The Legacy of Skur: Volume One

by L. F. Falconer

  Kael tucked the talisman back beneath his shirt. “I do not seek protection. I seek answers. Is there nothing more you can tell me?”

  “All I can say is, good luck. Now I will ask you to remove yourself from my presence. The temptation of the possible power hidden within that stone is too great for me to bear. Leave me now and never return.”

  Kael left the wizard’s quarters more frustrated than when he’d entered.

  On the road to Avar, where a year ago twenty-five warriors had ridden full speed away from the village, today fifteen warriors returned.

  Approaching the bridge that crossed the brook, Dian told his son, “I must go inform the widows of our fallen brothers.”

  Kael did not envy him that duty and he reined his gelding left, toward home. Taking the horse inside the barn, he hurriedly tended to its needs, anxious to get into the house.

  When the gelding was secured for the night, Kael stepped out of the barn to a yard alive with flowers. A neat, rock-lined path that had not been there when he’d left led through the profusion of blooms to the door. Through the open windows he could hear Alyn singing. Her voice was a tonic, and he stopped momentarily to listen before stepping across the threshold.

  8

  Triumph and Tragedy

  Alyn sat at the table shelling peas. When she heard the hoof beats on the road, she gazed for a moment at the open window but resisted the urge to go to it. The hoof beats did not slow, but continued past the house on the road to Avar and she sighed, thankful that she’d not stopped her task only to be disappointed once again. That horrible war was lasting forever—would the men of this house ever return?

  She began to sing, attempting to take her mind off the man in her thoughts, but when the door suddenly swung open and he stepped inside, Alyn reeled back with a gasp. Unable to contain herself, she sprang to her feet and rushed across the room, but stopped when she reached the center of it. Surely this was most improper behavior. He was, after all, only her employer. An employer who didn’t even care for her.

  “It is good to see you home safely, sir.” Her cheeks flushed warm. “Is the war over?”

  Working out of his armor, Kael nodded. “It is good to be home.” He eased off the hauberk and removed his sword belt. “There were times I thought I’d never return.”

  “And … your father?” Alyn asked hesitantly, admiring Kael as he loosened the laces of his leggings. Oh yes, he was dusty, battle-weary, and thin, but that only seemed to enhance this simple, yet so sensual task she enjoyed watching him perform.

  “He is well,” Kael said. “He had some business to attend to in the village.”

  For several moments, they simply stared at one another before Kael crossed the room. This woman was even more beautiful than he’d remembered, and he wished she’d not stopped when she did. How wonderful it would’ve been if she had run into his arms. He’d yearned so long to know her embrace, to know her warmth. “Where is Elva?”

  “She is sleeping.”

  Kael approached the bedchamber the child shared with Alyn.

  “She is quite a handful, I must say.” Alyn stepped up behind him as he peeked in on the sleeping child. “She’s become very high-spirited, sir, and I tried my best to make sure she wouldn’t forget her Papa while you were gone.”

  Kael turned around and looked down upon the woman behind him. Her nearness was maddening. He deliberately moved away, coming to stand before his own bedchamber, and knew he wouldn’t be able to quash his want even if he tried, for it began to surge, demanding attention.

  “She’s grown so much,” he sighed, trying to remove his mind from his desires. “She’s no longer the baby I left behind.” Certainly the child no longer needed a wet-nurse, and the memory of his first meeting with Alyn flashed before his eyes causing him to feel dizzy, and he leaned back against the wall for support.

  “Are you all right, sir?” Alyn asked, coming to his side once again.

  “My name is not sir.” He gazed into her worried eyes. “It is Kael. Please call me by my name, Alyn.” How he longed to hear her say it.

  “Yes sir, Kael, sir.” She grasped onto his arms. “Do you need to sit or lie down? I can get you some tea if you desire.”

  He shook his head, surrendering to his mounting needs. “There is only one thing I desire.” He took her face into his hands and pressed his lips against hers. It was an impetuous act, he knew, but he’d made a vow to himself. Even if she hated him afterwards, he would, at last, know the taste of these lips he’d craved for so long.

