The Captain's Dragon (Dragon Knights Book 15) Read online

  “I am Jinn,” she told him. “I am Rivka of the Black Dragon Clan.”

  “I have, of course, heard of your Clan, but I thought the name was just a euphemism,” he said quietly, knowing many eyes were upon them. He trusted his men, but this seemed like sensitive information, and he didn’t want to be party to revealing something he shouldn’t. He wouldn’t like to have the Jinn hunting him. They were said to be relentless.

  “It’s not,” she said rather curtly. “Look, I don’t have time to waste here. Will you make haste for Tipolir or do you give up the search?”

  “I will never give up on the justice I seek from Fisk,” he answered truthfully.

  “Then, you’d better head for Tipolir. We believe he is going to go overland from there, but if he turns about and heads out to sea, again, it will take a fast ship like yours to follow him.”

  Liam frowned, thinking through his options. Up to this point, he’d been spinning his wheels and had found no traction on his search. Perhaps this un-looked-for help was just what he needed to move forward on his quest. He made a snap decision.

  “Mr. Benyon, make our course for Tipolir at top speed,” he shouted to his first mate.

  “Aye, Captain. Tipolir at top speed,” Benyon repeated, then turned to the helmsman and reissued the orders. He then got the mates moving to unfurl the mainsail and get the ship moving as quickly as it could.

  Satisfied that his crew were hopping to it, Liam turned back to the black dragon. “Will you remain with us or go aloft, Lady Rivka?” he asked politely.

  Rivka seemed to sigh. She looked tired to him. “If it’s all the same to you, Captain, I would like to stay on your ship. Do you have a hatchway large enough for me to squeeze through? I have been flying in the sun for some time, and I am rather overheated. The scales reflect a lot of the sunlight, but black still absorbs a great deal of heat in these Southern climes.”

  Liam thought fast. Where could he put her that was nice enough? One didn’t just toss a dragon in the hold of a ship with the crew. Dragons were special. Respected. Scary, when they felt insulted. Even Liam recognized the need to tread lightly.

  “The doors to my rooms are large,” he told her, trying his best to sound gracious. “Perhaps you could duck down a bit and fit through there?” He pointed to the back of the ship where his room took up most of the stern on this deck. “I can have water delivered. We have plenty of fresh water since we resupplied not two days ago.”

  She seemed to be judging the size of the double doors, her head tilted to one side. “I believe that will be adequate. Thank you, Captain. If you’ll just open the doors, we’ll see if I fit.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Liam went himself to the doors and opened them wide. The dragon crouched down and just fit inside the large room. When she was in, she turned to look at him.

  “Please close the doors and do not allow anyone entrance, except yourself. I am prepared to have you know some of my secrets, but no one else,” she told him rather mysteriously. Liam scowled as he closed the doors and signaled for one of the hands.

  He instructed the man to deliver a basket of fruit and several pitchers of water to the side of the entryway, but not to come inside. The young man rushed off to do his captain’s bidding, and Liam took a moment to check that his orders regarding their speed and heading had been carried out. By the time he’d satisfied himself that everything was running as smoothly as possible on his ship, the young man had returned with the water and fruit. Liam thanked him and sent him away, then he turned to his own door and knocked politely.

  “You can come in now,” the dragon’s voice came in his mind.

  Liam picked up one of the pitchers of water and looped the basket handle for the fruit over his arm, using his free hand to open just one of the doors to let himself in. He expected to find the dragon curled up in the middle of the floor. Instead, he found a lovely woman wearing form-fitting black leather armor, unstrapping a set of swords from her back. She turned as he opened the door and smiled. She had lustrous, dark wavy hair and deep green eyes, and her smile lit up the entire room. For the first time in a long time, he noticed how attractive this woman—any woman, in fact—was, and it disconcerted him a bit.

  “Close the door, Captain. You’re letting the flies in.” Her spoken voice was as soothing as her words in his mind had been, for he had no doubt that the woman and the dragon were one and the same. He didn’t know how he knew it, but he was certain of it. Especially since the dragon was gone and the woman was in his quarters.

