by LeRoy Clary
I kept my eyes focused ahead. While I knew she could not read my mind, and that given the same information, we’d eventually come to the same conclusion, it still felt eerie.
She continued, “If we could get them ashore and all of us could escape into the Brownlands, the army could only follow a short distance because they wouldn’t have water. With your new talents, we would, and we could easily get away. So, all we need is enough time for them to land their boat, walk into the desert, and disappear. Maybe the dragon will help.”
“What kind of diversion were you thinking of?” I asked as if it was a new subject for me.
“Oh, I don’t know. There are a few that come to mind and are probably not very good.”
“Go on.”
She grinned. “What if we showed ourselves and let the army chase us into the Brownlands? You and me? We have horses like them.”
I didn’t like it. “What if one of our horses stumbles and they catch us? Or if one of us falls off, or if their horses are faster than ours and they catch us? Or only a few chases us and the rest stay guarding the shore? Too many things can go wrong.”
She snorted, “What if my dragon swoops down and protects us if any of those things happen?”
That was a valid point. Hers was a better plan than any I’d come up with. Saying so out loud went against the brother-sister relationship. What I’d have to do would be to think of something better. “Why don’t we get to where we can see the army and lake at the same time and maybe we’ll think of a better plan. If not, yours might work.”
That seemed to please her. As the heat of the day decreased near sundown, we looked for a place to stay the night. It would be a cold camp because we didn’t know how far the army and lake was. Our guess was a half-day, but even at that distance, under the right circumstances, a campfire can be seen in the Brownlands.
If we were closer, the chances of it being seen increased by a sentry, nomad, or thief. With just the two of us, the risk outweighed warmth. I mentally prepared for a cold night. I could always pull a little heat from the ground and spread it around. I saw no place better than any other for staying the night. I said, “We can stop here for the night.”
“Or continue on. Since I’m cold and we’ve only traveled a short way, why not continue and tomorrow we’ll have less distance to go?”
It was a suggestion I was about to make, that is, I’d have made it as soon as I’d have thought of it. It was not that she was reading my mind, although it seemed like it. The simple truth was that we thought alike. Yes, she was smarter, but I was quicker. In the end, we often said what the other was thinking. Hopefully, when I matured, probably around the age of forty or fifty, I’d accept and appreciate it.
We rode in the moonlight, allowing the horses to pick their way through the few shrubs, cactus, and larger rocks. They seemed to see slightly better than us in the darkness. I tried to catch a few quick naps and failed. The awkward gait of the horse wouldn’t allow it.
We came to a series of small hills, none higher than ten or twenty feet, but between them were little valleys that helped protect from the chill in the breeze.
“See that?” Kendra asked. “A light ahead.”
We pulled to a stop at the crest of the next hill. In the distance were three or four small orange winks of light. Campfires. All in the same area. They were off to our right, which was east of us, but I believed we’d found the army pacing the Princess’s boat.
“Sleep here?” I asked.
She nodded in the moonlight and moved her horse into the shallow valley between the hills. After dismounting and hobbling the horsed next to us for their protection, we wrapped ourselves in blankets and slept. Eating could be done in the morning.
My mind kept reverting to snippets of conversation during the day. Small things, mostly. However, they added up to a story we hadn’t known. Our roots were more understandable, and even if we didn’t know all the answers, we could make up stories in our heads to help satisfy us. Every foundling has the same thoughts. Their parents wanted a better life for them, and they were royalty. All we needed to do to fulfill all our dreams was to discover the truth.
The other truth was that Kendra and I had magic abilities. While hers hadn’t manifested until encountering the last dragon, mine had appeared within the norm for child-mages, which is at a very young age. If the sorceress’s responsibilities include searching for children like us, and our abilities were inherited from our father, mother, or both, it seemed reasonable that they might wish to prevent their children from being taken from them.
It also explained how Kendra knew where mages were, even from a distance. Spotting mages was one of their duties, and she was better at it than others.
Carrying that line of thought a little further, it meant our parents knew of the abductions and training, which hinted that one or both of them had been trained in Kaon. My guess is that when they discovered my abilities, they had chosen to run to a kingdom far away and take their children with them.
Something happened along the way. Maybe they were found out and killed by the society from Kaon. The two of us were left on our own after escaping death in some manner, perhaps by being hidden by our family. My mind created a story that held a lot of positives and excluded another story I didn’t like. It said the mages, or those they hire to track down defectors, had killed our parents but were too compassionate to kill two children outright. We were left to die but had managed to survive. The orders had come from Kaon, in any story that fit the circumstances.
“Why are you still awake?” Kendra asked.
“Thinking.”
“Me too. I’m angry at what I’m thinking.”
I said, “That fits with my thoughts. The only item that stands out is the Young Mage.”
A time passed where she said nothing, then spoke softer, in an imploring tone, “Quit trying to figure out everything. Right now, we just need to get out friends ashore safely and into the Brownlands.”
