Forest & Kingdom Balance (35 page)

Instantly John shoved Tre aside as Yamikura’s blade
flashed and Deminar’s head fell.

“John!”
This plea was
Dionara’s.

John dropped to his knees with Deminar’s blade in
his chest. The Caretaker rushed to him and laid John down gently.
John’s flame became weaker with each moment.

“Please Froggy! Please! Save
him!”
Every person in the clearing could feel the
desperation and pain of Dionara’s thought. The void within the
Caretaker swelled as the observer receded. He was filled with
sorrow and rage. He raged at his own failure to keep his loved ones
safe. The void engulfed him completely as he admitted to himself
that the years of pain John had put himself through was because
him.
“Please Froggy! Please!”
Dionara
repeated over and over. His love for Diana, Catherine, Dionara, and
John fed his flame to an intensity that the observer in him had
never allowed.

“Forgive me Catherine.”
He
opened his mind to her, completely.

“I understand my love, there is
nothing to forgive. I will love you always. Save John.”

“The teacher becomes the
student.”
The Caretaker thought. Suddenly the Caretaker’s
clothes dropped to the ground but there was no flash. A brilliant
emerald green glow surrounded John. The watchers stood back as it
grew and solidified. Within the glow there was a flicker of white,
barely an ember. The emerald glow pulsed and the white flame grew.
As the white flame became stronger the emerald light faded.
“Now John,”
and in a brilliant flash of
white light, John was lying naked on his clothes, whole and
unharmed. The emerald light had vanished.

In Spirit’s Vale two women held each other as
bittersweet tears fell like summer rain.

Later, much later when the shock had worn off and
the wounded had been treated, John and Yamikura went to the Guard
camp. “Warrior Queen Kalibra,” John addressed his counterpart. “As
you may have already guessed, the Caretaker was not the only Ward
of these mountains and the people who live here. I am one, there
are others. I offer you safe passage to the coast on one condition.
You and the Crimson Guard speak to no one about what you’ve learned
here, with the exception that the immortal Red Knight perished
here. No details, no exceptions.”

“Keep in mind that we can hear
your thoughts and our actions are not limited to the
mountains.”
Dionara’s voice rang clear in the minds of
Kalibra and the Guard.

“Do you accept?” John awaited her answer.

“Yes.” The two nodded and John departed.

Yamikura stayed to talk with Kalibra. “You have a
realm to recapture, and it will be a free for all once the news
spreads that the Red Knight is no longer with us. You will be
busy.”

“I’m still the head of his army and his fortress
will make a nice getaway from the Realm. I think I’ll hang on to
those for awhile.” She smiled like a hungry tigress. “What are you
doing now, I could use a good second.”

Yamikura laughed. “There’s someone here I’d like to
see. After that I’ll ask if I can stay, I’ve always liked the
mountains. Safe journey, Warrior Queen Kalibra of the Realm.” He
bowed.

IX

Two days after the battle Dionara stood outside the
chalet and waved to greet her guests. “Grandmother! Grandfather!”
She shouted as her feelings of love and comfort at seeing them
preceded her words.

Dionara gave Danielle a big hug as Edward and
Raphael dismounted. The three shared their joy entwined with loss.
Words were not needed. Dionara looked at the four packhorses and
gave her Grandparents a quizzical look.

“Your Grandmother doesn’t exactly pack light, if you
know what I mean.” Edward flashed a sheepish grin and slowly put
some distance between himself and Danielle.

“Don’t you move away from me Edward.” She gave him a
glare of retribution. “Not to worry, I know where to find you.”
Danielle put her head close to Dionara and whispered. “When you’re
cooking for a broken heart, you can’t be too prepared.” She gave
Dionara a sorrowful smile and stroked her arm.

“Wow!” Raphael tried to look in every direction at
once.

“You must be my new uncle! Hello Uncle Raphael.” She
felt Raphael’s emotions rotate between wonder, surprise, worry, and
confusion. The spinning wheel stopped on worry as he bowed so low
she thought he’s snap in half. Dionara took his hand as he stood.
“You’re my family now, there’s no need to bow to family. Well,
other that Edward, he needs to bow to Danielle of course, but
that’s a special case.” He laughed in spite of himself.

