The Child Prince (The Artifactor) (43 page)

Judging time in this wooded area became quickly impossible. He couldn’t see enough of the sun to guess how much time had passed and his frantic haste in reaching Hana made the chase seem long. He couldn’t begin to judge how much time passed before Baby abruptly slowed, letting out a warning growl.

He slowed abruptly as well, taking the cat’s cue, and hugged closer to the tree line. “Are they nearby?”

Baby let out a confirming huff.

They had to be fairly close for him to detect them. Close enough for Bellomi to start taking certain precautions. He guided the stallion into the trees, deep enough to not be easily visible from the road, but close enough to give quick access to the highway. They’d need it later. But he didn’t want to take the horse any closer than this. For one, it was hard to sneak up on a group of people while riding. But also when that dragon did come looking for her egg, he didn’t want the horse to spook and run straight for Morgan. That would make getting home all the more difficult.

He tied it securely to a fallen log nearby, got a better grip on the slippery egg in his hands, and started slinking his way through the forest at a quick lope, following Baby’s lead. The cat stayed on the ground, not choosing to take his skyward highway, and he moved at a good clip for several minutes before slowing to a stealthy walk. After spending so much time with the cat, he had grown accustomed to following Baby’s lead, so he slowed his pace as well. Carefully, they moved forward, and as they did so, Bellomi started to detect what the cat had: men’s voices, rising and falling in conversation, often overlapping each other mixed in with the soft sound of metal clinking and the clip-clop of horse’s hooves against the highway stone. They were not moving very fast at all for him to catch up this easily. In fact, it was almost a meandering pace. No hurry in getting back home, eh?

He got closer to the roadway so he could look the situation over. Yes, a typical squad of six men, all on horseback. They didn’t look like the best and brightest, either—the uniforms were sloppily worn, the men borderline shabby. They were all clustered together, too, with not one person designated as lookout, which went entirely against standard protocol. Not to mention against common sense. When a person was arrested, usually
someone
would try and come to their rescue. But these men were so engaged in talking to each other that they even ignored their prisoner.

Hana lagged in the very back of the group, irons on her wrists, being led forward on foot. What, they hadn’t even bothered to mount her for this long trip? It took a good week to get to Lockbright from here on foot! No wonder their pace had been so slow.

One of the men up ahead mentioned stopping for the night in a clearing up ahead. Bellomi’s jaw dropped in stunned surprise. This early?! They were stopping this early? They still had a good two or three hours of daylight left! Well, granted, being in the forest like this made the light fade faster. And with fall approaching, the days were shortening. A little. The weather still held fairly warm, though, it’s not like they needed to stop early to gather lots of firewood to stave off the cold. Just how lazy were these men?
When I get back on the throne, I have to remember to discharge these idiots. They’re embarrassing.

Not that he wanted to complain about that just now.

Alright, if they wanted to stop and make camp, by all means. The sooner the better. It would make it easier to plant the egg in their saddlebags that way.

“Baby,” Bellomi whispered, “Let’s get to that clearing they mentioned before they do.”

The cat picked up the pace, silently leading the way. Neither of them disturbed the foliage under their feet, leaving absolutely no sound or sign of their passing behind them. They beat their prey to the campsite, but just barely, long enough for both of them to climb a tree so they would be out of sight of anyone on the ground.

The guards filtered into the circular clearing with the air of familiarity, as if they’d been exactly here numerous times before. They’d clearly been together for a while, as no one discussed camp chores, just dismounted and set about making camp for the night. Hana was escorted to a place just beyond the fire ring and ordered to stay put. The men were working all around her, not giving her any chance to make a break for freedom. Bellomi scrutinized her from head to toe, but didn’t see any signs of brutality. She looked scared, though. Her eyes kept darting to all of the men, and her hands were knotted in her dress until her knuckles shone white.

Please,
he prayed silently,
please don’t do anything rash. I’m right here and I’ll get you out of this. Just don’t make a move until I do.
Hana was levelheaded, most of the time, but strongly independent. If she thought it was up to her to get free, then she’d likely try on her own without waiting for a rescue. But hopefully she’d wait for a better moment than this.

