Mark of the Princess (21 page)

The mirror sat on the small table in the main gathering room of the castle. King Cavalon and Queen Nalani had fallen asleep on the large seat in front of it. Joy rose up in Alannah’s heart at the site of her parents.

“Mother , Father” The familiar voice arose the King and Queen quickly. Queen Etana arose from the seat and fell to her knees in front of the mirror. “Alannah! You are safe my child.” She reached to the mirror as if she would have been able to touch her daughter’s face. Alannah’s glance moved over to her father who was smiling watching his daughter’s image.

“My dear sweet daughter.”

“Father.” She exhaled a breath of relief.

Alannah spent the next few moments re-telling the story of the past few days including all she and Brennus had learned about Maligo and his plans. She ended the contact quickly explaining that they needed to get out of the mountains and into the nearest forest and the nearest Kingdom for protection.

Kaleb packed the mirror in his bag again and extended his hand to Alannah. “Shall we?”

Alannah glanced quickly at Brennus who was on the other side of the clearing looking at her. He saw Kaleb’s hand and turned to walk.

“Oh. Yes, of course.” She answered with a weak smile as she grabbed his hand and he led her out of the clearing.

Things were surprisingly quiet and somewhat tense. Brennus had taken the lead with Kaleb and Tristan close behind. Alannah and Evyette trailed toward the back as they talked about recent events. Evyette had told Alannah about the attack on her and about the dream.

“You know precisely what I mean. I see the way you two look at each other. I mean, I see that he is arrogant, but you still seem to look at him a certain way and he does to you as well.”

“Perhaps it was just because he was helping me. I don’t think he has any feelings toward me.” Her mind went back to the cave when he was laying behind her tracing the Mark on her back with his finger.

“Well, if you say so.” Evyette looked at Alannah which was looking ahead at Brennus now.

They climbed and walked until the sun was ready to set. They stopped at the same clearing that the others were at the other night. Evyette looked at the tree that she and Tristan had fallen asleep against and where she had her nightmare. The nightmare that seemed so real, she could still remember the pain in her chest when she woke.

Kaleb and Tristan had agreed to get some wood to hold the fire and some water since they had the skins to fill them with. Once they left, Brennus looked at the girls and offered to find some food. His tone was flat and he tried not to look at Alannah.

They agreed that they were hungry and thanked him.

Alannah stood and walked behind him as he approached the edge of the clearing. “Brennus, what is wrong with you?”
”I’m sure I have no idea what you are talking about
Princess
.” He tilted his head and half curtseyed when he said the last word.

“That!
That
is what I am talking about. Since we ran into the others you have been cold and more arrogant than usual.” She kept her voice low so the others would not hear.

“Is that so? I would say I was averagely arrogant. And I don’t see how it matters to you anyway now that you have your lover here.” He had turned to walk away and she grabbed his arm to stop him.

“He’s not my…” Alannah looked around to see if Kaleb was there, “I mean, he’s…”

“It does not matter.” He cut her off. He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something else, but he pulled his arm free from her grip and turned, walking away.

“Sis, I know you can’t tell me now that there is nothing there.” Evyette said coming up behind Alannah.

Alannah looked at Evyette and rolled her eyes. “I’d rather not discuss
that
at all right now.”

Alannah who had barely looked at anyone in the past hour continued to stare at the fire, listening to the crackling of the wood over the conversations that were taking place. They cooked the hares and ate.

Kaleb broke the silence “So it should be another two days or less, before we reach the kingdom of the Magi. Once we get to the top of that area there” he turned and pointed past the trees “we can use our wings and fly down. The trees are random but not as grouped together as they are over here so we can actually have a pretty steady flight and cut our time significantly.”

“That sounds like a great plan Kaleb.” Alannah said, looking at him and smiling.

“Right, once we get there we can recuperate and then she can go to the Kingdom of Anrad with me.”

At once everyone fell silent. No one had expected this response from Brennus. Or any response at all, considering how quiet he had been most of the day and night.

Kaleb was the first to react, defensively of course. “Why do you think that she needs to go to the Kingdom of Anrad?”

“Because, her powers are coming in, and coming in strong. She needs to learn to control them. We have the best teachers. It only makes sense to go there.” His voice, very matter of fact.

Kaleb arched an eyebrow and with an air of arrogance in his own voice responded again.

“And what makes you think that your teachers are better than the ones in
our
Kingdom?”

Brennus chuckled to himself. “Because we are warriors. Clearly, our teachers are equipped to handle strong powers.”

Before Kaleb could respond again Alannah interrupted.

“How about we get to the Kingdom of the Magi alive and
then
discuss where to go from there.”

Kaleb shot a surprised look at Alannah. “Are you seriously considering what he said?”

Alannah not thinking that she had taken sides suddenly found herself defending her words.

“I’m not sure to be honest. I really
can not
control my powers yet and if the teachers there are as great as he says then it might be something to consider. I don’t see why we can not all go though.”

