Dragonsbane (Book 3) (55 page)

“We’re happy to have them!” Uncle Martin strode in from one of the halls, grinning through his mustache. He waved the children on with his cane. “Come along, now. No, no — don’t be shy. We’ve got mounds of breakfast in there. More eggs than any man or beast could possibly devour. And while we eat, I can tell you about the time my dear brother stole the King’s favorite pair of knickers!”

They giggled at his chatter the whole way down the hall, and Nadine beamed at their backs.

Kael didn’t realize he’d been craning his neck over her shoulder until she grabbed his arm. “Kyleigh has gone to Whitebone. She promises she will not be long.”

Kael’s heart sank. “What could she possibly have to do in the blasted desert?”

“She says she must visit Asante. And she also says you are to keep your chin raised and not to scuff the floors with your moping.”

That sounded exactly like something Kyleigh would’ve said. So Kael grit his teeth and tried to be patient.

Fortunately, his companions provided him with plenty of distractions. If he wasn’t trying to stop Aerilyn from bludgeoning Lysander to death with one of her dresses, then he was fighting off Elena — who’d taken to hiding in various nooks and attacking him when he least expected it.

“Why?” he gasped as he tried to keep her arm from wrapping any tighter around his throat.

That particular afternoon, she’d ambushed him in the hallway on his way back from lunch. He should’ve noticed that one of the doors was slightly ajar. He should’ve realized that meant there was a masked forest woman waiting behind it to throttle him. But he didn’t.

Now she clung to his back like paste. Her legs crushed his innards and her arm won ground against his throat. Little black spots burst across his vision as she cut off the flow of his blood.

“Why can’t we just pass each other in the hall … like normal … people?”

“We’re whisperers. Fighting keeps us sharp,” she said, as if they were doing nothing more than discussing the weather. “Now hold still while I put you to sleep.”

Kael had no intention of doing that. She’d strangled him unconscious once before because he hadn’t remembered to check under his bed, and he’d woken with a nasty headache. Instead, he turned and slammed his back into the wall behind him, crushing her against it.

She didn’t let go, and so he slammed her again. “You are … the most …
difficult
—”

The wall behind him gave way with a
crack
and Kael held his breath. He knew very well which room was on the other side, but Elena didn’t.

Her arms snapped open and she coughed violently against the tang of magic as they fell flat into the spell room.

Kael leapt to his feet. “Sorry, Jake.”

The mage hardly glanced at him from over the top of his spectacles before going back to his reading. “It’s fine. Just mend it when you have a chance, will you?”

Kael bolted out of the hole in the wall before Elena could recover, promising he would.

After he’d so narrowly escaped getting strangled, he was hoping to have a few minutes to himself in the library. Unfortunately for him, it was already occupied.

Declan and Nadine had done nothing but argue since the day she’d returned. Any time he passed them, they were in the middle of some heated debate: they hissed as they walked, stood in corners with their arms crossed and growled. Even at meals, they scowled at each other from across the table.

They kept their voices so hushed that he wasn’t sure what exactly it was that they argued over. But he knew he didn’t want to get involved.

“Well then, maybe we need another ear on this,” Declan growled. He reached over and snatched Kael before he could escape through the door. “Tell the sandbeater I know what I’m doing, rat. Tell her she knows full well they’d be better off somewhere open.”

“It is about the children,” Nadine explained when Kael sputtered. Then she turned back to Declan. “They are happy here! The Uncle has taken them out for fishing and a picnic.”

“They’re excited, is all,” he said back. “Did you not see their mountains? They need somewhere to run and stretch their legs. The wee mice could never be happy packed onto some great floating tinderbox. Look at this one!” he said, rattling Kael by the shoulder. “Look at how wild he is! You can’t force such hearty folk to sit trapped for long — it’ll hobble them.”

Nadine stamped her tiny foot. “You are wrong!”

“Am I? All right, then — tell us which you’d prefer, rat. Would you rather grow up on land or on a ship?”

Kael would’ve
preferred
not to be dragged into the middle of it. But as they were both scowling at him, waiting for an answer, he supposed he ought to be honest. “Land,” he said firmly. “I don’t mind spending a few weeks on a ship, but I’m much happier on land.”

Declan thrust a thick arm at him. “See? There you have it.”

Nadine’s eyes shone fiercely. “What would you have me do? I am an exile. Kyleigh has given me a place in her village — I have no other home to offer them.”

