The Dragon's Daughter

Chapter 16

Saturday 7:00 p.m.

Warning: This chapter contains a fight scene with weapons, threats of SA, and unwanted physical contact.

When we arrived at the Harbor where the Ruby Lou was docked, it was still light out, but it wouldn't be long before the last remaining hint of pink in the western sky faded down to a dim gray, and the stars began to twinkle. The clanking masts of a few sailboats docked near shore greeted us. The tide was low and the smell of marsh and mud was apparent and familiar to me. The Ruby Lou was out on the far end of the channel. She was a big vessel, midnight blue. There were a few shipping containers stacked upon her, and I could tell her hold would not be overly large to keep her profile shallow. But she was still a massive ship, made for transatlantic crossing, and the inside could accommodate a large crew. There was a chance my mom and Sy could be stashed in those containers, or they could be anywhere inside. The plan we had formulated was tenuous at best and mostly constituted going in "magic blazing". I frowned. This all seemed so much more do-able before we were actually standing here.

I breathed deeply.

Beside me, Hector shuffled nervously too.

"I can't tell how many people are on the boat," he whispered, "I should at least be able to sense them, even if I can't read a dragon's mind... I should still be able to tell they are there. Like a presence."

This was bad. We were counting on Hector to give us numbers. Locations. Something.

"You can't even read my mom and Sy?" I was stunned

"No, nothing. It's like the boat is empty."

"They sent us to an empty boat?" Jess was whispering like the rest of us, but her fury was easily detectable.

"That can't be right." I shook my head.

"Hector, try harder!" Jess demanded.

That probably wasn't helping, so I opted for a bit more of an encouraging approach, "You can do it!" I flashed him a small smile.

Jess seemed to catch onto my plan to buoy him up and she smirked at him, "I mean, yeah. You are the best mentalist we know."

I laughed a bit too loud and then stopped my giggle behind my hand. "Sure. You're the best one on the planet, dude. Just try again!"

Hector looked put out and began to concentrate! He soon sucked in a breath. There is a dragon in one of the shipping containers. I can tell he's in dragon form! Your mom is beside that shipping container."

Was the dragon guarding her or was he a prisoner too?

"Was he that dragon we saw getting dragged away earlier?"

"I'm not sure. I'm counting. There are... 12 dragons plus Sy in the various levels of the ship. But i still can't read anybody's mind. It's like something's stopping me."

12 didn't sound horrible, but we didn't know what powers they possessed. Clearly somebody or something was blocking Hector's ability.

"We just do what we discussed. Jess, you get her mom and get out of there. Then come back and get Sy." Hector was, for all the world, sounding like some kind of military commander. It was mildly funny and would have been hysterical if we hadn't been about to do something crazy.

"Right." Jess nodded.

"Raina and I will be distractions with our magic, getting guys out of the way." Hector sounded entirely too enthusiastic. Perhaps all his military video games had been leading up to this. I suppressed a sigh and forced myself to nod. We had all agreed to this plan.