by Kya Lind
Traven opened his eyes the next morning. He tilted his head and looked around the room. His life had changed. He smiled. He felt like an old soul. He was whole and happy. He climbed out of bed and put wood on the fire. He made breakfast and returned to the bed with a cup of broth.
“Wake up, Reya.” “Wake up, Reya,” She moaned softly. He felt that she was tired, but a little better. She still had a fever, but it wasn’t so high. The raspy sound of her breathing seemed to be easier. He sat her up. “Come on, honey, wake up.”
She opened her eyes and looked into his. “I’m so tired.”
“Drink this.”
Reya took the cup and drank some of the broth. “I wish I had a bath.”
Traven smiled. “I’ll work on that.”
Reya jerked her head up and looked in his eyes again: confusion, worry and then understanding. “What have we done?” she asked silently.
Traven smiled again.
Fear and worry filled her eyes, as her mouth protested the situation, but her mind hugged him close and refused to let him go. Traven caught the cup before it spilled from her fingers, and smiled at her in calm happiness. “Shhh, honey, don’t worry, we will work it out.”
She looked at him incredulously, “Work it out?” she squeaked.
He scooted up next to her on the bed, and held the cup to her lips again. She drank the rest of the broth, and then leaned against his chest in exhaustion. “Go back to sleep, Reya, we will talk later.”
She looked at him with the same fear and worry, but her eyes slid closed and her breathing quieted.
Traven straightened the cabin, checked Reya again, and then put on his now dry coat. He opened the door and stepped out into a winter wonderland. The cabin was tucked into a ledge on one of the cliffs overlooking the river. Traven walked until he could see the river, but not too close as the ledge and all the surrounding area were covered in a thick coating of ice. The silent world glistened and sparkled. The river far below moved by like a giant serpent the huge ice chunks bobbed and bumped into each other. The storm’s added water was causing the river to swell. The movement of the water was angry and unrelenting. There was no way to cross the turbulent water now. Traven could see a camp set up across the river. Those poor cold soldiers, Traven thought. He could remember being in their frozen boots more than once.
Traven picked his way down the steep passage from the cabin to the break between the cliffs. He checked the ice covered path. From the river, there were only two ways to go. Through the passage and out of the other side or up to the cabin. He realized just how lucky they had been. They must have reached the cabin a mere ten minutes after climbing out of the freezing river.
Traven contemplated the situation and then went back to the cabin and retrieved the ax. He headed back down the steep sided path and selected one of the massive trees that lined the corridor. Bracing himself on the slippy slope he sat to work. His motions were swift as he cut down the tree. Traven grimaced as each swing of the ax caused the sound to echo across the silence into the distance. The tree finally gave and crashed down effectively blocking the passage to the cabin. Traven slid out onto the rock facing the bottom passageway and observed the results of his work. The corridor from the cliff now looked like it only led directly to the other side of the cliffs. The frozen ice still clinging to the fallen tree made it look like all the other trees, successful hiding the cabin’s existence. They were safe for the moment. Traven scrambled back to the cabin, and looked across the river again. How far would they have to go to cross over?
Traven felt Reya stir in her sleep, but she didn’t wake up. He smiled. He knew she was upset about the situation, but they were mindbonded. There was nothing anyone could do about it. And even though forces would try their best to keep them apart, not her royal council, her tutors, or her royal guards could take her away from him now. She was his; to have and to hold and to protect, just as he was wholly hers. There was no way to undo the weaving of their souls together. They were bound until death. Well, he guessed they could try to kill him, but Reya wouldn’t stand for that. She would fight to the death for him. She loved him as much as he loved her. She had wanted the bonding as badly as he had. She would realize that as soon as she got past how impossible the whole situation was.
Traven went back inside and put the ax away, and thought about Reya’s bath. Too bad the ice wasn’t snow. That would have made getting water easier. He had been rationing out the giant icicles that hung from every surface. They were what he was using for their drinking water and he didn’t know how long they would last.
He needed to get more liquids into her, and she needed to eat. He wished he had some crème brulee with which to tempt her. Traven smiled. He realized he knew her favorite desert, just one of the millions of things he had learned about her last night.
He woke her up at noon, and poured more broth into her mouth. She complained, but drank the whole cup full. Traven was relieved that the rattle in her chest was not so pronounced, and she seemed to be breathing easier than that morning. Traven felt her fretting, and soothed her with the knowledge that they were safe for now. In his mind, he showed her the cliff and the river and the tree he had used to block the path. She sighed and settled back into a restful and healing sleep.
Reya woke up late that afternoon. She opened her eyes and looked around the room without moving. She knew that Traven was just outside behind the cabin settling Barn into the lean-to shed. She felt his presence. She knew his thoughts, his feelings, his fears, she knew all about his childhood growing up in a noble family. His being prepared to be a soldier from the time he could walk because his father knew that was the best training possible for a second son. That his mother made him sweet leathers, and he couldn’t remember all of his nieces’ and nephews’ names.