  The kiss was sweeter than he’d ever imagined and to his surprise, she did not resist, returning the kiss instead and his head spun like a whirlwind. Keeping his mouth to hers, he dared to tip the velvet. As their tongues danced he brought his hand down onto her bosom, a randy heat firing him up and he roughly caressed the soft roundness of her breast, that bountiful dairy he’d once been offered. Though safely shielded beneath the cover of her dress, he could still envision it and the memory only provoked him, all his dreams and fantasies converging into a torrent. He pulled her tightly against him. A small moan rumbled from her throat, feeding his headiness. A ravenous hunger, compounded by years of denial, screamed to be satisfied. He succumbed to the unconquerable exigency, forcing her back and down onto his bed. It was more than a kiss he desired. Much more than a kiss, and that desire swept him away in a tidal bore.

  His hands tugged at her skirt, his intent clear and Alyn struggled against it. How long had she dreamed of being within his arms—of being taken to his bed? But not like this! Not to merely be the convenient receptacle of a man’s lustful grind. No. She had dreamed of a romantic, seductive interlude, culminating into a divine play of passion.

  “No, please, sir. Not like this.” She’d expected so much more of this man, with all his regal airs and ways, but his carnal nature was no less than any other, and surely when he was done he’d just toss her a few coins and send her packing.

  He fumbled with her pantaloons. She clamped shut her eyes, attempting to hold back her tears, but still they crept out. She could not even pretend to enjoy this, her heart disillusioned and despaired. After two years of caring for his home and the child, of trying to prove she was still a woman of value, he saw her as nothing more than a whore. He did not care for her when he’d hired her and he did not care for her now, and what a fool she’d been for ever hoping that he would.

  Kael suddenly pulled away. With a woeful groan, he rolled off the bed and clambered to the wall. “I am damned.” He banged his head against the wall. “I am damned, damned, damned. A pox on me! Wae, a bloody plague and a pox on me!”

  Alyn pulled her skirt back down, watching him through her tears. It was as if he’d been poisoned. Was she truly that corrosive? And did he have to be to bloody blatant about it? She hadn’t asked for this! But he’d tainted himself, for sure. He had nearly dirtied his bloody, virtuous self with a whore and now he’d surely send her away. He’d send her away and she would have nothing. All that she’d come to know and love would be lost. Elva. The house. The garden. And even this damned man! It would all be lost forever.

  Her broken heart was unconstrained and she buried her face into the bed, weeping.

  Kael pressed his face against the wall, fumbling to retie his trousers. He was ruined. He had nearly broken the law. The law he had sworn to uphold. What had come over him? How could he have done such a heinous thing? What had possessed him? All he’d intended was a kiss. Just a kiss. Nothing more. What had happened? The shame of this transgression would haunt him forever.

  The sound of Alyn’s sobs wrenched his heart and he grimaced. He had disgraced himself and he had disgraced her. Nothing had mattered except the urgency of his wretched tools. In one moment of weakness, he’d managed to strip them both of their dignity, and now she would hate him. She would hate him and she would leave and he would never see her again. He could not let that happen! Not now.

  Crawling back to the bedside, he bowed his head in shame. “F
orgive me, Alyn,” he beseeched. “Please. Please forgive me, I beg of you. I am such a loathsome canker. I had no right. I had no right whatsoever.”

  His words caused Alyn to choke back her sobs and she gazed upon him in confusion. He was apologizing?

  “I understand … that men have needs,” she whimpered.

  Kael raised his head. Looking up at her tear-stained face, he reached up and gently brushed the tousled hair from her face. “Needs, indeed,” he whispered. “Needs and wants and desires for a beautiful woman. I love you, Alyn. I have burned with a madness for you since the first moment I laid eyes upon you. I tried to deny it, but I can contain it no longer. But I had no right. I had no right to try and take you like that, and I beg you to forgive me, please.”

  He loved her? He had always wanted her? She sat up, unsure if she dared to believe.

