by D. R. Grady
People had said being married took work and now she understood what that meant. You couldn’t read a person’s mind and therefore had no idea what they were thinking. But it was apparent they were thinking.
And that way led to madness, monsters, or both.
Kellen loomed. “It’s a perfect fall day.”
She craned her neck to view the clear blue sky. “It is.”
“I’m wondering if today might be a good day to see if we can determine where to build our school.” He spoke in all the right ways. But she could tell something bothered him.
One tidbit she’d learned during her lengthy life, through observation, was that you needed to give your spouse time. They had to sort through their thoughts and if they wanted to share with you, they would. If they didn’t want to share, it probably was better to leave sleeping dragons lie.
“Today is a perfect day to check out a few options.” She slid her hand in his and he responded by tugging her closer. That mollified. This must mean he wasn’t angry with her.
Always a plus. He gazed into her face and she wished she could tell what he was thinking. Then his face dipped, and he dropped a quick kiss on her lips.
The kiss didn’t last long enough. Before she could voice her protest, he turned to mention something to Lajos.
She heard Lajos’ reply. “Aern would love to fly you around the various sites. Fricassa has been working with Maeze and I think Aern is a little bored.”
Felicity and Maeze were scheduled to leave Swiftland next week for Montequirst. They had extended their stay so Maeze would have a little more time with Fricassa and Aern and the time spent together had shown immediate results for Maeze.
On this crisp fall day Ari, Kellen, and Aern soared into the clear blue sky. They headed to a spot between Swiftland’s eastern border and the country to the east. A stretch of treacherous ground and cliffs lined the border and it might be perfect for their school.
Upon reaching it though, it became apparent the land area lacked a large enough plot for them to build the school and still offer enough space for a large training field. When teaching advanced Aasguard techniques, a large, flat training field was essential. They could train anywhere, in any terrain, but a large space was a necessity.
“No.” Kellen echoed her thoughts as they rejected this option.
Aern flew toward Montequirst, then past it, to the south of the country. Another possibility lay below it. But again, the land mass wouldn’t support both a school and enough training space. And the area proved hot, humid, and lush. They’d have to spend extra time to keep the training area cleared, which neither she nor Kellen preferred.
“This is also not an option.” Ari sucked her bottom lip into her mouth before nodding. “So far this had been disappointing, but now we know.” She stroked Kellen’s arm where he had wrapped it around her waist.
She sensed he merely enjoyed holding her, not because he feared she’d fall off Aern. A near impossibility anyway.
“We have a few other options.” Aern didn’t emit dismay. In fact, he appeared to be enjoying himself. The chance to stretch his wings probably was one he didn’t enjoy every day.
“Let’s head west, Aern.” Kellen remained relaxed and also showed signs of contentment at their jaunt.
“That was my next suggestion. Unless you’d prefer to see that other tropical location to the east?” Aern rose to a higher altitude.
“It appears that a tropical location would require extra care and maintenance.” Ari answered, since Kellen didn’t.
“Right. You could make it work, but why if there’s a better spot?” Aern’s common sense made her grin.
Behind her, she could tell Kellen did as well.
They enjoyed the flight past their friends in Chariovalda and swept on to the untamed west. This wasn’t desert as a few hearty shrubs, bushes, and trees offered shade, but the land hadn’t been cleared and it offered rugged country. The animals that lived here also had to be rugged and hearty.
This area spoke to her.
The space rolled on into what appeared to be infinity even though it wasn’t, but she still enjoyed the land and how a body had to be tough to survive here.
“This is the challenge I want.” Kellen murmured into her ear, as though in complete agreement.
“My exact thoughts. I don’t want to live in a place that’s tame. This sort of terrain will help to toughen our students and encourage their adaptations to present sooner.”
Plenty of space to spread out stretched below them. It would take work to clear this area to build the school and the training field, but here they could design several training fields. Could add on as needed.
And dragons would be perfectly comfortable here.
“You can imagine a school here?” Aern’s question drifted back to them.
She felt Kellen looking intently at the vacant space. “Yes.” Based on his reaction she wondered if the entire school popped into his mind.
“I can see the inside. Since we came up with this idea, I’ve been thinking about it.”
“You’re thinking far less ornate than the palace and castles we’re accustomed to.” Kellen sounded knowing, but also contemplative.
“Yes. This will be a school, so we want it to be welcoming, but also functional. Practical.”
“I agree. We don’t need ornate. Pleasing to the eye, but far more laid-back than a castle.” Kellen’s hand stroked hers.
“I’m thinking we could make it to feel more like what we’ve lived with when we protect treasuries and the sort.”
Kellen stilled behind her as Aern flew in lazy circles around the space. “It would help to prepare them but would also make visiting Aasguards comfortable.”
“Exactly. I’ve never been uncomfortable in the accommodations offered. They’ve certainly been pleasant, but not pretentious.” Ari mentally measured the land so she could relay it to a builder. They’d have to hire someone extremely tough. Or she and Kellen could protect them while the building process happened. “Kellen, we could bring some of Stefana’s temporary housing and live here while the building proceeds.”