Reya tried to sit up, but she was so weak and shaky. Traven told her to rest and he would be right back in. She scowled; now he was bossy and demanding in her head. She lay back. This situation was impossible. There was no way a princess could be in a relationship with a classless second son. There would be hell to pay. Both of them were born to responsibility and not privilege.
Traven just acted like it didn’t matter, that they were bonded and that was it, and the rest of the world had just better accept the idea, and get over it. Reya knew how this situation would be used against her, her position, and even her brother. Oh, Traven knew all this too, but he just refused to consider any option, but their togetherness.
Reya sighed. The best part was, she had never been so happy. She was not alone anymore, and never would be again. She felt Traven wrap her in a hug that warmed her soul.
The rest of the day was spent with Reya resting in his arms. He found some honey in the cabin stores for the biscuits and thick slabs of bacon from the top of the barn.
Reya licked the sweetness of the sticky treat off her fingers, as she leaned back against Traven’s chest. He smoothed her hair back away from the side of her face. She paused at his intense look of adoration. She settled back and decided that she was too tired to worry about the tomorrows right now. She coughed and rubbed her chest. It hurt and felt tight, it was so hard to breathe. Traven held a cup up to her mouth, she shook her head and pulled it away, but he brought it back. “Drink a little more, please.” She glared at him and took a sip.
After several minutes of comfortable silence between them Traven remarked, “That dragon was an impressive allure, honey. How did you do that? I thought you hadn’t figured that part out yet.”
Reya nodded her head. “I don’t know. Sir Talone and I have been training for years, but I just couldn’t.”
“Do you think that was because you knew your father would not have approved?” he asked putting words to her secret fears.
“Probably,” she admitted reluctantly.
“But you figured it out.”
“They were shooting at you” she looked up at him with remembered fear. Traven didn’t add that they were shooting at her too.
>
“When Sir Talone and I practiced, we tried to have me walk away from the image, but when they were shooting at you, I shoved the image away from us.”
“When you feel better you should practice.”
Reya lifted her finger, a small butterfly appeared and flutter its delicate wings and then lifted off. It made it several lengths from her finger before flickering out.
She grinned at Traven.
“You realize you didn’t disappear.” Traven grinned.
Reya shrugged, “We are mindbonded. My mirage doesn’t work on you now.”
“But I can see the butterfly.”
“We pretend together.”
Traven chuckled. “Being a Magic is so interesting.”
“You’re one to talk,” she snorted.
“What do you mean by that?” Traven asked frowning.
“You are an undiscovered Magic.” Reya showed him flashes of his ability to feel danger.
Traven shook his head to deny it. “You think I’m a Minder, that’s ridiculous.”
“No, I know you are a Dreamweaver.”
“What?” he sat up.
Reya grinned against his chest. “I opened the door, but the reason it didn’t go away is because you didn’t want it too. I showed you the path, and you figured out how to use it.”
Traven looked at her incredulously.
“I didn’t make a mistake, I didn’t make the door stay, and I didn’t have the ability to mindbond us. That was your doing.”
Traven humrph, “So you are saying that this is entirely my fault.”
Reya grinned and nodded against his chest. “Yes, it’s entirely your fault,” she repeated.
That night, Reya’s fever broke, but the rattling in her chest regressed. Traven slept with her reclined against his chest to keep her head elevated so that she could sleep better.
Chapter 25
The days went by, one day after another, turning into a week. Reya grew stronger, but she still found it painful to breathe deeply, and the raspy sound of her chest concerned them both. Traven was patient and gentle with her. If she hadn’t felt so lousy, she would have taken exception to his treating her like spun glass. When he wasn’t pampering her, he could be found watching the river, or checking the blocked passageway.
About four days after their arrival at the cabin, Traven had found multiple hoof tracks in the lower corridor; the soldiers had made their way to the river and then had backtracked the way they had come. Their tracks showed that they had not even paused at the blocked trail to the cabin. Reya was relieved when Traven reported this, but her captain continued to worry about their position, and fret about her health.
The next day it snowed a deep mountain snow of about two feet. When Traven saw the cabin surrounded by the beautiful clean blanket, he started whistling merrily to himself, dressed, fed Reya, stoked the fire, and moved out to the lean-to. Reya was curious, but he wouldn’t tell her what he was doing. He kept shushing her, and telling her not to think about it. He came back in with a large wooden tub filled with snow that he placed in front of the stove. He took all the pots outside and returned with them filled with snow, and placed them on the stove to heat up. Reya sat up and looked at him inquisitively. “What are you doing?” He looked at her delightedly. His expression was the same as Boy’s when he had a secret or was about to give someone a present. Reya sat up and wondered what he could possibly want with all that snow. And then she realized he was preparing a bath. Her face lit up in delight. With the look of love on her face, Traven had a hard time keeping his mind on the task of the bath, even though he wanted nothing more than to join her on the bed. He finished heating the water on the stove and poured the steaming pans into the melted water in the tub. He had to do this process several times before the tub was filled with warm water. He helped her to the tub, sitting her in a chair near it, and retrieved the bar of rose soap from the pocket of her coat. He protested when she shooed him out of the cabin, but he went.
