“I’ll cook it, you’ll see.”
Cassandra took a while discussing it with the merchant, who was happy to see someone so knowledgeable. The young concubine was ecstatic too. Nebora knew Cassandra was holding herself back from buying too many herbs, but she didn’t understand why. It wasn’t like the Prince was going to be anywhere near poor even if she bought the whole market! Besides, most of the purchases weren’t even for herself, but for cooking for everyone or creating new medicine. She really was an odd one.
Suddenly, a shadow flew over the sky. Everyone at the market raised their heads.
“Isn’t that His Highness’ Dragon?”
“It is…”
The merchants, afraid, ran to take cover. Neither of the two women moved, their eyes cast upwards. The black dragon didn’t stop, however. It was headed further, and didn’t even look down their way. Cassandra frowned.
“Is he going to hunt? So far?”
“That was the direction of the palace,” said Cassandra, intrigued as well.
She couldn’t see if Kairen was on his dragon’s back from that distance. Yet she had an odd feeling about this. They watched the beast’s silhouette until it was too far, then she turned to Nebora.
“Let’s go back.”
“Okay. It’s getting late anyway, we better go now if we want to arrive before night time.”
They quickly finished purchasing what they needed, filled their chariot, and got on their way back. It wasn’t an easy path back to the castle as it wasn’t used often, but it was wide enough and their horse knew its way.
However, as Nebora had feared, the sun went down fast behind the mountains. They were still far away from the castle when the temperatures fell and both women tightened their coats around them. Nebora had the horse speed up, though the night was clear and a thin coat of snow was surrounding them. Thanks to that and the moonlight, they saw clearly ahead of them, but the castle was still far behind the winter trees.
Nebora was looking more and more worried, continuing to glance around while hurrying the horse.
“What kind of beasts are there?” asked Cassandra, worried as well.
“We’ll be lucky if it’s only wolves.”
What could there be out there worse than wolves? Cassandra looked around too, looking for any animal that could be lurking from behind the trees, from the deep darkness in the forest. Cassandra couldn’t tell how far they were from the castle, but Nebora’s worried look spoke volumes. Not close enough.
Suddenly, she noticed a growl on their left, somewhere behind them. Cassandra turned around, only spotting a couple of eyes in the dark, but not the beast they belonged to.
“What’s that!”
“Something looking for fresh meat,” sighed Nebora. “They won’t attack yet, but they are following. They’re hungry. Come on, hurry up!”
She had the horse accelerate, but with their weight the poor thing was already doing its best. Cassandra heard more creatures coming after them, rushing in the snow, growling hungrily. Could they outrun them and get to the castle in time?
“Nebora! Watch out!”
One of the beasts jumped at them, all claws out, but Nebora dodged right in time and it hit the chariot instead. Cassandra saw it though and it wasn’t a wolf at all.
“Snow leopards! Damn it!”
The snow leopards were white with dark brown spots, explaining how Cassandra struggled to spot them among the snow and trees. Their fur was a perfect camouflage in this landscape. Except for their glowing eyes, they weren’t hard to see at all. But they were much scarier than wolves!
“Those damn things are faster than wolves or horses,” said Nebora. “They must be hungry, they don’t usually come down from the mountain this time of the year.”
Cassandra tried to think of something to distract them, but they hadn’t gotten much food from the market and surely nothing that would look more appetizing than a horse and two humans!
“Let’s abandon the chariot!”
“What?”
Cassandra grabbed the knife under her skirt and used it to cut the ropes, only letting Nebora handle the reins.
