A Dragon's Tale Ch. 49

As he lay there, he started thinking over everything that had happened during his time in the Ten Kingdoms. It had been quite the journey so far. As he thought about it, he found himself thinking about a loose end that he hadn't considered much since learning about it: the demon that Beth had encountered during the two weeks that she was dead.

For some reason, that stood out to him this evening. He wasn't sure why, maybe his talk with an angel earlier, but it stood out to him.

Hmm.

* * *

Kendra hoped that no one in Shara and Lyra's palace cared that she was wearing her dragon-steel bastard sword. True, it might look strange with her dress but she didn't care. She thought their hosts were quite trustworthy, but she wasn't willing to take chances with her family's safety. She was going to wear her sword to keep them safe and hoped no one would raise a fuss.

She would find out soon enough since the Argo had just finished docking on the upper level of the castle and Serif and Raklan were dropping the gangplank into place.

"Mom!" Shara and Lyra both said as they ran across the newly lowered gangplank to hug a woman that was the picture of perfect composure. Having seen this woman, Kendra no longer had to guess what Shara would look like in about twenty years. She looked nothing like Lyra however, and the man standing by this 'mom's' side could only be her husband, and he also looked nothing like Lyra.

"Mom?" Beth whispered to the assembled wives as the lord's wives hugged Shara's father in a similar fashion as they had with her mother.

"That's the former queen, Hylea, and the former king, Bracken; back from when Timarou was still a kingdom." Rachel explained. "Lyra's mother passed away when she was still young and Hylea slipped into the role after she married Lord Kalus."

"How do you know that?" The blonde asked.

"She told me while we were at their house for dinner; you were busy talking to Lyra about something." The redhead replied.

Kendra held back from everyone a bit, standing at the back to make sure that she could keep an eye on everyone.

"Old habits die hard?" Octavian asked from beside her.

"Something like that." She replied.

"When were you a bodyguard, and how did a woman get to be in such a position?"

"Very carefully."

Octavian shrugged. "Okay, keep your secrets."

She didn't reply, but did follow along onto the wide docking area where all the introductions were made. Hylea had a motherly air about her that reminded the dragon huntress somewhat of Anthiel. She moved with flawless grace and spoke with the same refined and elegant precision that her daughter employed. Her husband was no less precise or refined, but he was a good deal more jovial.

"Now, where are my babies?" Lyra asked Hylea when the introductions had been made.

"With your father." The former queen replied. "He was going to feed them and they pleaded to room at his ranch this evening."

"They'll be singing a different tune when they see that we're home." The ash blonde grinned.

"Indeed." Shara smiled. "I have missed them so."

"But first, dinner!" Lyra announced.

"I trust you received word of our impending arrival?" Shara asked her parents.

"The carrier pigeon arrived in plenty of time to prepare a feast fit for a king." The former king joked.

Everyone either chuckled or groaned.

Kendra followed them into the castle and then down to the great hall. On the way, she noticed the little things like decorations and the mood of the servants and guards. Such little things spoke volumes about the castle and its occupants. Thankfully, she couldn't have wished for a better read on the castle. Several of the maids were humming as they worked, the soldiers were alert and attentive but not tense, and everything appeared to be clean and well-maintained. The castle was draped in Timarou's colors of blue and white, and those same colors also adorned the maids' uniforms and the soldier's surcoats.

The great hall was large, square, and lit with hanging chandeliers and light coming through a few stained-glass windows. There were three tables arranged in a large "U" shape with plenty of chairs, though less than half of them were currently occupied. There were fifteen chairs at the high table and the center chair was much larger than the rest. The two on either side of it were smaller, but still slightly larger than the others.

The six chairs to the right of that were empty, and the former queen indicated them. "Please make yourself comfortable."

They sat down in order of marriage to Ethan with Selene at the end. Kendra noticed that Taloni sat down looking slightly uncomfortable. It occurred to the dragon huntress that she was the only one of Ethan's wives who probably had no idea what to do with a formal place setting. The Fey teen grimaced slightly and her wings fluttered a bit.

"Why are there five forks?" She whispered to Rachel, who was sitting next to her.

"Oh thank Illuminar!" Lyra exclaimed, apparently having overheard. Then the ash blond swept down and gave the nervous Fey teen a hug from behind. "The five forks thing makes absolutely no sense, right!?"

