“We had better still get paid.” Lia was laid out on her pile of blankets with the hyenia gen from earlier between her fingers.
“I wouldn’t hold your breath.” Cade said. He was sprawled out beside her. Goose bumps were appearing on his exposed chest but he hardly noticed. His mind had wandered back to that dinner.
The monster who had come so close to his face.
The arrival of the ex-queen and her daughter.
Princess Freya.
Looking at the ceiling of the tent, he fancied that he could see her blue eyes on the other side of the fabric. There, but just out of reach. As if she was watching him like he thought she was in the hall. He face stained orange in firelight…
“Cade?” Lia’s voice brought him back to the present moment.
“Yea?”
“Are you listening?”
Rubbing his eyes he sat up. “Sorry. My mind is reeling.”
He felt her move behind him and then the warmth of her body press into his back.
“I know. Comin’ that close to death really makes you appreciate life.”
Cade could feel her arms coming around him and her breath on his neck. She purred in his ear and started to run her hands over his chest. He wanted to want her and usually he did. But now, that bloody princess was haunting him.
He clambered from the bed so fast that she toppled over. “Sorry, I’m just not in the mood. all this talk about war and dragons..” He trailed off. Dragons. That was it. How had he thought of it sooner. The words of the challenge were that whoever found the dragon and tamed it first would rule the kingdom. And who was more suited to tame a new spirit animal than him? he didn’t have one of his own. The thought stung a bit but he didn’t let it slow him down. the past was in the past but this could finally be his ticket to the future he had always wanted.
“Um… Cade? Have you been drinking?” Lia had the blanket wrapped around her upper half and was still in the bed.
Upon seeing her it occurred to Cade that he was standing in the middle of the room naked. Lia was staring but for once she didn’t seem attracted to him. more worried.
“No. I have just had an idea.” Cade went to the floor by the tent door where he had discarded his trousers on the way in.
“Well I had a few ideas about tonight as well.” Lia grumbled, turning her attention back to the gem she was holding.
Cade started the search for his shirt once his trousers were on. “I mean I have had a huge idea. A life changing idea.”
Lia didn’t look up at him. “Like the lake monster hunt? Or the hyenia?”
Cade ignored her. If it wasn’t shiny or pretty Lia had no interest.
After a few seconds of searching he saw his shirt over on the blankets with Lia. He stooped to grab it and she caught his arm.
“Come back to bed and think about your idea tomorrow.” She looked up at him through her eyelashes.
“I can’t. by then it will be too late.”
“I guess you would just have to spend more time in the travelling circus with me then.”
Her tone was light and her smile was inviting and Cade felt guilty. He knew that she was more into him that he was her. He watched her and willed himself to want to stay. But he couldn’t make that happen. No matter how he tried, he didn’t want this life forever and she did.
He wiggled out of her persistent grip. “I have to go.” Her fingers left white marks on his arm.
“Fine.” She didn’t look at him as he left and he was oddly grateful for that.
Most of the performers were sleeping apart from the few who were on night watch. They called greetings over to Cade who replied with the standard “I’m good” he always gave them.
One of them muttered something about how he bet Cade was very good and two of them laughed.
He thought about what they meant then remembered that when he and Lia were together she liked to mess up his hair. He put his hand onto his head and patted it down. The men where still laughing and Cade picked up the pace to get away from them.
The tent that he and sister where meant to share was at the far end of the site, almost against the road. However, Cade would have know it no matter where it was pitched because it was the shoddiest one of them all. Cade could remember what Lorwen had said that day that he had given them the tent.
“You’s don’t have family to pass it down and no one is gonna trade you for it.” Then he had laughed and laughed.
Cade had known at that moment that he wasn’t going to stay in the circus for too long.
He got to the tent and ducked in. it wasn’t much warmer inside it that it had been outside. Cade started to shiver but he hardly noticed as he scanned the room for Elora.
She was lying on her side on the floor, cocooned in blankets. Her red hair poked out of the top, a splash of colour in an otherwise dull place.
Stepping over the belongings that littered the ground, Cade crouched down and shook her shoulder. She awoke very fast and sat up and whirled on him. Her hand shot out in search of the fist sized rock she kept by her bed and Azura let out one shot hiss. Cade saw them both relax at the same time.
“Cade?” Elora’s voice was thick with sleep.
“Hey El. Wake up there is something I need to tell you.”
“I thought you were staying with Lia tonight.”
“I was but then I had an idea.”
Elora rolled her eyes and tried to settle into bed again. Cade gave her solid push and she groaned.
“Cade can’t you tell me in the morning?”
Cade pretended to think about it but he already knew that it couldn’t wait.
“No. we need more time than that to prepare.”
Sighing loudly, Elora propped herself up on her elbows and faced him.
