Heir of Dragmoore- The Veiled Haven

by Jennifer Ann Schlag

  A soft voice reaches out to Remy. “You were sent to kill her. Do it.”

  “No. I never wanted to kill her and I won’t.”

  “They’re going to snap, Logan,” Desmond says.

  The soft voice reaches into Talen’s soul. “Kill the prince. Destroy your ancestors once and for all.”

  “What did they do?” Talen asks.

  “They caused all of this to happen.”

  “We have to pull them out,” Desmond says.

  “No. They are close to the end.”

  Everything is moving in circles around Talen. She is unable to stop her memories from pecking away at her. The abandonment by her father and the rest of her family. All she had was Remy and Desmond after her mother died.

  “You’re right. I’ll do it,” Logan says. He grabs Talen’s arm. Kip roars and latches onto Logan’s leg. “Desmond, get him off.”

  Desmond moves to grab Kip but finds himself unable to reach him. “What is this? I knew I should have stayed away from here.”

  Kip lets go of Logan and sucks in a breath.

  “Oh, shit.”

  Kip lets out a fireball and it burns Logan from the feet up. It burns through his clothes, past the first layer of skin. “Desmond, help me.”

  Desmond tries again to move towards Logan but cannot. “Having a bit of trouble here.”

  The fire is burning through multiple layers of skin. Logan is forced down to his knees. He screams. He’d tear his skin off to stop the pain if he had any left to grab.

  Talen stares into Remy’s eyes. He does the same. The spinning stops. Silence. Their eyebrows come together and they lunge for each other. She grabs him by the throat. He punches her in the side.

  “Logan, quit the hysterics and put yourself out.”

  Desmond tries to pull Talen off Remy. She takes her dagger and stabs him. Almost pierces his heart. She pulls the dagger out and stabs him again. Desmond twists her wrist and the daggers falls to the ground. Blood squirts out onto everyone.

  Logan taps into his druid magic and extinguishes the flames. He puts up an invisible wall between him and Kip. His breathing is ragged. It hurts to breathe.

  Desmond checks on Remy who is lying on the ground bleeding out. He falls into unconsciousness. “Wake up.” He starts shaking him.

  Talen stands there in all her glory. Her eyes turn dark-blue. Crackles of thunder and lightning form around her.

  “Logan? Stop her. The darkness is taking her.”

  Logan can’t speak. His voice is gone.

  “Why is everything left up to me?” Desmond’s eyes glow emerald green. His body starts shaking. He rises up a few feet. His bones start breaking. He almost falls to the ground from the brutality that he’s putting himself through. He cries and contorts in mid-air. The ghostly skeleton separates from his body and crumbles into dust. “Oh, no.” He screams out.

  Talen senses his raw power and goes to him. Wraps her arms around him as if to absorb him.

  “Talen, this isn’t what you are. You’re letting the dark temptations win.”

  Her skin turns to a bluish-white color. She is in between the human and elf sides. She pulls down on him, forcing his feet to touch the ground.

  Logan can’t believe how powerful she is. To bring Desmond down from releasing his true powers. He imagines it has something to do with Desmond’s love for her.

  Talen sits on top of Desmond’s stomach. She leans down to his ear and whispers elf words. Elvish language is rarely spoken. When it is, often there is a special spell being cast. One that requires an incantation. He grabs Talen with both arms and kisses her. He has no idea if the distraction will work. At least it’ll stop her from finishing the spell.

  Her eyes return to their green color. She kisses him back. Through their connection she is seeing numerous things. She is sitting on the elf throne. Nearly all of the elves have been killed. But she isn’t ruling alone. Desmond sits on a throne beside her. She looks down at her belly and rubs it. New life is growing inside her. Mixed with druid magic and elf magic.

  In the queen’s bedroom, Talen shares her bed with Desmond. But as she looks at herself in the mirror, she sees Remy lying in the bed.

  “We have to act fast.”

  Desmond’s voice echoes in the background.

  “I can’t do the spell. It can only be done by the druids of Nalaren.”

