Bricrui (The Forgotten: Book 2) (13 page)

Nathan’s reception was only slightly warmer,
out of the prying eyes and ears of the patrons of the tavern.
Unlike Jasper; he was somewhat more at ease.

“Aye, I remember them,” he confirmed when
they asked if he had sold items to a visiting lord with a young
lady on his arm. “Lord said they’d be traveling a while and he
bought a bunch of items, including some real rare stuff I get from
the Ferryn Plains shipped down here. Lord Farthen likes me to carry
it, but he’s usually the only one who buys it.”

“Any idea where they were headed?”

“Only that they were traveling south, but
since there’s only one road that goes that direction for some ways,
it’s possible you could still catch them before they branch out to
wherever they’re headed.”

“Thank you,” Sir Ruawn acknowledged
hurriedly, and they left the store.

“We need to leave immediately,” Natalya
announced excitedly.

“Indeed,” the Knight agreed, but was
reserved. “But I believe we also need to get these documents to the
King and Queen as soon as possible and let them know what we’ve
found.” He nodded once to himself in decision. “I will send several
men to deliver the documents while the majority of us make haste
after the quarry.”

That decided, they hurriedly made the proper
arrangements to deliver the documents and news of what they had
discovered at the castle to the monarchs and set out to track down
Lord Morven and her sister.

She was so close now. She could feel it.

*

Layna blinked sleepily awake, turning her
head to find Gryffon snuggled up next to her, his face peaceful and
happy in sleep. The lines of worry that had creased his countenance
of late smoothed by slumber. She stroked his cheek softly and he
moved under her touch, turning his head to kiss her fingertips.

“Morning, beautiful,” he mumbled sleepily,
without opening his eyes.

“How can you call me beautiful without even
seeing me?” she asked jokingly, “I just woke up, I’m probably a
mess.”

“You’re always beautiful,” he replied,
burrowing his face into the crook of her neck. He kissed her neck
up to her lips and reminded her with his mouth how much she loved
him.

Eventually, they had to leave their blissful
sanctuary, though Layna felt that she would like to snuggle back up
in the covers and never come out. She pulled on her clothing for
the day and met Gryffon in the outer portion of their living
quarters where the servants already had breakfast laid out for
them.

She picked up a pastry from the tray and
thought back to her days as a maid. Not so long ago, it would have
been her waking early to make sure that food was put out at the
exact right time, drooling over delicacies she never dreamed of
having herself.

Gryffon sat down next to her after pouring
himself a mug of coffee, and he inhaled its fragment scent. “All
that’s missing is Phoenix and this would be perfect,” he
drawled.

A knock sounded at the door.

Layna laughed lightly. “And the moment is
over.”

“Let the chaos begin,” Gryffon quipped.

A servant entered, bearing many papers. One
of the many downsides of having the Council completely unable to
perform their everyday tasks was the paperwork. Layna had never
before realized quite how much there was. They were able to
delegate some of it to others, but the bulk of the documents
required a decision to be made that only she or Gryffon were
authorized for without the Council in action.

She indicated to the man that he could set
his load on the desk and thanked him. Once he was out of the room,
Layna allowed her head to drop to her chest. “Ugh,” she complained,
“will it ever end?” She raised her head and brushed her hair out of
her eyes, suddenly narrowing them at Gryffon. “Didn’t you have some
bad news to tell me last night?”

He sighed, lowering the coffee from his
mouth. “You really know how to bring a man down, you know,” he
teased, but his voice grew serious. “Lady Aria had a new request
for us to consider in our merger agreements. Apparently, it had
been brought up on their end some time ago, but they were saving it
until we were a bit farther along in our talks to put it on the
table.”

“Well, what is it?”

“They want us to agree to reinstate the
temples and promote worship to the Three once more.”

“But they know that the dragons don’t want
that,” Layna protested.

