(This excerpt is from an unproofed version of Dragon Fairest. There will be typos and some details may be differ from the final version.)

Chapter One

IT had been a bad idea to split up.

Jack looked around the inn’s taproom with barely concealed frustration. As usual, the popular border-town in was already crowded with locals and travelers in search of cold ale and an evening meal.

Unfortunately, none of the bodies taking up tables and benches wore the familiar faces of the missing members of their crew. Disappointed but unsurprised the others hadn’t caught up yet, Jack exchanged glances with the half of the team still with him.

Sterling shrugged his broad shoulders and headed for one of the few empty tables in the nearly full taproom. He settled into a chair that allowed him to sit with his back to the wall and his eyes on the door.

Their eccentric little pack of treasure hunters didn’t need an official leader, but Sterling’s calm composure engendered instinctive respect. The silver streaks in his dark hair gave him gravitas others instinctively deferred to, despite being only a few on a few years older than Jack.

Zane and Wyatt trailed Sterling automatically. Almost identical with their tall wiry build, grey eyes, and sharp features, the only way to tell the twins apart was the long braid Zane kept his tawny hair in and the small scar by Wyatt’s eyebrow.

Jack followed last, noting who looked up as they passed, who pretended not to care, and who genuinely didn’t give a damn.

The majority of the room fell into the latter category and Jack let his shoulders soften and some of the wariness seep away. It didn’t look as if their troubles had found them, yet.

In fact, the only thing in the taproom that struck him as out of place was the woman attempting to hide at the small table beside the stairs. Tucked almost completely in the shadows, she stood out to Jack’s wary attention. Jack settled onto a bench next to Sterling, joking and laughing while he kept one curious eye on her.

The humid mid-summer evening was much too warm to be wrapped quite so tightly in the rough cloak draped around her. She continually tugged at the hood, but, the second she moved to take a bite of food, the fabric fell back again. Every movement revealed hints of delicate features, deep auburn hair, wide blue eyes, and pink lips pinched into a worried frown. The occasional peak of stitched silk bodice was a definite contrast to the cheap threadbare cloth of her too-large cloak.

It did, however, fit with the smooth hand wrapped around her still full mug. Much too soft, clean, and undamaged to have ever done any type of labor. It all added up to one clear definition.

Trouble.

And Jack wholeheartedly avoided any kind of trouble that didn’t promise a worthwhile payout at the end of it.

“Well, well. Look what the ill-wind blew in,” the innkeeper announced, setting four tankards down on the table and letting them pass them among themselves.

Tappin had been innkeeper here longer than Jack had been alive. But he remembered every face that ever passed through his inn. And Jack and his team stopped by often enough on the way to the next job that he didn’t bother to wait for them to order any more.

“Where’s the rest of your lot? With only half of you here, I might actually have some leftover scraps to feed to the dogs.”

Tappin chuckled at his own joke but Jack glanced nervously at Sterling. Just because they were regulars here, it still wasn’t a good idea to share their secrets too freely. Especially not when there was now a price on their heads. Deserved or not.

Sterling remained relaxed, however, a smirk twitching the edges of his lips.

“Beckett bet me his shortcut was faster than mine and split up the team to prove it.” He lifted one thick shoulder in an amused shrug. “They should catch up with us in a day or two.”

Tappin chuckled. Then his scruffy brows drew together in a thoughtful frown. “Hope his shortcut didn’t take him too far into Ardell. Things are a bit murky on the other side of the border.

“Murky?” Sterling asked. “Ardell has been peaceful and orderly since the end of the Dragon Wars four centuries ago.”

“Not quite sure what’s going on. The official proclamation said Princess Kynara got hold of some dark magic and tried to usurp the throne. Her brothers somehow stopped her, but not before her parents and everyone inside the place were frozen and incapacitated with some unknown curse. She and her conspirators fled Calmoore and there’s quite the bounty out for her now. Those who believe it are thinking she’s in league with the Sea Clan dragons. They’ve been searching Ardell for days, and now some of the bounty hunters have crossed the border and are looking for her here in Highcross.”

