The Chosen (36 page)

“Not my style,” she replied, hacking at the dense foliage that seemed to have already swallowed their initial path.

Natalie watched his jaw work and wasn’t entirely sure whom he was more annoyed with, her or Kathryn.

After another minute, David sighed. “Fine, we’ll work on
that
problem later. We still need to figure out what to do about Natalie’s actions.”

Kathryn was struggling with one particular bush that seemed determined to ensnare them in its thorns. “I figured that I’d leave that up to you.” With a grunt she snapped off several of the branches directly in her face.

David couldn’t hide his surprise. “You want me to decide the punishment?” He brought out one of his own knives and began hacking at the stubborn bush from the other side. Whatever the thing was, it caught on everything. He could feel the thorns snag in his tunic.

“Her actions were against me,” Kathryn reminded them as she continued doggedly forward. “I’m not exactly impartial in this case. And you are our leader.”

The conversation would have been serious if the two most powerful Guardians in the Dragons hadn’t been fighting a losing battle with a plant. Natalie knew that she should have been acting contrite and humble, but she was fighting a losing battle with her laughter.

David must have heard her because he sent a glower her way. “This isn’t funny, Natalie.”

Oh, but it most certainly was. About thirty or so thorns had been hooked into his clothing on all sides, rendering him essentially motionless. She couldn’t help it. She braced her already aching sides as her laughter bubbled out

David struggled to free himself from his captor and only succeeded in hooking more thorns into his clothes.

By this time, Kathryn had stopped her trail blazing and was staring at him, a slight smile raising one corner of her mouth. He turned his glare on her. “Get me out of here.”

“Oh, I think you’re doing fine on your own.”

Natalie was bent over double, her hands wrapped around her waist, she was laughing so hard. “You look so ridiculous!”

“Kathryn, do something!”

The Dragon’s lieutenant walked over and inspected the situation. “As far as I see it we have two options. I can cut the branches that are attached to you and you can walk back to the campsite with thirty branches attached to you, or I can saw the branches off at the base of the thorns and you can spend this evening’s campfire digging them out of the cirin.”

“Can’t you just pull them out?” Natalie asked.

Kathryn shook her head. “The thorns are barbed,” she explained. Reaching up she snapped a small twig off the bush and walked over to her. She held up the twig for Natalie to observe.

Natalie held the plant between two of her fingers. The thorns appeared to be comprised of several smaller thorns that had grown together and were hooked at both ends with points that reminded Natalie of a ship’s anchor. “Yikes.”

“If you’re done with your examination of the local plant life, I’d like to be on our way…soon!” David called out sourly.

Natalie grinned at Kathryn. “He’s grouchy today.”

“And bossy,” Kathryn agreed.

“Anytime today, ladies!”

Kathryn turned to face him. “I gave you the two options. I haven’t heard you pick one!” She returned sharply.

“How about option three?”

“And just what is option three?” She returned sarcastically. “We dig up the bush and you carry it?”

“Convince the plant to let me go.”

She stared at him. “How in the kingdom am I supposed to do that?!”

“Your gift!”

“What gif—?” Kathryn began angrily, but then abruptly stopped. “Oh. Right.”

David let out an exasperated sound, but wisely didn’t comment further. After a few moments, the bush began to retract its branches slowly. Thorn by thorn, David was finally released.

As soon as he was free, he stepped quickly away from his former prison and inspected his uniform. As far as Natalie could tell, there were a few puncture holes, but nothing serious. “Thank you,” he said dryly.

“You’re welcome,” she returned sarcastically.

Natalie forced her smile down. This was the most she had ever seen Kathryn interact with anyone and she had a snarky sense of humor that made Natalie want to grin with every word. She would have to remember this.

They skirted around the thorn bush and continued on toward the campsite. After they’d gone about a kilometer, David continued their earlier conversation. “Natalie, I know that you’ve apologized to Kathryn and that she’s forgiven you, but I can’t ignore your actions.”

“I understand.”

“For seven days I want you in the barn mucking out the stalls.”

Natalie felt her shoulders droop. “All the stalls?”

He nodded. “All the stalls.”

The others had already left by the time the three arrived back at the campsite, but they didn’t have that much of a lead and David, Natalie, and Kathryn quickly caught up with the rest of the group. Later, around the campfire, Kathryn sat down next to Natalie. “Why didn’t you fry Sebastian with your gift when he took you?” she asked quietly.

