by D. E. Morris
Cavalon shrugged, but his golden eyes were troubled. “It’s hard losing someone you think you’re going to spend the rest of your life with. She’s doing as well as she can.”
“The last time you brought her to Altaine...that hollow look in her eyes haunted me for days.”
“It’s gotten better since Lucien was born.” Cavalon frowned. “Ories has done great as far as I can tell, but he’s not the king. Her people have understood this year of mourning, but they need their queen back. When Lucien was born it was like she realized she still had to go on living and that she still had Nóe with her.”
“I'm certain your being there has helped as well.” Cavalon said nothing to this. His head tilted to the side resting gently against Lucien. For a time they said nothing, happy to listen to the wind, the waves, and Lucien’s constant babbling. She watched the baby sometimes, smiling and placing a hand on her stomach. Soon enough her own baby would be born, and she could not be more thrilled.
She and her husband Jaryn had already decided on names; Emiline if the baby was a girl, named after Ashlynn’s own adopted mother who had been killed in battle a year earlier, and Lochlainn if the baby was a boy, the surname of Nuala’s late husband and Ashlynn’s longtime friend. He had been killed in the very same battle as Emiline and both had been important to Ashlynn and Jaryn. It seemed only fitting to name their first child after someone they loved and had lost.
Emiline and Nóe were not the only ones lost in the battle that had taken place on the island of Siness, her home country. Many others, friends as well as those counted as family, died in a needless war generated by a young and newly crowned prince seeking power and respect. Once the fighting was over there had been a lingering and shared anticipation that the worst was still yet to come. The year that had followed had quieted that feeling.
It had been a time of rebuilding. Altaine Village had been burned almost in half and many people had been homeless until new structures were erected. The year had also started a reconstruction of leadership among the Celtique nations. High King Tadhg of Caedia had ruled his country and many others under a tyrannous thumb. It was Ashlynn who had killed him and it was Tadhg’s son who had come after her. When both the evil king and his son were defeated, the world was free to start healing and figuring out how to live without a shadow of punishing clouds overhead.
“Elas looks well.”
Ashlynn blinked, pulled out of her thoughts and looked sideways at Cavalon. “He only has visible scales along his hairline and down the left side of his jaw now. We are all thrilled the elixir Tasarin gave him keeps working.”
“I don’t know,” Cavalon muttered, brow creased. “Magic is a fickle thing. It’s not always trustworthy.”
It was hard to imagine how much dislike Ashlynn once had for Cavalon. They had been like oil and water until she realized she needed his help. He was the oldest Elemental alive, and as she was young in the knowledge of who she was and what she could do as the Elemental Dragon of Earth, Ashlynn quickly recognized how damaging it would be to have Cavalon as an enemy. Despite his verbal abuse to almost everyone he came into contact with, he eventually warmed up enough to be among those Ashlynn thought of as family. She loved Cavalon like a brother now and was thankful he had not disappeared after the war.
With Lucien calmed and almost asleep in Cavalon’s arms, Ashlynn took a deep breath and looked out to sea. “Can we speak personally for a minute?”
Cavalon gave her a half smile. “Since when did you ever ask permission for that?”
She shrugged, feeling hesitant. Cavalon was not a man who gave away feelings or thoughts, but she was concerned for him. Being on Mirasean, and the reason for being there, could not have been easy for him. “Do you talk to anyone?” He looked at her quizzically and she hurried to clarify. “I talk to Jaryn about everything. In fact, he is the only person besides the Giver with whom I can be completely honest. I can whine and complain and get things off my chest. It helps to unload and I was wondering if you had anyone like that.”
“If you’re expecting me to start crying and look for you to hold me while I spill my guts...”
“Of course not,” she quickly assured. “I just worry about you.”
His lips curved upward a fraction, giving a hint at how touched he was by the concern. “I’m fine, Ashlynn. Really.” He shifted Lucien to his other shoulder so he could better look at Ashlynn as he spoke to her. “I can’t say this is the vacation it should be, being here. You know how I feel about us Elementals and our emotional attachments. Coming to Luella and Tasarin's wedding is really not something I was planning on adding to the highlights of my life. Though she is marrying an elf; that changes things a bit.”
