by D. E. Morris
As soon as he'd come back to Braemar and told her everything that had transpired, they both understood what needed to be done. Ashlynn knew the course of action he would take when she told him to leave Siness but had chosen not to come right out and say it. He told Nuala of his plans and she refused to let him go alone. Once Ories was briefed on the situation and ready to take on the duties of steward, Nuala and Cavalon flew off together toward uncertainty and possible danger.
They could see the destruction spread along the coast as they approached and Cavalon decided to land close by. As soon as Nuala was on the ground he shifted back to his human form and looked upon the ruined village before him. There was no more smoke rising into the sky from an ever-burning furnace, no gatekeeper to stop them from entering to walk among the sick and dying, no gate at all. Just rubble and bones. Hundreds of bones.
Cavalon crouched and ran a hand over his mouth and chin. Nuala, touching a hand to his shoulder, could find no words for comfort. Together they stared at a place he knew had been teeming with life just a few days ago. Now with it so still, it felt surreal, haunted.
“Are you sure you want to go in there?' Cavalon looked up at Nuala, uncertainty in his golden eyes. “There were a lot of sick people here.”
“I will be fine,” she assured. “It is rare for me to be sick simply because my internal body temperature is much higher than is tolerable by most illnesses.” She removed her hand from his shoulder as he stood, determination on her face. “Let us see what we can find here and leave as quickly as possible. This place feels...”
“I know. I feel it, too.”
Cavalon took the first step inside the village with Nuala quick to follow. They were silent as they explored, neither of them certain of what they were looking for but both knowing they had to make sure there were no survivors. They were hoping to find some clue in their exploring as to what had happened and where they could look for their enemy next.
Skeletons still wrapped in clothing lined the streets and littered the floors of apartments and halls. Most of them were still in their beds or beside beds where other bones lay. Outside the picture was a little more clear. Cavalon took note of the way the bodies all faced and the general direction in which they'd fallen, then looked out to the sea just feet away on the other side of the now destroyed back wall of the secluded village.
“They came from the ocean,” he said with certainty. “Look at the way most of these people fell. Their heads face west and they're on their stomachs. They were running that way.” He reached down to move the arm of someone who'd fallen in the path he wanted to take, but as soon as his fingers touched the bone it disintegrated into dust and blew away. Shocked, Cavalon turned his hand over and opened his fingers, looking at his palm. It all came rushing back to him then.
“Soft skeletons.”
His revelation had been so quiet that Nuala had to step closer. “What?” She looked at his empty hand as well, uncertain. “Are you all right?”
“Badru said there were soft skeletons in that keep.” To make his point he reached down once again and tried to pick up a bone. When it did the same thing as before, Nuala gasped. Cavalon looked up at her, brow wrinkled. “That night I told you about, Jessiah said Badru was muttering about soft skeletons all night. When I asked him about it the next day he said the bones he found turned to dust at his touch. Just like this.”
“You think whatever did this to these villagers killed Nealie as well?”
“I'd bet money on it. That means this darkness is spreading.” He rose and wiped his hand on his trousers. “We're not going to find anything here.” Still there was one more place he wanted to look. He was fairly certain of what he'd find, but Cavalon felt the need to look in and see if Rowan's caretaker was in the hovel she'd been hiding in. It was possible she could have gone unnoticed and been left alive, possibly even run for her life afterward and escaped. He had to know for sure.
Leading Nuala through the silent streets, he wove his way around skeletons taking great care not to touch anything. He ducked down the alley he and Badru were led down on their prior visit and found the same ratty cloth hiding the same jagged hole. Nuala and Cavalon ventured inside and the sight that greeted them was hard to take in.
A group of children all huddled together. The way their bones lay made it look as if someone bigger, perhaps Rowan's caretaker by the size of her, had tried to shield the younger ones.
Nuala rushed outside to be sick.
