Heir To The Nova (Book 3) (12 page)

Faeron sighed, “Alex, next time, please uses the stairs. Herald, if you please…”

A brightly dressed, dark elf female strode forward and placed herself in the middle of the arena, calling out in a loud melodious voice, “Presenting Sir Alex Martin, Enchanter Wizard, Prince of the Nova, and Ruler of Sky Raven Fortress!”

Completing her introduction, she spun formally on her heel and left the ring in a big hurry, her eyes nervously scanning the sand floor. Maya reached over and grasped my hand with a smile, and Nia, who had been loitering on the outskirts of the crowd in case things got ugly, flew over and landed in her usual place on my shoulder.

Faeron continued, “Sir Alex, here, has decided to seek my permission to court my daughter, and he has passed all tests with top marks. Now, before I declare my approval, is there anyone who would like to challenge him in combat for her hand? Oh, by the way, before anyone steps forward, I would like to mention that Maya has also vowed never to marry anyone who cannot first defeat her in battle. So, any takers?”

I unsheathed my war hammer and slammed it hard against my shield boss as I spun slowly, searching the crowd for an opponent. The sound reverberated throughout the arena, and by the time it had stopped echoing, you could have heard the proverbial pin drop anywhere in the place. Even the women and children froze in place.

The King smiled, “I will take that as a no, so I hereby give Sir Alex permission…” Renalla grabbed her husband’s arm and was whispering urgently in his ear. His eyes widened at what she was saying, but he maintained a genial smile throughout. “Never mind, I take back what I said. As of right now, I hereby order you, Sir Alex, to marry my daughter under penalty of extremely pissed off parents-in-law. Do we understand each other?”

“Perfectly, Sir!”

“Excellent! Then we will be expecting wedding invitations soon.”

Maya wrapped her arms around me again and kissed me right in front of the entire crowd. Amazingly, the crowd roared its approval as I quickly slung my shield and hammer across my back and scooped up my dark elf girl in my arms and tenderly carried her up the stairs and out of the arena. That’s one way to make a statement I guess.

A few hours later, after a small party that Renalla set up–with a lot of food involved, people gathered to see us off. We were assembling at the front gate once again, Maya happily in her armor, the twins hovering awkwardly, and Nia all smiles perched on my shoulder, pleased that everything had turned out for the better. The only ones who weren’t happy were the druid girls. They were sitting around like someone had just kicked their puppy.

“What’s wrong, you two? Don’t you want to go home?”

“Of course we do,” sniffled Lin, “but we are going to miss this place.”

“Ah, I see what’s really going on; you two are going to miss seeing Ryliss, aren’t you?”

“Yeah,” they both said sadly.

I looked up to see an odd sight coming down the road. Smiling to myself, I turned their heads so they could see what I saw. There was Ryliss, running down the main road with several backpacks and more scrolls than she could possibly carry. In fact, most of them fell onto the ground as she ran.

“Wait for me!” she shouted, running up to us completely out of breath. “I was told you guys weren’t leaving ‘til tomorrow.”

“Sorry, we need to get back to Sky Raven as soon as we can. It’s not safe having the key stones here.”

“Ryliss, what are you doing here?” Julia demanded as she and Lin jumped to their feet.

She smiled as best she could when out of breath. “Why, I’m coming with you, of course!” All three of them were suddenly bouncing around with glee and chattering nonstop. I walked over to Faeron; he grinned knowing what I was going to ask.

“Ollis called in a favor; apparently, those three have grown into very close friends, and he made a very good argument about getting a scholar into the fortress itself. You know, for the history and secrets it might hold. But those three just being friends was good enough for me.” He chuckled and pulled Renalla close to his side. “To be honest, we started treating Ryliss like another daughter while Maya was away. But it seems now with the way everything turned out, that we will need to buckle down and work harder at producing another heir…strictly for the good of the kingdom, you understand.” My friend made a comically sad face, and his wife punched him playfully in the arm. Not knowing what to say, I cleared my throat awkwardly and attempted to change the subject.

“We will take good care of Ryliss for you, and tell Ollis he’s free to visit anytime.”

He smiled, “No doubt about that. But take care of yourself, too; I don’t want you dying on us now. Some of us here would like grandchildren someday.” We both laughed for a bit, and instantly the rapport that we always felt was back.

“I’ll see what I can do.”

Our final goodbyes were interrupted when a freight wagon pulled up behind the group, pulled by a pair of mules. Driving it was Renalla’s father, the shaman and fire wizard, Mingt.

