Rangers of Linwood (The Five Kingdoms Book 1)

by LeAnn Anderson

  “Well, I didn’t mean to be spying,” Tesni said. “I was already up in one of the apple trees when you and Knives came into the grove to talk. I got interested. I didn’t know you were there for privacy. I thought he’d brought you there for romance.”

  Suddenly, the whole situation just seemed so absurd. How could Arya have even given Alastar’s proposal serious thought? How could Arya and Ryder have not noticed how each other felt for over a hundred years? How had it taken an eight-year-old to set them straight? With all of this in mind, it was no wonder that both Arya and Ryder burst out laughing.

  Tesni blinked. She didn’t see what was so funny. Adults were strange, and these adults in particular were the strangest of all, she decided. “Can we go home, now?” she asked.

  Arya and Ryder just looked at each other. “Yeah,” Ryder said. “Let’s go home.”

  As they walked, Tesni was filled with hope. Ryder had suggested that perhaps Arya and Knives could adopt her, but now Ryder was courting Arya, not Knives, and perhaps they could adopt Tesni, and she really would have a family at last. She chose not to press her luck by mentioning the idea, but just thinking about it made her heart swell with joy.

  Chapter 8

  By the time Tesni’s ninth birthday rolled around at the vernal equinox, she was starting to get bored with her routine. She was now up to two miles a day on her morning jog, and was getting ready to try upping it by another half-mile. She wanted desperately to enter formal training as a Ranger, but still had to wait another three years.

  Something that she always noticed, though, was that nobody was ever on the ropes course immediately after breakfast. It was one of three obstacle courses set up in the camp. Aside from a difficult, generalized obstacle course that was used by advanced trainees, with scores and times used in determining whether or not a Ranger was read for his or her bow or blade, there was one made of rooms requiring a knowledge of lock picking and the disarmament of traps.

  And then there was the ropes course. Netting and straight ropes to climb, with and without knots to help a climber, were intermixed along with artificial vines, rock walls requiring ropes to scale them and two wide ditches to be swung across, one with the rope already tied to a beam and the other where the trainee needed to attach the rope to the beam themselves.

  Those were the stories Tesni had heard, anyway. Each of the courses was closed in, a trainee’s scores and times magically written onto a piece of parchment for Arya and Ryder to check later. Right now, though, Tesni didn’t care if she got caught. She didn’t care how bad her score was. She just wanted a new challenge, and that ropes course looked awful tempting.

  So, instead of showing up for her chores, instead of even going through the normal breakfast line, Tesni grabbed some dried fruit and nuts, ate them right before her run, and, as soon as she got back, she slipped through the door of the course, which immediately closed behind her.

  The first part of the course was easy. Above a pit lined with feather mattresses was a large net. The goal was to get across, and Tesni found that her smaller size was a bit of a disadvantage, as she could easily slip a foot through between the ropes.

  Still, she made it across quickly, and then up a climbing net that started at a shallow angle, then went to a steeper angle, and then straight up. When she got to the top, she found that she needed to swing across to another platform. She grabbed the rope, stepped back a couple of steps, then ran those steps forward and launched herself.

  Again, her smaller size left her disadvantaged. Her lower weight meant that she had less momentum, and she barely got her balance when she half landed, half fell onto the next platform, having overcorrected her balance to keep herself from falling backwards onto the feather mattresses below.

  On the other side of the platform, there was a zip line, and Tesni had no problems with it other than, again, her lower weight contributing to a lack of momentum. Still, it went fast enough, and she landed without losing her balance at all.

  Next she climbed a straight rope with knots in place, leapt to a wall of netting and used it to get around another pit, climbed up a straight rope without the knots, and found herself at another platform. Here, she found her greatest difficulty, hooking the grappling hook just right around the rafter so that she could swing across. This gap was shorter, however, and her lack of momentum wasn’t as much of an issue.

  Tesni could see another zip line leading to the artificial vines on the rock climb and finally the exit door on the other side of the next gap, this one with a rope stretched tightly over it. This gave Tesni pause. Her balance was not in question, and she could clearly see the feather mattresses at the bottom, but what would happen if she fell?

