Tall, Dark, and Medieval

by Barbara Devlin

  “All right,” he agreed, and was instantly rewarded with a hand squeeze from Brynn. It wasn’t much, but it was a start. A positive move in the right direction to mend their ill-strewn marriage.

  “I’ll give you a week,” he told Calais. “If you show promise, I’ll take you on as my squire.”

  “Squire?” asked Calais in surprise. “I would much rather be a knight, my lord.”

  “No man is knighted unless he’s gone through his apprenticeship as squire first. You’re already past the age of being a squire, not to mention you are a commoner. You should be happy with my decision. ’Tis the best I can do.”

  Calais didn’t look at all pleased, but nodded his head in agreement.

  “I’ll start training him at once,” suggested Asad.

  “Us,” Brynn corrected him.

  “My lady?” Asad looked at her in question.

  “I’d like to go through the training too.”

  “My lord?” Asad looked to Drake in desperation.

  “Definitely not!” Drake growled.

  She gave him that little pout. The pout that made him want to kiss it right off her face. Then she gave him the eyes which just about shattered him. “No wife of mine will be seen running around in my tunic with bare legs, wielding a sword.”

  “I refuse to leave,” she challenged him.

  “I am your lord and husband, you’ll do as I say.”

  “I am your wife and I’ll - ”

  She never had the chance of finishing her statement. He flung her over his shoulder and dumped her into the horse’s trough of cold water. She came up sputtering, wiping the water from her eyes, gasping for breath in a panicked sort of way. Then he remembered she’d told him she feared water.

  “Come, my lady. You don’t mean that little bit of water scares you?”

  She looked as if she were going to cry. Or kill him. Either way, he knew he’d probably done the wrong thing.

  She stood, the tunic clinging to her every curve. It was light in color and he could see her hard little nipples beneath the fabric. If he could see them, then so could Asad and Calais. He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder again.

  “Put me down, you beast.” She squirmed and kicked her bare legs right in his face.

  “You’ll not defy me in front of my men again,” he warned, making his way into the castle and up to the bedchamber. The villagers, servants and tradesmen watched in amusement as he walked past.

  The blacksmith stopped his tinkering as his wife tapped him on the arm. The alewife whispered behind her hand to the dairy maid, and he knew they were gossiping about him. Mayhap his action would give their tongues a new reason to wag. He would show them no woman kicks him out of his own bedchamber. By the morrow, they will have changed their attitude toward him. They would all know it was he who ruled, and not his wife.

  Mothers pulled their frolicking children out of his path, and even the courtyard musicians stopped their music. Drake looked up and smiled to the guards who walked the battlements motioning to each other from atop the walls.

  He made his way into the bedchamber and threw her onto the bed. “Now put on the clothes of a lady, not a whore. I don’t want to see you anywhere outside our bedchamber so naked again.”

  “Do not worry, my lord. You won’t see me inside the bedchamber naked either.”

  Somehow this didn’t surprise him. Whatever he’d seen in her eyes before was surely gone now. She was back to hating him again.

  “You are my wife, Brynn. You will not speak to me in that manner.”

  “I am lady of Thorndale Castle, and you are naught but a thief to steal it away.”

  Drake looked to the wall and realized he never should have let her get away with ripping up his banner and burning it. Her father’s banner with arm and sword crest hung proudly upon the bedchamber wall. A fire blazed on the hearth. He would do her the same courtesy she’d done him. He stormed to the wall, tearing the banner from its resting place.

  “What are you doing?” she screamed.

  “Nothing that shouldn’t have been done long ago. Thorndale Castle answers to the crest of the dragon now.”

  He tore it to shreds in front of her eyes and tossed it into the fire.

  “Nay!” she screamed and tried to go after it. He grabbed her and held her, forcing her to watch it burn. The wind picked up, flapping the covering on the window. He could hear thunder in the distance. He looked down to see her eyes squeezed tightly closed.

