by Ivy Logan
Katie was silent. Was she hurt or merely in shock? Talia wanted to call out to her but she was already quite out of breath. She had to gulp mouthfuls of air just to keep running. All the shoving, kicking, running, and carrying Katie was taking its toll on Talia. She twisted her head and looked behind hoping that Garcia would be gone.
The man was right behind her. “I am the king’s best hunter,” he shouted at her. Luckily for her, he was short, otherwise he would have surely grabbed Katie by now. “I am the one who killed your brother, and if you don’t stop, I will kill you.” Talia gave a sharp cry of pain. She didn’t know if it was because the man spoke of Joshua so casually or because of the agonizing jab close to her right shoulder blade warning her that he was armed and not above using weapons to stop her. He must have thrown a knife at her. She could feel it protruding from her shoulder. She staggered, holding on tight to Katie. “Hold on to me, Katie,” she whispered.
Talia was falling. She used her hand to cushion Katie’s head while twisting slightly as they toppled. Her body broke the little girl’s contact with the ground. Talia was now too exhausted to run. The weakness she felt was fast spreading. Frantically running her hands over Katie, Talia saw that she was scared but relatively unhurt. Whispering reassuring words, she covered the sobbing girl’s little body with her own. The spy was going to have to go through her to reach Katie. Talia did not intend to let go of her little girl. She could hear him. Soon he would be upon them.
“Mama, why are you crying?” the little girl asked finally. “Let us hide. The bad man is coming,” Katie whispered.
Talia gave a small cry of relief. Why hadn’t she thought of that? There were no places for them to hide for a length of time, but she couldn’t run anymore. There could be no greater foolishness than standing injured with a child in tow in plain sight. With Katie holding her hand, Talia half limped and half crawled to a wall swarming with a multitude of exotic creepers. If she survived this, she would give the gardener a hug for installing this monstrosity in the garden. The wall wasn’t much of a buffer, though. Garcia only had to take a few steps ahead and look back over his shoulder and he would spot them.
The throbbing pain kept increasing in waves and then cresting. Even though she could not see it, she felt the blood dripping down her back. The stinging she could ignore, but the spams that had started in her arm would make carrying Katie difficult. Talia felt her legs getting weaker. She wouldn’t even be able to run soon. It looked like she was out of options and that confronting Garcia was the only one that remained.
Garcia was armed and Talia was weaponless. She had a little girl to protect and he seemed to have nothing to lose. The odds against her were mounting. She had to even the playing field a bit. Could Katie do it? “Katie, I need your help to deal with his man. Can you help me?” How? Talia could see the question form on the lips of her little girl.
“I need you to do two very important things. First, there is some sort of dagger in Mama’s shoulder. It should be similar to the one cousin Jesse has. Do you remember it? He shouted at you when he found you playing with it. You cried for hours that day,” Talia said.
Katie nodded her head sagely, the memory bringing a frown to her face. “Katie, listen to me. I need you to slowly pull this thing out from my shoulder. It will be difficult, so you may want to give it all your strength. If my shoulder starts bleeding, use this to stop it,” said Talia, trying to tear out bits from her sleeve.
“Wait, Mama, I have a better idea,” said Katie, and she ran out before Talia could stop her. Where had the child gone? Talia could feel the rising panic, but when she looked up, there stood Katie carefully holding the edges of her skirt filled with delicate pink yarrow flower clusters, their sweet fragrance mingling with the pungent and spicy aroma of their fern-like feathery leaves. “The physician told me these leaves help with bleeding because I keep falling down nearly every day. They were right next to the asters,” Katie said smiling.
Despite the pain she was in and the danger of being discovered any minute, Talia couldn’t help marvelling at the foresight of her daughter, but before that the dagger could be removed, Talia had one more thing to tell Katie. “Katie, after you pull out the dagger, I need you to give it to me and then run and hide. Bundle up and take cover in a thick bush. Don’t come out, no matter what the man says or does. He mustn’t find you at any cost, otherwise he will take you away from us.”
