I glanced at the fire and how we were all illuminated and all around us was darkness. How our night-sight had been ruined by the flames of the fire. And a chill formed when I realized anyone in the depths of the surrounding darkness could be holding one of my missing crossbows pointed at me.
Despite our agreed upon reluctance for me to use magic without permission, I reached out and felt all around the meadow, using my magic to increase sounds like breathing and heartbeats, touching all the dark places and finding nobody. I remembered an oil lamp was with our things. I located it and went in search of the meadow where we were first attacked.
Three horses were missing. The pack horses and Tater’s farm-mount were near the fire. The three fine horses from the king’s stables were missing. Alexis and the two horses the women had ridden were not in sight. On impulse, I whistled the call for my horse.
Alexis charged from the darkness closer to the mountain pass. She trotted up to me and nuzzled me, searching for a hidden apple. I took her halter and led her down the trail, thinking that if any of them had left with our things, they wouldn’t go through the pass. If they had, Alexis would have run on ahead or the other way, so two of them went in the direction we were headed.
Searching the road with the lamplight revealed there were the hoofprints of a pair of horses. The edges of the prints were dried and crumbling. Those Alexis was making were of consistent texture and moisture. Tater is the tracker, but even I could tell the other horses had departed long ago. Making a full turn, I looked for Springer. Then called to him. Nothing.
There were also bodies in the meadow, the two who had been on watch and those who fell during the initial attack. If the men had remained hidden until we were in the meadow, and especially if they had waited until we had dismounted, the attack would have been successful without the loss of life to them. That is twice our enemies had failed to win when they should have. We couldn’t expect to have that sort of luck without encountering some bad.
Back at the fire, I said, “Two men left on our horses.”
Elizabeth said, “We’ve searched everything while you were gone. Every coin we had is missing, along with anything valuable a person could quickly sell, even the dragon armor Tater had.”
“They went to sell what they could, and to buy food, clothing, and blankets.”
She nodded and shrugged. “But they won’t be back until tomorrow. By the time they rode down to where they could use our money to buy things, it had to be dark. Stores would be closed. They won’t return until late morning at the earliest.”
“They won’t like it when they get here,” I said.
Kendra spoke for the first time, “Because we killed so many?”
“Because we will be waiting for them in ambush down the trail before they are warned.”
“We will be waiting,” Elizabeth said. “Kendra will tend to our wounded while we set our own trap. I intend to not only get our belongings back but to keep us safe.”
“I prefer to go with Damon,” Kendra said. “It is not right for you to go with him into battle.”
“But I am your princess and order you to remain here. Obey me.”
I hadn’t often heard that tone of voice from Elizabeth but knew to respect it. So, did Kendra. I was going to sleep unless they needed me, and when they didn’t object, I checked on Tater and made my bed near him.
As expected, Elizabeth never woke me for my guard duty. She and Kendra traded off the watches. I awoke and touched the tender lump on the side of my head. It was coated with dried blood, and that was probably the injury that had knocked me out. The fire was burning, and as I sat up, Tater stirred. He faced me and winked if squinting one eye more than the other constituted a wink.
“How do you feel?” I asked.
“Like I slept half of yesterday and all night. Where’s Springer?”
“We don’t know. Can’t find him.”
“Damn it all, now my brother is going to charge me full price for that ugly mutt.”
“We killed about a dozen men, four or five in the meadow, the others are here. Two probably still alive.”
“How’d you do it?”
Any mention of magic was out. “I managed to slip the ropes and untied Kendra. We took out the two guards and used their bows to fire at the rest when they were sleeping.”
Tater didn’t look as if he believed me. He had doubted we were strong enough to sleep outside in the valley near the inn. I said quickly, to cover up any questions he might ask, “They stole everything of value. We think the two who left to sell our stuff will return today. We’ll be waiting.”
He glanced down at his left arm as if just discovering it was broken. He said, “Just so’s you know, Springer tried to warn me before the attack. I didn’t listen because I was too excited to find a place to stay for the night.”
I rolled over and closed my eyes but didn’t go to sleep. My head throbbed, my leg still hurt, and so many issues kept invading my mind. The events of the day kept swirling around inside—and the interaction that my sister seemed to be having with dragons didn’t make sense to me. Why would they seek her out, yet the Blue Lady had as much as admitted that was true. And who was she? What was she? There seemed to be easier explanations until I considered the facts and those testy facts returned me to the beginning of my worries and I started all over with my story. There are times when it’s easier to deal with falsehoods that partial truths.
So, my mind moved from thinking about all that to what bothered me most, excluding the idea that I’d killed several last night, and they were the first to have the same physical characteristics we shared. There were also the inconvenient facts that those same men had tried to kill us, and that important people from our palace were flocking to Mercia like ravens to a corpse, and that I had no inkling of what to do tomorrow, except be prepared to kill two more men we didn’t know.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
I finally fell asleep, then tossed and turned. The faces of the dead hovered just below what my mind pictured, always there, always ready to step up to the forefront. I wished for a method to conjure images of each to study. The sameness of their features too great to be an accident, but since none of them spoke our language, how could we communicate? In a rush, I understood a new fact. At least one of them could speak with us. He was the one they sent with our valuables to bargain them away and return with food and other essentials. It seemed certain that shopkeepers in the country wouldn’t know the Kondor language.
It made sense, one of the few predictions I felt comfortable in making. With it, my mind settled down, and the next thing I was aware of was Kendra waking me. Elizabeth was sleeping, and Kendra placed her finger to her lips to keep me quiet as she pointed to the far end of the clearing.
She almost tip-toed there, then on to a small hillock that overlooked the meadow. We sat in the damp grass covered in sparkling frozen dew and faced each other. I waited.
“They look like us,” she said, never one to be anything but direct with me.
“They come from Kondor, which is across the Dire Sea.”
She accepted my offering and said, “We may have killed friends of our parents, relatives sent to rescue us, or whatever.”
“The whatever is my guess. None gave an indication of recognition, other than one identified Kondor as his homeland after he got a good look at me. He believed I might be from there, too.”