Chapter Eight
The Bond
Falco stood beside me as we walked back to the cottage. He struggled with what he faced before him. His temper rose.
“This makes no sense, Kela! At one time I thought I kept hearing your call, but reasoned it couldn’t be. I don’t understand the need for all of this. We will, of course, bring you back. You can’t stay here.”
He walked through the door of the quaint cottage that had been my home. He glanced over at the small pad in the corner. “What is this?”
I hesitated, embarrassed, for I had to admit all in front of Cono.
"It’s where I sleep, but come, Gunilda will want to see you,” I said, trying, for at least a moment, to change the subject. They had come. It would be enough to leave this place.
“No, wait, Kela; I want to know all. Why are you here? What did you do?” Falco demanded. He grabbed my arm, giving me pause.
“I don’t know, Falco,” I whispered. “Except Twiten told me I had to train to become the Euchoun they hoped. It is all I know. It is all I have clung to. Poor Gunilda has been dealt with harshly by being torn from Sareta, Falco. I’ve had no dealings with the king. I haven’t seen him since that night in his chambers when the Arachnid attacked.”
“You know nothing since? It has well been over four years,” Cono asked. He kicked the bed I slept in. He bent down, disgusted with such. “Have you not even a blanket?”
“Gunilda is cold,” I said.
Falco, visibly shaken with the scene before him, thought for a moment. “I blame myself, Kela. I should have better listened. When Grandfather told me of your death, I should have known, for I had seen his feelings.”
“His feelings?”
He swallowed hard and shook his head. “I’m not quite certain, but I picked up upon he believes you are weak, your Witheleghean half. He wanted you strong, unflinching. He does not know you as I. But how does this? Unless….”
“Brother, I don’t understand,” I answered.
Falco eyed his sister. He shook his head. “Nothing. I’m trying to make sense where there isn’t any. Why keep you from me? I have grown to know Grandfather well. He has his reasons, which I’m certain he feels are for the best.”
“Best?” I pressed my lips together in manner to contain myself. All these years apart! How could they been for the best?
“I will find out. Now, though, we celebrate! For we are together again, never to be parted,” Falco declared.
I had never been to a feast before but Sareta called for a generous supper laid upon a large table within the Forbidden Castle. The hall lit brightly with candles and a fire mended. Smiling broadly, I ate, happier than I had been since I could remember. Sareta sat next to me, holding my hand, afraid I would disappear. Completing all that I had never stopped loving, Turstan sat across from me. Johannes and Cono sat at the far end next to Twiten, who had appeared, allowing for the celebration to the fullest.
My heart warmed as the fire that burned brightly. Gunilda glowed sitting on the other side of Sareta. Her eyes brimmed with merriment, for she had her child next to her; it was evident also that the small one had missed her nurse.
“I’ll talk with Grandfather, Kela. I’m certain he didn’t mean this to happen. If he’s worried about such, I can cover all. I will tell him,” Sareta gave her sister a glowing smile. “He must not know how it is for you. He has given me all. I will…”
“You have done plenty, my little sister. If you ever attempt such an action again,” Falco interrupted. “It was Sareta herself that weakened Johannes’s shield around her. She wanted Amicia to see her sheen.”
“I wanted only for her to see it for a moment!” Sareta exclaimed.
“A moment was all it took,” Falco reprimanded his youngest sister. “All know that you are Witheleghean. You have to expect the Hallow Minions to be in wait for an opportunity.”
“Can she not protect herself from the Minions?” I asked in earnest.
“Most definitely. She has put it off too long as it is. Grandfather is setting aside time for Twiten to show her,” Falco offered, glancing over at Gunilda. “And of course, our dear Gunilda.”
“I’m to return?” Gunilda’s old tired face beamed with the prospect.
“It is what seems the best course of action at the moment. At least for a time,” Twiten said. “My attention has been redirected by King Edulf, which includes ensuring Princess Sareta’s safety. King Edulf feels it could mean that Asmeodai is making a move.”
Sareta turned to me, her irritation of the dark conversation clearly seen in her face. “Sister, I have been wondering of what you’re wearing. I can’t sit by and let you sit at the table in such.”
