Unraveled Homecoming

by J. L. Shelton

  ***

  The concern about the woman even being home that had suddenly begun to grow turned out to be unfounded. Garin found Belladonna sitting on her front stoop, a steaming mug in her hand. Once again, she was dressed as if for a summer’s day instead of a winter’s morn. This time the sundress was pale lavender, and her white-streaked auburn hair was held away from her face by a light blue bandana.

  If she was surprised at seeing a black dragon land so close to her tiny home, the woman kept it to herself. Perhaps it was because Garin had been polite enough to stay out of her fenced-in yard. A place where, surprisingly, some patches of green still grew. He waited but a moment to see if the owner would say anything before he was leaning forward and gingerly depositing a fur-bundled Renard onto her property.

  A sick prince garnered more immediate attention from Belladonna than Garin’s beastly form ever could. She swiftly placed the mug on a step before hurrying her way to the man’s side. Garin watched her squat down and begin her examination of his brother.

  “Are you just going to stand there like a lost duck,” she said testily while she gently cracked open one of Renard’s eyes. “Or are you going to make yourself useful? I can’t carefully lift him up on my own, you know.”

  Garin took a deep breath and closed his eyes. The transformation was a little faster this time, but extremely off-balancing! He brought a shaky human hand up to his forehead as the sudden dizziness made him teeter. Sympathy for his foster sister’s poor ragdolls came to mind. It felt like all the strength in his muscles had spilled out and onto the ground like sawdust.

  “Here!” commanded a female voice as someone grabbed his other hand and made him hold it palm up. A warm mug was soon forced into it. “Drink some of this!”

  He readily obeyed Belladonna’s order. The rich brew had been heavily sweetened with cream and sugar, but that turned out to be what he needed. He almost felt normal again by the time he drained the cup.

  The woman’s eyes quickly inspected him from head to toe. “Better now?”

  It might have been phrased like a question, but her sharp tone said it had been rhetorical in nature. Garin quickly nodded his head, “Yes. Thank you.”

  “Good,” she said before she snatched the empty mug out of his hand and marched over to the now-opened gate. Placing her free hand on top of the tiny wooden door, she quickly turned back around. “Then you can come and bring him into the house for me.”

  Knowing better than to argue with a healer, Garin quickly carried out her demand. She waited by the front door while he lifted Renard off the ground, his heart in his throat when that small motion alone caused his brother to groan in agony. He swallowed down the worry that the flight had been a painful experience for his brother as they made their way towards Belladonna. The woman didn’t hesitate for a second, and she opened the door to her home just before Garin’s feet touched the first step. Grateful to have a free and clear path, Garin pushed past the pain in his arm muscles while he hefted himself and his brother into the tiny home.

  “Wait right there,” commanded Belladonna after she had shut the door behind them.

  A groan left Garin’s lips, wishing he could just dump his brother on the couch for which the woman was heading. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold the man before they both ended up on the floor! But then he watched the woman bend down and reach under the said sofa. With a mighty tug, she pulled out a contraption made of wood and canvas from underneath it.

  Questions filled his head, but that stern face kept his mouth shut. She hauled the strange item to a space in front of the fireplace. Deftly, she started to untangle the mess by pulling and pushing on specific pieces of wood. By the end of her struggle, a rickety cot with only a canvas as a mattress stood in the middle of the room, making the cramped space seem even smaller than before.

  “Put him down in the middle of this,” she said as she pointed at the sad-looking bed. “Carefully, of course.”

  He opened his mouth to ask if she was sure, but she lifted an eyebrow at him. That maneuver reminded him so much of Mattie, he was beginning to wonder if it was a family trait. Still, his response to that was to simply keep quiet and place Renard on the cot.

  Belladonna pushed Garin aside so she could get to her patient. “Before I begin,” she said while her hands almost magically removed the tangled cloaks from about his brother’s body. “Is there anything about the prince or his sickness that I need to know.”