She looked at Edward. “Wasn’t he shorter? It’s hard
to tell remotely.”

“Yes he was, he’s spouting like a spring crop. If
he’d been on the trail any longer, he would have had to wear Tre’s
clothes. Danielle had me pack three different cuts of clothing for
him.” He pointed to one of the packhorses.

Dionara turned back to her young uncle. “It looks
like you’re going to give John and Tre some competition on who’ll
be the tallest.” She gave him a stern look. “ And you’re my uncle
so I expect you to win, okay? Now, when we’re in the Forest, I’m
just your niece. No bowing, nothing. The only time you need to
worry about that is when we’re with people in the Kingdom, and even
then, you just nod when you meet me, and nod when you leave. That’s
it! Here, nod like this.” She showed him. “You try it.”

Raphael nodded as he was shown. “Your Majesty.”

“Well, you’re a little ahead of the times, but I
like your thinking!” She grabbed him and gave him a big kiss on the
cheek. Raphael left to help Edward unpack, if his face was a bit
redder than usual, no one mentioned it.

“How is Catherine?” Danielle asked.

Dionara sighed. “If you ask her, she’ll say she’s
fine. If you ask me, I doubt she will ever be the same. She needs
time to grieve, but until John gets back, she’s the only Sentinel.
That takes special training that I didn’t get yet.” She hugged her
grandmother again. “Thank you so much for coming. I convinced her
to stay here for a while, try to keep her here as long as you can.
If you can get her to open up, that would be even better. You two
knew Froggy as a person all your lives.”

“Of course.” Danielle took a big breath. “We all
lost a dear friend, but she lost the love of her life.”

Dionara felt the loss, hers as well as Danielle and
Catherine’s. She accepted it and looked forward. “Did Angela and
Michael settle in all right?”

Danielle wiped a tear from her face. “Edward made
sure they knew what needed to be done on the farm while we’re gone.
Michael’s ready to start his own farm anyway, and the way those two
go at it, I assume he’s going to need it soon. I asked Seth to
build an extra large, extra strong bed. I’ll give it to those two
when they decide to settle down, or we’ll need it if they break
ours.” She considered a thought. “We should get a new one anyway,
Edward likes a little room to work”

This time it was Dionara that turned a little red.
“Grandmother!”

Danielle raised her eyebrows. “Look who’s
talking!”

Dionara had Foil all packed before they arrived. She
stayed a little while longer, then started back.
“Hello my love.”
She reached out to John.
“I’m leaving now.”
John’s love joined hers and their
single flame shown bright. She watched John direct the Elites as
they built the temporary memorial.

“Good morning my love.”
He
said and Dionara purred. Sad or happy, worried or peaceful, it
didn’t matter; Dionara always felt the thrill of their contact.
“Take it easy, I’m working!”
John’s
embarrassment was evident.
“Do you know how hard
it is to keep a straight face when you do that?”

She watched Tre walk up to John, then shake his head
and walk away. Dionara chuckled. Her thoughts turned to when she
could be with him again.
“How are the wounded
men? Will you be ready to travel soon?”

“Yamikura thinks it would be best
to stay one more day, he wants to make sure their wound’s won’t
open on the trail. He is an amazing healer.”
She could feel
John’s admiration for the Far Lander.
“I talked
to him as we discussed, and he’s agreed. He’ll stay with me at my
cottage to start, and visit our healers one at a time to teach
them, Forest and Kingdom.”

“He can have your cottage, what
makes you think I’ll let you out of my sight ever again?”
She sent him a purr.

“You know I want that as much as
you, but we’ll need somewhere to stay in the Forest that’s closer
to the gate than Spirit’s Vale. I have my sentinel duties, and
there’s a great deal yet for you to learn. We can only do that in
the Forest.”
John mentally shrugged.
“At
least splitting our time between Forest and Castle will be easier.
Have the councilors selected the storytellers?”

“Not yet, I want to get the story
just right first.”
Dionara glanced at her saddlebag.
“I’ll read you what I have tonight. You are a
master storyteller my love, I need you to make this perfect for
them. It’s going to be a shock for our people as it is, but they
need to know who created their life here and honor him. They also
need to know about the coastal Mindow. I’m going to ask a great
deal of our people and they will need to know why.”

