They took the Westland branch of the river. Gerard saw that what spread out between the two channels wasn’t really land. It was shallow, marshy muck. Grass grew up out of it, thick, lush, and as tall as a man, giving the terrain the illusion of being solid underneath. The illusion was shattered though, when the rolling wake of the boat, made the grass dance and waver with the flow. The expanse of grassy marsh seemed to spread out endlessly to the south and east. The solid shoreline to the right of the boat though, was Westland.
Bright, green rolling hills, dotted here and there with rocky formations and small clusters of hardwood trees, filled the spaces between crop fields and grazing pastures. A hard-packed road ran alongside the river, boasting what might be considered a small town every now and then. Wooden docks stretched out to the edge of the main river channel’s flow. Some were empty, others held small fishing crafts tied to them. A few fishing boats could be seen out in the swamp grass. They looked out of place, like they had been washed up in a field.
Soon, they passed a stone building with armed soldiers standing on its crenellated parapet.
“An outpost of the Westland Marsh Patrol,” Shaella told him, as she studied the place intently.
Less than a mile later, they passed what could’ve been called a city. There, the docks and piers were large and sturdy enough to load and unload barges. To the left of them, the marsh was only growing thicker and deeper, as it filled the space between the boat and the horizon. Gerard could see places where the ground humped up out of the muck, and large droopy trees had taken root. Around each of these swamp islands, a plethora of birds swooped and swirled about like a cloud. Some of the birds were as big as men, with wingspans easily twenty feet across. Flick called them “dactyls.”
At dusk, after a long stretch, where nothing but farmland could be seen along the Westland bank, Shaella ordered them to turn directly into the marsh. Gerard could hear and feel the abundance of life out and around them as the boat was swallowed up. Like a horse-drawn wagon charging through a cornfield, they moved through the tall swamp grass. Several times, he saw patches of the grass shake as the surface of the water was churned by some huge thing underneath that was darting away from their passage. Chirps, humming buzzes, and distant splashes, along with bellowing croaks, and the occasional groan, filled the night. Eventually, they lit torches, which only served to make the swampy marsh seem that much vaster. A cloud of biting gnats formed around Gerard’s head, and a not so distant splash, which was so big, its ripples made the whole boat rock back and forth, caused a tremor of unease to run through him.
He decided to sit down and close his eyes for a while. He fell asleep against the pilothouse.
He woke once, when it felt like the boat had stopped moving. He heard foreign voices that had an almost animalistic hissing quality to them, but he was too tired to pull himself out of his slumber to investigate. After a while, Shaella joined him. She was silent, as she took his side and let her head rest on his shoulder. His sleep was deep and sound then.
The sudden lurching of the boat woke him again. Shaella was gone, and the sun was coming up off to the far left. He could tell that they were heading south. The barge that they had been pushing was no longer anywhere in sight, and the riverboat was moving swiftly.
The surrounding terrain was as much above the water level as below it now. It looked like they were in a scattered forest that had suddenly been flooded with grassy water. The places that were above the water level were dense and thick, with tall, yet drooping, trees, and even thicker, leafy undergrowth. The sounds of grunting land animals could be heard, and once, Gerard saw a dark shape swinging from a shaking tree. None of it seemed to take his attention fully away from the dominant feature of the deep marshes though. Far ahead of them, rising up like a mammoth fang to tower hundreds of feet above the swamp trees, was a sharp and slightly curved formation.
“That’s our destination,” Shaella said excitedly.
Actually seeing Dragon’s Tooth Spire, and knowing that Shaella expected him to climb to the top of it to steal the egg of a real dragon, made Gerard’s stomach roil. It was all he could do to keep from vomiting over the rail.
Chapter 24
“Once upon a time, it was a fire mountain,” Shaella said, as she slipped her arm around Gerard’s waist.
They were still on the riverboat, leaning against the bow rail. She felt that she had gone crazy, allowing herself to feel for Gerard. It was stupid and unwise, she told herself over and over, but knowing it, didn’t make the feelings go away. “What is youth, for but to make mistakes?” A quote from some obscure text she had once read came to mind. The words somehow made her foolishness seem alright, like the words of a priest cleansing away a sin. Gerard pulled her closer to him, bringing her wandering mind back to the moment.