* * *
After days in the air, no one smiled much. Places to land were few and tended to be clustered together, which was less useful for Riette's current purposes. Deep, blackish blue waves in every direction became monotonous, making it feel as if they were stuck in one place and would never reach their destination. Riette began to question if any of them even knew where they were going. Only the dragon's innate senses allayed her fears. The dragon read the wind and danced with it. Her flight was graceful and largely uneventful, contrary to how airplane flight was often described. There were indeed advantages to dragons. Tuck pointed and Riette expected to see some tiny rock sticking up out of the waves or a narrow strip of sand. These had been their only refuges during the journey, and Riette hoped never to need them again. Knowing it was inevitable did nothing to quell the knots in her gut. Seeing the faint outline of the largest mountain she'd ever seen left her speechless.
"That's where we're going," Tuck said.
Riette couldn't decide if she was elated or terrified. The end of the journey was most welcome, but she had no idea what awaited her and Emmet. Whatever motives these people had for helping her would soon be known, now that she and Emmet were completely reliant on them for survival. It was a risk she'd known she had been taking, but that didn't reduce her anxiety. She wanted to trust these people who had been so kind to her and had perhaps saved her life, but her propensity for caution would not be overcome, it was what had kept them alive this long.
"Not many folks come here," Tuck said. "We should be safe. Most other places are a long ways off."
That thought alone quelled some of Riette's fears. There had been plenty of opportunity to hurt them, and she did not think these people meant her or Emmet personal harm. Slowly she began to trust. What other choice did she have?
The mountain wasn't the only thing to rise from the depths. A large land mass ran alongside it, a monolithic shelf dropping into deep water. Running through this land mass was a shallow channel, looking like veins of marble in the land, stark white sands standing out amid lush greenery. A ring of pillars taller than any tree Riette had ever seen marked the entrance to the shallows. Twenty-four in all made for an awe-inspiring sight. One stood slightly askew, and signs of cracking were visible. Twisted visages had been carved into the pillars, giving them a much more ominous appearance. Flying low across the waves, Riette could almost feel the dragon's sense of anticipation.
The waters amid the circle of pillars swirled in a permanent but shifting vortex. Smaller funnels broke off from the central maelstrom, each roaring at its own pitch. Not expecting the dragon to fly right into the center, Riette drew a sharp breath. As if passing through an invisible waterfall, the energy changed around them; even the air was cooler. Below, a rotating maelstrom roared with a haunting sucking sound. Its edges not always well defined, the vortex wall danced and moved, but toward the center was a place that clearly stayed dry. There rested an amber statuette, glowing even in the shadow of the water surrounding it. How had it gotten there? Riette asked herself, her curiosity afire.
"Magic," Emmet said. Riette was unable to dispute it. Even the captain nodded in agreement.
"She just wants to bask a bit before dropping us off on land," Tuck said. "This is her favorite part. I think this place helps her somehow."
The dragon's posture and stance made the truth of his words clear. Somehow hovering in the air above the vortex, her eyes closed and muscles relaxed, she looked more comfortable here than any time since they had met. For a brief moment, Riette enjoyed being happy for the dragon. Dashiq sighed and turned on a wingtip toward a scrubby piece of land with a fire pit and campsite in place. The dragon waited impatiently for everyone to unload then stared at the captain for a long moment.
Tuck saw the exchange and immediately began loosening straps and buckles. "Can you help us with this?" Tuck asked. "She needs to heal."
A snide comment about asking passengers to be part of the crew never left her lips. She wanted Dashiq to heal. Emmet started working on some of the lowest buckles without being asked. Tuck nodded and pointed to the next strap the boy should unhook. Riette worried about Emmet getting hurt, but Tuck was so confident, she allowed the risk. She reached up high to grab a strap, and her eyes met the captain's. He watched her every reaction, and she, his. When she glanced at Dashiq and went back to work on the strap, he nodded and did the same. He might have smiled, but Riette's attention was on her struggle with the buckle, which was bound up and holding most of the weight, making it uncomfortable for the dragon, who shifted on her feet. The captain grabbed the harness on both sides and lifted, taking the strain off the strap, which allowed Riette to quickly unbuckle it and move on to the next. Dashiq gave a woof of appreciation.
