The Dragon' Son (12 page)

He stood and walked over to the log that Ardor was tied to. He patted Ardor then reached over and picked up the water skin. He drank some water from the skin and placed it back on the ground. He grabbed his vest and slipped it on. He then picked up Ardor’s blanket and placed it on the horse’s back.

Ardor yawned then pawed at the ground, showing that he disagreed with the idea of travel at this time in the morning.

“I’m sorry, Ardor. I don’t want to sit around and wait till after dawn for you to wake up and be ready to go. I don’t want to take a chance of falling asleep and having that dream again,” Keegan said impatiently.

The horse shook his head and mane, still protesting. Keegan just ignored him and walked over to the other side to gather things up and pack them into saddlebags. Ardor snorted and twisted his head around, grabbed hold of the blanket, and pulled it off of his back, dropping it onto the ground.

“Ardor!” Keegan hissed “You ill-mannered horse!” He picked up the blanket and got ready to place it back on Ardor, but the horse untied his rope with his teeth and trotted away from Keegan with a sniggering whinny.

Keegan marched after him with anger growing in his chest, but every time he got close to Ardor, the horse would trot away. Finally, Keegan started chasing Ardor but never caught up with him. Ardor continued cantering around the camp area until Keegan finally collapsed on the ground, panting heavily.

“You opinionated, obstinate fool of a horse,” Keegan said between gasps. “You’re not getting any sleep this way. You’re just keeping me busy until after dawn. You could have slept as you walked! Stubborn horse.” Keegan closed his eyes and panted.

After a moment, he heard the horse come up beside him, and Ardor nudged Keegan’s shoulder with his nose. He had to do it twice before Keegan would open his eyes and look at him. Keegan stroked his horse’s nose affectionately, “I’m sorry that I got angry at you. I should have just sat down and collected myself.” He said gently, “The dream disturbed me greatly.” He stood and stretched before patting Ardor's neck. “Are you ready to go now?” he asked. Ardor grabbed the blanket out of Keegan’s hand and held it up.

“I will take that as a yes.” Keegan smiled as he took the blanket. He placed it on Ardor’s back then fetched the water and saddlebags and also placed them on Ardor’s back. He buckled his sword onto his side and made sure the campfire was out. He folded up the blanket that he had slept on and put it in one of Ardor’s bags. He then swung up onto the horse’s back and looked around to be sure that everything was in place and that he had all of his belongings.

Keegan sighed peacefully, looking at the brightening Eastern sky. “Let’s go,” he whispered.

Ardor turned west and set off in a lively trot toward the road that they had come off of the night before. It was a beautiful morning, and the songbirds promised it to be a lovely day. Perfect for a long ride.

Chapter 7: The Princess

A
caravan of knights, horses, wagons, and two rich carriages plodded down a quiet country road that ran through the Forest of Arnad. The sky was overcast and occasionally grumbled with thunder. The leaves on the trees hardly moved.

Three ladies and a young girl were in the foremost carriage. Two of the ladies wore simple colored dresses, while the young girl and another young lady, sisters, wore matching greenish gold dresses of fine, crumpled silk. Golden circlets adorned their heads. The youngest girl looked eagerly at her surroundings from one of the carriage windows. Her big, blue eyes were wide and eager with anticipation. “When do you think we will be there?” she asked in an excited voice as she turned to face the other women.

“Sometime around nightfall, me little lady,” one of the simple clad women with raven black hair answered with a kind smile.

“Yes, that is if nothing goes wrong,” an older woman with gray hair added as she wrung her pale hands in a worried fashion.

“Don’t think about it, Annaka. We will arrive in good time,” the other richly clad young lady said with a smile. She stroked back a strand of her little sister’s auburn hair and tucked it under the gold circlet. She herself had gold hair that was entwined with her golden circlet, and emerald eyes that sparkled like the stars as she smiled at her sister.

“Oh! I am so excited, Erewhon! I can hardly wait!” Annaka gave her elder sister’s arm a squeeze before returning to look out the window. They all sat silently in the carriage until one of the wheels bumped over a rock. The elder lady squirmed as a result, expressing the tiresome discomfort that they all felt.

A horse whinnied loudly and the single word “Halt!” echoed through the trees followed by the carriage coming to a quick stop.

“Why have we stopped? Are we there yet?” Annaka leaned out the window as far as she could and tried very hard to see around the knights.

“Annaka, please sit,” Erewhon said firmly as she gave a quick tug on the skirt of her little sister. “If something is wrong, the guard does not need your head in the way.”

The young girl nodded to her elder sister and reluctantly sat down, staring through the window curiously, longing to be in on the excitement outside. All was silent for a moment except for the occasional stomp of an impatient horse’s hoof. The smell of horses and promised rain grew heavy in the air as the ladies waited, but no one made a sound. Everyone strained to hear what was taking place outside.

At first, the stern voices of debating men were all that could be heard and then the air was pierced with a painful cry. A rustle seemed to go through the men outside the carriage like an unexpected breeze whipping the summer’s barley, and a few swords were drawn as everyone became alert for danger.

“Surround the ladies’ carriage!” a strong voice ordered. Horse hooves and chain mail were all that could be heard bustling around the carriage as the knights surrounded it.

“Oh, I just knew something was going to go wrong!” the elder woman said woefully.

“Annaka, come, sit closer to me,” Erewhon said as she held her arms open, inviting the young girl to come into her protection.

Annaka obeyed, snuggling into the warm embrace of her sister. “Do you think that we are going to be ambushed?” she shuddered as she asked the question that they all were pondering.

“I hope not, my lady,” the woman with raven hair replied quietly. She reached out and grabbed Annaka's hand and gently rubbed it. “Don't you worry now, sweet one. Just stay very quiet.”

