"So this is it," Gavin said, the heavy sail they'd salvaged from the shipwreck folded in his arms. "Time we part ways."
"I guess so."
Rib held his friend's gaze with a mixed sense of resignation and something else he couldn't identify. Now that he saw his and Gavin's relationship for what it was, he didn't feel as devastated to be leaving as he would have felt even yesterday.
He's still been good to me, Rib reminded himself. Few Wystilians were willing to get to know me like he was. And we made great Dragon Fools together.
Behind them flowed the wide river that fed into the bay where they first reached the Island. Mortaug and Jasper were up ahead, saying goodbye to Damara before heading back to the Islanders. It had taken them a long time to get here from the Mangled Islands, especially since Rib had to fly each human and monigon across the major bodies of water, but this departure still seemed so sudden.
"Hey, look lively." Gavin must have read Rib's expression as downcast because he punched him in the shoulder wing with a reassuring grin. "You have courageous work to do. Just think. Next time I see you, I'll finally get to meet Memory."
Will there really be a next time?
Rib was doubtful. Nonetheless, he responded with a compliant smile.
"She'll like you," he said.
Who knows?Once I'm back with Memory, maybe people won't think of me as such a child anymore. Maybe then they'll open up to me, not feel like they have to keep secrets from me.
"Are you coming, Gavin?" Jasper called and the young man raised his hand.
Gavin turned his feet as though to leave, but paused and waited still. Rib could read in his eyes that he was put off by how easily this was going.
Am I being cold? Shouldn't I be heartbroken?
Rib cleared his throat and avoided Gavin's gaze, which lingered on his face. He wasn't sure how to feel. His mind was already on other things. Pressing things.
"Rib," Gavin spoke, hesitating. "I feel the need to apologize, but I'm not sure what?" He dropped his sentence with a sigh and adjusted the sail in his arms.
"Forget it," Rib said.
Gavin nodded.
"I admire what you're doing."
"Thanks."
They both looked in the others' direction as Jasper could be heard laughing in response to something Damara apparently said. The young woman boxed his ear, surprisingly affectionate.
"Just trust her," Gavin entreated after a moment of silence. "For me?"
It was Rib's turn to nod.
I'll have to.
"Alright then?farewell, friend." Gavin placed a hesitant hand on Rib's muzzle, then turned to join Mortaug and Jasper, his monigons trotting at his heels.
"Bye," Rib replied a little late.
He observed how much warmer Damara was to Gavin as she bade him farewell, smiling and even hugging him when he told her to keep his knife.
Even they had the better friendship, Rib thought. But that doesn't matter now.
He watched his friend walk away, knowing he'd probably never even see him again.
Because if everything goes according to plan?I'll be left in Wystil and he'll still be here.
Mortaug and Jasper waved to him. He nodded in acknowledgment and they too went on their way without him.
I suppose this is it, he thought when Damara reached him. They hardly looked at each other before she got on his back and reported that the saddle was safely packed with everything, including the potion book and the firesap cure.
I'm finally coming for Memory.
Slowly, Rib turned around and flew over the gushing river to the other side. Now that it was just Damara on his back, he kept having to relax his muscles as he thought of her knife, the back of his head, what she had done. Her words 'Drove a dagger through his skull' weighed heavily on his mind.
Gavin asked me to trust her, he reminded himself, but that didn't stop his body from slowly growing tenser all the same.
He soared along the mountain ridge where the Huskhns were camping on just the other side. At the far end was where Jacinth and the sea serpent were waiting on the coast.
Wordlessly, Rib landed on the black sand before Jacinth. She caught his eye as though to speak to him through her gaze, her muzzle bound with rope as she had insisted. Rib held eye contact with her and knew that she was questioning him on his promise.
He hardened his expression.
I won't let anything happen to Damara.
"Well?" the young woman said from Rib's back. "Shall we go?" Her voice was cool and determined.
Jacinth nodded, her eyes still on Rib.
"I think we should appear to them on the sea serpent," he said.
"Why is that?" Damara asked.
He thought it too much effort to crank his neck around to look at Damara, so instead he scanned the horizon as he answered, "You'll look most intimidating that way. They should like that."
"The Colony shouldn't give us any trouble that way, either," he heard Damara murmur. "Alright."
Upon their agreement, Jacinth waded into the frigid ocean that slapped the shore and Rib took off, flying towards the sea serpent.
It was unnerving to head straight for such an animal, but it simply waited on them, frills partially laid back, eyes set on its bewitcher. Rib refused to show any hesitation, landing on the crown of its giant head. Below, Jacinth scaled the serpent's body and joined them.
As Damara slipped out of the saddle, Rib gazed around. The creature's webbing of frills rose like sails on either side of him to the sky, intricately patterned in an almost mesmerizing way. Each scale beneath his feet was at least the size of his chest, and varied in color from dirty yellow to bloody orange.
Next to Rib, Jacinth sighed through her muzzle restraints and stared out in the distance.
It must be a while since she's seen a view from this height, Rib realized, glancing at her stripped wings.
Damara strode steadily down the serpent's level head. She walked all the way down the bridge of its snout, then turned to look it in the eyes.
How does she expect to get it to move? Rib wondered suddenly. It's only ever followed her.
