Dragon-Ridden by T.A. White

“All that
suggests is that he has poor judgment and should never be let off the ship
un-chaperoned. I don’t know what it was like where you were, but magic is real.
I’ve seen it. Furthermore, Aurelia has an academy of mages. So you’d best start
believing before you inadvertently insult one and end up an experiment.”
    Tate eyed the stones doubtfully.
Magic? She’d heard the crew talk about it before. She’d even been accused a
witch. She’d thought it was just superstition, though.
    “This is the part where you say ‘oh
thank you Danny, how thoughtful.’ Those are expensive, you know.”
    “Ah. Right. Thank you ever so
much,” she said in a sugary sweet voice. More sincerely she said, “Really,
thank you, but if I get that weird creepy crawly feeling every time I use them,
I probably won’t get much use out of them.”
    Danny gave her a strange look. She
thought it might be because she’d appeared ungrateful for the crew’s gift, but
touching the stones had been unpleasant. It felt like it’d left a fine coating
of gunk on her hand. She wiped her hand against the bedspread again.
    “I’m told that once keyed to the
stones you shouldn’t feel anything when you pass through the barrier,” he said,
choosing his words carefully.
    “You’re told? You haven’t used them
before?”
    “I have, but I’ve never felt what
you just described.” Seeing her quizzical look, he explained, “Most people
don’t feel anything when keyed to the stones. Only people who are sensitive to
magic would.”
    Tate frowned up at him, tilting her
head carefully to the side. Preposterous. Before this morning, she hadn’t even
fully believed in the possibility of magic. There was no way she could sense
it.
    Seeing that he wasn’t going to be
able to convince her, he rolled his eyes and kissed her on the forehead. She
was startled when he wrapped his arms around her in a hug. Hesitant at first
she hugged him back. Her throat tightened, and so did her arms.
    “Thanks, Danny, for everything,”
she whispered.
    He pulled back and stepped away.
For a moment she thought she saw tears, but then the moment passed, and he
cleared his throat gruffly.
    “Anyways use those from now on. At
least you’ll be able to feel safe when you sleep.”
    That had been a few hours ago. Now
she wrestled with what she needed to do and what she wanted to do. The attack
had made one thing abundantly clear. Staying on the Marauder was not an option.
    Her heart broke a little bit.
Leaving would be tough, but there was no other way.
    Tate rolled onto her side and
watched as light slowly trickled into the world. No matter how much pain she
was in she could always count on the sun rising to bring in a new day. There
was a strange comfort in that. She sighed and threw her arm over her eyes.
    The Marauder would leave this
morning.
    In her mind’s eye, she could see
the midshipmen slithering up ropes and tying off sails, preparing the ship for
voyage while the rest of the crew stored cargo down in the hold. Jost would be
at his customary place on the fore deck observing his domain as a king would
his subjects. The engineers would be preparing the sun engine for use should
the ship need a quick burst of speed in case of attack.
    Tate sighed and rolled onto her
back. She held her arm above her head and examined her tattoo. She traced the
body with one fingertip. It was so lifelike she could almost imagine she felt
scales under her finger pad. It really was a beautiful piece of art. It had to
have been painful to get. She’d watched others on the ship get rougher, simpler
versions of tattoos, nothing as intricate as hers. The whole business had
looked uncomfortable, being jabbed with a needle over and over to work the ink
into the skin. She couldn’t imagine sitting still for the hours it would take
to do all the intricate detailing required for her tattoo. It just wasn’t in
her personality.
    As she traced the tattoo, the skin
rippled and the feet of the