The Last Dragon: Book One

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

After Kendra said the three voices in her head were becoming more distinct as we approached Andover, we didn’t speak. My left hand gripped the bow tighter, and each person that came into view was suspect. More people used the road, worked outside, and did all the normal things expected, however, there seemed more of them. If the refugees from Mercia fled here, the city was flooded to overflowing with people—and it seemed that way.

Children played in the streets, dogs chased them and barked at us, cats lounged in the morning sun, and cattle grazed. Nearly every house and building surrounded by vegetable gardens and fruit trees. The haze of smoke had stained the rock buildings a uniform ash-gray. Since the landscape was barren and rock abundant, the locals used it for construction.

Kendra slowed and asked a woman carrying a large basket, “Where is the market?”

A finger pointed, then the woman strode off on her own mission. We rode slowly, my eyes taking it all in, not from the perspective of a visitor, but as a warrior. I watched rooftops, alleys, and corners. My mind calculated paths suitable for escape. Kendra dictated where we would go, and how to get there. She would tell me when we were close to any of the three chirps we needed to investigate.

Until we located one, the visions in her head might be anything, including birds. However, we didn’t think so. The horses moved easily down the crowded street paved with blocks of uneven gray stone. Every house held six, eight, or more people. The shops were crowded, the noise intolerable.

After two more turns, we located the market square, and it too was overflowing with people. A vendor at the edge sold fried meat pies, a favorite of mine. We bought two for each of us but didn’t dare leave our horses in the mass confusion for fear of never locating them again. We had no reason to enter the market itself or try to navigate our horses in the sea of humanity.

Kendra pointed to a stand of trees that was a small park for children. We rode there and stood at the edge, reins in hand while we ate. Children played, shouted, and otherwise were as they should be. One asked me to join in a game, and at another time I’d have taken him up on it.

Kendra said, “One of the chirps if that is what we’re going to call them, is close. I want to ride down that road over there,” she pointed.

“How accurate do you think finding them that way will be?”

“Who knows until we try.” She kicked her heels to her horse as if shutting off more conversation. She swerved to avoid a hand-truck laden high with cabbages, forcing the small man to turn aside and a few cabbages rolled off and down the road. Despite his curses, I pulled a small coin and tossed it to him as I rode past to catch up with her.

She slowed two streets away and jutted her chin at a building. It was two stories high, as were most in the area, made of gray stone, and above the door hung a swinging sign of a dancing bear. It was an inn. A short alley with a similar sign, however with a horse led the way to the stable.

Kendra never hesitated. Once in the stable, she paid a boy, and we entered the great room of the inn from the rear door. Without a pause to look around, or at the dozen people inside, she walked confidently to an unoccupied table and sat. Our bows were with the horses, but my sword was at my side.

My sister sat with her back to the wall, in the corner where the massive fireplace stood. A dour woman of thirty swept crumbs from our table with a dirty cloth quickly wiped at most of the accumulated surface grime. “Ale,” I said, not waiting for the question to be asked, and needing time for my sister to examine everyone in the room. She looked past me, her eyes pausing on each until she found a plump man with piggish eyes. Instead of sitting behind me where I couldn’t see him, he sat only two tables off to one side.

“Is that him?”

She nodded, turning her head slightly away from him to prevent drawing his attention if he should look. He appeared average, as tall or short as most, brown hair, wide features. His age was perhaps forty, but if he was truly a mage, any of his outward appearances might be a creation of his imagination and magic. He talked with another man, one that caused me more worry.

The second man was taller, thin, and younger. He sat stiffly, like the military officers in the palace. His eyes continually scanned the other patrons. Once, as he shifted, the butt of a long knife hidden under his coat was exposed briefly. He was a fighter, at the very least. However, he was probably hired for protection.

The mugs arrived, and I declined food. The meat pies would hold us for a while. I tasted the sour ale and regretted not ordering wine. Meanwhile, the mage finished his mug and ordered another as the same dour woman walked near.

“He’ll need the outhouse, soon,” Kendra said. “Without his magic, it should be easy for you to take him captive and escort him into the barn.”

“The other one is there to protect him. They are not friends.”

“I can see that. You get the mage into the barn, and I’ll be along right after, but I will keep the soldier away, too.” She reached into the jacket she wore, and her fingers searched one of the small buttoned pockets sewn inside. Her hand returned to the table and inside was a bit of paper folded into a small envelope.

There were several small pockets inside that jacket, and each contained something of value. One was a slow poison, another a quick-acting one. Sometimes she might need time to get away before someone fell ill, and others might want it to react before he could harm her. There was a powder that put one to sleep when absorbed through the skin, and others. Each packet was colored to prevent mistakes.

