by Peter Wacht
“You mean you’re not having fun with your friends?”
Kaylie snorted. “My friends — Lissa, Jenna, and Erinn — are only interested in looking at boys, and Maddan in impressing me, yet he’s not very good at it. In fact, it’s almost embarrassing to watch him sometimes.”
“And Ragin?” Thomas was curious about her relationship with the High King’s son. Ragin had acted as if they were very close, yet Kaylie tried to keep her distance from him.
“Ragin is not my friend.” She almost shouted it, then thought better of it. “He’s a manipulative jackass.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
Thomas had not expected such a harsh response. Still, it pleased him.
“It’s not your fault. So when are you going home? You told me it was to the east, but you never said exactly where.”
Thomas smiled. She was tenacious, wasn’t she? He had a feeling that when she wanted something she got it, if only from sheer willpower, which meant she probably wasn’t used to his vague responses.
“I was going to leave today, but Beluil ran off somewhere, and I’ve got to wait for him. I’ll probably go later today or tomorrow.”
Kaylie looked at Thomas with annoyance. He was such a guarded person, having dodged her question again. Well, he could play his game as long as he wanted. She’d get answers to her questions eventually. It was just a matter of time.
“Do you mind if I ask you a more personal question?”
“Not at all,” said Thomas. His stomach filled with butterflies. He wondered what she was after this time.
“Can you speak with any animal you want?”
Thomas relaxed. “Pretty much. It’s usually a question of whether or not the animal wants to speak with me.”
“Then how do you do it?”
Thomas appeared slightly embarrassed. “To be honest, I don’t really know. It’s just something I do. I think it has something to do with the Talent. Much like I can actually become a part of nature, I can use the same power to speak with animals, I just have to manipulate it in a slightly different way. I’m sorry, but that’s the best explanation I can offer.”
Kaylie stopped and faced Thomas, her expression one of annoyance. “You know, Thomas, you can be an extremely frustrating person.”
“I know,” he replied with a mischievous grin. “I’ve been told that several times before, most often by a very beautiful woman.”
“Oh, really,” said Kaylie, placing her hands on her hips and tapping one foot. Her interest was suddenly heightened, and Thomas sensed some jealousy. She resembled a lioness preparing to strike. “And just who might this beautiful woman be?”
Thomas laughed. Rya would be pleased to know that she could still fluster another woman.
“Are you jealous, Kaylie?”
“I most certainly am not,” she replied a little too vehemently, hitting him lightly in the chest.
Her words said one thing but her bright red face said another. Why would she be jealous? She barely even knew Thomas.
“I didn’t think so,” said Thomas, grinning from ear to ear. It certainly was fun teasing her.
“Good,” replied Kaylie, smoothing the folds of her riding dress.
Why had she reacted that way? She had known Thomas for two days and already she was acting like a jealous lover. What had gotten into her?
“You’re the Princess of Fal Carrach after all. It just wouldn’t be proper, now would it?”
“It most certainly would not,” replied Kaylie.
She adopted the tone she used when giving orders, but one glance at Thomas’ grin told her he was egging her on. She immediately hit him in the chest again, this time a little harder. His small grunt of pain gave her a certain satisfaction, and she smiled herself.
“As I said, Thomas, you are an extremely difficult person.” And mysterious, and exciting, and interesting, but she’d keep that to herself.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Taken by Surprise
“Why don’t we have a look at what’s in the picnic basket? I’m famished.”
“Sounds good,” replied Kaylie, grasping his hand.
She thought to only lead him back to the clearing, but once she felt the warmth of his touch, she was reluctant to let go.
As they entered the glade, Thomas spread out the blanket, placing the bow and sword he carried beside him, as Kaylie began pulling items out of the basket.
“It looks wonderful,” he said. “Did you do this yourself?”
“Of course I did,” she lied, her grin giving her away.
Kaylie had never cooked before. She had never seen the need as someone always did it for her. Settling down on the blanket, she crossed her legs and began passing plates of food over to Thomas.
They sat in silence for a few moments, as both took a few bites of food. Several minutes passed before Thomas was ready to talk.
“Are you all right, Kaylie? You seem pensive.”
Kaylie jumped at the mention of her name, realizing she had drifted off into her own little world. She could get used to this, she thought. The peace, the quiet, the privacy. She looked up from her food and saw a faraway look on Thomas’ face.
“What were you doing, Thomas?”
“Just checking to see what’s around,” replied Thomas.
“You mean checking for any danger?”
The thought excited her, which made Kaylie worried. The time she had spent with Thomas differed greatly from her life in the Rock, and she was beginning to enjoy it a bit too much, she thought, if the possibility of danger pleased her.
“I guess you could say that,” he said, biting into a piece of bread thick with butter.
“And did you find anything?”
“Nothing to worry about,” he replied.
“So where’s Beluil today?” she asked, surprised at the disappointment she felt at his announcement.
“He’s exploring the forest, looking for other wolves most likely.”
“Do you spend all of your time wandering in the forest, Thomas, or do you actually have a home?”
