by T.M. Nielsen
Paragoy Dimension
Dimensions Saga Book 2
By T.M. Nielsen
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Copyright © 2011 by T.M. Nielsen
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Chapter 1
Kyrin sat on her horse, swinging her feet and looking out over the gathered knights of Valhara. Finn was back at command, having recovered after being found three months ago in the dungeon of Qualsax. King Alric was away on a mission to the elves, and Kyrin was helping Finn out with training. He wouldn’t tell her what he wanted her to do but was quite adamant that she attend.
“I’ve called Lady Kyrin here because there are some things I’ve seen that are disturbing,” Finn said. She cringed at the use of her official title.
The knights were lined up in perfect rows with their perfectly polished armor glistening in the sunlight. Every one of them had a long-sword at their side, the preferred weapon of their king.
“I don’t want to involve King Alric. He has enough to deal with without knowing his elite knights have been disrespectful.”
Kyrin frowned slightly, wondering what Finn was talking about. She knew how dedicated the knights were to Alric, and she was shocked that they were being accused of disrespecting him.
“You know what I’m talking about, and I won’t have it!” Finn yelled. Kyrin could tell the knights were nervous as their captain spoke. “Kyrin is the Lady of Valhara, like it or not, and any disrespect to her is disrespect to your king. Is that understood?”
Her nose wrinkled when she realized he was mad at the knights for how they treated her. She didn’t really care if they liked her or not. They went with her any time she left the castle grounds, and that was fine, because when they did they were usually silent and kept a watch out for Qualsax.
Qualsax had staged four more attacks on her, but each time, she had knights with her, and the warriors were easily dispatched. Kyrin had heard that knights would actually request to be her personal guard on outings, all because it gave them the chance to take on the Qualsax single-handedly.
Kyrin could protect herself, and everyone knew that, but if the knights wanted to fight, she let them. She only involved herself if she felt she was in danger at any point. So far, the knights had stayed ahead of the Qualsax, and she’d never been in any real danger.
Daemionis had backed off and was taking a watch and see approach. He used Kyrin to study the Valharans, and Sithias kept regular tabs on her too. It was dangerous to have an evil in his land, but with her use of magic and her extensive knowledge of fighting, he found her presence to be beneficial.
Kyrin hated when Alric was gone, and this time, he was supposed to be away for a month. Trox had gone with him to the elves, and she was just glad that Finn was around. Her first thought was to shift out of Paragoy and visit Creteloc in Paramide, but Alric had been concerned about her leaving and hadn’t told her why.
She got the feeling he was keeping something from her, and when he returned, she planned on finding out what it was. He hesitated being away from her and always kept a close eye on what she was doing and who she was with.
Kyrin sat on the horse and watched the knights shift nervously under the scrutiny of their captain. There were two captains now, but the other had gone with Alric and Trox. That left Finn in command, and he’d seen a lot of the behavior of his knights around Kyrin and wasn’t going to have it.
“As knights, you swore your allegiance to King Alric and swore to follow his command and do as he asked,” Finn said angrily. “That included accepting who he chose to take on as a wife! Now that the king is gone, I want to hear the reasons behind the back-talk and the mocking.”
Kyrin watched, not at all surprised when no one spoke.
“For the next hour, I’m giving you all a pass,” Finn told them. “Anything you say will not be used against you. I’m here to figure out how to get you to back off of the Lady and how you can do your jobs without the petty gossip and juvenile bickering.”
“We’re free to say anything?” one in the front row asked.
Finn walked up to him. “Anything you want, Bines. Speak up.”
The knight he called Bines looked nervously at Kyrin and then turned to his captain. “Sir, she’s an evil.”
“Right”
“It’s hard to accept an evil in Valhara. We follow the Holy Knight of Sithias.”
“That Holy Knight of Sithias chose Kyrin as his wife.”
“That’s his choice. We understand that. However, some of us don’t understand why we would instantly kill anything evil that came near the king, yet we allow her to share his bed?”
Kyrin’s eyebrows rose and she couldn’t help but blush. She was still uncomfortable with the openness of some marital actions and would prefer if no one spoke about them.
“Yes, Lady Kyrin is a known evil,” Finn said, walking along the front row. “Have any of you seen her do anything that evils are said to do?”
“Sir?” Bines asked.
“Have you seen her sacrifice a human?”
“No, sir.”
“Animal?”
“No, sir.”
Finn nodded. “Have you seen her poison someone?”
“No, sir.”
“But you’ve seen magic.”
“Yes, sir. We’ve all seen her use magic.”
“Is magic evil?” Finn asked him.
“No, sir.”
“So help me understand why you have such a hard time around her when she’s done nothing evil.”
The knight sighed. “We just feel it’s a matter of time, sir. When that time comes, we don’t want to be around.”
Finn finally got it. “Okay, so let me get this straight. When Lady Kyrin goes rogue and decides to kill the king, you don’t want to have to stop her.”
“I didn’t mean…”
“That’s what I’m getting from this. If you stop her, and the king doesn’t believe she tried to kill him, then you risk being punished.”
“Maybe”
Kyrin rolled her eyes. “If I decide to kill your king, no one can stop me.”
Finn sighed and looked at her. “You aren’t helping.”
She just grinned. “I’m not going to kill Alric.”
“If she does, he will take her word over ours,” the knight said.
“There’s always apprehension when a new noble is sworn in. Years of distrust follow deaths, swearing-ins, and even marriage. This is no different. However, what I’ve seen isn’t becoming of one of Valhara’s knights.” Finn was still walking along the knights, outwardly irritated.
“What exactly have you seen?” Kyrin asked, now curious. She never expected the knights to trust her or even remotely like her, but she did want to know what she was up against.