  “That is some magic trick you have there, Lady Rivka,” he said, entering his cabin and closing the door behind him.

  “It’s not really magic,” she told him. “It’s just the way I was born. I am half and half. The descendant of one of the children of Draneth the Wise.”

  “Like the royal line of Draconia,” Liam said, thinking aloud. “Do you mean to tell me that the king and his brothers are all dragons under the skin, as well?”

  Liam was having a tough time getting his footing back after being hit with the whammy of having a beautiful woman in his cabin rather than the dragon he’d seen enter. His instant attraction to her was something he hadn’t expected at all. It had been a very long time, indeed, since a pretty lass could capture his attention. Not since Olivia, in fact. That his interest should rouse now seemed…inexplicable.

  “How else do you think they can so easily rule both humans and dragons? They are both. Our kind were born to bridge the gap between the two races,” she said, taking a seat in front of his desk. She seemed to relax a bit, as if very tired. “Can I have some of that water, please? I wasn’t kidding about the sun. I’m not originally from such a warm climate, and it’s a bit of an adjustment.”

  “Certainly.” Liam snapped to attention, realizing he’d been standing there, staring.

  He moved into the room and put both the pitcher of water and then fruit basket on his desk. He then went around the desk to the sideboard and retrieved two crystal goblets and his bottle of port. He needed a drink of something stronger, even if she didn’t.

  By the time he returned to the desk and took his own seat behind it, she was munching on an apple. He poured her a glass of water first, watching as she drank it down in one long series of gulps. Just the subtle action of her throat seemed to shake something to life inside him that he didn’t fully understand, but recognized as lust. Shaking his head at his own strange reaction, he then offered her the port by simply raising the decanter questioningly. She reached for the water pitcher instead, answering his query just as silently.

  When she had ingested about half the pitcher of water and the entire apple, he sat down opposite her, the desk between them. He watched her carefully, calmly assessing what he’d learned. It wasn’t all that shocking to discover that the rulers of Draconia were even more special than he’d thought. What was surprising was that they’d been able to keep their secret for so long.

  “Now, Captain,” Lady Rivka said as he waited to see what would happen next. “We need to make some plans. How are your men set for fighting on land? Hard travel? Taking a prize ship?”

  Liam frowned but answered her questions. “All of my men were chosen because of their fighting skills. This ship, in particular, out of the fleet I put together, is the best of the best. Most of my men were soldiers. Honorable mercenaries or guardsmen. Some are reformed pirates, used to fighting on sea and land. All grew up near the shore and have no fear of water. They learned to sail at a young age, for the most part, and are naturals on land or at sea.”

  “That is excellent,” Rivka replied, sitting a little forward on her chair. “I ask this because there are several possibilities lying before us on this path. First, Fisk’s ship. We must stop it, if we can, to prevent him from taking to the sea, again. He’s got some kind of magic on that ship that makes it nearly impossible to spot from the air or follow at sea, as you have experienced for yourself. If at all possible, we must deny him the use of that ship.”

  “Which is why you asked about taking a prize. Well, I won’t dissemble,” Liam told her. “We’ve done it before. I’m not a pirate…exactly. But I have taken ships that were up to no good. My men are well versed in the necessary techniques, and there are enough men here to form a prize crew to remove the captured ship to another port where I have more sailors and resources.”

  “As I had hoped.” Rivka seemed pleased with his answer. “The thing is, there is no clear way to sail much closer to the Citadel.”

  “The Citadel?” Liam repeated, wanting to know more about what this fascinating woman had to say about that magical and dangerous place.

  “Well, that’s where Fisk has to be heading,” she said. “That page of the book contains the spell that can break the ice that holds the enemies of all mankind and dragonkind at bay. I, and many others, believe that is Fisk’s goal. To free the dark wizards imprisoned in the Citadel and return chaos to the world. It’s an insane notion, but I suppose Fisk thinks he’ll be looked on with favor by those evil beings of power and rewarded for freeing them. From all I have been taught, he’s more likely to be squashed under their feet as they make their escape.”

