DarkSkull Hall

by Lisa Cassidy

  “You brought me letters!” she said with glee.

  “Wait!” He yanked the letters back before she could grab them. “After I’ve come all this way, I expect to at least be given a tour of this DarkSkull Hall I’ve heard so much about before you hide away to read those.”

  “I hate it here.” She sniffed.

  He laughed aloud. “Well, I never liked school much myself. Maybe you could drop out and join the Blue Guard too? We could use a good cook right now; you can cook right, being a girl and all?”

  “Lieutenant?” Another of the Blue Guard rode up. “What do you want us to do?”

  Dashan looked questioningly at Alyx.

  She sighed and rolled her eyes. “All right, I’ll give you a tour. I suppose you deserve that much at least—those letters do look heavy.”

  “Excellent. Take the unit back to Weeping Stead, Nario. I’ll meet you back there this afternoon.”

  “Will do.” Nario tipped his hat, wheeled his horse and rode away.

  “Weeping Stead?” Alyx asked.

  “It’s a village just on the other side of the valley wall, about a half hour’s ride. It’s on the road here. You probably didn’t see it on the way in because it was dark. We’ll be billeted there for the next two months.”

  “You will?”

  Dashan nodded. “The king ordered that we stay so you’ll have us nearby. Then, when the year finishes, we’ll escort you and the A’ndreas twins home. Now, how about that tour?”

  “Come and see the twins first. I know they’ll want to see you. We don’t talk about it much, but they’ve been as worried as I have that you and the other Bluecoats made it home safely.”

  He offered an arm with twinkling eyes. “Lead on.”

  She took his arm and led him up the steps into the main hall. Up close, it was obvious he’d grown taller in the past seven months. He would be twenty now, and looked a full-grown man. He wore his hair short, though it was spiky from the hat he’d been wearing. A few days of stubble coated his jaw.

  “So.” He leaned down to whisper theatrically in her ear. “Are there really ghosts here?”

  She laughed.

  He smiled. “Can you turn me into a mouse yet?”

  She laughed again. “If I could, you’d already be a mouse scurrying along at my feet.”

  “Disappointing.” He sighed. “What crazy magical power do you have?”

  “That is yet to be discovered.” She looked up at him. “It’s a long story.”

  “Well.” He playfully pulled her close. “I have all day.”

  The twins were as astonished as Alyx had been when Dashan appeared in the dining hall. Finn barely waited until he’d sat down before launching into the same questions that had been building up in Alyx since she’d first seen Dashan.

  “Did you all make it safely back to Alistriem? What was the king’s reaction to the attack on us? Did you find out why we were attacked?”

  “Yes, we all made it back.” Dashan sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “The king was furious. Skirmishes in the disputed area are one thing, but Rionn and Shivasa are not at war, and the attack on us was unprovoked. The Shiven claimed we were an armed unit riding without permission across their border, which was blatantly untrue because we were still in the disputed area when they attacked.”

  “The king didn’t believe them, did he?” Alyx demanded.

  “No, but he couldn’t publicly accuse them of lying without risking escalation to war. Instead, he came to an agreement with the leader of Shivasa that both sides would start notifying the other of every patrol in the disputed area.”

  “Oh.”

  Dashan made a face. “There was an official parchment signing ceremony and everything. It dragged on for hours, and I was assigned guard detail.”

  “Sounds like fun.” Dawn’s mouth quirked in a smile. “Is it safe to go home overland, or will we need to travel by ship?”

  “Alyx’s father and the king secured permission for your return journey through the disputed area, and the Shiven wouldn’t dare attack us this time. The king made it very clear who Alyx is the daughter of.” Dashan’s jaw tensed. “They weren’t confident enough to send my unit through the disputed area to get here though.”

  “You’re worried.” Alyx touched his arm.

  “No, I’m sure it’s fine.” He shrugged off her concern. “I’m just grumpy because it took us almost two months to get here by ship, and over half the unit got seasick.”

