The Last Dragon: Book Three

by LeRoy Clary

  “Go ahead and try, but I’ll remember this insult and make you pay.” She flashed her sisterly smile at me, the one that said, go ahead and try. I’ll be ready for you.

  The others took our banter seriously. Rather than explain, I motioned for her to continue her thoughts. She said in an officious manner I’d never seen before, “We have no choice but to go to Kaon. Avery, on your return trip, I want you to search for a man called Will. Do you know him?”

  “I do not.”

  “A minor appointment from our king. He was sent by my father to protect me. He was on the Gallant but did his job so well nobody there will remember him. I’ll give you a description before you leave. If you do not find him, tell my father of the wonderful job he did. I’m certain he’ll show up in Dire.”

  I appreciated her explanation, both because it was real and because this was not the time to hold things back from the others. If we were going to survive and be successful, we needed to trust each other.

  Avery said, “I prefer to go with you.”

  “No. My father must know what is happening and make preparations in case we fail. I suggest he also spread the information to all nearby kingdoms and have them do the same.”

  Avery started to speak, then halted as he considered her words. Finally, he said, “You consider this threat that important?”

  “More.” She didn’t elaborate, which had the impact of making it even more of a threat. In the past, Avery would have challenged her and argued with his way of twisting words and meanings. That he didn’t do so indicated their relationship had reached a new level.

  She turned to the Slave-Master. “You are welcome to travel with us but expect us to ask hundreds of questions daily. The smallest tidbit of information may help.” She looked at Kendra. “I want you to have your dragon positioned close at all times. Can you see what the dragon does, or can it relay information to you?”

  “We touch minds, but it is not intelligent. I can point the way for it to fly or order it to attack but that is about all.” Kendra looked away as if seeing into the distance. She pointed to the northwest, in the direction of Kaon. “A mage appeared right there.”

  “Just now?” Elizabeth asked. “You can tell?”

  “Yes.”

  “How can it just appear?” Elizabeth asked, obviously puzzled at the event and how Kendra now assumed a far different role than as her friend and servant.

  “A Waystone must be there.”

  “There is,” The Slave-Master confirmed.

  “Send your dragon to investigate,” Elizabeth said. “Tell us anything you figure out.”

  “It is nearly there. I sent it as soon as the mage arrived.”

  Elizabeth scowled at her. Not for acting quickly, but because she was confused. “Arrived indicates the mage was elsewhere a short while ago.”

  Kendra gave a single nod of her head, but her eyes were vacant, her mind in touch with the dragon. The rest of us watched and listened without interrupting them, but Anna came to me. *The mage who arrived ahead of us was sent by the Young Mage.*

  *How can you be sure?*

  *Timing,* Anna responded instantly. *Can Kendra tell the relative power of a mage?*

  *A good question. Not the time to ask it.*

  *Will she know if there is more than one?”*

  I sensed the fear in Anna’s question. *Yes.*

  None of the others knew we were communicating. Kendra knew of our ability, but not to the degree it had progressed. We now felt comfortable and did it almost as easily as speaking out loud—which brought another question. Who was Anna?

  We’d solved the question about Emma, but it didn’t answer those about Anna. How was it that of all the people I’d ever encountered, she and I could speak with our minds?

  Not that I believed her to be nefarious in any manner—she was not. While speaking with our minds, there were unintentional glimpses of her honesty and intentions. For me, it was like looking at a person while they spoke. Liars tend to look away, those hiding information cross their arms over their chests for protection, and deceptions are revealed by squinting at the corners of the eyes. In much the same way, I saw that Anna was not my enemy.

  But she was not an accidental discovery from the plains of Mercia, either. She had been placed there for me to find. That meant someone or something had placed her there. The fact that she was with Emma suggested the Young Mage was involved. I had no doubt he had created the storm that they were found in and that they were found together.

  That fact meant I couldn’t fully trust her.

  The following day we continued on, moving slower than usual as Kendra monitored the mage. The Dragon had revealed no additional information, so we moved closer, using what slight cover there was, which was little. We discussed breaking into a small group as we neared the Waystone, but Kendra pulled to a sudden halt. “He’s gone.”

  “Did he see us?” I asked.

  “I can’t tell,” she said.

  The Slave-Master pointed to a slight ridge ahead of us. “It’s there. He could have watched us all morning from up there.”

  When we reached the Waystone and looked out over the desert, the Slave-Master had been right. I said, “Why didn’t you tell us about the viewpoint?”

  He said easily, “It would have made no difference. Look out there. One road, nothing else. If there is a single rabbit moving, we’d see it.”

  One of his warriors pointed to one place. “He stood there and watched. The ground is scuffed, and there are footprints.”

  “Where did he go?” Kendra asked, moving to join the warrior while motioning for the rest of us to stay back with the wave of her arm.

  They followed the tracks to the Waystone, where they pulled to a stop in front of it. There were none to either side or retreating. Kendra reached out and felt the rock. “Warmer than normal, even for a Waystone. The icon carved in the stone in front of me is the pair of houses.”