Faeron merrily slapped me on the shoulder and chuckled, “Oh, I forgot to mention one thing. Now that you’re officially engaged, dark elf custom dictates that a family member chaperone be present until the wedding. Guess who volunteered?”

“Sweet!” Ryliss exclaimed. “If we’re bringing a wagon, I can bring my siege bow and a lot more of my books!” With that, she dragged Lin and Julia swiftly away to grab more stuff.

I looked at Maya, and she looked back at me in consternation. Through Winya’s link, I said,
“Exactly when did I lose control of this situation?”

She stared back at me with flirtatious eyes, sighed resignedly, and shrugged.
“That’s not all you lost, Magic Boy. I was looking forward to teaching you how to hunt night marmot on the way back.”

I had no reply to that, absolutely none! Life is simply out to get me. And Winya snickering evilly in the back reaches of my mind didn’t help either.

Ryliss finally returned, pushing a wheelbarrow full of books, with Lin hoisting the biggest bow I had ever seen and Jules carrying a bundle of six-foot arrows. Everything went into the back of the wagon, including the three girls and two dragons. Although Dawn did make a convincing case for riding on Somnus with me, Maya ruthlessly quashed that idea.

If the stallion thought the idea of keeping pace with donkeys was repugnant, he truly hated the concept when mules were involved. It was going to be a long, slow, excruciating trip.

Alex

With the wagon slowing us down, it would take six full days to get back to Sky Raven. We could have made it easily in less than three with the Vakhas. I wasn’t happy about the delay in getting the key stones back to the fortress, but I had to admit I was enjoying the travel. Using our link through Winya, Maya and I caught up on everything that happened while we were apart; it was like having a very private conversation in the midst of a crowd.

Maya’s grandfather was actually a lot of fun to have around, except for the obvious annoyance at bedtime, when he would pointedly drop his bedroll right in between where Maya and I had set up and promptly fall into a seemingly deep sleep. The first night I was tempted to lean over him and grab a kiss from my girl, but my mage sight showed me that he was a very, very light sleeper.

Rosa, at least, was extremely happy that he was coming along with us; Hons and Alera were doing a great job, but both were still novices at being Primus. Rosa had been a virtual outsider among the other tower heads, so she never really absorbed the technique of leadership. Apparently, from what I gathered from her frustrated ranting, there are hundreds of questions that come up on a daily basis that require an immediate answer from the Headmaster. The old Headmaster made it all look easy because he had centuries of experience and a staff that handled the small stuff.

The first day and night we were all busy getting a feel for the travel, but that next evening, Nia, Maya and I faced an obligation that we had dreaded; but in good conscience, we couldn’t put it off any longer. We needed to tell the twins about their mother.

After supper that evening, Maya and I led them off a few hundred yards across the scrub flats to an area that Nia had scouted out. There was a fall off that led down into a large flat sandy washout next to a small clear-running stream. From up top, I dragged down a couple stubby logs to use as chairs, and we sat the girls down directly across from us, close enough we could reach out and touch them. The alarmed expression on the two dragon girls’ faces told me that they were concerned and nearly on the verge of panic.

“Mistress, if we have offended you in some way or shirked our duties, we are truly sorry,” Dusk blurted out, exchanging bewildered glances with her sister.

Maya reached out and patted their knees. “Relax, girls, you aren’t in any trouble.”

I started, “This may be a difficult discussion; would you two feel more at ease in your true forms? There’s plenty of space here.”

Dawn shifted uneasily, but smiled as she took stock of the sandy beach. “Well, if it wouldn’t make either of you uncomfortable, the sand does look wonderful.”

Maya shook her head. A few moments later, the log we were sitting on was entirely encircled by over seventy feet of silver-scaled dragon. Tails intertwined their huge bodies along either side of us. They bent their long necks out and around and gently lowered their heads to the sand in front of us waiting calmly. I felt a pang of sadness at how much the gesture reminded me of their mother’s last minutes. Unconsciously, Maya reached down and scratched under Dusk’s chin, probably thinking about the first time we met them in the stable at my foster parents’ home.

Dusk closed her big eyes and purred, “I don’t know what it is, but there’s nothing like a good scratch under the chin. It’s just not the same in human form.

Attempting to push sentiment aside, I sighed and just blurted out what was on my mind. “Girls, I have some bad news…your mother is dead. I am so very sorry.”