Evyette who realized that the fire was burning down grabbed a stick and began pushing around the pieces of burning wood when suddenly a large flame shot up and released several sparks into the air.

“Damn!” Evyette found that one of the sparks had landed on her leather cuff and began burning through it. She reached her other hand over it, “Aquacio” the burning leather was doused with a flood of water.

Tristan hurried over to make sure she was ok. “Wow, lucky that you got it before it burned through to your skin.”

“Yes, but my cuff is ruined. I will have to have another one made.”

Tristan reached and grabbed her hand and turned it over so that he could undo the cuff at her wrist. When he loosened the straps and the cuff fell to the floor he couldn’t help but stare.

“I don’t know what happened,” she continued as she touched the scars, “But the person that left me at the castle left a note explaining that the ugly burns are from the same accident that killed my mother and father. She didn’t leave any information as to who she was or who my mother and father were. Just that they were gone and I had no other family. That I was in need of a family that can provide excellent care for me as I was a special baby.”

She chuckled slightly. “I’m still not sure what she meant by that last part. Maybe she knew of my power to become invisible or my gifts for spells or fighting. I don’t know. But since I was young I would wear wrist bands to cover my scars. I didn’t want anyone looking at me like I was strange or disfigured just because of some silly scars or a missing crest.”

Tristan grabbed her hand and put his hand on her wrist.

“This,” he said touching the scars. “Doesn’t matter. You are not strange or disfigured. You are just as beautiful as you were before you showed me this.”

She smiled at him. He took one of his wrist cuffs off that had a blade hidden inside and offered it to her. “I don’t think you need to cover it, but if you prefer to, then you can wear mine.”

Brennus looked at her and then glanced down at his own wrist that was covered as well.

~
Chapter
20~

His legs grew weary from the travels; Maligo cursed the trees on the mountainside that made it impossible for him to fly to his destination. By now he would have sent his bird to check on the apprentice, but he had chosen to keep him nearby. For help and companionship. It was lonelier than he thought it would be. Although he was used to being alone. Since his banishment it has been only him and Saros.

He decided that it was late enough and that he needed to rest. Saros brought him wood for the fire. He sat by it’s light and examined the map.

“By tomorrow evening we will have arrived my pet,” he reached over and stroked the dark feathers of his bird which had sat next to him on the ground, “then I can begin.” He looked at his staff that he had filled with his own channeled energy. The body of the walking stick itself was old and worn but sturdy. The glowing orb at the top though was almost clear, save for the haze and subtle lighting inside, lights created by the harnessed energy.

He knew that the spells were going to be hard on him. That it could take days or even weeks of preparation to raise even one of the spirits that Samil carried with him when he went into battle.

He wondered. Wondered, if it would be possible to raise the spirit of Samil himself. The power it would bring. He could lead Maligo to the Dorchae beneath the mountains and he could recruit them once more. No. There were too many wards and spells placed upon him, it would be impossible.

He heard whispers around him but when he looked around he saw no one. It was a sound he was beginning to grow somewhat accustomed to. Since he had opened the portals for the demons to come help him it always seemed that he would hear things that were not there.

Must be the result of being so close to other dimensions
, he thought.

He looked at Saros and smiled at his own work. When he first had found Saros, he knew that by comparison he was larger than other raynor however, Maligo wanted more for him. Before putting the spell on Saros that allowed him to see through Saros’s eyes, he performed various spells and incantations that would allow Saros to double his own size for a short time. A precaution in case they ever had to make a hasty exit or escape. He had his doubts that Saros would make it across the valley with the princess in tow, but he had managed it.

The princess. He thought of her Mark and her powers. How once they come in he would probably have to give her some potions to drug her first in order to dive deep into her mind and convince her to follow him and use her for his own malice intentions against the faeries of Meira, and all other faerie Kingdoms after that, of course if she put up too much of a struggle he could always take it, along with her life.

* * *

Velius had decided to take the tunnels below the mountains in order to get ahead of Alannah and Brennus. They had lost a day’s worth of tracking since he had remained unconscious in Maligo’s office for so long. He had heard that summoning demons could steal your energy but he never thought it would be like that, it struck some fear in him. However, after all that he had already begun there was no turning back.

He realized though that before doing that again he would have to increase his powers as a sorcerer or even find a Magi faerie that would be willing to join him.
Unlikely, but it’s a thought
he convinced himself.

Taking the tunnels could have been simpler had some of them not been caved in. He had cursed the trolls he traveled with several times for taking him in the direction of a dead end.
It is time wasted
he thought. He knew that getting to them before they reached the forest would be instrumental for capturing the Princess and defeating the others.

‘
In the forest they are in their own element and may feel more comfortable to fight’

He was tired though and the darkness of the caves added to his exhaustion. “We will camp here and proceed in the morning.” The four trolls that traveled with him grunted and began looking around for a place to rest.