“Hold on,” Anders said as Ivan began to walk away. “I was just with a woman.”
Ivan stopped, cocked his head to the side, and asked, “What?”
“It was dark. I was somewhere else. No one was around. I called out into the darkness and heard a noise. It was a woman. I ran to her. She was under a tree lying in a pool of blood. A dragon lay on top of her.” Somewhat breathless, he looked up at Ivan who was now back standing over him.
“Was it a dream?” Anders asked, already knowing better. “It seemed too real to be a dream…”
“That was no dream; you saw one of the missing riders. We must leave at once,” Ivan said sternly.
Anders hopped up onto his feet. Zahara had awoken and stood ready to take Anders where they needed to go.
“I need to grab my sword and bow,” Anders said, feeling the place at his side where he usually kept his weapons.
“I’ll get Nadir and inform him of your vision,” Ivan said. “He’ll be joining us on this mission.”
“Okay, I’ll be quick.” Anders ran to his small pile of belongings at the edge of the campfire.
“Hey, what’s the rush? Are you going somewhere?” Max asked. He’d been watching when Ivan went to wake Anders.
“I had a vision of one of the dragonriders,” Anders said. “We’re going to search for them.”
“Need any help?” Max, Bo, Maija, Thomas and Kirsten all stood up at the same time, ready to leap into action.
“No, you stay here. Who knows if Merglan is still out there? This is my task to handle.”
“Anders wait,” Thomas said while Anders was strapping on his sword belt.
Anders faced his cousin.
“You should know about the crystals,” Thomas said, glancing over at Maija and Kirsten.
“What crystals?” Anders asked. Just then Ivan called to Anders, waving his hand and urging him to hurry up. He nodded to show he was coming and turned his attention back to Thomas
“I found several crystals in the mine and each time I did the soldiers would confiscate them,” Thomas said.
“Merglan’s soldiers would bring them into the fortress and straight up to his personal chambers,” Kirsten interrupted. “Maija and I found a secret door that led to a room where he was keeping the crystals guarded by a dragon. During the last night, we were there, just after Merglan left, we found that he’d taken the dragon and the crystals with him,” she said in a rush.
“Interesting,” Anders said. “I’ll have to tell Ivan.” Anders thanked them before he and Zahara ran to join Ivan. The two climbed onto Zahara’s back and held on tightly as she took to the sky. Nadir ran along the ground below them keeping up as they journeyed away from the camp in search of the missing dragons and riders.
Chapter 19
Honor for a Warrior Chief
Kirsten and Maija watched as Anders and Ivan climbed onto Zahara’s back and took off into the afternoon sky. Nadir, the elf prince, ran beneath them at an alarmingly fast pace.
“Are all elves that fast?” Kirsten asked Max while he sat sipping a mug of hot water.
“Yeah,” he said. “It took us three days to walk from the elf city to the Eastland Mountains and we were moving at a steady rate. The entire elf army made the whole trek in one day.” He held up his index finger emphasizing his point.
“That’s incredible,” Kirsten said in astonishment.
“If I had that ability, I would’ve seen the entire world by now,” Bo added, prodding the fire with a stick. “Imagine the places you could go with that kind of speed.”
Max bobbed his head as his gaze drifted to the fire’s embers, “That would be something else, wouldn’t it?”
“It’s Bo, right?” Maija asked, leaning forward over her crossed legs and gesturing toward Max’s brother.
“Yep, my full name is Beauregard, but it’s too much of a mouthful to say. Also, I got teased a bit when I was younger,” he added.
“You were with us on the ship and in the fortress?” Maija asked.
Bo nodded, “I was locked up on that stinking ship, and then they put me to work in the mines.”
Maija frowned, “It’s crazy to think we went through such a horrible experience together, yet we never met. I’m sure there are lots of others who went through the same thing with us who I wouldn’t recognize unless they told me.”
“I remember seeing you down in the pit,” Thomas said from across the fire.
“I saw you as well,” he replied. “You had that guard that all the others didn’t like.”
“That’s why he was such a grouch,” Kirsten commented, more to herself than the group.
“He sure was. Nobody seemed to like him much, so he took his frustrations out on all of us,” Bo said smiling slightly.
“The way he addressed me when he showed us to the chambermaid’s room made my blood boil,” Kirsten said, clenching her fists. “Maija had to hold me back from hitting him for his snide remark.”
Laughing, Bo said, “He wouldn’t have like that. I would’ve paid money to see anyone hit that grump.”
“She did get him in the end though,” Thomas added.
