The Last Dragon: Book Three

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Damon

I couldn’t take my mind off Emma, even as we made our escape on the small horses. I tried but couldn’t. If she was what I believed, there should be clues—things that I’d missed that warned of her. The Blue Woman’s image had been transparent enough to see through at times. The skill and concentration required to perpetrate such quality deceptions for any amount of time were beyond believable. Yet, in my heart, I believed it had happened.

My mind centered on what similar errors or mistakes Emma may have displayed. She ate, of course. Food went into her mouth. How could that be true if she was an apparition, a creation of mist, light, and imagination?

But had she really eaten? I’d seen her, hadn’t I? The questions tumbled over each other in my rush to ask and answer each of them.

The small horse underneath me jostled with every step but was ignored as I seized on an aspect that came to mind. Had I really seen her eat? Emma had sat with us at meals. At other times she had accepted food handed to her. My memory confirmed she was a small eater and often didn’t eat all that was given to her, but that was not uncommon with children. But try as I might, there was no recollection of her actually placing food in her mouth.

I struggled to remember a single instance where that had happened. She had food served to her at the beginning of meals, and her plate held less at the end, but she could easily have taken handfuls of food and tossed them into the shrubs or placed it inside a pocket and disposed of it later.

She left footprints, I was sure of it. And it was easy to check up on, but what if the footprints were as much a manifestation as she was? Leaving them would be far easier than providing the convincing image of a little girl who remained in contact with us day after day. If she had heard us talk of the Blue Lady, and she had, she knew of the transparency of the image and the lack of footprints.

The footprints didn’t have to be real. If my fingers had touched one of them, it might have found no impression, despite the appearance. When contrasted with the complexity of a total image of a small girl, what is a footprint?

I rode near the head, only Flier in front of me, instead of at the rear where I usually traveled. The reason was so Emma didn’t turn around and catch my eyes locked on her, or a scowl on my face.

Anna entered my head, *Believe me, yet?*

*Belief if maybe not the right word, but I’m questioning everything about Emma. If you’re wrong, the consequences will be terrible.*

*I’m not.* She fled from my head as if slamming a heavy oak door behind her.

As I calmed myself, Kendra pulled her horse beside me. “Something wrong? I asked you that before, but you’re still acting strangely.”

I shrugged. “We’ve been running for what seems like months, first in Dire, then the Gallant, and now the desert. It’s a lot to take in. I just want to go home and return to our old lives.”

“At least we escaped Vin without injury or death. All five of us are safe,” she said.

The entire statement was wrong if what Anna told me about Emma was true. We hadn’t escaped, not all five of us, and we certainly were not safe from the Vin or Kondor armies. A mage had deceived us all the way across an ocean, and in the process, we’d misplaced our princess. The immediate problem was, any mention of it would probably warn Emma—or whatever name the young mage used.

The old saying about knowing a familiar enemy was preferred to an unknown one rang true. As long as I knew about Emma, it was better than the young mage creating a new set of problems for us.

Kendra said, “Up ahead. There’s a man.”

At first, I thought her eyes better than mine. Then, against the background of a small rise that was too small to be called a hill, a man’s outline took form. He stood still and blended in with the desert sand, not hiding, but concealing himself all the same.

We could have changed directions, but I was in a foul mood, and the man ahead had better behave, or I’d take my frustrations out on him. I placed my hand on the hilt of my sword even though he was still far away.

Flier, who was riding ahead noticed him and slowed until we pulled beside him. He said, “What do you think?”

“One man, alone. We have three warriors,” I said.

His eyes flicked to Kendra and back as I had included her as a warrior, but he had the good sense not to question it. Besides, it was more than three. There was always her dragon to consider, and as usual these days, it would be close to us at all times.

Flier accepted my answer but remained riding with us. The sisters rode behind. I wondered how Anna was handling it, but a new thought emerged. Anna had known of the deception for a while, perhaps days, and maybe longer. She was handling the knowledge of Emma better than me.

