Page 44 of Lightningborn

“Gentlemen!” The captain gave the crew no time to recover; she strode across the deck, her voice rising over the wind. “Everyone, back to their stations! That storm is still coming, and we are not losing this ship tonight. I don’t care if you don’t know what just happened; talk about it when we’re clear of the storm. Move!”

The crew scrambled to obey. Safety lines were re-tightened, sails were furled, and ropes were fastened as the pirates rushed to beat the storm.

“Cloud?” Gem dodged a pirate speeding by and looked around for her dragon. He hadn’t returned to her once the sirens had been driven off, and with all the people rushing around the deck, it was hard to see him. “Cloud, where are you?”

She spotted him then, and her heart skipped a beat. The dragon stood near the back of the ship, his neck outstretched and his muzzle nosing a body lying motionless on the deck.

Remy.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-THREE

Remy felt like he was floating.

For a few seconds, everything was dark. He didn’t know where he was. He didn’t know if he was dreaming. The last thing he remembered was being aboard theQueen’s Blade. There had been…a song. A beautiful song that was somehow calling to him. Then everything had gone black.

But then an image sputtered to life, flickering like a candle flame in the wind. He was inside a room that somehow reminded him of the captain’s quarters. The floor was carpeted; there were shelves on the walls and a desk in the corner. As his vision cleared, he saw iron bars surrounding him and suddenly realized he was in a cage.

Across the room, the door opened, and Jhaeros stepped inside. Remy gave a start; the pirate mage looked much bigger now. Actually, everything looked big. Or…was he the one who was little? The size of a small dog…

Storm, Remy thought as he suddenly understood. These visions weren’t random; they came from his dragon, from what Storm was seeing or feeling at that moment. Remy was aboard theWindshark, and Jhaeros was standing in front of a cage that held Remy’s dragon.

A low chuckle broke through Remy’s thoughts. He looked up and saw Jhaeros gazing down at him, the face on the other side of the bars filling his vision.

“You know where you are, don’t you, dragon?” Jhaeros asked, and Remy felt Storm shrink back from the looming pirate mage. “Don’t worry, this is just like fishing; you put a line and bait out and hope something bites it. Let’s hope your big brothers will sense you wriggling on the line and come up to see what’s happening.”

Storm hissed defiantly, baring his fangs at the mage, and Jhaeros laughed. “You’re rather small to be making such big threats, dragon,” he told him. “If I had the time, or the patience, to wait a few years, maybe you would be worth my while. But the amount of magic I could get from that tiny body is irrelevant. So we’re going to call on something bigger.”

Call on something bigger? Did he mean an adult wild dragon?

Jhaeros stepped back, no longer smiling. “A pity your mother decided to sacrifice herself to save you,” he growled. “Such a waste of power. If I’d only known what I was dealing with sooner; she could’ve provided enough magic to fuel all my dreams.…”

Storm gave a furious snarl and threw himself at the cage bars, snapping and clawing. Remy shivered at the anger in the tiny dragon’s body, but Jhaeros gave another chuckle and shook his head.

“I suppose that’s one advantage of you being so small,” he said, and bent his face close to the bars again, smirking. “You can’t breathe fire yet. How sad for you.” Storm hissed at him, raking the bars with his tiny claws, and Jhaeros smiled. “But look at it this way. If you were even a little bigger, I wouldn’t be using you for bait, little True Dragon.” He raised a hand, lightning sparking between his fingers. “I’d suck that magic energy right out of you and use it to overthrow the kingdom!”

Storm gave a squawk and leaped back. Stunned, Remy could only stare at the pirate mage, his mind reeling. Stormwasn’ta wild dragon; he was aTrue Dragon.

Suddenly, a lot of things made sense.

Jhaeros stood, the lightning in his hand dying away, and regarded the dragon with a terrible, hungry expression. “No matter. We’ve almost reached the Vortex.” He raised a hand, spreading his fingers toward the ceiling. “You can feel it, can’t you?” he murmured. “All that energy, all that raw, unfiltered magic, swirling in one place. Right there for the taking. They said I was sky-mad to go hunting for an adult True Dragon, but at the Vortex, I’ll be strong enough to bring one down. I will tear it open and take all that power and magic for myself. And once I get the power of an adult True Dragon, I’ll be unstoppable.” He slapped a fist against Storm’s cage, making both Remy and Storm jump, and grinned evilly through the bars. “Once we reach the Vortex, I’m going to need you to call for your big brothers. Scream, cry, throw a tantrum, whatever you need to make them hear you. If you don’t,Imight have to provide a bit of incentive.” Jhaeros chuckled, making Remy’s stomach clench in fear. “So, little True Dragon, be ready to scream when we get there!”

Remy gasped and opened his eyes.

“Easy, kid,” said Captain Cutlass’s voice. Gazing around, Remy saw he was no longer outside on deck; he was lying on a cot in the captain’s quarters. A bony man he’d not seen before was standing over him, peering into his face with a magnifying glass. Captain Cutlass gazed down at him over the man’s shoulder, and Mary hovered worriedly at his side.

“Aha,” the man said, turning to the captain with a triumphant smile. Raising the magnifying glass, he announced: “I have concluded that the boy is, in fact, awake. No need for leeches or amputation. Probably.”

“Thank you, Mr. Scalpel,” Captain Cutlass said flatly. “You can go now.”

“Are you sure?” The man gazed down at Remy in obvious disappointment. “The boy still seems a bit out of it. Perhaps we should apply a leech or two, just in case.”

Remy cringed, and the captain shook her head. “No, I’m fairly certain he’s fine now,” Cutlass said, to Remy’s relief. “You can go back to your station. But I’ll be sure to call you if he needs an arm sawed off.”

“Don’t get my hopes up, Captain,” the man said. But he reached down, picked a saw up off the floor, and trudged out of the room.

The captain watched him leave, then shook her head and looked down at Remy. “You all right, boy?” she asked as Mary pressed forward, her face anxious. “You passed out after the siren attack, and we brought you here. You were muttering and twitching in your sleep, but we couldn’t wake you up. What happened?”

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