Rangers of Linwood (The Five Kingdoms Book 1) (10 page)

As soon as he arrived at the inn, he inquired about her and was directed to the room upstairs where she had been allowed to make her home so long as she worked there. He was not prepared to find her lying in bed, clearly very ill.

“Hello, Ryder,” she said, her voice weak.

“Hello, Cliona,” he replied, stepping over to her bedside. “Is this why I’ve been called? Do you need money for a doctor?”

“Oh, no, Ryder, that has been taken care of.” The ghost of a smile appeared briefly upon her lips. What had once been a pair of vibrant rose petals was now simply dry and cracked flesh. The eyes that had once been the color of lapis lazuli were now greyish blue. “I have no need for a doctor anymore. I called for you because I am dying, Ryder, any time now, and I have one last request that I must make of you. I must have your promise before I fade that you will perform it.”

Ryder raised an eyebrow. “And what task would you have me perform?”

“Ryder, ten years ago, when we spent those nights in each other’s arms, a child was conceived. I am ashamed to have not told you. I kept her and raised her. I loved our daughter dearly. I purchased her a necklace for her fourth birthday, a gold locket with a sunburst on the front and her name on the back.”

The hair on the back of Ryder’s neck suddenly stood on end. He had seen that necklace many times before. Surely there must simply be two like it, right? “Go on…” he whispered, his voice cracking.

“I painted two tiny portraits all by myself,” Cliona continued. “You remember how good I was with painting. It was my favorite hobby. One was of you and me, for I thought that one day you might come back to me and wed me, though I never told her a thing about her father. The one time she asked, I simply told her that her father had left in military service, was missing, and presumed dead. The other picture I painted was her as a baby. I placed them both in the locket so that she might always remember how much I loved her, and how much you would have loved her if you knew her. Please, find her, Ryder. Find her and raise her. Be the father she should have had all along.”

“I will do as you say,” Ryder said, swallowing hard. “I would have done so long ago if I had only known. What is our daughter’s name?”

“On the day she was born, it was the spring equinox. The sun was shining down and it was a warm day, a beautiful one indeed, and so I called her Tesni, for it means ‘warmth from the sun,’ because the sun seemed to shine even brighter when she came into the world, and to be even warmer.”

So there were not two necklaces like it. Hearing Tesni’s name come from Cliona’s lips and echo through the room told him everything that he needed to know. The Tesni Cliona had given birth to and the Tesni he had come to know and love were one in the same. Looking at Cliona, he could clearly see it. Tesni had inherited Cliona’s eyes, though the mother’s eyes were dulled by illness, while the daughter’s remained bright and beautiful. While his own hair was a darker blond, Tesni had gotten Cliona’s lighter, more golden locks.

Yes, it was all too clear, now that he compared the Cliona of ten years ago to the Tesni of now within his head, and in his mind’s eye he saw it perfectly. Though Tesni looked much like Cliona, his daughter had inherited his chin and nose.

“Then rejoice, Cliona, for I found Tesni months ago, or rather, Arya found her. Had I known that I was her father, I would have gone out of my way to make sure that she knew.”

A last smile came to Cliona’s face. “Then I might rest in peace. Care for her, Ryder. Love our daughter the way she deserves to be loved. Knowing that you will, I die happily.”

Her voice had been growing steadily weaker throughout the entire conversation. Now, she exhaled her final breath. Ryder reached out a hand and closed her eyes. He informed the inn keeper of what had transpired and took off back to camp. Part of him was sad that Cliona was now dead, but mostly he felt nothing but gladness. Tesni was his daughter, and he would make it known to her immediately, give her the family she should have had all along.

As soon as he arrived, he dismounted and ran straight to Arya. “Arya! Where’s Tesni? I must speak to her right away.”

Arya blinked. “Tesni is…. Tesni is in Enid’s tent.”

“Again?” Ryder asked. “How has she managed to injure herself, this time?”

