Avalyne Series 01: The Queen of Carleon (20 page)

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Arianne was none too impressed that Celene and Melia had allowed her to spend almost a day in bed but understood their reasons. That she had not awakened herself until well into the afternoon spoke to her state of exhaustion and she supposed that Keira needed the rest too. As the sun began to set on their first day in Horwyck, she felt more rested than she had in weeks and the ache in her limbs subsided somewhat. She stood in front of the mirror in her room and examined herself; taking note of the slight swell in her abdomen that showed her little prince was growing steadily.

His growth was another reminder why they had to leave. The next full moon was weeks away and they had much grown to cover. It was agreed that they would eat one last meal in Horwyck and be on their way again. They had the whole of Angarad to cross and then they would reach the Torn Lands, a place that was mysterious as it was supposedly full of peril. Arianne tried not to think about Dare, about what he must think of her for embarking on such a quest without telling him and knew in her heart that he was most likely
in pursuit, that if she lingered in Horwyck long enough, he would find her.

But she
would not do that. His safety was everything to her and Arianne could not bear to sacrifice the life of the father for the son. For a thousand years she had awaited someone to whom she could give her heart completely and the cruelty of fate had seen to it that he was
human
. One lifetime was all they had together when they should have had all the ages of this world.  Now this quest could break them apart even sooner.

No, she would not risk his life. She would deal with the Enemy. She would save their child.

There was no room for all four of them to eat together in the rooms provided by Mistress Dora but fortunately, the tavern was not terribly busy yet and they were able to share a table without much scrutiny from the men in the place. Four women alone would not go unnoticed by the male patrons especially when all far young and fair. Their mission had been carried out so far on the strength of its secrecy and Arianne did not wish that to change.

‘
So where to from here?’ Keira asked as she sat at the long wooden table situated in the farthest end of the tavern, away from the bulk of the Inn’s patrons. The evening was starting to draw the working men into the establishment for their evening’s drinking and Keira ignored the sound of their raucous conversation several tables away. Below her, the meal of meat shanks was almost gone ands Keira had to give her compliment to Mistress Dora who certainly knew how to provide a good meal.

‘
Do not look at me,’ Melia commented when she saw Keira’s eyes on her. ‘This is Celene’s country.’ She said to the Lady of Gislaine. ‘I only brought you across the Baffin. From here on, its her job to guide us.’ 

Celene lowered her glass of draught and wiped her lip daintily before replying with a chuckle,
‘I am up to task I assure you,’ she lifted her glass at Melia who did the same. Although not usually a drinker, she could not resist drinking at least one mug of Angarad brew while she was home. ‘We will head across the Safrie Plains towards the river.’

The Safrie was the main waterway of Angarad. It began its life at Lake Twyn and ended at the mouth of the
Brittle Sea. Parts of it were deep enough to sail and some ships travelled up its length to the second largest city of Angarad, Korrigan.

‘
We will keep our direction easterly,’ Celene continued, ‘I would prefer we stick to the plains. At this time of year with the weather turning cold, there will be few people about and we can maintain our anonymity.’

‘
Good,’ Arianne agreed finishing the last of her meal and pushing away her plate. In truth, the meal was not sitting well with her and she suspected she was going to start experiencing some of the less charming aspects of pregnancy. In particular the morning sickness. ‘The second full moon approaches and I do not want to waste any time if we can avoid it.’

‘
I agree,’ Celene replied when she noted Melia’s eyes were staring intently past them. ‘What is it?’

Melia dropped her gaze to her glass as if caught doing something she should not be doing and then spoke in a quiet tone.
‘There’s a man in the corner table. He watches us intently.’

‘
Well we’re four women unescorted.’ Keira glanced back and saw the man staring at them. ‘He’s probably just ogling. I don’t think he means any harm.’

‘
Perhaps,’ Celene said not liking the attention. ‘But maybe we should consider leaving nonetheless.’ She swept her gaze across the table and saw that they had all finished eating. Melia and Celene had brought the horses to the hitching rail outside the tavern so they could leave immediately after their meal.