“What about you?” Katie asked. “You are hurt.”
“I am still your mother and it is my job to protect you. I will deal with him, but I need you to hide. Pull it out now, Katie. Close your eyes if you are scared.”
Katie stepped behind Talia and put her shaking hands on the handle of the knife for was not a dagger but a knife with a pearl handle. But the little girl’s hands were slippery and her efforts did not yield any result other than to cause Talia extreme pain. “On more time, Katie, and then you have to go and hide,” said Talia. Katie went back to trying, and this time, Talia managed to stretch one hand behind and help her. Between the two of them, the knife was soon out and then Katie was smearing the wound with the flowers and leaves. “Go, now,” Talia said weakly. I’ll hold them in place.”
Barely had Katie crept out and stepped to the other side of the wall—thankfully out of sight—when Talia felt a large hand grip her arm and she found herself looking into the blazing eyes of Garcia. “Where is the girl?” he growled.
“Gone!” she screamed, plunging the knife into his hand while kicking him n the stomach and poking the fingers of her free hand into his right eye. “How dare you hurt Joshua! You deserve to die.” Garcia was yelling in pain but Talia saw his left hand rise, a hunting dagger in it. She grabbed Garcia’s raised arm and pushed it towards his own side. As the dagger sank into his skin, he gave a loud cry of anger and pain.
Talia saw defeat in his eyes but she knew it was fleeting. “King Damien will come for you on his dragon. This island of yours will be a shell of dust, ash and stones. He will come and he will take you back to Aberevon. But don’t worry; you won’t be alone, for he will take your daughter too.”
Talia was in tremendous pain but through it, she felt her panic and anger grow. How dare he threaten her and Syrolt this way! The air around her began to pulsate with a fierce energy. One moment Garcia was standing in front of her, his painful boasts emerging from his loud mouth, and the next he was lying at least ten feet away, thrown back by a powerful and invisible force. Talia stared at the fallen man. What just happened? Who flung him away? What was it her father had said? Your powers would surface when you are angry or upset. Any magic that flowed from her was linked to her emotions. Using her powers, she had flung Garcia like a rag doll. Now Damien would never believe that she knew no magic.
Before the stupefied Garcia could react, Talia heard pounding on the cobblestones. Turning, she saw the most beautiful sight in the world—the Syrolt colours of green and blue. Help was here.
Talia heard a bellow of rage behind her. Garcia was limping and running but fast fading out of sight as he ran towards the sea as fast as he could. He must already have a boat waiting to take him to a ship. He would warn King Damien, who would want to add Katie to his collection of sorceresses. Garcia had to be stopped at any cost. But it was too late because the guards first stopped to check on Talia. She tried to tell them to catch Garcia before he escaped, but she no longer sounded coherent. The ache in her shoulder was now unbearable. “He’s getting away!” she screamed. “Please, don’t let him get away. Find Katie.”
The guards barely heard her as she slipped away into oblivion.
****
Damien had looked for Talia for a long, long time. Believing he was in love, he had decided to wait for her rather than wed another. There were many sightings but no success until Garcia reached Syrolt ten years after Talia bolted from Aberevon.
As Damien headed to Syrolt on the back of his dragon, he realized just how much he was looking forward to seeing Talia again. He hope
d she was still as afraid of him as she had been all those years ago. The healing Caitlin had worked on him had long faded and his health was fast deteriorating.
Talia would regret her decision to marry another. If she weren’t already petrified of him, arriving on the dragon would help her take the leap from faith to fear. If only she knew who she would actually be facing.
Maybe, to make it more fun, Damian just may tell her the truth about the dragon. It would make the chase and the capture all the more exciting.
CHAPTER XXI
Now I know the true meaning of love, it means having everything only to lose it.