Cade took a moment to be sure that she was listening. “I had idea tonight. The challenge laid out to the princess was to find the dragon and tame it. They said that whoever did that would become ruler.” He was shivering a lot now and his voice shook like a scratched record. he didn’t care enough to move to find a blanket. It could wait.
“Yea I heard that.” Elora pulled on of her blankets up the bed and then leaned forward and wrapped it around his shoulders.
He nodded his thanks as his shivering slowed and she smiled.
“But they didn’t say whichever royal tamed the dragon would rule. They just said anyone who did could take the throne.”
Elora narrowed her eyes and started to nervously rub Azura’s head. “Cade...” She drew out his name in a wary tone.
“El, what if we did it?” He saw the apprehension on her face and fired on before she could say no. “imagine it. No more circus or performing for royals and nobles. No more just sitting on horses all day and travelling up and down the country. No more stealing just so we have something to give each other for our birthdays. We can do this El.”
She watched him intently. “Cade we don’t know the first thing about taming dragons not to mention we would have to reach the damn thing first. Assuming we can find out where it is somehow there will be countless beasts between us and it and they will try ot kill us. We have no weapons.”
“We can steal some and we can follow princess Freya to the dragon. I bet the royals have an idea of where to find it and she is too sheltered to be able to spot us or stop us from following her.” In Cade’s mind there was no problem. They would follow Freya to the dragon. Assuming she doesn’t die on the way there then they will fight her off long enough to get in first and tame the beast before she can. If they run into problems on the way they can steal her weapons, force her to tell them where to find the dragon, and send her back home to her daddy. In the meantime, Lorwen had a few knives that he kept in his tent and was always asking Cade to polish. It would be all too easy to swipe them.
Elora looked down at the ground. “Cade the odds of this working…”
She didn’t need to say anything else. He knew it was a long shot. But better to take the long shot than to never fire the gun.
“Come on El. We don’t want to live like this forever. We have to try. Besides, if we cant do it I am sure there will always be another circus to join.”
Freya sat on top of her horse and waited for Rowen to come out with the supplies. He had already loaded the weapons onto the horse and was now gone back for some food. Freya looked down at her horse and wondered how the animal was going to carry all this stuff alone. It sounded like a lot even for a horse of this size.
To her right was Aurora. They had both agreed that in order to make the challenge as fair as possible they both had to set out from the same place. Aurora didn’t have a horse, but rode on top of her griffin. Freya had been assured that the injury to the beasts wing meant that it was unable to fly and was therefore just as fast as a horse.
The rising sun bounced light off Aurora’s curls and Freya could see a part of herself in the woman. They had defiant similarities. Their faces were the same heart shape and although Freya’s hair was a touch lighter, both of them had thin silky strands.
Freya wanted to say something to Aurora but she didn’t know what. She couldn’t comment on the hedge maze without progressing to how she used to run there as a child. She couldn’t tell her that the colour of the roses would go nicely with her hair without explaining that she and her father had painted them together.
Before she knew what she was doing she was steering her horse over to Aurora.
The woman didn’t look up as she approached and simply continued to check that she had all her weapons in her saddle bags.
Freya felt like there was a pebble in her throat and tried to swallow past it.
“Hey, I just want to say good luck.”
Aurora said nothing.
“It will be strange to be away from the castle for so long.” Freya said. Then she cringed at the mention of being away from home. Aurora had spent her whole life away from home.
Aurora still didn’t speak. Her focus didn’t waver and her breathing never broke out of its steady rhythm.
Freya clenched her teeth. “You know just because you and I are competing doesn’t mean that you have to make it all about hating each other.”
“The people of this kingdom need to be clear on what this is all about.” Aurora met her eyes for the first time.
Freya tried to keep the tremor out of her voice. “And whats that then?”
“Its about backing the right horse.” Aurora didn’t have to signal to the griffin in any way but it started to move. Its nails clicked on the cobble stones as it made its way out of the courtyard.
Freya wanted to race Aurora right then but she still needed the supplies. Where the hell was Rowen?
As if thinking his name summoned him, Rowen can stumbling out towards her. She was about to give out to him about causing her to fall behind when she noticed that he wasn’t carrying any supplies but rather leading a horse that was weighted down by bags.
“I can’t take two horses. There is no way I will be able to control them both if something happens.”
“That’s why I am coming too.” Rowen reached her side and struggled up onto his horse.
Freya was pleased at the thought of having some company but it didn’t seem fair to bring back up. “Rowen you can’t go.”
Rowen lifted a finger. “Ah, you see your highness, I am under strict royal instruction to ignore you if you say that.”
“My father sent you?”
“Me and about a weeks worth of food.” He proudly patted the backs on the side of the horse. The horse whinnied.
She knew that the should be pleased that her father was looking out for her but something about it bothered her as well. Shaking it off, she knew it would be better not to argue with the king. With Buddy in her shoulder and Rowen in tow, she kicked the horse into action and set out for the outer regions of Brecastell.
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