I tried not to sulk.
“Ok, what’s the deal between you two?” Ari asked, and looked back and forth between the two of us.
“Our deal?”
“Yeah, your deal. You two like each other, yet you bicker like an old couple who has been together for years. Are you jealous that he is giving me attention?” she asked.
She was blunt and to the point. I had a feeling that all of the sirens were like this. Nothing was sugar coated, and everything was straightforward. They don’t live in the land of the grey like I do.
“And you, look at her like she is a golden shell, encrusted with crystals of the prettiest colors,” she said to Thomas.
I turned to look at him. His face is as red as mine, but he remained silent, baffled by what she had said.
She was right though.
“Ah, silence. You aren’t quite ready to pronounce your undying love to each other, got it,” she said smugly.
Can I smack that look off her face?
We continued marching forward in silence.
Chapter Thirteen
Axel
I watched as Violet spoke to the Beast King, and another beast, who I assumed was his Queen.
They spoke in what sounded like strange chattering noises with bits of roars and grunts. I looked around while I listened in confusion. Our only escape route was the way we entered, there were no windows or other openings. Violet would have to talk our way out of here.
The place was very rustic and it had elements that showed that it was important to the beasts. There were gold embellished tables, weapons, and fixtures on the walls. The floor was covered in a deep red rug, it was the color of blood. The Beast King’s guards stood with their gold covered spears around the perimeter of the room. They watched Violet and the Beast Queen closely.
While I couldn’t understand their conversation I could pick up on some strong sensations from Violet. She was nervous but determined and a little bit sad.
Violet spoke to the Queen again in chatter, and then looked back to me and spoke.
“The Queen is pregnant, and the baby is unwell. I am going to try to heal the child so that it is born healthy.”
“Do they know you haven’t done that before?” I asked.
“Yes, they know, I said I would do my best.”
“You will do it,” I reassured her. “There is nothing that you can’t do.”
She looked like she wanted to argue, but thought better of it in front of our company. She turned back to the Beast Queen and her hand on the Queen’s stomach began to glow. Violet’s face scrunched up in concentration. Her and the Queen chattered for a quick moment before the room was silent again.
The Queen and her stomach began to grow bright. Her coat looked healthier and she stood straighter. Violet’s hand was suddenly moved by the little monster inside who made a strong kick or punch inside it’s mother. The Beast Queen chattered and Violet smiled in response.
Violet took a step back from the glowing expectant mother, and she swayed slightly on her feet. I moved forward to help steady her. At the same time, the Beast King’s guards moved, not expecting my sudden movement. When my hands touched only my Queen they stood down.
The Beast King began his chatter, and looked at Violet expectantly. She chattered back, and I knew that look in her eyes. The King was trying to get out of his agreement, that’s the only reason she could be angry at this moment. I looked around me at our odds. Now that we both have magic, our odds were much better than they would have been just weeks ago.
Their exchange went on for a moment before Violet made a power play, and she spoke in English for my benefit.
“Your baby is now well. I have promised you peace and no interference with my rule. I will give you one more chance to honor your spoken promise. If you don’t, I can promise this won’t be the last you see of me.”
She held her hands out and a large fireball ignited out of nowhere. A gust of wind blew through the open space and the tree we were in began to shake. The water in the glass beside the King on his throne began to rise and dance around, tapping him on the arm.
The King looked around at the minor havoc that Violet was causing. Her eyes were closed, so she couldn’t see the alarm on his face. Then just as suddenly as it started, it stopped. Violet opened her eyes, and looked at the King expectantly.
The King chattered, and Violet translated for me.
“Please leave your instructions for when and where to meet with my guards. I will send a force of my beasts to your battle, and we will honor our agreement,” she translated.
“Thank you,” she said to the Beast King in English.
She looked back to the Queen. “You take care of that little one of yours. Should you have another child and need my services, you know where you can find me.”
The Beast Queen nodded her head in appreciation.
Violet turned around and exited the tree. I glanced around one last time, to make sure there were no more surprises before following her out.
She talked with the guard standing outside the tree in the language of the beasts. He nodded in understanding, and then we walked back down the path we came, without a guard to escort us.
“Did you really heal that baby?” I asked her in amazement..
“It appears that I did. I could feel it struggling, fighting to hang on. I sent some magic, and the baby absorbed it like water in a sponge. There was a curse there too, on the Beast Queen that I had to break. I’m not sure how I did it.”
“A curse?” I asked.
“Yeah, I mentioned it briefly. She asked me to get rid of it, and never bring it up again.”
“I wonder what could have cursed her like that?”
“I’m not sure, but there are lots of things in this world I still don’t know of. Anything could have done it, as far as I know. The curse was to kill, to starve any baby she carried. I broke the curse, like slamming through a brick wall, and then gave the baby what it needed to survive.”
“That’s incredible,” I told her.
After a moment she shook her head. “No, what is incredible is that little weasel was about to break our agreement after I saved his baby’s life. I should have done more than what I did,” she said, referring to her little elemental show.
