A Crown of Flames

by Pauline Creeden

  His eyes were so angry, she noticed with amusement.

  "You can rule with me," she said.

  But this was a lie. She knew it as soon as it came out of her mouth.

  Egill swayed slightly. "I would not rule with you.”

  "True enough. Not unless you get over all your sanctimonious talk and murder the queen by yourself."

  He shook his head again and again. "That's enough. No more.”

  She made a rude noise with her lips. "It shouldn't bother you to take over for the queen. She’s already becoming incapacitated, a little more every day, thanks to your work."

  "It is not something I take pride in."

  "You should," she cooed, taking Egill’s chin in her hand and forcing him to look at her. "Look at what you can do. All those years of service for Queen Saehildr, finally rewarded with a position of your own."

  "Stop." He jerked away.

  "It's too bad she couldn't recognize talent when she saw it,” she said thoughtfully. “Now look at you, moving into your own rule at last. Long live the king. But,” she added, "You won't be able to keep this position, because you're going to be overthrown by a young upstart, an ingénue, some little girl who was born about the same time as my famous sister ...."

  "Never speak of her again," Egill snarled.

  She simpered, buffing her fingernails on her shirt. "You can't bury the past, can you? What are you going to do when everybody finds out that my mama is the queen, hm?”

  Egill stared at her with disgust.

  “She certainly repaid you for your silence. How careful you two were! How discreet! And you abandoned me with that witch, gave out that she was my mother, and you left me alone with not even a thought and left me to fend for myself. Me, the royal heiress.”

  Egill shrugged. "I couldn't have very well brought you home, could I've?"

  "It happens all the time," Nauma said.

  "You're making too much of it,” he growled.

  She smiled. Slightly. It wasn't a real smile. It was just a thought about how he'd die.

  She picked up some of the queen's trinkets sitting on the shelf, and imagined how gratifying it would feel to own all these beautiful little things, to call this grand room her own, to sit in her chair as its owner and not an usurper.

  “Secrets always rise to the surface,” she said, “like something undead."

  She blew a kiss at him.

  "Thank you, daddy."

  27

  Pursuit

  “Where are you?” she heard Ibn say.

  His voice pulled Dyrfinna back to herself.

  She was back next to the woman’s house with the smell of baking bread all around, and Ibn’s arm around her.

  And she could not utter a meaningful word about what she’d just seen. Only a half-stifled screech.

  “What happened?” Ibn said, very worried now.

  "This is not something that I am prepared in any way to process," Dyrfinna exclaimed to Ibn. “But I know where they are," she said. "I know. They are at Queen Saehildr’s castle. I'm ready to fly there and fight Nauma now. I can go."

  “Your voice is frayed,” Ibn said. “And you can't just skip over there and fight. You’ve been fighting the dead for the last three days. You are exhausted.”

  “Ask me if I care,” Dyrfinna said. “I want to go and tear into her right now.”

  “On one hand, I agree that we need to strike while the iron is hot. On the other hand, I'm afraid that you'll get there and she will be gone again.”

  Dyrfinna scowled at the land below the castle. That fear had been nagging at the back of her mind as well. "Or that it's a trap. But we can’t pass up this chance,” she added.

  “We should pass up this chance. I am urging you to pass this up,” said Ibn.

  “No.” She was already running through ways in her mind to get close to Skala without somebody noticing her brilliant orange emberdragon shining like a rogue planet in the night sky. “But at the same time, I want them to know it’s me,” she muttered to herself, and headed straight for the emberdragon.

  “Don’t do this,” Ibn pleaded. He ran after her and caught her hands in both of his. “Don’t. You are headstrong, but you don’t need to kill yourself over this.”

  “Ibn!” she cried. “This fight is the only thing I want to do. I don’t want to wait for her to kill more children. More people. More anybody. You saw those children today.” What she couldn't say aloud was, They were all so much like Aesa, they were just the same age as she is. She could not lose control now. She could not.

  "You need food and weapons." Ibn said.

  Dyrfinna gestured wildly at the woman’s house where she was handing out loaves to hungry Vikings. “Food is coming this way. I have my good sword and my old shield. I have a spear. You have weapons. You have magic. They will serve. Come on! I am not going leave you behind."

