Bones of the Dragon - Margaret Weis [208]
“She can’t swim!” Garn called.
“Toss her down. I’ll catch her!” Skylan cried, and before Treia could protest, Garn picked her up and lowered her over the side.
Treia fell into Skylan’s arms with a gasp and grabbed him around the neck with a clutch that nearly strangled him.
“Let loose and stop kicking!” he ordered. “You’re going to drown us both!”
“The spiritbone!” Treia spluttered, clawing at him in panic.
“I have it, Treia!” Aylaen called out.
Skylan took Treia to the shore. Men were sorting through the supplies, cleaning the salt water off their weapons.
Skylan stripped off his shirt and was spreading it out in the sand to dry when Aylaen came hastening up to him. He glowered, warning her away. As always, she ignored him.
“Raegar’s missing,” she said.
Skylan frowned at her, then shrugged. “He’s around. Probably off in the bushes taking a crap.”
“No, he’s not, Skylan,” said Aylaen insistently. “I’ve looked. Treia’s looked, and so have Garn and some of the others. Raegar’s not here. He’s not anywhere. And there’s something else. Erdmun says he saw Raegar fall into the water. No one’s seen him since.”
Aylaen drew in a shaking breath. “I . . . we’re afraid he may have drowned.”
Skylan snorted. “The water’s not that deep. Raegar would have to work really hard to drown in it.”
“Raegar was standing at the stern, not the prow like the rest of us. Erdmun says Raegar fell into the deep water on the other side of the sandbar. And he told Treia he couldn’t swim.”
Skylan instituted another search. He sent men into the thick stands of wind-stunted pine trees and others back out into the sea to search the clear waters of the bay. He and Erdmun swam back to the sandbar, boarded the dragonship, and walked to the stern.
“He was standing here looking out to sea when the ship struck,” said Erdmun. “He pitched over headfirst.”
“Did you see what happened to him? Hear him cry or shout?” Skylan asked.
Erdmun shook his head and pointed to a large swelling purple bump on his forehead. “I was knocked off my feet. I think I must have blacked out a moment, so I didn’t hear anything.”
Skylan stared down into the dark blue water.
The sea was fathoms deep here, not shallow as it was on the other side of the sandbar. Raegar was a large man, big-boned, heavy, and muscular. He would have sunk like a sack of boulders.
Skylan shook his head and said a silent prayer to Torval for his cousin’s soul. Raegar had returned from the dead, and now he’d gone back there. Torval be with him. Skylan and Erdmun swam back to shore.
Aylaen looked hopefully at Skylan. He shook his head. “No sign of him.”
Treia crouched in the sand, her thin arms wrapped around herself, her nails digging into her flesh. She said nothing. She did not weep. She stared with burning eyes and livid face out to sea.
Aylaen tried to comfort her. “Treia, I’m so sorry. Raegar was a good man—”
Treia stiffened, went rigid. She flashed a bitter glance at Aylaen, a glance that was like a blow. Treia stood up and walked off across the sand, her wet robes trailing behind her.
The men watched in uncomfortable silence, uncertain what to do or say.
“Go with your sister,” Skylan told Aylaen. “She shouldn’t be wandering around here alone. Garn, go with them. Take your weapons.”
Garn picked up his axe and shield and hastened off after Aylaen.
Skylan faced the men. “Raegar was our clansman. We grieve his loss. There will be time later to honor the dead. Now we must think of the living.”
He sent a few men to scout the area and find fresh water and hunt for deer or rabbits. The rest went to work building shelters amid the pine trees, cleaning and oiling the weapons, and rolling chain mail in the sand to rid it of rust.
“I will go to the Hall of Vektia, to pay our respects to Vindrash,” said Skylan. “I will thank her for guiding us here.”
“You shouldn’t go alone,” Bjorn objected. “It’s not safe. Someone should go with you.”
“We’re on the Dragon Isles. We are known here,” Skylan returned.
“But you said that Vindrash was angry