Page 77 of Red Dragon
“You’ve figured out where we get the moss thing?” Vorik asked.
“Oh, no. Nothing about that. But Iwasconsidering earlier, when we first got here, that in this humidity, finding a desiccated specimen would be difficult. Things must decompose quickly here rather than drying out.”
“Well, Syla’s team is looking for something they expect to find here.”
“Yes.” At her name, Wise looked pensively at him.
“What?”
“There are what I’ve been thinking of as hieroglyphs along the bottom of this scroll, sir, under the passage about the storm god’s laboratory and all the dangers waiting inside of it. I realized… Well, I immediately thought that the quarter-moon symbol might refer to the moon-marked humans of the Garden Kingdom, and now I’m thinking… For this third component, it may only be accessible by someone with a moon-mark. It’s some kind of magical crystal the storm god long ago propagated in his laboratory, and only one grows at a time, so it’s rare. Very rare. If the gods who created the shielders wanted to make sure humans from the Garden Kingdom could get a replacement crystal if they needed one, it makes sense that they would have locked it up somehow so only one of their chosen could reach it.”
“I guess we’ll have to arrive at the same time as Syla and sneak in after her.”
“And steal the component from her afterward?”
“I suppose we’ll have to. Or try to slip past and get to it first.” Vorik looked back over the canopy, wondering if Syla was evennow acquiring the first component. The dragons and humans had disappeared for too long to account for biological needs.
“Or…” Wise hesitated, considering him.
“Or?”
“Well, if we kidnap her, sir, or another moon-marked person, and get there first, we can ensure things go our way.”
“Or another moon-marked person? I think Syla is the only option unless that other girl is a relative.” Vorik tried to remember if the woman had been marked, but he’d barely glanced at her. When they’d torn their way into the wheelhouse, he’d been focused on saving Syla—not that she’d needed saving. He smiled at the memory.
“The other woman had a moon-mark, sir.” Wise looked in puzzlement at him.
Because Vorikusuallynoticed everything around him? Yes, but he’d been concerned about Syla. The other woman might have had eight boobs and he would have missed it.
Agreed,Agrevlari stated.She had the power of one of the gods-gifted humans.
I also sensed it,Tonasketaladded.
Of course. None of Vorik’s allies had been distracted by romantic feelings.
She is not as powerful as Princess Syla,Agrevlari added,but more akin to the aunt who rode with the princess to Harvest Island. She can likely open doors attuned to the moon-mark though.
“I’m not kidnapping Sylaoranyone in her party,” Vorik said.
Wise tilted his head. “You don’t think it would make sense, sir? To ensure we fulfill our mission? Before I left, General Jhiton said…”
“What?” Vorik remembered his earlier thought that Wise, despite being an easygoing and affable fellow, was dedicated tohis duty and might partially have been sent to keep an eye on Vorik.
“I’m to report in to him along the way if anything is going to prove difficult.” That didn’t sound like a full truth.
“Who are you going to report to down here? Nobody but the Freeborn Faction have a headquarters within hundreds of miles, and we don’t even know more than the general area that they might be in.” Vorik waved toward the peaks that rose so high that they had snow and glaciers on them year around, even this far south, but, as far as he knew, there were only rumors suggesting the faction was camped in the mountains this summer. Their leaders always worried, somewhat amusingly so, that the tribes would raid them, so they moved frequently. Vorik’s leaders, however, didn’t care to annihilate their own people, deserters or not. Of course, that might change if the faction did more than occasional spying and truly declared the stormers enemies.
“You don’t think they would enjoy my reports, sir?” Wise smiled, though there was a troubled look in his eyes. Maybe he’d figured out that his captain’s feelings were conflicted on this matter.
“They’d probably love to hear about everything we’re doing.”
“I expect that’s true. Did you know they’ve a link to that whaling ship the princess has been traveling on?”
“I didn’t, no.”
“The captain is allied with them.”
“So, they want Syla to end up in charge of the Kingdom? Is that why he’s been helping her?”
