Avalyne Series 01: The Queen of Carleon

by Linda Thackeray

  ‘Do you think it would have made a difference?’ Tamsyn asked.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Tully shook his head. ‘But there is something between us now that neither of us can get past. When I found her after the Disciples had gone, almost dead I thought I’d lost her forever but then Arianne took her to Eden Taryn and I thought if she lives, I’ll make it up to her for the rest of our lives but its never been the same. She’s never been the same. I know that’s not her fault but its true and now she’s gone and to prove something to me or herself and I just don’t know what to do.’

  Tamsyn’s squeezed Tully’s shoulder gently, empathising with the man’s guilt and sorrow. ‘Perhaps you and Keira should leave the Green for awhile. Remain in Sandrine and heal. If both of you have changed, perhaps trying to be the people you were in the lives you had, is not making things better but worse. Your guilt is deep but you are a victim of this as much as she. If you don’t mind the advice of an old bachelor, perhaps what you two need is to heal together, away from where it all happened.’

  ‘Leave?’ Tully stared at him in shock. The idea of leaving the Green and their farm was so overwhelming he had difficulty trying to imagine it.

  Aware that this was a tremendously big change for the provincial life of a farmer from the Green, Tamsyn continued to make his case. ‘If not Sandrine then perhaps even Eden Taryn. I am certain that Queen Lylea would have no difficulty playing hostess to the people who saved her son-in-law’s life. Even if they are somewhat reclusive, the elves can be excellent hosts when the mood takes them and it will you the chance to get to know each other again.’

  ‘But what about the farm…?’ Tully started to say in protest when suddenly it occurred to him that the farm wasn’t nearly as important to him as Keira. It could become overgrown and swallowed up by the Old Forest for all he cared if it meant rekindling his wife’s spirit once more. Right now, Tully wanted Keira back. He wanted the happy, hopeful woman she’d been before the Disciples destroyed her. So what if she had to find herself again in a different place than the farm? They could always go back when she was ready.

  ‘I must think on this,’ Tully answered. ‘I can’t make any decisions until we find them and I talk to Keira.’ Still there was hope in his eyes and he gave Tamsyn a look of appreciation for giving him a solution that he would never have dared to imagine.

  To live a life outside of the Green.

  ********

  As they left the light of the campfire behind and scouted the slopes of the hills to ensure they were the only ones present in the immediate area, Kyou noticed that Dare was uncommonly silent. He was accustomed to stillness from the elf but Dare was always more animated and they often had lively chats about things. Of course Kyou understood that since leaving Sandrine, Dare sombre mood had to do with his missing wife but the worry across his brow seemed constant and ran deeper than his fears for Arianne.

  ‘We will find her,’ Kyou broke the silence of the descending night as they made their way across the open ground to the Mountain Wood ahead.

  Dare glanced up at Kyou and smiled faintly, grateful for the dwarf’s attempt to make him feel better. In their company, it was usually Kyou who was the sombre one.

  The dwarf had spent most of his adult life ensuring that his Clan stayed one step ahead of Abraxes. Chasing the dwarves out of Iridia was not enough, Balfure wanted their expertise and he needed them enslaved for that. In Carleon, they could find no shelter and most were driven to the very edges of Avalyne to remain free. Kyou was but an adolescent when Balfure descended upon the Starfall Mountains and he had become the man of his Clan when his father Atrayo was killed, his childhood stolen away by one act of murder.

  ‘I know,’ Dare answered but didn’t sound convincing even to his ears. Despite telling himself he would feel it if she were dead, Dare had no idea if Arianne had escaped the Splinter alive. Those bones scattered throughout the pass was burned into his memory. There had been so many and since they were forced to avoid the barraged lobbed by the ice troll, there was no time to conduct a search to satisfy his fear that hers was not there.

  ‘Do you really?’ Kyou countered knowingly ‘Something has been preying on your mind since we left the Splinter. What is it? The elf’s too polite to ask but I’m not.’

  ‘Its nothing,’ Dare shrugged, not wishing to say because he had no reason to believe it to be possible and every reason to discount it.

  ‘Not so nothing that we’ve all been able to see it, well all except Ronen and Tully of course, but like you they’re worried about their wives. It’s something more with you. Out with it or do I have to beat it out of you?’

  Dare paused and looked at Kyou with amusement, ‘I would like to see you try.’

  ‘Well you don’t have your royal guards or your elven army here,’ the dwarf teased back, ‘I can throttle you without losing my head.’

  ‘You couldn’t throttle with your head,’ Dare snorted, ‘in fact, I remember a number of tavern brawls where I had to rescue you.’

  To be fair, most of the time it was Aeron and Celene who rescued them both. During the occupation, they had visited many taverns in many small towns on route to build their alliances and drum up support for the campaign. While Aeron had little patience for drinking, mostly because he was rather lousy at it and Celene refusing to indulge in what she called ‘the stupidity that only men can indulge’, Kyou and Dare often found themselves enjoying the local libations.

  ‘I don’t remember that at all,’ Kyou snorted haughtily when suddenly he saw something appear amongst the trees ahead. A flash of white that disappeared as suddenly as it appeared.

