Chapter 47
The Isle of Dragon
When the northern shore appeared on the horizon, the temperature seemed to drop a few degrees. Already they could smell the sea.
“That’s Batista—the fishing port of Bog,” Meena told them, pointing to at a cluster of houses in the distance.
Wataru’s first impression was that this port didn’t look anything like Sono. White dunes rolled and twisted along the long, flat shoreline. Small fishing boats floated here and there, none far from shore. Women walked across the sand doing what they could to help the fishermen. Children busied themselves searching for shells.
Jozo wasn’t flying as high as he had been when they visited Dela Rubesi. Wataru could see people on the shore reacting to the sight of the dragon. Some children waved. Wataru waved back, half to assure them that this dragon suddenly appearing in the sky meant them no harm.
“You firewyrms sure are popular,” Kee Keema shouted.
“They’re creatures of legend, after all!” Meena said.
“They never talked about how cold it was up here in the legends.”
“Shall I fly lower?” Jozo asked. A giant eyeball as big as Wataru’s fist turned slowly toward them, and blinked. “Say, Wataru…”
“What is it?”
“We’ll be heading out over the sea soon…I just wanted to ask—are you sure about this? You really want to go north?”
“We are sure. Is something wrong?”
Kutz, sitting toward the back, picked up her ears. Wataru glanced back over his shoulder at the branch chief and lowered his voice. “If something’s wrong, tell us now, please.”
“Well…” Jozo blinked several times. “I feel bad, after promising to take you anywhere…”
“You can’t go to the north? Is it too far?”
“No, not at all. Fly straight, and we’d be there in two nights’ time.”
The dragon’s tongue flicked out between his sharp fangs. “Only, remember when I went with you to Dela Rubesi? After that, I went back to our island. I told the wyrmking about what we saw in Dela Rubesi—the Goddess’s wrath.”
The wyrmking had become greatly concerned and gathered all the dragons on the island, and asked them, for the time being, to avoid long trips. They were to stay near the island so that they could gather at any time in case of an emergency.
“This never happens. We children are expected to fly all sorts of places, see lots of things. Of course, we’re not supposed to make too many friends on the ground. Like Meena says, we’re mostly legends in many parts of the land, and because we’re quite strong, if we chose to get involved in land-dwellers’ conflicts, well…”
“I’m sorry—if I had known what was going on—I hope that using the flute wasn’t a bad idea.”
“No, no, it’s fine.” Jozo shook his head violently. The motion made his back lurch, and Kee Keema nearly fell off, clinging to the notches where one of Jozo’s wings met his body. Meena giggled, but Kutz’s eyes were fixed on Wataru and the dragon.
“You saved my life, after all. The wyrmking always says, if we are in debt to someone on the ground, we must repay them in full. You’re a special case.”
“I’m grateful for that, but it worries me what the wyrmking said.”
“Me too, that’s why I was kind of hoping that we could go to our island before going north. It won’t take too long. It’s on the way. I’d like to make a formal request to the wyrmking before heading any further. You think that’d be okay?”
It wasn’t a question Wataru could answer. He looked around at Kutz, who stood up on the dragon’s back, and hunching over, crawled up to him. “What’s going on?”
Wataru explained. Kutz frowned a moment, then inched up closer to Jozo’s head and patted him on the neck, getting his attention. “Sorry for getting you involved in all this, dragon. We really need to go to the north—it’s imperative.”
“You’re the leader of this crew, right?” Jozo asked. “Can I ask why you’re going? I can’t help but feel like you’re heading into some kind of danger.”
Wataru wondered how much Kutz was ready to tell him. He glanced at her face, but before she could say anything, Jozo asked Wataru to take out his wyrmflute. Wataru reached into his pocket. When he brought the wyrmflute out, he found it had snapped clean in two. “See, you can’t use it again. It won’t make any noise.”
“I know…”
“If you’re going to the north to do something dangerous, that worries me. I can drop you off and leave, but if something happens, I won’t be able to hear you, no matter how loud you yell. On the other hand, if I were to hang around and wait for you, I’d stick out like a, well, like a dragon. Can’t imagine that would aid your mission much. Am I right, Ms. Leader?”
Kutz smiled grimly. Her black hair swirled in the wind from the dragon’s wings, brushing against her cheek. “You’ve a keen eye, Mr. Dragon.”
“Name’s Jozo, ma’am.”
“I’m Kutz. Sorry for not introducing myself earlier. I’m branch chief back in Gasara. We have deep and profound respect for your ancestor.”
“I could tell by the armband.”
“Thank you, Jozo, for telling us this. We will go to the Isle of Dragon. Still, I wonder if it’s really okay to bring land dwellers such as ourselves to the home of the dragons? I wouldn’t want to get you in any more trouble than we already have.”
“It’s no problem,” Jozo replied. “You’re Highlanders, after all. Besides, I’m sure the wyrmking had a good reason for making his request—and I wouldn’t be surprised if he wants to pass that knowledge on to the Highlanders.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah. My parents said pretty much the same thing. They said the time might come again when we have to leave our island and join forces with the people who live on the land.”
Again? Wataru and Kutz exchanged glances.
“Did that happen sometime in the past?”
“It was before I was born, about three hundred years ago. Something happened in the north and the dragons left their island to fight.”
“Three hundred years ago? That would be around the end of the War of Unification,” Kutz muttered. “Do you mean to say that dragons fought in that war?”
“Not in the war, no, no. Dragons never get involved in land-dweller conflicts, or take sides. Especially not something like the War of Unification.”
“Then what did you fight?”
“Demonkin,” Jozo replied immediately.
From the way Kutz’s eyes looked, Wataru guessed it was her first time hearing the word too.
“What’s that?”
“I’m not so sure myself. We’re not supposed to talk about the demonkin—it’s taboo. Still, they sound like incredibly dangerous, terrible foes. If we dragons hadn’t flown from our island, all Vision might’ve been destroyed, they say.”
“There is much we do not know about the history of the north,” Kutz admitted. “We’ll have to ask this wyrmking.”
“Do you think he’d just tell us?”
“Never know, unless we ask,” Kutz said. The idea of chatting with a king of dragons didn’t seem to faze her.
“Then that’s it. I’ll introduce you to my parents! My dad’s amazing! He’s at least three times as strong as I am.” Jozo grinned with pride.