“She did not injure herself,” Arya said. “Well, she reinjured her ankle after sneaking onto the ropes course, but that is a different matter, entirely.”

“Then she is ill?” Ryder asked.

“Very, but not naturally,” Arya said. “Enid and I suspect that she is under a dark curse, most likely of Agrona’s doing.”

Ryder stopped short. “A curse?” he asked. “Well, surely we will find a way to break it. Perhaps Fiona will know something? Surely she must have had some access to Agrona’s spell books.”

“What happened in town?’ Arya asked. “You came back seeming as if you had just heard the most wonderful news in the world.”

“I was summoned to Cliona’s side,” Ryder started. “Now, don’t look so unhappy,” he added, seeing the jealousy flash in Arya’s eyes.

“What did your former lover want?” Arya asked. “Could she not find anyone else for a quick tumble in the hay?”

“Arya, Cliona has died,” Ryder said, his tone clipped. “I was summoned to her death bed for something that she had to tell me.”

Arya winced, suddenly regretting the insult she had thrown towards the other woman. She had been very jealous when she had learned that Ryder and Cliona were suddenly together, had rejoiced when he stopped going to her rival three weeks later. That was in the past now, though, and Arya muttered an apology.

“It’s alright,” Ryder said. “You couldn’t have known. However, what she told me amazed me. Arya, Cliona begged me to find her child, who has been missing for years, and to take the child in. I fully intend to do so.”

“And just how are we supposed to identify this child?” Arya asked.

“I have already identified her,” Ryder said. “I have also identified her father, and it is her father’s wish that the girl become a Ranger. It is also the wish of the woman that her father would make her step-mother.”

Arya snorted. “How callous a father the poor girl has, to have no interest, and to choose his new bride-to-be over his daughter, to push her away and send her to us as if we are the boarding academy that so many of the wealthy send their children to in order to keep them out of sight and out of mind.”

Ryder sighed. There was no denying it. Arya could certainly be dense at times. “Arya, my love, this is not about keeping his daughter out of sight and out of mind. It is about family tradition, for the father and would-be step-mother are both Rangers, right here in this very camp.”

“Don’t tell me,” Arya said. “You’re the girl’s father?”

“Aye, and I would gladly make you her mother, if you would agree to it.”

“If she will consent, then so will I,” Arya said. “I don’t believe your daughter should suffer to have me as a step-mother if she and I cannot get along.”

“You already get along with her, Ayra,” Ryder said. “My daughter is Tesni.”

Chapter 9

Arya stood there in amazement. Despite her dislike for Cliona, born of jealousy, she had known the other woman well enough to know her features. Now the bow-mistress compared those features and Ryder’s to Tesni’s. Now that she thought about it, the girl’s features were a perfect blend of those of her parents. Thinking harder, she remembered when Tesni had shown her the contents of her locket, and she realized that the faces of the couple were, indeed, those of Cliona and Ryder.

“Come on in to Enid’s tent,” she said at last. “Perhaps you can figure out what kind of curse Agrona placed on her, and maybe even the cure.”

Ryder followed Arya into the healer’s tent and knelt down next to the cot on which Tesni was lying. He brushed stray hair from her face. “You will come back to us, Tesni. We will figure out this curse and the cure before it’s too late.”



Tesni spent most of the next day exploring her dreamscape. It was something that she had never done before. She had never even thought it possible to direct where she went in her dreams and how the landscape of her dreams looked.

The field of wildflowers was constantly in bloom. Tesni had imagined and, thus, planted a stand of fruit trees. Apples, cherries, pears, and plums were always ripe and ready to pick, along with mulberries, blackberries, raspberries, and gooseberries.

Tesni’s clothes had also changed. She had switched out the fine dress and jewels for the uniform of a Ranger of Linwood, complete with a bow on her back like the one she often saw Arya carrying. Arya had been right. Tesni’s heart was the heart of a Ranger, and the girl had become acutely aware of the fact that she never could have been happy remaining with the Thieves Guild. Her heart’s dream was to be a Ranger, she had realized, and she was ever grateful to Arya for bringing her to camp because of it.