Before I could blink my eyes, I sat in a magnificent bejeweled gown, rose colored, soft against my skin. My hands reached to my hair, twisted upward in fashion. I could feel slippers, comfortable against my toes. I glanced over and found Cono smiling at me; obviously he liked what he saw, but the moment dissipated quickly for Twiten interceded.
“Princess Sareta, I must protest. In all, I realize your happiness in finding your sister, but we aren’t at court. She isn’t a lady in waiting. She is a Euchoun. She needs not the luxury which surrounds you. To face the dangers that awaits her, she can’t…”
Immediately I saw the fear in my sister’s eyes for me. I tightened my hold on her hand and lied, “I’m fine, little sister. I have all I need. Truly, my happiness lies in fulfilling my destiny so designed. I’m touched, thank you, but I have no use for such a gown. Not here.”
She waved her tiny hand over me and frowned. “I don’t see the harm.”
Neither did I, but Twiten had allowed me to see the family kept from me. I pressed not.
“Would it harm her to have slippers for her feet?”
I glanced up. Johannes spoke under his breath. I had never heard Johannes speak to Twiten in that manner. Twiten nodded and Sareta smiled brightly, lighting up the whole of the room. A moment later I had slippers upon my feet.
In that moment, though, a sensation swept through me. I was not like my siblings. In an action of kindness, pity, I had been humiliated. I had never remembered ever being as embarrassed by my appearance. The joy surrounding me edged way to a sudden feeling of self-pity I had never encountered before.
I looked up to find Cono’s eyes on me. Those eyes didn’t seem to leave me all night. Did I disgust him? I wondered. Was he telling himself if I had listened to him none of this would have happened? I didn’t know. I sat back the rest of the evening and listened, exchanging looks with Johannes. He held within him the same questions as I. The talk had been to bring Gunilda back for Sareta. Yet I stayed within my rags.
That night, I lay in my room at the castle at the far end away from everyone else. I could find no sleep. I rose from my bed. I needed air. I left the castle without a word to anyone.
The trail back to the cottage was well worn, but a long walk. I cared not. I needed the time. The sounds of the forest surrounded me, sounds that now I found comfort in. Suddenly overhead a shadow appeared, silhouetting the ground beneath me from the moonlight. I looked up as I climbed over a small rocky hill, wondering who was leaving the castle.
In the moonlight, his wings spread wide over the cloudless sky. He circled overhead. My eyes lay mesmerized upon the Sordarin who within moments landed before me. He did not say a word at first. He just stood there: too close, too tall, too dark. He smiled at me.
“Are you heading somewhere?” Cono smiled a wide, arrogant grin.
“Should you not be back at the castle with everyone?” I said. “My destination is not your concern. Now, please go along with your flight. I have no intentions of detaining you.”
“You’re not.” He reached out and touched my face. I recoiled. I have never been touched in that manner for any reason. “I have waited for this opportunity to talk with you without everyone’s ears.” He paused for a moment,
glancing down at my bare feet. “The slippers weren’t comfortable?”
My eyes flamed. To be ridiculed! I stepped around him. His arm halted my progression.
"You walk unprotected in the dead of night?”
“You don’t know me well,” I answered blandly. “I’m not afraid. Of what? There is no one here to do me harm. And even if there were, why would someone try to harm me?”
“I can think of a few reasons.” His eyes glanced over me in a way that made color rush to my cheeks, happy at least the night’s dim light hid my embarrassment.
I faced him in the night. “I can well take care of myself. I have been trained well.”
“In that, I don’t question.” His head tilted to hold to my eyes I had tried to divert. He looked upward. “It is a grand night for a flight. Do you not think?”
“In that, I wouldn’t know.”
“Then it is time to find out.”
Without another utterance, his arms rounded me and upward he soared. My arms instinctually clutched his neck. He laughed heartily. “It is better than blasting at me. Much better.”
At first I dug my head into his chest. I closed my eyes and faced the wind. Oh, the taste of what freedom! Slowly I opened my eyes. I drank in the feeling, the sight, and the remembrance of once before flying high in the sky with the one that held me. I wanted it to go on forever, for the Sordarin warrior who held me to bring me out of Forbidden Forest. Instead he lit upon the cliffs high above the forest.
