Treasures of Fantasy - Margaret Weis [16]
“What stories are those?” Acronis asked, interested.
“They live only to fight. Their bloodthirsty warrior god will not take them into the afterlife unless they die in battle. One of the barbarians attacked his guard out of sheer cussedness, using his chains as a weapon.” Zahakis chuckled and shook his head. “And you want to train them for the Para Dix!”
“Which man was that?” asked Acronis.
“His name is Skylan Ivorson. He used to be their chief, apparently, but he broke some law and is now an outcast and disgraced. None of the others will have anything to do with him.”
Acronis and Zahakis stood on the deck of the trireme. Across the bay, the Venjekar floated in the shallow water. Zahakis had ordered his men to haul her into the waves in order to test the rudder and make certain it worked. The experiment had been successful. The soldiers had reloaded the stores they had removed from the Venjekar and dragged the prisoners back on board.
Zahakis had been going to shut the men up in the hold, but Raegar had announced that he had been ordered to bring the two women back to the ship, and he was going to house them in the hold. Zahakis left the Vindrasi warriors, chained together, sitting on the deck, with four archers standing with arrows nocked and ten marines guarding them. After the altercation with the barbarian Ivorson, Zahakis would have liked to use the full complement of twenty marines attached to the Light of the Sea to guard these dangerous men, but his soldiers had to eat and sleep sometime.
“Speaking of the Para Dix,” said Acronis. “I know you are not a fan of the game—”
“It makes war a game and that demeans the true soldier. People come to believe battle is nothing more than grand and glorious sport.”
“Would you have the contestants fight to draw blood, Zahakis? That would get very costly. I would soon run out of champions.”
“Not such a bad thing, my lord,” Zahakis said.
“Well, well, we will not quarrel. I suppose in some respects you are right. I would not participate in these contests myself, but Chloe takes such pleasure in the contests.”
Zahakis smiled. “I think your daughter knows more about the game than either of us, my lord.”
“She does indeed,” said Acronis proudly, adding, “Point out this Ivorson to me when we go on board.”
Zahakis promised he would, and the two returned to their original discussion. “I don’t suppose you can spare sailors from this ship to handle the barbarians?”
“Not a chance.”
Zahakis shook his head. “Then as I see it, Legate, we have no choice but to tow the ship to Sinaria. Either that or leave it here until we can return with enough men to sail it back.”
The two stood gazing out at the Venjekar, rocking gently at anchor.
“She is a lovely thing,” said Acronis, admiring the sleek, clean lines and dragonhead prow. “Say what you like about these barbarians, they can build ships. Picture her, Zahakis, on my estate. Fresh paint for the dragon. His eyes gleaming red. His scales bright blue and green. Chloe will be enchanted. We must take it back with us.”
Acronis leaned on the rail, keeping the Venjekar always in his sights. “According to Raegar, we do not need to worry about manning the ship. He plans to summon a real, live dragon. The same dragon we saw fighting the giants. If you remember, we wondered where it had come from and where it went.”
“These are known as the Dragon Isles, my lord,” said Zahakis dryly.
“According to Raegar, the name comes from the Temple of the Dragon Goddess, which is located here. Dragons don’t live here. They don’t live in this world at all, apparently.”
“So what does the dragon have to do with sailing the ship, my lord?” Zahakis asked, dubious.
“From what Raegar tells me, the dragons have made a pact with the Vindrasi. A dragon such as the one that belongs to this ship consigns his spirit to a ship in the form of a spiritbone and carries the dragonship over the seas. In turn, the Vindrasi give all the jewels