"Now around back here," Tuck said when the last buckle was released. "We just grab here, lift, and walk." The dragon slipped nimbly from beneath the carriage and immediately flew back to the vortex. "And down," Tuck said.
Though lighter than expected, the carriage was still bulky and awkward, and Riette was happy to lower it to the ground. What worried her was having to put the carriage and saddle back onto Dashiq before they could leave. She tried not to think about it. When a snake slipped into the scraggly weeds surrounding the campsite, watching where she stepped became much more important.
"Don't let none of the snakes around here bite you," Tuck said. "They won't exactly kill you, but you won't live too long neither. And avoid the spiders. And when you go in the water, stay away from eels and deep water. Trust me. Shallow water is bad enough."
Trembling, Riette stood frozen and tried to watch everywhere around her at once.
"Oh, don't worry . . . What was your name again?"
"Riette," she said. "And—"
"And he's Emmet," Tuck said. You've mentioned him a couple times. "It's just that he don't never really talk back to you that way."
"No. He doesn't. Except sometimes. I look into his eyes, and I see him there, trying to tell me something important but he can't. And what he does say doesn't always make sense, or it's poorly timed. I don't know why or how, he just has a knack for saying the exact wrong thing at the exact right time."
"Such a nice kid," Tuck said.
Riette looked to see Emmet stripping down to his long shorts and following the captain, who had done the same. Shaking her head, she was ready to shout for them to stop when Emmet reached out his hand. The tall man stopped, and Emmet's hand disappeared into his oversized grip.
"He'll be fine," Tuck said.
Taking a deep breath and wiping away the tear that slipped from her eye, Riette let Emmet go. She trusted the captain and Tuck and Dashiq. It was not a small moment in her life. Much of what she had loved and trusted had been taken from her, and few had ever managed to penetrate the barriers she erected around herself.
Sitting down next to her, Tuck extended his fully formed hand and took hers. Her first instinct was to pull away, but she didn't want to this time. She didn't want to hide for the rest of her life. She wanted someone to truly know who she was and want her for that, rather than what she chose to show the world.
As night fell, the captain and Emmet returned, soggy and tired but bearing fish, salty fruit, and sparkling leaves.
"Are you hurt at all?" Tuck asked Riette.
"A few scrapes and bruises," she said. "But Emmet might be worse off than I am. I'm supposed to do inspections for cuts and bruises, but I haven't yet. So much has changed, and I just forgot." Familiar guilt returned.
"He already had some saltbark leaf by the looks of him," Tuck said, and the boy grinned back.
The captain stoked the small fire Tuck had built while Tuck offered Riette a single glittering leaf encased in translucent crystals. He held it as if it were a great treasure. "Place this on your tongue, and let the crystals dissolve, then chew the leaf and swallow. It won't hurt you neither way."
Riette decided proper grammar was not always required for communication, though it pained her
to do so. The leaf was so beautiful and the presentation so intriguing, Riette accepted it and examined it thoroughly before opening her mouth. Even the smell was magical: sweet, tangy, and salty. Before any of the crystals fell off, she slipped the leaf onto her tongue. The saltiness was almost overwhelming at first, but that soon passed, followed by a light sweetness. In a few moments, only the leaf remained, and she savored its citrus tang.
Resting next to the fire, she and Tuck watched the skies, amazed to see bits of light streaking through them. Everyone had heard of shooting stars, and Riette had even seen one once, but never like this. Every fifth breath brought another streak, all moving in the same direction. Away from the lights of town, the stars were even brighter in the night sky, and that night, with Tuck holding her hand, the stars danced. Riette dreamed of fire in the skies.