Deceiving the Bandit Lord

by Elle Clouse

  Glenn and Corinna glanced at one another.

  “I will take care of it, my lady.” Glenn pulled the bottles toward himself on the counter. “Dinner will be ready soon, if you would like to freshen up in your room I shall send Corinna for you when the time is right.”

  Aisling knew a dismissal when she heard one. She should check on Miss Cotton anyway.

  “AND THAT WAS WHEN MY brother came down with pneumonia for the fourth time.” Miss Cotton said, recounting every illness in her family except the one that currently bothered her. She had a head cold. Although not severe, still something that required plenty of rest.

  Ardhor pressed dried herbs into a tea ball and set it in a cup of steaming hot water. The ancient mixture would help her recover.

  The door latch clicked and Ardhor rose.

  “Excuse me,” he said quickly as Lady Murphy stepped in the room. “I am Ardhor—“

  “Ah Aisling!” The old woman waved her kerchief. “This nice elf was making me a tincture to ease my aches. Isn’t that generous?”

  “Yes.” Aisling approached the bedside. “Indeed it is.”

  “I hope you don’t mind, Lord Armanta asked me to assist.”

  “You are very welcome.” She grinned, extending her hand. He shook it.

  “Be sure that she drinks all of it,” Ardhor advised. “It will taste horrible, akin to boiled twigs and dirt.”

  Aisling smiled. “Every drop then. When did you arrive? You were in Cearbhall for the coronation?”

  “Yes—“

  “Wasn’t it splendid?” Miss Cotton interjected, holding her kerchief to her chest. “The second ceremony, that is. After the scandal that Ayden caused. It’s good to see Lachlan on the throne. Shame about his father.”

  Aisling tilted her head toward the door, her gaze leading him to the door. He bowed, and made a quick retreat. He latched the door behind him, heaved a sigh of relief, and hastened down the stairs.

  Ardhor arrived in the kitchen mid conversation.

  “...there are no doors down in the cellar,” Glenn snapped. He yanked the cork out of a bottle of wine and dumped it into the cauldron over the cook fire. He slammed the bottle back on the counter with a thud. “I have been down there hundreds of times. I would have noticed if there was a door.”

  “I swear that I saw a door down there.” Brogan held a lantern in hand and marched out of the kitchen and down a flight of stairs with Glenn quick on his heels. The new cook shrugged and chopped her vegetables.

  Ardhor followed.

  Dank and moist, the cellar housed an impressive selection of wine and ale. The previous Lord of Armanta obviously had a passion for spirits. Ardhor spotted a section of elven brew.

  “It’s right there.” Brogan words echoing off the stone walls. Ardhor followed the sound. Glenn and Brogan faced the only wall in the cellar not covered by wine racks.

  “There is nothing there.” Glenn crossed his arms over his chest.

  Ardhor stepped inside the ring of light cast by the lantern.

  “Ardhor, do you see nothing strange about this wall? I cannot be the only one to see a door here.”

  Glenn turned and marched back to the stairs before Ardhor drew breath.

  “I have more important things to be doing than arguing about a nonexistent door.” Glenn stomped up the stairs. “I’ve lived here all my life...”

  Silence fell as Glenn’s words faded. Brogan turned to Ardhor.

  “I think that may be for the best.” Ardhor his voice down. “There is a door here but someone took great pains to keep hidden.”

  Brogan grinned.

  To the average person, the door would look like an ordinary wall. But those gifted with magic could see the seam in the brick work, so feint like a second shadow.

  “It’s been magicked.” Ardhor mumbled as he studied the edge of the door. “To help people forget it and to overlook it. I’m surprised you noticed it. A very experienced magician cast this spell.”

  “How can we get it open?” Brogan ran his hands over the stone. “There are no latches or door pulls.”

  “It is either a pass phrase or a key. That’s normally how these things work. Who was the previous lord here?”

  Brogan took a moment. “Taliesin.”

  “That name sounds familiar.” Human history was not his favorite subject. “What do you know of the Great Purge?”

