Rangers of Linwood (The Five Kingdoms Book 1)

by LeAnn Anderson

  Branwen came over to them, having spotted them. “Arya, can I talk to you for a moment?” she asked.

  “Of course,” Arya said, leaving Tesni with Enid.

  As Branwen and Arya walked off, Fiona ran over. “What do you suppose they’re talking about?” Tesni asked.

  “Probably about me,” Fiona said. “I don’t understand it. She has been acting strange for some time, ever since those bandits attempted to attack us six months ago and she was injured, forcing me to fight them off myself.”

  “What were the two of you discussing before you came over here?” Tesni asked.

  “I had this dream last night,” Fiona said. “I was going down into these ruins out in the middle of the forest, and it was like a large underground maze. I eventually found myself in a room filled with treasure, but the entire room was filled with water, and in it was a fuath.”

  Tesni frowned. “Everyone knows that they don’t exist.”

  “There was definitely one in my dream, whether they exist or not,” Fiona insisted. “Branwen says that there are such ruins about two miles from camp, where a fuath is rumored to live. She and I were discussing whether or not it would be wise to investigate, so I assume that’s what she’s talking to Arya about. All I know is that I feel like I have to go.”

  Tesni looked skeptically at the older girl. “I doubt it’s wise to be driven by what one sees in a single dream,” she said at last. “That’s what I think Arya would say.”

  

  Despite Tesni’s prediction, Arya advised Branwen to take Fiona there. Fiona and Branwen arrived home late that afternoon. There had, indeed, been a fuath in the ruins. Fiona had pierced its heart with one of her knives, killing it instantly. The treasure that the fuath had guarded was brought into town and all of the money earned from its sale was distributed to the poor.

  Ryder and Rowan had also gone into town that afternoon. The innkeeper had asked Ryder to come because Cliona’s possessions, which had been more than anyone had known, were finally freed from the courts, who had held them in trust since her death until Tesni had turned sixteen and, therefore, legally old enough to inherit.

  “I’ve finally brought your inheritance from your mother,” Ryder said.

  “So they finally realized my sixteenth birthday has past, have they?” Tesni asked. “I didn’t think she had even left anything of value until you said you were going into town, today.”

  “Be glad they released her things to you at all,” Ryder said. “There has been a lot of debate, recently, about raising the minimum age to inherit to eighteen. The judge had been waiting to see if anything would go through and be approved by the ruling council.”

  Tesni sighed. “So what does a former lady-in-waiting turned tavern wench leave her daughter?”

  Ryder and Rowan hauled the trunk down from the back of the cart and set it down in front of her. “Look and see,” Ryder said.

  With trembling hands, Tesni pushed open the lid. A gold and crystal headdress sat on top, diamond shapes covered in filigree and connected with gold chain, crystals at the center of each one and hanging from the chain itself.

  Tesni set it on her cot and pulled out the dark blue silk gown that sat beneath it. The neckline was off the shoulder. The bodice was lightly boned. The long sleeves belled out about halfway down, ending in handkerchief hems. The skirt ended with a short train, and the train, sleeves, and bodice all had gold embroidery of leafy vines.

  “These are beautiful,” Tesni said, “but I don’t know when I’m ever going to wear them.”

  “Perhaps one of these days we’ll finally have a king or queen again,” Ryder said, “and then you can wear it to their coronation ball. The Rangers are always getting invited to things like that.”

  “We have never been invited to a fancy ball in the entire time since Arya brought me here,” Tesni said.

  “Well, we used to, until about twelve years ago,” Ryder amended.

  Tesni smiled and turned back to the trunk. There was more jewelry, including a necklace, earring, and bracelet set that matched the head piece, as well as a silver ring clearly made for a man to wear. Three more dresses filled the trunk, and at the bottom of it all, there was a letter.

  My darling Tesni,

  For six years I have searched for you, and now, as I lie here, dying, I know that it will be another six before you read this letter, because it is going into the trunk, for you to read when you receive your inheritance, hopefully when you are sixteen. It is my fondest hope that your father finds you quickly. I have written another note to go to him if he does not come to hear my request for him to find you.

