Snake Heart (Chains of Honor #2) -Lindsay Buroker Page 0,19

ship was anchored beyond the reef, braving choppier waves. It had a dark hull, and Yanko could barely make it out against the black water. If not for a few lanterns along the railing, he would not have spotted it at all.

Several rowboats had entered a lagoon and were pulled up on the beach. One held a crate or chest with something lumpy leaning against it under a tarp. It was too dark out to see what the cargo was.

There was light farther up on the beach—mage light. Yellow and orange orbs floated in the air, highlighting weathered faces. Armed men and women were gathering around a man speaking and gesturing, giving orders. The pale-skinned, red-haired man wore travel clothing with numerous pockets, and he was waving something about. A map? The onlookers had a variety of hair and skin colors and wore a mixed collection of garments that represented the styles of numerous nations. Two of the men wore the orange robes of fire mages, but most looked like they had borrowed their clothes from friends—or enemies. The people reminded Yanko of those in the tortoise’s vision, and he shifted uncomfortably, rocks digging into his belly.

Dak gazed intently down at them. Counting numbers?

Yanko poked him in the shoulder and pointed back the way they had come. He crawled a dozen feet from the edge before standing, not wanting to risk being seen.

Dak did not move to follow him. He pulled out a spyglass and peered at who knew what.

“Dak,” Yanko whispered. “If they have mage lights, they have mages. Mages who might sense us.”

He didn’t know if his soft words carried, but Dak collapsed the spyglass, returned it to his pocket, and scooted away from the edge.

“They have a prisoner,” he said.

“What? Where?”

Lakeo? It had to be. Who else was on the island? Why hadn’t she gone to the pool? Why had she been out where pirates could capture her?

“He or she is tied up in one of the boats, under a tarp. There’s just a hand sticking out. It’s hard to tell, even with a spyglass, but it looks like a woman’s hand.”

Yanko groaned. That lumpy object next to the chest. It must have been Lakeo, tied up and taken prisoner.

“We’ll never get her as long as they’re all on the beach,” Dak said.

Yanko was relieved that Dak wanted to get her and wasn’t dismissing her as expendable, but he didn’t know how that helped them. “If we wait until they’re aboard their ship, we’ll never get her.”

“I can go down, wait for them to disperse on their hunt, and retrieve her then,” Dak said. “But that leaves you without a bodyguard.”

Yanko gazed in the direction of the waterfall. “I’ll go with you. I was the one to send Lakeo to this end of the island. I can’t leave her to pirates.”

Dak held up a hand. “Just give me a distraction, if you can. Then go complete your mission.”

He wanted Yanko to find the lodestone? Before him? Or was it just that he considered Nuria having the lodestone less troublesome than some pirates having it? Maybe he believed that if Yanko had it, he could more easily retrieve it for Turgonia later. Either way, Yanko would be foolish not to accept the offer. If anyone could rescue Lakeo alone, it would be Dak.

“All right,” Yanko said. “Go down to the beach and hide. I’ll create a distraction, then check the waterfall.”

“Good.” Dak waved his rifle, then jogged back the way they had come.

Scaling the cliff would have been more direct, but would have left him in view of the beach. Yanko dropped to his belly to scoot close and look over the edge again. The meeting had dispersed, and most of the pirates were walking down the beach, following the man with the map. It wasn’t as direct a route as climbing over the cliff, but they would reach the river leading to the waterfall before long.

At least Dak should have an easier time with most of the men gone, including the two wearing Nurian mage robes. There were still ten pirates on the beach, two standing guard next to the boat with the prisoner. Yanko groped for a distraction that might help him. Had there been great predators on the island, he might have convinced them to attack the pirates, but he hadn’t come across anything more ferocious than a mongoose.

Yanko remembered the monkey that had howled down at him earlier and let his senses drift out