Page 28 of Lightningborn

Storm leaped for the package, snapping at it with sharp hatchling teeth, and Bart jerked his arm up. “Hey, you can hold your horses, lizard!” he scolded. “Hard as it is to believe, this isn’t just for you.”

“You didn’t tell me you were a sky knight,” Remy said as Bart walked over to the unsteady table near the wall. Storm trailed behind him, squeaking impatiently. “No wonder you know so much about dragons.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Bart muttered, setting the package on the table. “It’s not something I like to remember. Hey, get down!” he snapped as Storm immediately leaped onto the surface. “Impatient hatchling, I’m getting to it.”

Storm chirped, thumping his tail against the corner. Bart scowled and shooed him off, causing him to squeak again in protest as he dropped to the floor. The old man sighed. “I forgot how voracious hatchlings were,” he muttered. “But I’ve forgotten a lot of things. Those days when I was a knight…” He sighed again, even louder than before, and shook his head. “It was a long time ago.”

“Did you have a dragon?” Remy asked. Bart shot him an exasperated look.

“Of course I did! Blazetalon, the strongest, fastest dragon in the order. He was…” Bart trailed off, his eyes clouding over, and ripped the paper off the package sitting on the table. “Never you mind, boy,” he went on, frowning. “I don’t want to talk about it, and you have your own dragon to take care of. There…”

He dropped a large shank of meat to the floor, the bone still clinging to it, and Storm instantly pounced on it with a growl. “Yes, stuff your face, dragon. Hopefully that will keep you quiet for a few hours. And yes, I have something for your boy, too.”

He tossed Remy a hard loaf of bread, though it was still slightly warm from the oven, and frowned. “There. My duty for the night is done. Though how I ended up spending my own coin to feed a mud rat and a lizard is beyond me.”

Remy had so many questions. How did one become a sky knight? What was it like, riding a dragon to wherever you wanted? What drove Bart here, to Cutthroat Wedge, to become a nobody who told dragon stories in a greasy tavern?

But Bart didn’t give him a chance to start asking. With a scowl, he reached into the pocket of his coat and withdrew the bottle of grog Ferus had given him. Hunching his shoulders, he stomped out of the cave and back through the door, slamming it shut behind him.

CHAPTER

FOURTEEN

“Hey, dragon rider! The captain has called for you.”

In the dimness of the cargo hold, Gem looked up from where she was sitting against Cloud. One of the crew members stood at the bottom of the stairs, squinting as he peered at her over barrels and crates.

“Oy, girlie! Did you hear me?” he called, walking a little farther into the room. He was lanky like a scarecrow, with tan skin and hair bleached almost white from the sun. He looked like he spent all his days climbing around in the riggings. “Captain wants you,” he said again, moving with an almost monkey-like gait around a barrel. “Said to leave your dragon in the hold and come meet her in her quarters. I’m here to escort you up—”

Cloud’s rumbling growl caused the pirate to stop in his tracks, quickly raising both hands in front of him. “Hey, hey,” he said, backpedaling around a crate. “I don’t want any trouble. Tell your dragon not to bite me. I’m just following orders here.”

Gem patted Cloud’s neck, and the dragon’s rumbles ceased. “I’ll be up in just a second,” Gem told the lanky pirate, who immediately bobbed his head and left, eager to be away from the growling dragon.

She pushed herself to her feet, and Cloud immediately rose as well. “No, Cloud,” she told him, and the dragon cocked his head. “You have to stay here. I won’t be long. Stay. Stay.”

The dragon didn’t move at first, obviously reluctant. But finally, he lowered himself into a sit, then lay down again. Gem smiled.

“Good boy. I’ll be back soon. Don’t bite anyone who comes down here, okay?”

The white dragon yawned, then tucked his nose under a wing and closed his eyes. Gem turned and made her way through the cargo hold, up the steps, and onto the deck of the ship.

Wind tugged at her as she stepped into the open, blowing her hood off. Quickly, she pulled it back up, hiding the silver streak in her hair as she gazed around. The pirate crew moved about the deck, tying down ropes, working at the sails; one skinny boy with straw-colored hair pushed a mop around the deck, intently not looking at her. Beyond the rails, the sky shone a brilliant blue, fluffy clouds scuttling across the expanse like sheep. Taking a deep breath of cold air, Gem turned and headed toward the aft of the ship. Toward a single door behind the mast that marked the entrance to the captain’s quarters. Raising a hand to the battered wood, she knocked loudly.

“Enter.”

Gem slipped through the door. Beyond the frame, the large captain’s quarters greeted her, dark wood floors spreading to walls of shelves, all covered in various treasures and knickknacks. Gem saw a floating crimson orb under glass, next to the open jawbone of some massive fish with razor-sharp teeth. A crown sat on the head of a skeleton in the corner, an enormous ruby glittering in one hollow eye socket. A golden birdcage rested atop a barrel, and a tiny yellow creature flitted back and forth inside, cheeping.

A battered wooden desk sat in front of the back wall, glass windows showing the endless sky beyond. Two figures were seated there, the red-haired pirate woman Gem had seen before, and an older boy with bright silver hair pulled into a ponytail.

A mage?Gem’s heart pounded. She hadn’t thought about it, but of course there would be a storm mage aboard. They were the ones who powered the crystals that flew the ships through the air. Pulling her hood even farther up, she edged into the room.

“No, Lysander,” the pirate woman was saying as Gem walked up. “This isn’t negotiable. You were powering the crystal through the storm all night. I’m not going to have my only storm mage passing out in the middle of the route because he’s too stubborn to know when he has to rest.”

“I’m fine, Captain.”

“I know you think that.” The captain held up a gloved hand. “And that’s why you’re going to take a break. One day away from the crystal chamber isn’t going to kill you. We have enough charge to coast for a few hours, and the winds are favorable today. I figure we won’t need to power the crystal until tonight, at the very earliest. So you are going to spend some time belowdecks. Sleeping.”

“But—”

---