The Chosen

by K. J. Nessly

  “Tired of the rich and pompous already?” David asked in mock disbelief.

  She tossed him a quick glare. “I was tired of them before I got here.”

  The musicians began playing and the couples began to dance.

  “I do agree that they seem to prefer to let their reputations from their younger days speak for themselves rather than prove it later in life.”

  She grimaced. “Lord Grenville has the worst form I have seen in years.”

  David laughed. “Only you would consider commenting on his form.”

  “I noticed you did rather well during the fight with Prince Derek—

  “Thank you—

  “—considering you threw the archery competition.”

  He glanced down at her. “You noticed that?”

  “I think I was the only one. I’ve seen you shoot at home and while you might not be a master archer, you aren’t that bad.”

  “You noticed all that from the royal box?” He asked in amazement. “I’m impressed.”

  “Not really when you consider that archery is my preferred method of fighting.”

  “I heard that you are good with your knives.”

  Kathryn shifted to look up at him. “Who told you that?”

  “Matt mentioned it.”

  “Oh.”

  “Are you any good?” David asked curiously, interested to hear her opinion of her own skills.

  “What did Matt say?”

  “That he hasn’t beaten you yet.”

  For the first time he could remember, Kathryn laughed, it was a soft laugh, but it was definitely a laugh. “Neither have Daniel or Tyler.”

  “You’ve beaten Matt, Daniel, and Tyler?” David asked impressed.

  She nodded against his cheek.

  “What about Luke?”

  She shrugged. “His style is similar to yours. You really should consider adding in some faster strokes. If I’d been your opponent during the sparring tournament I could have ended the session before you’d parried three of my moves.”

  He was fighting a grin now. She said it so matter-of-factly he doubted she even realized that she was giving him advice on how to stay alive. “Perhaps I should take lessons from you.”

  She shrugged again. “You aren’t too bad. If you were desperate enough you might be able to beat me, although you’d have to come up with some new moves since I just watched them all during the tournament.”

  “You sound confident, especially since most of those moves were for sword fighting and not knife fighting.”

  “I have reason to be and besides, your sword fighting style differs only slightly from the style you use when you wield your knives, most of the moves transfer directly over.”

  “You are very observant.” He paused. “You beat all three?” he asked remembering how advanced Tyler was with the sword. Whenever they sparred, David had to work hard to emerge the victor. He was almost as good as Luke.

  Smiling with her eyes she added, “And both sword-masters at school.”

  David almost tripped over his feet. “Both?”

  She nodded.

  He stared at the young woman in front of him. “In that case, I definitely want lessons from you.”

  The dance ended and Lord Tanner came over to ask for a dance. Another waltz began and immediately Kathryn noticed several differences between David and Tanner—the first difference being the placement of their hands. Tanner kept his hands considerably lower than David.

  Kathryn wasn’t about to put up with a cad on the dance floor, she reached around and replaced his hands, “If they ever drop any lower,” she warned. “I’m walking off this dance floor immediately.”

  Properly chastised, Lord Tanner apologized. “Did you watch the sparring tournament?” he asked as they waltzed.

  “Yes.” Kathryn had an uneasy feeling about Lord Tanner, his hands may have followed her edict to stay put, but they wouldn’t stop moving.

  “What did you think of the contestants?”

  “Sir Darian is an impressive fighter.”

  “What did you think of Prince Derek and myself?”

  “I noticed that you both lost to Sir Darian, was there something else?”

  Lord Tanner’s jaw tightened. “I could have beat Sir Darian if I’d tried harder,” he informed her tersely.

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “It would have been embarrassing.”

  Kathryn didn’t ask him to elaborate, even though it was obvious that he wanted her to. In fact, for the remainder of the dance her responses were just shy of rude. After the dance she quickly curtsied and hurried off, feeling, for a reason she couldn’t identify, distinctly filthy.

