Chapter 16
Tear Apart
I ran out of Crabaul while Valris scrambled back into his house and stormed onto the beach. I could find a boat, or at least head somewhere more secluded first. But Gemiad didn't have that time.
I jumped, kicking up sand as I did which was then blasted away as I shifted into my dragon form and the stroke of my wings lifted me up.
Every beat of my wings propelled me forward, up and forward. I was an idiot. Up and forward. How could I have been this careless? Faster, damn me, faster! Why didn't I consider why that remnant had taken her instead of me? My heart thumped in my chest, the wind howled past my snout. A father dying of a mysterious illness, a mother skilled in herbs and healing. Either one could have been a channeler; both even!
I tried to console myself that maybe they'd pegged her as a sul'dam. That wouldn't be so bad. But they wouldn't rob a sul'dam of her clothes.
The ocean raced past me and I was high enough now, and close enough, to make out more details of the ship. A two master, both sails ribbed like a Chinese junk. That was a Seanchan ship.
Closing my wings slightly I angled down for a shallow dive, picking up speed by trading in altitude. I wanted to roar, I wanted to blast it with fire. But getting Gemiad out came first.
Still three hundred meters away a cry issued from the ship, the lookout up in the crow's nest pointing at me. Figures that they of all people would know to look up. Not that it did him any good.
They were still scrambling on deck when I smashed into the second mast. The lookout jumped, but I didn't care whether he landed in the ocean or crashed onto the deck. Either way, the mast broke and dragged the ship to the right as half of it along with the rigging landed in the water.
I caught myself on the lower half of the splintered mast to arrest the rest of my momentum and landed on the deck on my hind legs. A swipe of my tail broke the other mast.
Fire exploded over me and someone pricked my left foot. I ignored the latter to seek the source of the fire. A woman clad in gray with short hair, a silver collar around her neck attached with a silver chain to a bracelet worn by another woman. That one wore a blue dress with red and silver lightning bolts and had her hair in a pony tail. Her light brown eyes were big and her teeth clenched.
They'd just stepped out from the deck below and neither one was Gemiad.
I took one step in their direction and a lightning bolt from a clear sky hit me in the head. That hurt, but it only hurt. With a snarl I slammed my fist down, only to encounter a shield of Air. It fractured under my blow, like the facets of a gem, and the damane cried out in pain.
Another punch, the shield bowed, but it didn't break even as the damane fell to her knees. I growled. I didn't have time for this. My claws broke through the deck and I simply tore the section they were standing on off and hurled it and them into the ocean.
A couple of arrows skittered off my scales and I turned my attention to the rest of the crew. "Die."
The tools rebel!
Daggers plunged into people's backs, spears tripped legs, a sword lopped off the nose of its owner while others found themselves tangled in the ropes that pulled them over the railing or up in the air leaving them gasping for air while their legs kicked uselessly.
I left them to their struggles and searched for someone in charge, the captain if I could. One of the people near the helm looked like he could be it. He didn't wear a helmet at the moment, but his armor of overlapping plates of blackened steel had a gilded pattern on it. Likewise, the hilt of the two-handed sword on his back was also decorated, though with silver rather than gold.
He made to draw the weapon when he saw me approach, the planks groaning under my weight. But one glance at his men still struggling and dying to whatever weapon made him rethink that course of action. Instead, he braced himself and appeared to ready himself to wrestle me with his bare hands. I'd admire his courage, if that courage didn't serve such a shit system.
I laid one clawed hand on the railing of the aftercastle and crushed it. With my head raised and standing on my hind legs, I towered over him even with how tall the aft section was. "Do you have any other damane on board?"
The captain, I assumed he was one anyway, reared back in surprise at my words. "You speak!"
"I demand, human," I said. The air shimmered in the wake of my words as the heat in my chest threatened to slip out. "You will answer my questions."
"I'm a loyal soldier of the Empire. You'll gain nothing from us, we're not afraid to give our lives for the Empress, long may she live." He drawled the words, sounding like a Texan cowboy to my ears.
"Who said anything about killing you?" I lowered my snout so that my every exhalation ruffled the captain's hair. "If you don't tell me what I wish to know, I will take those pieces of your soul you hold so dear. Your loyalty to your Empress, your place in the Ever Victorious Army, your name. Your only choice is whether you die with any honor left, or I strip you of everything and drop off a common criminal that would happily murder the Empress herself if it got him a good meal. Observe."
I turned my attention slightly to the left, to a young man wearing a plain version of the armor. He did wear a helmet, its cheek guards appearing like the mandibles of an ant or termite. I pointed one claw at him and poured my effort into a miracle. Strings and ribbons unfurled from him in my mind's eye, all the ties society put on him, all the connections his heart had forged. My claw caught a particular one and cut. "A son no longer."
Sever the ties that bind
I turned one eye back to the captain. "Go on, ask him about his parents. Whether he even had any."
"You speak in riddles, monster," the captain growled. For a moment he glanced in the young man's direction, but then he met my gaze again. "Under-Lieutenant Chiren's family has served mine for five generations. I know his parents well."
