The Last Druid

by Colleen Montague

  Lina let out a low whine and rubbed her nose against Calla’s hand as if it would be enough to wake her up. No response. She hopped down and resumed pacing for the next hour.

  The sky outside changed from blue to light orange as the sun sank lower towards the horizon and the shadows along the walls of the room darkened. A servant entered with a lit candle that she set on the bedside table, watching Lina warily with her eyes before backing out of the room again.

  Lina sighed, wondering where Hiran was. He had taken to visiting Calla every night and would stay for hours. Some nights he talked to her, others he just stared at her, most nights he fell asleep in his chair with his head resting against her arm. He had taken the whole thing hard. But he hadn’t come yet tonight. That seemed a little off.

  Are you losing hope, Hiran? Lina wondered.

  There was a low moan from across the room. Lina pricked her ears up, listening closely. For a moment only silence followed and she thought she was just hearing things, but then the sound came again. She heard the wooden bed frame creak as its occupant tried to move.

  With a happy yip Lina bounded across the floor and put one foot up on the side of the bed. Calla? she asked excitedly.

  “Ow.” Calla had tried to sit up but her wounds were still tender; with a gasp she dropped back onto her pillows. Lina glanced down. Calla’s torso had been wrapped up in strips of linen after her skin had been stitched up, and because of the girl’s effort there were now several red stains where she had broken the scabs. Lina wrinkled her nose at the scent of the blood. Calla’s chest rose and fell quickly as she tried to breathe through the pain. “Where am I?”

  Lina crawled over to the other side of the bed and hopped up onto the mattress, dropped onto her stomach and inched forward gingerly until she had snuggled up under Calla’s arm with her chin on the girl’s shoulder. You are in Elenan. Welcome back to the land of the living, she said. We were all worried about you.

  Calla opened one eye and looked at her. “What happened? Did…we win?”

  “Indeed,” said a deep voice from the foot of the bed. “You are quite the lucky one, my dear.”

  Lina snapped her head around and growled loudly. Ronan stood by Calla’s feet just at the edge of the light, a warm smile on his face. Lina never heard him coming; she hated it when the gods did that. She bared her teeth at him when she caught a whiff of his scent—he still reeked of demon, even if he was rid of the creature once and for all.

  Calla lifted her head slightly. “Ronan?” she asked after a minute.

  “You are much stronger than any of us expected,” he said, coming to sit on the edge of the bed next to her. “You lost so much blood in so little time. None of us thought you would survive.”

  Calla placed a finger to her chest, feeling the cuts beneath the fabric. “I almost died?”

  Your heart stopped at least three times, Lina said, not taking her eyes off Ronan.

  “The demon’s claws cut deep. By the time we could get to you, you had turned as pale as marble and your soul almost left us. It took several days to put muscle and bone back in their proper places. You have slept since then. Elenia was adamant about keeping you here,” he said in response to Calla’s questioning look. “And I was and still am indebted to you for what you did for me; it is because of you that I stand here now and this world lives on. Therefore I closed the Gates of the Afterlife to you and drew your soul back to the realm of the living. You are young, and the life ahead of you is full of promise. My sister…” He hesitated for a moment, seeming to scramble for words before saying, “chose well.”

  Lina relaxed slightly, still a little distrustful of him.

  “But…but what happened to the demon? What about—”

  Ronan held up his hand to stop her stream of questions. “Relax, young one—you are too weak for this kind of excitement.”

  “Please?”

  Ronan sighed and shook his head, but he looked more amused than annoyed at Calla’s insistence. “Very well,” he said, “since it seems you will not rest until I sate your curiosity.” He put a hand on her forearm. “We won, Calla—we all won.”

  Her eyes widened in disbelief. “Are you serious?”

  “I fool you not. Against we who are the Three the demon Bralon stood no chance. Our combined strength was more than enough to cast him into the Void. The army that followed has scattered in light of his demise: the humans surrendered while his monster followers have turned on each other. The world will now know true peace for a time, something it is truly in need of.”

  “What about Dranl?”

  Ronan cocked his head to one side like a bird, confused. “The other mortal?” Calla nodded. “My sister took care of him. Bralon’s influence infected him to his core; he was beyond saving and too great a threat to leave in this world, but Elenia chose not to send him to the Void after his master. She sent him to live out the rest of his days in the deep caverns of the Earth, wrapped in enchantments to keep him from returning here.”

  Good riddance, said Lina.

  “So he’s not dead.” Lina thought she heard a note of disappointment in Calla’s voice.

  “No, but your cats almost did him in; one of them came quite close to severing his spine at the neck and piercing a major artery in the same place. Elenia called them off before banishing him to the darkness. My sister has grown quite fond of them, actually—she has decided to let them live in her realm on the mountain. They are an impressive bit of Earthmagic.” He set both hands in his lap and gave a start. “Oh, I almost forgot—your friend was here. That young man you have grown so fond of.” He reached over to the bedside table.

  Calla blinked as she thought over what he could mean. “Hiran?” she asked, her eyes lighting up. “He’s all right?”

