Draka

At some point, possibly soon, someone was going to realise that their storehouse, with its secret access to the stormwater system, had been broken into. Or out of, but they weren’t going to realise that. I wondered if they’d be unfortunate enough to try and stop me from using it.

The roofed passage that the back door opened into served a block of similar buildings, all with their own doors. It was dark and deserted, but in either direction it joined with narrow streets that ran towards the sea, and these had quite a few people moving along them. Rather than repeating my people-dodging from earlier I searched the roof and found a hole large enough to squeeze my shifted form through, bringing me onto the roof.

I went solid again and quickly looked around. There were plenty of tall buildings and a few towers nearby, besides the fact that I was in the lowest part of the city. By pressing myself as flat as I could and staying in the gutter that formed between the storehouses and the peaked roof of the passage, however, I could keep hidden from any casual onlookers. At least I thought that I could, and if not, I would hopefully just look like a black splotch against the background.

There were five buildings on the block, built wall to wall and each with a peaked roof running at right angles to the one I was on. I could see the sea between them. Needing to orient myself better, I risked sneaking along the valley between two of the peaks to take a look.

The waterfront was bustling with activity. Against the pale tans and swirls of brown and pink of the sandstone that was so common in the city, woods and cloth stood out in a galaxy of colours. While greens and yellows were clearly the most popular for clothing they were far from exclusive, and sails, drapes, and awnings in all kinds of hues, tones, and patterns were everywhere. To anyone who had never been to a city before, the colours alone would have been overwhelming.

I was on the western end of the docks, and from where I hid I could see two large ships, one with one mast and one deck of oars and another with two of each. The larger of the two was being loaded, wagons full of boxes, bags and barrels waiting on the long stone pier, and I could hear the calls of the longshoremen as they carried the goods onboard. Further out, in the circular harbour, a dozen other ships of various types and sizes lay at anchor. Along the street below me people in simpler clothing, mostly cinched tunics, hurried along or stood talking to each other, while others in adventurers’ gear or what was unmistakably military uniforms – more than I’d expect, considering the situation in the south – or finer tunics, robes or multicoloured body wraps walked purposefully or strolled along, laughing with their companions. The sea air smelled fresh, and over that was the smells of spices and woods and other goods that passed through the harbour for sale abroad or consumption in or around the city.

I could have laid there for an hour. The sounds, smells and colours, the variety of styles of dress and people was, quite simply, wonderful. But I had somewhere to be. I was in the wrong end of the district, and needed to move east along the water to find a tavern called The Turtle.

The roofs seemed like my best bet, so that’s how I made my way east. I could have gone back down into the tunnels and hoped to find another access point, but that might be a waste of time. Besides, sneaking along the roofs just seemed more fun! Softly padding along, trying not to make a sound, staying low and shifting, moving from shadow to shadow at just the right time to avoid being seen, it had my heart racing. And it wasn’t just fun, it tested me to my limits. I had to find the best patches of darkness to shift, then strain to stretch across streets to another shadow quickly enough and at the right time, pushing both my abilities and my timing to their limits. There was no doubt in my mind that sneaking around a busy part of the city like that, in the middle of the day no less, was the best training I’d had since gaining my shadow powers, and I loved it.

There was no chance that I would have done something like that without motivation. It was just too risky. I’d let myself get comfortable, complaining silently about feeling restricted by my need to hide but not doing anything about it. If it wasn’t for the very real risk that the boys would be attacked somewhere between the ship and the inn, I would be sitting in the tunnels, waiting for someone to get me. Hell, I would probably still be at the mountain, watching the little village grow and waiting for someone to tell me that it was time to go hunt down the raiders in the south. Instead, there I was, having the time of my life dodging people and trying to keep track of sightlines, making my way slowly but surely towards the eastern end of the docks.

I moved across roofs and terraces. I shifted and dropped to street level and slunk behind walls and fences and, at one very memorable point, I snuck in under a cart as it made its way across a particularly wide and busy intersection where a small street met the main boulevard to the harbour. As I moved along my sense of Mak’s location grew more and more precise, until I could practically point at her on the ground floor of a three-story building up ahead, the first two floors being the sandstone that made up so much of the city and and the third a dark red wood. I’d been keeping my eyes on the building since it stuck up above the roofs around it, and was glad that it was my destination. With any luck I’d be able to get up on the roof, which would give me a great view of the harbour.