  For the rest of the night, Kathryn did her best to avoid Lord Tanner. Both Prince Derek and Prince Darcy asked her to dance several times, so did Matt, Daniel, Tyler, and Luke. David constantly appeared when Lord Tanner seemed to approach, asking her to dance. She wasn’t sure how she felt about the knowledge that David was playing protector…again.

  When her feet began to ache, Kathryn left the ballroom and took shelter in the gardens, following the paths and streams to a small waterfall. The sound of the falling water soothed her nerves.

  “It’s time to go home,” Kathryn muttered to herself as the first rays of dawn appeared on the horizon. Picking up her skirts she hurried back inside where the last strains of a minuet were being played.

  “Wasn’t that a marvelous party?” Natalie asked dreamily as the girls made their way back to their rooms. “I wish we didn’t have to leave.”

  I’m so glad we do, Kathryn thought as she collapsed on her own bed for a few radians’ sleep.

  Chapter 28

  Dressed as nobility, the Dragons left the palace in the mid-afternoon, Natalie bemoaning the lack of parties the whole way out of the city. David had decided they would travel as nobles until they reached home. “After all,” he had reasoned. “A large party of nobility returning from the king’s celebration is a lot less conspicuous than a large group of teenage commoners.”

  Natalie enjoyed traveling as a noble rather than a commoner. “It gives me a chance to ride a lady’s way,” she had chirped as she seated herself.

  The rest of the girls, however, did not share Natalie’s opinion of the sidesaddle. “Nothing more than a pain in the butt,” Amy had complained as Luke and helped her into the saddle.

  Kathryn had to agree, especially since she had only ridden sidesaddle twice before. Jenna, Leia, and Cass endured the discomfort in silence, but Lindsey and Rachel occasionally let out phrases of disgust once they were well on their way.

  Luke rode up to where Kathryn and David rode in the front. “I never got a chance to tell you,” he said to David. “But your archery stinks.”

  David smiled. “It stunk on purpose, Luke.”

  “You…you mean…?” His friend couldn’t bring himself to say it.

  David laughed. “Yes, I threw the match.”

  “I can’t believe it!” Luke cried. “Why would you do that?”

  “Because I intended to win the sparring tournament, which I did.”

  Luke turned to Kathryn. “Did you know he threw the archery tournament?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you let him?”

  “I couldn’t exactly call out from the royal box to tell David to get his act together.”

  Luke suddenly grinned. “Why not? That would have been hilarious!”

  Twisting slightly in her saddle to face him, she responded, “I also noticed that you didn’t participate in the archery contest, any particular reason why you didn’t?”

  Here David felt honor bound to protect his friend from making a complete fool of himself in coming up with a believable reason aside from the fact that he wasn’t a good shot. “Luke had already distinguished himself in the hand to hand combat and doing well in the javelin tournaments,” he said smoothly. “I’m sure he didn’t want to risk an appearance of omnipotence by excelling in archery as well.”

>   She tossed both of them a look that clearly displayed her lack of enthusiasm for David’s explanation, but she dropped the matter and Luke resumed his position next to Amy.

  They followed the Nahar River for over a week, and then planned on tuning east at the convergence and upwards towards their home. It was a long way to return home, but David wanted to ensure that no one would suspect where they really lived. He planned for Kathryn, Amy, and Jenna to visit Princess Jasmine’s palace, with Daniel and Matt playing escort, nothing that wouldn’t be considered unusual since Kathryn was his aunt’s ward.

  He mentally shook his head as he remembered his surprise when Derek had told him that their aunt was finally bringing her elusive ward to the celebrations. David’s response had been something along the lines of, what ward? When his brother had asked Kathryn if she was the ward his aunt had raised he’d thought Derek had suffered a blow to the head. He hadn’t been prepared for Kathryn to reply “yes”. Natalie could have kissed him at that moment and he probably wouldn’t have been able to react.

