Chapter 5
After a week of being stuck alone in that small port town on the coast of Oria, Amory was ready to get home. Home, for now, was a cottage in the forest north of the city, but he longed for the waters of Ayveri, the smells of the food, the laughter in the streets, and the Fae and human females who warmed his bed.
Here in Escarral, he had to hide his magic. The only time he was truly free to do what he pleased was when he was alone or with Gideon. That bastard was getting himself into too much trouble lately. When they got here, they made an agreement to only foster relations with those who could help them achieve what they were sent here to do, not bed women just for the fun of it. That agreement was only supposed to mean the king and the royal family, but of course, Gideon broke it within the first few days of being on Escarrali soil.
Amory had met with the king twice already, the first being the initial meeting and the second just that morning when he went to deliver the first set of maps to him. Before their first meeting, he had to wait three days while the king was on a riding trip with his youngest daughter, Princess Alyvia. Though he complained at first, it gave him time to get to know the city around the palace.
Amory heard everyone in the kingdom talking about the princess and it seemed like they had only love for her. She was so unlike her sisters, who she loved and admired for their own love for their husbands, children, and home. Alyvia only had affections for training with the palace guard, was apparently exceptional at healing the sick and injured, and liked to steal her father away on riding trips.
With the king being away so often, it didn't help the fact that Amory only had six months to complete what he was to do.
Now, on top of everything, it was raining. The ward he projected kept his pack and himself dry but didn't protect much from the slight chill in the air. Of course, he could diminish that, but he was already almost home.
Gideon was still awake, the lights still on from inside the cottage. Amory was fully prepared to give him a piece of his mind for leaving that town without waiting for him as they agreed. Granted, he wasn't planning on meeting with the king again that morning...or stumbling upon that beautiful young woman in the woods either.
He could feel it as soon as he saw her, her magic. His own swept silence through the trees as he'd paused, his heart hammering in his chest as her eyes darted every which way, trying to seek him out. He remained hidden, though, watching from a distance...the girl who had so much power within her and probably didn't know it.
And it was strange. Her magic was nothing like he'd ever encountered before. He could feel the amount of power she had, yes, but it was almost like it was trapped behind a stone wall she had built around herself...or someone else had built for her. There was a fissure in that wall, though, and even what little magic seeped through was pure power.
He'd seen a little bit of it just a few hours before when he crossed paths with her again. He didn't know what had happened, but he found himself along the shores of Fels Lake after coming back from his meeting with the king. That small orb of light floated above her palm so effortlessly.
But then she had sensed the silence of his presence again.
And he felt the tug toward her, deep in his gut.
With that feeling, he ran.
He'd put off coming back to the cottage just so Gideon wouldn't ask what was bothering him. It didn't help that the feeling his gut only increased the closer he got. And why, exactly, was there a horse underneath the shelter with the other two?
When he walked through the door, he found that the figure he'd seen through the window wasn't Gideon at all.
At least, he now knew why the feeling didn't lessen.
What was she doing here...and why in the hell was she with Gideon?
Emerald green eyes immediately met his and didn't waver. It was the same woman, her dark hair now in a thick braid over her shoulder, a slight burgundy tint to it...where had he seen that color before? Now, he could really focus in on her features – the slight up tilted eyes, button nose, rosy red cheeks and lips...feminine curves even more accentuated in that dress Gideon had scrounged up from who knows where and from what female he'd bedded.
Jett was asleep, but Gideon stood just as Amory closed the door with his hand, not with magic as he usually would.
"What's this?" Amory asked through clenched teeth as he finally looked away from her.
"Not a what, idiot. Who," Gideon answered. "This is Audry. We meet in that town when she threatened to cut off a guy's hand and again a few hours ago in the woods when she got lost on her way home. And me, ever the gentleman, offered her a place to stay for the night and an escort to the city in the morning."
"I thought we had an agreement?"