I reached out to Anna. She was asleep.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
We woke with the rising sun, neither refreshed or eager to face the day. However, this day would determine our future. That foreknowledge bore down on me.
Kendra woke but only her eyes moved. Her jaw was as if locked shut. The blankets around her were a warm, safe cocoon she didn’t wish to emerge from. My descriptive sense of her actions impressed me. Further, I suspected they were right.
Both horses turned to face me with accusing stares. Yes, they could carry us again today and no, I didn’t have any grain or fresh grass to feed them. It might be a good idea to find food for them before trekking into the Brownlands with an army chasing after us. The horses were sturdy and used to little feed but starving them was another matter. Fortunately, they had eaten well yesterday.
I removed their hobbles and led them to a few wisps of dried grass. Then I reached out to Anna. I found her sleeping mind again and left her alone.
Kendra was up and moving around. She pulled a small round of bread from her saddlebags and tore it in half. I got the bigger piece. She handed me another cloth bag filled with nuts, dried fruit and corn, and shredded dried meat. A year from now and it would taste as good and carry a person for a day on only a handful.
That was no idle boast. The armies of the world used similar foods for the soldiers on the march. They were light to carry, lasted a long time, and provided all a man needed, if not all he wanted. All soldiers complain about their food and so that should be discounted.
Kendra said, “Anna is still asleep, I guess. Why don’t we sneak closer and find a perch to sit on and watch the army? Maybe that will give us a plan.”
I liked the idea. A morning watching them from the top of a hillside might reveal something useful. We traveled east parallel to the southern bank of the lake. There were no cabins, homes, farms, and even the number of boats upon the water were few. With the lakes and river supplying most of the farms with the means to carry crops to market, the
re should be more to support the population of Dagger.
At a broken ridge, Kendra climbed down from her horse and moved to the top where she could observe the shore. I found a position beside her while staking the horses out of sight.
The river had flowed past since time began. A thousand years ago, some said, it was dammed, and the lakes created. Since then, massive trees had grown, farmers tilled fields, irrigation waterways to supply water to crops dug, and generations of families were raised.
The trees remained, lush and green as they watered from the lake and flourished from constant sun. Within sight were the remains of three stone fireplaces, the centers of three defunct farms. Blackened and charred remains of the homes stood like the bones of dead animals. The outlines of the fields of previous crops were easy to read.
Kendra said, “People lived here. Raised families. Now, there is only destruction.”
“Those farms were not burned more than a few years ago,” I added. “Maybe more recently.”
“Are both shores like this?”
I searched to our left, and then to our right. Not a farm or home in sight. I said, “A city, any city, requires the support of surrounding farmers, hunters, craftsmen, and a hundred other occupations. Without them, a city starves.”
Kendra’s eyes were tearing up. “The people . . .”
“They have gone or died. All the farmers.”
“Dagger must import all of its food. Why? There is all this unused farmland and water.”
“Control,” my voice said coldly. “Whoever controls the food controls the population. If all the food arrives at the port of Dagger, the officials decide who eats and who does not. That would be the Council of Nine.”
Kendra said, “Do you think they destroyed all the farms along the lakes on purpose?”
My gaze returned to the blackened husks of what had been farms not long ago, and out to the lake at the lack of fishing boats and shrugged. It seemed to be true, but perhaps as we moved along the shoreline things would be different. It was possible that only this section had been burned, perhaps by raiders of some sort. However, an instinct about the methods of the Young Mage told me different.
I said, “Let’s move closer and down by the lake where we can see the army better.”
We slipped into the shallow trough behind a hill and moved parallel to the water, climbing to the top of the hill a few times to peer over. Finally, we were in position. The troops were encamped far enough away that we could see them but with care, they wouldn’t see us. We uprooted two small, thorny bushes that were the color of the sand, and moved them slowly to the top where they would allow us to see past them, but to any soldier looking in our direction, there would only be the bushes.
There were fewer soldiers than expected. That was bad, in my instant opinion. I had expected more, Anna had detailed more, so the unit must have split up into at least two squads, and maybe more. They could better watch the entire shore in that way and prevent our friends from reaching safety. They probably had messengers ready to ride to the others if the boat came into view, or whistles to alarm.
“What do you think?” Kendra asked. “Any ideas?”
“I like yours. The one about getting them ashore by using a distraction and all of us heading south, with your dragon protecting our backs.”
“How do we get them safely ashore?”
“I haven’t figured that out. Otherwise, it’s a good plan.”
We remained prone behind our bushes and watched the camp wake up to greet the morning fog. As men emerged from the tents, I estimated there were only twenty, or so. But if the boat came into view, the messengers would ride and another forty, sixty, or a hundred would arrive. Twenty were few enough for us to perhaps defeat if we could make sure none escaped to bring others. That was only two-to-one odds—but even with that amusing slant, the fact remained that we’d only get one chance.
Kendra said, “They might have squads of twenty spaced out all along the shoreline, ten or twenty of them. There is no way to sneak ashore.”
