The Arrival (Birthright Trilogy #1) (17 page)

Nesha growled in excitement, which made Daron smile. No matter how aloof Nesha liked to hold himself, he was always like a pup when flying.

Sian hung on tight to Daron as Nesha crouched low, his muscles bunched underneath them, then sprung up at least twenty feet into the air. Heart in her mouth, Sian managed to respond to Daron’s query.

'I’m fine,' she stammered. 'I had no idea that was how they took off.'

Daron gave her hands a gentle squeeze, 'You’ll look like an old pro at it tomorrow.'

Yep, thought Sian, and Cat is going to freak.

Leaning her head against Daron’s back, Sian watched in awe at Nesha’s huge wings and the enormous power in his muscles. The flight was smooth and didn’t seem to require an awful lot of effort from the griffon.

Wanting to see how high they were, she squirmed in her seat to try to find a good view. Because she was so short she couldn’t see over Nesha’s wings, but she could see if she leaned a little to the side of Daron and peered over his knee and through the gap by Nesha’s shoulder.

She gasped and clung tight to Daron, then leaned a little further forward. They were SO high.

Daron felt Sian shift and leaned back to her.

'Did you want to sit in the front? That way you can see better and I’ll point out places if you like.'

Absurdly pleased by her nod, he let Nesha know what they were doing.

Nesha sent him a mocking look,
‘Take it nice and slow, you don’t want to drop her.’

Sian sat up and let go of Daron’s back as he turned to her, then unexpectedly gathered her up in his arms and moved to the back seat of the saddle, placing her in front. She blinked in surprise at the sudden change of view and felt a flush of pleasure when he wrapped his arms round her waist and leaned to her ear.

'If you look to our left you’ll see the end of the Orlan forest, which you were at the beginning of when we found you. Over to the right is part of the main river in Elion, the Wegrive.'

His voice was pleasantly deep and his lips were right by her ear, almost tickling her. Sian’s thoughts drifted to a rather pleasant place when her rational voice butted in to remind her to pay attention. She made an effort to focus on what he pointed out and was delighted when he indicated to Lothost. Sian twisted in her seat a little so she was sideways to Daron.

'That was where we first went when we arrived. Can we fly a little lower?'

Daron stared into Sian’s sky blue eyes for a moment before he registered her question.

'Yes.' He smiled at her, acutely aware of how close his lips were to hers, 'Of course.'

On the ground the women had been very impressed by Nesha’s take-off. Kassandra and Laura both questioned the men closely about the griffons and flying. Alek smiled at their obvious enthusiasm.

Then he noticed Catherine, who sat and listened, but with a pale face and her lips pressed flat together.

Kassie glanced up and noticed Alek’s confused look at Cat’s expression. They watched as she stood and called for Audrey then walked off toward the river.

'Is something wrong?' Alek asked.

'Not exactly,' Kassie hesitated a moment, knowing Cat wouldn’t really like her weakness exposed.

'You see, Cat’s… well… Catherine’s really scared of heights; actually, terrified is probably a better description.'

Alek looked astonished then concerned.

'Do you think she’ll be able to manage?'

Kassie nodded her head vigorously.

'Oh yes, but she’ll need to psyche herself for it, which is probably why she wandered off.'

Alek glanced at her.

'Are you or Laura scared of heights?' He smiled wryly, 'I can see Sian isn’t.'

Loi, who listened to the conversation, gave a little laugh.

'No, Kassie and I can handle heights fine. Actually, its insects that tend to creep us out more, Cat deals with those for us.'

Then Sabyn caught her attention again and she turned away.

Alek didn’t like the thought of Catherine being uneasy with flying, especially as they had a week of it ahead of them. And if they were who Elena hoped they were, there was a good chance they’d be on a griffons back often.

I really hope Kassandra’s right,
Alek thought somberly, and after a few days she’ll be okay.

I sat beside the river and stripped my boots off, dipping my feet in the wonderfully cool water. I could see why Alek went for a swim; the river was in full sun, deep and meandering. It was a very pleasant place to relax. Audi climbed onto the bank beside me, dripping wet after enthusiastically chugging around in circles in the water. I gently stroked her head and focused on calming myself.

I know I will be safe. I’m very sure I will be safe. Pretty sure…

I lay back on the grassy bank and sighed, of all the stupid fears mine had to be heights.

Hearing the crunch of footsteps, I sat up and shaded my eyes. Alek smiled down on me and I flushed. He had a gorgeous smile.

Maybe it won’t be so hard to handle the heights.
I subtly studied his muscular form. There certainly were worse ways to travel.

Alek took a seat beside Audrey who’d obviously been swimming. She sat up and wagged her tail at him.

'Why don’t you go see what Loushka’s up to?'

The dog perked up at the griffon’s name and disappeared off down the track.

'You know she’s very bright,' he commented to Catherine.