“I have a home,” he replied, settling back on the blanket and eating some goat cheese. It was quite good actually. “I try to stay away from it as much as possible, though.”
“You don’t like it there?”
“No, I do. I don’t mean to give you the wrong impression. I like my home very much. It’s just that my grandparents are firm believers in the dictum that idle hands lead to mischief. Whenever I’m home they always find work for me to do, most of it boring, so I try to stay away. It’s more fun wandering in the forest, as you call it.”
“I know what you mean,” replied Kaylie. “My father is much the same way. If he sees me with nothing to do, he’s always willing to make use of my time. Very gracious of him, don’t you think?” The sarcasm dripped from her voice.
Thomas chuckled softly. “I have a feeling that your father and my grandparents would get along just fine.” Thomas leaned forward for a slice of bread, Kaylie’s eyes tracing his movements carefully, taking in everything about him. “Of course, even when I’m there, they’re not always satisfied with my work.”
“You get into trouble regularly, don’t you?” Kaylie guessed. Her smile made Thomas’ heart beat faster.
“Yes, I do. How did you know?”
“Your eyes,” she said. “They’re full of mischief.”
“Maybe that’s what gives me away all the time. I can never seem to get away with anything when my grandparents are around. It’s like they have eyes on the backs of their heads. In fact my grandmother got so angry with me once, she threatened to kick me off the island.”
An island? Thomas lived on an island. Either Thomas’ defenses had slipped or he was beginning to feel more comfortable talking with her. That possibility thrilled her, yet also sent a shiver of fear through her body. Why was she suddenly afraid?
“And just how did that happen?”
Thomas glanced at Kaylie
, noting her interest. He normally wasn’t one to tell stories — that was his grandfather’s specialty — but he decided to give it a try anyway.
“Well, one time my grandmother wanted to expand the garden behind our cottage, so she told me to clear the rocks from the field. Now, where we live, the soil is filled with rocks, some almost as large as this.” Thomas extended his arms to their full length. “It wasn’t an easy task. And unfortunately I couldn’t find a way out of it. I started that morning, not even stopping for lunch, and was going to finish in the afternoon. But Beluil came by and convinced me to do some exploring with him.”
“Beluil convinced you?” Kaylie asked skeptically, thinking the wolf couldn’t be the principal culprit.
“A wolf can be very persuasive, you know.” Kaylie’s expression said that she didn’t, but Thomas continued the story anyway. “I had cleared nearly half the field and thought I could finish the following day. My grandmother had something else in mind, however, as she wasn’t very pleased with me not finishing the job.”
Thomas leaned forward and scrunched up his face, his voice coming out as a screech. “‘I want this field cleared by tomorrow,’ she told me. ‘I don’t care if you have to work through the night.’”
Thomas leaned back, smiling as he remembered the incident, though at the time he was anything but pleased.
“When I protested, she said it would help build my character.”
Thomas’ expression said he clearly didn’t believe a word of it. Kaylie laughed at his imitation, wondering if his grandmother was really as bad as Thomas made her out to be.
“As you can imagine, I wasn’t very happy about that at all. She’d been telling me for years that my chores would build character, but I could never figure out why that would be and had seen no evidence of it. Now, my grandmother isn’t the type of person you can simply disregard. So I kept at it and finished just before dawn.”
Thomas’ voice lowered, as if he were about to tell Kaylie a secret. “My grandmother is an early riser and she got up soon after I was done. She immediately wanted to see my handiwork and tried to get out of the cottage. But she couldn’t. I’d piled a whole bunch of rocks against the door just to get back at her for making me work through the night.”
Kaylie laughed at the image that appeared in her mind. She could see the grin on Thomas’ face as he watched her grandmother struggle with the door to her home, not knowing why it wouldn’t open.
“As I said, you’re trouble.”
“Maybe so,” he replied. “My fun was short-lived, though. After I removed the rocks from the door — now keep in mind it was just a prank — my grandmother was, well, irritated.”
“Just irritated?” asked Kaylie, trying to keep a straight face.
“Furious was more like it,” replied Thomas. “She took one look at me, her face red with anger, and then examined the field. I expected her to start yelling, but instead she turned to me with her own smile and said, ‘I’ve changed my mind. Put the rocks back where you found them. I like it better with the rocks.’ As you can guess, I was not happy. As a result I no longer play any pranks on my grandmother. It’s not worth the risk.”
Kaylie couldn’t stop laughing, imagining the scene as it played out before her. Finally, she caught her breath.
“And did you put all the rocks back?”
“Thankfully my grandfather convinced my grandmother to leave everything as it was. You know, he still holds that over my head to this very day. He keeps telling me that sometime soon I’ll have to pay him back for the favor he did me.”
“It sounds like you have quite an interesting family, Thomas.”
Kaylie enjoyed listening to him. It was refreshing to talk with someone whose ego wasn’t as large as a peak in the Highlands or who didn’t spend all of his time bragging.
“Interesting is an understatement,” he replied in a short laugh. “Sometimes you just can’t win.”
