Dragon Sleeping (The Dragon Circle Trilogy Book 1) (26 page)

“Prince?” she asked.

“That’s what you still choose to call me,” the prince replied, amusement in his voice. “One name is as good as another. Better, really, if the name comes from you.”

Mary Lou blinked. That was the nicest thing the prince had ever said to her. It was so warm wrapped in these furs, so quiet without the constant chattering of the People, so calm compared to everything that had gone before. She wondered if all of this was really happening.

“No, I’m not a dream,” he replied as if he could read her thoughts. “I’m as real, well, as I ever am.”

She liked the way he gently kidded himself. And the way he smiled when he saw her.

“And yet you called me, didn’t you?” He looked down at his ghostly hands. “Somehow I could come here without the People’s aid. Strange, isn’t it? As though the two of us are developing some sort of bond.”

Mary Lou had felt that—or wished for that—from the very beginning. She was so glad to learn it was true.

“What will the People say?” she whispered back to him.

The prince turned to look across the platform. “I doubt they need to say anything just yet. I don’t think they’ll even notice us, at least for a little while. They’ve had a great victory and a great feast. I have been among them long enough to know their habits. In the morning, a few of them will salt the remaining meat. For the remainder of the tribe, it will be a day of rest.”

But the prince is here! A small voice said inside Mary Lou. She should change things now, call the People to them, let them know that the humans were her friends and that she had to see them.

Somehow, though, finding Todd and the others didn’t seem anywhere near as urgent as it had a few minutes before. Any conversation she and the prince might have with the People could certainly wait until morning.

The prince smiled at her, then turned to study his dark surroundings. “It’s good to be here, with no work from the People. My life, or whatever you would call this, is filled with performing the wishes of others. But now”—he laughed—“at this minute, I’ve nothing to do but talk to you and stare up at the stars.” He paused for a long moment as he did just that. “It seems to me I used to know something about the stars. Maybe I’ll remember what it was someday.” He looked back at Mary Lou. “I have a feeling that things are changing. Many things will change, now that you are here.” He paused again, then chuckled. “I wonder if I will remember where those feelings of mine come from as well.”

Mary Lou yawned despite herself. “Excuse me,” she said quickly. “I’ve had a—busy day.”

“Much more than that, I would think,” the prince replied. “You should sleep. The way things are changing, I think we might have a great deal of time—together.”

Mary Lou smiled at that and lay back in the furs. She drifted, and in her sleep she felt her prince take her by the arm and lead her to a castle built high in the clouds, much closer to the stars.

Mary Lou opened her eyes to a clear sky and a hint of sun peeking through the forest leaves. She remembered how the prince had come to visit her during the night. It had been such a wonderful dream.

“Well, good morning.” The prince’s face materialized above her. He greeted her with a smile.

“You were here last night?” she asked as she rubbed her sleep-puffed eyes.

“And I still am,” the prince answered with a nod. “When you want somebody around, you can be pretty persuasive.”

Mary Lou blushed.

“The People have checked on you from time to time,” the prince continued. He didn’t seem to notice her embarrassment. “They haven’t seen me. I have—well, ways to hide when I’d rather people didn’t know I was around.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “I thought it best that nobody shared our little secret, at least not yet.”

They were sharing this secret life together, then? Now she felt both embarrassed and thrilled. It would be wonderful to really share something with the prince.

“I should get up,” she said quickly. Maybe, if she could walk around, the prince wouldn’t notice how flustered she was. That is, if she could walk at all.

She sat up and felt the dried mixture that coated the leaves wrapped around her ankle. The stuff had dried there, like a plaster cast. She flexed her toes, then her whole foot, waiting for the ankle to complain. There was no pain at all.

“I’m going to stand up,” she announced abruptly. She wished there was some way that the prince could reach out a strong hand to help. Still, she managed on her own, getting her feet beneath her in a squat, then raising herself up slowly, careful of her balance. She felt the slightest twinge when she put weight on that foot, but the leaf cast seemed to keep all the muscles in place. Whatever was in that concoction with the leaves, it seemed to have taken away all but a slight tenderness from the sprain. In another day, she bet she wouldn’t feel any pain at all.

