The Last Dragon 2 Read online

  Kendra waited until the City Gate was no longer in sight behind us before she said, “Avery is a strange man.”

  “He assumes we will follow him to Kondor.” I again turned my attention away from the seaport and towards Andover. The road ahead was wide. Wagons and a hundred people on foot traveling in both directions were in sight. None rode horses because only the wealthy can afford anything but a large-hooved draft animal suitable for working on a farm. Their gait was hard on the tailbone and spine, and most preferred to walk rather than ride them. However, we rode the finest of beasts, so we drew the attention of every pair of eyes that found us, which was all.

  Most people gave way as if we were royalty. Lumbering wagons rolled along on the right side of the wide road, faster walkers to the left. We threaded the needle between. The gray stone buildings of Andover emerged from the pall of chimney smoke that perennially hung over the city. Kendra knew where in the tangle of buildings the mage was, that had given us his word he would return home and cause no more trouble after ten days. The time would be up in five days.

  We both agreed, he was one of those innocents caught up in the larger web of circumstances and couldn’t escape them. He’d been frightened of us after we killed the other two mages and taken him prisoner, but he soon convinced us he wished he was at his home working on his father’s farm. He’d never wanted to be a mage but had been forced into doing their deeds.

  At the edge of the city, we passed the usual small farms with pigs and chickens, the barking dogs, the cats sunning themselves, and washerwomen bringing in the day’s wash. The sound of men chopping rounds into split firewood rang with dull thuds. A pair of men yelled and threatened each other, but all knew no blows would be struck.

  It all appeared and sounded normal until Kendra pulled back so hard on her reins the horse reared on two hind legs. My sword whipped out, and my feet moved from comfortably resting at my arches in the stirrups to the toes only. I could leap to either side and kick the stirrups free.

  Kendra spun her horse, nearly knocking over a handcart full of cabbages and suffered the shouts from the irate farmer. She ignored him. Her wild eyes turned to me. “He’s dead.”

  The only person I could think of was the mage we came to see. “You can’t see him anymore?”

  “Someone or something just killed him.”

  If there were other mages or sorceresses present, Kendra would know it. A single thought filled my mind. On top of the mountain at the dragon’s cave, the Blue Woman had briefly appeared, or we thought she had for a moment to mock us, but we were not sure. We’d felt someone watching us ever since.

  I said, “On the mountain pass, the Blue Woman always knew what we’d been talking about, and where we were going and doing next. She, or it, can hear us when we don’t know the apparition is near. That much is obvious. It might even be listening and laughing at us now.”

  Kendra had calmed her horse and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she was clearly still puzzled. “How can the mage who controls the Blue Woman kill someone? She doesn’t exist except in some ethereal manner. She has no physical form.”

  My memories went back to the time I’d touched her and was thrown clear by a ball of orange energy. Still, that was far different from physically killing. She had no being, at least not in Dire, but perhaps in some far-off land she either existed or had existed.

  I said, “She came to us that first time, and convinced us she was working with us. What if she appeared in the same manner before someone in Andover, a soldier, a drunk, or even a highwayman. She could convince him to kill for her or offer him a reward to do her killing, and she wouldn’t have to take physical form.”

  “Probably a reward she never intended to pay, even if there is a way to do it. Speaking of the Blue Woman as a “she” when we believe behind her is a “he” or a mage, is confusing. Andover is still a place to dislike.”

  “Each time it is worse for us,” I agreed.

  “We don’t know what our watcher has planned for us here, so my suggestion is that we continue to ride right on past Andover instead of stopping. The same assassin might wish to earn more gold, or perhaps has friends who are waiting to ambush us. We can intercept Elizabeth along the road.”

  “You just put your finger on the most important aspect of this. We don’t know many things. The events direct our actions instead of our planning. The Blue Woman may be a spirit or manifestation of a mage, it does not matter. Except that if it is a spirit, we know even less than we think.” My eyes watched the people on either side of the road as we moved past them, watching for deception or aggression. Instead, they moved aside with normal curiosity directed at us, but nothing more.

