“So how did you come to terms with what you had done?”
Arya sighed. “I just had to take it one day at a time. It helped tremendously that I had Alastar and the other lads of the Thieves Guild. We had known each other since childhood and formed the Guild together. Then I met your father, and he helped, as well. Never forget that, Tesni. You have so many people here who love you and who are willing to help you through this. You are never truly alone.”
Tesni bit her lower lip, as if in thought. There was something tugging at the edge of her mind, something that she felt she had to do. “Well, I know what I want to do next. No, I know what I have to do next.”
“And what would that be?” Arya asked.
“This has gone on long enough,” Tesni said. “You’re right. There are so many who are willing to help me and stand behind me, and they merely know me as the horse master’s daughter. I know that they will also stand behind me as their queen. It’s time I confronted Agrona, neutralized the threat that she presents, and claimed my throne.”
Arya smiled at her step-daughter. “I remember something someone very wise once said to me. His name was Didymus, and he was your paternal grandfather.”
“What did he say?”
“Well, I was working on a project,” Arya said, “and he was watching me. Like your father, your grandfather was a swordsman. He preferred throwing knives as a ranged weapon. The bow for him was something he only picked up because the bow course is part of earning your blade. They just require a lower score. Anyway, I was repairing my bow, and he asked me why I was doing it that way. I just shrugged and told him that it was because that’s the way it’s done.”
“And what did he say after that?”
“He said, ‘Well, if that’s the way it’s done, Arya, then that’s the way you must do it.’ Now, I’m passing this advice on to you. If that’s what must be done, then that’s what you must do.”
“Yes, it must be done,” Tesni said, “but I don’t think he was asking out of curiosity. I think he was trying to get you to actually think about what you were doing and why you were doing it instead of simply accepting that it was correct just because it was what you were taught.”
Arya looked thoughtful for a moment. “You know, Tesni, perhaps you’re right. You always have been very clever. You must have inherited such cleverness from your mother. After all, she encoded the message that told you who you were, and you figured it out when no one else could have.”
The fact was that Arya had looked at Tesni’s bow scroll before coming to find her. All of the known requirements had been scratched off, and the final bow quest had been revealed. Incapable of choosing a quest for which the new Ranger was not ready, the bow scroll had been emblazoned with the task of defeating Agrona and reclaiming the throne.
The task was a daunting one, even to Arya. That throne was Tesni’s destiny, however, and Arya knew that her protégé was more than capable of fulfilling the quest set before her. She had mentioned it to Ryder, who had agreed that, as nervous as it made him, it was something Tesni had to do. And now, having not seen the scroll, Tesni knew by instinct what was now required of her, even if she didn’t know the entire reward that awaited her upon successful completion of the task at hand.
Chapter 18
Arya pulled the box containing the orb from its hiding place the next morning. The older Rangers who knew what it was watched with interest. “What is Arya carrying?” Fiona asked. “It must be very important.”
“It is,” Branwen said. “Arya carries the orb, the most important artifact in all of Linwood. It glows in the hands of the rightful ruler, and the Rangers have guarded it for over a decade. If Arya has it out, you can be certain that she has good reason to believe that someone should be tested for the right to claim the throne.”
“Is there no magic that can trick the orb into glowing for the wrong person?” Fiona asked.
“No, it is impossible to trick. Believe me, Agrona is a powerful sorceress. If any could have done it, it would have been she, but she tried after the king and queen were killed, and it would not light up for her. That’s when the rumors of a lost princess started.”
“Why a princess?” Fiona asked. “Why not a prince?’
“You worked in the palace until you were twelve,” Branwen said. “Think about it. Were there any males around who seemed highly favored?”
Fiona shook her head. “No, there weren’t. But Mother did sometimes complain that Queen Rhiannon seemed to unfairly favor one of the other handmaids.” She thought for a moment. “In fact, now that I think back that far, I seem to remember her. She gave birth to a little girl when I was eight. She named her…Oh! It all makes sense, now!”
