by LeRoy Clary
The oak door thumped shut. Anna walked four steps to the bench on the rear wall. No blanket, water, food, or other items, but one wooden bucket stood near the door. She could smell what it was for. She sat. Her bravado hadn’t done her any good, and may have contributed to her being here. A guilty glance in Thief’s direction made her feel worse.
She said, “Sorry. You can sit down.”
He sat, his eyes on one of the windows above. He cocked his head and listened, so she did too. A small bird sang a song, then repeated it. Thief tried to imitate it, and his whistle seemed to draw another bird. Soon there were at least three birds singing and then listening to Thief. One flitted into view and sat on the edge searching for the bird calling to it.
The incident was small but told more of Thief than she would ever explain with words. The smile she wore was unconscious. It was just a reflection of their growing relationship. He had no words of recriminations or anger tossed in her direction. He accepted and did his best to adjust to the situation. He had a lot to teach her.
She was still thinking along those lines when the door was thrown open, and a giant entered, so tall he ducked to clear the top of the door. His wide shoulders almost touched the sides. He wore a cape made of a blue material that almost floated when he moved, the color shifting in the bright sunlight. Anna had never seen any material like the cape, the colors, the aloof manner, or the man. He directed his gaze at her.
“My guards tell me you that you lied three times.”
Anna’s mouth opened, but no words escaped. Instead, she shook her head.
“I will not waste much of my time on this. Why are you trying to gain entrance into my castle?”
His attitude offended her, as well as triggering her defenses. She locked eyes and stood, allowing her sharp tone to put him in his place. “Your castle? You think this all belongs to you?”
“It does.”
The answer had come to his lips with the ring of truth and no hesitation, although she detected a twitch at the corner of his mouth that might indicate amusement. She drew in a breath. If he wanted a war of words, she would shred him. Anna took a step closer. “Well, I own the mountains. All of them. I forbid you to climb them or enter the forests on their slopes.”
“Be that as it may, you will not enter this castle until I allow it, and right now you may not leave this cell.”
“Well, be that as it may, you cannot stop me. Oh, you might keep me out today, but there are many gates and a wall, and you cannot watch them all. I’ll get inside, you can count on it.”
“And once inside, what will you do, or who will you see? The truth, this time, not some tale of an imaginary grandmother.”
He hadn’t become upset, but didn’t give the impression he intended to longer. Maybe telling him the truth or part of it, might allow her entrance, or freedom to leave. “I came to see a relative, a cousin, I think he is.”
“And this is your brother?” His hand motioned to Thief.
“No. He’s my friend and protector.”
“Protector?” The giant raised his eyebrows in question.
Anna glanced at Thief, who sat and watched each of them as they spoke without any sign of anger or intention to defend her. That would change if the man made an aggressive move toward her. She didn’t believe his massive size would slow Thief from trying. “We protect each other.”
With that answer, he nodded as if satisfied. “Your relative in this castle has a name?”
“Raymer.”
A slight smile and crinkle at the corners of his mouth warned her. He said, “I know of only one scoundrel with that horrible name. He’s an ugly sort, short, too. A full head smaller than me, and a face like a goat. Would that be him?”
Anna didn’t know what Raymer looked like, but that was not how she pictured him. Even the smile on the giant didn’t slow her words. “I don’t suppose you’ve thought about the words I’m going to use to describe you when I tell this story, have you? Because when I’m done, scoundrel and face like a goat will be mild.”
She drew a breath to continue, but he turned to the doorway and snapped, “Escort the man outside and treat him as a guest.”
Two guards entered and stood before Thief with respect. Anna motioned with her chin for him to go with them. The giant closed the door firmly and waited.
She didn’t back down. “Well?”
“Turn around.”
Not knowing what to expect, she turned. Moving faster than she believed a big man could, he reached out and gave her a small shove between her shoulder blades, while reaching for her shirttail with the other hand. He pulled the shirt free of her belt and lifted it.
She spun. The guards had removed her knife, of course, but they had missed the other at her thigh. Her hand slipped inside her pants and came out with the dagger. He’d seen her tattoo, she had no doubt. The King’s reward for any member of the Dragon Clan would buy several of the expensive capes he wore. She would be dead before the sun set today, but he would die sooner.
He backed to the door, hands held up defensively. “Before you attack, listen to me. I’m Quint, Raymer’s friend.”
“Quint? The son of the Earl?”
“See? I told you it was my castle, didn’t I?”
“Where is Raymer?”
“I’ll send for him. Better yet, why don’t you put that away and I’ll take you to him?”
Thinking back to the story she’d heard about Raymer escaping, he had been with a giant who was the son of the Earl. His name had been Quint. The dagger slipped from her fingers. She had threatened an Earl!
Quint picked up the dagger by the tip of the blade and flipped it into the air to that the bare iron handle landed in his palm. He examined the blade and reversed his grip. “My guards missed that?”
“Who would search the private areas of a twelve-year-old girl?”