Arianne had no argument with this and was glad her hair covered her ears. She stood up from the table and slid her hood over her head, concealing her face even more. Keeping her eyes fixed on her companions, she did not turn her attention to the man at all, wanting to give him no sign that she noticed him.  Melia took the lead, keeping Arianne behind her with Keira following the Queen.

Celene allowed all three of her friends to go before she cast a final look at the man whom she now saw to be an older man, with a scar running over a milky eye that obviously saw nothing any longer. He was looked like a trapper, for he wore the furs of various small animal pelts against the leather of his clothes. When their eyes met, she nodded in a gesture of politeness, seeing no reason to be rude or behave as if she and her companions had something to hide.

They left the Inn, rumbling with chatter of people, into the relative quiet of the evening outside. When Celene emerged through the doors, she saw Arianne, Keira and Melia already at the horses, preparing to leave.

‘Perhaps he recognised one of us,’ Celene shrugged, trying to dispel the worry she could see in Arianne’s face.

‘
You perhaps,’ Arianne pointed out, ‘but he could have seen me at Dare’s coronation.’

‘
You might be just a face he found pretty to look at,’ Keira declared, trying to dispel the tension. They would soon be away from here and on route across Angarad. The man was of little importance.

Until the door to the Inn opened behind them and he stepped out into the night.

‘I know what you are,’ he said pointing at them.

Celene stepped forward, placing herself between the man and the Queen,
‘Arianne, get on your horse and get going.’

Arianne did not argue and quickly climbed the saddle though she disliked the idea of leaving Celene to deal with this man when it was clearly
she had issue with.

‘
She’s a monster!’ The man bellowed louder, this time attracting the attention of the few people on the street. They stopped to stare at what was happening.

‘
Go!’ Celene ordered, taking a step backwards towards her own horse. ‘Melia get them away from here. I will follow shortly.’

Melia nodded and mounted her own horse quickly, even as Arianne and Keira were starting to trot away. She cast a gaze back at Celene, reluctant to leave the lady of Gislaine but duty bound to stay close to the queen. 
‘We will wait for your beyond the gates.’

The man lurched forward when he saw Arianne and Keira riding away. Celene raced forward brandishing her sword and swinging it in a neat arc to halt him in his steps as the blade held poised before his neck.  The action made Melia pause momentarily but when Keira and Arianne continued down the street, she dug her heels into her horse’s side and trotted after them.

‘You’re letting it get away!’ The man cursed her. ‘You need to kill it before it escapes!’

‘
No one is killing anyone!’ Celene barked, pressing the blade against his throat with enough pressure to let him know that she would use if he pushed her to it.

‘
You don’t know what you’ve done!’ He spat. ‘I know their stink. They look like us but they’re not!’ He tried to convince her, a hint of desperation intermingled with the fury in his eyes.

‘
I know well what they are,’ Celene retorted. ‘Or what she is and she has never been anything but kind. I do not know where this hatred comes from but that is your own affair. I give you one warning old soldier, come after us again, this conversation will not end so calmly, understood?’

By now, they had drawn a crowd which made Celene even more frustrated by the situation. She had hoped to keep their presence a secret and without knowing what means the Enemy was using to keep Arianne under observation, she had no idea where this episode would give him intelligence he did not have before.

‘You can’t trust them!’ The man tried to convince her. ‘They’re not like us! They have no allegiance to anyone but their own. If they’re kind its because they’re trying to trick us!’

‘
I have no time to bandy words with you old soldier,’ Celene lowered her blade, conscious of her audience as she retreated to her horse.  It was safe to leave now that she could no longer hear the hoof beats of Arianne and the others’ horses.

‘
Do not follow us.’  She warned.

Celene turned around and quickly mounted her horse, grateful that the old man had not decided to put up a fight once she sheathed her sword. Instead, he stood rooted to the spot, staring at her with that unsettling look of desperation.

