“Why kill the dragon?”

Damien was once again sitting on a conjured chair in Salem’s cramped cabin. Across from him the girl was using sorcery to brew tea. Considering how much paper she kept in her room it was probably a good idea to avoid fire. Damien had joined her for tea and conversation twice more since their first visit a week ago. Salem was gradually relaxing in his company and he’d managed to tease out a few more details of her life.

Not a lot, but some. The girl was surprisingly hesitant to talk about herself. So far he’d learned that Salem and her sister were banished from their village when the local witch noticed they had external flowing soul force. Not that she put it that way. Apparently some of the details of how sorcery worked hadn’t made it to the remote village where they grew up.

Anyway, once the village found out about their abilities no one would have anything to do with them. The last words their mother spoke to them was to tell them about a sorcerer who lived in the mountains. With no other options they’d traveled to find the sorcerer who took them in and trained them.

Salem poured tea into a pair of battered tin cups and handed him one. Damien took a sip. Mint and lemon. He’d never tasted anything like it in the kingdom.

She watched him over the rim of her steaming cup. “Is it good?”

“Very, thank you. We have nothing like this back home.”

“This variety only grows around my village.” She took a sip. “It reminds me of home.”

They drank in silence for a minute. Damien was about to ask his question again when she said, “Our master told us before he died, ‘Man is capable of anything he puts his mind to.’ To honor him Maishi and I set out to accomplish the most difficult task we could imagine. We’d debated several other ideas when we met David and told him of our quest. He mentioned the Leviathan and suggested nothing could be more difficult than killing the most powerful creature on the planet. Maishi seized on that at once.”

“You didn’t agree?”

“I thought we could find a task that didn’t involve killing anything. But once my sister made up her mind nothing would change it. I wouldn’t abandon her so I had no choice but to accept her decision. David told us about the urns and the three of us set out to collect them. Once we’d done that it wasn’t hard to find Captain Velco and convince him to take us out hunting.”

“It seems like a terrible risk. I’ve fought a dragon, a weak one, if there is such a thing, and I only hurt it. I doubt I’d have nerve enough to take on the strongest of the five.”

Shouts from outside interrupted their chat. The lookout had spotted more spouts. Salem leapt to her feet. “I have to prepare.”

Damien got up and put a hand on her arm. “Please be careful.”

“I’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

He left Salem to prepare and went out on deck. Sailors were readying their hunting supplies and loading the little boats. Captain Velco stood at the wheel and bellowed encouragement. Damien couldn’t get over how much noise the process entailed. Shouts and laughter mingled with the clanging of harpoons and spears.

Damien flew up to three times the height of the mast and looked in the same direction as the lookout. From this height the whales were easy to spot. They resembled dark gray shadows on the water. Every minute or two one of the giants would blow a spout of water ten feet into the air.

Below him the little boats settled in the water and the sailors immediately pulled toward the pod. Two more boats launched from another member of the flotilla. It appeared Captain Velco had decided if one dead whale wasn’t enough to draw the dragon’s attention, maybe two would do it. Damien shook his head at the stupidity of the whole proceeding.

The boats from Velco’s ship reached the pod first and, like before, the harpooner did his job, sinking his weapon deep into a whale at the edge of the pod. A second later they were off to the races. The tiny boat hooked to twenty tons of angry animal flew north. The rest of the ships followed along.

Damien was trying to figure out how the second group of hunters would coax their prey to swim in the same direction when one of the whales, a monster twice the size of the first one they harpooned, turned and charged the pursuing skiffs. The harpooner hurled his weapon, but the rushed shot didn’t hit square and bounced off the whale’s thick hide.

The harpooner in the second skiff raised his weapon, but the whale dove. Its head went down and its tail came up. The shattered first skiff went flying one way and its occupants the other.

The whale swam away, seeming content that it had made its point. Damien considered flying down to help when a massive power to the east drew his attention.

His body trembled.

He’d never felt anything this strong before. The combined might of every sorcerer in the kingdom wouldn’t equal the power drawing ever nearer. Every fiber of his being screamed that he should flee.

Down below, the hunters were in the process of slaying the harpooned whale. Velco’s ships sailed into position, Salem and the others standing in the front of three of the ships. They had to sense the approaching dragon. It was so powerful he suspected the ordinary sailors might sense it.

Damien studied the ocean. It didn’t take him long to spot the massive, sinuous shadow approaching. It seemed to go on forever. Three, four, maybe five hundred yards long. It didn’t seem possible such a huge creature could exist.

It dove out of sight.

Velco was still maneuvering his ships to circle the dead whale. Corrupt power radiated from the urns in the sorcerers’ hands. Despite himself Damien flew closer. Something titanic was about to happen and he needed to see it.