“My servant?” My voice was hushed, too. How could this man know her?
“Her brother’s name?” he demanded. “What is it?”
“Damon.”
His lower lip twitched as he prepared to ask his next question. “Do you play the game of blocks?”
The entire conversation was going sideways. I admitted, “Yes.”
“Are you as good as Damon?”
His words shocked me. The twinkle in his eyes was both caution and humor. How he knew Damon also was the first puzzle. “Better than him. I taught him to play.”
He patted the pillow at his side. “Then sit here. We must talk. Are you as temperamental and sly as Kendra? She is an evil woman, you know. I have stories to tell you, Princess.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Damon
I couldn’t take my mind off Emma, even as we made our escape on the small horses. I tried but couldn’t. If she was what I believed, there should be clues—things that I’d missed that warned of her. The Blue Woman’s image had been transparent enough to see through at times. The skill and concentration required to perpetrate such quality deceptions for any amount of time were beyond believable. Yet, in my heart, I believed it had happened.
My mind centered on what similar errors or mistakes Emma may have displayed. She ate, of course. Food went into her mouth. How could that be true if she was an apparition, a creation of mist, light, and imagination?
But had she really eaten? I’d seen her, hadn’t I? The questions tumbled over each other in my rush to ask and answer each of them.
The small horse underneath me jostled with every step but was ignored as I seized on an aspect that came to mind. Had I really seen her eat? Emma had sat with us at meals. At other times she had accepted food handed to her. My memory confirmed she was a small eater and often didn’t eat all that was given to her, but that was not uncommon with children. But try as I might, there was no recollection of her actually placing food in her mouth.
I struggled to remember a single instance where that had happened. She had food served to her at the beginning of meals, and her plate held less at the end, but she could easily have taken handfuls of food and tossed them into the shrubs or placed it inside a pocket and disposed of it later.
She left footprints, I was sure of it. And it was easy to check up on, but what if the footprints were as much a manifestation as she was? Leaving them would be far easier than providing the convincing image of a little girl who remained in contact with us day after day. If she had heard us talk of the Blue Lady, and she had, she knew of the transparency of the image and the lack of footprints.
The footprints didn’t have to be real. If my fingers had touched one of them, it might have found no impression, despite the appearance. When contrasted with the complexity of a total image of a small girl, what is a footprint?
I rode near the head, only Flier in front of me, instead of at the rear where I usually traveled. The reason was so Emma didn’t turn around and catch my eyes locked on her, or a scowl on my face.
Anna entered my head, *Believe me, yet?*
*Belief if maybe not the right word, but I’m questioning everything about Emma. If you’re wrong, the consequences will be terrible.*
*I’m not.* She fled from my head as if slamming a heavy oak door behind her.
As I calmed myself, Kendra pulled her horse beside me. “Something wrong? I asked you that before, but you’re still acting strangely.”
I shrugged. “We’ve been running for what seems like months, first in Dire, then the Gallant, and now the desert. It’s a lot to take in. I just want to go home and return to our old lives.”
“At least we escaped Vin without injury or death. All five of us are safe,” she said.
The entire statement was wrong if what Anna told me about Emma was true. We hadn’t escaped, not all five of us, and we certainly were not safe from the Vin or Kondor armies. A mage had deceived us all the way across an ocean, and in the process, we’d misplaced our princess. The immediate problem was, any mention of it would probably warn Emma—or whatever name the young mage used.
The old saying about knowing a familiar enemy was preferred to an unknown one rang true. As long as I knew about Emma, it was better than the young mage creating a new set of problems for us.
Kendra said, “Up ahead. There’s a man.”
At first, I thought her eyes better than mine. Then, against the background of a small rise that was too small to be called a hill, a man’s outline took form. He stood still and blended in with the desert sand, not hiding, but concealing himself all the same.
We could have changed directions, but I was in a foul mood, and the man ahead had better behave, or I’d take my frustrations out on him. I placed my hand on the hilt of my sword even though he was still far away.
Flier, who was riding ahead noticed him and slowed until we pulled beside him. He said, “What do you think?”
“One man, alone. We have three warriors,” I said.
His eyes flicked to Kendra and back as I had included her as a warrior, but he had the good sense not to question it. Besides, it was more than three. There was always her dragon to consider, and as usual these days, it would be close to us at all times.
Flier accepted my answer but remained riding with us. The sisters rode behind. I wondered how Anna was handling it, but a new thought emerged. Anna had known of the deception for a while, perhaps days, and maybe longer. She was handling the knowledge of Emma better than me.
We rode steadily as if we hadn’t noticed the man standing quietly, but our eyes watched for weapons or others waiting in hiding. Like ours, his clothing matched the sands.
Kendra said, “It’s Avery.”
I hadn’t noticed it was our old nemesis from Crestfallen. Once she said it, I knew she was right. He held his crooked cane in his left hand and waited as motionless as any wandering priest ever did.
We drew closer, and Avery waited until we pulled to a stop in front of him. If I hadn’t known him better, I’d have said he was insulting us in some unknown manner. It would have been like him at the palace. However, his face held an expression of worry, fear, and tiredness. He said, “I hoped you’d come this way.”
“What’s wrong?” Kendra demanded.
“Elizabeth was taken from her ship in the middle of the night, and if my information is correct, she is in the company of a bounty-hunter heading for Dagger. Before you ask, I also believe the Council of Nine is responsible. They want to interrogate her before killing her and blaming thieves, blackmailers, or thugs.”
That was a revelation for Avery to answer a question without games. My mind skipped over the kidnapping and went to a mental map of Kondor. “When did this happen?”
“Two nights ago.”
I couldn’t help turning my head to scan the desert. If she left Vin then, she only had a half-day head start, and we had ridden steadily. Maybe we were even closer to her.
Avery nodded at my reaction. “She can’t be far.”
Flier said, “This is a vast desert. But, we rode west to avoid being seen by too many people, and I’d suspect her captor would too. They’d travel to the lakes along the river and probably take a boat down to Dagger.”
Avery said, “That’s what my guess is, too. I consulted a few people about what to expect, and that’s why I’m here. I need help.”