Dragon Tear (Agents of the Crown Book 5) Read online

  “I’ll send up someone with fresh eyes.” Hydal headed toward the edge of the roof.

  “Nothing wrong with my eyes,” Cutter said. “Dwarves can see in the dark, you know.”

  “I bet that comes in handy when your lover has lost her keys and wants to go home,” Jev said.

  “Dwarves don’t need keys. We don’t lock our rooms. Nobody steals from anybody else in Preskabroto.”

  “Are you telling me dwarven cities don’t have any crime?”

  “Not thieving. You’re more likely to get someone scheming to discredit someone else’s work so they can get a position on the Crafts Council.”

  “So political crimes.”

  “More or less. They give me a headache. It’s a relief being with Master Arkura.” Cutter glanced at Jev. “I mean, in your city. Away from dwarven politics.”

  Jev smiled at the slip. He’d long suspected his friend had a crush on the bearded dwarf female, even if he denied it. Jev wasn’t sure if she returned any of his feelings since Master Grindmor was always quick to tell him he needed to work harder and that he was old for an apprentice. But she had imbued Cutter’s hammer with magic, and she’d helped Jev attune the elven sword so he could draw on its magic. Jev doubted that was because the grumpy master liked him.

  “I’m glad you’re finding Korvann agreeable,” Jev said.

  An alligator disturbed by their passing slid off the bank with a soft splash. It headed downriver to hunt. Jev supposed it was wishful thinking to hope it would take a large bite out of the other boat.

  He didn’t like paddling upriver, knowing they had enemies behind them and doing nothing about it. He felt like a bale of hay on an archery range, waiting to be plowed with an arrow. More than that, he resented that someone on that boat had attacked Zenia. His Zenia. She didn’t deserve to be a bale of hay. He ground his teeth, longing to put a thousand holes in the one who’d been responsible for that attack, to do whatever it took to protect her.

  Jev twisted to look at the route ahead, though with the deepening twilight, he couldn’t see much. Just that the passage had grown narrower. The captain had slowed their boat, and occasionally, crewmen with poles pushed logs out of the way before they bumped into the craft. Two men were lighting lanterns at the bow to help with the task.

  “Zenia didn’t sound that interested in setting an ambush for the other boat,” Jev said, his thoughts turning in that direction again.

  The paddlewheel was turning slowly now, the boat trundling along at no more than three miles an hour, he gauged. Even if there wasn’t a path along the bank, he wagered he could catch back up to it again if he left for a couple of hours to sneak down and ambush the crew of the other boat. With the help of the elven blade, would he stand a chance at taking down the magic user pursuing them? Was it a troll shaman? Or something more inimical? More powerful.

  “You’d think she would want to slam her hammer into their anvil after they sent that furry bird after her,” Cutter said.

  “Technically, it was more that she didn’t believe an ambush would succeed than that she objected. But I’ve been contemplating ways to make it work.”

  “Such as?”

  “I was thinking of sneaking aboard their boat and running my sword through the odious would-be thief that attacked my lady love.”

  “You don’t say things like that to her, do you?”

  “Not exactly.”

  Jev didn’t point out that Cutter might have better luck with Master Arkura if he openly proclaimed his love for her while giving his gifts. Until his friend confessed to having romantic feelings toward her, Jev wouldn’t presume to advise.

  “Also, that plan is awful,” Cutter added.

  “You can always count on dwarves to be blunt.”

  “If you want subtlety and subtext, go read an elven poem. Look, a confrontation with a mage is never wise. If you’re sure someone on that boat was responsible for the attack, then why not send some explosives downriver on a raft? Put a big magnet on the raft so it’s drawn to their boat, and then boom.”

  “While I wouldn’t be opposed to blowing up the boat of the odious thief, I didn’t pack magnets or explosives.” Jev also doubted the other boat was made from metal. Theirs wasn’t.

  “What were you thinking?”

  “That we’d have to travel light,” Jev said. “Why, did you pack magnets?”

  “I have a small one in my toolkit.”