Declan’s glare went shallow. There was something hidden in the depths of his steely gray eyes that Kael hadn’t remembered seeing before, something that reminded him of the way the wynns had bowed to Gwen — a surrender that put him on his belly.

“They’d be welcome in my home, among my clan,” he said quietly. “I’d teach them all I know about horses, about how to till the earth and raise their food from seed to sprout. They could chase the sun from one end to the next, if they wanted. I’d never see them hobbled.”

Nadine’s lips parted for a moment before hardening once more. “I will not leave them.”

Declan leaned forward. “Well, then … I suppose you’d better come with us.”

They stared at each other for such a long moment that Kael began to sweat. He would’ve bolted straight for the door, had Declan’s meaty hand not been clamped so tightly about his arm.

Finally, Nadine’s head dipped in a nod.

“Yeh?”

“Yes.”

Relieved smiles crept across both of their faces. Declan leaned closer. Nadine came up on her toes. Kael could see what was coming and tried madly to escape, but Declan’s grip was far too tight. Just when he thought he would be forced to endure it, Uncle Martin came to his rescue:

“It’s started! It’s happening!”

He slung his picnic basket into one of the stuffed chairs and the little redheaded children swarmed in behind him. Their curls were still sopping from the waves. Several carried armfuls of shells. All were burnt an alarming shade of red.

“You have kept them out too long!” Nadine said when she saw them. She swore in her strange tongue and pressed her hands against their reddened cheeks.

“Eh, a little sun is good for them. It’ll give them a nice crust,” Declan said.

Uncle Martin waved his cane impatiently. “Quite right! Take them straight to the kitchen and have Bimply give them a salve — and tell that cake-snatching shrew to send my favorite decanter to the library. We’ll soon have reason to celebrate!”

The children squealed in mock terror as Declan scooped up an armful of them and marched for the door. Nadine led the others out in a chain behind him. Kael had meant to follow, but now he was curious.

“What are we celebrating?”

Uncle Martin’s eyes gleamed over the top of his mustache. “It’s time, Sir Wright. Aerilyn’s gone to her chambers — I’ll be a great-uncle by evening!”

Chapter 50

A Dangerous Proposal

“How much longer?” Lysander moaned.

It had been hours since Uncle Martin had burst into the library. Now evening had come and gone, the day had passed wholly into night — and there was still no news of Aerilyn.

No sooner had word slipped out the mansion’s front doors than midwives had marched in from the village and taken over Aerilyn’s care. They’d shut her chamber doors and absolutely refused to allow any man above the spiral staircase. Consequently, the men of Gravy Bay had gathered in the library to worry together.

“I never thought it would take so long,” Uncle Martin said with a sigh. His decanter sat before him, unopened. The way the glass bent around its amber contents made the sag of his frown impossibly steep, and his eye impossibly large. “I never imagined that Aerilyn would have any trouble — she has the perfect birthing hips!”

“Yeh,” Declan grunted from the hearth.

“Can we please not discuss my wife as if she’s some sort of … pasture animal?” Lysander mumbled.

He dragged his hands down his face — something he’d done so often in the last hour that his skin had actually begun to stay red. His wavy hair stood on end. The sleeves of his white tunic were rolled up to his elbows, the buttons at his collar undone. His trouser pockets were considerably rumpled from where he kept drying his palms.

His stormy eyes traveled to Thelred, who shook his head firmly. He stood before the door, arms crossed. “Don’t do it, Captain.”

“Just for a moment?” Lysander pleaded.

“No. The desert woman is in there with her, and the forest woman said she’d come get us if something happens. There’s no point in you hiking up there, Captain. The midwives won’t let you in, and you’ll only get upset.”

Lysander’s fists clenched at his side. “I outrank you, cousin.”

“That won’t stop me from kicking you in the shin if you rush over here. Remember what happened last time? You limped around for a good half-hour.”

“Yes, well, you’ve got a rather unfair advantage,” Lysander said, glaring at his peg. “It’s like being kicked by a tree.”

“Don’t worry. Your mate will be fine,” Eveningwing called. He sat cross-legged atop the polished desk, grinning to either ear. “I sense it.”

“Oh, well, as long as you
sense
it, I don’t know what I’ve been worried about,” Lysander muttered, throwing up his hands.

Jake sat rigidly in the desk’s chair. He drew his nose from his book long enough to add: “Actually, there
is
something to be said for having extra senses.”

“Yeh, like the way the birds go to roost before a storm,” Declan agreed.

