Patterns in the Dark (Dragon Blood Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page B

Northern Hemisphere and was an air-only fleet, so we didn’t often dock in harbors that didn’t offer accommodations for dirigibles. But this sounds like a place where your crates of dragon blood might have originated.”
    “That’s what I’m thinking.”
    “Are the criminals accommodating to non-pirate visitors?” Cas tapped the barrel of her rifle.
    “If you bring enough money, I should think so,” Moe said.
    “You know much more about this place than we do,” Zirkander said. “Is there no chance that you’ll pause your work here for a time and come with us? Duck has room in his flier, and we can return you to this very beach when we’re done.”
    Before he finished speaking, Moe was shaking his head. He shook it particularly vehemently at the mention of a flier ride. “Here. The island isn’t far away, nautically speaking.” He held open his book for Zirkander’s perusal. “I’ll allow you to copy the map if you’re quick about it. I need to get back to work. As I said, my time here is limited.”
    Zirkander’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t try again to convince his father to come with them. He scrutinized the map for a moment, then pushed it back without writing anything down. Cas had never known him to get lost and trusted that he had memorized it sufficiently to find it from the air.
    Sardelle hadn’t left the cave mouth or motioned to any of them, but Zirkander looked over his shoulder, meeting her eyes for a long moment. It was almost as if they were communicating. Maybe they were. The sword could talk to people in their heads, couldn’t it? Cas shifted uneasily. She might have accepted that Sardelle was a sorceress, but she found the idea of her commander engaged in a telepathic conversation strange.
    Zirkander cleared his throat. “We left our fliers unguarded, Dad. We may need to—”
    A rock smashed to the ground a few feet away from him, breaking and sending stone shards flying.
    “Take cover?” Tolemek asked.
    Cas reacted to the attack instantly, raising her rifle and aiming for the top of the promontory. Nobody was standing up there, at least not in view. She searched for movement, the promise of a further attack. A coconut might have simply fallen from the tree branches up there, but rocks didn’t usually drop out of the sky unannounced.
    The tree branches. One shivered, leaves moving against the blue sky. A monkey stood on the limb. It lifted a furry brown arm and shrieked. There wasn’t anything in its hands, but another rock lofted from atop the cliff. Cas thought about shooting it, to break it apart, but it was just as easy to avoid the head-sized projectile. Everyone skittered toward the wall for protection. The rock sounded like a cannonball when it landed.
    “I can’t believe a monkey threw that,” Cas said. It must have weighed twenty pounds. That monkey didn’t look big enough to be more than thirty or forty himself.
    “What?” Zirkander asked.
    “I see monkeys up there, but that’s it. No people.”
    Another rock sailed over the edge, this one lofted in such a way that it landed closer to the group.
    “Does this happen often, Dad?” Zirkander asked.
    “No.”
    “Let’s get off these rocks then.”
    Cas waved for the others to climb down first. If she found a target, she would shoot to cover their backs.
    “Someone must be up there and out of sight,” Tolemek said as he jogged for the edge. “Monkeys don’t throw rocks at tourists.”
    Sardelle and Zirkander paused at the top of the climb down, giving each other long looks.
    “Owls don’t attack fliers, either,” Zirkander said, “but we’ve seen that when shamans were around.”
    Sardelle said something, but the jungle erupted in noise, as if every animal in a five-mile radius had decided to shriek, roar, or caw at the top of its lungs.
    “Go,” Zirkander barked, waving to all of them. He jerked his hand for Cas to come too.
    She wanted to guard their backs as they climbed down, but more rocks