  “Dyrfinna.”

  “I need you,” she said, a statement of fact.

  Ibn stopped talking then. Took a deep, shaky breath. “I’m still not good with flying. And I’m having serious reservations about your doing this.”

  “I’m a warrior,” she said. “The battle is all I want.”

  “Okay, then.”

  “And victory, of course,” she added. “Emberdragon! Are you able to go anywhere tonight?”

  I’m tired but I can take you someplace, she said.

  “How about Skala, to Queen Saehildr’s castle?”

  The emberdragon looked at Dyrfinna, her eyes narrow.

  “Nauma is up there right now.” Dyrfinna’s voice shook. Her … sister? Nauma was her sister? By the Queen?

  No wonder her father was such a friend of the Queen’s. No wonder he’d been able to afford dragonriding classes, and fighting classes, for Dyrfinna and all her friends.

  But she still reeled from the news. She was not ready to talk about it.

  The emberdragon lay down and curled her tail around herself and yawned hugely at Dyrfinna, choking her with the smell of sulfur. Get your things, if you have anything you need to take. I’ll be ready when you are.

  “I am getting so much bread,” Dyrfinna said, heading toward the woman’s house.

  “I still don’t like that you’re doing this,” Ibr said.

  She ran a hand over her hair, rough with tangles and snarls despite her braids. “We’re not going to wait for Nauma to strike. No more waiting. No more people living in fear. I’m going.”

  Dyrfinna and Ibn accepted several loaves of bread from the woman and hurried back to the emberdragon.

  “You’re exhausted,” Ibn said, “because you’ve done nothing for the last three days but fight and kill the undead. You’ve cleaned this land of those sad shamblers, and you’ve made the people here safe. Give yourself some credit.”

  “You’ve helped,” she said, squeezing his hand.

  Ibn took her hand in his and pressed it against his heart.

  Dyrfinna looked at him, electrified. “I’m glad we’re traveling together,” she said, her mind already racing ahead. “Could you help me step into her mind as we go? Because I don’t want her to escape again.”

  “I will.”

  “And keep helping me step into her mind until we find her?”

  “If you do, you know she’ll be able to see through your eyes,” Ibn reminded her.

  “Good. Then she’ll know that I’m coming for her,” Dyrfinna said. “And here’s an additional benefit. If we leave to pursue her, she won’t be privy to Varinn’s councils, or any of our attack plans. All of our efforts to attack her with Varinn’s troops and dragons will be safe from her spying eyes.”

  “Yes, yes,” said Ibn, nodding as if very pleased.

  Dyrfinna turned and looked at her troops. “I hate to leave them,” she said, for she loved leading her troops and working with them. “I’ll order my second-in-command to lead the troops back to King Varinn’s keep. They can tell him what we’re doing. We’ll ask him to bring the troops in under dragon guard
to keep them safe from attacks from above.”

  We can stop by King Varinn’s and tell them what we’re doing, the emberdragon said. We’ll pass by it as we travel to Queen Saehildr’s.

  “That would be an excellent thing to do,” Dyrfinna said approvingly. “King Varinn needs to know what is happening and what I saw,” she added, now sober.

  “I’m looking forward to this grand adventure,” Ibn said. “Except for the part where I’m flying on a dragon. I’m not looking forward to that at all.”

  “But you and I will be together,” Dyrfinna said quietly.

  He went red in the face. She felt her face go red, too. But they took each others’ hands.

  “Get your things,” she said. “I’m ready to go.”

  Dyrfinna bid her army a quick farewell then threw the straps around the emberdragon.

  Ibn came with all his possessions rolled up in a tight bundle for easy carrying, and Dyrfinna felt her face light up to see him. She couldn’t help it. All she wanted to do was to pounce on him then and there, but she simply said, “Hello, Ibn.”

  “Hello, delight of my eyes,” he said with a wink, and she nearly passed out from joy.

  But then she pulled herself together. “Are you ready to go for a ride?” she teased.

  His grin dimmed when he looked at the emberdragon.