‘You’re a fool!’ I have dealt with them before. You think she’s your friend but she’s
not
!  She’ll turn on your like a rabid bitch dog and tear our your throat while you sleep. It’s what her kind do! They pretend to be one of you but they’re really not!’

What possible experience could this man have with the elves that could make him hate with such vulgar hatred? Celene thought of Arianne and Aeron, of the friendship and trust between them. She could never imagine them behaving the way this man was describing. 

‘I do not know where this hatred comes from but it has nothing to do with me or my friends,’ Celene declared as she stared down at him from her saddle, ‘But we are done here. Follow us at your own peril.’ 

With that, she tugged the reins of her horse and rode away into the night.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
SHIFTERS

Ever since they had encountered the ice troll at the Splinter, a feeling of dread had begun to occupy the thoughts of the King though he spoke of it to no one.

Whether or not his companions suspected the fear he was starting to feel, he could not say. He only knew that it had taken root in his heart and was not letting go. With the passage of the Splinter now buried so completely that it was impossible to search it, he thought of the bones he had seen on the ground, the remains of travellers who did not have the benefit of a magii to see them through safely.  

There was no telling how long the creature had been waylaying travellers with its deadly barrage of rock and stone. The snowfall concealed the true extent of its feasting but bones were obviously so many that it was hard to distinguish where one ended and another began. The urgency of the situation kept Dare from examining the bones closely and now that they were away from the place, he had to wonder that if Arianne, Keira and Celene passed through the same passage, had they survived?

Tamsyn had said nothing about them being dead but the magii did not always give him the truth he ought to hear, only what was needed. What if it was required that he kill the Enemy, even if Arianne was dead? 
No, she wasn’t
. He told himself immediately.
She wasn’t dead
. He would feel it. Somehow, even without the power of sight that Lylea possessed, he would know if Arianne was not in this world.

Because he would not know how to go on without her
if she was.

Once they had crossed the Splinter, they would ride towards the
Eirian Hills because Dare knew Celene would be too practical to add so many miles to their journey by going to Wyndfyre and sheltering with her folk. With the second moon approaching, their aim would be to make best speed towards the Frozen Mountains by taking the most direct route there. Assuming they had passed through the Splinter unhindered, and for now Dare forced himself to believe nothing else, they would be bound for River Safrie to the take Bedvyn Crossing into the Torn Lands. 

As he entered Angarad, Dare could not help but think of the last time he had entered these lands and under what cloud he had made that journey. His arrival in Angarad had followed one of the worst periods of his life with both he and Aeron in mourning for the loss of a dear friend. Until then, their company had been a triumvirate. Celene and Kyou had yet to join their number.  The third member of their set was a man of Sandrine, Dare’s oldest friend after Aeron.
Braedan.

Dare had met Braedan in his nineteenth year.

He had left Eden Halas the year before, having decided at the age of eighteen that he had imposed long enough on the House of Halion. Although Syanne had not wished him to leave, Dare knew it was time. Halion was never happy that his queen defied him to raise a human baby and though he never treated Dare badly, his dislike was obvious by his cold demeanour towards the boy. This indifference was mirrored in Halion’s two older sons, Hadras and Syanon. Only Aeron was a friend to him but the young prince spent most of Dare’s youth defending the woods of Halas against Balfure with his older brothers and so they saw each other infrequently.

Upon leaving Eden Halas, Dare travelled along the Yantra with the intention of eventually arriving at the city of his birth, Sandrine.  For years, Syanne had warned him
against going there, fearful that Balfure’s agents might recognise him. However, those agents had been seeking an infant and Dare could not imagine how anyone would recognise him as the lost heir of Icara, eighteen years later.

As an experienced woodsman and
hunter thanks to his elven upbringing, Dare was able to travel up river, plying his skills as a trade without drawing attention to himself.  In this way, Dare lived for the first time in his life, among his own race and discovered that there was little difference between men and elves. Each race wanted the same things, dreamed the same dreams and wished for the same freedom. The prejudice that kept them apart was wafer thin and he wondered what it would take to break it.

