Page 31 of Dragon Fire

The carnage of splintered wood and sinking ships was incredible. Even having seen what happened in Dragonscove, Seth was impressed by the massive scale of the destruction happening now. Hrardorr’s sea dragon friends were pretty amazing, and Seth hoped he might catch a glimpse of one of those elusive creatures when this was all done. He’d love to see where that special part of Hrardorr had come from. The part that made him so much more than the other dragons Seth had grown up with.

Hrardorr was special. Seth had felt that way from the moment he’d first seen the blind dragon being led into the Lair.

“Your dragon and his friendss are doing a great job,” General Falthith said to Seth, between sending his people out in pairs and squads to deal with the prisoners and the few who kept trying to fight on land. “Perhapss it iss ssafe enough now for uss to fly and help from above?” the general asked, cocking his beak to the side in what Seth interpreted as a gryphon expression of a question.

“I’ll ask,” Seth replied quickly, relaying the question to Hrardorr. But the dragon was quick to reply in the negative. “Too many of those ships still have dragon-killing weapons aboard, Sir. The best use of your strength is here on land for now, or so Sir Hrardorr advises.”

The gryphon seemed disappointed but resigned. Seth felt he was getting better at interpreting the lay of his feathers and the slight ruffle of his wings, not to mention the position of that dangerous-looking beak. The more Seth was around the gryphons, the more he recognized certain traits they had in common with dragons.

Just at that moment, Hrardorr broke the surface, flaming for all he was worth toward one of the larger ships that had been resistant so far to the attack from below. Bright orange and yellow flames shot from his mouth as he arced through the air in a sideways dive that brought him out of the water only long enough to loose his fiery breath on the enemy. They barely had time to get a shot off at him, so fast did he move, but Seth saw the arrows follow Hrardorr back into the water and grew concerned. The tips of those arrows gleamed and sparkled in the firelight.

“Are you all right?”Seth held his breath waiting for a response from the dragon.

“Mostly,”Hrardorr said after a slight delay.“A couple of those arrows hit me, but I don’t think it’s anything serious. You can take a look when we’re done here.”

Seth frowned. He had no idea how much longer the battle would take. He didn’t like the idea of Hrardorr continuing to fight while injured. Hrardorr couldn’t see to really assess his injuries, and he’d fought while in agony before. That’s how he’d become blind in the first place. Seth wanted to tell the dragon to break off and come ashore so Seth could take a good look at him, but he knew he could not.

For one thing, Hrardorr was enjoying this too much, and Seth would not take it away from him. For another, Hrardorr was needed. He was the only one who could reallydosomething against these pirate ships. And he had somehow gotten sea dragons to help too. If Hrardorr left the battle, would they abandon it too? Seth wasn’t sure, but it was important to keep all the allies they could working on the problem, while they had them. Which meant Hrardorr’s injuries would have to wait.

Seth tried to console himself with the thought that he would take the best care of Hrardorr any dragon had ever received when he was finally free to be treated. Seth would find him the best meal he could and set up Hrardorr in as comfortable a wallow as he could devise, waiting on the dragon hand and foot. If Hrardorr let him.

Seth would make sure Hrardorr let him. Somehow.

“There are sshipss on the horizon, coming from the direction of the mainland,” the general told Seth, shaking him out of his reverie.

Seth realized that the gryphons had eyesight like dragons—maybe better, considering their bird-like heads. They could see things mere humans could not.

“Can you see what flags they are flying?”

Seth knew the emblems of most of the ships that frequented Dragonscove. If the approaching ships were friendly, they would be flying their colors. The pirates, by contrast, flew no flags at all, and some had the black sails of those who crept about at night, not wanting their movements tracked.

“They all fly the ssame flag in different ssizess. A dark flag with crossssed ssaberss,” the gryphon general reported.

Could it be?

“Sir, that is most likely the flag of Captain O’Dare. He is a resident of Dragonscove, and his daughter is the one who is even now making her way to the keep over land with your envoy, Sir Flurrthith. It’s just possible that her father decided to sail here to help.”And to chase after Livia, Seth thought privately.

“We musst have confirmation,” the general snapped out. “If it iss the enemy, other planss will have to be made.”

“Understood, Sir. I believe I know how we can confirm this. We have another dragon and knight aloft who have been holding off until Sir Hrardorr could take out the most dangerous weapons to dragonkind. I propose we send Sir Leo and Sir Xanderanth out to meet the oncoming ships. They will recognize ships from Dragonscove, and Sir Leo knows Captain O’Dare personally.”

“A good plan. Ssee to it.” The gryphon general turned away, consulting with his lieutenants.

They gryphons were helping contain the prisoners, but there were a lot of them, and the situation was highly volatile. Some of the prisoners were trying to sneak away, and the gryphons and fair folk were having to chase them down.

Captain O’Dare fumed as they raced toward Gryphon Isle. The place was too damned far away. He used his spyglass to help him see, but all he could make out were the masts of many ships surrounding the island. Some looked too low in the water—as if the ships were sinking—but he didn’t see any dragons or gryphons flying above to explain it.

Perhaps the blind dragon was doing what reports said he’d done in Dragonscove. If he was attacking from below to spare the flying targets those diamond bolts, he was making good progress.

A dark spot in the sky caught the captain’s attention, and he focused on it. It was a dragon, growing larger as it flew toward him. It was dark blue and powerful, its wings propelling it quickly through the sky.

Captain O’Dare watched it come. He thought he recognized the dragon as one that had been frolicking on the beach with the Stuart children, the eldest of whom had been chosen as a knight. If so, that would make this Sir Xanderanth and his knight was Sir Leonhardt. O’Dare knew of them. He had employed Leo’s father since before the lad was born and trusted him to oversee the land-based side of his trade business.

The dots began to join together in O’Dare’s mind. Livia had been working with Stuart and had helped the family resettle nearer to Dragonscove when their eldest son and his dragon partner were assigned to the Southern Lair. No doubt Livia knew Sir Leo and the dark blue dragon. And now, that same dragon was approaching his ship. O’Dare planned to ask that young upstart knight a thing or two, if he got the chance.

And it looked like he would. The dragon approached, flying around the fleet O’Dare had put together. Now, O’Dare could see the small figure of the knight atop the dragon’s shoulders. It was Leo, the eldest son of his long-time employee.

“Ahoy, theOlivia,” the knight called out as the dragon made a slow, spiraling pass around O’Dare’s flagship, named for his late wife.

---