The Runaway Dragon (6 page)

Which made her think just a little about Bain, a prince who was really a bandit. The last time she had seen him, he had given her the silver-hilted sword she carried. Meg wondered what he was doing now. She snorted. He was probably in love with some silly bandit girl. Or a silly reformed bandit girl, if Bain’s sister, Alya the Bandit Queen, had followed through with her plans for the bandits to retire from banditing with all of the dragon gold they’d stolen.

Meg’s mind wandered off in other directions. She listened to the night noises: Crickets, mostly. The cry of a night bird. Footsteps and snatches of talk. Little by
little, the camp fell silent. Meg waited a bit longer; then she leaned over in the darkness of the tent and shook Dilly awake. Dilly made a snuffling noise and sat up. “What?” she croaked. “What happened?”

“Shh!” Meg said.

“What’s going on?” Dilly whispered.

“I’m going to search the supply wagon, remember?”

Dilly finally woke up enough to remember. She and Meg put on their shoes and slipped out of the tent. A moment later, Dilly was sauntering across the camp, stretching her arms and yawning loudly, while Meg crept around behind the tents toward the supply wagon.

Meg looked up at the black sweep of sky festooned with stars and a languid moon. Her scarf glided by, looking like a piece of night sky itself, its blue-black darkness covered with tiny shining eyes like stars. Meg smiled to herself. She was out of her father’s castle, and she was doing something exciting.

Meg could hear Dilly talking to the sentry, though she couldn’t make out the words. She moved on, trying to roll her feet down each time she took a step. She’d worn thin leather slippers instead of boots because they would make less noise. She could feel every sharp little rock and twig she came across. Meg winced a few times, but she kept going, and pretty soon she was behind the wagon.

Only to discover that Cam was sleeping on top of the boxes and bales at the back of the wagon.

Meg retreated a step or two, trying to decide what to do. If Cam woke up, he’d probably make noise. He might even try to stop her. Still, she’d come too far to go back to bed without searching for whatever Nort had been trying to hide from her. At least Cam wasn’t right at the
end
of the wagon. She could only hope Nort hadn’t rearranged things, after all, and that Cam wasn’t a light sleeper.

Meg reached for the canvas nearest her and lifted it as delicately as she could.

Cam didn’t move.

She pulled it back slowly, slowly.

Then Cam’s voice said quietly, “What are you doing, Meg?”

Meg let her breath out. She whispered, “I’m looking for something, and I don’t want anyone to know.”

“Except me,” Cam said, sitting up.

“Except you, now that you’ve woken up.”

Cam scrambled over the boxes and bales to the end of the wagon, managing to make a minimum of noise himself. “We haven’t found any trouble, so you’re going to make some?” he said. Though his tone was mild, his words weren’t.

“It’s not that,” Meg explained. “Nort was acting sneaky, and I want to know why.”

Cam considered this. “All right. I’ll help you. But if the sentry comes—”

“He’s talking with Dilly.”

“Good idea. So what does this have to do with the supply wagon?”

“Nort tried to hide something from me this afternoon, here at the back of the wagon.”

Cam climbed down to stand beside her. “Most of the wagon’s filled with food supplies. The guardsmen put their weapons at the back. They told me to leave room.”

“Did you watch?”

Cam thought about the morning when they’d loaded the wagon at the castle. “I was busy elsewhere. Meg, maybe you’re imagining things.”

“No, I’m not. Help me lift this.”

They moved the canvas clear back. In the dim light, and by touching things carefully, they were able to identify a dozen crossbows with a matching supply of bolts, eight spears, and a couple of extra swords. There was something larger at the very bottom.

“What is it?” Meg whispered.

Cam felt the object. “It seems like a giant crossbow, designed to be shot by more than one person.”

“For shooting what?”

“Monsters, city gates, giants …” Cam’s voice trailed off in the darkness.

“Dragons,” Meg hissed.

Cam was quiet for a long time. Then he said, “You might be wrong. You don’t
know
it’s meant to hurt Laddy.”

