They sent Arianell to talk to me. Maybe I had that idea in mind when I acted like a ten year old brat and locked myself in. I sulked, I kicked the wall but with bare feet, I hurt my toes more than the tree. I cried and beat my hands on the walls and sink but no matter how hard I hit, I broke nothing and damaged only myself. Finally, I stopped and sank down against the door curled into a ball like a hurt animal. I was adrift in a sea I didn’t comprehend, in a world where I didn’t know the direction, let alone which way to go.
My horses were found, my parents’ murderers dead and beyond my reach, I didn’t know whether I could leave this…treehouse and go home. I wanted to go home, I wanted to see spring come to Cayden’s Valley. I wanted to see the snow drifting gently down to cover the hills and meadows with their winter’s coat of pure white. I wouldn’t even mind having to shovel out pathways to the barn or chop ice from the creek.
Like a burst from a geyser, the thought exploded in my head that if what Arianell and Belgrave had both said was true, then the man responsible for murdering my parents wasn’t really the Lemieux brothers but the one who had set them in motion. Or according to Arianell, my Grandfather and the Emperor. If I was to have a purpose in life, it was going to be bringing down my grandfather and his lord, the Emperor of the Ehrenberg Oldlands.
I opened the door just as Arianell knocked on it and she nearly fell into my arms. With an elfin grace, she caught herself and hugged me. She stepped back and pointed to the bed where I saw a neatly folded stack of clothes. Brightly colored, too compared to all the white and pastels I saw.
“I brought you something to wear. Do you want to see your horses?” she asked.
“Arianell, did you…did we…were you here the other day?” I mumbled, blushing.
“What day was that? I’ve been here several days, nearly every day since Lyr Averon brought you. Most of the time, you were unconscious from the poison. Raving, with nightmares. I held your hand and told you about your horses. It eased you.”
“Did you…kiss me?”
She leaned forward and her lips brushed my forehead. “Many times. You called me Peony and mum.” Her face remained calm and inquiring, I could not read anything else behind those strange silvery violet eyes.
“Oh.” I turned my face away. Perhaps I had one of those erotic nighttime dreams my father had so carefully and clumsily explained to me. It had seemed so real, though.
“Did you feed me breakfast one day?” I asked. “Those orange green fruits were so sweet. What were they called?”
“Aussie fruit.” But she didn’t really answer me. “Hurry and get dressed. The Klese won’t hang around long.”
“Klese?” She pulled me out into the bedroom and stood there as I picked up the clothes. Pants of a soft material like twill that ended at my anklebone and snapped in front. I pulled them up under the nightgown and she looked shocked and then giggled. She handed me thin, pale and nearly translucent shorts.
“These first, silly. Underwear.”
I looked at them dubiously. They didn’t look like long johns and had no insulating qualities. “I’ll be cold,” I protested.
“They’re made of mountain spider silk---they’ll keep you warm in winter and cool in the summer.”
“Okay,” I said hesitantly and pulled the pants off and the shorts on. They fit snugly and had a flap in the front unlike the buttons that went down my long johns. I got the idea why and thought it a great innovation. Pants on next, snug in the legs but looser in the thighs and bottom. Stretchy so they gave with movement and didn’t bind anywhere unlike some trousers and britches I’d worn before. I peeled off the nightgown and stood bare-chested holding out the vest, blouse and thin…undershirt? It had long sleeves and a high neck.
‘Yes, that first,” she nodded staring at my chest. It was mottled with black and blues, fading greenish-yellow streaks where the poison had traveled from my neck towards my heart and made a roadmap of veins, stopping just an inch from my heart. She traced one line down my skin and the touch burned like fire, made my stomach lurch and an instant hardening below. I swallowed the huge lump in my throat and held the clothes in front, hiding my erection from her.
“Never doubt your dreams,” she whispered, turned on her heel and was out the door before I could blink or react.
It took another ten minutes before I could safely move and finish dressing. There wasn’t a mirror in the rooms so I had no idea how good or bad I looked but I felt comfortable, warm and neat.
The blouse was soft brown with gathered sleeves and turned back cuffs, the vest soft like velvet in a darker bronze, embroidered in what I suspected was gold thread. Designs of spirals and Celtic knots, fantastic creatures like unicorns, dragons and griffons reared and raced across the sides, front and back. I ran my fingers through my hair mashing down my cowlicks from memory and only then, did I take a deep breath to announce I was ready.
Before I finished the words, the door was opening and I looked out on a hallway that spiraled up and down not exactly steps but more like a series of landings. Four tall men dressed in pale gray uniforms stood there at attention. They were armed with swords and short batons that looked like torches; they hung from a waist belt of black leather. Their eyes were strictly silver with violet pupils and they all looked enough alike to be twins, triplets, whatever four were called.
“Hullo,” I said tentatively and they bowed slightly as one unit.
“These are the Klese, Tobias. They will carry you to the next aerie where we will take a condorla.”
“A what?” I stiffened in shock as all four swooped me up in a chair carry and trotted down the stairwell as if I weighed nothing. We twisted and turned so quickly that I got dizzy and thought I would vomit. When I begged them to stop, they did so immediately and I pushed away to stand on shaking legs as I regained my equilibrium.
“Tobias, are you unwell?” she asked anxiously. I puked all over her, totally mortified that I was sick, in front of her, and all over her.
She gestured and was clean in an instant, spoke in that trilling voice. Before I could blink or heave again, Belgrave was there. In pink today and quite dapper. He handed me a glass of foamy pink and said, “Drink.”
I did and my stomach went back into place and stopped dancing the four-in-hand.
“Movement bother you?” he asked and I nodded.
“The round and round and round. And round,” I gulped. “Never could play on the merry-go-round.”
