by J. M. Kearl
The old man points to a small tent, “There’s grain in there.”
“Good morning,” one of the women says coming up behind him with damp clothes in hand. “We’ve made breakfast for you both. It’s over by the fire.”
“Thank you,” Jordane and Madison say in unison. They sit down on some stumps of wood, and eat eggs and hot oats.
“Eggs,” Jordane says shoveling them into his mouth. “I never realized how much I love them until now.”
Madison laughs. “I don’t think you realized how much you love food in general.”
Jordane eats six eggs and then decides that should be enough although he wants more. “You see how skinny I am. I hardly ate for ten years. Well, nine. The first year or so I was fed fairly well in Lanloc. Once I proved myself as a great champion.”
“You fought in Lanloc for a year?” Madison asks and then takes a bite of oats.
Jordane looks into his bowl of mush and flashbacks hit him. There he is standing over the dead body of the first friend he had there. They’d spoken through the bars to each other for weeks before they had to fight. With that image in his mind, he can’t bring himself to say anything more. He eats the rest of his food in silence.
Madison clears her throat. “Once we get to Delhoon, I think the queen will grant us an estate. We can do whatever we want.”
Jordane glances up from his bowl. “I think I’d like to raise and train horses.”
“I would love that,” Madison says. They’re quiet for a few moments more. “You don’t have to come with us to kill these raiders. Actually it’s probably best if only Boaden and I go. Daelyn’s magic is too unpredictable and she otherwise isn’t skilled enough to fight with a sword.”
“Did you not teach her anything?” Jordane asks. He hasn’t wanted to bring up how Daelyn was raised but what he has learned since they’d freed him is bothersome. That Daelyn knew nothing about her true identity until recently is most pressing.
“I—she’s well taught in academics and healing. She has some skill with a sword but I didn’t teach her growing up.”
“Why not?” Jordane asks. “Didn’t you want her to be able to protect herself?”
“It’s not customary for women in Hesstia to do so. It could have looked suspicious. It also would have raised questions on her part as to why I knew how.”
Jordane nods knowing, in part, how she feels. When he lived with them, he worried about Daelyn getting caught. “How and why was Daelyn chosen to marry Prince Enden? Our queen didn’t know she wasn’t trained?”
“I didn’t tell anyone. And when she called on me to do it, I told her the love spell that would last long enough would only work on a virgin. So she commanded Daelyn to do it.”
Jordane sets his dish down. “We agreed to tell Daelyn when she was twelve about everything, why didn’t you?” He didn’t say it accusingly but genuinely wants to understand. In his mind he can’t reason it, but Madison only ever did things with good reason.
Madison sits quietly. “I kept seeing little girls being taken or killed in Hesstia and I just didn’t want to risk it. I thought if she knew, she’d want more. She’d want to learn magic and to fight and be us and that would mean she would be at great risk to be killed or imprisoned like… her father.” Madison shakes her head. “And yet she ended up being like us anyway. Except she’s at greater risk because she’s not as skilled. It was a mistake.”
“We’ve all made mistakes. Mine was trusting—Midlan,” Jordane says, cheeks immediately flushing with anger at the thought of him. “You never married him, did you?”
“No,” she says. “I wish I would have figured out his treachery sooner. I wish I would have trusted my gift to know you were alive sooner.”
“You thought I was dead, Madison. It’s not your fault.” Jordane moves to her side putting his arm around her waist. “We can’t change what happened.”
“But I saw you so many times in my dreams.” Tears spill down her cheeks. “I saw you fighting in that arena, I just didn’t know… I didn’t believe it could be real.”
“How did you figure it out?” he asks.
Madison glances over at him wiping her cheeks. “Dancing with Prince Enden funny enough. While we held hands I had a vision. I saw him speaking to you in the castle dungeons. I knew then it was real, that’s not something I would fantasize about.”