Natalie was silent for a moment, the flames flickering in her emerald eyes. Finally she spoke. “He recognized me,” she said quietly.

Kathryn stared at her in disbelief. “He what?”

“After he ripped off my mask he recognized me from a party several years ago. He threatened my family if I didn’t cooperate.”

For the first time in her life, Kathryn was truly grateful that she didn’t have a family that could be held over her as leverage. “Did you try?” she asked finally.

The older girl nodded. “Of course I did. I tried several times. He made me so angry when he threatened my family, but deep down I was terrified for them. I wanted to make sure he could never hurt them, but when I tried…” she took a deep breath. “It was like I’d never had the power. I couldn’t find it inside myself. It was like my gift had abandoned me.”

Kathryn shook her head. “It didn’t abandon you, you simply lost your focus.”

“It happened back at the castle too.” Natalie said quietly remembering the difficulty she’d had controlling the fire used to demoralize the rest of the knights.

“We can fix that.”

Surprised, Natalie turned to look at Kathryn. “We?”

“I’ll work with you on improving your battle skills.”

“Really?”

“We start tomorrow.”

“Thank you!”

Kathryn smirked slightly at Natalie’s enthusiastic tone. “You won’t be so excited once I get done with you,” she warned.

“I can handle it.”

“That I seriously doubt.”

David led the group back to the Capitol where Princess Roseanna rejoined her grateful family and, after a heartfelt thanks from the royal family, the group set off for home. During the ride home David noticed that Kathryn and Natalie spent a lot of time together. He had planned on talking to Natalie about what had happened at the Duke’s castle, and later with Sebastian, but Kathryn appeared to be covering that for him. His lieutenant spent radians after they had camped each night working with Natalie, utilizing both physical weapons and their gifts. Occasionally Kathryn would enlist someone else’s help during those training sessions, usually Matt or Daniel. David had been recruited for one such session and found himself slightly shocked at the degree of ruthlessness that Kathryn employed in her teaching. Gentle was not a word he would be using to describe her anytime soon.

He noticed, with some confusion, that Kathryn spent more time focused on physical training than on Natalie’s gift. When he’d asked her about it she’d replied, “Natalie’s problem isn’t her inability to use her gift, it’s her inability to react when facing an opponent who truly means her harm. She panics when faced with something that wasn’t covered in school. By increasing her skills that don’t involve her gifts, she’ll be able to adapt to new situations with confidence and that confidence will help her retain her control over both her physical and gifted abilities.”

He hadn’t been able to find a flaw in her logic so he let them be. After a few days, he noticed an easiness in the group that hadn’t been there before. However brutal and bizarre Kathryn’s technique was it appeared to be working.

When they were three days away from home he and Natalie went hunting for dinner together and David asked her about it.

“I notice you’ve been spending a lot of time with Kathryn lately,” he commented as they fought their way through the thick underbrush. “Does that mean you two have ironed out your differences?”

Natalie nodded. “Yes.”

“What, no elaboration?” He joked half seriously. Any insight into Kathryn would be appreciated.

“Do you need it?”

“I guess not,” he conceded, spying the tracks of a wild pig. “Has Kathryn opened up to you at all?”

“No.”

“No?” He found that hard to believe. “All the time you’ve spent with her and she hasn’t mentioned anything?”

“Not a word. And I’ve done enough prying, so I’m not going to ask.”

They followed the tracks to a large growth of dense underbrush. Taking up defensive positions David was preparing to scare the pig out from its burrow when a piercing shriek from above commanded both Guardians’ attentions.

A dark blur shot downward into the underbrush. There was the sound of branches breaking followed by the roar of an irate pig and the continued cacophony of squeals and shrieks. Suddenly a large wild boar, weighing in at what looking like about two hundred fifty pounds, burst out from under the bush, bucking and hollering at its attacker.

“It’s Destiny!” Natalie cried in amazement.

It was. Kathryn’s eagle was dive-bombing the pig with the force of an arrow launched from a powerful longbow or ballista. The pig stomped and charged the bird, but Destiny was far too small and had the advantage of speed and agility. Both Guardians watched in amazement as the ferocious bird completed the task they had set for themselves. After about fifteen minutes the pig was lying dead on the hard ground, dead from massive blood loss. Destiny swooped in and landed on the pig, letting out a victory call.

