Chronicles of the Dragon Pirate by David Talon Read Free Book Online Page B

standing beside the baptismal font. “Sebastian, have we any Dragons to be wary of?”
    The shortest of the three, a lean man with a shaved head and a close-cropped beard, gave him a smile. “Night-wing tells me the five shamans are Dragons, but they’ve merged with their dragon-spirits.”
    Lord Marcus nodded. As he began giving General Montejo his instructions, Captain Cholula leaned over to whisper in my ear. “When you’ve merged with a dragon-ghost and she leaves you, she takes most of your strength with her. Which would be fine in a fight, except she only uses it to protect you until you’re back on your feet, so among the natives it means they aren’t planning to launch an attack.”
    “Because the Dragons can’t help.” Captain Cholula nodded as she grinned at me, and I stiffened as she hooked her hand around my belt in a possessive way.
    Lord Marcus finished his instructions then said, “General Montejo, make everything ready while I speak with Captain Alfonzo.” General Montejo bowed before walking outside to join the rest of the troops, the two silver wolf soldiers following him outside.
    Karl drew his hammer and held it loosely as Alfonzo strode up to Lord Marcus. “I’m not letting you get away with this.”
    Lord Marcus gave him a reproving look. “Captain Alfonzo, I would cease your worries about Tomas’s fate and begin worrying about your own. Or would you prefer to lose your position with the royal governor and return to your family, including your wife, in great shame?”
    Alfonzo went still as a field mouse in the shadow of a hawk. “Ah...that would be unpleasant.”
    “Yes, I quite imagine it would. However, if you cease your protests and begin cooperating, not only will you retain your position with the royal governor, but I will be happy to make you our agent among the natives here, since I understand you speak their language. You will find we pay an excellent bounty for all the useful wild Dragons recruited for the order.”
    Alfonzo spat on the floor. “I may be forced to give in to you for Johanna’s sake, but don’t think for a minute I’ll help you. I care not what airs you give yourselves; your order is nothing but a pack of ravening beasts and monsters.”
    “Monsters?” I yelped as Captain Cholula almost pulled me off my feet as she strode up to Alfonzo with me in tow and Karl right behind. She let me go and put her face a handbreadth away from Alfonzo’s. “If you wish to learn of monsters,” her voice grew mocking, “brave captain, I shall tell you. A year ago we came upon the Black Rose, a ship of the Dark Sisters, and boarded her while the sun was high. Despite their sluggishness the fighting was fierce, but we prevailed over the Shadowmen and landed a rich haul, including prisoners.
    “Most of them were the way their prisoners normally are: huddled in their cells in mortal fear, but two of them were not. Both had been driven mad, one deliberately, and one by her own choice. The first was a Dragon, a weak soul with hair like flame, who was being forced to merge with the Dark Sister so her mind would shatter, and she would agree to permanently merge with the dragon-ghost.”
    “They don’t live long,” Karl said, “but mortals with the power of a dragon-ghost can do a lot of destruction while they do.”
    “They’re like a brightly burning fire,” Captain Cholula said, “at least until the wood burns out. The second was their cook. She’d been taken in a raid several years before, and she’d offered to cook for them in exchange for being left alone. She said she knew hundreds of different ways to prepare human flesh. The Dragon hardly knew where she was, but the cook did, and was more than happy to tell me about daily life aboard their ship. Suffice to say the Shadowmen treat mortals the same way a butcher treats a pig, except our blood is like wine to them, and makes them merry. They take sport with the comely women, as you would expect, but they treat