“With two Aasguard warriors, we’d have no trouble protecting the area,” Kellen mused.
“If you live here, the outlaws will learn soon enough not to provoke you.” Aern entered their conversation.
“And after a time some might be interested in being employed by us. We’ll need a cook and a few to do maintenance on the place.” Ari opened her mind to the possibilities.
“They probably live here because this area calls to them just as it calls to you. Might be they’d appreciate honest work.” Aern finished circling the area and headed back to Swiftland.
The three of them made certain their neighbors remained healthy and happy. With no sight of a portal or trouble, they sailed on toward Swiftland and their plans.
Lajos had mentioned there were a couple of folks here who had experience drafting buildings and who would enjoy the employment over the winter. They had the next few months to finalize their plans and hopefully employ a builder and team to complete the work.
This part of their future seemed to settle itself with no problems. The unsettling part was with Kellen and the doubts she feared he harbored.
Upon their arrival back to the palace, it was too late to start something, but too early for the next meal, so he and Ari retreated to their bedchamber. The small sitting area there offered the perfect place to curl up. But Ari didn’t sit when they arrived.
She tugged off her boots, and he did the same. He kept darting glances at her because something didn’t set well.
“Ari, what’s wrong?” He hated to ask. But her pacing from one end of the space to the other provided an Aern-sized sign.
“Are you having doubts about us?”
His heart curled up in fear. “What?”
“You feel as though you’re pulling away. Or as if you’re entertaining doubts about us.” Ari shoved a hand through her topknot. An action
he’d never seen her do before.
He opened his mouth, but nothing emitted. His brain blanked.
She spun to face him. Her pacing abruptly halted and her jaw tightened.
“I’m not sure what you’re asking.” He said the first thing that came to mind.
A forceful exhalation later and she spun to pace again. “You’re…” Yet she didn’t manage to say whatever she wanted to.
He rose from the chair he’d dropped into and loomed in front of her. Kellen stopped her by placing a hand on each biceps. “Are you having doubts?”
Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. “Me?” She didn’t call him on this, but in their way, sank into herself. It made sense to do the same.
If there was a problem, they needed to address it immediately. Aasguards didn’t brush things under the carpet. They met issues immediately. It had been trained into them, and if they intended to teach others, they needed to show as well as tell.
However, meeting this particular issue made him cringe. Doubts, fears, repercussions of their marriage—all of those needed to be addressed.
What he encountered when he opened that particular box tempted him to immediately slam it shut. And never open this potential quagmire again.
Being the man he was, and the warrior he professed to be, he instead left it open and manfully delved inside. Not a comfortable undertaking, but he sorted through the contents, inspecting each jarring topic. One after the other and assessed them with impassivity.
Then with the results not so neatly compiled, he opened his eyes. Where he encountered silvery-blue pools of concern.
“What did you find?” She looked on the verge of tears and he couldn’t handle that.
Sweeping her into his arms he carried her to the small settee in the room. Kellen sat and held her tight. “I didn’t realize it, but I am concerned about our union opening portals or causing some other catastrophe. We’ve done something no one else has.”
“Lajos and Stefana.” While faint, he understood where she went with her simple statement.
“Ah yes. They might escape, but they might not.” He breathed deeply, and cupped her chin. “However, we have made a commitment to one another.”
“Yes.” Still faint, still large pools of shimmering anxiety. He couldn’t bear it.
“Ari, understand that we have made a commitment to one another. Right now I don’t care if we open the portal to the final dimension, to horrors no one can imagine.”
“What does that mean?”
“I…” Once again, his brain refused to cooperate.
“Are you saying that we’re in this together, no matter what?” A sliver of hope threaded her tone.
He scowled at her. “Of course. That should go without saying.” The surge of anger caught him off guard.
Her eyebrows soared. “You’re upset I asked that?”
“Yes. We’re married, and till death do us part. For no other reason will we split.” He might have come across as harsh, but she didn’t shy away from him.
Instead, that sliver of hope expanded. “No matter what, we stay together?”
His grip on her increased. He hoped not hurtfully, but even the thought of losing her made his heart constrict to the point of agony. “No. Matter. What.” He enunciated each word.
The dawning joy on her face made all his muscles relax. She didn’t intend to consign him to his lonely, bleak existence. “Kellen, you love me.” Tears welled in those lovely eyes. Eyes he intended to gaze into for the rest of his life.
Then what she said finally penetrated. They had encountered this already, but hadn’t had a moment to delve into it.
He stilled. Everything stopped, the world didn’t spin, the birds didn’t fly overhead, the hum of the heater didn’t penetrate the haze surrounding him. Nothing for the space of time it took for him to assess what she said. To really think about it.
And things all made sense. These unfamiliar and sometimes, unwelcome, feelings that kept trying to trip him. The over-the-top reactions that were inappropriate for an Aasguard warrior, especially for one of his years.
