Read The Coming of Dragons: No. 1 (Darkest Age) for Free Online Page B

wood.’ He was amazed that Elspeth had escaped the wreck. All the fishermen had looked at her with awe in their eyes. And even a hint of fear, as if they suspected her of being a mermaid or a sea-sprite. There could be no other survivors, they were sure.
    Offering clumsy thanks, Elspeth turned blindly back to the village, her eyes brimming with tears. But by the time she reached the houses, the tears had blown away. What use was crying? She had nothing left but the port she called home, and she would need all of her strength for the long journey east.
    Aagard greeted her without comment, though she could see at once that he knew, and she was glad that he asked her no questions. Edmund said nothing either. He was tense and white as sea spume. Neither of them offered any objection when the woman whose baby Aagard had saved invited them to eat with her.
    Elspeth sat by the fire pit in the woman’s cramped hut, chewing an oatcake without tasting it and letting the talk drift over her.
    ‘The road eastwards is well marked, and safe enough if a traveller keeps to it,’ Aagard was saying. ‘Or it was, two years ago. And there are those in Wessex who will offer us shelter. We will leave as soon as we have eaten.’
    Elspeth wondered what she would do when she reached Dubris. Her father’s house was small and bare; his real home, all his wealth, had been the
Spearwa
. Aunt Freda, her father’s sister and Elspeth’s only other living relative, would take her in, but her house was already full with three girls who sewed and spun and giggled about husbands.
No!
Elspeth couldn’t stay there. The only place she could really be happy was at sea. She would find a Dubris shipmaster to take her on;someone who knew Master Trymman had schooled his daughter well.
    There was something else too. She had to go home to find out for certain that her father hadn’t found his way there by some other means. If she had been saved by a piece of jetsam, then why not he? Didn’t he always, always go home to Dubris, a fair wind filling his sails as he tacked round the point into Dubris harbour?
    The pain in Elspeth’s heart lightened a little. Aagard’s speculation about the state of the roads was of no importance to her. She had to head for the nearest port. It seemed the boy no longer meant to go to Gaul, so she did not have to worry about that either. Perhaps they could travel east together by boat.
    Elspeth glanced across the gloomy little hut to the pale boy. Would he want to go with her? Maybe not. He was so reserved, so caught up in his private thoughts it was as if it would harm him to speak out loud.
    She was surprised when he suddenly stood up and faced Aagard, his jaw set as if he had made up his mind to do some difficult task. He fumbled at his throat with trembling fingers.
    ‘P-please take this, sir,’ he stammered. ‘I-it will go some way towards repaying your hospitality.’
    As Aagard took the small object, his grizzled brows shot up. Elspeth saw a silver clasp in his palm, shaped like a flying bird.
    Aagard handed the clasp back to the boy. ‘It would repay me many times over,’ he said, ‘but this is too rich a gift. Keepit, Edmund, and keep it hidden. The gratitude of your family is no small thing, I know that.’
    To Elspeth’s growing confusion, Edmund turned redder than a radish, and took back the clasp without a word.
    As they left Medwel, Elspeth ran to catch up with Aagard.
    ‘Sir,’ she said, ‘I cannot come with you. I have decided to go home by boat. I must find the nearest port and a shipmaster who knows me.’
    Aagard turned on her. ‘No!’ he said fiercely, and before Elspeth could protest, he seized her by the shoulders. ‘You must
not
go by sea,’ he said. ‘Neither one of you. You must realise that you have enemies now, and the sea routes are watched. There were eyes in that storm.’
    Elspeth felt the ground sway beneath her. ‘But how can I not go back to sea? There’s nothing else …’ Her