Hot prickles danced along her skin where he had caressed. She lifted an eyebrow. “You can see into the future?”
“I can see into your eyes,” he murmured, his breath fanning her lips. “That’s all I need.”
Her heart swelled, and she ran her fingertips along the defined contours of his biceps. His thumb caressed her cheekbone as he drew her closer. She closed her eyes, and the warmth of his breath fanned across her forehead before his lips touched hers in a gentle kiss.
She only wished she were as confident in her choice of following the directions as he was.
Sage wasn’t sure what she had been expecting, but it was not what she found. Hertford was just a typical village. Farm fields stretched out behind the houses that lined the main thoroughfare, where merchants rode atop wagons full of wares. Chickens clucked in the farmyards, and a smoky haze hung in the air from a nearby blacksmith’s forge. She saw no sign of dragons. No burnt fields, no monsters flying high above. Uncertainty festered in the back of her mind.
She knew where the crossroad was because of the map, and the directions told her to take it north. So, maybe the dragon wasn’t visible yet.
Dragon. She remembered the disbelief she had felt when she had deciphered it, though that feeling of perplexity had only come after she had read through the directions again. Initially, she was too immersed in the thrill of deciphering.
Dragon, she thought again. Even now, the word baffled her.
As Sage led the group up the road, she glanced at a woman walking in the opposite direction. The woman had a tan scarf wrapped around her head and was carrying an empty basket. Their eyes met briefly before the woman turned away and stared at the ground beneath her feet.
Sage glimpsed Raven riding a few feet behind her. Raven’s sharp eyes were darting around warily, her body tense and alert. They had drawn a few curious stares, and they all wanted to avoid further attention. Sage gave a sharp whistle, and her horse responded with a trot, its hooves clopping loudly on the dirt road. The others followed her lead.
The first crossroad was positioned between the bakery and candlemaker’s shops.
Sage tugged on the reins of her horse, guiding him northward, following the directions. She twisted in her saddle to stare at the group behind her. “Look for the dragon,” she advised.
Sage sighed in relief as the dust-laden backroad provided them with more anonymity than the busy main street.
A monk in a voluminous brown robe strolled by, casting a quick assessing gaze their way.
She craned her neck, scouring the road for any trace of a dragon. They passed signs for a tailor, a cobbler, and one with an intricately carved wheel.
Landyn squinted in the sunshine as he pointed to the side of the road and a weather-beaten wooden frame with chipped wheels lying in the tall grass at the side of the road. “Are you certain the word wasn’t wagon?”
Sage felt the knot of uncertainty in her stomach twist. She wanted to be right, but her hesitancy told her otherwise. Dragon had two letters—DandR—while wagon only had one—W.
“Yes,” she finally said with certainty. She knew the word wasn’t wagon but wondered if someone had deliberately tipped the wagon over to try and confuse people. Butwhohad written the book? She shook her head. It didn’t matter. They were looking for their first clue, a dragon.
The horses trudged along the dirt road, their hooves kicking up small dust clouds until they reached the end of the town. The road continued, but Sage looked back at the town they were leaving.
A man departed a house and walked to the field on the opposite side. A dog barked.
Yet, Sage saw no dragon.
Trees lined the harvested farmer’s field and beyond was a group of boulders, weary sentinels resting in the glade. Farther into the village, two boys played, chasing each other.
“Maybe it’s inside one of the buildings,” Raven suggested.
“The directions say to take the crossroad until we see the dragon. I think we should be able to spot it from the street,” Sage replied.
They all peered at the surroundings, their eyes darting from one item to the next. On the left, a flock of birds burst through the branches of the trees and scattered in a flurry of wings and cries. The horses stepped anxiously beneath them as they continued their quest for a dragon.
“Maybe we missed it,” Willow said.
Sage reluctantly agreed. “Let’s go back and look for it.” With a sinking heart, she urged her steed to return down the road. This was the first real test of her decoding abilities—what if she was wrong? What if it wasn’t a dragon? What if she had decoded the book incorrectly? She felt a tightness in her chest. If they couldn’t find the dragon, had she dragged her family across the Channel for nothing?
Marcus came up beside her. “You knew this wasn’t going to be easy. It’s here. Don’t doubt yourself.”
Sage bit her lip, guiding her horse back into town as she surveyed the area. Her eyes settled on the first house. An apothecary, judging by all the different plants that grew around it. She couldn’t help but smirk in triumph as she identified sage growing amongst them, aware that her sisters would have teased her mercilessly had she been unable to recognize it. Shifting her gaze elsewhere, she noticed Landyn shielding his eyes as he searched the sky, and she rolled her eyes in disbelief. Did he really think a dragon would appear in the air?
Willow swung her legs from the saddle and gracefully slid from her horse’s back. She arched her back and stared intensely at the ground. She sent a few stones skittering with swift kicks before leading her horse to the side of the road near the weeds. Christian rode close behind, still perched atop his steed.
