The Sail Weaver Read Online Free

and control like a lightning storm contained in a small glass whirling through the air. The creatures that were resting in the shade around him let out a collective squeak of terror and ran. Tristan even heard the hooves of the Big Horned sheep clattering away.
    A huge puff of air blasted over him. “Suicide!” The anger in the booming voice made the leaves on the tree tremble. “Suicide!”
    Tristan didn’t even open his eyes. “What?”
    “I will not allow it!”
    “You won’t?” Tristan did look now, the dragon nearly filled the canyon with his bulk.
    “Did you think I wouldn’t find out?”
    “I wasn’t trying to hide it from you.”
    “You left without telling me,” the dragon continued, offended, his head tufts trembling. Most humans would turn the other way and run in the face of a dragon that was obviously that angry, but this wasn’t just any dragon. Tristan and Lokey Fenfyr of the Guild Dragons knew each other, more than that, they had formed a friendship beyond the formality of their Guilds, perhaps the only one between their two species.
    “Fenfyr? What is it?” Tristan asked, sitting up.
    “Now you ask!” Fenfyr huffed out a breath of frustration, then the dragon settled down. “There is something wrong with this, the sails are too big, the Naval creatures are evil, this thing smells of rotting flesh and … ”
    “And?”
    “I don’t like it.”
    “You don’t like it?” Tristan asked, amused.
    “No, I don’t. There is wrongness.”
    “Wrongness?”
    “Yes.”
    “Would you care to be more specific or are you just going to sit there huffing at me?”
    The dragon lowered his head and let his chin rest on the ground beside Tristan. “I’m worried.”
    “That still doesn’t tell me much.”
    “Something was following you.”
    “Yes, a large dragon.” Tristan laughed.
    “No! There was a vehicle. They followed you from the compound,” Fenfyr said with a low growl.
    “What are you talking about?”
    “They followed you almost all the way here, they turned off right before you reached the canyon, but they were there.”
    “Who was it?” Tristan looked over at the dragon.
    “I don’t know, there were no markings on the shuttlecar . If it had been Guild, there would have been no reason to hide,” he said. “I tell you, this stinks of rotting flesh. Darius is worried. There is something about this ship that is concerning. We are not sure what’s going on, but the Naval creatures have been far too secretive in building it. We saw the dome at the docks, but they denied entrance to everyone. In fact, they have been claiming there was nothing there but two small ships.”
    “No one’s checked?” Tristan suddenly felt like he hadn’t been paying attention to current events, even though he had. “Wait, we did check, there was a small runner in the dome, nothing else.”
    “That was several months ago. No one has been in since. We’ve been watching. There is something wrong. I was just out there, it smells wrong.”
    “You keep saying smells. Do you mean that literally?”
    “Yes. No. I’m not sure.” The dragon sighed. “It’s hard to get a feeling for something when I am in space. I function differently there, so things smell different.”
    Tristan nodded. Dragons were almost like amphibians. They could function in the vacuum of space as easily as in the atmosphere of a planet, even on worlds that would be toxic to humans. What looked like scales were actually small “feathers” that the dragons could extend to allow them to ride the Winds. Sometimes when he saw dragons drifting in space, the dragons reminded Tristan of a leafy sea-dragon with wings.
    “Do you think it’s the Winged Victory in the dome?”
    “Yes, we believe so.” Fenfyr sighed. “Why did you agree to Weave the sails?”
    “Darius asked me.” Tristan shrugged.
    “Not because no one has ever made sails like that before?”
    “No.”
    “Of course not.” The dragon nudged him. “You are