Ossendar: Book Two of the Resoration Series (15 page)

Flare took a nice hot refreshing bath. He could have stayed in there until he turned into a prune, but Cassandra was expecting him tonight. After bathing, he dressed quickly, wearing a white silk shirt, which was very smooth to the touch, and black trousers and black boots. He made a brief appearance at the kitchen, just in case it turned into a long night, he thought hopefully. After eating a small dinner, he headed to Cassandra's quarters.

The guard outside her door was expecting Flare, and let him through to the anteroom. He stopped outside her door, and tried to calm himself down. His stomach was alive with an anxious energy that almost made him nauseous. It was a good anxiety, but it still made him a little queasy. He took several deep breaths to help relax him, and then knocked on the door.

“Coming,” a woman's voice called from within the room. Muffled as the voice was, Flare couldn't tell if it was Cassandra or not. He rocked back and forth on his heels, patiently waiting.

The door opened and there stood Cassandra. She looked so beautiful that his breath caught in his throat. She was wearing a shear white, almost see through, dress that had thin little straps that held the dress up. The top of the dress was loose, and Flare realized it wasn't doing a good job covering up her bosom. She wore comfortable looking white sandals on her feet. Her shiny black hair was pulled back in a pony tail and was held by a silver clip. Her magnetic eyes seemed to try and pull him in; he thought it would be easy to lose yourself in those eyes.

Cassandra smiled at Flare, and then beckoned him to come inside.

Inside the room, little had changed since he was last here. The same cheap pictures and tapestries still hung on the walls, some of them had several layers of dust on them. If anything, there seemed to be more books on the bookshelves than before, and additional books sat on the tables and in piles scattered around the floor.

“Thank you so much for coming by tonight.” Cassandra said as she led Flare to the sofa.

“You're welcome.” Flare answered, and then trying to find out exactly what Cassandra's motives were, he asked. “So what book do you have that is in high elven?” He sat down on the sofa, sat back, and put his arm up on the back of the sofa.

Cassandra smiled and said, “Oh, I guess I am supposed to bow before you now.” She said it with a twinkle in her eye, and then got down on her knees and bowed before Flare.

Flare choked back a smile. The top of her dress was definitely loose.

Cassandra continued smiling and got up and sat down next to him, she dropped her eyes and said, “Actually, I don't have any books that I need help with translating.” Then seeing the look on Flare's face, she continued, “I guess you might have suspected that?” She moved closer to him as she spoke, and sat her hand on his knee.

Flare nodded. “I suspected there might be more to it, but why did you lie? You know that I would have come here if you asked.”

“Well, we were speaking in the hallway, and a lot of conversations that go on in the hallways are overheard. I didn't want people to suspect any secret late night visits that you might have here, and no one will suspect anything if you are helping me translate an elven book.” Cassandra said, once again dropping her eyes to the floor.

Flare's smile got even larger, “Are you suggesting I might be coming here again in the future?”

“Uhm, I sure hope so,” Cassandra said, moving her hand from Flare's knee up higher on his leg.

Flare reached for her hand, “Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go to the bedroom.”

To his surprise, Cassandra pulled back, “Wait.”

Her hesitation caught him off guard,
'
Did I miss something?' He thought.

Seeing the look on his face, Cassandra smiled and quickly explained, “I mean we'll head to the bedroom in a minute, but I need to talk to you first.” She moved her hand back towards his knee as she spoke, “You're in danger, and I wanted to warn you.”

“What do you mean 'in danger'?” Flare asked, tensing up.

“I happen to know that the church is trying to spy on you. They're very good at what they do, and if they find out about me teaching you magic, then they will have us executed.”

Flare sighed, and patted Cassandra on the leg. “I know the church is trying to spy on me. Apparently, they think that I may be trying to fulfill this Kelcer prophecy, but don't worry, I'm not going to tell anybody about us.”

“So you haven't told anybody about the magic training, have you?” Cassandra asked.

“No.” Flare said quickly. There wasn't any need to tell her that Dagan knew he had been learning magic. After all, he had not told who had taught him.

“Tell me who you have been interacting with around the court, and don't leave anyone out.”

Flare mentioned everyone he had come in contact with at the court, even down to Julia the librarian.

Cassandra was alarmed when he mentioned Hannah, “You just don't understand how loyal to the church she is. If she finds out anything about you, then you can be sure the church will know as well.”

“I'll just have to make sure that she doesn't find out anything, then won't I?” Flare asked, feeling a little defensive about the whole topic. Was Cassandra jealous?

“You can't trust her, Flare.” Cassandra said again, looking angry.

“I don't trust anyone,” Flare snapped, with more than a little bit of anger in his voice. Then seeing the surprise in Cassandra's look, “I'm sorry. But please trust me, I will be careful.”

Cassandra only nodded. She sat there without speaking for a minute or two.

Flare sat staring at a book sitting on the table. If she wanted to be childish, then he could be childish also.

Finally, she sighed and then taking Flare by the hand. “Just be careful, okay?”

His only answer was a grin. He knew where she was leading him.

The next morning Flare headed to the training gym in the north hall. He had returned to his own bedroom, from Cassandra's, early in the morning. The love making had been as exquisite as he remembered, but it had worn him out. And then, he had issues sleeping, once he got back to his rooms.

Flare entered the gym and spotted Mal-Jain sitting in the middle of the gym, on the floor, with his legs folded in front of him. He was wearing black loose fitting clothes and had his arms resting on his knees. His eyes were closed, and he appeared to be meditating. He was the only person in the gym.

Flare walked slowly towards Mal-Jain, as he walked, he scanned the gym. The gym was several stories tall with windows at the top. The walls were rather ordinary stone painted white and the floors were wooden planks. The only decorations were the weapons hanging on the walls. There was quite an assortment of weapons, most of which he had never seen before.