“That is one impressive bird,” David said shaking his head in amazement. But Destiny wasn’t done yet. After preening her feathers for a few moments, she thrust her talons into the dead animal and attempted to drag it away.

“I do believe that Destiny’s eyes are bigger than her stomach,” Natalie laughed.

David threw back his head and laughed as the little bird struggled to move the dead weight. “Come on, Nat, let’s get this thing back to camp.”  David field dressed the animal while Natalie cut and trimmed some staves. They secured the legs to the poles, hefted the poles to their shoulders and headed back.

During dinner, Natalie and David had great fun telling the story of Destiny’s great feat. Matt, Jenna, and Daniel were as amazed and stunned as Natalie and David had been. But Kathryn merely sat quietly, feeding Destiny strips of hot pork as she listened, giving David the impression that this was not the first pig Destiny had taken on, nor would it be the last.

As was their custom, the Dragons took a different route each time they returned to the compound.  This minimized tracking signs lest they leave an easy route to follow for an adversary or a curious countryman.  In this case they took the northern route over a holt that rose several hundred meters from the assault wall.  As they reached the summit, Daniel peered through the massive trees.

“As many times as I’ve seen it I still can’t get over it.” 

“What’s that?” Jenna replied as she ambled up next to him.

“The magic.”  He motioned his hand pointing in the direction they were heading, “It looks like a swamp, even smells like a swamp.  There is no sign of the river, no sound at all, no barn or buildings, no smoke or smell from a cooking fire.  It just amazes me.”

“No honking pribbles either,” Jenna replied with a grin.

For the most part the pribbles enjoyed the company of people.  But there was something about Daniel that set them on edge.  Every time he entered their pen, a troop of them would rush towards him hissing and bellowing until he relented and left.  It was a mystery because Daniel couldn’t think of anything he could have done to upset them.

Daniel frowned and prodded his horse forward and muttered to himself, “pribbles”

They reached home without any further incidents and when Luke reported that all had gone smoothly during their absence, David breathed easier. Having been separated for nearly two months, the rest of the Dragons were eager to hear about the rescue, and the rest of the family was only too happy to oblige. When they got to the story of Destiny and the pig the startled bird suddenly found herself at the center of unwanted attention as the rest of the family tried to pet or stroke her. With an indignant ruffle of her feathers she leapt from her perch and flew upstairs, drawing more laughs from the family.

Midsummer, three months after David and the rest of the Dragons returned home, David received a letter from the Council. As he studied the missive, he smiled. Natalie was going to be thrilled. Kathryn would probably try to get out of it. He was going to enjoy this.

The next morning he woke early and told Matt to prepare enough food for the whole family. Despite Matt’s curious glances, he refused to say anything more and instead went upstairs and woke everyone up.

Those who weren’t scheduled to be on duty that day weren’t all that thrilled to be woken up at the crack of dawn, but David told them that he would make it worth their time. They came, if only to satisfy their curiosity.

He kept the news to himself throughout breakfast and resisted the urge to laugh at the various attempts made to force him to reveal it. Finally, once everyone was practically done, he said, “I’m sure you’re all wondering why I dragged you all out of bed this morning. Well, to start, I’m canceling patrols for today.”

Immediately the Dragons stopped what they were doing and looked at him, waiting for his explanation.  Kathryn shot a frown in his direction and he knew that, as the second-in-command she should have had prior knowledge to something as big as this, and he hurried to continue. “I have an announcement and I wanted the whole family to hear it at the same time.”

“Who’s in trouble this time?” Tyler asked dryly.

“It’s nothing serious, like a rescue or anything,” he assured them. “But perhaps something just as exciting. Well for some of us,” he amended.

“We don’t have to eat rabbit anymore.” Natalie piped up dryly.

“No,” David told her chuckling. “Although this is something you might enjoy. Last night I received a summons to court for a three-night celebration.” He barely got the last words out before Natalie squealed with joy.

“Court!?” Delirious with excitement Natalie pressed David for more information. “What kind of celebration? Will there be balls every night? Will we personally meet the royal family?”

David held up a hand to try to stop her questions. “Hold on, Natalie, let me finish. The celebration is for the Queen’s birthday, and yes there will be balls every night for your young ladies delight, and for us gentlemen there will be tournaments during the day, and as to meeting the royal family, that’s entirely up to them.”