Taloni got an embarrassed smile on her face and nodded. "It's just, why would you need more than one?"

"This right here is my new favorite person." Lyra beamed, gave Tee a friendly peck on the cheek, and then looked at Beth. "What do you think, switch seats?"

And that was how Beth ended up sitting in Lyra's seat next to Hylea while Lyra occupied her seat between Taloni and Alana, the latter of whom spent much of the fantastic meal talking with Shara while Lyra talked with Taloni. It wasn't quite the mealtime atmosphere on the Argo given the grand room and multiple courses, but it felt similar otherwise.

It was nice.

Kendra couldn't keep a smile off of her face.

* * *

Sarah listened to Fiona explain what Lord Delmar had said about Lady Ekthros that night in their room, a sinking feeling in her stomach as she did. The innkeeper's daughter had felt like Lord Delmar would confirm it to Fiona, and now she had to decide how to feel about it; to feel about Lady Ekthros.

"Sarah, what are you thinking?" The copper-haired woman asked as she changed her son.

"I don't think she was captured." Sarah said after several moments. "But I'm almost certain that she didn't have mage-binder cuffs or a collar on. She certainly didn't use magic around the men who captured us, so they would've had no reason to put any on her. She could've used magic long before they would've had a chance to put them on her too."

"Aye, I'm remembering you saying that." Fiona replied as she tied her son's self-cleaning nappy back on.

Sarah stood up and started pacing in their small room. "I had a pretty good fire going in the hearth the night they captured us too. A powerful mage should've easily been able to defeat the men who tried to arrest us with so much heat nearby, right?"

"Aye." The copper-haired woman picked up her son and started pacing as well, probably trying to get him to sleep. "A strong mage with a healthy fire nearby could've been slaughtering them."

"Then..." Sarah frowned, not liking where this train of thought was going. "Then what if she..." She took a deep breath. "What if she only pretended to be captured, as you suggested earlier?"

"Aye, that would be making sense."

"I don't know what else to think. Why else would she have let herself be captured when she could have prevented her capture so easily?"

"I can't be thinking of a reason, unless..." The copper-haired woman frowned and paused her slow pacing. Conner seemed to protest the lack of movement by starting to cry, so his mother started pacing again. "I'm not thinking that this would be concerning to Lady Ekthros, but a good person might be worrying about hurting innocent bystanders."

Sarah shook her head. "The other guests scrambled away once they realize the soldiers were after me. She had plenty of time to use magic with no one else around."

"Then I'm thinking you're right."

The innkeeper's daughter stopped pacing and took several long, slow breaths. "It was all a show?" She leaned on the wall slightly for support. "Was she in league with... and she pretended to..."

She thought over everything that had happened while she had been captured with this new perspective. It was unbelievable. Lady Ekthros had been pretending to comfort her while making her miserable. She had pretended to be imprisoned with her while she was actually her jailer. She had actually pretended that several men had raped her to gain Sarah's trust.

Sarah shuddered.

That was utterly despicable if it was true, and it certainly seemed true.

"Why?" Sarah finally said after several minutes of replaying everything in her mind. "What could she possibly want from me?"

"You're very strong Sarah, at least when your problem is coming out." Fiona pointed out. "Maybe she is wanting to use that?"

"I don't think so." Sarah shook her head and resumed pacing. "She never did anything to make me think that, even in hindsight."

"Well, maybe you are knowing something that she was wanting to know? Maybe something that no one else is knowing?"

The sinking feeling in the pit of Sarah's stomach grew as she realized what she knew that no one else did. Well, no one else who was still living.

She put a hand over her mouth as she whispered. "I told her."

"You were telling her what?"

"How..." Sarah swallowed hard. "How I got my problem. Right after she pretended to be raped, she asked me to tell her, and I did."

Fiona stopped pacing and her eyes got wide. "How much were you telling her?"

"Everything." Sarah breathed. "I told her everything, but it was more than that. It was like I was reliving it in my head. I could see everything that happened with perfect clarity; that's never happened before."

"Sarah, we're thinking that she's a telepath, right?"

The innkeeper's daughter nodded.

"So, she could've been seeing and hearing everything that happened then, couldn't she?"

