14 #4

Ossa took them out of the port. The boat skirted low cliffs and entered a cove covered in polished stones. The remains of a cage lay on the beach. The wood had burned from the inside. Two blue plates lay underwater, split by claws.

Isolde jumped ashore.

She found tracks among the rocks. Rheskan had grown. Each claw was nearly as wide as her hand. The trail showed an irregularity on the left; the wounded wing dragged when he folded it.

“Were there people in the cage?” she asked.

“Bait,” Ossa said. “Three prisoners tied around a goat. The dragon broke the roof, moved the humans aside, and took a piece of chain. He could have burned them. He even left the ropes intact.”

Rheskan had distinguished the captives from those who set the trap.

Isolde touched a red mark on the stone. The bond opened.

Hunger.

Pain in the wing.

Salt on a wound.

Rheskan’s fury came with images: ships entering caves, rings that answered fire, men tracking his flight with blue compasses. He also showed Ydrael beneath the mountain. The port’s network fed his chains.

“I’m here,” Isolde said.

Kaoran and Ossa stayed near the boat. Isolde walked to the back of the cove.

A shadow crossed the sun.

Rheskan descended onto the cliff.

For an instant, Isolde saw the young dragon who slept in Caleryon’s courtyard and pretended to ignore her orders.

Then she made out the changed body. He had gained size, muscle, and scars.

The left wing folded with difficulty. A blue line crossed his chest where a net had caught him. His eyes held the same dark red.

“Rheskan.”

The dragon bared his teeth.

The warning was unmistakable. Isolde stopped.

“I won’t come closer if you don’t want me to.”

Rheskan lowered his head. He smelled the air. Kaoran’s presence drew a growl. Ossa backed toward the water.

“He got me out of Cendral,” Isolde said. “He’s kept your name without knowing you.”

Kaoran inclined his head. He kept his hand to himself.

Rheskan sent the memory of the fall: Isolde disappearing beneath the water, himself straining against the blue stones, and a human order closing the way. Then he showed months of searching. He had followed rivers, attacked convoys, and slept inside caves where the metal could not sense him.

Beneath it all lay an accusation.

Isolde had called him too late.

“I was alive, and I couldn’t reach you,” she said. “Afterward, I was afraid of leading them to you.”

Rheskan beat his good wing. The wind threw sand against her clothes.

“You have the right to be furious.”

The dragon turned his gaze toward the sea.

Isolde raised a hand. In Caleryon’s courtyard, he would have come closer to smell it, perhaps to shove her for taking so long.

Now his claws stayed buried in the cliff edge.

She slowly lowered her arm and sat on a rock where he could see her.

The conduit water still chilled her clothes.

Rheskan watched her open hand on her knee and stopped showing his teeth.

Isolde breathed more easily, though the distance remained.

“I’m going to Arvek,” she said. “The cages leave from there for Cendral. I want to cut them open.”

Rheskan showed a cave beneath the cliffs. There were three ships, a tower of chains, and an opening leading downward. At the bottom, a door carried the scent of Ydrael’s ancient fire.

“Will you come with me?”

The dragon spread his wings.

The left trembled, though it held.

Rheskan leaped from the cliff. He passed over Isolde and descended to skim the water. He flew west without looking back.

His answer was to follow that direction without offering a promise.

Isolde picked up a red scale left among the stones.

“Did you expect him to carry you?” Ossa asked.

Isolde put the scale away.

“I wanted to touch him.”

Kaoran followed the retreating shadow.

“He showed us the entrance.”

“We’ll get there by sea,” she said. She stood, careful of her knee. “I need to dry the copies before we board the other ship.”

They returned to Arkhe with the tide. Rheskan had already disappeared behind the coastline. The bond remained open as a narrow line, enough to share direction and distance without imposing either.

At nightfall, they left the warehouse dressed as salt porters. Kaoran carried the C-7 register. Isolde kept the manifests and a splinter from the cage marked by Rheskan.

The bond answered when she touched it.

Wind, sea, and a red will that remained free.

“I’m coming to you,” she whispered.

Rheskan’s answer came as an image of teeth, rock, and open sky. Then he closed the bond.

Kaoran raised an eyebrow.

“He seems pleased.”

“He seems furious.”

“In dragons, the two share a space.”

Thalos waited beside an unnamed boat. The night tide was beginning to rise.

“The salt route leaves before dawn,” he said. “If you board, you accept that the sea decides more than your map.”

Isolde looked at Arkhe’s lights. On pier five, the Guard was trying to cover the blue plate. The dockworkers moved lamps so everyone could see it.

Isolde tested the boarding plank with her foot. Her leg trembled after the conduit and the wait in the cove. She accepted the arm Thalos offered.

“Let me know when the copies leave.”

“Before you set foot in Arvek.”

She climbed into the boat and sat facing west.