could feel the birds’ cold green eyes—so much like Dah’mir’s—on her. She tried to hang limp in Ashi’s grip, a defeated prisoner.

They’re not going to believe this
, wailed Tetkashtai.
We don’t even know that they understand what a prisoner is
.

Dandra’s heart skipped. She hadn’t entirely considered that.
As long as they still trust Ashi, we should be fine
.

You fool! We’re going to be captured for certain!

At the bottom of the gangplank, Ashi paused. “Do we go on?” she asked softly.

“Yes.” Dandra took the first step onto the gangplank, expecting the herons to spread their wings and take to the air at any moment. Her head was pounding in time to Tetkashtai’s fear. She focused on putting one foot in front of the other, on climbing the gangplank. The temptation to look up was strong. She resisted it.

Then they were at the top of the gangplank and stepping onto the ship. And the birds hadn’t moved.

Silence clung to
Lightning on Water
. The deck was empty except for one haggard crewman who crouched in the shade of the captain’s cabin. He stared at them but moved no more than the herons had. Dandra eased herself from Ashi’s grip and squatted in front of him. His eyes—empty and dull—followed her.

“Where is the rest of the crew?” she asked.

“Below,” he said. His voice was hoarse.

“Did Vennet give you any orders before he left?”

“Obey Dah’mir.”

“And what did Dah’mir tell you?”

“To take day watch until he returned.”

Dandra’s eyes narrowed. “What about the others?”

“They wait.”

Ashi crouched down beside Dandra. “Can you release him?” she murmured.

“I’d rather try with someone I know.” She rose. “Let’s see if we can find Karth. He had a level head.”

They found the stairs that led below. Ashi went first, moving slowly and allowing her eyes to adjust. She kept her hand on the hilt of her sword. Dandra followed cautiously, her spear reclaimed and ready.

There was little reason for fear, though. The remaining crew of
Lightning on Water
sat or crouched or lay in motionless silence. Except for the faint sounds of breathing and the few heads that turned to look at the two intruders into the gloom, Dandra would have thought she walked among dead men.

Karth sat against the curve of the ship’s hull. Dandra remembered him as a big man, but he seemed strangely diminished. His eyes, though as dull as those of the man on deck, also held a haunted look in their depths. When Dandra spoke his name, he didn’t respond. She said it again, a little louder, then took him by the shoulders and shook him. “Karth!” There was slight flicker in the man’s eyes, but nothing more.

“Geth and I hit them when we fought yesterday and they didn’t wake,” Ashi said. “Can you reach inside his head?”

Medala could have touched Karth’s mind easily—that had been the focus of her powers. All Dandra had, though, was the
kesh
and the idea of linking her mind with one so deeply under Dah’mir’s influence was frightening. Just the thought of it made Tetkashtai shrink like an ember. Dandra’s gut clenched.

She had to try.

The sailor on the deck had said he and the others were following orders left by Dah’mir and Vennet—powerful suggestions rather than direct domination. Maybe she could jolt Karth free. “Watch me,” she told Ashi, “if I become like them, I’ve probably fallen to Dah’mir’s power. Get me out of here and back to Singe.”

“There’s no way to protect yourself?”

“It would take more than I’m capable of. Powerful psionics. Maybe magic. But not even Medalashana was able to shield herself
from Dah’mir on her own.” Dandra gripped Ashi’s hand for a moment. “Wish me luck.”

Ashi returned her grasp silently, then let go. Dandra turned to Karth.
Tetkashtai—

No!

Tetkashtai, help me!
Dandra seized the presence and pulled her close, then looked directly into Karth’s haunted eyes.
Karth
, she called silently, pushing her mind toward his.
Karth, can you hear me?

The
kesh
trembled between them, sliding across Karth’s thoughts without finding purchase, like walking on ice. Dandra could feel Dah’mir’s touch, the cold grasp of his domination. Karth’s mind was there, but locked away. He was struggling, though. She could sense it. Dah’mir’s power had been stretched thin, but it was too much for a human mind to break through alone—even she touched it and shied away. There was a lingering madness in the dragon’s presence that left her feeling unclean.

Beyond the barrier of his power, Karth shivered and seemed to fade, exhausted.

Dandra thrust out hard, wielding the
kesh
as she would her spear and pouring all of her will into one focused burst.
Karth!
she shouted.

The spear of her will stabbed deep into the cold barrier that held Karth prisoner—stabbed deep and pierced it. The
kesh
slipped through, drawing Karth to freedom. A hundred wild, desperate thoughts burst out of the man, flooding her. Dandra gasped and jerked back from him.

His hands reached out and caught her. “Dandra?” he gasped. “Dol Arrah bless you.” He was trembling.

“Karth, are you hurt?” She felt exhausted and exhilarated at the same time. Inside her mind, Tetkashtai cowered.

“I—” He swallowed. “The captain? Dah’mir?”

“Gone,” said Ashi.

Karth focused on her. “You … I chased you yesterday. You were with Geth. But the captain said you were …”

“Ashi is with us now, Karth.” Dandra eased her arms out of the man’s desperate grip, then pushed him gently back until he was sitting again. “Tell us what happened to you.”

When she’d been in Dah’mir’s power, the world had sped
by her in a blur. Karth, however, remembered everything. His story flooded out of him as if it had been waiting for release. Dandra listened in dismay as he told of the appearance of the herons on the ship, of his discovery of Dah’mir in Vennet’s cabin and Dah’mir’s transformation from heron to man. Her stomach knotted at Vennet’s murder of his passengers so that the ship could be turned back to Zarash’ak. Through the days of the voyage, the crew had been held in thrall to Dah’mir’s presence, seeing and hearing everything, but unable to act against his or Vennet’s orders.

