The magnificent bird took off just as the bedroom door swung open and Lord Tanner himself strode in.
“What are you doing?” he demanded hurrying over. Spotting the fleeing eagle he turned to face Kathryn, delivering a sound slap to her face as he did. “Playing with animals are we? That’s another talent used by the Guardians.”
Face burning, she turned to face him, struggling to contain her irritation and the urge to throw him out the window. “I hardly think that admiring our kingdom’s emblem constitutes playing with them. That magnificent creature was perched on your rooflines when I woke this morning.”
“What were you doing leaning out the window, looking like you had just shooed it away.”
“I did just shoo it away,” she informed him tartly. She narrowed her eyes at him. “I saw those trophies in your halls. There was no way I was about to let you or your men kill such a beautiful bird.”
He looked at her for a long time and Kathryn refused to back down from his gaze. Finally he shrugged. “It is no matter,” he said indifferently. “My castle is too well guarded for even the Guardians to stage a rescue.”
“Then what do you plan to do with me?”
“You will remain here until I am certain that you are not a Guardian, and then we’ll discuss it.”
“And just how do you intend to determine whether or not I am a Guardian?” she demanded hotly.
He turned his cool gaze toward her, “I know that those with gifts, as the Guardians call them, cannot go forty-eight radians without using them or they’ll severely injure or kill themselves. We’ll just wait until two days have passed and go from there.”
“You seriously believe that Princess Jasmine will wait that long to send a rescue?” Kathryn asked, trying to bluff her way through the situation. She’d never heard of such a thing, although come to think of it the rest of the Dragons did seem to use their powers a lot…even when it wasn’t needed. If that was Lord Tanner’s test then she would pass it easily. She went
years
without using her gifts. Two days would be a snap.
Lord Tanner shrugged. “If she does there’s no way anyone can reach here in time, and as I’ve said before, my castle is well guarded. Will you join me for breakfast?”
“I’m not hungry,” she replied stiffly.
He looked at her coldly and for a long moment, she thought he was going to order her to join him, but he shrugged again, said, “As you wish,” and walked out of the room.
Ha
, she thought bitterly,
as you wish, my foot.
She moved back to the window, Destiny was nothing but a small blot against the blue sky
. I thank the stars that David was wise enough to suggest such a signal,
she thought as she watched the small dot grow smaller and smaller
, and that I finally relented to his urging.
It would take several radians for Destiny to reach the meadow and even then she didn’t know how long it would take for the Dragon’s to decipher her message. She would have to be patient, and she hated being patient. Briefly her thoughts returned to Elyon and his words, “I fear it will not be an easy test for you, but you must have faith.”
If this is what you mean, Elyon
, she thought glumly,
then you were right, this will not be easy for me.
David forced himself to focus on the wind and all of the voices within. Ever since Matt and the girls had woken him up before daybreak to inform him that Kathryn was still missing, he’d been using his gift to try and locate her. It was proving both difficult and frustrating. He’d even stationed himself in the glade where the waterfall she frequented was located, hoping that her familiarity with the location would help him discern her from the whirlwind that was carried to him. The control that he had to utilize to accomplish this was a feat he’d never attempted before, not even at the school. Not only was he listening to the air around him as new breezes entered the glade, but he was exerting his control far beyond his location. Winds as far away as his aunt Jasmine’s palace were under his, albeit weak, control. Now it was nearly dusk and he was as empty handed now as he had been that morning.
“Any luck?”
David opened his eyes to find Luke crouched next to him. Releasing his grip on his gift he let himself recover from the strain. He shook his head. “Absolutely nothing.”
“Amy will be thrilled to hear that,” his friend said. “David, what is going on here?”
“I have no idea. Something’s up, I just can’t figure out what it is.”
Luke pursed his lips. “You don’t think that there’s even a small chance that this is all a false alarm?”
“Kathryn wouldn’t forget about her shift and if she’s not here I can only assume that she’s injured so badly that she isn’t mobile or that she’s being prevented from returning.”
“And what about the possibility that facing the Blackwoods completely unhinged her and now she’s looking to live out a life of solitude?”
David hesitated. “I considered it,” he admitted finally. “But it just doesn’t seem to fit the situation. Maybe while she was being hounded by Natalie…but now? She hasn’t exactly been the warmest person to live with, but she never once shirked her responsibilities. It just doesn’t fit.”
“I had to ask.”
“I know.”
Luke unsheathed one of his daggers and started fidgeting with it. “So what do we do now?”
