The Princess of Trelian (15 page)

Lourin was Trelian’s closest neighbor to the west. A war with Lourin alone would be bad enough, but part of the problem was that a war with Lourin would almost certainly not
be
a war with Lourin alone. Lourin was closely allied to two other nearby kingdoms, Baustern and Farrell-Grast, and would no doubt call on both of them for aid. Trelian could find itself facing all three kingdoms combined.

But that’s not going to happen,
Meg reminded herself.
I’m not going to let that happen. That’s what this little journey is all about.

They continued on, Tessel a silent presence behind her. Meg knew Lourin was usually a comfortable two- to three-day ride for a mounted party, and that couriers, riding fast and changing horses frequently, could make the journey in a day if need be. But Jakl sliced through the sky far faster than even the speediest horse could gallop. It was only a little more than an hour before Meg could see the three-forked river that marked Lourin’s eastern border.

At Meg’s gentle nudge, Jakl began spiraling down, looking for a place to land. Tessel had said the fires had occurred in farming areas on the eastern outskirts of the city. Meg didn’t want to risk flying Jakl any closer, not when the people there were sure to be actively watching the skies. She wondered again what they’d really seen, what creature really had been making the attacks. If it had been another dragon, maybe Jakl could talk to it somehow, make it stop whatever it was doing.

If it had been something else . . . The only other alternative she could think of was one of those monsters — the slaarh — that Sen Eva had been able to command. And that would be very, very bad. For all kinds of reasons. It was possible, she supposed, that from a distance, someone might mistake one of those giant flying monstrosities for a dragon. But as far as she knew, the slaarh couldn’t breathe fire.

Of course, at one point, she hadn’t known there were slaarh that could fly, either. Who knew how many variations of those horrible things there might be?

Meg suppressed a shudder. She just had to find something here, some clue, some piece of information that would lead to the truth. However frightening it might be. Knowing had to be better than not knowing, even if the truth turned out to be terrible indeed. She held that conviction firmly in her mind, trying to take some courage from it.

Jakl landed in a small clearing near the river. Meg told him to stay put and set off with Tessel through the dark woods. She glanced back only once; Jakl was crouched low to the ground, peering after her. He didn’t like staying behind. Meg tried to send reassuring feelings toward him through the link. But she also realized she was a little glad that Tessel had insisted on coming along. The woods were thick and strange, and thinking about the slaarh and Sen Eva had made her jumpy.

When they reached the edge of town, Tessel led the way along the edges of several fields before she finally stopped and pointed. Before them lay a long stretch of scorched earth, the few remaining bits of trees and brush blackened into spindly dead sticks. Beyond them, Meg could see the ruins of a house that clearly had been burned to the ground.

Tessel leaned close. “There are two other houses like this farther in, plus a few other burned trees and patches of farmland. And you can see the way the ground and plants appear trampled, as if something very big was walking here. That’s part of the evidence they are talking about, too.”

Meg could see what Tessel meant. None of that really proved that it was a dragon, but she had to admit it was . . . suggestive. Especially when no other explanation came immediately to mind.

“It just doesn’t make any sense,” Meg whispered. “Why would any creature, dragon or not, attack houses and farms like this? Were any animals carried off? Was it searching for food?” Maybe whatever it was had been hungry, and when farmers appeared to defend their livestock, it had attacked them then?

Tessel considered. “I don’t think so,” she said. “I don’t remember anyone talking about missing animals. Which is probably another reason they think it was a deliberate attack upon the kingdom.”

None of this was helping. “Let’s go see the other houses,” Meg said.

Tessel opened her mouth to reply, but before she could speak, her eyes widened and one hand reached up and over her shoulder to draw her sword. Meg spun around and stared in dismay. Five men, armed with spears, swords, and farm implements, stood facing them. Several other people, men and women both, were coming out from around the ruins of the house and gathering behind them. Meg turned back, about to urge Tessel to run with her, but she could already see more figures moving to block their escape.

“Well, now,” one of the men before them said calmly. “And here I thought old Arnie was crazy for expecting whoever’d done this would come back to try again so soon. Seems I owe you an apology, Arnie.”

“Accepted and forgiven,” a second man replied. He was stooped and graying, the old metal hoe he grasped appearing to function more as a cane than as a potential weapon. “Crim’nals always return to the scene of the crime. Learned that lesson more than once in my day.”

Meg struggled to find her voice. “We — we’re not criminals,” she said. “We’re not here to cause any trouble.”

“Then why are you here, young miss?” the first man asked. “We don’t see too many strangers creeping ’round here after last bells, and those we do see rarely turn out to have honest intentions.”

From behind her, Meg heard Tessel whisper urgently, “Don’t tell them who you are.”

Meg hesitated. She’d thought that telling them who she was, that she’d come to investigate the cause of the damage, might be the best course. Surely they’d see that she wasn’t capable of doing any harm here herself, that they hadn’t brought any means of doing mischief. . . . But perhaps Tessel was right. How would it look, the princess-heir of Trelian sneaking around here in the dark, unattended except for one young courier? They might think to wonder how she’d gotten here, alone, with no carriage and no horses.

They might think to ask about her dragon.

“We’re — we’re lost,” Meg said. “We got separated from our families in the woods, and we were trying to find someplace to stay for the night.”

“That so?” the man said. “Well, if that’s true, you’ll have nothing to worry about. You just come along nice and quiet up to the castle. King’s advisor told us to alert her if we came across any strangers, and reasons or not, you two are strangers here, and you can make your stories to Miss Delana.”

He turned to a gangly teenage boy beside him and sent him to run ahead to let the castle guards know they were coming.