In the cavernous silence of the gym, Flare's footsteps seemed to reverberate off of the walls, but Mal-Jain didn't look up or open his eyes. He reached the spot where Mal-Jain was sitting, and sat down in a form that mimicked the other man's. He sat there quietly, waiting for Mal-Jain to finish whatever he was doing.

After several minutes, Mal-Jain opened his eyes and gazed at Flare. “Patience is a virtue, and you seem to demonstrate it well.”

“Thanks. I assumed that you would speak when you were ready.” Flare answered.

“Well, I'm ready.” Mal-Jain said climbing to his feet. “Let's get started, shall we?” He walked over to the wall and removed three weapons. The first weapon looked like the same staff that Mal-Jain had used yesterday afternoon. It was a long staff, about six feet long, and it had two u shaped metal blades on the end. The other two weapons were two short swords that were curved slightly and sharp on one edge.

Mal-Jain walked back over and handed the staff to Flare. “These weapons are training weapons, so the blades have been dulled. However, they are still dangerous, so be careful with them.”

The staff felt solid, but also light and balanced. Flare spun it in an imitation of the way Mal-Jain had used it yesterday afternoon. To his surprise, the weapon moved easily and with grace. He stopped swinging the staff, and looked back over to Mal-Jain.

Mal-Jain was standing watching Flare. He was grinning as he said, “You remember how I used the staff yesterday. That's a good sign, but now let me demonstrate how I can defend against the staff with these swords.” As Mal-Jain spoke, he assumed a ready position with the sword in his right hand above his head and horizontal, running left to right. The sword in his left hand also was horizontal, but it was pointed at Flare. Flare took a deep breath, and stepped closer to Mal-Jain. “Okay, I am going to guide you through what I want you to do.”

Flare was extremely sore as he returned to his room. Mal-Jain had demonstrated several of the weapons of his order, and Flare found them intriguing and had asked to learn more, as time permitted. Mal-Jain had agreed, although he had duties assigned to him by the king that he said must come first.

Even though the training weapons were dulled so that they could not cut, Flare had been hit several times hard enough to leave a dark bruise. The wounds were already starting to stiffen up and walking even seemed difficult.

He stopped just outside of his door; the hair standing up on his neck. His door was pushed closed, but it was not closed all the way. He listened for several moments at the door, to see if there was somebody still in his room, but he couldn't hear anything. He was torn as to what to do. If he had a weapon on him, then he wouldn't hesitate to enter the room. Unfortunately, he didn't carry weapons around the palace. He thought briefly about finding a guard before entering the room, but whoever was in there, might get away. That thought settled it and Flare tried to quietly push the door open.

He looked around the room. It was the same room he had been assigned upon his return from Fort Mul-dune, as he had resisted new quarters. The room was semi split in two by an arch. The arch led from the reception area to the bedroom. The reception area was nearest the door and had two small sofas and one chair, a small table sat in the middle of the sofas. Two curtains hung in the arch and were pulled back and attached to the wall. A red rug covered the floor and two bookshelves sat against the wall.

The end of the bed was visible through the arches, but the rest of the bed area was dark. Flare couldn't see either the dresser, table, or chair that was around the bed.

No one was visible in the reception area, and he couldn't see enough of the bed area to tell if anyone was in there. He stepped in the room and looked behind the door, just to make sure that there wasn't someone hiding behind it. Seeing no one, he walked quietly and cautiously through the reception room toward the bed. He could see the bed through the arches, but it was dark. Suddenly, he realized that there was a person lying there. He tensed up and almost as suddenly, he relaxed.

“Hannah, what are you doing in my room?” He said as he walked towards the bed. As he walked, he scanned the room to see if anything had been disturbed. Cassandra's warning had heightened his doubts about her.

“Well! It's nice to see you to.” Hannah responded. She was lying on the bed, covered with the sheet. “I thought you might be happy to see me.” Her bottom lip stuck out a little bit, almost in a pout.

Flare flipped his eyes back over to her, and stopped at the foot of the bed. “Hannah, I'm sorry. You startled me, when my door was open. I almost went and got a guard to come back with me. How would we have explained that?”

Hannah folded her arms across her chest, “We would have thought of something. The castle guards are trained to be discrete.” Her right eyebrow was arched up and he could tell she was angry.

“Calm down. I didn't mean anything by it, and I apologized.” Flare raised his hands as he spoke, trying to calm her down.

Still pouting, the look of anger left her face. “I just thought that I would surprise you.”

Flare grinned, “You certainly did that.”

Hannah returned his grin, “Well, why are you still standing so far away?”

“Uh. I need a hot bath first. I have been sparring and I'm covered in sweat.”

Hannah sat up, letting the sheet fall down, revealing her nakedness. “Flare, I like it when you're sweaty. Although, I prefer being the reason for it.” She said with a devilish grin on her face.

Smiling, he started to disrobe.

Flare was walking down that same hallway again. The hallway was deserted and he couldn't even hear any voices in this part of the hall. The sound of his footsteps echoed in the distance. He stopped walking and listened when he realized that there were no other sounds at all, no commoners working in the courtyard, no soldiers making rounds, and no sounds from the stables. He was still close enough to the more occupied areas of the castle that he should be able to hear something.

A window up the hallway and on the right caught his attention. Walking quickly, he reached the window and looked outside. Nothing moved in the courtyard, no birds flew in the skies, and nothing could be seen moving in the city.

Bothered by the absence of life, he left the window and continued down the hallway. Suddenly the feeling hit him of being watched. Stopping quickly, he scanned the hall, both in front and behind of him. Seeing nothing, he continued on the hallway, albeit a little faster.