  There is hardly a scratch on him, Lina replied before Ronan could speak. Out of all of us, he is the one who has worried the most about you. He has been in here by your side every night since you were brought back. Tonight, though, I do not know where he could be. He has never been this late before.

  “You are blessed to have someone like him in your life. I have sensed his thoughts and feelings, and there is hardly a moment when they are not centered on you.” Ronan placed something into her hand. “I believe he intended to give this to you when you awoke.”

  Calla lifted her hand so she could look at the object; Lina sat up and stared at it as well. Dangling from her fingers on a thin strip of leather was a tooth, almost three inches long with an incredibly sharp point and bleach-white in color. A small hole had been drilled through the wider end for the leather to be threaded through; it was meant to be worn as a pendant. The tooth had been taken from a Brilken. Lina vaguely recalled Hiran pulling it out of his shoulder when the battle was over, where it had broken off after a Brilken tried and failed to chew off part of his arm.

  Calla gathered up the leather in one hand and closed her fingers around the tooth. “I want to see him,” she said quietly.

  “In time.” Ronan stood up to leave. “But for now you should rest.”

  “But—”

  “Rest, child.” He waved one hand through the air over Calla’s head. Instantly the girl’s eyelids began to droop, and letting out a sigh she sank further into her pillow. In a minute she was sound asleep.

  Ronan headed for the door but paused halfway across the room, turning back around to look at Lina. “You know,” he said, “I could arrange for one of the Nymphs to create a new leg for you to replace the one you lost.”

  Lina jumped down from the bed, landing lightly on her feet. As much as I appreciate the offer, my lord, she said, I cannot accept. Besides, I have grown accustomed to not having it anymore, and its absence does not trouble me too much.

  “I will not force your decision, great wolf; it is yours to make.” He turned and left the room.

  Lina flicked her tails as she walked back to the window. She yawned as she settled down on the floor. Resting her chin on her front paw she closed her eyes and fe
ll asleep.

  XLI

  Hiran

  Hiran sat out in the gardens in front of the tower, holding one knee tucked up under his chin as he leaned his back up against a large statue. A passing wind rustled through the plant life around him and blew at his matted hair but he otherwise ignored it. The noise of usual activity came up over the garden wall, the shouting of people as they headed home for the night; the festivities that had been taking place down in the city had stopped around a week ago. The world was back to normal, for everyone else anyway.

  For him the world was now…strange.

  He twisted around to look up at the tower, searching for that one window in the evening light—hers. His eyes came to rest on one on the third floor. There was a creature sitting on the edge of the balcony there; Hiran had to strain his eyes but he was able to make the silhouette out as Lina’s. A light had been brought up to Calla, shining out through the door a bright orange against the dim twilight. He couldn’t make out any sign of movement within the room.

  He let his head drop back into the statue a little too hard and didn’t flinch at the impact. He closed his eyes and let out a breath. Calla had finally woken up a couple of weeks ago and with continued help from the Nymphs and humans her strength was returning. He had wanted to see her, to see for himself that she was all right, but suddenly he couldn’t bring himself to go to her. The feeling grew worse when he heard how she kept asking after him, begging to see him.

  It was sad that he’d taken to hiding from her like this, but there was a lot on his mind that he wanted to sort through first. Being around her right now when his feelings towards her were such a jumbled mess would create even more confusion for him.

  He heard the sound of footsteps walking across the grass coming in his direction. Hiran lifted his head and listened for a moment; the step was far too light to belong to any of the gardeners or even a visitor from the city. They had to belong to a Nymph, or possibly Elenia herself.

  “We have been wondering where you ran off to,” the woman said before he could turn to look.

  Hiran turned his head away while Kosh took a seat on a stone bench beside him. Her robes were in tones of gray and brown, the lightweight fabric settled around her gently. Holding her hands in her lap she stared down at him. “Why are you here by yourself?” she asked.

  “I needed to think,” he replied.

  “Calla has been asking for you, you know. She misses you.”

  “I know it.”

  Kosh placed a weathered hand under his chin and turned his head towards her. “Then why will you not go to her? Why do you insist on being alone when others crave your company?”

  Hiran stared at some point past his feet. He didn’t answer her.

  Kosh just stared at him. “Hiran, what troubles you?”

  Hiran closed his eyes. “She does.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Hiran flicked at one of the felted cords hanging from his head. “I cannot explain it that well.”

  “At least try? It is possible I can help you.”

  “No one can help me.”

  “Try me.”

  Hiran sighed. “I am so confused when I am with her.”

  “She is your friend, is she not?”

  “A friend wouldn’t just kiss me for no reason other than luck.”

  “As I recall from the tales of others, you kissed her first.” The old woman smiled.

  He held his head in his hands. “Gods, I do not know anymore. I feel…something…for her, some feeling more that I cannot understand.”

  “You have fallen in love with her,” Kosh said matter-of-factly.

  Hiran gave a hollow laugh. “I have known so little of that emotion myself, so how can I know that is what I feel towards her?”

  “Spend time with her. Find out how she feels towards you. Calla craves your company more than anyone else’s—that should tell you something.”