Jordane thinks back to the one time he’d spoken with the prince. Enden asked him how he survived so long in Lanloc knowing full well that for almost every man it is a death sentence. All Jordane replied was, “I had something to live for.”
The prince seemed confused at that but didn’t question further.
“I love you just as much as I ever did, and I’m happy that you found me. After so many years, I’d almost given up hope.” He leans over and kisses her cheek. “We should see if they need help with anything.”
As they walk toward the women washing clothes, Jordane takes Madison’s hand. She smiles and for one moment he feels truly happy.
11. Daelyn
Sweat drips down Daelyn’s forehead from the heat of the sun. She wipes her face with her sleeve and then turns to Boaden. He’s finally taking a break, drinking from a canteen. The old man, Gorga, had asked them to dig up his box of silver buried a few feet under the heaping pile of dung. Gorga rifled through his belongings and thanked them. He pulled out the silver chalice he’d spoken of and it glittered in the sunlight. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”
Daelyn loves the four aqua color stones embedded around the cup. “Yes it is. Too bad we’ll have to sell it.”
“It’s worth selling to get home, I’m sure,” Gorga replies and sets it back in the box.
Daelyn tugs on Boaden’s sleeve and nods toward the water. “We’re going to cool off and rid ourselves of this stink.”
Gorga waves. “Of course. Behind the last tent is a small lagoon that is surrounded by trees, if you need privacy.”
Daelyn takes off at a run, pushing Boaden as she passes him, and then he chases her. They sprint to the lagoon and then race to see who can get their clothes off fastest. Boaden is first naked and splashes into the water. A loud whistle breaks through his lips when he turns around. “That is a sight I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to.”
Daelyn kicks off her last boot and then slides her pants off and dives into the water. She pops up right in front of him. “You’re not so bad yourself.” His body is something to be appreciated, like a piece of art sculpted from Gods own hands. The chiseled abdominals and his hard chest make her body feel things she didn’t know she could. She squeezes his muscular shoulders. “How is it that your body is so perfect?”
He flashes his teeth then presses his lips to hers. “Training and family lineage I suppose. I was going to ask you the same thing.”
“I’m far from perfect,” she says with a smirk.
“You are to me.” He wades further into the water. “It’s hard to imagine not long ago we didn’t think we’d ever get to be together and now look at us.” Boaden nibbles on his lip momentarily. “Daelyn, I want to marry you. I want to wake up every morning and see your stunning face. I want to have babies with you and love you every day for the rest of my life.”
Daelyn’s heart pitter patters wildly at his unexpected announcement. Somehow she always knew that they would be married but it being spoken aloud makes her insides tingle. “I want nothing more than to be your wife.”
Boaden grins, apparently liking her response. “Where have you always wanted to be married? I want it to be perfect for you, war or no war.”
Daelyn hadn’t given much thought into a wedding, even the ceremony being planned for her and Enden didn’t involve her much. Before that, growing up with Madison hovering over her, she hadn’t really thought about it. She dreamt of love, but planning the actual wedding in her mind didn’t seem realistic. “A beach wedding would be beautiful. Are there warm beaches in Delhoon?”
The way Boaden is running his fingers along her
back is distracting. “Beautiful but it won’t be too warm this time of year.”
“As long as I’m marrying you, I don’t care where it is.”
Boaden slowly walks deeper into the pool showing the muscles in his back. He looks over his shoulder. “When?”
Daelyn shrugs, she’d marry him right here at this oasis. Would it seem too much too fast to say so? They’ve only known each other a few months. Stop thinking that way. He told you he wants to be with you until he dies, have babies with you. Soul mates. “The sooner the better.”
“I have the perfect place in mind in Delhoon. It’s a beach I used to play at as a boy.” He stops and looks at her for a moment. “We’ll be there in a couple weeks. Is that too soon?”
A small smile pulls at her lips. “Not for me.” Daelyn strides through the water until it reaches above her breasts and stops just before him. Her lips press against the wet skin of his chest. Her arms wrap about his neck and her legs around his waist.