That made my recent analysis worse. She might be right. Probably was. The lake was the last one on the river before entering the city of Dagger, so the troops hadn’t had to travel far from the city. For all we knew, there were five thousand troops along the north shore and another five along the south.
My mind kept returning to those soldiers directly in front of us. Assuming the squads posted on either side were at the limits of sight to each other, which seemed reasonable, if we could silence the twenty men in front of us long enough for the boat to slip ashore, we might succeed.
It was still early, the sun barely up. Wisps of mist hung in the low areas and out on the lake. It would burn off before long but for now, it concealed what might lie out there, which was the boat with our friends.
The anticipated nearby squads were out of sight, but not necessarily out of hearing. We had to capture twenty men, quickly and quietly. I told my sister my thoughts.
“It can’t be done,” she said with conviction.
I was not convinced. The only mage-quality magic I’d learned so far was to make a rainstorm. That might be our answer. The sound of pelting rain would drive the soldiers inside their tents, the rain and thunder would conceal stray noises from the boat, and it would conceal a boat rowing ashore from the eyes of the squads on either side of the storm.
“I have an idea,” I said.
I reached out with my mind. *Anna, are you awake?*
*Yes, I was going to contact you. We are getting tired of floating around in this boat and they are probably bringing more boats to attack us today, according to Will. We have to do something soon.*
*How close to the southern shore are you?*
*We can see the land, just barely. There is a lot of fog.*
*Talk to Will. If you see Kendra’s dragon above, you would know where to row, right where we are.*
*What about the army?*
*A rainstorm will hide you. Row as fast as possible directly into the storm when I tell you to and aim for where the dragon will be. Start now. Tell everyone what we’re planning and be ready to leap from the boat and run together into the desert the instant it is ashore. And do it quietly. Take as little as possible. We’ll meet you and show you the way.*
I turned to Kendra. “Call your dragon and have it circle above us. Small circles.”
Without questions or unnecessary conversation, her concentration focused elsewhere and when her eyes snapped back to look at me, she said, “It is nearby. Just a short while until it arrives.”
“Okay, here’s the plan. The boat will row for where the dragon is, so have it circle above us like a beacon. I am going to create a rainstorm to hide us and the noise they’re going to make. The storm will hide the boat and the other soldiers, at least most of them, will go inside their tents to stay dry. You and I have to quietly take care of any that do not. Since I’ll be holding the storm in place, that means you.”
She nodded. “Good so far. That will also keep the other soldiers up and down the lake from seeing or hearing us. Now, what about those below?”
“I don’t know. We have to figure that out.”
She scowled at me. Deservedly so. “What are our options?”
“The soldiers will go into their tents to get out of the storm. Most of them. I was thinking we could enter the tents one at a time and kill them.” My voice choked near the end.
“Could you do that? I mean, really. Neither of us can do that.”
“Probably not. But it is for the sake of our friends. What else can we do?”
Kendra gave it some thought, and a smile appeared. Not much, but enough to encourage me. She said, “What would happen if you spread the storm out along the coast to rain on this camp and as far to either side as possible? Instead of a circular storm, can you make it long and skinny?”
“I think so. Yes, I’m sure of it. I don’t know how far out it will go, but I can do it.”
She said, “Good. Now,
what do you think will happen if my dragon lands on the beach like we talked about, but it lands in the center of the army camp and screams just before the boat arrives?”
I pictured men running from their tents in whatever direction was the quickest to get away. Some would end up in the water, others the desert, and all between. Kendra and I could handle any that came too near us. Will and his group would handle any others.
I said, “Our people will have to come ashore armed and ready to fight—and ready to rush into the desert as fast as possible. The army will regroup quickly and be after us.”
“The dragon will fly to a place right behind us and slow them down.”
“I need to inform Anna.”
“When are we going to do this?” She sounded anxious and out of breath.
“As soon as your dragon arrives.” I reached out to Anna. *How is the rowing? Adjust your direction as soon as you see the dragon.*
A moment passed. Then she said, *We’re on our way. What is the rest of the plan?*
*There will be a storm. It won’t be much to row through, but you won’t be able to talk to me. Row through it, it shouldn’t be far. Reach the shore and get out and run as a group away from the water. The dragon will protect your back, but you have to get as far away as fast as possible. And, oh yes, the dragon will land in an army camp on the beach and let out a few screams. Be ready to fight any soldiers coming your way.*
*How will we know where to go?*
*As I said, the dragon will direct you to find us on the beach,* I told her, keeping any sense of irritation from the communication. She was scared. I was scared. Repeating a little just made sure we understood each other. *Don’t bother to take but one water-bottle each. Take nothing that will slow you down.*
I looked at Kendra. Her eyes flicked to the sky and I knew the dragon had arrived. Mine went to the lake. A small dot had appeared. I said, “I need quiet to build a storm before they’re spotted.”
She took my proffered sword and nodded. If any of the soldiers came our way, she would use it to protect me. I couldn’t break concentration, or the storm would cease, and the entire plan fails. I said, “Just before the boat lands, have the dragon land in the middle of the camp.”