Dragon-Ridden (5 page)

“Of course she didn’t dream of
being a dragon-ridden,” Riply said scornfully. “No woman’s ever formed a bond
with one.”

“I don’t know. When I was younger I
always dreamt of being the first woman to bond with a dragon,” the waitress
said dreamily.

Tate’s thoughts snagged on
something Trent had said. “You said the last one had been bound 100 years ago?
How could he have fought off a creature like that then?”

“The dragon-ridden retain the
longevity of the dragons and can live for hundreds of years,” Danny said
quietly. “They serve the Emperor directly and are considered part of the high
nobility.”

Tate stared at him before nodding
slowly, her mind digging through all the information that’d just been dumped on
her.

There was a strong urge to touch
her tattoo. It was tingling again.

Their information didn’t mean
anything. It was just coincidence that her tattoo was a dragon. Nothing more.

Hadn’t Riply just said no woman had
ever bonded to a dragon before? There, a coincidence.

She looked up to find Ryu staring
at her with a considering look.

A chill slithered down her back.
Suddenly the food she’d eaten sat like a hard lump in her stomach.
Nevertheless, she picked up a fork and forced herself to take a bite of the
food in front of her.

She’d think about this all later.
When not under another’s watchful eye. ‘Til then she’d put everything in the
back of her mind. Surreptitiously, she tugged the sleeve on her tattooed arm
down further until it covered her hand.

Before walking away the waitress
leaned over and whispered into Riply’s ear. He nodded and slapped her on the
ass as she sashayed away.

After she left, Ryu said, “I’ll tag
along with you this afternoon.”

Trent gave a cheer and even Danny
seemed pleased with the company. Not Tate. Ryu usually went his own way once
they got on land. She didn’t see why he wanted to tag along now. A part of her
couldn’t help the paranoia that said Jost had set him on her in case she ran.
That was ridiculous though.

“I don’t know about you deck
scabbers, but I’ve got a date with a pretty little female,” Ripley said.

“Big surprise there, you throwing
over your friends for a bit of action,” Tate said sarcastically. The rest of
the group laughed.

They ended up close to the merchant
district, not for the shopping, but for the entertainers that invariably found
open spaces to perform. Danny explained that there were four main markets in
the Lower City and Little Harbor Marketplace was one of the smallest.

Tate’s head swiveled looking at all
the brightly costumed people. They were like brilliant colored birds as they
flitted through the open-air market. After weeks at sea where everything on
ship was drab brown and grays, just seeing the rich colors people draped
themselves in was a culture shock. Tate thought longingly of what it must be
like to wear such vibrant clothing.

Danny’s broad figure cut a swath
through the crowd making it easy for Tate and Trent, with their smaller builds,
to tag along. Ryu followed with his hands tucked in his pockets. He hadn’t said
much since they’d left the Crow’s Nest. Now, he simply watched everything with
a bored expression.

Enticing smells tempted Tate.
Pasties, meat pies, desserts and the like made her mouth water. She’d already
begun a mental list of the food she wanted to try once there was a little room
in her stomach again.

A large open square housed the
market. Vendors set up stalls that were easily dismantled at day’s end. Some
vendors had set up shop by laying blankets down and placing theirs goods on
them. They reclined on pillows and chatted amongst themselves until a customer
approached, then suddenly they were all business with gracious smiles and
helpful comments.

Tate absorbed the cacophony and
organized disorder around her. She felt small in the midst of all this
movement. How was she ever to find her way?

Slim paths clogged with bodies
wound amid the stalls. Though chaotic at first glance, it was an organic maze,
made new with the start of each day.

Danny was like a shark scenting
blood in the market. He led Tate and Ryu from stall to stall, bargaining for
goods for the ship with a tenacity Tate had never seen in him before. It was no
wonder he was in charge of ship supplies. Trent had already peeled off to
explore on his own.

At one such stall, she watched with
a slightly bemused expression as he gestured wildly at what he wanted to buy.
The top of the vendor’s baldhead turned red as he argued just as fiercely back.

“Not what you expected,” Ryu asked.

