Page 2 of Eliza's Cursed Dragon

She shook him and he sheepishly lowered his sword. Despite her roundness and perceived sweetness, Nan had always been able to scare us into behaving and that night wasn’t any different. No matter that both Caspian and I were adults now.

“Protect your sister and brothers. I swear we will keep our eyes and ears open here and send for you when the time is right.” Nan let go of his ear and placed her palm on his cheek. “You’ve always been the brave one, Caspian. Now I need you to prove it even more. Go!”

An alarm rang out and Karl shouted, “Go!”

Caspian pulled me into the carriage, driven by Olaf and six horses. The door wasn’t even closed yet when Olaf spurred the horses on and we took off at a full gallop through the open gate.

Looking through the window in the back, I made out guards swinging themselves onto their horses to pursue us.

“Faster, Olaf, faster!” Richard, one of the seventeen-year-old twins urged Olaf, seeing the guards rushing after us.

“I want to go home,” cried our youngest brother William, who was only three.

I pulled him into my arms. “Hush, sweetling. All will be well, I promise,” I said, praying the next few hours wouldn’t turn me into a liar.

We rushed through the still-sleeping village, the cobblestone road rattling our carriage so hard, I bit my tongue and swallowed blood.

“Shh, it’s all good,” I mumbled to William, unsure if my attempt to soothe was meant for him or me.

Caspian stared out the back, and when he turned, our eyes met. “They’re gaining on us.”

“What will we do?” I asked desperately.

“I’ll jump out the carriage and fight them, that will gain you time to get away,” Caspian answered valiantly.

“No.” I reached around William to hold on to his sleeve. “No, you will die.”

“I can’t imagine a nobler death than protecting you and my brothers,” he said with a determined line around his lips.

The carriage swerved and we flew to the left, before being catapulted to the right. William cried out and Richard cursed.

“We’ll all fight,” Philip, Richard’s twin brother, decided. At seventeen, the identical twins were hard to tell apart, but Richard’s eyes were a shade lighter than Philip’s.

The interior darkened as we entered the outskirts of Fable Forest.

“We can lose them in here,” Charles, the seven-year-old and most adventurous of my brothers, suggested. He spent days out in the forest with my father’s hunters. If anybody knew of a place to hide, it was him. “But we need to get out of the carriage.”

I remembered I was still clinging to my boots and gently repositioned William to put them on.

“Alright,” Caspian agreed, staring at Richard and Philip to see if they were with him. The twins nodded and Caspian yelled at Olaf, “Slow down at the next bend, we’ll jump out and hide in the woods.”

“Yes, Prince Caspian,” Olaf acknowledged, making me assume the plan met his approval.

“Ready? You have William?” Caspian asked me, and I nodded braver than I felt.

“Andrew, Harold, you go first. Stay together and run into the underbrush. Wait there for us,” Caspian ordered the younger twins. At nine, they were still enough in awe of their big brother to do whatever he bade them.

Caspian flung the door open, and the twins jumped out, hand in hand. Next were George and Alexander. Then Richard took one of the five-year-old twins, Harry, and Philip the other, Eric, and jumped.

With my heart in my throat and William in my arms, it was my turn. The carriage had slowed down but was still going faster than I liked.

“Now Eliza,” Caspian ordered.

I jumped.

William’s weight nearly pulled me over, but my feet inside the sturdy boots hit level ground and I managed to stay on them. Strong arms grabbed my waist and brought me to a stop. Caspian.

“This way.” He pulled me into the underbrush and just a few seconds later the royal guards rode by at full gallop.

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