by Laura R Cole
*
Hunter glanced back at Natalya riding behind him and immediately felt a twinge of guilt. He still had not told her of the atrocities which had been committed on her townspeople, and did not know how to bring it up to her now. Her optimism was trying on his nerves, especially with the secret he held from her, but the pity he felt for her would not relinquish its tight grip on his heart, so he was stuck traveling with her.
Aside from her stream of optimistic comments, she was actually quite easy to travel with. She carried her own weight and even made many of his chores easier. And Weylyn certainly seemed to enjoy her company; he was her constant shadow. When the poor thing finally learned the truth, he wasn’t sure how she would take it.
They rode into Bethel as the sun was hitting its zenith in the sky and their attention was immediately drawn to the square where it seemed the whole town had gathered. A man was standing atop the podium in the middle of the square and shouting for quiet. Hunter caught Natalya’s eye and by silent agreement they made their way to join the crowd rather than continue on to find the inn.
As the mass of chattering people quieted around him, the man cleared his throat and unraveled a large scroll. After a moment, he began reading, “It is our sad duty to inform the citizens of Gelendan that the unspeakable has happened. The jewel of our Queen and King, the Princess Phoenix and heir to the throne, has been kidnapped.” A collective gasp sounded throughout the crowd quickly followed by people shushing one another to hear the next words. “And furthermore, both the King and the Queen have fallen ill as a result. Lord Telvani, the Queen’s most trusted advisor, will be communing with her daily to carry out her wishes while we make it through this terrible crisis. The Queen asks that you, her people, stay strong during the ordeal and that you help in finding the traitors behind this attack. If anyone has any information that could lead to the recovery of the Princess, please come forward.” He paused and looked around, but everyone was looking at their neighbors blankly, and not coming forward so he continued, “Lord Telvani further requests that any bearing the talent to come forward immediately in case you are able to help cure their ailment.”
Hunter’s eyes narrowed. Natalya looked like she had been stabbed through the heart and Hunter was glad that he had decided not to break the news about her town and her parents. She turned to him with wide eyes.
“How could this happen?” she implored him and he simply shrugged. It happened all the time. Nobles kidnapping children and killing each other off to gain more power. It was politics. And now, there was an even broader search for talents being conducted, and the people themselves would be surging into the capitol to volunteer themselves. The fact that it was this Lord Telvani who had actually made this request spoke volumes to Hunter. Perhaps Natalya had been correct in her unwavering trust in the Queen’s intentions. If she had ‘fallen ill’ it may very well have been Telvani who caused it and was now using this as a way to gain support for himself.
“This is terrible,” a woman next to them wailed, “First the bandit attacks and now this?!”
Hunter quickly nudged Natalya out of the square and away from the gossiping people. She definitely didn’t need to hear about her family in the wake of this tragedy. And certainly not from idle gossip. She listlessly complied, letting him lead her to the inn while staring blankly ahead.
When they had made it to their room, she was still in a trance. He guided her to a chair and she plopped down in it and sighed.
“Now what am I supposed to do?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“I was going to bring my sister’s kidnapping to her attention and she would fix it, but if she’s sick and can’t see anyone…” She had begun to refer to the incident as a kidnapping which, given the turn Hunter’s thoughts had just taken, now sounded a lot more plausible.
“We’re still a ways to the capitol,” he soothed, “she may be better by the time we get there anyway. There’s no use worrying about it now, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
She looked up at him. “Does that mean you’re going to help me?’
He sighed, now he’d done it. “I guess it does,” he finally concurred, “My uncle works out of the capitol and knows the Queen, he’ll know what to do.”
“Your uncle knows the Queen?” Natalya asked incredulously. “Just when were you going to tell me this?”
“Well, he doesn’t like to be bothered, and he tries to stay out of politics. He hasn’t spoken to her much since she was put on the throne, but he traveled with her during her journeys.”
“What’s his name?”
“Charles.”
“Charles?! The Charles from the stories!! I can’t believe you didn’t mention this to me before!” Natalya jumped up from her chair and hit him squarely on the arm.
“Ow! What was that for?”
“I have so many questions for him!”
“Which is why I didn’t mention it before,” mumbled Hunter, too low for her to hear, while rubbing his arm. She seemed to have completely forgotten about the news of the King and Queen, caught up in the excitement of meeting his uncle. Hunter had lost touch with his father’s brother since they had moved to Treymayne, but when Charles’ adventures had brought him into Endlyfta he had looked them up. He had then contacted them again a few months ago about running some merchandise back and forth for him, saying he was getting too old to make such a trek himself anymore.
Hunter had only met him briefly when he was in Treymayne and meeting up with him in Naoham would be over two years since seeing him. Hopefully he would remember what he looked like.
Natalya was still rambling on about all the questions that she would ask Charles and despite himself, Hunter had to admit that he wouldn’t mind knowing the answers to some of those questions as well. In light of recent events, he was suddenly a lot more interested in the truth behind the stories of how Queen Layna ascended to the throne.
He had assumed that they were wild tales, exaggerations of the actual events, but perhaps they weren’t as far-fetched as they seemed. He had witnessed first-hand the effects of blood-magic, and though he hadn’t actually been in one of the units that was attacked by the King in his dragon form, he heard enough accounts from those who had and saw the carnage for himself. It was enough to convince him that Nathair could indeed change his shape. Whether or not he was an actual dragon god was another story.
“Did you ever see the dragon?” Natalya asked him, eerily echoing his own thoughts.
“No, but I have no doubt that it was real. I don’t know if it was just a man who learned how to change his appearance or if he was actually getting strength from a true dragon god though.”
“I don’t understand how a god could be evil,” Natalya stated.
“According to Queen Layna, they aren’t gods at all, merely ancient beings who have such infinitely long life-spans and such great wealth of power and knowledge that they seemed so to us. They don’t want to be considered gods, especially given the fact that one of them, Nuko, was so fallible.”
“I know, but how long have we been worshiping the Three? It’s hard to just change your thinking to suddenly be that the gods you once prayed to are actually the dragons we thought were just representations.”
“True, and in Treymayne we used to actually be able to send a prayer down the Great River and for matters of importance we would get a response. Somehow it’s different knowing that the prayer was being heard by the essence of three dragons bound here in stones, rather than sending it off to some unimaginable force.”
“Different bad or different good?”
Hunter pondered this a moment. “I guess both. People certainly view it both ways, I’ve heard arguments for both sides.”
“I wonder what kind of effect that will have on the countries?” Natalya speculated with wisdom beyond her years. “You know, religion has played a large part in people’s everyday lives for
a long time now, and recently we’ve been told our gods are not gods, the priests who we used to trust to explain the gods will to us have been largely intertwined with the secret society the Order that was plotting against most of mankind, and our new Queen not only hosted the essences of three of the gods in her head, but then had the strength to defeat one.”
“I don’t know,” Hunter answered truthfully. “The people need something to believe in.”
Natalya pondered this and chewed on her lip. “What do you think of the Queen?”
Hunter chose his words carefully. “I like a lot of her policies. I’m not completely sold on the story she’s spreading, and I’m always a little wary of governments in general.”
“But you’re coming around,” Natalya stated confidently, a grin appearing on her face.