It was better than I could have hoped. On the seaward side of the roof a dormer with windows on the front and sides protruded to the level of the building’s facade, and on the western side was a large, double chimney. The chimney and the peaked roof made a shadowy niche where I could sit, hidden from the buildings higher in the northern and western city, while the dormer blocked off the high city in the east. Meanwhile, I would have a lovely view of the harbour and the docks. It wasn’t quite perfect, since there was still the slope of the roof to think about, but as long as I lay still it should be fine!

I made my way across the roofs to the building that housed the tavern, quickly checking that there was no one in the open windows. With the coast clear I shifted and stretched myself up onto the roof, then over the ridge and into the nook behind the chimney. Then I shifted back.

And I slid.

It was the barest movement as I felt the tiles under my hands move, but I nearly swallowed my tongue. Luckily I didn’t shout in surprise, instead taking a sharp breath as my tail whipped out to hook around the chimney while my right hand hooked all five claws deep into the wood of the dormer, stopping me from moving any further. The only casualty was the tile that had slipped under my hand, as it scratched and skittered its way down and then vanished over the edge of the roof almost immediately followed by the sound of shattering pottery and angry voices.

Well, I thought. That could have gone better, or a whole lot worse. On the bright side, there was now an exposed batten for me to brace against as I laid down, spreading my weight over more tiles. It felt secure enough. I was a little bit worried about what would happen when I needed to move, and my claws had left some hard-to-explain gouges in the wood, but at least the view was as good as I’d hoped.

There I stayed for about half an hour. I let myself simply enjoy the view until I felt Mak, below and behind me, start to move. I was close enough that I could tell as she got up, moved around something, and passed under me out the door and into the street. I carefully moved forward until I could see onto the street, and I saw her standing there. She was right by the edge of the quay with her back to the water, her hand resting on the pommel of her sword as she scanned the rooftops. Her eyes scanned for anything recognisable, slowly zeroing in on where I lay until they found me. Our eyes met for a moment, then she looked around the rooftop and nodded. She found my eyes again and pointed quickly to herself, then up, and then approached the building.

What followed was a little odd. While I returned to my hiding spot, Mak moved around the building, then entered it from some back door. Then she started moving in bursts, sometimes sitting still for almost a minute before moving only a few feet, other times moving slowly for several seconds before stopping, then starting again. She moved quickly at a diagonal upwards, then went back to her stop-start motion, then up again, and then straight up, and I could feel her almost next to me. There came a scraping from the dormer. The window facing me swung open, and I was greeted by Mak’s grinning face.

“I just had some fun,” she whispered, and I grinned back.

“Sneaking through the building, going places you are not supposed to?”

“Yes! It was amazing! My steps are so light, and it’s like I blend into the shadows. It is… it must be from you, right?”

“You always had a pretty light step from what I have seen, but I think so. Now move over for a moment.”

I shifted and, while she got the same awed expression she always did when she saw me use my powers, she did what I’d asked. I could probably have gone past her anyway, but it felt kind of rude to just push past someone, whether I was immaterial or not.

“So,” I said once inside, “did you come looking for me for a reason or just to check in?”

“We have had word of the Gull. It has been spotted on the horizon. The boy Pot had at the lighthouse asked the spotter there, and he thinks it will be another five or six hours. It appears that they have given up on the wind and are moving by oars, and they only have one small bank of those. Then it will likely be another hour before anyone can come ashore.”

“Six or seven hours… it might not be dark yet by then, right?”

“Right,” Mak agreed. “But it is not like we can do anything about that.”

“I will just have to follow you best I can, then. Hopefully I will not be needed, but try not to move too quickly. Feel for me. Slow down if I fall behind.”

“We will. Now, the ship has three masts with grey sails. It has ten oars on each side, and a fairly large gull as a figurehead, so you should be able to recognise it fairly easily once it comes into the harbour.”

“Thank you,” I said. I hadn’t thought to ask, and I appreciated the thoughtfulness. “Now, get back to the others. Enjoy yourselves. We have some long hours ahead of us. I will be here if anything comes up.”