Unable to turn away, Cavalon moved closer to the group to get a better look. He touched one of the bones and it turned to dust just as quickly as the bones outside had. He felt his heart drop. These were children, sick or not, and they didn't deserve to die the way they had.
Just beyond them was the cot Rowan had used. Cavalon made his way around the group, careful not to touch or disturb anything for fear of destroying all that was left of them with a simple touch. He grasped the blankets tossed carelessly on the cot and pulled them up, unsure of what he was hoping to find but feeling a sense of disappointment when there was nothing. Throwing the blankets back down, he turned to go back outside and check on Nuala, but as he did he kicked the cot back against the wall and uncovered something beneath. It was folded and aged, yellowed with time, and Cavalon was careful as he picked it up. Already there were shapes and runes jumping out at him from the bit he could see.
“Nuala!”
Excitement bubbled inside him as he gently unfolded the parchment. There was no need for him to try to read it because he knew nothing would make sense but for the few runes he, Ashlynn, and Badru had been able to put together. As with the scroll Ashlynn had, the edge was rough and jagged as though it had been torn from a book of many pages. It had to belong to the same tome as the other. There was no doubt in his mind.
“Nuala, I found something!”
“Cavalon!”
There was an urgency to Nuala's voice that instantly turned his blood to ice. He scrambled to his feet and took only a second to carefully tuck the parchment into his pocket before rushing outside. There he found his wife standing out on the main roadway, her eyes fixed on something in the distance, something out by where the front gate had once stood.
A woman stood among the rubble, tall and thin with creamy skin and blonde hair so pale it was almost white in the sunlight. The long flowing dress she wore was dark blue and cut as though she would be a queen in her own right. She was dirty, her hair in tangles and her fingers bloody as someone who had been digging and clawing at something. Or someone. Tears that poured from her eyes ran little rivers through the dirt on her face as she looked around at what was left of the town.
Nuala rushed forward before Cavalon could stop her, reaching the woman swiftly. “It is all right,” she offered, approaching the woman like one would a frightened animal. “You are all right.” The woman turned crystalline blue eyes on Nuala that were so full of heartbreak and sorrow, Nuala felt her own sadness over what had happened in Bás elevate. Still she took a few more steps forward to close the distance between them, her eyes scanning the woman's body to search for injury. She was slow in reaching for one of her hands, but as soon as they touched, the woman's knees seemed to give out. “Cavalon!” cried Nuala, catching the woman before she fell. He ran forward and scooped the woman up, surprised at how light she felt.
“Get her inside,” he said, “out of the sun.”
It was not easy to find a room where there were no bodies taking up the beds. Nuala had to hurry before Cavalon to search, all the while the woman wept in his arms like a broken child.
“In here.”
It was a small apartment that was not free from bones, but at least the bed was unoccupied. Cavalon set the woman down on top of the covers and stood back with Nuala to look at her. “What now?” he asked, completely at a loss. “What's your name? Where did you come from? Did you know someone here?” At his questioning the woman curled into herself and rolled onto her side, her back to both of them. Nuala placed a h
and on her husband's arm and nodded toward the door before leading him back outside.
“She needs to calm herself,” said Nuala quietly. “Let her rest a moment and then I will go back in and try to speak with her.” The winged woman glanced around. “I wonder if there is clean water somewhere. I would like to wash her hands and see how injured she is. She could also use a drink by the look of her.”
“I'll see what I can find.”
“Thank you, my love.” Once he had gone from her sight she paused to ready herself to go back in and try to speak with the woman. Whomever she was, she obviously had great ties to Bás or at the very least, someone who had been in the village at the time of the attack. Taking a deep breath, Nuala walked back inside to try to get some information from the woman.
“My husband has gone to get you some water,” she said in a calm, soothing tone as she walked through the door. “I am not certain what-” She stopped, her eyes resting on the empty bed where she'd left the woman. Moving quickly into the room, she spun in a circle, looking in the corners and ducking into other rooms. “Hello? Are you here?” But there was no one. Nuala was completely alone. She hurried back outside and looked left and right, then ran around the building in utter confusion.