Reya waited until she knew he was grumping at Barn before she stripped and climbed into the tub. The water wasn’t hot, but it was heaven. Reya washed her hair first, before she ran out of energy. Traven kept offering to help, but she laughingly ignored his suggestion.
She climbed weakly out of the tub, dried off and pulled on their last clean shirt. She climbed back into the bed just as Traven came through the door. He placed more snow in the pans and heated water for his own bath. Traven chuckled wickedly as his stripped and used her wet towel to wash himself. There was no way he was fitting in that little tub. Reya turned her back to him and tried to work the knots out of her hair with a comb that Traven had found in a drawer. She could hear him whistling to himself as he scrubbed up happily. They both smiled in amusement at her trying to ignore him.
After he was finished and was wearing the least dirty shirt and pants in their wardrobe, Traven moved to the bed and pulled her back into his arms. She sat forward as he took the comb from her and gently worked it through her long hair. They sat like this in comfortable silence until Traven had combed all the tangles out, the silence only broken by Reya’s fits of coughing every once in a while.
When he was finished she reached up to braid her hair, but Traven stopped her. He ran his fingers through the soft brown locks and looked deeply into her eyes. They leaned toward each other and kissed for the first time since TwinPeaks.
Reya’s mind spun, the sensations were like nothing she had ever experienced. Their linked minds caused the feeling of pleasure that she felt to resonate in Traven, increasing his pleasure, the sensations ricocheting back and forward between them like a hall full of unending mirrors. The Dream kisses had joined with the Real kisses to create an explosion of feelings and emotions. Reya’s mind struggled to name this new experience. Traven raised his head and supplied the words, “miracle kisses.”
Reya smiled and tried to catch her breath, but the coughing started again. He held her as she struggled to breathe around the coughing for several minutes. Finally, she lay back against him, exhausted once again.
They sat like this for several minutes just relaxing. Traven kicked himself for wanting too much too fast. She wasn’t well. She needed time. He knew he shouldn’t have kissed her yet. He needed to be patient, they were in no rush. They had forever. He just needed to slow down, even if it was impossible to keep his hands to himself now that she was his. He needed to put her needs before his own. He strengthened his resolve, he knew their physical relationship would be consummated soon enough; he just needed to be patient.
He felt Reya stiffen in his arms. “But it can’t be you know,” she added softly.
Traven frowned down at her, what was she talking about?
“Our physical relationship cannot be consummated,” she clarified.
She felt his confusion. He tensed against her back.
“I cannot consummate,” she stumbled over the word this time, “until I am married.”
Traven’s mind roared in protest. “We are about as married as any two people can get,” he stated emphatically.
“Mindbonded does not make us married in the eyes of the kingdom.”
Traven could not believe he was hearing this. She was just confused. She must be. “You want me to find an official to legally marry us?”
Reya shook her head no. She had not wanted to have this conversation with him yet, but she feared that the longer she waited the weaker her resolve would be. She sat up and moved to face him. “My marriage without legal consent is invalid, and would be grounds to disinherit me from my position.”
Traven was still confused. “So the king has to approve, but he is an Allure.”
“We have to expose him as such.”`
Traven frowned as Reya’s thoughts became clear. “You need the consent of the Royal counsel for us to marry? Are you joking? That bunch of fat politicians does not care about you or your wants or needs. All they care about is their own positions and power. If we do expose the Allure, they will never a
gree to a second son marrying a royal heir.”
Reya nodded her head desolately. Traven caught her hands in his and pleaded, “Forget those guys. Forget that you are a princess, and I am a nobody. Forget about their consent and their bloody power. We are together, we can’t undo that. You wouldn’t want to if you could. We don’t need them.”
Reya gazed at him with a look of hopeless despair, “But they need us. We were born to responsibility and not privilege. If we do not expose that Allure - he assumes my father’s position unchallenged. Those men, whoever they are, murdered my father and intend the same for my brother. I don’t believe they have this country’s best interest at heart. And if we expose him, then the council will be in charge - if not me. The counsel is full of powerful men hungry for power and position. My father kept them in check, but without a crown they may quickly resort to civil unrest. My father may not have been the best father in the world, but he was a good king. He governed this land fairly with its peoples’ interest in mind. We have had thirty years of peace and prosperity. . . . .” she stumbled in her impassioned speech. “I owe it to them. We owe our alliance to the people and to my little brother, . . . . .your rightful king.”
Traven’s thoughts warred within him. “But what does that have to do with our being together?”
Reya lifted her head stubbornly; dread lacing her answer, “I must marry the man of the counsel’s choosing because I can’t assume the position of Regent Ruler without being married.” Her words stunned him. He jumped off the bed and stalked back and forth in the small space of the cabin. He checked the hundreds of thousands of facts he knew about her. He groaned; she was right. He looked at her incredulously; she was asking him to be her champion, fight to restore her father’s throne, and watch her marry some sap that the counsel would choose. Traven wanted to scream .She was his. He didn’t care what some bunch of fat old men said.