His arms released me and I stood along the edge. So tiny, all beneath my gaze seemed. Oh, the beauty. I turned to find his eyes dancing upon me. The anger igniting within me only moments before dissipated.
“Thank you,” I uttered. “This is so beautiful.”
“It is,” he agreed. He stepped closer to me, so close I could feel his breath upon my neck.
His arms rounded me, pressing my face to his. My lips pulsed beneath his touch. My whole body did from his proximity and gaze. I gritted my teeth. What was I doing acting like a fool! His dark eyes considered me. They lured me. Their color deepened. He smiled vaguely.
He looked handsome with the moonlit highlighting him in the darkness. I had no time to consider my situation when he lowered his head. His lips touched mine delicately and kissed me softly. His lips lingered a moment, rested only an extra instant. He cupped the nape of my neck with his strong hand and kissed me again. This time, I responded back.
My body trembled with his touch, his kiss, his closeness. His kiss provoked something inside of me that caused me to forget for a moment all around me. When he broke from me, I stared up at him in shock. I would have stepped back further but his arms held me tightly.
“I don’t want you to fall.”
My eyes widened with fascination of the depth of feeling he evoked within me. Finally, however, I realized he was playing with me.
“Let go,” I said. “You may do this often. But I will not be treated such. I may look as though…”
He shook his head. Then he kissed me again. “I have never done this before, nor wanted to with anyone else. I told you I wanted to talk with you. I want to understand all that you have been through for the last four years. It may well have been four years, but I remember well the power surging through you. And, in all, it may show conceit, but I believe well that you are stronger with me by your side.”
“I don’t understand what you are saying.”
"I’m saying I witnessed a Euchoun almost destroy the entire Royal Unit with one blast when I touched her. I fought alongside of her when she helped destroy an Arachnidean leader. I have dreamed of a girl in a mist for years. I have felt a pull toward something I couldn't explain until I saw you when you saved your sister. Did you not hear me when I called to you? I did not speak a word, but you heard me. Didn’t you?”
I stared strangely at him; I nodded only. I had heard the words and trusted him. “I did, but, in all, Cono, I know all I have been trained to do. Your words…Johannes says that I’m too naïve. I will not be used. I know what my purpose is and will complete it…”
“With me.”
“With you?”
“Kela, can you not understand? From the beginning it was you and I. Within you now, even though your words say different, you do not fear me.” His hand caressed my face. “No, you don’t fear me. You feel the pull, the call within us. Us. Kela, we are bonded and have always.”
“Bonded? With you? You want to be bonded with a girl? I know of no other who would want such except my brother. Johannes thought perchance I was to battle alone…,” My voice faded, for he shook his head.
He reached down and took my hand in his. He brought it to his lips and kissed it. “You have a power within you that few have seen. With following you within the tunnel that night, the blast when we retrieved you, and if the legends hold to be true, it will be needed. Do you doubt me?”
“I know of no other bonds that find one in another’s arms.”
“In that, I’ll admit. It may play that I should keep my hands off of you, but in that also Kela, I feel drawn to you as I have never been drawn before. Tell me you don’t feel it also.”
“How am I to compare?”
“Then I take it as a yes. I don’t want you comparing. Not Johannes?”
The question took me by surprise. “He is my friend only.”
“Good. I want your eyes only on me,” he laughed. “This is good, but beware, Kela. I have not the best of tempers and my patience is non-existent at times. I put nothing in front of my mission. Nothing.”
“Neither do I.”
His hand found my face again. “In this, I know we are to fight together, be together, Kela. I don’t know why King Edulf has hidden you for these years. I don’t know why, but I do know that we are going to the Payelaga Desert. I want you there with me.”
“How? Openly flaunting…”
"I have thought of it. Johannes is going with Falco. He can help. I will take you there as my page. No one will question me. You will be beside me without question and we will see where all leads. Are you ready to meet your destiny, Kela?”
“Yes,” I said.