  “Open your eyes, wife, and watch it burn.”

  She did so reluctantly.

  “Thorndale is mine now, and so are you. The dragon crest rules here and you’ll abide by my word from now on.”

  She struggled against him again, and he tossed her down onto the bed.

  “Now change out of those wet clothes and wear something suitable to dinner. I want you acting like a lady from now on, not a man, not a whore, not a witch.”

  “I despise you,” she said in fury, her eyes fixed trancelike on the banner as it burned.

  Suddenly, he realized his anger had once again put a wedge between them. He had wanted to please her, to make her like him, but now she hated him more than before.

  “I am sorry for throwing you in the trough, Brynn.” He sat next to her on the bed. “But you must realize a woman has no place in a man’s domain. You cannot expect me to let your brashness and ill-mannered ways go unnoticed.”

  She pushed up on the bed, her body shivering, her arms going around herself in an effort to keep warm.

  “I admit I was a bit brash,” she told him. “I meant no disrespect, my lord husband.”

  “I would like to try to mend our marriage,” he said, scooting next to her and wrapping his arm around her shoulder. Her body shook, and her skin felt as cold as ice. Much colder than it should have from falling into a water trough on a hot day. “You shake, my wife, and your body is like a winter’s day.”

  “’Tis from the water,” she explained. “Water is the element which acts as my foe. While fire gives me power and replenishes my strength, water can take the life from me quickly if I am not careful.”

  “I am sorry, Brynn. I did not know.” He put a coverlet around her and walked over to stoke the fire. “Please, tell me more.”

  She hesitated, and he knew she was still angry with him. Then, she slowly nodded, as if she meant to try to make amends as well.

  “It wasn’t always this way,” she explained. “But when the faerie mixed in marriage with humans, the elemental world was shaken. The faerie queen punished those who married outside their realm. As I’ve already told you, the offspring eventually grew to the size of humans, and with each generation, one of our powers is lost. But the elemental world has always worked together. We have always been like part of a whole. So when the curse was set upon us that the ring of power would be broken among us, our alliances with each other were broken too.”

  “So are you saying, you don’t know what happened to the rest who were banished?” Drake lit a candle and brought it to Brynn. She held it and put her hand in the flame, an action that would never stop making him feel so unsettled.

  “I once had three very good friends of the faerie realm. But each of us controlled different elements. Rae-Nyst was graced with the power of the earth, Portia-Maer, the air and the breeze. And my closest friend, Ebba-Tyne finds her strength in water - my weakness.”

  “Your friends,” said Drake. “They have very different names.”

  “They are names of the faerie realm.”

  “But your name is not.”

  “Aye, ’tis so. My full name is Brynn-Riletta, but my parents chose to drop the second part of my naming. ’Twas enough we were being called witches. We did not need more ridicule.”

  “So are you saying you know not what happened to your friends?”

  “Aye, I know not. Allies became enemies in a sense, as best friends turned into threats amongst each other. My very existence depends upon and is also threatened
by each of the other elements. While air feeds my fire, it is also the breath that puts out a flame. Fire consumes wood and earthly elements, but a shovel of dirt can also extinguish my flame. And the biggest threat to me, is my good friend Ebba-Tyne’s strength. She needs to be by the water, but her water can drain my life faster than any of the others.”

  “I understand,” he said with a slight nod. “What is one man’s strength is another man’s weakness.”

  Brynn’s body shook uncontrollably, and Drake now understood how vital it was to get her dry to renew her strength.

  “You need to get out of these wet clothes quickly,” he told her, reaching for her tunic. She flinched when he neared her, and it pained him to think she still might fear him.

  “Brynn, I mean naught more than to help you regain your strength. I will not touch you intimately against your will.”

  “I do not flinch from you, my lord husband, but rather from the wounds of Dracus which scar me deeply.”

  He looked down to her tunic to see blood spots appearing from beneath.