Sarah nodded again, the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach getting worse by the second. "She couldn't be planning to recreate... could she?"

Her mouth fell open.

Fiona took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I wouldn't be putting anything past Lady Ekthros. You are very strong Sarah, and if Lady Ekthros was hoping for someone as strong as you for a soldier, she would need to be knowing how to make that happen."

"That's..." Sarah swallowed hard again. "That's horrifying." She grimaced, then looked down. "And it's my fault. If I hadn't told her, she wouldn't know."

"Now, you be listening to me Sarah." Fiona said, taking the same tone she took with Conner when he got fussy because she took his rattle away. "If what you're telling me is true, she was pulling out all the stops to be deceiving you. She was doing everything she could to convince you, and she still had to use her telepathy to get what she was needing. So don't be blaming yourself, you hear me?"

She nodded. "I'll try."

"See that you do." The copper-haired woman said, then her voice softened. "I'm not saying that you shouldn't be more careful in the future, but don't be beating yourself up for an understandable mistake. You weren't having a reason to mistrust her at the time."

"That doesn't mean I feel better."

"I know." Fiona said gently. "Was there anything else that Lady Ekthros was wanting from you?"

Sarah started to shake her head, then stopped. "Well, as I said before, she triedreally hard to convince me that Ethan was a horrible person."

Fiona hadn't looked particularly pleased before, but her expression got even more sour at the mention of Ethan's name. "Ordinarily, I would be saying that if Lady Ekthros was wanting you to believe something, then it wasn't true. But in this case..." She drew her lips into a thin line.

"Maybe Ethan isn't so bad?" Sarah said, not entirely successful at keeping a note of hope out of her voice.

"He killed my husband." Fiona said firmly.

"But what if Ethan is innocent and Lady Ekthros lied to Sean, and then he and the other soldiers were chasing an innocent man who defended himself?"

The copper-haired woman's face cycled between several expressions. First her lips were drawn into an even thinner line, then she frowned, then grimaced, then glanced towards the main castle where Lady Ekthros doubtless lived.

Finally, she spoke. "If that were the case -- and I'mnot saying it is -- but if that were the case, then she is needing an appointment with the executioner." She hesitated a moment and then shook her head. "But I'm finding it hard to believe that she could be pulling the wool over the Lord Delmar's eyes."

"That's true." Sarah herself frowned, wanting it to be true but simply not knowing. "Doesn't the Book of Light say that you should hear both sides of a case when rendering judgment?"

"Aye, 'tis saying that." The expression on Fiona's face hadn't become less conflicted.

"Then maybe I should hear Ethan's side of the story." She hesitated, then frowned. "Oh, I suppose we should apply that to Lady Ekthros too. But we can't just ask her; if she is trying to make more..." She swallowed again. "...more people like me, then she might hurt us if we asked."

"Aye." The copper-haired woman nodded, then stopped pacing as she looked at Conner. "He's finally asleep."

"We should sleep too." Sarah sighed. "Maybe sleeping on it will help."

"Aye, I'm hoping so too."

Sarah nodded, her mind still on Lady Ekthros and Ethan. Was he innocent? Had Lady Ekthros really been lying to her the entire time? The latter seemed likely and that gave her hope for the former. Her mind drifted back to her dream with Gabriella. If she was indeed an angel and had been telling the truth...

Hmm.

She cocked her head to one as she realized that so far, what the angel had predicted had happened. Right after the lowest point in her life -- when Lady Ekthros had told her about Ethan -- things had started to get better. Not because of Lady Ekthros, but because of Fiona. While the lady had helped -- or at least pretended to help -- it was Fiona who had really improved Sarah's life recently.

"Sarah." The copper-haired woman asked as she laid Conner down. "Were you wanting to learn more about reading before bed?"

"Absolutely." She smiled widely, thinking that learning to read was just one more way that her life had improved. Fiona had also pointed out that she didn't need to be afraid because of her problem. That had been such a life-changing weight lifted off of her shoulders.

She had a lot of new perspectives lately.

And maybe, just maybe, Ethan wasn't a bad man.

Her heart smiled at that and she was determined to find out. She didn't know when or how, but she was determined to talk to him again and ask for his side of the story, just as the Book of Light instructed.