“What are you doing?” asked Cavalon, approaching with an empty wooden bucket in his hands.
“She is gone.”
“What?”
“She is gone. She is not in the apartment and she is not out here.”
Cavalon's brow wrinkled and he set the bucket down. “That's impossible.” As though he couldn't believe Nuala, he hastened inside to search himself. It wasn't long before he came back around the corner, perplexed. “She's gone.”
Nuala's eyes widened. “I know.” Without another word she took to the sky, her fiery wings spreading to pump and lift her high. The entire village could be seen from the air as well as the land and sea beyond, but there was no one in sight. Below she could see Cavalon checking the nearby buildings. When he came up empty she landed once more.
“How can a woman just disappear like that?” Cavalon asked.
“I do not know. I suppose it is possible she is a water dragon and slipped out one of the windows to the sea, but she would have had to shift as soon as we were outside and run fast to get to the water before I went back in.”
Cavalon shook his head. “Upset as she was? I doubt it. Unless...” He paused and frowned.
“Unless what?”
“Unless she wasn't upset at all.” He looked around, suddenly very aware of anything and everything that moved in the late summer breezes. Taking a step closer to Nuala, he put his hand on the small of her back. “I think we need to go.”
“What is it?”
“I don't know, but everything in me is saying we need to leave. Stay close to me after I've shifted, all right? Get in the air with me, fly for Siness, and don't look back.”
There was no reason to question him and Nuala nodded. She waited until he was far enough away from her to begin his shift before she gave into her own. Within minutes they were both in the air and flying as quickly away from Bás as they had arrived.
~*~*~*~
Ashlynn was with Mairead and Zarra in her private chambers discussing upcoming events when Lilia rushed in, smiling from ear to ear. “Oh, Ashlynn!” The younger woman reached her hands forward and grabbed Ashlynn's giving them a squeeze. “You're wonderful!”
“It's true.” She grinned. “So he has told you then.”
“Who told her what?” asked Zarra.
Lilia was practically bouncing. “Jessiah. Ashlynn has given him land and a title.”
“As well as a place here at court.”
“And he's asked me to marry him!”
All three women circled around her, offering their congratulations and sharing in her joy. “Will you stay here at court,” asked Mairead, “or will you have a house built on his new property and live there?”
“I don't see why we can't do both.” She glanced with uncertainty at Ashlynn. “The lands are close enough to Altaine that I should think we would spend quite a lot of time here. Especially if he is given a job to do.”
“Of course you can do both,” Ashlynn assured. “I would be all too glad knowing I would not lose my friend simply because she got married. I plan to try to arrange the same thing for Zarra someday.”
“But I want to live in Cieria,” she reminded in a whine. “I love you Ashlynn, I do, but I've always wanted to live there.”
“When will the wedding be, Lilia?” asked Mairead.
“I'm not sure. We'll need time to plan it, of course.” Lilia gave a smirk to Ashlynn. “Jessiah said he was promised pomp and I certainly plan to take advantage of that.”
Ashlynn laughed. “I had no doubt you would.”
A knock came to the door before it was opened and one of her guards walked in. “The high queen of Braemar and her husband have arrived.”
“I will be right down.” The door closed behind the guard as he left and Ashlynn turned to her ladies. “I will not need you to attend me tonight. You are free to do as you wish.”
“May I go into town?” Mairead asked. “My mother's birthday is approaching and I would like to find something to send her.”
“Can I go with you?” Zarra asked, but Mairead gave her a polite smile.
“If you do not mind I would rather like to go by myself. I love you three like sisters but I spend so much time with you...”
“Of course,” said Ashlynn. “Enjoy your time away but be careful. You all know there are potential dangers lurking around every corner.”
“But what will I do?” Zarra whined. “If Mairead is going to town and Lilia will be with Jessiah, I'm all alone. Even the baby is gone.”
