image 5  image

NEW FRIENDS, NEW ENEMIES

Kale stood in a panic. This little doneel was not what he seemed. Where could she run?

She’d been told where to go by the elders of the village. To Vendela. She must follow their instructions. Should she go to The Goose and The Gander and look for Maye? That was what Farmer Brigg had advised. Always before, she had only to listen to instructions and do what she was told. Nothing complicated ever came her way.

Maybe being a slave isn’t so bad. If I can just get to The Hall, I’ll be a servant. That’s enough like being a slave that all this adventure with grawligs and doneels, running from danger and battles, will just cease to exist.

She looked at Dar and his diminutive frame. His short legs would never keep up with her. She surveyed the forest and wondered which way to run.

A hailing cry came from the sky. Putting a hand at her brow to shield against the sun, Kale scrunched up her eyes and saw Merlander with her beautiful red wings swooping down. Again the dragon called with a round melodious tone. Dar waved a greeting. The whoosh of the last beat of Merlander’s wings ruffled Kale’s hair like a spring breeze. The dragon folded her wings against her sides.

A young woman riding the dragon’s back threw her leg over the arching blue neck and slid down glittering scales to the ground.

“I’m Leetu Bends,” she announced with a nod in Kale’s direction. Then she turned a scowl on the doneel. “Dar, what did you say to her?” And before he could answer, “What foolishness. How clumsy.”

Dar dipped his head, hiding his expression. His ears drooped.

“I’m sorry.” Leetu turned to Kale. “Dar teases, among other disreputable things. Think of him as an older brother who has no sense of decorum. Or no sense, period. Paladin has urgent need of your skill. That is why you must turn aside and leave going to The Hall until later.”

Kale stood rigid in her confusion. This was the commanding voice she had heard as the grawligs battled—the one who said they had come to rescue her. Kale looked back to the repentant doneel and then to the self-assured young emerlindian. She did wear the colors of The Hall. Her tunic was a mellow, golden tan of ripe wheat, and her breeches, the rich brown of the earth.

But how could Kale know for sure who Dar and Leetu were? What did they really want? Were they here to help or hinder her?

Leetu Bends came up only to Kale’s shoulder, yet she had a dominant presence. White-blond and blue-eyed in a slim frame, Leetu did not look a bit delicate, but rather tautly muscled, ready to spring into action. She was a young emerlindian. Chin, nose, eyebrows, and ears all slightly pointed, her beauty was sharp, drawn with clean lines.

Kale had heard stories of emerlindians. The race was born almost pure white. As they aged, their skin, hair, and eyes darkened. They lived a long time, hundreds of years. Wise brown grannies were both male and female and cherished by the younger generations. But even older than grannies were a few black grands, emerlindians who supposedly neared a thousand years in age. Generally thought to be noble, kind, and benevolent, the emerlindians possessed interesting mental powers.

Kale winced at the knowledge. This Leetu Bends reads my thoughts. She knows I don’t trust her.

Kale cast her eyes down to the forest floor, concentrating on the leaves scattered at her feet.

Is it possible to block her reading my mind?

Leetu laughed. “Yes, it is. And it’s a technique I’ll teach you as part of your training. For now, you can’t throw up a barrier.”

Kale looked up. Merlander had settled, lying down at the edge of the clearing. Dar stood beside her neck, his head just coming to her glistening cheek. He leaned against her comfortably as if welcoming her back. Kale could feel the peace between them.

Leetu Bends had not moved. Her bright face, radiating warmth and friendliness, no longer held the stern and autocratic look she had given Dar when she first arrived. Kale wanted to like her.

Could she trust these two? The elders had told her to go to The Hall. Did she dare put aside Councilman Meiger’s instructions? Why would Dar want to keep her from going where she was supposed to go? Leetu said Paladin needed her skill. What skill? Kale let herself collapse in a rather undignified heap on the ground.

“I know it’s overwhelming,” said Leetu.

The emerlindian’s comment did little to ease Kale’s mental struggle. Since she’d left Farmer Brigg’s wagon, nothing had gone as she’d expected. Life was much simpler in River Away where Mistress Meiger told Kale whose house to go to, and the mistress of that home ordered her about all day.

Leetu came and sat beside her. “Try to relax. Let us take care of you. Dar’s a good cook…when he doesn’t get distracted and burn everything.”

The doneel jerked to attention, rushed back to the fire, and turned the fish.

Leetu grinned and returned to her quiet talk with Kale. Her low, reasonable voice soothed Kale’s anxiety. “You do need food. You’ve been relying on magic to sustain you, and it won’t, you know. Well, you wouldn’t know that yet, but you’ll learn. Your skill is in finding dragon eggs, and there is an egg that must be found.”

Leetu pulled a green parnot fruit from the pouch at her hip and handed it to Kale. “We’ll eat and talk,” she said. “You can ask as many questions as you like, and then we’ll start off on our quest.”