“There’s an old jump site just one landing below,” he said. “We can try there.”
“Can you walk, Toby?” She asked and I nodded. I stood on my own legs and slowly walked down one flight where the wall opened to a broad platform on which perched giant birds that looked like vultures. On their backs were saddles, with bridles tied to their beaks. There were more of the warriors she called Faet holding the reins. I looked down and the view was dizzying. I leaned back against Belgrave’s bulk and it steadied me.
“I’m supposed to get on those things?” I said in disbelief. Arianell climbed into the saddle and a warrior sat in front, taking the reins. Each bird carried two, I was placed in the seat next to a male I’d seen when we had first encountered the mist. Belgrave declined a ride, saying he had work to do in his labs.
I closed my eyes as the bird simply dove off the ledge, its huge wings opening as the wind caught under them. I felt it when the lift raised the bird higher and we spiraled down towards the ground in graceful flight that I cautiously began to enjoy. I let go of my pilot and started to look around.
The trees were gigantic, magnificent and close to each other so that some were at arm’s reach and others spaced out so that they seemed to be planted in groves of a park-like setting. The closer we dropped to the ground, the more detail I could make out. The forest floor was manicured with graveled paths and flowers, berry bushes, fruit trees and gardens everywhere. There were pastures and corrals where mundane animals were kept; everything so clean that the pens were virtually spotless.
The birds landed gently, forelegs stretched out to catch the ground and took only two or three steps before stopping. Slowly, I slid off and walked a few steps until Arianell joined me. We walked slowly on the white graveled path towards the smell of horses and in a small grove of pine trees with red needles, I saw my six horses. They were knee deep in clover and alfalfa looking 100% better than before. Even Diomed, Peony and Beau had a shine to their coats that was breathtaking. All six of them stopped eating to rush the fence and greet me. I hugged Diomed’s head into my chest and kept my arms on whoever I could reach. I tried not to bawl but the tears kept coming until I was so exhausted that I sank to my knees and slept. Arianell let me, covering me with a cloak and pulling my body close to hers so that when I opened my eyes, it was her face I saw first. Her eyes were soft and heavy lidded, her lips parted as she kissed me. Instantly, I was ready, hard and throbbing and she sank her hand through my pants, into the cunningly designed flaps of the underwear and grasped me.
“Will you follow where I lead, will you dance where I step, will you live while I love?” she asked breathlessly. “Will you lead while I follow, will you step where I dance, will you love while I live, Prince of the Two Worlds?”
“Yes, my lady, I will,” I breathed meaning every word. She made me scream with delight, cry with pleasure until I didn’t care if I died from it. She proved to me that my dreams were real and the only reason for living, not vengeance, justice or hatred.
We lay there until the sun set and it was a slow, lingering dearth of the light turning the floor of the forest golden, and then crimson and finally, the deepest purple before night falls to black but the night here was not black, tiny worms glowed on the lower parts of the tree trunks, on certain rock pillars to the sides of the path and flickering as they flew between the trunks. Fireflies but so much brighter than the other side’s version. They cast everything with a soft greenish tint that reminded me of the way we painted ourselves on the All Hallows Eve to play at Ghosts and Goblins, go trick-or-treating.
I glowed from my head to my toes and did not want to move yet something was poking me in the side. Annoying but rapidly grew to a pain I couldn’t ignore. I rolled over and searched, finding a rock was the culprit. Flung it away in the dark and listened to the growls of my belly.
“Toby, are you hungry?” Her voice was a lazy drawl and she stretched like a cat. I wished I could see her naked and silver clad in the moonlight.
“I can feel your skin blush, Toby Prionsa,” her voice was full of laughter and affection.
“What’s ‘prionsa’?”
“It means prince.” She stood up, rearranged her clothes and pulled me to my feet as if I was no more than a child. “Ready to go home?”
“Home? My home or yours? Where do you live?”
“In the mountains, near the Border where the Cliffs are wild and less cultivated. With my family.”
“What’s your family like, Arianell? Will I met them? Do you have brothers and sisters?”
“I thought you were hungry?” She smiled and pushed me down the lighted path. The glow…worms made it quite easy to see and I only stumbled from weariness. “Tobias, we are going to a feast in your honor. Please, do not mention that you and I have…coupled,” she asked and I felt an instant hurt.
“Why? Am I not good enough for you? I’m just a…half-blood?”
She grabbed my shoulders and shook me. “How dare you, Tobias Spencer! You are the Lost Prince of the Elassa! It is I that would suffer if it were known I took advantage of my Chosen in his weakened state! So, you must keep this secret.”
“Oh.” Like anyone couldn’t look at my face and see that I was already smitten by her. I’d fallen fast and hard, just like my father. “What is your true name, Arianell?” I whispered recalling my mother’s words to me on the sanctity and power of true names. She did not hesitate but told me and I whispered it in my heart, Arianell, Daughter of the Flame. My mother had called me Tiobhan in the dark places of our souls and told me never to share it but with my one true love. I told Arianell and she spoke it almost like a vow just before we drew up in front of an imposing hall created out of living trees woven together in an archway and crowned with leaves and flowers of every hue. A cathedral grown by nature and every bit as impressive as those built of stone.
She threw open the doors made of willow lathes draped with violets and lilacs, the smell as heavenly as a bower of fine perfumes. We walked into the brilliant candlelight and faced an assemblage of the finest dressed nobles I had ever seen. Walking down a carpet of pale lavender flowers, we knelt at the foot of the throne upon which sat their great King, Lyr Averon. I bowed low on one knee and Arianell went to her forehead as she kissed the hem of his robes. He lifted me up but not her and she backed away to stand behind me, head bowed.