Read Online One Realm Beyond by Donita K. Paul - Free Book Online

take care of myself.”
    “I’m traveling alone as well.”
    “My name is Bixby D’Mazeline. I’d shake hands” — she nodded at the space between the trees — “but the distance is just a bit beyond my reach.”
    “Cantor D’Ahma.” He bowed as well as he could from his perch.
    She tilted her head to the side. Curly blonde locks and cloth tendrils from her cap shifted, framing her face. Dappled sunlight spotted her cheeks and forehead. She looked as close to a woodland sprite as he had ever imagined. Everything about her was dainty, and he had the odd impression that she was not anchored to the physical world. A fanciful thought, indeed.
    “There used to be an Ahma serving as a realm walker.” She tossed hair and tendrils over her shoulder with a flip of her hand. “That was a long time ago. Is she one of your ancestors?”
    “She’s my mentor.”
    Happiness popped out on Bixby’s face with round eyes and round mouth and eyebrows arched up. “You’re a realm walker! Are you here to find your dragon?”
    Cantor fussed at himself for being careless. He didn’t likehaving his purpose exposed, but he figured this odd creature would not cause him any harm. “Yes.”
    “Me too.”
    Cantor couldn’t help his loud response. “What?” Birds erupted from the trees around them.
    “Oh, great!” Bixby’s face pinched into a frown. “You could have just shouted, ‘Here we are,’ so the King’s Guard won’t have to work tracking us.”
    Cantor twisted around the limbs of his tree to get a view of the road approaching the forest. The squadron still advanced at a fair pace.
    He heard Bixby shifting her position.
    Her voice chastised him. “Anyone knows when you startle the birds, you’ve sent up a signal pinpointing your whereabouts. We’ll have to move.”
    Cantor stuffed his snack back in the knapsack and latched the straps in place. “That’s probably a good thing in the long run. We’re too close to where the road enters the forest.”
    He started his descent without waiting to see if Bixby D’Mazeline would follow. When his feet touched the ground, she was already standing beside the tree. Her height surprised him, or rather her lack of height surprised him. Ahma, who was short, probably stood a full head taller than the petite blonde.
    She bounced on her toes, clearly ready to go. Her skirts hung at varying lengths, some with slanted hems, some with fringe, and one with a ruffle. At least six different fabrics made up her outfit. All of them flimsy, light, and totally inappropriate for running away from the King’s Guard through a forest thick with underbrush.
    A strap ran over her shoulder and across the front to herwaist, where a flat bag hung. Scraps of fabric, bits of lace, buttons, and ribbons in no discernible order made up the satchel.
    Cantor wondered where she carried anything. And if her airy skirts would snag on the bushes. He looked down at her shoes. Unsuitable. Thin leather, more buttons and lace. Lace on half-boots with heels. Bixby D’Mazeline was going to be a hitch in his desire to hurry.
    “Can you run?”
    “With the best of them.”
    Cantor pointed away from the road. “That way.”
    He took off, hoping his body would break a way through the underbrush, leaving openings big enough for her to get through, but small enough to avoid the sharp eyes of the scout tracking them. Every time he glanced over his shoulder, she was no more than two feet behind him. How she did it, he did not know. But he thanked Primen that the girl could, indeed, run with the best of them.
    The forest thickened with tree trunks almost touching.
    Cantor stopped, pointed to the canopy above and said, “Up?”
    She nodded, and he led the way up a ladder elm. He paused where the branches became thick. Bixby, who had climbed with equal skill, stopped directly beside him in another tree.
    “Are we going across the crown?” she asked.
    “Yes, just below the crest and above the blind.”
    Her face