Ship of Destiny

This sudden gaping hole in his plans nearly unma

"With me, you come before all others. Should you ask a similar sacrifice from me, I would not hesitate," he promised her heartily.

"Really?" she queried him callously. "Even if it were Etta?"

"Without a pause," he promised, refusing to let himself think.

"Or Wintrow?" Her voice had gone soft and knowing.

A knife twisted in him. How much did she truly read of his heart? He took a deep breath. "If you demanded it." Would she? Could she insist he give him up? He pushed the thought aside. He'd talk her out of it. "I hope I hold as dear a place with you." He tried to think of other fine words for her. Failing, he asked her instead, "Will you do it?"

"I think it's time to tell you the price," she countered.

The Marietta had taken up Wintrow's small boat. Sorcor's ship was veering off. Soon they would drop anchor at a discreet distance. He watched the routine of Sorcor's crew and waited.

"When we are finished here, you will muster all your ships, every one that flies a raven flag. You and they will serve as escort for us. The serpents must travel north, far north, to a river mouth they scarcely remember, but one I have entered many times in my life as Vivacia. As we move north, we will seek to gather up other serpents. You will protect them from attacks from humans. When we reach the river, I shall take you up it, while your other ships guard the mouth of it. Well do I know that no ordinary wooden ship can accompany them on that migration. You will give to me, Ke

In the naming of his name, she bound him. How had she known? Had she guessed? Then he glanced down at the small gri

"I, too, was once a dragon," it said quietly.

There was so little time to think. For him to vanish with the serpents now for all those months might undo all he had built. Yet, he dared not refuse her this. Perhaps, he thought grimly, it would only add to his legend. The Paragon was lowering a small boat into the water. Althea Vestrit would be in it. That would never do. He dared not allow Althea on board the Vivacia. Bolt denied the co

"If I do as you ask, you will sink Paragon?" It was harder to ask now, for he knew that she knew all the reasons he desired Paragon to end.

"Tell me why you want him to be gone. Say the words."

He took a breath and met her gaze. "I suppose my motives are the same as yours," he said coldly. "You do not wish Althea to come aboard, for you fear she would 'bring you back to yourself. " He lifted his eyes and stared at the Paragon. "There floats a piece of myself I could do without."

"Then it seems wisest, for both of us," she agreed coldly. "He is mad. I ca

Jealousy. This time it was unmistakable. She would tolerate no rivals for his attention, let alone so potent a competitor as Paragon. In this also, they were alike. She tucked her chin to her chest and summoned the serpents. The sound she made was something Ke

"Do they oppose her?" he demanded of it.

"They question the necessity. She Who Remembers thinks Paragon might be useful to them alive. Bolt counters that he is both mad and a servile tool of the humans aboard him. Shreever asks if they may eat him for his memories. Bolt opposes this. She Who Remembers demands to know why. Now Maulkin asks if the ship holds knowledge she wishes to keep from the serpents."

Bolt was visibly angry now. Behind him, Ke

"What do they say?" he demanded of the charm again.

"Use your eyes," was the whispered retort. "They go to obey her."

BRASHEN HAD REMAINED ON BOARD PARAGON. IT DID NOT SEEM WISE FOR BOTH of them to leave the ship, and Althea could not bear to be so close to Vivacia and not speak to her. In the boat with her, Haff and Jek bent to their oars. Lop, clutching a mooring line, sat in the bow and stared grimly ahead. Althea sat stiffly in the stern seat. She was freshly washed and hastily attired in the same clothes she had worn when the Paragon had left Bingtown. She resented the weight of the split skirt, but the occasion called for some formality, and these were the best clothes she possessed. Indeed, of all her garments, these were the only ones still remotely presentable. The chill winter wind tugged hopefully at her plaited and pi

She turned the scroll in her hands and stared at their destination. On the foredeck of her beloved Vivacia, a single figure stood. His dark blue cloak flapped in the wind and he stood hip-shot, all his weight on one leg. It had to be Ke

Reflexively, she glanced back at Paragon. She could see Brashen standing anxiously on the foredeck. Clef stood beside him, hands on his hips in unconscious mimicry of his captain. Amber's hair blew like silk strands in the wind, and her set face made her a second figurehead. Paragon, arms crossed and jaw set, stared sightlessly toward Vivacia. There was a terrible finality in the brace of his muscles. He had not spoken a word to anyone since Vivacia came into sight. When Althea had dared to reach out and touch his muscular shoulder, she had found it set and hard as wood. It was like touching the tensed back of a snarling dog.

"Don't be afraid," she had told him softly, but he had made no reply.

A composed Amber sitting on the railing beside her had shaken her head. "He's not afraid," she had said in a low voice. "The anger that burns in him destroys every other emotion." Amber's hair lifted slightly in the rising wind and she had spoken in a distant voice. "Danger cups us under its hand, and we can do nothing but stand witness to the turning of the world. Here we walk on the balancing line between futures. Humanity always believes it decides the fate of the whole world, and so it does, but never in the moment that it thinks it does. The future of thousands ripples like a serpent through the water, and the destiny of a ship becomes the destination of the world."