Vankara (Book 1) (30 page)

When Gabriel and I
walked into my study, we were met by Aleksander and Fallon.  Fallon was
casually slouched in the chair behind my desk with five cards spread out like a
fan in his hands.  Aleksander had pulled one of the wingback chairs up to the
front of the desk at a forty-five degree angle and held a set of cards of his
own.  As soon as Gabriel and I entered the room, Aleksander stood folding his
cards and placing them on top of my desk as he turned to face us.

“He insisted on
staying in here to wait for you,” Fallon explained as we walked further inside
the room.  “I wasn’t about to leave him in here alone.”

“I was simply
waiting for your return so you could give me my promised explanation of last
night’s events,” Aleksander explained.  “Plus, I wanted to congratulate you on
winning the vote this morning.  I thought it was a bit underhanded of Irondale
to put his bill up for vote yesterday without you being present.  I wager he’ll
not mistake you for a weak opponent next time.”

I sat my fox muff
on the small table by the coat rack and began undoing the buttons down the
front of my coat.  The little dragon hiding within the interior of the muff
poked her head out to look at her new surroundings.  With a wave of my hand, I
gently urged her to go back inside before the Chromis king caught sight of her.

“I’m just relieved
we were able to stop it before it was implemented,” I replied.  “You wouldn’t
happen to know what the margin of our win was, do you Aleksander?”

“Eighty percent
voted against Irondale’s bill,” a small ounce of pleasure laced Aleksander’s words,
as though he were proud of my political accomplishment.

I looked to
Gabriel beside me and smiled.  He returned it with a small nod of his head, a
gesture meant to tell me he had never doubted the outcome of the second vote. 
I felt a warmth spread through my chest and knew Queen Emma was smiling down
from the heavens, pleased with my efforts to protect Vankara from those who
would rip away the values of our forefathers.

“You seem to be
awfully well informed about the political comings and goings here, Aleksander,”
Gabriel said, helping me slip my coat from my shoulders and hanging it on the
gold coat rack beside the door.  I picked up the muff and placed my hands
inside it to calm the dragon within.

“A man in my
position needs to be,” Aleksander replied, unrepentant.  “It’s the cautious man
who keeps a watchful eye on his neighbor’s actions.”

When I walked over
to my desk, Fallon rose from my chair but not without a slight grimace of
pain.  It was obvious his wounds hadn’t healed completely but chastising him
about taking care of his health didn’t seem prudent, especially not in front of
Aleksander.  Men can be so fragile when their pride is at stake.

Aleksander retook
his seat in front of my desk just as I sat down.

“Now, can you tell
me what the hell happened yesterday and why you felt it necessary to risk your
life to speak with the fae?”  He asked.

The three of us
told the Chromis king what we thought he should know about the adventure Fallon
and I shared on fae territory.  Almost immediately, Aleksander jumped to the
same conclusion the fae had about vankaran involvement in the plagues and
demanded to know what we intended to do with those at the College for Magical
Sciences for the atrocities they had undoubtedly committed.

“No one else has
the power to conjure magic that strong,” Aleksander said, a stubborn set to his
jaw and fevered pitch to his voice.

“We don’t believe
it was the college,” I held up a hand to stifle the protest I saw about to come
out of Aleksander’s mouth.  “The next logical magical source is Dracen.  I
assume you know who he is.”

“Of course,”
Aleksander said, some of the steam dissipating from his anger.  “But no one has
much information about him.  He’s buried himself inside that damn mountain for
so long I began to think maybe he didn’t really exist at all.  It wasn’t until
he sent you those automatons we all knew for certain he was still alive.  And
since he still sends you some on occasion the assumption has to be he still
lives.”

“Inara is readying
the airship as we speak,” I informed him.  “I plan to go see Dracen myself and
confront him with what we know.  If he isn’t the source of the plagues, then
perhaps he knows who might be the real culprit.”

“I insist on
coming with you,” Aleksander said.

“I agree.  I think
you should come,” I replied.  I saw both Gabriel and Fallon look at me with
harsh disapproval.

