The princess had come to understand it, though she could never bring herself to enjoy it. The woods were such a dangerous place. Every step beyond the palace walls was a step closer to disaster. Until this moment, it hadn’t occurred to her that she would ever need this knowledge. Or that perhaps there had been another reason for the journeys to the woods.
She laid out her bedroll and brushed it free of snow.
“Mother?” she said.
“Yes, Myn.”
“Did you know this was going to happen?”
“That assassins would target the family?”
“Not that specifically but that one day I would have to meet the dragon.”
“Halfax. And yes. You’ve actually met him before. The day I made him promise to protect you instead of me.”
“When?”
“You were only just born. I needed him to see you.”
“Why?”
“Because I was the purpose of his life. And you are the purpose of mine. In a way, the most important thing he could do was make me strong enough and keep me safe enough to one day bring you into this world.”
“But with the whole palace, with all of the people of Vulcrest to look after us, how did you know he would still be needed?”
“Myn, even if I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that no harm would ever befall any of us ever again, he would still be needed. He’s family. I just wish I could convince him to take his rightful place as such.”
“What do you mean?”
“It wasn’t my idea to leave him behind in the mountains. I don’t care how difficult it would have been, I wanted him in the palace. I wanted him in my life. But he isn’t a creature of the city. It would have been selfish. And heaven knows I was selfish enough while he was raising me.”
“I don’t understand…” Myn shook her head. “I don’t understand why a dragon would protect a human. You weren’t even a princess or a queen.”
“There’s something a little more important flowing in our veins.”
“What do you mean?”
The queen sighed. “Today has had enough revelations. We’ll discuss it tomorrow. Try to get some sleep.”
They both slid beneath the covers they’d prepared to sleep through what remained of the night. At first, sleep was slow to come. It was just the two of them in the cold, and the snow was starting to come down harder. The trees did little to ward off the snow the wind churned up. This was fierce weather. Natives of the north knew not to toy with a blizzard. And most didn’t have half the reason to be concerned that the princess had.
For Myn, the very world as often as not seemed to have terrible plans for her. Every errant patch of ice or creaking tree branch could decide to pose a terrible threat to her. In a way, what made it worse was that weeks, even months could go by without mishap, lulling her into believing that somehow the worst of it was over. Then there would come a day where everything around her seemed dedicated to her demise. That made this crisis almost a relief. For once the blade hanging over her head had a name. It had a form. There was a will behind it. Assassins were after her. But any comfort or stability she felt in that was washed away by the simple fact that this terrible threat had had struck her father.
Through squinted eyes, she watched her mother remain fitful. Not once in her life could Myn remember Jade showing anything but strength. She was at times uncertain, to be sure, but always confident that the answer would come with dedication, discipline, and discussion. Now she lay with the unfamiliar look of concern and anxiety, eyes fluttering as though it was an effort to keep them shut.
At the soft crackle of fresh snow, Myn turned to see Halfax a dozen strides closer than she would have imagined him based on the noise. Though there was the semblance of emotion in his expression, to Myn it was still too bestial and unfamiliar to read. But there was an easiness, a contentment to his motion that suggested he’d eaten, and eaten well. He clutched a bit of his fresh kill in his teeth, trotting lightly toward them. Something in his motion seemed wrong for a creature of his size. Perhaps it was the near-silence, or the utter lack of threat or hostility in his posture. For a moment, any concern she had upon seeing him faded. He may as well have been a cat bringing a freshly caught mouse to present to his master.
The brief feeling of comfort wavered as his massive form drew closer. He padded lightly around them and dropped what turned out to be the better part of a deer on the ground not far away. He then lowered himself gently to the ground. With his head held high and his eyes trained on the horizon, Halfax curled his tail to encircle both mother and daughter as best he could. He unfurled a massive wing and arched it over them. In the shelter of the great wing, the howling wind all but vanished. He may as well have pitched a tent for them.
The more the creature surrounded her, the more Myn felt ancient instincts begin to flare. Her eyes opened wide, her heart started to flutter. She was on the verge of pulling herself from her bedroll and dashing for safety when she saw a subtle change come over her mother. Now that Halfax was near, Jade’s veneer of anxiety faded away. Simply knowing he was there was all it took. She slid a hand from beneath the covers and placed it on the dragon’s warm hide. In minutes she was asleep, secure in the knowledge that she would be watched over by her protector.
By their protector…
Myn tried to feel it. She shut her eyes and opened her mind. She trusted her mother, and her mother trusted this creature with their lives. The tightness in her chest remained. The butterflies in her stomach still fluttered. The trust just wasn’t there. Not yet.
She pulled herself slowly from the camp bed she had made for herself, the blanket still about her shoulders. The motion drew a brief glance from Halfax. Myn crept out past her mother and took a few steps out into the strengthening blizzard. She walked backward to keep her eyes on the dragon.
Now his eyes turned to her and focused. He released soft breath and leaned lower.
