She snapped awake, her eyes wide and confused as her hand went to her face. “Did you hit me?”
“A slap, only to wake you. What was happening?” My horse turned and fell into step beside hers.
“Strange. It was like drifting. The sun was warm on my back. I felt sated, no worries, no wants, no needs or fear. Overall there was friendship. It was just a flash of a moment, but you shouldn’t have hit me because of it.”
Her explanation didn’t reveal a lot. “A moment?”
“Yes, it was just a feeling that consumed me for an instant. Although, I’m confused how you managed to get back here behind Lady Elizabeth so fast without me noticing.”
I leaned closer. “Your moment was longer than our last break beside that stream.”
“Don’t tease.”
For once, she hoped I teased her. It was in her voice, the tone and the inflection of the words, the sweep of her eyes that searched for an explanation. In short, she was scared because of something she didn’t understand. Kendra understood the two-finger gesture of mine that we should talk alone when we could find a minute alone, and she nodded.
The trail was narrow, too narrow for us to ride beside each other, so we fell back into single-file with me in the last position, and I watched her back. As soon as she had the packhorses maneuvered ahead of me and some distance between us, her face turned up to the sky again.
It didn’t last long. But she seemed drawn to the sky, or to the beast that had flown there. My worries increased. We did not understand what was happening, or why, but the future had grown foreboding with her actions. We were heading for the home of wyverns, the center of where they lived and bred, and the only place in the world that I was aware of they came and congregated in great numbers.
All dragons, by their warm-blooded nature, avoided the white, frozen lands to the north. The dry, brown lands to the south were hotter and might draw them except that few animals live there, and the few that did tend to be small. Dragons, even wyverns, ate a lot, and there was little for them in the deserts, so it was not where to find them. The book Elizabeth had given Kendra told us far more than she had read out loud. I’d managed a short time alone with it, and the book said both species ate deer, sheep, cows, horses, elk, or other large animals once every two or three days. When compared to their size, that seemed little enough for dragons of any sort.
There were two other things of interest in that book. Wyverns bred on the high mountain behind the city of Mercia. They flew there to breed from all parts of the world, even from across the Dire Sea that lay just beyond the city of Mercia. It also mentioned that ships sailed to the port of Mercia from all over the world, the only place where the borders of our kingdom touched the sea. That made me wonder. Were the two items connected? Had the port or city been constructed there because of the wyverns, or had the borders of our kingdom intentionally been drawn to include Mercia?
That brought up the other item that bothered me. Why would three mages feel the need to travel there? Why would even one?
While I was thinking the remainder of the afternoon away, Tater called a halt. I looked around in surprise. Snow covered much of the ground around us, and ahead it covered the ground fully as the trail wound its way up the side of the mountain. The chilly air had turned cold.
Tater began to tie the hobbles to the legs of his horses as we dismounted, stretched and enjoyed the last of the daylight. He said, “We’ll spend the night here and push out early in the morning.”
“Why not continue?” Elizabeth asked. “I thought we were going to ride on today.”
“We did.” He paused and spat, “As far as we can, anyway. But I don’t want to sleep on snow and be cold all night, so we stop here and hope to get past the snow by sundown tomorrow.”
Sometimes he had a way of speaking that cut through all the gloss and expressed the facts without being offensive. There was plenty of firewood in sight, the ground looked dry, and a small stream flowed over bare rocks. “What about tomorrow night?”
“That’s why we’ll start early. We want to get past this snow tomorrow and sleep on the dry ground again.”
It made perfect sense. Yes, we were in a hurry, but a certain practical aspect had to be met, and Tater couldn’t be held responsible for how much, or how little, snow lay on the ground. Kendra helped with the saddles and unpacking the gear the packhorses carried. She then gave me the two-fingered meet me in private signal while hiding it behind her leg from the others. She asked, “Help me gather firewood?”
“Sure,” I agreed to her ploy.
She led the way, just out of sight and hearing of the others. When we had a few scraggly pines to hide us, she whispered, “Something is wrong.”
“Tell me,” I responded, thinking Tater had done something and I’d make him pay.
“When a wyvern flies near, my mind goes blank. It turns stupid.”
“You’re not the smartest . . .”
She didn’t smile at my lame joke. “There have been three times I’ve seen them, now. The first time, I just got a little dizzy and weak in my knees. It was far off, and the effects were not as strong.”
I said seriously, “When dragons fly over, we all have the impression they are looking right at you. Not me, or us. You. They don’t even notice us. It seems they are somehow curious or interested. They even seem to change directions to get closer.”
“Really? It’s like going to sleep as my mind shuts down. No vision, a blank mind, and I even can’t move. When they are past me, I wake up disoriented and dizzy, and don’t know what happened and can’t tell you what they did when they were here. If one wanted to eat me, I wouldn’t be able to run away.”
“Okay, let me think about this. When it happens again, I’ll try to be at your side, and maybe we can figure out what’s happening. For now, don’t tell anyone.”
“Elizabeth? Not even her?”
“Nobody. Perhaps this is related to my magic, or it may even be dangerous if others find out. Keep her out of it, for now. Listen, when I do magic, do you get any sense of the same sort of feeling? Even a little?”
“My only sense is to make you stop doing your stupid magic before you piss people off or reveal your secret and we get into trouble. You’re only supposed to do it with permission from Elizabeth, and you know it. Lately, you’ve started to show off.” She had her index finger pointed under my nose again, threatening to jab my upper lip with it.
“You’re right. I need to take things more seriously, especially now that we’re out in the wilds.”
“Not just out here. We are getting older. Adults. At least one of us is. You are a scamp and known for foolish actions, but it may be time to grow up. We’d better grab some firewood and get back before they wonder about us.”
Princess Elizabeth had spread a blanket and sat on it, a small campfire already burned at her side. She flashed a look that could have been irritation or curiosity at the length of time we’d spent alone but said nothing. Tater was warming flat-cakes over the fire and spat such a large wad into the new fire it almost extinguished. I tossed my armload of wood with the rest and went to gather more, but not before noticing the look Elizabeth and Kendra exchanged.
While I didn’t like to do it, I’d have to keep them apart as much as possible. We loved Elizabeth, but we were brother and sister, without other family. She watched out for me, and the other way around. Elizabeth was going to question her. Kendra would have to lie or reveal our suspicions.
As the sun settled, all the nearby firewood that was available without chopping had been gathered, and we had a large, roaring fire for a change. Usually, we built smaller ones and sat closer, but the air was thin and so cold my ears hurt. The fire warmed more than our outsides. The night felt ominous. A thin blanket wrapped around my head and neck, leaving only an opening large enough to see out and to insert broken pieces of flat-cake through, which constituted our dinner.