“But moving from one tree to another means that while I traversed the distance between the trees, I was out in the open and visible. So I wasn’t sure how well I could camouflage myself while crawling along the ground. I also didn’t know what powers the druid had. Like yours, princess, with the ability to hear sounds and smell scents so much greater than the average elf, if he’d had those, he might have realized I was moving toward him. I also had the problem that I could not kill the druid from a prone position in the dirt and grass. I would have to rise up quickly and swing my sword. If I didn’t do it while he had his back turned to me, I feared I wouldn’t be successful. It might not seem chivalrous, but killing a dark arts druid isn’t easy—I didn’t figure. I was only one warrior. I knew his knights would swarm me too once they saw what I was about to do, if they noticed. So I didn’t really have any choice.”

  “So you rose up, swung your sword, and cut off his head,” Artur said, sounding impatient for her to finish the rest of the story.

  “I rose up, he turned, I about had a heart attack, I think he did too, his mouth agape and eyes were huge. I swung my sword and decapitated him. His head rolled into the fire, cooking below the boar. I wanted so badly to slice off a piece of the cooked boar, but his knights shouted, and I ran for the nearest horse that I could find, jumped into the saddle, and rode out of their camp. I could hear a whole cavalcade of horses gathering to chase me down. But all I needed to do was lean into the horse, blend with it, confusing the ones who had taken chase. It appeared then that the riderless horse was on its own and they turned back to search the woods for where I’d fallen off. I rode the horse all the way to the city wall, leapt off, and made my way to the place on the wall where I’d climbed it before. Once I was inside the city walls, I had another audience with the prince, told him what had happened, and he sent out his soldiers to fight the dark arts knights until they were vanquished. I helped them, of course. I had to make sure they killed every one of them for good. Then I searched for the missing girl and found her hiding in a cave nearby. She told me she had seen the dark arts knights while she was picking flowers in the meadow and couldn’t return to her home. So all ended well.”

  Everyone was quiet for a while, then the king said, “I’m glad you are on our side then. How do we find this druid?”

  “He will be in the center of his encampment. He doesn’t need to watch the men he sends to kill us. He will stay back to keep from getting into a skirmish himself. He might be a powerful druid, capable of creating these undead creatures—at least that’s what I figure they are—but when it comes to his own physical body, a druid is not all powerful. At least that’s the way it seemed to me with the last one I had to kill. Either Vladek is the druid and then we need to locate him and kill him, or he has someone working for him who is. In which case, we will need to eliminate both of them because I doubt Vladek will give up on trying to take the princess for his own even if he loses his druid.”

  11

  Artur was shocked that Rina had been able to take down a powerful druid and knew he should have kept his mouth shut when she was trying to tell her story. But he oft looked at the last pages in a book he was reading to learn how the story ended, so he couldn’t help himself when he blurted out the words. He swore Erlig shook his head at him, but he was wearing a smile when he had. Artur had probably annoyed Rina, but he was much impressed that she didn’t freeze when the druid turned to face her, and she swung her sword and killed him.

  He wondered then what other feats she had accomplished. He knew Dracolin was famous for his, but Artur had never heard of Rina before.

  The king asked Erlig, Artur, and Rina to join him to have a talk. Artur wouldn’t have expected him to ask Rina to meet with him to decide on their next plan of action, until she had revealed what they were probably up against and how she had defeated a druid like the one they most likely needed to eliminate.

  “Since you have done this before, Rina, what do you recommend?” the king asked her.

  She took a deep breath. “I need to go into the woods. I can protect the princess with the party, but I need to scout out where Vladek or his druid, if he is not one, is.”

  “I will go with her,” the princess said, joining them in the discussion though she had not been invited.

  “Not on my life,” the king said, looking sternly at her.

  “Rina is right. I can hear and smell things better than the rest of you can. Not only that, but I hear their voices in my head,” Mirabella said.

  “Whose?” the king asked.

  “The ones who are trying to kill you. Vladek’s. His men speak and I hear them,” the princess said.

  “Can you hear what we are thinking?” Artur asked.

  “No, not thinking. I…I believe they can communicate without speaking out loud like we do,” the princess said.

  “I’m going with you, Rina,” Artur said.

  “No way. I have to do this alone.” Rina motioned to his armor. “You are too shiny, too noisy.”

  He began stripping off his armor. Her mouth gaped. Artur wasn’t letting her go into the woods alone. Not only because he wanted to help her, but he wanted to make sure she was telling the truth. He believed she was, but if there was a glimmer of a chance she wasn’t, he had to know that too. What if she was who she told them she was and she found Vladek, but she didn’t make it out of there alive? At least one of them had to get back to the king and report.

  “You cannot blend with the trees or other objects. You won’t last a minute in the woods on your own with the knights all about. When his dark arts knights see you, I will have to attempt to save you. Then the knights would know I’m cloaking myself. We would both be at risk.”

  “I’m going with you. I’ll stay away from you. Without my armor, I can move just as quietly as you. I might not be able to cloak myself like you can, but I am trained to move silently in the woods as a warrior elf would also. I can stay away from you so that I don’t bring the enemy down on you. Don’t reveal yourself if I get myself into trouble.”

