The Dragon's Apprentice

by Linda McNabb

CHAPTER TWELVE

  THERE’S A DRAGON IN THE WAGON!

  The sun had been up for almost an hour before things went wrong. They’d made good time away from Castletown and were heading west on the back trails. They couldn’t risk using the main roads in case they met up with any of the kings’ processions. Luckily it was a warm day and the snow was melting fast.

  “What’s going on?” A high pitched and irritating voice came from the back of the covered wagon. Toby knew who it was instantly and he groaned. How did she get in the wagon?

  Princess Kaylene’s head appeared out of the canvas and she glared at them. She looked around at the countryside and then, suddenly realising that they were nowhere near the castle, she looked horrified.

  “Why have you kidnapped me? Father will pay anything you want. Just take me back. Please don’t hurt me.” She dropped into a snivelling heap and Sanelle dragged her up to sit on the seat with them.

  Toby would love nothing better than to just shove her off the side of the wagon and leave her on the back trail they were following and by the look on Sanelle’s face she appeared to be thinking the same thing.

  “We didn’t kidnap you,” Toby told her firmly and she stopped snivelling instantly. She’d do well in a travelling theatre with the acts she could put on! “What were you doing in the wagon?”

  “I was making father realise how much he would miss me if he sent me off to Cousin Paulo’s,” she said loftily and then sniffed. “By the time I get back he’ll be so pleased to see me he’ll give me anything I want.”

  “Really?” Sanelle commented.

  “Yes, now take me back at once! And why aren’t you addressing me properly?” Princess Kaylene demanded.

  “Your father’s not back at the castle,” Toby told her, amused by the fact she continued to be so bossy even though she had no control over where they were going.

  “He’s not?” She frowned and then a smile played on her lips. “He’s looking for me already?”

  “Nope, he’s gone dragon hunting.” Sanelle seemed to be enjoying the princess’ predicament too.

  “Dragon hunting? Surely not. Why would anyone want to go looking for a beastly thing like that?” Princess Kaylene looked horrified.

  Toby couldn’t stop himself from laughing this time. The princess obviously hadn’t seen Klel asleep in the back of the wagon with her.

  “What’s so funny? Take me to my father!” She pouted and folded her arms in a defiant manner.

  “We would if we knew which direction he went,” Toby assured her. “Best we can do is drop you at the nearest town.”

  “That is not acceptable. I demand you turn this wagon around right now.” Princess Kaylene’s voice had risen to a pitch that actually hurt Toby’s ears.

  “Sanelle, surely you can do something about this,” Toby almost begged and raised one eyebrow to show he meant something to shut her up.

  “My pleasure.” Sanelle drew a pattern on the princess’ arm, muttered her word, and the princess slumped over, fast asleep. They put the princess back under the cover and continued on peacefully until late in the afternoon.

  They slowly approached the town of Forest Hill from the back road. There was no sign of any of the kings and they pulled up at the local tavern. Princess Kaylene was still sleeping peacefully and they had both agreed that they would leave her behind when they left town. One of the kings was bound to come through sooner or later. They called over the stable lad who stood leaning against the side of the tavern and he came running.

  “Some feed for the horse and stable him for the night,” Sanelle said and tossed the lad a coin.

  “Sure lady,” he said with a grin.

  “Have any other travellers passed this way?” Toby asked as he got down from the wagon, stretching his arms and legs.

  “A whole lot of them earlier today, mister. I reckoned one of them was King Herat but Ma said I was telling tales.” The lad stroked the horse’s nose. “Sure looks like he needs a feed.”

  “And don’t look in the wagon,” Sanelle added as she and Toby headed for the tavern. At least they didn’t have to worry about King Herat coming into town while they were here, just the three other kings.

  “No, lady,” the lad assured her as he led the horse off around the side of the tavern.

  “What can I do ya for?” A man, round to the point of being obese, waddled over and smiled at them as they went inside.

  Before Sanelle could reply the stable lad came running in.

