Essentia (21 page)

    "No My Love, you cannot burn me now, we are the same, remember," he says touching the symbol on my chest.

    I smile at him and say "Thank you, I couldn't calm down, I was so mad. Thank you for saving me" I say in a quiet voice.

    "I will always save you, My Love, you need not thank me ok," he says kissing me on my forehead. "but I do believe we need to get some clothes on you before they return." I am naked in the living room. Butt naked in Enre’s arms.

    I say to him "Please" and give him a shy smile. He just looks at me sweetly and carries me to our room so I can get dressed. After throwing some clothes on, we walk back to the living room to find Thegan and Aiden looking at an enormous scorched circle on the floor.

    Thegan cleared his throat and says "What happened here?" pointing at the ring.

    "Um. I kind of caught on fire and Enre had to put me out with his water essence" I answer his question. Feeling sorry that I had damaged their loft floor.

    Enre nodding his head then says with a Chuckle "My wife is a hot head" patting me on top of my head. I look at him, and he has a wry smile on his face, then he winks at me. I start laughing, and the others join in. But we are interrupted. A knock at the door, who could that be. Enre jumps in front of me protectively as Aiden and Thegan grab swords. Aiden goes to open the door; relief washes over me when I see who it is.

    The Haruspex. "We have come to take you to Aelmere when you are ready your highnesses" Crios says. I wonder how they knew to come. It must be something in their powers, I think to myself.

    Thegan looks over at us all and then says to Crios "We are ready now."

    "Then let us be on our way quickly My Lords, My Lady, there is trouble lurking in the shadows," Crios says, motioning us to follow him. What about our stuff, When I look over, all of our things are gone, just up and disappeared in their place is Dazna waving her arms around in a delicate manner, mumbling to herself. Did she do this, make our things disappear with magic? I wonder if this is going to hurt, being transported to Aelmere.

    Biting my lip, I look up at Enre and ask "Um, is this going to hurt?"

    He slides his arm around me and says "It is a little jarring, but it should not hurt, just make sure you keep your arms wrapped around me so we don't get separated ok my love." I nod my head still worrying a little. 

    Crios says "Let your journey be swift and victorious Your Highness's." Then enre wraps his arm around me and I do the same. Crios and Dazna both start chanting. A gentle wind begins to swirl around us, accompanied by small strings of multi-colored light, as the wind increased the light kept getting brighter and brighter. The spinning is starting to make me dizzy. I turn my head into Enre’s chest.

    He cradles my head and says "I have got you, my love." A swishing sound can be heard all around us just about loud enough to pierce the ears. Enre's grip tightens around me, securing me to him. The next thing I know, we hit the ground, hard. My eyes are still closed, and I am laying on top of Enre. "You can open your eyes, my love, we are here," Enre says to me. Wow, that wasn't as rough as I thought it was going to be. I slowly open my eyes, adjusting to the bright sky. Looking around I see that we are indeed not in the loft anymore. The surrounding area is a pale green field, nearby is a forest with wilted, rather sad looking trees. I roll off of Enre and sit up taking in my surroundings. "It used to be Beautiful here," Enre says in a sad voice. You can tell that everything is dying. We have to save this world. I can only image what it looked like when everything was thriving.     "We will heal this land Brother," Thegan says to him, helping him up.

    "I will do anything I can to help," I say to them all. They all smile. Enre helps me up, my legs were still a little shaky.     "We need to head to the meeting point to get our things, and our horses My Lords," Aiden Says to the guys.

    They nod their heads and Enre asks me "are you alright to walk My love?"

    "Yes, Lead the way My Prince," I say in return. He chuckles and slides his hand into mine enter twining our finger, and we head off towards the sad forest. 

   Chapter Twenty-Seven

             Enre

              Heading to what use to be a very lush forest which is now dying and desolate, I have my beautiful wife Terra by my side and my brother and Aiden as well. I hope Aiden's guards get here soon. I do not want us at a disadvantage if we do get into trouble. I ask him "Aiden, where are your guards going to meet us?"

    He looks at me and says "Crios should have them all there by the time we get to the meeting point in Loch Grass, My Lord." Loch Grass is a small community that farms and has a few fishermen. The last time I was in the village, one of the fishermen let me help him with the nets, but that's been years ago. The people there generally stay to their selves and as far as I know there hasn't been much trouble there. That's probably why Aiden picked it as our meeting place. We continue walking through the forest, and I notice that Terra is looking around with a wonder in her eyes.

    I ask her "Are you alright?" She smiles at me and says something that makes me smile

    "I am trying to picture what this place will look like when we save this Realm. It's going to be beautiful." Not if we save it, but when we save it. She has such a positive outlook on everything. Me, Not so much. I am worried. About what will happen to this place if we don't succeed. I miss how it use to be. She squeezes my hand and smiles at me. I can't help but smile back at her. I know she is trying to cheer me up, And I love her for that.

    "Why don't we rest here for a few minutes," Thegan says to us all. Terra plops down on a patch of moss stretching her legs out. It is going to take some getting used to, having to walk everywhere.  She leans in, against my side.

    I put my arm around her and say to her "It shouldn't be too much longer before we get there My love."

    "That's good. I didn't think I was in this bad of shape" she says with a giggle. 

    I lean close to her and whisper in her ear "I could carry you if you want." Her face starts to turn a light shade of pink and little flowers start to pop up everywhere around us. I start laughing and say "If I keep you blushing, you could grow flowers all over Aelmere."

    With a wry smile, she says "Don't forget, you grow flowers to my handsome prince" as she runs her fingers across my chest. I can feel the heat where her fingers are trailing. She did that on purpose. Feisty little minx. Three big beautiful flowers grow quickly beside us.