David sighed heavily. “That is the question. We’ll have to wait until the others get back from the villages and farms but I’m going to bet that they haven’t had any more luck that I’ve had.”
Mounting their horses, they left the glade and returned to the house. Leia was sitting in the middle of the training field when they arrived, various forest creatures surrounding her.
“Any word?” Luke called as they approached. The small brunette stood and the multitude of animals retreated in various directions to the forest. She shook her head. “If Kathryn’s in the forest, the animals have no memories of her.”
“The wind can’t find her either,” David told her. “It’s like she’s completely disappeared.”
The sound of a door slamming captured their attentions and they watched as Matt raced out of the house and joined them. “Nothing,” Matt panted as he joined them. “I don’t think she’s in the forest.”
“We’ve already reached that conclusion,” Luke said sourly. “How about giving us some good news.” Despite his question about Kathryn willingly leaving them, Luke was just as worried over her disappearance as the rest of his family.
“Hey, it’s not my fault!” Matt protested.
“Enough,” David interceded. “We’re all frustrated. Taking it out on each other won’t help us find Kathryn.”
“Has Jenna been able to get the plants to commune with her?” Leia asked quickly.
“She’s working on it.” Matt grimaced, “I’m not sure that it’s going so well, though.”
“We knew it was a long shot,” David said tiredly. “None of us have a primary gift of plant influence.”
“If she’s not in the forest, then she has to be somewhere in town, right?” Luke asked.
David sighed. “Luke, I’m not even sure she’s in Rima anymore.”
Leia looked dumbfounded. “If she’s not in Rima then how are we going to find her? She can’t have gotten that far!”
Matt shook his head. He’d already made the calculations in his head. “She went missing on Lumbar and there was no sign of her on Nénar. Now today’s Ambar. That’s a good two days that could easily have her in Asyea or Heltic if she was moving at a fast and steady pace on a horse.”
“Right now we have to hope that someone in the village saw something,” David said. “It’s our only lead to her disappearance.”
The sound of horse’s hooves drew David’s attention. “The others are back.” Quickly he moved around the house to meet the returning search party. Jenna stood on the front porch and from the look on her face David knew that her search had come up empty as well.
He jogged over to where Amy and Tyler, leading the rest of the family, were just entering the glade. “Tell me you found something.”
Amy could barely meet his gaze, shaking her head sadly. Tyler dismounted. “Nothing. It’s like the whole kingdom went blind when…whatever it was happened.”
“Did the orphanage matron confirm that Kathryn was at the orphanage on Lumbar?”
“Yes. And according to her, Kathryn had planned to return the next day. She seemed genuinely surprised that Kathryn hadn’t. At least,” Tyler jerked a thumb toward Daniel who was dismounting, “according to our resident mind reader she was. I still say she could have been faking.”
“It takes years of intense practice to disguise your thoughts,” Daniel grumbled from behind him. “It takes even longer to manipulate your feelings to the point that they feel real when someone like me is looking at them.”
“So you don’t think that she was faking.”
Daniel shook his head. “She was honest with us. However the tricky part of mind reading isn’t reading someone’s mind, it’s asking the right questions. As long as we don’t ask questions that could cause any doubt in her mind, I won’t pick up on it.”
David turned to Lindsey. “How about you? Light is everywhere, surely you found some trace of her.”
She shrugged helplessly. “Light is…unpredictable at best. With my gift I can really only influence its intensity. I’ve never pulled an image out of light.”
“I was afraid that would be the case.”
“And since I can’t find her,” Luke added. “She’s not on the ground. Or in it,” he added encouragingly to Amy.
“Could this be any more frustrating?” Natalie exclaimed heatedly. “We need to do something, but without a clue there’s nothing we can do!”
“What about you, Cass? Kathryn’s drawn to water. Surely you can pick up something from it?”
Cass was shaking her head before David finished. “It’s not my dominate gift…and it’s not one I’ve worked hard to cultivate.” She looked apologetically at Amy. “It was hard enough to learn to levitate and move things. I didn’t want to try to learn to influence water too.”
“It’s alright,” David replied. “We’ve all done everything we can to try and find her using our gifts. It looks like we’re going to have to do this the old fashioned way.”
“We have been!” Rachel protested. “And we’ve gotten nowhere.”
“So you want to just give up?” David asked calmly.
“I didn’t say that!” She replied, frustration lacing her words. “I just don’t know what else we can do.”
