Page 51 of Red Dragon
Making his voice as cold as he could, Vorik said, “Stay away from her, Captain. Or next time, you’ll find out exactly if I would have finished you off or not.”
Lesva brushed past Wise, deliberately bumping his shoulder and giving him a pat on the ass, before continuing into the cave.
Wise came to stand beside Vorik. “I hear she eats men after mating with them.”
“I know some haven’t survived her attention,” Vorik said, but his heart was numb. He hadn’t meant to remind Lesva of her hatred for Syla and now worried that he’d done the princess a disservice. Jhiton was sending Lesva to the island next to Syla’s and Vorik off on a quest who knew where. Lesva might get an opportunity to attack Syla while Vorik would be far away and helpless to assist.
Many minutes later than Vorik wished, Agrevlari finally alighted on the ledge, stretching his wings and his tail out with a yawn that was almost a roar. Wise’s dark-gray dragon, Tonasketal, came after, taking up less room on the ledge when he landed.
“You have egg in your fangs,” Vorik told Agrevlari.
Smoke wafted from the green dragon’s nostrils, and the next yawn brought fire roiling from the depths of his throat. Fortunately for those camped near the front of the cave, he didn’t send a gout of flames into the interior. Hedidsear whatever remained of his breakfast off his teeth.
Better?Agrevlari asked.
“Much. Let’s go and get this mission over with.” Vorik hurried to climb on, vainly hoping that he could find the components and bring them back before Lesva had an opportunity to bother any gardeners. Especially the one he cared about.
Clouds hid the sunrise, but the day grew brighter as Fel led Syla and Teyla down from the bluff and through the streets toward the harbor. Once, Syla would have given friendly nodsto the gray-uniformed enforcers on patrol, but she avoided their gazes and hurried past them now, afraid General Dolok might have given orders for her arrest. Though the Royal Protectors, Royal Fleet, and Kingdom Enforcers were all different arms of the military, they often worked together, and Dolok had been around a long time. He had a lot of influence.
Fel didn’t say anything, but he must have been thinking similar thoughts because he also skirted the enforcers, taking a longer route than usual to reach the harbor. They passed through a seedier section of town near the docks that her bodyguard usually would have avoided while she was with him.
“That’s Princess Syla,” a freckle-faced girl blurted from a corner where she and her equally freckled brother were selling small brown bags of cookies and biscuits from a box.
“It can’t be.” The boy looked to be about eight, a couple of years older than the girl. “The princess is royal and important. She would have an entourage and a huge gilded carriage with eight horses.”
“Why eight?” The girl squinted at them. She was barefoot and wore a sleeveless dress that might have been made from a grain sack.
Fel touched Syla’s arm, trying to hurry her past, as if small children should be avoided as assiduously as the enforcers.
“Important people haveat leasteight horses,” the boy said. “And bodyguards.”
“She hashim.” The girl pointed at Fel. “He’shuge. And look at his muscles.”
Fel lifted his chin.
“He’s old,” the boy said.
Fel shot the kid a glare and picked up his pace.
“Princess Syla.” The girl grabbed three bags of cookies and ran to intercept them. “Is it you? You’re a healer, aren’t you? My aunt worked at Moon Watch Temple before the attack.”
Syla slowed down, worried the girl would say she’d lost her aunt, and feeling she should, at the least, buy some of the cookies and give her a hug.
Fel lifted a hand, as if he might stop the girl from getting close, but he must have decided a six-year-old wasn’t a threat. Hedidgive the eight-year-old boy an ominous look though, perhaps contemplating thumping him to show hownotold he was.
“I’m a healer, yes. Is your aunt?”
“No. She washed the dishes in the kitchen and sometimes fetched vegetables for the stock pots. She got away before the attack and is all right.”
“I’m relieved to hear it.”
“We don’t have much time,” Fel murmured, looking at Teyla, as if she might hurry Syla along.
Teyla, this part of town perhaps reminding her of her kidnapping, had been touching the sword strapped to her pack while peering nervously into the alleys, and she missed his look.
“Can you heal diseases of the private parts?” the girl asked.
Syla blinked. “Er, yes, usually.”