“Not everyone knows you like I do, my love,
and not everyone is so willing to give up their faith on your word.
You have to remember that you and I are the only living people who
actually spoke with the dragons, so we are asking the people to
take our word for it. The Ieldran feel that the people need
something to believe in, and they think it should continue to be
the Three. They are god-like in comparison to us,” he added
persuasively.

“Are you already on their side on this?”
Layna asked, discouraged. She had hoped that spreading the word
about what had happened with Nuko and the Three would have
enlightened people to the truth. They were in charge of their
destinies, not any gods, and not even the dragons. Especially now
that the Three had retreated from their world. There wouldn’t even
be the Word passed down from the Kiani Stones anymore, like there
once had been.

“There are no sides to be taken,” Gryffon
said calmly, obviously spending much too much time as a diplomat
with Aria. His cool tone annoyed her.

“How can you say that when we’ve tried so
hard to get people to understand the truth?” Gryffon laid a hand on
hers and she felt her annoyance dissipating. “Sorry.”

“We need to look at the bigger picture,” he
coaxed, “I know it’s not ideal, but it might be necessary. And
having the people continue to believe in the Three is not such a
bad thing.”

“But they believe a lie,” Layna said with
conviction, knowing too well how uncomfortable the status to which
humans had elevated the dragons had made them when they found
out.

“They need something to believe in,” Gryffon
shrugged.

“I had hoped they would believe in me,” she
confessed.

Gryffon gave her a tight smile. “Believing in
a god and believing in your leader are two separate things. When
the two become entangled, it becomes dangerous. Just look at
Nathair: As Nuko, he paraded around as a dragon-god…the people
don’t have especially fond memories of that particular time.”

“I suppose having your King going around
eating his subjects in the guise of being a god does put a certain
spin on people’s view on those in power,” she snorted ruefully,
then jabbed him in the ribs. “But that’s not what I meant and you
know it. I don’t want anyone worshipping me, I had just hoped I
could gain their trust and respect.”

“I know,” Gryffon said, kissing the top of
her head. He held out a hand to help her stand, leading her over to
the desk of paperwork. “Come on, the sooner we get started the
sooner we will finish. We can discuss the merger later.”

It turned out that regardless of how early
they had started, it still took them all day to get caught up with
everything that needed doing. Many things had gone by the wayside
in the wake of all the events that had transpired, and it was high
time that they were being resolved. They finally wrapped up the
last of it just as the sun was beginning to set.

A messenger came as Layna and Gryffon sat for
dinner and they abandoned their untouched food. He had word from
Natalya and the Knights. He relayed his portion of the information
swiftly; that they had searched Castle Storm and found that it had
indeed been a stronghold for some sort of experimentation. They had
come across four other monsters like Telvani and disposed of them,
but not before one of the Knights had been cut down and brutally
eaten. He also delivered several magicked documents that they had
found.

Layna sighed. Four more monsters? This did
not bode well. She and Gryffon had been debating the pros and cons
of uniting with Treymayne all day, in between other issues, and the
addition of intentionally created monsters to their problems made
the prospect that much more appealing. She was worried about how
the people of Gelendan would take the merger, but it was looking to
be more and more in their best interest to do so.

“Have someone sent to notify the fallen
Knight’s family,” she commanded, “and please be sure to express my
heartfelt condolences. His service to his country will not be
forgotten.” The man nodded and bowed, leaving them with the
package.

The documents he delivered looked as though
it would require a fair amount of work to dispel their masks, so
Layna was glad they had been able to finish all the more mundane
work today already. As soon as they had wolfed down their now-cold
dinner, they made a bee-line for the room used for magical practice
and spells.

She and Gryffon held their hands over the
papers and closed their eyes, intertwining their energies. The
immediate calm that always came with being so intimately connected
with him overcame her. They wove their magic across the surface,
undoing spell after spell that had been placed upon them. Some of
them she recognized as Lord Farthen’s work, but others had the
distinctive ‘taste’ of Lord Telvani. Confirmation that this was
indeed one of his projects. Not that there had been much doubt. He
certainly seemed to be involved in everything going wrong.