Ashlynn frowned. Luella was the Elemental Dragon of Darkness and Cavalon’s opposite Element. He'd had great reservations of any of their Elemental kindred forming bonds with others. but not all plans work out accordingly.
In the days before the war, Cavalon and Nuala, High Queen to the Volarim, a winged race of magical beings, had begun to form a friendship. She was a frail looking thing who gave off the appearance of someone who might fall over if the wind were strong enough. Paired together with some of her men, she and Cavalon went out on a scouting mission that quickly went afoul. She’d taken an arrow to the shoulder and Cavalon had to be the one to take it out. When she did not shy away from the pain and cursed like a man as the arrow was extracted, his respect for her blossomed. When he realized she was as intelligent as she was unassuming, he warmed up to her quickly, and she to him.
He had been the one to stop Nuala from launching herself to her husband’s side when he was killed, and he had been the one to take her home to Braemar once the battle was over. He’d stayed there with her for some time and only left when he felt the need to fly and roam for a few days. When she realized she was pregnant with her deceased husband’s child, Cavalon made the decision to stay and help her out in any way she needed.
“Nuala and I talk,” he offered Ashlynn quietly. “We talk a lot...about a lot.”
Ashlynn couldn’t help her small smile. “That's good...for both of you.” She bit her lip before asking, “Do you think there is more than friendship between you?”
“No.” His answer was quick, though not harsh. “She still grieves for Nóe and I’m not sure I would fit in there. I mean...they live in trees.”
With a quiet laugh, Ashlynn looked at the sleeping baby in Cavalon’s arms. “I know someone who thinks you fit in.”
Whenever the subject was Lucien, Cavalon couldn’t help but smile. He looked down at him as well, kissing the baby’s forehead. “I know I’m not his father, but...”
“You feel like it now and then.” They nodded together and Ashlynn added, “How can you not? You're there with him constantly.” After a moment, she shrugged. “There is still time yet. Neither of you has a limit on life, what with Nuala being part Phoenix and all. I just want you to be happy. All three of you.” In a move that was more characteristic of her sister than Ashlynn herself, she leaned over and kissed Cavalon’s cheek.
“Thanks,” he muttered. She started to rise and he lifted an eyebrow. “Want some help there, Lumpy?”
“Quiet,” she laughed. “Yes, help would be appreciated.”
Cavalon got to his feet and offered his free hand to Ashlynn, pulling her up off the sand easily. “I am amused,” she said, brushing the dirt from her sage green and gold gown, “that you refuse to wear anything with sleeves.”
The olive skinned Badarian knew he was good looking and didn’t mind showing off his large muscles. When she’d met him his head had been completely shaved, a gold snake with emeralds for eyes encircled his bicep, and his golden eyes had been rimmed in black. Today nothing was changed. “Do you ever get cold?” Ashlynn asked as they passed from the beach into the thick trees.
“I thought that was what cloaks were for.”
They were in the hazy months of summer, but the temperature on Mirasean felt almost spring-like
with the trees covering everything in shade and keeping it cool. It was surprising Cavalon was without his favorite cloak. Being from the Sandlands where heat was a constant, he used to complain quite regularly about how cold it was in Siness. Perhaps spending so much time there during the harsher winter months had softened him some to the cold.
“How is your father doing?” Cavalon asked as they made their way slowly down worn forest paths. “I haven’t seen him since last year.”
Ashlynn walked with one hand holding up her skirts to keep them from snagging on low bushes and brambles, the other on her belly. “He is doing as well as can be expected, much like Nuala. It has helped having Elas and Kenayde there, I'm sure, but...” She trailed off and shook her head. “He has lost so much to Tadhg’s quest for blood.”
