Unraveled Homecoming

by J. L. Shelton

  “Good,” responded Elita flatly. “Because my people have dealt with Gan before, though she had another name then. Her moods swing as sharply as an axe.”

  Mattie’s mouth opened because she wanted more information on the strange woman, but it soon snapped shut as a feeling of protective warmth washed over her. The cave’s powers suddenly stopped scratching at the edge of her senses, the wild magic completely restrained from touching her. Elita’s dampening potion had nothing on this! The familiar whinny in the distance that came soon afterwards did not surprise Mattie in the slightest. Firestorm had come to her aid!

  And had brought Selina with her, apparently. The black-haired girl rushed through the entrance and headed straight for Mattie. The next thing she knew, a bawling young woman was threatening to crush her to death in a bear hug!

  “Easy,” said Elita as she gently tried to pry the girl off. “Mattie still has some healing left to do.”

  “Everyone’s been so worried,” sniffed Selina, her eyes puffy from crying. “Your father was called to the inn earlier to talk about the dragon sightings, while Dougal and I have been waiting anxiously for anyone to come back! If I hadn’t caught Firestorm breaking out of her stall, I wouldn’t have known where to find you!”

  “Garin’s at Belladonna’s,” Mattie reassured her, though her face fell into confusion. “But Leto should have returned by now.”

  The girl shook her head before embracing the woman tightly again. “No one’s seen him since your flight this morning.”

  We lost the Last Draconian? The look of shock on Mattie’s face when she lifted it up towards Elita found a twin in the elf’s. They both knew, despite all his faults, Leto wouldn’t have helped just to abandon everyone afterwards.

  This did not bode well at all.

  Chapter 55

  Garin woke with a start. Having no idea what had caused his nap to abruptly end, it took him a second to get his bearings. The last thing he remembered was Belladonna going to fetch a fresh shirt for his brother, so he must still be in the woman’s small cottage. Somehow a blanket had been draped over him, a tangled mess he had to undo in order to sit up.

  He was finally staring at the floor and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes when he heard one sharp word:

  “Why!?”

  Garin’s head shot up to look at the questioner. Renard was sitting on the edge of the cot, arms resting on his knees and hands clasped tightly together. Broad shoulders looked strained beyond belief, as were the slightly shrunken muscles in his arms. For some reason, the sight suddenly and painfully reminded Garin that Emory would have been close to the prince’s age by now if he hadn’t been murdered. Maybe that uncomfortable realization had been brought to light by the fact that the oversized blue shirt was causing his half-brother’s form to look even smaller than usual. Maybe it was the fact that he had almost lost this little brother less than a day after he had to let go of the other.

  Garin didn’t really have an answer to that conundrum. He only knew that Renard’s long black hair, at least, was different enough to keep any confusion at bay about which brother was sitting there. The strands had been washed and were slicked back now, exposing a face full of cuts and bruises. Renard looked more like a toy that the family dog had chewed up than a prince of the realm. But those brown eyes were bright and searching for answers.

  “I’m not sure I understand the question,” admitted Garin as he scratched the back of his head and tried to get his mind on track.

  Renard released a derisive snort. “Come on, now. I’ve been nothing but a shit to you since day one! So why in the hell did you help me?”

  The answer was both simple and complicated. “Because you’re my brother and you pretty much asked me to.”

  Sharp confusion furrowed Renard’s brow. “I never treated you like one.”

  Garin could only shrug at that. It was the truth, after all.

  His brother didn’t seem to appreciate that non-verbal answer. “Has anyone ever told you that you are as confusing as hell?”

  “Many,” responded Garin as he leaned back and placed his hands behind his head. This was the most civil conversation he had ever had with the prince while they were in a private setting, so he was more than curious to see where it was heading. “Including my wife.”

  That brought out a soft chuckle out of Renard before he smiled and bowed his head, “I could see Mattie doing that. She was never one for keeping her opinions to herself for very long.”

  They sat there in silence for a bit after that. Garin was keeping an eye on Renard, not yet trusting this change in attitude towards him. His brother, on the other hand, seemed oblivious to being studied. Instead, the prince remained momentarily lost in some distant thought.

  “Now I have a question for you,” said Garin in a stern tone, which brought his brother’s focus straight back to him. “Why in the hell did you travel through the wilderness in just your human form!? Our father and Stephan were here, worried sick about you since they had no word of your whereabouts! Because of your refusal to transform, you missed them by only a few days!”

  While Renard sounded sincere, the fact he switched his gaze to a far corner told Garin he was only being partially truthful when he said, “That bond. Since I was severely disobeying my mother by coming here, the punishment would have hit me much earlier had I been anything but just me. Still not entirely sure why it finally did, except possibly because I stopped trying to attack you.”

  “So she was the one who put that twisted bond on both of you?”

  Renard’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Yes, but how did you know she had also put it on Stephan?”

  “While I’ve been told it should have been impossible, I broke his too,” said Garin frankly. “After sensing it through yours, in fact.”

  “We both definitely owe you for that, in more ways than you could ever know,” said Renard with sincere gratitude even though he looked even more perplexed than before. “But how was that even possible?”

