The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume III: Volume III

try to steal my baby?” Katie hugged her daughter closer. Marilell squeaked in protest.
    “Someone who wants to hurt you and Quinnault very much. Someone who seeks to control Coronnan by controlling you.”
    “Kinnsell collects odd bits of unusual jewelry. This is just the sort of thing that would appeal to him. He is also the one man no servant or guard would detain near the royal apartments,” Katie whispered.
    She had to warn Jamie Patrick. He had to take their father away now, not later, not when their mysterious mission had been completed. Now.

    Late afternoon, on a royal passenger barge in the center of the Great Bay
     
    A fragrant spring breeze drifted from the mainland toward the passenger barge traversing the Great Bay. Journeyman Magician Bessel inhaled deeply of the clean air colored with salt and new lilies. He stood on the top deck with five ambassadors and their ladies. Below and ahead of them a dozen oarsmen pulled the vessel toward shore by brute strength, helped only a little by a tide nearing its lowest ebb.
    Master Scarface had assured Bessel that the deaths in his parents’ village were isolated. Lord Balthazaan’s greed and mismanagement had left his miners ill nourished. The storms and privations of winter had weakened the common people, leaving them vulnerable to all manner of diseases. No true plague ravaged Coronnan. Nor would it now that the books with references to technology had been isolated.
    The Commune, meaning Scarface, was in control.
    The disease that killed his mother couldn’t have been the plague. He prayed it wasn’t.
    The flower-laden air replaced the stink of the plague in Bessel’s memory.
    Yet the scent, a mere hint of Powwell’s telepathic rendition of the dragon dream, but very prevalent at Ma’ma’s deathbed, continued to haunt him.
    Every time Bessel voiced a doubt, Scarface reminded him that he need not concern himself with plagues and such. His duty to the Commune required he complete his diplomatic training, hence his presence on this barge.
    But he still hadn’t revealed the hiding place of the little book he’d been reading just before Scarface rearranged the library. A new iron gate with only one key and a personalized magical seal blocked off the now forbidden books. But the book with intriguing references to blood magic was safe in Bessel’s room, hidden beneath a loose floor tile.
    Scarface had been most generous in reassuring Bessel after the incident in the library. Bessel had expected punishment. Instead, Scarface had assigned him to this luxury barge. As ordered, Bessel listened to and observed five diplomats and their ladies while they toured the new port city at the edge of the deep water in the bay. For an entire day, Bessel had maintained a light trance so that his mind could understand the conversations conducted in five different languages, even if he couldn’t understand the words themselves.
    Fatigue dragged his shoulders nearly to his elbows and his eyelids drooped heavily. His stomach growled often. Soon he’d be back at the University where he could sleep and eat and then report to Scarface all that had transpired today.
    The depth-finding machine at the center of the barge beeped quietly. One little beep every ten heartbeats. Bessel paused in his savoring of the warm breeze to examine the machine with all his senses. The steady beep told him that no hidden submerged obstacles or suddenly changing channels within the mudflats threatened the barge. But what other threats did the machine disguise? How could the Commune be sure the machine did not emit unseen plagues, much as dragons emitted unseen magic?
    He wished the Guild of Bay Pilots was not dependent upon the machine to negotiate the mudflats between the port islands and Coronnan City.
    But when King Kinnsell of Terrania had magically constructed the port city out of four natural islands as part of the queen’s dowry, he had built jetties that changed the pattern of shifting channels within the mudflats of the inner Great Bay. The port city kept cargo vessels, passenger ships, and invading fleets safely in the depths of the outer bay. The Guild of Bay Pilots had the responsibility of ferrying legal cargo and passengers into Coronnan City. They had no way of learning the changes in the channels fast enough to fulfill that responsibility other than with the depth finder.
    Queen Maarie Kaathliin would see to it that no other machines were introduced to this planet by her