His confusion had turned to cold anger. “How could she do that? She’s a child.”
Kendra whirled around and snarled, “Hey, Flier, pay attention to what he’s telling you. We don’t know the answers any more than you, but you’re scaring this little girl. If you have a problem with us, why don’t you go on ahead and we’ll catch up in Vin? I’m sure we can follow the trail from here.”
He shook his head vigorously. “No, it’s just that I’ve never seen anything like that. And the dragon that crushed the buildings in Trager was acting like it did that because you wanted it to. Like you ordered it. There are things happening around you that scare me.”
She didn’t back down. “Flier, you are free to leave us and go where you want. Do as you like. It’s not you that owes us, it’s us that owes you. You saved us and fought for us, risking your life. For that, we thank you.”
His shoulder slumped. He said quietly, “To me, it looked like that child faced down a mage. And won.”
“Maybe she did,” Kendra said, drawing herself up in a silent challenge.
Flier backed down. “I owe you my life, the way I see things. I’ll fight or help you in any way possible, but that does not mean I can’t be scared of strangeness, or shimmering blue images of women that float in the air like smoke.”
Kendra simply nodded her understanding.
He turned away and faced me.
I gave him a nod of encouragement and said, “We really don’t have many answers. However, we will tell you what we do know. All of it. Ask me, and I’ll do my best.”
He scowled, an expression of confusion on his face. The expression was growing more confused as he took the time to think. His eyes flicked from me to Kendra, then to each of the girls.
A slight breeze brought a touch of chill to the air. I felt like sitting and resting my legs but remained fixed, looking at him as hard as he looked back at us.
He held up his left hand, fingers splayed wide. With the index finger of his right hand, he pointed to his thumb. “You knew about the arrowhead in my knee. Not a guess, you knew. It was as if you could see inside my knee. How could that happen?”
His finger moved to the index finger next to his thumb. “The unending storm at sea was unnatural. Like something from an old story, the sort of thing my grandchildren will hear and never believe.” He pointed at the next fingers in order. “The dragon stays near you. The little girl has the powers to face down a first-rate mage.” His pointing finger moved on, “The Blue Woman, whatever that is, appears in front of the two of you repeatedly.” He’d run out of fingers, so he moved to the other hand, “You are the personal servants of a princess. Shall I go on?”
His words tumbled over one another. Kendra and I exchanged looks.
She said, “Damon, I have a hard time keeping secrets from a man who saved my life while risking his. We have already told him most of our story, or what we know. More won’t hurt.”
That said it all. I asked her pointedly, “Where is your dragon right now?”
“Near the path at the top of the pass where the snow recently melted.”
Flier winced. He said, “How?”
I continued without answering him, “Any mages near here?”
“At the extreme limits of my senses, there are both mages and sorceresses there and there.” She pointed to her left, which would be the sea, and ahead, but also slightly to her left, where Vin would be located.
Flier asked, “How can you know those things?”
She said, “I don’t know. A few days ago, I couldn’t tell where they were. After setting that dragon free, in my mind, I now see little flecks of light that are those people with magic. The brighter they are, the closer. Beyond that, I can’t tell you anything about what’s happening.”
“It scares me,” he said.
“And what do you think it does to me?” Kendra said softly. “I can’t tell you how much it scares me. My brother and I have been loyal servants to Princess Elizabeth since we were five and six, just normal people who didn’t even believe in Wyverns, let alone true-dragons. Within a dozen days we were involved in intrigue in three kingdoms, and we have no idea of what we’re doing or what’s required of us.”
The tears spilling down her cheeks made it impossible to believe she spoke anything but the truth. I said, “Your knee was the first time that has ever happened to me. I’ve always been able to make drinks spill, puffs of air to blow out candles, and control arrows in flight, so they hit the middle of the target. We call it small-magic. Think of what a mage can do and divide by a hundred.”
He looked at me disbelievingly. I flicked my eyes to Anna and puffed her hair from the side. Her hand smoothed it down, and I sent another puff her way.
Flier’s complexion paled as he understood what I was doing. He said, “That princess was with us on the ship. I never saw her talk to either of you.”
“She’s on a secret mission for her father, the King of Dire,” Kendra said. “We don’t know what it is, but at the last minute, we decided to jump on the ship with her. Elizabeth will tell us when she can—and how we can help her if that’s possible. In the meantime, we will protect her with our lives. She is sailing on to Dagger.”
“You don’t know what sort of mission?” he asked.
I said, “We think it might be involved with the mages or current rulers. Ours is the third kingdom to have a king fall ill or die and a ‘council’ rule in his stead.”
His expression turned cold. He said, “Trager, Dagger, and Dire? All of them?”
“Yes,” I told him shortly, wishing the conversation would end.
“Four, if you include my home, Vin. The story is much the same, there.” His voice trailed off near the end. Then he raised his head to look directly at us. “What other dangers can we expect to encounter?”
“I wish we knew,” Kendra said. “But if we wish to find our way over this mountain, we should continue walking and talk tonight.”
Flier didn’t move. His gaze shifted to me. “The little girls? How do you explain two girls who look like you but cannot speak your language?”
“As we have already told you, we found them after a storm and are trying to return them to their home,” I said deliberately using a friendly tone to ease the situation.
“We think they come from Kondor,” Kendra said. “They speak the language. So, we brought them with us. Now, either we spend the night here, or we walk. Your choice.”
“Okay, okay. You don’t have to snap at me. You still haven’t explained the dragon.”
I’d noticed Kendra’s impatience lately, too. The difference was that I lacked the nerve to say so. Her face reddened, but she kept quiet. I said, “We will talk about it later.”
“One more thing,” Flier said. “Just to be sure we’re all thinking along the same lines, that little girl, the one you call Emma, just defeated a mage’s projection—if I saw what I think. Were either of you aware she had magic powers?”
We shook our heads in unison. Flier seemed to accept that and turned away as he trudged up the trail again. After a brief, confusing exchange of looks between Kendra and myself, we followed each other again, me again at the rear. For me, I wasn’t certain Emma had any magic, but her actions had certainly been coincidental, if not.
My mind was so lost in deep thought my feet did what was needed without me thinking or looking at those in front of me. Flier was right. The idea that Emma might have magic powers had never entered my thinking, but something else along those lines nudged the back recesses of my head.
Anna walked directly ahead, through the spot where the Blue Lady had been, her thick brown hair tied back. It swayed from side to side with her steps, so I tested my magic and used a burst of air to push it to one side again, just to reassure myself that my magic was in place. Kendra’s dragon was close enough for it to share its essence, so my magic worked.