“You came to our farm.”
He looked a bit more haggard than he had at that time, and thinner, but he had the same bright intensity that I remembered when he had been wandering along the road. He hadn’t really been looking for anyone. He had been with the mesahn.
“The wagons,” I whispered. “You were there because of whatever happened to the wagons. ” I looked over to Joran. “Remember when we found the burned remains?”
“That was a dragon. That dragon,” he said, nodding to the small dragon. “I had brought it out of the Wilds, but we were attacked. I was pursuing them when you first saw me.”
We had been caught up in it from the very beginning. We had seen the attack, and the remains, and then the caravan that had come through.
“What about the Djarn?” I asked.
He shrugged. “The Djarn have their own agenda when it comes to the dragons. They prefer not to see them in the hands of the Vard, though.”
The timing was all too suspect. “I don’t know if this was the Vard,” I said.
He frowned at me. “Not the Vard?”
I shook my head. Exhaustion worked through me. “I don’t know. We thought they were.” I looked over to Joran and found him staring. “But the Vard don’t care for the dragons. They wouldn’t want to capture them.”
The man started to smile. “Now we have a farmer from Berestal who’s an expert on the Vard?”
“Not an expert—”
“You might be right,” the man said. “I’ll have to discuss it with the king.”
“You serve the king?”
The man grunted. He patted the mesahn. It circled around us, and each time that it jumped, it seemed as if the ground shook a little bit. The man approached. “My name is Manuel. I’m one of the king’s hunters.”
“What about the others who were out here? They were chasing us.” Though I didn’t know if the Djarn had chased them away. I hoped they had. Either that, or the mesahn had.
Manuel grunted. “You don’t have to worry about them any longer.”
“What did you do to them?” Joran asked, stepping down the hillside and joining us. Alison was there. She turned to me, grabbing my arm and squeezing it.
“I removed them as a threat,” Manuel said. He shrugged. “You should be thankful for that.”
Was it only because of the dragon that he and the Djarn had helped, or was there another reason?
“How do we know you’re with the king?” Joran asked.
I nodded as I looked to Manuel. “Considering what we’ve faced, he has a right to ask. Especially since we had a dragon mage who made the same claim.”
Manuel chuckled. He reached toward his side. Toward his sword.
Everything within me went cold. Was he going to attack us?
But he reached into his pocket, pulling out a small coin and holding it outward. A face glittered on the coin.
“I bear his marker.”
Joran and I shared a glance before I looked over to the mesahn still prowling around us. It had stopped near Elaine, leaning down and sniffing. “We didn’t do that to her,” I said.
Manuel chuckled again. “Even if you had, it would have been warranted.” He grunted. “Vard or not, we’ve known there are those within the capital who serve a different agenda, though they can be insidious and difficult for us to find. I don’t know that even the king would have expected that such a high-level Academy member was serving them.”
“And if they’re not Vard, what are they?”
Manuel frowned. “Something else I need to uncover,” he said softly.
“She said they were after dragons,” I said.
“Dragons. This one, to start with. I doubt they would’ve attacked had they known I was here. It would’ve been too risky for them, especially since it would reveal who she really was,” Manuel said. “Had I not been here, or had you not been here…” he said, looking up at me. “Perhaps it wouldn’t have mattered. I doubt that she would have been able to find her way through the Djarn lands easily, though it is possible that she had help. She was well connected to the dragons, and because of that…” He shook his head. “Still, should not have mattered.” There was something troubling in his eyes, but he turned away, looking into the trees again.
“We were just trying to stay alive.”
Manuel regarded me for a moment, a hint of amusement on his face. “Why did you chase the caravan?” He glanced from me to Joran. “I found your horses back near the entrance to the forest. I assume those were yours. They’re still well, for what it’s worth.”
“My sister,” I said.
“Is that right?” Manuel looked to Alison. I could feel something building, some sort of pressure and tension, before it faded. “I see. She must have been with the Academy selection.”
I nodded. “She passed the test in Berestal. There were others.”
“Most of the others are safe. At least for now.”
“Safe?” I asked. Here I thought they’d died. Alison had seen others die.
“I was there,” Manuel said. “When the caravan was attacked, I defended it, at least as well as I could. We lost a few from the Academy, but those who were selected were saved. I would have been faster had it not been for my need to return them to the city.”
I looked over to Alison. “What happens now?”
“Now we get you out of the forest. And I return to the capital. I need to report what took place.”
“What about the dragon?” I asked.
Manuel frowned. “What about it?”
“They were trying to take the dragon.”
“They were,” he said. “They thought they would be able to navigate through the forest.” He chuckled. “It goes to show just how little they understand this forest.”
“You haven’t said what will happen with the dragon.”
Manuel walked over to the dragon. He then pulled something out of his pocket and latched it around the dragon’s neck. “Now the dragon comes with us,” he said.
He held one end of what appeared to be a leash. The
