Dragonoak: Gall and Wormwood, page 32
Yin Zhou waved her hand, gesturing for me to hurry up.
“Tza, tza. It feels like yesterday Kastelir was founded, and already it is ash. As for the dragons and their particular use, of course. I sat down to dine with Queen Mera, you understand. It barely took a bottle of two-hundred-year-old Yhouan wine to loosen that woman’s tongue.”
I saw in those impossibly deep eyes what she wasn’t saying: do not presume that there are secrets I do not know, or do not have a part in.
I didn’t dwell on the fact that Yin Zhou claimed to be Kouris’ friend and hadn’t told her about the dragons’ true, twisted nature.
“That was all Rylan. Prince Rylan. He’s over in the territories, or Agados, gathering an army. He plans to attack in a few months, because—oh, King Garland, he died. Healer’s bane. So Claire, Claire Ightham, she’s Queen now. Aren’s still alive, but we had to lock her up, because she wanted to keep using people and dragons like the King was. And that was kind of her doing, too. So Claire’s Queen and we’re trying to defend Felheim and help all the Kastelirians that have been made into refugees. And we don’t have as big an army as we should because Rylan took most of it, and I thought it’d be a good idea to make a real alliance with Canth. So—”
“I get the gist. Not one for politics, are you,” Yin Zhou said. She smiled and it absolutely didn’t reach her eyes. “Agados, though. I have been meaning to do something about that for some time.”
She glanced back at her guard who stood behind the sofa like a statue. The woman shook her head and Yin Zhou sipped her drink loudly.
“You’re right. Too many other things to attend to. And perhaps Queen Claire shall sort matters for us.”
“We’re trying. We—”
“Off to see my niece, are you?”
“Your niece? Queen Nasrin?”
“Well. Great-great-great-great… you get the idea,” Yin Zhou said, finishing the last of her drink. “I shall accompany you. I had only intended to see how Port Mahon was flourishing under Reis’ rule and I am sufficiently pleased. I may as well see how the rest of Canth is progressing. I find myself too easily distracted, when it comes to Canth’s problems. Such petty things consume this land.”
“I was going to go by dragon,” I protested.
“Nonsense. You shall travel with me,” Yin Zhou decided. “After all, you are Rowan Northwood, Virkénsz zau Port Mahon. Slayer of Gavern, a particular thorn in my niece and Reis’ sides alike.”
I said nothing, because nothing I said would’ve made a difference.
“Kouris alright?” Reis asked. As closed-off as they usually were, they’d been visibly uncomfortable since the conversation started. They sat with their hands under the table, clenching and unclenching them into fists.
“She’s busy,” I said. “She misses you too.”
“Heh,” Reis said, shoulders relaxing a little.
Yin Zhou’s guard decided it was time for me to leave. She said nothing, but her eyes guided me out of the hut.
I didn’t begrudge my dismissal. I only regretted having to leave Reis alone. My fear that I’d returned to a Port Mahon I didn’t recognise melted before me; one look across the docks told me that nothing had changed, now that Yin Zhou was out of sight. Oak had swum to the shore, and the whole town was gathered around, cheering when he so much as splashed water their way.
Tizo had taken control of the situation by making everyone throw their weapons at her feet, and Oak evoked a quiet sort of wonder within the pirates. There were no dragons in Canth, none outside of Asar’s mountains, and many gathered hadn’t even heard of them before.
“He don’t look much like Kouris,” one pirate muttered.
“They’re more like distant cousins,” I said, not wanting to explain about dragon-born referring to the way eggs were hatched, rather than direct lineage.
The half of the crowd able to tear their eyes off Oak turned to me, and I didn’t have time to prepare myself for the impact. A few of the more familiar faces threw themselves at me, and a chant of Felheim! Felheim! filled the air as I was jostled from pirate to pirate, elbows affectionately dug into my sides, hands reaching out to ruffle my hair and knock against my jaw.
I came out the other side of the crowd a mess of laughter and fast-healing bruises, and Tizo put a hand on my shoulder to steady me. Oak was submerged in shallow water, jaw rested on the docks, and Tae stopped staring into one of his glassy eyes to say, “So? How the hell did you manage this one, Fel?”