  They were still quite a distance from the place David had selected for Kathryn and company to go their own way when David called a halt. Stopping for a midday meal, David couldn’t help but admire the nice weather they’d had on the trip so far. “What a beautiful day.”

  Kathryn frowned and looked over her shoulder. “Not for long,” she informed him.

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Look at the mountains.”

  David turned to look. The Rawasi Mountains looked as normal to him as any other mountain range. “What about them?”

  Kathryn sighed. “Not at them, look above them,” she instructed.

  He looked again and noticed what she had, dark boiling clouds were heading towards them—and fast. “That does not look good.”

  “Can we outrun them?” Luke asked following their gazes.

  Kathryn studied the sky for a moment. “I doubt it. Those clouds are moving extremely fast.”

  “We’ll just have to tough it out,” David decided. “Get out your rain gear,” he called as he remounted. “We’re about to get wet.”

  By evening the storm was upon them. The wind hit first, its intense fury howled all around them flattening the grass before them and ripping at their clothing. The horses kept their heads down and plodded onwards, struggling against the raging storm. Half a radian later the clouds arrived, darkening the landscape and the mood of those beneath. With the clouds came rain, lightning, and thunder.

  The powerful wind drove the downpour into every crack and hole in their gear. Despite all their best efforts the Dragons were soaked through in minutes. Lightning lit up the sky in quick bursts of energy, destroying their night vision and their ability to navigate. Rumbling thunder made it impossible to understand each other unless they shouted in one another’s ears. Destiny had perched on Kathryn’s saddle the moment the storm began and was presently nestled in a special pocket inside Kathryn’s cloak.

  They plodded on. The lighting flashes and roar of thunder were incessant. Several of the horses were on the verge of bolting, their eyes wide with panic. Daniel, Matt, and Luke bent forward gently thumping their horses necks while reassuring them. David could just make out a few of Matt’s words between the near deafening peals, “...alright girl....make it…won’t be much longer.”

  Leia, Lindsey, and Amy were doing their best to calm the horses using their gifts, but the strength of the storm was overpowering their influence.

  “We can’t continue on like this!” Luke shouted to David after several radians of blind navigation that was only serving to get the group lost.

  “I know!” David shouted back. “We need shelter, but I haven’t found a safe place yet!” He was hesitant to use the forest in a storm like this since the lightning, and winds this strong, could easily topple trees.

  A rumble of thunder drowned out Luke’s next words. “What was that?” David hollered. The wind tore the words from his lips, flinging them across the storm battered plains.

  “I said look harder!” Luke shouted back.

  Kathryn, huddled on Lerina, looked around for shelter. Another flash of lighting illuminated a tower of rocks.

  A tower of rocks that was very familiar.

  A feeling of dread washed over Kathryn, penetrating farther than the wind and rain ever could.

  No! Anything but that!

  “Face your past. Learn new lessons. Until you do, you cannot know yourself.” Elyon’s words echoed through her mind. Since his last visit she had tossed aside his words like dry leaves in the wind. Now it looked like Elyon just might get his way after all.

  “Follow me!” She shouted to David, and turned Lerina towards the rocks. With every step her horse took, the worse Kathryn felt. They passed the rocks and she led them near the edge of a forest.

  After a few minutes she stopped and squinted, it should be right—there! The large mound of rock where shelter stood was about eight kilometers away. She felt physically sick.

  “What do you see?” David shouted in her ear.

  Kathryn pointed northeast. “Do you see that rise?”

  “Barely.” The lightning flashed again, illuminating a steep incline topped with an odd-shaped rock. “Yes, I see it.”

  “There’s shelter up there.”

  “I hope you’re right!” David hollered as he waved the rest of the group together.

  I hope I’m wrong, Kathryn thought miserably. She’d rather take her chances in the forest.