Erewhon gave her sister a reassuring squeeze. “Yes. Everything will be fine. Stay close to me, or Thailla, and everything will be just fine.” Erewhon nodded to the dark haired woman, Thailla, then kissed Annaka on top of the head and held her close.

The knights were finally settled all around the carriage and had their swords drawn. Some of the horses chomped at their bits restlessly and pawed the ground, while a wave of whispers seemed to go through the knights.

“Oh, I do hope that this passes quickly!” the elder woman said in an anxious tone.

Annaka's hands began to quake. “I am frightened, Erewhon,” she said quietly with a choked voice.

Erewhon wrapped her arms tighter around Annaka and gently kissed her. “Be brave little one. Perhaps this is not an ambush,” she whispered, though her senses told her otherwise. “Just pray, darling, that everything will turn out well.”

All became silent except for an occasional swish of a horse’s tail or the pawing hoof of one of the restless animals. Even the grumbling sky above seemed to become quiet. No one spoke. They listened and watched. Erewhon barely dared to breath. Every breath she took seemed to be as loud as an urn breaking in a dead silent tomb.

The air felt stiff and was coated heavily with the smell of sweating horses and men. The smell of moisture was also growing thick and only made the other smells worse. It seemed that ages passed by in silence, and just when Erewhon began to think that nothing was going to happen, the forest exploded with the cries of mad men, shaking everyone to the bone like an earthquake.

Arrows pelted the brave knights from unseen archers in every direction, and horses began to scream in pain and terror. “Hold the line! Protect their majesties!” the captain shouted with a strong, commanding voice over the chaos. Men dressed in black and covered in leaves came up screaming from concealed holes in the ground, and they charged the knights like a pack of ravenous wolves. The men clothed in black clashed with the mounted knights who bravely drove them back away from the carriage. The knights cut down the men in black with maces and swords, using their horses as a barrier to separate the ladies’ carriage from the enemy.

The women huddled down together in the center of the carriage. Erewhon and Thailla hovered over Annaka, while the older woman cowered nearby with groans and moans of fear. The carriage jerked abruptly, and the horses screamed in terror as a mighty roar of some enormous animal bellowed above the chaos of battle.

“What is it?” Men began to scream. More tremendous roars ripped through the air. “It's from the underworld! Save your souls! Run!” Suddenly, the line of knights outside seemed to disappear.

The carriage charged forward, and the elder woman sat up with a start. “Oh! The carriage has been captured!” she cried.

Erewhon stood to her feet, unsure of what to do. Everything had happened so quickly. The carriage went over a rock and tossed all of the women to one side, nearly flinging Erewhon out through the window. She saw, for a split second, that one of the evil men was riding a carriage horse, which he kicked and shouted at mercilessly, driving the poor beasts forward with fury.

“My lady!” Thailla grasped Erewhon by the wrists and pulled her back into the carriage. “Are you all right?” she asked.

The mad driver cut a turn too quickly, causing the opposite side of the carriage to rake across a tree, nearly making it tip the other way again. All of the ladies were piled onto each other on the right side of the carriage, while the door opposite of them swung wide open. It banged against the side of the carriage until it snagged on a tree and was ripped off in a spray of splinters. The whole carriage jolted when the door came off, propelling the women toward the open doorway.

Thailla cried out and braced herself against the open door to avoid anyone falling out. Annaka curled into a ball right at Thailla's feet and gripped the floorboards with her small fingers. The elder woman crawled to the right side of the carriage and grasped a window opening tightly with a terrified wail, while Erewhon dug her right hand’s fingers into a crack on one of the wooden seats and groped for Annaka's hand with her free one.

“I can't reach! Annaka! Give me your hand!” she called over the noise of the clattering carriage.

Annaka froze and stared at her sister's hand a moment before she gained the courage to move. She slowly reached out for Erewhon's hand, and just before their finger tips met, the wheels of the carriage bumped over another rock. Annaka and Thailla vanished out of the carriage door and out of sight with barely a sound. Erewhon screamed in horror. She crawled on her hands and knees to the edge of the door and poked her head out just enough to see that Annaka and Thailla were staggering to their feet at the edge of the road, and no one, friend or foe, followed after the carriage.

“You’re driving like a mad man, you idiot! You’re losing all your passengers!” the old woman screamed out of the window that she clung to.

An idea dawned on Erewhon. “They are okay. We can get out the same way,” she said. She stood to her feet uneasily and turned to summon the older woman only to find a knife pointed at her and a fiendish look on the elder woman's face.

Erewhon was puzzled for a moment until it all became clear to her. “You’re a traitor!” she gasped. “A spy! How could you?”

“I am. And because it pays well! But it only pays if we capture you!” the older woman said in a malicious tone. “We never knew that Annaka existed, so her majesty will be very interested in that tidbit of knowledge. Now, step away from that door!” she said raising her dagger higher.

“Who is going to tell ‘her majesty’ about Annaka? And is Thailla mixed up in this?” Erewhon asked, her brows knit, fists balled and not moving otherwise. The older woman stumbled forward as the carriage jumped again. “Thailla is not with us; she was fooled just like the rest of you! And no one else knows about Annaka except me. I will be rewarded well for this valuable information!” the evil woman cackled.

“Not if I can help it! No one threatens my sister!” Erewhon screamed and lunged for the dagger. The front wheels of the carriage hit a fallen tree in the road, and the horse harnesses snapped, leaving the carriage to tumble down the hill by itself. The two women, caught in a frantic struggle, were both thrown to one side of the carriage then the other. The speeding carriage tottered on two wheels momentarily, and Erewhon tumbled out of the open door backwards, barely missing the back wheels as she fell. She hit the ground with a thud and rolled for several feet then lay still. The carriage crashed into a tree, and its front shattered with a bang into a thousand pieces. Then, silence.