“Our mother?” they said simultaneously.

Nia and I retold the entire tale of our brush with the chimera; how their mother had sacrificed to hide her eggs, and what the Lifebane had done to her as a result. How in the end, she had spared our lives, dying herself in the process. I also relayed her last words and wishes.

By the time we were finished, Nia, of course, was bawling uncontrollably on Maya’s shoulder, and Maya and I were both down on the sand each cradling a huge dragon head in our laps as large salty tears ran down our arms and sunk into the sand below.

“Our mother was evil?” Dawn blubbered weakly.

I stroked her head and tried to wipe some of the tears away. “Dawn, Dusk, the important thing to remember is that she loved you both with all of her heart. Sometimes the lines between good and evil are not always very clear. When I was growing up in Foalshead, my favorite books were adventures where the handsome knight in shining armor rode out alone to vanquish the evil dragon. There was usually a beautiful, swooning princess in there somewhere as well.”

I glanced over at my dark elf maiden. “Well, you’re certainly a beautiful princess, but not the swooning type, I suspect.” She gave me a rude gesture and continued to stroke Dusk’s head and neck. “The point is…I’ve come to see that the knight in shining armor isn’t always the hero of the story. To be fair, many times what others see as a monster is a far nobler creature than any paladin who has ever breathed.”

“Thank you, Alex, you are very kind,” Dusk sniffled plaintively, and then broke down into more sobs, as Maya struggled to comfort her.

I felt absolutely awful. “Girls, again, I am very sorry; and I understand if you are angry or disappointed in me. If there’s anything I can do to…”

“Well, there is one teensy little thing,” Dawn interrupted, rolling her head more to the side so I could better scratch under her chin.

Maya stiffened and glared at her, growling, “Don’t even think about it young lady…err…dragon! It’s not going to happen! He’s mine and only mine!”

“Why, Mistress, I would never suggest anything improper,” Dawn said primly. “I was merely going to mention that Dusk and I are now truly orphans and so very alone in this big, cold, hostile world.”

“You like it cold,” Nia pointed out, as she dried her own tears.

“Ok, but it’s undeniably big and hostile,” the dragon huffed and continued, “Anyway, we were thinking it would be ever-so-nice if you and Maya adopted us like you have Nia.”

“What?…huh?

“And you did promise our dying mother that you would take care of us,” Dusk added with a wet sniffle.

I was momentarily stunned. All I could think to do was to look over at my dark elf. Maya just stared back at me and shrugged. But then a light of understanding came on behind those deep green eyes, and she smirked triumphantly. “You do realize girls that if we adopt you, Alex would become your father. That means you won’t be able to admire his body and chase wantonly after him like you have been doing; it just wouldn’t be right.”

“Oh yes, Mistress, all inappropriate behavior toward Alex…err…our father, would cease immediately!” both dragons chimed back earnestly.

Maya paused, seemingly happy with the answer, but still harbored some suspicions. I could see the wheels turning in her pretty head. Apparently finding no good reason to object, she just looked at me and announced, “It looks like our family just got larger.”

The two dragons instantly turned back into human girls. Without even waiting for their clothes to reform on their bodies, they squealed in delight and flung themselves on Maya, kissing and hugging her until the three of them were all out of breath.

“Thank you, Mom!” they giggled, and then disengaging while their dresses and shoes appeared, they came over and gave me a chaste kiss on the cheek. “Thank you, Father!” Both of them even gave Nia a polite little pat and called her “dearest sister.” When that was done, they looked at each other, laughed insanely and said something in a hissing language I didn’t even remotely understand. After that they hugged each other tightly, danced around a bit more, and then finally started settling down.

Whew! I was speechless; that was not the ending I was expecting. Puzzled, shaken, and confused, I hooked Maya’s arm in my own and began heading back to camp. Looking back at them, I asked, “Are you girls coming?”

Dusk answered shyly, “If it’s alright with you, Father, we would like to stay behind for a little while, change back, and take a nice sand bath on this lovely beach. We will rejoin you shortly, I promise.”

“Um…sure, have fun.”

Walking back with Maya’s head on my shoulder, I said, “That went well. Better than I expected…I think.” Then I heard Nia snickering, which rapidly turned into outright hysterics.

“Alright, half-pint, spill it,” I growled impatiently.

“Mr. Alex, you’re a great guy, but totally clueless,” she giggled. “But then I can’t really blame you, they even had me going for a while there, and pixies are the ultimate tricksters. It went well alright…for them!”