  I understood the meaning. A pair of houses side-by-side or more likely meaning to move from one house to another. I believed the second.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  Princess Elizabeth

  I looked over my companions—since I had no other term to describe a group of them, but they were my subjects, at least for now, and me their princess. Damon, Kendra, Flier, Anna, and the even the Slave-Master, even though most were not from Dire. I didn’t count Avery or the Kaon Warriors who would escort him. Nor the servants waiting anxiously near the entrance of the tent to serve us, and in truth, the Slave-Master might argue the situation.

  As the Princess of Dire, I believed it my responsibility to take charge as was normal and my duty in my royal position. Only a few days earlier, that may not have happened, and I wondered at the change in me. Will’s words of advice echoed in my mind. I needed to not only act like a princess performing her royal duties for my kingdom, but I also had to be one in all respects. I was a ruler, not a simpleton little girl deciding which dress to wear to a ball.

  “Avery, do you have any questions? Your royal and your king will require a full report, and you do not want to find your actions lacking.” My voice sounded harsher than intended, but I made no apology.

  “A thousand questions from large to small, but only one to be answered now. What happened to the little princess who climbed into her father’s lap and cried when she didn’t get her way?”

  The question angered me—for an instant. Avery was right in every respect and had the right to ask it. I also had the right to cast my most evil look his way until he flinched and backed off a step. “You will pass on my messages to my father and the Crown Prince. You will add that we will attempt to make contact with the Young Mage and try to find out what he needs and if we can make peace, or we may attempt to kill him.”

  The Slave-Master said, “Peace will only come with his death.”

  “We don’t know that,” I snapped, again too harshly. It was possible to carry my authority too far, especially with a man who was not my su
bject and has the right to walk away because of my mistreatment. Looking into the eyes of the rest, I saw they agreed with him. However, the six of us couldn’t charge into Kaon as if we were an army bent on conquest, our swords waving in patterns above our heads. Better to slink into the city and gather more facts before we confronted anyone.

  I said, “Kendra, can the mages tell where you are? I mean, in the same way, you can tell their location?”

  “We don’t think so. At least, there’s been no indication of it.”

  “The mage that appeared ahead of us, can you tell if his signal is stronger or weaker than others?” I asked. “His magical powers?”

  She said, “There is nothing different in any of them, mages or sorceresses, and nothing tells me how strong or weak their magic is.”

  “Too bad. I was hoping for more. Okay, we need only a small group to go to Kaon, or we will attract too much attention, and we require a reason why we’re traveling to Kaon—a story to tell people we encounter. Any ideas?”

  There were no suggestions, at first. Then the Slave-Master said, “I suppose the truth is too obvious?”

  “Which is?” I demanded, not liking the lopsided grin he displayed.

  “I am a Slave-Master who regularly brings captured slaves from Kondor to the markets in Kaon. My men and I could chain you and walk all of us right into the city without turning an eye our way, except for perhaps a purchaser who notices how beautiful you are and would like to buy you.”

  It was not the royal entrance I wished for, nor the covert one. However, it would take us inside the city as easily as he’d moved slaves there before. In order for his plan to be successful, we would have to allow ourselves to trust the Slave-Master by being chained. The only thing that would prevent us from being sold was that same trust, and possibly Damon’s magic. And Kendra’s dragon. I kept forgetting about it.

  It was a huge step to consider, and a leap in the measure of trust for a man who sold lives for profit. It was obvious that I was not the only one with those concerns. It would be easy to refuse his offer except that he was right, and we all knew it. It was the easiest and surest way to enter Kaon and would account for our being there if anyone should ask.

  Instead of accepting or rejecting his offer, I waited to observe Kendra and Damon’s reactions. Both were looking at me as if with the same reluctance.

  Damon finally said, “We’ve played blocks, and I stretched the rules to the point of breaking, but he agreed to play until one of us lost all of our money. It took the most part of a day when he wanted to rejoin his caravan, but he didn’t. He stayed and kept his word.”

  I fixed Damon with a stern look. “You are suggesting we risk our lives based on playing a game with a man?”

  There is a point where Damon fights back, even with me. I pushed him to that point and beyond. He said, “Your father told me about trust one time. He sat me down and explained that an honest man will not steal even if he knows he will get away with it.”

  “What does that mean?” I shouted.

  “Just that. The Slave-Master could have called for an end to our game or declared himself the winner or a hundred other things . . . but he didn’t. He played on and lost.”

  There are times when Damon is the most frustrating man I know. Instead of answering me directly, he tells me a story. “So, you think we should trust him?”

  He spread his arms wide to encompass us all. “Think about it. If he wanted, he could have his warriors capture us and take us to Kaon in chains. It might be easier than trying to convince us to go with him.”

  He was right again. Damn. The real problem was that the idea of being chained and helpless offended me in a way that was new since being taken by the bounty hunter in Vin. I was not scared of dark places, or small ones. I’d sailed a storm at night while at sea—and that example didn’t count because I was scared, I suppose, but I’d done it and survived. Not a lot of things scared me, but manacles on my ankles and wrists did.

