A quick glance found Will there. He held up his thumb and motioned for me to continue on my way. As I turned, the light shifted, and an inert body lay on the deck at his feet. I entered the passageway and went directly to my cabin.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
T he morning brought an air of excitement as word spread that we expected to reach Trager again, near midday. Why that was exciting was odd, since it was the very port we’d sailed from a few days earlier. Still, after the time fighting the storm, and the dullness of the two days after trying to go around it, any port with solid ground that did not rock and twist underfoot sounded wonderful.
Flier’s progress with his leg had improved even more. He walked nearly as fast as me, and after a light breakfast, we sat on the now familiar hatch cover and enjoyed the warming of the early morning sun as it burned off a thin fog.
He started to speak a few times but couldn’t seem to get the right words out. Since we were alone, I decided it concerned me and waited for him to gather his thoughts.
“It’s none of my business,” he said as a preamble that usually meant it was none of his business, but he wanted to butt in anyhow. That’s the way it works with that phrase.
“Go on.”
He drew a deep breath, then with a rush said, “You gave me back my life. If you need to get to Vin, or go on to Dagger, tell me. I’ll get you there.”
“Do you know how to sail a ship through an endless storm?” Acid dripped from my every word.
He ignored that. “Remember, I was a foot-messenger between Vin and Trager. I used the Vin Pass over the mountains.”
Now he had my attention. “I’m sorry. Just grouchy.”
“We used a wide trail, almost a road. Runners like me crossed it almost every day after the snows were gone. Back then, the kings of Trager and Vin worked together against the hated Daggers. Vin wasn’t even part of the Kondor Empire, as they call it now.”
“Dagger became an ‘empire’ just because it defeated Vin?”
Flier laughed, then controlled himself. “You don’t know much about Kondor politics or history, do you?”
It was more a statement than a question. He was right. More than right, because I knew nothing of either. “Start at the beginning.”
We sat in the warm sun and watched the remainder of the fog burn off, as seamen climbed the masts and performed their morning chores with lines, sails, pulleys, and whatever. Flier said, “Is the map in the salon the only one you’ve seen?”
“No, there are a few more.”
“What lies south of Kondor?”
That question stumped me.
He said, “I thought so. Kondor is not the bottom of the world. There are many kingdoms south of it. Hundreds of them.”
My face must have relayed my disbelief.
“It’s true,” he said. “Those in the north call Kondor the ‘Brownlands,’ but there are more. South of the Brownlands, if you go far enough, they say you reach more Greenlands. There are people in all of them.”
His revelation stunned me.
He sighed. “I’ve heard there is also an east-west sea down there that goes to even more lands. They say one has a river so wide some believed it another sea in olden days. Now, I’m repeating tales I don’t know to be true, but why would the world just come to an end at the Brownlands? I’ll just ask you that.”
My thoughts were jumbled but seized on one item. “There must be other maps.”
He smiled. Ships have them. Chandlers in seaports sell them. All sorts of maps. Even old ones where kingdoms held other names. I’ve seen some like that.”
“If what you say is true, and I suspect it is, Dire is located on a sea far to the north, where one can sail no more, but here at Trager, the sea narrows and can be blockaded.”
“And widens again south of Vin, well before you get to Dagger. It would take hundreds of ships to block the sea down there.”
He allowed me the time to think and digest all he’d said. The sun was higher and the decks full of people when my mind felt organized enough to speak intelligently again. However, first I looked at the working crew, and then the passengers on their morning walks. His suggestions and information, if factual, brought a whole new aspect to my thinking. I’d been thinking there were those from Dire . . . and others, most of whom were from Kondor.
It didn’t answer the core questions about dragons and mages but suggested there may be far more that I wasn’t aware of while existing in my tiny kingdom at the north end of nowhere. At least, there seemed a hint of all I didn’t know. That told me something new.
“Are there dragons and Wyverns in Vin and Trager?” I heard myself ask.
“Dragons? Of course not. Plenty of Wyverns, especially lately. Dozens of them, whole flocks flying south as if fleeing from something. Maybe Kendra’s dragon?”
Talking with Flier produced results in the most unexpected times and places. His observation confirmed one of my suspicions. Wyverns were flocking to Kondor after Kendra released the dragon—Kondor, where the mages also fled to. It had to be related. While the dragon seemed to provide the source for magic to all, the indications were that wyvern did too, if on a smaller scale.
The dragon seemed to provide almost unlimited magic, but a wyvern provided a measure, and several of them together might provide as much or more as a dragon. The mages seemed to be ‘attracting’ the wyvern to Dagger.
“How’s your leg?” I asked, again.
“You already asked me that,” he said.
“Well, then. How would you recommend we walk to Vin? And are you up to it?”
He grinned. “I’ve been thinking about that all morning. First, we do it in secret. Everyone left in Trager is trying to earn a meal. Spies are everywhere. Those working for the crown and the ruling committee buy information, and the pass is closed to all.”
“It’ll be hard to get off the ship without notice,” I told him. “Especially with the girls.”
“Maybe. I have a few ideas about that, too. How many of us are going?”
That was a good question. We needed to ask Elizabeth and get her ideas, which meant other eyes would see us meeting and more tongues on the ship would wag. Still, she needed to decide our future plans.
That said, it was not up to me. Kendra was far better at this sort of thing and could slip into Elizabeth’s cabin almost without notice. She was also better at devising plans. If we could get Damme and Hannah to watch the girls for a short while, Flier, Kendra and I could sit down and make our tentative plans. Kendra could then carry them to Elizabeth. From there, they would decide what was best.
And maps. I wanted maps, but they would have to wait. At least, for a while.
Damme and Hannah approached, and I asked for their help in watching the girls again. They were more than happy to do so. Soon afterward, Kendra came to sit with us, sans children. She said, directly to the point, “What’s so important?”
We explained. She remained stone-faced, usually a warning sign. We talked faster.
She asked questions and listened to our answers. Then she stood. “What you’re saying makes sense. I don’t like it, nor do I like your ideas, but I’ll go see Elizabeth, first. Stay here.”
She strode away, head up, back straight.
Flier said, “Your sister will only tell part of the story and influence Elizabeth to her side.”