The Dragon' Son (33 page)

Keegan climbed up the stairs from the kitchen, chewing at a piece of juicy meat and a fresh bread roll as he climbed. Once on ground level, he crammed what was left of the roll into his mouth with a sigh. Now that his belly was satisfied, he intended to find Saul and see if he was up to a walk through the city. He gulped the bread down then followed the path alongside the building that would take him to the courtyard. As he rounded the corner of the building, he almost ran right into Thailla who was also turning the corner from the other direction. They both jumped back from each other, startled, and began to chuckle.

“We just keep running into each other!” Keegan said with a smile. “Once again, I apologize.”

Thailla curtsied with a giggle. “And again, there is no need for apology,” she said.

“By any chance have you seen my friend Saul about?” Keegan asked.

“Well…let me think.…” Thailla turned her head toward the garden as she thought.

Keegan was once again struck with the thought that something about this woman seemed familiar. The profile of her face and her silky black hair brought memories once more to his mind of Eloria and Braidden. If Eloria were alive, she would be this woman’s age now. Keegan’s smile faded, and his thoughts sobered as it occurred to him that Thailla resembled Eloria too much for it to be coincidence.

“Oh, yes! I saw him only a moment ago,” Thailla turned back toward Keegan and as she looked at him, her smile faded. “I saw your friend at the stable with Master Walneff. Perhaps you can find him there,” she said and curtsied. “I must go.” And with that, she moved past Keegan.

Keegan could not shake the resemblance, and he let his gaze follow the woman as she hurried to get around him.

“Eloria…” he spoke the name softly as Thailla walked by him.

Thailla froze for a moment then turned to Keegan with wide, fearful eyes.

Keegan’s eyes widened, and he clenched his jaw tightly. “Eloria? Or Thailla?” He grabbed her by the shoulders desperately. “Tell me now: are you Eloria? Or am I just going mad? Am I just having visions of the past when I see your raven black hair, or am I really seeing the same hair I saw my older brother admire so long ago?” He looked at her for a long moment, but she did not reply. “Tell me! Are you Eloria or not?” he shook her very gently as he pleaded for an answer.

Tears began to spill over the woman’s eyes as her lip trembled, and she nodded her head. “Yes, Keegan, I am Eloria.” She began to sob. She stepped forward and buried her face in Keegan’s chest as her tears flowed freely. Keegan wrapped her into a firm embrace for a long moment, feeling relieved until he felt her sobs beginning to subside. A flood of questions washed into his mind.

He grabbed her shoulders and stepped back, stooping so he could look her in the eyes. “Where is my brother? Why did you change your name? And how did you come here to Elinralis?” he asked slowly as he searched her red, tear-filled eyes.

Eloria wiped her cheeks with a handkerchief that she produced from her dress sleeve. “I do not know where your brother is. I have not seen him for years,” she choked and began to sob again. “I miss him, Keegan! Oh, how lonely and sad I have been! You don’t know the relief and joy I felt at seeing you and Saul.” She grabbed his arm with one hand, while the other hand covered her face with the handkerchief as the tears began to flow again.

Keegan looked around and located a bench nearby under a tree. He guided the weeping woman to it and sat her down, taking a seat next to her. “Eloria, please stop crying,” he said gently as he took her hand and held it comfortingly. “Please tell me what happened,” he pleaded.

Eloria looked up from her handkerchief and wiped her eyes. “Your brother was wounded after you saved us from that horse rider. Do you remember when you saved us?” She looked at Keegan.

Keegan nodded, remembering when he had charged the malicious rider’s horse, spooking it, which caused it to move away from Braidden and Eloria and run over him instead.