“You know, my wife had a cat that always seemed to know when I was coming home,” Uncle Martin mused. “He was an orange tabby with a penchant for butter cookies —”

“I can’t take it any longer!” Lysander burst. His eyes were wild as he charged for the door.

Kael tackled him around the legs, quickly earning himself a boot heel to the chin. Declan planted an elbow in the middle of Lysander’s back. No sooner had they managed to calm him than Uncle Martin swooped in and began lashing them all with his cane, yelling:

“Run, Captain! Now’s your chance!”

Eveningwing leapt into his feathers and tried to scare Uncle Martin back. After a few unsuccessful dives, Thelred finally stomped over to try and wrestle the cane from his father’s grasp — thrusting his wooden leg in like a wedge between them and swearing magnificently when the cane struck true.

Jake hardly glanced up from his book.

Sometime in the midst of all the chaos, the library door creaked open. Elena’s dark eyes roved across the whole tangled, yelling mass of them, and she scowled. “What in Kingdom’s name is going on, here?”

“Never mind about all this,” Jake said, snapping his book shut. “Have you got some news?”

Declan shifted so that Lysander could stick his head out from under the pile. “Please tell me you’ve heard something. I can’t bear it any longer!”

“It’s finished,” Elena said.

The room went so deathly quiet that Kael could actually hear Lysander’s tongue as it scraped across his lips. “Is Aerilyn …?”

“She’s doing well.”

“And … and what about …?”

She shrugged. “You have a son.”

The library erupted in cheers.

They jerked Lysander to his feet and pounded him heartily upon the back. He seemed dazed as Eveningwing swooped to brush him across the shoulder. He stumbled forward when Declan ruffled his hair. The good captain likely would’ve sunk back to his knees, had Kael and Thelred not grabbed him under the arms.

“A son,” he whispered, his mouth opened around his smile.

Uncle Martin rushed straight for his decanter. “Well done! Well done and congratulations!”

Lysander took the small glass of liquor they shoved into his hands and tossed it back in a single gulp. They cheered as he strode purposefully out the door.

When the midwives finally agreed to let the rest of them come up, Kael walked at the back of the line. He hadn’t spent much time around infants, and wasn’t entirely sure if Aerilyn would want them all crowding in. But the moment he saw her smile, he knew it would be all right.

Her golden brown hair was knotted loosely at the top of her head. Little strands escaped their clasp and matted against her neck. Pink crossed her face in a sunrise of color. But she was positively beaming.

“That was, and without a doubt, the most horrible, painful,
satisfying
thing I’ve ever done,” she said when Kael reached her.

He wasn’t sure what to say. He had no idea about anything she’d just done — other than what he’d read in books. And he doubted if any of that would’ve been at all comforting. So instead, he crouched at the side of her bed and held her hand while the others met the baby.

No man in the history of grinning had ever worn a more ridiculous grin than Captain Lysander’s. He passed the little bundle in his arms to Thelred — whose stern expression actually gave way for a moment, melting into something that wasn’t quite as harsh as usual.

When it was his turn, Uncle Martin bounced the little bundle in his arms and said, with his most mischievous grin: “A handsome lad, indeed! With a little help from your dear great-uncle, we’ll have the ladies tripping on their skirts to swoon over you.”

“You’ll do nothing of the sort. I won’t have you teaching him your tricks,” Aerilyn said firmly. “He’s going to be a perfect gentleman.”

Uncle Martin’s mustache bent as he pursed his lips. “Gentleman, eh? The problem with gentlemen, my dear, is that they keep the company of unicorns and griffins.
Gentleman
,” he scoffed, grinning down at the bundle. “A mythical creature if ever there was one.”

A few minutes more, and the baby had made nearly a full circle around the room. The only one who hadn’t held him yet was Declan — and that was only because he flatly refused to. “No, I shouldn’t be holding such tiny wee things. I don’t want to hurt him.”

“You will not hurt him,” Nadine insisted, holding the bundle out.

Declan kept his thick arms firmly crossed. “He’s too tiny! I don’t want to clod it up.”

“What have you named him?” Kael said, when their argument showed no signs of ending.

Aerilyn bit her lip, and her gaze went to Declan. “I want to thank you for walking me around all those days.”

“It was a small thing,” Declan insisted, leaning away as Nadine tried to hand him the bundle.

“No, it was an important thing. You were so very kind to me … and I’ll never forget the stories you told me about your little brother.”