  “Ha, as if I’d let that happen.”

  “I’m not going to let you go by yourself.”

  “The king and the princess need you to be here for them,” Rina said.

  Artur wasn’t sure how the king would feel about it. Leogane actually agreed with Artur. “He will go with you.”

  Rina couldn’t believe it when the king said Artur would go with her. That was such a messed-up plan. Of course if the dark arts knights realized Artur was in their midst, she would come to his aid. He couldn’t have been serious when he told her to remain cloaked. She wasn’t a warrior for nothing. But she did love her own way of doing things and this wasn’t her way.

  “All right. But don’t say I didn’t tell you so.” At least underneath the armor, he was wearing padded leather armor, more similar to what she wore. “And if you get me killed, I will never forgive you.” Not to mention she wouldn’t forgive herself if she wasn’t able to save him either. “Got your sword? Water flask? Something to eat, if this takes us a while?”

  “Aye. I’m ready.”

  “Let’s go.” Rina prayed they wouldn’t run into real trouble, that they would learn what they needed to, and a real bonus? If they could discover the druid causing all the problems, and better yet, kill him.

  The princess still looked like she wanted to go with them because they could use her abilities. Rina said to her, “If you were in the middle of their kind, they’d grab you. They might even be able to sense it. We just can’t risk you being in the middle of danger. I don’t think they’d hurt you, but once they had you, you’d have no choice. You’d be stuck with them. King Leogane could try and rescue you, of course, but what if you’d changed your mind?”

  The princess didn’t say anything.

  “Okay, we’re going,” Rina said, and she and Artur went on foot into the woods.

  They were both quiet, moving together but apart just like they needed to do. She was glad. She didn’t want to be on top of him if they ran across the knights. That way whoever had the confrontation first, the other could be there as backup.

  She continued to move quietly through the woods, figuring the knights wouldn’t be that far from Leogane’s party, watching them silently in the dark.

  “The princess believes, my lord, that her uncle murdered her father,” Erlig told the king privately.

  “Why?”

  “I didn’t ask. I believe she was hurt by her father’s death and blames her uncle. Another matter, though. We know now she seems to hear what the rest of us cannot,” Erlig said.

  “Aye.”

  “I was close enough to you when you spoke to the maid about the princess, and though she was in the healer’s hut at the time…”

  Leogane glanced at Mirabella, her eyes shut tight, her breathing shallow in sleep as they waited for word from Rina and Artur about Vladek or a druid menace. “You think she might have overheard what the maid said?”

  “I think it’s a possibility. I’ve never met anyone who could hear like she does. Only the animals can hear like that. You asked me earlier if I could smell the meat cooking when I was in the hut with the imposter. Why did you ask this of me, my lord?”

  “She said the meat was not done cooking. I knew she spoke the truth, but could not understand how she would know. She had not seen us spit the meat. She wouldn’t have known how long it was hanging above the flames.”

  “She assumed it hadn’t been long enough?”

  Shaking his head, Leogane glanced back at the fire. “Nay, I don’t think so. If she’s been locked in the tower for years, she would have no idea how long it takes to cook meat over an open fire.”

  “So you’re saying?”

  The king straightened his back and looked at the figure half buried in blankets. “Her sense of smell is truly more acute as well.” He glanced at Justina, sleeping near the princess.

  “Do you think it was a good idea sending Artur with Rina to search for Vladek and the druid?” Erlig asked.

  “I felt I didn’t have any choice. He has a good head on his shoulders. He knows how to move in the woods like a warrior elf and fight well. If Rina needs his help, he’ll be there for her, and the same for him, if he needs her help.”

  “But you also want to have him spy on her to ensure she’s not in the enemy’s camp?” Erlig asked.

  Leogane smiled. “I doubt she is because she has been killing the dark arts knights every bit as much as we have. But it would be good to have Artur there too.”

  The princess was perturbed that she wasn’t able to go with Rina and Artur on their search for the druid. She really felt she might have aided them with her ability to hear so well. She was astonished that Rina had such an amazing cloaking ability. Then she wondered if that’s why she couldn’t see Rina when she looked out the tower window. She appeared to have vanished and she had—through her cloaking ability.

  Mirabella had heard the king talking to his advisor about her. He didn’t seem to have as much animosity for Mirabella now and she was feeling better about that. If he would only believe her about what her uncle had done and help her take action against him, she could be allied with the king, and he could then marry his advisor’s daughter. She just had to convince him of it.

  She rolled over on the bedding and saw the king watching her. Erlig had taken off to talk to some of their men and she decided to make her proposal to Leogane. “You know my uncle had my father killed to take the crown.”

  “So I’ve heard. You were there and saw it?” Leogane asked.

  “I was. I was determined to go with my father on the hunt. I saw my uncle direct one of his men to shoot my father. My father died instantly, and my uncle immediately returned to the castle to take over the kingdom. He left my father’s body in the woods, and I…I tried to wake him, but he was truly dead. Then I heard someone coming. A woodcutter with a cart. I hid in the woods and watched as he took my father’s body back to the castle for burial.”