“We do what we have been doing,” David replied firmly. “Eventually we’ll ask the right question or someone will remember something.” He looked at the disheartened faces around him and knew that they all needed a break. “In the meantime, I need Cass and Matt in the kitchen making supper.”
“Supper!” Amy cried. “How can you think about food during a time like this?”
“Amy, we’re all tired and we can’t help Kathryn if we can’t think straight,” he said, trying to reason with her. “We need a break before we go back out again.”
For a moment it looked like she wanted to argue with him. Eventually however, her shoulders sagged and she reluctantly nodded. “I know.”
“Come on,” he encouraged, holding up a hand to help her dismount. “We’ll find her, Amy,” he promised once she was on the ground. “No one messes with our family and gets away with it.”
Cass and Matt retreated inside to make a late supper and David ordered the rest of his family to do something that would help their minds relax. “I don’t care what it is,” he said as the moved into the house. “So long as you aren’t directly thinking about Kathryn’s disappearance.”
Supper was a relatively simple affair. Matt and Cass used some leftover noodles to make a venison stew chock full of verisce, artise, schien, and cermia. It was delicious and had the situation been different it would have inspired friendly banter and creative discussions at the table. As it was, there was very little talk throughout the meal.
Once the soup bowls had been cleared, Cass brought out a surprise dessert. “Pudding!” Elizabeth exclaimed with delight. The response from the others was less than enthusiastic as everyone just continued staring at either their plates or some spot on the table.
“I thought we needed a treat,” Cass explained meekly.
As David dug his spoon into the delicious delicacy a black and white blur suddenly sped through the window, landed painfully on his shoulder and let out a loud call right into his eardrums that startled him off his chair. “What in the kingdom?” he exclaimed, rubbing the ear that had been blasted.
“It’s Destiny!” Amy exclaimed hurrying over.
David felt a cold feeling of dread knot in his stomach. The signal he had asked Kathryn to teach Destiny if she was ever in trouble, the one she had scorned, had just played out.
David looked warily at Destiny and rubbed his ear, “this is not good, Kathryn is in serious trouble.”
Amy looked at him darkly. “Did Destiny squawking in your ear have anything to do with clarifying that for you?”
Continuing to rub his ear, David replied, “Months ago I asked Kathryn to train Destiny to fly to me in case she ever found herself in a situation she couldn’t control,” he stared at the bird who fidgeted nervously on the back of his chair. “When I mentioned it she scorned the idea. I didn’t think she would do it.”
“Apparently she did,” Cassandra said slowly.
“And if it took Destiny this long to get to us, I can only imagine where Kathryn is now,” Leia said slowly.
David held up his hand, shaking his head. “We don’t know for certain where Destiny started from. For all we know, she might have just started flying this afternoon.”
“Look!” Amy cried pointing to the floor where a small scrap of parchment lay partially under David’s chair. “I bet Destiny dropped that when she screeched in your ear.”
“Thanks for the reminder,” David muttered as he bent down and retrieved the paper. He glanced at the words penned on the parchment, and frowned.
Kathryn now is not the time to be cryptic!
“What does it say?” Cassandra asked.
David motioned Amy near him. “I want to make sure that this note is really from Kathryn first. Does this look like her handwriting to you?”
Amy studied the note for a minute. “Yes. That’s her handwriting.”
“Well what does it say?” Luke demanded.
“The lavender deer is enslaved to his new province.”
“What kind of a message is that?” Natalie cried.
“The kind she sends in case the messenger got shot down,” Tyler said quietly.
David considered Tyler’s words and nodded. “I think you’re right, whatever she wrote is a clue but not an obvious one in case it made it back into the hands of whoever, or whatever, has her.”
“What makes you so sure someone has her?” Elizabeth asked. “A deer is an animal.”
“But why in the kingdom is it lavender?” Cass asked.
“There’s no such thing as a lavender deer,” Elizabeth said confused, “So why would she say that?”
“What about the rest of her note?” Amy asked. “The part about being enslaved?”
David read that part again.”…enslaved to his province?”
Daniel spoke up. “If someone’s enslaved to something it usually means it’s his duty. Could Kathryn mean someone who’s nobility and trusted with high levels of responsibility?”
“…and a governor rules a province,” David muttered. He turned to Daniel, “I think you might be right. But Lord Merlae is presently at the King’s Palace, so it couldn’t be him.”
“But notice the word new in front of province,” Amy pointed out. “I think she’s saying it isn’t Merlae but someone who is a governor.”