  “Mister! Lady!” He looked really worried and Toby wondered what could be wrong. Had he looked in the back of the wagon and seen Klel? “She drove off with the wagon.”

  Princess Kaylene. She always seemed to be causing trouble for them. Toby hurried out of the tavern with Sanelle right behind him.

  “Which way did she go?” Toby asked as the wagon was nowhere in sight.

  “That way.” The lad pointed back the way they had come and Toby muttered an oath under his breath.

  “Come on. We’ve got to catch up to her.” Sanelle waved her hand in the air and then ran off down the road. Toby ran after her and the stable lad stared after them.

  “You’re going after her on foot?” He sounded surprised but neither Toby nor Sanelle stopped to answer him.

  “What did you do?” Toby asked as he caught up with Sanelle and kept pace with her.

  “Unhitched the horse. Let’s hope she wasn’t going too fast. I forgot for a second that Klel was in there but I couldn’t take it back once I had done it,” Sanelle replied, looking worried.

  Only a couple of minutes later they came to the horse, quietly grazing near a bridge. There were tracks leading off the road up ahead and down the bank. It looked like it had come unhitched at the worst possible place. There was no noise coming from down the bank and they both hurried over the road and followed the tracks.

  “There’s the wagon, and the princess,” Toby said as he spotted them in the middle of the stream. There was no way off the wagon except to jump into the water and the princess did just that. She leapt into the water and splashed around, then began screaming.

  “Dragon! Dragon! Help…. I can’t swim!”

  “At least she’s alive,” Sanelle commented. “Can you see how Klel is?”

  “I think he’s fine,” Toby replied, seeing Klel’s snout sticking out the back of the wagon. Then his whole head appeared and he looked curiously at the flailing princess.

  “Princess, put your feet down,” Sanelle called calmly. The princess stood up in the waist deep water and waded to the bank.

  “There’s a dragon in the wagon!” she shrieked as she ran up the bank.

  “Klel, meet Princess Kaylene,” Toby called over to Klel.

  Noisy! Klel said bluntly and both Sanelle and Toby laughed.

  “This changes things a bit,” Toby said as the princess glared from them to Klel and back again. “Now that she’s seen Klel we can’t leave her behind.”

  “You stole the dragon!” She accused them as if she had a whole contingent of guards to back her up. “I’m going to tell father.”

  “You’re right,” Sanelle agreed with Toby. “She’ll have to come with us now.”

  Toby went up the hill to fetch the horse while the princess continued to rant and rave about how much trouble they were in, and then suddenly everything went quiet. Toby came back down, leading the horse, expecting to see Princess Kaylene fast asleep but she wasn’t. She was standing quietly, looking scared and worried, but blissfully silent.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Toby asked as he waded into the water and hitched up the wagon. “This water’s freezing!”

  “I only said Klel hadn’t been fed lately,” Sanelle said innocently.

  “I don’t think the horse is strong enough to pull the wagon out,” Toby said as he tried to help the horse pull the wagon out of the water.

  This for strength. Klel caught hold of Toby’s hand and drew a rune. Draw on horse.

  “Thanks Klel.” Tob
y drew the rune on the rump of the horse and it pulled the wagon out with no trouble at all.

  “You didn’t say your word,” Sanelle commented.

  “I thought it,” Toby told her. “It seems to work just as well.”

  Sanelle looked surprised and drew a rune of her own in the air. The princess rose into the air and floated up to the seat of the wagon. Her face was as white as the wagon cover and she didn’t seem to care that she was only a foot away from a dragon.

  “So it does,” Sanelle said with a grin.

  “Sorcerers!” Princess Kaylene whispered, wide-eyed and terrified.

  “Are you going to stay quiet?” Sanelle asked and the princess nodded. “Good because I’m hungry. Let’s get back to the tavern. You don’t mind if we drop your title do you?”

  The stable lad was sitting at the kerbside outside the tavern when they arrived back in town. He looked at them with wonder and then at the dripping wet princess.

  “You caught her?” he said in awe.

