The Dream Thief by Kari Kilgore (books for 10th graders txt) 📕

take care of yourself, but I'd rather he knew he has to go through me."

"Why Karl Gilmore, what a gentleman you've turned out to be. From the looks of you, no one told you where the goggles are stored, did they?"

Karl fought the urge to rub at his still-irritated eyes. He hadn't given much thought to the other men on deck wearing them, but he remembered that now.

"No, but I'd be glad if you did."

Chapter 26

Loretta stood beside Karl, watching the approaching village. Jagged, rocky peaks soared above the airship, far too high for Bill or anyone else to navigate over safely. Countless sparkling blue streams gathered out of the mountains to form the river that sustained the village below them. If she followed the twisting course of that water, she could glimpse the Fog in the distance, the hard boundary around all of Alterra.

She'd had no plans to return to the Northlands, not for a long, long time. She'd hoped a few more years would have passed before she had to. The more she thought about it, though, having a spare compass and maybe a spare Dragon wasn't a bad idea at all. Even in such clean, idyllic settings, the air sharp and cold as ice in her lungs, people didn't live forever.

Bill spoke from right behind her, a habit she still hadn't gotten used to.

"I hope you'll reconsider letting us take you to your destination. We could easily moor just about anywhere, even in those mountains. The valleys grants us passage if we take care."

"I appreciate the offer, Bill," she said. "I truly do. I'm sure you understand my need for privacy. And Karl is desperate to learn how to work with horses. We can't deny him that experience."

Karl wrinkled his brow, the movement making his black goggles shift.

"Sure," he said. "I'm looking forward to that so much."

"I'll anchor here for two days," Bill said. "Three at the most. You believe you'll be able to leave by then? I don't want to strand you out here."

"Neither of us want you to have to wait any longer," Loretta said. "If we won't be able to leave, I'll send word. I promise."

"As you wish," Bill said. "We'll be anchored in half an hour. These rickety old wooden masts can be tricky."

Bill gave a grinning half bow, then walked back toward the busier middle of the deck.

"I'd still rather let him take us all the way there," Karl said. "Are you sure we can get back in time?"

"We'll simply have to, Karl. You're right about Rullin. He's paying far too much attention to us still. I need to protect this location if I possibly can. Someone like him knowing about it is as far from safe as you can get."

"I doubt I'm going to be safe anywhere near a horse."

"We'll see if they have wagons," Loretta said. "I'll handle the horses. You sit on the seat beside me and look handsome. And intimidating."

Karl rolled his eyes, but he did smile.

Once the airship was finally secured between two tall masts with an alarming number of ropes anchoring it to the ground, they walked down a shifting walkway into a crowd much like the ones that greeted shaws in Waldron's Gate. This one was a tiny percentage of the size but nearly the same volume.

Loretta doubted many of these local residents could afford what most shaw pilots took to cities far to the south of them. They were eager to welcome exotic visitors and sell their own wares. The thought of having a meal here, fresh-caught fish from the river and root vegetables expertly grown in the cool soil, nearly had Loretta convinced to stay the night.

Walton, the same man who kept a watch on things for her and always let her use his horses, for a price, was happy to provide the wagon she needed. Loretta was decidedly less happy to change into a shapeless, un-dyed shirt, long-sleeved and high-necked, and an equally boring flat yellow skirt. The pants she had packed away for the hard work at Gemma's would be a relief, but being forced to wear the uniform of her childhood in the village chafed her flesh and her mind.

Getting Karl to trust the animals or Loretta's guidance of them turned out to be an impossible task. Even after they were underway, he was fidgety and downright annoying.

"I'm not sure this is the best way to go," he said.

"It's done now." Loretta tried to keep her voice calm. "We have to get out of here before we run out of time. I don't want to waste a night camping out under these bloody cold stars with you."

"Is this the road that goes to her house? Whoever we're going to see?"

"Yes, Karl. This is the road to her house." Loretta shook her head, scowling at him. "What other road should I be on instead? One that leads in the opposite direction?"

"Yeah, maybe you should. Rullin was watching us the whole time, Loretta. He pretended to be securing the airship, but his eyes never left us. I don't care what Bill said about him calming down. I have no doubt Rullin's watching us right now. Is there another road we can take, even if it means we're out longer?"

Loretta slowed the horses, calling her knowledge of this area to mind. She didn't know that many of the roads. She'd only been up here a few times to get Gemma settled, and each time they'd gone directly to the house.

But she'd brought Karl for that very reason, to help her be as paranoid as necessary. He saw this place as an outsider, as far from his oddly sheltered life in an insane asylum as possible. Years in the capital city with predictable dangers may have dulled her senses a bit.

"We'll go back and see if Walton has a map we can have, or more likely buy," she said. "That way, we can go a different route. If Rullin bothers to ask,