By the time she could join the others outside, all the dragons were roused. Among their excited trumpeting, in a small gap of quiet, she heard both the winding of a long horn call and the cry of another dragon. “Veras! It’s Veras!” Jerd shrieked. She went scuttling over the packed logs, heading for the unstable edge of the floating debris pack, and Greft went scrambling after her. He caught her by the shoulders and held her back from falling in as Veras approached. In her wake, periodically blowing three short blasts on a horn, was one of the hunters from the Tarman. Alise’s heart leaped and then sank at the sight of him. It was Carson, Leftrin’s friend. But he was not Leftrin, and the barge was nowhere in sight.

A hail of questions peppered them both as they drew nearer. Carson didn’t even attempt to reply. He abandoned blowing his horn and applied his efforts to his paddle to swiftly approach the shore. By the time he could toss a line to one of the awaiting keepers, Veras had already thrust her way into the packed debris and was allowing a weeping Jerd to stroke her face. Alise crowded forward with the keepers to hear what tidings he might bring.

“Are you all here and safe?” was his first question, and when Greft shook his head, the hunter’s face fell into lines of disappointment.

“The Tarman and Captain Leftrin are just around the last bend. They should be showing any minute now. As soon as he’s here, he’ll take you on board and get a hot meal into you. Not much we can do for the dragons just yet, but the river’s been dropping fast since dawn. I hope that by this evening, there will be some shallows where they can at least stand and take some rest.”

Lecter had caught the rope and secured the small boat to their raft as Carson spoke. Now the hunter clambered nimbly from the boat to the raft and looked around at the gathered people, grinning. As he scanned the waiting faces, hope slowly died. “Who’s missing?” he asked.

“Who’s on board the Tarman?” Greft countered.

Carson looked annoyed with him but answered, “Captain Leftrin and the full crew came through just fine. Big Eider banged up his ribs some, but nothing’s broken so far as we can tell. My boy Davvie’s on board, too. We lost our other hunter, unless Jess is here with you. And what about Sedric? Is he here?”