“I don’t think I’m ever going to be
able to barter quite like that.”

Ryu laughed. “It just takes
practice, and Danny’s had a lot. Not everybody approaches bargaining like he
does either. Most are a little more subtle.”

She nodded thoughtfully. A movement
from the corner of her eye caught her attention. She turned to see a pair of
boys standing across the small alley, half hidden by a stall. If one of them
hadn’t been staring straight at her, she never would have noticed them for they
blended into the crowd. She cocked her head as he swiftly looked away.

“What’re you looking at?” Ryu
asked.

The boy said something to his
companion who scanned the crowd casually. His eyes met Tate’s briefly before
moving on. She rubbed her nose in thought. That was interesting. Maybe the boys
were embarrassed she’d caught them looking.

Somehow Tate wasn’t so sure. The
way the second boy had checked her out while not seeming to, wasn’t a skill
most people had. At least, not most law-abiding people. He was part of a crew.
Had to be. Pickpockets, probably.

A sharp pinch interrupted her
musings. “Ouch,” Tate said, rubbing her arm and frowning at Ryu. “What’d you do
that for?”

“Well?”

“Well, what?”

“What’re you looking at?” he asked.

“You pinched me just to ask that?”

“You weren’t answering me.”

“Still, that doesn’t mean you go
around pinching people. That hurt,” Tate complained. “What if I kicked you
every time you ignored something I said.”

“Not everybody has your poor
manners,” he pointed out helpfully.

“So next time you ignore me I can
kick you?”

“Sure. If you don’t mind being hung
upside down by you ankles. I am bigger than you, you know.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. The
devilish side of Tate, the one that wanted to do the exact opposite of what she
was told, itched to see what would happen if she followed through on her
threat.

Danny rejoined them, saving Tate
from temptation.

“I got rope for half what he was
asking,” he said. “He’s going to deliver it to the ship. That was the last of
what Jost wanted so for the rest of the day I’m free.”

“Half?” she asked, dismissing Ryu.
“It was already cheap. I can’t believe you got him to lower his price more. I
wish I knew how to do that.”

Danny smiled shyly at her and
dropped his eyes. “I can teach you.”

“Thanks, but I doubt I’ll ever be
as good as you,” she said.

“It’s not hard, really, you just
have to be smart about it,” he explained.

“I suppose,” she said, doubtfully.

“Here, I’ll show you.”

Danny headed further down the alley
of stalls.

The more industrious hawkers stood
in the street trying to convince customers to stop and have a look at their
goods. Tate skated around these. They were very aggressive, not content to see
a potential mark slip away. One made a grab for her arm. Smoothly, she slid out
of the way and kept moving.

Danny looked back and slowed when
he saw Tate dodging one particularly persistent woman trying to sell her a
scarf.

“Now see here, missy, these scarves
are some of the best quality you’ll find in Little Harbor.”

“No, thank you, I’m just, um—” Tate
put her hands up and tried to edge around the old woman who kept shifting,
preventing Tate from getting around.

“I’ll give you a deal. Three
shillings,” spittle flew from the woman’s lips as she thrust the scarf up to
Tate’s face.

“I really don’t need a scarf.”

“Fine. Two shillings,” the woman
said.

“No, I don’t think-“

“You won’t get a better deal.”

“She’s already said she doesn’t
want it. Now shove off.” Danny loomed behind the woman. He was over a foot
taller than her and used every inch of his size and a black glare to intimidate
the woman into leaving.

She draped the scarf over her wrist
and muttered to herself as she ambled back to her stall.

“There’s your first lesson,” Danny
said. “You have to be firm with them, or they’ll run right over you.”

“I see.”

“The ones who ambush you like that
are the ones who have to hunt down their customers because their goods are
usually inferior. They’re also the ones who are most persistent when it comes
to making a sale. They’d sell the clothes off their mother’s back if they could
convince you to buy the,” Danny instructed. “Now, how did you get her to drop
her price?”

Tate thought a minute. “I said I
didn’t want it.”