  A woman far too old to be working for a living sold us a loaf of bread that felt like it was baked long enough ago to have been discarded by a bakery as too stale to sell, and she had cheese with one edge suspiciously cut off, which probably meant mold. After over-paying, we continued down the main road until reaching the far end of the city. However, we intended to spend as little time in Andover as possible, so even stopping to purchase more food was not considered. That was a miscalculation on my part because we’d already devoured all the food the cook placed in the sack.

  Ahead lay a desolate area where we would spend the night unless we continued traveling to the edge of the forests far ahead. There were no trees, few shrubs, and no people living there. If asked, riding on far enough to reach the forest suited me, if only because we could build a fire. My body and soul could use the comfort of it. The number of people on the road north of Andover had thinned until we were alone as far as could be seen in any direction.

  As the city faded from sight behind, the sun settled just above the horizon in what we call first-dark, and in the dimming light, we heard the piercing cry of the dragon, far away. Both of us turned in unison. The great beast flew over Andover low and fast, as if upset.

  Alexis shivered and sidestepped, so I dismounted my horse and walked her, hoping to calm her. Kendra did the same with her horse. We watched the dragon approach, fly directly over us, and land on the road ahead, preventing us from continuing unless we went around. She spread her wings wide as if to tell us not to proceed.

  We halted and puzzled exchanges passed Kendra and the dragon. We waited.

  On the road between us and the dragon, a flicker of blue appeared, not the Blue Woman we’d encountered, but only a vague portion of her upper body as if a mage wanted to present her but lacked the power. When we’d encountered her before we could see through her into the trees behind as if she was perhaps half-real. Now, only the vague outline of a woman shimmered, mostly with dull blue sparkles. There was no head visible, only the outline of her dress in blue.

  She didn’t speak to us, this time. She simply laughed evilly. Soft and low, the laughter sounded cold and anything but humorous. Then she faded to nothing as if she’d never been.

  The dragon backed away, hissed, and flicked her tongue out, tasting the air where the blue outline had appeared, but still, it seemed determined to prevent us from continuing on the road. A chill seemed to have descended. I shivered, looked behind us, behind the dragon, and to either side of the road.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  I t seemed silly to argue with a dragon over which way to ride on the road. While we didn’t know her reasons for blocking us, there was little doubt that she intended to. Not that she was aggressive in any manner unless sitting on the road with outspread wings constituted aggression. She sat and watched us, a few hundred feet in front. When I attempted to move to my right, she moved to her left, blocking me. I hadn’t intended to go beyond but wanted to test her intentions.

  Beyond, while peering under her left wing, I saw other travelers, a young couple walking along and behind them a farmer’s wagon. None of them moved forward. All looked ready to flee at the slightest provocation. Without turning to look, the dragon had managed to halt their progress, so why should ours be different?

  “Any idea of wha
t’s going on?” Kendra asked.

  “That’s a question I was going to ask you. The flicker of blue with the laughter didn’t strike me as intending to be funny.”

  “Mocking is more like it,” she said. “First, the dragon appears and lands in front of us to prevent us from continuing, then the laughing Blue Woman between us tells me she wanted us to go on. If that is true, we are going the wrong way, and the dragon is right.”

  “What about meeting Elizabeth?”

  She patted the neck of her horse to keep it calm as she said, “I don’t know. But the dragon is looking out for me—that much I do know.”

  “So, we go back to Andover?”

  “That or fight our way past the splendid beast blocking the road.”

  She often talked about the dragon in terms more glowing than when speaking of me. However, we turned and walked back to Andover, leading our horses, meeting only a few people on the way, all of them talking excitedly about the dragon that had flown directly over them, the first they’d ever seen. We asked for directions to an inn of quality in Andover and were twice directed to the Crown Inn.