  “I am a disgrace,” Kael wailed as he tore off his jerkin and flung it across the room. Still kneeling beside the bed, he hung his head. “I tried to take you against your will. I’m not fit to call myself a warrior of Tilla.” Grabbing his hair, he shook his head back and forth. A low moan rumbled from his throat.

  Alyn slid off the bed. She knelt beside him and grasped his arms. “You broke no law, sir. Believe me, you would have taken nothing from me that I was not willing to give you.”

  He gazed into her eyes. “If that is true, then why do you cry? Why did you fight against me?”

  What was she supposed to tell him? His behavior had been sudden, unexpected, and not what she’d hoped for. It was not his intent she had struggled against, merely the manner he’d pursued it.

  “Please. Stand on your feet, sir,” she said, tugging at his arms.

  “My name is not sir,” he groaned.

  “Stand on your feet, Kael. You are an honorable man and a worthy warrior. You do not belong on the floor.” The damage had been done. There would be no harm now in telling him the true feelings in her heart.

  Reluctantly, he allowed her to help him stand, and she stood before him, taking his quivering face within the palms of her hands.

  “Long have I dreamed of knowing the touch of your hands upon my flesh,” she spoke, staring straight into his eyes. “And long have I dreamed of knowing the power of your manhood inside me. I have looked down that wretched road every single day since you left, hoping to see you come riding back, all the while knowing in my heart that my dreams would never be fulfilled. Knowing in my heart that you would never want a soiled woman like me.”

  “But I do want you, Alyn, and it took almost dying for me to realize that. But I did not mean to … I meant you no disgrace. Truly. I don’t know what came over me. It is like I am dying of thirst and you are a cup of water, but I never meant to hurt you.”

  Alyn brought her hands down to his chest, staring at them as she spoke. “It only hurt to think you didn’t care.”

  He cupped her chin into his hand and raised her face. It was a face he’d grown accustomed to. A face he’d missed. “I do care,” he stated. “I love you and I want to know you. I want to know you as my wife, if you would have me as your husband.”

  Her eyes opened wide in shock. “Are you sure of this, Kael?”

  “I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life. I cannot bear to be apart from you. I cannot bear the thought of not being free to touch you, or the thought of you being in the arms of another. I would kill or die for you, and am willing to proclaim my undying devotion before the entire realm, if necessary. Please, do not refuse me, for if you do I will surely just wither away and die.”

  Joy laced her eyes with mist. “You needn’t do that. I have no intention of refusing you.”

  Beneath his smile his face glowed with a light she’d never seen before. Taking her into his arms, he kissed her without hesitation, pulling her tightly against him in an unrestrained embrace. Their hands roved hungrily as the kiss deepened with such fervid intensity they failed to hear Dian come through the door.

  He watched them as he freed himself from the bonds of his armor, and he watched them as he crossed the room, stepping around Kael’s jerkin cast carelessly upon the floor, and he wondered what he might have walked in on had he not come home so soon.

  Folding his arms across his chest, Dian loudly cleared his throat. Kael and Alyn pulled apart, burning and breathless beneath his stony stare. Guilt was evident in his son’s eyes and he could only imagine what had inspired it.

  “Kael,” he finally spoke. “What are your intentions toward your brother’s widow?”

  Kael reached out and firmly clasped Alyn’s hand. “We are to be married, Father.”

  Dian turned to Alyn. “This is what you want?”

  “Yes sir,” she answered without hesitation. “With all my heart.”

  “Very well,” Dian said. “It seems we have extra cause for celebration tonight. But mind you, son,” he thumped Kael’s chest firmly with his finger, “save something for your wedding night.”

  Dian chuckled silently within. It had taken them long enough. It had been obvious how they felt about one another—it was about time they admitted it.

  A fortnight passed. All arrangements had been made. Kael and Dian left for Avar in the morning, leaving Alyn and Elva alone to get prepared. Kael had given her a package wrapped in sackcloth tied with twine, telling her to open it only after he’d departed.

  Alyn’s fingers nervously untied the twine and her face pursed in joyful awe as she caught sight of the contents within. Two dresses of the finest linen with delicately embroidered white caps to match, a small vial of rose oil, and an intricately beaded necklace of garnet and pearls nestled within the sackcloth.