“What does?” Branwen asked.
They, like the others, had arrived at the stage by this point. Everyone had gathered there when they had seen Arya carrying the box containing the orb. They knew something big was about to happen. It was in Arya’s purposeful stride.
Arya walked up the steps and joined Ryder and Tesni there. “This does,” Fiona said. “The favored handmaid’s name was Cliona, and she named her daughter Tesni.”
As the Rangers watched, Arya opened up the box. She pulled the beautiful gold and emerald globe from its container and held it out. With shaking hands, Tesni took it. Again, the orb glowed with a light that blinded Tesni and everyone around her.
When the light finally settled down to a soft glow, Tesni looked out at her fellow Rangers and smiled softly, shyly. The rest of the Rangers looked on in awe. It took a moment for the meaning of this event to sink in. When it did, every Ranger in the camp went down on bended knee, genuflecting before their comrade and rightful queen.
Tesni tilted her head, confused. “What are they doing?” she whispered to Ryder.
Ryder chuckled. “You are our rightful queen, Tesni. They’re showing their respect to you. You have their very allegiance. The Rangers pledge themselves to Linwood and its rightful rulers, and right now, that’s you.”
Tesni sighed. “So who wants to help me defeat Agrona?” she asked.
Bows and blades went up into the air with a roar of assent. Tesni was pleased to find that she had been right. Her fellow Rangers would stand beside her.
The Ranger camp suddenly turned into a military base, and Tesni suddenly found herself under a constant guard as word spread quickly about who she was. The royal guard had wanted to move her immediately into the palace, which Tesni had balked at. She remained calm, however. “Has it been properly maintained and kept clean?” she asked. “Also, does it have fresh food?”
The guards admitted that this was not the case. “No, your highness, but it can be taken care of quickly. Many former members of the royal staff have taken new jobs, but only await your orders to return to work.”
“Then I will be safer and happier here in camp, where there is plenty of fresh food and my fellow Rangers to help me,” Tesni said. “I will send out royal orders as soon as I have drafted them.”
She turned, then, and went to work. She obtained a list of former palace servants and where they currently lived. She obtained ink, a good supply of quills, and plenty of parchment. She wrote letters to each of them, asking Fiona what she remembered of them to help her personalize them.
When a messenger took the letters away, Tesni turned to more urgent and, in her mind, far more important matters, helping to plan the assault on Agrona’s keep.
“I need to face Agrona personally,” she said at last. “It needs to be just her and me.”
Tesni’s words met silence. She stood in a tent with her parents, Rowan, Fiona, Branwen, Liam, Aeron, and Lucas, the head of the royal guard. “Your Highness,” Lucas said, “are you sure that’s wise? Agrona is a dangerous and powerful sorceress.”
“When was the last time you fought her?” Tesni asked.
Lucas frowned. “I’ve never fought her,” he admitted. “By the time any of us realized she was responsible, I had already h
elped her to escape a threat we learned too late was of her own making.”
“Then trust me when I say that she is not as dangerous as you believe. She is a sorceress, to be sure, but I do not believe she is as powerful as legend makes her out to be. For nearly nine years, I have been fighting her. She tends to use her own cunning and the brute strength of her minions more often than she uses magic.” Tesni paused in her assessment of her grand-aunt. “I have come to believe that the use of magic weakens her and takes energy from her that she can ill afford.”
“I agree with Tesni’s assessment,” Fiona said. “I was once her servant and I saw her rest after every use of magic.”
“So did I, when I worked for her,” Aeron said. “She used a spell to enhance my charisma, to make it easier for me to trick Tesni and earn her trust. She had to rest immediately after.”
“That’s helpful insight from all three of you,” Arya said.
“And I can offer more,” Lucas admitted. “I know what recharges her, and it isn’t a nap. She’s never alone in bed.”