  Silence reigned for a moment as they both thought that through. “It cannot be allowed to happen,” Liam said finally, in a somber tone.

  Rivka’s flashing green eyes met his. “Exactly why I have come to you, Captain,” she told him. “I believe you know Fisk best, and I know you have a personal reason to hunt him. I believe you have the best shot of either capturing him or hounding him into a position where our allies in Draconia and elsewhere can capture him and retrieve the page of the book.” Her voice dropped to a more grave tone. “I am sorry for what happened to your wife, sir,” she told him with all formality.


  Liam looked up sharply. “What do you know of it?” Not many people knew the truth of what had happened to his dear Olivia.

  “Fisk killed her,” Rivka said quietly. “You have my deepest sympathy.”

  “Not many know the truth of what happened that day,” Liam said, surprised by both her knowledge and circumspection. He wanted to know more about what she knew and how she knew it.

  “We Jinn have our own sources of information,” she replied, sitting back in her chair. Her body language was closing up, and he suspected he wouldn’t get much more out of her on this topic.

  “I have run across your people from time to time, of course, but I know little of them. Few Jinn sail the high seas.”

  “True enough. We prefer the land routes,” she agreed.

  “Recently, it seems, many of your kind have gathered in Draconia. Why?” He figured the oblique angle wasn’t working, so he’d go for a direct question.

  “The prophesied time came to pass,” she said, surprising him. “Many of us in the Black Dragon Clan are direct descendants of Draneth the Wise. We belong to Draconia, first and foremost. When Arikia was found and became our queen, we knew that was the time to return to the land of our origin. Almost all Jinn have been recalled and are building homes around Castleton.”

  “Truly? I had heard rumors, of course, but we are a long way from the capital here,” Liam observed, shocked by what Rivka was revealing. Perhaps direct questions were the best way to deal with this beautiful Jinn Lady, after all.

  “Oh, it’s all true. Riki is our queen, and the Prince of Spies is our king. Rather fitting, I thought, since we Jinn, at our heart, are a nation of spies. We still have operatives all over, and will continue to send out caravans, but our home base is here, now. We finally have been able to come home.”

  Liam hadn’t known any of that and was taking it all in. He wondered if he could help with intelligence gathering, once his task with Fisk was finally complete. He had built up one of the biggest fleets on the high seas with one purpose in mind. Now that the purpose—catching Fisk—was at hand, he had started to think about possible futures for his fleet of ships.

  “If some of your brethren wish to go to sea after this is all over, I have many fast ships that call on foreign ports on a regular basis. I think the Jinn—and the crown—might find that sort of thing useful,” he said carefully.

  Rivka smiled. “Once this task is done, I believe we could come to some arrangement. No sense letting a network like the one you’ve built go into decline. Not when the kingdom and all our peoples will still need protectors and sources of information for those protectors.”

  Liam smiled for the first time in a very long time. He liked the way this woman thought. She was quick-witted and challenging. Something he’d seldom encountered in the fairer sex. Of course, since his wife had died, he hadn’t been in port much, and there were no women on any of his ships.

  “My thoughts exactly,” he agreed, allowing himself a moment of enjoyment, thinking of a future that had not yet come to pass where he was free to be just another citizen of Draconia, not a man hell-bent on vengeance and bringing a certain piratical bastard to justice.

  Liam left his rooms, leaving the fascinating Rivka inside. She was weary from her journey, and he had graciously offered to let her sleep in his bed. They had talked about the particulars of what would, or could, happen when they reached Tipolir, but she had been yawning toward the end, and he’d taken pity on the woman and left her to rest. There was plenty he could do on deck to prepare his ship and crew for what was to come.

  A small creature, about the size of a cat, hopped up on the rail beside Liam as he looked out on the deck below. Liam didn’t jump. He’d become used to the virkin’s presence aboard his ship. Better than a ship’s cat at catching and devouring vermin of all kinds, the virkin had joined his crew in Elderland, on Liam’s last trading voyage there. The creatures were said to be intelligent and even capable of basic communication once they matured, but this little one had been newly hatched when it climbed up Liam’s pant leg to settle on his shoulder.