“You cannot sleep,” the beast stated.
It was clear he was speaking as softly as he could. There was almost no voice in the breathy statement. But it was still barely quiet enough to avoid waking Jade.
“No,” Myn said with similar care.
“Do you require a story?”
“A story?” Myn scoffed.
“For many years, your mother would not sleep without a story.”
“I’m not a child,” Myn said. “Mother hasn’t told me stories in years.”
“Then you have questions.”
Myn pulled the blanket a bit closer and squinted at the painful sting of the icy snow.
“I do,” she said.
“You would not be Jade’s daughter if you did not.” He shut his eyes. “She had so many questions…”
The whistling wind meant that Myn had to practically shout to be heard, quite the opposite problem than Halfax.
“Mother said you protected her, and now you protect me, because there is something special about us.”
“You say she told you stories.”
“When I was small,” Myn emphasized.
“Did she tell you the story of the chosen?”
“And the end of the perpetual war?”
“Yes.”
“She has. Many times.”
“Then you know.”
“Are you suggesting… No. I’m not chosen. The Chosen are divine warriors. They have the mark.”
“You are not chosen. Nor is your mother. But your bloodline has its roots in the chosen named Myranda Celeste.”
“The first queen of New Kenvard.”
“And my mother’s keeper.” He leaned forward. “If you know the tale, you should have known the nature of your name. My mother is as large a part of the story as any.”
Myn looked aside. “She never named the dragon. It was always ‘the noble creature’ or ‘Myranda’s faithful friend.’ I suppose… I might have had questions otherwise.”
“And you never asked the
dragon’s name?”
“It didn’t seem strange to me that a dragon wouldn’t have a name.”
Myn huddled down a bit as the wind started to gust even harder. The snow was falling in hard, jagged crystals.
“You should take shelter until the morning,” Halfax said. “There will be time for questions.”
“If I’m going to trust you to protect me while I sleep, I need to know answers.”
“Then come to this side.”
He shook some snow from his other wing and held it out to the opposite side. Reluctantly, she stepped underneath. Unlike the one that currently sheltered her mother, it was tattered and shredded. But between it and his body, it tamed the worst of the storm. He curled his head around and hung it at eye level in front of her.
“Your questions,” Halfax said.
She glanced up to his wing. Wind fluttered at its ragged ends.
“What happened to your wing?” she asked.
“I was struck by lightning protecting your mother from a sorceress who was trying to kill her,” he stated.
She squinted at him. “That’s it? That’s all you’re going to say? ‘I battled a sorceress’ and leave it at that?”
“You told me you weren’t a child who needed stories.”
“This sounds like one I need to hear.”
“Very well…”
#
Myn shook awake. She didn’t remember falling asleep, but now she was nestled against Halfax, tucked beneath his wing like a baby chick with a mother hen. He’d even gathered her up onto one of his paws to keep her out of the snow below. The morning sun was doing its best to break through the near-perpetual clouds of the Northern Alliance. The blizzard had been savage. It seemed astounding that without any true shelter she’d been able to fall asleep. Snow mounded the area around them, but they were tucked into a hollow in it, as though the snow itself had been fearful of coming too near to the dragon.
She tried to think back to the night before. Halfax had begun his tale of the battle with the sorceress, but bit by bit he wove it into other stories of caring for Jade. He talked about his recovery under her care, and how they’d learned together how best to plant a garden. There was something in the way he told a story that was so familiar. Each little detail grew and blossomed into a whole new tale. Every lesson was not just a part of the story, but part of a chain of wisdom that led backward and forward into other tales and other wisdom. It was the same way her mother told stories. Myn wondered if she’d learned it from Halfax or if he’d learned it from her.
The dragon’s head was still high, his gaze still vigilant. Now that the wind had died down a bit and the snow was no longer falling, something akin to silence had returned to the patch of woods, and as such she could hear the crackle of flames. Myn leaned forward and craned her neck to find her mother, Queen Jade of Vulcrest, crouched before a small fire, turning a bit of fresh meat about as it sizzled.
“If you were going to crawl out of bed, you should have warned me,” Jade said without looking. “Now is not a time to wake up and find, for even a moment, that your daughter is not where you thought she was.”
Myn slid from Halfax’s grasp and shivered as she discovered just how much of the cozy warmth she’d enjoyed came from him.
“I needed to—” Myn began.
“I know. I know. I don’t blame you. But you needn’t wait until I’m sleeping next time. Heaven knows there are no more secrets between us.” She pulled back the stick and revealed a very expensive knife to carve a bit of the meat off. “Have some. If you cut it thin, it cooks quickly enough to have a bit of breakfast before we have to move.”
Myn took the slice of venison and nibbled on it, her mind slowly coming into focus.
“Reminds you of when we’d head to the lowlands and stay in the fringe of Melorne, doesn’t it?” Jade smiled. “Your father still talks about the madness of the queen and the princess spending some time in the woods each year.”
