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It’s a young man, and he looks startled that I’ve suddenly intruded on his conversation and grabbed him. I’m distantly aware that six people at the table are staring at me.
I make myself let go of him and force myself to smile. “I’m anxious for news from anyone in that part of Maledin. My family is from Amriste. It’s small. You might not know it.”
The young man relaxes a little. “I know it. Your apples are sometimes in our marketplace. Ma and Dad might have heard something. They’re down in the tanner’s district selling their wares, and then they’ll be…”
I don’t wait to hear what his mother and father will be doing next. If they’re down in the tanner’s district right now, then that’s where I’m going.
As I exit the doors to the Great Hall, two soldiers holding long poles topped with spiked axes step in front of me. One is a sandy-haired man with a big smile, and the other is a smaller, stocky dark-haired woman.
The man greets me cheerfully. “It’s your lucky day, Lady Isavelle. Fiala and I are your new bodyguards. My name’s Dusan, and you don’t know how fortunate you are to have the two of us protecting you.”
They’re wearing uniforms that are similar to what Captain Ashton wears, so they must be wingrunners.
“Sorry, I haven’t got time to say hello. I might have news about where my family is,” I tell them breathlessly.
They hurry after me, the man wearing an apologetic look. “Ah, well, you see, that’s a bit sticky for us. We need to be your bodyguards, otherwise, King Zabriel will feed us to his dragon.”
“No, he won’t. Dragons don’t like the taste of people.”
“I told you she wouldn’t buy that,” Fiala snaps, and Dusan looks crestfallen. “Let me do the talking, you great big oaf. Lady Isavelle, you seem like you are on your way outside the castle grounds. Let us accompany you, and I promise you won’t even know we’re there. Unless something like yesterday’s unfortunate event occurs, and then we’ll gut the Brethren bastards like fish.” Fiala brandishes her weapon, an expression in her eyes like she’s hoping she gets the chance.
There’s a familiar beating sound in the distance, and I see three dots on the horizon, growing larger and larger as they approach the castle. Dragons. They no longer fly in circles over the city and castle, but they pass close to where we’re standing as they head for the dragongrounds and disappear. A moment later we hear the thud of them coming into land.
“Do you think they made it through the barrier?” Dusan asks his friend.
Fiala sighs dismally. “I doubt it. If I’m locked under the mountain for another five hundred years, I will lose my blasted mind.”
I turn to them. “What barrier?”
Dusan opens his mouth to answer, but Fiala’s gray eyes flare and she cuts him off. “Lady Isavelle, we will happily tell you all you wish to know.”
She remains silent, and I glance between the two of them. “Please go on.”
“We will tell you all wish to know…once you accept us as your bodyguards. Do you accept us?”
“What does it mean if I accept you?”
“We are your protectors inMa’len’sstead. We will accompany you whenever you wish to leave the castle. Our wyverns will fly with your dragon. We will lay down our lives for you if necessary.”
That startling sentiment has me shaking my head. “Please don’t. I’m not important enough for you to lay down your lives for, and I don’t have a dragon.”
Fiala and Dusan go down on one knee before me with bowed heads, and Fiala says, “We pledge to protect you, Lady Isavelle, up to and including with our lives. Do you accept us?”
I don’t want to go down into the city alone where I can get lost or be attacked, and if I’m attacked by more Brethren, they’ll help me fight them off. I’m just not used to people wanting to do things for me and make my life better. I don’t feel like I deserve it. “Um, that’s very kind of you. Thank you.”
“Then we are your blade and shield.” They get to their feet, Fiala’s expression somber and Dusan with a grin on his face.
“I need to go outside the castle walls. Will you come with me?” I ask them.
“Certainly. Anywhere you want to go, we’ll follow,” Dusan replies cheerfully, and I find myself smiling at them.
“Then let’s go now. I just overhead there are people from a town near mine down in the city, and I need to talk to them. They’re in the tanner’s district, but I don’t know where that is.”
“We’ll show you, my lady,” Fiala replies. “When was the last time you saw your family?”
I explain briefly everything that’s happened, from being taken by the Brethren to nearly being killed by them, and then being saved twice and brought here by Zabriel.
Dusan rubs his jaw thoughtfully. “I wish I could give you some news, but the wingrunners haven’t had much cause to fly over that part of Maledin.”