  You must have many questions about me. I know that I have questions about you. I wonder if you are safe. I wonder if you have grown up into the beauty I always suspected you would be. Will you become a Ranger, like your father? Will you find true love? By this point you must have your fair share of suitors and your pick of all the young men of Linwood, if your father will even allow them near you.

  Well, dear, here is everything you must want to know about me, and if I leave questions unanswered, then you can ask your father. I am sure he will be able to tell you.

  To start off with, your father and I were not married. I know that seems wrong, but it’s true. He was deeply in mourning, and I took advantage of that, even though I knew that he would never truly be mine. That is not to say that I never hoped. I even purchased a silver ring to give him should he ask for my hand, and I hope that you will someday give it to your own lover.

  I was a lady-in-waiting to Her Majesty, Queen Rhiannon. More than that, I was her favorite, for reasons you must uncover on your own, for your own safety. Know this. There was a princess born to the king and queen who reached adulthood. I knew her well, as I aided in her hiding from Agrona, and she had a daughter the same year I gave birth to you. Find her, and you will find that you are greatly and justly rewarded.

  Like most, I did not trust Agrona. However, the night you came, the midwife was busy, and Agrona herself delivered you. The cord was around your neck, and she saved your life. This is the only good that can be said about her, perhaps the only good that she has ever done.

  Yes, I loved you. I still love you and miss you dearly. I would do anything to see you once more, but I know that it is impossible, for I know that my final hour is at hand. I can only hope that whoever took you in raised you well.

  Your mother,

  Cliona

  “I wonder what she meant about your safety being on the line,” Rowan said thoughtfully.

  Tesni looked up. She had not even realized that she had been reading the letter aloud. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “However, she has confirmed what many have long speculated.”

  “Aye, she has,” Ryder agreed, “but why charge you, specifically, with finding this lost princess and her daughter when nobody else seemed to know anything about it?”

  “And why was she the queen’s favorite?” Tesni asked. “And why would it be unsafe for her to write the reasons down? It could simply be that they were close in age or shared certain favorite activities, and those are innocuous. I can’t think of any reasoning unless…”

  Her eyes locked with Ryder’s, then, and then with Rowan’s. It was clear that they were wondering the same thing. “No, it can’t be,” Rowan said. “She said that she knew the princess well, and that she had a daughter born the same year, and charged you with finding her.”

  “Aye, but how could your mother be so sure of a great and just reward?” Ryder asked.

  Tesni examined the parchment closely, looking for clues. “Atar, might I have a bit of diluted ink and a cloth?”

  Ryder raised an eyebrow but nodded, fetching some ink made of poke berries, some water, and the cloth. “I don’t know what your plan is, Tesni, or what you spotted, so I will let you dilute the ink to the strength you think you need.”

  Tesni just nodded and started to work, diluting the ink in the water to about half strength. Then she took
the cloth and used it to rub the diluted ink over the paragraph that spoke of Cliona’s life as a lady-in-waiting. Before her eyes, the indentations that she had seen became visible numbers, one through seven. “I was…the…princess…” Tesni read, going in order, “you…her…daughter.” She bit her lower lip. “I was the princess, you her daughter,” she repeated, her voice shaking.

  “There’s one way to know if she wrote the truth,” Ryder said softly, “that is, if you want to know.”

  “Well of course I want to know,” Tesni said. “Otherwise this question is going to hang over my head. I mean, if I don’t find out, for sure, and she’s telling the truth, that does Linwood no good. If she’s lying, or I just misinterpreted those marks, then I have a quest and a duty to find the real princess and her daughter and set her on the throne.”

  Rowan rested his forehead on hers. “Yes or no, no matter what, nothing will change how I feel about you.”

  “I know,” Tesni said. Then she kissed him.