  “Oh, Elva,” Alyn cried as she pulled the smaller of the dresses free, holding it up high. “Look what Papa brought us!”

  She bathed the girl in the bucket of water warmed by the fire, then combed Elva’s hair and tied it neatly out of her face, making sure the points of her ears were securely hidden beneath the embroidered white cap before she tied the lace edges snugly under the girl’s chin.

  “Where’s Papa?” Elva asked.

  “We’ll go see him soon,” Alyn told her as she slipped the new dress over the child’s head.

  “Where’s Papa?” Elva asked again.

  “He’s in the village with Granpapa,” Alyn answered while she disrobed and began washing herself.

  The child watched her intently, asking again when her mother had finished bathing, “Where Papa go?”

  Alyn smiled and removed the cork from the vial of rose oil, sniffing it. “Papa went to the village. We’ll go see him soon.”

  She poured a small pool of rose oil into the palm of her hand and rubbed it over her skin. Only wealthy women used rose oil, and she was euphoric at the luxuriousness it provoked. But she used it sparingly, saving some for another day.

  “Where’s Papa?” Elva asked again, climbing onto a chair, watching her mother curiously.

  “Oh, dear Elva,” Alyn sighed in exasperation. “How many times do I have to say it?”

  Elva grinned impishly, cupping her hands together. “Papa’s playing,” she giggled.

  “Is he now? How is Papa playing?”

  Elva giggled again. “Papa’s playing … with rocks.”

  Alyn smiled and shook her head. “Don’t be silly, Elva. Why would Papa play with rocks?”

  Elva pursed her face in deep concentration. Then her face brightened and she squealed, “’Cause Papa’s happy, Mama.”

  Alyn gave the child a smile and withdrew her own dress from the sackcloth. Holding it up, tears came to her eyes. The dress was a simple, straight sheath with a modestly cut neckline edged in lace, gathered with a drawstring in the front. The long sleeves were loose and trimmed with lace. A wide corset of the palest blue, and a white cap, were both lace bedecked and embroidered generously with tiny white flowers.

  She had never owned such an elegant garment and she wept as she slipped it on. It was soft and fit perfectly and she knew Kael had spent a
great deal of money on it. It reminded her of the dresses worn by the ladies of the palace which she had occasionally seen in Fead, and she began to laugh as she recalled the very first dress he had ever bought her.

  “Pretty Mama,” Elva cooed. “Pretty blue.”

  Alyn hugged the child. “Yes. Pretty Mama and a very pretty Elva, too.”

  The child tugged at the hem of her own dress. “Pretty Elva.”

  “The prettiest girl in the entire realm,” Alyn told her as she combed her own hair, letting it hang loose and free about her shoulders. She hooked the dainty necklace about her neck and set her cap in place.

  It was nearly midday and Kael had said he’d send for her then. She was put upon thorns, anxiously pacing about the house, trying her best to answer Elva’s incessant questions and keep the child clean, and her heart skipped a beat when she heard the sound of hoof beats on the road.

  “Come now, Elva.” She scooped the child into her arms. “Mama and Papa are going to be married today.”

  She climbed into the seat of the wagon Kael had hired, and the driver headed back for Avar. She had been aware that, because of Kael’s station, the wedding would be an event, but as the wagon approached the village square, she began to tremble. She’d not been quite prepared for this. The square was alive with townspeople and fellow warriors from afar who had come to witness the event. Before the bakehouse were two long tables laden with a great feast. A troupe of musicians lingered patiently near the pub.

  The wagon driver pulled to a halt and Dian came forward to help Alyn and Elva alight.

  “Once again you become my daughter,” he said, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. “You would have made Fane a fine wife. I know you will do no less for Kael.”

  “Thank you, sir.” Her cheeks flushed with guilt for having had to continually lie about the son she’d never known.

  Dian took Elva by one hand and Alyn by the other, escorting them to the center of the square where Kael stood waiting outside the circle of stones he’d assembled that morning.