"I support your sartorial supposition," Thord said. When I gave him a surprised glance, he continued, "Well, I still know big words, even with a bear's heart." He lifted up the Wodenite helmet I'd seen earlier. "One of my countrymen had a very, very bad day." He set it down gently.
Within a few minutes, we were done with the cave and back outside. I imagined the army of giants now marching across Drachia and leaving pyres of dead dragons in their wake. I did hope that my belief that Zarek would attack the palace last was correct. Because there wouldn't be much time before Queen Brenna and the other dragons, including Brax, were dead. Unless there was some secret hidden in their archives that could protect them from the giants.
"So," Thord said. My gaze went from his lips to the beard to look him in the eyes again. I had to remind myself not to stare at it. I hoped he hadn't noticed. And that's when it hit me: what else had changed. His eyes used to be blue. But now they were a very dark brown. "What are you staring at?" he asked.
"Oh, nothing!" I pretended to be looking around the island. "What were you about to say?"
"That we don't seem to have any way to find this mystical land of giants. We know they aren't behind us, since that would be too close to Drachia to not be noticed over the years." He pointed north. "That is the direction to Ellos." And then he pointed west. "And we know if we travel far enough between Drachia and Ellos, then we'll be in Azadiq. So..." He pointed his left hand toward the east. "Somewhere out in that general direction, a group of giants have made a home for themselves."
"That general direction?" I made the same hand gesture as him, though hammed it up a bit. He rewarded me with a smile. At least that still looked the same, despite the beard. "It's a huge distance to cover," I added.
"We could spend a lifetime looking. Be off by one degree and we'll miss it. And if these giants can breathe underwater, maybe they live on some sunken land. Which would make it impossible to find."
"Yes," I said. "Though they wouldn't live underwater."
He raised one of his white eyebrows slightly. Gods, they were hard not to stare at. "Why not?"
"Because, if what Zarek said is true, then they have mortals who live with them as equals. And since mortals can't breathe underwater, they wouldn't find an underground land very comfortable."
Thord kicked at the dirt. "So we are looking for a land above ground that—despite thousands of years of dragons flying and Wodenites adventuring in their ships and wizards and witches floating like balloons—still hasn't been discovered."
"You are assuming, of course, that the whole world is in the shape of an egg," I said. "As Maestru Hordus taught us."
"Only a fool would follow the work of Borgedian the Square, who thought that all the world was flat and laid out on a giant worktable of the gods."
"It does sound rather unlikely," I said. "And I was just testing you. Of course the world is egg-shaped, and the oceans and land cling to it. Most life emerges from an oval shape: from an egg or the oval shape of a woman's belly when—"
"Yes, I know about that!" He did get the slightest bit of a blush in his upper cheeks. "Let's not talk about births and stuff."
I laughed. For some reason, the boys in class always got a little more antsy when we talked about how creatures were born. Even though Thord had grown up on a sheep farm. "Anyway, the point is the same. We have a vast distance to cover. So what we need is some marker that shows us where the giants came from." I looked around at the ocean and the endless horizon. "Uh, I don't see anything."
"Well, you are a know-it-all, so I expected more from you."
"Know-it-all?" I crossed my arms. "What do you mean by that?"
"You were always first with your hand up in class to spout out the answer to the most obscure questions. You seemed to know a lot about, well, everything." He paused. "I didn't mean it as an insult."
“I just read books."
"I read books, too. But you remembered everything you read. You should be proud of that." He patted my shoulder hard enough to make me stagger. "Uh, sorry. I forget my strength. What do you remember about giants?"
"Well, the library archives at the Red Keep were over two thousand years old. So it's not like it's up-to-date information. But they are various sizes. They could be as tall as forty feet, have two legs, two arms and, in most cases, two eyes, and keen senses of smell."
He sniffed. "I have a keen sense of smell these days, too."
"Interesting," I said, even though it wasn't. "But these giants had gills."
"So do you think all the other giants are dead? That somehow only that group of giants survived?"
"No," I said. "I'm convinced Zarek wasn't lying about the mortals living in the land of giants. Plus, the dragons may have embellished how complete the destruction was. And..." I looked around. "Hey, I just remembered something… they like smoke."
"Tobacco, you mean?"
"No, not smoking. Smoke. They like steam baths and hot springs. Apparently giants have poor circulation. Especially, frost giants." I lifted up my hand and pointed to the sky. "That's it!"
"What's it?" he said. "Why do I feel like you've figured out the problem before I could even begin to think about it?"
"We just have to find a land mass that has steam and smoke and lots of rocks. I bet there will be giants there."
"But it's still a vast area of ocean to cover," he said.
"You forget that we can travel at great speed. We just have to find the right airstreams." I did some quick math in my head and then finished it by scratching out a number in the sands.
"What's the two percent stand for?" Thord asked.
"Our chances of finding the land of giants before they destroy Drachia," I said.
"Well, the faster we move, the higher our odds." He whistled and Gorgon broke off from pecking at worms in the grass and ran over to him. I whistled and Carnda did not break off from perusing the grass.
"Fine!" I said. "Carnda, will you please come over here?"
She did, her head held high. She gave Gorgon a haughty look. Obviously, she would never respond to a whistle.
"To the heavens we go," Thord said. He stuck out his chest, and posed like a god. Then began to climb on his swan.
"Wait," I said. "There's one more thing to do."
5
Just the Start
We ate: I dug into my bag and found the dried beef the dragons had given me. I offered a strip to Thord, even though he was eyeing the nearest goat. "Eat this," I said. "It will fill your stomach."
"Nothing fills my stomach," he said.
"Then you have that in common with Brax," I said.
He grabbed the long strip out of my hand and chewed it with his mouth open and with such speed and vigor and volume that I had to look away. He had forgotten every single etiquette lesson from Maestru Beatrix. I briefly imagined what it would be like if he were chomping down on a freshly killed goat, then wished I hadn't. The contents of my stomach curdled. "It expands in your insides," I whispered, hoping he'd hear me above his chewing. Were his teeth sharper now? "Just wait."