land. He really was a child of the sea, after all, and this ship was as close as he could get to his ancestor’s legacy.
I suddenly remembered that the half-blood had only just heard news of his mother the night before. What Ixnia had to tell him could not have been good news.
“How are you holding up?” I asked before I could stop myself.
“Well enough, m’lady. It is not for you to worry about.”
He looked away toward the city.
I frowned. Putting my hands on my hips, I tried not to sound too pouty, “Even so… If you ever do want to talk to me about it, my ears are always open.”
“Thank you, m’lady. I shall keep that in mind.”
If I listened between the words, it was a clear dismissal. A little put-off, I walked toward the bow to see if the port was anywhere in sight. This caught the attention of the kin, but he said nothing, just nodded.
“How are you?” I asked.
Levent grunted in reply.
“Fair enough,” I muttered, leaning over the side of the boat a little. There was no port in sight yet, though I had noticed a fair few people milling about the streets in this area. Perhaps we were close.
When the kin said nothing more, I decided that conversation was up to me.
“Where will you go after this?”
I had not expected a real reply, but the kin turned and nodded toward a point somewhat above the shoreline. When I followed his eyes, it took me a moment to recognize the shape of mountains in the night sky. They seemed frighteningly large at this distance, seeming to reach far too high. The spires of Lahnfabon were famous, of course, but again it had been years since I had seen them. I had forgotten how tall they were.
“I see. Good luck with that, but I’m pretty sure they don’t let dragon-kin up there anymore,” I said.
From the human base in the tallest spire, you could see right over the Cythruan Mountains to Schoale Castle of Estelhein. It would be easy for a dragon-kin to signal his country that way, and so they had been banned long ago from riding the cable car up to the spire.
“There’s a way,” he said simply, though the words themselves were ominous.