The King's Gauntlet

The Bestiary

A continual rain fell on us as we stood beside the crossroads. We had traveled hard all night, pushing to reach this point before dawn, and yet now we waited motionless as the sky opened up on us. I patted the side of Rags' snout and was rewarded with a sniff and a low huff. Beside me, the Lynx stared vacantly into a patch of flowers just off the muddy path.

She had never been the most cheerful person around. Yet even I could tell that the news of this Petra's death had shaken her. After a time, she raised her head, appearing to notice me for the first time. "You can keep back in the trees, Princess. To stay out in the rain."

I shrugged. "I don't mind, really, but shouldn't we be keeping Rags away from prying eyes? We've been marching all night, and no one's seen us, but with dawn here..."

The Lynx nodded. "I know, but I have a plan for that. She's just a bit overdue..." She trailed off, squinting into the fog. A rider appeared a few moments later, cantering down the road. "There she is."

Emerging from the mist like an apparition was a rider on horseback, and as she neared I recognized her at once as Baroness von Opfen. She raised her right hand, clad in a leather riding glove, in greeting to the Lynx. "Pardon my late arrival. I tried to push the Bestiary's circus master as much as I could, but he simply wouldn't have it. They hadn't even begun preparing to make the march when I left camp."

"Ferrand is such a fool," the Lynx grumbled. Beyond her, the Baroness' steely gaze assessed Rags and drifted over to me. She smiled and nodded.

"Good to see you are well. Along with your scaly friend."

I blinked. "You recognized me?" I managed to say a moment later. We'd both attended several of the same formal functions in the years since I had stumbled into Rags, but we hadn't exchanged more than a handful of words. The Baroness laughed, her voice vibrant and flowing with genuine mirth.

"Oh, of course! It's not everyday that I come across..." she paused for a moment, her voice dropping lower, so that it didn't carry beyond us. "Dragons, not to mention the member of the royal family who awakened them. And so when my friend the Lynx asked for assistance, well, of course I made myself available."

I tilted my head, glancing at the Lynx's stern features. Just who was she, anyway?

"Let's not mention more than we have to about either of those topics, yes?" the Lynx replied.

"Certainly. I've merely mentioned that I've purchased an Erelion Saltwater Crocodile for the Bestiary. You know Ferrand and the others," she added with a dismissive shrug as her horse sniffed at me. Somehow I suppressed a giggle. "They give my little critters a wide berth. It's all the cover we need to make our way to Castle Ambry without the slightest inconvenience."

"If you say so," the Lynx said with a shrug. "The King is trusting you with quite a lot."

"And I hope I've made my loyalty clear," she replied, glancing at me again. "Your father was quite generous with the dragons' finder's fee, if you hadn't realized. Dragons have belonged to monarchies by ancient tradition, and by right he could have simply taken it for himself. Instead I was rather richly rewarded." Her smile widened. "Your father was a very forward-thinking man, and I grieve his loss most dearly. I am proud to be a woman of Aland, and to be afforded rights denied us in so many other lands. You have my sympathies for his loss."

"Thank you," I murmured, bowing my head low.

"And that's enough of the formalities," the Lynx grumbled. "Princess, you'll be the handler of this... 'crocodile' creature, assigned to the Baroness. Most likely she'll have you mucking out stables and the like. Don't think to object to her orders. If you can't play the part of a loyal servant than you'll never be a Gauntlet."