A War Dawning Ch. 03

"Like waking from a vivid dream or nightmare and having to anchor yourself in your bed again."

He nodded. "Much like that, yes. And here you act like you don't understand the broader concepts of magic."

"I don't pretend to, Husband." She looked down at her attire before looking back and noticing how his eyes wandered. Gesturing to the wrap with both hands. "And this?"

"That's for me," he said without shame.

"Then I won't ask you to cover me up."

"You could do that anytime you wanted, just so you're aware." He liked the way the sun warmed his skin. "But I thank you for not. You could even cover me if you chose."

She took a moment to examine him as any hot-blooded woman. "No need. It's warm."

Then there was peace. His arms wrapped around her waist and she felt it his strength pull him to her. She could feel her nails touch the small of his back and his quiver against it. She could feel his lips tenderly kiss the arrow scars on each side of her neck. And when they kissed less tenderly, she could taste him. Their lips parted and she touched his cheek, feeling the freshly shaved smoothness that she liked best as she saw love mirrored in her eyes. "Bryana and Elan are safe?"

"They are."

"Send my family my love."

"I will. The queen?"

Neral was happy to be able to say, "The same as when you left her." A piece of Neral would stay on this beach forever, but the world made demands. "What have you found?"

He pondered the events of days as he held her hand, the two making their way down the beach. "A mage not only treated Wyrnn's wounds after the attack and the same mage put him in contact with and information broker in Nelos. It's said that he has connections throughout all the kingdoms."

She nodded. "Not directly at this point, but I think we can link this broker to a personnel officer within the Royal House. He dropped her name into consideration and pushed it as much as he was able. He only knew his contact as Nes'ka."

Deres continued, wishing there was more to say."The mage also introduced her to people that could put her in touch with people he'd done work for in the past. There's nothing remarkable about them in and of themselves from what we can glean from our source, just merchants and the like, but no one with real power or money. She may have just been laying the groundwork for future jobs in and around Erette or to plot an escape."

"Or both. Your source is reliable?"

His eyes told stories. "He is now."

She nodded knowingly and with a grin, "Ah. I see."

He did what he could to defend his love. "She did try just asking first."

"Oh, I'm sure she did." She couldn't quell her disappointment. "So all we're left to do is follow more bread crumbs."

"Yes," he agreed, but didn't seem quite so dejected as she. "The guild was a reasonable place to start and could have shortened our quest had the coins fallen right. But, the fact that Wrynn didn't leave a trail that we have the time or the men to follow doesn't exactly hurt us at this point. Our hope was that if there was a link here they could name the alchemist and save us steps. If our guild contact didn't have the answer, we are still left with the fact that all of the greatest crafters go through Idros at some point. Either they are there, or they have a lead on the person."

He took her hands in his and brought them together between them. "Worry not. The queen will be well and our family whole again before you know it." Thought of her was like the sun against his skin, warm and reassuring. "How is Khylen?"

"Also well and misses her parents." She let the next words go after a sharp intake of breath, "I will have to leave her for a time." She spent the next words describing to him what she knew of the plundered villages and what her response would have to be. She dreaded a moment like this to the point where she convinced herself that, between the three of them, Kylen would never be alone that way. But here the moment was. She clung to him "It could just be bandits."

"It could," he agreed. "But there is the matter of Queen Evaline and the Draleth too. It's all too close in timing to be...usual, for lack of a better term. Treat is as though it's not until you know if it is. And if you thought that it was usual, you would send another."

She turned away from him, "It still might just be. Part of me wants you to tell me that that's all it is and that I should. Part of me wants you to insist that I stay to tend to your daughter."

He placed his hands on her shoulder. "Our daughter. You wish me to rage, is that it? So you can acquiesce and then hate me for making you stay?"

"Better than myself for leaving."

"I won't be doing that." He turned her back to him. "She will be well cared for and loved in your absence. Even Cassea is fond of her."

Neral parroted her, "She's nowhere near as annoying as most children."

He chuckled. "High praise from Cassea Voss." His features turned more serious as did his tone. "I'm not going to rage because the three of us away from her at once will be a rarity, and then only in the most dire of circumstance. I won't rage and demand that you be some woman other than who you are. You lead the combined forces of Erette. If duty calls, then it calls. Shirk it because of your feelings and you become someone else, and that I will not have. Understand?"

She was thankful for him in so many ways and it was in moments like this she felt the love overwhelm her as it did the moment his spell that bound him her to him took her. "Yes, Husband." She put a submissive lilt to it and the way his body responded to the tone amused her. "I'm going to miss this place," she said, giving it all one last look to commit it to memory.

"Until I take us for real."

"A reason to get home...for all three of us. Until that moment, my love."

With another nudge of her will, her eyes opened and she found herself back in her chair in her office, letting her eyes adjust to the room far darker than the beach. Duty called. But, for now, others could and would tend to it, giving her time to go home and break the news to Khylen that duty called.

To Be Continued...