Ahead lay a desolate area where we would spend the night unless we continued traveling to the edge of the forests far ahead. There were no trees, few shrubs, and no people living there. If asked, riding on far enough to reach the forest suited me, if only because we could build a fire. My body and soul could use the comfort of it. The number of people on the road north of Andover had thinned until we were alone as far as could be seen in any direction.
As the city faded from sight behind, the sun settled just above the horizon in what we call first-dark, and in the dimming light, we heard the piercing cry of the dragon, far away. Both of us turned in unison. The great beast flew over Andover low and fast, as if upset.
Alexis shivered and sidestepped, so I dismounted my horse and walked her, hoping to calm her. Kendra did the same with her horse. We watched the dragon approach, fly directly over us, and land on the road ahead, preventing us from continuing unless we went around. She spread her wings wide as if to tell us not to proceed.
We halted and puzzled exchanges passed Kendra and the dragon. We waited.
On the road between us and the dragon, a flicker of blue appeared, not the Blue Woman we’d encountered, but only a vague portion of her upper body as if a mage wanted to present her but lacked the power. When we’d encountered her before we could see through her into the trees behind as if she was perhaps half-real. Now, only the vague outline of a woman shimmered, mostly with dull blue sparkles. There was no head visible, only the outline of her dress in blue.
She didn’t speak to us, this time. She simply laughed evilly. Soft and low, the laughter sounded cold and anything but humorous. Then she faded to nothing as if she’d never been.
The dragon backed away, hissed, and flicked her tongue out, tasting the air where the blue outline had appeared, but still, it seemed determined to prevent us from continuing on the road. A chill seemed to have descended. I shivered, looked behind us, behind the dragon, and to either side of the road.
CHAPTER FIVE
I t seemed silly to argue with a dragon over which way to ride on the road. While we didn’t know her reasons for blocking us, there was little doubt that she intended to. Not that she was aggressive in any manner unless sitting on the road with outspread wings constituted aggression. She sat and watched us, a few hundred feet in front. When I attempted to move to my right, she moved to her left, blocking me. I hadn’t intended to go beyond but wanted to test her intentions.
Beyond, while peering under her left wing, I saw other travelers, a young couple walking along and behind them a farmer’s wagon. None of them moved forward. All looked ready to flee at the slightest provocation. Without turning to look, the dragon had managed to halt their progress, so why should ours be different?
“Any idea of what’s going on?” Kendra asked.
“That’s a question I was going to ask you. The flicker of blue with the laughter didn’t strike me as intending to be funny.”
“Mocking is more like it,” she said. “First, the dragon appears and lands in front of us to prevent us from continuing, then the laughing Blue Woman between us tells me she wanted us to go on. If that is true, we are going the wrong way, and the dragon is right.”
“What about meeting Elizabeth?”
She patted the neck of her horse to keep it calm as she said, “I don’t know. But the dragon is looking out for me—that much I do know.”
“So, we go back to Andover?”
“That or fight our way past the splendid beast blocking the road.”
She often talked about the dragon in terms more glowing than when speaking of me. However, we turned and walked back to Andover, leading our horses, meeting only a few people on the way, all of them talking excitedly about the dragon that had flown directly over them, the first they’d ever seen. We asked for directions to an inn of quality in Andover and were twice directed to the Crown Inn.
The sign hanging above the door out front held a bright yellow crown, representing gold if one stretched the imagination to consider a pale splash of yellow the color of dead daisies the same as gold. The surrounding buildings were taller than most of the city and stouter, as was the inn. The windows were smaller, the doors made of thick oak slabs, the roofs flat, with parapets circling them. Ports for soldiers and their weapons dotted them.
The buildings were originally built for combat as any fool could see, although they were now vacant and probably hadn’t seen any military use for decades or longer. Decorative features had been added, scrolls, cutouts, and geometric designs that were cute, some pretty, but didn’t hide the primary purpose of defense. Heavy shutters stood open on the outside, and no doubt others were inside for double protection. The stone walls wouldn’t burn, the roofs were slate, and the parapets provided protections for archers.
The defenses built on the buildings wouldn’t withstand a prolonged siege by an army. However, they would hold off roving bands of highwaymen or raids by sailors from the nearby Port of Mercia. There were far easier buildings in the city to capture than those we examined as we rode to the stable behind the Crown Inn. Raiders would choose them, although the rewards were less.
“Our plans?” I asked.
“We will wait here for Elizabeth. She should be here in no more than two or three days.”
I said, trying to keep my voice level. “The room is already paid for at the Blue Bear. I don’t mind riding back to the port if it will save us money.”
She had the courtesy to withhold her laughter until I finished speaking. She said, “Maybe you will find a nice young lady here to keep you up all night again. I’ll watch for any with red hair if it helps you.”
Maybe I would do as she suggested. “Then why stay here in Andover? Neither of us likes it.”
She dismounted and waited for me at the door to the stable. No eager stable boy rushed to help us, so we walked our horses inside and started removing the saddles ourselves. She finally answered, her voice distracted and far off. “Because I don’t think the dragon will allow us to go to the port, either. I think it wants us here.”
“You can talk with it, now?” I asked with a chuckle. “You know what it wants, and you obey?”
“No, not even a little. It has to do with safety, I think. Hers and ours. There was danger for us, ahead on the road. There may be more enemies behind.”
“So, what do we do to occupy our time? I have a hunch you’re up to something.”
“Tomorrow, we are going shopping, for one thing. Both of us. Tonight, we are going to eat and sleep in different rooms. I need a tub of water to wash my hair, and you are looking scruffy, and you smell.”
We were still laughing at her comment as we entered the main room of the inn. If anything, she also looked scruffy. The room held at least twenty tables, and ten were quietly occupied by well-dressed patrons. The floor held layers of carpets, all expensive. The walls had been recently whitewashed, and the exposed woodwork was dark and well-carved. It seemed as if those in the room only knew how to whisper and more than a few casts ugly looks our way as if we didn’t belong.
We headed for a table sitting a little way from most of the diners, and barely got ourselves seated before a dour woman of forty scowled her way to our side. She cast her eyes down at us in a disapproving manner and in a soft voice growled, “Have you any coin? We require people like you to pay before being served.”