All the newer students lined up in the courtyard for drills. As I took my place, I saw Aien in the row ahead of me. He glanced around, looking for someone or something, perhaps a friendly face amongst the crowd, and his eyes fell on me. He stepped backwards, to stand at my side.
“What is this?” He asked me. “Is this meant to be a sword?” He looked at the wooden practise sword that he held in one hand.
“Drills,” I told him. “As training goes, this one isn’t so bad, as long as you stick to the middle and try not to stand out. The sword master will lead us through the poses and postures,” I nodded up to the raised platform. “We just copy her.”
“Why do I suspect that it’s not as easy as you make it sound?” He wondered.
“Because…” I lifted my chin to the wall where the dark elf guards had gathered to watch. “And…” I inclined my head to the base of the wall, where the senior knights were gathering. “They’re meant to be practicing hand to hand combat, but… They mostly watch. And mock us.”
“Great,” he said with a sigh.
“It’s your first day,” I told him. “No one will expect you to be any good.”
“At least they won’t be disappointed,” he replied dryly.
“Watch closely,” I cautioned him. “Don’t let them distract you. We’re considered fair game. After all, in battle there are many distractions. You’re allowed to be terrible on your first day, but not to break rank and…” He didn’t seem like the type to get into a fight, as many of the first-time knights did.
“And what?” He wondered.
“You’ll see.”
The sword master stepped up onto the raised platform and ran her eyes over us with a sneer that only a dark elf could manage. “Very well, let’s see how terrible you all are today.”
After his initial hesitancy, his cheeks coloring and his eyes locked to the sword master whilst he learned the routine, the sliding step from one posture to another, the position of sword and arms combined with the set of feet, Aien was not terrible. Luckily, a new recruit was far, far worse. A muscled younger son, the young man had received training before coming to the academy, and seemed determined to show that training off, even when it ran contrary to the sword master’s instructions resulting in an altercation between the two, and mockery from the on-watchers.
As the young man grew more and more frustrated, Aien slid me a look. “This is not going to end well.”
“No,” I agreed shaking my head.
It did not take long, and was, typically, Valerian who broke the recruit, Valerian’s laughter ringing out above all others. The recruit broke rank. “What is so f-king funny?” He demanded of Valerian, and my younger brother slowly rose to his full dragon height, his grin widening in delight. Around him, Caraway, Rue and Tarragon straightened, flanking him, and causing the heat to leave the young man’s anger, replaced with a cold wave of fear.
“I don’t know,” Valerian drawled. “I’m not entirely sure what dance it is that you’re doing, but this is not a ballroom.”
“Think about it carefully,” Rue advised the young man. “This is not a fight that you can win.”
“They’re rather… impressive,” Aien said from my side. “Who are they?”
I glanced up at him in surprise. I was so accustomed to being known, that it had not occurred that he would not recognize my siblings. “Um. Tarragon, Rue, Caraway, and Valerian, of Queen Diandreliera and King Valsaurienkachelial taradrakyn.”
“Oh. Uyan Taesil,” he nodded, leaning slightly on the wooden sword. “Valsaurienkachelial taradrakyn? A dragon.”
“Mhm,” I watched his face from under my eyelashes.
“You sat next to the big one…” He nodded to where Rue was grinning down at the young man, who was swiftly re-evaluating his anger.
“Rue.”
“Rue,” he repeated, his eyes on my brother as the sword master intervened, saving the young recruit from a beating.
“My eldest brother,” I answered the unasked question. “Tarragon is my eldest sister. I have another brother, Arbor, who has chosen the traditional dragon way of life, and then there is myself, and the twins Val and Cara, then my sister Shara, who will be coming here next year. After Shara, there is Basil, Yarrow, Tyme, Lea, Kale, and the baby, Sorrel.”
He had turned to look down at me his head tilted to the side. “That’s… a lot of siblings,” he said slowly.
“Yes,” I agreed. The sword master was calling us back to order.
“And they’re all dragons?”
“All except for me,” I said quietly. “Apparently dragon only breeds true twelve out of thirteen times.”
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly as we resumed the drill. “That must be hard.”
We made it through the drill without further incident and broke form when the kitchen rang the bell to announce that lunch was being served in the main hall. As we returned the wooden swords to the stand, Aien leaned closer to me.
“Come with me?” He whispered and gestured with his head towards one of the gates out of the castle. I hesitated, glancing over my shoulder to where everyone else was filing towards the main castle but followed him to the gate and out of the courtyard.
We crossed through the kitchen gardens and orchards, and Aien shamelessly filled our pockets with stolen fruit and vegetables, taking a bite of an apple as we passed out of the main gates into the city.
“There’s a forest,” Aien pointed to the trees in the distance. “I’ve been wanting to explore it since the King brought me here. I’m not used to,” he gestured around us at the busy city streets. “At my father’s castle, I’d leave every morning before the sun rose and spend the day in the forest surrounding the castle and village. I feel closed in here… I just want to escape for a few hours.”