  “Not you?” Alyx teased.

  “Of course not me! Let me tell you though, it smelled bad.” He grinned at the look of distaste on all their faces. “Now, I want to hear all about DarkSkull Hall.”

  “All right, let me tell you first about languages and mathematics classes.”

  The distaste on Dashan’s face made her chuckle. “You have to do both those things?”

  “And a lot of others,” she said, rising. “Come on, I’ll tell you all about it while I give you the tour.”

  Chapter 22

  Dashan left just after lunch. Alyx had shown him around the grounds and the stables, and explained a little about her life at DarkSkull Hall. The twins had left them alone to catch up and gone to the library.

  Alyx didn’t tell Dashan about Galien or the attack. Knowing Dashan, he was liable to lose his temper at someone, and that wouldn’t do anybody any good. After the tour Alyx walked him back to the entrance, where he passed her the letters with a wink, tipped his hat at her, and rode away.

  Alyx went straight up to her empty room where she opened the letter with Cayr’s handwriting. He wrote earnestly and at length about how much he missed her. She closed her eyes for a moment, picturing him speaking the words and the way his blue eyes focused so intently on her when she was around. Smiling, she continued reading. He gave her an accounting of the work he was doing with his father, and how intimidated he was by how much there was to learn in running a country. By the time he finished the letter with anecdotes of their friends at court, some of the heaviness of her depression had lifted. She could tell from the letter that he missed her as badly as she was missing him.

  The letter from her father she left to read for later. Part of her remained angry at him, even though she didn’t quite know why. With relations with Shivasa clearly on a knife-edge, she understood intellectually that her father obeying the king’s orders was important, but still... was it wrong for her to want him to put her first?

  Eventually, hunger drove Alyx down to the dining hall. It was late afternoon by then and the orange glow of the lowering sun lit up the room. Only one person was there when she entered, sitting alone at one of the tables with the History of Mages lying open in front of him.

  “Don’t tell me they’re still in the library,” she said in surprise.

  Brynn looked up at her entrance. Immediately he closed the book and stood, walking over to the sideboard to fill two glasses with fresh lemonade. “Dawn was down here for a little bit earlier, but went back to join Finn. Come on, let’s go sit out on the veranda and watch the sun set.”

  Alyx accepted the cool glass of lemonade. “I’d like that.”

  They walked out onto the veranda and sat together on the edge, their legs dangling out over the lawn. Laid out before them were the stables, the orchards to their left, and beyond that the valley fields, and then the eastern valley wall. The sun was just above the summit of the surrounding hills, a beautiful sight.

  “So why weren’t you studying with the twins? Even I was going to join them after getting a snack.” Alyx asked.

  “No reason. I wanted some time to myself.” He gave her a sideways glance. “You’ve certainly shown a renewed interest in studying recently.”

  “I’m trying to make more of an effort.”

  “Because of your promise to your father and honouring the Egalion name and all that?” he said, a tinge of amusement in his voice.

  “Not just that,” she said quietly. “I don’t want to be so helpless all the
time.”

  “I understand. I’m sorry for mocking you.”

  “It’s fine.” She frowned at the odd note in his voice. “Is everything okay? You’ve seemed... off... this past week or so.”

  He smiled his warm smile at her. “Everything is fine.”

  “All right.” She fixed him with a look, but his expression seemed sincere. “I have news—I had a surprise visitor.”

  Brynn listened closely while Alyx told him about Dashan.

  “This Cayr of yours sounds like he really cares about you—enough to send someone you knew, rather than a stranger.”

  “I know.” She sighed. “It makes me miss him even more, though.”

  “You really love him, don’t you?”

  Her breath puffed out in a laugh. “Well, I won’t claim to be an expert on it, but I always feel happier when I’m with him than when I’m not. That has to be love, right?”

  “It seems like a good indicator,” Brynn agreed. “And you’ll see him in just over two months, and this will all just become a bad memory.” He paused. “Because you truly don’t intend to return, do you?”

