by Willow Sova
“I say these words not to burden you with guilt. You do not deserve such an encumbrance,” said Saeldur, resting a hand on Thalion’s shoulder. “Medlinya only has one love—herself. And as a Princess of Aeweniel, she believes her entitlements extend to all she wants.”
“Yes. She desired me, but I wouldn’t have her.”
“And you were wise not to. You saw her darkness before she ensnared you further into her lies.”
“And at what price? Evelyn is gone. And with her, Aranhil’s happiness. And mine.”
“Joy will abound in Aeweniel once again, you will see. Unfortunately, the means to that end still eludes me despite perusing endless volumes of counterspells to the point of blindness.”
“Still you’ve found no way to rid us of King Laergulon’s tyranny?” asked Thalion.
“I fear Medlinya’s father knows every spell of every book in my possession and then some. I am certain he has protected his throne against them all. If I were to chance it and cast one upon his rule, no matter how obscure, and it failed, he will come to learn of it and our conspiracy.”
“And what would befall us then? I shudder to think on it.”
“Exactly, my friend.” Saeldur’s face was heavy with worry. “However…” he said with a discernible lilt of hope in his voice, “Limwen’s flight over the realm has yielded some interesting findings.”
“What findings?”
Upon hearing her name, she appeared, flying through the cavern wall, its presence no obstacle to her entry. The owl landed on a woody vine arching out from one of the flora-infested niches. Her ebony plumage was freckled with white florets and gleamed violet as she shifted under the lights. And her jet-black face, melting into a snowy beard and belly, was speckled with two piercing chartreuse eyes.
“Throughout Forest Aeweniel and along the verges of the kingdom, Limwen found pockets where King Laergulon’s magical stronghold is extremely diminished. Inversely, Forest Lothuial appears to be thriving beyond its original borders. I suspect the spell’s hold upon the forces from Thorondil is wearing thin. And where a dark spell weakens, the ones bewitched are said to grow ever stronger.”
“You speak of more than just Lothuial flourishing, do you not?”
“Yes. Perchance the Thorondil warriors’ zeal for vengeance is what sustained Forest Lothuial for thousands of years. If we were somehow able to drive the king and his daughters into these weak zones, we might have an advantage at overtaking them. But the specifics as to what all this means I have yet to figure out.”
“Make no mistake—Aranhil wants revenge. The passage of time has only strengthened his resolve to kill the wicked twins himself. This despite his sorrow weakening his spirits and magic,” Thalion said with an ache of foreboding.
“You must talk sense into him,” asserted Saeldur. “Your brother’s command of the bow is no match for the sorcery of King Laergulon and his twin daughters.”
“He’s deaf to my counsel as grief has poisoned his mind. Maybe hearing your news of Limwen’s discovery will offer him some hope, and reason will rest his soul more easily. I’ll visit him on the morrow.”
CHAPTER 4
THALION’S CAVERN
Once near the waterfalls, the elf stopped to feel them thundering down into the lagoon. The sound raised the hairs on his skin. The roar of the falls was like his dragon’s, so primeval. His instincts teased him, seducing him to transform into his primitive beast. But Thalion suppressed the urge. Now, he favored the seduction of a more delicate kind. Ah, Lady Sparrow. How your soulful eyes lure me in. As they had hiked away from Saeldur’s cavern, he thought long on his old friend’s words. Perchance I should keep my distance, as Saeldur had advised me. But his desire for the girl’s company swayed him differently.
“It may be best I carry you the rest of the way, my lady.” He figured the short walk along the rocky terrain would be less perilous for her.
“Where are we headed?” Confused, she looked about. Night had fallen, the colors of fading day blanketed black. From where they stood, the moonlight speckling the lagoon was the only light aside from the freckling of faerie lights here and there.
“To my cavern just over there,” he said, pointing toward one of the waterfalls. He found her silent questioning with furrowed brows and tilted head adorable.
“Oh, don’t be silly, Thalion. I’m not so tired that I can’t walk myself.”