  I won’t let you fall, she said to him. I’ll carry you carefully. Unless you start kissing and carrying on back there. If that happens, I can’t make any guarantees for your safety.

  “Dragon!” Dyrfinna complained.

  This isn’t a pleasure cruise, she said. But then she sniffed at Dyrfinna. I’m teasing you, the emberdragon said. I can’t even remember when I was as young and loopy as you fledgelings were. It’s been centuries.

  “We’re not loopy,” Dyrfinna informed the dragon.

  The dragon just gave her a long look.

  “Would somebody help this loopy fledgling secure his straps so he doesn’t fall screaming to the ground?” Ibn said in a sad voice, and Dyrfinna trussed him up until he could hardly move.

  “This is marginally better,” he said.

  She kissed him on the nose.

  “Hold on tight to me,” Dyrfinna told Ibn, facing front and seizing the forward strap.

  “Gladly.”

  “Krk! Not that tight!”

  “Sorry.”

  “Up!” She called to the emberdragon, and they leapt into the air. “To King Varinn’s court! We need to deliver our message.”

  The emberdragon carried them to King Varinn’s keep, and she lighted among the other dragons on the obsidian landing pad near the stables. They looked far out over the ocean where the wild wind blew, though this was tempered somewhat by the rest of the mountains in back of them.

  “Hulloa,” Hedgehog said as they coasted in. “Ibn, ’tis good ta see ye.”

  As soon as the emberdragon landed Ibn undid the half million straps holding him in place and tumbled off to the ground. “It is good to see you too,” he said, trying to sound calm though his voice’s pitch was higher than usual.

  Dyrfinna took Hedgehog’s hand in greeting. “We’re going out to track and find Nauma,” she said. “Our troops are behind us and are marching back this way. If you could send a dragon out to them to accompany them in, I would greatly appreciate it. And I’m sure you can use the assistance of my fighters, once they arrive here.”

  Hedgehog said, “We ’ave some plans.”

  Ibn raised his hand to stop her. “Nauma has access to what Dyrfinna is hearing and seeing. I don’t know what triggers the access. We don’t even know when or if she’s seeing through Dyrfinna’s eyes. At any rate, no mention about battle plans or objectives here, please.”

  Hedgehog looked surprised but nodded. “Fair enough.”

  Dyrfinna saw Gefjun and King Varinn preparing their dragon. King Varinn saw them and waved them over.

  “Oh, don’t tell me where you’re going or what you’re doing,” said Dyrfinna as she joined them, though she loved knowing things like this. ”I don’t know if Nauma is seeing any of this through me.”

  “You’re fine,” Varinn said. “I heard what you said to Hedgehog. I just wanted to thank you for destroying Nauma’s undead spawn in my land.”

  “You’re welcome, your majesty,” Dyrfinna said. “Sir, a word?”

  “Certainly.” They walked a short distance away from the others.

  Dyrfinna said, “Nauma is, as of a short while ago, at Queen Saehildr’s castle with Egill, the queen’s second in command. Egill is my father, though I hesitate to use the word with him. And apparently Nauma is my sister. Her parents are Queen Saehildr and Egill.”

  King Varinn’s eyebrows went up.

  “And apparently, if I understood their talk correctly, Egill’s been doing something to the queen’s memory or psyche. He’s affected her mind so she’s not acting like herself. But they’re talking as if they want to eventually kill her and take her place.”

  “So, in short, the queen’s second-in-command is plotting against the queen, along with their secret daughter.”

  “Yes.”

  Varinn’s eyebrows went up even more.

  He looked straight in Dyrfinna’s eyes, as if speaking directly to Nauma. “Nauma’s power is broken here, and my lands are peaceful once more. We simply have to rebuild … and we can do that. Her evil plan failed. Wasn’t much of a plan,” he added, winking at Dyrfinna. “She keeps running off. Can’t steal my crown like that, slinking around and hiding all the time. Pff. Stupidest thing I ever saw.”

  “I think so, too,” Dyrfinna said. “I’m on my way out to find her. If she doesn’t run away again like a little baby.”

