Crown of Beauty and Vengeance

Chapter 6

Lyv nodded, her eyes still closed as she kneaded her temple. "Yes, I'll be there in a minute. Just a few more things to pack up."

"What's wrong?" he asked immediately. "Is it your magic? I wish you would let me help you with the glamour. I knew we should have trained more, but with only a week and your..."

"No," she said, stopping him mid-sentence. "It's not that. I've been practicing how to keep a glamour up for the past week we've been on the ship. I should be fine. I just have a slight headache because of it."

"Do you need to rest...?"

"I'm fine, Gideon. Promise. Now...are you going to show me around Ayveri or not?"

After gathering her things, throwing the strap of her bag across her shoulder, and straightened her skirts, Lyv and Gideon left the ship as Audry and Vandor. No one at the docks looked their way, too busy readying ships to sail or loading and unloading cargo. Lyv paused just before she followed off the ramp onto solid Dalcaine ground, looking around in wonder at what lay before her.

And as soon as her boots hit the stone paved pathway, she felt like she was...well, she felt like she was in a place she didn't have to worry about anything.

Like she was finally home.

"There isn't a wall that surrounds the city?" she asked, seeing no such thing to guard the buildings along the water.

Gideon shook his head, holding out his hand for her. "There's no need for one in Dalcaine."

Mother above, it was so much different than the city in Escarral. She could practically feel the magic pulsing through the air, an aura of peace and love and family. She saw humans and Fae and fairy alike, all talking and laughing and genuinely enjoying the time they had together. They were buying clothing, books, herbs, and baked goods, sitting on outside patios of cafés drinking and eating foods that weren't found back home. She wanted to experience it all.

She hesitated at the sight of guardsmen in metal and leather armor and green cloaks, though, both human and Fae, walking the streets...until she saw one of them pick a flower from an outside display of the florist and hand it to a pretty female he winked at. And until the other who had obviously spotted his family, his three-year-old daughter screaming Daddy happily at the top of her lungs as she ran into his arms, her mother close behind and smiling.

No, these guardsmen wouldn't cut you down for only breathing the wrong way. They were there to protect the city and all its people.

Lyv had to keep her hand in Gideon's or else they would have lost each other. Not because it was so crowded, but because she would get so sidetracked looking at all the shops and goods and people...

He took her down the main street through Ayveri, which was named Penrose. Naming streets...Escarral really needed to do that just so they could keep everything straight. She added that to the list of improvements that needed to be made once her father was back on the throne.

"Everything branches off of Penrose. It's the center of the city where the majority of the shops, restaurants, and taverns are. The royal palace is to the south. West is, of course, the center of the shipping and fishing and travel. The farther east you go, the more houses and apartments there are. And if you go north, you'll reach the university. We'll have to go there someday so I can show you the library. He wanted to take you there as a surprise one day."

Lyv's hand tightened around Gideon's. Of course, she knew Amory had gone to the university, even told her of the magnificent library. It held the most books in all the lands, all in one area. Three floors, winding staircases, giant windows with plushy chairs to sit and read...

That pain in her temple started back up again...and the same imaged flashed in her mind as she squeezed her eyes closed.

"That's it, Lyv. What's happening?" Gideon asked her, pulling them to a stop in front of what looked like an apothecary, but had very different items inside than the one in Escarral.

"I don't know," she murmured, squinting her eyes against the sun's light that was hurting her eyes. She sat down on a bench that was just outside the shop and pressed her fingers into both temples. "I don't know if its because of my magic coming back or something else."

"But it didn't happen on the ship."

"I don't know," she said again, and gingerly removed her bag from her shoulder.

Gideon took it before she could even open the top flap, digging around for the small kit that held all of her tonics. Over the past year, she had taught him almost everything she knew herself about the healing properties of certain plants and herbs, how mixing them together in oils or just water could help those in need of relief.

He found the right vial – peppermint – and she immediately unstopped it, put a few drops on her fingers, and rubbed the oil into her temples. She kept her eyes closed, that Fae male's blurry face still flashing in her head, as she breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth. It took a few minutes, but the throbbing began to ease and Gideon's face replaced the one in her head.

He reached up, touching the back of his hand to her cheek. "If this keeps up, we're taking you to the healers at the university. They trained right under Lord Alberich in Asturia and are the some of the best in the lands...until you got here, that is."

"Then you get to take me to the university library afterward. I need a good book to make me feel better."

She'd tried to make a joke, but Gideon wasn't laughing.

"I'm serious, Lyv," he murmured. "I'm going to get even more worried about this if it continues. I mean, it happened before we got off the ship and then again not an hour later?"

The tension in her head and neck was all but gone. "I feel fine now. Promise. You sure are taking this older brother role seriously, aren't you?"

Finally, a slight smile. "Oh, you know. Older brother, best friend, oath-sworn warrior who will do anything to protect his princess."

Lyv laughed, leaning forward to kiss his cheek. "You're the best."

"I already knew that," he shrugged nonchalant as he helped her up, putting her bag back on her shoulder after putting everything back inside. "Now, let's go find somewhere to stay while we look for more permanent housing. What do you think? You want to go spend an exorbitant amount of your mother's money we stole from her coffers before we left? I know a male who will trade it out for Dalcaine coinage. You'd be surprised at the interest in Escarrali money..."

Gideon held her hand tightly as they started through the streets of Ayveri once more, glancing at her as she tried to enjoy herself for the first time in over a year, and tried not to let her see his worry.

She was a little better at hiding her own.  

***I couldn't not do that transition between Jai's chapter and Lyv's.  It was an opportunity that had to be taken!  Ha!  

I like this shorter chapter for the transition between Lyv in Escarral and Lyv in Dalcaine, though.  We'll see some faces we've just met in the next chapter, though...plus one of my new favorite little someones!  And I do mean little.  Let's just say she's going to be sticking around for the rest of the series, sipping on tea and sitting on shoulders watching the world go by...  

And any theories about Lyv's headaches?    

You know I love hearing your thoughts, so comment and vote!  

Happy reading!

- Ansley***