  “Logan, help me bring her out of it.”

  Talen comes out of this vision and eases off Desmond. “Desmond?”

  “Talen, you killed Remy.”

  She looks over at Remy’s body. She crawls over. Throws her body on top of his and cries into chest.

  Desmond looks up at Logan who is burnt to a crisp but still very much alive. “You should get cleaned up.”

  “Hah, very funny.”

  Kip goes around in circles. His confusion hasn’t worn off. He hears Talen crying. He runs over to her.

  “Heal me, Desmond.”

  “Heal yourself.”

  Logan calms himself and focuses. A greenish-blue smoke works its way around his body. The skin starts growing back. It’s a very painful process. The pain is worse at the end. The smoke lifts and his skin is renewed.

  Desmond looks ahead.

  Talen turns her head.

  The twin peaks. If Talen didn’t already feel despair, the gloom outlook of their journey has now brought it.

  “We are through the dark path,” Logan says.

  “I will carry Remy’s body,” Desmond says.

  Talen rushes Logan. “They can bring him back. I know they can.”

  “Talen, you need to know something,” Desmond says.

  “Be quiet, Desmond. Let things proceed as they will,” Logan says.

  “We are going up the mountain?” Talen asks.

  “Yes. It’s a straight dive into the Veiled Haven.”

  “And if we go up there, Remy will live?”

  “Yes,” Logan says.

  “Then stop standing around. Let’s go.”

  Talen watches Logan climb the mountain with ease. He is nearly halfway up before she starts climbing. “How is Kip supposed to come with us?”

  Kip sulks at the bottom.

  I can do it, Talen.

  Kip digs his nails into the rock. He shimmies up the side of the mountain. He reaches where Logan stands waiting.

  Talen finds small ledges to hang onto and pull herself up but one slip and she’ll fall to her death. The mountains aren’t very large. Their peaks must reach maybe two thousand feet. Looking down there are many parts sticking out to get caught on. The fall would be brutal before going splat on the ground. She tries to clear her mind of that and continue the awkward climb. She is carrying the large backpack with all of their supplies. She curses under her breath about the men not volunteering to help with that.

  Desmond tries to keep Remy secured over his shoulder as he climbs. He almost considers shifting. Putting that idea to rest, he takes a break on a ledge big enough to sit on. He places Remy against the mountain and sits down next to him.

  “Do you think this is crazy? We are risking our lives for her. You kind of lost yours. I know you can hear me, Remy. You aren’t dead. If I am to rule with Talen, you should know that she will end up ruling with you. Our happiness will not last.” He half expects Remy to spring up. “Break time is over.”

  He puts Remy over his shoulder and resumes the climbing. Desmond had an impressive physique before this. Giving into his druid powers has increased his stamina and overall muscle structure. His arms are twice the size they were. His legs can endure any amount of distance. He won’t need to shift to cover more land.

  Logan helps Talen up the last few feet. As they wait for Desmond, Talen takes in the view. Those moments in the dark cause her to stumble. Logan catches her before she falls off the mountain. “The dark path brought back my memories. I have a past with Desmond and Remy.”

  “I know.”

  “Why would it make me kill Remy?”

&nb
sp; Logan rests against a small tree. “Your desire for Desmond must have interfered. The darkness knows your every desire. If it suspected that your love for Desmond was stronger, it used those feelings against you. Either way, you’re going to get what you want, because you already have it.”

  I can’t wait to fly. We will see many beautiful views.

  “Yes. I look forward to that, Kip.”

  Desmond is at the top. Logan reaches down and pulls Remy up. Desmond pulls himself up. Talen gets a good look at Desmond. Those new, stronger arms wrapping around her in a moment of intense passion… she has to stop thinking about that.

  “What now?” Talen asks.

  “Now, we jump,” Logan says.

  “What?”

  “You have to trust that you will end up in the Veiled Haven. No one said it’d be easy getting in there.”

  “We went through the dark path and climbed this mountain, and now you’re saying we need to jump to our death?”

  “Afraid so. You aren’t going to die.”

