Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

Will could definitely use one himself along with his soot-covered manservant.

“Is the work here done?” Ware huffed as he sauntered over to us. His cheeks were red from the exercise and he was definitely more winded than his slimmer companion.

“Yes, and thank you for the help,” Will replied. “The animals would have made themselves a nuisance otherwise.”

Allard clapped a hand on Ware’s back and grinned down at his herding companion. “The pleasure was all ours.”

Vargas wrinkled her nose as she looked over Raines and Will. “Do you intend to return home in that state?”

Will patted his chest and a puff of ash rose from his clothes. He sheepishly smiled at the rest of us. “I may have to ride on the box.”

I grabbed his arm. “Then I’m riding with you.”

“I would rather you be in the carriage,” he insisted.

I leaned back and looked him over with a sharp eye. “Why should that matter?”

Vargas cleared her throat. “What Lord Thorn fails to mention is that-”

“Not here,” Will spoke up as his eyes flickered around the barnyard.

Vargas waved a hand at the chickens. “Are you afraid the chickens will overhear us?”

“Would you like to inspect the coop to see if there is anything more than chickens in there?” Will challenged her.

She wrinkled her nose. “I would rather ride atop the carriage than do such a thing.”

“We’re never going to get that far if we don’t get you a little clean,” I chimed in as I brushed Will off. A cloud of soot floated off him and onto the ground, peppering the earth with black spots.

Vargas scurried back away from the muck. “Stop that! It will only make matters worse!”

The Dragon Lady held up one hand in front of her face with the palm turned upward. A faint flame popped up out of her hand and she blew. Specks of bright orange sparks flew out of the flame and wrapped around Will. A faint warm glow surrounded him, forcing me to jerk my hands back. The magic clung to his person and stopped the constant release of ash.

Will flexed his arms and smiled up at his fellow dragon. “Your personal protection cloak. You do me a great honor.”

She wrinkled her nose. “I do myself and the rest of us a great favor by preventing you from soiling our clothes and your beautiful carriage, now let us hurry so my magic can stop being used for such a low purpose.”

We piled into the carriage and Raines took his seat. I was near bursting with curiosity about the real reason behind the barn blowout. The dour expressions on my companions’ faces only worsened the feeling, but I waited until we were well on our way before saying anything.

“Well?” I asked the company. “What did you really find in the barn that made you burn all the hay?”

Will pursed his lips before he dug into his pocket and drew out something. He held it up in front of me. I blinked at the tiny object. “A piece of straw?”

“Rotten straw,” he mused as he drew the straw up to his own face and twisted it this way and that. “The barn is full of it.”

I cocked my head to one side. “Doesn’t that happen a lot with barns?”

“Yes, but Steven is a very careful farmer,” Will countered as he tucked the straw back into his pocket. “He keeps his barns as clean as he can but the amount of rot we discovered made it appear as if he hadn’t cleaned the floor in a year.”

My face fell as I began to understand what he was saying. “Do. . .did that thing he saw rot the straw?”

“There is magic in that piece of dry grass that hints at something nefarious,” Ware spoke up as he nodded at Will’s pocket. “Something is trying to ruin that mortal’s animal feed.”

“And doing a good job of it,” Vargas chimed in as she wrinkled her nose. “The whole place smelled of such rot that I nearly fainted.”

I caught Will’s eye. “Is this something that’s happened before?”

He shook his head. “Not in my many years of residing here, and the faint whisper of magic is very similar, if not exactly like, the worm you have seen twice now.”

I wrinkled my nose. “But why would the worm be slithering around somebody’s barn trying to rot the animal food?”

“To cause a great deal of trouble,” Allard spoke up as he leaned back and folded his arms over his chest. “The threat to one’s livelihood would most definitely upset the locals.”

My eyebrow shot up. “Upsetting the locals like that Wrecan guy?”

“Just the same but with even more anonymity,” Will added.

“You appear to have a concerted front against you, Lord Thorn,” Ware commented.

A dark cloud settled on Will’s brow. “That’s exactly what I was thinking, Lord Ware. It seems someone has decided to target me.”

“But why?” I wondered.

A bitter smile slipped onto his lips. “I suspect that if we knew the answer to that question we would know the culprit. As things stand, our only lead is through this Mr. Wrecan and the trouble he is creating among the locals. That is if the Tenky don’t find anything in their search. I hope we shall find the opposite on our arrival.”

Sir Slechtic waited for us at our return along with a few dozen of his people. They all sat on their ‘bikes’ in the soft light of sunset with the house at their backs and the driveway in front of them. The leader of the Tenky rolled forward at our alighting from the carriage and the grim expression on his face told me everything I needed to know. “My apologies, Lord Thorn, but my people haven’t found anything yet. Many are still searching, but the odds of us finding anything aren’t good right now.”

Will offered the little folk a smile. “That’s quite alright. There’s still hope and tomorrow is another day, so long as you’re willing to search again.”

Sir Slechtic stood straight and puffed out his chest. “Of course, Lord Thorn! We’ll keep searching until we find this trouble that’s bugging you and then we’ll kick it out of the forest!” He spun on his heels to face his people and pointed at the woods. “Who’s with me?”

“Aye! Yay! Me!” came the cheers from the crowd.

“Then off with you and don’t come back until you’ve found something!”

“What about supper?” one of them spoke up.

Slechtic rolled his eyes. “Alright, come back for supper, but you’d better be ready to light some torches after that!”

“Aye, sir!”

The Tenky revved their bikes and drove off in all directions leaving us with some peace and quiet.

“Some supper does sound like a good idea,” Will commented.

“Wait a moment,” Vargas spoke up as she nodded down at Will. “You are forgetting something.”

Vargas snapped her fingers and the soft orange glow around Will’s form vanished. The evidence of the magic’s usefulness became immediately apparent when a mountain of ash dropped off Will and created a circle on the ground around him. A faint mist arose from the ring and floated around him before a light breeze blew it away.

Will sheepishly smiled at his company, most of whom were amused. “I guess I should clean up first.”

“If you could,” Allard replied with a twinkle in his eyes.

Vargas grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the front door. “That gives us just enough time to prepare a nice meal, especially as Raines has his dirty hands full handling his own cleaning.”

The preparations were made and the table set, and soon we all joined together for a small meal. There wasn’t as much cheer as I would have liked considering the past day’s adventures. I was so deep in thought about the mysteries that inhabited the forests that I didn’t realize someone was talking to me.

“Rose? Rose?”

I shook myself from my reverie and looked up to find a worried smile on Will’s face. “Yeah?”

“You seem preoccupied,” he commented.

I shrugged and used my fork to pick at my food. “I was just thinking about everything that’s happened today. The Tenky and the barn and the-” Something made me look across the table at the windows that faced the front of the house. My heart nearly bounded out of my chest when I noticed a small pale face staring in from the growing darkness. “Will!” I shouted as I leaped to my feet. “That little girl’s out there!”

All eyes turned toward the window. The girl started back and dashed toward the far corner of the house.