The Last Dragon [Book One] Read online

  Even so, she was a royal and Avery was not. That in itself drew our four pairs of astonished eyes. Yes, there have been romances between freemen and royals, usually discrete and brief. Avery was not even the rank of a freeman, but a lowly servant. Whispers of older royals and servants caught in bed always spread around any palace, true or not. However, the idea of a servant publicly and openly escorting a nubile princess through the Royal Rose Gardens of the east wing was unthinkable.

  Avery’s wide, surprised eyes located us in the normally empty garden. Fear replaced the surprise.

  Pallor cleared his throat in a warning to draw my attention. A slight shift to look at him told me to observe his master. Lord Kent’s face almost glowed red with anger. Lady Elizabeth paled and appeared faint—and that was why Pallor had drawn my attention. My duty was to protect Elizabeth and not question the intruder who brazenly broke the rules. Elizabeth needed me before she swooned and fell, or fainted, or whatever it was she was about to do. My situation required me to swoop in and rescue her in order for her actions to be believable.

  Her eyes rolled back in her head, and the back of her hand went to her forehead, as we’d seen actors do before fainting. She swayed unsteadily, weaving first to one side and then the other. Another servant would have already leaped to her aid. However, in my defense, in all the years I’d known her, she had never once fainted. Therefore, my response was slow.

  I’d seen her clean fish, gut squirrels and deer, dig holes for corral posts, and fell trees with an ax. She held her own when we practiced with wooden swords and out shot me with a bow. Now and then she still pinned me when we wrestled, and her fierce punches had left multi-colored bruises on most of my body when we boxed.

  The point being, Elizabeth was strong and didn’t faint at the sight of unpleasantness or broken rules.

  However, in this case, her knees wobbled, and Pallor had hissed at me to act. He actually hissed like a snake to get me moving. My legs carried me to her side as if she was on fire. After reaching her, barely in time, it seemed to any observer, Lady Elizabeth collapsed into my arms.

  I lowered her to the soft grass of the winding path and wondered what she expected me to do next. It was her show. I’d go along, but she needed to lead me, to guide me on the performance we were to play. In the meantime, I fawned over her.

  When my ear was near her lips, she whispered, “Take me to Kendra.”

  My sister. She wanted to go to my sister, which was to say she wanted to go to her apartment. It seemed Lord Kent threw caution to the wind as he ignored the sins of Avery, and he knelt at Elizabeth’s side. He patted the back of her limp hand. It seemed to help. Pallor remained on guard for all of us.

  Avery and the princess had disappeared back through the door from where they had first appeared.

  I managed to get Elizabeth to her feet and placed an arm around her waist to hold her upright while assuring Lord Kent she would survive. He wrung one hand with the other, and his anger boiled, his face still as red as an apple.

  He said, “I will meet with the Heir Apparent this day and will straighten it out. I understand bending a rule here and there but shattering them so callously calls for stern action and Avery will pay for his overstepping the bounds of royalty.”

  Elizabeth reached a limp arm in his direction, her fingers wiggling in place of a wave, and from the groan she emitted, it must have been a painful action. She croaked hoarsely and theatrically, “Go, Kent. Do what you must.”

  I almost laughed. “Don’t overact,” I whispered.

  “But what about you?” Lord Kent hesitated, although clearly wishing to rush off and confront Avery. “I can’t leave you here.”

  “Damon will care for me as he always does. Please, you have to hurry. Don’t hold back for my sake any longer.”

  Lord Kent stood, shoulders back, and pointed to Pallor. “Take me to him.”

  “Thank you,” Elizabeth called after them, just loud enough for Lord Kent to hear and be spurred onward. When the other door to the garden slammed closed, her eyes snapped open and her brows furrowed. Her body went rigid.

  She ordered, “Get me to my damn feet. We have work to do.”

  “We?”

  “Shut up and try to keep up with me for a change.”

  Laughter bubbled at her rude comment, but within the passage of a few hallways, I had little breath to spare for trivial things like laughter. Every breath was required to keep up with the female zealot of a princess charging ahead. We passed others, servants, freemen, and royals, never slowing or explaining, nor did one in her station of life need to. I, on the other hand, looked over my shoulder more than once at the startled expressions we left behind and mouthed apologies.

  The flight to her apartment was like lawn bowling with people instead of wooden pegs. Dozens of apologies were due, but we never slowed. Elizabeth threw open the door to her apartment and snapped in my direction, “Bar the damned door. We don’t need anyone else barging in here while we’re busy.”

  Kendra was sitting at the small desk, a quill pen in her hand. She looked up as we entered, then leaped to her feet with concern. “What?” she asked.

  “A map. We need a map,” Elizabeth said, pulling open the doors of a cabinet.

  “Which one? I’ll run and fetch it from the library,” I offered.

  She spun around to face me as if I’d slapped her. She snarled, “So that everyone in the entire palace will know that we not only need a map, but they will know which one and wonder why I’m interested in that location? Have you lost your mind?”

  “Maybe,” my quivering lips muttered. “Because I have no idea of what just happened.”

  “A map, a simple map of the kingdom, is that too much to ask for?” Elizabeth began pulling anything and everything from the ornate cupboard in her office.

