We picked up the pace. Tater said if we walked faster we would reach a stream and a few trees before long. When we reached it well before dark, the horses and us were about at the end of our reserves.
However, Tater pointed upstream. “The bottom is gravel and sand. Walk only in the stream, so the current washes away our tracks.”
We followed him fifty steps upstream trying to keep the horses from stopping to drink until we were out of sight to anyone on the road. We found a small clearing that was sheltered from the road and let the horses drink. We did the same, then we followed a small game trail beside the stream until the sun nearly set, and it was full dark. We had gone over a small mound of a hill, high enough to hide us from the road when he called a stop.
“No fire tonight. Too much chance of a few of them still chasing us,” Tater said, taking full charge as if appointed. It made no difference. We were exhausted. All I wanted was sleep. We’d used most of the night to escape, walked all afternoon, and our reserves were gone. Tater had a rope. All other supplies were abandoned at the farm. We tied it off to a tree, and to another, then tied the reins to it. There were little patches of grass and weeds near the edge of the water, and the horses could reach the stream to drink.
We had three blankets for four of us. The night was warm but would turn chilly. I glanced at Tater and knew his filthy shirt was not going on my body. Kendra had spent most of the night doing whatever she did with the dragon and mages, so I turned to Elizabeth. “Take off your shirt, and you keep a blanket.”
“Men have made me better offers,” she teased in a tired way.
I was not in a mood for it. “Want me to give you my shirt, and I’ll take the blanket?”
Quicker than it takes to tell, her shirt came flying my way. She snatched up the blanket and wrapped herself in it as she sat cross-legged and barked. “There are still things I do not understand.”
Kendra said, “There is some I can tell you, and much I don’t know.”
Elizabeth peered at her in the dark and relented. “You’re too tired now. Sleep, and we’ll talk in the morning.”
Before they were finished with that exchange, I had Elizabeth’s shirt on backward, so it helped warm my front and arms, and I was asleep.
We slept late. The sun was high when Springer started barking. It was his yapping of warning. He must have caught up with us during the night. We stood, and I reached for my sword. Springer was barking and looking up at the sky.
The dragon flew past, low and fast. It joined Springer in making noise as it screeched a higher pitched sound instead of the roar of anger. Tater leaped to the horses and cinched the saddles still on them as the women helped. I went to the stream where there was a good view of the road. It was empty.
However, the dragon turned and came back. It dipped to treetop level, and an arrow flew up at it. There was at least one man sneaking up on us, and probably more. I ran back to camp and told them in whispers. We decided to ride quietly through the trees parallel to the road.
“How did that dragon know to come here?” I asked Kendra.
“Why ask me?”
Elizabeth said, “It’s watching over you.”
“Nonsense,” Kendra said with too much emotion. “That’s just silly.”
Tater passed me a look that said he agreed with Elizabeth but wisely said nothing. He and Springer took the lead.
I tried to use my small magic a hundred times while riding, finding it interesting to lack magic. While it had been a crutch, I’d always thought the same things could be achieved without it. I wondered how the mages would react—and found there were none I liked or cared about. Twin, the newest in the palace had seemed better than the rest, but with age, he probably would have been just like the others, arrogant and elitist.
The number of people pursuing us was unknown, but even if it was just one, why fight when we could flee home to safety? We had mounted and rode away. The vegetation grew thicker as we traveled, the hills taller, and by mid-afternoon, we reached the first farms in a wide, green valley.
“Go on ahead. Take the road. I’m going to see if anyone is still following and catch up later.” Alexis turned at the pressure from my knee, and we stayed in the thick brush just off the road where we could see and remain unseen. We paused at the top of every hill and watched the road, often seeing farmers or tradesmen, a few wagons, but nothing that resembled troops or mages.
Twice, the dragon flew past, but no wyverns. The dragon never gave me a second look. It struck me odd that wyverns had been so abundant, and now few were in sight. I’d gotten the impression the two varieties of dragons didn’t like each other, and perhaps that was correct. Maybe Kendra knew something more about it. Alexia would carry me to them before dark. After days of tension, I relaxed and found myself whistling a soft merry tune.
Alexia wanted to trot, and once out on the road, I gave her free rein. We passed a pair of women returning home from hunting mushrooms, a wagon with a load of hay piled so high it looked humorous, and a handcart pushed by a boy in his middle teens held apples.
The boy at the handcart waved me to slow, and said, “Keep a sharp eye. Cutthroats from Mercia are sneaking around, they say.”
“We just came from down there, and it is trouble. The whole city is destroyed and who knows what types of people will be on the road? Tell your friends and neighbors to be careful.”
He tossed me an apple as he continued on his way, pushing the cart faster. The encounter gave me the time to understand that while the four of us had been solely considering our actions and how they would affect us, and we’d been wrong to do so. What had happened in Mercia would change the lives of all in Dire, and those living in the southwest corner most of all. We had also placed them in danger without giving them a warning.
Anger heated inside my chest. It bellowed and increased until the realization of what we’d done, even if inadvertently flared to near physical pain. My mind projected what would happen tomorrow to innocent people, then the day after. We knew the mages had escaped, probably to the port where they could travel anywhere.
Suddenly, it all seemed too convenient. Our mages joining with those keeping the dragon prisoner made a group of intertwined, powerful beings. There were others like the Blue Woman and Stata, and whatever their goals were, but logic said they were aligned with the mages. That included the “mage” or whatever being that had controlled a dead husk called Stata. All of them had been drawing the “essence of the world” which now seemed to be better named the “essence of the dragon.”
They were all working together and had been for at least four hundred years. Freeing the dragon from the cave hadn’t ended anything. That many people cooperating for that length of time spelled far more danger than was evident. They also had the time to make plans and contingencies, for there was always the possibility the last dragon might die or escape. They had even known of the Dragon Queen, or someone like her.
I leaned forward over Alexia’s neck and urged her to run faster. Looking ahead, past my horse’s bobbing head, a single horse approached me, also running down the center of the road. Readying myself for a fight, it drew nearer—and the rider became familiar, the way she sat the horse, and the horse itself. It was my sister who was supposed to be rushing home, not riding on the road alone.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE