The Dragon' Son (26 page)

“I don’t want fame or honor or notoriety or any of that fancy stuff that those fancy men who sit in fancy seats offer. I just want a place to stay and a healer,” he mumbled to himself, tugging at the girl’s horse. “Just take her to her family and leave. ”

After some time of riding down the twisting streets, past endless rows of market houses and stands, magnificent white buildings came into sight, surrounding a castle inside another wall: the King’s palace.

“Is your house among one of these?” Keegan asked kindly, but he was becoming quite annoyed at all the people pausing to give Annaka attention.

“Yes. It is,” Annaka answered absentmindedly as she waved at some more children.

“Which one is yours?” Keegan asked. “I need more directions.”

Annaka sat up straight, completely focused on Keegan. “Oh, well, umm… it is one near the wall,” she stuttered nervously. “Near the palace wall,” she added quickly with a gesture toward the walled- in castle with white and gold flags flying from its towers and hanging from its walls.

“Yes. But which house specifically?” Keegan asked.

Annaka waved her hand forward. “Just keep going. I will direct you,” she said. “It is very complicated to explain.”

Keegan glanced at the castle and let his eyes pause on the flags. “Are there normally so many flags flying? Is there something being celebrated?” he asked.

“Oh, yes! The King has found his elder brother’s children, two daughters, and has brought them to live with him. The eldest is to be his successor,” Annaka explained enthusiastically.

Keegan glanced back at Annaka briefly with a feeling of suspicion beginning to grow inside of him. “A woman is to be a king’s successor? Why not the Queen in that case?” he asked. Something about this sounded familiar, but he could not place what it was.

“The Queen does not wish to take over leadership unless necessary. Besides that, the Princess is the eldest daughter of the eldest son. So, as you see, she has first right to the throne,” Annaka answered calmly.

Keegan's gut began to knot involuntarily, and he searched his memory. “What is this Princess' name?” Keegan asked suspiciously as his mind rested on the memory of the princess he had saved in the forest.

“Erewhon is her name. Isn’t it such a lovely name?” Annaka praised.

Keegan jerked himself upright looking straight ahead toward the palace walls. “She has a sister, correct?” he asked, looking back at Annaka.

A large, ornery smile spread across Annaka’s face. “Of course! Didn’t I just say as much?” she chided.

Somehow, Walneff’s comment about Keegan having a smart brain but not using it, hit home for Keegan rather suddenly. “How did I get into this?” Keegan asked himself very quietly as he slumped on Ardor's back.

“The Princess Annaka has returned!” echoed a voice from atop the palace walls.

Keegan halted Ardor abruptly and brought Annaka up beside him. “You know the way back. I suggest--,” he started but was promptly cut off.

“You cannot leave now! Especially now that the guard has seen you!” Annaka protested. “Please, take me inside, and don’t be afraid,” she reached out and placed her hand on Keegan’s arm reassuringly.

The gates began to creak open, and three armored horsemen with stern faces began to gallop toward them. Keegan shifted uneasily on Ardor, who, sensing his rider’s nervousness, laid back his ears and began to stomp his hooves defensively.

“They will escort us in. I won’t let anything happen to you. I just want my uncle to meet you,” Annaka said quietly. “And I will be certain that my family will provide the services I promised earlier: lodgings and a healer.”

Keegan looked at Annaka and sighed, trying to remain calm and composed. “I will hold you to that, you devious thing,” he said.

Annaka grinned and sat up straight in her seat, exclaiming, “I expect you to!”

The horsemen galloped past, circled around, and came up behind them. Ardor snorted, laid back his ears, and stomped a warning to the horsemen.

Keegan checked Ardor and took a firm hold of the reins. “Walk on,” he spoke firmly to the horse.

Ardor walked forward, keeping his ears back, but as the horsemen closed in more tightly behind them, the annoyed stallion picked up speed and moved into a trot. They trotted under the palace gate with one horseman behind them and one on either side. As they emerged into the light on the other side of the gate, the shock of recognition slowly came over Keegan as he took in the sight of the palace yards.

Surrounded by stone pavement, a lush garden stood in the center of a massive courtyard. Scattered across the garden were trees with white bark and soft pink blossoms, some of which floated lazily to a soft blanket of grass beneath the trees, exactly as they had done in Keegan’s dream of the Princess.

On the other side of the garden, opposite of Keegan and closer to the castle, a large fountain bubbled peacefully, offering water to a flock of white doves. At the sound of the horses’ hooves clipping against the stone pavement, the doves took to the air and flew up to the heights of the castle towers. Keegan’s eye followed the white birds for a moment until a figure leaning out of a high window caught his attention. The figure had long golden hair that shone in the dying light of day, and a white dress seemed to illuminate her features by reflecting the sunlight onto her beautiful face. The sunlight also glistened in her eyes, which Keegan could tell were locked onto him. The figure turned and quickly disappeared from the window.

To his surprise, as it dawned on him who the woman was, Keegan’s stomach jumped into his throat. The figure watching him had been Princess Erewhon.

Chapter 14: In The King’s Castle

Erewhon tapped her quill pen on a blank scroll, raising her eyes to the open window across the table. Unable to concentrate, she laid the pen down on the table and sighed impatiently, “Annaka has been gone for far too long. Where is she?”

Since her capture in the woods on her voyage to Elinralis, she had become very distrustful and wary, not to mention continually anxious for Annaka’s safety. She warned herself that she was going to become like her aunt and turn into a tired old worrywart if she did not relax, but no matter how she tried, she could not forget the traumatic experience in the woods. Erewhon stood from her chair and began to pace the room. Uninvited memories flashed across her mind of the dead woman who had betrayed her and had threatened Annaka and of the man who had died with a knife in his back moments after threatening to kill her.

She paused her pacing as unpleasant memories instantly gave way to the memory of the young man who had rescued her. He had swept down on her enemies with such drive that it had shocked her. The fire in his eyes when facing off with her short-term captor had been passionate and powerful, to say the least. His willingness to save her and protect her was perhaps only equaled by her uncle’s knights. In fact, as she reflected on the memory, hate would be the perfect word to describe the fire of passion in the young man’s eyes, and it made her glad that his hatred had not been directed toward her.

She slowly walked over to the window and sat on the sill as she thought back to the moment when she looked down into his eyes, his deep, intense blue eyes that seemed to hold the stars inside them. They were full of strength and resolve yet had a deep longing and pain in them. Such a deep pain that the longing she saw could only be described as a deep desire for revenge of some sort to ease that pain. Even more so, his eyes had held some great mystery behind them: something so amazing and secret, that she could find no words to describe what she saw. Perhaps if she could have looked into his eyes longer, then she could have understood this mystery. Another surprise was that he had caught on to her ability to read eyes and thus diverted his away from her. In her mind, he was a truly fascinating man.

“Keegan...” she quietly echoed his name as she looked down at the courtyard garden below.

The beautiful pink blossom trees in the garden continually reminded her of Keegan. The night after he had rescued her, she had dreamed of him in a forest of trees exactly like those below. In the dream, she had been dancing with Annaka before she noticed him. He had just been standing there, staring at her curiously with a soft glow in his eyes. Before the dream ended, she tried to ask him what great secret he held, but a strange, invisible barrier blocked her voice from reaching him. She would have contentedly stood there and stared at him forever, but a voice made her wake to the real world--the world of petitions that she must learn to answer correctly, a world of problems that she must solve, a world of endless reading, hearing, writing, talking, answering, silencing, endless scrolls to read of past court history, and never ending letter writing to royals and peasants that she must now do. She woke from a perfectly peaceful dream to a world of nightmarish tediousness.

Erewhon closed her eyes as she felt her chest tighten at the thought of all her responsibilities. She breathed slowly and tried to clear her mind of all her anxiety. Her thoughts tried to turn back to Keegan, but she shook her head determinedly. “No! No more thinking about this young man,” she told herself as she stood and began to pace the room again with erect posture and determined strides. “What a waste of time it is to dwell on a man. A man, I might add, that you do not know. Are there not better things to fill your mind with than memories of a young man? You have duties great and small to attend. There is simply no time to think about a stranger that intrigues you!” She folded her hands as she paced the room, envisioning herself speaking to a room full of nobles with a queenly air of superiority and confidence. “The time for pleasantries is over. It is time to rise up and do what we were put in this high office for: to ensure serenity and harmony in the kingdom and provide for the common defense. We were not put into the positions we are in now to lord over others, to ease our wants, or to appease our selfish desires. We were put here for a single purpose: to serve.” She paused at her chair and rested her hands on the back of it, gripping it firmly. “We are nobles, not because we deserve such a ranking, but because we are servants of the people. Such a task should not be taken lightly.” She sat down and leaned back in her chair, trying to bring her mind back under submission.

“The Princess Annaka has returned!” boomed the announcement outside, startling Erewhon. She lost her balance in the chair, and they both fell to the floor with a loud clatter.

A soft knock sounded at the door just then. “My lady? Is everything all right?” a soft voice asked from the other side of the door.

Erewhon rested her hand on her chest and rolled her eyes heavenward, trying to slow her quaking heart. “Get a grip, Erewhon. Really, this is embarrassing,” she whispered to herself.

The door opened slowly, and a dark haired woman poked her head in with a look of curiosity, “My lady?”

Erewhon sighed and dropped her hands to her side. “Come in, Thailla. I am all right. I’m just making a fool of myself, as normal,” she said as she stooped and grabbed the chair.

Thailla walked in and moved to help Erewhon with the chair. “Then I assume you heard the guard’s call?” she asked as the two of them set the chair aright.

Erewhon nodded. “Yes, I did,” she replied.

The sound of soldiers running about and horse hooves clattering in the courtyard put both women on the alert. Erewhon turned toward the window to see three armed horsemen leave the gate.

“What is this?” she asked. “What is the cause for alarm?”

“I will inquire of the guard,” Thailla said as she moved back toward the door and out into the hall beyond.

Erewhon leaned out of her window, straining to see what could be taking place beyond the palace gate. She could see shadows approaching the gate, and as they did, a strange feeling began to stir in Erewhon’s chest. The two shadows in the center of the group began to take on familiar shapes. One she was certain was Annaka on her horse, but the other shadow, though familiar, confused Erewhon. Thailla came back into the room just as the group of horses walked out from under the gate and into the light, allowing Erewhon to clearly make out all of the riders.

Shock bolted through Erewhon, and a gasp escaped her. “No! It can’t be!” she whispered.

“My lady?” Thailla asked with concern.

Erewhon leaned further out of the window, planting her hands firmly on the stone sill so she could focus her eyes on the riders. Annaka was certainly with them, showing no sign of dismay or alarm, but the man that guided her horse from atop his own beautiful golden steed was none other than Keegan. He held Annaka’s horse with a steady hand, but his posture reflected that he was uneasy. He twisted his head around, taking in a quick scope of the area until he looked up to her window. He paused; his eyes were riveted to her.

Erewhon stared on for a moment longer until she realized that he was staring at her in return. She ducked back inside the window and moved away from it.

Thailla moved forward and took Erewhon’s arm gently. “My lady? You are shaken! Whatever is the matter?” she asked.

Erewhon gripped Thailla’s hand. “That is the young man who saved me,” she replied.

“Saved you?” Thailla asked, glancing at the window. “You mean the fellow who rescued you and returned you to the knighted escort when we were en route to Elinralis?”

Erewhon frowned. “Returned me to the escort? Hardly! The jerk left me standing alone on the highway!” she said.