by LeRoy Clary
Thief didn’t even glance his way.
Anna said, “You heard him. He goes with me.”
“He is not of the Clan,” Raymer said mildly.
“At some point, we may find that useful. I don’t know, but he goes with me.”
Quint poured more ale. “Loyalty. I like that in a woman.”
“Loyalty and the gumption to stand up to a pair of men twice her size. Quint, you may wish to make her a high ranking officer in your army when we return.” Raymer’s tease brought another smile.
Quint, however, didn’t smile. He said, “I suspect that she will be worth far more to all of us than being an officer. This girl might one day fight me for a kingdom, and settle for being a queen, at the very least.”
Anna felt the blush coming on and fought it. But the son of the Earl of Northwoods had just told them all that she should be queen, and no less.
Quint said, “I, unfortunately, cannot go with you to this strange land, although I might have been of some help if you find yourselves dealing with foreign royalty. But I’ve business with the King, at Princeton. If he’s stupid enough to be supporting an invasion, or even discussing one with Breslau, my father may be wearing his crown in ten days or less.” There was none of the sly humor that had been bantered earlier.
Raymer raised his glass. “Here’s to interesting times. And may your father rule well.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Two mornings later, Anna walked at Raymer’s side, Thief trailing them. They headed for the port near Castle Warrington. Anna felt the dragon approach them and looked behind. The tingling on her back turned to itching and then slight pins of pain as the dragon closed in on them. She said, “I’ve never known anyone bonded.”
“Ever been up close to a dragon?” Raymer asked.
“Not really. We have a few reds that roost on the slopes above the drylands, but they never allow us to go near them.”
Raymer’s bonded dragon, red in color, appeared over the tops of the nearest trees, flying low and steady. She knew Raymer could watch through the dragon’s eyes and direct it to fly where he wanted, but the dragon was flying of its own accord this morning and appeared pleased to be in the air. Thief ducked and covered his head with an arm despite the fact that the dragon flew higher than the trees. Still, they all felt the wind from the powerful downstroke of the wings and closed their eyes to protect them from the flying sand.
“Oh,” Thief breathed in awe, his eyes locked on the retreating dragon. “That is pretty.”
Raymer said, “That’s the longest speech he’s muttered since I met him.”
Anna chuckled, but there was truth in his statement. For almost two days Anna, Raymer, and Thief had talked, mostly on the same terrace because it was not only pleasant but private. She told Raymer all she knew about Breslau and the invasion, which was considerably more than he did. Word had been sent by messenger to each of the families of the Dragon Clan, and Anna had attended every meeting and discussion. However, Raymer had been at Warrington Castle helping the Earl and the Dragon Clan by cementing relations, and he knew little of recent developments.
As Anna spoke, his attitude changed from one of a slight interest in a trip to the south coast and a possible relaxing sea voyage, neither of which he’d ever done, to an intense patriotic fever. He learned that not only was danger at hand for the Dragon Clan, which was nothing new, but the danger extended to the entire kingdom and their way of life. If the kingdom fell, the new rulers would make other laws, probably harsh ones, and beyond all that, for a century the Dragon Clan had prospered because of a lax line of inept kings.
Invading conquerors would make their new laws, and they had already shown their hand when their green dragons attacked those local dragons they encountered. At least two of the dragons the Dragon Clan cared for, were dead. Two others had lost fights to the greens that teamed up to attack their own.
They had talked late into the first night, sometimes with Quint sitting in on the conversations, and always Thief sitting in his quiet manner and listening, but hardly speaking. Quint was often away preparing to travel to Princeton and confront the King. With his father’s blessing and the remembrance that only a year ago King Ember had attempted to take Castle Warrington by force, the Earl issued Quint a series of instructions that were nothing short of demands.
Anna learned that King Ember had no children, and the kingdom’s laws named the Earl of Warrington as the next in line to assume the crown. The Earl was more than satisfied with his royal position, but he wouldn’t permit the King to make more stupid errors that might cost them all their way of life.
By the end of the second day, Raymer had told his servants what he wanted to take with him, and how to pack. He instructed three seamstresses to sew backpacks to his specifications, and he checked on them several times. He wanted larger packs than Anna carried, with straps over the shoulders and attached ties for rolled blankets, two of them on each pack. A long pocket hung to one side as a quiver for arrows. He insisted the material be waterproof and neutral in color.
Raymer said to Anna, “You’re planning on going there? All the way across the sea?”
“I am, but first, we will go to Shrewsbury. I need to know all I can before I make a mistake.”
“You were already there once. Since then, the place has burned down. What else do you need to know?”
The question was not unexpected. Raymer questioned and commented on everything. If she didn’t have a reasonable answer, she knew to think of one quick or he’d reign in the conversation until satisfied, not that she could respond with just anything because he would question that, too.
He said, “This ship that went there is a bit of a puzzle to me. In fact, that whole voyage is making me think. There are too many questions, and I honestly don’t expect you to know the answers. With your permission, I have a suggestion.”
With my permission? “What is it?”