“If you’re twelve, I’m a hundred. Put it away and come with me.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Quint opened the door to the cell and stepped into the late afternoon sunshine, Anna at his heels. Quint passed a few words with the guards and told Thief to follow them after their knives and belongings were returned, including Anna’s bow. Then, with a flourish, he reached out and took Anna’s arm in his as if she was a princess. Elbows entwined, even though he had to stoop over and she had to walk on her tiptoes. They must have appeared an odd couple. But as they crossed a courtyard together, any people they passed curtsied, bowed, or saluted, as their station in life indicated and dictated.
Anna glanced back at Thief. He motioned that he wanted to eat.
At an inner wall of the same gray stone blocks, they entered a long hallway with a polished stone floor. At first glance it was beautiful, but Anna quickly noticed the narrow, tall windows providing light for the hallway were actually arrow slits, wider inside than outside so an archer could release his arrows to either side of the window while remaining protected from incoming arrows. The hall was ornate and functional at the same time, as a sharp blade.
At the first stairs, Quint turned from the hallway and took them up a level. There they found another stairway and climbed again. When reaching the top, Quint turned them down another hallway and eventually halted at a wide door. He slapped the heavy wood with the flat of his hand.
“Go away,” came the groan from inside, as if the sound pained the occupant.
Quint threw open the door and stuck his head inside. “Put your clothes on and leave us.” Quint pulled the door closed and turned to Anna. “It will take a moment, but this is Raymer’s quarters.”
It took far longer than a moment, but eventually a tall, young woman with long brown hair slipped out and almost sprinted down the hallway. She had bags under her eyes and looked as if she had just woken. One other, this time with disheveled flaming red hair came out and also disappeared down the hall. Then Quint threw the door open and stalked inside. “You have visitors.”
Raymer sat at a table, a map unrolled in front of
him. He wore a loose robe made of thin material tied at the waist. His feet were bare. The bed to one side was rumpled as if it hadn’t been made in days, or had recently been occupied by three people.
Anna stepped past Quint. “My name is Anna. I’ve come from the Drylands Family to speak with you.”
He leaped to his feet. “Anna? The little girl who went to Shrewsbury? I’ve heard all about you. Sit.”
She turned, “This is my new friend, Thief.”
Raymer almost charged Thief, taking his hand and pumping it up and down. Then he said the words that made him Thief’s friend. “Can I offer you food? Drink?”
Thief’s smile lit up the room, as Raymer rolled the map into a tube for storage and pulled chairs up to the table. Quint stepped into the hallway and called for a guard. Then he told him to find someone from the kitchen and bring a full meal for four. He glanced back inside and then said, “Better make that a meal for six.”
A bowl of fruit almost disappeared before the food arrived. By then Raymer had listened to the short version of Anna’s story, and he’d asked a hundred questions. Anna had initially felt uncomfortable speaking in front of Quint, who was not part of the Dragon Clan, but she also knew of his special relationship, and how he’d been working to help them, let alone the value of his friendship to the Dragon Clan when he became Earl.
At one point, Quint leaned forward and said, “You’ve seen all this for yourself? I mean, the entire port being converted into a landing area for enemy troops? Housing, weapons, food, and even a deep water port complete with piers to unload soldiers?”
“I have.”
“And the word of it has been sent to King Ember?”
“It has, but to my knowledge, he has not responded. In fact, I have heard a rumor that he is working with the invaders. He’s moved his army where it is supposed to join with the Breslau army.”
“That makes no sense.” Raymer spat.
“It does if he plans to wipe out the Dragon Clan and then attack Castle Warrington. But I think Breslau is double-crossing him and going to take Princeton and the King’s throne.”
Quint slammed his fist down on the table, making the bowl of fruit leap into the air.
Raymer turned to him. “You know something?”
“No, but I suspect this girl has just placed her finger directly on the item that has been bothering me for months. After his failed attack on this castle last year we’ve heard nothing of him, that is, nothing but false apologies and half-hearted excuses, along with promises of cooperation into the future, all of which ring of lies. But for months, he has been smug, and that bothers me.”
“That’s more than I’ve heard from your mouth in the year I’ve been here.” Raymer laughed.
“This is not a subject open for your amusement, Raymer. I will go speak to my father while you three enjoy a meal and make whatever plans you must. I believe I also have plans to make. However, before you get too involved, we should share our ideas. I believe I may have my own troops on the move within days. The only question is where.”
Quint had climbed to his feet while speaking and spun so fast his cape fluttered out behind him. He stalked to the door, reaching it as a cart laden with plates and food was rolled inside. Raymer pointed to the servants, indicating they should take it to where heavy drapes reached from the ceiling to the floor.
One man pushed them aside, and light flooded the room. Beyond was a stone terrace, complete with three large tables, twenty chairs, and a view of the land falling away from the castle all the way to the Endless Sea. Anna gasped, and even Thief was impressed as his eyes left the food and looked into the vast distance where small ships sailed and men fished.
“Come,” Raymer said, standing. Once out on the terrace he pointed out various items of interest as the servants placed the food on a table. Then they stood to the side in case anything else was required, but Raymer dismissed them. Once they were gone, he said, “Spies and traitors, some of them. We need to speak in private.”