When Karth had finished, Ashi let out a hissing breath. “So now we know what happened to Dah’mir after the battle at the mound.”

Dandra nodded and turned back to Karth. The big man was shaking and staring around at his listless, silent mates. “What did Dah’mir and Vennet expect all of you to do while they were away?” she asked him.

“There are supplies on board—food and water. Dah’mir told some of us to share them out every night.”

“He expected you to survive for four weeks like that?” growled Ashi.

“Four?” Karth glanced up. “Two. They were heading toward something called the Bonetree mound in the depths of the Marches.”

“The journey to the Bonetree mound takes two weeks. Back again is four, three at best,” said Dandra. Karth shook his head.

“They expected the whole trip to take two weeks. The captain can use his dragonmark to call wind’s favor and speed their trip.”

Dandra exchanged a glance with Ashi, then cursed. “Il-Yannah! All the more reason not to wait before we leave Zarash’ak.”

Karth seized her arm like a drowning man might seize a piece of floating wood. “Leave? No, you can’t.” He nodded toward the rest of the crew. “What about them?”

Dandra bit her lip. She had the strength to free one or maybe two others, but then she’d have to rest. Maybe Orshok’s prayers could help free some of the others. It could be done—it had to be done, though Singe and Geth might not like it. “We’ll make sure you’re all freed,” she promised, “but you probably shouldn’t stay around Zarash’ak either.”

“Believe me, we won’t.” He pointed at a half-elf watching them with dark and empty eyes from a corner. Dandra recognized Vennet’s junior officer—during their voyage on
Lightning on Water
, he had taken over the ship at night, controlling her with his own dragonmark while Vennet slept. “Free Marolis and he can take command. There are provisions in the articles of House Lyrandar—if a crew believes the captain has turned away from the house, they can remove him from power and take the case before the trade ministers of Lyrandar. Lords of the Host have mercy on the men Vennet and Dah’mir took with them, but I don’t think we can wait for their return. With what Marolis and I have seen, we have enough to go before the ministers now.”

Dandra’s eyebrows rose as sudden hope kindled inside her. “Karth, where would you find these ministers?”

“By the articles, we have to go straight to the nearest one or be declared mutineers. The nearest to Zarash’ak would be Dantian d’Lyrandar in Sharn.”

Embers of hope turned into flames. “Sharn?” she asked. A wide smile spread across her face. She doubted if she could have held it back even if she had wanted to. “Karth, do you think you and Marolis could do us a favor?”

Karth spread his hands. “Dandra, you’ve freed us from a nightmare—for you, we’d do anything.”

Even watching
Lightning on Water
for any signs of trouble, Geth saw nothing until one of the herons tumbled abruptly off the ship and into the water below with a knife sticking out of it. At almost the same moment, Ashi reared up behind another, shearing it in half with the bright blade of her sword before leaping for the next. Dandra was a swift and graceful blur near the stern of the ship as her darting spear transfixed yet another bird.

The startled herons reacted before he could. They flapped into the air with a flurry of greasy black feathers and a chorus of screeches. Ashi vaulted up and cut down a fourth bird as it took flight, but then they were out of reach of her sword.

But not of Dandra’s powers. Geth saw her look up at the whirling flock and thrust out her hand. White flames erupted
in a roaring gout to engulf another five of the remaining heron. Ashes and embers fell like hot rain.

In only moments, just three of Dah’mir’s weird birds remained, two beating hard for the safety of the sky, one—its feathers smoking—tumbling down to the dock. Dandra’s fingers tracked the climbing birds. Two bright, fiery bolts streaked up and caught them, blasting them out of the air.

The heron that had tumbled to the dock, however, righted itself and landed on its feet. Green eyes looked up to watch the destruction of the last of its flock. Geth saw the bird turn its head as if surveying the dock, then with an uncanny intelligence strut toward the nearest sheltering nook.

Chain wasn’t going anywhere. Geth released his grasp on the bounty hunter, sprang out from behind the crates, and pounced on the heron. It screeched and struck at him with its beak—the shifter snarled and snatched back a bleeding hand, but got his other fist around the heron’s skinny neck and squeezed. Long thin legs thrashed. Geth clenched his injured hand on the bird’s neck as well and wrenched hard. Bones cracked. The bird went limp.

Across the dock, people were staring at Dandra’s display of power. Geth rushed to
Lightning on Water
’s gangplank. “Ashi! Dandra!” he shouted. “What’s going on?”

Dandra appeared at the ship’s rail. Her eyes widened slightly at the heron in Geth’s hand. He held it up and shook it at her. “What are you doing?”

“We’ve found our passage to Sharn!” Dandra called back. She slapped the rail.

“We’re taking Vennet’s own ship?” Geth bared his teeth in a grin. “Grandfather Rat, that’s justice! Singe is going to soil himself.”

He dashed back to the crates and to Chain. The bounty hunter had staggered and fallen without his support. He was sprawled in the shadow of the crates, limp as one of the dead herons, Bava’s cloak a puddle around him. Geth wrapped his arms under Chain’s and hauled him to his feet. There was a long bloody scratch on one of the big man’s hands. A piece of wire that had bound a crate twisted out—Chain must have fallen against it as he crumpled. Geth snorted. “I hope Vennet didn’t pay you in advance,” he told the drugged man.