  “There is one thing,” he said hesitantly. This wasn’t something he wanted to admit to himself let alone anyone else.

  Belladonna’s eyes narrowed when Garin paused for too long. “Spit it out, child!”

  “He’s a Semi…” Garin then cringed because he couldn’t remember the damn word! “A semi-do? Semi-duo? Whatever. Not a powerful one, but Leto said you needed to know.”

  The healer’s face turned to stone, or so it seemed. “I know the word you wanted to say, though it’s been forever since I heard anyone attempt to utter it.” A hand covered her mouth before a frustrated sigh escaped it. “And considering how sick he is, I know what this potentially means.”

  Wondering if she had a theory similar to Leto’s, he quickly asked, “What does it mean?”

  There was sad anger in her eyes as she laid a gentle hand on Renard’s arm. “It means you need to stay until this is done, in case I need help. This healing will not go easily for any of us.”

  Chapter 52

  Once the estate came into view, Mattie increased her altitude. If Bran was wandering around somewhere out here, it wasn’t going to be near the road—not at first at any rate. Her cousin might be many things, but foolish wasn’t one of them. Any hope at seeing his magical signatures in a game of hide-and-seek required her flight to be higher in the sky.

  The worry she might have missed him was eliminated when Mattie noticed the two figures close to the raspberry-colored border long before she was upon them. Even as a dragon, her eyebrow rose in surprise. Elita had every right to brag about her healing powers; they lit her up like a beacon in the night. The person beside her had to be Crius, his magic smoldering like sleeping embers waiting to explode.

  Mattie paused when they waved at her. Taking a moment to take a good look around, her heart began to sink. Besides the two elves, there was only one other distinctive magical signature between the estate and the border. And it had nothing to do with a living creature.

  Any few doubts that had remained in her about the strange cave’s magic were instantly obliterated! The thing had an otherworldly glow about it as streams of gold and silver poured out of the stone mouth. The strangeness of the duchy was mainly caused by this magical spring that fed power into every crevice of Crosshawk, the flow stopping only at the reddish-purple boundary and refusing to cross over it.

  Making a mental note that she was going to have to interrogate both Leto and a couple of family members later, Mattie had to sadly shake her head at the waiting duo. Bran was nowhere in sight. The fire in Crius sparked for a second before he started to pace. Elita’s posture slumped in a dejected manner. They weren’t happy about the news either.

  There was only one thing left for Mattie to do: take a deep breath and continue her search outside of Crosshawk.

  ***

  Do not fear the dragon’s roar, unless it’s just outside your door.

  Mattie wasn’t sure why that childhood rhyme suddenly wandered through her head as she meandered the countryside. Maybe it was due to the many field workers along her path who had only paused in their labor long enough to raise a respectful hand in her direction. Their concern had been more on bringing in the very last precious bits of harvest than on a strange flying beast.

  Even though Mattie hadn’t gone too far south, the differences between these lands and Crosshawk were vast. The amount of people holding magic became fewer and far between. She saw maybe one gifted person for every twenty regular folk. Hundreds were out and about this cold day, performing the obvious mad sc
ramble to finish preparations before the snows finally arrived. That should have made it easier to find her cousin, but neither the lack of magic nor the rolling hills containing little more than farms and forests yielded any clue to Bran’s whereabouts. With plenty of places a small contingent could camp comfortably, it was becoming painfully obvious that the elves had hidden themselves well away from the road. If they hadn’t begun dragging Bran all the way back to Arduenna already.

  Glancing at the sun, her stomach began to rumble in response to the fact morning was nearly halfway gone. Mattie hadn’t realized her search beyond the border was at least an hour old. Elita and Crius must be at their wits’ ends that she hadn’t returned yet.

  Mattie’s tail began twitching with agitation when she noticed the squatting mansion of the Gunderson Estate. Damn it! She had wanted to find her cousin before he was in less than one piece! But Garin did make her promise to head back home before going too far south. The miles she had traveled obviously skirted breaking that agreement already.