  The sign hanging above the door out front held a bright yellow crown, representing gold if one stretched the imagination to consider a pale splash of yellow the color of dead daisies the same as gold. The surrounding buildings were taller than most of the city and stouter, as was the inn. The windows were smaller, the doors made of thick oak slabs, the roofs flat, with parapets circling them. Ports for soldiers and their weapons dotted them.

  The buildings were originally built for combat as any fool could see, although they were now vacant and probably hadn’t seen any military use for decades or longer. Decorative features had been added, scrolls, cutouts, and geometric designs that were cute, some pretty, but didn’t hide the primary purpose of defense. Heavy shutters stood open on the outside, and no doubt others were inside for double protection. The stone walls wouldn’t burn, the roofs were slate, and the parapets provided protections for archers.

  The defenses built on the buildings wouldn’t withstand a prolonged siege by an army. However, they would hold off roving bands of highwaymen or raids by sailors from the nearby Port of Mercia. There were far easier buildings in the city to capture than those we examined as we rode to the stable behind the Crown Inn. Raiders would choose them, although the rewards were less.

  “Our plans?” I asked.

  “We will wait here for Elizabeth. She should be here in no more than two or three days.”

  I said, trying to keep my voice level. “The room is already paid for at the Blue Bear. I don’t mind riding back to the port if it will save us money.”

  She had the courtesy to withhold her laughter until I finished speaking. She said, “Maybe you will find a nice young lady here to keep you up all night again. I’ll watch for any with red hair if it helps you.”

  Maybe I would do as she suggested. “Then why stay here in Andover? Neither of us likes it.”

  She dismounted and waited for me at the door to the stable. No eager stable boy rushed to help us, so we walked our horses inside and started removing the saddles ourselves. She finally answered, her voice distracted and far off. “Because I don’t think the dragon will allow us to go to the port, either. I think it wants us here.”

  “You can talk with it, now?” I asked with a chuckle. “You know what it wants, and you obey?”

  “No, not even a little. It has to do with safety, I think. Hers and ours. There was danger for us, ahead on the road. There may be more enemies behind.”

  “So, what do we do to occupy our time? I have a hunch you’re up to something.”

  “Tomorrow, we are going shopping, for one thing. Both of us. Tonight, we are going to eat and sleep in different rooms. I need a tub of water to wash my hair, and you are looking scruffy, and you smell.”

  We were still laughing at her comment as we entered the main room of the inn. If anything, she also looked scruffy. The room held at least twenty tables, and ten were quietly occupied by well-dressed patrons. The floor held layers of carpets, all expensive. The walls had been recently whitewashed, and the exposed woodwork was dark and well-carved. It seemed as if those in the room only knew how to whisper and more than a few casts ugly looks our way as if we didn’t belong.

  We headed for a table sitting a little way from most of the diners, and barely got ourselves seated before a dour woman of forty scowled her way to our side. She cast her eyes down at us in a disapproving manner and in a soft voice growled, “Have you any coin? We require people like you to pay before being served.”

  I started to reach for my coin purse at my hip, but Kendra’s foot kicked my shin into submission. She said in a soft voice, “People like us? Travelers, you mean?”

  The woman turned up her nose.

  Kendra still smiled, but it was the smile of a house cat before swatting a mouse, and I almost felt sorry for the woman for what was to come. My sister knew how to play this game. “I assume your rooms are clean and you have a pair we might inspect before turning over our money? I’d also like to inspect your kitchen for cleanliness before eating.”

  Sighing heavily, the woman said louder than necessary, “We have no available rooms and our serving hours are closed.” She said that despite the people at other tables who were eating.

  Kendra stood and spoke across the table. She said in the same louder volume the woman used. “No rooms at all, or no rooms for us?”