Talia
THE WAITING GAME - TALIA AND KING DAMIEN
Damien was coming for her. If that wasn’t terrifying enough, he had a mighty dragon at his command. Nevertheless, it was time to take a stand, time to stop hiding and face him. The more she ran, the more she feared him. She was no longer the scared girl she used to be, but neither was she a powerful sorceress like her mother. Her magic had made rare appearances only in situations of extreme peril and urgency or when she was extremely angry or upset. It was the same powerful force that had thrown the ruthless Garcia away from her. It was also magic that had allowed her to reach Aherin. But what would Damien do with a sorceress with such strong but uncontrolled powers?
Ever since the incident with Aherin and Jesse, Talia had tried to resurrect her powers. She had faked anger and shown real frustration but nothing happened. It was only when Garcia showed up that the magic surfaced once more.
All of this meant only one thing: she would be standing against a dragon as a mortal with unreliable powers. It was no longer just her life on the line. The future of Syrolt and all its inhabitants were at stake; this much she knew.
Aiden was very protective of Katie that Talia was reminded of her father. She would have loved for her father to have met Aiden. When she fled from Aberevon, she had truly believed she had lost it all, but with Aiden, she had learned to give life another chance.
Talia decided Aiden must stay away from Damien and the dragon at all costs. “I lost the guidance and love of both of my parents very early on. I refuse to let the same thing happen to Katie. She needs at least one of us. Besides, Damien will come after her too. You cannot protect both of us. You must stay with her,” she told him.
“I will send her to my sister. She will be safe there. I need to be with you,” Aiden insisted.
“Damien will kill anyone other than me on sight. You can send a hundred soldiers, but if what we have heard from our own spies is true, they will all be killed. I am the one Damien needs alive. Once I kill the dragon, Damien is all yours,” said Talia.
“Are you asking me to stand back and watch while you fight a dragon and a despicable killer all alone?” Aiden asked incredulously, not knowing if he should be upset, shocked or proud of her.
“Do you remember what I told you long ago when you returned from Calhem?” she asked.
“Is this a test?” he laughed. “Yes, I do. You said you wanted my love not my protection. Even then, you knew this day would come and you were preparing me for it, weren’t you?” he murmured incredulously.
“I did warn you that the trouble chasing me was mine alone. If Syrolt, its people and our family are hurt in any way on my account, what will I do? How will I feel about being the sole cause of so much death and destruction? You and the army must stand back. I don’t know if I will be successful, so you will have to be prepared to deal with the worst in case I fail,” Talia admitted. She didn’t want to give him false hope.
“That would never happen,” Aiden assured her confidently. “You have been waiting for this day, preparing for it since the time you left Aberevon. Why would you fail? But what if he just whisks up you and flies away on this dragon?” asked Aiden. He wasn’t quite sure if he was deadly serious or joking; after all, he had never seen a dragon. Could one actually be coming to Syrolt?
“Protect Katie and the people. As long as there is hope, I will find a way back to you. But you must not follow me or leave Katie alone. Until Damien is dead, she will always be in danger. I’ve been happy all these years but never free. I knew Damien would never stop looking for me. The temporary respite I had came to an end the day his hunter found me. Let me face my past. Its power over me has to end one way or the other so that I can truly move on.”
Talia had always appreciated and admired Aiden’s positivity, but in the days ahead, she learnt to value him even more. Once convinced that facing her nemesis was something she had to do alone, he devoted his energy to helping her rather than complaining.
****
Talia chose the large maze just beyond the palace gardens for her confrontation with Damien and the dragon. Its layout was extremely familiar to her. It would offer her the benefit of an element of surprise as well as a few hiding places; it was also reasonably far from the palace. She was counting on the partnership between her and Aherin to draw the dragon away from Damien’s watchful eye.
Talia still had the weapons her father gave her a long time ago. She had always oiled, polished, waxed, and sanded them. Aiden had added to her collection over the years. A crossbow, a falchion sword, a broadsword—a twin of his own sword—and a lightweight lance that could be used as a projectile. Which one of these weapons would be best suited to bringing down a dragon? She wasn’t quite sure of the answer to that one.