“Most assuredly you can. I’ve witnessed your abilities of late. But the walk might prove treacherous in those dainty shoes of yours,” he replied, smiling down at her soiled ivory slippers embroidered with rosebuds. “The rocks along the way are slippery.”
Sparrow lifted her pink gown. Twisting each foot at a time to examine them, she said, “Oh no, my shoes are riddled with mud.”
At the sight of her porcelain ankles, his cock bucked under the restraint of his snug trousers. A moan tickled his throat before Thalion realized, so he quickly checked it with humming laughter. And you are in control of your beast? Indeed! he thought, remembering Saeldur’s words. Clearly not, my friend.
“Don’t worry. I can tend that later.” The elf closed in and swept the girl up into his arms. A pleasure wave shot through his cock when she gasped, teasing it to rear up like an angry cobra. Erect and ready to strike! Oh dear! May the Elvish gods help me!
Thalion trod across the wet rocks with ease, the waterfall roaring louder as they approached it. Sparrow clasped him tighter as they came within touching distance of the flowing curtain of water.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked. A pang of guilt struck him when he saw the angst in her eyes: doe-eyed and frightened.
“Fret not, my lady. I’m taking you home.” He then squeezed behind the waterfall and stepped through the mouth of a cozy cave. After setting her down, he watched as she took in the small cavern and strolled between a mineral pit flaring amber, violet, and blue in the center of it, and a crimson chaise, brushing a hand over its rich velvet fabric as she passed by. The walls were the color of aged parchment and had sporadic carvings of woodland animals captured in the stone throughout. Thalion had carved the creatures himself: a fox trailing a scent, a falcon in flight, a bear fishing in the river, and many others. But since Aranhil lost Evelyn, he did not have the heart to put chisel to stone again.
“How beautiful.” The girl traced her fingers over a carving of a dragon fashioned after his brother’s beast. “Are these your creations?”
“Yes, my lady. Indeed they are.” The elf could not help but grin with pride.
With a hand still on the relief, she glanced over her shoulder. “Please, call me Sparrow.”
“As you wish, my… Sparrow.” Thalion caught himself before speaking the word again. Though how lyrical his verbal slip was to his elven ears. If only she were my Sparrow.
She smiled, turned back, and admired the raised stone with her fingertips. “Oh my, how intricate, the dragon’s wings, even down to its scales.” He reveled in her enthusiasm and delighted in her fascination with something he had long taken for granted. Since Evelyn’s death, his appreciation for his abode had begun to erode; it had not brought him joy as it once did. However, at that moment, he felt her awe reawakening his senses, rekindling his love for the place. “Oh, Thalion. You’re so wonderfully gifted. Never would I have imagined such enthralling beauty within a cavern.” Above, she viewed the dome-shaped ceiling where a firmament of blue lights twinkled. “It’s so heavenly.”
“Thank you, Sparrow.” As are you, he thought. “You overwhelm me with your kind words.” The lights from above danced on her skin, haloing her raven locks with their warmth. She was simply enchanting. An angel. A sweet angel amidst all the—Darkness! Medlinya! How could I’ve been so selfish, so deaf to Saeldur’s counsel?
“What’s this over here?” The girl stepped toward an arched entrance of one of several small chambers set deeper into the cavern. When she turned to him, he said nothing. The sunny hue of his face had waned three shades lighter.
“Thalion, are you unwell?”
“Um… no, my lady… Sparrow.” The elf walked toward her. “Forgive me my lapse of mind.”
“There’s no need.” She regarded him with alluring cognac eyes and smiled. While admiring their flecks of amber and copper, Thalion found words slow to surface.
“This… is where you’ll be sleeping.” Except for a few animal carvings embellishing the walls, the small chamber was barren of any hint of life having been there. She entered the room and caught sight of a relief of an owl perched on a limb. He saw her lips widen in appreciation as she studied it with her fingers. “Of course, your lodging requires some basic comforts.” Once he walked her back to the crimson chaise, he motioned a hand and invited her to sit. “Wait here while I tend the matter.”