  “We go in groups!” David shouted in order to be heard by all. “Jenna and Kathryn will go with me, we’re on our way to Deirca,” he said, referring to a city on the Rima-Heltic border. “Matt you take Elizabeth and Rachel, you got lost on your way to Heltic, pick some random nobleman’s manor as your destination. Amy, Natalie, and Lindsey I want to go with Luke, you were on your way to the governor’s palace in Cadras. Leia, Cass, you go with Daniel, you were heading for the city of Taerma. Tyler you’re going to come in alone, you were on your way to Frarler. Keep your story true to the basics. You were returning from the King’s Ball and got caught by the storm.”

  Each group quickly assembled and David sent Luke’s group up first. After twenty minutes passed, and he picked up no heightened emotions from the wind, he sent Matt, Elizabeth, and Rachel next. He waited what he guessed to be a radian before sending Daniel’s group up. Tyler departed half a radian later and after another radian David prodded his own horse forward, followed quickly by Jenna and Kathryn. He felt bad for forcing Jenna to stay out in the bad weather for so long, but he had wanted to make sure that the rest of the Dragons had had time to arrive and settle in before their group made an appearance.

  They reached the mound a radian later and prompted their horses up the well-worn, but now muddy and running path. A large manor house with flickering lights in the windows greeted them as they entered the courtyard. They rode to the door and David dismounted and knocked on the heavy door, “Open in the name of the king!” he shouted, hoping that he could be heard above the wind.

  After a few moments an older, sour faced woman opened the door, taking in David’s bedraggled appearance she asked, “What can I do for you?”

  “My companions and I were returning from the king’s ball but were caught in the storm,” David explained. “We are in desperate need of shelter. Can you accommodate us?”

  The woman studied him for a moment then sniffed disdainfully. “Stable your horses in the barn. I shall inform my mistress she has extra guests.”

  David gave the woman a quick bow. “Thank you.”

  They stabled their horses and with the help of the stable hands the chore was done quickly. Hurrying to the house, David once again knocked on the door. Kathryn kept Destiny hidden inside her cloak. The same woman opened the door and bid them enter.

  She led them to a sparsely furnished room with two large, and mercifully lit, fireplaces which did much to dispel the cold and draftiness of the room. “Once you’re dry, I wi
ll show you to your rooms,” the woman said, closing the door.

  Large puddles dotted the stone floor, telling David, that while none of the other Dragons were in the room, they had arrived. He helped Jenna out of her soaked cloak, she shivered and moved quickly to the fire. “Oh, this feels so good,” she muttered through chattering teeth.

  Kathryn joined them, her cloak still hanging from her shoulders.

  “You’ll dry faster if you remove that,” David suggested as he nodded to the soaked material.

  He watched her jaw clench and unclench several times before she moved to unclasp the cloak. Destiny flew out of the cape and perched herself high above and out of sight. Kathryn moved stiffly towards the fire, rain water dripping from her hair. The raging wind and driving rain had tangled her hair so badly that David wondered if she’d ever be able to comb it out. Glancing at Jenna he didn’t doubt she too was facing a long evening of similar activity.

  The sound of large amounts of water splashing on stone drew his attention and he glanced back at Jenna to see her wringing water from her skirt. That, at least, explained where the puddles came from. The healer let out a sigh of disgust. “If only cotton didn’t absorb so much water,” she moaned. “I feel like I’ve gained five kilos.”

  “You probably have,” David chuckled.

  She threw him a reprimanding glare, the first he’d ever seen cross her face. He hurried to explain. “Like you said, cotton absorbs water and water weighs a lot.” Where was Luke to talk him out of trouble when he needed him?

  Before she could reply the door to the room opened and a richly dressed couple entered the room. Beside him Kathryn stiffened and drew in a sharp breath. He turned to look at her, but her gaze was locked on the flames.

  David stepped forward to greet his host. He sensed Jenna and Kathryn falling into place behind him. “I cannot thank you enough,” he said with a bow.

  “It is our honor to provide shelter for those of our own class,” their host intoned. “Please, you are most welcome to stay until the storm passes.”

  “My companions and I are grateful for your hospitality.”