Tesni looked at Lucas. “I was not aware that Agrona is a succubus,” she said. “You must have been exhausted after your encounters wither.”
Crimson crept into Lucas’s cheeks. “I should have known you would guess that I was once her lover,” he said, “but she is not a succubus. She is merely a temptress who uses magic to draw energy from men.”
“I have an idea,” Tesni said at last, “but it requires that we have a sorcerer of our own.” She was looking directly at Aeron as she said this. “And somebody told me that he studied magic before coming here while he was attempting to seduce me away to Agrona’s clutches.”
“Yes, but that was under Agrona, and I am really uncomfortable using the type of magic she uses,” Aeron said.
“Aside from Aeron’s discomfort,” Ryder pointed out, “Agrona would likely recognize it and know that it’s Aeron’s work.”
“I’m not asking you to use the same magic Agrona uses,” Tesni said. “I’m asking you to study illusory magic to the point where you can completely replicate someone riding a horse, including voice and mannerisms.” Aeron gulped as Tesni said the three words that nailed the lid upon his coffin. “You owe me.”
“What did you have in mind?” Aeron asked, defeated.
Tesni just smiled.
Aeron practiced for a month before he declared that he was ready. When he demonstrated what he had been working on for Tesni, she nodded her approval. They tested it on Ryder, Arya, and eventually even Alastar. All of them were fooled, and Tesni declared him ready.
The next day, Tesni mounted her horse and led the Rangers and the royal guards into battle, leading them to Agrona’s keep. Almost immediately, they were met by Agrona’s forces. Clearly, she had more than they had known about, but nobody panicked. They had anticipated this possibility and built up the biggest army that they could. Now, they would fight, and they knew that the time had finally come for victory against the evil sorceress who had kept a shadow over Linwood for so long.
Agrona stood at her window, watching the approaching army. So, the time had come for the final showdown, and Tesni had raised and trained an army in only a month. A fairly sizeable one at that, Agrona noted. Even though she intended to win the day, she could appreciate her young enemy’s cleverness and ability to lead.
Reluctantly, Agrona admitted to herself that Tesni was a natural leader who would likely make a good queen if Agrona were willing to let her. But Agrona wasn’t willing to let her. She would stop at nothing until Tesni was dead and she, herself, was queen.
“And now it comes down to just the two of us.”
Agrona whirled around, having expected no voice to come from behind her. There was Tesni, standing there, her bow drawn. “So, your presence out there is an illusion spell, is it?”
“Aye, it is.” Tesni kept her thoughts and emotions masked, but inside, something was telling her that this was too easy. “By the time the sun sets, one of us will be dead, leaving the other free to rule Linwood as queen.”
Tesni let her arrow fly, but as she predicted, the situation was too good to be true. Agrona had a magical shield up around her. “Did you really think it would be so easy, Tesni?”
“No, I didn’t,” Tesni admitted. “To be perfectly honest, I’m surprised I even got the chance to shoot.”
With a wave of her hand, Agrona sent a secret door grinding open and sliding into the wall. There was Arya, her hands tied, two guards holding onto her. A third stood behind her, holding a blade to Arya’s neck. “You left your pregnant step-mother behind, unprotected,” Agrona said as Tesni drew and notched another arrow. “Shoot at me again, and she dies.”
Tesni frowned. Then she whirled around and fired an arrow at Arya. At least, it seemed as if she was going to shoot Arya. Instead, the arrow zoomed past her, nearly nicking the bottom of Arya’s left ear to bury itself into the neck of the guard holding the blade to Arya’s throat.
The guard and the blade both dropped, but the other two guards had no time to realize what had happened to their comrade. Tesni had already flipped her bow on its side, notched two arrows, and shot them both at once, piercing their hearts, freeing Arya.
Tesni turned back to Agrona, then. “You underestimate me, as always.”
With a wave of her hand, Agrona sent a fiery blast in Tesni’s direction. The young woman quickly lowered her bow, dropped to the ground, and rolled. If she could just keep this up, she knew, she could tire Agrona out.
