by Shelley Cass
I hadn’t heard Frey, but turned when I saw that he had somehow lifted and carried across a heavy white armchair as though it weighed nothing. He lowered it next to the side of the bed, careful to make no noise, and gestured for me to sit.
“My thanks, friend,” I whispered.
“She will sleep for a while now,” he said in a low voice. “The Lady has given her an elixir to help ease the pain with dreams. You too should try to rest, at least until the elixir fades. Then there will be little rest for you if you stay.”
I nodded and eased myself into the blissfully soft chair, drinking in the sight of Kiana while Frey sat in the window seat that had been carved into the dark wood below the wide-open window.
Gradually the golden, glowing globes floating around the rounded room’s walls dimmed of their own accord, and Frey seemed content to lose himself in the stars, his gaze serious and unwavering even as the moon shifted.
Much time had passed in this way before the elixir began to wear off and I began to notice Kiana’s glistening brow creasing with a frown of discomfort. Soon she was also restlessly struggling, pushing at the sheets in her sleep.
I sat straighter, rousing from my drifting thoughts.
“We can only keep her comfortable and as stationary as possible,” Frey whispered. “We have to wait for the fever to break.”
When her hand began scrunching the bed sheets, I gently pried her fingers loose and took them into mine. But as the night passed, she became increasingly unsettled.
She began to toss and turn and her hand slipped from mine when her body was wracked with a convulsive jolt. She let out a sharp cry and moved under the sheets as if to start defending herself.
Frey came to her bedside quickly. “The elixir has stopped working. We must hold her still,” he warned.
I immediately took a firm hold of her good arm, stopping her from flailing it about wildly. Frey put a firm hand on her good shoulder and held her other arm carefully against the bed, forcing her to stop agitating the wound.
But she reacted as if we had suddenly sprung an attack upon her, and unconsciously began to thrash aggressively against our hold, crying out in pain and in anger.
Her back arched and her eyes flashed open, glinting gold and blue as she tried to throw our hold off.
Even injured, she was skilled enough to slip out of my hold. With a ferocious half-punch-half-push she sent me reeling backward with her now free hand, and nearly completely bowled Frey off her with a thrashing heave.
“Hold her!” he said urgently now, fighting to keep a grasp on her unexpectedly strong arms while she yelled and lashed out. “She is injuring her ribs and shoulder further!” he was struggling to keep her lying down without doing her harm himself, and I knew from experience that she would be able to worm out from his hold because of his delicate handling.
Filled with blind delirium, her eyes were gleaming as she made swipes at Frey’s face, yet she didn’t truly see either of us.
I swallowed. “You took away all of the daggers and sharp objects she always has hidden all over the place, didn’t you?” I asked Frey.
He gave me the briefest of glances, his usually placid face written with astonishment. “Yes, of course,” he grunted as her foot connected with his stomach. “Why?”
“She’s having a nightmare,” I told him. “I’ve had bad experiences confronting her during her nightmares,” I added.
“Can you make her stop moving? The bleeding will start again if she continues,” he answered with an effort, avoiding her next kick and pinning both her arms while she tried to shake him off.
I winced. “I can try.”
Even as Frey looked to me for my answer, Kiana aimed an incredible blow at his head, having resorted to using her own brow. She head butted him squarely in the temple, and their skulls connected with a dull, painful thud.
Taken by surprise Frey was overcome and toppled to land sprawling on the floor. Thankfully, she too had been stunned by the impact and blinked away the dizziness – lying prone long enough for me to pounce. I dived onto the bed beside her before she could resume her attack and tucked her arms in before quickly pulling the sheets taut over her chest and legs again.
Frey got the idea and pulled himself up onto the bed on her other side, his massive, lean frame holding down the other side of the sheets.
She tried to struggle underneath the sheet prison. But with both my weight and Frey’s weight pulling the sheets tightly over her from both sides, she was pinned safely between us.
“Hurry …” Frey warned, looking at her shoulder worriedly.
I leaned over Kiana so that she could see my face.
Her feverish eyes glared indignantly back at me, her stare fiery with rage and a burning hate for someone she saw only in her memory.
“Kiana?”
Her tensely straining body froze, her wild eyes fixing on mine properly and her eyebrows coming together in a frown.
“Kiana,” I said softly, “it’s only me, Dalin.”
Frey let out a startled gasp as her body became instantly still and Kiana blinked warily.
“It’s alright now,” I shushed her, reaching up a hand to stroke her heated cheek.
“Dalin?” she frowned, saying the word slowly, as if remembering me through a foggy haze. She had been remembering a different time.
“I’m here with you,” I said, settling her hair back away from her face. “And I need you to rest now.” I could feel the heat from her body through the sheets.
A tear spilled from the deep blue pools of her eyes, and slid warmly down the side of her face, toward her ear. I stopped it with a fingertip.
“The dreams are back,” she whispered. “It’s him, that sabre, and then her, and those cruel hands. And Tommy … my Tommy … with holes all over … but then I’m being chased by the shadows … the shadows breathe … the shadows burn with ice … the Sorcerer is sending them for me … and I can’t get away …”
Her breathing was getting faster again, her eyes becoming wide, and I quickly pushed my face back in front of her eyes. “They’re gone now. I’m here. It was just a dream.”