I climbed atop one of the pier posts and said, “It’s a long story. Are you sure you want to hear it?”
It felt good to be speaking in Canthian again. There was something about the way the words rose from my chest that left it feeling light, and I had no trouble finding a way to express exactly what I felt. I started from the moment I left Port Mahon, and no one rushed me.
Which wasn’t to say that there weren’t plenty of interruptions. There was cheering (I’d taken Gavern’s head to Queen Nasrin), groans of sympathy (eight weeks spent below deck), and even the occasional, unabashed awww (upon reuniting with my father). I told them all about the trek across Felheim and how cold they would’ve found it, despite winter having been left behind. Plenty of them were impressed by the way we snuck into Kastelir, and once I’d told them about the dragon’s corpse that quickly became Oak, they didn’t want the story to end there.
And so it continued, through to Orinhal and Claire (more cheering), to the fire that had driven me out and the mountain I’d leapt from. (Strangely, this earnt another round of cheering, amongst surprisingly little wincing). I made sure they knew all about Rylan’s army and what had been done to the Bloodless Lands, and had no shortage of things to say about Kyrindval. I took the story through Felheim and into Thule and didn’t stop until the castle was ours.
It took hours. Pirates came and went and the crowd ended up twice the size it’d been when I’d started. My face was red from more than the heat, but I didn’t care about the way my head pounded. I was home. Not for good and not for long, but knowing that it was still standing without me was enough.
“Alright!” Tizo said, reluctantly tugging me off the pier post. “Into the shade with ya. Drinks are on Tae.”
“Fuck about,” Tae huffed, but was only too happy to brag about the latest haul she’d made on our way to Siren Song. She’d taken to raiding the ships of Gavern’s replacement. He left a lot to be desired, leaving Port Mahon without a particular enemy, for the time being.
I offered up Rylan for the taking.
Falling into one of the booths at the back of the tavern, I shuffled along the seat and leant against the wall, oppressively warm and wonderfully exhausted. It was the same as ever: full of people barging past one another, glasses clinking together and thudding against tables. Card games were being played, someone was threatening someone else over a spilt drink, and cheers rose from the back while someone sang off-key. Two women started arm-wrestling in the booth behind us and ended up doing something very different indeed. In a far corner, someone was heaving.
“Home sweet home,” Tae said, winking as she whacked three steins on the table.
She slid onto the bench next to Tizo, grabbed her drink, and downed half of it. I took hold of my own, absolutely parched, but only made it three sips in before I felt myself cringe. I hadn’t tasted ale in a long time and felt a sense of betrayal flood me. What if this was Thule, not Port Mahon? Would I go home and kiss Claire with a mouth full of alcohol?
Tae rolled her eyes when I got myself a glass of water, but had fewer objections when I pushed my ale towards her.
“So,” Tizo said, leaning forward. “You got in early and hooked up with a Queen before she was a Queen. Smart move.”
“Yep,” I said, doing my utmost not to smirk into my drink.
“And now you’re off to negotiate with Queen Nasrin,” she said, raising her glass in a toast. “How about that.”
“Bloody crazy. When Fel first wandered into Mahon, I didn’t expect her to last a week. Forget about getting this far,” Tae said. “No offence.”
“Maybe that’s because the first time you met her, you screamed at her in a language she didn’t understand, waved a sword in her face, and almost broke her nose on its hilt,” Tizo pointed out.
“Yeah, well.” A shrug. “I was having a bad day, aye?”
“Not as bad as the day I was having,” I said. Memory was a funny thing. I’d been terrified and Tae had been covered in blood, but I found myself laughing at my former self’s expense. “Why’s Yin Zhou here, anyway? Have you met her before?”
“Once,” Tae said. “And when she comes around, you don’t ask why she’s doing it, okay? Yin Zhou owns Port Mahon and she owns us. She gets to do what she wants. Best you don’t argue with that.”
For once, Tae wasn't needlessly dramatic. Tizo nodded in grim agreement and I slumped back, already unsettled by the thought of our carriage ride together.
“You met Ade, right? Her guard? She’s well quiet, yeah?” Tizo asked.
“Didn’t say a word. Didn’t have to,” I said.