  “Grenades?”

  “No, but I can make explosives when I need them. And I’m not the one leading this expedition.” Cutter shook his head. “Are you seriously telling me you didn’t bring any explosives?”

  “I did not. I envisioned us trekking through the jungle for days with only what we could carry on our backs.”

  “Zenia brought fifty pounds of books.”

  “Ten pounds, and I assumed I’d end up carrying them, hence my even lighter packing.” Jev hated to admit that Cutter had a point. It would have been difficult to carry boxes of ammunition and grenades, but he could have brought a handful of explosives. Maybe. As damp as it was in the jungle, the powder might simply have gotten wet.

  “How did you plan to assault the orcish stronghold and rescue the dragon without explosives?” Cutter asked.

  “By being clever.”

  “Dear mining ancestors, you should roll over and show your belly now.”

  “You’re in a pessimistic mood tonight,” Jev observed.

  “Only because you got me excited about planning the explosion of a boat and now you tell me you don’t have any grenades.”

  “You got yourself excited about that. Maybe we could make a small explosive out of powder taken from bullets. I did bring extra ammo along, and I’m sure everyone else did too. You said you could craft your own bombs, right?”

  “Certainly. But a small explosive sounds insufficient for dealing with a powerful shaman.”

  “If we deal with his boat, won’t that be enough? He would be stranded out here on foot. Unless he made a raft and summoned alligators to propel it up the river.” Jev said the latter as a joke, but if the magic user had summoned that manticore and ordered it to do his bidding, maybe it was a possibility.

  Cutter scratched his bearded jaw with his hook. “It is possible that a small makeshift device, detonated while attached to their boiler, would cause a catastrophic failure that would render their vessel unserviceable. Or possibly launch it into the treetops.”

  “That would definitely give the monkeys something to hoot about. Why don’t we see if one of the twins can come stand watch while we take a look at your toolbox. And the boiler room in this boat. Assuming theirs is similar, you can show me a good place to detonate your device.”

  “Always happy to help.”

  “So long as explosives or crafts are involved?”

  “Precisely.”

  Zenia sat against the wooden wall in a corner of the sleeping area, a lantern resting next to her on the deck. Two of the books she’d brought along lay open, along with her notepad and the map the ogress had drawn on. According to the captain, whose eyes were noticeably level with her chest whenever they talked, they were about halfway to the orc valleys, but they wouldn’t be able to continue all the way upriver to them by boat. He’d told her there was a trading outpost two days away, and that was as far as they could navigate. The passage grew narrower and shallower after that, so they would have to continue in skiffs or walk on foot.

  She hoped their pursuer hated skiffs and foot travel. Maybe he—or she—would be deterred and head back downriver in search of easier prey. However, given how much even basic dragon tears sold for back home, she expected persistence.

  Whistling came from the cabin entrance. Jev and Cutter strolled down the aisle between the hammocks and into view.

  “Hello, Zenia,” Jev said brightly, waving and continuing past.

  Had he left something in the captain’s cabin? His sword was back in its scabbard at his waist. Cleaned, presumably.

>   Zenia waved her pen in response while wondering what they were up to. Cutter saluted but didn’t say anything. He was the one whistling, and it continued as they disappeared into the back of the boat.

  “Thanks, but I’m not interested in seeing your rat,” came Rhi’s voice from the entrance.

  Zenia frowned as Rhi walked in with Horti trailing after her. Outside, the rain had stopped as night fell, and the majority of her comrades and the crew were eating dinner under the tarp. Or had been. That was why she’d chosen this spot to do her research. The sleeping area had been quiet and empty.

  Horti didn’t speak, but Zenia glimpsed him gesturing through the hammocks.

  “They carry diseases,” Rhi said. “Who knows what deadly plague you’ll bring back to Kor?”

  Horti stopped, his shoulders slumping.

  “I need to talk to Zenia. Maybe that female crew member would like to see your rats. Her arms are larger than mine. She shovels coal, I think. She’d be perfect for a big boy like you.”