For now he needed to focus on getting the egg out of his hands. He changed to a different tree, one closer to the horses, as the men started unloading their saddlebags and digging out the equipment they wanted. One saddlebag especially looked promising for his plan. It lay open right near the base of the tree, and almost empty. Bellomi shifted on his branch a little to get a better angle, then dropped the egg directly into the open pouch. It slid right in, settling with the rest of the gear. Phew. Part two of his plan, complete. Now to wait.

The fire had been started and one of the men had fetched water before anyone took notice of the egg.

“Hey, what’s this?” A scraggly man leaned over the satchel and pulled the egg free. “Who picked this up?”

All the men looked at the egg, shrugging their ignorance, but coming in closer for a better look. “It’s sure pretty,” one of them observed, reaching out a hand to touch it. “I’ve never seen a crystal this blue before, have you?”

“Or that big,” another put in, scratching at the back of his head. “Where did it come from?”

“I don’t know, but can I keep it? My girl likes pretty things like this, and I promised I’d pick something up for her this trip.”

“You spoil her too much, you know.”

“What are you saying? You can’t spoil a pretty woman too much!”

Bellomi smiled evilly as they laughed and teased each other, all the while passing around the egg. “That’s right,” he crooned encouragingly in a quiet whisper. “Keep waving it around like that. Mama will notice
veeeeeery
soon that way.”

He watched the scene for several minutes, keeping a weather eye on the sky. It didn’t take long before he heard the hard flap of wings coming this direction.
Quickly
this direction. Mama dragon had indeed been close by to come this fast. Dragons could track their eggs by smell, according to Sevana, so she didn’t need to really look to know where her precious baby was.

Knowing that she would be hopping mad when she arrived, Bellomi moved fast. The soldiers had the egg, so she’d focus on them, but dragon’s tended to lash their tails when mad (as he knew from previous experience) and he didn’t want Hana accidentally hurt when the dragon landed. He quickly hopped from one tree to the other, moving around the edge of the clearing so that he could drag her out of the way at a moment’s notice.

The dragon came in hot and fast, smoke steaming out of her mouth, a piercing roar heralding her coming. She landed so hard the ground shook, making the horses rear in alarm and try to run, even with the hobbles on their legs. It even shook Bellomi in his perch, and he had to hang on tight to the tree he sat on to avoid tumbling to the ground. Baby, with a better sense of balance, simply dug his claws into the wood and hung tight until it was over.

Bellomi spared a glance toward the soldiers, who were all busy pulling their swords free (a useless gesture if there ever was one) and exclaiming to each other. Idiots. But with them safely occupied, it was time to get Hana. He leaped lightly to the ground, heading for her…only to stop dead. Wait. Where did she go?! She was sitting just there a minute ago! Did she dive for cover when the dragon appeared? Bellomi’s head turned this way and that frantically, looking for her, but he couldn’t see her anywhere. “Baby, did you see where Hana went?”

Baby gave him quite the look for that before shaking his head and leading Bellomi on. Bellomi flushed at the silent chastisement. Alright, he shouldn’t have taken his eyes off his primary target. That was a beginner’s mistake. But great good gods, dragons were distracting! It was understandable he lost sight of her for a second, wasn’t it?

No. He still wouldn’t be living this down. He just knew it.

Weaving his way in between the trees, he followed Baby and kept an eye open for Hana. She’d been in the solid grey uniform of a librarian, which shouldn’t blend too well into this forest of browns and greens. At least, in theory. But he didn’t see even a hint of her. Had she taken advantage of the dragon’s appearance to make a run for it? He certainly would have, in her shoes.

“I don’t see her,” he said to Baby, not bothering to lower his voice. “Can you—”

WHAM
.

Bellomi reeled under the sudden onslaught of pain that exploded in his head. Wha—? Owwwwww! He instinctively put a hand to his forehead, where the pain was radiating from, and staggered back a step as he fought to regain his balance.

Baby growled in warning, so it wasn’t a tree limb he’d failed to see, but something that had actually attacked him. He managed to focus his eyes and look up.