“That’s ‘cause she ain’t got no tongue. Wanna know why?”
“… Horrible fishing accident?”
“Yin Zhou cut it out. She was in a meeting with some ambassadors from fuck knows where, and they were thinking about double-crossing her. Yin Zhou knew because she always knows everything. So she said ‘look here—Ade’s never once been disloyal to me in all the years she’s worked for me.’ And she called Ade over, took out a knife, and sliced off her tongue. Held it in her hand like a fish! Ade let her do it. Talk about never being disloyal! So, anyway, Yin Zhou says, ‘She never did a damn thing wrong, but I still cut this out. ‘cause I could. Imagine what I’d do to someone who fucked me over.’ Bloody terrifying.”
Tae nodded gravely, as though she’d been sat in the room with Yin Zhou and Ade’s bleeding mouth.
“You’re really making me feel better about having to travel with her tomorrow,” I said, downing the last of my water as though it was something stronger.
“Psh. You’re a necromancer, Fel. She’s probably gonna want to keep you around,” Tae reassured me.
We stayed long into the day, until the sun set and the heat verged on tolerable. We moved to Charybdis to eat, and wherever we went, there was a familiar face waiting for me. Plenty of them had new scars to boast of. I’d be the talk of the town until something equally as absurd happened, and when I visited Oak on the way back to Reis’ hut, I found that he’d been plied with meat all day.
I bid him goodnight with a kiss on the snout and told him to eat anyone who caused him any problems. He slept along the surf, face half-buried in the sand, and I was tempted to join him. I crouched on the beach, hunted smooth shells by moonlight, and watched the windows of Reis’ hut. When I’d mostly convinced myself that there wasn’t enough movement from within to account for Yin Zhou and Ade, I shoved the shells into my pockets and climbed onto the pier.
“Reis…?”
“Right here, kid,” they grumbled from the sofa.
They’d taken their leg off and weren’t having the easiest time keeping their breathing level. They waved a hand, wanting the door closed behind me, and said, “Get us a drink.”
It was like I hadn’t spent a day away from Mahon. I did as Reis asked, uncorked a bottle, and sunk into the other half of the sofa once they’d taken the drink.
Reis wrapped their fingers around the bottleneck but didn’t bring it to their lips. Instead, they rocked their remaining leg and pressed their fingers where their other thigh abruptly ended. I’d never seen them like this. I’d thought it impossible to draw anything but indifference or exasperation out of them, but they couldn’t begin to mask what they were feeling.
“Are you okay?”
They nodded but said, “Didn’t bloody expect to see Yin Zhou today.”
“I thought you worked with her for a long time?”
“Aye, I did. It’s weird. I knew exactly what she was capable of and saw what she was willing to do, but being that close to her day after day, it wasn’t until I got away that it all caught up with me,” they said, leg rocking faster. “If she ain’t happy with how things are going, she finds a way to get rid of whoever presumed to be in charge. Look at the bloody King. That Atalanta works for Yin Zhou, right? It’s not a damn coincidence she took a trip to Chandaran just before he got assassinated.”
“Oh,” I said. “But you’re okay. You’re doing great with Mahon, and even if you weren’t, I’m here. Nothing to worry about.”
“Gonna stitch my head back on?” Reis asked, mouth quirking at one corner.
“If I have to,” I said, and watched as they remembered there was a drink in their hand.
“No Kouris, huh?” they said, halfway through the bottle. “Shame. Reckon she’s got her reasons, though. Anyway—be careful tomorrow. Travelling with Yin Zhou. She’s a hundred steps ahead of us all ‘cause she started a hundred years before us, and there’s no way she ain’t already figured out a thousand uses for you.”
“I always got the impression you liked her,” I said. “Or looked up to her, anyway.”
“It ain’t like that. I did this for her—” Pausing, they gestured to their ghost of a leg. “And a hell of a lot more I don’t ever wanna talk about again. She caught me off-guard today, aye, and it ain’t that I don’t like her, but I know her better than most people.”
“Tizo said she cut her guard’s tongue out to prove a point.”