  ‘There’s something down there!’ He exclaimed and started running towards it.

  ‘What did you see?’ Dare hurried after him, scanning the tree line and seeing nothing in it that gave him caution.

  ‘I’m not sure,’ Kyou answered tossing a sidelong glance at Dare as the king caught up with him. ‘It could be just a trick of light but I want to be sure.’

  ‘Let us look then,’ Dare felt into stride with him, reaching for Narthaine, the ancient sword that Lylea had gifted to him. It had belonged to her son and had be a gift to show her blessing of his and Arianne’s love.

  ‘Thank you,’ Kyou said to Dare, grateful that the king was taking him on his word.

  Dare’s best talent, Kyou thought silently as they approached the wood, was his belief in people.

  While he was no fool to be manipulated, his faith in everyone’s ability to put aside their differences to work as one was what had held the campaign together. As part of his company, Kyou travelled with Dare as he spoke to kings, queens, chieftains and village elders, convincing them to forget the old prejudices so that they could be strong and there was a great future to be built for all of them, no matter part they played in its making.

  The woods they approached was made up of tall, pine trees that stretched high into the sky. The ground was covered in brown, withered pine needles and cones. Disappearing into the forest, they remained within each others line of sight but far enough away to get a good view of what was ahead. There was still enough light left for them to see but it would not be long before they were shrouded in darkness. Kyou would see far better than Dare because dwarf’s had highly developed nocturnal vision due to the years spend underground.

  Dare was about to ask Kyou what exactly he thought he saw when suddenly, he too saw something shimmering through the darkness of the trees.

  ‘There it is!’ Kyou exclaimed as the shimmering form stopped and did not move.

  It seemed almost like a wraith as the two men approached it and Dare unsheathed Narthaine fully, holding it up in front of him as they closed in. Only when they neared it did they realise that their mysterious wraith was in fact a woman. For a moment, Dare swore he was looking at Arianne because she glowed with ethereal beauty. However, he blinked furiously to dispel the notion and realised that it was his own wishful thinking that made him think so.

 
‘Be careful Kyou,’ Dare warned, ‘this reeks of dark magic.’

  ‘I hear you,’ Kyou whispered, his double swords similarly brandished as they saw she had slipped into a small clearing and stood in the middle of a dirt mound, her white dress dragging across the ground, the hem covered with dirt. As Dare approached her, he realized why he had mistaken her for Arianne because she too, wore her dark hair long. Her skin was luminescent and flawless and lips full and red. She stared at them with the colour of sea and smiled at them. For a moment, he felt a fog settle over his mind and he almost forgot he was on a quest to find his wife.

  ‘How do you come to be here lady?’ Kyou asked, closing his eyes when he breathed in the sweet scent of her perfume which was intoxicating to say the least.

  ‘A friend beseeched us to find you,’ she whispered softly and hearing her voice was like being in the presence of the Celestial Gods as they sang the song that awakened the world.

  ‘Us?’ Dare asked, fixating on that one word and trying to shake away the fugue that was trying to encroach upon his mine.

  ‘My sisters and I,’ she replied and gestured around them.

  Dare and Kyou suddenly found themselves surrounded as others like her, stepped out from behind the tall trees as if they had been there all along. There were at least a dozen of them, all beautiful and glowing like she was, filling the forest with that scent that made it hard to focus. Some had hair of gold while others carried manes of russet and mahogany. All were so beautiful and they were smiling at the two men as they closed in.

  ‘Yes,’ she smiled. ‘An old friend. I thought we had been forgotten. We have been hiding here for so long. Since the world was young. In the trees, we have waited for the call and it came this night to find you.’

  ‘I feel honoured,’ Kyou grumbled, trying to stay focussed but the scent was everywhere now and he could not draw breath without it stealing into his lungs. Yet beneath the sweetness there was something old and musty, like decay.

  ‘You should feel honoured, Master Dwarf.’ She smiled, ‘we do not show ourselves for just anyone. You and your friend must be special indeed.’

  ‘Does your friend have a name?’ Dare asked, realising now that this time the attack would not come at the hands of the caracal but something more inviting and no less lethal.

  ‘None that would interest you,’ she smiled and held her ground as he took another step closer.

  ‘I beg to differ,’ he answered, aware that something was amiss but the power to stop her from approaching was elusive. ‘What is your name?’ He asked instead, hoping to keep her talking because he suspected when these creatures stopped, that would be when he and Kyou were really in trouble.

  ‘I would tell you my name but I do not remember,’ she explained, her brow knotting in confusion. ‘No one has spoken to us in so long. Not even to each other, do we speak.’

  ‘That’s seems to be a very lonely way to be,’ Kyou remarked. ‘Dare, we need to get out of here,’ he hissed at the king.

  The women were closing in on them now and Dare was fighting with everything ounce of strength he had to shake the shackles upon his mind that would not let him move his feet. In desperation, he forced his lips to work, plying her with questions.

  ‘Who are you lady?’ He asked again.

  She was standing very near to him now and the scent that was so intoxicating a brief moment ago had changed to something less pleasing. He thought of rotting leaves and drying mud. The scent of a burial ground.