  “It was when all magic was banned from the civil lands,” Brogan said. “When all the casters swore their services to the emperor or were executed. I heard some chose to flee into the Wylderlands.”

  Ardhor nodded. It had been a very dark hour for mankind. All the more reason elves didn’t venture any further into Northam.

  “Did this Taliesin have to leave due to the purge?” Ardhor asked. “How long was this place left without a lord?”

  “Lachlan said that it had been quite some time. Probably over thirty years. That would coincide with the end of the purge, when the last of the rogue wizards were rounded up by the emperor.” Brogan sighed.

  “Were there any personal effects left in the manor when you arrived?”

  “No,” Brogan replied. “It was empty of almost everything. The stewards used what they needed to survive.”

  “This is problematic then.”

  Brogan huffed. They stared at the door for a long moment.

  “If they were taken from their lands by force,” Brogan began. “Then they wouldn’t want to get caught with enchanted items in their possession. If such a magical key exists, it has to be somewhere on the estate.”

  Ardhor nodded. “That would be logical but if its a phrase or word then we may never see the contents of this room.”

  “I will see inside that room.”

  Bold words but the odds of finding the key were low. Ardhor knew better than to wager against Brogan’s ability to find it, he had nearly killed himself in the hot house.

  “If there are magical items hidden here I shall teach you how to seek them out tomorrow.”

  Chapter 6

  Brogan stared down the same bowl of stew as he had the night before, just with a few extra vegetables. He glanced around and his guests didn’t care. All the men who repaired the barn scooped spoonful after spoonful into their mouths with no care for manners. The only sound in the dining hall was the slurp of broth and clank of spoon on dish. The only one with any sense of decorum was Ardhor.

  “How is Miss Cotton?” Brogan asked.

  Aisling set down her spoon. “Thanks to Lord Ardhor, she is doing much better. She is resting now. I suspect she’ll be back on her feet in mere days.”

  “You are very welcome, my lady.” Ardhor nodded to her.

  Something in Aisling’s tone lead him to believe she wasn’t happy about her chaperone’s quick recovery.

  “I am glad she’s on the mend.” He met her emerald eyes and everything seemed to fall away, and in that moment it was just her.

  Glenn entered the dining room and set a sliced loaf of bread on the table. The lordlings helped themselves before passing the basket down to the caravan guards.

  “If the weather remains sunny, I'm sure your caravan could make it back to Cearbhall.” He didn’t want her to go. He had a suspicion she didn’t want to leave either but if they were left on their own much longer, he wouldn’t be able to deny his attraction to her.

  “It will depend on the weather,” Aisling commented. She fiddled with her spoon, stirring her stew. “It will also depend on how Miss Cotton is feeling.”

  Silence resumed and Brogan sipped some broth from his meal. The basket of bread wended its way back to his end of the table and he offered the last slice to Aisling. She broke it in half and handed him the other half.

  “I’m sure you can keep the men busy, for however long we need to impose. The labor seems to be doing them a lot of good.” She leaned in to whisper: “My brother’s aren’t fighting with each other.”

  Brogan turned to look. Shane dozed off with his head propped on a hand
and Niall gazed off into the distance, his eyes glossed over and unfocused.

  “Gentlemen, why don’t you turn in for the night?” Brogan expected a protest but the twins nodded, excused themselves, and shuffled out of the dining hall. He turned back to Aisling with a smile. “I am surprised that worked.”

  “Like I said, I hope that you have more things for them to repair tomorrow.”

  “Yes,” Brogan agreed. “There are several things that need to be tended to.” Guestrooms being the next priority. He wanted to sleep in his own bed.

  “Good.” Ardhor muttered. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to check on my patient.”

  “What do you lads say to a game of dice?” Aric stood from the table, his bowl all but licked clean. “If you’ll excuse us, that is, my lord.”

  The caravan guard turned to him, looking to the lord of the house. Odd feeling. He waived them away, to play their games. Brogan hadn’t had a good game of dice in ages but he stayed in his seat.