  He didn’t know enough about virkin to know when she might mature enough to communicate, but he talked to her, regardless. He knew only vague rumors about virkin, and nobody aboard hailed from Elderland, though they all enjoyed the benefits of having such a fierce hunter aboard to keep the vermin down. Since the virkin—whom he called Ella—had joined the ship, there had been no rats or even spiders, in fact. She was a master hunter, and nothing escaped her claws.

  Ella was shy, though. She most often slept in Liam’s cabin, but had been conspicuous by her absence when he’d let Rivka enter there. Ella had been hiding, and he figured she might be afraid of the dragon. Virkin had wings, too, but they were tiny compared to a dragon. Ella was a miniaturized version of the sea dragons he’d seen. Colorful and without flame. Scaled in jewel tones but, somehow, sleeker than their land counterparts.

  Liam held out his hand, allowing Ella to decide whether or not she would allow him to touch her. In that, she was much like a cat. She butted her head into his hand in a way he had come to recognize meant she wanted a scratch behind her ears and the little horns that protruded from her forehead. Her scales were soft to the touch, but tough enough to protect her little body.

  “Where have you been hiding, my lovely?” Liam crooned to the creature in a quiet voice as he scratched and stroked her scales in the way she liked. Soon, he could feel the rumble of her purr under his hand, and her eyes closed in what looked like virkin-ish bliss.

  She gave him a little chirp in her near-sleep. Ella made the cutest sounds, sometimes. He wasn’t sure if virkin were supposed to communicate verbally or through body language. Not for the first time, he wished he knew more about the species. He hadn’t ever expected one to choose him for its companion, but now that she had, he couldn’t imagine sailing without her aboard. She was both useful and comforting to a man who had lost almost everyone that had ever mattered to his heart.

  “Were you afraid of the big black dragon?” he asked Ella, rhetorically, still stroking her scales as she drifted to sleep on the rail. He thought about the fact that the dragon was a shapeshifter. A lovely shapeshifter, at that.

  If his mind drifted to the oddity of having a woman in his bed for the first time since he’d lost his dearest Olivia, he didn’t let it dwell there long. Rivka was absolutely nothing like dear, sweet Olivia. For one thing, Rivka was a warrior. Those swords she’d had strapped across her back were not just for show. They gave every appearance of long acquaintance and hard use.

  Rivka had flashing dark eyes that held secrets and mysteries all their own. Olivia had possessed the clearest blue gaze that could hide nothing. Rivka was tall and muscular where Olivia had been petite and the softest welcome in the world to a man who had lived a hard life on the sea.

  There really was no comparison between the two women. What’s more, Rivka was not only a Jinn, but a dragon. That was something completely outside Liam’s experience. She was royalty…or the next best thing to it. She was magical and mysterious. Liam didn’t even know if she had a husband among the Jinn or if people who could turn into dragons somehow behaved differently than regular people.

  “Why am I even thinking about it?” Liam muttered to himself as he stood at the rail, stroking Ella and peering outward into the gloom.

  “I beg pardon, Cap’n?” Benyon asked, coming up beside Liam.

  “Nothing,” Liam replied, sighing heavily. “Make your report, Mr. Benyon.”

  *

  Rivka slept in the captain’s bed, uncomfortably aware of the scent of him in the cabin. She hadn’t expected him to be so devastatingly attractive. Tall, handsome and younger than she had imagined, Liam O’Dare was too attractive for his own good. He had tanned skin from all his time spent sailing the seas under the sun, and he had the fit body of a man who pitched in with the physical labor of running his ship, not sitting back ordering other folk to do the hard work.

  His blue eyes were as deep as the sea, and the golden lights in his dark brown hair made her want to run her fingers through it. She was fighting a very visceral attraction to the handsome sea captain. Something she hadn’t expected or prepared for, but something that was very real, regardless.