"And I thought you knew me better than to know I'd actually keep it," he grinned. Gideon turned to the female then. Gods, she didn't look any older than eighteen. "Audry, this is Amory. Amory, Audry."
Audry...the name sounded wrong as he repeated it in his head.
She glanced at Gideon, who gave her a reassuring smile, before reaching out her hand. "It's very nice to meet you, Amory."
He didn't say a word as he took her hand, ignoring the warmth that spread across his palm and up his arm. His eyes were only on her face since he didn't dare glance anywhere lower. She didn't meet his eyes, but rather took in his height, thick build, and closely cropped dark hair he was still getting used to.
Amory cleared his throat and spoke directly to Gideon. "Seems like you two were...getting to know each other. I'll leave you be."
"Wrong again, my friend. We were actually just talking about you."
He raised a brow in question.
"Our new friend Audry here has some...abilities of her own. I was thinking you could give her some help..."
"No."
He didn't even have to let Gideon finish his request. No, he wasn't going to help her with her magic. No, he wasn't going to be spending time with her long enough to get to know her. What the hell happened to their agreement?
"Why not? It's not like you're doing anything other than making those maps for..."
"Watch it," he warned.
Gideon heaved a sigh. "Well, aren't you just a ray of sunshine."
"It's dark and raining."
That earned him an eyeroll before Gideon looked back over at Audry. "He's not always this hard-headed, I swear. Apparently, something's gotten under his skin today."
Amory narrowed his own eyes at him. "She can stay the night, but you're taking her to the city in the morning. That's it."
He turned on his heels and strode toward his room, pulling the cylindrical map case from over his shoulder. Gideon said something in a low voice to the female, even though he knew he'd be able to hear him. She scoffed as they went back to the table to talk.
They didn't talk about anything important, but rather just the lands of Escarral and the small villages she'd been to, which seemed to be all of them. After a while, Gideon had offered her to take her to his room...which made Amory freeze as he was labeling the maps he had spread across his desk. He didn't take another breath until he heard her answering no, she'd sleep on the couch just like she said she would. Gideon wasn't wanting to share his bed with her, but rather give her a more comfortable place to sleep for the night. Apparently, they'd already had this conversation before.
Gideon came into his room then, striding toward the wardrobe to pull out extra sheets and blankets from the bottom drawer. Then, smirking, he snatched one of the pillows from bed and exited without a single word.
It was another hour before the sounds from outside his room quieted with a quiet goodnight from them both and silence swept through the cottage.
Until he found Gideon staring at him from the open door.
"Seriously, though, what the hell is wrong with you?" Gideon asked, closing it behind him. "Sorry I didn't wait for you, but I couldn't take another night in that godsforsaken village. The Escarrali ale doesn't do anything for me like the ones in Dalcaine, and yet the men here get drunk off two. Give them a tankard of Ayverian Torrent and they'd most likely be dead."
"Where did you find her?" Amory questioned, not bothering to look up from the maps.
"At the tavern."
"Did she really threaten to cut a guy's hand off?"
Gideon grinned knowingly at the curiosity in Amory's voice which he tried to mask with indifference. "Yes, she did. I wouldn't have blamed her. He pretty much grabbed her up, but it was very satisfying seeing him almost wet himself. For a little thing, the girl's got one of those threatening voices you wouldn't want to ever be aimed at you. And if her voice was threatening, I'd love to see her in action."
Amory wouldn't mind it either.
Sighing, he finally looked up from his maps, but toward the wall, which the girl was sleeping on the other side of. "You know her name's not actually Audry, right? Anyone else she tells it to might buy it, but we don't."
"Of course, I do," he scoffed. "I wouldn't blame her for not giving her actual name to someone she doesn't know."
"You seem to know one another a little bit better now."
"Because she's a woman with powerful magic, living in a land where magic is feared. You can sense just how much power she does have, right? Hell, she's one of the most powerful humans with magic I've met in a long time, including those in Dalcaine. She doesn't know it, though, and probably won't until she's ready to accept who she is and what she's capable of."
