Snake Heart (Chains of Honor #2) -Lindsay Buroker Page 0,98

at anyone who came close to her, and the Turgonian who had wanted to search her did not try again. Instead, he looked toward his admiral, a question in his eyes.

The admiral waved toward a hatch that had opened. A man in yellow and red silks strode out, a familiar man.

Yanko nearly fell over. “What is he doing here?”

He gaped until Sun Dragon, the man who had nearly incinerated him with a lava flow, looked over at him. Yanko snapped his mouth shut, not wanting Sun Dragon to see his shock—or how appalled he was.

“I don’t know, but I’m glad there aren’t any volcanoes around,” Lakeo said. “You might want to summon any kraken friends that are sunbathing on the waves out there.”

Sun Dragon sneered at Yanko. It was a triumphant sneer. The Turgonians regarded him dubiously as he approached—one soldier refused to get out of his way as he walked toward the longboats—but that did not seem to worry Sun Dragon. He wore the confidence of a man in control of the situation.

The admiral sighed deeply and said something to Dak.

“Did you get that?” Yanko whispered to Arayevo, wishing he had a clue as to what was going on.

“Only the part where he misses the days when they got to shoot Nurians.”

That wasn’t the clue that Yanko had hoped for.

Dak did not respond to the admiral. He did not look pleased, and he stood there in stony silence.

Sun Dragon stopped in front of the hunter and frowned down at her. “You failed,” he said in Nurian. “Twice.”

He was a few inches taller than she, so she had to lift her chin to stare him in the eyes, but Yanko wagered she would have lifted her chin anyway. She had a lot of pride and certainty for someone not much older than he was.

Sun Dragon flung his arm out, a finger pointing toward Yanko. “He’s a boy.”

Yanko found his own chin coming up. Not so much a boy that he hadn’t bested the mage—and his assassin. Yes, he’d had the help of a kraken, but surely the ability to summon help when it was needed was a legitimate battle tactic.

“I had a chance to kill Snake Heart,” the mage hunter said.

“That is not your mission.”

She glared at him, the defiance still hard in her eyes.

“Did you kill her?” Sun Dragon asked.

“I do not know.” The mage hunter looked at Yanko. Because he had stopped her attack? Or simply because she wondered if he knew the answer?

He kept himself from shrugging in response. Even if he had known the answer, he wouldn’t give it to her. He definitely would not give it to Sun Dragon.

Sun Dragon lowered his voice, but not so much that Yanko failed to hear his comment. “I knew you’d be too young and inexperienced.”

He spun on his heel, pointedly turning his back on the hunter, and strode toward the admiral. Dak tensed, his hand dropping to one of the two pistols jammed through his belt, weapons he had taken from the pirates.

The hunter’s chin remained up, but a hint of red flushed her cheeks. Yanko knew the feeling well, but he refused to feel any sympathy toward her. She had tried to kill him and his mother. Let the wolf god eat her heart and spit it out.

“May I examine the artifact, Admiral?” Sun Dragon asked, sounding more polite than Yanko had ever heard him, but Yanko felt the tease of magic being used.

“Yes,” Admiral Ravencrest said, his tone dull and wooden.

Yanko stirred uneasily, realizing Sun Dragon was using the mental sciences on the officer. And in a ship full of magic-dead Turgonians, who would know? Dak and the mage hunter, perhaps, but their training might only have made them attuned to magic being used against them, not people near them.

Dak’s single eye did close to a slit as he watched Ravencrest hand the lodestone to Sun Dragon.

“Is he controlling that Turgonian?” Lakeo whispered.

“If so, he controls this entire fleet of ships,” Yanko murmured, his heart sinking further. His earlier hope that Dak might ultimately be in charge faded.

Sun Dragon smiled over at Yanko, that triumphant expression on his face again, as he wrapped his fingers around the lodestone. “This is, indeed, the item we’ve been seeking.” He rubbed the golden rock with his thumb, as he might caress a lover’s cheek. Then he turned toward the south, the lodestone directing him, the same way it had directed Yanko. “And it looks like we have a new