Boaden grasps Daelyn’s bum firmly. “You shouldn’t have wrapped your legs around me if you wanted to keep talking.”
Daelyn giggles as he kisses down her down her neck. “Maybe I didn’t want to keep talking.” Daelyn can’t stop the pull of her body for his. She wants the sensation he makes her feel, the intimacy of being one with him. Both of them are too caught up in the moment to care if someone is nearby. The desire to feel that euphoria again is too strong and they make love in the water.
∞∞∞
Sometime later they lie atop a sheet that had been hung on a tree to dry off. After the turmoil of the past few weeks, sitting together in a place that feels like paradise doesn’t even seem real. It’s a small break to be happy even if it only lasts for a day.
“Are we leaving to avenge Gorga and his family at sundown?” Daelyn asks, twirling Boaden’s dark hair around her finger. She’s nervous about killing these raiders. She’d never been an assassin before, and that’s basically what they are for the night. They’re being paid to kill people, but after what the raiders had done, she feels justified in doing so.
Her mind drifts to the Hesstian guard she stabbed over and over again; thinking back on it seems as though it wasn’t really her, like she watched someone else do it. The images make her sick to her stomach so she pushes them away.
Then there is the matter of her magic. Can she keep her magic under control? Her power has shown to take initiative all on its own and destroys anything nearby when she’s angry or scared.
Boaden stares up at the trees. “Are you sure you want to go?”
“Of course I do,” she says. I don’t want to part from you ever again. “I’m not going to stay here. Besides, what if while you’re going after them, something else happens? You’d leave me alone?”
“I was thinking of leaving you with your father. If he survived a year in Lanloc he fights well but there is the matter of him not at his full strength.”
Daelyn feels a tinge of jealousy, an emotion she shouldn’t feel. “You want to go with only my mother?” She’s not envious of Madison and Boaden’s relationship or having thoughts that anything would happen between them; she’s envious of her mother’s battle prowess and the fact that she never taught her. Her ruthlessness. Her skill with magic and that Boaden trusts Madison and doesn’t trust Daelyn when it comes to a fight.
“I’m confident she and I can take down the raiders on our own. Madison is quite deadly. She proved herself with the Wargon trolls in the Gap of Freeole and at the inn two days ago.”
Daelyn runs her fingers along her scalp and through her hair. “I know she’s deadly. That’s not what I was meaning.”
Boaden sits up to look at Daelyn. “You’re not thinking that there’s something between her and I? I’m sensing jealousy from you.”
Daelyn blushes. That’s the first time he’s ever called her out on knowing and sensing her feelings. “No, it’s not that. I just wish I could fight like her.”
“I do trust you at my side,” Boaden says. “But you and I did just get into a argument earlier about killing-- that it’s wrong. So I’m a little confused.”
Daelyn sits up and crosses her legs. “I don’t like it. In fact, it scares me to fight and I don’t have control of my magic but I don’t want to leave your side. What if you need me? What if these raiders are better than you think they are? You shouldn’t underestimate them.”
Boaden seems to contemplate this for a moment staring at the water. “You’re right. I should not underestimate them. How about you come but hang back out of sight and if we need you and Jordane then you’ll be there.”
∞∞∞
At nightfall they leave for the raider’s village. Gorga grins as if this is the happiest day of his life when they leave. He made sure they knew where they were going and reminded them to bring the head of the leader. Bring the moon-tattooed murderer’s head. Gross.
They ride for hours until they see fire light in the distance. “That must be it,” Madison says. “We should dismount here and sneak in.”
“If you need us, you’ll send the signal?” Daelyn says, squeezing Boaden’s hand. “Don’t wait until one of you is hurt either.”
“Yes. Look for a green ball of light. If everything goes well then you won’t see it.”
Jordane takes the reins to Madison’s horse and then kisses her briefly on the forehead. “Don’t hesitate if you need us.”