  As Horti turned and shambled back out the entrance, Rhi came over and sat down beside Zenia.

  “What do you need to talk about?” Zenia asked.

  “Something besides the three fine future racing rats that Horti and his brother have captured on this journey, including one they discovered in His Majesty’s steamer before the crash. Horti tells me they nobly saved its life, and it’s a surprisingly fine and fit specimen that they can’t wait to start training for the races.”

  Zenia tapped her pen on her chin. “That is an unexpected hobby, and this seems a strange time for them to pursue it, but you could have taken a look, don’t you think? He seemed upset that you weren’t interested.”

  “He’s been telling me about his rat-race dreams for the last week, Zenia. I’ve seen one of the rats, and I don’t want to see any more. Unfortunately, my hammock is only two hammocks away from his, and I can hear them squeaking from the cage he made. At first, he kept them under his hammock while he slept. This morning, I saw him sleeping with it on his chest. Those two men are weird.”

  “Still, they seem nice. Are you sure you couldn’t—”

  “Has Jev ever shown you his rats?”

  “Well, no. Why are they so into breeding and racing, do you think? Do they make money doing it?”

  “Probably. I don’t know. I don’t want to know. Yesterday, Hydal came by when Horti was grabbing my hand and describing some albino rat he’d seen in the kitchen but hadn’t yet been able to catch. And I gather Borti told Hydal that we used to see each other all the time for work and that we knew each other well. We do not. But I think Hydal believed him and then some. He’s barely spoken to me all day. Zenia, I was just making some progress with him. The other night under the trees, he kissed me. I never thought I’d be so excited about a kiss, but it’s taken us weeks to get that far.”

  Zenia decided not to point out that it had only been a few weeks since Jev first introduced Hydal to Rhi. And that Rhi had ignored Hydal for the opening days of those weeks.

  “Was it a good kiss?” Zenia asked, bemused that her friend, who’d once had a different man visit her room every week one summer, would be moved by a kiss.

  “It was.” Rhi rocked back, her hand to her chest and her expression somewhere between dumbfounded and delighted. “I wasn’t expecting him to know how to use his tongue, to be honest, because he seems like someone who wouldn’t be that experienced…”

  Zenia fought down a blush, not wanting to admit to her own scant experience in such matters. She hoped Jev didn’t mind.

  “But he was so sweet and at the same time… intriguing. And you could tell he actually cared about me enjoying myself. And I did. You should have seen the dream I had last night. I hope I wasn’t groaning and squirming since those hammocks are close together and completely lacking in privacy.”

  Now, Zenia’s cheeks heated for a different reason. This was far more than she wanted to know about Hydal or Rhi’s dreams about Hydal.

  “Can’t you tell him that there’s nothing between you and Horti?”

  “I started to, but the captain walked by. There’s no privacy on this boat. Couldn’t you have picked something with cabins?”

  “Sorry. Jev did the shopping.”

  “Men.”

  A clang sounded from the rear of the boat, and whistling came from the passageway, heralding the return of Jev and Cutter. But they only passed through, smiling and waving again on their way by. Cutter’s toolkit bumped against his thigh as he walked, the handles looped through his hook.

  “Those two are up to something.” Zenia wondered if she should be concerned. She already had enough to be concerned about. Earlier, she had used the dragon tear to check on their pursuers, and she’d found the boat had caught up fully and was maintaining the same distance it had earlier, staying out of sight but close enough for magical monitoring.

  “Because they’re men.” Rhi sighed and slumped back against the wall. “You doing all right after that attack today? And what about your nightmares? I guess I shouldn’t be bragging about my sexual dreams when you’ve been having horrible nightmares. Though waking up from that dream by myself was more frustrating than satisfying, I admit. It’s not like I could do anything about it in the middle of a full cabin.”

  Zenia held up a hand, wanting to forestall any details on what doing something about it might involve. “I’m fine. Just a few scratches.”