“You know, Neale,” Arnie said, looking at Meg with narrow eyes. “Seems to me this girl’s about the age and type of that one we were supposed to especially watch out for.” He nodded toward her. “Got that yellow hair and well-spoken manner o’ voice, and the old clothes that don’t seem quite right for her. Just like Delana told us.”

Meg felt a sinking sort of dread alongside her growing fear.

The first man — Neale — clapped Arnie on the back. “Seems I owe you thanks as well as an apology, then. Even shared among the lot of us, that reward would be a mighty welcome thing.” His voice was almost jovial, but when he turned back toward Meg and Tessel, his eyes were hard and cold.

“So —” One of the women had come up from behind them to address Arnie and Neale. She looked back and forth between the men and Meg. “This is really her, then? That dragon-girl? The one who . . . ?” Her voice faltered, and she swallowed before continuing. “The one who killed my Franklin?”

Oh, no.

“Stop,” Meg said. “Please listen.” She felt Jakl stirring, becoming aware of her rising fear.
No,
she thought fiercely.
Do not come for me. Do not, do you hear me? Just wait. Wait.

Some of the people were muttering angrily now. The woman who’d just spoken had been joined by a younger woman, who put her arms around the older one and glared at Meg with such clear and intense hatred that Meg took an involuntary step backward. She felt Tessel move closer behind her and half turned to see the people from the other side beginning to step toward them. Tessel was facing them with her sword ready, her back against Meg’s.

Frantically, Meg tried to think. She could let Jakl come, let him swoop down and try to rescue them, but she wasn’t sure he could just pluck them safely out of the crowd. If the townspeople didn’t scatter at the dragon’s approach, some of them might get hurt as he tried to get to Meg and Tessel. And that would certainly not help to prove that Jakl wasn’t a danger to Lourin.

Tessel seemed ready to fight, but that didn’t seem like a good plan, either. She could get herself killed. And again, they didn’t want to hurt any of these people. She needed to convince them
not
to hate Trelian, not give them more reasons to do so.

“Please,” Meg said. “Don’t — don’t hurt us.” If they tried to harm her, Jakl would be on them in seconds, and nothing she said or did or thought at him would convince him not to kill them all in order to save her. “I swear it’s not as you believe. Take us to King Gerald. Let me talk to him and explain why I’m here. I promise you, I do not intend you any harm.”

Neale spoke again, still looking at her coldly. “Your promises don’t count for much here, dragon-girl. But we’ll take you to Miss Delana, because that’s what we’ve been instructed to do. You Trelian folk may be savages and murderers, but here in Lourin we follow a more decent path.”

He gestured, and several of the largest men came forward. Tessel tensed behind her.

“Put down your sword, Tessel,” Meg said softly.

“What? Princess, no . . .”

“I don’t want anyone to get hurt. We’ll go speak to this Delana, and perhaps she can convince the king to see me. I don’t see that we really have any other choice.”

Slowly, Tessel lowered her sword.

Neale waved the other men on impatiently. Meg hoped she wasn’t making a terrible mistake.
Jakl, no matter what you sense happening here,
she thought at him urgently,
do not come for me. Not unless I call you. No matter what.
She had to trust that she could handle this herself. After a moment, she felt his reluctant acquiescence.

Tessel allowed her sword to be taken from her, and both girls quickly found themselves held firmly by the surrounding men. They paused only long enough to tie Meg’s and Tessel’s wrists uncomfortably behind their backs, then began marching them forward.

By the time they reached the castle gates, a small group of guards was waiting for them. They parted to allow a tall, well-dressed woman to come through. This had to be Delana, the advisor.

“We kept a watch, just like you asked,” Neale said, ducking his head respectfully toward her. “This one fits that description you gave us. We think she might be Trelian’s dragon princess.”

Delana drew closer. Her face was not one Meg recognized, of course, but there was something hauntingly familiar about her expression.

“You have done very well,” she said, looking out at Meg and Tessel’s captors with approval. There was something familiar about her voice, too. “Be assured that King Gerald will show Trelian and all the world how we respond to spies and villains sent into our midst!”

There were shouts of angry assent from the people around them.

Meg’s heart sank further. She tried to hold on to the hope that the king himself would not be so determined to see them as the enemy.

Delana stepped aside to clear a path, and the men holding them began moving again, pulling Meg and Tessel roughly through the gates. Meg looked up to find the advisor’s gaze locked on her. The woman smiled viciously when she caught Meg’s eye.

It was the smile that did it. Meg gasped, her legs suddenly weak underneath her.
No, it can’t be, it can’t be
her —

Delana’s smile grew as she watched Meg’s reaction. Then she fell out of view as the men continued to drag Meg and Tessel toward the castle. Meg twisted violently against the hands that held her, struggling to turn and see the woman again, to convince herself that it wasn’t true, it couldn’t be — she didn’t have the right face — but somehow, impossibly, it
was
her, all the same.

Sen Eva had come back.

The men holding her tightened their grip. “Hey, now! None of that,” one of them said angrily, shaking her.

“Princess! Princess, what is it?” Tessel’s voice seemed far away, even though Meg knew the courier was right beside her. Nothing seemed quite real. Even the ground beneath her feet seemed shifty and less than solid. Meg didn’t answer, couldn’t answer, she just kept trying to break free. She had to stop Sen Eva, had to warn her parents — oh, gods, they weren’t ready. Sen Eva was going to catch them all unprepared and none of them would be safe —

She made one last desperate effort and ripped free of one of her captors, but the other held her fast. There was a sudden sharp pain at the back of her head, and then the world went black.

“P
RINCESS? PRINCESS MEGLYNNE
, can you hear me?”

Meg opened her eyes. It took a few blinks to make them focus. And then all she seemed able to see was dirt and darkness.