  Kendra saved the day. “Here is one. It’s small, but will it help?”

  Elizabeth paused to look as if she was starving and the map was a serving of pudding. “Yes!”

  CHAPTER THREE

  E lizabeth unrolled and peered at the extremely small map, which was no larger than a splayed hand. It lay spread upon the desktop as the three of us tried to read the tiny print. Bending over to observe it, Elizabeth squinted and moved her head closer, as did I. She ordered in a demanding tone, “Damon, make it bigger with your magic.”

  I mentally stretched the map equally in all directions until it covered the entire top of the small desk and Elizabeth smiled her thanks and bent closer to see it. Kendra and I did the same. The detail and printing had also spread with the parchment and as a result had become less distinct, giving the overall appearance that the map had faded. I washed a contrast spell over it, enhancing the black of the ink while fading the background to a paler shade of tan. While not knowing what we were looking for, we watched Elizabeth’s eyes and then followed her index finger as it moved across the map until it paused.

  The squiggle of a stream or river meandered down the left side, and in a wide bend of that river was one word: Mercia. That was the name of the walled city the princess in yellow we’d seen in the garden came from.

  Her pointing finger confirmed all of us were thinking along the same lines. Mercia. Why had Avery escorted a princess from Mercia into the Rose Garden? However, as usual, Elizabeth was well ahead of us.

  Kendra further examined the map and pointed to Dire, the location of the King’s palace named Crestfallen, our home. One was near the upper right corner of the map, the other most of the way down the left side. About as far from one another as they could be and still occupy the same kingdom.

  My voice was barely above a whisper, “Mercia is where the dragons live. If they are not a myth.”

  Elizabeth’s head abruptly came up, and she locked eyes with me briefly before turning and rushing to the shelf containing a dozen thick books, which seemed to me to be enough reading to occupy a person for a lifetime. Her hand hovered over one, then changed to another. She removed it from the shelf and
opened to the index.

  Quickly finding what she searched for, she fanned the pages with her thumb until pausing at one. She read a few lines and turned to another page before exclaiming, “You’re right, Damon.”

  The good news was she had admitted my statement was right, an unusual occurrence in itself. The less than good part of her outburst was in having no idea of what I’d been right about. Asking for clarification would only make me look stupid again, so I simply grinned and shrugged as if understanding whatever it was all along.

  She carried the open book cradled in her hands and pushed it in my direction. “See here?”

  I didn’t. My pathetic smile widened in a vain attempt to distract her.

  Elizabeth placed the book on the tabletop beside the map while Kendra came to my rescue. She was already reading the lines in the book above the colorful illustration of a dragon out loud. She quoted, “Wyverns are creatures consisting of one pair of wings and one pair of legs. Drakes are true dragons and have one pair of wings and two pairs of legs. They are said to be much larger and fiercer than common wyverns and thought to be extinct or mythical.”

  Revealing my ignorance, even after Kendra read from the book as fact, Words tumbled from my mouth as if the act couldn’t be prevented, much like hic-ups. “All dragons are myths. No matter what name they are called—or how many legs they have. Everyone knows that.”

  Kendra placed her hands on her hips as she said, “Maybe they were real at one time.”

  Elizabeth said, “Wyverns are real. We all know that.”

  “I’ve never seen one of those, either,” I said, adding to my petulant reputation, in the same manner that a four-year-old child might. “Dragons or wyverns, the name makes no difference.”

  “Princess Anna traveled here from Mercia,” Elizabeth said. “She tells about them filling the skies above the city.”

  Kendra, who seemed lost and confused, remained quiet as she watched, listened, and tried to learn what we knew. Her problem was she should only have listened to Elizabeth because I had no idea of where the conversation was leading, and little about where it had been. My eyes went to the indistinct words on the map again.

  Kendra nodded sagely as if she began to understand.

  Elizabeth stood taller and said, “Princess Anna arrived from Mercia unexpectedly and requested an immediate emergency audience with our King. Why? We all wondered, why, but we also knew he was too ill to accept visitors, so we didn’t pursue our inquiries as to the reason.”

  “In our defense,” Kendra said, “We have all been extremely busy the last few days.”

  “Working on the wrong questions, I’m afraid,” Elizabeth snapped, sounding as irritated as she’d been in months.

  Being a man who lived with two women, and therefore considered half-stupid at all times by them, and mostly-stupid in all matters of the court, I’d learned years ago when to remain quiet during times like these. They might already think me stupid but speaking would only convince the two women of it again.

  Kendra said, “You obviously see something we do not.”

  Elizabeth spun on me, her index finger on her chin as she thought. “Was Princess Anna present at a secret audience with the King? She did not make a second request, and yet she remains here.”

  If she had been there, it was a secret—so how the hell would I know? However, I bit my lip and considered how to find out. “There is a clerk to the Minister of Defense, actually a scribe who owes me for defending him against an irate cousin of yours. It seems he had miswritten the intent of a note, not the words that were dictated to him. Your cousin, the rude spinster named Sara, tore into him.”

  “You rescued him in return for a future favor?”

