by D. E. Morris
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Vala chirped.
When Rowan only nodded, Ashlynn gave her shoulders a playful squeeze. “And you, little mermaid? I know you enjoy certain liberties, but can you put those aside for now and take orders like a good girl? We all need to work together now if we aim to make it through this mess in one piece.”
She nodded again. “Yes. Your Majesty.”
The formality made Ashlynn chuckle under her breath. “Good. Now, let us begin the day. There is much that needs our attention and none of it will get done by us standing out here staring at the sky.”
~*~*~*~
Lochlainn heard the familiar beat of wings before he saw the dragon. Sitting alone on a grassy hill, he turned to look over his shoulder in time to see the large fire dragon rising up and flying directly overhead. He watched, wide eyed, as the great beast passed, and held his breath in anticipation of the scattering of all the horses below. They were grazing in small clusters and whinnied when they saw the dragon coming. Like magnets of the same charge, they broke apart from one another, trying to find some safe place to hide in the wide-open paddock in which they were kept. It was only after the dragon was gone and the animals finally understood that they were not going to be breakfast that they calmed enough to stop running around and go back to grazing.
Two stable hands watched the entire thing unfold. Lochlainn was observant of the way they kept the horses from trying to jump the fences. Otherwise, they let them run out their fear until they realized they were safe, then finally entered the paddock to check on the horses individually. He tore up clumps of grass as he studied, breaking each blade into even smaller pieces before tossing them aside and ripping up more. He was tired and cranky. All he wanted to do was go riding, but no one wanted to take him out. It wasn't fair. He was old enough to go by himself. He certainly knew how to ride by himself. He didn't need an adult to ride with him.
“You have always loved horses.”
Lochlainn jumped, hearing an unfamiliar female voice behind him, soft and breezy. He whipped around, his bottom still planted where he sat and his eyes large. She was tall and thin with long pale blonde hair. Her blue eyes were kind and her thin lips were smiling, but Lochlainn didn't know her, and after yesterday, anyone he didn't know meant danger. He reached for the wooden dagger he'd tied to his belt. When he fetched it from his father's office that morning, he knew it wouldn't be as sharp or as dangerous as Lucien's dagger, but maybe it would still protect him. Her eyes followed the movement of his hand, and instead of getting angry like the woman yesterday, she only looked on him with patience.
“I would never hurt you, Lochlainn.”
“Who are you?”
“My name is Brigid. I am a friend of your mother's.” She folded her hands together before her. “You and I have met once before, though you were still a babe and would hardly remember.” Nodding to the spot on the hill beside him, she asked, “May I join you?”
He didn't answer her right away, and his hand was slow to move away from his wooden weapon. He didn't want to be afraid of everyone who was new; he never had to be before. Something about this lady felt nice, almost safe when the lady from yesterday had felt dangerous right from the very first moment. At length, he drew his hand away and gave Brigid a slow nod, then turned back around to watch the horses. She moved forward and sat, her dress thin and pretty, but nothing like things his mother or any other girl he had ever known wore. “Are you going to a costume ball?”
The question made her brows arch and she looked down at her dress with question. “No. Do I look like I am?” He nodded, bringing a delicate frown to her lips. “I will have to pay more attention in the future.”
A few more horses were being led down into the paddock and the pair fell silent to watch. There were sixteen in all, varied in color, breed, and height. Some stood with ears erect, listening for the dragon that might come back, but most were content to graze as they moved over their wide enclosure. The rising heat of the summer day hardly bothered them, even as their coats took on a distinctive sheen of sweat that glistened with each step they took. The longer Lochlainn watched them, the more relaxed he felt with the woman beside him. She didn't try to talk to him or ask him questions like a lot of adults did, at least not for a little while. Eventually she looked at him and he recognized that for some reason, she was sad.
“Why have you slipped your guard?”
He shrugged his shoulders and looked down at the torn grass in his hands, fingers damp and dirty from the soil he'd been digging into.
“They are only trying to protect you.”
“I don't need them to protect me.” To prove his point, he pulled out his wooden dagger and puffed out his chest. “My friend showed me how to use it.”
Instead of impressing her, this only seemed to deepen her sadness. “Do not be in such a rush to grow up, Lochlainn. There will be so much expected of you in the days to come, so much more than you should have to bear at such a young age. You should cherish these days of innocence while they are yet yours to hold.” Her hand lifted and moved toward his face as though to touch him the way his mother and father often did, but he flinched away, her unfamiliarity making him wary of her yet again. The reaction gave her pause, her hand frozen in midair. She blinked and shook her head as though to wake herself from some sort of daydream. Color stained her cheeks and she lowered her arm once more. “Forgive me. There are moments when I forget that some relationships have not yet grown into what I know they will become.”
He made a face. “What does that mean?” When she only gave him a thin smile in reply, he sighed and shook his head, muttering, “You talk funny like my grandfather does sometimes.” This made her giggle, but it only earned her another odd look from the boy. Silence settled between them again for a time. They watched as horses came and went, as some were saddled for a small party to go riding. Lochlainn knew some of the nobles that were going but he wasn't particularly fond of any of them. “Do you like horses?” he asked Brigid.
