“Based on how you handled the Warlock, Lord Vance, I’d say that you have an edge when it comes to strategy.”
“Even so, I’m not about to get slack,” I said, curling my hand into a fist. “Elandriel is one sly, slippery motherfucker, and he’s devious as all hell. There’s no low he wouldn’t stoop to, no dirty trick he wouldn’t use guiltlessly. From the moment we set sail, we’re sleeping with one eye open, armored up and ready for whatever shit he throws our way, because I know for sure he’s gonna do his best to throw some bad shit at us.”
Rollar looked surer of himself now, and his confidence had been bolstered by mine. “Aye, Lord Vance,” he said, his jaw tight with determination. “We’ll be ready for him.”
I watched as the last of my troops vanished under the waves. The next time I’d see my army would be when they emerged from the ocean onto the Prandish shore. I could only hope that their journey across the seabed would get them there exactly when I needed them to arrive.
The war ship was moored a few hundred yards out at sea, and Percy and his pirates had just arrived on the beach in rowing boats to take my party to the ship.
“Say goodbye to Yeng!” I pointed my Dragon Sword in the direction of Prand. “Onward to Prand, where we destroy the Blood God and everything associated with that evil son of a bitch once and for all!”
Chapter Eight
Once we’d set sail, Rami-Xayon called up a strong wind. The gust filled our sails and propelled us across the ocean, its surface smooth as glass for the first day or two of the voyage. I knew that things wouldn’t be this easy for long, though, and I kept my guard up, sending Talon out on long scouting flights multiple times a day. If Elandriel had rebuilt any of his navy ships and was setting up an ambush for us out at sea, I’d find out about it and sink his vessels long before they even caught sight of my sails on the horizon.
Of course, Elandriel’s slippery deviousness and sly cunning were his greatest assets, and I doubted he would be using something as straightforward as a naval battle to try to stop me. No, his welcome-back-to-Prand surprise would be just that: a surprise.
I was standing at the prow of the ship late on the second night of the voyage. Thoughts swirled in my mind as I stared out at the black ocean and the enormous dome of the clear, starry sky above. I was quietly putting battle plans together in my head when a voice jolted me from this trance of thoughts.
“At least the ocean is exactly how I remember it. Everything else has changed, but this is still the same.”
“I guess there isn’t much that can change about the ocean, Yumo-Rezu, no matter how many centuries pass.” I turned to face the Dragon Goddess as she glided across the deck with the silent, deadly grace of an expert enjarta.
“Mortals have no power here; this is the one realm they still fear and will always fear. They cannot tame and destroy it, like they have done with so many of the old, sacred places on land.”
“And gods? Maybe men fear these waves and this endless expanse of water, but I don’t,” I said.
She smirked, raising a playful, somewhat skeptical eyebrow. “You may be the God of Death, and the most powerful God of Death I’ve ever known, but for all your powers you cannot breathe underwater. Nor can you swim for hundreds of miles, fighting twenty foot swells and ocean currents, without becoming exhausted and slipping below the waves. You’re more capable than any mortal of surviving on your own out here, but you’re by no means immortal.”
“No, but if this ship suddenly went down, I wouldn’t have to swim or breathe underwater. I have undead sea creatures to help me out with that. On that subject, what do dragons think about the ocean? Do they fear it?”
Her gorgeous almond eyes narrowed, and a gleam of defiant pride sparkled in them. “Dragons fear nothing, Vance Chauzec, and you would do well to remember that if you wish to ride one. They are not horses, who can be tamed and broken. They do not submit to the will of any being, god or mortal, but themselves. You could be the most powerful god of all, and you could certainly be strong enough to kill a dragon, but you could never force it to obey you or capitulate to your demands. Only with the Dragon Gauntlets you possess will a dragon consider allying with you … but even then, they are beings of a strong and fiercely independent will, and they must be convinced to ally with you.”
“I don’t think that’ll be much of a problem, considering that Friya will be becoming the dragon. She’s already on my side.”
“She may change when she actually becomes the dragon, though … her human will may not be as strong and dominant as you—or she—thinks it will be.”
“Well we’ve got you, the Dragon Goddess, to assist with any teething problems, as such.”
Yumo-Rezu flashed me a beguiling smile and stepped closer to me. Beneath her skin-tight enjarta catsuit, her pert breasts shifted tantalizingly. She parted her full lips, showing me a teasing flicker of tongue. “Yes, you do, but like a dragon, this goddess cannot be tamed … at least not fully.”
My cock stirred, throbbing with excitement, and Yumo-Rezu’s eyes were drawn inexorably to the swelling bulge in my crotch area
. “I’m sure that no mortal man is able to come close to taming you, Yumo-Rezu, but I’m no mortal.”
“Not even a god—” she began, but I cut her off with my mouth clamped onto hers,
