Avalyne Series 01: The Queen of Carleon (21 page)

As the youngest child of House Halion, he had never been terribly impressed by the union between his parents which he thought to be a bad match. They loved each other but he was uncertain if they
liked
each other. Once an elf decided on a soul mate, it was a bond that not even death could break and elves lived a long time. Perhaps his own reluctance for marriage had to do with the possibility he could end up being with someone he might not be able to tolerate for all of eternity.

Certainly it was not the case with Dare, Ronen and Tully who viewed every moment with their spouses as precious.  In that respect Aeron could appreciate why Tully would be so distracted.  After all this time, Keira still suffered the effects of the
burrowers in her blood. Although Tully had not spoken of it in depth, Aeron suspected that even with the help of the elves, they had not fully been able to expel the venom of the burrowers from her body. It tainted her so completely that its vile magic could still be felt by every elf that encountered her.

Aeron had not spoken of it to Tully for it would only upset him.

Like Aeron, Tamsyn also noticed the darkness in Keira and kept silent. Lylea had put it down to the burrowers venom in her veins. The burrowers were vicious creatures when the Dreaded Mother had birthed them but after Balfure had infused them with dark magic to create the Blinding Curse, it left a stain upon the soul that appeared to be permanent. For the elves, it made Keira extremely difficult to read and even Tamsyn could not be entirely sure of her reasons when she agreed to undertake the quest.

He did know that it had
nothing
to do with Arianne’s baby.

Still, Arianne needed a company of her own for this quest and so he had not objected because Keira had proven herself to be a friend to Arianne and Dare since her ordeal at the hands of the
Disciples and the stain of the burrowers upon her soul was inflicted through no fault of her own.

‘
Tully,’ Tamsyn called out to him when it appeared the man was done with his cooking when he covered the pot with a lid. ‘Come join me.’

Tully lifted the pot away from the fire and allowed it to cool for the eating before he took a seat next to Tamsyn on still intact set of steps.  When the aromatic smoke from
Tamsyn’s pipe reached his nose, it prompted Tully to retrieve his own pipe from his coat pocket and light it.

Both men lapsed into a quite moment of reflection as they gazed at the horizon through a broken wall and for a moment Tully thought that if he stared hard enough, he might be able to see the Green from here.

‘You’re thinking of home?’ Tamsyn ventured a guess.

Tully exhaled a lung full of smoke and watched it dissipate into air before he answered the magii. 

‘Yes,’ he admitted readily, ‘I miss it. I miss the quiet. I used to think that I was different from the other folk in the Green, that I needed adventure and exploration but now I think I was being frivolous and selfish. I’m not sorry I helped Dare but I regret that Keira paid the price for my foolishness.’

‘
There was nothing foolish in what you did,’ Tamsyn stated firmly. ‘You were exceedingly brave as your wife was exceedingly brave. What tragedy came about because of that courage is not your fault but that of Balfure and the cruelty of his agents.’

Tully couldn’t accept the compliment as much as he wished he believed Tamsyn’s words.
‘Keira married a man of the Green. At least she thought she did. I feel sometimes that she’s angry with me for lying to her about the man I am. She expected an ordinary life, with a houseful of children. I promised to give her that when we married. I didn’t tell her that I wished to wander the world, to see things and go places. That for some reason in me, I had this desire. I should have told her that.’

‘
Do you think it would have made a difference?’ Tamsyn asked.

‘
I don’t know,’ Tully shook his head. ‘But there is something between us now that neither of us can get past. When I found her after the Disciples had gone, almost dead I thought I’d lost her forever but then Arianne took her to Eden Taryn and I thought if she lives, I’ll make it up to her for the rest of our lives but its never been the same. She’s
never
been the same. I know that’s not her fault but its true and now she’s gone and to prove something to me or herself and I just don’t know what to do.’

Tamsyn’s squeezed Tully’s shoulder gently, empathising with the man’s guilt and sorrow.
‘Perhaps you and Keira should leave the Green for awhile. Remain in Sandrine and heal. If both of you have changed, perhaps trying to be the people you were in the lives you had, is not making things better but
worse
. Your guilt is deep but you are a victim of this as much as she. If you don’t mind the advice of an old bachelor, perhaps what you two need is to heal together, away from where it all happened.’

‘
Leave?’ Tully stared at him in shock. The idea of leaving the Green and their farm was so overwhelming he had difficulty trying to imagine it.

Aware that this was a tremendously big change for the provincial life of a farmer from the Green, Tamsyn continued to make his case.
‘If not Sandrine then perhaps even Eden Taryn. I am certain that Queen Lylea would have no difficulty playing hostess to the people who saved her son-in-law’s life. Even if they are somewhat reclusive, the elves can be excellent hosts when the mood takes them and it will you the chance to get to know each other again.’

‘
But what about the farm…?’ Tully started to say in protest when suddenly it occurred to him that the farm wasn’t nearly as important to him as Keira. It could become overgrown and swallowed up by the Old Forest for all he cared if it meant rekindling his wife’s spirit once more. Right now, Tully wanted Keira back. He wanted the happy, hopeful woman she’d been before the Disciples destroyed her. So what if she had to find herself again in a different place than the farm? They could always go back when she was ready.

‘
I must think on this,’ Tully answered. ‘I can’t make any decisions until we find them and I talk to Keira.’ Still there was hope in his eyes and he gave Tamsyn a look of appreciation for giving him a solution that he would never have dared to imagine.

To live
a life outside of the Green.    

