Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

I reluctantly parted ways from Will in the foyer and met the others outside the front door. They had hardly wandered more than ten feet away and I swore all of them had one eye on the house with the other on the thick forest that surrounded the building. The youthful day had vanished and the long shadows across the ground told us all that its time was waning. I paused on the threshold and looked up at the bright, happy sun that shone in a perfectly blue sky.

“A storm is coming.”

The words drew my attention to Allard who strolled up to me with a smile. “What was that?” I asked him.

He slipped up to my side and nodded at the sky. “The sky. It is too perfect. A storm will soon come and I expect it will not be pleasant.”

My face drooped. Just what we needed for added effect when a slimy creature was on the loose. A dark and stormy night.

“I doubt it shall be so bad,” Vargas spoke up as she waved her hand in front of her face. “Though I must admit the air is very stifling in this forest. I miss the gurgling brooks of my domain.”

My eyebrows shot up as I looked over each of them. “You guys have your own places, too?”

“Of course,” Vargas replied as she waved a hand at Ware. “The lord here owns vast fields of what in the southern country-”

“And a prized pickling farm using the sea salt,” Ware added.

She rolled her eyes. “You admire your fermented cucumbers far too much.”

“They caught me a prize last year at the continent fair,” he countered.

Vargas shuddered and ignored him as she waved her hand at Allard. “And Lord Allard here is a landowner in the far west.”

“The far northwest,” he corrected her.

She wrapped her arms around herself and wrinkled her nose. “How could I forget your frozen tundra?”

He laughed. “It really is not as bad as that. The volcanoes warm much of the area.”

“And warm your pockets with wealth from the visitors seeking comfort in their waters,” Vargas added.

He inclined his head to her. “Very true, but I do seek to use those waters to heal them, as well.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “Does it really work?”

A heavy sigh escaped the dragon lord. “After a thousand years of study, I have not found a consistency to its efficacy. One wonders if perhaps the cure is in the mind of the visitor rather than my fabled waters.”

Ware rubbed his hip and scoffed. “I have yet to find a cure for my old wound among your many pools and my mind is very much sound.”

Allard smiled at him. “I am glad to hear it, but perhaps some exercise would do your injury good. After all, we did offer our protective services to our host. We would be remiss if we did not fulfill our word and look about the grounds.”

“Well, according to the Tenky we should have little to worry about,” Ware mused but he started to stroll toward the tree line that surrounded the house.

We followed with Vargas taking up the spot beside Ware and Allard joining me. I couldn’t help but be a little nervous around the ancient dragon lords and lady. These were impossibly old creatures, older than even Will, and I couldn’t help but cast curious looks at them. They all looked so normal. Well, Vargas looked a little out of place in her Victorian-era dress in the forest setting, but otherwise, she was perfectly normal.

“You wonder at our appearances versus our age?” Allard commented.

I sheepishly smiled at him and rubbed the back of my head. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to stare that long.”

He chuckled. “No need to apologize. We have been stared at all our lives because of our lineage.”

“It can be a tad annoying at times,” Vargas chimed in with a wrinkle of her nose. “They never fail to look me completely over, either, as if they cannot believe how stunning I appear for my age.” I had to bite my tongue to avoid making a comment about her attire.

A shadow overhead made us all freeze and more than one of the dragon lords drew out their talons from their now-clawed hands. Allard stepped in front of me and I had to lean back to check out the skies as the others did the same.

The great eagle from before circled the sky above the house. Its huge wings cast a dark shadow around us like a vulture but I couldn’t help but press my hand over my quickly-beating heart and breathe a sigh of relief. The others, too, relaxed their stances though Ware kept a sharp, curious look at the bird.

“What I would not give to hunt such a creature again. . .” he murmured.

Vargas’ eyebrows crashed down and she nudged him with her elbow. “The hunting by your companions and you are why those creatures are so rarely seen.”

Ware frowned at her. “We did nothing of the sort! We hunted a few for a few years and then they vanished! Allard can attest that it was presumed an illness struck what was left of them!”

Allard nodded. “I do recall making that hypothesis.”

The eagle gave a great screeching cry before it flew off over the trees where it disappeared. Ware sighed. “I am sure that is the last of the beasts.”

Vargas wrapped her arms around one of his and tugged him onward. “Whether it is or is not, we should finish this ‘nature walk’ and return inside so I can take a nice, long bath.”

We patrolled the perimeter of the tree line and I couldn’t help but jump at every little wayward stick and stone being crunched on and kicked about by us. Allard’s twinkling eyes watched me and a smile teased the corners of his lips.

“I understand you have been through quite a few adventures with Lord Thorn already,” Allard commented as we wandered around the rear of the house.

I nodded. “We had some trouble in Mirum and you know about the trouble in Turva.”

“Did you have such adventures before coming here?” he wondered.

I laughed and shook my head. “No. Actually, my life was pretty boring. There’s no magic where I come from-”

“No magic?!” Vargas spoke up as she jerked to a stop and spun around on her heels to face me, intruding on our conversation. “Wherever are you from that there is no magic?”

All pairs of eyes fell on me and I shrank beneath such intense attention. “Well, I. . .I came from a human settlement where nobody had magic so we just did without.” A good half-truth.

“Wherever is such a place?” Ware persisted.

“It’s, um-” I looked around as I tried to get my bearings for another half-truth, but I couldn’t quite remember which direction had led to the portal through which I’d been dragged by those three villains. It had been so long that I’d almost forgotten about the two men and their rough female leader. “I think it’s-”

“Lord Thorn! Lord Thorn!” The tiny voice came from the direction of the road.

Ware and Vargas dashed toward the front. Allard looked eager to follow but he first offered me his hand. “Will would never forgive me if I left his bride out here all alone in the midst of trouble,” he pointed out.

I took his hand and together we rushed around the house to the driveway. A half dozen of the Tenky were crowded about the open front door and a single quivering human man stood in the middle of their chaos. They zoomed around him on their bikes as he stood there wringing the life out of the cap in his hands. His unshaven face was ashen and his dark eyes darted to and fro. He tried to step out of the circle created by the cycling Tenky but they ran over and under his foot. He yelped and stumbled back into his ‘cage.’

“What is the meaning of this?” Ware bellowed as he stalked toward the little people and their captive. “Why are you harassing that man?”

One of the Tenky drove up to him and skidded to a stop only a few inches from Ware. “This human was acting very suspicious around his barn, sir. We brought him here for questioning.”

“I was not acting suspicious!” the man protested as he stomped his foot. “Something out there was acting suspicious!”

Will appeared in the doorway and his sharp eyes fell on the man. “What seems to be the problem, Steven?”

Steven practically threw himself into Will’s arms. The Tenky leaped forward to stop him but a soft wave of a hand from Will warned them off. They reluctantly backed away as Steven wrapped himself around Will’s midsection and sobbed against his chest.

“Lord Thorn! Thank goodness!” Steven bemoaned as he stabbed a finger at the Tenky. He glared at each of them as they frowned back at him. “These fiends here are accusing me of wrongdoing against you!”

“You were crawling all over your barn floor!” one of the Tenky spoke up.

“On your hands and knees and everything!” another chimed in.

Will lifted an eyebrow at his citizen. “Were you?”

Steven bobbed his head. “Yes, My Lord, but that’s because I thought I saw something slipping through the stalls! It was scaring my animals and I thought it might be a mouse or a drunk Tenky, so I tried to catch it.”

A dark cloud settled on Will’s brow. “Show us.”