We rode steadily as if we hadn’t noticed the man standing quietly, but our eyes watched for weapons or others waiting in hiding. Like ours, his clothing matched the sands.

Kendra said, “It’s Avery.”

I hadn’t noticed it was our old nemesis from Crestfallen. Once she said it, I knew she was right. He held his crooked cane in his left hand and waited as motionless as any wandering priest ever did.

We drew closer, and Avery waited until we pulled to a stop in front of him. If I hadn’t known him better, I’d have said he was insulting us in some unknown manner. It would have been like him at the palace. However, his face held an expression of worry, fear, and tiredness. He said, “I hoped you’d come this way.”

“What’s wrong?” Kendra demanded.

“Elizabeth was taken from her ship in the middle of the night, and if my information is correct, she is in the company of a bounty-hunter heading for Dagger. Before you ask, I also believe the Council of Nine is responsible. They want to interrogate her before killing her and blaming thieves, blackmailers, or thugs.”

That was a revelation for Avery to answer a question without games. My mind skipped over the kidnapping and went to a mental map of Kondor. “When did this happen?”

“Two nights ago.”

I couldn’t help turning my head to scan the desert. If she left Vin then, she only had a half-day head start, and we had ridden steadily. Maybe we were even closer to her.

Avery nodded at my reaction. “She can’t be far.”

Flier said, “This is a vast desert. But, we rode west to avoid being seen by too many people, and I’d suspect her captor would too. They’d travel to the lakes along the river and probably take a boat down to Dagger.”

Avery said, “That’s what my guess is, too. I consulted a few people about what to expect, and that’s why I’m here. I need help.”

“To locate her?” Kendra asked.

“No. There are gangs of rebels, thieves, slavers, and even rogue army units living in the desert. Alone, I may be captured. But I serve my king, the future king, and the royal family.”

Too much talking in front of Emma-who-was-not-Emma was not good, but I saw no alternative without revealing our suspicions. Because of that, the young mage knew all we did—if it mattered in any way. If it didn’t, why was he spying on us? My head pounded with too many questions and not enough answers.

Avery reached into a pocket and pulled a small paper. He motioned for us to dismount and join him. His finger traced the usual route on the map he held, from Vin to Dagger. “Too many people and too many ways for those loyal to the Kondor crown to intercept Elizabeth on those roads.”

His finger moved to the west, tracing a line to where there were no towns or cities listed, but if travelers then turned south at any time, they encountered the chain of lakes that Kondor was famous for. All were created by damming the river and turning desert into farmlands. Regular ferries traveled the river, as well as fishing boats and transports for crops to travel to Dagger.

He was right. That was the way a single bounty hunter would choose to escort a prisoner that others were searching for. At least it was the way I’d choose. “Where are we?”

His finger shifted on the map, not very much.

“How would we find her?” Flier asked. “There is too much desert unless we all split up, and I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen.”

I glanced at Kendra. Her dragon could fly over the area and could be ordered to attack people—maybe—but in doing so, it might kill our princess. Kendra had explained that the dragon was not very intelligent, and she had no way to see what it did. Her dragon was little more than my bow, which pointed an arrow and let it loose. What happened then was out of her control.

Splitting up in other circumstances may have been a good idea. But not for us. We were not trained in the needs to survive in the desert, some of us would get lost and need to be rescued, and above all that was one critical reason. If one of us found her, we’d have to fight a professional bounty hunter. He might have collected others along the way, to make it worse.

While Kendra and I would fight in such circumstances for Elizabeth, we couldn’t ask Avery, Flier, Anna, and certainly not Emma. Thinking of Emma, I glanced her way.

My eyes fell to the sand below her feet. She shifted, and so did the sand. A smile briefly flashed, as if self-satisfied. Had the mage anticipated my questioning eyes and made an adjustment to the vision or had she simply shifted her legs?

Avery moved his finger. “Boats travel slowly and have more distance to cover, as well as navigating the locks at the dams. If we hurry, we could reach the lakes here,” he stabbed a finger at the map, “and get there first.”

