Dragon Clan #6: Anna's Story

CHAPTER ONE

Anna quelled the desire to scream her frustration as she watched each of the elders gathered around the table placed on the stage. She forced herself to sit with calm restraint for any looking in her direction. She understood the council’s reluctance to allow her to sail across the Endless Sea to Breslau, especially when considering her young age. But she believed her services were critical to the survival of the family, and perhaps to the entire Dragon Clan. I have to make them understand.

The young man who had traveled with her before, Gray, broke a leg and couldn’t travel with her again, at least not for months, and she didn’t want to wait. Tessa, the leader of the watchers, was too busy as the newest member of the council. Besides, she was scheduled to be at King Ember’s Summer Palace in a few days. That left nobody in the Drylands Family with the experience required to go with her. Yet, the council was adamant about not letting her go alone.

They faced each other across the aged wooden stage built at the edge of the orchard. It stood under the canopy of apple trees older than anyone alive. This was not the first time she had been up there. It was often used by family singers, play-actors, and children to entertain. Not so long ago that included her. But the structure had originally been erected years ago, so the council members could be seen and heard by all in the Dragon Clan Family at meetings exactly like this one.

She stood before the seated council, chin up, ready to fight. She’d lose her arguments; she knew that, but she would do her best. Her Grandma Emma, the wily senior member of the council, spoke first before Anna could say anything. “Your last venture out into the world warned us of the impending danger of Breslau and their dragons, and it provided invaluable information about the invasion scheduled for landing at Shrewsbury. You can be proud that you have served your family well, and no more of you is expected. But now you request to leave us again, and ask for our permission and support.”

Anna lowered her eyes. The tone was both an accusation and a decision. All in attendance, even those furthest away could hear Grandma Emma and Anna’s carefully crafted arguments would now fall on deaf ears. She didn’t request to go out there again; she needed to. Her job tonight was to convince them.

The family may not understand, but they needed her to gather more knowledge about the land of Breslau even if they didn’t understand why. Breslau was going to invade the Princeton Kingdom with little or no opposition—and part of their foreign army would march right through the drylands—right past this valley. Worse, they probably already knew the location of the Drylands Family, and would attack and destroy her home, perhaps killing everyone at tonight’s meeting.

A month ago, the messenger from the Highlands Family had told them of the further dangers from Breslau. Tanner and Carrion had traveled there, confirming all she and Gray had found—and more. The messenger had sat with the counsel for two full days, telling them of the dangers to not only the Dragon Clan but everyone in the kingdom. They were the kind of dangers that could only be fought with accurate information, the sort she might help provide. But, how could she convince the council?

Her grandmother thumped her staff loudly, twice on the wood floor to draw the attention of all. The pounding sounded with the hollow echo of a drum. Her Grandmother half- stood and raised her voice so even those in the back would hear each word clearly. “I believe our very existence is at a crossroad today. We will either defend ourselves from invaders from Breslau--or the Dragon Clan perishes, at least our family dies. It is that simple.”

“Yes, we need to fight back,” Anna said, glad of the unexpected support, tentative as it was. However, Grandma Emma hadn’t said who needed to defend the Dragon Clan, just that we need to. The difference was not lost by Anna. Her grandmother was renowned for her subtle use of language to get her way.

The old woman, still standing, turned to face Anna, a sad expression already telling of her foregone conclusion. “It was my reluctant responsibility to assign you to travel with Gray to Shrewsbury last year, but you agreed and risked everything. True, your mission was almost an observer and messenger. Yet, after all, that, you are still only fifteen. Perhaps it is better for others to take on this task and do their part; their share on protecting us all.”

“No! I want to go. I’m experienced and better qualified than any other Clan member here. Besides, there is nobody of age or more experienced. Look around you. Who else is there?”

“Pretty fifteen-year-old girls face difficulties out in the world that is beyond your understanding. You cannot travel alone, and there is nobody in our family available to escort you.” She pounded her staff on the floor once, to emphasize her point with another hollow boom. She was not a woman who allowed others to raise their voices to her.

