Kethril (9 page)

Anilyia had left Tathan sleeping and gone to
collect her thoughts for a while. She stopped by the murmuring
stream not far away from the cottage. Dim blue light was growing
above the forest in the chill morning air. A few leaves on the
trees she walked through were beginning to turn colors, their leafy
smell carried on a light breeze.

She was irritated; irritated with the stupid
townsfolk of stupid Rethram, the stupid Willden Forest they had
just left, the stupid Rojuun for keeping her a prisoner, the stupid
agents of stupid Iynath that had kidnapped her, and with her stupid
father for not making her stupid wedding happen years ago.

More importantly, she didn’t understand how
her companions couldn’t see that Vevin was an evil dragon. Purple
and black dragons were evil while white and orange dragons were
good. Anilyia was also irritated by how mad Vevin and Tathan were
with Sir Danth. It wasn’t his fault that his entire civilization
had died and was now haunting the stupid forest. How did they
expect him to react?

Worst of all, Princess Anilyia was mad at
herself. She was in love with a thief. That didn’t bother her. It
was fun being with Tathan. What she didn’t like was how she turned
into a love-addled idiot whenever he was around. She couldn’t stop
holding his hand or staring into his eyes.

Tathan made her feel good when he caressed
her arms, back, legs and . . . She was becoming warm and tingly
again, which irritated her even more. Anilyia was a twenty-year-old
princess adored by her people. Many considered her one of the most
beautiful women ever, yet here she was with an irreverent rogue and
his companions, romping through the woods.

Anilyia found a rock to sit on. At one time,
she never would have considered sitting on a rock or log. Servants
would bring chairs and there were guards to protect her from
peasants and other dangers. The thought occurred to her that she
was alone at that moment without anyone to protect her. Anilyia
looked at the nearby trees and the clearing across the stream. She
couldn’t see anything, but knew wolves and other dangerous
creatures might be around. Even worse, Vevin might have followed to
eat her. Looking back toward the cottage, she saw nothing.

A deep breath calmed her nerves. So many
things had changed in her life and it was hard trying to get
everything sorted in her mind. Tathan was the main thing she wanted
to sort out. She loved him. That wasn’t in doubt. The problem was
that she was supposed to get married. She didn’t love Prince
Albrato, but recognized it as a good marriage and wanted very much
to go back to living in luxury. At the same time, living a rogue’s
life with Tathan sounded thrilling.

Ladies of the court often talked about
living an adventurous life with dangerous men. It was girlish talk,
but here she was doing exactly that. The question of her purity
would arise when she got back to the palace. Anilyia would tell
them the kidnappers violated her. They had wanted to after all, but
their leader told his men to leave her alone. The king would make
an exception considering she was the only royal child available for
marriage.

Tathan. What was she to do with him if they
did get to Mayncal? Prince Albrato would have a problem with her
keeping a boyfriend. She wondered if her father might hire him as
part of the secret service since Tathan rescued her where no one
else had. Anilyia wondered if her father had even
tried
to
rescue her sometimes. It didn’t feel like it when she was
imprisoned. She sighed, and then laughed softly. Sighs seemed
catching around Tathan and the others.

In court, she had to keep up with political
intrigue, but a princess was trained for that sort of thing. Life
on the road was hard. Sleeping under the sky, sitting on rocks and
running away from phantoms and Rojuun all wore on her.

One of the biggest shocks was when the
peasants wouldn’t let them in town. Tathan had told her not to let
them know she was a princess. It could put the companions and the
townspeople in danger. Anilyia didn’t like peasants anyway. She
didn’t admit it publicly of course, but they always wanted . . .
things. The refusal to help a sick traveler was appalling to
her.

Anilyia hadn’t figured out what to think of
Liselle. Sometimes she seemed like a country peasant, other times
she was beyond human. They called her a flower child and it was
easy to see the flowers turn toward her when she walked anywhere.
Flowers were pretty, not powerful, yet Liselle controlled vast
power beyond what court wizards back home could manage. Anilyia
decided to be friends with Liselle. It was best to keep it
simple.

It all came back to Tathan though. He didn’t
rescue her for any reason other than Liselle wanted to and because
he didn’t have anything else to do. Tathan wasn’t doing it for a
reward as most thieves would.

