18.

Kyara deals with Luke's death while Avalynn is given a task by King Reddric

18.

 

The little village of Brunns sat in the foothills of the mountains, a scenic place with the Toricii River flowing down into the rolling hills nearby and a steady stream of merchants travelling back and forth.

Brunns had three large inns due to the traffic, which would be far more than the village would normally need, but the road into the mountains was the only path for many miles and so travelers were the town’s life-blood.

It was after dark when a lone horseman approached the northern gates, and from the look of him, he was no bandit or trouble-maker.   He seemed to be a lost militia-man, wearing the appropriate armor, but looked young and very gloomy.   Without raising his head, he asked in a voice that was almost a whisper if he could be admitted.

When asked what his business was so late, he told a tale of being separated due to a rock-slide from a column of militia heading through the mountains, so he’d back-tracked and then taken the path that led him south out of the mountains.   He’d ended up here.

The two gate guards disbelieved his story, suspecting that he probably was simply a young man who had deserted a group of militia troops riding northwest for their time of service to the High King.

Yet there was something so beaten and weary about the figure sitting on the horse in the dim torchlight below that moved both men to just open the gates for him.   He nodded as they instructed him to head for one of the three inns, or else the night watch would arrest him.    Without looking back or picking up his pace, he slowly made his way through the streets, heading to the Snow Bird Inn, which was the smallest and least frequented of the three Inns (though even it was quite busy tonight).

“I wonder what his story is?”   One of the guards said to his companion as they watched the somber rider turn into the Snow Bird’s lot.

 

Kyara was relieved that the guards had accepted her hastily constructed lie.    She was in no mood for being discovered as a female elf (or ‘Nymph’ as her sister always insisted).

A young girl cautiously crept out of the stable hand’s shack upon hearing horseshoes on the cobblestones.

“Hello?”  She called out and Kyara waved a hand to her.

“I am a bit late,”  She said in the low whisper that she had used with the gate guards, “Is there a room available?”

“Well, none of the cheap ones are left.   We have both grand suites open, but they are 5 Gold Pieces a night!”   The girl said this as if the price would shock Kyara.   The girl believed her to be a teenaged militia recruit that would certainly not have that sort of money.

To her surprise, the cloaked stranger pulled out a full pouch, opened it and dropped 6 gold coins in her hand.

“That will pay for one of the rooms and for you to take care of my horse,”  She said in her best imitation of a man whispering.

The stable girl was so stunned at the display of wealth and the payment of a gold coin to take care of a horse (when she usually only received two silver coins), that she could only nod for a few moments.

Kyara gently grabbed the girl’s arm, “I don’t want to be disturbed, so don’t raise a fuss, okay?    I’ve been generous with my gold and if you will be discreet and help me, you will be rewarded with more gold.”

“Yes, sir!”  The girl said, wide-eyed at her good fortune, “What do you want me to do?”

“Pay for my room and tell the inn-keeper that I am willing to pay to keep my presence from everyone else here.   I just want a private room and a bit of dinner, which I will take in my room.   Do your suites have arcane plumbing?”

“Oh yes, we have PM faucets for hot and cold and showers too!   We even have PM toilets in each room!”

“What does ‘PM’ mean?”

“Why, ‘Practical Magic’ of course! Haven’t you heard of it?”

“Yes, but not the abbreviation.    That would be fine.   Tell your Inn Keeper that I will pay a gold piece for dinner brought to my room - perhaps some chicken and vegetables.    I mainly want some privacy and quiet.”

“That will be no problem, sir!”

“Good - you will take good care of my horse, won’t you?   He has worked very hard today.”   Kyara thought of Luke’s injured horse and wondered sadly what had happened to him.

“I’ll personally attend to him sir,”  The stable girl promised.

 

***

 

A quarter of an hour later, Kyara was sitting comfortably in the Snow Bird’s number two ‘Deluxe Suite’.     It was much cleaner and more comfortable than the room she had shared with Luke the night before.   The thought of Luke washed over her like a flood.    Kyara sat on the bed and wept until she heard someone coming down the hall, which she knew had to be from the kitchen bringing her dinner.   She wiped the tears from her face and slid the helmet back on, as she had no other way to conceal her gender.

 

She quickly took the tray of food and cup of ale from the barmaid who seemed to not care less who was staying in the room.

Remembering what Luke had told her about baracading the door, the young princess slipped a chair under the doorknob and bolted the door for good measure.

She ate in silence, feeling the weight of loneliness as her thoughts continually dwelt on Luke.    But as she was lost in thought, her eyes kept glancing out the window even though it was dark.   In the light of a partial moon, she could see the reflections on the fast flowing Toricii River a short distance past the town walls.    What was it about that river that kept drawing her toward it?   Yes, Luke had fallen into it, but he was certainly dead and her strange feeling to follow the road that shadowed the path of the river was completely upsetting her plans.

“What’s wrong with me,”  She said aloud, feeling extremely tired.    Finishing the meal, she sat the tray outside the door of her room, and then secured it once again.   She decided to test the “PM” tub and found a large brass tub complete with a copper pipe forming a shower head.    Since she just wanted to get clean quickly, she opted for the shower and was surprised and pleased by the spirited flow of warm water.    Washing the sweat and grimew off made her feel much better and after mopping up the floor around the tub (since it did not have any curtains around it to prevent water from the shower going everywhere) she dried off, slipped into some warm woolen night clothes and climbed into bed.

The night was cool and perfect for sleeping and the bed was soft and clean so she slipped quickly off to sleep, her thoughts a mixture of the river and Luke Penrook.