Heads nodded in agreement with her words, but Anna ignored them as she thought. She’d seen the twinkle in her grandmother’s eyes and understood that she had given Anna an out that the others on the council hadn’t heard or didn’t yet understood. It was just like the old woman to say one thing and mean another.

Now Anna just needed to figure it out quickly. What was her grandmother trying to tell her? In our family. The phrase had been ever so slightly stressed, yet Grandma Emma was such a great manipulator of people and meetings that it meant something. She would not use that phrase unless there were meanings behind meanings.

Like a flash of lightning on a warm summer evening, Anna understood. There are people in other families who can go with her. Anna spoke again, keeping her voice level and restrained, “Remember last year when Fleet came here and took Tessa with him to travel to Fleming? Like Fleet, I could travel to another Dragon Clan family and ask for a partner. This invasion affects them as much as us.”

Grandma Emma looked at the rest of the council, her expression bland, and she shrugged as if Anna had out-argued her. Even Sawyer, the leader of the council stayed quiet. However, Anna caught a slight wink in her direction from her grandmother, almost just a twitch of the eye as if an insect had flown too close to her eye. Grandma Emma’s face remained calm, and her eyes avoided Anna’s as if seeing them might make her giggle with pride.

When Grandma Emma stepped forward, she held the attention of all. She spoke as if resigned to her decision, a choice she did not want. “I can think of no reason to prevent my granddaughter from taking on this task if she can secure help for the venture. Since she is able to outmaneuver all of us on this council so easily, I suggest we allow her to help us. Maybe she can outmaneuver the Breslau Royals.”

Sawyer, the leader of the family, said, “Which family will she visit for a partner? The Bear Mountain family already has sent at least four people. Another of their family is at Castle Warrington advising the Earl. They cannot possibly spare more people.”

Grandma Emma said, “There is another family high in the Raging Mountains east of Castle Princeton. While we do not know precisely where they are, we do know that Raymer came from there. His name alone should guide the way if a clever girl mentioned it to the right people.”

It was the opening Anna needed. “Yes, he left other clues, too. I could travel there and find Raymer’s family. He might even be there with his bonded dragon. Imagine if Raymer went with me.”

“He was recently visiting the son of the Earl at Castle Warrington in the north, last we heard,” Sawyer said, looking guiltily at her grandmother as if that ended the subject.

Anna became aware that none of the others of the council had spoken, for or against. The members of the council sat in their chairs on the stage at the edge of the apple orchard, and not one of them had spoken since the meeting began. Their eyes shifted from one to the other of the speakers, knowing the importance of the open meeting, yet they remained quiet in a very unusual circumstance. It was most unusual, almost as if they had been instructed. Or perhaps they were allowing Anna to ‘convince’ them of something already decided.

Grandma Emma removed a small leather sack from around her neck. It was tied closed with silk strings. She opened it and dumped the contents on the surface of the small table beside her chair. Coins spilled out, copper, silver, and gold. Several of each color and many different sizes.

Anna said, “That’s a lot of money. Enough to buy a small town, I’ll bet. Where did they come from?”

“Since we don’t use them, we collect them from the ones we find,” Grandma Emma said. “They come in handy when one of us leaves the drylands. They come from the King’s triads, and his armies, when they attack us. We also fought against the King’s assassins and bounty hunters, and they always had coins of some sort in their purses. It seemed only right to take the coins and use them when they would help us all.”

“So over the years, you accumulated all that?” Anna asked, understanding something of the value of the coins in the world outside the drylands.

“Oh, far more than this,” Grandma Emma said. “However, you do not know what you may need, or who you might wish to bribe. Before you depart, some of this will be sewn into the hems of your clothing. The waist, the edges of the hood, the wrists. You will not lack for funds.”

She has agreed to let me go. Anna breathed easier and glanced at the others on the council. She met their smiles of encouragement. “I would like to depart soon.”

