Bound in Darkness by Jacquelyn Frank

the ship as it came up to the dock. The dock was abandoned it seemed, but there was what appeared to be a small village nearby.
    As soon as the plank was lowered to the dock, the group was leading their horses off the ship.
    “We leave at dawn,” the captain warned them.
    “You’ll leave an hour past juquil’s hour tomorrow night,” Maxum said.
    “You said one day,” the captain reminded him.
    “Very well…an hour past juquil’s hour tonight and then straight on to Calandria as fast as your sails can take us. We’ll need to land there by sunset tomorrow.”
    “We should make that easy, provided you are on time.”
    “We will be. You had better be here and ready to go.”
    “I’m a man of my word,” the captain said, looking affronted.
    “So you weren’t about to leave me behind last night?” Maxum countered.
    The captain just grunted in response. “Be sure you’re here!” he barked.
    Maxum simply nodded and kneed his horse down the dock. The group followed him and as soon as they were on land he headed for the village.
    Once there, Maxum pulled up to a young boy. Airi wondered if these people were weredragons. They looked normal enough to her. Did weredragons live in villages like this?
    “I am looking for Lujo,” Maxum said. “Do you know where his lair is?”
    “Everyone knows that. He’s the king of the weres. His lair is up there.” The boy pointed to the nearest butte. “It’s the only lair on the butte. But he doesn’t like visitors.”
    “He’ll like us,” Maxum said assuredly. The boy just shrugged and went on his way. Maxum went straight for the road that appeared to lead to the butte he wanted. They all followed him. The going was easy and fast, the butte not very steep nor very high. The road ended, however, at the base of it, leaving them to pick their way up the rocky shale, which slowed them down considerably.
    But Maxum pushed them hard.
    “Daylight’s wasting and we have to be down off this butte by sunset.”
    “Why sunset? I thought we had until juquil’s hour at least,” Airi said.
    “Those are my orders,” he said shortly.
    It had taken the better part of an hour just to get to the foot of the butte. He would need that time after his curse was over to make it back to the ship at least. That left no time for bathing and he didn’t care. Let them see him covered in dirt. All he cared about was getting what he needed to defeat Sabo. If it meant revealing his curse he would do so but not unless it was absolutely necessary.
    They reached an impasse about an hour later. The angle was too steep for horses and they would need to climb the rest of the way up on foot. It was slow going and the blue sun burned in the sky, beating down on them, heating the rock beneath their hands. They were almost to the top when she took a moment to look around herself. The view was dizzying and breathtaking. Airianne could see the whole of the island. It was a contrast between the white beach, the forest treetops that skirted it to the base of the buttes and then the red and gray stone of the buttes themselves. From her perch she could see those large bodies circling the buttes better.
    Dragons! Enormous dragons! She had never seen anything like it. They were still a good distance away, but she could tell just how large they were. And unless her eyes were deceiving her, they were glittering in the afternoon sunlight.
    She suddenly felt very exposed on that cliff face. What if one of them should see them and decide to investigate? Didn’t dragons eat people?
    No. If that were true then there wouldn’t be a colony of people on the island. Would there? Then again, it was a beautiful island, full of trees lush with fruits—it would make for a perfect paradise and easy living. But was it worth having dragons in your backyard?
    “We should hurry,” she said nervously. She didn’t want to find out the answer to her question the hard way. “What’s the plan once we find this