“I can understand,” I said sticking close and dodging around the humans and brethren of Nerith who were busily about their days. “I have been wanting to escape since my first day here.”
The streets of Nerith were too frantic for conversation. We paused at a baker selling his wares on a tray carried before him, and bought some meat-stuffed pastries, eating as we walked, heading across the city without knowing the roads, simply following the general direction of the trees on the horizon.
“What is it like being a princess?” Aien asked me as the streets gave way to trees. He paused in the shadows of the forest canopy and lifted his face up to the dappled sunlight, his expression relaxing as his eyes closing as he basked in the greenery. I could see the tension melt from his shoulders. He belonged here, I realized, amongst the trees and green undergrowth.
“I don’t know,” I answered absently. “I’ve never been anything else.”
“Yes, but…” He opened his eyes and looked at me.
“I guess… It is different here,” I realized that was what he meant. “In Uyan Taesil I have ladies in waiting, and I’ve known them and they me, since childhood. I’m never alone, not completely, and they’re my friends. We take lessons together, go for walks in the gardens, shop, and… Well, it’s not like here. It was… happy and fun. I also had maids, many of them, who spent their days running and fetching whatever it is that I needed. Here I just have Hen and she’s busy and really only spares me a few hours a day to help me dress and bathe and keep my clothing mended and room clean…”
“I don’t think I’ve ever had a friend,” he said quietly and began to walk forward through the trees. His footfalls were as skilfully silent as a hunter, I thought, never disturbing a crunching leaf, or snapping a twig. I was not so silent following in his shadow, my shoes slipping in the mud and my cloak catching on twigs.
“There were servants, but…” He shook his head. “They either don’t last long, or they’re not very friendly. There were some brethren in the forest, but they’re not same as around the castle here. They’re wilder, less trusting of humans. There was a hobgoblin that I was trying to win over. I’d bring him cakes from the village. They like honey…” He smiled slightly at a memory.
It sounded very lonely I thought as I accepted his hand over an area where the forest floor was rough with debris. He did not immediately release my hand and we walked that way for some time, picking our way across a little murmuring creek. We sat upon oversized boulders to share the fruit and vegetables we had stolen from the castle gardens before kneeling to scoop the icy water up in the palms of our hands.
Just as we reached the point at which we were thinking about turning back, we saw in the distance through the trees, a tower poking up through the canopy.
“We will need to leave earlier, or bring horses,” Aien decided, standing on a rise of earth, his hands on his hips. “I want to see who lives in that tower in the middle of the forest.”
“Is that wise?” I wondered. “People who live deep in forests tend not to want to be disturbed.”
He laughed as he jumped down and walked over to join me. “I think it will be empty, and so safe enough,” he told me. “We’ll leave early tomorrow morning and come back.”
“Oh, we can’t,” I told him, shaking my head.
“Why not?” He tilted his head to the side. “What are they going to do if we miss a class or two?”
“No classes tomorrow,” I told him. “It’s the tourney. Attendance is mandatory, and if we’re not there,” I shook my head solemnly. “It’s straight to the stocks.”
“Even for a princess?” He seemed dubious about that.
“I don’t want to find out, do you?” I asked him.
“A tourney, hmm?” He sighed heavily. “Just great.”
“Reckless foolishness,” Hen grumbled under her breath as she helped me dress. “In a tourney maze is no place for a princess.”“Val and Cara will watch out today,” I told her. “And my father is in the audience.”“Should not be required,” she cinched my ties tighter than necessary in her irritation. “Princesses should not be put in such danger.”“It is good training for the real world, Akyran says,” I replied. “And keeps the knight’s keen and sharp.”Nerith castle cupped the inner courtyards, and during the tourney, Akyran and Ecaeris transformed the neat gardens and lower balconies into a maze of obstacles. The courtyards were large, but in an impressive feat of magic, Akyran and Ecaeris multiplied the dimensions to an impossible scale, creating a true labyrinth for the competition, and once you stepped into it, the maze seemed to spread for miles in every direction.As I joined the line up of competitors between Rue and Val, I saw a couple of knight errants spot me, and laugh, wonderi
“My father wasn’t always this way,” Aien said as we walked through the maze following the trail of debris, blood, and broken weaponry. “A villain I mean. Things were different when my mother was alive. She was…” He paused where someone had smashed a statue, the stone rubble scattered across the path and offered me his hand. “Be careful where you step. My mother was beautiful,” he did not immediately release my hand when I had picked my way through the debris and stood looking down at me thoughtfully.“She was kind,” he said softly. My eyes fell to the softness of his lips and wondered what they would feel against my own. “And she looked after others. She would have liked you. You remind me of her.” He released my hand and continued along the walkway. “An illness came to the village, and my mother went to help the sick. She caught it from them, and… I was eleven,” he swallowed hard. “Old enough that I remember very well what it was like before she died.”“I’m sorry,” I said reaching ou