  “Maybe.” He let his hands drop back into his lap. “But then maybe not.” Once or twice in the past he had entertained the idea that maybe he and Calla could have a relationship that was something more than friends, but that was all it had been—an idea, a wish, something that would most likely never come to be. Now that idea was potentially budding into reality, and he found himself at a loss of what to do.

  Kosh sighed and looked back over her shoulder towards Calla’s window. “She will be returning to her homeland tomorrow,” she said after a moment. “She was hoping you would accompany her.”

  He couldn’t suppress the smile that managed to spread across his face. It was a tempting idea—travel with her, make sure she made it home without incident, possibly even stay with her if she allowed it. He almost laughed; he was already making himself sound like a lost puppy and he hadn’t even said ‘yes’ to the suggestion. Perhaps he could find his happy ending if he agreed to that.

  But was it what he really wanted?

  “Will you go with her?” Kosh asked insistently.

  Hiran stood up. “I would like that,” he admitted. “But I cannot.”

  “Why?”

  Hiran paused. “My heart is conflicted,” he said at last. “Part of me wants to keep the life I have lived for so long, the solitary wanderer; the other half wants to leave that life behind, to take the chance that she might let me be part of hers. And perhaps some of it is fear that she would not want my company anymore.” He looked back at the old Nymph. “Until I can resolve my heart to one of those options I think it is best that I remain apart from her—at least for a little time, so I can think more clearly. That is why I thought I should leave.”

  “You should tell her this yourself.”

  “I cannot—that will make this even harder than it already is.”

  Kosh stood up. “She will not forgive you for this, I can promise you. If you feel this to be the only solution, then so be it—I will delay you no longer. However, I will give you one piece of advice: do not take too long.” She looked him directly in the eye. “She cannot be expected to wait forever for you.”

  Hiran swallowed nervously, but nodded his acknowledgement. Kosh still didn’t seem to be convinced by his answer judging from the scowl on her face, but she didn’t voice any objections to it. Instead she simply said, “Luck go with you, Hiran.”

  “And for you, Kosh,” he replied as she turned and headed through the garden back the way she had come. He watched her for a moment until she rounded a corner and disappeared behind a hedge. Hiran sighed and looked back up at Calla’s window.

  Kosh was right about one thing: Calla would probably never forgive him for leaving. But he didn’t want to stay and risk permanent destruction of what they did have between them while he battled with himself to discover what he really wanted. He had some decisions to make, and he had to make them on his own.

  “I will be back,” he said quietly towards that window. “Someday, I will return to you.” He marched off into the darkness.

  XLII

  Calla

  Calla walked out of the stables with a saddle and blanket draped over her arms. Outside one of the grooms held her horse by the bridle, stroking the animal’s neck and speaking in a low voice to keep him calm. The white stallion gave a snort and shook his head.

  Honestly human, he said, I am not a new colt. I do know how to stand still.

  “He doesn’t know that, Frost,” Calla said as she came up to him. She handed off the things she was carrying to the groom and took his place by the stallion’s head. She stroked his soft nose with one hand. “You do know I’m the only person who can understand you, apart from the Nymphs and Lady Elenia?”

  I know it. I was just trying to make a point.

  “Uh huh.” Calla reached up to scratch between his ears.

  While the groom smoothed out the blanket on Frost’s back and move to put the saddle on him Calla tilted her head back, letting the early spring sunshine warm her face. It felt good to be outside again after being confined to her room for so long. Her c
hest still ached from where Bralon’s claws had slashed across her chest but there wasn’t any more serious pain there. The Nymphs had used their powers to try and speed up her recovery as much as they could, taking it in stages so it wouldn’t cause any more damage to her body. After that she had to work on building her stamina up again after being bedridden during her recovery. It would still be some time before she was completely healed and back to normal, and everyone was advising her against travel.

  But she had grown restless in recent weeks. It had nothing to do with the lack of action or danger now—she’d had her fill and then some, enough to last a lifetime. She had enjoyed being here in Elenan, but it lacked the touch that made it feel like home. She’d made many friends during her stay here, but she found herself wanting to see those familiar faces she had left behind.

  It was time for her to leave this world behind.

  As Calla absentmindedly stroked Frost’s nose, a nagging feeling itched at the back of her mind. She frowned. She had been through a lot and had thought it was best to let all of it go, to let every one of those moments live only as shadows of memory, but she suddenly wasn’t so sure. Not everything she had witnessed had brought her to darkness and despair.

  She had wanted to keep him.

  She bit back her own bitterness. Hiran had left her—he stayed by her side when she was unconscious but never came after she had woken up again; he left without saying goodbye. It stung. He had been her watchful guardian in those darker moments of her life but now that it was all over he was nowhere to be found and no one had any idea where he had gone. He must have known how much she wanted to see him, and he had always been happy to give her his company when she wanted or seemed to need it in times before.

  Hiran, she thought, why did you go? Was it something she said or did? Was he having second thoughts about being with her? Did he decide she would be better off without him from now on? So many questions and what-ifs, and she couldn’t find an answer for any of them. It made her heart sink.