He nodded his agreement to that and followed her in.

Day the 25th of the Fish Moon

Year the 7th of the Independent Alliance of Traders

From your friend in Cassarick to Trader Finbok, Bingtown

The need for caution has increased greatly and with it my expenses. I will expect my next payment to be double what the previous one was. It must all be in coin and delivered discreetly. Your last courier was an idiot, coming directly to where I work and delivering to me only a writ of credit rather than the cash payment we agreed upon.

For this reason, the information I send you today is but the bare bones of what I know. Pay me, and you will know what I know.

The traveller arrived, but not alone. His errand does not seem to be what you suggested it would be. Another stranger offered me substantial money for information about him. I was discreet, but information is what I sell. Or do not sell, if that is more profitable.

The news from upriver is scarce. It might interest you, but for me to deliver it to you, I would have to receive hard coin, taken to the inn in Trehaug that was mentioned to you before and given only to the woman with red hair and a tattoo of three roses on her cheek.

If any of this is done otherwise, our business will be over. You are not the only one who would like to know the inside secrets of Trader news before others do. And some of those others might be very interested to learn what I know of your business.

A word to the wise is sufficient.

CHAPTER FIVE

Taking the Leap

Getting the dragons from the riverside meadow to the bridge had taken more time and much more effort than anyone had expected. Sedric stood beside Carson and watched the last of the large dragons go down the steep slope to the old road below them. They had eroded a trough in the steep bank, setting off slides of mud, rock, soil and branches that now spattered out in a fan across the old road below. Tinder was the last to go. By the time he reached the road surface, Nortel’s lavender dragon was dirty brown from his shoulders down.

Only the two smaller dragons, Relpda and Spit, remained. ‘Nasty cold wet mud,’ Relpda complained.

‘I tried to get you to go first, before the others loosened the slope,’ Sedric reminded her.

‘Did not like. Do not like. It’s too steep.’

‘You’ll be fine. You’ll slide down and then you’ll be at the bottom,’ Sedric tried to reassure her.

‘You’ll roll like a rock and be lucky not to break both your wings,’ Spit suggested spitefully. His silvery-grey eyes were tinged with red as they spun slowly. He seemed to relish the distress he was triggering in Relpda. Sedric wanted to hit him with something large. He smothered the thought before Relpda or Spit could react to it and tried to suffuse his thoughts and voice with calmness.

‘Relpda, listen to me. I would not ask you to do anything that I thought would hurt you. We have to get down from here, and there’s only one way. We need to slide down the hill, and then we can join the other dragons on the bridge.’

‘And once you’re there, he wants you to jump off the bridge and into the water and drown.’ Spit sounded absolutely enthused with the idea.

‘Dragon,’ Carson warned him sternly, but the little silver was unrepentant. ‘My keeper wants me to drown, too,’ he confided to Relpda. ‘Then he won’t have to hunt as often to feed me. He’ll have more time to jostle around in his bedding with your keeper.’

Carson didn’t respond with words. He simply lunged forward suddenly, his shoulder striking his dragon’s haunch with the full force of his weight behind it. Spit had been loitering too near the edge, peering with disapproval at the long, steep drop. The small silver dragon scrabbled wildly to regain his clutch on the hillside, but succeeded only in loosening more earth. He lashed his tail, knocking Carson’s feet from under him, and then they were suddenly both sliding down the hill, fishtailing in the muddy chute, with Carson lunging and getting a grip of the top of Spit’s wing. The dragon trumpeted wildly as they went, but it was only when Carson added a whoop of his own that Sedric realized neither of them was truly upset at the abrupt descent.

‘They like it? The being dirty and going fast down the hill?’ Copper Relpda echoed his confusion.

‘Apparently,’ Sedric replied dubiously. Carson and Spit reached the bottom and rode a spray of loosened earth out into the road. Getting to his feet, Carson brushed uselessly at his clothing and called back up the hill, ‘Not so bad, really. Come on down.’

‘I suppose there’s no help for it,’ Sedric replied. He scanned the hillside below him, trying to see if there were not an easier, safer, cleaner way to descend. The other dragons and their keepers were already making their way out onto the broken bridge. Carson waited for them, looking up at them. Spit had opened his wings and was shaking them out, heedless of how he spattered his keeper with mud.