The hallways immediately around the main hall were busy as servants scurried in and out with wine and platters and in the shadows, knights from the academy flirted drunkenly with maids and minor noble ladies who had managed to escape their protective families. Aien put his arm around my shoulders, draping me in the folds of his cloak, and walked with me nearest the wall. From behind, tucked tightly against Aien’s body, I would have been all but invisible.It was cosily warm within Aien’s cloak and very pleasant to feel his body move against mine. Boldly, I slid my arm around his waist, and was relieved when he did not object. In fact, he tightened his hold on me, encouraging me closer to him.I was almost entirely sure that I was not mistaken and that Aien… Well, that Aien felt about me the same as I felt about him. I felt the flush heating my skin. I had seen the knights and the maids kissing in any semi-private place they could find so many times, breathless, moaning exchanges frant
I woke into the greyness of dawn as Aien eased out of my arms, leaving a cold patch across my skin as he slid out of the bedclothes. He tucked the blankets back around me considerately seeking to shelter me from the changing temperature caused by his body withdrawing from mine.He dressed in the shirt that he had cast off and crept across the room to the door, slipping out and closing it behind him.For a moment I lay in the hollow left in his departure, trying to deny its meaning, and then it caught me in the ribs, and I curled onto my side, the heels of my hands pressed to my mouth as I pressed it back, but the feeling undeniable.Aien had left my bed before dawn. He had left before discovery was a possibility. He was hiding that he had been there at all.Very well, I told myself shaking my head and trying to cast away the burn of shame and pain. That was understandable. We were in a difficult situation. I was the second daughter of a dragon, after all, and the fifth in line for the
At the top of the stairs a central corridor was framed on either side by pretty bedrooms, each still holding elaborately carved beds, the curtains and bedding covered in a layer of dust, but otherwise untouched by time, protected from the elements by the window glass and solid roof. The chest at the end of the bed still held clothing, no more than two decades out of fashion and of rich appointment. The dressing table held hair pins, hairbrush, jewellery, and cosmetics.“What happened to these people?” I wondered.Aien shook his head.The third bedroom was a nursery, and from the scattering of wooden toys on the ground, and the half open drawers, the rumpled blanket in the cot, was evidence that the room had been in use when the house had been abandoned.“Oh,” I said softly. “That is…”Aien closed the door to the room. “They left,” he told me firmly. “The family here left the house together. Perhaps they left due to the monsters?”“There was…” I swallowed hard. “Well, a lot of things h
Rapunzel emerged from the curtained bed slowly, sliding until she sat on the end of the mattress, her elegant gown rumpled and gathered around her, showing that her feet were bare. “I am a prisoner here,” she told us with wide eyed earnestness. “And have been since the first year of my life.“This is my family home. My father was a landed gentleman with a small farm. Nothing extraordinary, but enough to support his family in comfort. However, my mother became sick, and in desperation, he sought out a renowned witch who lived within Nerith, by the name of Gerveine, who was known to have a magic potion that could cure all ills made of a rare flower.“Gerveine granted his wish, and made him a potion, but in exchange for me,” Rapunzel touched her fingertips to her hair. “As, when I was born, my fairy godmother blessed me with magical hair capable of sewing any wound closed as if it never existed. Gerveine takes a few strands every time she visits, which she sells to kings and heroes headi
“Up to?” I repeated trying for innocence. “I don’t think I know what you mean.”“Mhm. I was very flattered when your parents named you after me,” Daerton stepped over the bench and sat next to me. “And I have been nothing but proud of the young woman that I have watched grow ever since. But I must admit, never so proud as a few moments ago when you manipulated that fool of a knight into doing precisely what you wanted him to do,” he nodded around his smile. “Whilst preventing him from beating your mage to a pulp.”“I… Ah,” I felt my cheeks heat. “Aien isn’t my mage.”“Darling girl,” Daerton drawled. “As a mage myself, I recognize when another of my ilk becomes a liegeman. I remember the moment that your mother won me as her mage. We were traveling in a wagon, watching your father flying overhead, and she compared her crown to a shackle, and herself to a sacrificial lamb. I realized then that my magic was hers, that there never would be another Queen or King whom I could serve with as
He took the soap and lathered his hands generously, before sliding them over my skin. Beneath the slip of the soap, I could feel the slight rasp of the callouses on his palms. As I had done, he stroked over my shoulders and back, down to my waist, before stroking over my chest. His breathing was heavy, and I could feel the throb of him against my back as he moved closer.He cupped me between his legs, his knees bent due to the close confinement of the tub, and I rested my hands upon his knees, feeling the shift of bone, and the tickle of hair against my fingertips. His hands sculpted over my breasts, his thumbs stroking over the nipples.“Oh,” I sighed the moan.“Amazing,” he whispered, his voice catching hoarsely. “So beautiful.”That betraying vocal catch sent shivers of need across my skin, raising my hair. His hand stroked over the soft curve of my stomach to cup me lower, his fingers discovering my secrets. I felt him swallow on his groan.“Tell me…” He swallowed again, fighting