Aiden would spend hours in the palace grounds and in the maze practising various manoeuvres with her. Everyone was willing to help in whatever way they could. Talia took all the help she needed. Too much was hinging on her success. She knew that, ultimately, she would be facing Damien alone, but now was not the time to stand on pride. Help offered must be taken, especially if it took her closer to her ultimate goal.
“Be careful; you and Katie are all I have,” Aiden said again and again in the coming days. He believed in her, but that did not stop him from being concerned. He often looked like he had something more to add but words seemed to fail him. The sorrow in his eyes, though, told Talia their own story.
Falling short of words to express his love, Aiden finally held Talia in his arms as they stared out into the distant maze. In this familiar circle of security and love, they forgot the fear and uncertainty that lay ahead, at least for a while.
Talia knew she could kill Damien without the slightest bit of hesitation. He had ravaged her family after all. But her parents had always taught her to only love and respect the individuality and majesty of every creature. True that the dragon was a killer spreading mayhem, chaos and death, but it had always been on Damien’s command. The dragon was a creature of God, supernatural or not. Will I be able to harm him? By the time I make up my mind, the dragon will probably have burned me with its flaming hot breath, thought Talia. I won’t need to make a decision at all. She made up her mind. She would be prepared but she would take the final call depending on how the confrontation went. There was no question; if it came to a choice between her family and the dragon, she would have to protect her family.
Talia spent as much as time as she could with Aiden and Katie. Anticipating the worst, she also appealed in secret for help from Andrea and Ellie in Calhem.
Ultimately, it came down to the waiting. Days became weeks, and it was now almost two months since she had seen the hunter from Aberevon. The doubts began to creep in.
Just when her anxiety reached unimaginable levels and she was almost planning to break her promise to her father and return to Aberevon, anything to bring an end to this waiting, the alarms were sounded. The dragon had been spotted. There was no time to be lost.
As Talia slipped on the lightweight armour that Aiden had specially crafted for her, she reflected on how she was always saying goodbye. Every time she found happiness, it was time to face the next challenge. Irrespective of whether she survived this one, she was thankful for the wonderful memories she had with her parents and Joshua and with Aiden and Katie and the rest of their family.
With a
final shake of her head, Talia discarded her helmet. She was going to face Damien in all her glory. She wasn’t going to hide her true self. She was going to look him in the eye. Damien was arriving on a fire-breathing dragon, wasn’t he? Well, he would find himself facing a warrior princess astride a monstrous Arabian. She and Aherin, the two of them together, were going to channel all of their courage and ferocity to bring Damien down.
Carefully keeping her true emotions reigned in, Talia hugged and kissed the sleepy Katie.
“Where are you going?” Katie asked, suddenly wide awake.
“Mama has something important to do. I will try to be back soon,” Talia said, holding back her tears.
“Has the dragon arrived?” Katie asked, startling Talia. She speaks of the creature as though he is an honoured guest, thought Talia.
“Yes, he has,” Talia managed to say.
“Make friends with him, Mama. You and I are good with animals. Papa is not so good. Aherin always throws him off,” Katie giggled. Talia almost giggled at the sheer absurdity of the thought. Talia wondered what Aiden would think of his daughter’s suggestion.
“I will surely try, my love. I hope the dragon needs a new friend,” Talia told her little girl as she gave her a tight hug and another kiss.
When it was time to part ways with Aiden, the anguish washed over her once more. There was so much more she wanted to say to him, but if she did, he would never let her go. The kiss they shared was different from the one she had given Katie. It was filled with love, hope, and, although neither of them said it, the sorrow of parting. Talia tried to capture their moment together for eternity, the love and sadness in Aiden’s usually happy eyes, his grin, the warmth of his embrace, and his strength. She could taste salt on his lips. He was crying; she wanted to cry too. In fact, she wanted to bawl loudly, to scream and shout in protest. Fate had cruelly taken her parents and brother away from her, and now it was her husband and her daughter she was leaving behind. Tearing herself from her prince, she ran to Aherin and galloped out into the maze.