Dragon Clan #6: Anna's Story

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.