Page 61 of Prince of Tides
She plopped into her spot.
“Ready?”
“Don’t suppose this thing comes with seatbelts, does it?” she muttered.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” I said, spreading both wings and leaping into the air.
“EEEEEE-YEAHHHH!”Laurie’s shriek turned into a shout of joy as we shot upward toward the tunnel bored into the solid rock. “This is amazing!”
I grinned. “On that, we agree.”
Up we went, moving as fast as I could, my wings beating hard. We flew out the mouth of the tunnel into clear skies. Laurie spent the next ten minutes oohing and aahing about all the sights and the monstrous nature of Mount Drakonus, which put any Earth mountain to shame.
“Those are some evil-looking clouds,” she said, pointing to a ring of gray-black clouds surrounding the mountain's upper third section. They were shot through with blue, making them extra ominous.
“They hide the peak from sight,” I explained. “The God-King keeps them there to ensure nobody bothers him, as far as I can tell.”
“God-King?” Laurie called, raising her voice as the wind whipped past us.
“The immortal ruler of all dragon-kind,” I explained.
“Right.” She didn’t sound too convinced, but she didn’t argue either.
On we flew toward my home. Eventually, Laurie gained enough confidence to lie back and stare at the sky. She was silent for some time. I glanced back often enough to ensure she hadn’t fallen but didn’t say anything. She was busy cradling her stomach and staring into space at something only she could see.
This is a lot for her. She needs time to adjust.
“This is amazing,” she said eventually, still lying flat, bent at the knees. “I can’t believe you get to do this all the time.”
“This? This is nothing,” I chuckled. “Just wait until you see my home.”
“When’s that?” she asked, not sitting up.
“Now,” I said softly as I began to descend. “We’re here.”
Chapter Thirty
Laurie
Isat up, pulling my gaze away from the sky, eager for a look at Rip’s home. He hadn’t given me much to go on, and it wasn’t at all like I’d expected.
“You livethere?” I gaped as we descended fairly rapidly toward a huge curved structure, the inside of it filled with water that ran through the arms out into a vast ocean.
The huge building appeared to be made from some sort of coral-colored stone, the individual blocks becoming visible the closer to the ground we got. Banners and streamers of a thousand colors hung from windows or doorways, flapping in the salty breeze from the sea.
Everywhere I looked, people went about their day, wandering along the huge shoreline encompassed by the structure or the village that extended out beyond its landward edge. A market square bustled with vibrant life, and the sounds of vendors hawking their wares soon reached my ears.
Mothers dawdled along with their children while groups of heavily armed dragon-men—they were neither human nor dragon, but some sort of mix—marched here and there, patrolling the town.
As I watched the shallow bay enclosed by the giant fortress, people gathered near a floating barge before it began to move to the center of the open space, where it joined several others. An infant’s cry reached my ears, followed by cheers from one of the covered sea craft.
“Yes,” Rip said proudly. “This is my home. Welcome to the Tidal Bastion, heart of my clan. We have other settlements along the coast and even a few upriver, but this is our capital, I suppose you would call it.”
“There are somanyof you,” I observed as we swooped over a lane, a gaggle of children no more than five or six chasing after us, cheering as they waved.
I waved back, which seemed to make their day.
Elsewhere, however, I noticed a growing number of stares directed our way.