“Oh, I know,” Meg said, thinking grim thoughts
about Guard Captain Hanak and her father and Lieutenant Staunton, who must have planned this, all the while pretending they were helping Meg with her quest to bring Laddy home.

“What are you going to do?”

Meg had to admit that she was probably out of time with Dilly and the night sentry. “I’ll get Lex to help me,” Meg said. “I’ll come back tomorrow night.”

“Good night, Meg.” Cam didn’t sound very happy.

“Good night.” Meg began the journey back to her tent.

Dilly met her there. “You took
forever!”
she said furiously.

“Shh!” Meg said again. She made Dilly wait till they were back in their bedrolls to hear about what she had found. “We have to do something,” she concluded firmly.

Dilly argued with her, but only a little—and then they both fell asleep.

The next day, Meg restrained herself from stomping up to Lieutenant Staunton and telling him what a terrible person he was. She settled for the next-best thing, giving Nort a dirty look for not warning her what the lieutenant intended to do to Laddy. Nort seemed surprised and hurt, but Meg was already sweeping on to her breakfast of omelet and pan toast.

Once the company was on the road again, Meg talked
to Lex, though she let a little distance accumulate between the guardsmen in front and Chloe before she told the wizard what was going on. He didn’t want to believe the worst, either. “Now, Meg, it’s probably just for the perils of the journey.”

Meg scoffed at this. “Nobody cares about Laddy but me. And after what happened at the castle—”

“Well, you’re right about that part,” Lex said. Then he had to stop talking to deal with his horse yet again. The stallion took every sign of inattention on Lex’s part as his cue to cause trouble. It truly was a beautiful animal, tossing its black head and trying to climb up the nearest embankment.

“Why don’t you ask the guards for a
nice
horse?” Meg asked. Lex shook his head stubbornly, wrestling with the reins. Of course, a nice horse wouldn’t be dramatic. It might not even be black, which wouldn’t do in the least for the sinister wizard Lex liked to think that he was. Meg returned to the matter at hand. “Anyway, I need your help dealing with the thing. Tonight.”

“Can’t we just wait and see?”

“See what? Laddy’s blood?”

“We could ask Nort.”

“And give him a chance to guard it better? He may be a friend, but he’s a guardsman, too, and he
hid
it from me,” Meg said, outraged all over again. She collected herself before she added carelessly, “I guess I could do a spell on my own. If you’re not going to help, I mean.”

“What kind of spell?” Lex asked, instantly worried.

“I’ll think of something,” Meg said with a secret smile.

Soon enough, Lex was promising to meet her that night. See? she told herself. Statesmanship! She really should go on a diplomatic mission sometime. Looking for a lost dragon probably didn’t count.

T SEEMED UNLIKELY THAT DILLY COULD FOOL
the sentry a second time. Besides, this was going to take longer. Meg concluded that Lex’s first task would have to be putting the man to sleep. “Make it subtle,” she reminded him that night in their new camp. “We want him to wake up thinking he dozed off, not that he was zapped by a spell.”

“Got it,” the wizard said. Now that he was past his initial resistance, he was quite pleased about slinking around at midnight. Meg had to tell him to keep his voice down, though. It was getting late, and Lex had come over to her and Dilly’s tent, glad to share his endless supply of hot chocolate.

The three of them sat cozily in the tent, sipping hot chocolate and waiting for deep night. But whenever Meg thought about that monster of a weapon being aimed at Laddy, her thoughts burned like dragon fire.

Finally Meg thought it was late enough to get started. First she sent Lex out to deal with the night sentry. For such a chatty, bumbly boy, he was able to sneak astonishingly well. After a short while Lex reappeared. “All clear. He’s asleep, dreaming fondly of his old mother and father back at home.”

“Perfect!” Meg said. “Come on.”

They walked softly through the camp. Cam was sitting on the wagon swinging his legs. He hopped down when they got there. “You’re sure about this, Meg?”

“I’m not taking any chances.”

