The Unknown Princess

Chapter Eleven

"Take it, hurry!" Carmen whispered excitedly. She passed up the brilliant red cloth, and I stepped carefully onto Frivadelth's snout before leaping through the crenel of the tower in Avington. I know I didn't need to worry too much about hurting her. As she grew bigger, the scales on Frivadelth's hide grew thicker, until they were stronger than any of the armor that knights in the realm would wear. How much thicker would it get as she kept growing?

I landed painfully, rolling over before standing up on the flagstone next to the flagpole. I could still hear yelling from the far side of the castle, and grinned at the thought of the two bears that must be running around in the dark of the early morning and driving the guards crazy. Meanwhile, Carmen and I had used Frivadelth like an elevator as she stood on her hind legs to get us into the throne room as we gripped her neck, and then up to the top of the flag tower. That was where I found myself now, having bypassed all the guards and lowered the flag of the duchy, then raised it once more with the challenge flag attached right below it. According to Imogen, it had to be either me or Carmen that raised the flag, because it had to be someone of noble birth who started the challenge.

When the sun rose, everyone would be able to see it, and the challenge would start.

It had taken us almost three days to make the journey here, with Frivadelth easily carrying us faster than horses and a ship. Even better, once we'd dropped off Alba, Jana, and Imogen for their diversion, we were free for our mission. It helped that Avington was on a spit of land jutting out between the inland sea and the river flowing out of the mountains to the north, so Frivadelth could swim right up to the walls, and then almost scale them.

And then once the flag was out, we all climbed right back down, and she let out a draconic roar that was the signal for the diversion to end. Several hours later, we were all dry and sitting at an inn out in the city enjoying breakfast while everyone else in the common room was chattering about who could have raised the flag. Frivadelth had swam up the river to the dark forested hills, and was sleeping there, though we'd go get her in the evening to begin our trip back in the dark. She was having fun, as the forests here were mostly spruce, with less ground cover, and the hunting was easier for her.

It felt good.

Riders were already being dispatched to the other dutchies with white flags to bring the news, and in a week or less, the challenge should begin. But all we cared about was some food, and then we could go up to see Frivadelth and go home. We'd done our duty!

I felt a sense of contentment from Frivadelth, and an image of several goats disappearing down her gullet. They weren't nearly as fast as the antelope! I sent back a similar image, though this was of my eggs and smoked sausages. I'd grown used to communicating this way, and hearing her rumbling laughter in my thoughts, and yet it never got old. For all our differences, I loved Frivadelth, and I knew she loved me.

"This food hits the spot," Alba moaned. "I was getting sick of the jerky." I could understand that, as it was all we'd eaten as we rode all the way here. We couldn't exactly light a fire to cook on Frivadelth's back.

"Agreed." I chewed happily. "We need some of this sausage!" We had a lot of eggs in the village, but we didn't have enough livestock to be able to butcher them regularly for dinners. Most of the meat we enjoyed was fish or antelope.

"We could probably make some," Imogen reasoned. "Maybe we should start trading for more livestock and make a little herd."

Jana slapped her shoulder with a scowl. "You know we aren't going to cut down any trees to make a pasture."

Imogen just leaned over and kissed her. "Not that kind of livestock. But when we were overseas, there were several lands where they had boars that lived in the trees. Maybe we could do something like that if we got some to start a little herd."