Dave Smeds: The Schemes of Dragons

He keened his senses. No danger in the air. Amane territory might surround them, but they were safe. He was certain of it. He had never before had quite such faith in himself. For many years he had disregarded his own abilities, laying his trust in the accumulated wisdom of his ancestors.

His shaman had lied to him.

He could not keep pace with all his thoughts. The world was changing. He was still displeased to have to make the journey north, but the tracts of forest ahead no longer seemed so daunting. While his ancestors slept, he would be awake and learning.

THE FOREST REVERBERATED with birdsong. The fragrance of honeysuckle clung to the breeze. The glade reminded Elenya of the one where she had often hidden as a little girl, a short way inland from Garthmorron Hold, away from the roads, where the foliage locked out the revealing light of the sun and the shadebrush grew so thick that a child could avoid an adult with ease. Her nostalgia was appropriate; Garthmorron was only a few leagues away.

Behind her the other rebels went quietly about their activities. Wynneth groomed a oeikani; Solint the Minstrel repaired his doeskin jerkin; Dushin and Iregg, having served on the night watch, were catching up on sleep. Elenya guarded the trail.

It was a harder task than usual. Over the past year, at times such as this, Milec would have been with her, perhaps taking advantage of a few hours out of sight of the other members of the band. She idly plucked her bowstring. Seven days he had been dead and buried. Now the flight from Old Stump was behind them and she had time to think about peaceful moments gone by.

Hoofbeats.

She nocked an arrow and pointed it at the path. In due course a lone rider emerged between the boles of the giant trees, threading carefully along a way meant for deer, not their larger cousins, the oeikani. Elenya let him continue well into range.

"Well met, Sir Enns," she called.

The rider flinched, and stopped his mount. He stared toward the foliage where she knelt. His glance continued to wander, searching the shadows for some sign of her. Eventually he gave up.

"Well met, princess," he said. "I see you are not wearing white."

"Not today. How went your mission?"

"We've food for a week. It should be ready to fetch almost immediately."

"Good. You'll find Alemar by the spring."

Enns nodded and continued into the camp. Elenya set her arrow on the ground, but kept an eye toward the trail in case Enns had been followed.

After about half an hour, Alemar joined her.

"Two people need to go back with Enns to bring the supplies. Care to go?"

His expression was far too innocent. "Are you thinking I need something to occupy my mind?" she asked.

Alemar managed a guilty smile. "Enns suggested it this morning. Wynneth and I both thought it was a good idea."

She shrugged. "I suppose it is. I'll go."

"Good," Alemar said, appearing relieved. "Dushin's awake. He'll be the third. If you leave now you can be back well before sundown."

They each took two animals, one for riding, one as a pack beast. Their destination was a silk farm out on the extreme edges of the settled area surrounding the community of Eruth. The farmer was sympathetic to the rebel cause, though, like most of Cilendrodel's populace, he did not make his loyalties public. Once or twice a year he would accept rebel funds and purchase foodstuffs and other supplies for Alemar and Elenya's band, leaving them in his barn to be picked up while he and his family were absent. The scheme was deliberately designed to leave as little direct contact as possible between him and the outlaws.

Elenya rode at the back, though she knew this region as well as any of the party, having been reared in the vicinity. She avoided conversation, though she liked both her companions well enough. They had shared a great many trials. Dushin had joined the band two years earlier, after a price was set on his head for having slain the Dragon's soldiers that he had caught raping his niece. Enns, a member of the Cilendri royalty dispossessed by the Dragon's occupation, had known the twins before they left for the Eastern Deserts, and ever since their return had accompanied them in their relentless flight back and forth across Cilendrodel. They did not seem to begrudge her her contemplation.

Enns led them along a twisting, almost invisible track, designed to circumvent roads, though those were not common in this sector of the province. Finally Elenya began to smell the peculiar odor so common to this part of Cilendrodel. Abruptly they left the wild timberlands behind and entered a grove of silk trees, so called because their fragrant leaves were fed to the worms that spun the famous quarn silk. They could see nubs and indentations on the branches where some leaves had been recently harvested.

Elenya felt the watchful gaze of the rythni vanish. The little folk declined to suffer the discomfort they always felt upon entering an area where the hand of man had disrupted the nurturant energies found in native woodland.

They emerged from the trees into the grounds of the silk farmer's residence. There was a modest house, a stable, and a long shed for the cages of worms. The buildings were nestled in the shade of several massive silk trees, away from the sunlight that would reduce the worms' rate of production. As arranged, no one was home.

They dismounted. Elenya slid her rapier out of its sheath, and the men drew their swords. They circled the buildings on foot, checking the perimeter for signs of armed men lurking in ambush, but the only foot and hoof prints were the expected ones along the narrow lane leading toward Eruth.

They met at the front of the stable. Dushin lifted the bar and opened the doors while Elenya and Enns stood guard. They saw sacks of food piled on the packed dirt between the pens of milk goats and the empty oeikani stalls.

Satisfied, they headed back to fetch their pack animals, sheathing their weapons as they walked. Elenya noticed out of the corner of her eye that Enns's blade seemed very bright, almost as if it were brand new. She forgot about it in her struggle to drag her obstinate oeikani to the stable doors.

They began loading their beasts, each taking responsibility for their own to ensure that each burden would be properly secured. Elenya hooked her fourth bit of cargo into place and reentered the stable. She passed Dushin on his way out, sack of millet over his shoulder; Enns was standing by his oeikani.

Suddenly a small shape fluttered out of the hay loft and sped by Elenya. "Princess! Beware!" it cried.

Elenya heard sounds of rapid movement from the goat pens, the stalls, and the hay loft. She ducked.

She was fast enough to avoid the noose of one lasso, but not the other. It settled around her shoulders and yanked her off her feet. She landed on the sacks, tumbling. As she rolled she brought up one of her demonblades and sawed through the rope that was pulling her. The hemp parted with a snap.

Five quick glances told her the situation: in a goat pen the man who had lassoed her was dropping the severed piece and reaching for a weapon; in a oeikani stall the other rope thrower had already drawn a saber; above in the hay loft a third man was preparing to drop on top of her; at the entrance a fourth man was standing, bloody sword in hand, over the prone, gasping figure of Dushin, whom he had just stabbed from behind; and out near the oeikani, Enns was waiting, doing nothing.

Suddenly she knew how Enns had possessed the money for a new sword. Suddenly she knew just how Puriel's men had known where to ambush Milec.

"Traitor!" she screamed.

The man in the loft jumped, but she was ready for him. Bounding toward a clear space, she flung her demonblade, fatally stabbing him in midair. She threw her other knife at the man in the pen, pulled out her rapier, and charged the man from the stall.