The Eyes of the Dragon

104

Now they stood looking across the seventy koner of open ground between the edge of the forest where King Roland had once slain a dragon and the walls of the castle where he had been slain himself. A few more snowflakes skirled down from the sky… and a few more… and suddenly, magically, the air was filled with snow.

In spite of his weariness, Ben felt a moment of peace and joy. He looked at Naomi and smiled. She tried a scowl but it wouldn’t fit her face and so she smiled, too. A moment later, she ran her tongue out and tried to catch a flake of snow. Ben laughed quietly.

“How did he get inside, if he did?” Naomi asked.

“I don’t know,” Ben said. He had grown up on a farm, and knew nothing of the castle’s sewer system. Probably every bit as well for him, you might say, and you would be right. “Perhaps your champion dog can show us how he did it.”

“You really think he did, don’t you, Ben?”

“Oh, aye,” Ben said. “What do you think, Frisky?”

At the sound of her name, Frisky got up, ranged along the scent for a few feet, and looked back at them.

Naomi looked at Ben. Ben shook his head.

“Not yet,” he said.

Naomi called Frisky softly, and she came back, whining.

“If she could talk, she’d tell you she’s afraid of losing the scent. The snow will cover it.”

“We’ll not wait long. Dennis had the snowshoes, but we’re going to have something he didn’t, Naomi.”

“What’s that?”

“Cover.”