Eloria took a deep breath. “Well, as I said, your brother was wounded right after that. He tried to save you after you charged the horse, but an enemy sword carved down his entire right arm.” She shuddered in remembrance. “That’s when he took me out of the village. We ran out into the fields, far into the fields, before he collapsed from loss of blood.” Her lip trembled again, but she took a deep breath and held back the tears. “I was so scared. I was scared that he would die or that we would both die if the attackers came looking for us.” She gripped Keegan’s hand and wiped her eyes again, taking another deep breath. “I was able to stop his bleeding and drag him to the shelter of the forest. When he came to, scouts from the attackers were beginning to comb the fields, so he insisted that we keep moving away from the village. We wanted to make for the mountains, but because of the scouts, we could not. So, we kept going west. We walked for days, and every day he kept getting sicker and sicker, but he wouldn’t stop. I cried and tried to make him stop, but he wouldn’t,” she sighed deeply, holding back a sob. “We kept going on and on until he dropped, too sick to go on.” She paused.

Keegan felt his stomach twisting into knots. If he had known that they had been near the forest, he and Pharrgon could have helped them. Eloria would not have had to endure such a trial. Braidden would not have had to suffer so.

Eloria smiled slightly. “Thank Dayspring, a group of kind people found us and helped us. Braidden got better, though his arm was never quite the same. He tried to persuade some of the men that helped us to travel back with him to our village to see what was left, but no one would budge. There was still such an animosity toward the Wovlen people and a fear of the Dragon Plains that, even though the people had been kind to us, they refused to help us any more than necessary. So, Braidden and I traveled to Elinralis.” She sighed and looked up at the trees. “He hoped to find answers in the city, find out who attacked us, but he found nothing, no clear answers anyway. He heard stories, rumors, and he made speculations. However, he did find a safe place for me to live and work.” She smiled slightly and motioned at the castle. “He figured that if I changed my name and worked close to royalty that no one would question my heritage.” She reached up and tapped her right shoulder where, no doubt, her Wovlen mark still resided. “Once he had secured my future as best he could, he went in search of answers and survivors, promising that he would come back for me.” She looked down and brushed Keegan’s fingers with her thumb, a few rogue tears falling from her eyes and onto their locked hands. “He left…and he hasn’t come back.”

They both sat silently for a long moment until Eloria looked back up at Keegan, breaking the silence with a question of her own. “Keegan, where did you go? How did you survive?”

Keegan looked at Eloria solemnly, thinking through his words carefully before speaking. “I went into the Forest,” he answered, speaking slowly.

Eloria’s mouth dropped open. “The Dragon Forest? But, however did you survive?” she asked.

Keegan adverted his eyes and looked at the ground, determining that silence was the best answer he could give her at the moment.

Eloria gripped Keegan’s hand gently, as if to comfort him. “Did you go back to the village?” she asked after a moment more of silence.

Keegan became rigid, fighting to keep the gruesome memories he had of his return to the village from breaking out of their dark place in his mind and overwhelming him like a flood.

Finally he forced himself to nod his head. “I returned the very next day,” he said quietly.

“How many survived?” Eloria asked expectantly.

Keegan looked up and stared at her gravely. “None were left alive in the village.”

Eloria stared at him in numb shock for a moment, her mouth hanging open and her eyes shifting. “None? No survivors at all?”

Keegan sighed. “I don’t know how many made it out of the village, but those who did were the only survivors. Saul is one. You are another. And I have recently learned that my sister, Alia, and…” he paused and gripped her hand, “and your younger sister, Brainna, are still alive.”

Eloria’s face lit up, and she stood. “Brainna lives? One of my kin folk lives?” Tears filled her eyes again. “How do you know this?”

“Saul has been taking care of Alia and Brainna since the attack,” Keegan replied, standing to his feet also.

Eloria closed her eyes for a moment with a smile, then she opened them again and wrapped her arm around Keegan’s neck, embracing him. “Say no more,” she whispered. “I am happy now and do not wish to become sad by whatever else might be said.” She turned Keegan loose and stepped back. “I must go now. I have pressing duties to tend. Please, do not call me Eloria anymore. You must call me Thailla.” With that, she turned and walked away.

Keegan stood in shock for a moment before blinking and shaking his head. “What? Wait!” He hurried to her side, gently taking her elbow. “Aren’t you going to come with Saul and me to be reunited with your sister?” he asked.

