Treasures of Fantasy - Margaret Weis [183]
The swift-moving current boiled beneath the Venjekar’s keel, hurrying the ship along with it. The Torgun dared not try to use the oars, for the boiling water would rip them out of their hands. Skylan and the Torgun warriors crowded in the prow of the Venjekar, watching the ogre ships in the bay ahead and speculating on what the ogres would do once they saw them. Acronis stood by himself, watching the death of his city.
“Look!” Wulfe cried. “Another dragon!”
Skylan whipped around, the terrifying thought in his mind that the Vektia had come back. A ship sailed through the debris-strewn waves of the harbor. There was something odd about the ship, but it was certainly no dragon.
Skylan’s heart was still thudding in his chest.
He gave Wulfe a shake. “No more of your lies! Go below before I toss you overboard!”
“But there is a dragon,” Wulfe insisted.
Acronis stared at the ship and said in puzzled tones, “It is a small war galley, with a single bank of oars. Or, rather, it should have oars.” His brow furrowed. “There’s no wind to speak of. And yet she’s moving fast.”
Skylan stared at the ship until his eyes ached. No banks of oars extended out from the ship’s hull, sweeping over the water in beautiful synchronicity. No rowers strained at their task.
“How do you know the ship has a dragon?” Skylan asked Wulfe.
“I can see it,” said Wulfe. He glanced up at the Dragon Kahg. “And so can he.”
Skylan looked up at the Dragon Kahg and saw him watching the war galley.
“We can tell for certain,” said Acronis. “The spyglass that Zahakis used when he was on board your ship. Is it still here?”
“The magic seeing glass?” said Wulfe eagerly. “I know where it is!”
He ran off and returned in a few moments, spyglass in hand, wrapped in cloth. Acronis put it to his eye, then handed the glass to Skylan.
“You better look at this,” he said.
Skylan, somewhat hesitantly, held the glass to his eye. At first he could see nothing but water, and then the ship came into view, so close that it seemed it must ram them. He jumped and nearly dropped the glass. He lowered the glass to see the galley was still some distance away.
He looked again, focusing on the ship’s prow—the long graceful neck and fierce head of a dragon. And there was a familiar figure standing at the prow, one hand on the neck of the dragon.
“It’s Raegar,” Skylan said, lowering the spyglass. “The galley has a dragonhead prow.”
“The galley now has a dragon,” said Aylaen. “Kahg told me. Her name is Fala. And the Dragon Kahg says he will not fight one of his own kind.”
Raegar’s ship was closing on them rapidly from the east. Warrior-priests crowded the decks.
“Maybe he’s going after the ogres,” said Sigurd.
Skylan turned to look at Treia, who leaned on the rail staring out at the galley, her face aglow, her cheeks flushed, her lips parted.
“No,” said Skylan. “He’s coming for us.”
“I say we stand and fight the whoreson,” said Sigurd grimly.
“He must have fifty warriors with him,” said Skylan. “We are seven. And a dragon who won’t help us.”
He looked to the open sea. The tops of the waves spattered with gold as the sun goddess, Aylis, cast her light across the water. To the west was the open sea and home. But to reach the sea, they would have to sail past a hundred ships filled with ogres who were undoubtedly angry at being robbed of glory and loot. Some of the ogre ships must have spotted the galley for several ships were starting to turn to meet it.
The ogres could not yet see the Venjekar, which was concealed by a spit of land thrusting out onto the bay. The current would soon carry them into their view. Skylan tried to put himself in the boots of the ogres. What would they see? Two human ships sailing out after them, two ships bearing dragons.
What would the ogres think except that the humans and their dragons were coming out to finish them off? And perhaps that was Raegar’s plan. After he seized the Venjekar, he would have two dragons to send after the ogres. And he would once more be in possession of the Vektia spiritbone.