  “She was unreasonable, and I helped him, but yes, he does owe me. As the Defense Minister’s lead scribe, he would be present in case anything needed to be recorded between a meeting of the King and Princess Anna.”

  Elizabeth smiled. “Yet, he is sworn to keep secret all that he observed and what was said at any such encounter. He will not violate that oath and live. His master would personally order him drawn and quartered if he told you anything of value that was to be kept secret.”

  I finished her thought, “Perhaps admitting in some manner that he attended a meeting does not violate any of his oaths since he would not reveal what transpired. The meeting itself is our interest, not the content. Since the King has granted nobody access or audience in months, a simple admission that he has been in the presence of the King would virtually confirm such a meeting took place. We can guess who was in attendance without him having to encroach upon his position.”

  Kendra said, “Do you really believe Princess Anna is up to something?”

  Elizabeth closed the book and placed it back on the shelf. “No, not her. She is a royal simpleton in a situation way over her head. She is little more than a messenger.”

  “For whom?” Kendra said.

  Elizabeth began to pace, always a bad sign. Her eyes were vacant, her jaw set. Then she snapped her fingers and spun on us. “For whom? We don’t know. This palace used to have four mages in residence. In years past, there were always three in-house, but a year ago the one called Twin appeared as the fourth member of the king’s cadre.” She chuckled softly, then quickly recovered, “Saying a mage appeared struck me as funny, like he used magic to get here, but that is beside the point. After all, that’s what they do, right? Anyhow, the fourth mage arrived to serve as part of the royal administration.”

  “I have seen and watched him from afar,” Kendra said. “While young, his skills are masterful. There are rumors of jealousy from the other mages over his powers.”

  “Not recently, Kendra. Let me ask you a simple question. How many are living in our palace today? No, those actually living in-house today?”

  Kendra sensed a tricky inquiry and hesitated. The obvious answer was four, as they had just discussed, but that couldn’t be correct, or Elizabeth would never have asked the question. “I have neither seen nor heard of a few of them in days, maybe weeks, now that you mention it.”

  “Exactly. There is only one still here. The new mage, Twin. My instincts tell me three have magically departed.” She snickered at her own silly joke again, before turning to me.

  My face was fully under control, with no trace of humor, anger, or puzzlement evident. It was a face I practiced. When serving another, one must anticipate the needs, and when that fails, you are placed in an awkward position of holding steady on your course until ordered to change.

  She said in an irritated tone, “Why are you still here instead of seeking out your clerk or scribe or whatever he is?”

  “Just awaiting your further instructions, Elizabeth.” I gave a slight bow and backed away. Despite the unique relationship between her and my sister and me, the fact was we served at her privilege. If one day our ancestry demanded a change, an upgrade hopefully, she would be the first to congratulate and support us, but in the meantime, she spoke, and I obeyed.

  She continued, to be clear, “My instructions were to go speak to your scribe and find a way to loosen his tongue that will not violate his oath of secrecy yet tell us what we need. I’d suggest asking him how that might best be accomplished instead of directly requesting the information. Just confirm the meeting between the princess and the king.”

  “Anything else?” I asked, knowing there was. There always was. She also wanted me to find out about the absences of the mages yet hadn’t said as much.

  Kendra said, “What is the relevance of all of this? Why is it so important?”

  “Lord Kent,” My mouth spoke of its own accord, in a sudden burst of understanding. “His reaction in the garden was all wrong. We should have noticed that at the time.”

  “Yes, he certainly had reason to stop and question the Heir Apparent’s servant, Avery, which is what he should have done on the spot. A simple question and answer for which there may have been a proper response. Avery may have been assigned to escort Pr
incess Anna around the gardens. Instead, Lord Kent grew so angry it appeared his head might explode right off his body. Why did he react like that?”

  “Because Lord Kent has also been seeing Princess Anna—in secret. That’s why he was so upset.” Something had finally managed to make sense to me. My chest puffed out in pride.

  “And?” Elizabeth asked me pointedly, deflating my puffiness.

  The feeling of pride diminished as fast as it had arisen. No response came to mind, and my pride took another beating.

  Elizabeth waited a respectable time before helping me out. “Remember this morning he said he had a secret he was keeping from Avery and from me?”

  “Of course,” I admitted, not knowing at all where she was going with the conversation.

  Elizabeth threw her hand into the air theatrically. “Think. Princess Anna arrives from Mercia, the only place in the world where wyverns thrive, and she demands a meeting with the king, who is ill. Both Avery and Lord Kent occupy her time, plying her for information. Then, three mages and who knows how many others departed the palace in secret. It’s all connected.”

  I didn’t bother admitting not understanding her logic, or to my stupidity for not doing so. My task was simply to verify a meeting. I headed for the north stables, where the minister’s offices had been moved a dozen years ago, an action that caused a stink in the palace. At least that was the local joke. The stink being the stables—and the move of the minister’s offices away from the royal wing.

  As for myself, the smell of the stables was familiar and pleasant, which probably speaks to my lowborn beginnings. The scribe who was the subject of my visit was sitting fourth in a line of small desks, his larger and in better light from the window. Speaking to him directly would set tongues wagging.