Bricrui (The Forgotten: Book 2) (19 page)

“Yes.”

*

Layna rode out along the road ahead of the
entourage of Knights, letting her mount, Fly, take her swiftly to
the scene of the ambush. As they neared the place, Layna could see
where the scuffle had happened. There were arrows stuck into the
ground, chunks of dirt that had been dug up, and trampled foliage
all around the area.

Sir Ruawn came up beside her and described
the fight. Lord Morven’s carriage and the original guards had
apparently continued on down the road as the Knights were otherwise
engaged. Any who had attempted pursuit were immediately set upon by
several of the Baron’s mercenaries.

Layna didn’t waste time wondering about their
route. There was only one route that they could possibly have taken
with a carriage, according to Sir Ruawn.

All too soon, however, they came to the first
fork in the road. Layna searched the ground for clues, but she
could no more determine which path had been taken than the Knights
who had looked only minutes after it had been traveled. The ground
was far too dry to have left any noticeable tracks and either there
were none with magic in his group or they had been smart enough to
break off contact with the power so that she could not follow a
magical trace.

Layna ordered the Knights to split up, half
of the men with her and half following Sir Ruawn. She arbitrarily
picked the fork on the left and spurred Fly into motion. She had to
rein him in, slowing his pace so that they could watch for anything
out of the ordinary; carriage ruts leading off onto an unused path,
a newly broken branch, or any sign that someone had passed this way
recently. The road was well-used, but not so much this time of
year, so any sign of passage they could find might well have been
Morven and his men.

Layna opened herself to the power and wracked
her brain for a spell that might prove useful. Making her magesight
show her anything that was new to the area in the last day or two,
she looked around again. Something shone brightly to her, and she
reined in Fly to take a closer look.

She dismounted and strode over to the spot.
Bending down, she reached out to touch the object. It squished
disgustingly under her probing finger and she broke contact with
the power, her regular sight revealing that she had just stuck her
finger in bird poop.

“Lovely,” she murmured to herself, wiping it
off onto the grass before straightening.

“Did you find something, Your Majesty?” one
of the Knights inquired?

“Nothing useful,” she replied, refraining
from mentioning what it was.

Another of the Knights made an excited sound.
He hopped down off his horse and practically ran over to something
on the side of the road. He picked up a small item from amidst the
grass, and it dangled out from his fingers.

“What is that?” she asked him, moving closer
to inspect it for herself. It appeared to be a piece of string with
a few beads attached to it.

“It’s a worry bracelet,” he said excitedly,
“I gave it to Natalya so she wouldn’t have to worry about her
sister so much.”

“So they went this way…” Layna voiced, but
wondered what the significance of the beads was. Did that mean that
there had been a struggle here that had resulted in the breakage of
her bracelet?

They moved farther down the road; Layna
refrained from remounting, choosing to lead her mount in order to
be closer to the ground. After a few minutes of walking, another of
the Knights shouted and bent down. He straightened, holding a bead
up triumphantly in front of him. Layna smiled. So Natalya had
broken the bracelet on purpose. Smart girl.

Layna sent one of the riders back to gather
up Sir Ruawn and the rest, informing them that they had found
evidence that Natalya had been taken this way. Then, the remainder
of their group moved forward, their eyes peeled for more beads.
They came upon two more forks in the road, one with four different
directions and they had to search each and double back on them in
order to find the correct path, but each time Natalya had succeeded
in leaving behind the trail of beads. Without them, they would
never have been able to track her.

Sir Ruawn and his group of Knights caught up
with them presently and their refortified assemblage followed the
trail of beads to completion. Eventually, the trail ran cold;
either she had run out of beads, or she had fallen asleep. Given
the time that she had been taken, and the distance they had
traveled since then, by the time the carriage had reached this
point it was likely to have been quite late.

Fortunately, the area that the last bead had
been found only led to a handful of estates, none of which were
officially tied to either Lord Morven or his father, but no doubt
there was some kind of connection. Layna debated the pros and cons
of researching what that connection might be to simply storming
each of them in turn.

If they searched each one, however, starting
with the wrong one could potentially warn Lord Morven that they
were coming and he could move before they ever knew he was there.
She mind called to Gryffon. They had not yet found a range that
this did not work at.

-
Gryffon,
- she thought. A moment
later she felt his warm presence in her mind.

-
Yes, my love?
–

-
Can you find out if Lord Morven has any
connections to any of the estates in the Barva region? Natalya’s
trail ran cold at the top of the region and there are too many to
search without alerting him that we’re on to him.
–

-
Right away, I’ll let you know the moment
I find something.
–

Layna send a rush of love over the connection
and felt it returned. Being apart from him and the baby was made
easier knowing that she could connect with him anytime.

She filled the Knights in on her plan.
Unfortunately, it left them with little to do until Gryffon got
back to them with which place was their most likely target. Not
wanting to sit around doing nothing, however, she split them up
into small contingents and sent each of these to investigate the
area around each of the possibilities. That way, they would already
have an idea of what to expect when they got the word.

Layna was tempted to send out magical probes
to try and detect them. If Natalya’s sister Alina was with them,
she should be able to sense the girl’s talent at least. But it
would also give away that they were there if Lord Morven had mages
under his employ. She didn’t want to take the chance, so she
waited.

-
Layna?
– Gryffon’s voiced sounded in
her head. The feeling of warmth spreading through her took hold,
giving her a most pleasant sensation.

-
I like the feeling of having you in my
head
, - she told him happily, -
we should do it more
often
. -

She felt his pleasure at the suggestion, but
his answer was all business. He had located a place that was a
possibility. There had been dealings with the Baron in the past,
and more recently, one of the sons of the family was mingling in
Lord Morven’s circle of friends.