"Ah, but that's my point. You still do, but Chiren doesn't. Not anymore." Pain sliced across my tail and I spun around. Some of the sailors had survived my smite and had gathered their courage. Brandishing boarding pikes and axes, they braced themselves when I faced them while two loosed their bows from the back.
Not wanting to waste any Effort on them, I grabbed the railing and tore a good piece off. It took only a moment to shape it into a staff with which I swept the deck clean. Bones broke and sailors screamed as they rolled and bounced across the deck, more than one ending up plunging into the cold waters below.
Satisfied, I returned my attention to the captain, thumping the staff on the deck to get his attention. "Now, captain, ask … Chiren about his parents. And then, I will ask you my questions. And you will answer." I lowered my head so that my snout nearly touched his chest. "Or someone wearing your face will do so for you."
VVVV
Men and women screamed as my fire engulfed the ship. I spared a few moments to hover in place to make sure nobody would get a small boat off to escape the sinking vessel. Some of the people that jumped into the sea were burning, others only started screaming only after they hit the water. A couple of sharks had started to follow me this morning.
My wings were tired, even after a fitful sleep. I had started my search yesterday, tearing through one Seanchan ship after another looking for Gemiad. I couldn't be sure she hadn't been on the second ship, that had been a disaster. I'd wanted to save at least someone, so I'd freed the damane. But she must have been Seanchan herself because she went into a blind panic after I did. It had been her that had sunk that ship, not me.
But I'd searched the wreckage thoroughly, none of the bodies had been Gemiad. She hadn't been on this ship either. So where was she? How many Seanchan ships infested these waters?
Three ships yesterday and two more today. The ship must have stuck closer to the coast, or maybe gone south. With a heave of my wings I spiraled up to a higher altitude. Off in the distance, I could see other ships. None appeared to have the ribbed sails the Seanchan used.
"I'm not going to find her," I finally admitted aloud. "Not like this. I need to stop reacting and start thinking."
Saying it made me feel better, gave my mind direction. The ocean was too big and there were too many targets, I'd lost my chance to find her quickly yesterday and I needed to make peace with that. But I wasn't giving up on her and there was really only one place they could take her. "All roads to lead Falme after all."
They'd taken Egwene there. And I remembered that they'd also favored concentrating their channeling slaves into one location when they'd occupied Ebou Dar.
It was well into fall now, I had to make sure I reached Falme before Rand and the others did. And maybe, if there was time, I could prepare to free more than just Gemiad.
Spreading my wings I turned to the east and set off.
VVVV
The raken spun and dove, my teeth clicking shut on empty air. The creature's rider pulled on the reins while her partner cast a look over her shoulder at me. I scrambled to give chase, I couldn't allow them to get word out of my presence. The raken was fast, I had to give it my all to not lose ground on the creature.
I'd chanced getting close to Falme before I intended to land, only to find one of the Seanchan's flying scouts in my way. I had always imagined them as a sort of Pteranodon, but it turned out they had much more in common with a wyvern given its long neck and lizard-like crestless head. It hadn't spotted me, they'd been flying at a lower altitude, so I'd tucked my wings in and had tried to ram them out of the sky.
But the raken's instincts had saved both it and its riders. One moment they'd been going along nice and slow, the next I'd fallen past the creature as it performed a barrel roll that had nearly thrown its riders off. It would have, if not for their harness.
They dove into a puffy white cloud and I gave chase. I couldn't risk my fire breath or any other smite, too flashy, too much risk it would draw attention from people on the ground. And when they found the raken, I couldn't afford them suspecting anything but natural causes.
My eyes hurt a little. I'd not gotten any more sleep last night than I did the night before and thinking was a struggle. I knew I could have done this better. We hadn't been flying in the same direction so I could have let them go. It just hadn't occurred to me until now. So was I not thinking of something else?
I closed my eyes and nearly lost track of the raken when it hit me. The raken wasn't the problem, not really. The raken couldn't speak or write. It wasn't the threat, its riders were. With a surge of Effort I reached out with my mind and connected to the harnesses they wore.
Pop the latch
With a roar, I breathed a lance of fire, not at them, but at the air underneath the raken. Startled, it cried out and threw itself out of the way of the sudden fire. I followed it in its turn to the right, one small form falling away from the raken and out of sight a second later. One down.
The raken's rider pulled the flyer down and further to the right in a corkscrew motion. Did she think she could catch her colleague or was she hoping to find some help on the ground? Either way, I couldn't let it.
Wings tight against my body I let gravity take full hold of me. The wind whistled between my horns and our gazes met for one brief moment before hurtled past her. Again, the raken threw itself out of my reach. Its rider screamed as she lost her seat, only barely holding on with a leash wrapped around her left arm.
I threw my wings out and caught the thermals shooting me up again straight into the raken's path. It dodged, but as it spun out of my way the rider lost her precarious hold and the centrifugal force threw her off.
I stared at the patch of cloud she'd fallen through. I'd heard of a stewardess that had survived falling out of an airplane. But even she had broken several bones and she'd had modern medicine to save her life.
Even if one of those Seanchan were as lucky as that stewardess, it would be days before any report could reach Falme. And by then, they could look far and wide for a dragon until the cows came home.
I'd already be hiding right under their noses.