Tathan was handsome. He was tall, had
entrancing eyes and a mischievous grin. Anilyia took a deep breath
and brushed hair back over an ear. There was more to it than just
his looks though. It was the way he carried himself. People
followed him and trusted him to make decisions. He didn’t laugh at
danger, he snuck up and slid his blade into it.

Anilyia stood and started pacing, but didn’t
want to get too far from the cottage. If Vevin came out to eat her,
she wanted Tathan to hear the screams. A part of her wondered if
Tathan was evil. His sword looked evil with the way it sucked in
light. He traveled with an evil dragon and there was a good chance
Sir Danth was evil. The knight wore black armor, enjoyed killing
and tended to be moody.

Liselle didn’t fit though. Anilyia got the
feeling the flower child was epically good, like -get everyone in
the world to dance through the streets with flowers in their hair
while singing songs- good. The group didn’t make any sense at
all.

They were supposed to leave that day. Tathan
had made a stretcher for Vevin and Sir Danth to carry Liselle for
the first couple of days until she was strong enough to walk on her
own. Liselle needed to be able to stay and rest awhile, but the
villagers were hostile towards them.

“Hi.” Arms wrapped around her waist. Anilyia
screamed at the top of her lungs. She turned to see Tathan holding
her, startled by the reaction. A second later, Sir Danth was next
to them, sword drawn and looking for danger. He had shifted from
the cottage in just a few jumps.

Anilyia glared at Tathan while wrapping her
arms around his shoulders. “Don’t sneak up on me like that! I
thought you were Vevin!”

Sir Danth’s sword was back in its sheath.
“Your Highness, I truly believe Vevin means you no harm.”

“He’s evil!
Why can’t you see that
?
Are you two evil?” Anilyia pushed away from Tathan and set her jaw
in anger. “Is that why you travel with a purple dragon, because
you’re both evil? Is it some plot for the three of you to corrupt
Liselle?” They stared at her in surprise. She put her hands on her
hips. “I’d threaten to stay here and not take another step with
you, but I’m not about to stay a minute longer around these stupid
peasants. I asked if you are evil and I expect an answer
now
.”

Tathan and Sir Danth exchanged glances and
shrugged.

“That’s not an answer,” she told them. “You
can’t just shrug. Either you’re evil or you’re not. Answer yes or
no, starting with you.” She pointed at the knight.

“No, but I like killing a lot, which many
believe to be evil,” he said after a moment’s thought.

“That’s not a very good answer. How about
you?” She pointed at Tathan.

Tathan’s eyes moved around as he rummaged in
his mind for a reply. “I don’t know. Sometimes I think so. I’ve
done some bad things, committed crimes and murdered a few people.”
He shrugged dejectedly. “So I might be evil.”

He was so miserable that Anilyia jumped
forward and wrapped her arms around his neck to console him. She
didn’t see the looks of confusion he and the knight exchanged over
her shoulder. It probably wasn’t the best response to give someone
who had just admitted to being evil, but she didn’t care.

She stepped back abruptly. The men were
starting to expect the sudden shifts of mood, which irritated her
more. Anilyia crossed her arms. “So . . . you two and Vevin are
evil and you’ve got some sort of insidious plot to get Liselle to
like you. Then, once you have her complete trust, you’re going to
trick her into doing some terrible act of evil that will destroy
the world. Don’t deny it.”

Sir Danth scratched his helmet with a finger
while Tathan spread his arms. “You’ve got us. We’re going to use
Liselle to grow a ladder of flowers to Siahray, and then we’re
going to pull it down to crash it into the oceans, which will flood
all the kingdoms of the world. It’s a brilliant plan and I’m sure
it’ll work.”

Anilyia stared at him. “You’re trying to be
funny. Stop it.”

“We’re not that kind of evil.” Tathan sat
down on the rock Anilyia had vacated a short while before. “We’ve
done evil things, at least I have. I think Sir Danth is just from
another time when things were different. There’s no way we would
hurt Liselle. Something about her makes me want to do good things.
I don’t really like it.” Sir Danth shook his head to indicate he
didn’t like it either.

“Vevin is evil and you can’t convince me
otherwise.” Anilyia kept her arms crossed. It was time to clear
things up.

“Your Highness, Vevin is a dragon. We all
know they like to eat princesses, but that doesn’t make him evil,”
Sir Danth said.