Her eyes burned as they searched my face. “It was no dream that you found me.”
“I found you and now you’re safe. Now you can rest.” I told her warmly.
She didn’t seem to be seeing me properly, and never even noticed that Frey was on her other side.
She looked exhausted, and her eyes were becoming less wild, clouded again with pain and sickness.
“Sleep a while,” I coaxed, stroking her forehead.
Her gaze connected tiredly with mine, but it was still strong enough to capture me completely.
“You won’t go?” she murmured.
“I’ll be right here.”
“…Won’t leave me alone?” her voice was almost too faint to hear as her eyelids slowly slid closed.
“No,” I told her. “I’ll be watching over you.”
She nodded faintly, reassured, and her breathing began to settle into the pattern of a sleeper.
Frey let out a sigh of relief and tucked the sheets neatly back into place, settling Kiana more comfortably upon the pillows. Then he eased her arms free of the sheets, looking at the bandages. Faint flecks of blood had seeped through during her struggle.
“We were fortunate,” he said finally.
Kiana let out a small moan and turned fitfully in her new sleep.
“Is there anything you can do?” I asked in concern. “Can you give her more of that elixir?”
Frey shook his head. “We have given her the potion three times already. It becomes addictive. We cannot risk giving her any more.”
I looked at her miserably, taking her hand in mine again.
“She is strong, and her body has been cleansed by the Lady’s magic. Now it is her turn to fight and to heal.”
She moaned again, her face creased with agony and I lowered my head into my free hand.
Chapter Eighty Five
All through that night I watched over Kiana, firmly holding her against the pillows while she twisted and tossed and turned in her troubled sleep.
She talked in her delirium. Her voice was hoarse and exhausted, and she sometimes spoke in tongues that I couldn’t understand.
I heard her talking to Tommy, her mother and her father, and I thought my heart would break. I heard her addressing Noal and I. I heard her trying to get rid of Gangroah’s Gloria and I heard her yelling at a distant memory of some beast she had fought.
She constantly shifted in agitation, muttering and raving, sometimes making Frey and I jump as she fought monsters in her dreams.
Time passed slowly but I didn’t notice it.
The Lady came as the days melted by, talking quietly with Frey. Kiana would become still then, as the Lady’s strange power spread into the room.
The Elf Chloris would tend to Kiana, and Noal also often came and sat on the end of the bed, bringing water that we tried to help Kiana get down, coaxing her to swallow even though she didn’t seem to notice us.
Asha and Vidar, even Ailill and a few others that I came to know would sit with me by Kiana’s side.
As time passed, Kiana grew extremely thin and weak. Her bones seemed to protrude at alarming, sharp angels from under her skin. Dark shadows stained under her eyes, and it was clear that her body was exhausted.
The Lady’s visits became more frequent, but even with Kiana becoming quieter and frailer as the fever waged war upon her fatigued form, I never thought once that she wouldn’t wake again.
I never let my face look as grim and serious as those other faces. I knew Kiana, and I knew she wouldn’t let this sickness and injury get the better of her after surviving so much.
And finally, I was the one watching her pale face when her eyelashes moved for the first time in days. I saw the brilliant blue of her eyes as the eyelashes parted. And I was the first one that those brilliant blue eyes fixed upon.
Looking beyond weary and dazed, but very much alive, she smiled at me.
A fragile, shaky smile that lit me from head to toe.
Noal let out a little cry of amazement as he saw her.
The Lady and Frey immediately turned from where they had been speaking and Kiana’s eyes shifted from my face to fall upon them.
Her features seemed to lighten faintly with joy.
Then, without hesitation, she spoke. “… Quindinara uona … nell … Sylthanryn dliss lissryn,” she whispered in a lilting tongue.
I didn’t understand, but when she spoke those words, shivers and thrills ran up and down my spine.
“Quindinara uona nell dliss lissryn, nell Tru Larnaeradee,” the Lady responded, even as a comforted smile spread across Kiana’s lips and as her eyes slowly closed again.
“What did she say?” Noal whispered apprehensively, having obviously felt the same prickling power about Kiana’s words that I had.
Asha laughed in glowing pleasure, having come with Vidar to visit. “She just greeted the beings of the Forest in the ancient tongue. Aolen. There can be no doubt about the prophecy. No mortal could have spoken in that tongue.”
“Kiana has just ended the long silence between races and has shown the lost Larnaeradee to have one surviving member,” the Lady affirmed. “The Larnaeradee created Aolen as the unifying language of all peoples, and that is why they became the Summoners when the world needed to unite against Deimos. Because it was their magic that helped Aolen to connect everyone. Without them, the language faded.”
“As soon as the One spoke I knew, I felt what she was saying. Never have my spirits soared so high!” Asha sang gaily.
“Are you trying to say that Kiana is a Fairy?” Noal asked disbelievingly, trying to keep his voice quiet.
“She is the One of the prophecies, the last of her kind,” Frey nodded. “The One, or Tru, Larnaeradee. She has yet to find her earth stone, but she already has power.”