With that, and a nod from Mak, I went back out the window. She closed up, and I could feel her sneaking back down. There was a vicarious thrill in ‘watching’ her go, and I found myself quite happy that we had something unexpectedly in common.

Then, with her back in the tavern, I settled in for a long wait.

I lay on the roof. I napped, and I watched the ships come and go. I saw more soldiers; there must be quite a few of them in the city. A recruitment drive, maybe? Raising new regiments for the threatened war? I listened to short snatches of a hundred conversations. I didn’t pick up on anything useful, but it brought me back to my days by the road, when I was alone in this world and just trying to find someone to connect with. I wondered what would have happened if I’d approached some other group. If I’d never met Herald. Would they have accepted me at all? Or would they have run me off, and started a serious hunt for me? Who would I be, four months later, if I never made a single friend? If I saw every human I came across as a very real threat? What would I be?

I would be a dragon. That was the obvious answer, and I wasn’t sure that I didn't like it.

Below me Mak sat, and she moved. She went into the street, and she went to other places along the docks, but she always returned, and she never came back up. The sun slowly passed across the sky, and on the horizon sails came into view. And under one particular set of sails was a white figurehead which I could see, when it came closer, was in the shape of a bird, its wings spread to the wind. That wind, of course, lay completely wrong. The ship was slowly dragged along by ten pairs of oars as someone onboard did some very complicated things with the sails to try to claw just a tiny bit of speed from the wind. It was our ship, alright. And onboard were two men who were hopefully still my friends, and they carried with them a sum of gold that should be enough to set their family up for life. And me… I looked forward very much to getting my claws on my share.

The ship passed the breakwaters and the lighthouse, gliding calmly into the harbour, and I wished that it would move faster, that it would dock now, that its passengers and their cargo would come ashore now. But I knew that I had to be patient. They would be here soon enough. The Laughing Gull anchored at a spot near the middle of the harbour, and the longest part of the wait began.

On the westernmost pier, an old wooden construction instead of the solid stone piers used by the larger ships, a small, single-masted boat with many oars lay. I watched it, trying to take my mind off the approaching treasure, and thought that it was odd that it didn’t set sail. It was quite far away and it was hard to make out any detail, but there didn’t seem to be any supplies being loaded. I could see that there were a bunch of people hanging around, on the boat or waiting on the dock, so what were they waiting for? But then again, what did I know about sailing?

Herald, Mak, and the cousins, along with some people I didn’t recognise, had come out of the tavern. They were standing on the quay, pointing and talking in excited, happy voices, waiting just like I was. They had been standing there for a little less than an hour, and there was still a twilight glow in the sky when I heard Herald exclaim, “A boat! They’re lowering a boat!” and the excitement redoubled. And if I looked very carefully I could see that she was right. Few others could have seen it in the deepening gloom, but there was a small boat – though it must have been fifteen feet long, at least – sitting in the water next to the Gull, a lantern at the… stern, maybe? I thought. The front bit. And another at the back. I watched with a growing hunger as the boat began to move, slowly approaching the docks.

Then something else caught my eye. The single-masted boat I’d been watching, which had waited so patiently for whatever it was waiting for, had left the docks at some point. It was perhaps three hundred feet out when I saw it. Six rowers were pulling it along with powerful strokes, and it was picking up speed, heading straight for the Gull and its launch.

I sat up and a chill raced along my spine. Surely this was a coincidence. The harbour was large, but going out the middle was surely the most direct way to get from the docks to the sea. But why would someone be heading out when it was getting dark? Could they be heading to the ship to pick up some cargo that couldn’t wait for the ship to dock? But then, wouldn’t that have been sent with the launch? And if not, why would the boat that was now racing forward at a tremendous speed have waited until the launch was in the water before they themselves left?

And why was it heading straight for the launch, its course changing ever so slightly to cross paths with it?

When they were within a few hundred feet I couldn’t deny it any longer. The two boats were going to meet. My humans on the quay had noticed the same thing, and were scrambling to react, trying to get hold of a boat to go out themselves. It would have been too late even if they’d reacted the moment the intercepting boat set off.

I could reach it in time, if I flew. But It wasn’t dark enough. I’d be seen, for sure, and even though it was getting late there were still hundreds of people near the docks.

