It was Sir Logan who first spotted tracks: the pawprints of an injured dragon, limping slightly. "Ho, here!" he cried out. All the horses were pulled quickly to a stop with shortened reins. Each horse stood in its spot shuffling in place, all nodding their heads and snorting as their riders studied the ground with full attention. The perturbed earth showed a circular trace of wingtips dragging the ground as the wounded dragon had spun in a circle. This was the place where Hummingbird had fallen and then risen again, spinning around, getting her bearings as she rose to her feet, injured and fallen but alive.
"WooOORf!" Noodles snorted, finding a human footprint nearby.
The others turned their heads to look.
He growled, almost snarled. It was a scent he recognized.
The horses continued to shuffle and stamp, impatient with the short reins, anxious to be off in pursuit.
"RRR-rrr-GRRRHG!" Noodles growled in anger. This was the smell of the witch. Lavender oil mixed with traces of stale cigarette smoke and the scent of bad character. It was the same smell he had noticed on the black bathrobe that hung in the upstairs bathroom at Granny's house.
He howled like a wolf in pain, then sniffed at the prints again. He pawed his back feet against the ground rapidly, as if to bury something nasty. He reared up and howled again, as a wolf howls at the moon. It wasn't enough that the witch had taken Granny's grandson away, back in the ordinary world? Here on the other side of the space-time portal she had come and kidnapped Hummingbird? He jumped and howled and growled, then took off at full speed in the direction of the nasty smelling trail the witch had left behind her in her path, his nose to the ground like a bloodhound, but running all the same.
The others followed without inquiring.
Princess Sun Arrow darted to the front of the group on her very fast copper-colored horse, a couple of lengths ahead of Sir Logan. A couple more lengths behind Sir Logan came Prince Jae Vaughn, gaining ground rapidly, with Sir Jonathan close behind him. After them Sir Jeffrey and Sir Ricky followed quickly, pressing ahead with all possible speed. Every one of them was determined to find and rescue the dragon Hummingbird -- not just any dragon, but the beloved pet of Lady Jess.
Time passed, but it didn't seem to. It seemed almost immediately that the group came upon their quarry. When the awful lavender oil scent became strong and fresh, Noodles knew they had tracked her down. He stopped and looked up. The horses halted.
There in an open space in the field, very near where the forest started up again, stood the evil sorceress Narcissa. She wore a full length black polyester gown with a flowing skirt that fluttered loosely in the breeze. Her hair looked like a Halloween wig made out of dozens of long spiral coils from school notebooks, painted black. Her face looked as if it had been beautiful once, with high cheekbones, a straight nose, full lips and exotic features; but that face was distorted now with the effects that bad character produces, full of envy, anger, arrogance and selfishness. Her smile was a sneering grimace.
In one hand she held the end of a long black tether. At the other end of the tether stood the gently shimmering Hummingbird, pulling and tugging on the leash. The leash was stretched taut.
Noodles howled.
Sun Arrow set an arrow and drew her bow.
Prince Jae Vaughn drew his sword, with his anger perfectly subdued and redirected into strength. His thinking was clear and his heart was steady. He breathed in deeply, not too quickly, but not lazily either. His eyes glazed cold and his attention focused as he exhaled. He narrowed his eyes so that the only thing he saw was the target.
The target was the leather leash that bound Hummingbird to the witch.
No one even saw the motion, it was that sudden: Jae Vaughn, on his golden horse, fell upon the space that separated Hummingbird from the sorceress. His sword severed the tautly stretched cord. Hummingbird felt the limp leash that meant freedom, and took off into the sky. She headed toward home, neither looking back nor hesitating. Jae Vaughn raced straight back to the others, as if nothing had happened.
Fire Tiger joined Hummingbird in the sky to protect her on the flight back to the Kingdom by the River, where Lady Jesse Lynn waited in hope.
The witch looked stunned. She raised a hand as if to cast a spell, and Sun Arrow released the string of her bow. A glowing shaft sped through the air like an electric spark. When it hit the witch's hand, the tip of the arrow seemed to explode into a little sunburst. The witch's hand was deflected before it could act. The witch stood staring, paralyzed for the moment.
The horses snorted, stamped, and turned toward home, trotting quickly, then breaking into a gallop.
Noodles barked and growled as he spun around to follow the departing horses. He ran as fast as if he'd been chasing a squirrel.
Rain started to fall, unexpectedly. Lightning flashed.
"Where did that come from?" Sir Jeffrey asked.
"Ask me tomorrow," Prince Jae Vaughn answered, kicking his heels a bit into the sides of his golden horse. The horse shot forward even more quickly than before.
The storm had almost certainly been triggered by the sunburst of energy from Sun Arrow's weapon. Such effects were unpredictable still. She had not yet learned how to control her power fully.
The prince and his group outran the storm easily, reaching clear weather in the field. Behind them, where the witch had been, a violent storm raged with lightning and thunder.
"Hunh," Sir Ricky grunted and shook his head.
"Maybe we should head home before the storm comes this way," Sir Jonathan added, and the others laughed.
"Good idea," the prince agreed, nudging his pale yellow horse toward home at a fast trot. Noodles followed along at his heels, delighted to be running, and to be playing with a real little boy. It all seemed too good to be true.
Chapter 7
Noodles the Cockapoo Stands Guard Page 7