“I believe it
might be a good idea to have an outsider there with us,” I told them.  “If
Aleksander was so quick to believe our college was responsible for the plagues,
it stands to reason the leaders of the other nations will come to the same
conclusion just as readily.  We need someone unbiased to observe our efforts to
find the truth.  Think of him as our witness in case we need to defend
ourselves to the rest of the world.”

It took most of
the day to organize supplies and to clear my schedule of my queenly duties. 
None of us thought it prudent to inform parliament of what we were doing. 
Gabriel came up with a frivolous story that I was escorting the King of Chromis
on a tour of the country while he was our guest.  It was a thin lie but no one
questioned it.  Since Aleksander had made no efforts to conceal his interest in
marrying me, I hoped people would consider our trip a normal part of the
courtship, a time for us to be alone and get to know one another better.

The hardest part
for me was leaving Dena for such a long period of time.  We would probably be
gone for at least four days, most of that spent traveling back and forth.  I
felt sure the time would pass quickly for me but for a child Dena’s age it
would probably feel as though I had abandoned her forever, which, I had to
concede, could turn out to be true.

Although Gabriel
believed Dracen to be innocent of causing the plagues, I had to consider the
real possibility the sorcerer was a murderer and had possibly gone insane from
living alone for so long.  If he was, I wasn’t sure any of us would make it out
of Ledmarrow Mountain alive.  Dracen was thought to be the most magically
powerful person in the world.  Would such a man, especially if he was a
homicidal maniac, allow us to leave with the knowledge of his sins?  Not
likely.

After Emily helped
me pack a trunk full of clothes to be loaded onto the airship, I spent the rest
of my time playing with Dena alone in her room.  She had fallen absolutely in
love with the dragonling and I knew the young dragon returned her affections
unabashedly.  I’m not sure how I knew at the time but I felt certain I was
channeling my own feelings into the dragonling and vice versa.  The love and
protectiveness I felt towards Dena was mirrored by the young dragon.  In
return, I knew when she was happy and sad, playful and sleepy, or bored and excited. 
The direct link of emotions between us made me uneasy.  If the dragon could
channel such a primeval sense of my soul, what else could it do to me or with
me?

Late in the
afternoon, there was a gentle knock on Dena’s door.

“Your majesty,
we’re ready,” I heard Gabriel say from the other side.

I looked at Dena
and saw her blue eyes stare at me as if she knew I were about to leave her
again.  I brought her into my arms just as the dragonling jumped from Dena’s
lap and climbed up to its favorite spot on my shoulder.  Dena’s arms went
around my waist and practically squeezed the breath from my lungs.

“Mummy, don’t go.”

I felt the sting
of guilt inside my chest as if a large stone had been slammed against my
heart.  I hugged Dena back reassuringly.

“I won’t be gone
for long, my love,” I promised.  “Emily will take care of you while I’m away
and I promise to not go anywhere else for a long, long time.”

I felt Dena start
to tremble in my arms and knew she was crying.  I leaned away from her slightly
and put a finger under her chin to make her look up at me.  Her eyes were like
an ocean, blue and filled with the salty water of tears.

I leaned down and
kissed her cheeks and trembling lips.

“I love you,” I
told her.  “And I promise I will be back.”

I held Dena in the
secure folds of my arms until Gabriel rapped on the outside of the door once
more asking if anything was wrong. 

Reluctantly, I let
Dena go and coaxed the little dragonling inside the fox muff.  As I stood to
walk out the door, I couldn’t help but feel a since of foreboding.  I tried to
discount it as simply the uncertainty of how my talk with Dracen would turn
out, but I felt a warning deep within the marrow of my bones that my trip would
not have a happy ending.

The voyage to Ledmarrow Mountain seemed like it would never end.  Aleksander and Fallon played cards most
of the time.  The card game seemed more like a test of manhood than merely a
game of chance and circumstance.  I got the uneasy feeling the two would have
much preferred trading sword blows instead of poker chips. 