“We will pass near enough to the Highlands Family that I suggest we pay Tanner and Carrion a visit.”
She settled back in her chair. She didn’t know the location of the Highlands Family of the Dragon Clan. Few knew more than the locations of two, and that was for security in case captured and tortured. Nobody expected a Clan member to try and withhold information while the King’s Dungeon Master tore their bodies apart in small pieces. But as they say, you can’t tell what you don’t know.
She said, “Do you know their location? I’m not willing to spend weeks searching for them.”
“I can find them,” he pulled a piece of plain paper to him, then dipped a quill in ink and squiggled a line from the top of the paper to the bottom. He drew a mark. “This is Castle Warrington. South of that is Fleming and down here is Shrewsbury. Follow the coastline further south to Racine. Somewhere between Shrewsbury and Racine, but inland, is the Highlands. My dragon can fly over and search it all in part of a day. He will find our family.”
Anna nodded, “If they see your dragon they will come to us to investigate. I like it.”
“Know what I like? I like a leader who listens to others. Even if that leader sometimes looks, sounds, and acts like she is twelve.”
“As long as you understand it is an act.”
Raymer tossed back another goblet of watered wine. When he realized she was still looking at him and waiting for an answer, he said, “Sometimes I want to put you over my knee and spank you. Then there are times I could leap to my feet and salute. This isn’t easy on me, you understand?”
“I do.”
“Then there is your silent partner sitting beside you. If I ever try to spank you or discipline you, what’s he going to do?”
“He’s sitting right here. Ask him.”
Raymer turned and found that Thief had drawn his knife and was testing the blade by slicing thin slivers from his fingernail.
Raymer turned away, “Never mind. He’s half the size of me, anyway.”
Anna said, “I make up the other half.”
; “I see you are the kind that talks, or threatens her way out of trouble. You use your tongue like a weapon.”
“You’re right. But when I choose other weapons my opponents usually don’t even see them before it’s too late.”
Raymer speared a lump of pale yellow cheese with his knife, and as he chewed, he said, “I’d like to ask you another question. How’d you get to be so tough?”
“My grandma Emma. She’s on our council. After my parents had died, she raised me. She didn’t treat me like a boy, but she never let me do less than any male, no matter if we were swimming in our lake, hunting, tracking, standing duty watching, or anything else. Plus, since she was raising me and she expected better of me. No, not expected. Demanded.”
“You had to fight for your position in the family,” Raymer said.
“Didn’t you?”
He paused. Then, after thinking for a while, he said, “I did, but only because of my size. It was probably easier for me than it was for you, but some thought me dense because I was big. I have to realize that you’ve earned the same respect as me, but you worked far harder.”
Quint stormed into the room and threw his hat at the wall in anger. He over-poured a goblet of golden wine and left a goodly amount on the table as he carried it to where they sat. Then he slammed the goblet down on the table so hard most of the contents sloshed out and the metal bent, leaving the goblet slightly tilted to one side.
Raymer said from the corner of his mouth, “I doubt if we’re going to hear good news.”
Quint said, “The dumb bastard has done it. He’s lost his mind.”
“Which dumb bastard would that be?” Raymer asked, still smirking, and sounding as if he didn’t know.
“Your king, that’s who. I just got word that the palace at Princeton has only guards remaining there. The entire army seems to have slowly disappeared, with rumors that it's headed to the southern border of the kingdom.”
“All of it? The whole damn army?” Raymer asked, no longer kidding. “Why?”
“That, I cannot answer. But what kind of fool moves his entire army in secret to the furthest border unless he has a good reason? I fear I may be forced to have him forfeit his crown or kill him.”
Raymer said, “Neither of those sound so bad.”
“Until you understand that either makes me the Crown Prince.”
“Sorry,” Raymer muttered.
Anna looked at the two dejected faces and asked, “That would make you the next king?”
“Exactly,” Quint snapped as if she finally understood. “Or worse. My father would probably abdicate, and that would make me King. I would have no freedoms to fish, hunt, travel, or do anything on my own for the rest of my life. My every movement would be subject to a hundred servants rushing to butter my bread or peel my next grape. I would spend my days settling the bickering between minor lords.”
“I thought anyone would want to be king,” Anna said.
“Only those who do not know the boredom and responsibility of resolving a thousand tiny details. Who owns the offspring when your goat jumps the fence where I keep my doe? If my tree leans over your yard and drops fruit on your property, whose is the fruit? If you chop down the tree, do you deprive me of my income selling that fruit? Would you like to spend the rest of your days with problems such as these, knowing you will make a mortal enemy of the party you decide against?”
Raymer said, “He’s not fooling about the mortal enemy part of that, either.”
Quint said, “More than one king has lost his head because of that sort of silliness. Let people like King Ember handle it. He knows little else.”
“Except how to go about losing two wars in two years,” Raymer said.
CHAPTER NINE
Anna had spent a good part of their final evening in the castle slitting open the seams on her old backpack and removing coins before sewing them into the new one. She placed a few into Thief’s pack for safe keeping because it was never wise to keep all of anything in one location.
