Rangers of Linwood (The Five Kingdoms Book 1)

by LeAnn Anderson

  Though they were still concerned about Tesni and Aeron, Ryder, Arya, Rowan, and Liam ran over to the young woman to see if they could help. “Are you alright, Miss?” Liam asked.

  “I’ve been better, Liam,” the young woman said, revealing her face. All four of them fell and hugged Tesni, recognizing her voice.

  “What happened?” Arya asked. “We woke up and you and Aeron were both missing.”

  Tears pricked at Tesni’s eyes. “I don’t know if Aeron is coming back or not,” she said. “He convinced me to run off with him last night, to elope-” At this, Ryder and Liam shot a knowing look at each other. “-and the priestess that he took us to turned out to be Agrona. He knew. He admitted it to me. He told me the whole plan.”

  With that she spilled the entire story to them. By the end of her story, she was in tears. “So…you’re not pregnant?” Ryder asked, relieved.

  Liam just shook his head at his friend and commander’s stupidity. Rowan bit his lower lip. Arya glared at Ryder. Tesni just looked mortified. “Atar! No! How could you even think that I would be that stupid?” With that, she burst into tears all over again, crying even harder than previously.

  “I’m sorry, that came out wrong. I’m just really glad you’re alright,” Ryder said, stumbling, unsure as to how he could fix this situation. He was fairly certain that he couldn’t make it worse. But then, he could be wrong.

  “And so the first thing you do is make sure I’m not pregnant?” Tesni asked, still crying.

  Arya sighed. “Ryder, just stop talking right now.”

  “But…”

  “Ryder, if I were you, I would do what your wife says,” Liam said, patting him on the back.

  Rowan managed to prove himself more skilled at maneuvering through the rough waters that were a teen girl’s emotions. He took Tesni’s hand and rubbed circles with his thumb on the back of it. “Is there anything at all that I can do to help you to feel better?” he asked.

  Tesni blinked through the tears at Rowan. She realized quickly how sweet he was being and that his concern for her well-being was genuine. She sniffed. Her friend was likely seeing her at her worst, and yet he was still there, ready to comfort her. From her position in Arya’s arms, she gifted him with a small smile. “I don’t suppose any of you brought an extra cloak?”

  Without a word, Rowan pulled his own cloak off and handed it to her. “None of us brought an extra one,” he said as she wrapped it around herself, “but you are more than welcome to use mine to cover yourself up with and help to preserve your modesty.”

  Tesni looked down. “I guess I was giving everyone a better look at my body than I really wanted to give,” she said, the blush creeping into her cheeks.

  “It’s alright,” Rowan said. “It’s not your fault. He was going to force himself on you. We are here for you, no matter what.”

  As Ryder watched this scene, he had trouble believing that his protégé was getting through to his daughter better than he was. Yet, at the same time, he could find no real reason to be surprised. After all, if Rowan was as in love with Tesni as he believed him to be, there was no reason in the world for him to not be able to calm her.

  

  Tesni feared that Aeron would have been following after her. She also disliked being out in public with her shirt so torn. So it was that they returned quickly to the camp, Tesni sharing a horse with Arya.

  Tesni’s fears were confirmed when they got back to camp. As they dismounted from their horses, Aeron ran up to her, looking concerned for her well-being. “Tesni! There you are! I thought the plan was to meet up back at camp when we escaped. Where did you run?”

  Tesni slapped Aeron hard across the face. With the exception of those who were with her, the rest of the Rangers gathered looked on in shock. They wondered what had happened between the two young lovers. “Don’t you even try to act so innocent, Aeron Windrunner.” She advanced towards him as she spoke, forcing him to back up. “You lied to me. You convinced me to elope with you against my better judgment and you handed me over to Agrona. You beat me, drugged me, and attempted to rape me. There is not a single good reason for me to ever trust you again.” With that, she slammed her fist across his face, breaking his nose and causing three teeth to fall out.

