With the milk and fruit tarts gone, the mood in the room had improved, and I hadn’t asked for anything in return. By my way of calculating, the three women now owed me some future small favor. Yes, they had given me what I’d come for, but that was aside from the point because they didn’t know it.
“Ladies, it’s time for me to run. Next time my desperate need for good conversation strikes, or there are tarts in my hands, I’ll be back.”
CHAPTER FOUR 
I strolled into Elizabeth’s apartment with the confidence of one who has accomplished a goal and is eager to spread the word. I threw the bolt with a solid clank of iron to draw their attention and then sat on the small sofa facing my sister and the princess. My expression was intended to give away the swagger in my bragging of a job well done. Manipulating others was becoming as easy for me as it was the two sitting across the room who manipulated me daily. No, that generous lie didn’t even fool me. They were far better.
Elizabeth said, “I hope your self-satisfied expression tells us the mages have departed the palace, and you have also confirmed a clandestine audience for Princess Anna with the King.”
“Both.” Sometimes a single word is more powerful than many. At least that’s what Elizabeth had told me ten days ago. Since then, I’d tried using fewer words and hadn’t noticed any concrete positive results but would continue trying.
“Care to explain?” She grinned at me, which seemed to be in complete opposition to her earlier advice. As she grew older, she often seemed to say one thing and then contradict herself later. At first, I’d thought she was testing me in some odd manner. Lately, I’d decided she said one thing to win a specific point, then made another absurd observation and backed it up with whatever nonsense was required to make her right again. There was no consistency. Worse, my sister seemed to be doing the same thing.
I’d learned to never ask about it for fear of both of them attacking me in unison. In short sentences, I told her what and how I’d discovered each tidbit of information, probably with more than a little pride in my voice. She didn’t compliment me directly, but she didn’t criticize, and that spoke volumes. Kendra wore her faint smile that said she knew something of value, which reminded me that she’d given me the signal she wanted to speak in private and I’d forgotten.
Never one to listen to my own advice, I asked, “Where does this leave us?”
Elizabeth wore that same expression again, the one that indicated she had lost faith in my ability to act like an adult and reason things out for myself. She exchanged a knowing glance with Kendra before telling me, “Princess Anna crossed our entire kingdom to deliver a message to the king, something so important only a royal could be trusted to deliver. So important, she was granted an audience to a man too ill to receive guests.”
“Th-there must be more,” I stammered, confused again.
“Of course, there is,” she smirked. “Consider the timeline. Princess Anna arrived after the mages departed, but where did they go? And how did the mages know when to leave? They departed to Mercia because they were somehow informed of a pending emergency—one so significant it required the intervention of three mages. That is unprecedented.”
“You’re drawing a lot of conclusions from a minuscule amount of information, Elizabeth,” I cautioned.
She smiled and scooted her chair closer so we could share a moment and she could instruct me. “Only because you have not verified their destination. You know they departed, but not their reason or where. You do not know why they went there, but that is too much to ask—and too dangerous a question to pursue. However, it would answer most of our questions.”
Kendra said, “Wyverns fill the skies in Mercia, the book about dragons says. That is the one item different about Mercia than anywhere else in the world, so pure logic indicates near-dragons are at the heart of this matter.” She crossed her arms over her chest as if she’d solved one of the great mysteries of the world.
I wisely did not correct her misuse of the word, dragons, or that it was the first I’d heard of wyverns being called near-dragons. There are no more dragons, only wyverns, the smaller, related beasts with only two legs. That is what the book had said, without her embellishments. It did not match my beliefs in the nonexistence of dragons of any sort. If a dragon flew over, I might believe. Maybe.
Elizabeth still sat knee to knee with me. “Do you believe you can find out where the mages went? And just as importantly, without anyone knowing you are trying to find that information. Lord Kent already mentioned the spies in the palace, and my information says he is somehow involved, although he has not departed. Avery also knows something we should. Therefore the Heir Apparent will know it too. Yes, he’s my brother, but will hold his tongue on state secrets. However, you must stay away from him at all costs. Do nothing that will reveal your interest.”
That was perhaps the longest instructions she had given since we were ten years old. Sure, we had talked, discussed, argued, quarreled, and debated other subjects. This was different. The element of danger was forefront. “But you want me to find out where the mages traveled without asking.”
“Yes.”
Her simple statement had me on my feet and ready to investigate without arousing suspicions for the third time in one day. My mind reviewed everyone in the palace, their duties—official and unofficial, and how to get them to talk without asking them to do so.
The answer came easily. Horses, sheep, cows, pigs, and goats are a favorite food of wyverns. In the eastern part of the kingdom, they were watched over by shepherds carrying bows to ward off wyverns. At night the herds and flocks were gathered safely into barns or above-ground basements beneath homes. All domestic animals were in danger in Mercia from the dragons.
Leaving without another word, my heels clicked on the hard surface of the hallway, sounding like a series of twigs breaking. The image didn’t impress me, and the cobbler would soon face my wrath. I wanted boots that sounded like boots, those that a general might wear to impress his troops, not a pair that went Tic-Tic-Tic as I walked. The sound desired was Bam-Bam-Bam and I’d either have that or a new cobbler.
The meager sound of my footwear was still foremost in my mind as my angry hands shoved the stable doors open. There was no small gift for the stablemen as was my normal routine, but since I did own a mare who was kept there my presence was well known, expected, and welcome. My beautiful horse had been a gift from Elizabeth years ago when it was a bay colt on wobbly legs.
Her name was Alexis, the prettier and smarter sister in the ancient story of the old gods. In those stories, Alexis always outdid her sister Elizabeth, in everything. Some people always manage to win at all they undertake, but it takes looks, intelligence, or personality to be that successful, which was the point of the story. In them, Alexis had them all. Her sister did not.
Of course, Princess Elizabeth had given me the horse the year before she studied classical history and heard the story. A year later my life almost became forfeit when Elizabeth finally figured out the reason for the horse’s name. We were about fifteen, equal in stature and weight as that was before the summer my height shot up to present. Now I towered over her, but not then.
Others had thought the name Alexis was cute, funny, and even disrespectful. Some thought my mare properly named but didn’t say so aloud if they knew the old stories. All of us understood that the day would arrive when Elizabeth discovered the joke. When she did, I found myself in front of the stablemen, the horse-apple cleaners, the trainers, and a portion of the mounted military. She had charged into the stables, and quickly had me pinned to the floor on the straw, her arm locked around my head as she ordered me to capitulate in front of everyone.