“I know what you mean,” she said. “When my mother died my father was devastated. He really did his best raising me, but it was tough on him. Sometimes he didn’t know what to do with me.”
At the mention of her mother a black cloud appeared over Thomas, anger and grief apparent in his features. It quickly disappeared. Did he lose his mother as well? Or was it the mention of her father?
“When my father was busy, Kael or some of the other soldiers would look after me, which is probably why I’m not interested in things like knitting or singing or the other stuff you’re supposed to learn as a lady of the court. My father is extremely protective. When he saw me riding a horse for the first time — I must have been five or six — he almost had a fit. Kael had taken me down to the stables for the morning and found a small pony for me.”
Kaylie’s face brightened as she recalled the experience, setting Thomas’ heart racing.
“We were in a small compound and Kael was leading me around. The pony must have been twenty years old, so the only thing it wanted to do was walk, and slowly at that. When my father came out his face turned completely red and it looked like he was foaming at the mouth.” She laughed as she remembered the image. “He was so upset he threatened to throw Kael in the dungeon.”
“He didn’t, though, did he?”
The name Kael Bellilil had stuck with him since the previous night. Oso had mentioned it to him once. From what he remembered, Kael was a Highlander who did what he thought best, without regard for the consequences. Hence, his decision to leave the Highlands for Fal Carrach. Going amicably to the dungeons didn’t sound like him at all.
“No, he didn’t. Kael has always been good with my father. They’ve known each other for such a long time, my father listens to Kael’s advice before anyone else’s. Kael convinced him that there was no need to worry. Still, ever since then I’ve been more a tomboy than a princess, much to my father’s aggravation.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“No, there isn’t, except when you’re supposed to be a queen someday. It wasn’t until we ran into you in the Burren that he actually let me learn swordplay.”
“Glad to be of service,” replied Thomas as he finished off a piece of cheese. The tangy flavor appealed to him.
“If I was a boy, you know, I would never have had any trouble at all. Because I’m a girl everyone has always thought that I couldn’t do this or I shouldn’t do that. It’s all extremely frustrating.”
“I can imagine. It’s strange, though.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I don’t see why being a girl, or woman, should prevent you from doing something, whether it’s learning how to ride a horse or handle a blade or anything else for that matter.”
“My thinking exactly,” grinned Kaylie, pleased by his words. “Being a princess certainly isn’t all it’s made out to be.”
“And what if you weren’t a princess?” asked Thomas. “What would you do then?”
The question surprised Kaylie. No one had ever asked her that before. She had never even considered it herself.
“What would I do? I don’t know.”
Thomas smiled at her, wiping his hands free of crumbs. “Well, whatever you chose, I’m sure it would be quite interesting.”
“Why do you say that?”
Thomas looked at her as if he were slightly embarrassed. “I don’t know,” he replied. “Although I haven’t known you for very long, it’s clear that you’re the type of person who follows her heart. You’re willing to take a chance and do what you think is right regardless of what others think. That’s all.”
Kaylie stared at Thomas in shock. He knew her better than she knew herself. The beating of her heart drowned out everything around her for a brief moment and it took her a few seconds to regain her composure.
Looking down at the blanket a bit embarrassed, she noticed she had forgotten to serve something.
“Would you like some wine?”
Thomas was unlike anyone else she knew. Quiet, honest, not
trying to impress her. He was confident in himself, but not arrogant. And shy, too. It was perhaps the last quality that made her heart beat even faster.
“I’ve never drunk wine before.”
“Then you should try it,” she decided. “Just to see what it tastes like.” She poured him a glass and handed it to him.
Unable to say no to her, Thomas took a few swallows and put the glass down. He didn’t like the sweet flavor, and it tasted almost gritty. Having never drunk wine before, perhaps that was simply the way it was supposed to taste. If that was the case, he had certainly not missed anything by abstaining.
“It’s really not to my liking.”
“Do you mind if I ask you a personal question, Thomas?”
He nodded. “Go ahead.”
“What’s the most important quality you look for in a person? You know, in terms of a friend.”
Thomas sat there a moment, considering how to respond. He wasn’t feeling very well all of a sudden. Looking up at Kaylie, her features appeared fuzzy. He tried rubbing his eyes to clear them. This was strange. Very strange. A few small swallows of wine shouldn’t have had such an effect on him. It took several seconds for him to answer her question.
“Trust. It would have to be trust. I would have to be able to trust the person before I could call him or her a friend.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Betrayal
“Do you think you could learn to trust me, Thomas?” Her heart was in her throat as she asked the question, unsure if she could handle a negative reply.
“I already do, Kaylie. I already do.” Thomas sat up and began rubbing his forehead, trying to clear his head.
“Are you all right, Thomas?” He seemed to be a bit green.
“Something doesn’t feel right,” he said, his words coming out slurred.
Thomas shook his head in an effort to clear the darkness sweeping over him. He stood up slowly, sword in hand, and almost fell back down. His legs were unsteady and his eyes refused to focus. Men approached. Men with a foul taint. He could feel them coming closer, but his senses were dulled. He had made a mistake, perhaps even a fatal mistake.