Liberator Read Free Page B

to dry land, I’ll look for my sword.”
    He slogged upstream to the boulder where the raft met its demise. Near the upstream side, the blade lay in the bending grass, gleaming in the sunlight. He snatched it up by the hilt and hustled back to the girls, who now stood at the river’s edge, squeezing out the edges of their clothes.
    He propped the sword against his shoulder and surveyed the river upstream and downstream. They had tumbled into a meadow and now stood in a field of grass and flowers. The river curved toward the west where it spilled into its original north-flowing channel and proceeded on its way at a pedestrian pace. To the south of that spillway,the old channel carried only a small stream that originated from a rocky slope. From that section of the slope, lying to the west of their wild ride, water trickled from several holes, giving evidence that the river once exited from those springs, the river’s escape route when the wall blocked the flow. “It looks pretty calm downstream.”
    Koren gazed at the sky, her face paler than ever. “And no sign of either dragon. Maybe things will get easier for a while.”
    Elyssa squinted. “Either dragon?”
    “We saw a dragon carrying Yeager while you were napping.” Jason winked. “Let’s get going. Maybe Koren will tell the tale, and you can see what happened.”
    After taking the second bag of supplies from Koren, he followed the edge of the river, Koren to his left and Elyssa to his right. Their wet clothes swept through calf-high grass and flowers, raising a sweet fragrance from the red and yellow four-leaf-clover-shaped blossoms.
    When they reached the river’s original channel, Jason stopped and scanned the forest beyond the opposite bank, his sword hilt tight in his grip. Maybe the dragon carrying Yeager hid within, waiting for the army from Major Four to arrive. If the dragon took notice of the three escaping humans, would it try to stop them? Taushin had said in the other dragons’ presence that Koren would likely overhear their plans, so if a hidden dragon recognized her, it might realize that they were on a mission to warn the soldiers.
    Elyssa and Koren joined Jason, one on each side. Elyssa slid her arm around his and leaned her head against his shoulder. “What are you thinking?”
    He cocked his head to look at her, but her face stayed out of view. He whispered in reply. “The dragon that carried Yeager. We have to watch for him.”
    She pulled away. Narrowing her eyes, she stared into the forest. “I sense a presence, something smaller than a dragon. Not human.”
    “I know there are wolves around,” Koren said. “I was dragged through this area by the leader of a pack.”
    Jason looked down at the muddy riverbank in front of his boots. Paw prints drew a line parallel to the river, pointing northward. If the wolves were smart enough to walk single file, there could be dozens. “It looks like we might have company.”
    “Someone else has been here.” Elyssa pointed across the river. “I see markings in that tree, the big one closest to the bank.”
    Jason set the supplies bag down and waded across the river, trudging through waist-deep water and soft sand at the bottom. When he arrived at the tree, he set the point of the sword on the mark. Someone had carved a large letter
M
in the trunk at about chest level. A line radiated from the center of the top of the
M
and pointed to the left at an angle of less than ten degrees. “It’s Adrian’s mark,” he called. “He was here early in the morning, just after sunrise.”
    “Today?” Koren asked from the opposite side.
    Jason shifted the point to the base of the
M
. Tiny spheres rested within the notch. He dug them out with a finger and laid them in his palm, five brown kernels no bigger than grass seeds. He pivoted and looked across the river where Elyssa and Koren stood next to the supplybags, both watching with tired stares. Still wet, their shoulders slumped under the weight of