“Right. As soon as you showed
disinterest, she dropped her price. It doesn’t always work, but it’s best not
to show too much interest in something you want. Also be prepared to walk away,
otherwise they know you’ll pay what they’re asking and not budge.”

Danny spoke with an authority and
confidence he didn’t normally have. He gestured and pointed as he tried to
convey each thought. Tate smiled faintly as she listened and nodded in
response.

A movement from the corner of
Tate’s eye caught her attention. She glanced over and saw a piece of fabric
fluttering in the breeze. A man in loose pants squatted in the shade, his
inscrutable eyes observing the crowd. He waited until a patron had stopped at
his table before jumping up and gesturing them inside. Tate watched as he led a
well-dressed man inside. He held up several rugs until the man found one he
liked. She drifted closer, drawn by the brightly colored rugs.

One in particular was a rich black
with a blue and red pattern on it. Looking closely, she could see how the blues
wound around the red and spiraled out into several curlicues and leaves into a
complicated pattern. It was beautiful.

Danny noticed what she was looking
at and said, “It’s pretty, but I don’t think it’ll fit in your bunk.”

He was right in that. Her berth was
really just a hammock with sheets hung around it for privacy. She didn’t have a
lot in the way of personal possessions. Just two changes of clothes. It was one
of the reasons she didn’t have to go back to the Marauder if she decided to
run.

With a last wistful glance at the
beautiful rug she moved on. Her life just didn’t have room for stuff. 

“Where’s Ryu?” Tate asked, noticing
for the first time that he wasn’t standing with Danny.

“He had to take care of a few
things,” Danny said without meeting her eyes. “He’ll find us again later. Shall
we see the sights?”

Tate nodded eagerly and paced by
Danny’s side as they continued their stroll. They stopped and joined a crowd as
they watched a colorfully dressed man hold a strange looking creature up. Its
body was a bizarre combination of furred parts and hard reptilian limbs with
soft looking quills sticking up from its neck and back. The man held up a
finger and then pointed into the air. The crowd ooed and awed as the creature
leapt up and darted through the air performing twists and turns just over
people’s heads.

Tate’s dragon watched with equal
fascination, piggybacking off her thoughts. It seemed content to watch and not
comment, for which Tate was relieved. She could relax and enjoy the day without
having to worry as she normally did.

It felt comfortable to simply be
part of the crowd, one of the many anonymous faces that had turned out to enjoy
the start of the Donza Festival. The greater celebrations wouldn’t start for a
day or two, but the smaller parades and impromptu entertainment helped ramp up
the crowd’s spirits.

They walked a little farther.

 A woman and man with painted
faces and flamboyant dresses over long pants twirled in a complicated dance.
Their faces were painted white except for where they’d drawn black eyebrows and
a vertical red line on their upper lips.

Another man in costume leapt out,
matching steps with the woman’s. Their tunics flared out as they twisted into
another turn. One of the men leapt powerfully into the air arching his back and
flipping in midair while the other two stomped their way to the front. The
musicians sitting on the cobble stone patio executed a complicated flurry of
notes that reminded Tate of a pounding wind. The trio burst into an explosion
of movement arching their bodies and then bending them in time to the music.

“As the Donza Festival draws
closer, you’ll see all sorts of performers around the city. It’s truly an
amazing sight to see,” Danny said.

Tate nodded keeping her eyes on the
performers whose dance had drawn to an end and who were now mingling with the
crowd. She watched as several of the watchers tossed coins into the bowls each
of the three held. When they passed her and Danny she threw a copper piece into
the collection. The man bobbed his head in thanks and moved on.

As the crowd dispersed Tate noticed
a stall tucked into a corner of the market that had previously been blocked by
the performers. She walked towards the oddly formed contents of the little
shop. A sign above the table— for that’s all it really was— a table with a sign
above it, read ‘Relics of the Past.’ She came to a stop in front of it and
stared down at the odds and ends cluttering the surface.

“What is this?” she asked.

“Relics, miss,” the wizened old
merchant said. He didn’t bother getting up from the chair he’d settled his old
bones in. “These were found in ancient ruins a few miles outside Aurelia.”