Page 26 of Red Dragon
Busy steering through the waves, Jhiton didn’t respond. Maybe he didn’t think the commentwortha response.
The Kingdom ships lurking out there between them and the barrier were concerning, but all the stormers had to do was paddle far enough out that their dragons could pick them up.
“What scrolls did Devron take from the chamber?” Vorik asked. “You don’t really expect to find the locations of the other shielders written down on parchment, do you?”
“We’ll find out once we return to our headquarters.”
Vorik didn’t recall seeing scrolls the last time he’d been in that chamber. What were the odds that Devron had grabbed a shopping list that someone had left down there?
A wave sprayed Vorik with water, and the splash brought realization as well as moisture. Of course. Syla had spoken to her aunt about seeking out schematics as well as the Harvest Island shielder. She or Tibby must have located them and brought them back to study. Essentially instructions on how to repair the broken shielder. If that was what the party had gotten away with, Vorik’s people might have left the gardeners in a bind again.
And Syla, despite Vorik stepping in and trying to help her, might resent him for being a part of that.
As he paddled, he gazed bleakly toward the starry sky. He’d hoped that they would one day find a chance to relive the night in the cave, this time without him being drugged in the end. But the odds of that seemed poorer than ever.
8
Syla’s entire body ached,but she endured the discomfort and remained to direct the soldiers to clean out the shielder chamber so she could close the hidden passageway again. She also asked them to carry her cousin, who’d remained unconscious throughout the event, to one of the infirmary rooms in the back of the castle.
As soon as one of the higher-ranking officers arrived and could take over, she would go up to help Teyla. How her cousin had ended up down here, Syla didn’t know. All she could guess was that the stormers had found her in the city and kidnapped her. Where the higher-ranking officers were at the moment, she also didn’t know, but she assumed they’d been out in the harbor, overseeing attempts to take down the dragon ship. Even if that vessel had held the two tribal leaders, it hadn’t been the problem. It and its fireworks display had been a distraction, the same as Vorik.
Thinking of him made Syla grimace, a conflicted mishmash of feelings tangling inside her. In the throne room, he’d cheerfully served his purpose, keeping her busy while trying to extract information from her, but in the tunnel outside theshielder chamber, he’d delayed his own side and deliberately given her a heads-up that Jhiton was coming. And then he’d stood in front of the general to keep him from killing her or capturing her or whatever the man had planned.
“My death probably.” She well remembered Jhiton's icy tone and the granite set of his jaw.
Fel, who’d been helping the soldiers drag out bodies, despite his own injuries, looked over at her.
“I’m just thinking about how we’re lucky to have survived that.” Syla touched her thigh. She’d removed the shard of rock and stopped the bleeding but hadn’t yet healed the wound fully. Later.
“Yes.”
“While acknowledging that you would have preferred it if I’d stayed in the castle.” She smiled apologetically at him, though she would make the same decision again.
She looked around the shielder chamber to see if the stormers had managed to sabotage anything before she’d arrived. Reminded of the man who’d been plucking up scrolls, she headed for the nook that had held them.
“I would have preferred that, yes.” Fel straightened, winced, and rubbed his lower back. “But I think the stormers might have gotten the shielder if youhadn’tbeen here.”
“I think so too. I had no idea they had Teyla. Her brother didn’t seem to know she’d been kidnapped.”
“I also think the stormers would have gottenmeif you hadn’t been here.” Fel gazed thoughtfully at her. “And your… suborned captain.”
“He’s not that.”
If only he were. Not for the first time, Syla wished Vorik were on her side, that he could be an ally.
“He defied his general to keep you alive,” Fel said.
“It’s complicated.” She smiled and wished she’d been able to get some baked goods into Vorik’s hands. Mostly for him, but maybe he would have shared a cobbler with General Jhiton and the sweet would have prompted the man to become less villainous for a time.
Syla swept her hand through the nook. It was partially hidden by a sarcophagus so she checked it twice. The tools her aunt had brought back were still there, appearing innocuous and plain to one who couldn’t sense their magic. The scrolls, however, were gone. She slumped.
“I think they got the schematics and that list of components Aunt Tibby was talking about,” Syla admitted.
“For the shielders?”
“Yes, everything Aunt Tibby has been studying.”
“The scrolls she began studying while we were all supposed to be pushing the Harvest Island shielder miles to that cove.”