The elf padded toward the vacant chamber, closed his eyes, and imagined a comfy bed covered with soft rose silk sheets and fluffed pillows. Within seconds, they shimmered into being. Next, he envisioned a night table topped with a silver lantern and a milky-white vase filled with pink roses, lavender, and blue cornflowers. And remembering how she found comfort in faerie lights, he sparked a flame of peridot in the lantern and illumed the air above with more of the pale green lights. Then knowing she had arrived in Aeweniel with only the clothes on her back, he wished a few Elvish nightgowns and day dresses, undergarments, and silk stockings into being and hung them on the cavern wall, along with a pair of dove-grey boots, pretty enough for her feminine taste but more suitable for trekking through the forest. Before stepping away, he added a finishing touch: satiny blush drapes at the entrance for her privacy.
“I hope it’ll be to your liking.” She beamed and walked toward him and then fingered the curtains. “Not yet,” he whispered, touching her hand. “If I may.” Thalion covered her eyes as he took his place behind her. The scent of lavender from her hair teased his nose. Once he gave the word, granting her so, she pulled them apart, and he lifted his hands away. “You can open your eyes now.” Sparrow gasped as she beheld the thoughtful comforts that were absent only moments before. He noticed the girl staring at the lantern with the peridot flame, the glint of tears welling up in her lovely eyes before she dabbed them away. “Now I wouldn’t be a proper host if I made my guests cry.”
“No, you’ve been so generous, and what you’ve done for me here, equally so. Thank you, Thalion. I’m moved by your kindness. We’ve only just met, yet you’ve been so gracious.”
“Graciousness is easiest when sharing good company.” They locked eyes for a while. The thudding of his heart grew rapid and thundered in his ears. How the elf yearned to draw the young lady in, kiss the slope of her neck, and travel down to the rosy buttons of her breasts. How he wished to fall to his knees and lift her gown, to nuzzle and breathe in her womanhood. But given the darkness lurking in Aeweniel, he now questioned whether he should. And would she have me if I did? “Goodnight, Sparrow. I’ll see you on the morrow.”
“Goodnight, Thalion,” she whispered, closing the curtains between them.
CHAPTER 5
MAGIC LESSON
The girl crouched down and stared long into those emerald eyes, her own near drying out from the effort. At first, it was difficult to concentrate on her task without admiring the winged dragon’s colors and form. “The beast is still too young to have sprung his scales,” was the Elven Master’s response when she asked where they had gone. Standing thrice the size of a domestic feline, Blaze’s skin was as smooth as a salamander’s and of iridescent pewter, and he sported the short muzzle of a griffon, his pointy ears towering over his head like horns on a Viking’s helmet.
“Keep focused, Sparrow.” Saeldur loomed over her as she kneeled on a paved stone circle in the midst of a copse of twisted oaks. Though his demand was soft-spoken, she found his presence unnerving. The elf struck her as having a more serious temperament, one unlikely prone to enjoying humorous exchanges. But she realized in light of experiencing Thalion’s more carefree spirit last night, she may have been drawing unfair conclusions about him. Of course, too, she had never been under the watchful eye of an Elven Master of Beasts. Or a Spiritswayer of Beasts, as such a master was also known in the Elven Realms. That, in itself, was enough to set her nerves afire. “As I said before, you must master the enchantment of beasts through their eyes before you can graduate to spiritswaying through their minds alone.”
“Magically willing a dragon to breathe fire is more difficult than I thought,” she said, her shoulders slumping along with her confidence. Despite her previous efforts, all she could muster was a puff of smoke from Blaze’s nostrils.
“Do not worry, Sparrow. It will come in due time and with rigorous practice. And you must remember: You have never attempted such a feat with a creature of this kind.”