“Oh no! Bel! I’m so sorry!”

Hana! He blinked tears from his eyes to see her standing in front of him, both hands wrapped around the manacle chain, and looking at him with a guilty wince. “I thought it was a guardsman coming after me,” she explained in a small voice.

She’d hit him with that chain, hadn’t she? No wonder it hurt so bad. And…yes, he did feel a trickle of blood running down his temple. Despite how badly that hurt, he couldn’t help but smile. “I just knew you weren’t going to sit there waiting for a rescue.”

She dropped the manacle chain and dug a handkerchief out of her pocket, pressing it to his temple. “How bad does it hurt?”

“I’ll live,” he assured her dryly. “But let’s get to Big before they manage to escape that dragon, eh?”

Hana glanced in the direction of the clearing, where chaos still reigned, judging by the screams of the men and the irate growls of the dragon. “I’m good with that idea. Um, did you run here?”

“I have a horse stashed nearby,” he answered, claiming her hand and guiding her in the right direction.

They moved at a quick jog toward the horse, who hopefully hadn’t escaped the tight knot that Bellomi had tied. “I’m so glad that you came after me,” Hana told him as they ran. “I wasn’t quite sure what to do.”

“Morgan thankfully told me as quickly as he could. But this means you’ll have to stay inside of Big until we get everything sorted out.”

“After this, I don’t mind. Trust me.” Her grip on him tightened. “But, we need to tell my father.”

“I told your father on the way here, don’t worry.”

Fortunately for all, the horse hadn’t managed to escape, although judging by the way it frantically pulled at the reigns, it certainly wanted to. The stallion looked very white around the eyes. Bellomi helped Hana aboard first, as it was a mite challenging to do so with manacles on her wrists and that straight-tailed dress on, then untied the reigns and swung aboard behind her. The stallion eagerly took off at the slightest pressure of his heels, racing for the safety of Milby.

Hana kept an iron grip on the saddle’s pommel, and he had an iron grip around her waist to keep her steady. For several minutes they just focused on putting as much distance between them and the dragon as possible. Only when the screams of the men faded and the dragon’s roars became slightly muted did Hana ask, “Do we dare stop by the library and fetch the research I’ve done?”

Bellomi blinked in surprise. “Do you mean to tell me they went to the trouble of taking you and
left your research behind?”

“They didn’t take a single note,” she confirmed dryly.

Yes, that settled it. He’d discharge them first thing. “Morgan and I will come down to get it later tonight. My first priority is getting you safely to Big.”

“I won’t argue that.”

Bellomi’s ears stayed focused behind them, listening intently for any signs of pursuit, not that he really expected it. But they made it all the way to Big without any resistance.

Sevana sat on a boulder just outside the front door, a sword leaning against her thigh, a wand loosely held in her free hand. She watched their approach with a mild smile that he knew meant trouble. She only gave him
that
particular look when he’d done something remarkably stupid.

Putting off the inevitable as long as he could, he climbed down from the saddle and lifted Hana free. Only then did he turn and greet the Artifactor. “Hello, Sevana. Can you get these cuffs off Hana? Oh, and do you have a salve for this?” he pointed at the gash still throbbing at his temple.

“I probably don’t for people who ignore my advice and go harrying off by themselves,” she denied pleasantly.

“Hey, I took Baby!” he protested.

“The cat does not count.” Dismissing him with a wave, and ignoring his squawk of protest, she said to Hana, “Come inside. I’ll get those manacles off.”

Hana very carefully bit her lip to hide a smile. “Thank you, Sevana.”

As the women stepped inside, both Aren and Axelrad stepped out, both of them with the same irritated, paternal look on their faces. Bellomi could admit, in hindsight, that going off without alerting either one of them hadn’t been the best of ideas. Especially since Axelrad was a professional about kidnappings and such. The fact that he had successfully rescued Hana and brought her back without harm or bloodshed wouldn’t save him. Well, at least,
she
hadn’t been harmed.

Resigned, he led Morgan’s horse toward the small stable off to the side. “Let me see to the stallion first. Then you can lecture me.”