"And you're the one who's going to help her with that?"
"I'm just an Ayverian warrior with advanced skills on the battlefield and in the bedroom," Gideon grinned, and poked his shoulder. "My magic isn't as strong as someone else's I know of. I have too much of my mother's Asturian heritage in me. Too bad she wasn't from Eld. You know how long I've been wanting a dragon to choose me as it's rider? Yet that will never happen because of all that Eld bloodrite shit. Why won't they choose human or Fae born outside the land, huh?"
Amory snorted at the tangent he was suddenly on. "Jett's the only magical creature to choose you so far, so you might just be stuck with him. And the dragons do sometimes choose someone outside the bloodlines of Eld, but on very rare occasions. Even rarer when your chosen by the mother to be the guardian of her egg before it hatches. That bond between rider and dragon is even stronger."
"Don't make me even more jealous than I already am," Gideon sighed longingly as he came closer to peer over the maps. "Did you manage to meet with the king?"
"Yes, but it was a short meeting about that port town...and you barely call it that, not until he's able to get the resources up there to start the build. He's still skirting around the other lords, even though all three of them are his sons-in-law and they answer to him. He wants to create a plan of how to open relations with Dalcaine again before he presents a treaty of peace to his court."
"And how long will that take?"
"As long as he sees fit. Apparently, the first person he wants to talk to is Princess Alyvia."
"Why would he want his youngest daughter's input? His other three are the ones he should really be speaking to."
"Apparently, something is different about her. He seems to be the fondest of her since she's the youngest."
"Kind of like Queen Alexea with Prince Eamon back home?"
"Exactly," Amory nodded, rolling his eyes. "I heard a lot from around the kingdom. They've got the strongest relationship, while the queen has one with the older three."
Amory hadn't dared crossed paths with the queen, the same queen who sparked the war with Dalcaine over twenty years before, a war that was so unnecessary and bloody and claimed too many lives on both sides.
He remembered the stories of Queen Guinevere over in Dalcaine, laying siege to Asturian lands herself with her small group of loyal Escarrali soldiers even after the war had ended. For weeks, they destroyed whatever they could before Lord Alberich's own forces, still recovering, brought them down in a fight that lasted not even half an hour. The only one from Escarral to make it out was Queen Guinevere.
He remembered the raven Ayveri received after, telling the king and queen what had happened and how Queen Guinevere was now locked in their dungeons.
And then he remembered the next one a few months later when they reported that Guinevere had somehow escaped in the night, only later to turn up back on Escarrali soil with a tale of her being captured and giving birth to her daughter, Alyvia, in captivity.
Gods, did he despise that woman.
"So, what's the plan now?" Gideon asked, looking up at him. "You going off to Oria again, or are we sticking around the city for a little while?"
"The latter," Amory sighed. "I need more time with the king if what we were sent here to do is to succeed."
"Please, don't tell me you're going to do what I think you're going to do."
"I've got to do something. Influence...that's what we're going to have to focus on. And for that to happen, King Bence is going to have to meet with someone else who...holds more power and influence in Dalcaine."
Gideon groaned, kneading his temples with his fingers. "You can't be serious."
He wasn't going to comment. "We're going to have to find the princess, too. You remember our agreement about fostering relationships, right?"
"And the multiple times I've broken it, yes," Gideon smirked.
"Well, you're getting your first official assignment, rather than just following me around and waiting for me in random villages. When we take that girl back to the kingdom, we're sticking around for a few days. Talk with people. Ask about the princess. Maybe even glamour yourself as one of the stable boys at the palace to get a glance at her and see where she's going since she's always on the move outside the palace."
"I could do that...if we don't have any leads anywhere else."
What neither of them suspected in that moment was they already meet the princess.
And she was wide awake, listening to their conversation, on the other side of the wall.