The Dragon-Child Read Online Free Page A

animal strength while blows fell upon his body and oaths and grunts of displeasure were muttered by men who received his kicks and blindly thrusting elbows.
    “Where is the other?” asked a rough voice.
    “He’s not here.”
    “Find him, fool,” said the rough voice. Gruum now recognized the voice. It was Bolo, and he had betrayed them. The man Bolo had spoken to thumped away.
    Gruum bit down on a filthy set of salt-crusted fingers. The man’s hand leapt away from his face with a curse. Gruum spoke quickly while he was able. “Bolo, I beseech thee for all our sakes, do not provoke the sorcerer.”
    In the dark, a chuckle met Gruum’s words. “Let him speak, but hold him,” said the new Captain. “Your master is as weak as a bilge rat. We will not give him time to speak foul spells when we catch him.”
    “One more day, Captain,” said Gruum earnestly. “One more day, and we will be off your ship. Let us go and save your crew.”
    The other hesitated. The crewmen who held Gruum didn’t slacken their grip, but he felt in their silence a hint of uncertainty. None of them wished to slumber with the Dragons until the end of time.
    “The sails rip further every day with his cursed winds. He is wrecking this ship and damning us all further each hour he is upon it. Even now, I feel the worm-like words you speak wriggling in my mind. You are the sorcerer’s monkey, and no doubt when we cast you over the side, you will return to your natural form.”
    After that, Gruum was gagged and he couldn’t get out another word. He struggled, but they were too many and they held every limb fast.
    A blade reflected in the starlight that filtered down through the cracks in the deck above. Gruum watched as the short line of metal came close to his face.
    “Let me end it now, Captain,” said the crewman with the knife in Gruum’s face.
    “No, we must find the sorcerer first. Perhaps, if needed, we can bargain with this imp’s life.”
    Thumping boots returned to the cabin. “Sir, the sorcerer climbs into the rigging. He is up amongst the strange spirits that haunt the ship’s sails!”
    “How did he—?” began Bolo.
    “It was the cabin boy, sir. I found him helping him, giving the demon a leg up.”
    Bolo loosed a stream of curses. “Let’s go up. Bring the imp with us.”
    Gruum was marched up into the starlight. He realized, as he was roughly hustled into the open night air, that it was not only starlight that lit the scene. Overhead, like a celestial shower, the wind spirits moved and shimmered. They looked like soap bubbles, perhaps, bubbles that shown with inner light and twisted into alien shapes. Magenta eyes shown brightly, gazing down upon them. What had Therian done? And where was he?
    The ship’s sails no longer luffed and snapped with unnatural winds. Instead, the winds seemed to swirl around the ship in a circular fashion, pushing it nowhere and everywhere at once.
    “Devil!” shouted Bolo, holding aloft his cutlass of dark, rusty iron. “Come down and face an honest man’s blade.”
    An odd laugh floated down from above them. Gruum thought it might be Therian’s throat that had made the laugh, but he could not be sure. The swirling winds of the spirits that circled the ship masked and warped the sound of it.
    “Crossbows,” growled Bolo. “Shoot him down.”
    Soon, three men stood on the deck and wound back their winches with grim purpose. Gruum thought them brave indeed to stand in the face of sorcery. Perhaps they’d grown accustomed to it over the last week. Perhaps they believed the wind spirits were frightening but harmless. Gruum himself was not so sure.
    When attention strayed from him, he tried to slide a hand to a dirk he had tucked into his tunic. But the men who still held him tightened their grips. Realizing their mistake, they bound his hands behind his back.
    “Captain, I beseech you one more time,” said Gruum urgently.
    Bolo’s eyes turned to him. Gruum saw there, that despite