Finn debated and then shook his head. “I’m not going to say. I can’t risk this getting back to King Alric.”
A broad grin crossed her lips. “What would he do?”
“No,” Finn said to her, and then turned to his knights. “So if there’s nothing else, this is your last warning. I had better not see or hear anything against the Lady, or you’ll have to deal directly with me. She’s saved Valhara. She’s saved my life, and you will treat her with the respect she is due.”
Kyrin’s heart dropped. She didn’t think she was due any respect at all and would rather not be treated like she did. She’d done nothing to help Valhara.
She’d only done things to help those she felt close to. She couldn’t care less if Valhara was wiped off of the dimension, and she felt that Finn probably knew that.
“Head to your posts,” Finn ordered. The knights all saluted as one and then spread out to wherever it was they were assigned.
Finn finally walked over and leaned up against the fence by where Kyrin was sitting on her horse. Alric had chosen a gentle silver mare for her, and she’d started to enjoy riding.
“What kind of trouble are you going to cause today?” Finn asked, smiling up at her.
“I don’t know. I could go see if your knights like stealth attacks.”
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t.”
“I was kidding. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I was thinking about shifting out for a few weeks though.”
Finn sighed. “Alric doesn’t want you out of Valhara.”
“Why is that exactly?”
“You know he hates it when you’re gone.”
“Yes, but it has been worse lately, and I want to know why.”
“That’s not for me to say. Let’s just say there are still parts of marriage that he hasn’t covered, and I don’t think he wants you to learn those out in some remote dimension.”
She shrugged and sat back on the horse. “Well, he’s not here, so I can shift if I want to.”
“Yes, you can, but I’d rather you stay here and not cause that much trouble.”
Kyrin leaned down and whispered, “Tell me some of the things the knights were saying about me.”
His eyes narrowed. “Why do you want to know?”
“I’m just curious.”
“Well, I’m not stirring that pot.”
“You’re no fun.”
“Not going there,” Finn said, looking out over the orchard. “Alric still wants you to go to the church and visit those children who lost their parents last month in the Qualsax skirmish.”
She shivered. “Children give me the willies. I don’t want to be around them and most certainly if they’re crying.”
Finn started to laugh. “I’d give anything to see you have a baby.”
Kyrin frowned. “That was pretty mean.”
“You’d love it.”
“I think not. Besides, Alric told me it’ll be a mutual decision. That’s one thing that I’m just never going to agree to.”
“That’s what he told you?”
“Yes”
Finn shook his head. “Well, you need to talk to him again.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because sometimes it’s not a decision at all. My first kid was an accident.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean we’d just barely gotten married and weren’t planning on having a kid that soon,” Finn explained.
She thought about that for a moment. “So you don’t always get to decide?”
“Not really.”
“Then tell me how it happens, and I’ll just avoid it.”
Finn started to laugh again. “Nope, not going there. You need to take that up with your husband.”
“Oh, I plan on it!”
“Until then, stay out of trouble, okay?”
“Me? You’re the one that got kidnapped by the Qualsax for over a year.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not the Lady of Valhara. You have to keep your nose clean.”
“Says who?”
“All I’m asking you, and asking nicely, is to stay safe until Alric gets back. He’s overprotective of you lately, and I don’t want you hurt on my watch.”
“I’ll try. First, I want to go see if Dewell has anything for an upset stomach.”
“Are you feeling sick?”
“Yeah, kind of.”
“And so it starts.”
“What?”
Finn simply grinned and walked away.
Kyrin decided to ignore him and headed into Valhara to talk to Dewell. Out of all of the priests, he was her favorite, even though at their first meeting, she was poised to kill him.
She tied her horse out front and then walked in. It felt weird walking into Sithias’ temple, but she was starting to get used to it. They seemed to always know when she entered, and all she could come up with was that her presence somehow disrupted the natural peacefulness of the temple.
“Lady Kyrin,” Dewell said when he saw her. He smiled and walked up to her. “How are you doing?”
“I’m okay. Alric is still gone though.”
“Yes, I heard.”
“I have a bit of a stomach ache. Do you have anything? I tried to find the flower I use normally, but I can’t find anything alive.”
Dewell nodded. “Yes, herbs are hard to come by this close to winter. Stomach ache you say?”
“Yes, do you have anything for it?”
Dewell called out for Saith, who appeared from the back room. “Oh, Lady Kyrin, to what do we owe this honor?”
She didn’t like Saith, even though he was the leader of the temple and a High Priest. He always treated her like a charity case, and she wanted nothing more than to freeze him and tell him what she thought. Instead, she just shrugged. “Stomach ache.”
Saith froze and looked at her. “When did that start?”
“A few days ago. Why are you nervous?”
He moved forward. “Anything else?”
“Isn’t that enough?”
“Are you sure there’s nothing else to mention? Hunger perhaps?”
He moved back and looked at her, and she unconsciously crossed her arms. “What are you doing?”
“Is it getting worse?” he asked, looking at her from the side.
“Yes, listen, if you don’t have anything, then I can go raid Trox’s cupboard,” Kyrin told him.
Saith and Dewell both turned and started to talk between themselves. This irritated Kyrin even worse, and she turned on her heels and walked out, determined to find something in the castle to alleviate her stomach ache. What she didn’t want to admit was that with the winter coming, she had been eating apples non-stop, and she thought she had hit her limit.
Even riding her horse made her think she might get sick. Her main goal was to get to the castle and then take a long nap. When she woke up, she’d go in search again of the weed with little white clusters of flowers. She knew if she could chew on it, her stomach would settle down.