“But you knew this was going to happen,” Myn said.
“Not this, but something,” Jade said. “We were lucky to make it as long as we did before something like this came along. And if I’m honest, I missed living among the trees. Good memories from back then.”
Myn gazed back at Halfax.
“Does he ever…” She paused, then turned to the dragon. “Do you ever sleep?”
“I need little sleep,” Halfax said. “Eat quickly. We are too near the road, and too near to good hunting. We need to move or we may be seen.”
“How long will it take us to reach the tower?” Myn asked.
“A few days.”
“It would be a quarter that time if I’d been able to fix your wing,” Jade said. “Time makes a fool of us all… I thought for certain once I was in the palace I would have time to continue my research, to learn the spells necessary. But the kingdom was so backward, and there was so much about the world I needed to know just to properly serve as an adviser. And then there was the wedding. And then Myn was born. And the king died so suddenly…”
“It was never your burden.”
“Bah. It was always my burden. But when something is beyond us, the least we can do is admit it. I’m no miracle worker.” She looked into the crackling camp fire. “I only hope I can cobble together one last cure.”
Jade and Myn continued their meal while the relative warmth of day started to melt the less stubborn of the night’s snow. All around them was a cacophony of dripping water. Myn absentmindedly rubbed her left hand. Halfax’s eyes shot to the motion.
Faintly, far above, a rustle and crackle were just a whisper louder than the rest of the sounds. In a heartbeat, the dragon sprung to his feet. His paw closed around Myn’s waist. His tail wrapped around Jade’s. He rolled aside. An instant later, a rain of icicles dug into the snow, perforating a swath of ground in a straight line that crossed the footprints where Myn had been standing.
It happened so quickly, Myn almost didn’t have time to be startled.
“Are you hurt? Is everyone all right?” Jade said, pulling herself free and rushing to her daughter.
“I’m fine,” Myn said.
She gazed up. There was nothing but gray sky above them.
“We were far enough from the branches. I know we were. I thought we’d thought of everything.”
“You are a downside. Fate can be terribly creative with you.” Halfax climbed to his feet. “Perhaps the wind caught a branch. Perhaps the weight bowed it forward. It does not matter. The danger is gone. We should move while we can. The curse seldom strikes so boldly twice in a row. We can have half of Ravenwood behind us before we will need to worry about something like this again.”
“Good. Fine, let’s move,” Jade said. “Come, we’ll pack our things.”
Halfax devoured the remnants of their meal and easily clawed the remains of their campsite under the snow. He gave the same treatment to where he and the beds had been set. His claws did fine work churning up and tamping down the snow. A trained eye could easily pick out that something had happened here, but it would take a legendary tracker to work out that two humans had made camp. The princess and her mother climbed to his back, and in half a dozen strides they were once again cutting through the forest with dizzying speed and astonishing stealth.
#
Fate was indeed kind enough to leave them be for a few days of travel. They moved almost constantly while the sun was in the sky. When they did stop to rest, it was always in those places farthest from roads and clearings. Halfax ran with a sureness and grace that suggested he knew every inch of the ever-thickening forest known as Ravenwood. It was all new to Myn, and fascinating. Her camping adventures, for reasons that were all-too-obvious, never took her farther than the edge of the woods. If something as innocuous as an ice-covered limb could threaten her, a wild animal was far too great a threat to subject her to.
Clinging to Halfax’s back, Myn could convince herself that though dan
ger lurked everywhere, it could not reach her here. Until now, even tucked deep in the palace, there was always the thought that something might go wrong. But now she had Halfax. As frightening as he was, he was on her side. With her mother and her protector with her, there was a weight on the scale that might just tip things in her direction.
Time passed in a blur of fascinating new sights and sounds. They found a place to sleep each night and ate their fill from their packs and the dragon’s prodigious hunting skill. When they woke, Halfax seemed as weary as he’d been the night before, and the ground around them may have had a few more predatory tracks than it had when they dosed off, but if there had been danger, Halfax warded it off without disturbing their slumber.
Finally, they found what they were looking for. Myn hardly needed to be told. It was hidden deep in Ravenwood, a forest that covered a substantial slice of the kingdom. Were someone to search for this place, it might take months to find it if not years. But upon seeing it, there could be no doubt that it was something special.
As they approached the clearing ahead, the snow thinned. In its place, rich green grass stood tall. The air was warm and carried the fresh scent of spring. Though the rest of the forest wore the blanket of perpetual winter, as did most of the north, this clearing looked as though it had seen naught but sunny days and pleasant summer evenings. A somewhat ailing cottage of a sort wrapped itself around the base of a tall stone tower. To one side of it, an attached stable stood with doors just a bit larger than one might need for a horse.
“It’s just how I remember it…” Jade said, her voice thick with emotion. “We planted those berry bushes. And look. That’s where the roof was patched. It’s held up well. I told you we’d fashioned the shingles properly.”
Halfax Page 4