“Perhaps now is a good time to return all those books from the library you've been hoarding in your room,” Lilia suggested slyly.
Zarra's cheeks puffed. “Lilia! You weren't supposed to say anything!”
“Whatever it is you decide to do,” said Ashlynn, “I have guests to receive. I will see you all tomorrow.”
Ashlynn was careful to keep everything as normal as possible within the castle with Jaryn gone. She didn't want to raise suspicions or alarm with any of the courtiers or visitors to the court that might spread to the surrounding village and beyond. The calm facade had worked when it came to luring Laidley into a false sense of complacency, why shouldn't it also work on anyone else who might be watching Siness for her weakness? It was for this purpose of normalcy that Ashlynn did not seek out her guests but told the servants to lead them, as well as Badru, Jessiah, and Lilia, to the dining hall where the evening meal was ready and waiting.
All of them walked in with reservation on their faces, though Cavalon appeared a bit more irritated than uncertain of the situation. Once they were all seated Ashlynn cast a warm smile over the group. “How wonderful it is to have so many friends with me while my husband is away. Thank you all for joining me.” Her gaze turned to Cavalon. “Would you pray for our meal?”
“Uh...sure.” His brow wrinkled in confusion for the quickest moment, but as Nuala took his hand and gave him an encouraging nod, he bowed his head and closed his eyes, the others following his leadership. “Giver, thank you for this time we are able to share together and for the meal before us. Bless the hands that prepared it as they have blessed us. Amen.”
“Short and sweet,” said Ashlynn with good humor, opening her eyes. “Just the way I like it before I eat. Jaryn tends to prattle on anytime he prays. Sometimes I envy the close connection he has with the Giver, other times I wish he would save their lengthy conversations for when the two of them are alone.” She laughed, sending a ripple of uncertain laughter around the table. As the servants removed covers from steaming dishes of fish, sweet carrots, wilted greens and the like, Ashlynn watched her friends. Only Badru kept his eyes on her and when she noticed and held his gaze a moment, a slow smile of understanding spread across his lips.
“Thank
you,” she said to the servants. “We will serve ourselves tonight.” There was no questioning, only simple bows before the servants left. Ashlynn rose and walked around the room to close the many doors that surrounded them. “Now that that is done...”
“What is going on?” Cavalon demanded, no longer able to keep his irritation in check.
“It is all part of the performance,” said Badru.
“Precisely.” Ashlynn sat back down, then waved her hands. “Go on! There is no reason why we cannot talk while we eat.” The men, of course, converged on the dishes first but were polite enough to fill the plates of their ladies. Badru even stood to walk the length of the table and serve Ashlynn himself, to which he received a kiss on the cheek as thanks. She turned to Nuala after a moment and said, “I'm surprised to see you here.”
“I did not want Cavalon going to that village alone.”
“Did you find anything?” She glanced at Cavalon and they shared a meaningful look that made Ashlynn frown. “That says it all, doesn't it?”
“The village is completely destroyed,” Nuala confirmed. “Not one person was left alive.”
“Did you go to Bás?” Jessiah asked, incredulous.
“We did,” said Nuala. “My apologies. I do not think we have met.”
“Nuala, this is Jessiah Clery,” said Ashlynn. “My apologies - Lord Jessiah Clery. Jessiah, this is High Queen Nuala of Braemar.”
“It is a great pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty.” Jessiah dipped his head respectfully. “I understand you and Lilia are related.”
Nuala spared her cousin a quick smile. “Lilia is my cousin's daughter so the relation is not immediate, but yes, we are family. I heard just tonight that the two of you have decided to marry.”
“We have,” said Lilia, beaming at Jessiah as she squeezed his arm. “We were talking about doing it here since we both want to spend most of our time at Altaine, but then Jessiah suggested perhaps the Isle of Contest. I know it's unusual, but it would be big enough for everyone we want there and give the place less of a pallor of doom and more of a sense of celebration. Of course we'd have to fly in everyone without wings, but...”