“What are you talking about, Nia? By the stars, I just told them their mother was dead! They’re probably in shock or something.”

“More likely in shock that you gave them everything they wanted. It wouldn’t surprise me if they have a couple bottles of celebratory wine stashed in the underbrush back there.” The pixie chuckled, buzzing around under our noses.

“Nia, what are you talking about?” Maya whispered, starting to get concerned.

“You better sit down. Ok, dragon coursework 101. Dragons may sometimes look like humans, but dragons never think like humans. Their brain is totally wired differently. Alex, you thought we were telling them a heart-rending tale of a mother’s love and sacrifice; and how even though she was evil, her first thought was for her babies, and how sorry you were that you caused her death. You expected them to be unimaginatively sad, because that would be the human reaction to that kind of situation,” Nia paused and took a deep breath.

“You have to remember–they never actually met their mother. They might possibly have been able to identify her by scent, but that’s pretty much it. You don’t get much information in a buried egg. But, Alex, what they heard from you was music to their ears; what they actually perceived was…our mother loved us {check}. Our mother was evil, but in the end she did the right thing by defying the Lifebane {check}. Our mother saved the life of one of the most important people in our lives {check}. Our mother was a hero {double check}! All is well in Dragonville.”

“You’re saying they were faking all that sorrow?” Maya demanded.

“More like they empathized with Alex’s emotions very, very well. Hell, I was crying, too, and I knew it was a scam. Of course, it’s impossible to prove. You do both remember that dragons are really, really smart, right?” Nia smirked. “Besides, Mr. Alex, you may be able to beat down a demon, but you’re helpless in the face of female tears…I learned that the first day I met you!”

I ignored the last jibe, focusing on the main mystery. “But why do they want to be our adopted daughters so badly?” I questioned, my mind still reeling.

“Wait,” Maya blustered, “if they think for one minute that just because they are my daughters they are going to get out of chores and their handmaiden responsibilities, I’ve got news for them!”

“Getting warmer, Mom, but not quite there yet,” Nia said seriously. “They will continue to do those things because they love you, not because they are obligated to do them.

“So why, then?” I pressed.

“One, as your loving daughters, you just presented them the keys to the magic castle which is now their forever home. They’ll prowl around in the underground labyrinths beneath Sky Raven until they find the perfect secret grotto as far away from the lava flows as possible, and they will establish their nest and hoard. Silvers don’t care about gold, gems and treasure much, but they do enjoy gifts and little trinkets that hold memories for them, and many will keep a case or ten of good wine as well. As long as Sky Raven is manned and defended, they will never have to worry about guarding their stash. An additional bonus is that there will always be powerful wizards and great warriors drawn to the fortress, so the ready supply of potential mates is assured.”

“Two, as royals, Dawn and Dusk will no longer be subject to being ordered around by your mother’s nebulia maidens; they can basically tell them to take a hike–a wonderful perk from their standpoint.”

“And last, but not least…bacon!”

“Bacon?” I repeated stupidly, not comprehending.

“Do you remember when we found the girls at your parents’? How scrawny they were? Those two absolutely detest having to go pluck a goat off of a mountain and eat it raw. They would rather starve, and almost did, waiting for you two. My new sisters have developed quite a fondness for bacon. Sky Raven sits atop a major trade route, is close to human farms, and by now, has its own operational portal to most of the planet. Bacon and all the other delicious culinary wonders should always be readily available. All told, there are a lot of advantages from a dragon’s standpoint to being your daughters.”

By this time, Maya and I were leaning on each other laughing; we had been jobbed alright. Maya caught her breath and chuckled.

“Well, at least I got them to leave off chasing Alex out of the deal.”

“Not really, Mom. They know that you two will be married soon and Alex will be permanently off the market, so-to-speak. Besides, it was all just harmless flirting; they are much too devoted to you to actually follow through with anything. So from their perspective, they gave up nothing and got a big return instead.”

“Wow, an amazing analysis, Nia. Tell me again how you got to be such a smart pixie?” I teased.

“Well, Mr. Alex, I figure if I’m going to be the mother of my race someday, I need to work on that whole inscrutable wisdom thing. Speaking of wisdom…as your bodyguard, I think it would be wise if I flew a very wide perimeter sweep of the entire area, just to be on the safe side. I figure that will take me about fifteen minutes of kissy-face time to complete before I get back to this spot and have to take you back to Mingt.”