Thin slices of roast goat with a choice of three sauces filled a platter. Another held sliced cheeses of three distinct colors. Two platters held bread, rolls, and muffins. Two pitchers were in the center, surrounded by silver mugs. One pitcher held a weak ale, and to the delight of Thief, the other held milk.
Raymer went inside and returned with a bottle of wine. “We have a lot to discuss. But I sense you didn’t just travel all this way to talk with me and share the latest news. Why not play the music first and then we can dance?”
“Dance?” Anna asked, wrapping a slice of meat around cheese.
“An old saying. Why are you here? Certainly not to just tell me your story or simply to act like you’re three years younger than I believe you are.”
Delaying or avoiding telling the truth would rile him. He had treated her with respect and as an adult, and she owed him no less than to return that honesty. “I have come to conscript you.”
He threw his head back and roared with laughter. She reached for a bread roll, finding the bread soft and light as air and tinged with unknown spices. She tore it in half and placed a dainty slice of a different cheese, one she hoped was not as pungent as the last, between the two pieces, then chewed as her eyes caught those of Thief.
Thief had paused, watching Raymer carefully. He reversed his grip on the serving knife to hold it as a weapon if needed. Anna shook her head slightly, and Thief placed the knife back on the table—within easy reach.
Raymer finally upended the silver goblet containing his wine, poured it full again, and turned back to Anna. “So you’re going to conscript me to lead an expedition to do what?”
She leaned closer and addressed him, “You mistake me, Raymer. I do not need you to lead me anywhere. I will do the leading.” Then she settled back and turned to view the sea that was so far away, she couldn’t make out the details of a single boat or ship. Between the sea and she lay a hundred farms in neat patchwork squares and rectangles of pastures and fields.
“And where would you lead me to?” he asked, still amused.
“There,” she pointed out to the sea. “I’m going to sail across that to a land that used to be called Altera but is now known as Breslau. They have dragons there, green ones that we cannot detect. And people with tattoos all over their arms. There are also people called ‘dragon masters’ although nobody seems to know what that means.”
“So instead of massing troops where you think the enemy will land for the invasion, and trying to stop it there, you plan to go to Breslau and stop it before it begins?”
She turned to face him again, letting all traces of her young innocence evaporate. She said, “Perhaps. Or maybe I can slow it down or save the lives of some of our men. Or our families. You do know that they now know the locations of the Dryland Family, as well as the Bear Mountain Family, right? Maybe even the Raging Mountain Family.”
“How would they know those things?”
“We have a traitor in the Dragon Clan, a man named Stenson, who should have been slain when he was a boy. He now sails on a ship owned by the Breslau royalty, and he either lives in a castle much like this one, or he went into their dungeons. The end result is the same. He told them all he knows of the Dragon Clan.”
Raymer glanced at Thief. “Should you be speaking of these subjects in front of him?”
“Should you bare the secret dragon on your back to two women who are not of the Dragon Clan?”
“Point taken. It appears that you have more recent, and more accurate information than had come my way. I’ve been here at Castle Warrington so long I’m about to desert, anyway. A sea voyage sounds relaxing.”
“Your dragon?”
“He goes where I go.”
“That sounds great. If you couldn’t, or wouldn’t, I was going to your home and ask for another from there to accompany me.”
He said, “Bear Mountain is closer. Camilla might have gone with you if you asked. Dancer and Fleet might, too.”
“You sai
d you’d like a voyage on a ship.”
Raymer settled back after pouring more wine. Finally, he said, “You believe that you should be in charge?”
She looked him in the eye, “Is there a problem with that? I have been to Shrewsbury, I know the people and lay of the land, and I certainly know more about Breslau than you.”
Quint entered the room and spotted them on the terrace. Joining them without asking, he said, “Do I sense a little tension or has winter descended?”
Raymer snorted at Quint, “Neither of them has killed me yet, but I think both have reached for weapons more than once.”
“Perfectly understandable,” Quint said without pause, tasting Raymer’s goblet of wine and making a face. He poured ale for himself. They were obviously old friends who took pleasure in insulting each other, but there was an underlying friendship that couldn’t be missed.
Turning to Quint, Raymer said, “Anna, when the two of us traveled together, I had to make every decision and it wore on me. I didn’t like having the lives of others as my responsibility. From the time we first escaped until we reached this castle, it was one thing after another. Since then I’ve tried never to be in a position of authority.”
Chuckling, Quint raised his goblet in salute, “So that’s the way you see it.”
Raymer continued, “So if I go on this venture with you, I will insist that someone other than me is the leader.”
“I guess Anna will have to accept the leadership role,” Quint said, winking in her direction.
Raymer ignored the response, but asked Quint, “Is it possible for you to look after our mutual friend, Thief? That is if we can get an acceptable explanation of why he’s called that.”
“No.” The single word turned all heads to look at Thief, who sat and looked at the stem of an apple as if it were alive and going to leap from the end of the fruit.
“No?” Raymer asked? “Do you mean you don’t wish to stay in a castle with all the food you can eat while we’re half-starving and risking our lives out on the ocean?”