It was also the first time he was
able to see what effect the occupation of Balfure had upon his country.

He learned that while
Balfure ruled from Abraxes, his left his disciples in Carleon to work his will.  When Eden Ardhen was breached and the elves of that realm were chased away, the Circle built a tower in its woods in celebration of their victory and called it Tor Ardhen as a final insult to Queen Lylea. From there, they maintained the occupation of the Southern Province while Tor Iolan was built to guard the Northern Province and Tor Iridia stood watch over the dwarf homeland.

While Navarre had managed to maintain control Varaen to rule under the watchful eye of the
Disciples, the supposed annihilation of House Icara left a void in the rule of Sandrine. With Balfure’s continued assaults on Angarad, his designs on pushing beyond the Baffin taking up time and resources, the Shadow Lord chose wisely not to provoke an uprising by installing one of his disciples in Sandrine Keep. Instead he charged the rule of Carleon’s former capital city to Braelan, oldest son of House Kelamon who swore allegiance to Balfure when Carleon had fallen.

Braelan
had ruled as best he could, even though he was considered a traitor for taking up a position in Sandrine Keep. Through Braelan, Balfure’s iron grip of Sandrine continued with Berserker troops enforcing terrible penalties on those who disobeyed or still resisted the rule of Abraxes. An ambitious man, Braelan knew pleasing the Shadow Lord would only strengthen his position and while Selkirk and Navarre attempted to ease the oppression of their people during the occupation, Braelan had done the complete opposite.

Determined to build a dynasty under
Balfure’s protection, Braelan eliminated all those in Sandrine that might lead others in rebellion. Midnight raids by the Berserkers resulted in large open graves being dug outside the city walls in the dead of night. Those same walls were used by Braelan to make examples of the particularly defiant.

Phylea,
Braelan’s wife, whose family had been killed in the purges following the fall of House Icara, watched in horror as the husband she loved turned into a monster. Determined to save her son from this fate, Phylea took charge of Braedan’s education herself and she guided him as best she could and ensured he was free of the influence of his father’s cruelty. As a result, Braedan grew up painfully aware of how despised his father was.

They had met purely by chance.

Braedan had taken to leaving Sandrine Keep and frequenting taverns and inns in order to escape being in his father’s presence any longer than he had too. Showing his father that he was a useless wastrel that was good only for drink, Braelan’s disgust ensured that Braedan was left to his own devices.  They had met at a tavern, two young men of the same age, drinking and talking about the world they’d lived in. During the entire time, Braedan tried to place why this new friend seemed so familiar. Only when he chanced upon the few remaining portraits of House Icara that were not destroyed, did he recognise Dare’s resemblance to his grandfather and realise who he had befriended.

What should have been a mistake of monumental consequences became instead one of the most fortuitous moments of Dare’s life.

Braedan did not give him up to Braelan. Instead he told Dare that Carleon needed its true king and pledged himself to Dare’s service. Dare, who at the time only had the makings of an idea in his head about how to defeat Balfure, refused initially. Explaining to Braedan that he was a journey to learn about the occupied land and meet the races that might be of help to them, Dare was touched when Braedan asked to accompany him.

They left Sandrine together and travelled the length and breadth of Carleon. For the next nine years, they created friendships amongst the many peoples of the kingdom and learned how many
yearned to cast off Balfure’s rule. They learnt of the desperate plight of the dwarves, hunted across the occupied territories, finding refuge only in places far beyond the reach of Abraxes.  Braedan would return with him to Eden Halas where Dare unveiled his idea of an alliance with all the races for the first time followed by outright rejection from Halion.  Even Syanne was sceptical.

Only Aeron
saw the vision of Dare’s proposal and advised that if Eden Halas would not listen then it was time to seek a higher authority who commanded all the elves. Leaving Eden Halas, Aeron took him and Braedan instead to meet with High Queen Lylea of Eden Taryn.

During this time, word had finally reached
Balfure that the lost prince of Carleon was still alive.