Except perhaps whatever the tribe was up to.
She had been extremely agitated since discovering the scrying, and
worried that there were more she hadn’t yet discovered. It also
dashed any hopes she may have had that their initial failure would
have caused them to give up. They were obviously still up to
something. At least she had detected it, and been able to add
additional wards to Phoenix. She had also stationed four mages to
be with her at all times, something she had been hesitant to do.
The poor child already had more nurses and attendants than she
could count, but she was not about to put her in any danger, even
if it meant packing the room full of every single person who might
be able to protect her.

As they absorbed the power from the breaking
spells, Layna opened her eyes and watched as the writing on the
pages shimmered and re-formed themselves into completely different
shapes. She and Gryffon unlinked and she reached down to pick up
one of the documents. It appeared to be a journal of some sort. She
flipped it open.

Reading aloud, she recited, “One of the
Bricrui escaped today and made it into town.” She paused, and then
added her own thought, “The Bricrui must be what he called the
monsters, also called the Death-bringers by the townspeople.”
Gryffon nodded, and she continued reading, “Luckily, we were able
to subdue it with no problems.” She paused and rose an eyebrow,
letting out a short unbelieving breath, unable to resist making a
comment. “No problems other than it killed six townspeople.”

Gryffon just shook his head, and Layna looked
back down at the page.

“I told the townsfolk that it was a
demonstration of what would happen if they revealed anything that
was going on in the castle to anyone. It seems to have been rather
effective; a pleasant side-effect of the unfortunate event. So far
our cures have not been successful, though we have been able to
slow the progress with the use of chokeroot.”

“What is chokeroot?” Gryffon interrupted to
ask. She shrugged; it was no plant she had ever heard of.

She continued her narration, skipping down
the page as she came across mention of a young woman, “Lord Morven
visited and demanded that I turn over the young lady he delivered
to the program back to his care. Seeing as how Lord Telvani is no
longer in a position to keep us safe and we will most likely be
fleeing shortly, it did not matter to me to release the girl into
his possession. I refrained from mentioning the likely outcome of
her involvement in the experiments, but did recommend that he give
her the ‘medicine’ if he wanted to keep her in good health. Whether
or not he listens to me will determine the length of time it will
take for him to be taught a lesson. I do not have any love for the
vile man, despite several of our shared interests, though I will
miss the girl.”

“That must be Alina,” Gryffon said.

“The messenger said that Natalya and the rest
of the Knights were in pursuit; I hope that they catch up with him
quickly.”

Gryffon simply nodded.

Layna continued reading. “It appears that
somehow the lock on the doors to the infecteds’ cages are coming
undone. How this is happening is a mystery, but already several
servants have been killed in the aftermath. It also appears that,
seeing as how these were all high talents, certain aspects of their
magic seems to prevail even after the complete transformation.
Possibly as a result of the latest treatments, they seem to be able
to somewhat still control the power. Though their minds certainly
are not capable of the thought processes to develop them, they are
somehow creating shields and healing themselves. This will require
some looking into, and may result in the rest of us having to
relocate. I have not heard from Telvani in some time and do not
know if he was able to halt the disease. If he was successful, it
will be his own fault if he cannot find us afterwards. I do not
have a death wish, and if the Bricrui have found a way to escape
and can use magic, I will not be here waiting for them.” She turned
the page and stopped reading. “That’s the last of it. I guess he
decided it was time to go after all.”

“Yes, but where?”

“Where indeed,” Layna echoed, “It appears we
are right back where we started in finding his lair.”

“But Alina has been found,” Gryffon
interjected, and then amended his statement at Layna’s pessimistic
stare, “even though she isn’t found-found, we know who has her and
generally where she is going. And furthermore, that she is alive
and not yet one of the Bricrui.”