  With the guard gone, that left Brogan and Aisling alone.

  “Where did you spend the morning?” she asked after he couldn’t hear the guardsmen in the hall any longer. “I looked for you.”

  “I was training with Ardhor.” Brogan didn’t know what she already knew but best not outright admit he trained magic. If someone hunted him down for it, the less she knew the better.

  “Must be important stuff, to take up most of your day.” She grinned and traced the rim of her bowl with her finger tip.

  “Kiera insisted.” Kiera and her elfin father hadn’t left him alone until he agreed to learn. Only when he discovered his ability did he understand her insistence. It was a season of change.

  “Oh.” She stayed her hand, then folder her hands in her lap as if she realized she was fidgeting. “Can’t get in the way of a royal decree, now can we? But remember, I was promised a hunt before I leave. Don’t tell me the Lord Armanta is in danger of breaking his word?”

  “Only if you agree to some trapping and snaring. We haven’t the dogs or horses for a proper hunt. The only game to be had right now will be small rodents and fowl.”

  Her face went blank for a moment, then she shrugged. “Makes no difference to me, I’ve done neither. I’d like to learn both.”

  She stifled a yawn.

  “The hour grows late. May I escort you to your room?”

  “I can find my own way, but promise me a proper hunt as soon as you can.” Her eyes pleaded with him.

  He couldn’t deny her. “As soon as we have a hunting party, my lady.”

  He stood and took her hand, pulling her up from her seat with a little too much force. She bumped against him for a moment before she stepped back. A rosy color burned on her cheeks.

  “Good night, Brogan.” She tucked a lock of blonde behind her ear and stepped away.

  He watched her disappear down the hall, a sway in her hips he hadn’t noticed before.

  “MY LADY?”

  Aisling jumped as a hand set on her shoulder. Her heart raced and she pressed her palm to her chest to cease its pounding.

  “So sorry miss! I called from the hall but you stood so still...”

  Aisling glanced around. She stood at the base of the stair, her hand on the railing. She’d been so flustered by her brush with Brogan she didn’t remember walking out of the dining hall.

  “It’s alright, I was... distracted. What did you need?”

  Corinna stepped close and whispered. “Well, it’s just that it’s the full moon tonight, do you have a safe place to go?”

  “To go?”

  “For the change?”

  How did she lose track of the days? The moon didn’t force her to change, she could repress it, but the urge to shift was greatest on a full moon. “Oh I’ll be fine.”

  “You can change in your room? Does Miss Cotton know?”

  “No!” Aisling shout echoes through the hall. Then she whispered: “You can’t tell anyone, remember? I don’t have to change. I can control it.”

  Corinna’s mouth fell open.

  “It’s fine, Corinna.”

  “You’ve never shifted? Ever?”

  “No.” Aisling remembered when she first felt the change. Her fear of being cast out of her family made her shove the urge down and snuff it out. It had been that way since she was fifteen, every month on the full moon. The desire to run as a wolf, squelched as soon as the thought crossed her mind.

  “But, it’s a part of who you are. If you deny it too long, it will destroy you.”

  Aisling scrunched her nose.

  “You can be free.”

  “What?”

  Corinna shrugged. “It’s liberating. I can’t explain it but after I run, I feel free.”

  Aisling sighed and looked past Corinna to the hall beyond. Would it be so bad to explore that side of herself now? She faced an unwanted marriage that might be the death of her. If she never changed, ever, would she regret it?

  “We can run in the forest, stay near the manor. No one will bother us and we can return whenever you like. You don’t have to be alone.”

  Aisling couldn’t tell if her chest felt tight out of fear or gratitude but she nodded. The cook turned and waved her to follow though the kitchen to the back door. Aisling reached for one of the men’s cloaks off the mudroom hooks but Corinna caught her hand.

  “We won’t need that once we get beyond the tree line. Easier to leave them here.”

  Corinna opened the back door, the winter chill swooshing past them. She stepped into the snowy outside and waved her out.

  “This is insane.” The snow crunched beneath her slippers and the cold soaked into her toes. She hugged her arms across her chest and hastened after Corinna.