“I do.” A nostalgic smile lit her face. “When I was a girl I would ride for hours on end. My family was not very wealthy, but we had two horses and I would ride them every chance I had.”
“I want to be a horse breeder and trainer when I grow up. I like being around them more than I like being around people.”
Brigid tilted her head. “What about being High King someday?” He shrugged like he had when she'd asked him if she could sit. “Do you want to be High King?” Lochlainn shrugged again and Brigid's line of questioning abruptly ended.
Looking at the strange woman, his light brown brows came together as he scrutinized her appearance. She looked a little strange, but she wasn't ugly like some of the women he saw at court, with their dresses of layers and layers of fabric and colors all over their faces. “You're pretty,” he told her, “like my mother.”
Brigid laughed, the sound of it airy just like her voice. It made her sound like a little girl. “Oh, Lochlainn, that was almost a lovely compliment.”
“Almost?”
“In the future, when telling a woman that you think she is pretty, never tell her she is as pretty as your mother.”
His forehead wrinkled. “Okay.” He took a big breath and let it out in a sigh, leaning back on his hands. “So how come you're out here talking to me and not my mother? Could you find her? Sometimes I can't find her and I have to ask for help.”
“I can always find your mother when I need to,” Brigid told him, an odd twinkle in her eye. “I did not come here today to speak with your mother. I came here because I wanted to speak specifically with you.”
He took the wooden dagger from his belt to scrape the soil out from under his nails. “Why?”
“There are a great many changes that are taking place and many still that are yet to come.”
“Like what?”
The clouds drifted, allowing the sun to shine directly on them for a moment. Both of them squinted in the light and Brigid looked down to the pa
ddock, distracted. When she spoke, her voice sounded far away. “There has been a shift in what I see.”
Lochlainn sat up and looked down to where the horses were all lined up at the paddock gate, getting ready to be brought back to the stables. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary and he peered up at Brigid with question. “What do you mean? Everything looks normal to me.”
She was slow to turn away from the paddock, but when she did, there was a wrinkle between her brows. “You, Lucien, Tiyal, and Nagisa are going to have important roles to play in this world all too soon.”
For the first time since he'd been out there, Lochlainn cracked a smile. “Nagisa's just a baby.”
His humored tone was mirrored in Brigid's voice for the quickest moment. “I know, but she will not always be a baby, just as you boys will not always be so small. One day you will be grown, and your lives will be woven together in such intricate ways...” She was pained. Lochlainn didn't have to be an adult to understand when someone was hurt by something, though he didn't understand it. Before he could ask what she was talking about once more, she told him, “The map will not be complete until you are old enough to find what is missing.”
That was the final straw for his patience. He wasn't a child who was fond of riddles or games, he dealt in facts. This woman, nice as she was, just wasn't someone he wanted to spend any more time with. He slipped his dagger back into his belt and wiped his dirty hands off on his trousers. “I don't know anything about a map or growing up. I'm just a kid and I just want to go ride a horse for a while. It was nice to meet you. I'll tell my mother I saw you, if you want me to.”
He stood up and turned to leave, but Brigid grabbed his arm, startling him. She looked up at him with desperation on her face, either uncaring or unaware of the fear she'd aroused in him. “You must find me, Lochlainn.”
“But you're right here.”
“You must find me. Look for the apple blossom tree.”
“Hey, Lochlainn!”
He turned at the familiar call of his best friend, hearing Lucien approaching from the sky in the opposite direction. Sure enough, a flash of white gave away the pale wings of the boy coming his way. “That's my friend,” Lochlainn said as he turned back around. “I have to-” But no one was there. He looked around, spinning on the spot to check in every direction. Standing on top of a hill, even a small one like his, he would be able to see anyone running away in any direction, but there wasn't anyone to be seen. She had simply vanished into thin air.
Lucien landed and tucked his wings onto his back, taking in his friend's expression. “Are you okay?”
“Did you see the lady that was here?”
The smaller boy gave a halfhearted look around before shaking his head. “I didn't see anyone but you. Anyway, I was looking for you. Cavalon's feeling better and he wants us to go home. We're leaving in a few minutes.”
Lochlainn's face scrunched. “Already?” All at once, he gasped and his eyes widened. “Maybe I can go with you!”
“Come on, let's go ask!”
With Brigid temporarily forgotten, the boys raced off for the castle.
Chapter Nineteen
It was past midday by the time the foursome landed in Alybaen. Connor directed them to the lake from which they'd taunted the hunting party, telling them it would be safer there than in Cieria. Unlike the quick journey on the back of a full-blooded dragon, they had to stop on more than one occasion to give Mairead a rest and let her take a break from her draconic form. She was nervous and battling anxiety, which seemed to be making her more prone to the pull of her Gaelic blood and the allure of staying in her shifted state. Of course, she knew the longer she was shifted, the harder it would be to return human and eventually, she could lose her desire to be human all together. Badru kept close account of her after her quiet confession and checked in with her often, making the group take more breaks than Connor thought they required. When he complained, Lilia was the one to try to talk him out of his irritation without any required explanation. She knew Mairead well enough that she didn't need words to understand that something wasn't right.