She glanced fondly after her dog.

'She is. Sometimes too clever though, and she does naughty things when she knows I can’t see her.'

He laughed, 'As they do. What’s she done before?'

Catherine frowned as she thought about it and Alek watched her with a smile.

She has such an expressive face; I’ll bet she’s an awful liar.
He liked that thought.

'I know. One time after we’d had a roast chicken, I’d removed the meat we didn’t eat from the bones and placed it in a bowl to cool. I’d made sure it was far back on the counter, so out the way, but when I came to look for it later, it was gone. Just a clean, empty bowl on the bench. I checked with the others, in case they’d put it somewhere, but no, they hadn’t touched it. Then as I came down the corridor, Audi passed me and just as she did, she cringed ever so slightly.'

Catherine smiled triumphantly at him.

'And I knew it! She got a smack on the backside and had to spend the rest of the night outside. She was not a happy girl.'

He laughed at the thought of it; he could just imagine Audrey being that sneaky.

'She cleaned the bowl completely? And no noise? Such a pity for Audrey that she’s so honest.'

Catherine agreed, 'Yes. She’d committed the perfect crime. If only it weren’t for her conscience.'

He laughed again then proceeded to tell her about a dog he’d had when he was young.

'His name was Zane, and father and I chose him from a litter when I was five. My father decided it would be a good way to teach me compassion and responsibility,' He smiled at the memory of the stocky determined puppy he’d selected.

'Were you a right little terror?' Catherine teased.

'I had my moments.'

'So did it work?'

He chuckled.

'Do I seem so irresponsible? Yes and no. Zane and I were inseparable so if there was any mischief going on it meant we were both involved.'

He continued to talk about Zane and successfully distracted Catherine.

Back at the campsite, Rumal and Kassie were deep in a conversation in regards to which creatures existed in this realm that she knew of. It was somewhat of a comfort to discover that lions, tigers and bears—oh my!—existed here as well. Cats, dogs, and chickens did too, and Rumal pointed out that they'd had bacon for breakfast, so there were pigs as well.

Rumal smiled at Kassandra, she seemed very relieved to learn that there were things here she recognized. He wondered if where she came from was so different. She didn’t look any different than women here.

Actually, she reminded him of an older woman he’d met at court who had hair very similar to Kassandra’s crazy, curly locks. Surely if she and the others seemed so normal to them, there must be a lot in common with their realms.

Kassie was fascinated by Rumal. He had to be the most feline-like male she’d ever met. He had gorgeous dark, mocha skin, and wide, slanted, liquid gold eyes, like a hawk's. His hair was cut so short it was practically non-existent.

'Rumal, where are you from?' Kassie asked, curious.

'You don’t sound like Alek or Sabyn and you certainly don’t look like them.'

He smiled down at her.

'I’m from an Island called Delanta in the Delos Sea. East of Elion.'

'So where are the others from?'

'Alek and Sabyn are from Plusian, and are actually distant cousins. Daron is from Gartolle, and Gredel is from Vo Arum. When Elena felt our griffons call us she summoned us to the castle along with the griffons so we could begin training.'

It was a bit of a shock for Kassie to think of this place as so big and real that it had islands and countries. She half expected to fall down a rabbit hole and wake up at home.

Rumal watched as various emotions flickered across her face and he felt a surge of protectiveness at the woman’s predicament. Elena hadn’t had much time to explain but had said that the women they were being sent to collect weren’t from this time or place. She’d told them to think of them as newborns in the sense that they would have little idea about what was dangerous here and what wasn’t.

He reached out and gently placed his hand on her arm. She jolted in surprise and looked up.

'Are you alright little one?' he asked very quietly. 'I understand this must be all so strange to you.'

The gentle concern in his voice bypassed any annoyance Kassie would usually have felt at being called “little one” and hit the spot of fear and confusion she’d fought to stamp out.

She burst into tears.

Gredel, from the other side of the clearing, glared at Rumal, a "what have you done?" look and Kerak looked up to see what had happened.

‘Rumal what’s wrong? Is she hurt?’
the young griffon was quite concerned. Rumal gathered the sobbing girl into his arms as he replied,
‘She’s okay I think, just missing home and I suspect yesterday would have been the first time she’s really fought for her life.’

Kerak came over to where Rumal sat, rocking back and forward, gently stroking Kassandra’s hair.

Kassie was mortified to cry all over a man she barely knew, but the need to sob out the stress from the past few days overrode her desire to stop.

No wonder Lucky likes pats so much
, she thought as Rumal stroked her hair. It was so comforting.

Whoa. Did I just think that?
She blushed and sat upright, wiping the tears from her face.

Loi and Sabyn observed quietly from a distance. It’d been hard for Loi not to run to her friend when she was so upset, but Sabyn had caught her arm as she made to move toward them.