My life changed from that moment. No longer was I alone in the world. Cono’s words touched me, for within me the truth was made known. In all, I know that I hold not much knowledge of the world outside my existence, but Cono lived within me. I told him not my revelation. For although I trusted his word, I betrayed not my heart.
Twiten cautioned me when Cono made his intentions known to Twiten that I was to be by his side. Twiten wasn’t certain of the connection, of which I had no doubt.
“He lacks not in confidence. He has never, but Kela, you have to be aware that many will try to influence you.”
Twiten walked with me no more than a week after, a week that had been filled every day, every waking moment with Cono. There had been no more kisses or promises made in the dead of night, but I read in his eyes as he did mine.
“Is he not the greatest Sordarin warrior?” I asked and knew well the answer. “Would it not be logical that I would bond with one such as he? Who else? My brother has bonded with Johannes. Surely, you have to believe I’m to bond.”
“I do not believe that any can dive or soar as Cono. No, in all, I will concede his prowess in battle. He is an outstanding fighter, but he has offended seasoned warriors with his confidence. I am certain he could defeat almost anyone in single combat.”
“I see not the problem. How long do you plan to hold me back? You hesitated not with Johannes. Am I not stronger?”
“We cannot make a mistake here, Kela. It could prove fatal.”
I laughed. “Are you scared, Twiten? Where is your faith, faith in the Great One? You have taught me for well over four years. Cono feels the pull, as do I.”
“Perchance, pardon my frankness, but the pull you feel has nothing to do with being Euchoun,” he said soundly…bluntly.
My eyes flamed, as did my face. “Explain yourself
quickly, Twiten, because I will not be insulted in this manner. I have sacrificed, denied my birthright to become what I was born to do. Do not question me!”
His eyes met mine without anger. “It is not you, Kela, I question. True, there is not another warrior with the skills he possesses. And yes, you have trained but in that training you have been sheltered from the world. Cono is an ambitious man, my dear. I hold only to your interest.
“Even with your brother, King Edulf has had to tread softly. After your father died, the old traditionalists seemed content with the way all had emerged when King Edulf married again. The prior queen hadn’t been accepted readily. Many felt that Queen Althea hadn’t been the proper wife for King Edulf. With Prince Archibaldus becoming the heir apparent, the tribes accepted without question his lineage to rule.
“But with the rules of lineage, Prince Falco holds the direct line. Make no doubt, Kela, that your brother has had his own difficulties to face, but over time he has emerged from the shadow of your grandfather. In all, it takes time to learn to rule. One may know how to fight, but not how to rule; how to train a unit of men for battle, but not how to bend a man to his will. The king feels his course is set to become a great leader.
“But within the court, one has to have their eyes on all. Acknowledge the deeds of the brave, but in a blink of an eye, the brave can turn to an arrogance of believing they, too, have been chosen. It would be a clash, pitting you against your own when we have a greater evil to defeat.”
I stared at him confused. “What are you telling me, Twiten? That Cono is a traitor?”
“No, I’m saying there are those that hold to their own ambitions and it might be said that of Cono. It has been long prophesized at his birth that he was born to be a great ruler one day. His grandmother believes it is Scarladin.”
Shaking my head severely, I said gravely, “I have held my faith to you, Twiten, but in this you are sadly mistaken. There is no other as loyal to Scarladin than Cono. How dare you question him! Do you not believe I know my brother? I may not have seen him for over four years, but if there was an issue, Falco would detect such.”
“Black magic could shield Falco from his gift.”
“You are wrong, Twiten. Cono saved Grandfather. Falco says he has shown his bravery time and time again. How dare you!” My unquestioned faith in Cono exploded at Twiten.
“I want only to caution you. You are right. Cono has never exhibited any signs of deceit. In all…the prophesy could have only foretold his bonding with you,” Twiten said. His hand pulled at his long gray beard as he did when he pondered a situation.
“Cono said he felt from the first the power, the bond.”
Twiten tilted his head to me and nodded. “Perhaps…perhaps. I will think upon it.”
Within the next week, preparations were made. I was to go with Cono to the battle front. Twiten acknowledged we were bonded. I had never felt so alive.