She managed to remain patient, certain that she would be rescued and the curse defeated. Agrona had not said the night prior what the cure might be, but Tesni intended to get her to let it slip.

The girl had discovered, much to her happiness, that there was, indeed, a border to her dreamscape. Upon approaching this border the night previously, Tesni had wondered whose dreamscapes bordered hers. In thinking about her friends, she noticed that the borders changed, and she need only think about a person to see their dreamscape.

Now, however, she was sitting in her apple tree. The sun was beginning to set for the second time, and she could see Agrona approaching. The sorceress smirked up at the girl. “I thought you were going to be rescued by this time tonight?”

“It’s alright if they need a few hours longer,” Tesni said. “You said yourself that I shall be here until the sun sets tomorrow, and that by then I’ll either die or serve you.” She jumped down, looking bored. “So I shall die tomorrow evening, if they cannot break the curse. Death before dishonor is what Arya taught me, and I think it’s a good lesson.”

“You foolish child, do you really think that dying would be better than living?” Agrona asked.

“Ryder says that it is better to die standing than to live kneeling. I didn’t quite understand what he meant at first, but he explained it to me when I asked.”

“Ryder is as foolish as you are,” Agrona snapped. “They all are. That is why they will never break the curse.”

“If they are so foolish, why don’t you tell me what the cure is?” Tesni asked. “After all, if they are too foolish to figure it out, and I am unable to communicate with them, what harm could it do to give me some sort of comfort in the knowledge of whether or not the task is a simple one? If it is a difficult one, then I might die knowing that there was never any hope. If it is a simple one, then I get frustrated at their inability to figure it out.”

“You’re right, child, it does not matter much,” Agrona said at last. “Whatever happens, you either serve me or die in agony, either frustrated or hopeless. Besides, there is no way they could remove the curse. Your father is dead.”

“Yes, I know my father is dead, but what does that have to do with anything?”

“Because, dear, only a father’s love can save you in your current condition, and so it doesn’t matter even if they figure it out somehow.”

“Will you be here again tomorrow evening to see if I have changed my mind?” Tesni asked.

“Of course I will, child,” Agrona said. “Perhaps, when you are at last on the brink of death, and you know that they cannot save you, you will finally relent.”

She disappeared, then, and Tesni immediately took off towards the border. As soon as she got there, she thought about Arya and watched as Arya’s dreamscape appeared before her eyes.

She watched the haze between the dreamscapes, and when it went from blue to clear, Tesni stepped through, knowing and understanding that this was an indicator that her friend and guardian was asleep.

“Arya! Arya, where are you?”



“Arya! Arya, where are you?”

Arya couldn’t believe that she was hearing Tesni’s voice. Then she looked around and recognized her dreamscape. “I’m over here, Tesni!”

Immediately, the girl came jogging up to her. “Arya, I’m going to die at the next sunset. The curse is impossible to break unless Agrona takes it off of me, herself. She said that she would only do that if I came to serve her, but I won’t. Death before dishonor.”

“Why is the curse impossible to break?” Arya asked. “I don’t want you to die. None of us want you to die. We all want you to live.”

“It’s impossible because my father is dead,” Tesni said. “Agrona said that only my father’s love can save me. Since my father is dead and has been for years, I choose death before dishonor, just as you have taught me.”

Arya’s eyes widened. “Don’t worry, Tesni. You are not going to die, do you hear me? You are not allowed to die, because your father is still alive. He has been found, and I will alert him as soon as I am awake.”

Tesni nodded, grinning. She stepped back into her own dreamscape, and Arya woke up.



As soon as Arya was awake, she ran to Ryder’s tent and shook him awake, as well. “Ryder, you are not going to believe what just happened.”