  Garin wearily sighed. “My mother’s Iantha, remember? Somewhere in her family line must have been a Blood Binder like me.”

  Now Renard looked extremely worried. “While that does explain a couple of things, I had no idea that you were one.”

  “Not surprising considering you never bothered to get to know me.”

  “Since I’m trying to do so now, let me ask you something I’ve always wanted to know—why in the hell did you fight father tooth and nail about his decision to acknowledge you?”

  “Honestly?” began Garin, as he looked towards the ceiling. His mind, however, was wandering through the events of that strange long-ago day. “I did so because it felt like he was tearing my identity apart. That had happened more than once to me already and going through it again was close to torture. After all, being a royal bastard twice over makes for a rather shunned life.”

  “But you discovered that your father was the king!” insisted Renard, the expression on his face was as if he had never seen his brother before. “You’re the son of the most powerful man in the world, and yet you never took advantage of that fact. He was willing to make up for those lost years so badly that you could have gotten anything from him if you had but bothered to ask!”

  “I already had what I wanted, for the most part,” said Garin with a shrug, wondering if misconstrued jealousy had been the crux of the problems with Renard all these years. “Love of family, albeit they weren’t truly related to me. I had a close friend who helped watch my back, as well as plenty of other people who cared for and respected me. There wasn’t much else he could grant me beyond what I already had. At least, not that he was willing or able to give me.”

  “See,” said Renard pointing a finger at him. “That’s why I don’t understand you. You care about people. You care about the kingdom when called upon to help it, but you don’t give a damn in how it’s run!”

  Shaking his head because he believed his brother would never understand, Garin said, “Neither do mo
st people, Renard. Not unless it causes problems for them and theirs. Then, believe me, they will voice a rather strong opinion about what’s gone wrong.”

  Renard surprised him by quietly chuckling, “Reminds me a lot about the nobility. Nothing worse than watching them circle like sharks whenever they disagreed with our father. You should have heard them complain for days on end about Mattie becoming an heiress, especially the young lords with older sisters.”

  “Probably because most of those women could run the family holdings better.”

  Renard barked out a laugh. “Too true!”

  Garin wasn’t quite ready to let his guard down with this brother, though he could see the beginnings of a new bridge between them. “But that part of me you don’t understand, the one who wanted nothing to do with our father, did wish he could’ve been a better brother to you and Stephan. You guys had nothing to do with the man’s decisions, so I never held that against the two of you. The way you both treated me, however, is another story. Yet despite how often I’ve gotten pissed off at you, I still considered you family. The day I saved Stephan’s life should have proven that. Why are you so surprised I would do the same for my youngest brother?”

  Things approached what was normal when Renard crossed his arms and caustically said, “I already have an older sibling.”

  Garin raised a clenched hand before lifting his index and middle finger to make a “V” shape. “Two. You have at least two, whether you like it or not.”

  The prince caved in almost too easily when he threw up his hands and shouted, “Fine! I have two! But we’ll just have to wait and see on that whole ‘liking it’ part.”

  This whole conversation seemed surreal to Garin; he never expected to ever get this close to making things right with Renard. Not in a million years. So he jumped at the chance by calmly saying, “I can live with that.”

  ***

  “How dare you!” growled Renard, his cheek bright red from the slap Belladonna had just delivered. “I’m a Prince of Menapolin!”

  “And I’m nearly as old as Crosshawk, you ill-mannered brat!” she snarled as she gathered up the pieces of the broken dish that Renard had knocked onto the floor. Personally, Garin thought she should have made his brother clean up the mess, but he wisely kept that to himself. “And this home is my domain!”

  “Rules of hospitality, Renard,” chided Garin when he saw his brother seriously contemplate escalating the situation. “Don’t take this any further. After all, you broke them first.”

  Disbelief fueled his brother’s question: “By just insulting her cooking?”

  Garin glared. This was the Renard he remembered all too well. “That, and by destroying her property. How in the hell have you managed to stay alive for this long?”

  “Considering what he is, it must have been a miracle,” muttered Belladonna as she stormed out of the room with the shards that had once been a plate.

  Garin winced when the front door loudly slammed shut behind her. “Renard, what is wrong with you?” the question was in earnest. “That woman went above and beyond to help heal you! Plus she’s powerful as hell. Both very good reasons to be on your best behavior!”

  “No need to lecture at me!” snapped Renard. “You have no idea what she tried to order me to do or how disastrous the outcome could be once the deed was done!”

  Doubting it was anywhere near as bad as it sounded, Garin said, “No, but why don’t you enlighten me?”

  Renard shook his head a little too quickly. “You’ll just side with her.”

  So much for their conversation earlier. “You can’t know that.”

  “Oh, but I do,” said Renard with a snarl as he marched over to the fireplace on the opposite side of the large room. “Because no one here will understand why I can’t do as she asked. My refusal has nothing to do with desire but rather my survival! Not one soul will believe it’s actually been helping to protect me all these years!”

  Garin ignored the sound of gigantic wings flapping overhead because he was confident they belonged to one of two people. It was the total weight of what his brother had just said that held his full attention! Chills ran down his spine, not stopping one bit after the realization had hit. His feet soon had him joining Renard by the fireplace.