Dilly stood watch in case anyone else woke up and interrupted them. It took Meg, Cam, and Lex working together to get the huge metal-and-wood crossbow out from under everything else without making a racket. At last they had it lying on the ground behind the wagon.

“It’s actually a type of arbalest,” Lex said conversationally.

“I don’t care if it’s your cousin Tilda,” Meg retorted. “We have to get rid of it.”

“Maybe we could just bury it,” Cam suggested.

“No. They might find it. Lex?”

“Quiet, please,” Lex said. The other conspirators fell silent, watching the wizard.

Lex’s flair for drama seemed to be heightened on the stage provided by Meg’s secrecy and the lateness of the hour. He swept his arms in half circles, chanting in a low voice.

There was a silence, followed by a noise like lips smacking and an explosion of darkness that blanked out a patch of stars for an instant. Then nothing. The crossbow—the arbalest—was gone.

“What did you do to it?” Cam asked.

“It’s still there.” Lex laughed. “I changed it to something else.”

Meg peered down at the ground in the dim light.“What?”

“Dried grass. Twigs. Pebbles. Dirt.”

“Very clever,” Meg said admiringly.

“I know,” said Lex.

At the sound of footsteps, they all jumped, but it was only Dilly. “Are you done? What did you do to it?”

Meg explained about Lex’s spell. Dilly was impressed, causing Lex to preen the more. “We’d better get back,” Meg said. And they slipped away to get some rest. Only Cam remained behind, and his good-nights were very subdued.

The loss of the weapon wasn’t discovered for two more days. The questing company camped on the last of the grassy hills that evening. A thick forest filled the land ahead of them, to Meg’s delight. There had been no sign of Laddy, and they’d long since left the farms behind. She was itching for something to happen.

Then again, a commotion over the missing arbalest wasn’t what she had in mind. Meg was eating her dinner
when she saw the guards begin stalking around, conferring with one another. It soon became clear that they were searching the camp. Lieutenant Staunton looked more perturbed than she’d ever seen him.

Some time later, the man approached her with a stiff bow. Nort stood beside him, his lips pressed together. “Your Highness,” Lieutenant Staunton said, “we are missing a valuable weapon.”

Meg played dumb. “Has it been mislaid, then?”

“I’m afraid not. It has been stolen.” Two other guards approached with Cam between them. The lieutenant continued, “Our supplies master must have been responsible. He was sleeping on the wagon each night, guarding it.”

Meg should have realized they’d blame Cam. No wonder he hadn’t seemed like himself since the night she came looking for the crossbow. She rushed to fix things, saying loudly, “Surely it could have been stolen during the day?”

“Highly unlikely.” Lieutenant Staunton’s expression changed. “Unless—Princess, do you know anything about this?”

“She does!” Nort burst out. “She gave me a look!”

Meg made a puzzled face. “Everybody looks.” She gestured at Cam. “What could this man have done with a weapon? Did you search his bags?”

The guards on either side of Cam tried to hide their
amusement. “It’s far too large for that,” Lieutenant Staunton explained.

Meg stood up, setting her unfinished dinner plate on her camp stool. “Then how could Cam have lifted the thing?” she said reasonably.

“She
did it,” Nort said. “To protect her dragon.”

Meg resisted the urge to give him a far worse look. She had truly thought he was loyal to her.

“I’m sorry, Meg—Princess,” Nort said miserably. “But you don’t seem to understand how dangerous a dragon really is.”

There was no point arguing with him, Meg told herself. Galling though it was, she knew Nort meant well.

Lieutenant Staunton narrowed his eyes. “I will ask again, Princess. Do you know anything about this?”

Meg was about to answer when she heard Lex’s voice. “If you must know,
I
did it.”

Lieutenant Staunton’s face darkened as he turned to watch the young wizard approach. “The only reason you could have for doing such a thing is that you’re an enemy spy!” All of the guardsmen took a step closer, although what they could possibly hope to do to Lex, Meg had no idea.

“Of course not,” Lex said, startled. “I was just fiddling with the weapon when a spell went wrong, and I was too embarrassed to say.”