“His wife, his brother and sister-in-law, though I know she died in childbirth and not because of Tadhg. Still...” Cavalon frowned. “I feel for him just as much as I do Nuala. Losing a partner is crippling on its best days.” He looked at Ashlynn, half serious and half teasing. “You should have married an immortal.”
“There are no true immortals,” she replied, her answering smile tight. Being an Elemental, a dragon who could not die unless killed in human form or in the very rare case of being in her much stronger draconic form, she had the potential to far outlive her mortal husband, her children, and even their children. She’d come to the realization of what her gifts meant soon after the battle and quietly decided that as long as she had a child to pass her abilities down to, she would not live without Jaryn. If that meant taking her own life then she was prepared to do so. Perhaps Cavalon and some of the older Elementals could live generation after generation, watching people they cared about age and die, but she could not. Would not. She and Jaryn were meant to be together in life as well as death.
“It's strange to think how much has changed in a year.” Ashlynn’s voice was wistful and lofty. “My world was so much smaller then.”
“Mine, too.”
“If someone had told me I would be married and pregnant now I could have accepted that. I had planned on that. I knew I would be High Queen of Siness, that I was the Elemental Dragon of Earth. However, attending the wedding of my former regent and Tadhg’s daughter whom I now view as my own brother and sister, I would have laughed and said some rather inappropriate things.”
Cavalon grinned. “I would like to have known that Ashlynn. The one who was as bawdy and annoying as I am. I think we would have got on really well.”
She chuckled. “We would have gotten into a lot of trouble, that's for certain. I was a very impressionable girl, no matter what I believed at the time. It was a good thing my parents kept me in line.”
The center of Mirasean was decorated in silver and white, candles and fabric draping overhead to create a soft and feathery sense of serenity. People were gathering to witness the ceremony that would soon be held. Most present were of elven descent, though there were several among them who were not.
Elas stood out the most with his spiky blue hair. His blue eyes would cast about occasionally, then fall back to the blonde sitting near the spot the vows would be exchanged. She sat on a low stool and had her arms around an ornate wooden harp. Her body rocked each time she reached forward to pluck the strings farthest from her, her eyes closed. Kenayde, Ashlynn’s younger sister by four years, had taken to playing after she and Elas had moved to Oceana. The music soothed her father when he was missing Emiline the most. Kenayde was honored to be asked to play for the wedding.
“There’s my wife.” Ashlynn turned to see Jaryn approaching, wearing a kilt of his clan and a doublet to match her colors. He kissed her, the stubble on his face tickling her cheeks. “How’s my baby?” Jaryn spread his hands across Ashlynn’s stomach.
She took one of Jaryn’s hands and laced their fingers together. “Both your wife and your baby are perfectly fine.”
Jaryn looked at Cavalon. “Any sign of Misuzu?”
“Is that why you were flying?” Ashlynn asked.
Cavalon shook his head to answer Jaryn’s question. “No, and I flew a pretty wide perimeter. I doubt she’ll be here.”
“That makes me sad,” Ashlynn admitted lowly. “She left almost as soon as you did last year and I haven't heard anything from her since.”
“None of us has,” Cavalon told her. “She doesn’t want to be found.”
Misuzu was Ashlynn’s opposite, the Elemental Dragon of Air. Up until the battle Misuzu’s mother, Mei Xing, had been the Elemental. Mei Xing had been killed with a surprise attack, giving Misuzu her powers as next in the bloodline. Misuzu had not handled the death of her mother well. She’d been able to keep herself together long enough to help them win the battle, but afterward she’d simply disappeared.
“Maybe she'll come visit Siness before the summer is over.”
“Maybe,” Jaryn agreed, squeezing Ashlynn’s hand. “You know she’s fine. You’d feel it if she weren’t.”
“That doesn't stop me from worrying.”
Nuala entered the clearing with an elvish maiden, her golden hair pulled back in ribbons and braids. The fiery plumage of her Phoenix wings draped down her back like a cape over her gown of pale gray and silver. She spotted the others and spoke a few more words to her new friend before making her way over to them all, smiling at seeing Lucien asleep in Cavalon’s protective arms. “Was he any trouble?” she asked Ashlynn.