  “Jev did a good job keeping that thing off you and killing it. I was running to get my bo and was too late to do anything but observe the killing blow. If I weren’t currently fantasizing about someone else—Hydal did land a timely kick, you know—I’d be lusting for your zyndar warrior.”

  “Then it’s fortunate for me that you have a zyndar warrior of your own to lust after.”

  “He is a warrior, isn’t he? I was skeptical at first, but he has nice muscles under his shirt.” Rhi gazed longingly toward the door.

  “Would you like me to help?” Zenia asked, though she didn’t know what she could do. She would prefer to go back to her reading, so she could be ready for whatever creature the shaman sent after her next. She was also trying to learn more about the volcanos in the region and what orcs believed in regard to gods and spirits. Fortunately, one of her books was on ogres, trolls, and orcs, but she felt terribly behind since she hadn’t been able to read on the sea voyage.

  “How?” Rhi tilted her head, looking more curious than Zenia had expected. “Would you talk to him? Or maybe arrange a private spot so I could talk to him? The captain let you and Jev use his cabin earlier to have sex, didn’t he? Do you think you could ask him if Hydal and I could use it? Not for sex.” Her eyes rolled up and to the side as she reconsidered that. “Probably. But mostly to talk.”

  “First off, Jev and I didn’t have sex in some strange dwarf’s bed. Second, every time I talk to the captain, he ogles my breasts.”

  “Do you expect me to believe you simply cuddled in there for two hours?”

  “You were timing it?”

  “Everyone was timing it. There were bets on how long your after-monster-attack comfort sex would last. There was a disappointing lack of thumps and groans emanating from the cabin. Is it well insulated?”

  “I…” Zenia dropped her face into her palm, having no idea how to respond to that. “I’ll talk to the captain.”

  “Would you?” Rhi clasped her arm. “Could you get us two hours?”

  “For talking?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Have you eaten yet? Has he? Maybe you could have a private dinner. I noticed the captain had elven wine, though I’m not sure how much he would charge for it. More than a chest-ogling, I’m certain.”

  “The dinner idea is grand.” Rhi rolled lithely to her feet and bounced on her toes in excitement. “I’ll go catch Hydal before he eats slop on the deck with those miscreants. You’ll talk to the captain?”

  “Yes, yes, but only if you promise not to give me any more details on your kiss
es or your dreams.” Zenia folded the map and stuck it in to mark her place in one of the books.

  “Girls are supposed to talk about such things with each other.”

  “I’m not a typical girl.”

  “That’s a certainty.” Rhi flung an arm around Zenia’s shoulders for a rare hug.

  Zenia returned it briefly, then headed for the door. The sooner she arranged a private evening for her friend, the sooner she could get back to her research. Her heart sang at the idea.

  As Zenia and Rhi headed out of the cabin, Cutter and Jev trotted back through, waving and saluting again, this time with Borti following after them. All three of them disappeared into the boiler room at the end of the hall.

  “They are definitely up to something,” Rhi said.

  “I agree.”

  “Are you going to ask them what?”

  “I don’t think so, no.” Zenia assumed Jev would have told her if he’d wanted to. Maybe he would tell her later. Or maybe he was planning a surprise. She hoped it was a good one.

  10

  “What’s my role going to be?” Borti asked.

  Jev, Cutter, and Borti were hunkered in the steamboat’s boiler room, finalizing their plans.

  “Watching my back while I fasten this to something critical.” Jev held up the “grenade” that Cutter had made. It looked more like a lunchbox, aside from the ominous fuse dangling from a seam.

  “Not something.” Cutter pointed at the cylindrical boiler that heated water to create steam to power the paddlewheel. “That.”

  “Will it look the same on their ship?”

  “I’m sure it’ll be close. You’ve seen plenty of boilers before. You’ll have no trouble finding it. You were on that dwarven ship, remember?”

  “Those boilers were giant.” Jev wiped his brow. It was hot in this part of the steamboat, with the furnace radiating warmth as well as heating water in the boiler, and they had been inside assembling Cutter’s bomb and making plans for more than an hour. “I barely recognized this one as different from a wine barrel.”