His grip on her changed again. “I love you, Ari the Noble.” This he said solemnly, but with all the love beating at him, streaming through him with riptide force.
“And I love you, Kellen the Mighty.” The full sun shined from her pert face, splashing over him, spilling into all the dark crevices and lonely spaces deep inside him.
“I can’t believe I didn’t know this.”
“You turned Aasguard protective on me, and I on you, so it took me a little while to deduce. But when I was kidnapped, I knew I’d do whatever I had to do to make my way back to you.” Her eyes hardened. “Whatever I had to do.”
His heart sang. This had never happened before. “I intended to do whatever I needed to do to bring you back, as well. I will never live without you again.” He tucked her close to his heart, holding her where he needed her the most.
“We’re so lucky.” But he could feel the troubled thoughts.
He raised her chin. “There might be some surprises. Some of them unpleasant, but then we will simply deal with them together, Ari.”
“This is life, is it not?”
“Life cycles through phases.”
“Yes. You have good times and bad times and life continues.”
He nodded. “Yes. The difference is that we have each other to help us through the tough times.”
She snuggled in. “I’m happy.”
“Me, too.”
As usual, Maeze grew all giggly and school-girlish whenever Felix entered the room. Or in this instance, while they trained on the training field in Swiftland. Rykert the Bold, the Aasguard warrior who traveled with Felix, strode onto the field after him. He and Felix were here to trade off with her and Maeze.
Felicity the Valiant’s heart might have beat harder. She ignored the reaction. They had been urged to refrain from interpersonal relationships until the wizards and others knowledgeable in the land locked the portals and thwarted any other nasty surprises that such a coupling might cause.
Besides, Rykert, while one of the most extroverted people she knew, held his thoughts and emotions close. For that matter, he might not have many emotions. Aasguard warriors tended to lose them over time. Hers had remained on a low simmer for centuries.
But upon shaking hands with this tall, friendly warrior, her heart had tripped then beat too hard. And those emotions hit a full boil. This shocking situation had not been welcome. It had not been anything she could have predicted.
Over the decades, she’d met plenty of fellow Aasguards. Never had this sensation occurred.
This warrior should have come with a warning.
It was acceptable for Maeze to act like a youngster since the dragon was one. She’d grow out of this in the next few months and become the fully adult dragon she was destined to be. Felicity was no young Aasguard. She might have been one of the last to train, but that had been so long ago she couldn’t recall the year.
Seasoned and much, much older now, she didn’t bat her eyelashes or flirt. Unlike Maeze who was so cute even Felix noticed.
But he’d never act upon his impulses as Maeze needed to reach full maturity.
Again, in the next few months, that would be possible.
Felicity remembered the portal opening in Chariovalda and the desampus who had rushed through the opening to messily devour all the humans they could. It had been stomach-turning. Three dragons, four full Aasguards and Stefana, who had become a full Aasguard warrior in that battle, had struggled to combat them. Even the wizards who’d offered aid at Kellen’s prompting hadn’t provided them a sure victory.
She shuddered. Not something they wanted to repeat.
“Terrible thoughts?” The low masculine question made her shudder again but for entirely different reasons.
“Desampus.”
She didn’t need to say more. His mouth pinched. Rykert grimaced. “I heard that fight was questionable.” He
looked off into the distance.
Felicity hated that even his profile moved her. This man awakened parts of herself she’d never encountered in her long years.
That shouldn’t be allowed.
“I’ve never feared losing before.” She repositioned her sword. “We did gain the victory, but it took far more of us than it should have.”
His swallow was subtle. “I’d have liked to have been there.”
“It was a very different battle.” And she struggled to even put all the chaos into words that had ensued during that fight.
“More Aasguards would or wouldn’t have helped?”
“Would have, of course. But it took three dragons—two fully grown—and Maeze, four Aasguards plus Stefana who was born Aasguard in that battle, and five knowledgeable wizards to finally eradicate the desampus from that kingdom.” She stretched her back in preparation for the upcoming sparring exercise.
Once Lajos and Stefana joined them, they’d begin the session.
Kellen and Ari had traveled to Montequirst to meet with a builder and drafter there to finalize their plans for their new school.
“I wonder how long it will take Kellen and Ari to build this school of theirs?” Rykert watched their dragons.
“Their trip to Montequirst should determine that. I believe it will be wonderful for our people to have this school.”
“I agree.” But she sensed he didn’t fully purport this.
Before she could ask him what was on his mind, perhaps not the best idea she’d had, Lajos and Stefana joined them.
And before she knew it, she and Rykert were somehow paired together.
Who had believed this a good idea?
Her heart performed several gyrations. But he drew his sword and she could do no other.
Now was not the time to stumble.
Please don’t stumble. She sent this plea to the cosmos. And then her warrior self stepped in and shoved her silly self to the background.
Felicity didn’t heave a sigh of relief yet.
That could wait until after this sparring session.
Epilogue