“Don’t believe everything Tizo tells you. Especially if Tae happened to agree,” they said, measurably more relaxed. “Look. First time I killed someone, I was, I dunno. Nine? Ten? Can’t say I even knew what was happening. There was so much going on, all this noise crashing down on me, and that knife my parents always made me carry around was suddenly all red and dripping. How it happened ain’t the point. You know my folks. When they saw what I’d done, my mum clapped me on the back, said it was messy but effective, and my dad sat me down for a chat about how it was alright to defend myself or to make a point, alright if it took me further in life, but it weren’t alright to just do it because I liked the feel of it. I was nine. That’s how I was raised. It might be messed up, but I don’t feel that. I’ve always been a pirate through and through.
“All of that and Yin Zhou still manages to make my skin crawl. She’s terrifying because she’s seen just about everything there is to see, and her morals are on a completely different scale. It ain’t that you can’t reason with her. It’s just that there’s no point.”
“Gods,” I grumbled. “Between you, Tae and Tizo, I’m not looking forward to the morning.”
“You’re tough. You’ll do alright,” Reis said. “Just needed to get that off my chest.”
While strapping their leg back on was far too much effort, using their cane and every available piece of furniture to get another drink apparently wasn’t. They tackled their second bottle in measured sips, and I sat admiring the latest leg they’d carved. Evidently they’d had more free time, since Gavern had stopped being a nuisance.
“So. The dragon. Gonna need to know about that,” Reis said, brow arched over their glasses.
I told the tale from start to finish yet again. It was different, now that I was talking to Reis. I wasn’t putting on a show, wasn’t boasting. The truth rattled out of me with comforting ease and I knew they cared about the people involved, and not simply the twists and turns in the story.
“Queen Claire, huh,” they said, once I was done. “Queen Kouris, Queen Nasrin. Sensing a pattern here. Oh, aye, and Queen Kidira too. Bloody glad she weren’t dead after all.”
“Come back to Felheim with me,” I said. Exhaustion had loosened my tongue, but as I said it, I realised I meant it. “It’s been, what, thirty years since you were there? It doesn’t have to be forever, either! I’m sure Oak will bring you back, once you’re ready. That way you can see Kouris and Akela, and you can meet Claire…”
“Bet Atthis is missing me, too,” Reis said, rolling their eyes.
That was one part of my story I’d left out.
“He, um. Atthis, he’s—there was a riot in Orinhal, and the city, it was… Atthis didn’t…”
“Fucking hell,” Reis muttered. Knowing I didn’t want to linger on it, they said, “Who’s gonna look after Mahon if I go, anyway? You trust Tae with the accounts? Still. Wouldn’t mind meeting that Claire of yours, or Kidira. I grew up on stories about her, y’know.”
“She’s almost talking to Kouris again,” I reported, after a long, grinding silence. “She can stand to be in the same room as her, anyway.”
“Good for her,” Reis said. “I’ve kept you up long enough, kid. Reckon you must be knackered. Go on. Room’s the same as you left it, like I said it would be.”
“Thanks, Reis,” I said. I knew better than to hug them goodnight, no matter how strong the urge, no matter how much I needed it, after mentioning Atthis. “And I’ll be careful tomorrow. Don’t worry.”
“Aye, aye. You’ve made yourself into a dragon and a dragon into you. I take it back. I ain’t worried no more.”
I stepped into the room – my room – to find my things untouched. Everything was exactly where I’d left it. I emptied my pockets and placed the shells I’d gathered onto a low shelf. I fell back onto my bed and let the sounds of the ocean raking against the shore lull me to sleep.
I awoke to find I’d sweated half my personality into the mattress. Dawn was long behind me and the sun had no qualms about letting me know it had risen. I groaned into the pillow, having managed to forget the way my hair perpetually stuck to my skin, and more than anything, I missed Claire. Not that I wanted her there with me at that moment; another body within a few feet would’ve been the end of me.
Reis wasn’t alone in the living area. Assuming Yin Zhou and Ade had returned, I climbed out of the window. Not to escape, but wash. I took an armful of clean clothing with me, jogged down the beach, and rinsed off what felt like an ocean of sweat in the rock pool close to the cliffs. By the time I’d changed and made my way back to the hut, the sun was beating against my back.