The one she held was pink and white striped—the sleeping powder. Her hand brushing a bare arm would transfer enough of the sleeping powder to have a man sound asleep in a dozen moments, but better yet, he would grow drowsy instantly. Her other hand opened a green packet, which when mixed with liquid would prevent the action of the first packet from affecting her.

She dipped her fingers into her ale and splashed enough to wet her entire hand. The green packet contained a white powder. My eyes roamed the rest of the people as Kendra readied herself. There were no suspicious characters if you disregarded a few petty thieves, a gambler who obviously cheated, and a man who simply had the appearance of one not to trust.

No sooner had her hand dried than the mage she’d identified shouted for another ale. The maid delivered it almost before the words were out of his mouth, and as his hand reached for her backside, she slipped away untouched. Laughing his disappointment away, he downed half his ale, and his eyes went to his lap, a sure sign of what was to come.

I beat him to it. Following him would be a giveaway to his bodyguard. So, I stood and headed for the rear door and the outhouse I’d noticed on the way inside. Three steps took me to the edge of the building and around the corner to a thick shrub taller than me. After a quick glance to ensure the back was devoid of other patrons, and that I was out of sight for anyone who might live nearby, my knife filled my hand.

My imagination worked out the details inside the great room. As the mage stood to use the outhouse, so would Kendra. She would step up to the warrior and place her hand in his as she introduced herself, making sure to move her hand so as to spread the powder around for quicker results. As she continued to prattle about nothing, he would grow sleepy, and she would excuse herself and join us in the barn.

The rear door opened and banged closed. The mage staggered past the corner where I waited, and a few steps beyond before my arm went around his neck, the blade in my other hand pressed firmly to his neck. I turned him to the barn, and we entered.

The stable boy mucked a stall and froze in fear when we entered. I asked, “Are our horses ready?”

He nodded vigorously.

“Good. Now, I want you to go to the last stall way down at the end and don’t make a sound. I’ll leave you a full copper coin on this railing.”

His eyes got big at the offer, and his feet scrambled to obey. Kendra strode inside.

The mage said, “I have to piss.”

Kendra said, “How long did you help keep that dragon in the cave?”

“H-how?”

She slapped him across his face so suddenly and so hard my knife almost sliced his neck open. “Never mind. How many mages are you working with?”

He shook his head. He was not going to talk, even while drunk. Kendra reached out and placed her palm on his bare cheek, allowing it to linger and transfer the sleeping powder. The stable boy had released our horses, and Alexis stood only a step away. When the mage’s knees went weak, I knew better than to lift him right away. As expected, he peed enough to fill an ale pitcher.

Kendra helped me heft his limp body up and over the horse. I climbed on behind him, after placing the copper coin promised to the boy on the railing. Kendra rode ahead, leading the way out of town the same what we’d entered.

A constable motioned for me to stop. I did, blinding him with my best smile as I explained the mage was a distant uncle who often downed too much ale and his wife had sent me to retrieve him again. As if to help my story, the mage burped loudly, and the constable waved us on. A believable lie told by an impish scamp was far better than fighting our way out of town.

Once beyond the houses at the edge of Andover, we turned off the road and followed a winding path to a stand of bare rocks the size of outbuildings. At the base was a campsite, unused for some time, but it met our needs.

We lowered the mage to the ground, and I asked. “How long will he sleep?”

“Until dark, at least. Tie him, and we will go back.”

That was an answer I didn’t expect. “How did you know it was him? That blip you told me about?”

“Sort of. Once we entered the inn, there was a sort of radiance about him. Something like the Blue Woman, but thinner, wispy.”

“So, now you think you can find a mage in a crowd?”

“Maybe. If they are all like him. But if we capture another we can pit them against each other and confirm their stories.”

Kendra, and most women, in general, are far more ruthless than men. However, for now, this was her show. The mage was secured with a good rope, not that I expected him to try and escape. He might not even wake up before we returned. My sister took care not to touch me so the man we left might wouldn’t be the only one sleeping by the end of the day.

Back in the center of town, she took several twisting streets, and Alexia followed without instruction. Finally, she slowed and watched a house carefully. It was also two-stories tall, stone, and in a wealthy section of the city. All the houses were built flush to the street with the wide sidewalks in front. The houses butted up against each other on their sides. Any unused land would be behind.

Kendra turned at the corner, and as expected, a wide alley took us behind where each house had some sort of barn, stable, carriage house, or all. They were fenced, but we sat high enough that we saw over them. Her eyes were on one house, so my attention went there, too.