“We won’t,” Madison says and she and Boaden jog off into the darkness.
“So tell me again how to do the appearus spell,” Daelyn says to her father. They’ll need to use it to get there in time if something goes awry.
Jordane strokes his horse’s neck. “It will be too challenging for you to accomplish given the time we have. It’s one of the most difficult spells of all. Let’s move closer but still stay out of sight.”
12. Madison
Madison and Boaden slip into the village, moving stealthily along the backs of buildings. Heart beating a little harder at the battle soon to come, Madison keeps her hand on the handle of her sword. There are other people in this village besides the raiders. Boaden and she peek around the corner of a hut made of straw and mud. “How do we know who the raiders are?” Madison asks. “All he said is we’d know when we saw them.”
“I’m assuming they’ll be dressed differently.” Boaden steps forward. “Look for tattoos on the face.”
Madison grabs the back of his gray tunic and stops him. “We’re not wearing robes. They’ll know we’re outsiders.”
“Perhaps then these raiders will come to us.” Boaden steps out into the roadway so that everyone can see him. Madison grinds her teeth, she’s not against an open fight, but having surprise on their side would be a benefit. Yet she hurries out beside him. “I’d rather sneak up on them.”
“If we knew who to target, that would work,” Boaden says, eyes scanning the buildings around him. “But we don’t. They could be in any or all of these buildings. If we draw attention to ourselves they will most likely come out. You’re not afraid are you?”
Boaden gives her a wicked grin and Madison chuckles. Afraid? Ha. “No,” Madison says pulling her sword. “It’s smarter to have the surprise.”
Boaden takes out his sword, too. “Indeed.”
The villagers begin to notice the intruders and scurry into the buildings. Madison and Boaden stand back to back and wait. “I asked Daelyn to marry me,” Boaden says over his shoulder.
Madison saw that coming, way before either of them did, and is truly pleased for them. She likes Boaden, she couldn’t have picked a better man herself. Nerendae is impressive, he’s loyal, charming, and seems to make her daughter happy. “And what of your bad temper?” she asks just to give him a hard time.
Boaden lets out a “ha”. “My temper? I’m as laid back as they come.”
“You killed that guard in Moor rather quickly even after he surrendered.”
“He deserved it.”
“But Daelyn doesn’t agree, do
es she?”
Boaden chuckles. “No, but she’ll soon learn of our ways.”
Madison smiles at this. She herself is more like Boaden than she realized. “She will get used to our way of life, yes.” A door opens to their right drawing her attention. “But you’ll get along better if you compromise on that one issue. To only kill when completely necessary. If Jordane knew some of the things I’ve done... I know my daughter, and she’s not like us, she’s like her father, and they will never be us.”
Two men, dressed in black and leather armored tops with beards and tattooed faces step out of the door. I guess the targets are easy to differentiate from the villagers. “We’ll have to be extra careful with our lack of armor.”
“Next time I’ll just knock a man out cold, how about that?” Boaden says, turning toward the men.
“It’s entirely up to you. I’d have killed that man if you didn’t,” Madison says with a shrug. “But Daelyn doesn’t like me much. She only loves me because I’m her mother.”
The two men stagger as they walk toward them. “They’re drunk,” Madison says, smirking as one stumbles and catches his balance just before falling. “This should be fun.”
“Who are you?” a third man steps out of the same building. “Coming here with your weapons drawn wasn’t a good idea.”
“We’re looking for the men who killed Gorga’s sons and grandchildren,” Madison says in a venomous tone. Killing these men will be pleasurable, joyous even. Vengeance truly can be sweet.
The man tosses his mug to the ground and it thuds in the dirt. “You found us.”
Boaden launches his dagger and hits the man who’d stumbled, right in the chest. He falls over almost immediately. No dramatic clinging to the weapon or cry? Unfortunate. Suffering a little would have been better considering what he’d done to the children.