“No, what you did was just right. When your eyes were closed, he looked like he was going to shit himself,” I said with a chuckle.
I loved seeing others cower in fear of Violet, she was powerful. She used her magic for good and earned respect. It was enough to make me a proud husband and soulmate.
She smiled at my words.
We continued up the path, further from the light around the village, and back into the dark forest. Violet summoned her little ball of light and we pushed through the trees again.
We had made it several miles in comfortable silence when Violet stopped dead in her tracks. I could feel an all encompassing sense of fear from her, and it nearly brought me to my knees. She crumpled to the ground, and I immediately dropped down to my knees to see what happened.
I’ve seen Violet use large amounts of magic at once, and she was stronger now that the potion returned her magic. She was even stronger after completing the trials. She couldn’t have possibly been drained enough to lose consciousness like this.
I turned her over and saw her eyes glow purple. She was trapped in a vision, right there in the middle of the dark dense forest, with no one else to watch our backs. To make things even worse, her floating light sputtered out and we were plunged into the darkness.
Shit.
Chapter Fourteen
Kennan
I should just get rid of my whole family.
They thought they could just show up and take credit for my work. It was insulting and belittling, and quite frankly it had me exhausted. Father had been losing control of the kingdom he quietly controlled for quite some time. While Grandfather was still technically the king until he died, my father had taken over when I was young. As
far back as I could remember my father had been a wolf in sheep’s clothing, preying on those he thought would never catch up to him.
Now the sheep had finally caught on, and they were fighting back.
Father has spent the past two months trying to appease those who he made empty promises to. There were several rich families in Tate who would love to buy their way into ruling the Kingdom. They had enough money to buy a coup if they wanted to. Add their money to our inability to provide all the needed resources to keep our people from starving, it was a recipe for a revolt.
Father was foolish in his mismanagement of our kingdom. The people are starving in the streets, which I really could care less about. But those people do, and hunger is a great motivation for revolt, and the timing of all of this was piss poor.
I have enough on my plate and don’t need to squash a rebellion on top of trying to take out Violet and claim her throne. Father was under the impression that I was taking her throne for him, but he was a fool. Why would I go to such great lengths for him? He couldn’t properly handle a class of kindergartners, why did he think he could rule three kingdoms at the same time? I had no intention of letting him take over and ruin them too. No, I would be much smarter than he ever was. He’d soon realize that he underestimated me, and he’d regret it.
Samantha was also a pain in my ass; she too wanted my future Kingdom, and was stopping at nothing to make sure I knew it. She was doing her best to terrorize me, much like I was to Violet. I crawled into bed two nights in a row to find a nasty surprise, like a viper resting just below the covers. My fireball incinerated the creature, but also sent my bed up in flames.
I had been furious, and wanted to retaliate, but I couldn’t. She would run to Father and he’d take her side. Right now her proposed marriage alliance would bring one of the rich families vying for our kingdom into the fold, but in a way where Father could watch them and use their resources. Right now she was a more valuable asset, even though I was leading a war that could bring us an infinite amount of resources, and more slaves.
Samantha wanted me to fail, because she wanted to be the one to kill Violet. She wanted the power over the other Kingdoms. If she did that, she wouldn’t have to marry a man twice her age. She could be single and run her kingdom’s how she saw fit. I had no doubts she’d kill Father the moment she had Violet’s crown on her head. While I agreed with that plan, the end result didn’t work for me. The Morthlands and Ubrem Glacies would be mine, I had put in all the hard work, and this task was personal. Violet’s slow and agonizing death as I stole her magic would be so validating. I just needed to track down a dreamwalker, or to get close enough to a incompacitated Violet for an extended period of time.
I sat down at my desk to think for a moment. I needed a way to ensure that none of my meddling family could get in the way of my plans. I wonder if I could write a letter to Samantha’s future Father in Law and sabotage the alliance he worked out with Father?
I opened the drawer to my desk to pull out parchment when I saw a scorpion resting on the cream colored paper. They were common here in Tate, but not in our castle. He had slaves who walked the grounds every day killing the venomous creatures. This one wasn’t missed by the slaves, I was sure of it. This one was planted.
I picked the thing up, careful of its stinger and marched down the hall to the training room, where I knew Samantha was training. The past few months she had practically lived in this room. She was born with magic and had spent her entire life honing it, unlike me. Her magic was now a skilled, precise, and deadly weapon. Mine was wild and unpredictable at times.
“I think you left something in my desk when you were snooping around,” I told her, throwing the creature onto the floor.
“Oh, thank you for returning him. I am not sure how he got into your office,” she said with a coy smile.
Bitch.
“Lay off,” I told her in warning. My voice came out as a growl.
“Or what? You are going to kill me?” Samantha teased. She pretended to tremble in fear.
“Yes, I will.” I lied.