“Can you slip up to the house and see how many are inside?”

In answer, I got my feet under me and stood on the saddle and stepped over the fence. I landed on soft ground and rolled, then darted to the outbuilding. Getting found by enemies from behind was not going to happen because of the fence. The outbuilding held five horses, not a good sign. Three of the stalls had boards with names burned into them. Two were for visitors.

Perhaps that was better, but no way to tell, yet. At the rear door, I listened to a pair of men talking, but the words couldn’t be made out. A window revealed them sitting on large stuffed chairs, intently facing each other.

They were mages. Not because they glowed or by any deed of mine, but because I recognized them from the palace. I’d seen them my entire life.

A ladder stood against the outbuilding and a window on the second story was open. It was perfect. I found a few rags in the barn and wrapped them around the top rails of the ladder. It went against the side of the stone house without a sound. At the top of the ladder, I peeked inside to an empty bedroom.

Once inside, my boots came off, and I slipped barefoot from room to room, all empty. The same two voices echoed up to me, never another. There might be someone else, but I’d done all I could to be sure. If a bodyguard or soldier leaped out when I got down, we’d fight.

I moved down several steps and waited. The staircase ended in the room where the mages sat. My sword was in my right hand, my boots in my left. I threw the boots to the far side of the room, causing both men to look that way as I silently raced up behind them.

My sword-tip touched the bare neck of the closest. To the other, I said, “There is nothing preventing me from killing you both, here and now.”

“Damon?” The one able to turn his head asked.

The other started to turn to look at me. I jabbed him hard enough to draw blood.

The first said, “Have you lost your mind, boy?”

Despite my sword, it was two-to-one, and they had looked down on me my entire life. For them, facing a stranger would be more difficult. I sensed both tensing as if they were going to fight.

In a flash, my sword blade rose, and I hammered the butt of the sword handle down on the top of the head of the nearest, stepped aside, and slashed across the chest of the other. His shirt sliced open, as did his skin. The cut looked deeper than I’d intended.

As the first man slumped to the floor, I reached out my hand and tore the rest of the shirt open from the other as he stood in shock examining his wound.

A few slices of my blade cut the shirt into strips. He was still examining his wound when I pulled his wrists behind his back and tied them. The one I’d hit over the head hadn’t moved. I went to the rear door and waved for Kendra to come inside.

“Anybody else here?” I asked.

He shook his head. His eyes were still on his chest as if he couldn’t believe what had happened. Then he raised them to me and growled. “I will kill you for that. I am a mage, stupid boy.”

“If you had a dragon in chains to draw your magic from you might do it, but you don’t.”

“There’s more than one mug to drink from.”

“Not today, there’s not. Maybe not even tomorrow,” I said while using more strips off his shirt to add to the ones already on his wrists. However, the comment stuck with me. Kendra and I would find out what it meant to drink from more than one mug. It didn’t sound good for me. I knelt beside the one on the floor to begin tying him—and saw his eyes were open and already turning foggy. I’d killed him. I’d murdered a royal mage.

Kendra entered in a wary stance, her knife in hand.

The blood ran in rivers down the stomach of the mage I’d cut. The entire lower half of his body was red. He snarled at her, “You.”

I expected Kendra to berate me for killing one and cutting the other, but instead, she glanced at the dead one and back to the other as calmly as if we did this sort of thing daily. She said, “Yes, me. And you are bleeding to death. Damon, I’ll bet you a silver crown that he is dead before dark.”

“You always take the winning side of our bets. No thanks.”

Her face still had shown no emotion, and that probably scared the mage more than anything. She said to him, “I am going to ask you a few questions.”

“I won’t talk. There are others of us who are coming.”

She sat in the chair where he had. “Well, there were three of you here in Andover. Now there is you.”

That statement got his attention. For the first time, I saw fear.

She crossed one knee over the other as she sat at apparent ease. “Without my help, you will die soon. When that happens, I will call down that great beast of a dragon I control, and just like I did at Mercia, I will have it flatten this house, and you along with it. Did you watch my dragon do that to Mercia? I stood beside the river as it did it.”

“Your dragon?”

“The lady in blue light called me the Dragon Queen.”

“No . . .”

“Listen, I don’t have all day. No, let me rephrase that. You do not have all day. Where are the other mages and what are their plans?”

Her casual attitude and cold tone even scared me. Blood still flowed freely from his chest as he slumped to his knees and then to the floor where he lay in a pool of his own blood. His face was sweating and pale. His hand tried to stem the blood as he looked from Kendra to me, then back again, disbelieving what he saw and heard.

She abruptly stood. “Have it your way. Damon, it’s time for us to go.”