  “No. I mean it when I say I won’t be coming back.”

  “Mind if I join you?”

  Brynn and Alyx both turned in surprise to see Tarrick standing behind them, glass of lemonade in hand.

  “Sure.” Brynn shifted to make room for Tarrick to swing down beside them.

  “Where’s your family?” Alyx asked.

  “We had a disagreement. They’ve gone. It seems I’m a disappointment to them.” Tarrick glowered into his glass.

  “A disappointment? What do you mean?” Brynn frowned.

  Tarrick sighed and sipped at his lemonade. “I’ve told you that my family is important back in Zandia? Both of my brothers are personal protectors and advisors to the Emperor. Those are positions of great prestige and influence, and they’ve enhanced our family’s standing in the eyes of the emperor.”

  “Okay.” Brynn nodded. “But what does that have to do with you?”

  “My parents expect the same thing from me,” Tarrick admitted. “They expected I would come here and attach myself to the powerful pureblood students, like Galien. When I started telling them about the friends I had made, they got angry. They demanded to know why I was spending time with a healer and two lesser mages. Dawn being a telepath didn’t impress them much either.”

  “What did you say to that?” Alyx felt a twinge of sympathy.

  “I told them that I had no choice, that Galien and the others had shunned me.” He laughed bitterly. “That’s when they left.”

  “I’m sorry, Tarrick,” Brynn said.

  “It’s fine.” Tarrick shrugged and stood. “It’s not going to help me any by being seen sitting here with you, so I think I might just go and hide out alone in my room.”

  “Sure.”

  Alyx and Brynn watched him go, slightly bemused.

  “That pride of his…” Brynn mused. “He refuses to admit to himself that he likes us.”

  “You think he does?”

  “He has to be lonely, especially now his parents have deserted him.”

  “You sound like you’re speaking from experience?”

  Brynn sighed, and some of the cheerful light in his eyes dimmed. “It’s not only my parents I miss.”

  “Someone wise just told me that it’s only two more months until the end of the year when we can see the people we love.”

  “Yeah, I suppose you’re right.”

  “You don’t sound convinced. Brynn, are you sure you’re all right?”

  “Of course. I miss my family, like you, that’s all.”

  Alyx regarded him a minute, thinking. She wanted to do something with their limited time off, something other than sitting in a gloomy library studying with Finn. A wild idea occurred to her, and she sat up in excitement.

  “You said that your village was only a few hours from here, didn’t you?”

  “That’s right.”

  “And we have the rest of today and all of tomorrow off?”

  “Alyx?” A smile crossed his face. “What are you thinking?”

  She smiled back and reached into her tunic pocket to pull out the small store of coins she kept hidden there.

  “I’m thinking this will easily pay for a carriage ride to your village and back. We could even make sure we’re back before the festival starts tomorrow.”

  “I couldn’t.”

  “I have nothing better to spend the money on here. The only condition is that I get to come with you.”

  “Really?” Brynn’s eyes widened. “You’re serious?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Brynn shot to his feet. “The last public carriage service leaves at dusk from the other side of the bridge.”

  Alyx rose. “Then we’re going to have to hurry. Oh, wait...”

  “Galien and First Patrol have been closeted with Master Romas in there all day.” Brynn pointed at one of the nearby buildings. “I would have seen them if they’d left.”

  “Okay, let’s go!”

  Brynn stared at her for a moment, eyes shining. Then he leaned forward, hugged her fiercely and turned to sprint down the steps. Smiling and already feeling better, Alyx followed.

  Brynn and Alyx collected their staffs from their rooms, then met outside the main hall.

  “Should we tell Tarrick what we’re doing?” Brynn asked.

  “He’ll say no.” Alyx shook her head.

  “Alyx, come on, he and the twins will be worried if we just vanish.”

  “I know.” She sighed. “But if we linger to argue with Tarrick, we’ll miss the... wait, I have a better idea.”