“And search every boat?” Flier asked. “Many of those are large and could hide two people easily under a load of cabbages. By what authority will we board and search every vessel?”

For once, Avery had no ready answer.

Flier continued, “But we could reach the lock and observe. The bounty hunter might not have her hidden, thinking the most dangerous part of the trip is over. Or, your princess might signal us in some manner.”

Kendra spoke first, “The Council of Nine didn’t take control of Kondor by being sloppy. They hire the best. If he is any good and has brought her this far, you’re being too optimistic in thinking he’ll make a mistake like that.”

“We have to do something,” Avery countered.

I found myself ready to speak. “We have too little to go on, don’t know the area, and a hundred other things, but one thing we do know is what she looks like. Avery has a point. If we get ahead of them, we can split up and watch for her. We all know what she looks like so anybody with the same general size can be checked.”

Kendra said, “The chances of that working are slim.”

Avery said, “You’re right. But it gives us a chance. And while we’re trying to get ahead of her, maybe one of us will think of a better way.”

Flier said, “I know wandering priests walk, but this time you need to ride, so we move faster. Climb up there on Emma’s horse. She can double up with Anna.”

Anna’s face flushed, and she was ready to refuse, which was natural suspecting Emma was a manifestation. I didn’t want to touch Emma either. “No, Emma likes to ride alone. Anna can ride with me.”

It was a stupid thing to say. I drew puzzled, confused, and almost angry looks from all but Emma. From her, there was a smile of relief which only confirmed my thoughts about her. If we had not been in such a rush, either Flier or Kendra would have objected, and I’d have had to make up another story.

I turned my back to them and nodded for Anna to climb on the little horse before me. Before long, I’d have to rotate her with one of the others, but I wanted to keep Emma’s identity to myself until I had an idea of how to reveal—or better yet, how to use it. In the back of my mind was a vague plan to mislead Emma, to tell her false information that would somehow hurt the mage behind her image.

Those two words struck me as strange in their closeness. Mage and image. Almost the same. Anna pushed her back to my chest and whispered, “Thank you.”

“We’re going to figure this thing out.” I kicked my horse in the ribs to increase its pace to keep up with the others. To stand any chance of arriving where we could rescue Elizabeth, no matter how small the chances, depended on speed. Moving fast in the desert also went against nature. It did everything possible to slow us, from drawing energy in the form of sweat to tiring the small horses plunging their hooves through the sand.

Twice I saw the dragon in the distance, and that reassured me. There were no Wyvern. Kendra didn’t warn us of mages or sorceresses ahead, so I assumed there were none, but that would certainly change as we neared Dagger.

I turned to look behind. Emma’s horse moved as ours, and I looked for a sign that it carried less weight. Instead, it was tired, thirsty, and there was no indication of anything different than with the other horses. I let my mind rule, as I reviewed all I knew or thought I knew.

At one point, I decided it was Anna who was the apparition, and she was deceiving me. It took the time a heart beats three or four times to convince myself that was not true. However, it highlighted how little I knew for certain, and how open my mind was to accept or grasp at unknowns. In short, it reminded me of how scared I was.

Facing an attacker wielding a sword is one thing. I trusted my skill and training. I knew what to expect. He would swing, thrust, or slice. Perhaps he might even throw his sword at me, or feint with his sword and punch me with his other hand. Five or six variables, all of which I could defend against.

A mage was different. Instead of five or six ways to attack, there might be a hundred. Or a thousand. And I knew a few of them, or how to defend myself against any. A time would soon come when I might have Emma attack me—and I had no idea of how that would happen, or how to defend myself. The thought was foremost in my mind when we paused long enough for Anna to leap off my horse and climb in the front of Kendra. Then we moved on, pushing our horses to the point of dropping, pushing them until they moved so slowly we could walk faster.

Late in the afternoon, when I hoped to see the river, Flier called out, “A rider up ahead.”