  “You’re still bleeding,” he said, cursing himself for having thrown her over his shoulder. “I didn’t realize your wound had not healed. Let me help you, Brynn.”

  He lay his hand on her tunic, but she stopped him from going further. “No. Please,” was all she could manage to squeak out through the chattering of her teeth.

  “Brynn, I want to help you. Please, don’t turn me away.”

  “No,” she said. “You have done enough by bringing me to the room. Please, just let me be.”

  “Then I’ll send Juturna to dress your wounds.”

  She didn’t answer. Just gazed at the fire.

  He left her sitting on the bed, wishing he could hold her, knowing she’d never allow it. He closed the bedchamber door behind him to find the old seer waiting for him in the corridor.

  “She needs your help,” he commented.

  “I know,” replied the old woman. “I’ve seen in my gazing crystal that I’ll be needed for a while. I’ll take up residency in Thorndale Castle if you wish, my lord.”

  “I do.” He couldn’t get his mind off Brynn and the way she sat staring into the fire, her arms wrapped protectively around herself. She didn’t want his touch, yet he didn’t know why.

  “You’ve lost your temper again, haven’t you?”

  Thunder boomed outside the walls as she spoke.

  “I have.”

  “The dragon will come again soon, my lord. He’ll be stronger this time. You may not be able to stop him.”

  “I will!” he told her, grabbing the woman by the arms in a tight hold. “I’ll stop the bloody bastard if it’s the last thing I do.”

  She looked down to his hands on her arms and he realized his temper was taking hold again. He released her quickly.

  “I don’t see that happening any time soon without the help of the girl.”

  “Well, I don’t think I’ll be able to rely on her. Things are not going well between us. We are married, yet she cringes at my touch. I want to make amends, but I don’t know how.”

  “She is the stabilizing factor in your life, my lord. I’ve seen in my gazing crystal that she is the only one who can help you stop the dragon.”

  “She doesn’t know how to stop the dragon,” he said in frustration. “And neither do I.”

  “You need the woman of fire at your side.”

  “So you have said. She is by my side, yet we still are no closer to finding the answer.”

  “Aye, but she is not helping you, my lord. She cannot help you defeat the dragon unless you can work together. If your anger is not controlled, you will never find the way.”

  Drake tired of the old woman talking in riddles. He had half a mind to shake the answers he needed out of her, but force against her would not get him anywhere. He realized he needed to find the answers on his own as some part of a ritual to slay the dragon. The old woman wouldn’t tell him more, or mayhap she didn’t even understand her own prophecies. His only chance to slay Dracus was to do as she suggested. To have Brynn working with him, instead of against him. But that was never going to happen when she despised him.

  “You need help, my lord,” suggested Juturna with wisdom in her eyes. “Someone to show you how to woo a woman.”

  “I don’t need help from anyone when it comes to women.”

  She looked at him with that knowing slight smile and he knew he couldn’t hide anything from a seer.

  “Well, mayhap a little help wouldn’t hurt,” he agreed. “But I will not have this as the morrow’s gossip. I need someone to help me that I can trust with the secret.”

  She picked up the round crystal orb that hung from a chain around her neck. She rubbed it, stared into it and nodded.

  “I know just the man for the job.” She held up the crystal for him to see.

  Drake recognized the image of Asad at once. The man who had any woman he wanted with just a look. Why didn’t he think of this sooner? He trusted Asad with his life, so why not with his matters of love as well?

  “What if he is unable to help? What if his advice still doesn’t change Brynn’s attitude toward me?”

  “Then there’ll be no slaying the dragon,” answered the wise woman. “You need her, my lord. You need her inner magic. You need her to help you find the answer. Without this you are doomed to live in fear of the beast for the rest of your life.”

  “Tell me what you mean by that,” he demanded.

  She looked at him with a stone-like face, one side of her mouth lifting in a half-smile slowly. “I don’t make the rules of magic,” she told him. “I cannot say I understand any of this any more than you do. I only tell you what I know. To understand it is your chore, not mine.”