The Shadow Lord’s
reaction was swift.  Balfure wasted no time sending out his Disciples and for the next two years, they hunted the trio with ruthless determination. It was outside the woods of Barrenjuck that they were almost caught and in an effort to save Dare’s life, Braedan sacrificed himself by impersonating the exiled king and leading the Disciples away. The ruse was simple and succeeded long enough for Dare to reach the Green but it came at a devastating cost.

Dare did not know when Braedan died or how much he had suffered before the end,
he only knew days after Tully had led him out of the old wood, they were able to retrieve his broken body. They buried him in the Green but after the war, Dare returned Braedan to Sandrine where he was interred in the royal mausoleum. 

Others would join his company, Celene, Kyou and Tamsyn but it would never feel the same as when he was nineteen, travelling the world, feeling free and invincible with his best friend.

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The company made camp at a ruined sentry post at the edge of the
Eirian Hills when the sun started to set on the horizon.

‘
Aeron,’ Dare called out to the archer who had taken position at the highest part of the still standing rock wall, maintaining a vigil on the surrounding area. ‘Kyou and I are going to scout the area, keep your eyes sharp.’

‘
Try not to wander too far,’ Aeron remarked with a little smile. ‘You know how easily you get lost.’

‘
As easily as you can hold drink,’ Dare said sweetly before he headed off. 

Even though Angarad was friendly territory, Dare was not so foolish as to think that the Enemy would not repeat
the attempt on their lives with a new menace. The caracal attack had come out of nowhere and now that only Angarad lay between them and the Frozen Mountains, Dare expected some form of attack to ambush them on route. 

Aeron nodded and watched Dare and the dwarf leaving the campsite heading towards the Mountain Wood, a moderately sized forest of tall trees that deserved a quick survey before they settled in for the night.  The forest began on the slopes of the Baffin that loomed over them and spilled onto the base near the Splinter. To the west,
Eirian Hills were less imposing than the Baffin and even in the darkness, Aeron imagined the beauty of the rolling hills that looked like waves of green across the landscape. 

As he observed and kept watch, he imagined the numerous battles that must have taken place in this land as Angarad fought to keep
Balfure out of their lands. The sentry tower had been destroyed only in the last twenty years but enough moss and lichens had grown over the remaining stone walls to ensure it blended seamlessly into the landscape. So much so that it was difficult to tell where it ended and the hills began.

As he kept watch, he felt the weight of something ominous pressing against his chest but did not voice it yet because the warning could be premature. If the Enemy was watching them, then it was possible that Aeron was feeling that scrutiny and there was nothing that screamed danger, just foreboding. There was
so much darkness afoot in this quest that he trying not to confuse immediate with prevalent.

In any case, the elf’s keen vision kept all his companions within sight. Each of their group was engaged in their own undertakings as they settled down to rest from the day’s journeying. Aeron could still see Dare walking alongside of Kyou away from their camp while on the far side of the tower; Ronen was
seeing to their horses. Like most knights, his squiring days had taught him how to tend to horses and a small stream near the tower had allowed Ronen to water them appropriately before feeding and tethering them for the night.

Tully appeared to be putting the finishing touches to their evening meal, hunched over the simmering pot while Tamsyn sat by and enjoyed the warmth of the fire. The magii’s dark eyes were staring into the horizon as he smoked his pipe and observing the cook who over the last few days had grown more and more distant.

Aeron knotted his brow in sympathy, realising that the farmer must surely be worried about his wife. The elf had never been married so he could not fully appreciate the bond that Dare, Tully and Ronen shared with their wives. However, he knew each man suffered greatly by their absence and was equally worried about their fates. Aeron himself had never had an attachment to warrant the anguish he saw in these men though he knew that Kyou often spoke of a dwarf maid called Hanae who lived in the Jagged Teeth with the rest of his father’s clan. Even Tamsyn was rumoured to have some history with the High Queen thought that was merely gossip.

Aeron supposed his thoughts on the subject were influenced by his parents.