Eloria looked at Keegan, her face growing gloomy. “I…I can’t. By securing myself a safe future here in the palace, I have become a slave. I am a lady in waiting. I am no longer at liberty to make my own decisions or plans.” She smiled weakly and put her hand on Keegan’s face. “My heart is glad to know that my sister lives but breaks to know I cannot see her. I wish I could, but I can’t. Give her my love.” With that, she turned and walked away, wiping tears from her face.

Keegan watched her walk away, then, with a heavy sigh, he turned and walked out to the courtyard, making his way to the stable. He tried to think of a way, any way, for Eloria to come with Saul and him. He did not like that she was alone, and he knew the miserable feeling of being separated from one’s family and people. However, he hated to admit that she was right; she couldn’t go. To be released from the King’s service, she would have to make a petition. To make a petition meant that her true identity would have to be found out, and that would mean serious trouble for her. She could be imprisoned for false identity, or worse yet, she could be killed for lying to the King. And if her true identity was found out, Saul’s and Keegan’s would be also. Then they would all be in danger.

Keegan shook his head as he walked. He had to let it go. Eloria, or Thailla rather, knew what she was doing, and she was right in doing it.

It did not take him long to pass through the garden and come into the open grounds that led toward the stables. As he walked up to the open stable doors, the voice of the captain captured his attention. “Raise your elbow, Your Majesty. Ah, yes! That’s right. Now…fire!”

Keegan looked at the practice yard next to the stable and paused as his eyes rested on the captain kneeling next to Annaka, helping her aim a bow.

Annaka released her nocked arrow, and all watched as the arrow flew straight and sound, embedding itself just under the bull’s eye on the target.

The captain clapped while Annaka bounced on her toes. “You see, Annaka? You are getting better!” said the captain as he stood to his feet and looked at Erewhon. “Now it is your sister’s turn.”

Keegan watched as Erewhon nocked her own arrow and raised her bow, keeping her left arm straight and her right elbow level with her shoulder as she pulled back on the string. She held the bow in position and took a deep breath, exhaled halfway, then held her breath as she sighted down the shaft of the arrow.

As she sighted, the sunlight glinting on her golden hair, Keegan again felt that he was looking back in time at a beautiful creature of myth, a great warrioress or huntress of renown. Her posture was straight and queenly, and she stood calm and confident as she held her bow tightly in position, keeping herself perfectly composed as she aimed. Then, her face hardened and her eyes narrowed, like a warrior who has made a decision in battle, and she let her fingers relax. The bow string popped forward, and the arrow soared through the air with a whistle, punching into the target, nicking the top of the bull’s eye, burying deep into the target.

“Yay, Erewhon!” Annaka said as she danced on her toes.

The captain nodded his head. “Yes. Well done,” he said.

Erewhon lowered her bow and sighed. “I still missed,” she said, letting her head lull to the side a bit as a show of disappointment.

The captain chuckled and put his hand on her shoulder. “Well, at least you hit the target this time.”

Keegan realized that someone was standing beside him, and he turned to see Saul watching the archery lesson as well.

Saul rubbed his chin thoughtfully and looked at Keegan. “I wonder.…” He looked back at the group and motioned at Erewhon. “I wonder if she could hit you from this distance?”

Keegan cocked his head and knit his brows. “I don’t know. But why ask such a question?”

Saul shrugged. “Because, if she were to look over here and see how you were staring so wistfully at her, the question might occur to her.”

Keegan felt heat rush up into his face and ears. He pushed past Saul and walked into the stables.

“Keegan! I was teasing!” Saul said, catching up to Keegan.

“Well, it wasn’t very funny,” Keegan huffed.

“Really? I thought it was, especially when you turned red like you did,” Saul said dryly.

Keegan stopped and looked up at Saul, curling his fists. “Next time we get in a scuffle, remind me to hit you really hard.”

Saul smirked, “Ah… not a chance. So you better do it now.”