Offspring (The Sword of the Dragon) (29 page)

The last building on the right hand side of the main road was a two-story brick house. Her sisters were waiting for her in the front. “Caritha, come!” Laura beckoned with her hand. “We were considering going back to make sure you were all right.”

“Well, I got away rather quickly, but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t seen.” She ran her hand through her hair and dusted off her skirt.

Laura went up to the front door and knocked. A tall, tanned woman wearing a bright yellow dress opened the door.

Caritha stepped forward. “Ma’am, we seek information—”

“Are you the Warrioresses?”

“Yes. Lord Ilfedo sent us to—”

The woman nearly tripped over her threshold as she stepped out and held the door wide open. “Please, please. Do come in. I am Doctor Malinda.”

“Thank you.”

The lady doctor was all smiles as she showed them into her cozy parlor. Long, lace curtains covered the high windows. Plush, green carpeting covered the floor. Three portraits adorned one wall, a grandfather clock chimed in the corner of another, and two couches layered with animal furs formed an L around an oval, knee-high table in the room’s center.

“My husband is gone for the week. Oh, he’ll wish he hadn’t been! If we had known that the Lord Warrior would send
you
, we could have arranged a more fitting welcome.” She invited them to sit, then served them tea and joined them.

“You will understand, ma’am,” Caritha said, “that we cannot stay. We are on a mission to find the creature reported south of here.”

Laura smiled at the doctor and held her gaze. “We were told that you cared for a survivor from Bordelin, and we were hoping you could tell us where to find him.”

“Well, I can’t say for certain.” The doctor combed her fingers through her long blond hair. “However, the last time I saw him, he had decided to stay for a while at the house of the woodcutter that saved his life.” She leaned back. “Their house is southwest of here in the forest.”

Caritha stood. “Can you show us?”

“Oh, I had hoped you’d stay a while.” Malinda rose, wrapping a white shawl around her shoulders. “But I understand. The creature needs to be found before it can return. Come, I will take you there.” Malinda led them out her door and escorted them out of town and down a forest trail. About mid-afternoon, after trekking a few miles through the woods, they came to a little house set by itself in a small clearing. Beds of flowers were on either side of the front door. “That is the place,” Malinda said, grasping each of them by the hand. “I will say good day to you now. But if you come my way again, please stop in.”

As the doctor disappeared back down the trail, Caritha approached the house and knocked. A pale man with splints on his legs and bandages on his arms and neck opened the door. Hobbling on crutches, he brought them inside where he could answer their questions. He sat at the dining room table and invited them to do the same. “Thank you so much for coming.”

Leaning forward, Caritha folded her hands. “We have a few questions for you, sir. Then we must be on our way.”

“I will answer what I can.”

She and the other sisters questioned him for at least an hour. For the most part, their questions revolved around what little he had been able to see of the creature. What he reported disturbed her. Never before had they heard of a creature that could exhale poisonous vapors from its nostrils. The survivor recollected how he’d tried to save the injured woman and how she’d choked and coughed in the foul air until she died. His eyes moistened at the telling of it.

“Thank you. You have been most helpful.” Caritha grasped his shoulder gently and held his gaze. “We will deal with the creature. Your loss will be avenged.
We
will see to it.”

As they rose to go, Laura asked him to point them in the direction of Bordelin.

He pulled himself to a standing position and flinched. “Go due south through the forest, and you will find it on the edge of the desert.”

“We will find the creature. You get your rest.” Evela smiled at him, and he beamed back.

He cleared his throat, and his eyes wandered down and up. “I’ll be here if you have any more questions.”

Evela’s face flushed. She slapped his cheek, looked at the floor and walked outside.

“Wow. I meant that in a kind way.” He swallowed and gazed after her before glancing at Caritha. “Let her know that I think she is beautiful and spirited. She is welcome to visit me any time.”

“Goodness. Give me a break!” Rose’el rolled her eyes, and followed Evela outside.

As Caritha, bringing up the rear, closed the door behind her, Evela walked up. “I am so ashamed.”

“Don’t tell him that, not at the moment anyway.” Caritha chuckled and walked into the forest. “That man seemed taken with you, Evela.”

“Him? I doubt it.” They marched for several hundred feet more. Evela kicked a stone. “Did he say something about me? To you, I mean.”

Caritha laughed and shook her head. “You are a hopeless case. Yes, he thinks you are beautiful and spirited, and he’d love to see you again.”

“He would?”

The other sisters joined Caritha in a hearty laugh, and Evela even giggled.

Soon after they emerged from the forest and stood at the edge of an expanse of open grassland. Smoke rose from blackened buildings. A few dozen men and women wandered through a maze of structural beams, broken furniture, and upturned boulders. Some of the people wore bandages around their heads; others had their arms supported in slings.

Wandering around the town, Caritha found the graveyard. A few men kicked spades into the earth, digging graves while others took linen-wrapped bodies to the holes and lowered them in. Flowers had been strewn on the ground, probably in an attempt to subdue the stench of death in the air. New stones lay on the ground next to unfilled holes, some with half-completed epitaphs chiseled on their faces.

“One creature did all of this?” Rose’el growled. “Just wait until I get my sword in range of its throat. If it is an intelligent beast, it will wish it had never touched this place.”

Deeply imprinted clawed footprints led from the town through a large, flat field into the southern desert. Bordelin—what was left of it—nestled into the very edge of the Hemmed Land’s forests.

Caritha pointed to the desert. “
That
is where we must go.”

“We should take stock of our supplies,” Levena said. “It may be a long trip, and we don’t want to run out of food and water—or shelter. We should return to Harpen for supplies, then come back here tomorrow morning.”

