Fate of Dragons

Chapter Seventeen, Part II

They spent a day longer than planned at the shores of the lake. Maira told the story of her escape from Areth again to all who cared to listen, which was almost everybody. Onami traders, fleeing Senemi, and the Yennar-Leian boat people all sat silently as she recounted the tale. She gave more details of her time in Areth before she was forced to flee.

"The mages have taken over," she said, shaking her head. "More of the mage guard than we thought must have been Karume. Many of those who supposedly fought to rid us of the Karume must have been part of it."

"Did you see my da?" Fenn asked, clearly worried that he was one of the traitors. Derol's heart twisted for him. He didn't know Fenn's father, but he hoped the man wouldn't do such a thing. Not with his wife a dragon rider, sent to Yennar Lei to search for the remaining dragons.

Maira shook her head and patted Fenn's knee. "I didn't see him, no. They've taken to patrolling the streets, all through the city, even the Senemi neighborhoods down below. Especially those neighborhoods." Maira grimaced. "But I didn't see him among any of those guards."

Fenn stared at the blanket where he sat, cross-legged, and his fingers traced the pattern in the cloth. "That means that he's one of their prisoners, then," he said. "Or worse."

"You never know," Maira said. "Many people fled into the caves. And as you know, there are many places to hide in there."

For his sake, and for the sake of Arethia, Derol hoped that more mages, and others, had managed to hide from the Karume. It meant there was some hope that others could escape, at the least. Or, perhaps Arethia could be recovered. Though Derol didn't have much hope of that. Not without the dragons. He reminded himself that a mission to recover the dragons was underway, but it didn't do much to lift his mood.

Maira described the dragon dwell after it had been taken over and how the Karume had held a celebration in the center of the arena with a display of magic, as if taunting her.

"An Arethian mage would never waste magic like that," she said. "Where they get the magic, I do not know. Bound magic." She shook her head.

At that statement, the crowd of traders and boat crew shifted uncomfortably, and Derol thought he knew why. He'd seen the healer use the stones to heal Torun, and he'd begun to suspect what powered the boats. Arethia's ban on bound magic had been broken by the Karume in the most dramatic fashion, but there were others who used it to much less ill effect. Derol knew little about magic, but he knew that an Arethian's views against bound magic as inherently evil would not fit with those in Yennar Lei who used it for such innocuous reasons.

Nevertheless, the boat captains and crew continued to be welcoming of Maira and Torun, and had given her a cabin to herself on the boat where Torun continued to rest and regain his strength. After a large and sumptuous lunch, they began to make arrangements to depart the next morning. Derol, Astrid, Eriya, Fenn, Amina, and Gypsy all boarded the boat where Torun and Maira stayed. The captain welcomed them aboard with a smile.

"Are you sure your crew will tolerate two dragons aboard?" Eriya asked, eyeing Gypsy, who'd begun prancing about Torun's resting form and managing to get underfoot of the crew preparing the boat.

Captain Askel clapped his hands and laughed. "Tolerate? We're fascinated by them. Dragons haven't graced Yennar Lei for a long, long time. It's good luck to have them on board."

"I don't know about good luck," Eriya said. She bit her lip as Gypsy leapt up and perched atop the rail, causing a crew member to jump in surprise.

Derol hadn't had a chance to see much on the boats besides the deck, but he assumed that they would be sleeping somewhere in the house-like structure that dominated the front center portion of the boat. Still, eyeing the number of people boarding, he narrowed his eyes at the thought of all of them finding enough space to sleep in that structure.