  At this point, Ryder grabbed his daughter from behind and lifted her up in the air. “Alright, Tesni, that’s enough violence for today,” he said. “You can finish yelling at him later.” Though he didn’t say it yet, he was proud of her. Six years of training were clearly showing, as the girl had managed to escape her situation with little more than a badly torn shirt and some nasty bruises.

  Not that he would ever stop coming to Tesni’s rescue if he thought she needed it.

  He could see Liam dragging Aeron to Enid as he took Tesni back to their tent. The girl was struggling, kicking, and screaming. She landed a backwards kick, forcing Ryder to drop her, and she ran after Aeron, gouging his face with her finger nails.

  Liam pulled Aeron away. Enid stepped between them. Ryder grabbed Tesni again. With Arya’s help, Ryder got her into the tent, where the girl once again collapsed into angry tears to the point that they feared she would make herself sick, aware that she had already done so that morning. Eventually, she cried herself to sleep. Arya laid a blanket over her step-daughter and protégé, and she and Ryder moved out of the tent to discuss what to do.

  “Did you teach her that backwards kick?” Ryder asked.

  “You know I did,” Arya said, a smirk gracing her lips.

  “My shin still hurts,” he admitted.

  Arya laughed. “Good. That means she implemented the technique correctly. It’s meant to leave an enemy in pain. I’m just sorry she used it on you.”

  “Yes, well, she was in a state of extreme anger,” Ryder said. “After what Aeron did to her, I can’t really blame her.”

  Arya frowned. “Therein lays our problem. Tesni is the darling of the camp. Nobody is ever going to deny that. However, Aeron got here, first, and, from what I can tell, told everyone that they ran away to elope and were captured together, and that they tried to escape together but were separated.”

  Ryder snorted. “Don’t tell me anyone believes Aeron’s version of events.”

  “Ryder, the camp is split between them! On top of that, Liam has said he plans to vindicate his protégé. Half of the camp is sure that Tesni is telling the truth. Half of the camp is sure that Aeron is telling the truth and that Tesni is suffering from buyer’s remorse after her actions led to her getting into trouble.”

  “He is rather charismatic,” Ryder admitted with a sigh. “Well, I will always believe Tesni.”

  “And so will I,” Arya said.

  “So will I,” Rowan said. His sudden presence made Ryder and Arya both jump. “Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to startle the two of you.”

  “Well, we can’t afford to have the camp split over an argument between two teenagers,” Ryder said at last. “The first thing we have to do is get the marriage annulled, somehow. The second thing we have to do is prove that Tesni is in the right and that Aeron really is in Agrona’s employ.”

  “The annulment shouldn’t be too difficult,” Arya said. “After all, as magically binding as the vows are, the magic should recognize that she was coerced and that Agrona was performing the ceremony for evil reasons.”

  “How do we find out whether or not the magic recognizes that?” Rowan asked.

  Ryder glanced over at his protégé, a thoughtful look on his face. “Rowan, I’m going to tell you the exact same thing Tesni told me when she was eight. Kiss her. Or, rather, get her to kiss you.”

  Rowan gulped. “Is this a trap?”

  “Absolutely not,” Arya said, half glaring at Ryder, half smiling. “There are certain provisions within the magic surrounding marriage, ancient as the rite itself. The first is that if one spouse cheats on the other in a valid marriage, both spouses will feel great pain in their chest, as if their hearts are literally breaking.�
��

  “The second,” Ryder said, “is as much a test of the validity of a marriage as it is an exception to the first rule. If the marriage is invalid, then there is no pain. In addition, if a marriage is forced, coerced, or arranged, whether it is valid or not, if the kiss is between the spouse who wants out and his or her true love, the one he or she was always meant to be with, then not only is there no pain, but the marriage is dissolved immediately, and both partners can feel it. There’s a bit of a gentle, pleasurable, tingling sensation when one is kissing one’s true love.”

  Ryder and Arya were looking at each other tenderly at this point, and Rowan knew instinctively that the two of them were knowledgeable about the subject from first-hand experience. He wondered if he and Tesni had that special connection. As much as he worried that he and Tesni would only ever be friends, he sincerely hoped that she would eventually return his love.