  As if reading my mind, the Slave-Master said, “Under your robes, you could be armed. The chains could have thin, soft pins that you could break open at any time. But strangers are not welcome in Kaon and entering as slaves is the only safe way that comes to my mind.”

  I agreed, with reservations, but Damon is a good reader of people and if he trusted the Slave-Master, so would I. That decided, we spent our last night together planning the future and reviewing the recent past. We learned the Slave-Master was a contrast in who he said he was and who he really was.

  The man sold humans yet beat a man in Dagger for kicking a dog. He could be considered lacking in morals but kept his word. For every negative, there seemed to be an opposite positive. By the end of the night, my conclusion was that he would kill me without a second thought if he wanted to, but he would fight to the death if someone else wanted to do the same.

  That was the man I decided to trust.

  Morning came with a clear blue sky that held little heat. The sun would rage later, but travel in the Kondor desert usually meant traveling from long before sunup to midmorning and sleeping the heat of the afternoon away. The Slave-master met with his people and sent half ahead, leaving six of his guards, all of which were Kaon Warriors he trusted fully. They also left a single chain of eight slaves to be sold at the auction houses.

  The five of us that would be chained together in a few days were Damon, Kendra, Anna, Flier, and myself. Anna was a problem. None of us wanted her to go with us. Avery was willing to return her to Dire. She refused to go.

  We argued long into the night, at times offering her bribes or incentives, and at more than one point I ordered her to leave. Each time, she refused. She said, “Send me with him but expect me back in a day or two. The first time Avery turns his back, I’ll be gone. Hopefully, I can find you, but in the desert traces of your passing will fade quickly and I may die trying to follow you. But it is my choice.”

  Avery refused to tie her up. I understood his reluctance, but it didn’t make me like him any more than I had. We would never be close. However, he was not refusing to spite me. He was doing what he believed right.

  In private, Kendra had reassured me that the dragon she called ‘hers’ would accompany us and it would remain in touch at all times—and she could direct it to protect us. That relieved some of my fears.

  The larger fears centered around the idea that we had little idea of what we were venturing into. While I knew little of Kondor, I knew less of Kaon. Oddly, it was closer to Dire, a neighboring kingdom separated by impassable mountains. Slavery was rampant, while in Dire it hadn’t existed for centuries.

  The slaves were primarily used in the mines and other businesses supporting the wealth of metals that chose to emerge from the mountains on the Kaon side, while few metals were present in Dire. A king and royal family had ruled Kaon until a decade ago.

  They had disappeared. Not killed or deposed, but literally over the space of one night there was no king, and all royals were gone. An elderly man who was as tough as old leather issued orders. Those who didn’t obey also went missing or were found dead.

  They called him “Councilman.” No name was associated with the title, and he had no known past or associates. Nobody had ever seen him before he sat in the king’s throne to conduct daily business.

  But there were rumors, the Slave-Master told us as we trudged through the sand in the early morning. “Some said he was a mage. Others said he was a part mage, whatever that meant. Those who speculated too much in Kaon disappeared, and soon nobody spoke their thoughts out loud.”

  I said, “So, everyone just does what he says?”

  “Or disappears,” the Slave-Master said again as if using the word would convince us. “Not dies but disappears. Never returns. Think of that as we walk. People who oppose the Councilman disappear. Death can be understood, but when people are never seen again, there are questions that eat at the mind to cause intense fear.”

  He was right. The citizens, especially the wealthy o
nes, could accept death as a natural consequence of trying to obtain power. Disappearance, with no trace of a body ever discovered was far more frightening.

  The five of us traveled almost as well as the warriors who guarded us, but the slaves chained together moved so slowly that they finally arrived after we built our camp for the night, most of them too tired to eat. Many simply slumped to the ground and slept until the guards woke them with the new day.

  They were thin to the point of starvation but wouldn’t eat, and in the same circumstances, I might do the same. On the afternoon of our third day, we entered the mountains that were the border of Kaon. As we made camp that night, two of the Slave-Master’s guards returned from scouting ahead.

  One brought news in the form that all was as usual in the central city of Kaon. The other brought a bundle of rags to dress us in as we descended the other side of the mountains. We’d be seen, and that would be reported by the Councilman’s spies. We wanted to blend in as much as possible.

  That night, we were chained for the first time.

  Despite knowing the locking pins in our manacles were thin and soft copper, easily broken, the feeling was one of desperation and helplessness. I couldn’t help but look at the others who were chained and sleeping. They’d given up.

  My belief was that they were so despondent that if the chains were removed during the night, they would wake and take their places and continue to walk into Kaon as if nothing had changed. The depths of despair when becoming a slave is complete and total.

  The mountains were not high, the path almost a road, and despite a long climb to the top, relatively easy. There were places to pause and drink alongside streams, the stunted trees provided a measure of shade, and a soft breeze cooled the air, so we walked most of the day.

  Twice, I caught glimpses of Kendra’s dragon in the distance. Anna was chained in front of me, and despite her young age and small size, she managed to keep up while saying little. Over and over, I was reminded of Kendra when she was that age.