Rumors would fly. By both of them.
I didn’t really care. We would get off the ship in the morning and there would be no rumors of me lying—but there would be wilder even some unbelievable stories. Whoever heard of water flowing from a finger? I wondered if the Captain would drink it? If the situation was reversed, I wouldn’t.
The day was already getting warm when the two islands appeared on either side of the ship. The river mouth was directly ahead. There were two of them, as Anna had told me, and we sailed directly for the one on the right.
Thinking of Anna might have triggered her to call me because she entered my mind. *Damon?*
*We are at the mouth of the river.*
*I will wait on the shore and wave where you can get off and the ship can turn around.*
*What about Kendra?*
She paused, as she always did when she didn’t want to tell me something. *She climbed the mountain to be with the dragon.*
*Is that safe? Alone?*
*She thinks so.*
I could tell from her answer that she didn’t agree with Kendra. *We’ll be there as soon as possible.*
I walked some of the kinks out, using the rear of the ship to walk in a square circle of five steps in each direction. Bran came outside so I asked, “Feeling better?”
“Much. Did you do something to cure the stink of the ship?”
“I improved it.” There seemed nothing to add.
“Thank you. The rolling of the ship and the smell combined to make me sick. Do you think the captain knows we are about to leave the sea and sail up a river?”
“I hope so,” I laughed. “Have we told you anything about Kendra and Anna?”
“I thought we were just waiting for the army to assemble here so we can either sail or march to Dagger.”
“Kendra is my sister. Anna is—well, we haven’t exactly defined her role, but like you, she is one of us. She’s twelve, thirteen, maybe more. We don’t know.”
“They’re here alone?”
“Not exactly,” I hedged. Explaining to him should have been easier than to the captain, but there are times words fail. Having to explain a dragon that adores my sister is one of them.
Elizabeth ventured onto the deck and saved me for the time being. She sat beside us and shook a finger at me while grinning like a donkey. “You made the ship smell better.”
“I confess.”
“A new trick?”
“Yes. There may be more. I forget to consider using magic until there is a problem—and even then, I don’t realize what magic can do.” I noticed Bran hung on our every word. But as much as I thought him a thief, braggart, and conceited carriage driver, he’d warmed on me.
I noticed Elizabeth also spent time looking at him when he didn’t know it. Once, he had been busy with something that had his back turned, and I happened to peek at her. She looked at him, her face set. Then it melted and she smiled the same smile she used for puppies.
We sailed into the mouth of the river without a tree in sight. There were a few shrubs, cattails, and reeds at the shoreline on both sides, but no trees. It was either too hot or more likely the river flooded in the spring and ripped them from the ground.
The Captain refused to turn and look at us. His attention was on where the boat was going, but there was a stiffness in him that was not there yesterday. It was not how he looked at us. It was how he did not. As if he didn’t want to know any more about us.
Oh, he’d do the job assigned to him by his king, but he didn’t have to like it. It shouldn’t have bothered me, but it did. I was not out to make a friend of him, would probably never see him again, but his attitude was a warning of sorts. People who couldn’t perform magic didn’t like those who could. It was a fact of life as true as young girls grow into women.
What it meant to me was that I needed to conceal my powers, yet at the same time, I needed to use them in front of normal people. It only took one person to spread a tale or two about me before everyone knew. However, while the captain turned his back to me, Bran knew something of my powers, he knew they had saved his life in the castle, and he seemed more curious than judgmental.
The shores on both sides slipped past without a single house, shed, or plowed field. The bareness of the land was like what it had been after we’d crossed the lake. I snorted inwardly because it was exactly the same—only farther south.
Elizabeth said, “How long to reach them?”
“It’s a short, wide river and we can only travel half way, Anna said.”
“They’ll be waiting for us?”
“Anna will,” I agreed without mentioning my sister was with her dragon. But I understood the trepidation in her tone. I missed them too.
Bran went for food and brought back hard bread and three empty mugs. That’s all the captain had set out for us. I appreciated his lack of words in not having a water barrel handy and didn’t believe it was an accident. I casually gathered moisture from the river and filled the mugs to the brims. Instead of water from the surface, I reached to the bottom where it was coolest. He didn’t have to turn around to know.
Elizabeth said she’d go below and gather our things. They were soon placed on the deck, out of the way, and she paced, tapped her left foot, and pursed her lips. Her eyes were on the river bank ahead.
Near midmorning, a small figure on the shore waved and shouted. The captain turned the ship to where she stood. A small boat was lowered, a crewman helped load our things inside, and we climbed a rope ladder down a few steps.
I looked back more than once. The ship held its place due to the rudder and effective use of the sails. I suppose the captain was too busy to look our way. Hopefully, if we needed another ship, it wouldn’t be that one.
Anna was hopping from foot to foot, and as the rowboat got closer, she called our names and finally couldn’t contain herself. She ran into the shallow water and grabbed the boat and pulled it to her.
We got out, hugged while standing in water ankle-deep, and carried our things to shore. I turned to thank the crewman, but he was busy rowing for his ship, the boat almost skimming the top of the water from his regular strokes. I raised and hand in salute.
Nobody returned it.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
The campsite was beside a small stream that flowed down from the side of the mountain. A tarp held up by three poles provided shade. Their few things were underneath. We exchanged hugs and upon seeing her, much of the pent-up anxiety dissipated. Seeing Kendra would help even more.
We sat our things on the ground. Before unpacking, Elizabeth said to me, “Let’s go find that sister of yours.”
*Who is the beautiful man with you?* Anna asked.
Anna was growing up faster than I liked. Her choice of words took me by surprise, although it shouldn’t have. She was at the age where she was beginning to notice men. Out loud, I said, “Anna, I want you to meet Honest Bran. He is a hero of his king and our friend. He knows all about us.”
She stepped in front of him and reached out to shake his hand in a more than a friendly greeting. He flashed an irritating smile and too many white teeth. She lost the ability to speak. If I had to guess, her knees were weak, and her face flushed.
I said, “Anna, can you take us to Kendra?”