  The prince was massaging a portion of his lower back and staring dejectedly into the flames, the gaze in those brown eyes nearly emotionless. It was in a frank tone that he rhetorically asked, “You figured out part of my meaning, didn’t you?”

  Garin nodded. “But what is that parasitic spell protecting you from?”

  “You mean from whom,” Renard replied with a dark chuckle as he proceeded to cross his arms. When he finally straightened up to his full height, he was but a few inches shorter than Garin. “She never imagined that one of her plans would backfire, but I thank Celestria every damn day that it did!”

  Before Garin could ask for clarification on who she was, Belladonna rushed into the house. Her face was as white as a sheet as she held the door open. “Garin!” she ordered as she pointed to the far end of the cottage. “The door over there leads to my bedroom. Go in there and strip the bed completely bare! Hurry!”

  The urgency in her voice had him obeying her in an instant. Someone must have been injured severely enough that the cot wouldn’t be safe for them to lie on. He had just ripped the sheets off the bed and had thrown them into a corner when the desperate shout from Renard brought his world crashing down:

  “FATHER!”

  Chapter 56

  Tem and Gan surprised Mattie after she was finally led out of the cave. She had been expecting them to resemble Helka, but—other than the otherworldly power they held—these women looked nothing like the old crone. Standing just shy of six feet tall, they appeared to be around their mid-twenties. Both were dressed in deerskin outfits akin to her traveling one, though theirs were sleeveless enough that the hard and rigid muscles of their arms could never be ignored. But that was where the similarities ended.

  Tem had pale blue eyes and silky blond-silver hair, the sides of which had been pulled back into a neat braid. Those attributes contrasted greatly with her skin, which was the deep tan common among people who spent a great deal of time outdoors. A wooden bow that had a golden sheen was on her back, as well as a quiver full of golden-like arrows.

  Gan, however, didn’t seem to care that her curly black hair was wildly falling into her reddish-brown eyes. Her weapon of choice was a broadsword, the hilt of which was made from a polished onyx that matched her ebony strands. The pale hand placed upon it was as white as a ghost’s, almost as if the woman had never before seen the light of day.

  Firestorm was the first to make Mattie feel at ease with the two creatures because she went over to Tem and let the woman rub her nose for a moment.

  “Animal lover,” grumbled Gan while shaking her head.

  Tem smiled when she gave the Fury one final pat. “So are you, though you’d never admit to it in public.”

  “Bah. Let’s just stop wasting time,” she groused as Firestorm headed for Mattie’s side. “We almost failed in this mission already.”

  Selina moved closer to the mare, her gaze on the women wary and mistrustful. Because she was still partially holding her patient up, Mattie felt Elita’s body stiffen when the elf demanded, “And what exactly is this mission?”

  Tem put her hand over her heart and bowed her head. “Helka sent us to protect Mathilda of the Stone.”

  “Which will be often, by the look of things,” added Gan as she crossed her arms and glared.

  Mattie’s eyes rolled of their own accord in response to the black-haired one’s attitude. “I’m going to have to confirm what you say, you know.”

  “Common sense at last!” said Gan a little too brightly.

  Tem sent a glowering look to her colleague before saying, “We’ll stay at the boarding house until you hear from Helka.”

  Elita shook her head when Gan shouted, “What? I was hoping for some ale thi
s evening! The Pheasant is where we should go.”

  Tem rounded on her companion. “Ale, my butt! You just want to see if all the stories about Henriella are true and maybe scare her to death! We are here to stop fights, not start them! It’s either the boarding house or a tent!”

  Even if it turned out Helka had sent them, Mattie wasn’t sure her head would survive this kind of bickering for long. The new ache behind her eyes was beginning to tire her out already. Maybe she should just send them on their way regardless.

  Then Mattie was surrounded by helping hands after her knees had suddenly buckled and landed her on the ground! Barely hearing the various inquiries as to the state of her wellbeing, all she felt was panic, sorrow, and terror. Images began to flash through her head, a familiar room filled with frantic people helping a man who shouldn’t have been breathing. Too many broken bones, too much blood!

  Garin!?

  His response was sharp and short. My father!

  “Elita, you need to get to Belladonna’s!” the scream left Mattie’s lips as she tried to rise. Her body apparently had enough of her shenanigans today because it wasn’t budging. Damn it! This wasn’t fair; not at a time like this! “My father also needs told! King Easton’s been viciously attacked!”

  Crius had finally returned with two horses, arriving just as Mattie had screamed about the king’s dire plight. There had been no exchange between the siblings, but what happened next had been done so seamlessly that it seemed almost magical. He had immediately brought the second horse to his sister’s side and had thrown the reins towards her just as she was hopping onto the back of the beast. A strange white mist surrounded both rider and steed before they took off towards the northwest at an impossible speed!

  Hooves thundered from Elita’s departure while Crius slid off his horse and crouched down next to Mattie. She shook her head when he offered to lift her up. “You need to find my father first!”

  “What I need to do is get you safely home,” he said in a firm voice.

  “We could do it,” offered Gan a little too willingly.