Anilyia waved her arms at him in
frustration. “He’s purple! Didn’t they teach you anything in
whatever training you took to be a knight?”

Sir Danth blushed. “They told us to stay
away from dragons and if one attacked, either surrender or die if
honor required it. That was all we were taught.”

“Seriously?” Anilyia was dumfounded. “In
Mayncal, knights are taught everything known about dragons.”

“That’s a very bad idea. Studying dragons is
a violation of the treaty if there is any intention of learning how
to kill them,” Sir Danth said. “If your knights are learning how to
fight dragons, it could bring a reign of terror down upon your
kingdom.”

Anilyia was quiet while that information
sank in. She had seen a copy of the treaty, but hadn’t read it
because it was in a language her tutors hadn’t thought necessary to
teach her.

“Your Highness, do your knights learn these
things to fight dragons?” Sir Danth asked.

She shook her head slowly. “No, they are
taught details of all creatures with sharp teeth.”

“Then it should be fine,” Sir Danth said
reassuringly. “Probably.”

She waved off the distraction. “Anyway,
white and orange dragons are good. Purple and black are evil. This
is a hard rule set in stone. Vevin is a purple dragon, therefore,
he is evil.”

Sir Danth looked at Tathan who shrugged.
“Well, let’s go ask him,” Sir Danth suggested.

“No!” Anilyia yelled. “He’ll eat me!”

“I won’t eat you,” a voice said from behind
Sir Danth. The knight stepped aside and they saw Vevin walking
toward them with Liselle leaning on his arm. “When you didn’t come
back right away after the princess screamed, we were worried. I
wasn’t about to leave Liselle alone though.”

Anilyia was upset that the dragon had heard
her. “You keep her close to control her mind or something.”

“I’m not evil,” Vevin said dejectedly.
“You’re right. Purple dragons are evil, but I’m not purple . . .
kind of.” They stared at him in confusion. Tathan stood and offered
Liselle the rock seat, which she gratefully accepted.

Vevin did a slow explanation-shuffle. “The
princess is right. Purple and black dragons are evil, while white
and orange dragons are good . . . mostly. There have only been a
few exceptions, but basically the reason I’m not an evil dragon is
because something really bad happened. That led to something
really, really, really, really, really, really bad that shook the
world of dragons. After that, some other really bad things
happened. That resulted in really bad consequences. Then some more
really bad things happened. Then something really, really, really
bad happened and that led to another really bad thing. That really
bad thing was me . . . not meaning that I’m really bad, but it was
really bad that I was.”

At that point, they were all staring at
Vevin with slack jaws, but he wasn’t done. “Then more really bad
things happened in a row that made me really sad. Then a really,
really, really bad thing happened to me and I thought I was going
to die. But then the really, really, really, really, really, really
best thing ever happened to me and now I’m happy . . . and not
evil.” He finished with a nod.

Anilyia had stopped trying to understand
what the stupid dragon was saying sometime after the first couple
of ‘really’s. “I think you’re lying,” she accused.

“He’s not lying. He’s not evil and I’m not
just saying that because I love him,” Liselle defended tiredly.
“The flowers trust him and they would tell me if he was evil or
plotting against me. The flowers understand these things you
know.”

“No! I don’t know.” Anilyia threw her hands
up in the air. “Look, I get it. You like flowers and you have a
magical connection with them. Don’t blast me with fire, but I
honestly don’t believe that flowers can tell if a dragon is evil or
plotting something. I just don’t!”

Liselle waved off the objection. “Well,
whether you believe it or not, they can.”

“Here’s where I stand,” Tathan interrupted.
“I trust Vevin. I trust Liselle even more, and the fact that
Liselle trusts Vevin leads me to have that much more trust in
Vevin. I’ve also seen enough of Liselle’s magic and the
relationship she has with flowers to know that they are
supernaturally powerful and if Liselle says they trust Vevin then
it lends weight to my trust in Vevin.” He inhaled deeply, trying to
get enough breath to finish. “On the other hand, the princess
doesn’t
trust Vevin and I trust the princess’s opinion on a
lot of things. She’s also received some education regarding dragons
such as the fact that purple dragons are evil, which Vevin admits.”
Tathan marked off the points on his fingers to make sure he had
everything. “So what it adds up to is that I mostly trust Vevin,
but there’s a tiny bit of doubt in my mind.”