“Cavalon or Lucien?” Ashlynn questioned, sharing a grin with her friend. “Lucien was a cherub.”
Nuala raised herself up onto her toes to kiss her son’s face. “Thank you for taking him, Cavalon. I could not get properly dressed while he was demanding attention.”
“You know it is always my pleasure to take him.”
Ashlynn looked at her husband and the two smiled. After knowing Cavalon as the crass, abrasive, and often antagonistic man he’d been for so long, seeing this softer and more sensitive side of him was sweet. Watching him with Nuala and the baby, she could easily picture him with a loving wife and a whole brood of children. At some point that had been his life, but it was long ago and before he understood the pain of loving someone he would have to watch pass on. Maybe Nuala, a near-immortal herself because of her Phoenix blood, could give him the chance at happiness Ashlynn wished him.
Looking over the gathering crowds, Ashlynn felt her smile broaden. For all the hardship Luella had faced in her life she deserved something quiet and beautiful like this for her wedding. Then all at once something did not feel quite right. It was as if someone was staring at her and she felt the hair on her arms rise. No one was facing them or even spared them a glance for all she could see, but the feeling would not leave. Just as she turned her head to take a second look a shadow caught the corner of her eye. Blinking, it was no longer there and the feeling had disappeared as quickly as it had arisen.
An elven maiden with long raven hair and pale eyes approached the small group, dipping her head respectfully. “If it pleases Your Majesties, the ceremony is about to begin. If you would be so kind as to find your seats.” She bowed again, offering a timid smile to Jaryn. “She awaits your arm.”
“Guess I’m up,” said Jaryn, straightening his doublet. “Cavalon, I trust you’ll be able to escort two ladies at once.”
“Pretty sure I can handle it.”
Shaking the residual unease away, Ashlynn rejected Cavalon's arm and linked arms with a smirking Nuala to walked ahead of him to find seats next to Elas. Cavalon sat and let Nuala take Lucien so he could roll his shoulder and work out the cramp that had started to form. Just walking from the edge of the clearing to where he was seated, the Badarian’s mood had shifted. He seemed concentrated and somewhat stiff. His gazed sat fixedly upon the spot where Luella would be emerging, as though waiting for the public sentencing of a criminal. No matter the circumstances, he would always hate weddings. He only looked away when he felt Nuala’s hand slip into his and give his fingers a reassuring squeeze. The smile he gave her
in return was small but thankful.
“Does Luella not have any other family?” Elas asked Ashlynn in a whisper.
“No,” she replied with a shake of her head. “She asked Jaryn to present her because she thinks of us as family and said she would be honored to have her brother be her escort.”
The blue-haired man grinned. “At which point he became a puddle of mush.”
Ashlynn shrugged. “He is defenseless to the wiles of a woman.”
Chapter Three
Jaryn followed the maiden who’d been sent to retrieve him back into a village home that no man had been allowed to enter for a week. He was mystified by the elvish traditions and counted himself lucky that neither he nor Ashlynn were of elvish heritage. Going a week without seeing his beloved could not be easy for Tasarin. He imagined Luella was having a rough time of it as well. According to tradition, Jaryn was not even supposed to be allowed to enter her house of preparations, but Luella had told Tasarin that she wanted an elvish wedding with some human alterations. Jaryn was more than happy to be breaking tradition; it was something he usually prided himself on to begin with.
Entering the elegant sun-lit home, Jaryn looked about and did not see anyone. “Hello?” he called quietly. A pretty little girl with long honey colored hair and pointed ears stuck her head out from a doorway close by. Jaryn saw her and smiled. “Hello there.” The young girl giggled and ducked back into the room. After a few moments the door opened again and several female elves, both children and adults in various stages of life, poured out into the house. They all bowed and smiled to Jaryn as they passed him and he felt more than a little stupefied by their beauty. When they had gone, he was grinning sloppily and turned to find Luella watching him with a knowing smirk. Jaryn quickly recovered and took in the sight of her.