It sounded so rational, and yet it didn’t. Kale bit into the sweet fruit.

The elders had given her instructions to go to The Hall, but the elders were far away. Kale had enough experience to know that ignoring what you were told to do often led to trouble. She trusted the elders, for although they had never acted as parents to her, they had treated her fairly. They saw to it that she had food, something to wear, and schooling, such as it was. They allowed no villager to take advantage and work her too hard.

She was free now. Well, sort of. She still had to go where she’d been told to go, and when she got to The Hall, she would probably still have to do what she was told to do. But it was different somehow. Being a servant was better than being a slave. Wasn’t it?

Leetu Bends had said she could ask as many questions as she wanted. In River Away she had never been encouraged to ask questions. That much was different at least. But a problem remained. Would she know what questions to ask?

The small party ate without much conversation. Dar finished first and took out a foot-long metal harmonica. He settled against a tree trunk and began to play quiet tunes.

“Digestive music,” said Leetu. “Doneels believe strongly in the correct type of music to accompany each of their activities.”

Kale nodded and continued to eat the delectable fish. Pretending to concentrate on her meal gave her an opportunity to think over just what she wanted to know. After each thought, Kale examined Leetu’s face for some indication that the emerlindian knew what was going through Kale’s mind. Her stomach knotted. She put her dinner aside. Nothing inside her head made any sense.

I never had big things to think about in River Away. Is this what I really want? To be surrounded by people I don’t know, who might be friends or might be foes?

Her companions set to doing chores. With the few dishes washed and stashed in a canvas pack, Leetu and Dar sat down on either side of Kale. Her thoughts still jumbled every which way, but she couldn’t stall any longer.

“You must ask your questions,” said Leetu. She gestured with a graceful hand at the three gathered around the doused campfire. “We must be on our way.”

Kale looked to the dragon laden with bundles of supplies. “Where are we going?”

“First, to find Wizard Fenworth.”

Kale didn’t know one wizard from another. Weren’t there wizards enough at The Hall? “Why?” she asked.

“He has been chosen to take care of the dragon egg once you have found it.”

“How do you know I can find it?”

“You have the gift,” said Dar. “Didn’t you walk right to the egg you carry in the pouch? Didn’t you put your hand on it before you even knew why you were reaching?”

Kale’s hands clenched on the edge of her tunic. It wasn’t fair that they should know so much about her and be confident in all they did. She didn’t know anything. “How do you know about me?”

Leetu slapped her hands on her knees and shook her head. “Paladin knew. We can’t tell you how Paladin knows things. He just does.”

Kale blinked at Leetu’s agitation, but having been given permission to ask questions, she just couldn’t keep from asking another. “Why am I the one Paladin has chosen to go look for this egg?”

Leetu stood and paced. “Another question that we cannot answer. Once you have been in his service for a while, it will cease to amaze you that he knows so much.” Leetu looked away for a minute as if to summon up words to make it easier on Kale. She sighed her frustration and turned back to her listener. “Let me tell you about the egg, and why it is so important.”

Kale nodded.

“First, it is a meech egg.”

“Meech?”

Dar jumped in. “The highest order of dragon, the most powerful. A female meech may lay three eggs in her entire life span, over five hundred years. The eggs are rare.”

Leetu put up her hand to stop Dar’s lecture. “This egg was taken by Risto.”

“Who?”

Dar squirmed with his lips pressed firmly together as his eyes darted from Leetu’s face to Kale’s. He just couldn’t keep quiet and burst out with the information Kale needed. “An evil wizard! Risto’s an evil wizard.”

Leetu cut him off with a look. “Risto does not wish to hatch the egg, but to use the power of the egg to cast a grandiose spell.”

“Of course,” said Dar. His ears twitched, and he licked his lips as he stared at Kale. “His spells are evil.” The little doneel’s eyebrows came together in a fierce frown. “If he needs the power of a meech egg to get it done, there’s no telling what contemptible transgression he’s plotting.”

“You mean you don’t know what evil spell he’s going to cast? How can you be so sure it’s dangerous?”

Dar bounced to his feet, flinging his arms wide. “Because it’s Risto. He doesn’t do good things. He has all the evil traits that taint the seven high races. Pride, greed, deceit, faithlessness.” Dar sputtered in his outrage. “He’s cruel, power-mad, cunning—”

“He’s evil,” Leetu interrupted. “In the use of power from the unhatched egg, Risto will destroy the life within.”

“You see,” said Dar, stamping his foot for emphasis. “Evil! No respect for Wulder’s handiwork. Risto must be stopped, and Paladin sends us to do it.”

“With Fenworth,” Leetu reminded the doneel.

Dar screwed his face into a grimace of disgust. “Having that wizard along will lead to disaster.”

“Why?” asked Kale.

Leetu sent Dar a warning look before answering. “It’s best you wait and see, Kale.”