  MOVE! ARIANNE NEEDS YOU! He screamed inside his mind.

  And that shifted something in his brain, not tremendously but enough for him to take a step back from her because if anything could penetrate the fugue it was his worries for Arianne. She needed him to help her with this quest because she failed, she would kill herself before allowing their child to become Mael’s vessel and that Dare could not let happen.

  At his retreat, those beautiful sea blue eyes flashed red like a blood moon and she lowered her head, spreading her arms. A cloud cast a shadow over her form and when it disappeared, her body burst into a swarm of insects, spreading out around him before they surged into the sky, creating a cloud above his head. Dare raised his sword to fight, useless gesture that it was against an enemy so small when he realized that it was not the swarm he had to worry about.

  ‘DARE! BEHIND YOU!’ He heard not Kyou but Aeron shouting at him.

  Dare swung away from the demon swarm to see one of the women closing in on him but before she could reach him, she uttered a terrible scream of pain as the sharp point of arrow ripped through her flesh and out of her chest. Dare glanced over her shoulder and saw Aeron and the others hurrying through the woods.

  Kyou! He remembered the dwarf still trapped in the glamour projected by these creatures. Now fully in control of himself, Dare rushed forward and swung his blade, passing right over Kyou’s head to slash at the creature he no longer thought of as a woman. Narthaine slashed the white linen of her dress but instead of red, black splattered across Kyou who standing in front of her. Her face turned into a terrible visage of pale white skin and that those lips so inviting before, pulled back to reveal razor like teeth. Her hands became claws and she uttered a screeching howl of pain as she looked down at Kyou, ready to take his head off his neck.

  Dare beat her to it, delivering a blow with his sword before she could make the attempt. Taking her head, it flipped in mid air, hair flailing about before it landed in the ground. The other creatures screamed in outrage at the death of one of their sisters and rushed at him. He heard the whoosh of Aeron’s arrows flying through the air and saw another one piercing the shifter through the back, her white gowned body tumbling to the ground.

  By now, Kyou had regained control of himself and raised his sword to fight. He swung his twin blades simultaneously, slashing through flesh and bone and causing the creature to scream. However her agony made her sisters more frenzied and Kyou saw the advance of another creature, seconds before he felt claws tearing across his back as she jumped on him. Her weight drove Kyou to his hands and knees and there was a moment of clarity when he knew he would not throw her off in time. Jaws clamped shut and Kyou let out a groan of pain as razor sharp teeth sank into his shoulder and pierced his flesh.

  ‘Get away from him monster!’ Ronen shouted when he reached the dwarf, sending a kick that landed in her abdomen, making her spin in mid air. She whirled, a tangle of hair and cloth, before landing on the ground next to Kyou. She sat up just in time for Ronen to drive his sword through her throat, until the blade touched the ground behind her and she was coughing up black spurts of blood.

  ‘Are you alright!’ Tully rushed in, leaving the others to fight as he side stepped the creatures and went to help Kyou who was struggling to his feet.

  ‘Yes,’ Kyou grunted, his pride more injured than his flesh. However upon standing, the pain coursed through him more acutely and he found himself accepting the hand that Tully offered.

  Seeing that Kyou was being attended to, Ronen began searching for the king when he saw a blur of white moving through the air at the edge of his vision. He turned around in time to see one of the creatures coming at him and quickly raised his sword to meet it. A spray of black followed the arc of his sword and he was splattered with it. The fluid stung his eyes, robbing him of his sight briefly enough for the creature to gain the advantage and topple him over. Ronen landed hard but managed to keep his sword between himself and the creature trying to tear out his throat.

  Deciding that he had not survived an ogre to be killed by a woman in a dress, Ronen summoned up his strength and threw her over his head. She landed on the grass not far from him but remained unhurt. Scrambling to her feet, she began running again, a mass of rage and madness led by gnashing teeth and sharp claws. Ronen stood up quickly and held his ground, waiting until she jumped at him before he used his sword as a spear and impaled her on the point. She screamed in agony, her blood running down the length of the weapon and soaking his gauntlets
.

  Even with the loss of their sisters, the creatures did not give up and converged upon Dare, preparing to attack the king simultaneously. Dare positioned himself, trying to find the best defence to keep himself from being torn to pieces. It seemed the stench of blood was making their attack frenzied and while uncoordinated, the sheer fury behind them was difficult to fight.

  The two women lunged at him and he dropped to his knees, crawling along the dirt when they collided with each other in mid air. He crawled away from them on his hands and knees until he looked ahead and found himself staring into the face of a large black wolf, with silver in its pelt, inches away from him with fangs ready to snap close.

  ‘We do not always look so fair,’ the thing spoke to him and he knew instinctively, she was the one who had led them here to begin.

  He would never use his sword in time, not before the beast tore the flesh from his skull. However Dare was not about to surrender and prepared to defend himself, however futile the effort was. The beast lunged forward and Aragorn retreated, struggling in his awkward position to raise his sword to protect himself when suddenly, the creature screamed and dropped faced down into the dirt, the shaft of an elven arrow protruding from her back.