I knew I couldn’t kill her without retaliation from my father. If he ordered his personal security detail to throw me in the dungeon, they would, or would die trying.
“Good luck, brother. You have no self control. That’s what happens when someone born without magic, steals from others. It’s not yours to control, so it will never willingly bend to your will. Not the way you want, anyway. It’s more likely to control you,” she said through a sickly sweet smile.
She was doing her best to get under my skin. She was just like Violet, it barely took them any effort to piss me off.
“Enough!” I shouted, and I threw a large fireball at her.
“Is that supposed to scare me?” she asked, sidestepping the flaming ball as it hit the wall behind her.
Before I could answer her she struck me with lightning. I had no warning, and the current ran through my body, through my veins. Every beat of my heart, and every breath I took was a struggle.
I could smell the burning of my clothes and my hair. I fell to the ground, fighting the urge to close my eyes and fall asleep.
Then it stopped and Samantha pulled back her hand, the lightning had vanished.
“Don’t ever forget who is really in control here. When you fail little brother, I will take the Morthlands and Ubrem Glacies, and then I will continue westward. Next I’ll go for the forbidden continent and I won’t stop there. All you men are keen to sit back on your ass and fight over this small piece of our world, when there is so much more out there. Back in Arlington I will dominate everything, and I will be a billionaire. When that happens I will spit on your grave just to insult you even further. I don’t know why anyone would fear you or Father, you don’t have what it takes to lead a Kingdom. You couldn’t even keep the attention of a bunch of high schoolers. It’s amazing how one rejection was your entire downfall. Father is the same way, he lost control of a Kingdom that Grandfather had ruled with an iron first for fifty years. We had everything we needed, the subjects listened, there was no selling daughters for alliances. When it came to you, the apple didn’t fall far from the incompentient tree.”
She gave me a smirk and a shoulder shrug as she tossed lightning up into the air like she was tossing up a ball.
I was seeing red at her insults and comparisons. I was nothing like Father, I wanted her dead, and he wanted her married and out of his hair.
I was about to attack her again when Mother walked into the training room.
“Samantha dear, your fiance is here to meet you. You should go get ready, while I entertain him in the tea room.”
“Of course Mother,” she said.
She shot me an innocent look, but I swear I heard her nasty thoughts.
I watched as Mother gave me a disappointed glance before she left the room. In her opinion I should have married by now. I was a failure there too. I was hoping to have at least had a marriage on paper to Violet, but she is too stubborn for her own good. It was fine, I didn’t need a woman to take over the world. I would do that on my own. It would be so much more satisfying to pry her kingdoms from her cold dead hands then do things my father’s way and bargain for them.
I exited the training room and walked the halls. I walked back up the stairs when I saw some of our guards escort a man who had his arms tied behind his back. He looked vaguely familiar. Where have I seen him?
He looked a little like Father, and that was unusual.
“Who is that?” I called out to the guards.
“You don’t recognize your own uncle?” the guards taunted.
I have an uncle?
Chapter Fifteen
Trin
It had been eighteen hours since we left the shore and started our walk to the home of the Children of the Willows. I was beyond exhausted, irritable, and starving. I wanted to tough it out and keep going, but my feet and my body wouldn’t let me. It had been a long, long day, and we all needed the rest.<
br />
“I think we need to stop for a few hours,” I finally gave in.
“Oh thank the urchin,” Ari said. “My new legs are absolutely killing me.”
I could imagine they would. Her tail must have been extremely strong to transform into legs that could carry her this far on their first use.
“Let's set up camp in that grove. The trees will provide us with some shelter, and I think I see some fruit,” Thomas said, while he pointed to a small grove of trees to the north west.
He was right, it did look like a nice safe place to rest, and get a bite to eat. He could remain on the outskirts so it would be easy to run if we needed to.
We walked to the grove which had apple and pear trees, with some ripe fruit. I reached up and grabbed an apple and sunk my teeth into it. I groaned in delight at the flavor. It left a trail of juice down my chin, but I didn’t care. It might have been the best tasting fruit I had ever sampled. It was even better after a grueling day.
“Who has the first watch?” Ari asked us.
“ I do,” both Thomas and I said, at the same time.
I needed the time to think through today and how I want to approach the Children of the Willows. Even if Thomas took the first watch, I wouldn’t fall asleep.
I expressed this and he relented, giving me the first watch.
“Two hours,” he said, as he held up two fingers. “Wake me up in two hours, and we will switch. You need to get rest too.” His eyebrows met in the center of his face, scrunched up in concern. He ran his fingers through his soft hair, a sign that he wanted to say something, but wouldn’t. Not when we had an audience.
What could he want to say that he didn’t want Ari to hear?
I nodded my head in agreement, I would wake him.
I gave Ari the blanket from my bag. She gave me a genuine look of gratitude when I told her it was the warmest blanket I had ever bought, and it was still brand new. Ari pulled it around her tightly and then gave me a bright smile.
Emerald Wars (The Dream Traveler Book 3) Page 9