  “What about the hard part?” Rowan asked at last. “How do we prove that she is the one telling the truth?”

  “Well, for one thing, if Tesni kisses you and Aeron feels no pain, that would be a good sign,” Ryder said, still obviously uncomfortable with the idea of any boy kissing his little girl. She was still a teenager, damn it! Why did she have to start taking an interest in courtship?

  Arya squeezed Ryder’s hand and smiled. “I know a priest of Harena who can help us, as well. He knows his herbs, and he can help us by producing a truth potion. We simply have each of them drink it. If we only have one drink it, there could be accusations of it being an invalid test if the one who drinks it is able to stick to their story.”

  Chapter 14

  Rowan was there that evening when Tesni woke up. He didn’t speak. He just smoothed her hair, smiling at her. Tesni launched herself at him, hugging him tightly. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  “What are you sorry for?” Rowan asked, confused.

  “I’ve hurt you, haven’t I?” she asked, resting her head on his chest.

  “You could never hurt me,” he lied.

  “Don’t lie to me.”

  Rowan sighed. “Alright, I won’t lie to you. Yes, I was hurt when you chose Aeron over me, but it’s alright. I know a lot of it was my own fault. When you’re ready to try again, Tesni, if it’s alright with you, I would like to try courting you, myself.”

  “Just give me some time, Rowan. Right now I just want to get this current situation figured out and taken care of.”

  “Of course,” Rowan said, hugging her close. “I am willing to give you all of the time you need.”

  He was still holding her when Arya came into the tent. “Alright, Tesni, are you ready to have your marriage annulled and prove that Aeron is no good?” she asked.

  Tesni nodded her head. “Absolutely.”

  “Come with me, then,” Arya said.

  Tesni and Rowan both followed Arya out. She led them to the center of camp where Liam had also brought Aeron. All of the Rangers were gathered there, and Enid held up two small vials. “These,” Enid said, “are bottles of a truth serum. Tesni and Aeron are each going to drink one, and then each tell their story.”

  “What?” Aeron cried. “I never agreed to this!”

  “This is the first I have been told about it, as well,” Tesni said, calm. “However, I am more than willing to take the truth serum if it will help to free me from the nightmare of being Aeron’s wife by proving that he serves Agrona.”

  “Fine, let Tesni take it,” Aeron said. “If it works, she will tell the truth. If it doesn’t, she will continue sticking to her lies so that she gets out of trouble.”

  Tesni grabbed one of the vials out of Enid’s hand, popped the cork open, and fearlessly swallowed the contents. She waited for a moment to ensure that it was taking effect. She could tell it had when her mind began to cloud up. Instinctively, she understood the reasoning for this. If she could not think, she could not come up with a lie, and so she would have to tell the truth.

  “Aeron convinced me to elope with him last night,” she said. “I don’t know how. Every time he looks in my eyes so intently, I just feel the urge to do as he asks. We slipped out, found a house where Aeron said a priestess of Herana was waiting, and the woman there married us. Then it turned out to be Agrona. We were carried off, and I figured out that Aeron was working for her. He made me swallow a potion and then tried to rape me.”

  “See?” Aeron said. “It didn’t work. She still sticks to her story.”

  “And yet you are unwilling to take the potion yourself,” Enid said shrewdly. “We need both of you to take it, for exactly this reason.”

  Aeron stared hard at the old healer. “Fine,” he said at last, grabbing the vial. He swallowed the liquid as well.

  “Do you, or do you not, work for Agrona?” Tesni asked a minute later.

  “I do,” Aeron admitted.

  “And did you, or did you not, try to impregnate me?” she asked.

  “I did.”

  “And what was that potion you made me swallow?”

  Aeron frowned. He knew exactly what was happening. “It was a fertility potion, to ensure that you would get pregnant.”

  Gasps were audible all around the camp. “Now tell them what the plan was,” Tesni ordered.

  “It was to put you into a situation where you were dishonored and unable to train, so that you would steal the orb for Agrona when you turned to her for help, because we assumed that even your own father would kick you out,” Aeron admitted.