Grandma Emma said, “Soon is a rather vague word to describe time, but too soon is a mistake that we cannot correct. You will spend at least three days meeting with the members of this council, individually, and as a group. You will meet with any other family member who wants to provide input for this venture. Each of us has valuable information to share. The knowledge we’ve gained over our lifetimes may save your life. You will choose whichever of the information to follow. My point is, your trip will be delayed.”

Three days of listening to the elders sounded like an eternity but to win, you sometimes have to give. Besides, the tone her Grandmother used allowed not room for argument. Anna nodded and managed to hide her smile. She’d won after all.

No, Anna wouldn't resist the timeframe. In fact, she welcomed the knowledge and insights the council members would share, especially those from Grandma Emma. Fleet had traveled with Tessa to Fleming and returned with more information about the strange people they called the others than had been discovered since their arrival in the kingdom of Princeton four years earlier. After they had returned, they spent endless days discussing every detail with Grandma Emma.

Gray had traveled with Anna to Shrewsbury and returned with additional information, as well as maps that revealed another world they had been unaware of across the Endless Sea; a body of water obviously misnamed. The charts showed a new world where a strange people lived. There were some strange ones who commanded green dragons that the Dragon Clan couldn’t sense, and others had dragon tattoos on their arms. She was sure they had not been born with them. But who they were, or why they planned an invasion remained a mystery. Still, they had to be stopped.

However, the idea of people with dragon tattoos and ties to dragons were of interest to anyone of the Dragon Clan. But that thought revealed her primary interest. The Dragon Clan knew almost nothing of the new people, and yet, that was far more than King Ember seemed to know. Without knowledge of who the enemy was, or where they came from, made it impossible to wage war. She and others believed the war was inevitable. Soldiers from across the sea would soon be arriving at the port of Shrewsbury. The port village was full of their spies and the town almost fully prepared to receive the foreign troops.

Her Grandmother’s staff pounded the floor again drawing Anna’s attention. “Are you still with us, girl?”

Anna pulled herself from her thoughts and nodded to her grandmother. “Sorry.”

“As I was saying,” Grandma Emma continued, the twinkle again in her eye, “Instead of just rushing off you will need more of a plan than last time, a set of objectives. Besides needing someone older to travel with you, I believe you should consider going to the source of the problem. You need to travel across the Endless Sea if at all possible, but you need to do it in a safe, intelligent way.”

“That’s what I was thinking. The part about crossing the sea. I don’t necessarily want someone older to go with me, someone who will tell me what to do.”

“Older, wiser, and male. Despite all of the arguments you’ll make, there are times when a man can accomplish what you cannot. It is not about you, but about how others perceive you.”

“You’ve raised me to be equal to any man.” Anna puffed out her chest and set her chin.

Grandma Emma shrugged. “Unfortunately, I fear that I did not raise all of those you will deal with. In many cultures, a woman cannot make binding business deals, own property, or speak with authority. Some, even members of this council, believe you are too young. These are not things you can change. Deal with them.”

Anna didn’t like the direction the meeting was taking. But there was truth in Grandma Emma’s words. Besides, Anna had already decided to seek out an older man, but for a very different reason. While on the trip with Gray she’d found her sex and her young age to be an effective weapon. With a bit of silliness, she could still pass for an obnoxious twelve-year-old. A girl who could twist and turn middle-aged men with her eye rolls and sharp tongues.

She fought the twitch of a smile as she remembered dealing with the constable at Shrewsbury. The outrageous statements she’d made that no adult could get away with, and the way he’d both dismissed her and avoided her, solely to escape future embarrassment. Half of her spoiled child act depended on a strong male partner such as an older brother or uncle to play against.

She hung her head as if accepting the taste of bitter medicine from a doting mother. “I agree.” Then she raised her eyes and said with finality, “But I am in charge!”

“We would expect no less,” Sawyer said.

Grandma Emma placed a hand on her shoulder. “I knew you’d see it our way.”

Anna patted the old hand. Yes, you have to compromise when dealing with people. . . Or allow them to think you have come around to see things their way. Let them feel that they made the choice. She said, “I’m free to talk all afternoon and even this evening if anyone wants to avoid being out in the heat.”