  The flip came easily and smoothly, helping Mattie to point her snout northwards. The agility of this form constantly amazed her, at least when she was in the air or in the water. On solid ground, it was a lumbering and clumsy beast. The only reason it would never become her favorite.

  Diverting her original path, Mattie followed the river back to Crosshawk. If Bran had escaped, it seemed likely that the waterway would help his navigation home. Her eyes darted side to side, not giving up hope she might yet spot him.

  Miles away from the shimmering border, Mattie screeched to a halt. While she knew it wasn’t Bran, two flashes of bright, golden light attracted her attention. The pair was in the area beyond the eastern banks of Hawk’s Run, deep within the forest found at the mountain range’s feet. Squinting her eyes, she began to wonder if it had been just her imagination. Until the two shapes flashed again; the pair’s position now slightly closer to the water.

  What the hell?

  Shaking her head at the impossible concept that someone could hide their magic so completely was what helped Mattie’s sight to land on a seemingly inconspicuous rock pile. It appeared to be a manmade hill, moss and grass slowly overtaking it. But it was the soft, multi-colored glow that attracted her attention. Cautiously, she moved a bit closer.

  There! Ground around the area had been trampled down by a great many feet and wood had been haphazardly piled up about the structure’s base, but those weren’t the biggest tells. Confirmation came from the elf who had obviously been sent to retrieve some more kindling. All she could surmise from this distance was that he had a blue aura about him, long blond hair tucked behind pointy ears, striking green eyes that could become as wide as saucers, and a mouth that grew rather large when he gaped at her.

  He just stood frozen like a deer, staring in abject terror. A sense of mischievousness came over Mattie before she smiled and blew him a kiss. The elf then dumped the wood on the ground and ran into the cave screaming, “Drake!”

  As tempting as it was to wait and see their response, Mattie began to hightail it out of there! At least this plan hadn’t been totally in vain. She had the elves’ current location, a place from where she could track them down even if they did abandon it.

  A deep and echoing twang similar to one from a bow had Mattie instinctively diving closer to the river. A black metal bolt as large as a javelin brushed past her ear and landed into the water with a spectacular splash! She quickly banked to her right and glanced back at the hidden encampment.

  Esus was standing on the top of the hill with a crossbow at his side, a monster of wood as thick and as long as the leg it was nestled against. The elf had a hand extended in an expectant manner to the others behind him. Black hair was pulled tightly back, causing the deep scars on his face to make his fierce expression appear murderous. Or maybe it was just the dark gleam in his eye as his focus never waivered from her position in the sky.

  Mattie swallowed down the surge of fear when her magical sight revealed too much of him. The tiny piece of Caligo’s spirit implanted within each of the creature’s disciples had infected the elf, the darkness surrounding him was complete and did not permit her to see any of the possible magic hiding underneath. Except for that black armor. The steel shone with green and silver power, screaming that the enchantment imparted strength beyond measure to the elf.

  Esus had shot that heavy bolt himself and had almost hit her!

  An evil grin crossed his face. When he mouthed “Hello, Mathilda.” with an obvious chuckle, it removed any fleeting hope that he had just fired at some random dragon. Though how in the hell did he know the true identity of this purple beast?

  When it took three elves to heft another of those black weapons into his eagerly waiting hand, Mattie immediately rocketed towards Crosshawk! Her path was full of random swerves and dives, because looking back was not an option. To hesitate even for a second meant certain death, the temptation of which would be too great if she tried to keep an eye on the villain.

  Unfortunately the new twanging sound caused her wings to skip a beat, which is why a blood-curdling roar soon left Mattie’s lips when the bolt skewered her left leg!

  It hurt worse than when she had been run through with her own sword! It burned like fire trying to consume her limb! But there was no giving up, she was too close to the border to slow down now!

