The Last Dragon: Book Four

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Princess Elizabeth said that combining the armies and fighting men of six kingdoms was just the start of the Young Mage’s ambitions. After taking Fairbanks and Landor, and of course Dire, a map said he needed to keep only a few troops at home. The rest of his army of troops mixed from several kingdoms could march south.

No army of any kingdom could stand in his way.

I left her at the rail and sat beside Kendra, hoping to hear a more cheerful conversation. She snapped at me, “The damn dragon still refuses to move. She is not eating. When I tell her to do something, she shuts her mind and ignores me.”

It sounded like she was talking about me when I got stubborn and not a dragon sitting on a mountain peak several days travel away. On the other hand, I also know how it feels to lose the little magic I controlled, and now that she had tasted the ability to direct a dragon, losing it must be painful and worrisome. Will the dragon ever do what she wants again? Why had it changed?

I let the question flow in my mind, like a stick traveling a muddy river. It twisted and turned, never moving as fast as the water, and in danger of getting hung up on an obstruction at any time.

Will was still sitting with Captain at the tiller. I looked at Anna. She sat with her knees pulled up to her chin. I said, “I’m sorry I have not spent much time with you.”

“I can’t figure out how Emma fooled me for so long.”

That was an unexpected response to my greeting. “You have no memory before the day we found you?”

“None. Well, that’s if you discount the false memories of Emma.”

I gave it some thought. It trailed back to the Young Mage again. I said, “I think the Young Mage found you somewhere. Took you from your family, bought you at a slave auction, or stole you from where you lived. Whatever. He kept you in Kaon, near him, no telling for how long. He probably observed your every action so he could duplicate them with the fantasy image of Emma. The two of you probably lived with him, as sisters, long before he sent you to us.”

“That’s why she was able to fool all of us?” Anna asked.

“I think so,” I said. “It also means he had the plans for a long time, maybe years. He didn’t know of me and my sister, so he didn’t do it to use against us. What it tells me, is that if he went to those lengths to be prepared for the chance to use Emma, he has others of the same sort.”

“Girls?”

“No, I meant plans. He’s a thinker. A planner. He looks ahead and sees what might help him in a month or year. For that reason, I believe he is more dangerous than any of us thought.”

“Meaning?” Anna asked, interested or simply wanting to talk.

“If Landor is his next target to conquer, and he’s a planner like I believe, what is waiting for us there? What has he already put into place?” I asked.

Anna said, “We need to talk to Elizabeth.”

“We will. Now, to keep your mind busy, give me the sounds of the first two letters and what do they look like?” Her mood instantly changed to one of glee and she did as asked. I said, “Here’s the third.”

I gave it to her, sounded out the hard and soft sounds and told her to give it a while to have all three memorized perfectly, and I’d give her another. She sat and wrote all three letters in the air, grunted the sounds, and seemed completely happy.

The wind had picked up and Captain was forced to lower the sail to spill air, so it didn’t rip apart. I went to where he clung to the tiller and watched Will holding the other side. When one of the larger waves rolled past, it took both of them to keep the boat on course.

“Can I help?” I called from a couple of steps away.

Both shook their heads. Despite the wind, the bow of the boat took the waved head-on, busting through some while riding over others. It didn’t feel as if the boat was in any danger and if it was, I felt confident Captain would steer us to shore and wait for it to pass.

I settled down next to Anna again, placed my arm around her shoulder and we rolled with each wave while trying to catch a little sleep. Well before midnight, I woke to the gentle movement of the boat. The sail was all the way up, the wind had died down, and we moved along at a nice pace.

Will was sleeping on my other side. Captain smiled my way and I went back to sleep.

Morning came with a burst of intense sunlight. The first thing I noticed was that its position had changed. The sun was directly ahead of us, so we’d rounded the bottom of Dead Isle. If the wind held, we’d reach Landor in the afternoon.

Nobody had slept well at the beginning of the night, and short tempers flared more than once. We ate and I noticed the water kegs were nearly empty so amused myself with filling them. I squirted water from my index finger, my thumb, two fingers, and even my wrist-bone. I made a larger stream, then three small ones, and finally moved my hand back so the water hit the small opening in a high arc, before noticing I had an audience. Everyone in the boat was watching.

