Shadow Weaver Book 2: Song of the Naga

Chapter 14

The girl and I head for the stables on the edge of town where the Prince stabled his horses. I hope the stable hand will remember me with the Prince and consequently hold me in higher favor.

I inform him of my wish to purchase a mare and a few minutes later he returns with a limping, grey-haired man.

"You want a horse? How much have you got?"

I take out my purse and count the silver and copper coins.

"Can't get nothing for five silver and scrap."

"I will take anything you can give me."

"Find a coach."

"We must have a horse." He eyes me for a long moment and puckers his lips. Then he bows his head at a workhorse in the yard.

"She's been good to me and there's not much left in her. Force her too hard or take her too far and she'll sit down and die on you." He holds out his palm, and I drop my hemp purse into it. "Bring her back to me alive, and I will return the five silver."

The stable hand appears with a worn saddle and straps it onto the mare.

"What's her name?" I ask.

"Izza." I nod, then help Naomi onto the horse. It took half an hour to ride to the old ruins on the Prince's stallion, but on Izza it will take a couple of hours. I bid the equestrian goodbye and we leave the Hyborg onto the western track.

It is almost midday, the sun is hot on our backs, and Izza is sweaty and slow. However, we would have to wait hours for the cool breeze of evening--hours where Tug is the Sai's captive and someone might notice the girl with me.

We set off in slow silence, my thoughts and my impatience torturing me. We stop to drink from streams, and when I sense others on the track I draw us further into the forest. We plod down dells and over dales. And eventually, when I am beginning to fear I have erred in my calculations, I see the castle ruins.

The furious activity which greets us breaks our quiet journey of solitude. The men do not wear soldier's uniforms, but there is a unification and discipline to their work which reveals their military training.

A dozen carts line up beyond the northern ruins closest to the road. The men load them with bags of grain, dried meat, herbs, furs, and equipment for digging shelter in the snow. Preparations for the glacial mountains are fully underway.

A soldier orders me to a halt. Jax, the Elite Commander, is close by. He turns, expression altering to surprise and skepticism at the sight of me, but he waves me on and the soldier allows us passage into the ruins.

I tie Izza to a tree, though after what I have put it through, I expect she would not voluntarily move anywhere. I take off the saddle to lessen the weight on her back and check she has access to plenty of lush grass. The girl watches everything as though peering from a curtain drawn across her eyes.

"Come." She hurries along beside me as I lead her through the castle ruins towards the wing that has not collapsed with the years. We walk through an old courtyard, its walls collapsed, and only one arch still standing. A great shriek penetrates the air as we approach the double doors to the part of the castle that is standing. The girl jumps and we both freeze.

It takes a moment for me to place the sound and recognize it is the velaraptor. I step back to look out at the field and trees beyond the old archway. In a small clearing, with woods to the north and prairie to the east, away from the main road, sits the velaraptor. Its legs and feet are chained. It is quite a distance away, but the strength it has gained in my absence is evident and shocking. The green-eyed Uru Ana girl sits with it, stroking its back and talking. The velaraptor's wings are outstretched, small spikes standing up on their edges. And there are spikes raised the length of its nose and down the spine of its back.