Ship of Destiny

"Wintrow?"

Etta had come back for him. She stood on the ladder, staring across the foredeck at him hunched on his hands and knees. "I'm coming," he replied, and lurched to his feet.

"MORE WINE?" ETTA ASKED WINTROW.

The boy shook his head mutely. For boy he looked, draped in a fresh sheet from Ke

The pirate sat across from Wintrow, his dark hair in disarray, his shirt half-buttoned. Ke

But this, this was a thousand times worse.

No battle, no injury, no storm had ever unma

He cleared his throat. Wintrow's eyes snapped to him almost fearfully.

"So." The small word was sharp as a blade. "You think she is dead. How? What killed her?"

It was Wintrow's turn to clear his throat, a small and tremulous sound. "I did. That is, what I knew killed her. Or drove her so deep inside herself that she ca

Ke

"Sorry, sir. I'm trying to." The boy lifted a shaking hand to rub his eyes. "It's long and it's confusing. My memories have mixed with my dreams. I think a lot of it I always suspected. Once I was in contact with the serpent, all my suspicions suddenly came together with what she knew. And I knew." Wintrow lifted his eyes to meet Ke

"Ke

Ke

His anger is too great, Etta suddenly thought to herself. There is something else here, something even deeper and more painful than Vivacia's loss.

Wintrow took a ragged breath. "I can only tell you what I believe, sir. If it were not true, I do not think Vivacia would have believed it so deeply that she died. Some part of her always knew. A dragon has always slept within her. Our brush with the serpent awakened it. The dragon was furious to discover what it had become. When I was unconscious, it demanded of me that I help it share the ship's life. I…" The boy hesitated. He left something unsaid when he went on. "The dragon woke me today. She woke me and she forced me into full contact with Vivacia. I had held myself back from her, for I did not want her to realize what I knew, that she had never truly been alive. She was the dead shell of a forgotten dragon that my family had somehow bent to their own purposes."

Ke

But Etta believed it. The ship's presence had jangled against her nerves ever since she had first come aboard. Now it made sense. Like the strings of a musical instrument brought into true, the theory was in harmony with her feelings. It was true. There had always been a dragon inside Vivacia.

Moreover, Ke

As he returned his glass to the table, he a

"I don't think you can," Wintrow said softly.

Ke