“Don’t forget Natalie,” Kathryn added seriously. “While at court you cannot reveal that you are a Guardian.”

Natalie sighed. “Yes, yes I know that Kathryn, but a ball! This is going to be so much fun!” Suddenly she paused, cocked her head, and then looked straight at Kathryn. “What court dresses did you bring?” she asked. “I don’t remember seeing any in your closet.”

Kathryn arched an eyebrow at her. Small red spots of embarrassment appeared on Natalie’s cheeks. David fought the urge to laugh again. He watched as Natalie kept her focus and didn’t back down to Kathryn.

Kathryn’s eyebrow rose again, whether in surprise or approval David couldn’t tell, before saying, “It’s in the back of the closet, you must have missed it.”

Natalie stared at her. “It? As i
n
singula
r
?”

“Why in the kingdom would I have need for more than one out here?”

Natalie’s jaw dropped in disbelief. “You are kidding, right?”

Amy laughed. “Honestly Nat, haven’t you figured out by now that if it isn’t practical, Kathryn doesn’t want anything to do with it?”

Natalie was still staring at the younger girl in disbelief. Finally she turned to look at David. “When do we leave?”

He took a sip of his tea before answering. “To avoid attracting attention, we will be leaving in small groups over the next few days.  Your group leaves tomorrow morning.”

“Tomorrow morning!” Natalie jumped out of her seat, sending it crashing to the floor. “You mean you’re only giving me a couple radians to put together a wardrobe for Kathryn?”

“A what?”

Instead of replying Natalie raced over to Kathryn, grabbed her arm, jerked her out of her chair, and dragged her out of the room. “Come on Kathryn! I need to get your measurements and color choices.”

“For what?”  Kathryn’s reply was almost lost as the rest of the girls hurried after them, eager to help.

David could barely contain his laughter and his curiosity. What in the kingdom could Natalie cook up in a couple radians? At the very least it would be entertaining.

“Who wants to bet that Natalie strangles Kathryn two radians into this project?” Luke asked. The boys burst out laughing.

“I don’t know,” Matt managed between laughs. “Kathryn looked like she was about to face a hangman’s noose. I’d bet that it’s Kathryn who strangles Natalie.”

David wanted to groan: Natalie’s vanity versus Kathryn’s stubbornness. He wasn’t entirely sure which would win today.  “They don’t need any encouragement, guys.”

Luke grinned at him. “Oh come on, it would be epic.”

Tyler rolled his eyes. “Sure, but think about the collateral damage. The house would be gone, destroyed first by fire and then by water and we’d all probably look like pincushions.”

Daniel shook his head. “Kathryn doesn’t miss with her bow. She’d only need one shot.”

Tyler glanced at him. “I wasn’t referring to arrows from Kathryn’s bow.”

Sighing, David shook his head. “Come on guys, we have packing, and in my case buffing and polishing, to do.”

A round of groans traveled around those remaining at the table. Luke made a face. “Right now I’m really missing a servant to make sure my clothes are presentable for me.”

“You could always ask Natalie or Kathryn to do it for you,” Matt suggested teasingly.

“Oh, sure,” Luke returned sarcastically. “And after they agree, they’ll give me the option of how I want to die.”

“By fire or by helcë,” Daniel laughed.

Tyler stood, “Ask Kathryn. It would be quicker,” he advised as he left.

Matt pondered his words. “I’m not so sure,” he said slowly.

David turned to face Matt. "Lacey stays here," he said firmly. When Matt opened his mouth to object, David cut him off. "No arguments Matt, we can't risk her raising eyebrows at court."

Sullenly, Matt nodded his acquiescence.

“That’s the last of them,” Natalie commented as she wrote down the last of Kathryn’s measurements.

“Finally,” Kathryn groused as she moved to stand near the window.

Natalie laughed. “Oh, it’s not that bad. It’s not like you have to infiltrate a castle without being seen.”             

“I’d rather be assaulting the castle,” Kathryn grumbled as Natalie picked up her sketchpad and started drawing. While she appreciated that Natalie had dropped her inquisition into her life, she wasn’t sure how she felt about the older girl’s attempts to treat her like a beloved sister. At best they confused her, at worst she found them just as annoying as her questions about her past.