********

As they left the light of the campfire behind and scouted the slopes of the hills to ensure they were the only ones present in the immediate area, Kyou noticed that Dare was uncommonly silent. He was accustomed to stillness from the elf but Dare was always more animated and they often had lively chats about things. Of course Kyou understood that since leaving Sandrine, Dare sombre mood had to do with his missing wife but the worry across his brow seemed constant and ran deeper than his fears for Arianne.

‘We will find her,’ Kyou broke the silence of the descending night as they made their way across the open ground to the Mountain Wood ahead.

Dare glanced up at Kyou and smiled faintly, grateful for the dwarf’s attempt to make him feel better. In their company, it was usually Kyou who was the sombre one.

The dwarf had spent most of his adult life ensuring that his Clan stayed one step ahead of Abraxes. Chasing the dwarves out of Iridia was not enough, Balfure wanted their expertise and he needed them enslaved for that. In Carleon, they could find no shelter and most were driven to the very edges of Avalyne to remain free. Kyou was but an adolescent when Balfure descended upon the Starfall Mountains and he had become the man of his Clan when his father Atrayo was killed, his childhood stolen away by one act of murder.

‘I know,’ Dare answered but didn’t sound convincing even to his ears. Despite telling himself he would feel it if she were dead, Dare had no idea if Arianne had escaped the Splinter alive. Those bones scattered throughout the pass was burned into his memory. There had been so many and since they were forced to avoid the barraged lobbed by the ice troll, there was no time to conduct a search to satisfy his fear that hers was not there.

‘Do you really?’ Kyou countered knowingly ‘Something has been preying on your mind since we left the Splinter. What is it? The elf’s too polite to ask but I’m not.’

‘Its nothing,’ Dare shrugged, not wishing to say because he had no reason to believe it to be possible and every reason to discount it.

‘Not so nothing that we’ve all been able to see it, well all except Ronen and Tully of course, but like you they’re worried about their wives. It’s something more with you. Out with it or do I have to beat it out of you?’

Dare paused and looked at Kyou with amusement,
‘I would like to see you try.’

‘Well you don’t have your royal guards or your elven army here,’ the dwarf teased back, ‘I can throttle you without losing my head.’

‘You couldn’t throttle
with
your head,’ Dare snorted, ‘in fact, I remember a number of tavern brawls where I had to rescue
you
.’

To be fair, most of the time it was Aeron and Celene who rescued them
both
. During the occupation, they had visited many taverns in many small towns on route to build their alliances and drum up support for the campaign.  While Aeron had little patience for drinking, mostly because he was rather lousy at it and Celene refusing to indulge in what she called ‘the stupidity that only men can indulge’, Kyou and Dare often found themselves enjoying the local libations.

‘I don’t remember that at all,’ Kyou snorted haughtily when suddenly he saw something appear amongst the trees ahead. A flash of white that disappeared as suddenly as it appeared.

‘There’s something down there!’ He exclaimed and started running towards it.

‘What did you see?’ Dare hurried after him, scanning the tree line and seeing nothing in it that gave him caution.

‘I’m not sure,’ Kyou answered tossing a sidelong glance at Dare as the king caught up with him. ‘It could be just a trick of light but I want to be sure.’

‘Let us look then,’ Dare felt into stride with him, reaching for Narthaine, the ancient sword that Lylea had gifted to him. It had belonged to her son and had be a gift to show her blessing of his and Arianne’s love.

‘Thank you,’ Kyou said to Dare, grateful that the king was taking him on his word.

Dare’s best talent, Kyou thought silently as they approached the wood, was his belief in people.

While he was no fool to be manipulated, his faith in everyone’s ability to put aside their differences to work as one was what had held the campaign together. As part of his company, Kyou travelled with Dare as he spoke to kings, queens, chieftains and village elders, convincing them to forget the old prejudices so that they could be strong and there was a great future to be built for all of them, no matter part they played in its making.

The woods they approached was made up of tall, pine trees that stretched high into the sky. The ground was covered in brown, withered pine needles and cones. Disappearing into the forest, they remained within each others line of sight but far enough away to get a good view of what was ahead. There was still enough light left for them to see but it would not be long before they were shrouded in darkness. Kyou would see far better than Dare because dwarf’s had highly developed nocturnal vision due to the years spend underground.

Dare was about to ask Kyou what exactly he thought he saw when suddenly, he too saw something shimmering through the darkness of the trees. 

‘There it is!’ Kyou exclaimed as the shimmering form stopped and did not move.

It seemed almost like a wraith as the two men approached it and Dare unsheathed Narthaine fully, holding it up in front of him as they closed in. Only when they neared it did they realise that their mysterious wraith was in fact a
woman
. For a moment, Dare swore he was looking at Arianne because she glowed with ethereal beauty. However, he blinked furiously to dispel the notion and realised that it was his own wishful thinking that made him think so.

‘Be careful Kyou,’ Dare warned, ‘this reeks of dark magic.’

‘I hear you,’ Kyou whispered, his double swords similarly brandished as they saw she had slipped into a small clearing and stood in the middle of a dirt mound, her white dress dragging across the ground, the hem covered with dirt. As Dare approached her, he realized why he had mistaken her for Arianne because she too, wore her dark hair long. Her skin was luminescent and flawless and lips full and red. She stared at them with the colour of sea and smiled at them. For a moment, he felt a fog settle over his mind and he almost forgot he was on a quest to find his wife.

‘How do you come to be here lady?’ Kyou asked, closing his eyes when he breathed in the sweet scent of her perfume which was intoxicating to say the least.