  Once past the tree line, Corinna stopped. “Take your clothes off.”

  “What!”

  Corinna pulled her dress up and over her head, depositing it at the base of a tree.

  Aisling averted her eyes, while Corinna deposited her underthings and slippers with her dress. “Change with your cloths on if you wish but then you’ll be runnin’ back to the manor naked as the day you were born.”

  Aisling snorted. The silence of the forest overtook her then, and she dared a peak at Corinna. A ruddy wolf sat where the cook had stood. The wolf wagged its tale when they made eye contact.

  “Easy as that huh?” Aisling reached down to hem of her skirt and paused. She glanced around, no one saw them. The manor was dark save the light from the kitchen fire. “This is still insane.”

  Her skin turned to goose flesh the moment the cold air hit her. She folded her gown and set beside the same tree Corinna left hers. Her knickers and slippers next. Maybe she should have asked for some sort of directions how to change. Instead she stood in the cold night in the nude with snow between her toes.

  “Now or never,” she said to herself and closed her eyes. The niggling feeling in the back of her mind, that she always shoved away or buried, flew to the forefront of her thoughts. Pine scent invaded her senses from the surrounding forest. The chill of the air diminished as she embraced the image of a wolf forming in her mind. White fur with silver running the bridge of the snout and a dusting of silver on her back. Her eyes were the color of faded jade.

  The cold didn’t bother her anymore.

  Aisling opened her eyes and saw the world in hues of blue. She looked down and saw fur and paws. Her ears followed sounds in the woods she hadn’t heard before, a rodent in their den, a bird in their nest. New but familiar.

  She looked at the other wolf and knew it was Corinna. She could smell it. Probably the same way Corinna knew she was wolfkin when they first met.

  The Corinna shook her coat and trotted past her, deeper into the forest. Aisling followed, her new limbs working hard to accelerate her. Before she knew it, she was loping behind Corinna down a forest trail. The wind raced past her as she pushed to go fast, her heart racing. There was no awkwardness, no tripping or stumbling, as if this was the form she knew her entire life.
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  She laughed and heard herself yip. They jumped over felled trees and through bushes. They paused in an open field covered in snow and howled at the moon. No wonder Connor snuck out on the full moon. She thought him a fool to risk getting caught. Now she understood.

  Her lungs ached when they returned to the manor. Aisling had never run so hard or for so long in her life. She loved it. Freeing, just as Corinna said. It made the idea of life without her change weigh on her, she didn’t want to give it up.

  Corinna stopped and sat by the tree where she laid her clothes. Her form wavered and gradually shifted from wolf to woman.

  Aisling glanced at the manor, still dark but she had no idea how much time had passed. The sun could rise within the hour. She closed her eyes and pictured herself with arms and legs, blonde hair, green eyes. The cold bore down on her and her eyes snapped open.

  “Let’s get inside. Quick.” Corinna pulled her dress on and slipped into her shoes. She held her underclothes and handed Aisling her gown.

  The fabric was colder than the first breath of winter. Aisling shivered and hugged herself. She stepped into her slippers, grabbed her knickers, and ran after Corinna to the kitchen.

  The door secured behind them, they stood near the kitchen fire, burnt down to embers.

  “Corinna, that was amazing.” She warmed her hands over the coals, then rubbed them together. “Thank you for inviting me.”

  “Your welcome but I need to get home, miss. Get to bed. Fatigue will catch up to you soon.”

  Corinna plucked a tattered shawl from the counter, wrapped it around her shoulders and let herself out. How could someone think of sleep when they just discovered the ultimate freedom? Aisling couldn’t wait to run again, to explore this new side of herself. It felt as if a weight was lifted from her shoulders now that she knew her wolf. She couldn’t live in the city, she couldn’t run there.

  Aisling yawned. The longer she warmed herself by the fire, the more her limbs grew heavy. Her eyelids did not want to stay open. She shuffled up the stairs to her room only to pass out in her gown atop the bed covers.