 

***

 

She was floating in an ice cold, raging river, yet she was not exactly swimming and felt no danger from the water as it carried her at break-neck speed across a winding path southward.    She saw farmland, fields, castles, small villages and hamlets, several bridges and small tracts of forest.    She was one with the river and it felt alive, caressing her and whispering to her as its brilliant blue waters reflected the grey autumn clouds overhead.   

For miles and miles they flowed, and she could feel Luke’s presence there, dormant but alive, like a butterfly in a cocoon.

Days and nights seemed to go by and finally the river emptied out over a great waterfall.    At the bottom of the falls was a deep, dark hole in the ground - a cave that could have been the entrance to hell itself.   It loomed cold and black as she tumbled toward it but Kyara could not stop.    She tried to flail her hands, tried to somehow stop her falling, but the river had arms that hugged and clutched at her, tighter and tighter as they fell toward the hole.

Kyara tried to scream but couldn’t and suddenly…

She was awake, sitting up in the Inn’s bed, bathed in sweat, her heart racing and her body trembling.

“A nightmare…”  She mumbled, too scared to lie back down and return to sleep.    Sitting on the side of the bed, she looked out through the gap in the curtains toward the river, but the moon had set and it was too dark to see.   But she thought she could hear it, barely audible, in the distance and it was a strangely soothing sound.

She listened for a long while before feeling weariness come over her as her nerves settled down.    Lying back down, she thought she’d just lay there staring at the ceiling until dawn, but she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep almost at once.

 

***

 

In a candle-lit bedroom in one of the noble suites in the royal palace, a couple lost in the heat of passion did not hear their room’s door slip open and a half dozen armed guards rush inside.

Suddenly in the middle of their intense love-making, the startled couple was pulled apart at sword point.     The male, a handsome middle-aged heir to the barony of Glousett was roughly told to get dressed and sit quietly.

“What about the girl?”  He asked fearfully.

“She’s not your concern, but she won’t be harmed.   Don’t plan on her returning.   Find another s**t to occupy your time.”

“But-“ He started to protest, but the guard put the tip of his sword against his neck.

“King’s business, M’Lord, don’t push my patience with you.”

The nobleman, long accustomed to royal intrigue, nodded while quietly dealing with his frustration over not completing copulating with the gorgeous nymph.

He waved gravely to the terrified girl, who was trying to cover her extraordinary body up with a sheet as the guards pushed her out of the room.

Down several halls they led her, then, to her horror, through ornate golden double doors that were the entrance into the High King’s suite of rooms.   The doors suddenly opened and through them they pushed her

 

“P-Please your m-majesty, I meant no offense, I-I…”  Avalynn stammered, her mind spinning over what to say.   She had been pushed into a kneeling position at the foot of King Reddric’s huge bed.   The king reclined in the middle of it, his young pregnant queen reclining against him on one side and his favorite mistress, Lady Taye of Howardford lying naked against him on the other side.

Reddric leered at her for a moment, hungrily taking in the nymph’s flawless form before finally speaking.

“I seem to have interrupted you in a time of… pleasure.   For that I am sorry.   But I wanted you brought here in secret.   You see, there is something I want you to do for me; something for which you are certainly most suited.”

For a moment she wondered if he wanted to add her to his threesome, which disgusted her, for she was a firm believer in one on one encounters.

He smiled mischievously, reading her interpretation, and snorted a half-drunken laugh.

“Let me explain, Princess Avalynn,”   Reddric sat up in bed and nodded to his queen and mistress.    The two women immediately slid out of bed and left the room.

“Sit down over here,”  Reddric ordered, gesturing to a chair close to the bed and Avalynn got to her feet and hurried to the chair, draping the sheet from the nobleman’s bed around her after she was seated.

“You witnessed what transpired today,”  The High King began,  “You heard the claim made by Mother Julia about Denrich the Sheriff.”

“Yes, sire, I heard,”  Avalynn responded, wondering where this was heading.

“I am now… curious…about this half-elf that is said to be my son.   I am skeptical of most things, Princess Avalynn, until they are proven to me.     Since you have been introduced to Denrich and know him somewhat, I want you to get to know him better.”

“Get to know him, how, Your Majesty?”

Reddric smirked, “I’ll leave that up to you.   I do not care what method you use, I merely am interested in knowing what motivates him.    He would certainly not tell me what I desire to know, only what he thinks I want to hear.   That is where you come in.    You have… qualities… about you that Denrich will no doubt find irresistible, once you charm him a bit.   I want him to trust you enough to tell you his innermost thoughts and dreams and then you will report everything to me.”

Avalynn frowned and squirmed slightly, not liking this assignment at all.    The High King noticed her discomfort and leaned back on the bed.

“I shall soon be taking physical possession of Baylcothrom and I plan to make it into a Grand Duchy.   Many of my nobles greatly desire to be honored with the title of Grand Duke.    But I could name a Grand Duchess instead, and someone who lived her whole life there would be perfect for the role.   Yet I would have to have a demonstration of her loyalty to me before I could name her as Grand Duchess.   If I were to name you, Avalynn, as Grand Duchess, you would nearly reign as queen of your father’s former kingdom, but with my blessing.    It would certainly solve some of your problems.   I would think it would be far better than to spend many months of, um…’sheet work’ to gain allies and backing.”

Avalynn considered what he said briefly and realized that it would be the wisest course for her.    

With a slight sigh, she nodded and asked, “What exactly do you want me to do, Your Majesty?”

Reddric leaned back on the bed, pleased, and began to outline his plan to spy on his son.