At a guess, they now understood several hundred words. They might not recall them at first, but if we said the right word they instantly recognized it. They knew the names for all five of us, and the basics required for life, being food, water, sleep, chamber pot, ship, and others.
Emma said softly, almost a growl, spoiling the mood at the table, “Bad.”
I looked where her eyes focused and found the man from the gaming table who bet too heavily. He glared my way but said nothing. When Kendra and Flier turned to look, I said, “We had an altercation last night. He got angry and said, ‘I was not getting to Dagger’ but didn’t explain. Someone else said he has been watching me the whole trip.”
Kendra stood.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
She smiled sweetly, with the smile that chilled me. “For a walk. Maybe I’ll run into Will.” She pulled a blue scarf similar to the one Will had given to me to display with I wanted to talk. She slipped it around her neck.
Good idea. While the stranger watched me, Will could watch him. Those who are doing the watching never look over their own shoulders to see if they are also watched. They are too intent on their own actions. She swept from the room, drawing the eyes of every man in it, but two. Mine and the strangers.
“Never seen him before,” Flier said before I could ask.
Anna snuck a spoonful of Emma’s gruel when she wasn’t looking and slurped it loudly, to the amusement of us. That didn’t need interpretation. I’d often done the same to Kendra when we were that age—and still did now and then.
Elizabeth entered, approached a table where a couple sat that I didn’t know, and exchanged a few words with them as they ate. She completely ignored me. However, she circled the table where I could see her unobstructed, and she lifted her chin as if agreeing, but her eyes never touched mine. A single finger pointed to her toes as she moved. It was a signal as blatant as if as if her chin had pointed to them. The pair needed watching. They presented a danger of some sort. Elizabeth turned and left the dining room before I could give her the same signal about the man at the other table.
Thinking back, the pair had been in the salon almost every evening while I played, never talking to anyone else, always sitting alone. They seldom even spoke to each other. Neither joined the games, or conversations and shunned any friendly advancements. They usually looked out the windows at the ever-changing sea. If their appearances meant anything, both were from Kondor.
That is why I’d taken particular notice of them. The other couple from Kondor, Hannah, and Damme, never engaged them either, which seemed odd, now that I thought about it. Usually, people from the same area tend to gather together and play the “do you know” game. Speaking the same language seemed like a natural link. Once, I’d stood and started their way, but Hannah had given me a slight warning shake of her head, just the barest of movements.
That had been enough for me. Damme and Hannah were genuine, and I’d consider them friends, even though we’d just met. They had spent an evening teaching our girls Common and offered to do it again. A warning from a friend, for whatever reason, is to be followed.
We were finished with our meal and others were waiting for a table. We stood and walked out onto the late afternoon deck. The sun reflected gold on the calm water, a streak leading directly from the sun to us. Off to our left, a bank of low dark clouds hung. Lightning flashed, but we were too far away to hear the thunder.
The purser paused as I watched the clouds. His eyes followed mine. “Strangest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“How so?”
“It’s like a wall. A solid, unmoving wall. Storms usually move fairly quickly across the water, not remain in the same place for days.”
“You’ve never seen anything like this?” I asked.
“Not even heard of it. This will be the first time we’ve ever returned to port because we couldn’t sail past a storm.”
That was the first I’d heard of returning to Trager. It made sense. The ship provisioned for a sail of a few days to Vin, and we’d already used that time. The purser moved on. From the corner of my eye, Will moved from a doorway to the corner of a stout support for the upper decks. He also looked out to sea and the storm . . . or seemed to—for anyone watching him. It was part of his act of innocence. I had no doubt he saw and heard everything about me.
My glance at him also found the gambler with the poor attitude nearby. He stood near the mast for the mainsail, most of his body hidden from my casual glance at it—which I’m certain was purely accidental. He also appeared to be watching the dark clouds and lightning, but I may have been in his line of sight. He was watching me.
Kendra returned. She stepped between Flier and the girls, while she whispered, “Where are they getting all of the dragon essence required to maintain a storm like that?”
She meant the mages, of course. The power drain must be tremendous for continuous storms to last for days on end. I asked, “Where is your dragon?”
“It is not mine. But, it is in the mountains south of Trager in the high mountains, eating a goat.”
I half-turned. “Flier can you take the girls for a little walk?” He understood my intention to speak privately and escorted them away without question.
Kendra was puzzled.
I said, “My magic works. It is stronger than ever.”
“That’s odd because the dragon is so far away. Earlier, it had to be within sight of you. Right?”
Waving that aside, I continued with what I wished to say, “How do you know the dragon is eating a goat?”
Her puzzlement increased. “I don’t know. It just is.”
“You have already said you always know where it is, but never added to that knowledge. Is this something new?”
She bit her lower lip as she thought. “Yesterday, I knew it had flown across the mountains and back again, as it waited for me. Us. It felt weaker when south of the mountains. The connection, I mean. Then stronger again when it flew closer, although all the way across the sea to the mountains is not close.”
“And?”
Her voice grew strident. “It grew tired from flying so much and found a deer in a meadow. It ate it last night just before dark. That’s the first time I knew something more than simply its location, but it seemed so natural to know it, to think about it. It just was. As if it had always been like that and I should have known how to tell what it was doing.”
“I’m not accusing you of anything, so don’t get angry. We’re just establishing the idea that the dragon is now communicating with you. Sharing information. Does that sound right?”
She scowled. “Does it sound right that a creature as large as a barn is now providing mental tips on its dining habits? And that I shouldn’t be concerned? Is that what you’re asking? If so, yes, it does bother me.”
“That wasn’t what I was asking.”
Her anger was showing. I tried to explain. “The dragon is ‘talking’ to you in a way you didn’t understand until now. Is it saying anything else? Because you also know it is in the mountains, it was over the desert, and the deer was in a meadow. That’s more than just sharing dining habits.”
She paled.
I continued, “So it’s established that the dragon is sharing more than just what it eats with you. My next question is to ask what are you sharing with it? And can you force or request it to obey you?”
Kendra reached for the handrail to steady herself.