  “It will be a glorious day when you find her and stop Nauma in her tracks. But I’m sad that you’re taking Ibn with you.”

  “I’d be sad to leave him behind,” Dyrfinna said, looking at Ibn, who just smiled and looked innocently heavenward.

  “Ibn, I hate to see you go,” Varinn said, clasping Ibn’s arms. “I didn’t know you had that kind of power in you, and I wish I had. You’re a valuable part of my council. I wish you an easy journey.”

  “I’m on dragonback,” he said.

  “Then I wish you more ease, though I don’t know how you’ll find it. I only hope that you do. I know that your expertise will help Dyrfinna be victorious over Nauma.”

  “You have a lot of faith in me,” Ibn said modestly.

  Varinn’s eyes got wide. “Would you listen to this man?” he complained to Dyrfinna. “Do you know what he did? When Nauma captured us and held us prisoner, when she was taking us to be sacrificed, he took Nauma’s power off of us, gave it to us to use, and then we were able to build the greatest rose bramble that the world had ever known. You saw that thing.” He put a big arm around Ibn’s shoulders. “So don’t be modest! It’s not bragging if it’s the truth.”

  “Then you’re the greatest king the world has ever known,” Ibn said.

  King Varinn roared with laughter. “I wouldn’t go that far,” he said.

  The two men embraced and said their farewells. Then Ibn climbed aboard the emberdragon and Dyrfinna tied him securely upon her back.

  “We’ll go out a little way from here and search for Nauma,” Ibn said.

  “Be careful out there,” said Varinn, now becoming serious. “You have cleared my land of the undead, but now the undead roam in the ocean, and ghosts of the dead are coming out of the waves.”

  “Gefjun,” Dyrfinna said, and her former friend looked up from preparing the king’s dragon.

  “I’m sorry about everything,” said Dyrfinna. “I’m truly sorry.”

  Gefjun looked ready to snap back. But then her lips tightened. She looked down at the bundle she was tying and nodded. “And I’m also sorry. About everything.”

  But she didn’t move. Didn’t run over to give Dyrfinna a hug, didn’t ask to be friends again.

  But she had apologized, too.

  Dyrfinna would accep
t it. Forgiveness had to be earned. But it also had to be grown into. Gefjun would always miss Ostryg. Dyrfinna came second to that.

  But.

  “And thank you for saving my life,” Dyrfinna said. “You could have just let me die. But you didn’t. Thank you.”

  Gefjun shrugged a little and turned away.

  King Varinn came over then and took Dyrfinna’s hands. “It will take time,” he said. “She still cares for you. But it takes some time to heal a broken heart.”

  They squeezed hands. “Thank you, your majesty,” Dyrfinna said. “I will be patient.”

  They embraced as well.

  Then Dyrfinna wrapped her hands around the forward strap and said, “Up,” and Ibn said “Oh no,” and they sprang into the air.

  As they flew toward Skala and Queen Saehildr’s keep, Ibn tried different spells, but he wasn’t able to link her back to Nauma’s mind.

  “This is frustrating,” she said as they flew on over the land. “When I’m not looking for Nauma, I had visions left and right. Now that I’m actively seeking her, I’m locked out and can’t even get a peep about what she’s doing, whether she’s staying put or running away.”

  “She doesn’t want you to find her,” Ibn said. “That’s why.”

  Dyrfinna blew a puff of air out of her cheeks. “She told the Gorm that she wanted to kill me herself. I think that was all talk.”

  What exactly is this Gorm you keep talking about? asked the emberdragon.

  “I’m not sure,” Dyrfinna said. “In my vision, I was following a tunnel deep into the ground, until I reached a vast underground hall. I expected to see dwarves there, as one does in a place like that, but at the end of the hall was what looked like a man on a throne. I’d never heard of a Gorm before. He looked like a man. If we knew where to find that underground hall we could .…”

  Go down there for a visit? asked the emberdragon.

  “No, thank you,” said Ibn.

  “Hello, Gorm, we’re just lonely travelers, we’d like a bit of hospitality, a little drink of ale or whatever a Gorm drinks. Oops, sorry, we have to kill you now.”