He looked around for the peasant boy and found him in the middle of quickly scaling a tree. Smart lad. Bern might have smacked him one otherwise, and a small thing like that would only have broken.

You, you lied to me! Bern called out, stalking up to the tree. Half a dozen men came with him, surrounding it. They were the ones out of his crew who had been nearest when he called, hard men, the lot of them. None would think anything of putting this boy in the ground if hed lied to them.

Didnt! the boy called down. He was shaking so hard that the whole tree seemed to tremble with it.

Then wheres the egg? Bern demanded.

This is where she found it, the boy replied, I promise this is the spot.

Then where is it? Bern demanded.

She spotted me and I had to run. Maybe… she took it somewhere?

Bern growled to himself. Do you think?

So its probably somewhere in the castle, one of the others said.

Bern shook his head. If it were, Id have heard. Think that runts the only one who tells me things? No, its hidden somewhere. Well find it.

And if we cant? the man said. Bern silenced him with a look.

Then well wait until this girl comes back for it, and well ask her where it is.

Hurt a princess?

Bern laughed. Think shes actually a princess?

The others laughed with him. It was what they were best at.

The truth was that Bern didnt care. A dragons egg was enough to be worth the risk, and a princess… well, she could go missing as easy as a peasant girl in a forest this size.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

The creatures continued to circle and Devin didnt know what to do. How long would it be before they leapt at him and the others again? Halfin, Twell, Lars, and Rodry were all fine fighters, but they would die just as quickly as he would. Devin swallowed at that thought. He was about to die; they were all about to die.

He found himself thinking about the moment in the House of Weapons when he had stopped Vars from killing him. Hed done that accidentally, but could he do it deliberately? Could he actually use magic on purpose?

Devin found himself thinking of all the things he would lose when the creatures tore him apart. It was a shorter list than he wanted. Hed already lost his place in the House of Weapons. His parents… well, his father was angry all the time, and his mother anything but kind. He tried to think of the things he might now have though. He would never go on to have a family of his own, never see any of the world, never…

No, Devin said, shaking his head. No.