  She took a deep breath, took one step out, then a second, and then felt the world drop out beneath her.

  

  Tesni hadn’t shown up for breakfast, and now Arya couldn’t find the girl anywhere. She wasn’t in the stables. Nobody had seen her leave camp since coming back from her morning run. She wasn’t in the mess line. She wasn’t in the tent. She wasn’t even watching the archers intently as she sometimes did.

  Then she saw that the door to the ropes course was closed. That was odd. It normally wasn’t in use until after lunch. She went over to the parchment hanging outside the exit to see who was running. Her eyes went wide when she saw Tesni’s name next to a time that was rapidly rising past the three hour mark. Even if Tesni’s age weren’t an issue, the time alone would have alarmed her. It was three times the longest even a young beginner ever took.

  Knowing something was severely wrong, Arya forced the exit door open. She slid down one of the vines, jumped up, and grabbed hold of the zip line, going up it, moving hand over hand. She swung herself up onto the platform and saw that the tight rope had broken. Looking down into the pit, she saw Tesni’s crumpled, unconscious form, and her heart leapt into her throat.

  Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she snapped out a loud “End!” Immediately, the parchment paper outside the door stopped recording the time. Arya scrambled down the ladder into the pit and ran over to Tesni, unable to discern why the girl was so badly hurt. Her left ankle was swollen, indicating that it had been reinjured, but beyond that, there was nothing obvious.

  Arya grabbed the end of the broken rope and tied it around Tesni’s chest, just beneath her arm pits. She climbed back up the ladder and used the broken rope to pull Tesni up, being slow and careful not to jerk or bang her too much. But how was she going to get her down the zip line and up the vines?

  Finally, Arya just draped Tesni’s body over her shoulders and carried her that way. The zip line posed no problem, but the vines were a lot trickier. Still, Arya was good at what she did, and she raced Tesni to Enid’s tent. “Enid!”

  “What did she manage to do to herself this time?” Enid asked good-naturedly. Tesni had a unique gift for getting herself into minor scrapes. Then she looked up and gasped. “Not another head injury!”

  “I don’t know,” Arya admitted, laying Tesni down. “I found her near the end of the ropes course. The tightrope broke. She shouldn’t be in such bad shape. Those mattresses at the bottom of the pit are there for a reason. Plenty of people have fallen off that tight rope and never gotten worse than a sprained ankle or wrist!”

  Enid examined Tesni, frowning. “What was she doing on the ropes course?”

  “That’s something else I don’t know,” Arya said with a sigh. “She never even expressed an interest in trying it out. I can only guess that she got bored, thought she could do it on her own, and didn’t think it was necessary to ask permission.”

  “Well, there isn’t a single external injury,” Enid said after a while, “except for a reinjured ankle. That alone should not cause her current state of unconsciousness, or such shallow breathing.”

  “I didn’t even notice how shallow her breathing was,” Arya said.

  Enid shook her head. “She’s fighting for each breath, Arya. This goes well beyond her fall in
to either some other health issue that we never caught before this, which is highly unlikely, or a dark curse.”

  “I’d put my money on dark curse,” Arya muttered. “Agrona seems to have it out for her for reasons we don’t understand other than using Tesni’s skills to steal the orb.” Not more than a month prior, some of Agrona’s henchmen had been seen outside the camp. They had tried to kidnap Tesni, with the emphasis on tried. Arya and Ryder had put a quick stop to that.

  “I would as well, Arya. I would, as well.”

  

  Tesni felt her fall slowing. She landed on her feet in a beautiful field filled with wildflowers. The forest line was not far away. She could hear a stream running and birds singing. When she looked down, she was not in the clothes she normally wore around camp. Instead, she was in a pretty, pink, flowing dress with big bell sleeves. On her feet were silk slippers, and when she reached to check her braid, she found that her hair now flowed loose, and she was wearing a circlet. When she pulled it off to inspect it, she found it was gold and studded with pink gems.

  She put it back on as she felt another presence enter. She didn’t know where she was or how she got there, and she desperately hoped it was Arya or Ryder, come to save her.