“True. I’ve only worked my magic with the likes of kittens, pups, birds, and field mice back home,” she replied, petting the creature atop his head. “Dragons were difficult to come by in my world.” The girl glanced up at him and offered a demure smile. “But after twenty tries, I feel I’m a miserable failure.”
“I disagree, my dear. Your only failure will be in recoiling from the challenge.” His tone and expression were resolute. Saeldur was more confident in her than she was in herself, and she found some comfort in that. “Now remember what I have said: Your focus on his eyes must be unwavering. Failing this, your spiritual bond with him will be broken, as will your efforts in spiritswaying him to do as you wish.”
Sparrow tried to allay her frustration and drew a long breath. She stared at Blaze once more and breathed in tempo with him, imagining fire flaring from his nose, never disengaging from his gaze. A feeling of oneness with him coursed through her, as though she were the baby dragon looking up at herself, and herself looking back down at him. Never had her attempts yielded this sensation before when, suddenly, a spark flared from his nostrils. She squealed and bounced about the paved stone, startling the beast, who then scurried toward the Elven Master and took shelter behind him.
“Bravo! Just try not to frighten the creature with your enthusiasm,” he said, nudging Blaze off his leg.
“My apologies, Saeldur,” she replied, striving to rein in her excitement. The girl kneeled low to the ground and tried coaxing the dragon to come closer with waves of her hand and by patting the stone. He swiveled away from her and hunched down, his green eyes peering back over his shoulder, and pivoted, inch by inch, until he was facing her. Blaze then pussyfooted toward her, and Sparrow rewarded him with a gentle scratch on his chin. The tip of his spindly tail flickered, and a whistle-like purr trickled up his throat as she scratched him, making her giggle with delight.
“I think he likes you.” She heard his voice from behind her and turned around and smiled. Though Thalion had only visited his brother for a few hours, she found herself already missing him. When she woke up at first light, the elf had surprised her with breakfast in bed, and her soiled shoes and pink linen gown as clean as the day she bought them. “How has your new pupil performed on her first lesson?”
“Sparrow is doing quite well,” Saeldur replied, walking toward him.
“I fear he credits me more than I’m worthy of,” she said, looking up at the Spiritswayer of Beasts. She caught his mild disapproval at her words. “But,” she corrected herself, “I won’t recoil from the challenge. I finally coaxed a spark from this darling creature.” He nodded approvingly with her upswing in confidence.
Before given a chance, Saeldur posed the question she was about to ask. “How did your visit with Aranhil fare?” The gleam in Thalion’s eyes faded. The elves exchanged whispers before the Elven Master asked, “My dear, would you mind practicing on your own for a while?”
Her hand slipped from petting Blaze as she looked up at them. “Of course not.” The younger elf beamed in appreciation and she reciprocated. “I’ll see if I can get a few more sparks from this little fellow.”
“Well, Blaze, I best resume my lesson lest I forget how I conjured up that wee spark from that cute nose of yours.” The baby dragon cocked his head, not discerning a word of what she said.
Remembering Saeldur’s instructions, she stared into those green eyes and remained steadfast in her task, sensing unity with the creature as she did before. I think I’ve finally got it! A tiny spark blew from his nose. Oh, how wonderful! Sparrow wanted to yell the words aloud but did not wish to scare the poor dragon again. She calmed herself, focusing on the beast once more, and another spark flared from his nostrils. Then one flame, two flames, three flames she spurted from Blaze, each longer and more robust than the one before it.
Applause clattered behind her. Well-nigh jumping from her skin, she swung around. “Excellent, my dear Sparrow!” Thalion flashed a mouthful of white teeth. “I’d say a diligent student like you deserves a special treat. Wouldn’t you?”
“What did you have in mind?” The girl rose and took in his adorable dimples for the first time.
The elf turned at the waist to show her the food-filled satchel hanging over his shoulder. “How about a picnic?” Thalion extended his hand, and Sparrow accepted his invitation, lacing her fingers with his and enjoying the return of those butterfly kisses from last night.
“Sounds delightful.”