“We are being watched.” The group walked through the lush woods of the Alybaenian forests, and something had caught Badru's attention.
“By who?” Connor asked. He reached for his sword, but Badru stayed his hand.
“Those that claim rights to this land. We mean them no harm and they will see as much if we just keep walking.” Now that everyone was aware of them, if they looked, they could see people hidden among the trees. Men and women of all shapes and sizes with skin every different shade covered in tattoos watched from a safe distance. The women wore thin pelts of furs and leather across their chests and wrapped around their waists in short, jagged skirts. Barrel-chested men wore enough to protect them from being indecent, but little else, their bodies covered by more ink than clothing.
“They didn't look like that at the games,” Lilia whispered, taking Connor's hand.
“These are their border sentry,” Badru told them. “It would be highly unlikely to send any of them to a summit, let alone a festival, especially one held in another country. I doubt many of them have even been outside of Alybaen, if any at all.”
Mairead glanced to her side as they progressed forward, seeing a man step out from behind a tree up ahead, a spear in his hand. “Do you speak their language, Badru?”
“Unfortunately, I do not. It is not one I have studied. As I said, however, if they see that we do not pose a threat, they will let us pass.”
“Surely they must have seen me shift.”
Hearing the high, tight clip to Mairead's quiet voice, Badru fell into step beside her and nodded. “I am certain they did, but do not forget that the Nagini are a people who have always vowed to protect life rather than destroy it.” He placed a gentle hand of reassurance against her back. “We are safer here than we will be in Cieria.”
“Where are all the dwarves?” Connor asked, no fear in his voice as he looked around with open curiosity. “Don't the Nagin tribes share Alybaen with them?”
“And they have been hostile with one another for the past two generations,” Lilia muttered. “Did you pay any attention in school?”
“Only in subjects that interested me.”
Badru glanced at the couple. “Perhaps we should remain silent until we cross over into Cieria.” They kept their eyes forward, the boundary between the two countries clearly marked by a stone wall that started at the edge of the lake and ran deep into the forest. Every now and then there were openings left in the wall, walkways for people to pass though. It was through one of these that the group filed when they finally reached the wall. Before they were all the way through, however, Badru made Connor stop so he could pull a vial of the Rabia antidote from the saddlebags that had been turned into backpacks.
“What is he doing?” Lilia hissed, watching the old man walk back into Alybaenian territory.
He placed the vial on a rock before bringing his hands together and giving a bow of respect. “I do not know if any of you speaks Caedian, but I pray if you do not that the Great Dragon will somehow translate my words into a tongue you will understand. A war is brewing against a people you have aided and protected in the past, and that makes you vulnerable to attack. Take this to your healers, have them study it so they can duplicate it. You must be prepared. If any of you falls ill with bleeding from within, if you are sick with blood and your insides feel twisted, this will heal you. Thank you for allowing us safe passage, and thank you for your protection.”
The same man that had appeared in front of Mairead came out of the woods. On bare feet, he walked across the forest carpet of leaves and dead branches and twigs as though he was strolling across a meadow, never once taking his eyes off of Badru. Even when he approached the rock and bent to take the vial, his eyes remained on the old man. He gave a nod of thanks, prompting Badru to give a nod in return, then bow his head and rejoin his group. They all turned to leave at once, though Mai
read hesitated, watching the man for just a moment. He eyed her as well, expressionless, before turning back. Vial in hand, he and his people melted into the shadows once again.
“You didn't have to do that,” Connor told him as they passed into thinner part of the Cierian forest. “I doubt anyone is going to come after them.”
“It is better to foster good favor when the opportunity presents itself,” Mairead said in a soft voice. “Besides that, they are our allies to the best of our understanding, and we should always seek to protect them.”
“Mairead is right,” Badru agreed. “You have learned well from your queen.”
“The moment we begin considering who we need to look out for over who we should look out for, we only hinder our chances at a favorable outcome. It is far better to have more friends than you need than more enemies than you can handle.”
Badru nodded at her. “Indeed.” He turned his attention to Lilia. “Speaking of friends, tell us of this shopkeeper.”
The winged woman shrugged, watching her feet as she walked so as not to trip on anything in the tall grass of the field they were coming into. “I know little about him, honestly. Killian didn't know much himself, either. He has a garment shop in town that sells fairly nice items. His tattoo is rather faded so he's been a Keeper for quite some time, I would wager. There was a young woman in the shop with him, his daughter, maybe, or possibly a niece. She must know something of what he's about because he sent her out to keep an eye on things while we spoke in the back of the shop. That's really all I know.” She lifted her head in question. “Should we see if he's there?”