My mind kept reverting to snippets of conversation during the day. Small things, mostly. However, they added up to a story we hadn’t known. Our roots were more understandable, and even if we didn’t know all the answers, we could make up stories in our heads to help satisfy us. Every foundling has the same thoughts. Their parents wanted a better life for them, and they were royalty. All we needed to do to fulfill all our dreams was to discover the truth.
The other truth was that Kendra and I had magic abilities. While hers hadn’t manifested until encountering the last dragon, mine had appeared within the norm for child-mages, which is at a very young age. If the sorceress’s responsibilities include searching for children like us, and our abilities were inherited from our father, mother, or both, it seemed reasonable that they might wish to prevent their children from being taken from them.
It also explained how Kendra knew where mages were, even from a distance. Spotting mages was one of their duties, and she was better at it than others.
Carrying that line of thought a little further, it meant our parents knew of the abductions and training, which hinted that one or both of them had been trained in Kaon. My guess is that when they discovered my abilities, they had chosen to run to a kingdom far away and take their children with them.
Something happened along the way. Maybe they were found out and killed by the society from Kaon. The two of us were left on our own after escaping death in some manner, perhaps by being hidden by our family. My mind created a story that held a lot of positives and excluded another story I didn’t like. It said the mages, or those they hire to track down defectors, had killed our parents but were too compassionate to kill two children outright. We were left to die but had managed to survive. The orders had come from Kaon, in any story that fit the circumstances.
“Why are you still awake?” Kendra asked.
“Thinking.”
“Me too. I’m angry at what I’m thinking.”
I said, “That fits with my thoughts. The only item that stands out is the Young Mage.”
A time passed where she said nothing, then spoke softer, in an imploring tone, “Quit trying to figure out everything. Right now, we just need to get out friends ashore safely and into the Brownlands.”
I reached out to Anna. She was asleep.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
We woke with the rising sun, neither refreshed or eager to face the day. However, this day would determine our future. That foreknowledge bore down on me.
Kendra woke but only her eyes moved. Her jaw was as if locked shut. The blankets around her were a warm, safe cocoon she didn’t wish to emerge from. My descriptive sense of her actions impressed me. Further, I suspected they were right.
Both horses turned to face me with accusing stares. Yes, they could carry us again today and no, I didn’t have any grain or fresh grass to feed them. It might be a good idea to find food for them before trekking into the Brownlands with an army chasing after us. The horses were sturdy and used to little feed but starving them was another matter. Fortunately, they had eaten well yesterday.
I removed their hobbles and led them to a few wisps of dried grass. Then I reached out to Anna. I found her sleeping mind again and left her alone.
Kendra was up and moving around. She pulled a small round of bread from her saddlebags and tore it in half. I got the bigger piece. She handed me another cloth bag filled with nuts, dried fruit and corn, and shredded dried meat. A year from now and it would taste as good and carry a person for a day on only a handful.
That was no idle boast. The armies of the world used similar foods for the soldiers on the march. They were light to carry, lasted a long time, and provided all a man needed, if not all he wanted. All soldiers complain about their food and so that should be discounted.
Kendra said, “Anna is still asleep, I guess. Why don’t we sneak closer and find a perch to sit on and watch the army? Maybe that will give us a plan.”
I liked the idea. A morning watching them from the top of a hillside might reveal something useful. We traveled east parallel to the southern bank of the lake. There were no cabins, homes, farms, and even the number of boats upon the water were few. With the lakes and river supplying most of the farms with the means to carry crops to market, there should be more to support the population of Dagger.
At a broken ridge, Kendra climbed down from her horse and moved to the top where she could observe the shore. I found a position beside her while staking the horses out of sight.
The river had flowed past since time began. A thousand years ago, some said, it was dammed, and the lakes created. Since then, massive trees had grown, farmers tilled fields, irrigation waterways to supply water to crops dug, and generations of families were raised.
The trees remained, lush and green as they watered from the lake and flourished from constant sun. Within sight were the remains of three stone fireplaces, the centers of three defunct farms. Blackened and charred remains of the homes stood like the bones of dead animals. The outlines of the fields of previous crops were easy to read.
Kendra said, “People lived here. Raised families. Now, there is only destruction.”
“Those farms were not burned more than a few years ago,” I added. “Maybe more recently.”
“Are both shores like this?”
I searched to our left, and then to our right. Not a farm or home in sight. I said, “A city, any city, requires the support of surrounding farmers, hunters, craftsmen, and a hundred other occupations. Without them, a city starves.”
Kendra’s eyes were tearing up. “The people . . .”
“They have gone or died. All the farmers.”
“Dagger must import all of its food. Why? There is all this unused farmland and water.”
“Control,” my voice said coldly. “Whoever controls the food controls the population. If all the food arrives at the port of Dagger, the officials decide who eats and who does not. That would be the Council of Nine.”
Kendra said, “Do you think they destroyed all the farms along the lakes on purpose?”
My gaze returned to the blackened husks of what had been farms not long ago, and out to the lake at the lack of fishing boats and shrugged. It seemed to be true, but perhaps as we moved along the shoreline things would be different. It was possible that only this section had been burned, perhaps by raiders of some sort. However, an instinct about the methods of the Young Mage told me different.
I said, “Let’s move closer and down by the lake where we can see the army better.”
We slipped into the shallow trough behind a hill and moved parallel to the water, climbing to the top of the hill a few times to peer over. Finally, we were in position. The troops were encamped far enough away that we could see them but with care, they wouldn’t see us. We uprooted two small, thorny bushes that were the color of the sand, and moved them slowly to the top where they would allow us to see past them, but to any soldier looking in our direction, there would only be the bushes.
There were fewer soldiers than expected. That was bad, in my instant opinion. I had expected more, Anna had detailed more, so the unit must have split up into at least two squads, and maybe more. They could better watch the entire shore in that way and prevent our friends from reaching safety. They probably had messengers ready to ride to the others if the boat came into view, or whistles to alarm.