I remembered how Kiana’s song had created relief in Giltrup. How she’d connected with Ila and Amala, a flock of birds, and a Willow. How she had always lasted longer than anyone else – even against the beasts of Darziates. How she’d created white light from the General’s globe and converted those soldiers. How she’d just spoken an ancient language and been understood.
“She truly is the One,” Asha giggled joyously, clapping her hands.
But I didn’t care about any of it, and I let the voices of the others fade to the back of my awareness.
Instead I stared at Kana’s sleeping face, beautiful and fearless.
She was still Kiana, even if she might be more than she seemed.
And she was fighting to come back to me.
I watched over her in a committed vigil for the rest of that day, and I was there when her fever finally broke late in that night.
I never left her side.
Historical Tales
The Tale of the Fairies and the Unicorns
Unicorns were magnificent to behold. Their bodies slender and powerful, built for speed and freedom. Their hooves and horns the colour of stainless gold.
Their horns were the source of their might. Each foal’s horn would grow as gradually as a human babe might grow teeth, and with this growth came its magic. Through its horn, a Unicorn could channel Nature’s power to create magic.
But for all their power, the Unicorns were a withdrawn race living in an isolated land within a ring of mountains. At that time it was known as Karanoyar, a place later referred to as Jenra.
Karanoyar’s perilous border mountains were so high that, even in the warmest weather, their jagged peaks were capped with ice. Protected and secluded, the Unicorns had lived peacefully for many generations, until during one frosty season, a young Fairy was blown off course into their home.
The youthful Larnaeradee, Farne, only just given his earth stone and with only newly formed wings, was found collapsed in the snow by the Unicorn foal Treyun.
Curious and excited, Treyun took Farne back to the herd, and Farne was discussed for a long time by all of the Unicorn elders. At last it was agreed that he did not look or feel dangerous, and so they cared for him as best they could until he woke.
To their surprise, Farne and Treyun soon discovered that they understood each other, through shared thoughts. As Farne healed, they became loyal companions, and when it was time for Farne to return home, parting seemed unbearable.
At the same time, upon embracing an outsider amongst their herd, a deep yearning had begun to stir in the heart of each Unicorn. The Unicorns became thoughtful and quiet. The elders again withdrew and discussed many matters. Each Unicorn ached to see the open outside land.
So it was agreed that the herd would visit the outside with Farne, and he was overjoyed that he was to stay with Treyun for a while longer.
A great mountain tunnel was opened by an elder Unicorn, and the whole company was spurred on by their eagerness. They galloped with glee out to the Forest land beyond the mountains, swiftly exploring their surrounds in elation, and moving gaily and freely across the green and sunny plains towards Farne’s people.
Amazement followed the company, and while at first the Unicorns were fearful – every human filled village they passed greeted them with only wonder and awe.
The travelling company became happier the further they roamed. The beauty of the land and the kindness of the humans turned the Unicorns from their long desire for solitude.
When they finally reached the valley Farne had grown up in, the Unicorns were so changed from when Farne had first seen them that he was almost shy of them as their elegance and power seemed intensified.
His people crowded the sunny, green valley in spellbound wonder. The Larnaeradee were as in awe of the Unicorns as the Unicorns were of them.
The Unicorns and Larnaeradee grew to love each other like family and became as close in friendship as Farne and Treyun had become.
At last the Unicorns pronounced that they couldn’t leave t
heir new family, or the land and the many new peoples and animals they had grown to love.
Over the first few years the bond between Unicorns and Larnaeradee became incredibly powerful. A bond that had never before existed between any race was developed. Their knowledge was shared, their thoughts were linked and a deep love and understanding for each other grew.
It became that each Fairy linked with one Unicorn, becoming a pair. They melded the magic of the Unicorn horn with the power of the earth stone and eventually achieved such a bond that they became more powerful than any other race.
In their time, they used this great power to the benefits of all peoples, creating a universal language as well as enhancing all life around them. And such abundance has never again been matched in the world.
The Tales of the Army for the World, and Sylranaeryn and her Unicorn.
Evil stirred in the land when, through treachery and darkness, Deimos of Krall discovered the Other Realm and brought a seed of dark magic into the world. He became the King of Krall and turned his people against all other races. Yet he was not satisfied with ruling just his kingdom.
He wanted the world. He wanted every land to be under his command alone, and he wanted every race, mortal and magical, to bow to him alone.
Slowly, through dark and twisted magic, Deimos bred new and terrible beasts, loyal only to himself. Ogres, Griffins, and even shadow creatures known as the Evexus that served as his dreaded personal army, began to plague the lands of mortals. Festering, dark spirits were summoned from the Other Realm, a place of decay and evil ghouls.
So, the tyrant Sorcerer King had built himself a powerful and terrible army of dread to help him win dominion over the entire world.
The Larnaeradee and Unicorns were filled with a deep sorrow. Being linked with the land and each other, they felt the earth’s pain from Deimos’ corruption as their own, and could not bear it. Together, they began to create their own army to contest Deimos’ evil and Sorcery.