“They used Garo leaves,” the prince said suddenly, as if it was something he had just remembered. “They come from those great dark vines that hang from the trees. When used in the proper way—well, you see what they can do.”

The prince smiled in delight. “This is very strange. Over the course of the past few moments, I feel as though memories are coming back, like I’m coming out of—” His hands waved around as if he might grab the missing words out of the air.

“Some sort of magic spell?” Mary Lou prompted.

“It could be.” The prince laughed as he looked through his ghostly hand. “Appropriate to our surroundings, I’d guess. But I was going to say that I was coming out of a cave, or a tunnel. It’s like I’ve been living in darkness for a long time, and for the first time I can see the slightest bit of light.”

Mary Lou was happy for him. She wondered if she had anything to do with it.

“You talked about a spell,” the prince said after a moment. “I knew both the wizards, once. I think their magic does have something to do with what has become of me.” He laughed, waving his transparent fingers in front of his eyes. “Does any of this mean anything? I still don’t even know if I’m truly alive. What if I am no more than some sorcery—some memory of what I was when I could claim flesh and blood?”

“Merrilu!”

Mary Lou turned her head to see a small cluster of the People waving at her. They had finally noticed that she was standing.

“Prince,” she said as she turned back to him. But he was gone. “Merrilu! Merrilu! Merrilu!”

The People gathered together in the middle of the platform, calling to her but waiting before they approached.

The crowd parted, and their Chieftain, complete with his many-colored beads of office, walked in front of them. He approached her, and the rest of the People followed. They called her name over and over again.

She tried to smile at the approaching entourage, but couldn’t help feeling disappointed. She and the prince had barely begun to get to know each other.

“Hello again,” the prince’s voice said at her side.

She turned to him. She wouldn’t have any trouble smiling now. He came back so quickly. Was it her thoughts that had brought him back?

“The People have called me this time,” he explained quietly. “Now I have a job to do.”

And, Mary Lou realized, she had something to explain to the People as well.

“First,” the prince began, “I extend a morning greeting from the tribe. They are very happy that you could be with them.”

“You should thank them for coming to my rescue last night,” Mary Lou replied. “It was a very confusing situation. Dangerous, too. But—”

She hesitated, unsure how to put what she wanted into words. “But?” the prince repeated gently.

“But not all of those on the forest floor were my enemies. Some of those I saw last night were my friends. Friends that I very much would like to see again.”

The prince nodded, and then paused for a second, as if listening. At last he added: “The People want to make sure you know how pleased they are that you have chosen to join their tribe.”

Mary Lou nodded, smiling at the Chieftain and those around him.

She still hadn’t let them know what she really wanted.

“But you have to understand,” she added quickly, “I need to find my friends again.”

The prince frowned slightly, then remarked: “Nothing could have been better than your arrival at this most propitious of times.”

“But I can’t stay here,” Mary Lou said a bit more forcefully. “I need to find the people whom I came here with.”

“It is so important that you arrived now, before the Ceremony,” was the prince’s answer. “Nothing else would have done.”

“Why aren’t they answering me?” Mary Lou asked. “Don’t they know that I want to leave?” She almost felt like screaming at the People again.

“Merrilu!” the People cheered.

The prince spread his hands in a gesture of total helplessness. “I am trying to tell them, the best that I know how. They seem incapable of understanding. Or maybe they simply don’t want to.” She felt calmer the minute the prince talked to her in his own words. “It has something to do with this Ceremony?” she asked. “What kind of ceremony?”

“It is a great event,” the prince explained with a frown. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt this excitement in the People over something that was yet to come.”

He looked over at the quiet yet expectant crowd. “They do get excited when their hunters return with a kill, or when they have a victory like the one of the day before. But the People never seemed to plan for their future. Their lives always seemed as timeless as my own existence, until you came along.” He turned back to Mary Lou. “But this Ceremony? I don’t know a thing about it. It has never happened in all the time I have been here. Maybe they had to wait for someone like you before it could occur.”