Gabriel and I both
read books to while away the long hours.  I kept the dragonling inside my
bedroom for most of the trip, not wanting Aleksander to know about her yet. 
The young dragon seemed content to stay in the room and didn’t try to follow me
when I left.  I think she sensed my need for her to stay a secret and obliged
my wishes.

Aleksander seemed pleased
in the fact he had been allowed on the excursion.  He didn’t openly make any
romantic passes towards me while we were in the company of my two protectors
but there were times I caught him staring at me with a longing which spoke of
how much he wished we were alone.  It wasn’t hard to temper my reaction to him
by reminding myself of the dangerous and important mission we were set on. 

None of us talked
much about what we would do once we reached Dracen’s home but I knew we were
all silently contemplating the outcome of our fact finding mission. 

On the first night
of our journey, I had a dream which seemed more real to me than things I knew
to be true.  I was standing on top of a snow capped mountain.  The sun was
shining so brightly its reflection against the pure white snow causing me to
shade my eyes with a hand as I surveyed the mountain range around me.  A pair
of strong arms encircled my waist from behind.  I closed my eyes and leaned
back against the man behind me.  My heart swelled with love for him.  Just as I
was about to turn into his embrace I woke up, not seeing his face. 

The dream seemed
almost like a memory but not one of my own.  Could it have been one from Queen
Emma?  If it was, who had the man been?  If only I had been able to see his
face I would have known who it was she loved so much.

We reached Ledmarrow Mountain at the end of the second day of our voyage.  I wasn’t sure how Inara
kept the ship floating in the air considering the gale force winter winds
surrounding the mountainous terrain we had to pass through.

Ledmarrow Mountain was at the center of a mountain range which was five miles in diameter.  Being
the tallest of the snow capped mountains surrounding it, Ledmarrow was
considered almost impossible to get to for any normal person.  Situated at the
most Northern tip of Vankara, the temperature in the area never reached above
freezing.  Dracen, a hermit by choice, had selected his fortress of solitude
well.

Strangely enough,
the air at the top of Ledmarrow was calm, like the eye of a hurricane, allowing
Inara to land the airship on top of the mountain safely.  Gabriel said Dracen
had cast a spell which leeched the strength from the wind in the spot to power
some of the devices in his home.

As we all began to
don our thickest outer coats, Gabriel said, “Let me go in first.  I know him
well and would like the opportunity to speak with him in private.”

“Why, so you can
warn him?” Aleksander asked in an accusing voice.

“Yes,” Gabriel
admitted freely.  “I’ve known him for a very long time.  I owe him that much.” 
Gabriel looked to me.  “With your permission, your majesty?”

I nodded my head
causing Aleksander to start shaking his in disappointment.

“You may go
Gabriel, but don’t keep us waiting.”

“Where exactly is
the door to where he lives?” Fallon asked as he peered out the windows at the
snow covered rocky terrain outside.

Gabriel pointed to
a lone rock standing some two hundred yards from where the airship had landed. 
It was at least twenty feet high and ten feet wide.

“The door is there
but very few have the ability to open it.  Dracen cast a spell to only allow
those he knows entrance.”

“So there’s a door
in the rock?” Fallon asked.

“Yes, there is a
passage way.  If you are one of the few Dracen trust, all you have to do is
touch the rock and the passage will show itself,” Gabriel told us with a last
tug on his black leather gloves.

“I will return for
you shortly,” he said, making his way out of the ship’s cabin.

We all watched
expectantly as Gabriel trudged through the two foot snow drift coming to stand
in front of the rock.  He reached his hand out and dusted away a small portion
of the snow on the boulder to press his gloved hand firmly against the rock
face.

The snow encasing
the rock began to melt away and a lighted passageway seemed to appear out of
thin air.

“Magic,”
Aleksander said dubiously.  “Can’t say I’ve ever trusted it.”

Inara came into
the cabin just then with her cheeks a rosy hue from the chilly elements.  She
was dressed in her brown leather uniform with only a thin brown woolen cape for
added protection.

“I thought we were
supposed to all go in together,” she said, looking at me expectantly for an
answer.

“Gabriel wanted
some time alone with Dracen first,” I explained.