The change irritated Anna. It was another swipe at her young age, but she knew fifteen was not all that young. Her mother had died in childbirth while only a year older. She took a single step away from Tessa and placed her arms crossed over her chest. “Traveling all the way to Castle Warrington and then on to the Raging Mountains and back again will add twenty days to my journey.”
“However, if Raymer can be located at the castle, your trip will be shorter and more productive, as well as safer.”
“Only if he agrees to go with me.”
Tessa chuckled. “We believe he will leap at the chance. If not, we default to the original plan, and we only lose travel time.”
We! Anna didn’t know where the ‘we’ came from, but she didn’t like the last minute change. She suspected it was anything but a last minute change, but she saw the wisdom and advantages without having them spelled out. However, this was her venture and nobody, not even Raymer was going to take it away from her. She said, using her sour tone while pursing her lips and squinting, “Anything else?”
“I want a hug before I let you continue.”
Anna held onto Tessa longer than she intended, then abruptly spun and marched away. She was finally alone, and nobody could see the tears. However, the tears dried as she trudged ahead in the soft sand and her steps became longer with each stride.
She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. While on the mission with Gray, he had been in charge and he had done a credible job, but this was her time. She intended to perform better than anyone else. Her skills in fighting with the staff were unparalleled, even if she didn’t carry one. Any branch, broomstick, or shovel handle might replace the staff.
But lately the staff had become too closely identified with the Dragon Clan to risk carrying one, and besides, not many twelve-year-old girls carried them. Of course, she was fifteen now, and she had wrapped a wide strip of cloth around her chest to hide her breasts. She would talk in a higher pitch. Her only problem lay in the lack of a story she would tell to those encountered while traveling.
The instructions Tessa had provided would help. They had devised a story to explain why she was traveling alone. She would tell anyone that she was traveling with her brother and his best friend, a warrior in the King’s army. They had split up and gone ahead to hunt. She expected them to return before dark because she was scared to sleep in the wilds alone. After all, Anna was only a twelve-year-old girl and almost helpless.
The hefty knife at her waist was mostly for show. It was almost too large for her small hands. Strapped inside of her thigh was another knife, smaller and far more deadly. The knife was thin, sharp, pointed, and the handle was almost nonexistent, so there was no telltale bulge in her clothing. The blade was small but could slide between ribs without hesitation.
Who would search the thigh of a twelve-year-old girl for a hidden weapon? Nobody, she hoped. But her most powerful weapon was her snarky mouth, followed by her eye-rolls, smirks, and hands-on-hips of protest. She would use them before the dagger and in most cases her attitude managed to scare men. It had served her well on her trip with Gray and she was now more experienced, had trained harder, and she was a little older.
As she walked, the floor of the desert grew hotter, the sand burning her feet right through her boots, yet she couldn’t stop or slow. It took two full days to journey north to where the forests grew. Between her and the forest, there was no water, and travel at night was dangerous. The landscape was black, jagged lava, broken by brown patches where sand blew to fill in depressions, but some lava outcrops were too big and lay exposed. Within sight of her, there were a hundred places ready to trap or break a leg, or trip her forward to strike her head on bare lava.
At night, it would be a hundred times worse to walk. The dips, cracks, exposed rock, and jagged protrusions lurked in every shadow. She had to continue moving today, moving fast while her body still had water. Despite the four water bottles slung around her neck, by tomorrow afternoon they would be empty, and she would be thirsty. The warm water of a shallow stream would appear first, but it was dangerous to stop there because so many thieves and outlaws inhabited the edge of the drylands. They watched the stream for victims and for their drinking water.
Beyond that stream would be a small ridge of low mountains. Cold, clear streams flowed through the forests on the slopes. That would be her goal for the end of the second day. If possible, she would bypass the warm water and those who watched for unwary travelers.
Tessa and Grandma Emma had instructed her well. They had both traveled this way and knew the best routes and what to avoid. They had not held back on providing her with advice or details on the beginning of the trek. While begrudging it to a degree, she also knew it was important. The hours talking to them would help. It also accomplished the task of easing their minds.
Gray, in his typical big-brother role, had cautioned her to curb her sharp tongue, among other things. She intended to ignore that. Her conceited, spoiled, attitude of a twelve-year-old girl put adult men off. Women looked past it. Some even smiled as they remembered themselves at that age. But men reacted in ways that often gave her the upper hand.
A hot wind blew, raising sand and causing it to fly until her clothing was caked with a layer. Her feet hurt from the heated ground. They sank in at each step and seemed to pull back when she tried to lift her feet another step. Her calves started to hurt almost as much as her thighs. She paused at the top of a rise and slowly made a complete turn. Many people don’t look behind themselves when traveling. They only looked ahead. Grandma Emma had told her that, and a thousand other items of survival.
The sun beat down, causing ripples of airwaves just above the sand. The next shade she found, no matter how small, she intended to crawl under it and rest. The hottest part of the day was always late afternoon. She would rest until the shadows grew longer. Then, after that time, the air in the desert gave up its heat so fast that there might be frost by morning. She would continue into the late afternoon and even into the night if the moon and stars gave off enough light. The moon would be near full for a few more nights, and the sky was clear, so she was hopeful.
During her inspection, a slight movement on the slope of another rise in the distance drew her attention; just enough movement to attract her wary eyes. She fell to her knees but didn’t otherwise change positions. Just as she had seen a change, whoever, or whatever was out there in the desert probably watched for the same. She slowly lowered herself to the ground, her eyes pinned to the other slope.
There were few large animals in the drylands. A few wolves prowled near the edges, and now and then a large cat. But there were no bears, or other animals dangerous to humans. The largest and most dangerous were people. Outcasts or criminals, escaped convict or deserters, from the King’s army fled there to avoid the law. And of course, the King’s Triads, those groups of three highly trained scouts searching for the homes of the Dragon Clan.
She saw a flit of movement again. While she couldn’t make out details, she instantly determined it was a man, but obviously, it was not one trained for skulking in deserts. Being spotted so easily told of his ignorance, which did not mean he was not treacherous. Even the most inexperienced opponent might win in a chance encounter.
Might. She stressed that word in her mind as she moved slowly down the backside of the mound. She watched from behind a ledge of crumbling sandstone. Whoever was out there could have gone in any direction, but instead, the figure moved directly at her.