And, she thought but didn’t say aloud, now that they had found her, they weren’t going to let her go.

She didn’t know what to do. She knew that Todd was somewhere in this part of the forest. Maybe other neighbors were out there, too.

She remembered again what Nunn had told her. She seemed to have a purpose in this place, far greater than anything she had ever had at home. Or so everybody said. She wished she could learn what it was for herself, beyond Nunn’s plans and the People’s ceremonies. And, she realized, she didn’t want to wait around for the People’s wishes any more than she wanted to satisfy Nunn.

If the opportunity presented itself, she might have to try to contact Todd and the others on her own. She might have to leave this place without the People’s permission. For some reason, that made her feel guilty.

She looked back to the Chieftain again and did her best to smile. But her mind was turning over everything that had happened. She wondered if Todd had seen her in the trees. She wondered if the others were searching for her now.

She looked over at her companion, his bright robes turned to pastel by the morning sun. She seemed to have broken through whatever spell or curse the prince was under. He said his life would come back to him slowly. And she wanted to be there to share it with him.

She could feel her heart beating quickly in her chest. Maybe, Mary Lou thought, when she left, she wouldn’t have to face this world alone.

Maybe the two of them could leave together.

T
odd didn’t like the silence. Back home, this kind of quiet meant there was going to be a fight.

“So how do we rescue this—Nick?” Thomas asked abruptly, as if he had decided to cooperate for all of the Volunteers.

“I should be able to do it,” Obar replied, “as soon as Nunn turns his attention elsewhere.”

Wilbert laughed. “So what do you need us for?”

“I need you to find the Anno,” Obar replied simply. “We have to rescue the girl, too. Mary Lou. The only way we’re going to win is if we work together—the way we did before.”

“Oh, there we have it at last,” Wilbert said as he shook his head. “There’s something else you can’t do. I knew the little creatures were talented. So the Anno really are wizard-proof?”

“I can no longer see them,” Obar admitted. “They seem to have found a way to deaden my spells.”

“We can find them, easily enough,” Stanley volunteered as he looked up at the trees. “Wouldn’t be surprised if they were closer than you think, hey?”

Obar started. “Nunn is letting down his guard. There he is. Nick, I mean. He’s been fighting the wolves. I’ll only be a minute.”

The wizard light blinked out as Obar disappeared.

“Gone again,” Stanley said. He paused a moment to spit. “You sure this is such a good idea, hey?”

“Admit it, mate,” Wilbert replied gruffly. “You were getting tired of day-to-day survival, anyway. Besides, how much sand lizard can a person eat?”

“Mary Lou,” Thomas said as he moved silently off into the darkness.

“Let’s go meet our fate,” Wilbert agreed as he followed Thomas down the path. “Bobby and Todd, my boys, I trust you know your way around a knife.”

What did he mean by that? Todd had played around with a switchblade for a little while, but never in a fight. Before this, he’d never used anything but his fists. Maggie followed Wilbert, and Stanley waved for the boys to follow.

“Maggie’s good at this,” Wilbert went on. “She’ll show you how to get in close, slash ’em quick.”

“What’s that?” Maggie said, as if she wasn’t really listening. “What are you talking about? I can’t really train the boys in the dark, can I?”

“Then they’ll have to learn on the job, like the rest of us.” Wilbert laughed. “You see, fellows, the Anno don’t trust the four of us much. Comes from certain disagreements in the past.”

“And the fact that they’re filthy, murdering swine!” Stanley added. “Well, that, too,” Wilbert allowed. “The Anno recognize the four of us. And they know how hard we are to take advantage of.”

“That’s where they come in?” Maggie asked.

“We need bait,” Wilbert agreed jovially. “Newcomer bait.”

This time Stanley laughed. “Against the Anno. Bobby and Todd, you got my respect, hey? You folks are about to become full-fledged Volunteers!”

“Geesh, Todd, what are they going to have us do?” Bobby asked softly, as if there was any way Todd could know what was going on.