  Alyx had caught sight of Jayn and an elderly woman walking towards the steps. She grabbed Brynn’s arm and ran over to them.

  “Hi.” Jayn smiled. “This is my grandmother, Merial.”

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Alyx said politely. “Jayn, could you let Tarrick know that Brynn and I are going to visit his family? We’ll be back before the festival starts tomorrow.”

  Jayn’s eyebrows shot upwards. “You want me to be the poor messenger he’ll shoot?”

  “We don’t have time to go and argue with him now. Please?”

  “All right.” Jayn acceded. “But you owe me one. Next time I get dishes duty...”

  “I’ll do it! Have fun with your grandmother!”

  The carriage appeared only moments after Alyx and Brynn arrived, breathless, at the stop. Alyx glanced back towards the valley as she climbed on; it felt as if a small weight had been lifted from her shoulders to be away from the DarkSkull grounds. There were only two other people in the carriage, farmers by the look of them, and both returned Brynn’s friendly greeting.

  It was dark when the carriage stopped at a signpost on the main road they’d been following southeast from DarkSkull Hall. The two farmers were still onboard, but Alyx followed Brynn as he jumped off onto the road.

  “This is your village?” she asked dryly. “The middle of nowhere?”

  He smiled. “It’s down this way.”

  He was pointing to a narrower road that forked off and led through the trees. Alyx followed as Brynn headed down it, keeping up as his pace increased with excitement. A full moon broke through the cloud cover above soon after, lighting the night around them in a dim glow.

  They weren’t walking for long before she saw lights twinkling through the trees ahead. They rounded a turn in the path, and ahead was a wide space of cleared land. In the moonlight, Alyx could see the cluster of houses that made up the village, and the wide village green right in the centre.

  “Welcome to Fotiya,” Brynn said proudly. “There are more houses that you can’t see, mainly farms, just over those hills.”

  Alyx’s first thought was that the place was tiny compared to Alistriem. At a quick count there couldn’t be more than a hundred houses. But it was dark, and she guessed it would look bigger and more vibrant in the daylight.

  “Co
me on, we live over here.”

  He was almost jogging now, and Alyx had to stretch her legs to keep up with him as he turned left and followed a wide dirt track lined with houses. He stopped outside a house at the end of the street. A low fence surrounded the small property, and inside was what appeared in the dimness to be a well-tended garden.

  Brynn pushed open a gate and ran to the door, hopping up the single step and knocking madly. Only a few seconds passed before the front door opened, allowing a gleam of warm light out onto the porch.

  “Brynn?” It was a woman’s voice, soft with astonishment.

  “Mother!” He grinned, then swept her up into an enormous hug.

  “Brynn, it’s really you.” Tears sheened her eyes. “How did you get here?”

  “A friend helped me.”

  Brynn turned and cast about in the shadows for Alyx. She stepped forward, feeling awkward.

  “Mother, this is Lady—”

  “Alyx,” she spoke over him. “I’m Alyx.”

  “Come in, both of you.” Brynn’s mother stepped back from the entrance. “Your father and brothers and sisters are going to be so excited to see you.”

  “I’m just Alyx here, Brynn,” she murmured to him as they walked down a narrow hall. “I don’t want to make a fuss.”

  “Sure.”

  The hall opened up into a large family room. A fire burned brightly in the corner, and the room seemed full of people. They’d been talking, but all fell silent when Brynn entered.

  “Brynn!” a young girl shrieked after a second. She launched herself off the floor and flew at her brother.

  “It’s good to see you too, Amelda.” He laughed.

  Another girl joined the hug, then the two young boys near the fire rose too. They looked like they were trying to be more dignified than their sisters, but it was clear they were overjoyed to see their brother.

  “Jorin, Rory, it’s good to see you.” Brynn shook hands with them enthusiastically before turning to hug a portly man hovering behind them. “Dad!”

  Eventually Brynn extracted himself from his family members and turned to Alyx. “Everyone, this is my friend, Alyx. She helped me come and visit.”