I could wait. I felt guilty for even thinking it, but I could. I could let the intercepting boat take the treasure, then follow them and take it back. That would be the safe, secret thing to do, but… Tam and Val would die. There was no doubt in my mind. I wasn’t as close to them as I was to Herald, or to Mak, but they were two of the only humans that I felt close to. And they were useful. It would be a waste, letting them die.

And it would break Herald’s heart.

I leapt off the roof with a clatter of tiles. Shouting and the screams erupted behind me seconds later, unleashing a riot of emotions within me that I had no time for. I ignored them. I beat my wings as hard as I could, turning myself into a missile cruising unerringly towards my target.

There were things in the world that mattered more than secrecy.

The two boats got ever closer. The launch had begun to turn, and as I hurtled through the air I could see the crew of the smaller boat scrambling to react, while those on the larger, those that weren’t rowing, stood braced with weapons in hand. Not one of them looked towards land, being too focused on their rowing or on their target.

Two of the pirates raised bows. They nocked their arrows – drew – aimed – and loosed.

On the launch, no one stumbled. No one fell.

The pirates didn't seem to care. They looked so calm, so self assured. They matched my own feelings perfectly. They had not the faintest idea of what hell they had invited upon themselves.

I crossed the last three hundred feet in less than four seconds. In that time the launch finished its turn, but it wasn’t fast enough. The larger, many oared boat would soon be alongside it. The man at the rudder of the launch saw me and raised one hand to point, but there was no time for anyone to act.

The archers nocked – drew – aimed–

Too slow. A hundred feet out I locked my wings, and the air whispered over them. There was barely a sound as I dipped to two feet above the surface, turned up to clear the gunwale of the boat, and struck.

In the dark, it must have looked to those standing behind the two archers as though a shadow had passed across the boat and just… taken them away. I didn’t scream, or roar, or screech. I didn’t make a sound. There were a pair of wet slaps, and by the time shock gave way to confusion and two bodies splashed into the water I was a hundred feet away and turning sharply, my feet, knees and hips mewling with pain. I had struck one man in the shoulder and the other in the head, and if either had survived the impact I doubted that they’d be in any state to save themselves in the water. I came around, taking out the turn so that I was parallel with the boat, coming up fast from behind and in full view of the rowers. One man, clearly choosing to believe his own eyes, had the wherewithal and the reflexes to throw himself in the sea, and I graciously accepted his surrender.

The others were not so lucky. As I tore past the boat I let loose as strong a spray of venom as I could muster and, while it was not concentrated enough to kill, I doubted that anyone caught in it would be at their best in the fight that was sure to come.

My course brought me right above the length of the launch, and I had just enough time to see Tam, sword in hand, turn, catch sight of me, and gawp. Then I was past and turning again. When I came around, the boat, now a scene of utter chaos as men flailed and stumbled, had come up alongside the launch.

The three idiots at the prow still tried to board, seemingly not realising that of the eight fighting men behind them two were long gone, one had stumbled into the water, and the rest were struggling to see. Those three died quickly and unceremoniously under Tam and Val’s swords. The rest were not so lucky.

I came down, braked somewhat, and crashed into two remaining fighters. What little I’d learned from Mak was lost as I just… let go. There was no need for it. There were humans here. They were trying to rob me, to harm my humans and steal my treasure, and now they were all but defenceless. I abandoned all petty human concerns of restraint or mercy. There was no room for them on that boat.

Instinct took over. I let myself be a dragon, and I did what a dragon would do.

They had left the docks with 16 men and women aboard. When the red cleared from my vision, there was not a human left alive on that boat. I think some threw themselves in the water. A little part of me hoped that they had, but if not, so be it.

The boat I was on had glided past the launch. I looked at those on board. The crew stared at me in abject terror. One of them was on his knees, weeping openly. Val was his usually stoic self, and only gave me a quick nod, free of judgement. Tam gave me a nervous smile.

I returned a grin full of sharp teeth, and flew off. I grabbed one of the bodies and brought it with me. For the sake of misdirection, I told myself. Not that I knew if it would do any good.

There was no going back from this. I had revealed myself to dozens, perhaps hundreds of people. The dragon was out of the shadows, to mangle a phrase. I’d had a taste of freedom, and I felt completely and utterly alive.