Jack wanted to turn and stare at the girl in the shadows but kept his eyes on his ale. With a careful shift of weight when he lifted the mug, he managed to catch sight of her from the corner of his eye. She was obviously soft and out of place here. But she didn’t strike him as haughty or imperious enough to be a princess. No matter how dangerous the discovery of being caught, in Jack’s experience that kind of spoiled upbringing was impossible to hide for long.

Besides, a sheltered noble of that ilk would never have made it this far from Ardell’s capital alone. The woman may have something to do with the unrest in Calmoore, but he doubted very much she was Princess Kynara.

“But there are other rumors. Some suggest her three brothers led the uprising. That everyone is locked in the dungeon, including the princess. They used fear of magic and curses as an excuse sealed up the palace and made up the story about the girl to create a scapegoat. The way the nobles who weren’t trapped in the castle have been fleeing the kingdom make me think they’ve got the right of it.”

Jack’s mouth twitched at the confirmation of his train of thought. A deserting minor noble made a bit more sense. One of those countryside aristocrats with little influence or status to begin with would have no leverage in a power struggle of that nature.

Jack felt a little sorry for her. He knew what it was like to be forced to run. To leave behind everyone and everything with no promises that the future would be better.

But, while she looked stressed and out of place, she wasn’t afraid. Terror wasn’t shaking her. Instead, she held herself with a fierce confidence that suggested she wasn’t giving in to the darkness of being lost and alone. That she had a purpose and a plan.

Either way, she still wasn’t any of Jack’s business. He could empathize but his team just barely escaped justice in Glicien. And they had no profit to show for months of work deep in the ancient forest. Jack had his own team’s trouble to worry about.

“Everyone agrees, though. Whatever happened in the palace, dark magic was behind it all.”

A cold shiver worked its way down Jack’s spine and he gripped his tankard in a white-knuckle grip to keep his hands from shaking. There was more than one dark magic user spread across the kingdoms and Clans of the continent. As long as none of them discovered his secret, they had no reason to pay any attention to a nameless treasure hunter minding his own business.

With sheer force of will, Jack kept his eyes on the innkeeper and turned his concentration back to the litany of gossip Tappin was sharing. It was more useful to stay informed than to give in to the urge to run at the mere mention of magic.

“…a troop of mercenaries helping the brothers in so-called peace-keeping efforts. A rag-tag bunch of humans, drakes, and others whose origin aren’t quite so certain.”

Sterling nodded, not looking at Jack at all. But he was sure to have noticed. Nothing escaped the former soldier’s attention.

“Sounds like Ardell is a place to avoid. Once we round up Beckett and the rest of our team, we’ll be sure to stay on this side of the border. What’s Dela got on the menu, for us tonight?”

After Tappin regaled them with the delights his wife had in store for the evening meal, the innkeeper shuffled off to the kitchen to retrieve the food for them. Sterling’s attention lingered on Jack, concern edge with curiosity sharpening his gaze.

But, like always, he didn’t ask for any answers Jack didn’t offer willingly. Like an explanation for his unwavering avoidance of all things magic.

Once again, Jack was eternally grateful that it had been this particular groups campsite he’d tried to steal a horse from, all those years ago.

Not once had any of them had ever pried into what he was running from. They all had their histories and secrets. They respected each other’s privacy because no one wanted to have their own poked at.

They’d taken him, taught him what he needed to know to make a living. To survive. Gave him a place to belong. And the skills to run on his own, if he ever had to.

Hopefully, whatever was happening in Calmoore had nothing to do with Jack’s past. And he wouldn’t have to put those skills to use anytime soon.

Deep down, though, he knew it was only a matter of time before he’d have to abandon them and run from the nightmare of his history.

That it was only a matter of time before his mother found him.