  Rowan was just starting to deepen the kiss when Ryder cleared his throat. “Come on,” she said. He, too, wondered about the contents of Cliona’s letter. If Tesni had interpreted what she found correctly, it meant that he had seduced a princess, and his daughter was destined to rule. If she hadn’t, then just what was the woman thinking telling Tesni that it was up to her to restore the princess to the throne?

  He led them to the bow course, where Tesni frowned. “Atar, I’m not supposed to be on the course again today. I took a knife to the arm, and Enid wants me to rest it for two weeks.”

  “Don’t worry about that,” Ryder said. He opened up the door. “Maintenance,” he commanded. Automatically, all of the doors opened.

  The three of them moved easily through the course. When they got to the final room, Tesni saw that having the course under maintenance conditions meant that there was a rope ladder going down and another to climb up the opposite side. As they climbed down, Ryder led them to the end of the zip line.

  Ryder pointed out the two traps in the room. “Arya told me how you got up the bladed rope,” he said, “but what you did wasn’t necessary. This one,” he said, pointing to the one Tesni would have hit had she just kept sliding “opens up a second rope, and this one,” he said, pointing to the one on the floor, “everyone thinks is a trap, but it’s really not.”

  Ryder stepped on the pressure plate, then, and the tile next to it slid open. “This is how and where the Rangers guard the greatest treasure of Linwood,” he said. “Only Arya and I can give the maintenance command, and this pressure plate can only be sprung under maintenance conditions. Most Rangers don’t even know it’s here.”

  “I did,” Tesni said. “I spotted it and avoided it. I thought it was a trap, as well.”

  “No, it’s not a trap, just a well-hidden pressure plate for an even better hidden treasure,” Ryder said. From the hole in the floor, he pulled out a beautiful golden orb. It was studded with tiny emeralds, the royal colors of Linwood. “Watch what happens when I place it in Rowan’s hands,” he said.

  Rowan held it, but nothing happened. “What am I supposed to be watching for?” Tesni asked. “I’m not seeing anything.”

  “Exactly,” Ryder said, taking the orb away from Rowan. “It will glow, but only in the hands of the rightful ruler. Now hold your hands out, anelya.”

  As soon as Ryder placed the orb in Tesni’s hands, it glowed. The glow was soft at first, not quite visible, but then it grew. It enveloped her hands, at first, and then her entire body. The light was so bright that Tesni could not see her father or Rowan, and she doubted that they could see her. She began hyperventilating, and she could not put the orb down, even though she desperately wanted to do so.

  Suddenly, the glow died down. While it continued to surround the orb, it was no longer surrounding her. Tesni looked up and saw Ryder and Rowan both staring at her, wide-eyed.

  She felt trapped. She was overwhelmed and couldn’t run to the stables. She had just read of the huge secret that her mother had always carried, learned the reason she had memories of being spoiled by the queen, and discovered that she was meant to rule Linwood. It was too much. Still unable to put the orb down, she did the one thing that she could do.

  Tesni fainted.

  Chapter 16

  “So she just fainted?” Arya asked.

  “Aye, she did,” Ryder said. “It’s clear she’s not ready to take on the responsibility that’s just been handed to her.”

  “I agree,” Arya replied. “I’m surprised she didn’t run to the stables.”

  Ryder sorted. “How could she? We were in the pit in the bow course where we keep the orb hidden. Rowan and I were both right there. She couldn’t run and hide. It will probably help her in the long run, though. If she’s going to be Queen of Linwood, she needs to learn that she can’t just run off every time things get to be too much.”

  This was the conversation Tesni was hearing from outside the tent when she woke up. She stood, still a little dizzy, and moved to the tent entrance. “It’s not like I asked to be a queen,” she said. “I just wanted to be a Ranger.”

  Arya and Ryder looked towards her. They hadn’t realized that Tesni had woken up. They stepped up into the tent with her and sat her down, one of them on either side. “It’s scary, isn’t it?” Arya asked.

  “Aye, it’s very scary,” Tesni agreed. “So what do I do now?”