I sat back down and tried another magic trick as I attempted to keep my face from showing my embarrassment. That magic trick didn’t work. Anna giggled. Elizabeth covered her mouth with the back of her hand. Even Will was amused.

Anna said, “I need another letter for my reading.”

I gave her the next letter after testing her memory for the previous three.

Elizabeth moved to my side. “What do you think will happen when we reach Landor?”

“We will be ignored by the city and kingdom.”

“So, I will have to make an official notification and request an audience with the king. To gain his attention in the traditional manner, I could have impressed him by arriving in a vessel with an entourage and letter of introduction, as well as a minister to negotiate a meeting. I have none of those. A request might take months for a response.”

“There are other ways.”

“Your crown of light. Maybe you can make a few rumbles of thunder, too. My point is, nobody will notice us if we do nothing to draw attention.”

I said, “That was the intent of the crown.”

“Not at first. You’re too smart not to have figured out the Young Mage has already sent his representatives there, probably years ago. They have laid the groundwork for his invasion, as was happening in Dire. My plan—for now—is to enter the city quietly and listen to the people. They talk. They tell what is really happening. All we have to do is listen. Then we adjust to what is important.”

“So, a royal entrance is out?”

“Not completely. After we find out what we need, we can then ‘make’ an entrance suitable for a princess. It may take us a day or two. Or more.”

“I did think of the same things as you, but not sneaking into town and skulking around for information. That is a good idea.”

She gave me a playful punch on my arm. “Not sneaking or skulking around. Information gathering is more accurate.”

I didn’t laugh. “It’s not going to be as simple as striding up to a welcoming king and asking for his support in your war, is it? Telling him you’re a stranger but want him to commit all his treasury and resources to help a princess from somewhere up north.”

She punched me again, harder. “No. It’s never as simple as it seems from afar. When the ship sails closer, the urgency and danger will increase proportionally.”

That last could have come directly from one of her many books and may have. I turned to watch the shore pass by and think. Did she want me to warn the others, or to give them instructions? A quick look at the determination in her face told me that was not what she wanted. Trying to solve her problems for her wasn’t either.

She wanted to decide what to do. She was in charge. Kendra and I had our new powers to prop us up, but Elizabeth had her royal position. The three of us made an impressing combination.

I looked over her shoulder at Anna. Knowing I could silently talk to her in her mind gave me no idea of the other powerful magic she controlled. Or those that she would one day control. Anna was growing on me. Whatever might lie in our future, she’d be part of it. It was a determination I couldn’t make alone. Both Elizabeth and Kendra had to be part of it—but our band of three was to become four.

Anna was also a puzzle. She was our puzzle. Without discussing her future with her, Kendra, or Elizabeth, I knew she had somehow managed to become part of our pseudo-family and would remain so.

My attention turned to Will. He was a good man, strong, honest, and he had been a warrior. He was now on a mission to serve his king. For all of his good qualities, he was not one of us, not like family. Neither was Captain, of course.

Three women and a man. And a dragon, if Kendra could get it to obey her again. Our small group had a mission of its own. We were going to defeat the strongest mage of all time. That might be a little intense but felt true. There may have been stronger mages, but we hadn’t heard of them, so they didn’t exist in our world.

My magical powers were nonexistent as far as trained mages were concerned. They had spent years and years teaching and learning about their powers, how to best use them, what was possible and what was not. I knew a few tricks that were probably equivalent to the first month of their first year of study.

The Young Mage should have killed me on the mountain pass where we’d first encountered the Blue Lady. There were chances he should have taken. The trails had wound along the side of a cliff. He should have either sheared off rock above or spooked my horse.

I said, “The Young Mage didn’t kill me when he could have.”

Elizabeth turned to face me, her face as serious as I’d ever seen it. “He’s scared of you, Damon.”

“Me? Why?”

