Again, she was distracted even as she spoke, and with Alexis under me, we rode at a steady pace. Kendra rode one of the finest horses from the king’s stable, so it managed to keep up with Alexis. My mind slowed, thoughts strayed, and my eyelids closed from being tired, both from the climb and last night at the inn. The late night, or early morning, was catching up to me. In a perverse way, turning back along the road to Andover instead of returning to the Blue Bear Inn satisfied me. The girl at the inn would think me a complete dullard if she saw me in my present state of mind.
When we arrived at the City Gate, Avery again stood there in the same place, leaning against the same gray stones as if he knew precisely when we would arrive. Today he wore coarse brown trousers, a thick tan shirt, and heavy boots, so he was almost unrecognizable in the mix of others dressed the same. Yes, they were the boots of the sort common workmen wear on the job, not those of the Heir Apparent’s chief servant. His hand held a floppy hat with a wide sloping brim to shunt away water, the same as sailors wear. At another time I’d have decided the Royals were having a themed ball where they all wore peasant clothing.
“Avery,” I greeted him solemnly, as his political games required me to initiate the conversation since he believed he held the higher position of rank. I wouldn’t mention his clothing—unless the right circumstances arose.
He said, “Damon. Kendra. Will you do me a courtesy?”
“Of course,” I lied. Nobody fully agrees to a task until they know what it is.
“When you find and speak to Princess Elizabeth, have a message carried to the Heir Apparent that my plans have changed. I’ve booked passage to the kingdom of Kondor, so when you arrive there, inquire after my whereabouts, and of course, I will leave word where to find me.”
“Why are you going?” Kendra asked, accepting his statement without surprise.
He tilted his head a little to the side as if to better hear her question. He said, “To lay the groundwork for you, of course. Plus, there is some royal business to attend, and an old friend who may need my help. Now, I hate to rush off, but my ship is almost ready to sail, so my time is up.” He turned and walked swiftly down the road in the direction of the ship’s masts, looking for all the world like a common traveler.
We turned our mounts away from the port and the ships. We let them set their own pace as we rode knee to knee, ignoring the other traffic on the road as we passed them by in both directions. As long as we didn’t slow, we’d arrive in Andover well before dark.
Kendra waited until the City Gate was no longer in sight behind us before she said, “Avery is a strange man.”
“He assumes we will follow him to Kondor.” I again turned my attention away from the seaport and towards Andover. The road ahead was wide. Wagons and a hundred people on foot traveling in both directions were in sight. None rode horses because only the wealthy can afford anything but a large-hooved draft animal suitable for working on a farm. Their gait was hard on the tailbone and spine, and most preferred to walk rather than ride them. However, we rode the finest of beasts, so we drew the attention of every pair of eyes that found us, which was all.
Most people gave way as if we were royalty. Lumbering wagons rolled along on the right side of the wide road, faster walkers to the left. We threaded the needle between. The gray stone buildings of Andover emerged from the pall of chimney smoke that perennially hung over the city. Kendra knew where in the tangle of buildings the mage was, that had given us his word he would return home and cause no more trouble after ten days. The time would be up in five days.
We both agreed, he was one of those innocents caught up in the larger web of circumstances and couldn’t escape them. He’d been frightened of us after we killed the other two mages and taken him prisoner, but he soon convinced us he wished he was at his home working on his father’s farm. He’d never wanted to be a mage but had been forced into doing their deeds.
At the edge of the city, we passed the usual small farms with pigs and chickens, the barking dogs, the cats sunning themselves, and washerwomen bringing in the day’s wash. The sound of men chopping rounds into split firewood rang with dull thuds. A pair of men yelled and threatened each other, but all knew no blows would be struck.
It all appeared and sounded normal until Kendra pulled back so hard on her reins the horse reared on two hind legs. My sword whipped out, and my feet moved from comfortably resting at my arches in the stirrups to the toes only. I could leap to either side and kick the stirrups free.
Kendra spun her horse, nearly knocking over a handcart full of cabbages and suffered the shouts from the irate farmer. She ignored him. Her wild eyes turned to me. “He’s dead.”
The only person I could think of was the mage we came to see. “You can’t see him anymore?”
“Someone or something just killed him.”
If there were other mages or sorceresses present, Kendra would know it. A single thought filled my mind. On top of the mountain at the dragon’s cave, the Blue Woman had briefly appeared, or we thought she had for a moment to mock us, but we were not sure. We’d felt someone watching us ever since.
I said, “On the mountain pass, the Blue Woman always knew what we’d been talking about, and where we were going and doing next. She, or it, can hear us when we don’t know the apparition is near. That much is obvious. It might even be listening and laughing at us now.”
Kendra had calmed her horse and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she was clearly still puzzled. “How can the mage who controls the Blue Woman kill someone? She doesn’t exist except in some ethereal manner. She has no physical form.”
My memories went back to the time I’d touched her and was thrown clear by a ball of orange energy. Still, that was far different from physically killing. She had no being, at least not in Dire, but perhaps in some far-off land she either existed or had existed.
I said, “She came to us that first time, and convinced us she was working with us. What if she appeared in the same manner before someone in Andover, a soldier, a drunk, or even a highwayman. She could convince him to kill for her or offer him a reward to do her killing, and she wouldn’t have to take physical form.”
“Probably a reward she never intended to pay, even if there is a way to do it. Speaking of the Blue Woman as a “she” when we believe behind her is a “he” or a mage, is confusing. Andover is still a place to dislike.”
“Each time it is worse for us,” I agreed.
“We don’t know what our watcher has planned for us here, so my suggestion is that we continue to ride right on past Andover instead of stopping. The same assassin might wish to earn more gold, or perhaps has friends who are waiting to ambush us. We can intercept Elizabeth along the road.”
“You just put your finger on the most important aspect of this. We don’t know many things. The events direct our actions instead of our planning. The Blue Woman may be a spirit or manifestation of a mage, it does not matter. Except that if it is a spirit, we know even less than we think.” My eyes watched the people on either side of the road as we moved past them, watching for deception or aggression. Instead, they moved aside with normal curiosity directed at us, but nothing more.
A woman far too old to be working for a living sold us a loaf of bread that felt like it was baked long enough ago to have been discarded by a bakery as too stale to sell, and she had cheese with one edge suspiciously cut off, which probably meant mold. After over-paying, we continued down the main road until reaching the far end of the city. However, we intended to spend as little time in Andover as possible, so even stopping to purchase more food was not considered. That was a miscalculation on my part because we’d already devoured all the food the cook placed in the sack.