“So she’s not even in Rima anymore,” Tyler shook his head. “I have to hand it to her, when she gets into trouble, she really gets into trouble.”
“Tyler that isn’t helping!” Amy snapped.
“I’ve got it,” David exclaimed, interrupting them. “The lavender deer, it’s not an animal at all. It’s a crest.”
Tyler nodded, “Now that makes sense. She sent the crest instead of the name.”
“But whose crest is it?” Lindsey asked.
The team was silent for a moment each thinking hard. Suddenly Daniel spoke up, “At the tournament Lord Tanner’s shield had the head of a purple stag painted on it.”
“He’s right,” Tyler agreed. “Lord Tanner’s crest was a purple stag. Lavender deer, purple stag, it’s the same idea but different words.”
“But what’s he doing out here?” Amy asked. “Doesn’t he own a manor in Echel Province over in Heltic?”
“Once we find Kathryn, I’m sure we’ll learn the answer to that question,” David said moving towards the door. “For now we need to head into town and get information. Only this time, instead of asking about Kathryn we’re going to ask about Lord Tanner.”
“Are we going as Guardians or villagers?” Tyler asked.
David made his decision in an instant. “We’re going to do it the same way we did it with Duke Sebastian. Lord Tanner is reckless and cold and we have no idea what kind of messenger system he has. If he learns that Guardians are on the move, he may just kill Kathryn before we discover where he’s holding her.”
Amy paled at his words. He wished there were some words of comfort he could give her, but if Kathryn was in enough trouble that she was calling for help…there weren’t any.
As the evening dragged on, David began to wonder if they’d interpreted Kathryn’s message correctly. None of the villagers had heard of a Lord Tanner, nor had there been any visiting knights recently.
The orphanage matron mentioned hearing Kathryn speaking to someone at the edge of the village but had been too busy with the children to step outside and look.
He had just left the orphanage when he heard a small voice call, “wait!”
Turning, he caught sight of little Dawn hurrying after him, a small doll in her arms. “Can I help you, Dawn?” he asked, tramping down the urgency he felt telling him to keep going.
I saw Miss Caterina. With big men and - and dey were mean to her,” the little girl said quietly.
Instantly David dropped to his knees to look at the little girl. “What did you see?” he asked quickly.
Dawn pointed to the end of the street. “Miss Caterina had just left to go home when dis many,” she held up her hand to indicate five, “big horses rode up. One of the men called Miss Caterina Lady Kathryn,” she turned to look at David, “Is Miss Caterina a Lady?”
“When she wants to be,” David replied. “What else happened?”
“She was surprised
to see dem—she call one of de men,” the little girl frowned in concentration, “…Lord Tan..Tanter. Dey quarrel. I don tink Miss Caterina was appy to see em. Affer a little while e..e grabbed er arm and..and e trew er up on is orse. E mounted behind er and dey rode off.” The little girl sniffed and wiped her eyes. “Will she be kay?”
“She will be now that you’ve told me this,” he assured her. “Which way did they ride?”
Dawn bit her lip pointed at the road that left the village. “Straight I tink. It was really dark by dat time. Lord Tanter say someting about being a gov..gov..” she searched for the right word, “govenernor I tink.”
David reached out and pulled the little girl into a hug. “Thank you, Dawn. You’ve been a big help.”
“When you find er, will you tell er dat Starla misses er?”
“Of course.”
The little girl ran back to the orphanage and David hurried to find the rest of the Dragons. “A little girl confirmed that it was Lord Tanner who kidnapped Kathryn,” he told them quietly. “She also pointed out the general direction they fled in.”
“What are we waiting for?” Amy demanded. “Let’s go.”
“For once, I agree with Amy,” Tyler said. “We need to hurry. If Lord Tanner is as cold as you say he is, we need to move quickly.”
David nodded. “Apparently Lord Tanner told Kathryn that he was staying at the Governor’s castle.”
“Lord Merlae didn’t mention any visiting Lords or caretakers in his letter, to the Gryffons,” Cassandra said slowly, referring to the Guardian family closest to the Governor’s castle in Rima.
When a governor or noble left his castle for an extended period of time, he sent a letter to the Guardian council who would forward the letter to the family closest to the fortress so that they could keep an eye on it. Once the closest family had seen the letter, it was distributed to the rest of the Guardians in the region. The letter often detailed if the Governor was expecting guests who might arrive before he returned or if he had engaged some other Lord or Lady as a caretaker.