“He had great power or perhaps is ruthless enough to carry out this great plan of his, I don’t know which. But there is something about you that scares him. Maybe he thinks your powers are so great that he is afraid to antagonize you. If you lash out with your mind, what damage to him can you do?”

Elizabeth went silent for a while, then said, “Do not take this the wrong way, or as fact, what I’m about to say. I’ve been thinking. No, dwelling about it is a better word. Obsessing on an idea. The more I think about it, the more it seems to make sense. Either that or maybe I’m totally wrong and reading into it things not there.”

Her tone and the words pouring from her mouth in a spew so fast they ran together scared me. I drew a breath and said, “Whatever you’re talking about, you’ve managed to say nothing. Tell me without the hysterics.”

“I think the Young Mage has known about you always. Certainly, after you arrived in Dire, however, that came to be. Maybe he learned of you later, but the point is that he knew. His plan with Emma and Anna was not hatched like an unexpected chick from an egg several weeks old. It was the culmination of planning.”

“Why didn’t he just have me killed, if that was his objective. We didn’t even suspect while growing up so it would have been easy to assassinate me.”

She said, “There could be many reasons, but the most obvious is that failure of the plan would warn you and cause you to respond, to fight back. If you are more powerful than him, or he suspects you are, he wouldn’t attack until he knew he would be successful. There is also Kendra and she might scare him—her and her association with the dragon. He might feel that he would only get one chance, and that might be true. Or maybe he only thinks that.”

“You’re guessing,” I accused. “Everything you’ve said is a guess.”

“Of course, I am. If I knew for certain, we’d be having a different conversation.” Elizabeth turned away. She was not irritated or anything. Just thinking deeply, trying to make rationalizations that fit the facts. She was a princess and used to considering a topic and making a royal ruling.

I was more of an achiever in my actions. Thinking, or over-thinking a subject was not one of my weaknesses. Being impulsive was.

But her conjecture might hold more than a grain of truth.

I said, “Listen, tell me if this sounds stupid, but hear me out. The Young Mage has gone to extraordinary lengths to kill us. Whichever of us is his target is beside the point right now. He tried in Trager, during the storm at sea, when we got close to Kaon, and then at the chain of lakes outside Dagger.”

“You’re just talking endlessly, or do you have an idea?” Elizabeth asked, her total attention focused on me. I noticed both Anna and Kendra listening.

“We’ve passed a few fishing boats in two days. All of them waved or talked to Captain. Why have no boats sent by the Young Mage caught up with us? No warships, no soldiers chasing us, no Wyvern attacking. Nothing.”

“He does not know where we’re going?” she mumbled.

“He’s too smart not to know. His men searched the desert south of the lakes. He knows we didn’t go to Dagger because he has it blockaded. That leaves the coastline to the south. It would take half a day to move troops there and find out if we’d been seen. As close-knit as the fishing community is, one of them would take the generous reward he probably offered.”

Elizabeth shrugged and said, “Maybe they sailed around the other side of Dead Isle.”

Even Kendra appeared satisfied with her answer.

I raised the level of my voice a little. “Maybe there is a Waystone or two in Landor and Fairbanks—I’d bet on it. He has been planning his expansion for years, so why wouldn’t he have mages and assassins already in Landor and Fairbanks? Especially if the local king is ill. We all know what that means. If not, he didn’t chase after us, he just sent them via the Waystones to wait in ambush.”

She seemed to shrink in size. “Why chase after us when we are sailing right into his hands?”

Will spoke for the first time, “Damon, you are welcome to my recommendation for military planning any time. I will personally give my approval to our king to make you an officer.”

“So, what do we do?” Kendra asked in a hushed voice. “I can’t get the dragon to fly, so there goes our best protection.”

“Have you tried today?” I asked and immediately wished I hadn’t. Her scowl would make me think before speaking on that subject again.

Elizabeth turned away from the rail and faced everyone in the boat, her face haggard, her eyes dull. When she spoke, the words included Captain. “I’m sorry. We cannot sail to Fairbanks or Landor—at least not yet.”

Captain spilled the air from the sail and swung the tiller. I didn’t know where we were going, but only where we were not, same as him.