Anna continued walking beside Raymer to the port town of Warrington, as she remembered the last two days like they were so fresh in her mind that she hadn’t had time to absorb all of it. She speculated about the political intrigue with Quint threatening to usurp the King, the explanations of the Breslau invasion and why, how, and what to do about it. She realized that she had never really planned an operation. Not like Quint and Raymer did. They took the know information and speculated on the unknown; then they determined each possible outcome. She refused to play chess with either.
Sitting on that terrace had taught her that she knew far less than she thought. Anna’s experience tended to look at an objective and head directly for it, bullying her way to the end. What little planning was usually afterward, to be used the next time.
For instance, if it was left to Anna, they would walk the entire distance to Racine, which would probably take twenty days or more. Quint suggested they sail. As the son of the Earl, he was the commander of the army and navy of the Northwoods province, but he believed a military ship with them on board would make them too conspicuous. So he contacted the master of a small trading vessel.
The Master, or Captain as he preferred to be called, had retired from the Northwoods Navy a few years earlier, where he’d been under Quint’s direct command. “Captain Braise, a man who served my father and me well,” Quint introduced the smallish man with the long, thin beard.
Quint had told the Captain, “Their mission is not for your ears or anyone else’s. While I trust you completely, I also know that you cannot tell what you do not know, and I consider this mission so important I will ask that you forgive me.”
Captain Braise said, “Sir, not a problem. I understand. What are your orders?”
“You will take these three on as crew until they choose to leave your boat. You will then sail directly back here with any information they provide. No stops along the way. While you are the master and Captain, Anna will give you direction.”
“Not Raymer?” The captain avoided making eye contact with her until he confirmed who the leader was.
“He is not in charge, but I think you’ll find the girl more than capable,” Quint nodded in her direction, and he also avoided the confusion in the Captain’s eyes, but certainly for other reasons. “They will stow their gear and will need to dress as fishermen. You will present yourself and your boat as searching for more profitable fishing grounds. Because there may be danger, your compensation will be substantial.”
“No need for that, sir. Just payment for the lost catches I suffer is sufficient,” Captain Braise said, his tone more stuffy than earlier.
“Come now. You are no longer an officer in my navy. Your boat must earn a profit, and this trip will prevent you from fishing for more than a month. I insist the pay exceed what you may have earned on a good catch.”
“Very well,” but the Captain didn’t look convinced. “Have them at the docks around midday tomorrow. My boat is painted white with red trim. The name is Asia. Ask anyone where to find it.”
“Asia?”
“The smallest daughter of the goddess Amanda.”
Quint broke out in a grin that told Anna she’d missed something key to the conversation. She asked, “Why is that significant?”
Quint turned to Captain Braise and said, “See what I mean about her?” Then he looked at Anna, “The good Captain used to command the warship, Amanda, so it is fitting that now he commands a small boat named after her smallest daughter.”
“Asia, I like it,” Anna said, appreciating the connection in the names.
While remembering all that had happened, and talking to Raymer to clarify details, they drew closer to the seaport that had only been seen in the distance from the terrace of the castle. She hadn’t realized the distance to the water was so great, but it was still well before midday when she smelled the strong salt air. Not long after she knew it was a fishing port because the tang of salt air turned to the stench of dead fish.
They followed a small, winding road to the cluster of clapboard houses nestled along the shoreline. Beyond, spread the open bay and docks with fishing boats tied up to them. Overlooking the boats ran a row of ten or twelve eateries, bakeries, taverns, and bars, all with outside service overlooking the boats. All were doing a brisk business for such a small village.
As Anna watched, more boats arrived with their catches. There were buyers bidding, cleaning stations for the catches, nets drying, fishermen scrubbing decks or repairing sails, and a hundred other tasks. The people eating on the wooden decks watched it all as if it was the only entertainment in town.
“We’re early,” Raymer said.
“Can we grab something from the bakery and a drink before finding the boat?” Anna asked.
Raymer cast her an odd look, then said, “Well, I don‘t know. Let me talk to the boss and ask her.”
Anna stiffened and lifted her chin. “I should have said, we will stop and eat.”
“Then, it is my duty to obey,” Raymer snorted, before laughing out loud. He pointed to the bakery, “I’d suggest we go there. I’m a fool for sweets.”
They purchased their food and went to the nearest deck to find an empty table. No sooner had they sat than a young man wearing an apron slipped to their side and asked what they would like to drink. Anna ordered three cups of watered wines, red wine if he had it. A crudely made plate between them held an assortment of bread, rolls, and sweet cakes.
Anna reached for a sweet cake that she saw Raymer eyeing, then relented and allowed him to have it. Thief avoided the sweets, but tentatively reached for a small loaf of heavy bread with slivers of nuts covering the top.
As Anna selected a roll that appeared to have berries baked into it, she heard a familiar voice. Her eyes went past Raymer to a table beyond. There sat James, the traveler/gambler they had avoided on the beginning of the trip.
Raymer caught the change in her posture and asked softly, “What is it?”