* * *

"You all really didn't need to come." Alana said to her fellow wives, Selene, Lyra, and Shara for what felt like the dozenth time as she followed Octavian towards the shop that sold travel arrowheads and nocks. After dinner, first Rachel, then Taloni, and then everyone else said that they wanted to come with the wood elf. The plan was to visit Lyra's father's ranch after visiting the shop.

"I needed to work off that dinner." Selene said rubbing her stomach. "It was delicious, some of the best food I've had in the Ten Kingdoms."

"Wait,some of the best food?" Lyra looked impressed. "Where did you have better?"

"There's a little inn in central Ivernia and the innkeeper's daughter is an amazing cook." The Brazilian woman replied.

"I should very much like to meet this young woman." Shara said, her curiosity obviously piqued.

"Here we are." Octavian said, stopping in front of a small, nondescript shop.

The outside of the stone building was utterly plain with no adornments or advertisements of the wares inside. In fact, there was almost nothing to indicate that it was a shop at all except a small sign that read: "Smith" on the outside, but it would be easy to miss that. Either he didn't want any business, or he was so good he only wanted referrals to find him. Considering how she'd learned of the shop, it was probably the latter.

"Come, the owner does much business with the crown." Octavian said, opening the door for the ladies.

They all filed in and Alana found the inside of the shop just as unassuming as the outside, with the obvious exception of the wares that were displayed. It seemed that this smith specialized in all things small and high-quality. There were travel arrowheads and nocks, but also small daggers, lockets, pocketwatches, small locks, and dozens of other items.

None had the price marked.

"Let's hope we can afford this." Rachel said quietly, probably having noticed what Alana herself had.

"Hello?" The wood elf called.

"One moment." A gruff voice came from the back, and a dwarf shuffled out not long afterwards. The contrast between this dwarf and Graflex in Arcanum couldn't be more pronounced. This one was well-dressed with gold brocade on his shirt; it was so clean it was likely enchanted to be self-cleaning. He had a neat and tidy look about him and a smile on his face as well. His smile widened when he saw Shara and Lyra.

"My ladies, what brings you to my humble shop?" He said with a bow.

"An introduction to these fine women." Shara indicated Ethan's wives and Selene. "They are friends of the crown and are in need of the best quality wares. Naturally, we thought of you."

"Oh, tosh." The dwarf waved a hand dismissively, but he looked pleased anyway as he turned to Ethan's wives. "And what can I do for youlovely ladies."

If Alana didn't know better, she would've thought he was flirting with them.

"I need several travel arrowheads and nocks." Alana replied, then pulled out the six pieces of leather that she'd enchanted with Rachel earlier. "I have shafts, but need them mounted."

"Ah, mere child's play." The dwarf replied with a twinkle in his eyes. "I would be happy to help with all your needs that involve a shaft."

The smile on Alana's face disappeared. "We're all married."

"Shame." The dwarf shook his head. "Then I suppose I shall help with your travel arrows and hope your husbands know how blessed they are." For some reason, Alana got the distinct impression that he was still flirting, mention of husbands notwithstanding.

"Husband." Taloni said icily.

"Singular." Rachel's lips were drawn into a thin line.

"And he does." Beth glared at him.

"He must be quite the man." The dwarf said, looking completely unperturbed.

"He is." Kendra stated firmly.

"Ah, to be so blessed." The dwarf said wistfully while he stared off into space. Alana got the distinct impression that he was imagining being their husband in bed with them.

Kendra cleared her throat loudly, fixed the man with a death stare, and subtly shook her head. The dwarf hadn't even looked abashed under the gaze of the other women, but he took a slight step back at the former Aldmiri's expression.

He quickly changed the topic. "Since you are friends of the crown, I shall give you their discount; 1 silver apiece. It looks like you have six here?"

"I do." The wood elf said evenly while setting her jaw slightly.

"Then give them over and I shall have them ready in a few days."

Lyra cleared her throat and shook her head.

"I'll have them ready by dinner tomorrow then." The dwarf said genially, but with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Tomorrow morning." Shara corrected regally. "As an apology for your outrageous behavior to decent and respectable women."

The dwarf opened his mouth, probably to argue, but Shara's expression apparently quieted him.

"Very well my lady." He said genially. "I shall have them ready before breakfast."