Page 34 of Dragon Fire

On Gryphon Isle, the enemy hadn’t made it ashore, though small groups had fought their way through the lines, making for the lands beyond the beaches. They’d met up with the gryphon guard there, of course, and were stopped before they could go any farther, but their destination wasn’t clear. The beach was wide and the village far inland. Only small shepherd’s huts dotted the hillsides leading down to the beach, and only flocks of very frightened sheep lay in the direction most of the fighters had been trying to go.

The obvious target on the island was the keep, but the beach where the main battle had taken place was quite a distance from it. The secondary attack, however, had been much closer, but foiled by Captain O’Dare’s fleet—specifically, the portion of it that was under his direct control at the time.

Which made Gryffid look quite eager to talk to the captain. Gowan would be just as pleased not to cross paths with Livia’s father, but it seemed there was no help for it. Just as he thought this, the doors to the great hall opened once more, and the man himself strode in as if he owned the place.

The bastard had bravado to spare, Gowan would give him that.

“Father!” Livia stood from her seat at the table and made a start toward him, then seemed to remember she was at odds with him at the moment.

O’Dare’s heart clenched. He didn’t care that she’d run off—not at the moment anyway—all that mattered was that she was safe and unharmed.

He walked right up to her and pulled her into his arms, hugging her tight. He loved her deeply, though he’d been unable to express it and had, in fact, run away from home, in essence, to avoid the painful memories of Livia’s late mother. That he’d avoided Livia at the same time was something he would always regret.

But there had been reasons… Good reasons. Reasons that had come to fruition today.

O’Dare opened his eyes to find every eye in the room on him. He was used to people watching him. He was in command of a fleet of ships, after all, but he wasn’t used to displaying any emotion in front of his men. To show that you cared for someone was to expose your greatest weakness. He’d learned that the hard way, at the expense of his wife’s life. He wouldn’t make that same mistake again.

Captain O’Dare let go of his daughter and set her slightly away from him. There was much to discuss, and he had yet to meet the owner of this impressive keep. If rumor was to be believed, it was the wizard Gryffid himself, back from the magical mists of…wherever. O’Dare wasn’t sure if he believed in all that hocus pocus horse shit, but whoever owned this keep, he commanded a hell of a lot of power between the fair folk and the gryphons.

“Gryffid, I presume?” O’Dare said, walking up to the only one around the table that he didn’t know. Much to his annoyance, the two jackasses who wanted to bed his daughter were there too. O’Dare heard Livia gasp behind him, and he realized he was being a bit rude, but it had been a hell of a long day.

The older man didn’t appear to take offense. He merely bowed his head slightly in acknowledgment. This was the guy going by the name Gryffid. O’Dare wondered if he really was a wizard or merely a very clever charlatan cashing in on the fame of the long lost wizard.

“I’m O’Dare. Livia’s father. Captain of the smaller fleet of ships this day, much to my chagrin. Fisk caught me off guard. A large part of the fleet I’ve been putting together for the past several years is either on its way to Dragonscove or still at anchor in other ports, having not yet received my orders.” O’Dare figured he’d just lay it all out there. The time for secrecy was over.

“Regardless of the size of the fleet you commanded today, Captain, they were essential to our victory, and you have my thanks,” the purported wizard replied. “Please, make yourself a plate and join us. We are discussing what may have motivated the attack. You said a name… Fisk? Is he the enemy leader?”

Livia had made a plate up for her father while he’d been talking and brought it to him so he could sit at the table with the wizard and the others. Such a thoughtful gesture touched him deeply. Not since her mother had been alive had anyone done such a small kindness for him. He thanked her, wishing he could say more, but there were too many eyes watching. He would not expose her to even more danger if the wrong set of eyes saw how much he truly cared for his only child.

“I recognized Fisk’s ship as he ran away. I’ve known for some time that he was collecting the somewhat questionable loyalty of the worst cutthroats and cheats that ever sailed the seas. In response, I began forming an opposing fleet in secret, made up of my trade ships and allies, which have been quietly upgraded and outfitted with cannons and men who could fight as well as trade, over the past several years.”

“You took this task upon yourself?” Gryffid asked with a shrewd look in his eye.

“There was no one else to do it and nobody who knew how much of a devil Fisk truly is. He skates very close to the law and has a decent, if not good, reputation. But I know the evil in his heart.” O’Dare looked down at his plate, knowing he needed to tell them all of it, but dreading having to say the words. “At one time, he was a business partner. I trusted him, and he learned many of my secrets, and my greatest weakness… My wife, Olivia. Fisk murdered her, and I have been hunting him ever since.”

Silence greeted his words, and he didn’t dare look at Livia. She hadn’t known how her mother had died. He’d deliberately kept it from her, not wanting to hurt her any more than she already had been by the loss of her mother. She’d been guarded all her life, though she probably didn’t realize the full extent of it. And he’d stayed away to protect her, as well as to collect his fleet. He’d done nothing for the past decade or more but work toward the goal of killing Fisk and ending the threat he posed not just to O’Dare’s family, but to the world in general.

“Is it true?” Livia’s whisper worked its way into his heart. He felt her pain, but he couldn’t expose his ongoing grief to the world. Not yet. Probably not ever.

“Yes, daughter,” he acknowledged her question, trying to remain as unemotional as possible. “It’s all true. This is why I haven’t been home in so long. I’ve been working to build the fleet to protect you—and everyone else—from Fisk.” That sounded a bit grander than the real reason—that he wanted to hunt Fisk down, cut him into tiny little pieces and feed him, bit by bit, to the sharks.

“Well, I, for one, am glad you took the initiative, Captain O’Dare,” Gryffid said, breaking the tension in the room. “You will all stay the night in the keep. Rooms have been prepared.” Gryffid stood briskly from the table and looked around at everyone. “I will see you all at breakfast, here in the hall, an hour past sunrise, if that is convenient. I wish to speak with each of you again, once you’ve had a chance to rest and recover from the events of the day.”

Murmurs of assent followed the wizard out the doors as he left them.

O’Dare turned to lace into the two men who had caught his daughter’s eye when the door opened again and the dragon and knight that had accompanied O’Dare’s ship walked in. Their pace was urgent, their expressions troubled.

“Seth, Sir Hrardorr has been trying to reach you, but believed something about the wizard’s keep was preventing him getting through,” the young man said. “Lady Genlitha and Xander tried to reach you, too, but their voices were blocked.”

“Not anymore,” Seth said, rising to his feet, his face grim. “Hrardorr just told me. I’ll be with you in a few minutes. I have to get some supplies from my baggage.” Seth raced out of the room without further explanation.

“What’s going on?” O’Dare asked Sir Leo as he approached.

“One of the sea dragons was cut badly by the diamond blades they are gathering from the sea floor. Sir Hrardorr wants Seth to look at her injury, since he is the only healer on this island truly familiar with dragons of any kind. Sir Hrardorr asked Xander and me to come get Seth and bring him to the little cove on the other side of the island where they say the sea dragons like to sunbathe.” Leo’s report was helpful in shedding light for Captain O’Dare on just how involved Seth was with the dragons. Very.

“Genlitha reports the same thing. She couldn’t get through to me for some reason while Gryffid was here,” Gowan said, scowling.

“Could he have blocked them somehow?” Livia asked, clearly concerned.

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