I mentally stretched the map equally in all directions until it covered the entire top of the small desk and Elizabeth smiled her thanks and bent closer to see it. Kendra and I did the same. The detail and printing had also spread with the parchment and as a result had become less distinct, giving the overall appearance that the map had faded. I washed a contrast spell over it, enhancing the black of the ink while fading the background to a paler shade of tan. While not knowing what we were looking for, we watched Elizabeth’s eyes and then followed her index finger as it moved across the map until it paused.
The squiggle of a stream or river meandered down the left side, and in a wide bend of that river was one word: Mercia. That was the name of the walled city the princess in yellow we’d seen in the garden came from.
Her pointing finger confirmed all of us were thinking along the same lines. Mercia. Why had Avery escorted a princess from Mercia into the Rose Garden? However, as usual, Elizabeth was well ahead of us.
Kendra further examined the map and pointed to Dire, the location of the King’s palace named Crestfallen, our home. One was near the upper right corner of the map, the other most of the way down the left side. About as far from one another as they could be and still occupy the same kingdom.
My voice was barely above a whisper, “Mercia is where the dragons live. If they are not a myth.”
Elizabeth’s head abruptly came up, and she locked eyes with me briefly before turning and rushing to the shelf containing a dozen thick books, which seemed to me to be enough reading to occupy a person for a lifetime. Her hand hovered over one, then changed to another. She removed it from the shelf and opened to the index.
Quickly finding what she searched for, she fanned the pages with her thumb until pausing at one. She read a few lines and turned to another page before exclaiming, “You’re right, Damon.”
The good news was she had admitted my statement was right, an unusual occurrence in itself. The less than good part of her outburst was in having no idea of what I’d been right about. Asking for clarification would only make me look stupid again, so I simply grinned and shrugged as if understanding whatever it was all along.
She carried the open book cradled in her hands and pushed it in my direction. “See here?”
I didn’t. My pathetic smile widened in a vain attempt to distract her.
Elizabeth placed the book on the tabletop beside the map while Kendra came to my rescue. She was already reading the lines in the book above the colorful illustration of a dragon out loud. She quoted, “Wyverns are creatures consisting of one pair of wings and one pair of legs. Drakes are true dragons and have one pair of wings and two pairs of legs. They are said to be much larger and fiercer than common wyverns and thought to be extinct or mythical.”
Revealing my ignorance, even after Kendra read from the book as fact, Words tumbled from my mouth as if the act couldn’t be prevented, much like hic-ups. “All dragons are myths. No matter what name they are called—or how many legs they have. Everyone knows that.”
Kendra placed her hands on her hips as she said, “Maybe they were real at one time.”
Elizabeth said, “Wyverns are real. We all know that.”
“I’ve never seen one of those, either,” I said, adding to my petulant reputation, in the same manner that a four-year-old child might. “Dragons or wyverns, the name makes no difference.”
“Princess Anna traveled here from Mercia,” Elizabeth said. “She tells about them filling the skies above the city.”
Kendra, who seemed lost and confused, remained quiet as she watched, listened, and tried to learn what we knew. Her problem was she should only have listened to Elizabeth because I had no idea of where the conversation was leading, and little about where it had been. My eyes went to the indistinct words on the map again.
Kendra nodded sagely as if she began to understand.
Elizabeth stood taller and said, “Princess Anna arrived from Mercia unexpectedly and requested an immediate emergency audience with our King. Why? We all wondered, why, but we also knew he was too ill to accept visitors, so we didn’t pursue our inquiries as to the reason.”
“In our defense,” Kendra said, “We have all been extremely busy the last few days.”
“Working on the wrong questions, I’m afraid,” Elizabeth snapped, sounding as irritated as she’d been in months.
Being a man who lived with two women, and therefore considered half-stupid at all times by them, and mostly-stupid in all matters of the court, I’d learned years ago when to remain quiet during times like these. They might already think me stupid but speaking would only convince the two women of it again.
Kendra said, “You obviously see something we do not.”
Elizabeth spun on me, her index finger on her chin as she thought. “Was Princess Anna present at a secret audience with the King? She did not make a second request, and yet she remains here.”
If she had been there, it was a secret—so how the hell would I know? However, I bit my lip and considered how to find out. “There is a clerk to the Minister of Defense, actually a scribe who owes me for defending him against an irate cousin of yours. It seems he had miswritten the intent of a note, not the words that were dictated to him. Your cousin, the rude spinster named Sara, tore into him.”
“You rescued him in return for a future favor?”
“She was unreasonable, and I helped him, but yes, he does owe me. As the Defense Minister’s lead scribe, he would be present in case anything needed to be recorded between a meeting of the King and Princess Anna.”
Elizabeth smiled. “Yet, he is sworn to keep secret all that he observed and what was said at any such encounter. He will not violate that oath and live. His master would personally order him drawn and quartered if he told you anything of value that was to be kept secret.”
I finished her thought, “Perhaps admitting in some manner that he attended a meeting does not violate any of his oaths since he would not reveal what transpired. The meeting itself is our interest, not the content. Since the King has granted nobody access or audience in months, a simple admission that he has been in the presence of the King would virtually confirm such a meeting took place. We can guess who was in attendance without him having to encroach upon his position.”
Kendra said, “Do you really believe Princess Anna is up to something?”
Elizabeth closed the book and placed it back on the shelf. “No, not her. She is a royal simpleton in a situation way over her head. She is little more than a messenger.”
“For whom?” Kendra said.
Elizabeth began to pace, always a bad sign. Her eyes were vacant, her jaw set. Then she snapped her fingers and spun on us. “For whom? We don’t know. This palace used to have four mages in residence. In years past, there were always three in-house, but a year ago the one called Twin appeared as the fourth member of the king’s cadre.” She chuckled softly, then quickly recovered, “Saying a mage appeared struck me as funny, like he used magic to get here, but that is beside the point. After all, that’s what they do, right? Anyhow, the fourth mage arrived to serve as part of the royal administration.”
“I have seen and watched him from afar,” Kendra said. “While young, his skills are masterful. There are rumors of jealousy from the other mages over his powers.”