    "You guys need to stop that, somebody will see those flowers and know something is different," Thegan says in a low voice. "We need to go," Thegan says as he gets up and starts walking.

    "come on my dear, if you need to stop, just tell me ok," I say to her after I help her up. Continuing on, I keep getting the feeling of being watched. Thegan is just up ahead of us, I really need to tell him. With terra in tow, I calmly quicken my step to catch up with Thegan. When we get beside him, I say in a small voice meant only for him "I do not think we are alone Brother."

    "I know. I have felt it too" he says. We all stop walking. Raising his voice, He says "Come out, we are aware you are there” after a few minutes a young man appears from out of behind a set of trees. The man looked scared to death. He was fiddling with his fingers and shaking all over. "come closer, we mean you no harm, why are you following us young man?" Thegan asks this spindly man.

    He says nothing at first, then starts to talk in a low voice "I was under orders to scout this area."

    "By who?" Thegan asked him.

    "Molven orders us. If we don't do as he says we cannot eat," the man says. Molven, Ivar’s man.

    I instinctively put myself between the man and Terra and ask him "are there others in this part of the woods?"

    He shakes his head no and says "I am the only one in the woods today, but they change shifts at dark."

    Thegan steps closer to the man and says "Do you know who we are young man?"

    With a nod, he says "Yes My Lord, you are the king and prince, B-but don't worry I will not tell anyone that you are here" Hmm. Whose side is he on? I ask myself.

    "Who do you follow young man?" I ask him.

    The man bows and says "I follow you, my lords." Then why is he getting orders from Molven?

    "Why are you taking orders from Molven if you follow their highness's?" Aiden says to him.

    The man says "Things have gotten worse here My Lords. If the people do not follow Molven, they are not allowed to eat. If they still refuse, then most are killed" We have to save these people.     Thegan has his hand on his chin, thinking. After a short silence, he says to the man "what is your name young man?"

    "Caliod Malden My Lord, my family use to run the mill close to the capital" we use to get our grains from that mill. they always seemed like good people.

    "Caliod, how many people are following Molven against their will?" Thegan asked him.

    "Thousands My Lord." if we could get them to help us we could stage an uprising and overtake this Molven.

    "I am going to need your help Caliod, can you secretly ask around and find out about how many would be willing to assist us if we try to overtake Molven," Thegan asks him.

    "Yes my lord, anything to get rid of him and his men. I will gather as many as I can my lord. I do know that Molven has about two hundred and fifty men under him right now" that's good to know.

    "Good tell them to be ready when we do attack, but also do not raise suspicions. We will try to get word to you before we attack" Thegan tells him.

    Terra pulls on my sleeve, and I tilt my head down to her. She says "The man's heart is clear; he is telling the truth" How does she know that. I will ask her later. If she says it is so, then I will trust her judgment.

    "Brother, the man speaks the truth," I say to him. He nods and smiles at Terra. he must know she told me that.

    "Go, we will be in touch Caliod, tell no one of our positions, and thank you," Thegan says to him.

    The young man bows and starts to walk away when Terra says "Wait." She digs into her shoulder bag and gets one of the sandwiches out and takes it over to Caliod and says "Here, you will need your strength."

    Caliod’s eyes shoot open, surprised, and he takes the sandwich and says "T-Thank You My Lady." The scrawny man smiles really big and turns and walks off into the forest. Terra turns and walks back over to me, shrugs her shoulder and says "He looked hungry" then smiled.

    "That was very generous of you My love," I say to her, and I put my arm over her shoulder.

    Aiden says "We should move My Lords quickly." After that, our pace became faster. Trying to reach Loch grass before dark sets in. I really don't want to have to camp out here without our things.

    Just before nightfall, we reach the outskirts of Loch grass. We all hunker down behind some bushes and peer out at the little community. there are lanterns lit on all of the posts and few people walking about. they seem to be members of this community. Slowly we make our way around to the other side of this small village and what we see is a huge relief. all of Aiden's men sitting and standing around a giant bonfire. Yan and a few of our own guards are also with them. I look at Thegan and say "I believe it is safe brother” He nods his head, and we all move from behind our hiding place.

    As soon as we are seen, Yan and one of Aiden's men run up to us. Yan says with a bow "I am glad you made it Your Highness's."

    "We are pleased to have made it here too," Thegan said to him.     Aiden's man is looking at Terra with a hateful look and says to Aiden "Why did you bring her with you, she is not from here."    

     Aiden then wraps his hand around the guard’s throat and pushes him back to where the other guards can hear him. Then says "Listen up, this beautiful woman is Prince Enre’s Wife. Her mother was Bohyne Tarna, the warrior. You will treat her with the respect she deserves as you would me and your king. If I hear one wrong word from any of you, I will let her deal with you herself, after all, she does have the powers of the goddess. Do I make myself clear?"

    In unison, we hear "Yes sir." he is trying to scare his men so they will be courteous to her.

    I lean down to terra and whisper to her "you need to show them a little of your power my love, it is for your safety ok" she nods her head and smiles at me a little wickedly. What is she up to I wonder. She steps away from me, and I can feel the heat coming from her, Ahh, I know what now.

    I cross my arms and watch her slowly make her way over to where Aiden is then she says in a sweet voice "You can let him go Aiden."

    "Yes, your highness" then he says to the guard "I believe this is where you apologize" he let the man go, and he steps away from them. The guard drops to his knees. I can see small flames bouncing all over Terra's body.

    "I beg your forgiveness, Your Highness," The guard says to her. Wait what is she doing? Half of her body is starting to steam. little water orbs start forming and bouncing along her right side. the other guards are watching with wide eyes.