“And raise an army in our spare time?” I asked in a sharp tone even I didn’t like.
She turned her eyes but not her head until they bore into me. “My father sent me on a mission to negotiate a treaty or treaties with those kingdoms that will support Dire. He gave me no geographical boundaries.”
“I think he meant you were to attempt to find peace with Kondor,” I said. “Not start a war.”
“Only because he didn’t know all that is happening. If he stood before us now, do you deny he would wish me to travel to Fairbanks and Landor?”
I broke eye contact while muttering, “No. He’d probably go himself.”
She turned to the Slave-Master who was the only one not packing since others did his work. “How long to travel to Trager, recruit and train an army, and march to the outskirts of Dagger?”
“Sixty days is minimal. Ninety would be better. A new army must train or they’re worthless.”
She scowled. “Sixty days it is. We will meet you a day’s march north of Dagger on the coast. Find a place for our ships to land.”
The Slave-Master, being a much smarter man than me, didn’t argue. He stood upright and made a deep bow to her, with all the dignity and respect possible. The last rays of the sun were streaking behind him as if they emanated from the man and not the sun. My impression was that he had planned it that way for her, but perhaps not. The effect remained the same.
No, my mind changed. I’d played blocks against him for my freedom from slavery. He planned his moves too carefully. The action was on purpose, although I doubted if any of the others noticed.
Despite sleeping much of the day, the ride through the night had tired us and shortly after eating salted meat again, I curled up and slept the night through. When I awoke in the morning, only five of us remained, and six horses. We saddled the last horse with our meager supplies.
Kendra looked around at the empty camp and asked herself, the words little more than a whisper, “How did they disappear so fast?”
Will, who normally said little, spoke loudly as if trying to reinforce his words with volume, “If I had the power, I would order Princess Elizabeth back to Dire at this moment. Since she will disobey me if I so order her to go, I encourage each of you to try. Failing that, I will ride at her side. Do not attempt to separate us. I have not done as my king wishes by allowing her to be captured, and it will not happen again.”
I said, “Will, I thought that you should lead us.”
“I have a prior commitment.”
I knew he meant that he was pledged to protect Elizabeth, and nothing would stand in the way of that. It would not be me to lead, I had already decided. Not Anna, of course. That left Kendra and Elizabeth. I didn’t believe the change in relationships had been enough that Kendra would be comfortable ordering a princess to whom she was a servant, to do anything. I turned to face Elizabeth, the only logical choice, but she had never liked giving orders. She worked behind the scene. Kendra also turned to her.
To my surprise, Elizabeth lifted her chin a tiny bit and said in a strong voice seldom heard from her, “I will lead.”
Nothing fancy. No long speeches. Just three small words that surprised a few of us, but from what I saw, it did not surprise Will in the least. Something had happened to her on the ship and he was aware of it. I had a faint suspicion he was the cause of it. A subtle change had turned our dainty princess into a leader.
Whatever it had been, it made little difference now. She had taken charge in fact, if not name. I expected her to do so in action and was not disappointed as she said, “Gather your belongings, we need to ride.”
She had also become a woman of fewer words.
A few moments later, we were in our saddles because there was not much to pack, just a few blankets to roll and tie behind the saddles. We departed, with me at the rear and Will in front. We hadn’t spoken of how to get to Fairbanks, the nearest of the two kingdoms. However, they were south of Dagger across a desert and across a sea, so how could we miss it?
I smiled inwardly at my little joke. Besides Fairbanks and Landor, there was enough desert and drylands to get lost in and spend a lifetime trying to find our way out. If the rumors I’d heard were true, there were bandits, outlaws, and crazies who killed any travelers for little or nothing, even a few jugs of water took on value. I glanced down at my scabbard and the makeshift addition intended to carry arrows. Again, I had no bow. The Kaon warriors had grabbed the few at the weapons cache and could undoubtedly put them to better use. My life seemed destined to lack one.
Anna touched my mind gently, *Are you angry with me?*
*Angry? No, why would you ask?*
*Because you do not talk to me. You don’t even look at me.*
In my head, it felt as if she was sad. Sad? Was she also transmitting “feelings and emotions” to me? It was the first I’d thought of that. Always before, our mental communications had been dry, flat, and just words.
The idea that we might communicate emotions hit me like the sting of a bee. Was I revealing my emotions to her? Could she “read” them any time she wished? If she could, it meant the end of lying, something I was pretty good at, but not if someone could tell what lies came from my mouth.
Not that I intended to lie to her, but there are lies, and there are bigger lies. If she asked how she looked in a new dress I didn’t like, what would I say? What could I say? Just how truthful did we wish to be with others?
My mind felt like a tangled fishing line I’d once seen. The fisherman had managed to hook a branch of a tree, and the result was a ball of knots and twists that must have taken hours to straighten out, if ever. Trying to follow one thought today was like untying those knots without using my thumbs.
I rode faster and caught up with Anna while ignoring the reactions of the others as they looked at us to see what was happening. We rode together, side by side, for a while, then she giggled as her mood improved. I fell back to the rear knowing all was right with the two of us. Later, I’d share what happened with the others.
The incident made it well between us—but the questions raised were not answered. As the sun reached the top of the sky and the waves of heat rose from the ground, we saw the tops of a few trees in a hollow ahead. There was no water in the depression, but the cracked ground told us after a rainstorm there had been water pooled there. The trees, varieties with long roots like willow, mesquite, and ironwood, along with several kinds of cactus, provided scant shade, but it was better than none.
Better, but not by much. To my surprise, Will unlashed his spare blanket and walked to a small mesquite tree. His determination and speed were at odds with the scorched ground we sweat upon. With a roundhouse toss, the blanket spread over the branches. The shade below was complete.
The act was simple, efficient, and something I’d never have thought of. That made me wonder if he had more experience in the desert than the rest of us. It was possible. We knew almost nothing of his background, only that he had been a war hero and a soldier in the King’s Army. His exploits had earned him lands, homes, orchards, and servants. Now it earned him respect from his fellow travelers.
Many men had joined the King’s Army and performed well in serving their kingdom. Only one soldier had been rewarded such as Will. There was more to his story, and I wanted to know what it was.
However, the heat seemed to suck energy from us. We were nearly out of drinking water. The combination of circumstances soon had us sleeping fitfully, but thankfully in the shade provided by more blankets tossed over the small trees.