I didn’t know the meaning of the word capitulate and refused. She also refused—to let me up. We rolled around in the muck and straw, me kicking and her screaming, until the King’s Weapons-Master entered the barn and grabbed her collar to pull her off me. She twisted around and stuck like a snake, and he suffered her headlock. She led him around in circles to the shocked expressions of the others watching, as well as mine.
She was a royal. He couldn’t use any of his skills to break her hold or punch or stab her. She held on for longer than the tale takes to tell, and then he slipped out and backed away faster than she could move. The rumors spread around the palace for weeks, and many involved his retirement and her taking over his position as Weapons-Master and trainer for the fighting men of the King’s Army.
It was about three years before I learned the entire incident had been staged between her and the Weapons-Master. Everyone else in the palace knew the joke played on me. Elizabeth had the last laugh, as always.
The older stableman’s eyes now located me while walking across the barn, and he whistled a sharp, piercing sound. Within a small herd crowded into one corner of the corral a single horse’s head lifted, her ears perked and twitching. Alexis spotted me and trotted her way to me. There are those who would swear she wore a grin, but everyone knows horses can’t smile.
“Saddle?” the stableman asked as he came my way, an apple hidden in his palm. He slipped it to me.
“Not today, but I have a question.” This was where care needed to be used and the questions directed at the same time. “Princess Anna arrived here in a carriage.”
“That’s true,” he readily agreed.
“Well, I met her briefly and heard she is from Mercia where dragons fly and kill deer and eat them.”
“More’n just deer. They kill sheep, elk, and yes, even horses. In the old days, dragons enjoyed a good meal of horsemeat.”
My eyes shifted to the small herd. Three mages were missing. They might be connected. “Are we short a few horses?”
“Nope.”
Odd. There seemed to be no deception in his eyes, so there must be something I missed or asked my question incorrectly. Powerful mages do not walk anywhere. The horses in sight were only part of the herd kept at the palace, so there must be another way to ask my question.
The stableman then relented with a chuckle and said, “You might have thought that because you missed seeing a few of the saddle horses. There are five new ones here that we’ve just brought over from Fleming to replace those the mages and others required. Speaking of Mercia, that’s where all of them were heading, you know. Mercia, different days, same destination. None mentioned why, but all the subterfuge got me to wonder.”
To distract him and the direction the conversation was heading, and to make sure he didn’t know of my interest, I asked quickly, “But what about the dragons there? Won’t they eat the horses?”
“My words, exactly. Damon, I’ll tell you one thing, no damn dragon had better eat one of my horses, or a mage might find out he isn’t as powerful as he thinks.”
Alexis demanded my attention now that the apple was gone. She nuzzled me, and my hand reached for a halter. She always enjoyed going outside where she could run and walk. While I formed the loop, she leaned close and stuck her head through. Alexis knew what was coming and enjoyed the time we spent together. We had more than enough time for a long walk because I already had all the answers needed, all freely supplied by the stableman without any questions being asked. Nothing beats having talkative friends.
As we walked, I anticipated Elizabeth’s next move. She would arrange to be alone with Princess Anna, and they would have a discussion. We now knew who went where, and when. But not, why. Lord Kent might know, and he also would find himself answering Elizabeth’s indirect questions.
I walked to the side gate of the corral and outside, taking Alexis through another gate and down a winding pathway. We went through a portion of the new forest that had sprung up after the forest fire that occurred before my birth. Usually, I rode Alexis. Today my mind was lost in thought, as we walked.
Something unusual and important had taken place at the other end of the kingdom or was going to. It was important enough to disturb an ailing king in the middle of the night and to force, not just one, but three royal mages to travel to the most distant part of the kingdom, a trip of days in length. My imaginative mind couldn’t create a scenario to fulfill the known facts.
My mind was so lost in thought that I didn’t even look up at the sounds of an approaching horse. When I did, Avery sat upon a horse with bulging bags across the rump, the sort of bags a traveler taking off on a long trip uses. His surprised eyes locked on mine. He was surprised because he was taking the back way out of the stables where there shouldn’t be anyone to see him, yet he had stumbled upon me.
It was the second time today my presence had been unknown to him. For the briefest moment, he appeared as if he might demand my silence, but that passed. Wordlessly, he rode by, while I noticed the heavy cloak he wore was sturdy and without ornamentation. The sword he wore was functional, a version of those the army used. His clothing suggested he might be a farmer more than an important servant to the second most powerful man in the kingdom. Even the horse he rode was not the usual Andalusian or Fairmont. Today he rode an animal more suited for pulling a plow.
He rode down the old road behind Crestfallen, hunched over in response to the awkward gait of the animal. By the time he reached Mercia on that horse, others might feel pity for Avery, for I was certain that was his destination.
CHAPTER FIVE
Elizabeth was waiting for me when I returned to our apartment. Kendra was not in sight, which I found strange, but I heard her rustling around in Elizabeth’s bedroom. My expression didn’t have the glee of the one I’d worn earlier, but this time I believed I understood more of the situation. One question had nagged since I’d watched Avery ride away: How far behind him would I be?
“Did you confirm the mages traveled to Mercia?” she asked.
“I did.” She didn’t bother to ask how or if I’d managed to spread more rumors, which could mean she was lost deep in thought.
The information, at least to my addled mind, was similar to a tangle of blackberry vines, twisting and turning back on each other in unpredictable ways, yet a solid mass. Elizabeth was normally one of the quickest to follow one of those vines to reach the ripe berries at the ends. My impression was that the blackberry patch was too large and tangled for any but the most astute.
Instead of her moving on to follow the tendrils of another palace intrigue, she would plunge deeper into this one because that was her way. When her eyes drifted in my direction, I cringed inside, fearing what was to come.
“We have all the answers, but one, and it is not here in the palace.”
Those were words I dreaded hearing. Only a fool would not understand what she meant—and why my sister sounded so busy in the bedroom. Kendra was already packing for a long trip.
“There are still things we might learn,” I said, trying to head her off. “Here in the palace. There are other ways to find the information.”