Page 28 of Dragon Heir

Slechtic rolled his eyes. “Alright, come back for supper, but you’d better be ready to light some torches after that!”

“Aye, sir!”

The Tenky revved their bikes and drove off in all directions leaving us with some peace and quiet.

“Some supper does sound like a good idea,” Will commented.

“Wait a moment,” Vargas spoke up as she nodded down at Will. “You are forgetting something.”

Vargas snapped her fingers and the soft orange glow around Will’s form vanished. The evidence of the magic’s usefulness became immediately apparent when a mountain of ash dropped off Will and created a circle on the ground around him. A faint mist arose from the ring and floated around him before a light breeze blew it away.

Will sheepishly smiled at his company, most of whom were amused. “I guess I should clean up first.”

“If you could,” Allard replied with a twinkle in his eyes.

Vargas grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the front door. “That gives us just enough time to prepare a nice meal, especially as Raines has his dirty hands full handling his own cleaning.”

The preparations were made and the table set, and soon we all joined together for a small meal. There wasn’t as much cheer as I would have liked considering the past day’s adventures. I was so deep in thought about the mysteries that inhabited the forests that I didn’t realize someone was talking to me.

“Rose? Rose?”

I shook myself from my reverie and looked up to find a worried smile on Will’s face. “Yeah?”

“You seem preoccupied,” he commented.

I shrugged and used my fork to pick at my food. “I was just thinking about everything that’s happened today. The Tenky and the barn and the-” Something made me look across the table at the windows that faced the front of the house. My heart nearly bounded out of my chest when I noticed a small pale face staring in from the growing darkness. “Will!” I shouted as I leaped to my feet. “That little girl’s out there!”

All eyes turned toward the window. The girl started back and dashed toward the far corner of the house.

Chapter Seventeen

Everyone jumped from the table and raced out of the room in different directions. Raines and Will took the door into the kitchen while our guests rushed toward the front door. I followed the men and we hurried through the kitchen and out through the back entrance. We skidded around the corner and to the side where we could see the corner the girl would have to come around even to reach the woods.

The only ones who came around that corner were our guests.

“Perhaps she ran into the woods?” Vargas suggested as she nodded at the tree line some fifty yards off.

Will shook his head. “There wasn’t enough time for her to have traveled that distance without our seeing her unless she was impossibly fast.”

“Especially for someone with such short legs,” I added.

Ware stooped at the corner of the house and studied the ground. A deep frown creased his lips. “This is very strange.”

We all hurried over to him and Vargas was the first one to ask the obvious question. “Out with it, you old fool. What is strange?”

Ware cast a dark look at her before he stabbed a finger at the ground. “There are no tracks past this corner.”

Allard lifted an eyebrow. “Are you sure?”

Ware leaped to his feet and stuck out his chest. “Do you doubt my word?”

“Then you can trace them to the window?” Will interrupted as he nodded down the front of the house.

Ware half-turned in that direction and furrowed his brow. “I can see the tracks from there to the door, but there is nothing before that.”

I blinked at him. “Then where did she come from and where did she go?”

Vargas crossed her arms over her chest. “Perhaps we were mistaken in what we saw.”

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