He broke into a huge smile. “Back there, I’d drive rude passengers in my carriage, half of which jump out and never pay me. The rest of the time, I sit at likely places waiting to pick up passengers. Day after day. Want to talk about boredom? I can match you will one dull story after another.”
“It’s not always exciting,” I began.
He doubled over in laughter again. When he regained control, he threw his arms wide. “I met you yesterday morning. By lunch, you had an invitation to one of the biggest royal balls of the year. Your entrance will be talked about for a hundred years, that crown of golden light is still a mystery, and you walked right up to the king and talked to him. By morning, the king was well after months of illness, and a revolt in the castle was underway. You broke in a back way and brought the enemies to their knees, then killed a Wyvern with a ball of fire. Now we’re sailing to an unknown coast in a kingdom I’ve hardly ever heard of, and you say it’s not always exciting as you warn me of another war you’re about to start.”
“That’s not what I meant,” I started again, and couldn’t finish. He was right.
Elizabeth said, “What he means is that the last two days were not normal.”
Bran rolled his eyes and drew in a huge lung full of sea air. “You two have had more excitement in two days than I’ve had in my lifetime. And you ask if I want to continue or go back to my old life and do nothing day after day?”
“The king has offered you a position,” Elizabeth said.
Bran shook his head. “I appreciate it, but what he offered is a lifetime of standing at attention at a doorway where he might enter once or twice. I’d be there all day long, day after day. Stand up straight and no talking. All day long. Do his guards even get to take a break to eat or pee?”
“The king mentioned other appointments,” Elizabeth said.
“I’ll go with you if that is agreeable.”
I didn’t know the answer to his question about the guards. What I did know was that Bran asked insightful questions and it was easy to see why he was so excited. I imagined his reaction the first time he sees water streaming from my fingertip. Or, even more, his first look at Kendra’s dragon. Not a wimpy little Wyvern the size of a small house, but a true beast the size of a barn.
No, I wouldn’t tell him of those things. He needed to discover them on his own, but it seemed we had acquired another to join us in our quest, and he didn’t even know what it was.
I asked the captain when he expected us to arrive. He looked up at the full sails, at the water, and at the horizon before answering. “Morning, I’d think. Not early.”
I went to the galley and reached into the barrel with the hard crackers. They had a slight coating of salt, probably to help preserve them. When Bran was not looking, I filled my mug a couple of times with cool water and drew a scowl from Elizabeth. To annoy her, I moved to her side, and when Bran looked away, refilled hers.
I was rewarded with another punch on my shoulder, one harder than usual.
She went below to sleep. Being on the water seems to make people sleep far more than usual. Bran wandered off, and I sat at the stern enjoying the ship, the sails providing shade as the day warmed.
I reached out to Anna. *We think we’ll arrive on the coast before midday.*
*Kendra said to ask you about Will.*
*The king of Malawi is related to the king of Landor. He sent one of his sons along with an army detachment to Landor with orders to seize the royalty, tell them what is happening, and take over the rule, if needed. He will then send the Landor army to meet ours, and on the way, he’ll appeal to Fairbanks to send men, since they don’t have a regular army.*
*Will all that work?*
*He thinks so. Another army will meet us at your location.*
*Any word about the Young Mage?* she asked.
*No.*
There was a pause. Then her voice came louder in my mind, *Don’t you think that’s strange? Do you believe he is just sitting back and waiting for us?*
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Anna’s question haunted me. Would the Young Mage sit back and allow is to invade Kondor and take Dagger after Prince Angle already taking Vin and Tagger? He was sure to know about it.
One other thought came to mind. If the Waystone in Malawi was so depleted of magic, were others facing the same? Without them, the mages, who were his minions, were losing more power by the day. I couldn’t imagine him sitting in Kaon doing nothing while waiting for us to gather our forces and attack him. She was right. It was too easy.
The dragon, Kendra’s dragon, was the key, my mind kept saying. It all reverted to her and the dragon. Not what we were doing, not what the Young Mages did, or the other mages and sorceresses. It was about the last dragon. Whoever controlled the last dragon controlled all magic.
And the Young Mage wouldn’t wait.
Not in a thousand years.
*Anna?*
*Yes?*
*You need an escape route. A way out of there. I think the Young Mage may be coming.*
*I’ll tell Kendra.*
To help her boredom, I sent her two more letters and their sounds.
I broke the connection and went in search of Elizabeth. She was sleeping soundly in a hammock, so I left her there and went back on deck to think. Suddenly, there seemed to be a lot to consider.
The sailors went about their tasks without speaking to me, not that they were impolite. They were doing their jobs and I was a temporary passenger. We’d get off at the next stop and they would sail away to their next port. The question of what the Young Mage would do next came into mind time after time. He’d pursued us vigorously until we crossed the lake and fled into the Brownlands to the south. Nothing after that.
Sure, there had been the battle in Malawi, but that had been planned in advance. The crown had been ready to fall. All the pieces were in place until we righted them.
We assumed he was setting a trap for us in Landor, or at sea near there, but we never knew for sure since we had avoided it. We didn’t know if his men followed us across the desert to the fishing village, again it was an assumption. The fact was that the chase had all been in our heads since we hadn’t seen a single soldier.
Oh, he may have had troops right on our heels, and I believed he did. But what would his next step be? If he used the army from Dagger to move north to fight against the armies from Vin and Trager, he left Dagger defenseless. He’d certainly heard of the armies massing there and saw that his conquest plans were failing. He might march his entire army north to meet that of Prince Angle and leave Dagger open to us.
If he didn’t send them north, the army Prince Angle and Emory had raised would one day attack Dagger from there. He might believe his forces could defend the city if they remained at home. Or, he might think he could send reinforcements from Landor and Fairbanks to help him after defeating them and commanding their armies as his own.
The Waystone network was an important key. The one at Malawi was useless and wouldn’t send mages to Kaon or wherever they did, but I didn’t know about Landor. A mage on a boat could sail there in little over a day or two from Malawi, and if the Waystone there was functional, that same mage might be having lunch with the Young Mage in Kaon.