  “I am never going on a journey with you two again.”

  She puts one arm around Kip and steps up to the edge. Looking down there is snow covering different parts of the mountain and the dangerous open air waits to fling someone into the side of the mountain. She steps off and Kip goes with her.

  They spiral down the mountain, holding onto each other tightly. Flashes of mountain and snow blink in and out of their peripheral. The bottom is drawing close. Closer.

  They land on the ground like they hit a soft cushion. There’s even a small bounce, leaving them with a minute to regain their composure. She gets to her feet. Her legs a bit wobbly. She immediately checks on Kip. Her poor dragon has been through hell. He looks up at her. His face worn and stretched with stress, much like hers is. If she had a mirror she’s sure she would look like an old maid by now. She may even die as a maid.

  Before them is a village draped in shadows. They move here and there, keeping to the marble cottages like they are bound to the structures. A lighted mist dangles in the air, unable to reach the ground. A dense fog rolls in from the sides, skirts around the cottages like a woman in heat, hungry for the men in front of her. Much like Talen feels. She would gladly take one of those three men with her now. It converges in the middle and takes on a large shape. It dances back and forth, tight on its human shape forming but never showing itself with flesh and bone.

  Desmond, Logan, and Remy join her.

  She hears a gasp come from one of the men. She puts a hand out, as a greeting, but also to keep Kip safe. He is pulled into the fog figure by an unforeseen force. She runs into the fog figure. It closes its arms around her and she disappears.

  As Desmond and Logan cross the threshold into the Veiled Haven with Remy being carried between them, Desmond is confronted with a familiar face. The fog figure has taken its true shape.

  “Father?”

  King Hestin looks like Desmond a lot, except the madness in his eyes glows a brighter emerald green. He wears his kingly robes. “You must remember how things used to be. How they are going to be.”

  Desmond has fond memories of his father before he turned to the darkness.

  Although they didn’t move to Dragmoore until Desmond was five years old, Hestin was the heir and his son would be the future heir. Hestin was first born. His brothers Tully and Cyrus were never a consideration for the throne. Hestin was the first one to have a child. And he demanded that his wife give birth in Welsa. Before his son took on the role of prince of Dragmoore, he wanted him to learn the history of the sea druids, become acquainted with their ways, but not fully indulge in them. When the leader of the druids demanded that Desmond be trained in shifting and all the other druid abilities, Hestin returned to Dragmoore to give his son a somewhat normal life. Suppressing his own druid abilities to be a better father, he never realized the danger in disobeying the leader of the druids. His wife was punished for allowing him to leave with their son.

  When the king died and Hestin was put on the throne, he’d often go on week long hunting trips with Desmond. He felt that a prince should be skilled in everything. It was unfavorable in many people’s eyes. A king shouldn’t leave his city for that long. As the pressure of being king settled in, he felt his druid abilities coming back. Stronger. Darker. Taking his mind to a different place. He became arrogant. The darkness whispered to him. Slowly he was going mad with desire for all things dark. He shifted in front of people. Terrifying most of them. Others thought it showed him off as a strong ruler not to be trifled with. Desmond saw it for what it really was. As did Tully and Cyrus.

  After much consideration, talks of putting Desmond on the throne surfaced. By the time Desmond was ten, he was being prepped for the role of king. Tully stepped in to help the boy prepare seeing that Hestin was isolating himself in his tower. Being that Tully had his own son, he felt he could be like a father to Desmond. Remy was only three but could still be a playmate for Desmond.

  For a time, it seemed Hestin was improving. He came out of his isolation and began taking part in Tully’s tutoring of Desmond. Being around his brother and watching how his son flourished under him, he started to come down from the madness. The chances of reinstating him as king seemed good. But their younger brother Cyrus could always be depended on to shake things up. Everything was a joke to him. He encouraged Hestin to embrace his druid abilities fully. He said it was the only way to ensure Desmond’s safety and lineage. Cyrus wasn’t dark but he was like a tyrant. Everyone had to do as he said. He didn’t care if he got on the throne. He cared if things went as he wanted them to. And he wanted to see Desmond king one day. He felt he could control him. Tully fought Cyrus over it. Since Tully never embraced his druid abilities as a youth, he couldn’t fight Cyrus.

