The wind blew, banging the shutters on the old, gray, clapboard house. It whistled around the eaves and rustled the long, dry grass in the small fenced yard. Behind it stood a small red barn.
The wind blew harder. Whining and crying insitantly.
As the skies darkened, a weather vane in the shape of a running horse stood out prominently on the cupola. It squeaked as the wind pushed it to and fro. Finally, it caught the weathervane in its teeth and began to spin it violently. Faster and faster it went until surely it would break off and take flight on its own.
There was a screech and the silence was deafening. The sounds of the wind and storm ceased. The weathervane had stilled. In a flickering streak of lightning, she could see it was pointing northeast.
A flash of light blurred the scene. When it cleared, the skies were blue. A golden road laid out, winding its way through a forest of tall, stately trees. The wind was soft now, and a gentle voice carried on it. "The path to your future lies in the past."
DG sat bolt upright in bed. What in the heck?
She had had dreams like this before, right before a travel storm brought her to the O.Z.. In them, her mother had been warning her of danger. She hadn't had the sense to understand the dreams had meaning at the time.
Scrubbing her face with her hands, DG sighed. This was the second night in a row she had had this dream. There was no mistaking it. She knew better now. Someone was trying to tell her something.
What was she being told, though? An old house and a barn? The vision had been vague, but she was fairly certain she had seen this place before. The urgency clicked up a notch as she searched her memory. It was there, just beyond her grasp.
DG slipped from her bed and stood by her window. A weathervane, pointing northeast. Was she supposed to go northeast? Is that the way her sister and her friends had gone? Probably not. From her limited understanding of Ozian geography, there wasn't much to the northeast. Small factions of Eastern Guild people lived there, but civilization was sparse.
Besides, she would never get her parents to let her go. They were still watching her closely, worried by her sullenness and her occasional outbursts of temper. They expected her to wait until the others got back with some answers.
But she couldn't wait.
There was something about that dream. It niggled at her uncomfortably. A familiar underlying urgency that wouldn't let her forget it. It had been stark and vivid, as though she could reach out and feel the rough wooden fence beneath her fingers.
She had to go. She didn't know where or why. But she had to go.
Could be a trap. DG wondered why the voice in her head sounded an awful lot like Cain and why she felt the need to reason with it. It didn't feel like a trap. It felt like something she needed to do. The Tin Man would have loved that explanation. Not.
But you don't have your magic, Deej.
She was at her closet pulling out clothes in the next instant. Damn it, she still had a head on her shoulders. It wasn't like she was an invalid. She would make do. After all, she had survived nearly three days in O.Z. before she discovered her talents and even then, they hadn't been much good to her. She had barely known how to use them.
She had to go. And anything was better than just sitting around and waiting for news.
For the first time in days, she felt like she had purpose again. Of course, she really had no clue where she was going, but at least she was going.
Wanting to avoid making noise, DG picked up her beaten old tennis shoes, knowing that the rubber soles would squeak horribly on the marble. Quietly, she opened the door and slipped into the hall.
A pang of guilt hit her as she looked to her parents' door. They would worry, and she hated the thought of putting them through it, but they wouldn't understand. She needed to go.
She scurried down the hall to the stairs and focused on a plan. There were guards stationed at the front and side entrances. Jeb had staked extra patrols around the perimeter and near the kitchens. That was going to make getting provisions a little dicey, but there was no way she was trekking across the O.Z. with nothing more to eat than roots and berries this time.
When she made it to the main floor, she chanced a look out the large panes of glass at the front of the castle. The guards were still facing front, peering out into the darkness. She hurried down the hall and into her mother's study. Cringing, DG rolled up the cover of the desk, praying she wouldn't wake the whole house as it ground its way up.
Hurriedly, she found pen and paper and scratched out a quick note to her parents. At least they wouldn't think she had been kidnapped. Assuring them that she would be okay, she signed her love and folded the paper, leaving it atop the stack of reports where she was sure her mother would find it.
Glancing down each end of the hallway and finding the coast clear, DG snuck towards the back of the house to the kitchens. Passing the grandfather clock, she checked the time. Good, the shift had changed nearly forty-five minutes ago. Sometimes, Cain would grumble about the men loitering in the kitchens after their late shift, and DG had no intention of walking into the middle of a pack of soldiers enjoying a midnight snack.
The large, stone kitchen was dark and quiet. DG moved past the large range that looked like it belonged in a five-star restaurant in Hollywood. Surprisingly, there wasn't anything out of the ordinary in here except the weird looking contraption that Glitch had the nerve to call a potato peeler. When she had first been in here, DG was half expecting something from the medieval times with big cauldrons cooking over the fire. She had been kind of disappointed.
Passing by the rack of pots and pans glinting in the moonlight, DG made for the pantry. The wooden door squeaked as she opened it. On the floor was a pile of old burlap flour sacks. She snagged one and began to fill it with apples, bread, and anything else that might keep on a long trip.
Satisfied, she closed the door and turned her thoughts to the next problem: getting past the guards. With a sigh, she realized that her departure was not going to do much for Jeb and Cain's relationship. The overprotective Tin Man was going to flip when he found out a princess had flown the coop right under his son's nose.