“Have you chosen a day?”
John asked.

“The first day of fall will be
Caretaker’s Day, and that’s when we’ll dedicate the memorial at the
clearing. We have about seven weeks. I’ve spoken remotely to Cal,
and will see him when I get to the village. He’ll have whatever
resources from the Kingdom he can use."

Dionara watched the Elites as they built around the
graves of the four who fell.
“My first priority
is the families. I’ll spend a day in the village before I leave the
Forest, then I’ll go to each family and let them know how and why
their sons gave their lives for us all.”

“Thank you."
John sent
Dionara his love and appreciation, but still keenly felt his own
duty to the fallen men.
“I was their captain, I
should be there
."

Dionara’s warmth comforted her twined flame.
“In a very real way, you will be my love. You and
I are one, Forest and Kingdom.”

Epilogue

Mindow Council

Far above the sleepy mountain kingdom puffy white
clouds drifted on sky’s azure sea to flicker white marble
battlements in an ephemeral dance of light and shadow. Upon the
castle’s highest pinnacle two silk banners gently waved, one of
brilliant Mindow blue and the other of rich Forest green. While far
below, in a newly commissioned room of the castle, a long awaited
meeting was taking place.

“Hello everyone!”
Catherine
mentally bowed,
“and my deepest respect to Your
Majesty.”

“Hello Catherine!” The seven voices said in
unison.

“Your Majesty!” Dionara’s habit of using a
non-verbal response to comments she disliked had not diminished
with her elevation to queen. “Your Majesty almost missed the
meeting.”

“We could have met tomorrow.” Sentinel Prince John
reminded his wife.

“This meeting is already three hundred and sixty
years overdue, I didn’t want to delay it any further.” Dionara said
with conviction.

“If you had left Spirit’s Vale
when you were supposed to, you would have had plenty of
time.”
Catherine reminded them.

“We were busy.” Dionara smiled.

“Yes,” John reached for Dionara’s hand, “Priorities
of the crown took precedence.”

Catherine spoke to them privately.
“Yes, extremely important. However you two did have an entire
month in Spirit’s Vale after the coronation wedding to prioritize
to your hearts delight! Speaking of which, any news yet? Aunt
Catherine is having two bedrooms and a nursery added to the house.
Everyone wants to help, they start tomorrow.”

“Soon we hope.”
The couple
answered.

In a room adjacent to Atheria and Simon’s quarters,
a circular table carved with images of Paladin’s ships, Kingsport,
the seacoast palace, and Garden Tiers sat beneath an oil painting
of Paladin’s original Mindow Royal Seal. An inlaid compass design
decorated the outer ring of the table with eight council seats
marked at the cardinal and ordinal points.

Dionara stood. “We declare the Mindow Council
assembled and charge this body with the restoration of freedom for
all Mindow people.” The royal ‘we’ vanished as soon as she sat
down. Dionara never was comfortable with the royal mantle. It
helped her to think of the ‘we’ as John and herself.

“Let’s not fool ourselves,” Dionara addressed the
table, “this will take awhile. The full glory of a Mindow Kingdom
restored to the coast is our goal, but it will be one step at a
time. I believe that our youngest member,” she smiled and looked at
Raphael, “will long be an adult by the time we are ready to take
back our land. It may take decades to reach our goal, and perhaps
generations to fully restore our people.”

She paused, and with an expression of pure
determination she made an oath. “I Dionara, daughter of Stefan,
direct descendant of Palinar and Paladin, vow that all my people
shall one day be free, and the values we honor, restored. This I
swear.” A profound silence filled the room.

After a moment Tre grinned and rubbed his hands
together, “Okay, the hard part’s done. Now all we have to do is
figure out how. Nothing to it.”

“That’s our Tre.”
Catherine’s laughter spread around the table. John just grinned and
shook his head.

After several hours a few first steps were planned
and assignments given. The first step would be to train new agents
and to contact the Mindow Elders. No one could say what the Elders
reaction would be to Dionara’s bloodline, or the existence of the
Kingdom itself.