  He stared at her for a moment, then nodded slowly. He would have to find his answers without the explanation of any witch or seer.

  “I’ll find Asad,” he agreed. “Please help Brynn with her wounds. And have her dress in something suitable for dinner. I will not have her wearing my tunic and embarrassing me again.”

  Juturna just shook her head hopelessly. “You had better hurry and find your squire to train you in the art of wooing. I fear it might already be too late for you, Dragon’s Son.”

  THE DRAGON AND THE DREAMWALKER

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Brynn didn’t even hear the old seer enter the room, and nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw her standing there. She had been busy pulling the pieces of her father’s banner from the fire with her bare hands. She then stomped out the flames one by one with her bare feet.

  “Most people would be burned badly by playing with fire,” said Juturna.

  “I’m not most people,” Brynn answered. “I’ve been burned by worse than fire.”

  Juturna closed the door and walked softly to the bed. “You have a flame burning for Drake that’ll never be extinguished.”

  She stopped her efforts, studying the old woman. There was no sense lying to a seer. She’d only see right through the lies to the truth.

  “Fire is fed by air, earth, or more flame. Drake holds none of these for me. I am fire, he is water. He’s a nasty storm that can only dampen my spirits and put out that flame.”

  “I don’t believe it,” she told her. “You speak as if you’re his enemy, when in fact you are his wife . . . in every way.”

  She jerked her eyes upward, wondering if the woman knew of her nightly visits with Drake. She couldn’t. No one knew but herself. She wasn’t about to tell anyone about it. She’d hold her secret till she went to her grave.

  “I am not his wife. Not really,” she said. “A wife stands by her husband’s side in pride. She respects him and his wishes and would give her life for him. She clings to his every word and weaves him tapestries, darns his socks and mends his clothes. A wife gives of herself freely to suffice her husband’s hunger. And then a husband still finds solace in another’s arms. No, I’m not his wife nor shall I ever be.”

  “That
’s your opinion of a wife’s duties,” explained Juturna. “But you’re forgetting the most important part of a marriage.”

  “What could that possibly be?” She fiddled with the burnt pieces of the banner, trying to fit them back together though they were beyond repair.

  “A husband and wife are one and the same. They feel each other’s needs, each other’s pains and joys as well. When one is lonely, the other fills that emptiness. When one is sad, ’tis the other that brings back the joy. A husband and wife are bound together in the name of God, not only in body but also in spirit. Once their souls are linked, nothing can tear them apart.”

  Brynn remembered the way Drake’s spirit had filled her own needs. Even if he wasn’t being the husband she longed for in real life, he had always been there for her in the dreamwalking state. The old woman’s words did make some sense after all.

  “But he’s always so angry,” said Brynn.

  “So, what’s the cause of that anger?”

  “I suppose it’s me. But somehow I feel there’s so much more. Something he’s kept hidden from everyone his entire life. There’s a certain sadness within him that makes me want to cry.”

  Juturna placed her hand on Brynn’s shoulder. “A good wife can change that sadness to joy, but first you must find a way to open his locked heart. The Dragon’s Son is a complex man. It’ll take a special woman to help him find himself.”

  “I suppose you think I’m that woman?”

  “Are you?” Juturna looked at Brynn and then down to the burnt pieces of banner lying on the hearth.

  “I don’t know if I am,” said Brynn. “Sometimes I feel like we’re two lost souls that are destined to be together. Other times I feel like he’s my biggest enemy. I fear him more than I fear Dracus, the dragon. I am very confused. I find myself attracted to him one moment, then I think of all the lives lost here, and find myself hating him the next.”

  “He has many secrets, Brynn. Ones of which I am not of liberty to speak. But I can tell you this. There’s only one woman who can save him from his self-destruction. That woman is you. But only if you’ll accept him.”