On the way back to town they happened upon Doctor Malinda as she returned home through the forest. “I was almost home when I realized I should have accompanied you to the house in the forest. So I went back and checked on him. Did you find the border town?”

“We did,” Caritha said.

Rose’el laughed harshly. “And it is a disaster.”

“We will be making a trip through the desert tomorrow, but first we’ll need to rest,” Caritha continued.

They emerged from the forest and into an open field leading up to the town. Malinda pointed out her house on the edge of the rows of homes and businesses. “I have several guest rooms upstairs that you are more than welcome to use. I insist, you must spend the night in my home. And tomorrow morning I will have breakfast ready bright and early so that you can be on your way.”

Nodding a thank you, Caritha instructed her sisters. “As soon as we get into town, buy the things we need, for we leave on the morrow.”

Much to Caritha’s relief, the doctor accompanied them into the stores. The woman was very friendly but had a forceful nature that seemed to drive away the crowds of onlookers. “Quit staring,” she would yell. “You are making our guests uncomfortable!”

That night the doctor cooked them a nice meal, then showed them to their quarters. “If you need anything,” she said, “just knock on my door. It’s the one at the end of the hall.”

Caritha plopped into the bed, felt in her pocket for the ring, and fell asleep clutching it to her breast.

The next morning dawned humid. A thick fog rolled through the forest before Yimshi’s rays dispersed it. Caritha brushed her hair, then pulled out her rusted sword. Its blade had killed before, and if they found the creature, she suspected her weapon would have to do so again. Her hand trembled as she remembered the purported size of the creature. If they found it and engaged it in combat, she did not know what she would do. What if the beast’s hide proved too thick for her sword to penetrate? She put the blade back in the fold of her skirt and closed the fabric over it.

Opening the bedroom door, she followed the greasy scent of frying bacon downstairs to the dining room. In keeping with the doctor’s expensive taste, the table was set with silverware and wooden plates carved in the likeness of flowers and butterflies. She picked up one of the napkins. Silk.

Laura and Levena swept in and raised their eyebrows at the arrangement. They took their seats, and soon Rose’el and Evela came in too. Rose’el stopped, shook her head, and spoke only loudly enough for them to hear her. “What foolishness to waste one’s time on such frivolities. A plain and simple table is more than adequate.”

Evela elbowed her. “Exercise some of those manners Elsie
tried
to burn into you as a little girl. I, for one, enjoy eating in a more formal manner.” She neatly unfolded her napkin, laid it in her lap, and sat ramrod straight. “Setting a table like this requires thought and preparation, which
I
appreciate.”

“Oh well, la-de-da!” Rose’el scowled.

“I hope you all slept well?” The doctor emerged from the kitchen balancing a silver tray loaded with bacon in one hand and a large bowl of scrambled eggs in her other. Rose’el forced a smile.

The doctor was beaming, and Caritha made sure to compliment her on her beautiful table and the tempting smells that had drawn them downstairs. She chuckled to herself when Rose’el went to greater lengths of eloquent praise.

“I get company so infrequently,” the doctor said as she set down the food and turned to go back to her kitchen, “that I decided to go all out for you. After all, it isn’t every woman that gets to entertain the Warrioresses.” She disappeared into the other room and returned with a bowl generously heaped with freshly cut fruit.

Caritha ate until her stomach couldn’t fit any more. Each of her sisters had pushed aside their plates, mostly scraped clean. Feeling the need to be on their way, they thanked their new friend, gathered their things, and left the house. “Come back any time,” the doctor said. “I have enjoyed your visit.”

“As have we.” Caritha stepped into the street. “Thank you again—for everything.” Many townspeople were already up and about, though the sun had risen not an hour before. Laura stopped and searched the milling people with her gaze. Her gaze sharpened.

Caritha eased up next to her. “Is something wrong?”

“I thought …” Laura shook her head. “I thought I saw Oganna.”

“Oganna?” Caritha let her eyes roam the faces of the townsfolk. No one even resembling Oganna caught her eye. She shrugged and turned to go. Her hand slipped into her pocket, and she reached for the ring. It was gone! Frantic, she looked at the ground, trying not to let her sisters see the fear in her eyes.

“Go on ahead,” she said. “I forgot something in the house.”

“You forgot what?” Rose’el crossed her arms. “Come on, Caritha, I want to get this hunt over with.”

Caritha waved a hand at them and ran to the house, shouting, “I’ll catch up with you!”

As she raised her hand to knock on the front door, the doctor opened it.

“Thank goodness you haven’t gone yet.” There was a twinkle in the doctor’s eye. “Did you drop this?” She held out a hand, and the light danced off the diamond.

Caritha took it, trying not to let the tears of relief show. “You have no idea how much this means to me.” She put it back in her pocket and tied it securely in place. “Thank you.”

With a departing wave, Caritha raced after her sisters. It was all she could do to keep her joy to herself as she joined them.

Laura turned to her with a curious expression. “Find what you were looking for?”

“Yes. Yes, I found it.”

W
asteland, that’s all the southern desert was—a barren stretch of white sand extending to the horizon. Ilfedo had told Caritha that the Hemmed Land had been designated “hemmed” because of its geographical isolation. Its eastern border ended at the Sea of Serpents. According to a couple of adventurers, a vast swamp cut between the western forests and an active volcano. And both the southern and northern forests bordered vast, uncharted deserts. In a manner of speaking, the Hemmed Land was an oasis.

Ilfedo said his ancestors came from an ancient civilization in the distant southwest that, for some unknown reason, fell apart. According to legend, these ancestors harnessed the power of sunlight and made machines to carry them into the sky. But that was so long ago, no one could be certain the stories were true. And Caritha knew that many people considered such claims to be myth.