  “Our friend… Kay… just wanted to go for a swim,” Toby told the lad as they helped her down. “Remember not to look in the back.”

  “Right-oh,” he said as he took the wagon around the side of the tavern for the second time.

  They had a meal and spent the night at the tavern and got up early the next morning.

  “We need an early start if we’re going to catch up with King Herat,” Toby commented as they went downstairs.

  It was too early for breakfast but the tavern keeper sold them a loaf of bread and a round of cheese and waved them off with a bemused look. They had been travelling for several hours before Sanelle pulled the wagon over to the side of the road and took out her eyeglass.

  “There they are,” she said and pointed to a wisp of smoke in the distance. “Looks like they’re about to break camp.”

  “Why are we following King Herat?” Kaylene spoke for the first time that day.

  “He has something that Klel needs,” Toby explained, seeing no reason to keep it from her since she knew so much already.

  “And Blaise has something I need,” Sanelle added coldly as she stared through the eyeglass again.

  “But isn’t he hunting dragons?” Kaylene dared a glance at Klel. She seemed surprised that she hadn’t been eaten yet.

  “He is,” Sanelle replied bluntly. “But he won’t find one if we can help it.”

  “So you didn’t steal the dragon to keep for yourself?” Kaylene seemed to be having trouble understanding why they took Klel.

  “We freed Klel because they were going to kill him by removing his scales,” Toby said with a stress on Klel’s name.

  “They were?” Kaylene looked embarrassed, unaware that they knew she was going to have one for herself.

  “We’ll follow them until they stop for the night again,” Sanelle said as she flicked the reins. “Then we’ll get Klel’s band and the talisman.”

  They followed the slow-moving procession for the whole day, making sure they kept far enough back not to be seen and as dusk approached they watched them set up camp. They worked their way around to the side of the camp, stopping within a ten-minute walk from it.

  “You’re coming too, Kay,” Toby said as they jumped down and unhitched the horse to let it graze.

  “Looking like this?” Kaylene pointed to her creased and dirty dress and put her hand up to her dishevelled hair.

  “They won’t see you,” Sanelle said and Kaylene raised her eyebrows.

  “You mean I’ll be invisible?” she asked with an excited look of anticipation. “Does it hurt?”

  “Yes and no, in that order,” Toby told her and Kaylene smiled. Toby thought she ought to smile more often. She really was very pretty when she smiled.

  “It sounds like fun. I used to pretend I was invisible when I was little but it would be amazing to do it for real,” Kaylene said with a giggle of excitement.

  “It is,” Toby assured her and they set off in the darkness for King Herat’s camp.

  Toby led the way and headed straight for the cooking fire as he owed Aggie an explanation about everything that had happened. When this was all over he would not be able to go back to Castletown anyway. This might be the last chance he had to talk to her in a long time.

  He left Sanelle and Kaylene in the shadows and approached the fire where she was stirring a huge pot.

  “Aggie,” he called softly, meaning to get her attention without frightening her.

  “Toby?” Aggie looked up and saw him at the edges of the light from the fire and smiled in delight.

  Toby rushed over and hugged her for a full minute before pulling back and realising that she had tears in her eyes.

  “What will become of you now?” she asked and put one hand on his shoulder.

  “There’s something you should know…” Toby wanted her to know what he really was so that she wouldn’t worry about him but before he could finish his sentence a voice came from behind him that froze him to the spot.

  “You lad, bring me some food.”

  Toby turned to see Prince Blaise standing not five feet from him. Recognition in Prince Blaise’s eyes was instant and he immediately yelled.

  “Guards! He stole the dragon!”

  “I’m sorry, Aggie.” Toby shot one last look of apology at Aggie, invoked a rune, and disappeared right before her eyes.

  Prince Blaise stopped mid-sentence and his face drained of all colour before he turned and ran, as fast as he could, in the other direction. Toby looked at Aggie and he could see that although she was shocked, she was also happy.

  “Good luck, son,” she whispered as the guards swarmed all over the cooking area, looking for someone who wasn’t there.