  The woman turned and walked away, her nose held high in the air. She assumed we would slink away, shamed and humbled. Kendra threw her arms wide as if gathering in the attention of all in the room, and turned to me, drawing the eyes in the dining room with the action. She spoke directly to me in a stern tone that would be heard by every ear in the room, “You were right, Damon. I know I told you that I believed Princess Elizabeth would enjoy this inn when she arrives here the day after tomorrow, but no, you said that you heard the owner of this inn is a cold prig of a woman who does not deserve royal approval.”

  The murmur of conversation had utterly ceased. Nobody ate or spoke. I said, picking up the story Kendra had started to spin, “So, I win the wager? This inn is certainly not suited for royalty, and you admit it?”

  Kendra flipped a gold coin with her thumb high into the air, so high it almost touched the ceiling as it flashed in the candlelight. She was acting as if it was our wager, and I snatched it from the air, a large coin worth enough to purchase half the inn if it were for sale. She headed for the rear door, me at her heels as I continued, “That’s why the princess sent both of us to judge the quality of accommodations before she arrives.”

  As I glanced at the stunned expressions on the faces of those who had been eating, I realized that if our story was true, and more than half of it was, they were also deprived of meeting the princess. The scornful looks turned to the innkeeper.

  The dour woman raced ahead to get to the door first and block our exit. “Perhaps I was mistaken. We do have a pair of rooms, a very nice pair that you will love.”

  Kendra pulled up short, her voice cold and carrying to the far reaches of the room. “No, I was mistaken in thinking the Princess would enjoy herself here. Damon, draw your sword. If this woman has not moved aside by then, run her through with that fancy sword the king gave to you last year.”

  I pulled the sword, but the woman had already leaped aside. We slowly walked to the stable and saddled the horses, but didn’t mount. Instead, we took the bridles and walked them out to the street and to the front door of the Crown Inn where we stood looking in both directions while trying to decide what to do. Kendra asked the next person she met, a well-dressed man of tall stature, the location of a good nearby inn, one clean and where travelers were welcome.

  “You do know you’re standing out front of the most expensive inn we have in Andover?”

  “But it is not one where tired travelers are welcome or treated with grace,” she said, knowing full well the story would travel all over
the city by dawn. “We just left there.”

  He pointed to another building not far away. “There is what you’re looking for. Not even the second-most expensive, but the food is the best, and you’ll be welcome and treated well.”

  We walked with him down the street, his eyes on our magnificent horses. He said, “Old Hannah at the Crown gave you a bit of trouble, did she?”

  Kendra said, “I gave it back. We are the personal household servants of Princess Elizabeth, appointed to our positions by her father, the king. She will arrive in two days and stay elsewhere because of the uncouth manners of that woman.”

  The man laughed aloud and with a wave of his arm to indicate our destination, he said, “Serves her right. This is the alley leading to the stable. Will the princess be staying here? If so, and the word is spread by someone like me, the Raven Inn will become very popular.”

  After thanking him, and neither of us asked him to hold his tongue, we walked down the narrow alley between two stone buildings, I walked behind her because two couldn’t fit side by side. A small courtyard behind the building opened into a nice area with a few outdoor tables and a few chickens pecking the ground for treats. A one-story stable stood behind. An old man dozing under a straw hat leaped to his feet to welcome us with a broad smile.

  His eyes passed right over us, and to our horses. Kendra’s horse was one from the king’s own stable, and of better quality and lines than any horse in Andover, but only a skilled eye would pick that out so quickly. Then his eyes fell on Alexis—and he was in love.

  He promised to care for them, never again looking in our direction. The man might not even recognize us when we reclaimed the horses in a day or two. I’d seldom seen a man so happy to go to work.

  We entered a rear door that took us into another dining room just as the candles were being lit and a small fire cheerfully burned in the fireplace despite the air not being cool. I hoped Kendra didn’t manage to get us thrown out of another inn because I was starving and the smells from the kitchen were so good that wrestling her to the floor for dinner was an option.