Sawyer chuckled. “Trying to get the meetings over in sooner than three days, are you?”

There was no use denying it. “I admit I’m in a hurry.”

Grandma Emma said, “In that case, why not let everyone else go about their business while you and I stroll down by the lake while we talk? Take our fishing poles and see if we can get a couple of the children to dig us some fat worms?”

“Fishing sounds like a great way to spend time,” Anna said, hoping her voice sounded as perky as she intended.

After going to Grandma Emma’s house to grab their poles and tackle, they walked down to the dock, saying hello to people they passed. They asked three little girls to dig worms for them. When the girls ran off giggling and laughing in search of bait, Grandma Emma walked onto the dock to her favorite spot where she could sit and dip her swinging feet into the water.

They tied bits of wool to hooks until the worms arrived. Both used bobbers. When the lines were in the water, Grandma Emma said, “I suppose you already have a plan?”

“Not fully developed, but yes.”

“Tell me.”

“After what we found in the Marlstone Islands, I have ideas. Remember Breslau had bought all the businesses and refused to sell cargo or supplied to ships. I need to sail to Breslau. The answers are there.”

“You’re speaking about the change in the attitude of everyone in the port when Gray mentioned ‘Anterra’ at the Inn in Marlstone City?”

“They were going to hang him. At least they were going to beat him, just for mentioning it. He was lucky to have a good ship’s captain who managed to get him away.”

“The same tale says that there is only one ship that goes beyond The Marlstones to Breslau,” Grandma Emma said. “It rarely takes passengers. It will never take you.”

“I know. But it did take Stinson there, and that’s a problem for all of us. Stinson and his bragging mouth will sell out our entire family for a few words of praise, and there is little about us that he does not know.”

“He’s not as bad as all that.” Grandma Emma said. “Just a little headstrong.”

“You’re wrong. He traveled on that ship as a crewman,” Anna said. “That says he is one of them, or he’s selling his soul to them.”

“I believe part of what you say may be accurate, but it is hard to believe a child from this family would do such a terrible thing. While he may have worked on the ship as a crewman, that was not the primary reason for why he was on the ship. He was there because The others wanted him in Breslau. Hiring him onto the ship was merely a method to get him there willingly and to force him to talk. I could not imagine they couldn’t have found a better-qualified crewman if they had looked at three other sailors. When the ship eventually tied up to the pier in Breslau, he was probably taken off and questioned. At least, that’s my belief.”

“Questioned like a spy?” Anna asked.

“Or worse. He may even have been treated like royalty, and then he willingly told all, but at the very least I assume he was tortured and in the end told them everything he knows about the Dragon Clan and where we are located.”

“They probably didn’t have to torture him is my guess.”

“Anna, pay attention to your bobber. A fish is playing with your bait. Be careful of what you say about Stinson. He still has family living here that your words may hurt them. We need to be understanding for their sake.”

“He is a traitor to this family and the Dragon Clan,” she spat.

Grandma Emma lifted her bait from the water and replaced it with a worm from the container the girls brought. She thanked them, and after they had run off, she tossed her line, so her bobber sat right beside Anna’s. It went under almost immediately.

Grandma Emma pulled in a perch, held it up and examined the size and judged it too small to keep, so she tossed it back. She rebaited her hook and cast her line back beside Anna’s again. Grandma Emma soon pulled in another. It was a keeper, but she also tossed it back into the lake. She glanced at Anna. “Using the right bait always produces better results. I’m done fishing and talking today.”

Anna watched her grandmother stroll up the dock and climb the hillside to the small houses, never once looking back. Anna knew something profound had just happened but couldn’t figure it out. Not yet. But she had time, and three days to think.

She pulled her line in and replaced the wool with a worm. When the bobber went under she didn’t notice until the fish almost pulled her pole into the water.

Her life was about to change in ways she didn’t understand. In later years, if she lived, she would recall this day as the one that set her on the path to whatever destination lay in her future. The thought was profound, fearsome, and exciting.

But, she simply wished to leave the Drylands Family. Soon.