“It’s the best lead we have,” she said as she
explained the location to Sir Ruawn, who nodded his agreement.

“It’s starting to get dark,” he stated,
looking to the sky, “Do we do this now or set up camp and rest and
then take them on in the morning?”

Layna chewed her lip. She hated to leave
Natalya, and probably Alina, alone for another second with that
awful man; but she didn’t want to put the Knights in danger either,
by forcing them to fight when they were tired from a day of
riding.

“We’ll go first thing in the morning.”

She and Sir Ruawn stayed up most of the night
anyway, planning, but the majority of the Knights were well-rested
when they woke them at the crack of dawn. The small party which had
already combed the area reported that the estate was not
well-guarded, and didn’t appear to expect any attack.

Layna hoped that this was truly the case. She
was not concerned that she would be harmed, since her magic was
great enough that she was well-protected, but she couldn’t protect
all of the Knights at once.

As Gryffon had told her many times, and Sir
Ruawn had reminded her last night, she sometimes just had to trust
others to do their jobs and worry about doing her own.

The bulk of the Knights were going to rush
the main hall and the guard barracks to quickly quell any
resistance, while she and Sir Ruawn took a small group to search
the dungeons and guest rooms for the girls. They had no idea
whether he would be keeping them in cells or suites, so they would
simply search everywhere.

As they approached, Layna opened herself to
the power, sending probes out to try and narrow their search.
Unfortunately, it seemed that everything in the house had some kind
of magical taint to it, and it was hard to distinguish any as the
young girl. She did not notice any in the dungeon area, however, so
decided to sweep the guest rooms first.

They banged open doors, twice barging in on
the estate’s actual guests, one of whom was in the middle of
getting dressed. She squealed indignantly, clutching the dress to
her body, out of the hands of the maids-in-waiting, who scattered
around the room. Layna caught a few of the Knight’s gazes lingering
on her a moment longer than necessary, but all remained
professional and did not hesitate to follow her back out of the
room. Any other reaction would not have been tolerated. Her Knights
needed to uphold a high standard, and she was happy to see them
doing just that.

Farther down the hall, she suddenly felt a
ripple in the power in the next room. Layna burst through the door,
feeling a powerful – though subdued –young talent beyond it and
convinced that it must be Natalya and Alina. Sure enough, the two
girls were huddled in the corner, Natalya standing resolutely in
front of Alina with a brush out in front of her. It must have been
the only weapon she had been able to come up with. Layna smiled at
her and the girl’s combat stance relaxed and she dropped the brush,
rushing forward to wrap her arms around Layna.

“Oof,” exclaimed Layna happily, holding up a
hand towards the Knight who stepped forward to intervene. Natalya
quickly let go, rushing back to her sister’s side and dragging the
younger girl forward.

Alina was the spitting image of Natalya
except that her face was full of tarnished youthful innocence, her
large eyes staring up at Layna with hope. Though she could see that
behind them there was a lot of pain. She would be deeply scarred by
this, just as Natalya had been by Hardonia’s massacre.

Layna felt yet another wave of guilt that her
subjects were suffering so badly under her rule. It did not seem
right. She needed to do something to add light to her subjects’
lives. So far, it seemed there had only been more and more darkness
even after vanquishing the evil of Nuko.

“Come on,” she told the girls, who had locked
hands and were looking at her expectantly, “Let’s get out of
here.”

Layna sent Natalya and Alina outside with a
group of Knights, and went to find out what had happened in the
rest of the manor. Unfortunately, it wasn’t good news. They had
managed to round up a small portion of Morven’s guard, but the
majority had escaped, aided by the manor’s usual occupants. The
Knights were busy charging them all with obstruction of justice,
but none would tell them where Lord Morven had fled to.

But at least they had recovered Alina and
Natalya.

When they were back on the road home, the
girls riding double so that they were not separated, Natalya pulled
up beside her.

“Your Majesty,” she said, “I think Alina
knows a way to free the Council from their compulsion.”

Layna gave her full attention to the two.

“Telvani was working on a spell,” the younger
girl said shyly, but rapidly picking up confidence and volume,
“where he was trying to influence the entire Council by
mind-control…he said something about a collar, but I didn’t know
what he was talking about.”

“Do you know how he did it?”

“Not exactly,” the girl admitted, “It was
some sort of mix of blood-magic but I’ve never been trained before
except what they told me to do with it so I wouldn’t know…but he
did have a special item that belonged to each of the Council
members that was involved in the spell. I think he put them all in
a box somewhere so they’re probably important for keeping it
going.”

Layna tensed in excitement. If there were
items that could be found and destroyed to break the spell, there
was some hope! “Thank you, Alina. That is most helpful.”

The two girls nodded and reined their horse
farther back so that Layna was riding alone once more. She
contacted Gryffon hastily and filled him in on this newest
development. If they could just find these items and get their
Council back, they would be able to concentrate on other matters.
When she had finished her conversation with Gryffon, she rode
staring off into space. She didn’t even hear as Natalya pulled up
next to her once more.

“Queen Layna?” Natalya whispered to her.
Layna looked over and saw that Alina had fallen asleep propped up
in front of her, kept on the horse by Natalya’s arms around her
holding the reins.

“Yes, Natalya?”

“Alina is going to turn into one of those
creatures.”

“What?” She had hoped that Natalya would not
have found out quite so soon.

“She says that all of the people who did the
controlling part are the first ones who started showing signs, but
that eventually even the ones who had only participated by
channeling power had begun to come down with it.”

Layna was silent for a long moment. Then she
put on a determined expression and said firmly, “We’re not going to
let that happen.”