  Her hope was in vain, however. Instead of Arya, Ryder, Knives, or even Enid or Fiona, Agrona had arrived. “What are you doing here?” Tesni asked.

  “I’m here to talk to you,” Agrona said a little too sweetly.

  “Did you bring me here?” Tesni asked.

  “I did.”

  “Why?”

  Agrona moved closer, causing Tesni to step back in fear. “Oh, now don’t be scared. This is your dreamscape. I can’t hurt you here.”

  “Then what do you want?” Despite Agrona’s assurances, probably false, Tesni was very scared indeed.

  “You have a curse on you,” Agrona said. “I put it there, myself. You feel fine, here, but back in the Ranger camp, you lie in a deep sleep, unable to wake up, fighting just to breathe. You’re going to slowly get worse until your third sunset in this condition, when you will die.”

  “Why?” Tesni asked again. “Why curse me to die?” She could feel tears threatening to fall. Her birthday had been only a week ago. She was barely nine. She had so much to look forward to. She was looking forward to when she was twelve and could train with the Rangers. Not now, though. Not with this curse Agrona had placed on her.

  Agrona gripped Tesni’s chin. “Because I want you to work for me,” she said. “I am more than willing to remove the curse. With your permission, and only with your permission, I can call your body from the Ranger camp to my castle, where I will remove the curse, but you have only until your third sunset, and it is noon on your first day already.”

  “I won’t help you,” Tesni said. “I won’t. And Arya will figure it out. She and Ryder are really smart. So are Enid, and Fiona, and Alastar. They’ll figure it out. They’ll find a way to remove the curse.”

  “Are you so sure?” Agrona asked.

  “They’ve probably already figured out you put the curse on me,” Tesni replied. “I fell onto some feather mattresses. They’re really soft. The pit the rope that broke crosses is less than two meters deep.”

  Agrona stared hard at Tesni. The girl only stared back, defiant of this woman who would not take no for an answer. Neither was inclined to give in to the other. Tesni would never agree to steal from those whom she had come to love. Loyalty meant too much to her. Agrona would never give up seeking what she wanted, what she believed belonged to her.

  “I shall come to you at sunset tomorrow to see if you have changed your mind, you foolish girl,” Agrona said at last.

  “Come if you like,” Tesni said. “It makes no difference to me if you enjoy my dreamscape or not, for as you said yourself, you cannot hurt me. Nightmares cannot hurt me, either, and that is all you are. I shall not be here at sunset tomorrow. I shall be up and about, tending to the horses, because by this time tomorrow, I will have been rescued.”

  

  Ryder had been called out of camp as, just after breakfast, a messenger from town had come, begging that Ryder follow him to the inn, as one of the women working there wished to see him, and that it was urgent.

  The woman’s name was Cliona, and ten years prior, she had been, for a few brief weeks, Ryder’s lover. Despairing of ever gaining Arya’s affection and in grief over the recent death of his father, Ryder had gone into Cliona’s arms. She had been a servant at the palace at the time, a position that had only ended upon the untimely murders of the king and queen.

  As soon as he arrived at the inn, he inquired about her and was directed to the room upstairs where she had been allowed to make her home so long as she worked there. He was not prepared to find her lying in bed, clearly very ill.

  “Hello, Ryder,” she said, her voice weak.

  “Hello, Cliona,” he replied, stepping over to her bedside. “Is this why I’ve been called? Do you need money for a doctor?”

  “Oh, no, Ryder, that has been taken care of.” The ghost of a smile appeared briefly upon her lips. What had once been a pair of vibrant rose petals was now simply dry and cracked flesh. The eyes that had once been the color of lapis lazuli were now greyish blue. “I have no need for a doctor anymore. I called for you because I am dying, Ryder, any time now, and I have one last request that I must make of you. I must have your promise before I fade that you will perform it.”

  Ryder raised an eyebrow. “And what task would you have me perform?”

  “Ryder, ten years ago, when we spent those nights in each other’s arms, a child was conceived. I am ashamed to have not told you. I kept her and raised her. I loved our daughter dearly. I purchased her a necklace for her fourth birthday, a gold locket with a sunburst on the front and her name on the back.”