  Thankfully, Esus had either run out of weapons or was out of possible range. Though Mattie doubted any of those were the real reasons he had stopped the attack. By the time she flew through the mulberry-infused border, her eyesight was nothing but a big blur. The back of her throat was beginning to scratch and burn like she had swallowed down nothing but hot ashes. What strength she had left was used to safely pass well beyond Elita and Crius’ location.

  Good thing too, because there would be no true landing! Mattie’s muscles felt heavy enough that all she could do was crash to the ground! Rocks and dirt flew into the air as her body plowed out a shallow depression because of the sudden stop in momentum. Hands and legs uncooperative, she forced her neck to crane around as far as it could go. Luckily, it was enough. Gritting her teeth, Mattie used them to yank the evil weapon out of her leg.

  Mattie vaguely heard a couple of voices heading her way, so she made it a point to spit the bolt out in the opposite direction. Then it took her more than one try to change back into a human, the initial inability pissing her off enough that her stubborn will final won out. By the time Elita was kneeling beside her, she was human again.

  Unfortunately, whatever poison was in that weapon began to consume Mattie at a faster rate now! It was agonizing pain she couldn’t run away from because her body was refusing to move an inch. She only had enough time to hiss “It was thrice-damned Esus!” before passing out completely.

  Chapter 53

  Belladonna grabbed Garin with a strength he didn’t think was possible in a woman who looked like she had been put through a wringer! Any attempt to heal Renard had been frustratingly useless, despite the obvious fact that the woman was putting every ounce of her considerable energy into the endeavor. If they kept this up, she was the one who would be in need of help.

  “You are not going anywhere!” she commanded, her expression resolute.

  The growl from him was deep and menacing. “Mattie’s been hurt!”

  “Then let Elita take care of her!” barked the healer, giving his arm a tight squeeze. Then she let him go so she could sweep a few sweat-drenched strands out of her eyes, the bandana long ago abandoned. “She’s closer and can help your wife a hell of a lot more than you can! That’s why you alerted her of today’s events, isn’t it? Let the elf do her job!”

  Even in the rage he felt at Belladonna’s audacity, he couldn’t help but wonder, “How did you know all that?”

  “Very little happens around here without my knowledge,” she said as she crossed her arms and glared at him.

  Feeling like he had an explanation to one of his questions at last, he sai
d, “So you were waiting for us!”

  “No, I was waiting for either you or Leto,” she said with an exasperated tone. “And while I was hoping you were going to be the one to show up so we could have a talk, I was not expecting him!”

  She pointed to the shirtless man on the cot between them. Renard was still unconscious and sweat was dripping off his muscular form. Garin had just helped the woman flip the prince onto his stomach so she could get a good look at his back. She had made a noise of discovery the second before he had felt Mattie’s pain. Something horrible had happened to his wife, and he had to be by her side!

  “Your brother needs you here!” snarled Belladonna as if she had seen his unspoken decision to try to leave again. “And in more ways than you know!”

  Feeling like the woman was playing with his emotions to gain compliance, he snarked, “To what? Flip him back over?”

  The smack to his face came swift and hard, causing him to take a stumbling step to the side in order to keep his balance. Remembering how the woman had rounded on Leto the other day, he couldn’t believe he now felt sympathy for the Draconian. Belladonna was one hell of a lot stronger than she looked!

  “Don’t be insolent, child!” she hissed. “I’m trying to save your brother’s life!”

  “Hitting someone is not the best way to gain their cooperation,” he grumbled, wondering how he kept getting into messes like this.

  “But it got your attention, didn’t it?” she countered. “Now, will you listen fully to what I have to say, or will I need to knock some more sense into you?”

  He didn’t want to spend another second with this crazy woman! But his eyes drifted down to his brother’s body. There was no question the man was suffering. After the sponge bath that Belladonna had given him, the chalkiness of Renard’s entire complexion was plain to see. Sweat glistened over skin that felt blazing hot to the touch, and all from a fever that refused to break.