Read Crossroads 04 - The Dragon Isles for Free Online Page B

salve?” Trip asked.
                “Later,” Mik replied. “This evening
perhaps, before Paladine rises. We’ve a lot of ocean to cover before then.
Let’s get to it.”
                 “Aye,
captain,” the kender replied.
     
                 The
wind was against them for most of the day Through clever sailing, though, Mik still managed to make up most of the time they’d
lost.
                 As
the sun setded behind the shoulders of the ocean, the wind shifted to the
southwest, urging them on their way. Mik stood in the bow, watching the dappled
red and orange reflections on the water creep into purple and indigo. He called
back a final course correction to the helmsman, and then ate a brief supper
with the crew on the deck amidships.
                 Karista
and Bok took their meal below; they seldom deigned to eat with Kingfisher ’s crew. Only as he washed the
last of his bread down with a swig of rum did Mik notice that Trip was missing
as well.
                 Mik
found the kender, as expected, within the captain’s cabin. Trip had opened
Mik’s sea chest once more, and taken out the golden artifact and the parchment
with the transcribed verses of the prophecy. He sat perched on Mik’s hammock,
perusing the paper and turning the artifact over in his small hands.
                 “Honestly,”
Mik said, “I’m not sure why I bother to lock that chest.”
                 “I’m
not sure why you bother, either,” Trip replied. “It's not a very good lock.
Karista could probably open it if she had a mind to.” He dropped out of the
hammock and smiled.
                 “How’s
our patient?” Mik asked, gazing at the blue form of the castaway. Her skin
looked very dark with the red light of sunset streaming through the cabin’s
small windows. Mik crossed to a hanging brass lamp in the center of the room
and lit it.
                 “Better,
I think,” Trip replied. “She hasn’t woken up or moved much, though. Should we
oil her bums again?”
                 Mik
nodded. “It’s not much,” he said, “but all we can do to help her survive.”
                 Trip
laid aside the Prophecy and the artifact, and both of them gently rubbed
fragrant oil into the sea elf s blue skin. They worked silently for a while,
pausing only to drip fresh water onto her pale lips. Then Trip asked, “When you
look at the artifact... at that black diamond, do you... see anything.”
                 Mik
hesitated a moment. “Like what?”
                 The
kender screwed up his face in perplexity. “I dunno. Like a bigger diamond
surrounded by treasure, maybe.”
                 Mik
nodded and chuckled. “Never any secrets while you’re around, Trip.”
                 “Oh,
I like secrets as much as the next fellow,” Trip said, “just not when they’re
being kept from me. So . . . what do you see?”
                 “A
storm-tossed ocean,” Mik replied. “An island. A temple. Sometimes, a treasure.” As he spoke, he continued massaging the sunburn oil into the elf s soft skin.
                 The
woman’s eyes flickered open. “Treasure?”

 

     
Six
     
    The Course Is Set
     
                “You’re
alive!” Trip gasped. “You’re awake!”
                “Barely,” the sea elf replied, her
voice diy and cracking. “Where am I?”
                 “You’re
aboard Kingfisher in the Northern Turbidus Ocean ,” Mik replied. “I’m Captain Mikal Vardan,
and this is my friend, Tripleknot Shellcracker.”
                 “Hi!”
the kender said. “My friends call me Trip.”
                 The
sea elf tried to speak again, but only a dry rattle came out.
                 “Here,”
Mik said, putting a skin of water to her pale, parched lips. She drank eagerly.
“Who