  The hair on the back of Ryder’s neck suddenly stood on end. He had seen that necklace many times before. Surely there must simply be two like it, right? “Go on…” he whispered, his voice cracking.

  “I painted two tiny portraits all by myself,” Cliona continued. “You remember how good I was with painting. It was my favorite hobby. One was of you and me, for I thought that one day you might come back to me and wed me, though I never told her a thing about her father. The one time she asked, I simply told her that her father had left in military service, was missing, and presumed dead. The other picture I painted was her as a baby. I placed them both in the locket so that she might always remember how much I loved her, and how much you would have loved her if you knew her. Please, find her, Ryder. Find her and raise her. Be the father she should have had all along.”

  “I will do as you say,” Ryder said, swallowing hard. “I would have done so long ago if I had only known. What is our daughter’s name?”

  “On the day she was born, it was the spring equinox. The sun was shining down and it was a warm day, a beautiful one indeed, and so I called her Tesni, for it means ‘warmth from the sun,’ because the sun seemed to shine even brighter when she came into the world, and to be even warmer.”

  So there were not two necklaces like it. Hearing Tesni’s name come from Cliona’s lips and echo through the room told him everything that he needed to know. The Tesni Cliona had given birth to and the Tesni he had come to know and love were one in the same. Looking at Cliona, he could clearly see it. Tesni had inherited Cliona’s eyes, though the mother’s eyes were dulled by illness, while the daughter’s remained bright and beautiful. While his own hair was a darker blond, Tesni had gotten Cliona’s lighter, more golden locks.

  Yes, it was all too clear, now that he compared the Cliona of ten years ago to the Tesni of now within his head, and in his mind’s eye he saw it perfectly. Though Tesni looked much like Cliona, his daughter had inherited his chin and nose.

  “Then rejoice, Cliona, for I found Tesni months ago, or rather, Arya found her. Had I known that I was her father, I would have gone out of my way to make sure that she knew.”

 
A last smile came to Cliona’s face. “Then I might rest in peace. Care for her, Ryder. Love our daughter the way she deserves to be loved. Knowing that you will, I die happily.”

  Her voice had been growing steadily weaker throughout the entire conversation. Now, she exhaled her final breath. Ryder reached out a hand and closed her eyes. He informed the inn keeper of what had transpired and took off back to camp. Part of him was sad that Cliona was now dead, but mostly he felt nothing but gladness. Tesni was his daughter, and he would make it known to her immediately, give her the family she should have had all along.

  As soon as he arrived, he dismounted and ran straight to Arya. “Arya! Where’s Tesni? I must speak to her right away.”

  Arya blinked. “Tesni is…. Tesni is in Enid’s tent.”

  “Again?” Ryder asked. “How has she managed to injure herself, this time?”

  “She did not injure herself,” Arya said. “Well, she reinjured her ankle after sneaking onto the ropes course, but that is a different matter, entirely.”

  “Then she is ill?” Ryder asked.

  “Very, but not naturally,” Arya said. “Enid and I suspect that she is under a dark curse, most likely of Agrona’s doing.”

  Ryder stopped short. “A curse?” he asked. “Well, surely we will find a way to break it. Perhaps Fiona will know something? Surely she must have had some access to Agrona’s spell books.”

  “What happened in town?’ Arya asked. “You came back seeming as if you had just heard the most wonderful news in the world.”

  “I was summoned to Cliona’s side,” Ryder started. “Now, don’t look so unhappy,” he added, seeing the jealousy flash in Arya’s eyes.

  “What did your former lover want?” Arya asked. “Could she not find anyone else for a quick tumble in the hay?”

  “Arya, Cliona has died,” Ryder said, his tone clipped. “I was summoned to her death bed for something that she had to tell me.”

  Arya winced, suddenly regretting the insult she had thrown towards the other woman. She had been very jealous when she had learned that Ryder and Cliona were suddenly together, had rejoiced when he stopped going to her rival three weeks later. That was in the past now, though, and Arya muttered an apology.