Dragon's Prize (Book 2) EXCERPT! about 1/2 of the book

Chapter 3 - Making Friends

Olivia's fingers were playing with a locket hanging from her necklace as she stared blankly through the window of the coach at the scenery passing by. She really wasn't seeing anything, but remembering when her mother had given her the trinket while hugging her goodbye and Olivia had been barely able to hold back the tears. An uneasy feeling had settled over her that it might be her last time holding her parents so close. They still hadn’t suspected anything, taking her quiet demeanor and the sadness in her eyes as a consequence of leaving her childhood home. Next time they were going to see her might be at her wedding and crowning.

As she had been saying goodbye to the people she felt close to, the stable master had a suspicious and  wary look in his eyes. They had always been close, for Olivia had a big love for horses and riding. He hadn’t said anything though, just hugged her tight and surreptitiously tucked a dagger in her pocket. When Olivia had pulled away, she had frowned up at him confused, but he had just nodded, laid a hand on her cheek and given her a tentative smile. Olivia had thanked him with her eyes before moving on to the next person.

She now looked down at the locket between her fingers and opened it. On the left side was a picture of her mother and the right one was showing her father. She missed them already… and she missed Kaden most of all. The thought of him brought a pang to her heart and tears to her eyes.

She furiously wiped away the traitorous tear, closed the locket almost reverently and continued staring out the window mindlessly.

A horse rode by with a red-haired rider perched upon it and Olivia’s thoughts went to her traveling companions. There was a beautiful girl, also red-haired, sharing the coach with her. So far Olivia had been successful in ignoring her, having no desire to converse with any one of these people. There were only two that were unharmed by their battle against Kaden; the one that rode by and another man who was very quiet. Of course, there was Magnus, the Prince of Evil himself. Olivia despised that man to her very core. She never thought she could feel so much hate towards someone. He was mostly unharmed by the fight, save for a few scratches, bruises and burns which were hidden under his clothes.

The youngest of them, a healer, had also come out of the clash mostly unscathed. He was the only one so far that Olivia paid any attention too, seeing that he had, after all, taken care of her own wounds and hurts. The dark skinned knight had his own set of injuries, none too big to keep him from functioning normally. He had a soft and kind look to his eyes, making Olivia wonder why he was following a man like Magnus at all. One of the other men sported a nasty bruise to the left side of his face combined with a scar running down the side, from the temple of his head to his chin. He was the man Olivia had seen observing her meeting with Lord Myke. When she had seen him walking about, he tended to put a protective hand on his ribs, a couple of them were probably cracked. He was frequently hovering over another wounded man, who she had found out was his brother. The brother had almost had his whole right arm ripped off his body. It was now tightly wrapped close to his torso, broken and mangled, but still there and functioning as much as his current limitations would allow.

The last man was the one that was hurt the worst, most of his head wrapped in bandages. It was the one that had come after her, the one whose head Kaden’s fire had grazed, both lucky and unlucky for him. If it had hit full on, he would’ve been dead, but now, he would be scarred for life and in pain for a long time. He was very snappy, irritated, angry, lashing out at everyone besides Magnus himself.

The three wounded men were settled in a wagon, with Donovan the healer looking after them. Olivia’s own horse was tied to that wagon. She was afraid to show any affection to her beloved piebald mare in case Magnus would come up with other cruel ideas to punish or threaten her.

“Hey Little Red, everything okay in here?” a voice snapped Olivia out of her musings. She turned around and saw the red-haired man peeking in.

“Everything’s fine Theo, very quiet though, but you can stop hovering, please?” Charlie pleaded with him, not wanting him to draw Magnus’ attention.