Arya, now freed of the guards’ grip, attempted to tackle Agrona, trying to help her step-daughter. Agrona, however, threw up an icy wall between them, completely separating Arya from Agrona and Tesni. “Now, Arya, you know that’s not how this is done,” she said.
The distraction, however, gave Tesni the chance to tackle Agrona from behind. The two of them struggled, wrestling with each other. Agrona stole a blade from Tesni’s boot as Tesni drew one of her other blades from her belt. Agrona held the stolen blade against Tesni’s side even as Tesni held hers, poised to go through Arya’s chest.
“I could kill you with impunity right now,” Tesni said, “but you do not have the same advantage. If you push that blade into my side, the weight of my fall will push my dagger into your evil heart.”
“You foolish girl, it is mutually assured destruction,” Agrona said. “Do you not think that I have already spelled this blade to lift my hand up the minute I die, or that I will find time to stab you even as I feel the tip of your dagger bite my flesh?”
Tesni bit her lower lip. Agrona was right. Either of the scenarios she presented were entirely possible. But Tesni knew something about the magic that Agrona did not, and then she smiled. “So be it. I, Tesni Greenblade, rightful Queen of Linwood, being without spouse or child of my own, do hereby name as my successor the firstborn child of Ryder Greenblade and Arya Summerbreeze, such child being my younger sibling and thereby a rightful heir to Linwood’s throne, and such title shall he hold so long as I remain childless.”
The magic swirled around both Tesni and Arya. Arya’s hands flew to her abdomen, and she knew instinctively what Tesni had just done. Tesni smirked as she realized the incantation had worked and plunged her dagger into Agrona’s chest.
Even as she killed Agrona, Tesni felt the dagger Agrona had taken from her bite into her left side, close to her heart. She fell from the pain as the dagger’s blade slid between her ribs. The last thing Tesni saw as her eyes closed was the wall of ice melting all at once and Arya running towards her.
Chapter 19
On the field outside Agrona’s keep, something happened. A dark mist began to emanate from the woods as well as from Agrona’s soldiers. The soldiers stopped fighting. The Rangers and the royal guard looked on in awe, wondering what to do. Honor dictated that they not continue to attack a foe who had peacefully laid down their arms. But what about that mist? Was it an attack? Or was it something else?
“Please, we ask for peace,” he said. “I am General Cian Nightsun. For years we have longed for our freedom from Agrona’s spell that we might finally serve the true rulers of Linwood. The dark spells no longer fill the woods, for if we are aware and able to put down our arms, then Agrona is dead and Linwood is free.”
Ryder stepped forward. “I’m Ryder Greenblade, horse master and leader of the Rangers of Linwood, and this is Lucas Daystar, head of the royal guard. If what you say is true, then any moment, now, my daughter, who entered the castle to strike the final blow, will be emerging any minute.”
“Your daughter must have a special grudge if you let her go in after Agrona,” Cian observed.
“My daughter is Tesni, daughter of Cliona and granddaughter of King Ithel and Queen Rhiannon,” Ryder confirmed. “She is the rightful heir to the throne, now that her mother and grandparents are dead, and she has proven it by holding the orb. The glow from it was so bright it nearly blinded the entire camp.”
“Then we shall gladly serve her and remain loyal to her for all our lives,” Cian said. “She has freed us, and for that we can never repay her.”
Several minutes passed as they all talked quietly and Aeron removed the illusion spell from Fiona, who had been playing Tesni and riding on Tesni’s horse. Then, as the door to the keep opened, they all turned to look, but it was not Tesni walking out the door. Ryder, more than anyone, was surprised to see Arya walking out, carrying Tesni in her arms.
Ryder’s heart leapt into his throat. How was this possible? He had left his wife back in camp. Had Tesni somehow actually lost? What did this mean?
Rangers of Linwood (The Five Kingdoms Book 1) Page 16
