Page 20 of Dragon Heir

“Even for a pint of beer?” I wondered.

“Even for that which is why the lord made such a hasty retreat without taking any leftovers in his beard,” Will told me as his eyes fell on the empty plate left by the Tenky. The platter was so well-consumed that the plate nearly shone. “Any Tenky worth their beard would have gathered up a few bits of meat and such for another meal, but he took nothing, showing me he, too, is worried about your question.”

“But what could have happened to him?” I regretted asking the question. I regretted it even more when I noticed the dark shadow that passed over Will’s brow.

“I’m afraid only our memories of the two recent attacks and our imaginations can answer such a question,” he told me.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and squeezed his hand. “So keep the doors and windows locked tight in case enough Tenky go missing that there’s a huge gap in the security?”

He nodded before he stood. “I’ll make sure of that myself right now.”

I hopped to my feet. “I’ll help.”

Will turned us so we faced each other and he grasped my hands in both of his. “I would rather you went with the others. Though they may bicker and squabble, they are competent fighters and will protect you perhaps even better than I.”

My face fell. “But who’ll protect you?”

He smiled and pecked a light kiss on my forehead. “I won’t be long and I will feel infinitely safer knowing you are outside the walls inspecting the exterior while I secure the interior. Then when night falls there shall be no worry at all.”

I pursed my lips but sighed. “Damn it. Why do you have to make sense this time?”

Will chuckled. “Do I not make sense all the time?”

“Well, sometimes your excuses for keeping me safe are pretty lame,” I pointed out.

That got a laugh out of him and the sound lightened my heart. “I’ll be sure to create new and better ones for next time.”

My eyebrows crashed down and I rapped my knuckle against his forehead. “I don’t want there to be a next time!”

He grasped my hand and pressed a gentle kiss on the back. “Then let us get to our work and guarantee the safety of we three, shall we?”

Chapter Thirteen

I reluctantly parted ways from Will in the foyer and met the others outside the front door. They had hardly wandered more than ten feet away and I swore all of them had one eye on the house with the other on the thick forest that surrounded the building. The youthful day had vanished and the long shadows across the ground told us all that its time was waning. I paused on the threshold and looked up at the bright, happy sun that shone in a perfectly blue sky.

“A storm is coming.”

The words drew my attention to Allard who strolled up to me with a smile. “What was that?” I asked him.

He slipped up to my side and nodded at the sky. “The sky. It is too perfect. A storm will soon come and I expect it will not be pleasant.”

My face drooped. Just what we needed for added effect when a slimy creature was on the loose. A dark and stormy night.

“I doubt it shall be so bad,” Vargas spoke up as she waved her hand in front of her face. “Though I must admit the air is very stifling in this forest. I miss the gurgling brooks of my domain.”

My eyebrows shot up as I looked over each of them. “You guys have your own places, too?”

“Of course,” Vargas replied as she waved a hand at Ware. “The lord here owns vast fields of what in the southern country-”

“And a prized pickling farm using the sea salt,” Ware added.

She rolled her eyes. “You admire your fermented cucumbers far too much.”

“They caught me a prize last year at the continent fair,” he countered.

Vargas shuddered and ignored him as she waved her hand at Allard. “And Lord Allard here is a landowner in the far west.”

“The far northwest,” he corrected her.

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