The Last Dragon: Book One

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Kendra stood alone in the center of the street and cried in the way a young girl who has seen her kitten torn apart by a pack of dogs might. There was nobody brave enough to go outside, yet, so the street was devoid of people. I charged across the broken boards and timbers that had been the building and wrapped my arms around her. She fell to her knees, dragging me down with her. And, as if her emotions were catching, I cried with her, long and hard.

When we stood, emotionally drained, a circle of quiet, respectful people surrounded us. A kindly woman handed me a white linen intended for a table. I dried my tears. Another came forward and placed her supporting hands on Kendra’s shoulders.

Not a word was spoken.

The crowd increased in size as more people ventured into the open.

Kendra stood on legs that seemed unable to walk and peered around. Our horses were safe, the other buildings in sight were intact, and now at least two hundred people stood in the street, many of them sailors, or dock workers. All were worried. Scared.

A few chairs and a table had been thrown into the street during the dragon’s rampage. Kendra pointed to the upturned table and motioned with her hand she wanted it upright. When a pair of men did it, she went to it and climbed onto it with her knees to get on top, then stood and made a full circle, looking at the faces, including mine. The crowd watched back, without any talking.

She said in a voice so soft it may have come from a child, “You all want to know what happened here. You deserve to.”

The crowd moved closer and more joined. We waited.

Her voice rose, carrying in the sea air, even to those in the rear, “Evil mages made our king sick. He was dying. The man inside that building looked like him and was probably a cousin or other relative. The mages used their magic to replace our king’s face on that man inside. He was going to pretend to be our king until Lord Kent sat on the throne in a few months, with Princess Anna, his queen. My brother and I were offered royal appointments to work with them.”

Grumbling grew in the crowd. They were angry with nobody and nothing to take it out on. Faces scowled, and more people arrived.

Kendra said, “Princess Elizabeth went to Crestfallen two days ago and will march here with an army at her back. She should arrive in three or four days. There are still mages who were involved in the attempt to kill your king, and there are spirits that exist out of physical bodies. I don’t know how to fight the spirits, but all the mages knew of this treachery and participated for their own gain. There is one more mage still in this city,” she pointed, “Off that way, three streets from here.”

Several angry people departed and headed in the direction she had pointed. Others edged closer to the table Kendra stood on.

One near the front cried out, “Who are you?”

“I am Kendra, a loyal servant of Princess Elizabeth’s. This is my brother, Damon.”

“People say you are the Dragon Queen,” another yelled.

She sighed heavily and shrugged. “You know what? People say I am, but I’d never heard of her until two days ago. And yes, it is true that the dragon that was here does crush buildings when I ask it to. I don’t know how or why.”

A few chuckled. A portly woman near the front asked, “Does the king live?”

“We don’t know. He was very ill six days ago, but I think that was because of the mages. He may be better, now. We will know when Princess Elizabeth arrives.”

“Are you going to kill all the mages?” a man asked as he held a fist into the air.

Kendra closed her eyes and staggered slightly. People moved to catch or support her if she fell, but her eyes opened again. “I hope the killing is finished.”

A seaman near the back shouted, “I saw mages boarding ships that sailed.”

That explained the four blips Kendra claimed had diminished. “Is there an inn?” She slumped to her knees before falling.

A man swooped her into his arms and carried her as if she weighed nothing. Another placed his arm around my shoulder and helped me stagger after them. Only a block away, we were taken inside a building and into a room at the rear. We were placed on the same sleeping mat and covered with a patched blanket.

I woke when Kendra moved. She asked, “Where are we?”

“An inn, I think. At the port.” After looking at the dark window, I said, “At night.”

She used most of the blanket to cover herself and went back to sleep. I gently tugged, pulled, and managed to get a third of it to my side before falling back to into a deep, exhausted sleep. When I awoke again, morning light streamed inside, and I was cold. Kendra had the entire blanket to herself.

