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“What sort of daughter are you?” I could hear the heartbreak in my father’s angry voice.
I turned back briefly. “A good one, your Majesty. And I sincerely hope you do not live to realize that.”
As I left the tent, now crying more openly, still not sure where I was heading and only starting to realize the enormity of what I’d done and how it was going to affect my life, I saw the dragon. Not the dead one, but a second, hovering over the distant ridge. As I watched, it landed on the rocky outcrop and stared down at the hunting camp. It was too far off for its flame to reach us and perhaps too scared to come closer, though there was nothing in its stance that suggested fear to me. For a moment, our eyes met.
Chapter Three
The Man with the Roguish Smile
Why the man at the bar in Casper’s Relief should have taken me back to the day my life changed, and to that particular moment when the dragon and I made eye contact, I could not say.
It was a moment I’d thought about often over the years and wondered what the dragon had seen when it looked at me.
Perhaps it was just the intensity of the man’s stare, though he was smiling in a way that the dragon certainly hadn’t.
He was handsome, in a rough, unshaven sort of way, but I wasn’t sure I liked the way he was looking at me. There was something in his eyes—something more than the usual male leering, something I couldn’t place. Perhaps it was recognition, and, if so, that was bad news for us.
“Have you finished?” I turned back to Uther. “Good. I don’t want to remain here any longer than we have to.”
I would have liked to give him more time to rest, but that was not prudent right now.
The man with the roguish smile remained seated at the bar as we walked out. He didn’t seem to be looking at me any longer. Perhaps I was being overcautious, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
“Where are we?” wondered Uther.
“Casper’s Relief,” I replied, looking around.
“Yes, but… where?”
I smiled. “Well, if this land has a glorious and shining center, then we’re at the point that’s furthest from it.”
Uther nodded and quite unexpectedly smiled at me. “I traveled much as a younger man. You make a good traveling companion.”
Sad though it was to see him like this, his hazy mental state did make it possible for moments of connection between us that would never have happened if he remembered who I really was and what had passed between us five years earlier.
“We’d best get back on the road.” Although ‘road’ was not the right word for the route we were taking through the wilderness. Come to think of it, ‘road’ was barely the right word for the muddy stretch between the buildings of Casper’s Relief.
But as we walked, heading out of town, I became aware of someone following us. I had learned a lot in the last five years, and the instinctive knowledge of when you were being followed was one of the most useful things.
“This way.” I grabbed Uther by his arm and dragged him down a side alley that snaked between two bars. It stank in a way that suggested it was mainly used by the patrons of both as a makeshift toilet.
“This isn’t the way we came,” muttered the confused Uther.
“We’re taking the scenic route back.”
“Are you sure?”
“It gets nicer.”
We emerged out the far end of the alley and, to my right, I caught a glimpse of a hooded man ducking back behind a wall. Damn it. There was more than one of them.
The worst-case scenario was that we’d been recognized. The best-case scenario was that whoever had recognized us were drunken men looking for a vulnerable woman on her own (most of the women in Casper’s Relief had a price tag attached). Neither scenario appealed to me, and if these men tried anything, they were going to find out that I wasn’t as vulnerable as I looked.
Turning left, I kept going. It was hard to tell if we were in back streets or people’s backyards. Washing lines were strung across our path, skinny dogs chased plump rats and ragged children chased both.
“Heads up!”
We narrowly avoided being hit by a pile of garbage thrown from an upper floor. The washing lines, heavy with clothes, gave us some cover from anyone who might be following but they also made it impossible to check if therewasanyone following.
