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Chapter Thirty
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2024-10-29 19:42:56We stepped out of the portal, and Rivyn drew in a deep breath. I looked up at him. The expression on his handsome face held confliction - joy and trepidation. He was glad to be home, but the culmination of the past three weeks risk and strain lay ahead of him, and, even after two peaceful days in Benal reading Isyl’s book, he was weary from our adventures.
“Rivyn,” I wrapped my arms around his waist, trying to offer him reassurance, where my own heart raced in fear for him. “You have faced dwarves, ogres, mages, Dark Elves, pirates, mermaids, a dragon, and you have torn a city apart in your anger. You can do this.”
He pressed a kiss to the crown of my head. “Thank you, my wife,” he murmured. “I appreciate the encouragement.”
We stood before an arched fortified gate build of the white stone that seemed to be used throughout the city and castle beyond, the portcullis raised, points frighteningly lethal overhead, and
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The Mage's Heart Chapter Thirty One
I stared at her in the reflection, my face showing my bafflement. The queen and the Fae woman both chuckled, but there was no malice to their laughter. “I’m not sure I understand,” I said carefully.“Marriage amongst the Fae and magical brethren is much simpler than amongst mankind,” she said gently and with patience, resting her hand upon my shoulder. The Fae woman resumed styling my hair, setting the circlet into the locks. “It’s an invocation of the rule of threes. Three openings to refuse, three declarations of intent, and, of course, three consummations...” she arched her eyebrows, prompting me. “Did Rivyn never mention the rule of three, to you?”My chest tightened as my heart picked up speed. Remember, anything important involves threes, Siorin, Rivyn had said to me. The conversation had struck me then, as out of place. He had been, I thought, trying to tell me that he had ta
The Mage's Heart Chapter One
Through story, we teach the rules by which we share this world with the brethren. Around the dying coals of the evening fire, we spin tales of naughty children stolen never to return, of the brutal punishment of liars, and of trespassing travellers going astray.Tales teach us to seek out good-witches to tend to sore teeth or to help with difficult births, and diviners to foretell the weather, but to fear sorcerers or sorceresses who prey upon the unwary, sprites who blight the crops, and mermaids who drown sailors.Most of all, the tales teach us to fear the Fae with their deceptive beauty, costly altruism, and cruel punishments.-“That is not my child,” my mother’s denial was final and broken. “It’s a changeling.”The maids had let the fire die down to embers, distracted by the demands of a new baby upon their time, and the cold had seeped i
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I looked in the direction of the voice without pulling Coryfe to a stop. I could make him out, a tangle of limbs and cloth, strung by a net and suspended in the boughs of a tree, a little off the path. What were the chances, I wondered, of two travellers on this road at night, and one of them being unwise enough to venture off the road and become ensnared by a net?I considered him. “You could be a trap to lure a traveller off the trail,” I told him.He laughed, dryly. “I think I am the trapped traveller.”“How did you get yourself trapped up there?” I asked him, we were drawing equal to his tree.I did not have long to decide what to do, without having to retrace my steps. I could make out details of him within the net now. A sizeable, booted foot hung out between the weave, the boot finely made and tooled with elaborate detail, the sole barely showing wear. The c
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I sighed, unsure which was the least pleasant prospect, being lost alone, or being lost with this dark-haired mage. I did not argue his control of the reins and let him steer us into the trees.“I did have other plans for the night,” I muttered under my breath.“Not important ones.”“You don’t know what I was about, so how can you judge?”“Well, perhaps I should say, my needs are more important than yours.”“Excuse me,” I took the reins back from him, annoyed. “My horse. It is awfully dismissive of you to assume your needs are more important than mine when you don’t know what they are.”“That spot over there,” he pointed as we entered the trees. There was a space between the trees that I would have normally avoided, its circumference uncomfortably round, too simila
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Coryfe picked his way through the trees like a child picking their way through a meal. I could not blame him. The floor was thick with undergrowth that hid hazardous roots and dips, and every now and again, an unexpected explosion of brethren folk would be unsettled by our passage. He had almost shied twice now at such an occurrence; once when little sprites that had exploded from a bush he had brushed against, their gossamer dragon-fly wings whipping against us as they passed, and the second time when a scurry of fur-clad beings I did not get a good look at had raced across our path, pursued by a fox that stopped and looked at us with too wise, unafraid blue eyes. Rivyn was less patient. “Have you never ridden this horse across anything other than a road or field?” He demanded, reaching around to claim the reins from me. I held them out of his reach, and he blew out a frustrated breath. “He isn’t my horse, he is my father’s,” I replied.