However, I felt rested. Renewed. As the recent events swirled around in my head, a sense of pride overshadowed all. We’d accomplished remarkable things and perhaps saved a kingdom and a king. Now, if only I could manage to get partial ownership of an old blanket.

A gentle tap at the door alerted me. I opened it and found a round-faced woman with red cheeks grinning at me. She held a tray of freshly baked rolls and two mugs of milk still warm from the cow. Kendra woke to the scents and sat.

We wolfed down the food and emptied the mugs and wanted more. We entered the common room and found cheese and hard bread available for all patrons. The round-faced woman refused any payment for the meal or room.

A few other people watched us, but none spoke, not to us, or to each other. Outside, our horses were where we’d left them, but water in buckets and pails of grain had been placed for them. The street was unusually quiet, and the people again watched but avoided us.

I said, “Something is wrong.”

“The blip in my mind for mages has only one.”

“There was still one left, remember?”

“No,” she corrected me. “There was one left here—but also the one we left in Andover. He is still there.”

While checking Alexia, I’d been distracted. Now I gave my sister my full attention. “Did he sail away?”

“Those who sailed are tiny, but I can still sense them. I think the one here is dead.”

It didn’t surprise me. We rode down silent, still streets. No matter how hectic the activity, even near the ships, when we rode into sight, everything and everyone came to a stop. They watched us as if we were caged animals from foreign lands. Like creatures from a different world.

Worse, they were scared of us, everyone in the city. If their silence and the way they shifted their bodies to protect themselves was not enough, mothers shielded children, women watched from the corners of windows, and men stepped aside without taking their eyes off us. We rode alone in a city overflowing with people.

Kendra said, “This will never do.”

“We can try to explain.”

She turned to me. “Or, we can ride back to Crestfallen.”

I started to say we couldn’t do that because Elizabeth was bringing an army here but realized there was only one road, if she didn’t cross the mountains, as before. She had no reason to, so as long as we remained on the road, we’d meet her. She no longer needed the army to defeat the enemies of the Kingdom of Dire. The dragon and my sister had managed to do it for them.

Alexis carried me alongside Kendra directly to the city gate, the same as we’d entered a day earlier. I said, “We can save her and the army a long trip.”

At the gate, a familiar figure waited. It was Avery, the servant for the Heir Apparent. He stood alone.

We pulled to a stop beside him.

“Damon. Kendra.” Those were the only two words he said.

I said eloquently, “Avery.”

“A strange place to meet the two of you.”

Kendra said, “We are going to meet Princess Elizabeth. She is bringing an army.”

He smiled. “And your plans after that?”

“We don’t have any,” I snapped.

His insolent smile widened. He started to turn, but paused long enough to say, “I’ll look for you in Kondor.”

And so he sauntered off, as calm and annoying as the times we’d verbally sparred in the castle. I inquired, “What did he intend by that?”

My sister watched him walking into the crowds near the ships. Avery always acted within his own political rules, which usually meant meanings within meanings. She said, “I have no idea.”

“Me neither.”

We rode in comfortable silence across the desolate landscape. As the peaks of the taller buildings in Andover came into view, she asked, “Somebody asked yesterday. Do you think the king lives?”

“I do. If the mages were using their powers and making him ill, he should be better now that they are powerless.”

“Not powerless. Wyverns have essence, and there are hints of another dragon. We rode on, side by side. The third time our knees bumped, I knew it was on purpose. She would have punched me on my shoulder if we were closer, like when walking.

She said, “We did some good, you know.”

“We only saved one kingdom, so don’t get all uppity.”

“Did you look at the people at the port? The ones like us?”

I had wondered if she had noticed, too. “Can you still detect the mages who got away?”

She turned to me. “They haven’t gotten away yet. They might have sailed to Kondor, but they have not gotten away.”

“What do you think it looks like in Kondor?”

She smiled softly, “We’ll see.”

The End of Book One

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