  “You assumed wrong,” Ryder said, placing a hand on Tesni’s shoulder. “I would have been a little disappointed, at first, but Arya and I would have supported her all the way, no matter what.”

  Those who had always believed in Tesni, like Arya, Rowan, Fiona, and Enid, stood by, smiling at Tesni’s vindication. Those who had believed Aeron, like Liam, were standing around muttering. They had clearly trusted the wrong trainee.

  With Aeron’s final admission of his own wrongdoing, he was tied up and hauled out of camp, taken to the prison in town.

  Tesni turned to Arya. “What about the annulment?” she asked. “Those vows were magically binding.”

  “Don’t worry about that right now,” Arya said. “Once you find your true love, you’ll feel a warm sensation that makes you feel good all over. At that moment, when you first kiss him, the annulment will be immediate. As it is, you can be considered single and ready for courtship right now. It was clear that it was an invalid marriage in the first place.”

  The rest of the Rangers began to disperse to their evening duties, then. Tesni ran off to the stables, to her horses. She needed something familiar, and though she knew that the others wouldn’t judge her, she felt that the horses were the best choice to be able to talk to, as they wouldn’t talk back.

  Arya turned to Ryder. “Well, that worked out better than we could have hoped,” she said.

  “Aye,” he agreed, “it did.” They walked hand-in-hand back to their tent, where Arya noticed something glowing from her trunk. She and Ryder knelt down together to look at it. She opened up the trunk and pulled out the scroll, the glow of which was fading.

  It was Tesni’s bow scroll. Every Ranger had one. It listed off the things a Ranger had to do to earn their weapon, whether that was bow or blade. Much like the parchment that recorded the times and scores for the obstacle courses, the parchment of the scroll was imbued with ancient magic.

  This scroll had been created as soon as Arya had made Tesni her protégé. It was something to be kept secret from the protégé, so that they wouldn’t look at the scroll and go seeking ways to fulfill the requirements before they were really ready. However, when one was inadvertently fulfilled, it was magically crossed off the list and the scroll would glow.

  Two things, Arya found, had been scratched off of the list, and she showed them to Ryder. “Self-reliance in a dangerous situation when help is not available, and grace under pressure,” he recited.

  “There isn’t much left,” Arya admitted. “Five known ite
ms, and then the mystery quest.”

  The mystery quest was just that. When all of the other items on the scroll had been completed, the magic in the scroll would set a mystery quest for the young Ranger. It would no doubt be dangerous, but it was sure to be a fair test of Tesni’s abilities and all that the girl had learned under Arya’s tutelage.

  “At this point, she’s earned her sash,” Ryder said.

  “I know,” Arya said. “When do you want to hold the ceremony?”

  “It’s not as big a deal as the jacket or bow,” Ryder said. “It’s something small that we can do tomorrow night.”

  

  The ceremony was, indeed, a small one. It didn’t stop Tesni from being surprised, however, when she was pulled up in front of the entire camp. Her dress sash was tied at her shoulder, her day sash around her waist.

  The Rangers, however, never missed an opportunity to throw a party, and a Ranger earning her sash was definitely a good enough reason to throw a big one. Yet another bonfire was lit. Instruments were pulled out and dancing began.

  “I am so proud of you,” Ryder said, hugging Tesni. “To earn your sash at sixteen is a big accomplishment, anelya. I’m also proud of the way you handled yourself yesterday. You’ve begun proving yourself to be very capable.”

  “Thanks, atar,” Tesni whispered.

  “You’re growing up so fast. Before I know it, we’ll be celebrating you earning your bow,” he said, ruffling her hair.

  Tesni smoothed it back out. “How does Arya know, anyway, when I’m ready?”

  “We have our ways of knowing and keeping track of our protégés’ progress,” Ryder said. “Trust me, she monitors you far more closely than you realize.”

  Tesni was swept away, then, by Rowan, who was finally claiming a dance with her. “Congratulations,” he said, twirling her around.