The Traitor's Heir

Chapter Twenty

Landing silently beside the still sleeping girls the dragon sighed heavily.  The burdens that they were carrying, in the form of their worries about the prophesy and their worries about their family members back in the Caverns, were about to get much heavier.  There was no way that the fire could be hidden from them.  Even as the idea that it might be a possibility occurred to Ausfela she pushed it aside as impossible.  Lina began to cough in her sleep.

Sighing a second time the dragon spoke into their minds.  "Girls, we must be awake earlier than even I expected and we must be on our way."  Quara's eyes flew open, but Lina rolled over and buried her face in the pillow she was making for her head with her arms.  "Lina, we must arise and continue our journey.  Something has happened this morning and the danger is greater than it was when you laid down to sleep."

Lina barely moved and so her sister, who was now fully awake and regarding the dragon with a worried expression, nudged her with her elbow.  The younger girl finally pushed herself up into a sitting position and wiped the sleep from her eyes.  Looking up at the sky, which was almost entirely dark she yawned hugely and shook her head.

"I knew we were getting up early, but isn't it still the middle of the night?"  She seemed ready to fall back into the pine needles and resume her quest for a good night's sleep.

"It is dear child.  But we must be on our way.  Do you smell the smoke?"

Almost instantly both girls were on their feet.  "What's going on?"  Quara didn't quite manage to control her voice as she half shouted the words and any animals that may have crept nearer while the enormous dragon slept scattered away again.

"The enemy is using a tactic that I had feared he might employ.  They've used it many times in the past and it is generally successful in preventing those who want to get away from them in a landscape like this one from doing so.  They clear a great line around their camp, in fact, they've likely diverted water from the river into a moat of sorts, if they aren't using the river as a barrier altogether, and then they set the forest alight.  It's particularly unfortunate that the winds here usually come in from the west, because if they pick up in the afternoon as they usually do in the summer months, they'll be pushing the flames straight towards us."

"And once the forest is gone the Caverns will be an island in the midst of a sea of burned out mountains."  Lina's voice was weak and Quara barely heard her speak.  Ausfela nodded.

"Exactly.  It makes it much easier to see anyone who's going to make an attempt at escaping.  Now let's move.  There's nothing that we can do to help them, except hope that they stay safely ensconced within their rocky kingdom while we get to Za'Reek as quickly as possible."  Lina moved towards Ausfela and removed the smallest of the three packages that she had hidden inside the saddle bags the previous night.  Removing a smaller piece of meat for herself she handed the nearly full package to her sister, who hadn't eaten the night before.

"Do I want to know?"  Quara asked, but she didn't hesitate as she took her first bite of the meat.

"Rabbit.  There's a little venison left over for our later meals."

Neither girl complained as they began their journey so early in the morning that it was really still night.

"You said earlier that it would be dangerous for us to fly, but," Quara took a deep breath and let the words trail off.  Ausfela could guess what the girl was wondering and answered her unspoken question.

"If the fire spreads too fast we will take to the skies.  I'd rather not.  My guess is that that fire was set from the mouths of dragons and that there are now dragons nearby, at least near the Caverns themselves, waiting for the battle and watching for anyone who might try to escape.  They may be watching the skies as well, which is to say that I would be shocked if they weren't.  So we will push on today on foot and hope that we are fortunate.  I would rather not go head to head with a dragon who is quite likely bigger and has spent the last three millennia fighting in the skies for that wretch of a man, if he even is still a man, while at the same time trying to keep you two safe."