  “Do you have any proof?”

  “I have the signet ring my father wore. I took it from him, the only thing I’d have to remember him by when I heard the cart coming and then hid. I heard my uncle ask the woodcutter later where my father’s ring was. When the woodcutter told him he hadn’t seen it, my uncle was furious and knew the woodcutter had stolen the ring. He had him beaten, trying to learn where he’d put the ring. When the woodcutter wouldn’t tell him, my uncle had him killed. The woodcutter’s name was Elijah. He had a family—a wife and two children he’d left behind. His wife, Agnes, would know about her husband’s death and the reason for it.”

  “You have the ring?”

  “Aye. I kept it hidden always.” She pulled the necklace off her neck and showed the ring to him. “If my uncle had learned I had the ring, he most likely would have assumed I had taken it from my father. That I had witnessed his murder. I don’t believe he would have thought the woodsman would have given it to me and then refused to tell him I had it, knowing my uncle would have him killed. Everyone knows what he is like. My father had kept his younger brother in check before that, but now that Inari has free reign over our people, there’s no stopping him.”

  Leogane just studied the signet ring.

  “I have a proposal to make to you.”

  Leogane’s gaze shot up to hers and she figured women didn’t ever make proposals to him, but at least he was still listening.

  “If you help me to remove my uncle as king and I take over, I will form an alliance with you. Then you can marry your advisor’s daughter.” Mirabella thought everything she said sounded completely reasonable. Unless the king still didn’t believe her, or he figured he could make an alliance with her uncle without having to lose his men in battle if he just wed Mirabella.

  “You are different than I thought you were.”

  “I was imprisoned in the tower. You are here because you are working with my uncle. How do you think I felt about that?”

  “It’s understandable how you feel. I’ll give your proposal consideration.”

  He was the king. He made all the decisions. He could just tell her he was going to help her! She should have known he wouldn’t.

  12

  Artur was keeping up with Rina, looking for any sign of the dark arts knights when he saw one of them lurking in the woods. He didn’t see his horse. In the other encounters, the men all rode horses. If Artur eliminated him, would others be nearby and hear them fighting? Warning them that their enemy was coming for them?

  But he didn’t want to run into this one if he ended up in a fight with another. He moved quietly toward the dark arts knight when he suddenly saw Rina materialize and behead the knight. He moved quickly to her location and helped her to hide the knight’s armor since the rest of him had turned to dust. Artur didn’t want anyone to find the armor and sound the alarm.

  “There are three more over there,” Rina said, whispering in Artur’s ear. Her soft breath tickled his ear and for an insane minute, he wanted to turn and kiss her. She frowned at him. “Pay attention.”

  He nodded. “We take care of them.”

  “Right. I haven’t seen any sign of the enemy’s camp,” she said, her voice just as hushed. “I’ll take the two on the right, you get the one on the left.”

  “Aye.” If Artur had been all macho, he might have felt offended, but he wasn’t because he assumed she’d do a better job at taking two of them down because of her ability to hide from them.

  They started to move toward the knights when Rina did her disappearing act, but nearly as soon as she did, she grabbed his arm and nearly made his heart quit beating. “What?” he whispered. They had a plan.

  “There’s a whole encampment that way. Do you smell the smoke? Do you see little bit of lights through the trees over there? We need to move that way and see if we can get closer to the campfire. We need to learn if someone in charge of the dark arts knights is over there.”

  “Okay, let’s do it.”

  “Carefully,” she said.

  “Of course.” She didn’t need to tell Artur that. He carefully moved toward the encampment, losing sight of Rina right away.

  He moved as close to the campfire as he could. Standing around the campfire were three men who were not wearing helmets and armor—the one whom he recognized—Vladek. Gods, if Artur had had his crossbow, he could kill him right here and now. But two other men were there also, and he wondered if they were his advisors, or even possibly druids? A few others were getting ready to bed down for the night. They appeared to be elven knights—none of them wearing their armor at the moment.

  He hoped Rina didn’t try and get close to them to kill Vladek or either of the other men. She couldn’t take them all out. She couldn’t even get close enough to one of them since there was nothing she could camouflage herself with that was that close to the three men, which reminded Artur of the story she had told them about crawling across the ground to reach the druid. But she couldn’t do that here. Not with three of them there.

  Artur moved nearer to the encampment and heard Vladek speaking to the other two men. “I will have her.”

  “Your men aren’t able to take Leogane’s knights down,” one of the other men said.

  “That’s your fault, isn’t it, Cabrillo?” Vladek asked. “And yours, Lentil.”

  The man named Lentil was black haired and bearded, looking into the fire, not speaking to Vladek, as if he was mesmerized by the flames.

  “You said you only needed strong, armored knights who could ride well,” Cabrillo said.

  “Who could kill.”

  “They can fight,” Cabrillo said. “They are good at fighting.”

  “But they are not killing Leogane’s men!” Vladek sounded like he could kill Cabrillo himself.

  Artur wished he would. Then there’d be one less to worry about.

  “There is a way,” Lentil said, stroking his long beard.