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The stream was more of a river, too deep to ride across, and we had to ride downstream for some way before we came to a stone arch of a bridge, green with moss. I threw the last scone over the edge. “In case there’s a troll,” I explained to him when Rivyn protested. “And if there’s not?” he wondered as he guided Coryfe across. He held the reins in one hand, his other wrapped around my middle. I was sure I was not imagining that he was riding closer to me, his chest now firmly pressed against my back and my legs resting against his. He had taken over the stirrups, too. “Well, something will eat it, I’m sure.” Beyond the bridge, the grass began to show wear, gradually forming into a road. “We’re on a road now, so we’ll come upon somewhere eventually,” I was happy about that. I did not like being ignorant as to where we were, and hopefully, if there was a village or a town, we could find lodgings overnight. I hoped the mage would pay. I had
The Mage's Heart Chapter Six
Mages spell components were both odd and slightly disgusting, I decided, as I picked through the inn keeper’s kitchen. It was a large room, used not just for the preparation of food, but for much of the family’s time. The walls were lined with shelves holding everything from crockery to buckets, and the roof was strung with hocks of meat and drying herbs. Rivyn had to duck to avoid some of the beams, warped and roughly shaped, they seemed to sag in places. The floor was stone, scattered with thresh and debris from the cooking, resulting in a less than savoury scent if it was kicked up underfoot. A bench was set along one wall, and shelves on the other. The shelves held a fascinating array of jars and items I could not even begin to identify. From the dust that gathered around and on top of most of the items, I imagined the innkeeper’s wife could not identify them either. In the centre of the room was a large table
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Stable boys waited in the shade of the pillars and ran up to us as we dismounted Coryfe. Rivyn exchanged a coin with one of them and I watched them take the horse behind the imposing building wondering if I would see him again. Rivyn took my hand in his as we began to mount the stairs. “We shall lead them to believe that we are married,” he looked down at me. “Understood?” “Yes.” Did he say to do so to preserve an element of respectability, or to prevent our separation? Either way, I was happy to continue under the guise of his wife. I might be facing ruination in my village having been stolen by a man from the road and having spent many days and nights in his company now, but that did not mean I wanted to advertise it to others. Following the steps led us between the pillars. There was a space held between them and the face of the building, along which I could see seating had been placed. There were no windows. I
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The Mage's Heart Chapter Thirty One
I stared at her in the reflection, my face showing my bafflement. The queen and the Fae woman both chuckled, but there was no malice to their laughter. “I’m not sure I understand,” I said carefully.“Marriage amongst the Fae and magical brethren is much simpler than amongst mankind,” she said gently and with patience, resting her hand upon my shoulder. The Fae woman resumed styling my hair, setting the circlet into the locks. “It’s an invocation of the rule of threes. Three openings to refuse, three declarations of intent, and, of course, three consummations...” she arched her eyebrows, prompting me. “Did Rivyn never mention the rule of three, to you?”My chest tightened as my heart picked up speed. Remember, anything important involves threes, Siorin, Rivyn had said to me. The conversation had struck me then, as out of place. He had been, I thought, trying to tell me that he had ta
The Mage's Heart Chapter Thirty
We stepped out of the portal, and Rivyn drew in a deep breath. I looked up at him. The expression on his handsome face held confliction - joy and trepidation. He was glad to be home, but the culmination of the past three weeks risk and strain lay ahead of him, and, even after two peaceful days in Benal reading Isyl’s book, he was weary from our adventures. “Rivyn,” I wrapped my arms around his waist, trying to offer him reassurance, where my own heart raced in fear for him. “You have faced dwarves, ogres, mages, Dark Elves, pirates, mermaids, a dragon, and you have torn a city apart in your anger. You can do this.” He pressed a kiss to the crown of my head. “Thank you, my wife,” he murmured. “I appreciate the encouragement.” We stood before an arched fortified gate build of the white stone that seemed to be used throughout the city and castle beyond, the portcullis raised, points frighteningly lethal overhead, and
The Mage's Heart Chapter Twenty Nine
We stepped out of the portal into Benal, and I felt as if I had come a full circle in my adventures. I was where I had intended to be when I set out the night that I had encountered Rivyn in the forest.Isyl’s pretty little cottage was set on the edge of the forest where it opened into Benal.Immediately upon her arrival, there was a flurry of activity as the fairy folk came to greet Isyl in her flower-strewn garden.“Yes, yes,” she said. “He is. They’re very flustered by the arrival of royalty,” she told me taking my hand and drawing me up her path as the fairy folk gathered around Rivyn, the rise and fall of their voices indicating that he was being bombarded with questions.“Oh, I guess,” he cast a look towards us, almost pleading for rescue.“Come inside and have a cup of tea,” Isyl denied it, leading me within
The Mage's Heart Chapter Twenty Eight
I woke alone to a bright morning with no sign of dragons in the sky. The city was eerily quiet, the residents still hesitant to venture out of their houses for fear of the Dark Elves that had terrorised the castle overnight. I wondered what remained of the castle and the mages’ college. Hopefully, very little. My mouth felt much better. There were no sharp spots of pain, no feeling of swelling as result of injury, but it felt delicate and fragile, as if the wounds were closed, but only just so. I touched my face trying to determine how badly the tears on my lips had scarred, frightened to find out. There was no surface within the room that would show me my reflection. “She can smell magic, and she walked through a mage spell as if it were a stroll around the garden,” Rivyn had left the bedroom door open when he had left, and his voice drifted up the stairs to me clearly. “I know very little about sirens, even less about half-sirens...”