He went silent immediately.

“That’s why …” Aerilyn took a deep breath, “well, we’ve talked about it. And Lysander and I have decided that we’d like to call him
Dante
.”

Declan’s eyes disappeared beneath the cleft of his brow. His chin turned to the bundle. “Your little one? You want to name him …?”

Lysander smiled. “Yes — if that’s all right, of course. We wouldn’t want to do it without your approval.”

Slowly, Declan’s arms slid from his chest. Nadine placed the little bundle in his meaty hands and he held it, unflinching, for several long moments. “I think that’d be a grand thing,” he whispered finally, his voice unusually gruff. “A mightily grand thing.”

*******

The celebrations went on long into the night. His companions were still toasting in the library when Kael finally plodded up to bed.

His room was bright and warm. The covers were folded back neatly and the window was opened a bit, letting the cool breeze in. Though it all looked very inviting, Kael knew better than to simply fall into bed.

He checked behind the bath and in the shadowed cleft of the hearth. He even stuck his head out the window and glanced down either ledge of the sloping roof. There was no doubt in his mind that Elena planned a swift revenge for how he’d thrown her through the spell room wall. Yes, he knew very well that she would be coming for him.

He just wasn’t sure when.

The space beneath his bed was impenetrably dark. He was crouched on his hands and knees, trying to decide if one of the shadows looked a bit suspicious when he felt something creep up behind him.

It hadn’t made a sound, but there was a fullness in the air at his back that hadn’t been there before. He felt the weight of eyes on the nape of his neck — felt them drag down between his shoulders and all the way to the soles of his boots. And he knew he would have to act quickly.

Kael spun with a cry, fists raised and feet set beneath him — prepared to shoulder the first blow … but it never came. He stared at the black-clad figure in the doorway and realized it wasn’t Elena who’d crept up behind him.

It was Kyleigh.

Her pony’s tail hung loose. Strands of raven hair had escaped their bonds and fallen across her eyes, but not even the shadows could dull their flame. They blazed as they locked onto his. Her chest rose and fell quickly, as if she’d just sprinted a great distance.

He realized that must’ve been exactly what she’d done. “I thought you said it was too dangerous to go winging about the Kingdom?”

Her mouth bent into an amused half-smile — a smile that somehow made him lose track of his feet. “I suppose I might’ve broken a few rules.”

He forced himself to look severe. “Well, it wouldn’t be the first time. What were you doing in the desert?”

“
That
,” she growled, creeping forward, “is none of your business.”

Before Kael even had a chance to be worried, she attacked.

His feet left the ground and his back thudded onto the bed. Kyleigh’s lips moved against his. Flames burst inside his chest. The pressure of her body twisted the fires, forced them closer to the surface. They lapped against the under-edges of his skin and melted them together.

Two white-hot lines seared him on either side when her hands slipped beneath his tunic. They bumped along his ribs; the flames roared more furiously than ever before —

“Wait.”

Kael grabbed her wrists, halting those burning lines. Her lips paused at his throat. He groaned when she pulled them away. He hated himself for drawing her hands out and holding them clasped at his chest — safely above his tunic. But it was what had to be done.

He loved Kyleigh with his every beat, his every breath. Her touch mended his all his rifts. She stretched to the very corners of his soul. He never wanted her to have to worry about anything — not even Fate’s will. So Kael planned to bind himself to her.

They would be whole in flesh and law, in blood and spirit. They would be so bound that she would never doubt again. He didn’t want her to be afraid. He wanted to prove that he was hers completely, that she had every right to love him.

So he took a deep breath and said: “Marry me.”

She raised her brows. “You mean … like humans do? With a ceremony and toasts and people gawking at us? Ugh,” she said when he nodded. “I can’t think of anything I’d like less.”

When she bent to kiss him, he shoved her up and out of reach. “I’m serious, Kyleigh. I want to marry you.”

“Are you worried about defending my honor?” she whispered with a grin that made the fires swell up. “Oh Kael, that’s so …
barbaric
.”

He was absolutely determined to marry her, no matter what she said. Kyleigh sank down very heavily against his arms. She was trying to break his will — and he knew that if their chests touched again, it would be broken quickly.

With no small amount of effort, he flipped her over. He tried to ignore the swell of pink that blossomed down her pale throat, tried not to be devoured by the fires in her eyes. He held her wrists tightly — and tried to ignore the way her blood thrummed against his fingertips.

“I’m not worried about defending your honor.”