Fate of Dragons

Chapter Twenty-Six, Part I

The glittering spellstones stared back up at Derol from the tiller platform in front of him. He made himself take a deep, long breath as he began to work the stones. The canal ahead of him narrowed as they left the expanse of farmland near the Onami settlement and headed into Saldive once again. Ahead he could see a crossing, where another canal would cross paths with this one. He braced himself for the busier waters.

Derol was on the boat with Amina, Tesa, and Maira. Somewhere in the sky above, the dragons Orrie and Torun circled, too. They stayed out of sight, but were there in case anything happened, too. The group had flown out of their base at the Spires at the first signs of the storm clearing. It had been Amina's idea to buy a boat from the Onami, both because she knew some of the families there, and because they were traders by nature, and an Onami boat arriving at the temple to trade wouldn't raise any eyebrows.

After the storm, the water ran higher and faster through the canals. It sloshed against the built-up walls and licked the sides of the boat. Derol struggled to concentrate on the spellstones as the boat flew through the rushing waterways. Captain Askel had taken over during this part on their previous trip, since Derol was hardly experienced, and the course through the city was more complex.

Nearby, Tesa leaned against the railing and watched with glassy eyes as Derol navigated through the city. Not long after they'd begun, a tiny "ah" escaped Tesa's lips, but she didn't elaborate more.

The cargo hold of the boat was filled with grain from the fields near the Onami settlement. Though nomads rather than farmers by tradition, the Onami people had taken up raising crops to support their semi-permanent settlement. Although most all Onami spent their year traveling, enough Onami were in Saldive at any given time that it made sense to keep up their settlement. The traveling bands of Onami traded in all sorts of goods, but the only thing on hand immediately had been the recently harvested grain.

Fortunately, once Derol had gotten used to piloting the boat in the swift, narrow canals, it began to require less of his focus, and he could guide the boat smoothly and even, he thought to himself, some amount of grace.

After the storm the previous day, the sun had returned with a vengeance.

"At the next crossing we'll need to turn to the right," Amina said from her seat nearby. She examined a map spread out on a table.

"Right," Derol said and took a deep breath. He could see the crossing far ahead and prepared himself by shifting their boat's path toward the rightmost side of the canal. After they'd reached the crossing and turned into the new canal, Amina added to her directions.

"Only one more turn to get into the main canal."

Tesa shifted from her silent observation and reached into a pouch at her belt. "Is it time to contact Emric?" she asked.

"May as well," Amina said. "We might arrive sooner than we thought."

Tesa retreated down into the shady cabin of the boat. Soon Derol could hear her voice and that of another person drifting from the cabin, presumably Emric's.

"There it is," said Amina, looking between the map and the canal ahead. "Keep to the left fork."

The current seemed to pick up as Derol shifted the boat through open pockets that he found between other boats until he made it to the left side. Perhaps the land sloped as it neared the temple and the sea, but he wouldn't know it from looking, surrounded as he was on each side by tall buildings that seemed to hug the sides of the canal.

Soon they were on the canal alongside the gardens leading up to the Temple. Derol's heart rose in his chest. He felt sure somebody would notice he was an impostor, or that he would slip up and crash the boat into the wall. However, nobody seemed to look their way, and he was able to guide the boat surely through the canal all the way to the gates at the Temple entrance.