The Mage's Heart Chapter Twenty Seven
As if Rivyn had cast a spell of invisibility around us, he strode through the castle grounds unnoticed and unbothered. Around us, the castle servants and courtiers ran in screaming chaos, pursued by the Dark Elves, and harried by Aurien’s swoops and flames. Rivyn’s stride was unhurried, and his path unwavering.“I can walk,” I told him, “you are injured.”He shifted his grip on me, cradling me against his shoulder. “I am fine,” he said firmly. “Where is this good-witch?” He asked the half-Ogre as we passed out of the castle grounds. The street beyond the castle wall was quiet. In the distance I saw a woman run across the street into a building, slamming the door shut behind her.“This way,” the half-Ogre led us between two buildings.“You saved me,” I murmured.“Don’t speak until we ca
The Mage's Heart Chapter Twenty Six
I closed my eyes. I could understand why that secret would be closely kept by the sirens. If the brethren knew that half-sirens could sing brethren to death, sirens would be hunted by both mankind and brethren alike. It would be motivation enough for a woman to kill her child, or herself. In mankind’s hands, a half-siren could sing mermaids to land, Fae ships to wreckage, dragons into man-form... In mankind’s hands, a half-siren was a weapon.“We want you to sing,” the Queen said softly. “We want you to make this ogre take his own life.”I looked at the man. “I am more than happy to sing a wind for you, my Queen, because that is within my powers, but I will not even attempt that.”“Sing them to death,” the half-ogre growled at me. “Sing them into jumping through the windows to their own doom.” One of his armoured guards backhanded him, and the young
The Mage's Heart Chapter Twenty Five
Saphaqiel reunited us with Coryfe and Florien, at the waterfall. “No more foolishness, now,” she said sternly to Rivyn. “Finish this and take your wife home. She needs time to recover from the venom.” He smiled at her. “Thank you, Saphaqiel,” he said with warmth. “Thank you for your kindness and care.” There was a moment between them where they held each other’s eyes, and then she inclined her head with a smile, and winged away, leaving me wondering what it was that had gone unspoken. Florien fussed around us, chattering. “He is less than pleased at being left to look after Coryfe,” Rivyn told me. “He wanted to be in the Earies rather than below.” He replied to the fairy with a tone of sufferance, at length, until the fairy man seemed contented, and landed on Coryfe’s head. The way through the forest was easier due to our labour on the way in, and we reached the shoreline swiftly. Rivyn dismo
The Mage's Heart Chapte Twenty Four
I felt someone lift me to sitting, and a warm, salty liquid dribbled into my mouth. I swallowed.“Good girl,” a woman spoke. “Strong girl.” She continued to feed me small amounts of the broth, its ingredients unfamiliar to me. “Your man will be back soon, don’t you worry.” She lowered me back against something soft.I heard movement, felt the brush of feathers against my arm, and water being poured. “We’ll give you a nice wash whilst we wait,” she returned to my side and used a cloth to wash my hands and arms, neck and face, lifting the cloth that lay over my eyes before lowering it quickly.I realised that I was naked as she washed down my chest, and then my feet and legs. She covered me with a blanket. I felt her fingers in my hair, shaking something in and rubbing it through the strands before brushing it out. “There you are, beautiful again,” she
The Mage's Heart Chapter Twenty Three
As the ship approached the white curve of beach and the jutting pier of Ilith Cape, Rivyn’s eyes watched the wheeling birds. The sailor’s voices rose as they lowered the sails and prepared to drop anchor. I saw a flash of light as one of the birds vanished in the air. The village on the shore looked like a child’s drawing, the details stolen by distance, but eventually I could see the smaller fishing boats bobbing in the water, and figures along the sand, watching our approach. “What is next for you?” Valhared joined us at the balustrade, leaning his elbows on it. We watched as the sailors lowered the rowboat over the side of the ship, preparing for our departure. “Another book, another adventure,” Rivyn replied lightly. “Three more, and then home. And you, my friend? Will you retire now?” Valhared laughed. “No, not I,” he shook his head. “I’ll take the treasure to my safe haven, divide a goo