  Cyrus started to abuse his druid abilities the moment he was born. It started as small and innocent, which grew into more serious pranks that cost a few people their lives. Namely his parents. It could never be proven that Cyrus killed his father, but those who knew him, knew he was responsible for it.

  But a Dragmoore must always sit on the throne. The relationship that their ancestor had with the leader of the dragons was unbreakable. It made sense since the first male dragon and human male came from the same egg. But another egg had hatched soon after, containing a female dragon and a human female. Balance was created.

  From the mated pairs came the first of the Masters and the start of the sacred beasts.

  It is rumored that a form of the Masters existed before dragons and humans were created. If such a rumor is true, no one is ready to confirm it.

  Hestin consulted his elder mage often as the darkness crept back into his soul. There is always a mage in the service of the king. Mages are detrimental to the survival of a city or kingdom. Their knowledge of magic and alchemy is part of every foundation of creation. At the time, when Hestin was going mad, the elder mage vowed to use all of his magic to bring Hestin back to normal. Some believe he succeeded for a short time. When it became clear that Hestin couldn’t be saved, Tully forced the elder mage to see reason and change the line of succession.

  Desmond looks into his father’s eyes. “You’ve caused so much pain to all of us.” He lays Remy’s dead body in front of him. “Here is your nephew.”

  “What do you want me to do?” Hestin asks.

  “Resurrect him. I will not take the throne. I didn’t want it when you went mad and I don’t want it now.”

  Hestin bends down and inspects Remy’s body. “Talen killed him. Isn’t that part of the vision the elves had?”

  “I said resurrect him.”

  Hestin comes around to Desmond. “You don’t want the throne?”

  “I am going to have my own throne. With Talen. In Evervale.”

  Hestin laughs. “You foolish boy. You being king for a few days has really made your brain jelly. You’re not going to have any throne with Talen.”

  Desmond’s fingers curl and his fists start shaking. “She will be pre
gnant with my child.”

  Hestin laughs again. The madness has never left him. He’ll never be rid of it. If anything, being in the Veiled Haven has made it worse. Hestin grabs his son’s hand. He snaps his wrists. Desmond fights through the pain and comes at his father. Hestin dodges and Desmond falls.

  “Brother, don’t do this to your son,” Logan says.

  “None of us are happy that you went behind our backs and sided with Grecians, elves, and tried to win Talen for yourself. What were you thinking?”

  “Greed is a weakness.”

  “Don’t compare yourself to me. I wanted only the best for my son and to ensure his safety. Cyrus is the real nasty piece of work.”

  Desmond starts crying. “I defended you many times. Whenever Uncle Tully wanted to put you in the dungeon, I talked him out of it. When Uncle Cyrus tried to tempt you, I talked you back to the light. But you gave into the darkness anyway.”

  Logan goes to help Desmond up but he is brushed away.

  “I can’t bring back my nephew.”

  “You’re a Master. Why can’t you? Don’t pretend that you people don’t possess ancient magic that brings people back to life. I know the history.” Desmond gets to his feet, wipes away the tears. “Why won’t you do this for me?”

  “Because Talen is going to.”

  “Where is Talen?”

  Hestin walks down the dirt road. In the center is a fountain with a dragon and human statue holding onto each other.

  On closer inspection, Desmond notices that the human statue is a naked man. “This is different. When I came here, there was no gender for this statue.”

  “Look on the other side,” Hestin says.

  Desmond goes around the back of the fountain. The other side to the human statue is a female.

  “Have it figured out yet?” Hestin says.

  Desmond realizes that the statue looks like Talen. He goes around to see the male statue and notices that it looks like Remy. “Talen has always been a Master. I know that.”

  “And so is Remy. We have manipulated you,” Logan says.

  “This is why I say that you will not rule alongside her. She’s meant to be with Remy,” Hestin says.