The Dragons were quiet for a time, finally Elizabeth asked, “Could Lord Tanner be planning a coup of some kind?”
“It’s beginning to look that way,” Daniel replied. “Why else would he take over the castle?”
“We don’t know for sure that he did take over the castle, Daniel,” Lindsey argued. “We just know he’s staying there.”
“We’re wasting time,” Tyler inserted gruffly. “We can ask Lord Tanner these questions after we rescue Kathryn.”
“I agree,” David said quickly. “But we need to clearly think this through before we break into the castle. It’s a fortress.”
“And this time, Kathryn’s not here to pave the way,” Amy pointed out.
Nodding slowly, David said. “I know, which is why we’re going to try for the night after tomorrow.”
“That late?” Cass cried, “I thought you said we needed to move quickly!”
“We do,” Daniel assured her. “But David’s right. This is going to be a tricky mission and it takes at least a day and a half, maybe two hard day’s ride to get there. If we’re going to be riding that fast, our horses will be exhausted and there’s a good chance that we will be as well so an assault on David’s timeline isn’t even a guarantee, more like a best case scenario.”
Amy bit her lip and nodded. “Daniel’s right. We can’t rush this. Not if we want to be assured of success.”
“And while we won’t be attacking for a few days,” David said quickly. “We won’t be idle. I want us to spend as much time in the area as possible around the castle so that we can do some reconnaissance.”
“Could we send a message to the Gryffons and ask them for assistance?” Lindsey suggested.
Amy, Daniel, and Cass quickly voiced their support at the idea, but David shook his head. “The Gryffons are several days ride to the south on a mission for the Council,” he informed the rest of his team. “And the Sphinx’s are in the process of ridding the western edge of an occult group. We’re on our own.”
His grim declaration silenced any other suggestions that may have been offered up.
While the Dragons prepared to leave David asked Luke what he remembered about the governor’s castle.
“It’s a fortress,” Luke replied.
“We know. Anything else you can remember?”
Luke thought a moment. “There are some cliffs behind the castle where we might be able to regroup before an attack, but I’m going to guess they’re patrolled since the rest of the land surrounding the castle is pretty flat.”
“If I remember correctly there are some hills just past the castle.”
Luke nodded. “Yes, about two or three kilometers past it, but what has that got to do with anything.”
David looked at his friend, “They just may be of some use to us.” He turned to the rest of the group. “We’re leaving in the morning and I hope to reach the governor’s castle by noon the next day. Hopefully we’ll be rested enough to attack that night. If not we’ll try for the next.”
The other Dragons reluctantly moved to their rooms to try and sleep. David knew that he should probably get some sleep as well, but he was too disturbed to be able to rest.
The next morning he decided that he, Luke, Amy, and Jenna would travel on horseback in the open. The rest of the Dragons would stick to the trees where they would have less chance of being spotted. That night they would meet up to camp and go over and revise the plan if necessary.
“Luke, Amy, Jenna, and I will ride beyond the castle until we pass the hills three kilometers beyond. We’ll leave our horses and use the cliffs for cover as we approach the castle,” David explained, pointing to the map spread out before him as he pointed out specific landmarks. “The rest of you will use the forest, exit beyond the hills and leave your horses with ours. We’ll meet up here,” he placed his finger next to a small stream indicated on the map, “and wait for darkness.”
The ride to the castle was long and painful. Glancing over, David noted that Amy looked like she was facing an army alone, which is probably how he’d feel if it had been Luke in trouble and not Kathryn. He wished he could think of something comforting to say, but all he could think about was that he should have listened to Amy. She knew Kathryn the best and if something smelled off to her than he should have paid more attention, instead he had let Kathryn convince him that she was invincible…he would never make that same mistake again.
They reached a boggy marsh late that evening and pitched camp. Destiny alighted on the top of a dead crabus tree and made short work of a small ferret-like animal. Content that they were alone, David sent Luke to guide the rest of the Dragons to the campsite.
“Matt, can you please do something about these bugs that are intent on drinking my blood!” Natalie complained after the tents had been set up, slapping at the bugs that attempted to land on her body.
“It’s that scent you’re wearing. It’s a bug magnet. I really don’t understand why you bother, as soon as you put on your armor the cirin will neutralize it anyway”
“I like to smell pretty,” she replied with as much dignity as she could muster.
“Complain to David,” the cook grunted. “A steady wind works better than me trying to control all ten thousand of them.”
“David…”
Her leader, engaged in a discussion on tactics with Luke and Amy didn’t hear her.