  “You’ll continue your training, for starters,” Ryder said. “Not only will it keep you ready to defend yourself, if need be, it will give you something to focus on so that you aren’t panicking about what happened this afternoon.”

  “We’ll also find a way to discreetly train you in the skills you need to be a queen, like dancing, diplomacy, and negotiation, not to mention helping you learn to stay calm instead of running to hide,” Arya added.

  Tesni couldn’t help but look down. She knew she needed a lot of help in that area, but she wasn’t sure how else to handle it. All she knew is that the horses never judged when you came to them to talk. They just listened patiently in exchange for an apple or carrot. If neither was available, of course, they always enjoyed a good brushing.

  “Who else knows?” she asked at last.

  “Just the three of us and Rowan,” Ryder said. “When you fainted, Rowan and I agreed that it was probably in your best interests not to let everyone know why you fainted. We even brought you straight here instead of taking you to Enid because we weren’t sure who you felt comfortable with knowing, and we didn’t want to lie to anyone.”

  Tesni cocked her head to one side. “How did you keep people from wondering why you were carrying me?”

  Ryder shrugged. “I just told them that you had fallen asleep because you had been pushing yourself too hard, lately, to the brink of exhaustion, and that I was bringing you back to bed.”

  “So you didn’t want to lie to anyone, but you did anyway?” Tesni asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Well, you were technically asleep,” Ryder said, “and you did technically push yourself too hard when you tried to deal with a situation you weren’t quite ready for. So it wasn’t technically a lie.”

  Tesni looked at her father, unimpressed with his semantics. Still, she had to admit that his reasoning was sound. Finally, she just sighed and looked down again. “I would trust the rest of the Rangers with my very life. You both know that. But I agree that we should keep this knowledge to as few people as possible.” She looked up again, a wry smile on her face. “I’m not sure if I want to tell Enid or not. The knowledge that she’s treating the rightful queen might put too much pressure on her.”

  Arya and Ryder both laughed at this. “I agree that Enid could be a safe choice,” Arya said, finally. “So could Fiona and Alastar.”

  “Aye,” Tesni agreed. “I would definitely trust the three of them to keep my new secret. But is it really a good idea to tell them, anyway? Yes, I trust them, but I seem to remember always being told growing up that two can keep a secret if one o
f them is dead. It seems to me that the more people who know, the more likely one of them is going to say something to someone not approved to know, and then everyone suddenly will know.”

  “Well,” Arya said, a smirk on her face, “at least now you have a purpose for all those fancy dresses and jewels.”

  

  Aeron had heard enough. He was grateful to Agrona for busting him out of prison, and now he had useful information for her. As the darkness of night fell, he slipped out from beneath the platform the tent stood on and slipped out of the camp. He had been surprised that the hole in the fence had not been repaired, but it worked out for him and for his mission.

  He slipped through the woods to where his horse was tied up, mounted up, and rode off towards Agrona’s keep. Though it was the middle of the night, he knew that his mistress would be awake, waiting for him in the library. As soon as he arrived, he went straight there and knelt down.

  “What news have you brought, Aeron?” she asked.

  “Your niece is dead, Mistress, but it wasn’t the girl you suspected,” he replied.

  Agrona arched an eyebrow at this news. “Truly? I kept Fiona here as a servant, believing she was my niece, hiding in plain sight, and that I could train her in my own image, and now you tell me that I was wrong?”

  “To be fair, Mistress, the names sound alike. It wasn’t Fiona, but Cliona, and Princess Cliona died six years ago.”

  “That means that Tesni is…” Agrona started.

  Aeron nodded. “Aye, Mistress, and I wouldn’t have known if Tesni herself had not found out. She received her inheritance from her mother earlier this afternoon, and Ryder took her to where the orb is hidden to test the theory that Tesni developed after examining the final letter that Cliona left. Cliona used hidden clues to get Tesni to not only read between the lines of her letter, but also to reveal the message hidden not with ink, but with scratch marks.”