Page 8 of Dragon Fire

“Hrardorr? Can you hear me?”

“Yes, Livia. Is something wrong?”He sounded closer than she’d expected.

“What do you know of the gryphon that was seen flying into the Lair yesterday?”

“It’s all anyone can talk of, though you know I do my best to avoid speaking with anyone. Still, I’ve heard the news from Gryphon Isle is not good. The remainder of the fleet we faced turned toward the island, and they’ve been using those cursed diamond-bladed weapons on the gryphons. Many have fallen, and it is all the wizard can do to keep the enemy at bay.”

The news was worse than she’d thought.

“Are you in the boathouse again?”she asked the dragon.

“As a matter of fact, I am. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Mind? Never. You are welcome anytime. You know that. If it were up to me and there was a way to manage it, I’d give you a bed in the house.”

A dragonish chuckle sounded in her mind.“I would like to see that, but I think it might require a major redesign of your father’s home.”

“It would be worth it to make you more comfortable and have you near.”She hadn’t really realized how true her words were until they were spoken. She would do anything for Hrardorr.

“I am very comfortable here in the boathouse, Livia,”Hrardorr said quietly.“But thank you for the thought.”

While Livia spoke to the dragon, the house settled for the night. She’d heard her father’s door open and close. His room was farther down the hallway, and she couldn’t hear much once his door was shut. Likewise, he couldn’t hear her tiptoeing around her room, packing a bag.

She was sick of being imprisoned in her room and was going on a little excursion. The only thing she had to be careful of was not to get caught.

If her father saw her climbing the trellis outside her window, either on the way out or the way back tomorrow morning before dawn, she would be in even bigger trouble than she already was. But it would be worth it for a few hours of freedom to spend as she wished. She’d decided to not go into the office tomorrow, and was prepared to claim illness. If she hinted at a female complaint, her father wouldn’t ask too many questions.

She smiled to herself as she put on black clothing—a tight-fitting shirt, tapered pants and a jacket over it all. They were boy’s clothing that she used from time to time when she wanted to walk about freely without gathering any unwanted attention.

Mostly, she used this outfit when her father was home. This wasn’t the first time he’d grounded her and she’d snuck out. It had been a little easier when she was smaller, but she was still petite and agile enough to make her way down the trellis.

“Would you mind some company?”she asked Hrardorr, throwing her leg over the windowsill.“I can’t stay under house arrest one moment longer. I’m breaking out.”

Again, that dragonish chuckle sounded in her mind. Good. She had feared he might protest, but she should have known better. Hrardorr wasn’t one for following the rules either.

“It’s about time,”was his only comment.

She was already climbing down the trellis, careful to not make any betraying sounds, but Hrardorr’s words made her smile.

Seth heard light footsteps coming down the wooden stairs from above and tensed. Was someone approaching intent on doing harm? He scanned the area from his hiding place and waited, his sword by his side. He was hidden in the shadows between the steep stairs that went up to Livia’s house, the jagged rock wall on which it was perched, and the wide wooden deck that started over land and spread out over the water. It branched into several docks, fingers of walkways leading out into the harbor.

Directly opposite the stairs, several yards away lay the door to the large wooden house that spanned two of the fingers of dock, enclosing them almost entirely. The open slip of water between them was enclosed by the boathouse, intended for Livia’s sailboat. Only, right now, the sailboat bobbed out in the open at the end of one of the docks, while a very large, very blind dragon with sea dragon heritage occupied the boathouse.

Seth knew Hrardorr was in there. He checked on the dragon every night and knew every time the dragon wasn’t in residence in his Lair chamber. Seth had decided to keep watch without Hrardorr’s knowledge, spending more than one cold night huddled under the stairs, wrapped in his darkest cloak.

He was both surprised and pleased to learn on his first night on watch that Captain O’Dare had instituted a patrol on his dock. Every hour or so, at irregular intervals, two strong-looking seamen walked past, checking on things. They were deckhands from Captain O’Dare’s own flagship, if Seth wasn’t mistaken, and they took watch in turns. The same pair would work for a few hours, then a new pair would replace them.

The captain was taking no chances with safety while he was in port, it seemed. Seth watched the patrolmen walk up and down the docks belonging to Captain O’Dare’s company, starting with his flagship, theOlivia, which was tied up at the deepest mooring, closer to the office, and ending with the boathouse below Captain O’Dare’s home. The patrol would walk from one end of the large network of floating platforms to the other and back again, using different routes each time so as to be less predictable in their movements.

Seth wondered where the captain had learned to be so cautious. He also wondered why Livia’s father believed such precautions were warranted in his home port. But Seth wasn’t likely to get answers to those questions, so he kept them to himself.

As the black-clad figure scampered quietly down the stairs closer to Seth’s hiding place, he realized it was either a boy or, more likely, a woman. Then he recognized the flash of her blue eyes, and his heart froze for a moment.

“Livia?” he whispered aloud.

She paused on the stairs, her black garb blending in well with the night, but not well enough to hide her from the approaching patrolmen. Seth’s heart picked up its pace. She was about to get caught and dressed as she was, he was pretty certain she didn’t have her father’s permission to be skulking about the docks at this hour.

“Livia, it’s me, Seth.”He used their shared talent to talk silently with her.“I’m below the stairs. Come down now, or you’ll be seen. Your father has a patrol checking his dock, and they’re about to arrive.”

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