He checked through his inner eyelids that the serpent's mind was still clouded by the magic. It was. The magic didn't seemed to have cleared at all in the slightest.
She used a lot of powder on it.
Rib watched as Damara pointed towards their destination and stomped her foot on the sea serpent's scales, commanding, "Go."
It can't understand 'go', Rib scorned, but was amazed as the creature moved forward, gliding through the water without even tilting its head, which surely would have thrown them off balance.
Damara smirked and sat down on the serpent's snout, her dress neatly tucked around her, her short hair ruffled by the breeze. As the great water beast brought them around the mountain ridge between icebergs that reached nearly as high as them, reality began to dawn on Rib.
We're about to meet an entire camp of Huskhn warriors.
If we aren't careful?if we don't support each other?we could be killed.
Rib looked again at his companions, growing an appreciation for their strength.
This isn't about the past. We can't focus on that now.
They rounded another great floating mountain of ice and suddenly, there it was. The Huskhn's camp. Among tents, warriors had already begun to notice them, shouting things Rib couldn't understand and picking up weapons. Soon, the entire troop was gathered on the black beach, watching, waiting.
Rib couldn't make out their expressions from his height, but saw in their body language that they were nowhere close to fleeing. To his surprise, among the men were a considerable number of women, all suited for battle. Each warrior held a metal-studded shield with a sword, battle axe, or spear in the other hand. Rib was relieved to see no archer among them.
Glancing at Jacinth, he assumed his 'bewitched' demeanor, forcing his body to relax and fixing his eyes on Damara. The young woman was just now standing to face the Huskhns,
narrow shoulders squared. It impressed him to see how confident she appeared even now, as she commanded the sea serpent to lower its head to the beach with a point of her finger.
Rib noticed the warriors back up defensively while the water beast brought its snout down low. He and Jacinth leapt into the shallow waters when Damara disembarked onto the beach in a single, pompous step. As if on second thought, she leaned casually against the bow of one of their ships pulled up onto the beach beside her.
"Which of you speaks my language?" she asked, loud and clear. Rib and Jacinth drew nearer, like mindless bodyguards.
Rib tried not to be too obvious as he scanned the crowd, trying to keep a dead look in his eye. The Huskhns peered at Damara, their gaze sometimes flicking to Rib or the serpent still behind.
Do any of them understand her? He began to worry, but then one stepped into the foreground.
He was dusky-skinned, as all Huskhns were. His head was shaved and he had short black facial hair, his beard reaching no further than halfway down his neck. He was clad in beige leather with white fur lining the sleeves and dark cord lacing his jerkin.
Loosely holding an axe down at his side, he grinned surprisingly genuinely and answered, "Me."
Damara shifted her body to face him directly, one hand on her sheathed dagger, the other still touching their war ship.
"And who are you?" she inquired.
The Huskhn's grin only broadened.
"Sprague. Captain of that ship there."
He gestured to the boat next to Damara with his axe.
"Hmm." The young woman advanced on him, snapping her fingers at Rib and Jacinth to come, which they did immediately.
She's getting daring, Rib thought uneasily as the Huskhns tensed. Their shields raised a little higher, their weapons showed a little better.
Stopping but a dragon's length from Captain Sprague, Damara stroked Jacinth's neck like Rib had seen humans stroke a horse. Jacinth gave no response, gazing straight ahead.
"You want a firebreather, no?" Damara said. "To craft magic that will grant you power over dragons?"
Sprague did not answer, but wore an expression of interest, his eyes fixed on her, a contemplative smile on his lips.
Gracefully, Damara reached up and undid the binding around Jacinth's muzzle. The rope fell to the sand like a dead snake.
"Breathe for them," she ordered in a sweet voice.
Rib closed his inner eyelids to watch the firesap build in Jacinth's lungs, then unfold from the dragon's jaws in bright flames. It was clearly not Jacinth's strongest blow, but the Huskhns lifted their shields higher in alarm, until realization began to dawn on their faces.
"I think you can see what I offer," Damara spoke up over the people's comments to one another. "I am the power over dragons."
"A dragon witch?" Sprague said.
"So I've been called."
"Why do you come to us?" the Huskhn Captain questioned.
"I've heard of your ambitions to take every dragon on the Island," Damara answered. "And I share them. But I am lacking in ingredients for such a scheme, so I come to you with a proposal. Take me and my beasts to your homeland, where I can craft enough magic to bewitch a hundred dragons, and together we will take the Island with ease."
She's convincing, Rib thought. Almost as though she means it?
Sprague laughed, almost merrily, his battle axe brushing his thigh.
"And what is your name, Tamer of Beasts?" he asked.
The young woman planted her feet, bold and proud.
"Damara."
Sprague's facial features shone with pleasure as he began calling out something to the crowd. The only thing Rib could understand was 'Damara', but he could tell the Huskhns were reacting positively to his words. When the Captain finished, a number of them actually cheered, while most others nodded and grunted their approval. A couple women stomped their feet in celebration.
They agree? Rib's heart jolted with hope.
Sprague hung his axe in his belt and came forward with hand outstretched. Rib was surprised when Damara shook the Huskhn's hand without hesitation, though Jacinth drew nearer.
"We accept," Sprague affirmed.
It worked! Rib felt something loosen in his chest. We fooled them!
And Memory couldn't be anywhere else than where we're going?
Chapter 22