Of course, any remorse she may have been feeling dissipated when the lights flicked on. She gasped before putting a fist on her hip and saying in an irritated voice, "Does anyone in your family sleep?"
Jeb was leaning on the doorframe, arms crossed. "I thought that sounded a little big for a mouse. Where are you going, Highness?"
"For a walk." Jeb eyed her bag and looked back at her. She huffed. "A long walk."
"You can't take off after your sister, Your Highness." Jeb said. "You need to stay here where it's safe."
DG felt her anger raise a notch. "I'm not going after my sister. And aren't you supposed to keep people from getting in, not out?"
"I'm supposed to protect you."
"Look," DG narrowed hr eyes. "I have something to take care of. As a Princess of the O.Z., I am ordering you to . . . go away."
He wasn't impressed. "I will wake up your mother."
She growled in frustration before remembering to keep quiet. "You aren't getting this, are you? I am going insane! My friends and my sister are off who-knows-where doing who-knows-what because no one will tell me anything. I have to do this. So go ahead, wake the house. I promise, though, I will find a way."
"Your Highness . . ."
She would have no more of it. "If rotting here in Finaqua is enough for you while other people are out fighting then more power to you."
Instantly, she regretted the words. He was trapped here, too, but in her fury she had forgotten that. Without another word, the young man switched off the lights and turned, leaving her alone.
Shame filled her as she reached down and picked up the bag again. "I'm sorry, Jeb."
Quietly, DG looked out the kitchen door. There was no guard posted to it, but they did patrol past it routinely and often. There was no one in sight as she slipped out and ran up the stone steps.
She had been weighing her options. She could go on foot, but the need for urgency was winning out. There were no motorized vehicles at Finaqua and even if there were, she got the nasty feeling there were no roads where she was going anyway. That left a horse, and even as slow as he was, Speedy was going to be faster than walking.
The shed row was unguarded and DG ran across Finaqua's expansive lawn, sticking to the shadows and twice ducking behind a bush when the alert sentries seemed to spot something. Finally, she was able to slip into the barn.
The fat chestnut was dozing and merely flicked a perturbed ear as DG opened his stall door. "Okay, fireball, let's go."
Speedy was suitably uninspired as DG flung a blanket and saddle over his back. That was as far as she got. Glitch had shown her three times how to cinch the saddle, but he had always been there to point out where she was going wrong. Tonight, DG was by herself with nothing but moonlight to see by. She stood and stared at it for a long time, hoping that the cinch would magically tighten itself.
She jumped when a pair of hands began to expertly loop the leather through the buckles. Jeb was attached to them. He had traded his uniform for clothes very much like those he had been wearing when Cain first introduced DG to his son. "I'm going with you."
"I didn't ask for company." DG replied. "You're supposed to be protecting Finaqua and my parents."
"I told you, my father just wanted me to stay put. Since you're disobeying your parents, I'll disobey mine with you." Jeb gave the girth a final tug. "Besides, there are plenty of good men to stand guard and enough magical enchantments on the place to keep anything out. You're going beyond the reach of that magic. Someone is going to have to keep an eye on you.
She had to admit, the thought of company, especially well-traveled company that knew the country, was a reassuring: even if it was hostile, berating company. She was used to that anyway.
Jeb slid Speedy's bridle up over the horse's ears. "Where are we headed?"
"Northeast."
"Northeast? There's nothing out that way but the Eastern Guilds. Why go that way?"
He wasn't going to like the answer. DG stiffened her spine. "Because that's the way my dream told me to go."
Wordlessly, Jeb started to slip Speedy's bridle back off.
"What are you doing?"
"Highness, you are crazy." He said. "I am not running all over the O.Z. because you had a nightmare."
DG grabbed his arm. "I didn't ask you to come remember? If you want to stay, fine. But I'm going."
"Over a dream?"
"One thing I learned fast in the O.Z. was sometimes instinct is the only thing you have to go on. My gut is telling me this dream is a message."
He stared at her before sliding the bridle back on and buckling it. "This is insane."
"I'm sure it won't get any better. Last chance to bail out."
Jeb glared at her and slapped the reins in to her hand before leaving the stall. DG followed with Speedy plodding resolutely behind her. Jeb spoke up, "Are you ready?"
Who was he talking to? Heaven help him if he brought half a battalion with him. But when DG looked, all she saw was Raw standing in the middle of the barn holding the reins of two more saddled horses. "DG not go without Raw."
Dropping Speedy's reins, she ran to the Viewer and hugged him fiercely. "No, I wouldn't go without you."
As she let go of her friend, Jeb came back leading Speedy, who had apparently taken the opportunity to make a bid for freedom and the green grass of the lawn. "Hold on to him, please."
DG took the reins as Jed slid a rifle in the scabbard behind the saddle of the tall bay horse. "Let's head out the back. We can cut through the woods and hit the lane. We can stay on that until the sun comes up."
Raw had lashed the food bag to the front of his saddle. "Sun up soon. Most hurry."
Jeb led his horse, followed by DG with Speedy, and then Raw with his dark horse. As quietly as possible, they mounted in the yard and headed in the direction Jeb indicated. When they reached the top of the hill, a blast of cooler air hit DG's face. They had left the magical protection of Finaqua.
They were on their own.